And by Marginalized, I mean this.

People sometimes ask me why the band is called Max and the Marginalized. The reason is this: over the past eight years, normal voices of dissent have been cast to the margins, made into pariahs of political discourse. Whether it’s countless attempts to make those who opposed the war seem unpatriotic. If you think it’s wrong to let AT+T spy on Americans then you don’t care about the safety of Americans. On and fucking on.

Well, it looks like no matter what, this trend won’t be going anywhere, no matter who is elected.

For those of you catching up on Gen. Wesley Clark’s supposed flap that has put him in the doghouse over at the Headquarters of the Obamalith, here’s the Cliff’s notes:

1) Gen. Wesley Clark goes on TV and says that John McCain’s being shot down in Vietnam doesn’t make him any more qualified to be President. Clark himself took four bullets in that same conflict, FYI.

2) The McCain campaign, as you’d predict, gets in a tizzy.

3) Prominent Vets like Jon Soltz and Lt. Gen. Robert Gard speak out in defense of Clark and his statement that in fact, being shot down in Vietnam does not qualify someone for the highest office in the land.

4) The Obama campaign, after having a strong and authoritative voice like Clark’s say something that is completely accurate, carries more weight from a military man, and something that Obama himself would get in tons of trouble for saying, mysteriously disowns Clark’s statements, and (using a phrase I’m so goddamn sick of) threw Clark under the bus.

Bad enough. It’s one of the things in recent weeks from the Obama HQ that has a ton of us, his supporters, shaking our heads in confusion (along with FISA, executing child rapists, etc.)

This was today’s installment (from Steve Clemons, HuffPost):

General Wesley Clark is not attending the Democratic National Convention. I was told by General Clark’s personal office in Little Rock that he would not be attending.

He was informed by Barack Obama’s people that there was no reason to come.

General Clark has been given no role of any kind at the convention.

Rubbing salt in the wound even more, the “theme” of Wednesday’s Democratic convention agenda is “Securing America.”

Wesley Clark’s PAC also happens to be called SECURING AMERICA.

So there you have it. Four-star Generals getting pushed to the margins for making a very accurate and acceptable statement about Obamas opponent, and then being gratuitously disinvited from the Democratic National Convention.

It will take a lot to make me not vote for Obama in November, but if things keep up like this, I’ll be holding my nose when I do.

Advertisement

Can Progressives Derail Evan Bayh’s VP Train via Facebook?

Sometime between now and the convention, Barack Obama will send me, and millions of other supporters a text message announcing his running mate. It is looking more and more likely that this breakthrough technology will be used to unveil a choice decidely un-breakthroughy: Evan Bayh.

From the BooMan Tribune:

I’m hearing word that Evan Bayh has at least a 50-50 chance of getting the vice-presidential nod and that the final decision will be made soon. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other names to tell you so that you know what the alternatives are. The New York Times did a great job yesterday morning in explaining why the selection of Bayh would be problematic. It would be hard to fuck up Barack Obama’s brand any worse than picking John McCain’s honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. We really shouldn’t have to say anything more than that.

If Evan Bayh is acceptable then maybe John McCain’s judgment isn’t so bad after all. I might add that Al From of the DLC wants Evan Bayh and so does Cokie ‘Myrtle Beach’ Roberts. Those are two big alarm-bells. And I’d really prefer it not to be the case that Team Obama is more interested in appeasing Al From and Cokie Roberts than they are concerned with enraging their base of support online. There are many of us that were in the long fight to win the nomination with Obama who made that commitment out of a desperate desire to see the DLC sidelined and a new generation of post-Bush thinking Democrats put in charge of the party. We’re the same people that fought off Tim Roehmer and Harold Ford for DNC chairmen and gave you Howard Dean and the immensely successful 50-state strategy. We did not put in all that work in order to see the former DLC chairman put next in line for the presidency.

At about 2am last night after a gig in Austin, we launched 100,000 Strong Against Evan Bayh for VP on Facebook. We have about 99,000 to go but we are growing at the rate of about 100 names per hour now.

For the record — I would support Barack Obama if he picked a turnip as his running mate, but since so much of Obama’s candidacy is rooted in Obama’s willingness to listen to his supporters, this might be a real chance to help make sure that he doesn’t.

Please join 100,000 Strong Against Evan Bayh for VP and invite your Facebook friends.

