Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Just listened to The Rolling Stone's "Sweet Neo Con" again.

I love how the Dixie Chicks apologize for Texas' letting Bush loose on the world, and there is a sustained media campaign against them. Here, the Rolling Stones have a whole bloody song deconstructing Cheney and Bush's war on Iraq, and the media ignored that little fact. The purpose is the same: eliminate critique of power and suppress protest against the war on Iraq, but the Stones are just too big to take on. They don't get much radio time anymore anyway, they just sell a million records and sell out every show anyway.

Turns out the Dixie Chicks were also too tough for Clear Channel and the right-wing media echo chamber, always aided willingly by the establishment media, but I find the difference in approach revealing. It's not an emotional or ideological response, "how dare they criticize the President." It is a pragmatic (for the powerful) response: the best approach to minimize dissenting opinion.

The Stones hit the Bush regime on almost every level– incomptence, oppression, corruption, empire-building. This isn't subtle, folks:

You call yourself a Christian
I think that you're a hypocrite
You say you are a patriot
I think that you're a crock of shit

And listen, I love gasoline
I drink it every day
But it's getting very pricey
And who is going to pay

How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con.... Yeah

It's liberty for all
'Cause democracy's our style
Unless you are against us
Then it's prison without trial

But one thing that is certain
Life is good at Haliburton
If you're really so astute
You should invest at Brown & Root....

...

We must have loads more bases
To protect us from our foes
Who needs these foolish friendships
We're going it alone

How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con
Where's the money gone
In the Pentagon