Dear Mr. Young,

I have to admit that I’ve never really thought much of you and have never really been a fan. Yet, recently, I was a bit disturbed to read an article on MSNBC.com. In it, you claimed that music has long since lost its power to change the world. Upon reading this, any chance of me ever being a fan were washed away. Sir, I wonder what world you’re living in if that’s truely the case and why you are still making music.

I recognize that you have written some phenomenal music and have had some amazing concepts. Most recently, your album Living With War drew a lot of acclaim for its raw unabashed nature. Your classic songs like “Rockin’ In The Free World” and “Heart of Gold” are covered and acknowledged by musicians everywhere. And your nature as an outspoken individual of opinion and integrity has been upheld by all. But again, why does music no longer change the world?

Back in the late 1960s when your early career was starting I know a lot of forces were at work in the world between JFK’s assassination, Vietnam, and The Beatles, but to say that their music changed the world and what’s around now doesn’t is absurd. Back in those times, the music influenced many minds to live and create and act on what they heard. They were anthems for standing up and taking action. John Lennon’s “Imagine” was a call for peace, Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” cried out for freedom, and Stephen Stills–your own bandmate–called for awareness in Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

You’ve also got tons of other examples progressing from there. You have Dylan dancing with civil liberties in “Hurricane” and Nancy Sinatra calling for women’s “Boots Are Made For Walking.” The Bee Gees wanted people to just be “Stayin’ Alive” and KISS wanted to “Rock and Roll All Nite.” Lynyrd Skynyrd called for people to remember the south and “Sweet Home Alabama” and Stevie Ray Vaughan revived the “Texas Flood.”

Music, sir, has been what has flowed through so many veins. Sometimes, people had to write the songs because it wasn’t written and other times they found the solace in someone else’s words. And today, has that changed?

Not in the slightest.

If that was the case, why did you release your album Living With War? Oh that’s right, it wasn’t to make a statement, it was to make money.

And then, you have Will.I.Am’s “Yes We Can” song, which definitely has affected change. And that’s one of many examples. Each and every day, people wake up and pop on a song to start their day and to get their lives on the right foot. Because what they hear moves them.

Just like you’re moved to write music too, sir.

Music still is a force for change. And if you don’t believe that? Maybe you’re not writing a song that means anything to anyone other than yourself.

---

EDIT–23 April 2008, 9:47pm: Greetings to all whom might stumble upon this from ThrashersWheat.org. I appreciate the link-back. I know that this was something that actually appeared back in February, but I had written upon it back then and saved it as a draft until I could complete my thoughts. Even still, I feel like I haven’t completed my thoughts. But, I do appreciate you taking the time to read, and I openly welcome discussion if you’d like. And stick around if you see fit. The more the merrier, I say…

9 Things to Stop Worrying About Right Now - Source: MSNBC.com

It seems that every single day there’s some new study that’s well founded that tells us what we should and shouldn’t do in regards with this or that diet or food concentration. One day its water, then eggs, then salt, then sugar, then fiber, then meat, then…

You know what? I’ve got the secret to healthy living right here:
1) Laugh
2) Smile
3) Love
4) Live

1) Laugh - Like the Readers Digest column, “Laughter, The Best Medicine,” there’s a truth to that. If you can laugh at the stupid things and see the lighter side in life? You’re starting things out on the right foot…
2) Smile - Okay, so some of us have shitty humor. If you do? I’d advice that you at least smile about things if you can’t laugh about them. A smile invites another smile, and we feel good when we see someone smile and have to smile ourselves. Contageous and healthy.
3) Love - Share yourself in any way possible with anyone possible (except for beastiality, infidelity, and incest). Love is something you never run out of. And when you do, you can always find more in what people give you in return.
4) Live - This is the most important one and what we often forget. With all of the talking heads on TV and the new secondary glowing idiot box of our computer monitor, we forget sometimes that there’s a world outside… We should be active, energetic, and come back here and then tell all of our friends the cool things we’ve done away and invite them to join us next time.

And with that, its time for me to depart and get on to the four steps so I can enjoy my own healthy living…

Transcript of Robert Kennedy’s speech can be found here.

