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July 27, 2004
Billmon: Start Spangled
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Can someone please tell me how he manages to be both cynical and passionate in one post? Lovely writing, and as a foreigner, the sort of stuff I don’t even really care about.
Posted by: Colman | Jul 27 2004 7:25 utc | 1
Brilliant piece as usual.
Last paragraph says it all.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 27 2004 8:12 utc | 2
Billmon has his own healthy cynicism but behind his words is a kind of resignation – he knows what side he feels he naturally belongs on but there’s an underlying sense of ‘style over substance’ clinging to the Democrats that needs urgent attention if the soaring hopes of all those people – and others around the world – aren’t to meet a hard landing in November or after.
Posted by: Nemo | Jul 27 2004 8:41 utc | 3
“Wisdom and strength are not opposing ideas.”
Ouch!
Posted by: Dan of Steele | Jul 27 2004 11:15 utc | 5
The convention speeches were background while I was reading the 9-11 report.
Only part that made me want to pay attention was the music. Everyday People is still a great song.
The detention “free speech zone” across the street from the convention says more about the current thinking by those in power than any words from a politician.
Razor wire twists across the top of the chain-link pen. No way out.
This is a shared value among all the powerful in America, it seems.
Everyone has to stay on message at the convention. No room to talk about war crimes or mass murder or alternatives to the same.
Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 27 2004 12:00 utc | 6
– No time to comment, other than to say to Billmon (if he noses around over here at all): Top-notch piece!
And fauxreal- those protest cages are most certainly messed up, and the heavy military/police presence. I remember living in Belfast, just before the cease-fire agreement (even managed to see the inside of a Belfast copshop; don’t ask), and Boston looks much worse.
Posted by: æ | Jul 27 2004 13:36 utc | 7
Nice tone there, Billmon. But talk about an armchair warrior… Hey, I’m the same.
I’ve only seen a few excerpts of the opening day. My impression is the same as with so many other manufactured US political events: plastic. Is there something wrong with the colours? They still seem so surreal, like digitally manipulated before they were broadcast. Maybe it’s just my TV.
Posted by: teuton | Jul 27 2004 14:03 utc | 8
You think Boston security looks bad, well, wait for the Fascist, errr, Republican, convention in NYC. I just wonder if they’ll dare put a “Cathedral of Light” on ground zero when Bush will come.
Posted by: CluelessJoe | Jul 27 2004 14:04 utc | 9
Having missed Bebe Winans sing the Star Spangled Banner, and not being able to find it anywhere on C-Span, couldn’t really appreciate what the inspiration was.
The speeches were “mellow” attacks but they actually pulled no punches and even problematic issues such as the deal with the assault weapons ban were brought to the fore.
It’s nice to hear subtle nuanced expressions as opposed to blunt extremist code in public discourse.
Billmon still sounds a bit in a funk.
Posted by: YY | Jul 27 2004 14:19 utc | 10
Having missed Bebe Winans sing the Star Spangled Banner, and not being able to find it anywhere on C-Span, couldn’t really appreciate what the inspiration was.
The speeches were “mellow” attacks but they actually pulled no punches and even problematic issues such as the deal with the assault weapons ban were brought to the fore.
It’s nice to hear subtle nuanced expressions as opposed to blunt extremist code in public discourse.
Billmon still sounds a bit in a funk.
Posted by: YY | Jul 27 2004 14:20 utc | 11
Seems like damning with faint praise. I am personally so sick of republican pernicious mendacity and oh so self-righteous bigotry and a thousand other nasty things too numerous to mention that I don’t see how anyone can find so much fault with the competition. I *cannot* wait to hear Barack Obama tonight!
Posted by: beq | Jul 27 2004 14:24 utc | 12
Obama caught on interview with Fox was brilliant.
Apologies for double post.
Posted by: YY | Jul 27 2004 14:32 utc | 13
I’d like to juxtapose a quote from Billmon alongside a quote from Josh Marshall.
First Marshall:
The headline of Susan Page’s piece in USA Today reads: “Speakers offer few barbs, try to stay warm and fuzzy.” But the primetime speeches were actually brimming with barbs, and rather jagged ones at that. They were just woven into the fabric of the speeches, fused into rough-sketched discussions of policy, or paeans to Kerry.
