Ghost of FDR mugged by John McCain

by: matt

Thu Sep 18, 2008 at 00:49:20 AM EDT

(W)hen Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician.

"One of our great presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, expressed this optimism even at the height of the Great Depression. He said, and I quote, 'plenty is at our doorstop but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.' "

"My friends, that's true again today. I reject the gloom and doom that says our nation is in decline," McCain said. "America's best days are ahead of us."

Mind you, this is the same John McCain who wants to privatize Social Security.  The same John McCain who offers more of the same on health care; who has cutting taxes for rich people as the centerpiece of his economic policy. The same John McCain who on Monday boldly declared that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

I suppose that sort of freaky thing just happens when the Dow drops 400+ points twice in one week. Who knows, if we have another bad day on Wall Street tomorrow, the current occupant of Barry Goldwater's old seat in the Senate may soon be reciting Noam Chomsky. 

(A) host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. (emphasis added)

"I wish to present to you the evidence that the measures and the policies of the Republican administration are winning this major battle for recovery, and we are taking care of distress in the meantime. It can be demonstrated that the tide has turned and that the gigantic forces of depression are today in retreat."

-President Herbert Hoover (R) at Olympia Stadium, Detroit, Michigan, October 22, 1932