John Mellencamp: No Freedom Of Speech For Mean Bloggers

Big-time John Edwards Barack Obama supporter John Mellencamp shares his views on the First Amendment:

“I don’t think people fought and gave their lives so that some guy can sit in his bedroom and be mean. I don’t think that’s what freedom of speech is,” he continued. “Freedom of speech is really about assembly — for us to collectively have an idea. We want to get our point of view out so we can assemble and I can appoint you to be the spokesman. That’s freedom of speech — to be able to collectively speak for a sector of people. But somehow it’s turned into ‘I can be an asshole whenever I feel like, say whatever I like, be disrespectful to people and not be courteous.’ It’s not good for our society. Not being courteous is not really freedom of speech. …

Really? "Assholes" shouldn't be allowed to speak? Is that why Mellencamp stormed off the stage in a huff during this 2004 Kerry-Edwards fundraiser? Oh yeah, he didn't. Indeed, he himself was kind of a sphincter that night at Radio City Music Hall:

Whoopi Goldberg delivered an X-rated rant full of sexual innuendoes against President Bush last night at a Radio City gala that raised $7.5 million for the newly minted Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards. Waving a bottle of wine, she fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia, and boasted that she'd refused to let Team Kerry clear her material.

Other celebs also competed to bash Bush. Singer John Mellencamp sang a specially written song that called the president "just another cheap thug" and ridiculed him as the "Texas bambino." [ed --- the title of Mellencamp's "little diddy" is actually "Texas Bandito".]

But back to Mellencamp's novel idea that freedom of speech really means that only collectively-appointed spokesmen are allowed to do it. Who oh who could Mellencamp have in mind?

One man who has no problem being seen as someone who shoves ideas down people’s throats is John Mellencamp.

“People turned on me,” the singer says. “The police had to show up at my kids’ school and stand guard when they were outside, because the school had gotten threats. I don’t think they’d do that today, but back then it wasn’t long after 9/11, and people were bloodthirsty.”

Speaking of 9/11, isn't it funny how one man's "free assembly" is another's goose-stepping "mob mentality"?

[Mellencamp] blames the strong nationalism that clenched the country after Sept. 11.

"When people are for the country right or wrong, America right or wrong, it's a lot like Germany. Nationalism is a bad thing. And when you have a mob mentality over a country, over a swastika, over the Führer, over the Iraq war, the outcome is not going to be good."

He said he played a show in Boston two days after Sept. 11 that "frightened" him.

"I write a lot of songs that could be interpreted as big patriotic songs, but in reality they're questioning the direction the country is going," he said. "After every song in Boston, 20,000 people were going, 'USA, USA.' I thought, man. I almost asked them to stop, stop doing that. I don't like it. I don't like hearing that chant."

According to Mellencamp, the US was just like Nazi Germany ... two days after 9/11. And 20,000 bloodthirsty Bostonians rallied Nuremberg-style to "collectively select" him as their appointed-free-speaker. Or Führer. Whatever.

Oh, was that "mean," Mein Coügar?

Anyway, feel free to be mean in the comments and call Mellencamp an asshole, because he'll never read your mean words:

“I don’t have a cell phone. I mean, I can get on a computer and I can text people and e-mail people and I can look up stuff for information but I made the mistake once of reading blogs and I’m not doing that again,” he said. “I believe in freedom of speech but I also have the freedom to say, ‘You’re an idiot. You shouldn’t be writing things like that because you’re an idiot.’” He particularly condemns rude an unaccountable comments in blogs and YouTube videos.

By the way, guess where Mellencamp's screed against free-speaking bloggers was published --- CMT's blog.

I leave you with the now creepily prescient 2006 Government Motors ad that Mellencamp famously whored (again with the meanness, somebody stop this asshole blogger!) --- this is our country, this is OUR truck:

UPDATE: Welcome, Driscoll, Ace sidebar, HotAir, Conservative Grapevine, Big Hollywood and Deceiver. Say Anything links and notes:

In the meantime, I have several Mellencamp CD’s that I have absolutely no further use for. They’ll make nice targets. Now, that’s entertainment.

First Amendment, meet Second Amendment.