I felt with this being the 40th anniversary of his assassination that it was noteable to post that. I had brought up MLK earlier this year on his birthday, and I feel its necessary to do so again. Race has been such a big issue this year, including Obama’s speech. No, I’m not going to make this into a Democratic statement. Its just something to think about that we really don’t think about on a daily basis. And today of all days, we could spare an hour or two of our time to really think about it.

Other than that, some housekeeping work needs to be done on WordPress… I’m getting an error whenever I try to upload images through WordPress, but that’s the problem when you switch to a new version. I keep looking to see if I can find something on the image crunching, because that’s when I get an “HTTP error,” but that’s about it. Hopefully I’ll have an answer soon. I’m also looking into changing the main theme of my site, seeing the black is starting to feel a bit dark to me, but we’ll see how I feel in another day or two…

So I open up my websites this morning and I read my news and I come across this:
Don’t discount Gore-led ticket - Source: TC Palms

Gore? I mean, seriously, Gore? Don’t get me wrong, I thought he was the man for the job in 2000, but to read this again now in 2008 after a long locked battle between Obama and Clinton? I’m not pleased at all. I’ve heard multiple talks of a brokered convention, and it seriously makes me sad as a complete usurption of the democratic process. I guess all we can really tell is whatever will happen soon enough.

Add to that this fun one:
Electoral College votes could help choose Democratic nominee, Clinton supporter asserts - Source: Herald Tribune

Just digging for a reason to stay here is all I see. I’m just waiting for April 22nd and waiting for something to happen and for there to be a change… This Democratic party in-fighting isn’t wearing well on Democrats in general.

Finally, forget national polls, it makes me even more sad that in their brackets, McCain is beating Obama: 33-15 to 32-16.

This weekend amidst all of the packing and other items for our upcoming end-of-apartment-lease move, I happened across a news article that started to sicken me:

“More Election Troubles in Florida, but That Doesn’t Bother the Governor” Source: NY Times

I read through it and I got sickened at the state that I was living in. Physically sick. To see an elected official who wasn’t doing everything they could in a non-partisan way but with a definitive swipe to “cover their own bases.” Its everything that makes people hate politics.

And then, this morning…

“Florida Democrats Drop Idea of Primary Redo” Source: MSNBC.com

So that’s it. Congrats, Florida. Once again, we’re the electorial dick. We’re the laughing stock of another vote.

Well, at least there’s the general election. That’s the very least that I can be concerned about and voicing my opinion there. And I’ll keep voicing it now, because even though my vote may have not counted, I still took my own damn time and cast my opinion…

After talking to a friend and realizing that from high school to now? The only thing that’s changed is me getting more educated about the Democrats and being Liberal, it should be no surprise that I want to earmark this next article…

Found this on Drudge earlier today and it serves as an interesting note: Details of a Possible Delegate Plan Under Discussion

Quite possibly an amazingly fair answer to the Michigan and Florida dilemma. I’m open for some discussion on this one because its an amazingly simple plan and it appropriately handles the dilemma and gives both Obama and Clinton delegates, allows the states to be seated, and the 19 delegate net that Clinton gets there would probably be the only point of contention, but even still? Take it and let it be, I say. Thoughts?

———————

As a side note, I just tested something and I’m pleased to report that I’m really happy with WPhone as a plugin. As I’ve noted before, for the weekends, I draft ahead. This week alone? Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are all ready to go and I can tell you there are some interactive topics, so I’m looking forward to the discussions.

But as to drafting ahead, when the wife and I head on vacation? I can just post right from my phone and all of the formatting is saved and posts as normal as if I was writing from my computer. That is, presuming we’re vacationing within this country and I have cell phone access. I had to do a quick check with a test entry with basic formatting (italics, bold, links: you know, the usual that I use) which was written on my computer and then accessed on my cell phone and posted, and it did just fine. Very nice mobility right there…

I should get back to my homework, the wife and I have some roadtrippin’ to do when we wake up today…

I’ve been sitting here for the better part of thirty minutes working on drafts for this weekend because, in all honesty, I didn’t want to really think about he writing I’d be doing here and now. The fact of the matter is? I feel I must. I feel that because of what I saw yesterday when I originally watched this air, that I had to repost it here and I had to add in my two cents to it.