And now Billmon:
Perhaps the idea was to get the Bush bashing out of the way early (along with the Clintons) so it doesn’t overshadow Kerry’s big acceptance speech on Thursday. And since hardly any of tonight’s show – other than Clinton’s speech and maybe a bit of Gore’s -made the networks, it might not matter.
Billmon and Marshall heard exactly what was to be heard: Bush got body slammed last night. The cur had his nosed rubbed in his Iraq mess all night long.
How many columnists and headline writers stuck to this talking point despite the reality?
How sad that even one journalist should write what they were told, rather than what they actually experienced.
Posted by: koreyel | Jul 27 2004 14:37 utc | 14
fauxreal,
It’s my understanding that the caged “free speech zones” were NOT created or desired by the DNC. It was Secret Service and the Boston Police who insisted on having them to make security easier for them to handle.
Posted by: SusanG | Jul 27 2004 14:42 utc | 15
Quote:
My impression is the same as with so many other manufactured US political events: plastic.
***
I always felt they are most like a village fair… charade… but spectacle is American way…
Posted by: vbo | Jul 27 2004 14:51 utc | 16
“Bush got body slammed last night. The cur had his nosed rubbed in his Iraq mess all night long.”
Posted by: koreyel | July 27, 2004 10:37 AM
Yup. And I was so proud of Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: beq | Jul 27 2004 15:07 utc | 17
I agree with Billmon about Bebe Winans singing the Star Spangled Banners. I have never heard it sung to beautifully. It even brought tears to my cynical eyes.
Outstanding.
Posted by: LynChi | Jul 27 2004 15:20 utc | 18
It cracks me up. I don’t think Billmon’s thrust was really at the Star Spangled Banner. It was a good frame for his post, though. Reading between the lines is an acquired taste.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 27 2004 19:12 utc | 19
Bebe Winans singing at the convention can be seen and heard as a real stream: Star Spangled Banner.
I agree with Billmon – I don´t like that martial song, but the interpretation is really great.
(If someone has the ability to clip the real stream to mp3 and email it, I will put it up here.)
Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 27 2004 19:23 utc | 20
look what i found :
Gain (or Loss) in number of U.S. Jobs over the past 80 years
by party and president, in annualized rate
5.3% Democrat Roosevelt
3.8 Democrat Johnson
3.1 Democrat Carter
2.5 Democrat Truman
2.4 Democrat Clinton
2.3 Democrat Kennedy
2.2 Republican Nixon
2.1 Republican Reagan
1.1 Republican Coolidge
1.1 Republican Ford
0.9 Republican Eisenhower
0.6 Republican George H.W. Bush
(0.7%) Republican George W. Bush
(9.0) Republican Hoover
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic Policy Institute. Details
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | Jul 27 2004 20:08 utc | 21
If I’d been there — and how I wish I was — I’d be one of those old dames with the crazy glasses and funny hats, experiencing the ritual, not acting it. I often think that some of the bile spewed at Dems by the worst of the Republicans rises out of gutful of churning envy. Sometimes I wonder if the cynicism on the left is partly fear of letting go.
Via Hairyfishnuts
Jesse Taylor of Pandagon:
Gorgeous
It was unexpected, simple, and elegant – a memorial to September 11th that was as memorable as any I’ve ever seen.
A single violinist on a darkened stage starts playing “Amazing Grace”. And then…the delegates, one-by-one, simply hold up small lights, candles for the victims, candles in memorials…and there’s simply silence.
A dark light, blue-lit, and pinpoints of light around the floor of the Fleet…being here, it was impossible not to be moved. None of us knew this was going to happen – it just did.
Billmon of the Whiskey Bar
At about 10 pm eastern time we arrived at the inevitable 9/11 remembrance event on the program. It came dangerously close to crossing the line into both saccharine sentimentality and political exploitation. The sight of the crowd holding up lighters and matches was way too reminiscent of a rock concert – or worse, a scene from Spinal Tap. And bringing out the young violinist to play (of course) Amazing Grace felt manipulative, even if it wasn’t meant to be. (God help us when the Republicans cut loose on the same theme next month.)
Billmon or Pandagon?
Billmon always.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 27 2004 20:35 utc | 23
@cs
“Sometimes I wonder if the cynicism on the left is partly fear of letting go.”
Give us a reason not to be cynical?
