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Dear Mr. President

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 08:56:05 AM EST
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Don't miss the video of Pink's live version of Dear Mr. President

[hat tip to Bobby at Progress Now.]

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    Dear Mr. President | 21 comments (21 topical)
    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 09:48:34 AM EST
    Made me cry. I had not heard of Pink before. Lots of talent there. Beautiful.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#2)
    by Edger on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 10:23:08 AM EST
    lyrics
    What do you feel when you look in the mirror, Can you even look me in the eye?


    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#3)
    by Dadler on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 12:49:14 PM EST
    Nice song, and beautifully sung, and I don't mean to be cranky, but it's pointless, I hate to say. Bush is a mentally addled sociopath, he doesn't KNOW how to engage in self-criticism, and he is an apocalyptic personality. He said when he took office "I don't understand how poor people think." He advertised his lazy ignorance for all to see. He is far, far gone, and ballads, as nicely motivated as they are, by singers as well-intentioned (but ultimately dumb as a brick) as Pink don't do anything but romanticize what needs to be confronted head-on with intellect and righteous anger. Give me "Masters of War" or the "Ballad of Hollis Brown" any day.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 12:56:22 PM EST
    Dadler- I like those too. Don't you think that Pink is part of a collective energy that is good here. Do you think that she is putting people to sleep on the issues? Not me.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#5)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 01:13:02 PM EST
    Besides isn't this song referring to Marilyn Monroe? Isn't that why her last line is so ironic. To me, as one who has never heard of Pink before this, I do not think she is remotely dumb. Nor was Monroe.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#6)
    by fafnir on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 06:22:51 PM EST
    Holy Toledo. That broke a few heart strings. I hope it will inspire more young people to get involved, vote, and take their country back.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 09:12:33 AM EST

    Art, including music, is right brain stuff. Analytical thinking and reasoning is left brain stuff. I think anybody who doesn't use both sides of their brain is at leaast half out of their mind.

    Musicians and songwriters and poets are able to express things in ways that logic never can with the impact that music can.

    I also never heard of Pink before this, but she sure can write and sing!

    There is a great little bio of her on MTV News:

    Pink's not sure how people are going to react to the new batch of songs on I'm Not Dead, an album that's more personal than anything she's ever offered. She even brings aboard her father for one track, singing a song he wrote while serving in Vietnam that taught her how to harmonize when she was a kid. "It's the most adorable experience for a father and daughter to share," she said. "He's just such a folk singer, I just love it. It felt like the '60s."
    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#8)
    by Che's Lounge on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 09:44:15 AM EST
    fafnir, We need to simultaneously dedicate efforts to reforming the voting system or it wil be/is all for naught. I am so very suspicious of the validity of our current voting system. It is obvious to any intelligent person that the electonic voting system is not secure from corruption, many believe on a scale at or near the point of determining outcomes. Ever since the pesidential election of 2000, every time I vote, I wonder not so much as to whether my candidate won, but whether my vote actually counted.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#9)
    by Che's Lounge on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 09:49:44 AM EST
    Oh yeah, and Pink was great. Lot's of passion there. She's doing her part. Waiting with baited breath for Neil's new one. FY Monkey Boy. How was church today?

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#10)
    by Dadler on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 09:50:34 AM EST
    Squeak, Forgive me, I was cranky. Yes, it's a good thing she's singing the song, I just find a ballad wishing Bush had self-awareness and intellect hilarious. It's like wishing Santa Claus was skinny. But I don't know about positive energy. That energy only matters when it is combined with brains. Emotion is nice, and we need it like we need to breathe, but until I hear actual IDEAS and PLANS and IMAGINATION rather than just saying "Dear Mr. President, walk with me, talk with me, look at the homeless..." Bush doesn't look himself in the mirror. MOST of us don't very often. The song to me puts too much hope in one man metaphorically, and I don't just mean Bush. Lord I need to shut up and ingest some caffeine. I love Pink, she's cool and sexy and could probably beat the crap out of me.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#11)
    by Dadler on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 09:53:22 AM EST
    Squeak, I take back the dumb comment. I was out of line. I heard her interviewed a couple of times, didn't find her that smart, but singing doesn't require smart, nor do song lyrics, so I take my whooping.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#12)
    by Dadler on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 09:54:45 AM EST
    What a dick I am about Pink. Must be some repressed stuff. Go Lakers.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#13)
    by Edger on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 10:00:53 AM EST
    You're hilarious this morning, Dadler. ;-)

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#14)
    by squeaky on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 10:07:38 AM EST
    Dadler, understood. As edger points out, Art can work in ways that are mysterious and hard to explain. At its best it is just beyond grasp, almost, but not quite within reach. Mostly artists are not to be believed when they talk, They often do not have the words (smarts as you put it) to explain the unexplainable.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#15)
    by fafnir on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 12:22:44 PM EST
    I'm with you on this one, Che. The Virginia guber election last year was the first time I voted on a paper-less, touch-screen machine. I walked away with a disturbing lack of confidence in my vote being registered or even counted. This threat to our democratic-republic must be elevated to the same -- preferably higher -- level of political concern expressed about immigration reform, Dubai ports deal, or rising fuel prices.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#16)
    by jondee on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 03:10:09 PM EST
    Dadler - If she ever said anything "smart" the media would edit it out anyway. Smart - unless its immediatly translatable into dollars - is too boring and too subversive. Look what they did to Fiona Apple when she threatened everyones perpetual adolescence by stating the obvious. They laughed her off the playground.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#17)
    by jondee on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 03:32:15 PM EST
    We dont do smart. Shrewd, yes. Expedient, yes. And wisdom is taboo, or, a punchline.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#18)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 24, 2006 at 09:24:38 AM EST
    Here is another Dear Mr. President letter from John Brown a diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the planned war in Iraq:
    Mr. President: Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night? Do you? Do you ever wake up sleepless in the middle of the night? What have you done in Iraq? Do you ever realize, in the middle of the night, what you've done? Do you?
    He goes on to list the things the president would be worrying about if he had the concience to wake up in the middle of the night in horror for what he has done. link via Juan Cole

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#19)
    by Edger on Mon Apr 24, 2006 at 09:29:07 AM EST
    Wow, too much... Great link, Squeaky.

    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#20)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 24, 2006 at 09:54:10 AM EST
    edger- You can sign up for John Browns daily Public Diplomacy Press Review sent by email. You can also get his daily review on line here: It is a lot to read but really informative. I like his Quotes of the day. Today's is:
    "I ASK PEOPLE A LOT OF TIMES NOT TO BE IN MY LINE OF VISION BECAUSE ALL I CAN SEE STRAIGHT AHEAD IS, YOU KNOW, SPACE." --President George W. Bush, regarding his bike riding; cited in Elisabeth Bumiller, "White House Letter -- Not 'the Decider,' but Stirring Anxiety" (New York Times, April 24)


    Re: Dear Mr. President (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 29, 2006 at 09:38:52 PM EST
    Hmmm...wondering just what exactly Pink would do differently if she were president? Very easy to point fingers and throw stones when you have no clue what is going on. Dick Cheney is close with his daughter - and, um, how much of her income has Pink given to the poor? Anyone know? Makes me sad to see so many people not even thinking, just going along with what some "artist" writes in a song. Hope she doesn't make too much money off it. That's the name of the game, you know.

    Dear Mr. President | 21 comments (21 topical)