Loves It!

by publius

If anyone is looking for an early Christmas present for me, I have a suggestion: The Republican Policy Committee's new "spoken word" CD, Freedom Songs: The American Empowerment Agenda. Here's a description:

Freedom Songs: The American Empowerment Agenda is the RPC's policy recommendations presented on a spoken word album. Listen and leave your thoughts on the tracks. . . . Chairman McCotter states "Freedom Songs is just the beginning of our discussion. We hope to make this an ongoing effort and are hopeful that you, the American people, will join the discussion by commenting on the beats."

I dig those beats daddy-o.

The same friend who alerted me about the CD also sends along this exasperated complaint from Mark Davis in the WSJ about the GOP's youth problem:

So how are Republicans reaching out to them?

I have on my desk a CD sent out this spring from the Republican House Policy Committee. Fat, 1970s lettering bears the title, "Freedom Songs." The cover image of the CD package is a sepia-tone photo of Teddy Roosevelt.

Open it up and you are treated to photos of Warren G. Harding staring into the horn of a crank phonograph, Herbert Hoover listening to a wireless, and a glum-looking Calvin Coolidge simply glowering at a camera. In an accompanying letter, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan writes that the CD includes "riffs by Dr. Russell Kirk," as well as "the pounding rhythm section of the Austrian School of Economics."

So while the Obama Democrats transform America's youth into a Facebook army, the Republican Party is offering this disc, Mr. McCotter writes, "as an alternative to an eighty story high stack of dry white policy papers."

Did I forget to mention it can also be podcast?

Comments

[OCSteve]

Groan...

[Jesurgislac]

God. And I thought McCain's ad dissing the daughter of two of his campaign donors was dumb.

"* Track 7: Secure Citizens' Sovereignty and Soil
Rep. Virginia Foxx (vocals)/Rep. Jim Saxton (backing vocals)"

Yeah, baby! *makes awkward handmoves as done by 65-year-old lady and gentleman who have been told they need to look hip*

I take this as good evidence that the Republicans want to lose the 2008 election, actually. They figure the country's going to be in such a mess that it's better to leave the Democrats the job of cleaning up and fixing it, and they can plan on moving in with plans for fresh tax cuts in 2016, after the other party's done the hard work.

Wonder if McCain knows he's being set up to fail or if the whole thing's also a practical joke on him?

*tongue out of cheek*

Except they probably really are that dumb. George W. Bush didn't see why people didn't like/admire him the way they liked/admired Johnny Cash...

[Jim Carrey]

(HOARSELY, WILD-EYED): This is a hoax... right? There's no such thing as this!!

--Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

[Publius's Aforementioned Friend]

Astonishingly, Mark Davis's sensible reaction to this stupid CD was characterized by the American">http://www.amspec.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13636">American Spectator's web site as being part of an apparent conspiracy theory: Namely, Davis, whose employer apparently "has done work for from pro-Chi-Com-U.S. trade organizations," was secretly trying to take down GOP'ers who are tough on China.

If only we could take those sorts of GOP cranks, put them in the same box as Tim">http://slate.msn.com/id/2196756/?from=rss">Tim Noah, Bob Herbert, and Keith Olbermann, and send them far away until after the election, when (hopefully) they can be trusted to act like grown-ups again, and not like a bunch of neo-Birchers.

[sniflheim]

I'm trying to work my brain but my internal monologue is just going ghhh and nnnk....

[Feddie]

Freedom costs a buck o' five.

[trilobite]

Odd to see Trustbuster Teddy, the Great Conservationist, so prominently displayed. The only overlap I see between his politics and those of the modern GOP is jingoist militarism. And even Teddy counseled soft speech whilst carrying the big stick.

[LFC]

Wow. And I thought the only reason that the GOP was losing the youth voters was because the Republicans sucked at governing and were trashing the country's future. Instead, it looks like they're swinging for the grand slam of alienation.

[hairshirthedonist]

Occam's Razor says: The simple, and most likely correct, answer is that they are as bad at marketing as they are at governing. That's all.

[Dave S.]

Agreed on Occam's Razor, with the additional observation that it is also a result of the follow-the-leader/no-dissent model embraced by the GOP: no one thought it was a bad idea or, if they did, voiced any objection. If only the results of their abject intellectual poverty were confined to this.

[LT Nixon]

Republicans are a bunch of out-of-touch squares, true. But at least they've got Alice Cooper, who you can rock out to in any day ending in Y.

[someotherdude]

L.T. Nixon,

I swear, I saw Alice Cooper at an R.C. Sproul (Theologian) lecture.

[felix culpa]

I like the thick red line through the word “empowerment”.
Coincidence? I think not. Not paying attention? Entirely possible, even likely. Inadvertent giveaway of the underlying agenda? For sure.

[felix culpa]

Someother— You gotta be kidding! (I’m well aware of R.C. Not an enthusiast but I’ve known plenty of people who are; I think he’s one of the best of his breed.)