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 27 2004 20:40 utc | 24
Because cynicism is another wedge. It keeps us apart from one another; even separates us from our true selves. It’s a choice to stay engaged that everyone on that podium decided to make.
I can identify 100% percent with Billmon’s cynicism, I voted Blair. How do you think I feel right now?
Forget the “move on” garbage that Blair spouts. If I lived and was voting in the USA, I’d be cynical of Kerry too.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 27 2004 21:22 utc | 26
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.>/I>
G.B. Shaw
Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 27 2004 21:37 utc | 27
Sorry to be so slow responding, cloned poster. I’m sorry you voted for Blair, but unless you had a crystal ball in the booth with you, you can’t really blame yourself. What you can do, and seem to be doing, is becoming better informed, which will put pressure on your candidates to serve you and everyone better. The alternative is to just hand it all over, you know.
Regarding Billmon’s comments on the National Anthem:
Pretty much standard canned goods off the eye-high shelf of liberal ideas.
Yes: Woody Guthrie’s tune.
No: Bombs bursting in air.
I’d like to dig way in the back of the top shelf where no one every pokes, and suggest that the Star Spangled Banner is just fine.
Why?
Because no matter how you dress it up or dress it down the SS Banner still stinks on ice.
It’s a loser of a tune–arrhythmical and emotionally sterile.
Not even an angry white man flying too high on airplane glue could possibly goose-step to it.
And that’s my point.
Anything that helps keep the brown-shirt genes in check is a good thing.
Posted by: koreyel | Jul 27 2004 23:03 utc | 29
When did Teddy Kennedy clone Bob Hope’s voice?
(listening as I catch up on MoA)
Posted by: Siun | Jul 28 2004 0:06 utc | 30
Taking John Kerry and the Democratic party platform at their word – and the writers of that platform insist that it really represents who Kerry “is” – and deciding they are not getting my vote is not cynical, it is rational.
Areeing with and voting for that platform, merely makes you a Democrat.
Calling yourself a “progressive” and urging other “progressives” to vote for that platform – like Medea Benjamin and Cobb have been doing – now that IS cynical.
Posted by: tgs | Jul 28 2004 2:48 utc | 31
I’m in the Eastern time zone, and I don’t know how PBS is handling broadcasts in the other time zones. Anyway, if you get a chance, please watch Obama’s keynote address. It will angry your blood, tingle your spine, bring tears to your eyes, and give you hope.
The transcript is here, but you need to watch him to get the full effect.
Posted by: philippa | Jul 28 2004 2:54 utc | 32
If you miss Obama’s speech, you can find a video later on the official convention website, here. They’re in the process of posting Tuesday’s videos now.
Posted by: philippa | Jul 28 2004 3:03 utc | 33
billmon
Dont know how you do it, pretty much hit perfect
100% resonance with my last living, still hopeful, but pissed off, war weary, and haggered with the jingoism,and wanting for oh so much more, brain cell.
Posted by: anna mist | Jul 28 2004 3:07 utc | 34
Philippa – the hype on his speech was pretty intense so I was not hopeful for the actuality but watching him, I had the feeling I was seeing perhaps the first AfricanAmerican president in the wings … he sure knows how to give a speech!
And Theresa Heinz Kerry was quite wonderful when she spoke of women’s voices …
now there would be an interesting ticket! (and it would save us from the dreadful Hillary idea)
Posted by: Siun | Jul 28 2004 3:16 utc | 35
Siun:
(and it would save us from the dreadful Hillary idea)
Hillary died tonight.
She knows it also. You could see it on her face. A puckered grin that bespoke the truth…
Obama was everything I had hoped and then some.
Clearly the writing is on the wall.
And while it is true that this will be the last all white boy democratic ticket we will ever see… Hillary’s space has been appropriated.
She’s done.
It’s Obama’s game from here on out.
Make way.
Posted by: koreyel | Jul 28 2004 3:30 utc | 36
Have you been able to secure a MP3down of BeBE Winans singing the Star Spangled Banner at the DNC? If you have can you email it to me?
Sincerely
Sharmain
Posted by: Sharmain | Oct 6 2005 6:00 utc | 38
Looking for an MP3 of BeBe Winans singing the Star Spangled Banner at the DNC. Thank you
Posted by: Sharon | Oct 6 2005 6:02 utc | 39