If you’d rather read it, then head over here.

Last night as I watched live as Keith Olbermann delivered that on Countdown. And as Olbermann unwound it all, I noted a few things that really were key to how I felt. I’d like to share those outtakes here, but I think the whole thing is worth watching.

Senator, their words, and your own, are now slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become President. In your tepid response to this Ferraro disaster, you may sincerely think you are disenthralling an enchanted media, and righting an unfair advance bestowed on Senator Obama. You may think the matter has closed with Representative Ferraro’s bitter, almost threatening resignation. But in fact, Senator, you are now campaigning, as if Barock [sic] Obama were the Democrat, and you… were the Republican. As Shakespeare wrote, Senator — that way… madness… lies.
This, is the first thing that I noted. To go back to my words from March 6th–two days after the VOTR (Vermont, Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island) primaries–this is no longer a presidential campaign, but a Vice Presidential War of Attrition. And its not one for her to keep her name up there to have to be nominated for him, but for her to overthrow his voters and try to tell them that a vote for her is a vote for him as a Vice President. Even as Jon Stewart showed a clip from CNN that showed all of the far-shot chances for Clinton to be able to overthrow Obama’s vote lead, the magic number is now 64%. That’s the number of contests that she must win with a decisive lead to overtake Obama’s delegate lead. That includes Michigan and Florida being re-enstated.

And when this despicable statement — ugly in its overtones, laughable in its weak grip of facts, and moronic in the historical context — when it floats outward from the Clinton Campaign like a poison cloud, what do the advisors have their candidate do? Do they have Senator Clinton herself compare the remark to Al Campanis talking on Nightline… on Jackie Robinson day… about how blacks lacked the necessities to become baseball executives, while she points out that Barock Obama has not gotten his 1600 delegates as part of some kind of Affirmative Action plan? Do they have Senator Clinton note that her own brief period in elected office, is as irrelevant to the issue of judgment as is Senator Obama’s… …while she points out that FDR had served only six years as a governor and state Senator before he became President? Or that Teddy Roosevelt had four-and-a-half years before the White House? Or that Woodrow Wilson had two years and six weeks? Or Richard Nixon… fourteen… and Calvin Coolidge 25? Do these advisors have Senator Clinton invoke Samantha Power — gone by sunrise after she used the word “monster” — and have Senator Clinton say, “this is how I police my campaign and this is what I stand for,” while she fires former Congresswoman Ferraro from any role the campaign? No. Somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with and rejecting the remarks is sufficient. And she should then call, “regrettable”, words that should make any Democrat retch.
Retch is right. For the last debate for her to call upon Obama to do more than just reject Farrakhan’s support and for him to announce so amicably his rejection and denouncing? Bravo. (Watch from 3:00 through till the end, unless you care about the Clinton tax statements, which is a story for another time.)
And add to that, drawing a comparison to Samantha Power and the “monster”-incident, which I think is key. The biggest thing with that is that the comment that the two points are not equal is important, but I think that its important to note how the two campaigns did take care of these things. Obama was quick to remove her from her position, whereas Clinton left Ferraro in her position for two weeks afterwards. Its the difference in the two campaigns: Obama taking a less political road and facing more on the issues than mud-slinging, and Clinton taking the role of letting everyone say what it is she can’t say.
Another thing to point out with this is a Time magazine article on experience from a week or so back that I’ve cited before in conversation at least with friends. I wish they had part of the graphics online for this one, but they tallied up all of the experience from Washington all the way to W and showed it graphically and there were Presidents with less experience than any three of the candidates and those with more–which Olbermann briefly touched on the above.

This week alone, your so-called strategists have declared that Senator Obama has not yet crossed the “commander-in-chief threshold”… But — he might be your choice to be Vice President, even though a quarter of the previous sixteen Vice Presidents have become commander-in-chief during the greatest kind of crisis this nation can face: a mid-term succession. But you’d only pick him if he crosses that threshold by the time of the convention. But if he does cross that threshold by the time of the convention, he will only have done so sufficiently enough to become Vice President, not President.
In other words, this goes back to my Vice Presidental War of Attrition remark. There have been some great statements back and forth by Clinton and Obama about who would be Vice President, and its noted to that this one is one for you to research on your own and to keep watching for on the news as it replays as a talking point.