So very, very mean. How dare you.

UPDATE: Here are some contemporary newspaper accounts of Mellencamp's Krystallnacht in Boston on Sept. 13, 2001 (scroll down the message board to BurnedOut's post):

It's possible to dismiss some of Mellencamp's biggest hits -- including "Small Town," "R.O.C.K in the U.S.A." and "Pink Houses" -- as folksy fluff, but last night they all sounded like anthems, as comforting as a warm slice of apple pie.

"Ain't that America, for you and me" the whole crowd sang during Pink Houses, "Ain't that America. The home of the free..." It was spine-tingling, lump in the throat stuff. Mellencamp seemed to sense it too, lingering onstage after that song closed the main set to listen to the patriotic chants.

and

Watching from the wings of the stage as the crowd chanted "U.S.A." and broke into a rendition of "God Bless America," Mr. Mellencamp, a near 30-year touring veteran, said that for the first time in decades, he grew a bit jittery before he went on.

Then he started playing, following the same set list he has used throughout the tour, but one that seems oddly relevant now. He opened with the Rolling Stones tune "Gimme Shelter," and followed that with "Peaceful World," a new song he wrote about racism that was released just weeks ago. Mr. Mellencamp said that, after Tuesday's attacks, the song "took on a whole new meaning."

But it was the familiarity of his Americana classics that seemed to give the audience what they had come for, whether comfort, community or just to escape for a few hours from thoughts of bad news. Songs like "The Authority Song," "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.," and "Jack and Diane" brought a loud response from the audience, which sang along and waved American flags. Mr. Mellencamp said he decided to spare them political commentary, addressing the terrorist attacks only briefly in the middle of the show when he called for goodwill.

"I'm not going to sit there and patronize them," he said. The show ended with "Pink Houses," a pointed commentary on the psyche of blue-collar America. Even when that song topped the radio charts more than 10 years ago, "it never got the response it did" on Thursday, he said. "People were crying."

Buncha blubbering jingoistic Nazis --- right, John? You angry little homunculus.

UPDATE: Mellencamp may very well get his "mean blogger silence" dream codified into federal law. Hate to inform all of you asshole meanies in the comments, but we're all staring at 2 years in the stony lonesome:

Here is the language in the bill [HR 1966]:

a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

(b) As used in this section-

(1) the term ‘communication’ means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received;

(2) the term ‘electronic means’ means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.’.

Full text of this abomination here. (h/t: memeorandum)

Comments

[OregonMuse]

Holy crap, what a whiny asshole.

[phreddy]

i actually had to skip a bobdylan show on the 4th because i didn't wanna have to listen to this asshole(or give him any of my money)

[eddiebear]

That's it! I'm buying a Kia.

[digitalbrownshirt]

As a matter of fact, I did give 4 years of my life to protect the free speech of assholes I can't stand, even the assholes that say I don't deserve the free speech I helped pay for.

Yes, I'm mean.

[2Hotel9]

John"Cougar"Menstrualcramp? Why am I supposed to give a fuck what this anti-American asshole has to say?

[Tim]

As soon as I finish posting this comment I'm going to use my computer to send him a mean text message.

[Rob Crawford]

So, according to noted Constitutional scholar John Camp Cougar Melon, free speech is a collective rather than individual right?

[kidney]

Good thing we have the second amendment or we might lose the first.

[koopy]

Goddamn i hate that commercial. Football became unwatchable because you knew it was going to be playing on every single commercial break.

[Jamie Gumm]

I've worked with him...no bigger asshole in the business...none.

[Brian Kenner]

USA USA USA USA!

[Dorothy Jane]

Un un un un un believable.Complete and total Yikes!

[jarjar]

He's a dick but I do agree with him about the stupid "USA" chants after 9/11. Tasteless and hollow jingoism.

[billypaintbrush]

I was living in Iowa back in teh 80's when this mental midget performed at Farm Aid. He was ranting that all the problems with farmers were teh fault of the bankers. This at a time when banks were folding.

A moron and typical lib always finding a boogeyman to blame. jerk.

[Cuffy Meigs]

"USA!" chants in Boston on 9-13-01 was tasteless and hollow??

