[Edmund Onward James]

Singer Christina Houston ought to have been on American Idol or The Voice. Ah... she is probably doing exceptionally well as a conservative on her own, individuality of the Free and Brave. The majority of Americans are Conservative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_p.....;vq=medium

[DFP]

what individuality? This is about as individual as a weird al parody, figured you at least had some class. Wrong again...

[Bugs]

[Edmund Onward James]

So the Tea Party crowd, the majority of Americans a great portion in the country, or in the small cities of the mid-western states are tacky and flaky.

A professor in Canada lost because many people bought the ads, realized the prof's arrogance... and the same might apply to Professor Obama. Just your ordinary folk who get wiser and wiser.

But it seems some think they are more sophisticated, above the masses. However,
simple works.

Individuality is lost or shrouded by Statism. Obama is only centre on certain issues because the Democrats will lose that part heavily, too, if he doesn't appease.

The Republicans do have a problem with a balanced nominee. But, this might also be the time for Obama to lose.

And the bin Laden episode will not maintain until Novemeber 2012. The more they dig into the more credit Bush and Cheney receive credit as well.

Bugs? You are my Man of Bloggingtories, that is if you are because I am an old Sagebrush who is in the cyberspace world of youth and people such as... I spit thinking of the gnat.

[Bugs]

EOJ: Obama's drop in public regard since his inauguration is really spectacular. Bush did way better than he has. It wasn't until his second term that his approvals began to tank.

Just an observation ... it seems the excitable states of America is starting to wonder about Obama ... that's the significance of the bin Laden assassination. What can you say?

A national celebration started, and then ... it kind of fizzled, as people began to realize that they were being told a lot of nonsense. More and more Americans are skeptical about whatever he says. In this case, his story is BS, but that's beside the point ... the thing is, they just jump on anything Obama says that doesn't ring true. There's a tipping point coming up here, soon.

The mainstream is about to move over into the "Strongly disapprove" column because things aren't getting better. If gas gets up to current Canadian prices, there's going to be a lot of public anger. Life will start to change.

Don't get huffy on me, please.

Sophisticated urbanites imagine themselves to be cosmopolitans. They keep up with Art, and all of that. Not surprisingly, they probably do have more refined tastes than the country and western types.

In a way, anything traditional is in danger of becoming 'tacky', don't you think? Fashion is all about glitz, something 'new' ... and, of course, attitude. The music is wholesome, and traditional, and reverential -- and it asks the 'accountability' question. Prove to us you know what you're doing.

[DFP]

I dunno if the whole tacky cosmopolitan discussion is somehow referring to my dismissal of this video, I suppose it's worth elaborating on. For one, there's hundreds of them ranging on every possibly topic you can think of. Ritchie Valens would be rolling in his grave if he hadn't gone out in a ball of fire. It's rock and roll. *rollingeyes*

If you're inferring I'm in any way an urbanite, I can't help but LOL. I spend more time in the forests then I do in rural areas of development but it's pretty much split between the two. I just have a particular interest in music and lament the direction it's been taking the past decade or so, and in particular I despise these rehashed or completely co-opted rhythms for whatever particular purpose (marketing, statements, pseudo-renewal projects = yuck). There's a really disgusting trend in this regard and I simply don't have any tolerance for it.

Obama's approval drop is really in line with Bush's approval rating at about this part of his term. In may 2004, GB was polling in at 41%. Obama polling in at 41-52% lately. There's nothing incongruous with this.

Bush numbers:
(http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/politics/bush/ratings_1004.html)
Obama numbers:
http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx

[Bugs]

DFP - it's my recollection that Bush rode on a great wave of rally-around-the-flag support after 9-11. The brilliant success in Afghanistan was followed by another televised war, this one in Iraq, and, for the first part, deposing Saddam, the US military performed brilliantly.

When did Iraq start to go bad?

I suspect Obama would love to be as respected as Bush was at that time.

And, no, I wasn't referring to you ... I was talking about a sensibility, as in a cosmopolitan sensibility vrs. the 'folk culture' sensibility of US southern whites. No reason you couldn't have a cosmopolitan sensibility and live in a non-urban place.

It sounds like you have a serious critique of music, and I defer on that subject.

My point was less musical. I meant that if people made this song popular, it would show us what people were feeling. Ripped off, that kind of thing. To me, the music sounded computer generated, processed, false. But it is in the style of the US southern white working class. These are the guys that are being left high and dry, and if they are starting to get angry, it's worth monitoring ...

[DFP]

pardon me but I believe the latinos and afro-americans that comprise the working and middling classes alongside whites are being left high and dry just the same. Statistically speaking probably worse off. Or is the suggestion that now too
the white working class are being left to fend for themselves? I don't want to suggest its naïve, but lower class whites have historically been in similar economic situations pertaining to other ethnic groups. I guess I don't really know what you're trying to distinguish.

