"LET IT HAPPEN IN MY LIFETIME"
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This effort dates from back when I was a supporter of Sen. Clinton. For the record, I AM NO LONGER IN FAVOR OF THE HILLARY CLINTON CANDIDACY.
I delightedly pulled the lever for Obama in the New York primary and it was great to feel a small part of history in being able to do that.
But in 2003 I didn’t have the Obama option. I was willing to overlook some HRC negatives, given the Republican alternatives. In December of 2003 I was invited by the proprietors of Sapori d'Ischia, a fine trattoria in Queens, to perform at a fundraising dinner for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I wrote a song for the occasion. The theme is stated at the top of the tune:
"A lot of men have held the scepter
A lot of swine have had this pearl
I want someone to do it better
Let's let a woman run the world."
You can listen and download the tune by clicking here. It features the talents of Charlie Giordano, Paul Ossola, Billy Ward, Elaine Caswell, and Everett Bradley; the great Chris Muth produced.
In the event, Hillary didn’t make it to the event (snowstorm grounded her in Texas, her liaison said). Pres. Bill Clinton came instead. He gave a great speech, of course. The Hillary people asked me to record the song, which I did the following week.
A woman President still sounds like a good idea, but perhaps not this woman President this time.
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ATTENTION RADIO PERSONNEL and ACTIVISTS
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A special CD single— "The Political '45'"— is available now (with the cover shown, by Gregory Bullock) directly from me. There is NO CHARGE for this 2-song disc— it also contains "(Let's All) Join the Mujahedin"; please email me indicating that you wish to use the music for legitimate rabble-rousing, junta-criticizing, First Amendment-exercising purposes, include your return address, and I'll send you one.
"Pack 'Em Off to The Hague," from AMNESTY (2000), is another political song. It's "about" responsibility and guilt (like the rest of the record!), but deals specifically with a small-town Serbian official on whose watch an "ethnic cleansing" massacre took place; it's based on a true story. See if you can spot the line stolen from Soren Kirkegaard. Give up? He wrote, "From such crooked wood as man is made of, nothing straight can ever be fashioned." Whether this is really universally true is not a settled question. In the song, after all, it's the guilty mayor talking. Let's try to prove him wrong.
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MP3s
Election Day
(Let's All) Join the Mujahedin
Pack 'Em Off to The Hague
For those of you curious as to the possible origins of some of Eric's eccentricities, here is a sample of the rhetorical style of his illustrious forebears: a letter written in March of 2003 by the Mother of the Artist, Ann H. Appelbaum, MD.
To: U.S. Congressman John Conyers
Dear Mr. Conyers: Thank you for taking action on an issue I have long thought about, the indications for impeaching George W. Bush. His administration has the earmarks of a coup. He manipulates votes to achieve an illegal election. He then appoints known criminals to the highest places, men already implicated in the Iran/contra affair and subsequent financial scandals, men like Cheney who stand to gain from war with Iraq. He empties our treasury thus placing Social Security and Medicare at severe risk, and compounds that problem by making totally uncalled for tax cuts. He exploits the tragedy of 9-11 to terrify the populace and then uses that terror to bring us into a war with Iraq whose disarmament could be achieved by peaceful means. He threatens to undermine the UN, wipes out a century of pro-Americanism worldwide, pretends to protect the country against terrorism with a "homeland security" program which in fact merely substitutes a private security company fraught with felons for the inadequate private companies that failed to protect us before. He focuses public attention on an "enemy" who does not threaten us (though Saddam Hussein is undoubtedly a villain) while making no effort to deal with North Korea despite open threats and capability to attack us with nuclear weapons. His behavior appears capricious and stupid but very likely bespeaks a plan yet to be disclosed. I believe we have a dangerous president and that "pre-emptive impeachment" is our only hope of avoiding becoming stripped of our freedom, our beautiful and hard-won environment and our good name.
Bill Clinton was impeached for trivial reasons compared to the manifest crimes of Bush and his administration. Upon leaving office, Clinton left the country free of debt and fiscally strong. If we succeed in impeaching Bush, he will leave us in a state of poverty and debt, with the blood of thousands of innocent Iraqis on our hands in a world wild with hatred for what we have done. But at least we will have prevented even worse events by ridding ourselves of a potential dictator.
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