It has been a while since I have been over here. I really wish I could write more, I am brimming with brilliance, but alas I don’t have the time. That is sorta the default condition of this band at this point. No one has the time.
That said, despite being busy, Spencer managed to find time to talk to the good folks at MSNBC about where to find good music.
The answer is 
iTunes of course. Add to the $10.00 in royalties that is already waiting for us!
In my previous life as a political pollster, two things never ceased to amaze me: 1) the slimy new lows to which politics can sink (especially those of the Republican party), and 2) how the American people continue to fall for this stuff. It is truly incredible how easy it is to get American voters to vote against their own (and the country’s) best interests by repackaging the same lies, biases, and fears and selling them to people every four years.
Case in point: Sarah Palin. I know the shine’s been taken off of her a bit, but the level of support she still gets astounds me. There’s any number of reasons why, as she’s one of the most hypocritical and loathsome people I’ve ever seen come on to the national political stage. But the one I can’t get over, and can’t believe more people don’t see, is that Sarah Palin IS George W. Bush with a vagina.
The similarities between the two are not just striking, they are terrifying, and I’ll name 3 of them that scare me most:
1) Their undeserved, cocky swagger. Neither one of these people have accomplished anything worthwhile before tricking a bunch of backwards rednecks into making them a governor. W lived off his family’s money and ran several businesses into the ground, while Palin played the flute in a bikini and was mayor of a town of 12 people. Some qualifications.
2) How proud they are of lacking intellectually curiosity. It’s one thing not to know something; it’s totally another thing to not know it, be PROUD not to know it, and never want to know it. Palin and Bush both share an uncanny lack of intellect or curiosity; to them, knowing things or asking questions makes you one of those liberal elites. And it’s not just that I disagree with them. I disagree with Dick Cheney, but I think the man is knowledgeable (he just doesn’t use it for good). Sarah Palin, on the other hand, a former JOURNALISM major, doesn’t apparently read the newspaper. Any newspaper. Not even the conservative ones. Why would she want to know about the world outside of Alaska? Judging by how she speaks, it doesn’t matter - the rest of the world needs to learn how things are done in Alaska and adapt accordingly. (Come to think of it, I seem to recall a former Texas governor with the same view of his state…)
3) Empty, angry, fear-mongoring rhetoric. I’ll give the two of them this - they sure know how to find the lowest common denominator and exploit the hell out of it. These guys would make George Washington sound like a commie liberal terrorist if he were alive today and running against them. Sarah Palin has more baseless, patently untrue, and vile one-liners than any candidate I’ve ever seen. And about 40% of the country is right there swallowing it hook line and sinker.
I could go on for days, and these are just three things that I’ve noticed.
This is not, however, a condemnation of all Republicans. There are some very thoughtful, capable, and truly good ones out there, and pretty sure that these people cringe when they hear Palin and Bush speak too. These two truly represent not only the worst of their party, but the worst the country has to offer. After 8 years and Bush’s 12% approval rating, though, it appears that for a lot of Americans, nothing has changed.