The Lynnertic

Seen in Chicago:

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: Peaches

The Friday Protest Song for July 27, 2007
Seem they’re just out of reach to me…
MP3 … Lyrics … Beefheart fan site … Cindy Sheehan’s blog

This week’s protest song is dedicated to Cindy Sheehan and John Conyers, who didn’t have a meeting of the minds this week on the issue of impeachment, which Sheehan sees as a method to end the Occupation of Iraq.

John Conyers and Cindy Sheehan in happier times

From the 1968 album Unconditionally Guaranteed
Peaches (MP3)

All of those peaches up in one tree,
I know one of them belongs to me.

I seem them peaches fallin down by me,
I know you see me standing under your tree.

Long as you’ve got so many peaches,
Why don’t you throw one down to me?
If I was a cherry-red bird
I’d fly up and take you off with me.

Throw me a peach outta your tree!
Ain’t no use in you being mean to me.
Guess I’ll stop hanging ’round your tree
If you don’t send one down to me!

You know I’m as hungry as a man can be,
And I’m down here begging under your tree.

All of those peaches up in your tree,
Seem they’re just out of reach to me.

Long as you’ve got so many peaches,
Why don’t you throw one down to me?
If I was a cherry-red bird
I’d fly up and take you off with me.

All of those peaches up in one tree,
I know one of them belongs to me.

I seem them peaches fallin down by me,
I know you see me standing under your tree.

Long as you’ve got so many peaches,
Why don’t you throw one down to me?
If I was a cherry-red bird
I’d fly up and take you off with me.

Throw me a peach outta your tree!
Ain’t no use in you being mean to me.

All of those peaches up in one tree,
I know one of them belongs to me.
(repeat and fade)

A letter to the Editor of the Boston Herald

I submitted this letter today to the editors of the Boston Herald:

In the 7/20 article “Sources detail ‘illegal’ security tactic,” a story about how Mitt Romney’s campaign used fake badges to avoid paying tolls and to intimidate the press, author Casey Ross writes, “Under state law, it is illegal to use a badge without authority.” If there is no question as to whether Romney’s campaign staffers violated a law, why is it that the story’s headline has the word ‘illegal’ in quotations, as if it were a matter of opinion and not fact?

Which brings me to another point.

The man who thought up the badges, Jay Garrity, has formally resigned from Romney’s campaign.

Also from the article:

In addition to Garrity, other aides who used the badges included advance staffers Mark Glanville and William Ritter, the source said.

The next day, Romney’s campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Herald (in “Stinking Badges Sink Aide”) that Ritter was issued a badge he never used, and that Glanville wasn’t issued one at all.

But people on the campaign knew the badges existed, and didn’t stop the abuse. The badges were issued while Romney was still Governor of Utah.

What does it say about the character of Presidential candidate when his own staff behaves so dishonestly, and then shrugs off its illegal behavior as if it were condoned?