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name. Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late. Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth.
I am not and have never been a Clinton supporter, but this statement is true beyond all words. More often than not when they’re talking about policies or talking points from one campaign or another, I feel like I hear Obama’s name more than I hear Clinton’s when they refer directly to the campaigns. I feel like they’re always mentioning Wolfson for Clinton as the person speaking, and not some direct statement from her. I know that they both have staffers that speak for them, but the difference I see are like a glove and a mitten.

A glove and a mitten–an interesting way to look at the two campaigns. Clinton is the glove: with many tentacles of statements and individuals reaching out from her, she’s a lot more effective at letting you move around and do what you’d like, but they’re all attached back to the palm, and in the end work together. They can sound off in 5 different directions, and choose to do so as they like. Obama, however, is the mitten: while it might be awkward to have to move all four fingers together, you have a unified movement and there’s no worries about any one of them doing something wrong that might hurt it or the others. Sure, there’s the thumb that shoots off from it all, but it helps the other fingers and works with it, and not in-as-much alone as a thumb works with a glove.

And to me, Obama/Clinton is like a mitten/glove difference: when we’re young, we wear the mittens and we have that warm comfortable feeling. Its a childish hope and wish. We’re tied to them and we dream for the gloves and maturity. But, when we get those gloves, we lose them or forget where we put one. And we always dream about the days when we wore mittens and had hope…

As a whole, I didn’t like Ferraro’s statements about Obama, and I did feel they were thinly veiled racism. And I really hope that Clinton can do something to repair the damage from these statements, but as a whole? I like the rest of America will have to wait… Racism and sexism are two big issues in this campaign. It’ll be a talking point that we’ll hear no matter who the Democrat candidate ends up being…

And me? I’ll just look for my other glove while I dream of childhood mittens…

South Pasedena recently became a profanity free zone. No, I’m serious. Just think about it: a whole town full of Ned Flanders‘, venting frustration, “Gosh diddily darn it,” every time someone cut them off.

Or even worse, the high school student who called her administrators “douchebags” and said she was “pissed off” in her blog. Yeah, I’m still serious. Think about that one: I’d be shit-canned for this blog’s title and sentence alone.

The number of stories about absurd things like this in the news that I read just seems to slowly grow daily. We’re all so concerned about free speech and censorship that it seems like we forget that we’re close to living in a real legitimate era of Big Brother. The Protect America Act of 2007–which thank God hasn’t been renewed–makes me wake up daily and wonder why I haven’t moved from this country.

And I shouldn’t. Seriously. We complain about all of this crap, but in the end, we have the greatest civil liberties to show for it.

Even if we can’t express how we’re “pissed off” sometimes, gosh diddily darn it…

Well friends, I’ve been avoiding talking about it for a while but after talking with a friend last night and after my friend Goob’s post the other day, I feel its time that I leave my footprint of my opinions on the election here on my blog.

I haven’t hid that I’m a supporter of Senator Barack Obama, but at the same time, its not because I’m some biased yuppie college student wanting change. Its because I’ve done my research. Let’s back up a bit and I’ll explain.

As I’ve said many times before, I keep up with the news fairly regularly. Now with the install of Newzie–which I’ve fully embraced and love–I get my MSNBC.com so much faster and with many articles that I think I would have missed had I not been following it regularly. With this, with all of the news that I watch and read (CNN/Reuters/AP Wire), and with the fact that I’ve taken the time to try to look over all of the candidates? Well, for me, it was about making my own independent educated decision.

First of all, I’ve always been a registered Democrat. I’m proud of that, and I believe that I’m a bit more of a moderate liberal with only a few outlying ideas. I believe a lot in social and individual freedoms and the lessened power/force/impact of big business on our world. I believe that big government is not the answer, and that a military impact against terrorism as a “first strike” as we did in Iraq was not a wise move, but that I support our troops and I want to see them well funded and brought home fast because all projections for the area show that there would be the same military collapse if we were or weren’t there. That’s an entry for another time.