Bush's approval rating had the highest and lowest of any president since Gallup polling began tracking. Truman previously held the lowest.

In May 2004, the drop in approval likely came at the release of the Abu Ghraib pictures being released in April. Might have had a slight uptick in March 2004 during the four contractors being killed in Fallujah, though it's a bit of a moot point that his approval rose due to a response that was worsening considerably in Iraq.

I really don't put much stock in these gallup polls as they have small sample sizes, and are more about trending. They also rely on the media frenziedly disseminating info and scandals to the public, rather than an actual public awareness campaign of what's going on inside and outside their country.

[Bugs]

Have I committed a thought crime?

Hey, whatever you think I've done, I meant simply to refer to one important cultural group in American society, the 'Nashville' types. I don't mean to exclude anyone. The latinos and the afro-americans have their own, and it can be very different. I don't wander into an area where, first thing you know, I'd be accused of thinking hip-hop is sexist.

So you can relax.

Just the same, it isn't about feeling sorry for the victims, either ... it could well be that the black working class is feeling as betrayed as the white ones do. I just wasn't talking about them. I don't know the score about blacks and hispanics, and their music, but I know, Nashville is one brand amongst a few.

Call them Rednecks, or crackers, of whatever, all I am saying is that they're an important sub-culture in America and Canada. This discussion isn't so much about musical excellence as it is about whether or not the rednecks are talking this way about their president ... because we both know (don't we?) that if that happens, Obama is toast.

[DFP]

ah okay, my misunderstanding then, didn't want to stir the pot, but couldn't help noticing the distinction.

But really.... Ritchie Valens wasn't country, nor was he part of the Nashville crowd, more of a Hollywood/San Fernando crowd with his Gold Star studios affiliation.

[Bugs]

I didn't think this little presentation is as good as Richie Valens, and to me what I heard was a very processed organ sound with an electronic drum beat ... simple set ... not much photography ... there must be people who put this out in their basements.

Definitely NOT very much soul.

If you're wondering, this isn't something that I would put on my ipod, if that's what you think.

[DFP]

no, aside from Ed's rather poor taste in music, I understood you didn't think much of this. I was simply correcting the Nashville/country association.

[Edmund Onward James]

Ah the gnat knows music as well. Dipstick, I said it was clever not great. But the content was quite engaging for me, a Conservative.

As far as soul, Bugs, I once was a blue-eyed soul singer with Spider Jones www.spiderjones.com in a group I formed named Salt & Pepper, two white guys and two black. It never happened for us and later there was another group with the same name.

Click on to the following links to give you an example of classic R&B and Doo-Wop, my kind of stuff... as well as jazz, world music (ethnic), and classical. I have a reasonable collection.

Spider Jones
http://onwardjames.blogspot.co.....jones.html

R&B and Doo-Wop
http://onwardjames.blogspot.co.....me-go.html

http://onwardjames.blogspot.co.....music.html

http://onwardjames.blogspot.co.....+%26+Blues

[DFP]

Ah yes you did say it was clever, but you also suggested she should be on American Idol and The Voice (I've never heard of but sounds just as generic as AI), which requires a certain repertoire she simply doesn't possess.

As far as the oldies ah man you can't go wrong there. I tend to prefer the earlier blues and country and authentic folk artists though to the early days of Motown and the R&B pop stars. Probably has more to do with my interest in folklore than anything else.

I can't get enough of this website:
http://www.folkstreams.net/

[Bugs]

EOJ, gotta say, you've done some interesting things in your life. I've never heard of anyone taking such cultural initiative in this country ... other than, of course, applying to the Canada Council grants ... I am, of course, talking about authentic culture.

But why not let the barriers down? DFP knows and does stuff with music ... so how can he be all bad? Maybe he's redeemable.

You bear a grudge ... and grudges are so ... nineteenth century. Like self-respect, they're obsolete. They do have a kind of Hatfield-MccCoy kind of charm, quaint, even, but they have no place in the present barbarism.

To sting in the internet age, you have to make your opponent feel like they just grabbed the razor wire ... because everything is disposable. The next thread is a new beginning.

And DFP, you could drop this left-right paradigm thing ... not only is it outdated, but it never really described North American reality. You go after me about some implicit racism ... but that's so left ... as in 'left over' from the days when class struggle was something the Party was trying to kick start. You know, before television.

The only place people believe that crap is on university campuses.

We could raise the level on this board if we could get beyond all these 'educational institution ideologies', on both sides. It's not hard. The elites are all full of shit, the social sciences are decadent, and the artists are all trying to get jobs at the CBC. Nobody is serious.

We talk about limited government, but we don't do anything much to get out from under the culture of the Canada Council and the CBC. Which would be OK, except nobody else is either.