Dude, we still didn't know how many folks were buried under Ground Zero on 9-13. It was still burning.

[rickinstl]

Thanks for your opinion jar jar.
Hope you feel better now that you've gotten that off your chest. Next time we get attacked by sub human terrorists, I'll try to be more tasteful when expressing my feelings about my country. Would it be ok with you if I used ballet to show solidarity with the victims? Chess? How about I just quietly read Obama's book?
Mellencamp can lick me.

[PA]

I think I'll burn one of his CD's as a "mean" protest of his flagrant assholery.

[happy1ga]

He is atypical of those idiots that think because they have had the fortune to find some sort of fame that they suddenly have developed brain power to go along with it. I am particularly thrilled when dumbasses like Menstralcramp (I am so stealing that!) think their opinion on politics and the world are suddenly valid and mucho important. I wish they would all STFU.

[jummy]

progressives oppose free speech

[Sparky]

How cute that his little rant is just fine, but someone with a different opinion..not so much. He makes me want to puke. I'll bet he was a whining little brat who stomped his feet when he didn't get his way. He can kiss America's collective ass, what an idiot jackass. People yelling USA makes him so uncomfortable...Move out dirt bag.

[Ridge Runner]

So, who is John Mellenkamp? I can honestly say I've never heard of him before reading this. It sounds like I haven't missed much by missing the fact that he exists. Or is he just a fictional character?

[Sparky]

USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA ..I love saying and hearing that. Oh, I forgot, some think it's so hollow and tasteless. Bite Me

[Rob Crawford]

It's only hollow jingoism to someone who doesn't get it. To the rest of us, it's music, of its own sort.

[Trudy]

Who knew? Lord and Lady Doucebag had an offspring!

How's this for free speech John-up yours with a red hot poker. Doncha know mellencamp had to have been a nzi concentration camp gaurd in his previous life.

Thank goodness I don't listen to his crap music. Niether does nayone else but lefty fools

[Joe]

jerkoff has no career and totaly obsure. he is doing the same thing as his fellow no career pedophile liberal friend David Letterman. Cuz bad publicity is better than being completely ignored.

Up yours, you putz

[AZfederalist]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the comment, “Freedom of speech is really about assembly — for us to collectively have an idea. We want to get our point of view out so we can assemble and I can appoint you to be the spokesman. That’s freedom of speech — to be able to collectively speak for a sector of people."

So, freedom of speech is a right of the collective and not the individual? Some collective group must get together and select someone to be their spokesman, then that is freedom of speech? [Man, this liberalism stuff is hard ... to understand]

Hmmm, so how about if a collective bunch of us get together and decide that a "mean blogger" should be our spokesman? Would that be OK with the Cougar?

[Rich]

I've always considered Mellencamp to be a dumber, more white trash version of Springsteen. And I never thought Springsteen was all that to begin with.

[Nice Deb]

I'm with you, Rich.

I never liked Johnny Cougar, either. Can't stand his music, and I always thought he was full of shit.

[AZfederalist]

Nice Deb:
I remember when Cougar came out with his first hit, in a weird juxtaposition, it always seemed (in my mind) tied with Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra" that came out at the same time. Unfortunately, Cougar's song always got more play time which I found disappointing.

[Jerome]

Ditto, Deb. MellonHead is a little pansy with a typical liberal's anti-American worldview. He's a sissy.

[Jerome]

Oh...and he's a talentless hack. His music sucks.

[Shawn]

Free speech for these douchebags like MellenSteen is only for people that agree with them. Let's all think the same just so we can believe the earth is flat.
Eff 'em all!

[Track-A-'Crat]

Guess I'm in the shit, then: http://trackacrat.com/

[fireweed]

So he thinks free speech is only defined by the collective will? By that standard the Bostonians had every right to chant "USA, USA" and he had no right to voice his opinion on that episode.

Really, Mellencamp, where the fuck did you get the idea that I can't say what I want because I don't have some "collective" voice to shout it for me? Last time I looked the Constitution protected the individual. How about you go read it and show me where it references the right not to be offended by "mean" people? And what's "mean" anyway--someone who doesn't subscribe to your backward, self-hating, anti-American claptrap? (Where's the outrage for the shit spewed at Sarah Palin?)I love my country and am not afraid to say so, even in front of assholes like you who don't know the difference between patriotism and xenophobia. Buy a dictionary, ignoramus.