Needless to say, when it came to the early run of the Democrats, I had no idea who Obama was. All I knew was that Senator Hillary Clinton was running, and I didn’t like her really. Oh sure, I thought her Soprano’s rip off advertisement was funny, but that wasn’t enough to do it for me. She always grated on me. There was something about her as a female figure who walked that line between being soft and powerful and balancing that in a very unbalanced fashion, always leaning away from the femininity and more towards a butch masculinity. And there’s nothing wrong with that because it works for her and her supporters believe in her.

In the early races, I actually favored Governor Bill Richardson and Representative Dennis Kucinich. Both well spoken men, they had powerful presences and good platforms. And as a matter of fact, Kucinich matched up to me on most of my political beliefs with Clinton/Obama falling next on most of the political questionaires that I took when I was early researching the candidates. I know that those questionaires get it wrong most of the time, but if you use a few of them, it lets you see different platforms and ideas, and from there it gives you a good sounding board to really delve further into researching the candidates.

So, what from there, right? The next step is to really look at voting records of the candidates and see what they’re about, you could say. And a lot of people say that Clinton and Obama are exactly the same. Well, while that can be shown to be a bit true in a lot of regards back and forth there, the easiest way is to pull up voting records. Now, you could go through congressional websites, or you could pull one of many articles already written about this one. There’s a great one on the DailyKos which if the link I just provided there doesn’t work, you can read it over on Jonah Matranga’s blog. And if that isn’t enough, there’s a nice little article from The Washington Post that details it in a bit more reader friendly terms rather than just listing bills and support. When you look at the supports side-by-side, they do agree on a lot of issues, but there are a few things where Obama stands out: health care, Iraq, and education. You can delve further into those articles, there’s no use in me beating the ground on what’s already been traveled.

After I had done so, I happened to be sitting in front of the television on January 28th and I had on MSNBC like I often do. And this was the Kennedy News Conference with Obama and their public endorsement. There was something in that moment so beautiful and serene and perfect. I will openly admit that I was crying. I was inspired and I felt that despite these past 7 years under a very bureaucratic presidency that blurred everything our founding fathers stood for, that there could be something different. The only words I have that could possible describe that feeling aren’t my own: “It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death…and yet…I think…this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” - Anne Frank, 15 July 1944

So, at this point, you’re probably thinking “Well, Adam, you haven’t mentioned Senator John McCain at all, what about the Republican candidate?” I can not and will not lie about him. I’d love to give him fair coverage here in this blog post and give you some facts about him, but to me, I could never vote for him after 2004. I felt he gave good fair straight-talking runs in 2000 and 2004, but since then I’ve heard him flip-flop on very many views and even on simple things as knowing people and what people have been or not been authorized to say. For that alone and for not sticking to being “The Straight Talk Express,” I cannot give him a fair and unbiased coverage. Maybe I’ll come back to this as it gets closer to the election, but not right now.

All in all, though, why do I choose to write about this today? Four events have lead me to this:

On Tuesday morning, I read an interesting editorial on Newsweek’s website from Jonathan Alter called “Hillary’s Math Problem.” If you don’t feel like linking over, I’ll summarize: because of the margin of votes that Obama won by in his sweeps during February, there’s no way that Clinton can catch up, even if she wins every single primary ahead–which is of course, highly unlikely. Alter goes through the Slate Delegate Calculator and shows that the chance of her being able to win everything still puts her behind in pledged delegates, not even including superdelegates, and not even including the fact that she’d still be behind in popular votes too at the same time.

Yesterday while watching Morning Joe they had on Senator Evan Bayh from Indiana, who is a superdelegate pledged to Clinton. They were discussing Clinton remaining in the race after all of her wins, and he had a comment that was–and I can’t find a transcript for an exact quote, so don’t shoot me–pretty much saying “We have a Democratic process and the folks in my state have not had a chance yet to have a say in this process, so it wouldn’t be right of her to drop out.”

