Springsteen
At 8:20 this morning while eating my omlette while watching Morning Joe going out to the commerical break I heard what I thought was a new Springsteen. The only lyric passage I could really make out was “the eyes with the will to see” so I googled that phrase which lead me to this:
- Bruce Springsteen Releases New Song We Take Care of Our Own Audio; New Album Wrecking Ball Due Out – Speakeasy – WSJ.
…Springsteen may once again be focused on working-class politics and economic issues.
- We Take Care Of Our Own (With Lyrics) – Bruce Springsteen – YouTube
- Bruce Springsteen: ‘We Take Care Of Our Own’ Off ‘Wrecking Ball,’ New Single, New Album Revealed
- Review: Bruce Springsteens new single, We Take Care Of Our Own – HitFix.com
…The song is instantly recognizable as Springsteen even before the vocals start. It opens with the E Street Band’s Max Weinberg’s big drum sound, before the ringing guitars and chiming keyboards fill every ounce of sound.
The pay off comes at the bridge, which crescendos as Springsteen asks:
Where are the eyes, the eyes with the will to see
Where are the hearts that run over with mercy
Where’s the love that has not forsaken me
Where’s the work that will set my hands, my soul free
Where’s the spirit that will reign, reign over me
Where’s the promise from sea to shining seaSpringsteen understands, even relishes in, his role as a modern-day Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. His fans expect him to survey the landscape with us (not for us) and he certainly doesn’t disappoint those of us who are wondering, “How the hell did we get here?”
- First take: Bruce Springsteen’s patriotic ‘We Take Care of Our Own’ – latimes.com
- Bruce Springsteen, ‘We Take Care of Our Own’ – Song Review
- ‘We Take Care Of Our Own’: Bruce Springsteen’s New Wave Of Social Protest : The Record : NPR
- AwkwardSound – Alternative Music News, Album Reviews, Song Reviews, mp3 Streams: Song Review: Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own”
- Bruce Springsteen’s new single, ‘We Take Care of Our Own,’ spins a tale of American self-reliance – NY Daily News
- New Springsteen song “We Take Care Of Our Own” from Wrecking Ball | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/18/2012
- Song of the Week: ‘We Take Care of Our Own,’ Bruce Springsteen | NJ.com
- Springsteen’s ‘We Take Care of Our Own’ is a rousing protest anthem
- Bruce Springsteen Gets Political (Again) with New Song – ABC News
Politics
- ‘Super PACs’ dominate the political landscape – latimes.com
- Obama campaign launches 1st TV ad – CBS News
- Obama for America 2012 TV AD – The Facts About President Obama’s Energy Record – YouTube
- Fact Check: Obama TV Ad Touts Record on Ethics, Clean Energy – ABC News
- Reelection TV ad defends Obama’s energy record – latimes.com
- Rick Perry ends campaign: His top five moments – The Washington Post
- 1/19: Vote for Colbert? 18% in South Carolina Kinda Somewhat Likely | Home of the Marist Poll: Pebbles and Pundits
- msnbc.com Entertainment – Colbert’s Super PAC ad attacks … Colbert
- Romney’s Non-Answer on Indefinite Detention of Americans | Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- Political Animal – ‘Socialist’ used to mean something (via ‘Socialist’ used to mean something)
- The Maddow Blog – The math of Mitt Romney meets Newtmentum
By Laura Conaway — The latest survey from Public Policy Polling (pdf) has Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney in South Carolina by 34 to 28. The pollsters argue that Mitt Romney is holding steady, that Rick Santorum is falling and that undecideds are swinging toward Mr. Gingrich. The former House speaker is also up, much more narrowly, in a string of polls. PPP argues that this is not a case of Mitt Romney imploding — the pollsters say he’s holding steady.Still, I’m intrigued by the video posted on Think Progress by Travis Waldron and Scott Keyes, in which they asked South Carolina voters about Mitt Romney and money…[read on…]
- Political Wisdom: Will Keystone Decision Tar Obama’s Re-election? – Washington Wire – WSJ
- Bruce Springsteen Gets Political (Again) with New Song – ABC News
- Bill Clinton: Newt Gingrich And Mitt Romney Can’t Tell The Truth And Win GOP Nomination
…Former President Bill Clinton said Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney can’t say what they believe and get nominated in a GOP primary, in an interview withEsquire published Wednesday.
“As a private citizen he [Gingrich] was for certain important health-care reforms and believed in climate change and believed there had to be a strong reaction to it. And now he’s just like Romney,” Clinton said. “Neither one of them can say what they believe to be true and get nominated. Romney’s still trying to figure out what he did as governor of Massachusetts and still appeal to this driving vituperative energy.”
- On Race, Dog Whistles, and the Old Confederacy – James Fallows – Politics – The Atlantic
…Here is a third alternative, the one I believe: that Newt Gingrich knows exactly what he is doing when he calls Obama the “food stamp” president, just as Ronald Reagan knew exactly what he was doing when talking about “welfare Cadillacs.” There are lots of other ways to make the point about economic hard times — entirely apart from which person and which policies are to blame for today’s mammoth joblessness, and apart from the fact that Congress sets food stamp policies. You could call him the “pink slip president,” the “foreclosure president,” the “Walmart president,” the “Wall Street president,” the “Citibank president,” the “bailout president,” or any of a dozen other images that convey distress. You decide to go with “the food stamp president,” and you’re doing it on purpose.
- The Dog-Whistle Behind Newt’s Food Stamps Rhetoric | TPM2012
…Newt is not talking to the black community; he is employing stereotypes about that community to talk to white audiences. (He’s not alone here, the NAACP put out a statement Thursday when Rick Santorum did the exact same thing.) Even if Newt does visit the NAACP, the underlying point is not reaching the black community, it’s about appealing to white voters with a characterization of the black community as dependent on welfare. The NAACP is being used as a foil to appeal to white voters with Republican talking points about welfare, dependency, and the failures of their community.There’s a second layer as well. If there’s one thing that makes conservatives bristle, it’s accusations that they are racist. Newt’s comments assuage those fears. As he puts it, the problem is not that African Americans don’t like Republicans or their ideas, it’s that they’ve never heard them (which seems an insulting underestimation of them in itself). What Newt is saying to conservative audiences is that African Americans vote for Democrats because they don’t know about our policies, not because our policies don’t help them. Not only is he appealing to white voters by stereotyping minorities as welfare dependent, but he is also doing so by assuring them that they aren’t racist.
- Tom Toles nails Gingrich on his ‘food stamp president’ dog-whistle politics – Democratic Underground
- GRITtv: John Fugelsang: GOP Should Love the Public Option – YouTube
- Rick Santorum Hits Newt Gingrich For His ‘Grandiosity’ During Republican Debate (VIDEO)
SOPA & PIPA
Economics & The Economy
- Housing Market Shows Signs of Life – Real Time Economics – WSJ
- California Turns To China For New Bay Bridge : NPR
- McNichol: To Make the US Stronger, You’re Going to Need Some Chinese Steel – CNBC
- San Francisco’s Bay Bridge Gets 5,300-Ton Steel Span Delivery from China – Bloomberg
- San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Controversially Made In China | Fox News