Les Miserables

I didn’t know Anne Hathaway could sing.  She also sacrifices her real hair for the Les Miz movie coming out in December.

The timing is a bit off but maybe we’ll get a singalong to the Angry Men song.

There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes

Here is the Barricade song from Les Miserables sung by the protestors in Wisconsin last year in the Capitol rotunda.  This one has the lyrics at the top so everyone can sing along.

We are all Cheeseheads now.  Go Wisconsin, beat the mighty toilet paper kings!

OWS Theme Song auditions

Susie Madrak has been searching youtube for a good theme song for OWS and there are some good ones out there.

But I love this song for so many reasons.  First, it has a good beat and it’s easy to march to.  Second, what could be more appropriate than a song from Les Miserables?  Isn’t Les Miserables French for “the 99%”?  I think it is.

I’ve rolled this song out before but I’m going to do it one more time to see if I can win any converts.  Add your suggestions in the comments.

Here it is: Do You Hear The People Sing

Holy Hemiola!  This might really be the one.  It looks like the original occupation of Wisconsin’s state house featured a flash mob version of the song.  The melody is simple, the lyrics can be adapted.  It’s easy to learn.  What’s not to like??

Here are the Wisconsin lyrics:

• Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of working men?

  It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.

  When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums,

  there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes.

  Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?

  Beyond the mass parade, is there a world you long to see?

  Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free.
  Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of working men?

  It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.

  When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums,

  there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes.
  Will you dedicate your all so that our freedom may advance?

  Some will stand and some will fall. Will you stand up and take your chance?

  Let’s fill the Rotunda ’til everyone joins in the chants.

  Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of working men?

  It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.

  When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums,

  there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes.

Wednesday: Joe the Plumber- To the Barricades!

RD the Chemist here.  This is not the first time in history that the average Joe has been told to give up and accept his fate.  It’s not the first time that the people have resisted either:

It was Tito the Construction Worker who put his finger on the problem:

Someone asked why Munoz had come to the rally. “I support McCain, but I’ve come to face you guys because I’m disgusted with you guys,” he said. “Why the hell are you going after Joe the Plumber? Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else. Why is that wrong? Everything is possible in America. I made it. Joe the Plumber could make it even better than me. . . . I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the U.S.A.”

The scene turned into a mini-fracas when David Corn, of Mother Jones, defended press coverage. Munoz was having none of it. Why, he asked, would the press whack Joe the Plumber when it didn’t want to report on Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber? “How come that’s not in the news all the time?” Munoz said. “How come Joe the Plumber is every second? I’m talking about NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN.”A black woman with a strong Caribbean accent jumped in the fray. “Tell me,” she said to Corn, “why is it you can go and find out about Joe the Plumber’s tax lien and when he divorced his wife and you can’t tell me when Barack Obama met with William Ayers? Why? Why could you not tell us that? Joe the Plumber is me!”

“I am Joe the Plumber!” Munoz chimed in. “You’re attacking me.”

Let us review all of the lovely things the media has brought us in the past 15 years, shall we?

• Whitewater
• Paula Jones
• Travelgate
• Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
• Rose Law Firm Billing Records
• Ken Starr
• Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America
• Monica Lewinsky
• Impeachment of Bill Clinton
• 12 years of Movement Conservatives in Congress
• George Bush (2000)
• Code Orange after 9/11
• George Bush (2004)
• Iraq War II and over 4000 dead
• The intentional neglect of Valerie Plame’s outting by a sitting VP
• *NO* impeachment of George Bush
• The trashing of Hillary Clinton
• Coverup of the manipulation of the Democratic primaries and delegates
• Unchecked misogyny in the service of their chosen candidate

If the Republicans destroyed the country, they had a LOT of help from the media, especially the Broderites of the Village who presume to tell us what we think and believe.  Over and over again, they have been wrong, misleading, pretentious and cruel.  They are the prime instigators who force their predetermined outcome on us.  Instead of merely reporting the news, they are determined to make it.

And Tito the Construction Worker, Joe the Plumber and RD the Chemist are calling them out. This year, instead of having the candidate we respected and trusted, the media has forced us to make a choice between two unacceptable men.  Neither one of them are going to be working for our best interests.  Obama has no interests but his own and McCain is constrained by his own party’s ideology.  Now we must make a choice based on character.  Which candidate is more honorable.  Barack Obama is coming up short in this department with all of his past associations, ruthless campaign tactics and corruption.  Yet the media would attack private inividuals if we dare to question Obama?  Who put them up to this?

It is time we took control of our lives back from the people whose goal is to manipulate our perceptions.  We must trust one another and resist the power of the media narrative.  When we put them back in their place, we’ll be back in charge of our own lives for the first time in 15 years.

To the barricades!