This morning, Alter revisited his Tuesday article with a new one called “Hillary’s New Math Problem.” In this, he goes to detail that even after the wins on Tuesday, if she still were to sweep everything as he detailed out on Tuesday? She still would be behind with number of pledged delegates, and unless she was winning in popular vote and was able to petition for Florida and Michigan to be seated? She’d still be out of it. The math just doesn’t add up.

Also this morning, Florida and Michigan are stepping up. Florida Governor Charlie Crist has stated that he wouldn’t be opposed to running a Democratic caucus in Florida and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has also agreed that a do-over election should be held there too. Its an interesting read, in one of the news releases that I saw. And this isn’t about either campaign in particular, this is about democratic processes and the DNC.

So, those four events combined led me to this blog. I feel its time that I’m no longer silent and I step up and express my opinions and thoughts here. And what I’m going to say is going to be very slanted towards my candidate, but I feel say it with what I believe is full justification and my personal right to my opinions and free speech thereof:

Senator Clinton: You have done your country a great service and have run a phenomenal campaign against Senator Obama, but maybe it should be time to end this campaign. All of the math doesn’t add up in your favor, and this includes the “fuzzy math” that our current president has spoken about in the past too.

For one of your supporters to say that it would be unfair to a democratic process for you to drop out when all of the numbers crunched to even the most unfair bias to you show that you stand no chance? Senator that leads me to believe that instead of running a Presidential Campaign Bid in these primaries and caucuses, you’re now running a War of Attrition for a Vice Presidential Campaign Slot. While you keep running this way, you are just keeping your name and your status elevated high, doing continual and permanent damage to the front running candidate just for personal positional gain. The longer you keep this on, you will only be forcing him to choose you as a running mate, which would not be a beneficial move to force upon someone.

For the good of the Democratic party and for our possible chances of having a good run for office in 2008, I beseech you as an informed citizen to please step down and discontinue your bid. It would not be against the democratic process for all of the states that didn’t have a chance to vote yet. Look at all of the states before now that had candidates drop out before their primaries: while Richardson and Edwards and Kucinich and Biden might have been on ballots, votes for them would not have done any good to yourself or Senator Obama. They understood that for the democratic process to continue, it was time to bow out to the greater force.

Senator, I beseech you. Please do the same.

———-

Now, I know that might be a little harsh to say and to attack like that, but its the honest truth when you look at all of the facts presented. Its about time to step up and unify behind one candidate and as long as there will be in-party fighting and then the other party’s candidate there to fire opinions down against the front-runner as well? We do nothing but damage the party’s unity.

Unity, hope, change. That’s what we all want this year and every year. And sadly even though Former-President Clinton was referring to Senator John Kerry in his bid in 2004 for the presidency with the October quote I priorly posted, he was right. His wife is fear-mongering, Obama is calling for hope and change. Maybe he was on to something.

Obama doesn’t want red states, he doesn’t want blue states, he wants a single solitary United States. And as long as the Democratic party is divided and lets this drag on? Red and blue will remain easily discernable, and partisanship won’t loosen its hold.

Thanks for bearing with me through this one… I know its long. I’ll go more into this topic at another time…

Black pups face doggie discrimination - Source: MSNBC.com

No joke, folks, I ran across that article this morning when I refreshed my feeds in Newzie. Here we are, on the morning after a heck of a political night where race has been a backburner issue, and we’re discussing doggie race now too.

Oh. boy.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand this “black dog syndrome” (not to be confused with the “Black Dog syndrome” that makes panties fly) that has people against colored animals. But the thing is, with any animal, there are color prejudices. Take me, for example. I have a prejudice towards white cats, and because of the other animals I’ve grown up around, I like smaller dogs. Sarah’s a fan of bigger dogs and black cats.

I could see how big black dogs are scary, but I think that the people who are bypassing animals like this aren’t seeing the animal’s heart. I know that sounds cheesy, but that’s the honest truth about owning any pet. When you have a pet, you don’t see their color of their fur, you look at them and see them as yours. Its why you can look at your own cat or dog and see them completely different than any other cat or dog. Its why we can babble on-and-on about the cuteness of our pets, but when someone else starts talking about theirs? We can zone out.

I can’t describe it. It just is.