And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you sound like someone who learned a new word in a night lit class and are simply burning with the need to use it, no matter how stupid and pretentious it makes you sound.

What a pity money can't buy intelligence.

[Just passin' thru]

I used to like him until he tooks his wife's last name. Couldn't understand why he wanted to ruin a great name like John Cougar, and definitely didn't get the point. And isn't it a bit hypocritical to write songs about America and take American's money when you don't really like America? I still kinda like his music, but I won't be buying any of it.

[George Bentley]

From the constitution of the CPUSA

John Cougar’s Free Speech…

SECTION 2. Each Party body is subordinate to the next higher body, with central authority vested in the National Convention, the highest body of the Party, which not only has the authority to act on all aspects of Party policy and activity, but elects the national leadership to carry through its will and decisions between conventions.

SECTION 3. After a thorough discussion in any club, committee or convention, decisions are arrived at by majority vote. All members, including those who disagree, are duty bound to explain, fight for and carry out such decisions, as long as they do not conflict with national policies and decisions.

Decisions of leading committees on major questions shall be reported to all other Party bodies. Any member, club or committee, disagreeing with a decision, has the right to appeal the decision to the next higher body and request that the decision be reopened. While the appeal is pending, the decision must nevertheless be carried out by all members of the Party.

All appeals of decisions made to the next leading committee shall be heard by the respective body with 90 days or at the next regular meeting of the committee. Appeals may be made to successive leading committees up to and including the National Convention, provided that the appeals are made at least 30 days before the National Convention. Decisions of the National Convention are final. Once a final decision is made, no member, club, committee or leader has the right to violate the decision or to combine with others to conduct an organized struggle against the decision.

[jarjar]

" It's only hollow jingoism to someone who doesn't get it. To the rest of us, it's music, of its own sort.

Posted by: Rob Crawford | July 09, 2009 at 09:33 PM"

I dunno, I found it tacky to be chanting "USA" at rock concerts. It's really no different than the mindless "Yes We Can" or "Drill baby Drill" chants from the last election cycle.

Actually it's worse because it turned righteous national pride into jingoistic bloodthirst, as we saw following 9/11 when President Bush exploited our anger over the attacks to invade Iraq.

So while I do not condemn people for being rightfully proud, I just find it tacky to be chanting political and nationalist slogans at a rock concert. MJK from TooL had fun with a crowd that did this shortly after 9/11 though; after the chant he said "it was probably your guys that did it."

Pissed the crowd off but made me crack a big smile.

tl;dr: mindless nationalism is as stupid as Mellencamp's immature liberal douchebaggery.

[homie]

my niece played soccer with his niece, anyhoo his brother is conservative and a better singer......

[Son of Bob]

What was that line from his one song about how at one time some guys had to "put him in his place"? Does anybody know those guys, because it's time to put him in his place again.

[Rosetta]

Hello Cuffy, this is Rosetta.

This post is the best takedown of a whiney bitch that I've seen since O'Reilly read Barney Frank the riot act.

Some people were born to sing and others were born to write the Constitution. And never the twain shall meet.

Sorry if that was mean, Jouhn Cougar. May I suggest you rub your hurt feelings with the millions of dollars you've made off of the people that you hold in such disdain.

Freedom of speech for me but not for thee.

Pinko Houses indeed, Asshole.

+ 100,000 points Cuff.

[Kensington]

Melonhead's right; you guys are mean.

His statements about the first amendment reminded me of a comment I saw at a message board today. A Leftist douchebag lawyer was claiming to be more of a "constitutionalist" than those who think the Constitution should be taken at face value because he believed in the "spirit" with which it had been written.

In another post he revealed his belief that the Federal government has essentially unlimited powers according to the Constitution -- you just have to figure out the best interpretation.

People like Melonhead and this poster are fascists and authoritarians hiding behind poses of liberal egalitarianism.

[Blackstorme]

And the line in "This is My Country" stood out when I heard it: The dream is still alive/Some day it will come true.