We are broken down in Tulsa to the tune of $1100

Hi. So, our van needs a new radiator and a bunch of hoses and we’re getting gouged in Tulsa for it to the tune of $1100 dollars.

If you have been thinking about going to download our songs via the honor system and making a donation via paypal, now is a time when we could really use your help. Thanks a ton for a great tour (other than this.)

Best,
Max // Dave // Jon

Antiseptic

Yesterday was a strange day. John Edwards admitted to having an affair, and as a result all media coverage was focused on him — not the the other minor story that the Vice President had ordered a forged document that provided a false link between Iraq and Al Qaeda to further make a case for a war that has killed over 4,000 Americans. But who gives a fuck about that; $400 haircut John Edwards, who isn’t running for anything, but when he was would often appear in photographs with his wife and children, cheated on them!

The song is called “Antiseptic”, because the press is supposed to help kill the germs that can do us a lot of harm. Right now it is an antiseptic bludgeoning an antigen that doesn’t threaten us at all and once again allows the Republican administration to infect with its literally murderous deception. Great job guys.

Since we are on tour, we have to go a little more lo-fi than usual. We recorded two songs without vocals before we left, and I wrote the lyrics for them and recorded them from the road but we are now in week three of our tour, so I recorded this tune on video in the van an hour or so ago outside our show in hot, hot Tulsa, OK. Enjoy, and please pass around:

Antiseptic

All in a day, the ricochet
Of salacious scandal pushes the sanguine out of the way
For overgrown boys, and corresponding girls
My hands wring out of sync with the hands of the rest of the world

So, Antiseptic, won’t you wash away the dirt?
The stuff that kills, not the stuff that hurts
We’ll take care of the rest if we need to
Antiseptic, while they’re selling out the dead
You’re curing colds while cancer spreads
Somehow never there when we need you

All in an hour, misuse of power
Will not encode within the waves that beam from the tower
The map to death’s door, oh that was forged
All might be fair in love but I’m afraid it’s not in war

Antiseptic, won’t you wash away the dirt?
The stuff that kills, not the stuff that hurts
We’ll take care of the rest if we need to
Antiseptic, while they’re selling out the dead
You’re curing colds while cancer spreads
Somehow never there when we need you

Antiseptic, won’t you wash away the dirt the stuff that kills not the stuff that hurts
We’ll take care of that when we get there
Antiseptic, common decency demands
That you focus on the injustice at hand, ’cause every story is leading us nowhere

Song #44: One of the Regulars

Better prose than I can write has been written about the ridiculousness of the village narrative that heiress-marrying, $520 shoes wearing John McCain is a regular schmo while not-heiress-marrying self-made success Barack Obama is really Elizabeth Taylor with a monocle, and the subtext of McCain’s inane ad that adds a scoop of protect-the-white-girls a la Harold Ford to the whole thing.

We did write a song about it, though – enjoy “One of The Regulars”.

(player appears on mouseover, or just click it.)
One of the Regulars

Implied association with questionable subjects
Scraping the songs of the south for the subtext
To prop up a myth of epic proportions
Of a silver-spoon child dressed as an orphan

Lockstep lips joined at the hip, why we even try?
The teleprompters are all cued up for the village to keep on repeating the lie of

One of the regulars, like the ones you see all day
Just one of the regulars with desert and beach estates
Just one of the regulars, started small and married up
Just one of the regulars, just like us, just like us

They overlook the sheer contradiction
A comparison based in pure utter fiction
Complaints of mistreatment from a media darling
If you crunch up the numbers it adds up to nothing

The picture reads more easily painted in shades of white
Throwing stones from a house of glass bigger and nicer than the target site

From one of the regulars, like the ones you see all day
Just one of the regulars with desert and beach estates
Just one of the regulars, started small and married up
Just one of the regulars, just like us, just like us

So tell me a story, baseless and fact devoid
A self-made man in opera glasses staring down at the hoi polloi
A selection of McMansions, an heiress on your arm
Like regular joes, like you and I know
In a magical land, you’ll find them wherever you go

Just like one of the regulars, like the ones you see all day
Just one of the regulars with desert and beach estates
Just one of the regulars, started small and married up
Just one of the regulars, just like us, just like us

Bad dominoes toppling one another

What I’m trying to say is the song will be up Saturday. I had to rerecord it all when Garageband inexplicably deleted half of it (and i’m sick!) This is why I don’t engineer our stuff, my friend with a studio does.

(Since we’re on the road, I’m recording vocals from the road to tracks we laid down before we left.)