Who Hijacked Our Country

Friday, November 21, 2008

Jackson Browne Voted For John McCain!

Actually — No. Here’s how it went. Just see if you can find a shred of logic or consistency in these two stories (you won’t).

Just pretend for a minute that you wrote and recorded a song about thirty years ago. It was a huge hit. You’ve had other hits too, but that one song is by far your most famous. Your name and that song title are practically synonymous in the public eye.

Now imagine this one scenario: Somebody has illegally downloaded your song onto his/her computer. Maybe this person didn’t even download it him/herself. It could’ve been a child, grandchild, niece, nephew who downloaded this song without the computer owner’s permission. In any case, the owner of this computer could be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars — driven into bankruptcy, homelessness — because his/her computer was used for the commission of this heinous act.

And now the second scenario: A presidential candidate — with whom you disagree on practically everything — has used this same song of yours for a campaign commercial. Without Your Permission. This candidate is a multi-millionaire with tens of millions of dollars being poured into his presidential campaign by the Powers That Be. Millions of TV viewers probably saw this commercial and associated your song (and hence, You) with the candidate you didn’t want.

And there ain’t a fuckin’ thing you can do about it.

And that’s not all! This asswipe is countersuing you, because you “chilled his free speech” when you sued him for copyright infringement.

John McCain used Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” in a TV commercial last summer. Browne sued McCain, but the general consensus was pretty much “riiight, let me know how that works out for you.”

And now McCain is countersuing Browne for damages and court costs. That was a nice humble concession speech McCain gave on November 4th. Now, how can we miss him if he won’t go away?

Told you there was no sense or logic to be found here. If our traffic laws were this lopsided and skewed, you’d get a $500,000 fine for driving one mph over the speed limit. But if you were so drunk you could barely walk, and you got behind the wheel and caused a 40-car pileup, you’d get a $1 fine.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

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11 Comments:

Blogger Enemy of the Republic said...

Okay, I take back every compliment I gave Mccain about his concession speech.

This is nuts. Anyone who has a dim sense of pop culture could never IMAGINE JACKSON BROWNE for McCain. Your headline scared me! No way!

McCain hates California and what he deems as celebrity priviledge. He also hates people like Browne who openly opposed the Iraqi war and if I am correct--Browne has been around long enough to have opposed 'Nam--not sure on that one.

So McCain breaks the law, steals a song that anyone would know had nothing to do with his campaign and then countersues? Does Obama really think this guy will "work with him"?

November 21, 2008 at 5:55 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Enemy: It's too bad; I was all ready to like McCain again after his magnanimous concession speech. But this story brings back the same bullying spiteful asshole that we all became so familiar with.

I hope he'll just go back to the Senate and start "reaching across the aisle" like he's always claiming he does.

November 21, 2008 at 7:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The wingtards all act like they're drinking heavily, so the traffic analogy fits.

But you know, without the 'tard commenters' outrage, it just isn't as much fun taking swipes at Joe the Dullard anymore :(

November 21, 2008 at 9:36 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

JR: And speaking of wingtards and drinking, the 30th anniversary of Jonestown was a few days ago. As far as I know, that's where the political term "koolaid" started; Jim Jones' zombies were forced to drink this poisoned koolaid to prove their "faith," and we all know how that worked out for them.

I don't seem to get many 'tard commenters here anyway. I used to when I was using the traffic exchange programs, but I haven't used them for awhile. I hardly ever delete or reject comments; I guess people see the "comment moderation" message and don't bother to comment.

November 21, 2008 at 11:55 PM  
Blogger Carlos said...

What a dumbass. And here I thought the Republican party was against frivolous lawsuits.

November 22, 2008 at 2:29 AM  
Blogger Randal Graves said...

John McCain was, is, and always will be an angry, bitter tool.

And what's with these yokels and their You Violated My Free Speech Campaign?

They and their talk radio blowhards are wrong on everything yet get to spew forth this crap on teevee, STILL the most widespread source of 'information' for the majority of Murkans.

Man, I hate these jokers.

November 22, 2008 at 6:54 AM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Carlos: When an individual is suing a large corporation, it's frivolous. When a corporation or powerful organization sues an individual, it's free enterprise.

Randal: How dare you say such terrible things about The Maverick. Remember, he wasn't voted Miss Congeniality by his own party, and he's famous for "reaching across the aisle" (don't ask what he's reaching for).

November 22, 2008 at 11:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Every four years we get at least one incident where a candidate uses music without permission, and the writer or performer publicly announces he/she resents it because he/she doesn't support the candidate, and doesn't want people to get that idea.

Yes, it's foolish and petty of McCain to sue Browne. But the real idiot is the campaign leader or worker who used the music without getting permission. It's not like this hasn't come up before.

November 22, 2008 at 8:22 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

SW: I just thought this whole case was so ironic because of the contrast between somebody who downloads music off the internet, and somebody who uses a song in a TV commercial without permission.

McCain's campaign had to be one of the most inept in recent history, and this would be just another example. It goes hand in hand with getting Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC and Walter Reed Middle School in L.A. mixed up.

November 23, 2008 at 1:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Okay, okay, Tom...gotta point out one little thing...Asia IS west of Africa...if you go far enough.

November 25, 2008 at 2:31 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Paul: That's true. And don't forget they're both countries. Sarah Palin said so.

November 25, 2008 at 3:29 PM  

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