Mr. Melloncamp, if you're talking about the American Dream, it comes true every day somewhere in this country. It came true for you.

If you're talking about the dream of turning this country toward Socialism, well even that seems to be closer to reality than ever before.

So you should be one happy fuckwit.

[The Drizzle]

I already hated this dickhead for his ball-less mid-tempo mock americana horseshit music. Now I can add being a whiney leftist homo to my reasons. Same with Bruce Springsteen.

[Doorgunner]

This little, pussy-faced, Springsteen-wannabe midget has made a comfortable living off of the ignorant for far too long. Whether it's his Little Pink Houses or Douchesteen's Born In The USA, they're both anti-American shit that's lapped up by the not-paying-close-enough-attention crowd that doesn't realize when it's being mocked.
And his for his "thinking about what people fought and died for", well, fuck him. His little faggot ass never served a day so by his standards he should just STFU on that one.
And fuck you too, George Bentley.

[Greg]

Big John would only blog nice things about Sarah Palin because he practices what he preaches right?

[rickinstl]

d-gunner,
I think it's funny as hell when these jagoffs toss one of these anti-America "think-songs" out and the people respond by embracing it as an American anthem. Let's them know just how seriously we take their "art".
As to george bentley, I think you misunderstood his reasons for quoting the communist party usa and comparing it to cougar's views on free speech.

[Cuffy Meigs]

gah! This happens all the time in my comment section.

Doorgunner, I believe you meant to tell "jarjar" to fuck off, not George Bentley.

The format here is the commenter's name appears BELOW their comment, not above.

Sorry for the confusion. Blame TypePad.

[Andrew Jackson's Cranky Ghost]

As for HR 1966:

"(Mr. Justice Marshall) has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it."

[Ray]

I think at at his next concert, the audience should appoint just one person as their spokesman to applaud.

[AlexD]

"Actually it's worse because it turned righteous national pride into jingoistic bloodthirst"
Posted by: jarjar | July 09, 2009 at 11:39 PM

Without any hope that such an asshole as yourself can understand that, nevertheless: some people who actually have a heart were deeply saddened and shocked seeing 3000 innocents slaughtered by brutal savages. With that pain came (as it always does) an outrage and anger towards perpetrators and the desire to punish these people. The desire for justice.

Many people actually sacrificed their lives and limbs to protect the country from future attacks and bring justice to those who so richly deserved it, whether in Afghanistan (oddly enough you forgot to mention this war) or Iraq. Your spitting on their memory by defaming a motive for their noble service as a "jingoistic bloodthirst" is just showing what a lowlife you are.

[Doorgunner]

Greg,

Actually I meant to say fuck you to jar jar; I got confused about which name with which post. So...

FUCK YOU, JAR JAR.

[Doorgunner]

See, did it again. I meant rickinstl.

[AlexD]

About Mellencamp, this is just as trivial as it gets. The same things has been said by Stalin, Hitler and all other intolerant dictators. Bottom line is that as a real political principle "freedom of speech" is the first victim of such a scum, but as their propaganda talking point they will frantically claim they love freedom of speech and will use such ridiculous spin as above to explain why suppressing an opposition is a victory for free speech. There is a reason a USSR national anthem included words "I don't know any other country where a man can breathe so freely".

[jdc]

I loved him and grew up on his music but his political rants now label him un-educated loser with no opinion worth listening too. Havent and wont buy another album by him ever.

[P. Henry]

Folks,

If you haven't already got your guns and ammo, it's past time to do so. The more I read the net and see the unemployment figures, the more I think it won't be long before it's game on for keeps.

Make every shot count.

[Sparky]

Thank you God, for the men and women who serve our country, keeping us safe. Thank you God, for being born in the United States of America, home of the brave, land of the free. Free to express our individual opinions.

Fuck You Mellonface

[LarryG]

If you want a plateful of what the genius is referring to, go to Huffingtonpost.com. Pure hatred and venom. Don't have time to list all of the words available to describe the cretins who post there.

[pajama momma]

I think at at his next concert, the audience should appoint just one person as their spokesman to applaud attend.

edited for my preference

[redneckrick]

John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, John Mellencamp-whatever you call yourself today you are a commie bastard. I want to puke when anybody says the Bill of Rights is collective.

