The Ones Who Must Rescue The Country From Themselves

***Boo-Yah! Garrison Keillor’s piece in the Chicago Tribune - Day of Reckoning for the Current Occupant - Go to Original was as succinct and cutting a denunciation of the Bush Death Cult as I’ve seen in a while. Calling him the Chief Occupant, he states the case in a devastating way: Bush "has been cruelly exposed over and over"for his stunning incompetence and lack of leadership. But Keillor saves the biggest slice of blame for those behind the scenes who chose this bumbling small-minded smirking little dictator in the first place, despite his singular and obvious lack of qualification for the office. He ends with this stinging dismissal: “Let's send this man back to Texas and see what sort of work he is capable of and let him start making a contribution to the world.”

***I have been thinking of a way to work my dislike of Bono into the framework of this blog for some time. What better day than St. Patty's? I remember buying then-unknown U2's first single when it came out in 1980, that tremendously haunting portent of things to come, I Will Follow, bw Boy/Girl. Even in those halcion days, they stood out among the tidal wave of good new New Wave bands that seemingly came out of nowhere just about every week, and the first album confirmed their original vision. I'm not arguing they haven't made some tremendous music over the years. But at some point U2 stopped being a rock band and became Show Business Entertainers and Bono morphed into an insufferable blowhard in wraparound shades pontificating on world issues. When I saw that photo of him with Bush (Bono meets Bozo), I had to wonder not only who had the bigger messianic complex, but just who was giving the greater amount of legitimacy to the other.

***These thoughts were stirred when Jessica Simpson thought better of politicizing her charity and canceled her meeting with Resident Bush, something which never occurred to the little Irish Blowhard. Can you imagine Joe Strummer meeting with Maggie Thatcher or Ronald Reagan to discuss world hunger or El Salvador? At least Springsteen and other like-minded musicians used their energy and talent in a concerted attempt to keep the Bush Crime Family from pushing us four years closer to Corporate Fascism.