Tuesday, February 28, 2006

For Fear of Becoming Too Fixated

I didn't think it possible, but I've learned a little bit more about Joe Lieberman (thanks, Firedoglake), and I'm liking him less and less:
People often ask me what happened and what was the big deal. Lieberman knew exactly what he was doing-- far better than the batty wives' group that preceded him-- when he insisted on ratings on CDs and it had nothing to do with helping parents supervise their children. Few people understand-- the way Lieberman did -- that in the late 80s something like 70% of all recorded music was sold in stores in malls and that malls have very stringent lease arrangements about their tenants not selling "pornography." Over the course of this controversy two of the Senate's most uptight and close-minded prigs, Sam Brownback and Lieberman, pushed for the kinds of stickers that would make it impossible for the kind of music they objected to -- like anything talking about masturbation or homosexuality, for example -- to be stocked by 70% of American retailers. The effect inside the music business was chilling-- and instantaneous. Suddenly a whole new internal bureaucracy had to be created to police every record and suddenly artists were being pressured -- sometimes overtly and sometimes less overtly -- to cave in to demands by two really reactionary fundamentalists whose values are far from mainstream. In one fell swoop Lieberman destroyed an alliance between young voters and the Democratic Party that had started with John Kennedy's election as he ham-fistedly savaged their culture for his own political ambitions.
Rid us of him, Connecticut! Por favor!

1 comment:

EconAtheist said...

Heyyyyyy. I dig the blog.

Fairly similar political commentary + snarking + a smattering of college hoops? *applause*

Swing by my joint sometime; just a casual invite, you don't even have to reply to my dumb posts.

I'd like to join a group blog, eventually... dunno if you're interested, but I noticed that you expressed a similar level of frustration with trying to "do it all, all the time"... it's a draining experience, especially doing it alone for almost 8 months straight.

Cheers.