[Mary]

Who cares what this celebutard has to say!

[Joe]

Assholes careeer is in the toilet and can't make a dime. So why not spout off idocy and hope to get attention for this has been. Feel free to move to Cuba Mellonhead, no one wants you here in America

[StewartIII]

Leftist Rocker John Mellencamp: First Amendment More of a 'Collective' Thing
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/pam-meister/2009/07/10/leftist-rocker-john-mellencamp-first-amendment-more-collective-thing

[jarjar]

Cry me a river Alex. The mindless "USA" chants got 4,000 of our troops killed for no reason.

[Techie]

John Cougar: Springsteen sans talent.

Yes John, do go on about the unattainable American dream, what are you worth these days?

Or can your downtrodden farm workers and diner waitresses afford your concert tickets?

And were you really condoning violence in "Rain on the Scarecrow"?

[John Hampton]

Mellenkampf is an asshole! Give a dumbass jerk a guitar and let him whip out a couple of hits and he becomes a constitutional scholar. What a punk! He's as stupid as that scrotum-faced bitch, Whoopi Goldberg. She's just uglier. How's that for being unconstitutionally mean? No,I wasn't appointed by my collective community to express these words. I appointed myself! And that's the way it is! Cuz I said so!!
Good god, what a whiny-ass punk! Someone ought to bitch slap him.

[Jack Bauer]

This key phrase in Mellonhead's exceptionally childish tantrum is...

“I don’t think..."

Yeah ya little collectivst Nazi slash Stalinist.. you got that right.

[Jack Bauer]

ADDENDUDM TO PREVIOUS COMMENT about Jackass and Diane

Sure, free speech is a gang of people gathering together collectively to agree with whatever Mellonhead says.

On the one hand who gives a flying eff what a spectacularly whiney doofus like this mental midget says.

On the other, there's a cold wind of thought-control growing here. And it's being led by the usual suspects in every totalitarian movement that ever flexed its people crushing evil intent.

THE ELITES.

This is what the US constitution was crafted to stymie. An elite gang of counter-revolutionaries, forcing its collective will on the people.

But, as Mark Levin points out regularly, all the firewalls in the constitution have now been breached by leftists. It's been a long process but we are now here at the place the marxians have wet-dreamed over since the Woodrow Wilson administration.

That's why useful idiots like Mellonhead have to be CONFRONTED, or at least commented upon.

[AlexD]

Cry me a river Alex. The mindless "USA" chants got 4,000 of our troops killed for no reason.

--------------------

So why would you care? Especially if many of those, if not majority, were "mindless nationalists" and "bloodthirsty jingoists". "No reason" is your pathetic, disgusting and of course false talking point.

P.S. FYI asshole I grew up in Russia so I know what mindless nationalism looks like and it's nothing like the post-911 surge of american patriotism and cry for justice.

[vinron]

Don't these "artists" have agents to tell them to shut their frigging mouths? There have been several singers/groups that I loved -- until they opened their traps to show us how in touch they were with current events. Natalie Maines, I'm talking to you. Shut up and sing.

And John C.M., read a little further into that 1st Amendment, those men, much wiser than you, covered that 'assembly' business too.

[Average Jen]

So Mellencamp thinks that "freedom of speech" is actually "freedom to assemble"?

Then what does he think the "freedom to assemble" is? Because BOTH freedoms are expressly protected in the First Amendment.

[jarjar]

AlexD,

You are comparing USA to Russia? Next you will be saying that we don't torture as harshly as the Nazis did.

I knew USA's chest-thumping cheerleaders' standards of decency have fallen, but I guess I didn't realise how far.

Have fun with your mindless chants, cowboy.

[John Hampton]

Aw, shut the hell up, jar jar. You're as big an idiot as Mellonkampf. I'm changing your name to pootang. Okay...Pootang? You really ought to be jap-slapped. No, on second thought I'd prefer to slap you and Mellonpus around like Moe usewd to slap Larry and Curly around. No, on third thought someone should just kick you in your dumb ass, you odious little bitch.

