Will The Next Dixie Chick Please Stand Up?

Do all governments lie or just the ones that you're against?

By T. Keefe 9/2009

September 11, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- It's summertime in Houston and the right wing noise machine is cranked up and blasting. These same hacks that lied us into Iraq are lying about healthcare. Where is Natalie Maines when we need her? I'm from Texas and I had never heard of the band, The Dixie Chicks. That is until the lead singer made an anti-war comment and hate radio set out to take them down.

The Dixie Chicks were huge at the time they ran head on into the right wing noise machine. Their music was record breaking and award winning. The band also had a sassy side. They sang gleefully about whacking an abusive husband and said "mattress dancing" twice when told they couldn't say it at all. They even sued Sony for stealing from them. Why the big surprise when they popped off again? Because the Chicks thought they lived in The Land of the Free and the Home of The Brave, instead of Bizarro America, the land of the cowed and violently misinformed. The Corporate Media Monopoly (CMM) controls and sets the agenda here. Anyone who defies this get set upon by their right wing goon squad. (see fair.org for the scoop on the CMM).

Here's how the Dixie Chicks went off topic. On March, 10, 2003, the lead singer Natalie Maines, whilst outside of our most God Blessed, #1 one country, spoke out against the impending invasion of Iraq. What she said was and I quote: "Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." unquote. Busted. The CMM had their noise machine take the last part of the quote and use it as a weapon against the band. Maines primary concern was being on the side of good, by being against war and violence. The shame was that Bush was starting a war and they did not want Bush representing them on this matter. Of course, this must never be explained or discussed. The Dixie Chicks needed to be silenced. Period. Clear Channel, the radio station monopoly, based here in Texas, orchestrated a boycott of the Dixie Chicks, effectively removing all of their music from the air nationwide. Clear Channel organized pro-war rallies where opposing views were vilified and piles of Dixie Chicks CDs were crushed by a tractor. The entire Corporate Media Monopoly was pro-war at that time. I single out Clear Channel because that's where the music is.

Now U2 and Muse are coming to Houston via Live Nation, an international concert monopoly brought to you by Clear Channel. U2 is an activist band. As a group and as individuals they have taken up political causes from the start. I just came across the British band Muse (muse.mu) by way of YouTube. I was impressed with Muse the band, but more impressed with the lead singer/song writer, Matthew Bellamy. The man has read Zbigniew Brzezinski's The Grand Chessboard and John Perkins' Confession of An Economic Hit Man. He even questioned the Bush Administration's 9-11 story about a bunch of cave dwelling, box cutter wielding, Ronald Reagan Freedom Fighters sneaking past the most powerful, fiscally bloated military in the world and neatly bringing down three tall buildings by flying two airplanes into two of them. The story ends with the cave dwellers dying and the ring leader getting lost somewhere in a cave, forever. And then we invade Iraq. Mission Accomplished.

One of Clear Channel's syndicated goons just took out Obama's Green Czar, Van Jones, by digging up a 9-11 no no quote from 6 years past. Clear Channel and their ilk want simple folk here. If our glorious leaders say it's so, it's so. Unless it's that foreign born Muslim President of ours trying to push his mutant Socialist/Fascist healthcare down our under-insured throats. Will U2 and Muse understand this Clear Channel policy of don't ask, don't tell. Or will they end up like the Dixie Chicks?

 I can see the ammo the noise machine could use if they decide to take aim at these bands. Matthew Bellamy called into the Alex Jones radio show in 2006 and voiced his opinion about
9-11. Bellamy heard Jones on Coast to Coast and agreed with Jones that the government's explanation of 9-11 seemed mighty suspicious. Coast to Coast is a Clear Channel program. It's where the intensely curious and the skeptical gather in the twilight hours to listen to the likes of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), filmmaker Aaron Russo and crackpot Alex Jones, talk about American Empire, international bankers and black helicopters. It's where topical, valid discussions are given a forum only to get lumped with bugged eyed aliens and Bigfoot. This makes them easier to dismiss in the light of day. I'm not saying there are not bug eyed aliens and Bigfoot. They are just as plausible as two naked people wandering around a garden talking to a snake. But that story sold. The aliens didn't. And I not saying that the show's host, George Noory, does not genuinely support the free exploration of our vast, unknowable, mysterious universe. What I am saying is Clear Channel can use this as a weapons cache. So this needs to be countered. If the noise machine tries to dismiss Bellamy as a "conspiracy theorist" because he's not an easy sell, he could just look them in their rabid, vacuous eyes and ask, well do you believe that governments lie? Do all governments lie or just the ones that you're against?

Bono, the lead singer of U2 has a giant ego. I know this because the CMM says so. Every article I came across mentioned it. It must be enormous! I haven't paid attention to U2 musically. Their music disappeared from my life when I let a friend borrow my bootlegged double cassette of The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby! I know they do great activist work. I know they helped replace the musical instruments lost in Hurricane Katrina. It seemed Bono had the chance to make a global citizen's arrest of George W. Bush when the Chimp was smirking right beside him. Instead Bono picked Dubya's pocket of 9 billion USD to use for fighting AIDs in Africa.

I am not sure how the noise machine will use a giant ego as a weapon. Michael Moore makes entertaining, activist films. The most they could throw at him was he's fat and hates America. The CMM does seem to be zeroing in on the carbon footprint of the U2 360 tour. Bono could congratulate them for caring about the environment and agree that carbon footprints should be examined. He could say our band's carbon footprint is used to entertain, aid and inform the masses. Let's examine the size and intention of George Bush's footprint still stomping around in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or Bono could let it slip that healthcare is a universal right. He could...

I hope both bands do end up like the Dixie Chicks. Speaking out allowed the Chicks to escape the confines of the America country music industry and expand their sound and audience. U2 has a worldwide audience and comes from my generation. Muse has a worldwide audience that represents the next generation. I would like to see the right wing noise machine try to drown out their combined massive fan base.  

The Dixie Chicks 2006 album, Taking the Long Way, was yet another record breaker and award winner. They're off now, raising their brood in the real land of the free and the home of the brave. I am sure they'll be back when they're damn good and ready. In the mean time, my husband and I are heading off to Houston's Reliant Stadium on October, 14, 2009, to see U2 and Muse. We need a respite from this Summer of Hate.