But Alice C? Too much.

[Populuxe]

Hey, man! Is that freedom rock?

[Eric Martin]

My day, it has been made.

[Spartacvs]

That would be the same Thaddeus McCotter of "the Second Amendments" fame I presume?

[LT Nixon]

I swear, I saw Alice Cooper at an R.C. Sproul (Theologian) lecture.

I believe it! Even though Alice's acting career was made famous by playing a schizophrenic in "Prince of Darkness", he's still down with J.C.

[Gary Farber]

"The only overlap I see between his politics and those of the modern GOP is jingoist militarism."

As I recall, the number of U.S. soldiers who died in U.S. military action while TR was President is 0.

Yes, he rhetorically glorified war, and its salutory effects on the individual and society: absolutely. But he not only didn't enter into any foolish wars, he didn't enter into any wars at all. And, incidentally, won the Nobel Peace Prize for settling the Russo-Japanese War.

TR was a bundle of seeming contradictions like that; it's what makes him so interesting.

[Gary Farber]

"But he not only didn't enter into any foolish wars, he didn't enter into any wars at all."

To be ultra-clear, that's as President.

[someotherdude]

felix culpa,

Folks in the Reformed community do not fear popular culture like folks in evangelical communities. Although that seems to be changeing.

[Hob]

Veronica Geng fans will recall a similarly brilliant bit where she described the Watergate tapes as if they'd been released as commercial albums and reviewed by Robert Christgau, in his typical can't-tell-if-he-liked-it style (e.g., "So indictably undanceable that you ignore it at your own peril").

[gil mann]

LT Nixon, that's the beauty of "Prince of Darkness." It's so incoherent that you thought Alice Cooper played a schizophrenic, when he was actually the leader of an army of homeless people possessed by a malevolent force from another dimension.

Best part was when he stabbed a guy with a bicycle. You heard me.

[LT Nixon]

Best part was when he stabbed a guy with a bicycle. You heard me.

Word.

[Roger Moore]

As I recall, the number of U.S. soldiers who died in U.S. military action while TR was President is 0.

You recall incorrectly. TR may not have gotten the US into any wars, but he was left with an insurgency in the Philippines that caused some American (and many Filippino) deaths.

[Barrett Wolf]

This is the sort of tidbit that will, as Tom Lehrer said, "...Brighten an otherwise dull afternoon."

Apparently they're trying to lower the bar past Bill Shatner.

[Dan S.]

"Open it up and you are treated to photos of Warren G. Harding
Teapot Dome scandal, various other administrative scandals. Seems to have been a genial fellow completely clueless about the fact that all his buddies he appointed to high offices were taking bribes, etc.
staring into the horn of a crank phonograph, Herbert Hoover
Great Depression
listening to a wireless . . ."

[Gary Farber]

"You recall incorrectly. TR may not have gotten the US into any wars, but he was left with an insurgency in the Philippines that caused some American (and many Filippino) deaths."

Yes, you're quite right, I was being absent-minded; what I meant, and pray allow me to revise to, the statement that no American soldiers died during TR's terms in any war that he began.

He was, of course, a major instigator of the imperialistic Spanish-American War, agitated for earlier participation in WWI, and was generally quite the militarist and glorifier of war, as I already alluded; I just think it's worth noting the historical irony, and also to his credit, that he didn't as president get us into wars, let alone foolish or imperialist ones. That's all.

[Gary Farber]

Here's interesting fodder for debate on TR, if anyone cares. :-)

[Slartibartfast]

Apparently they're trying to lower the bar past Bill Shatner.

I'd guess the Shatner for President movement has already been linked threadbare.

[Gary Farber]

I kinda liked this moment, Slarti.

Theoretically I'm a big fan of Boston Legal, but circumstances have contrived to keep me from seeing it since, like, February or so.

[Slartibartfast]

That was rather good, Gary.

I wish I could have a phone that made that noise when it opened.

[Gary Farber]

"I wish I could have a phone that made that noise when it opened."

Why can't you? This is one of many sites that lets you make your own ringtones. You can find ST sounds in a jillion places on the web. here. Here is the sound again. More. Etc. Etc. Just google "Star trek" and "mp3," or "sounds."

Unless you don't have one of these modern phones that uses ringtones, I guess.

[Gary Farber]

It won't work as a phone, but you can also buy this. Or any of this stuff. (Lots of other fun stuff at ThinkGeek, though beware that some is kinda junky.)

[Anthony Damiani]

BWAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA.

*sniff*

I used to work for Thad McCotter.
This kinda made my day.

[LFC]

Isn't Ted Nugent a Republican? That would liven up their album!

[russell]

Isn't Ted Nugent a Republican?

Actually, I think Nugent is a Hun.

Not a metaphorical, WWII era German Hun. A real one.

I originally thought he was a Viking, but then I noticed he had no helmet.

Thanks -