[richard mcenroe]

You'll notice he 'almost' asked the crowd to stop. Sure it distressed his little lefty heart but not enough to jeopardize his ticket sales...

[Shane from PV]

Thanks Ray - I was about to take a moment to address all these ingrates who are agreeing with Mellencamp that it was somehow Nazi-esque that Americans, days after watching people throw themselves out of burning skyscrapers, would chant U-S-A. The nation was in shock, and decades of postmodernist re-education marginalizing a love of country sat in ashes in a hole in the ground in New York.

Context, shitheads.

As for Mellencamp...why does anyone care what he thinks?

[Shane from PV]

Oops, I meant AlexD!

[Shane from PV]

Jar Jar - if you can't tell the difference between the torture by the Nazis and waterboarding by the US - then no one should listen to what you have to say, either. I bet you also believe there's no difference between Hitler's Germany and Israel today...

There's something worse than forgetting history - that's distorting it into a caricature of itself so one can prostitute its horrors to score political points.

[Bobby_B]

"Actually it's worse because it turned righteous national pride into jingoistic bloodthirst, as we saw following 9/11 when President Bush exploited our anger over the attacks to invade Iraq"
- - - -

Pres. Bush didn't exploit my anger, at least. I arrived at the same conclusion as did he after careful consideration of what had happened on 9/11, what had preceded it, and where events were likely to go following several different paths. I imagine it makes it easier to dismiss if you can call it a mindless choice borne of bloodlust and mob-fury, but it was not, and if you are honest enough with yourself to go back and re-read the news leading up to the invasion, you'll see that over-consideration was almost one of its downfalls.

And, chants by crowds may appear mindless - at least, they're easily described that way - but remember that one of our great areas of separation in this country appears to be between those who hold the "one-world, one-people" view, and those who believe that the current uneven distribution of natural resources across the world, and the resulting disparity of development, guarantees that we'll be targets of anger and envy and violence for some time to come, and that it would be foolish for a discrete group of people such as "citizens of the USA" to high-mindedly consider team membership to be a prolish concept at best, with an english-soccer-hooligan aura about it. No matter your hatred of "those cretinous nazi facists of the other side", many peoples from many other places would happily kill both groups of cretins at the slightest opportunity.

Remember one of our earliest crowd chants: "We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately." Never really caught on at football games, and has no beat whatsoever, but it remains true.

[Beige]

Ray has it right.

Thank God we've got a brilliant, hip, deep-thinking scholar of civil liberties like Mellencamp, to tell us what to say, and when, and how we're allowed to say it.

Suck it, Melonball.

[Terry Waggoner]

I've always been a John Mellencamp fan despite being a pro-gun/pro-life/pro-family/recently-retired from the military card-carrying Republican. I've always known his politics were far left of mine (for instance, the song "Country Gentleman" is an anti-Reagan screed) but I've made allowances for his opinions because for the most part he's been sensible and not acted as if being a famous artist gave him all the answers. At least he writes songs that have a meaning.

So, about this tempest -- I don't think he was saying people can't write whatever the hell they want, I think he was saying that freedom of speech is about something more noble than a Perez Hilton blog rant.

I agree. To me, freedom of speech brings to mind that 1943 Norman Rockwell painting where the working man is standing up at the townhall meeting and the older white collar men are listening to him speak. The respect is obvious. The idea that all of us are able to participate in the complicated decisions necessary for the running of our country, that we are all entitled to our opinions, and the belief that we will speak our reasoned ideas and allow others to enter the discussion. I think that's what he meant.

[steve]

John knows the American dream is gone for most americans and that is what he sings and writes about. I think some of you are whinny butts who can not even begin to see what is going on in America. You must have had everything handed to you as kids,and never had a dream of your own. I have friends fighting over seas right now and say that they are doing no good over there, just blowing around dust.

[wiserbud]

You must have had everything handed to you as kids,and never had a dream of your own.

Yeah, not so much. But nice try, you whiny loser.

I have friends fighting over seas right now and say that they are doing no good over there, just blowing around dust.

I have family over there and they are very proud of the job they are doing and have done so far.

That's twice you fail in the same comment.

Impressive.