"There are very few outstanding vocal performances, other than Robert Cray and Bob Marley."

Wow! Spoken like a true neophyte! And that quote followed a listing that included Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding as singers who don't hold up to repeated listenings! I don't think even Bob Marley thought his voice was great (let alone one of the greatest). And citing "Robert Cray" as one of pop or rock music’s greatest singers speaks for itself.

The only reason I wanted to post here, aside from being repulsed by the ever-narcissistic self-persecution that afflicts so many Jazz aficionados (“If only people knew what I knew!”), Jazz has at least always been seen as a classical form of music in Europe and Asia. Just because America holds its importance down is no reason to equate that with international or historic indifference. Most of the world isn’t as blind as America is when it comes to it’s art and music. But at least Jazz is CONSIDERED a widely under-appreciated form of music in this country. The body of great and influential music that was created by Gospel artists in the 20th Century doesn’t even rate an ASTERISK in most “serious” studies of music! The other-worldly artistic excellence of artists such as Claude Jeter & the Swan Silvertones, Julius Cheeks & the Sensational Nightingales, R.H. Harris & the Soul Stirrers, Dorothy Love Coates & the Gospel Harmonettes, etc., gets such a short shrift that when it’s mentioned at all it is usually disparaged as “religious music”. Which is akin to saying,”Billie Holiday was great … but it was secular music”.

Until Gospel music begins to get recognized as the incalculably important art form, that revolutionized singing, that it was, Jazz fans should be happy their music is at least ACCEPTED as a maligned form of music. Gospel doesn’t even rate being under-appreciated – among most “scholars”. It’s achievement as an art form doesn’t even exist in most books!

It is baffling why the Democrats don't make more of the fact that nothing has ever been done to respond to the 9/11 attacks. Taking all the conspiracy theories out of the equation, the official story was that Saudi terrorists funded by Saudi dollars were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. So what has been our response? As George W Bush has shown repeatedly since the attacks, we go over to Saudi Arabia, kiss their leader, and walk hand in hand with him. Its grotesque that the USA has behaved as Saudi Arabia's bitch because of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And predictably, the media’s Tough Guy Warriors have no problem with the craven cowardice this administration, and the United States, has shown towards Saudi Arabia since 9/11.

If the USA had refused to respond to Pearl Harbor because Roosevelt had deep financial ties to Japan, would the American people, and in particular the opposition party, have just sat back and said nothing? And to not even POINT OUT that we should enforce the law (because, ya know, innocent people were murdered), and bring those responsible to justice?

The common expression heard immediately after the attacks was that we couldn’t have “pre-9/11 thinking”. Well, what was more pre-9/11 than the plan to attack Iraq? Those plans had been so set in stone by the neocons during the 90’s that they were one of the top issues for discussion, when the Republicans regained the White House, at Bush’s first cabinet meeting in January 2001, according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

When the Democrats finally settle on a candidate, I would like this question to be asked, “Since nothing has ever been done to respond to the 9/11 attacks, what plans do you have to bring those responsible to justice?”

The only way McCain can win - and it's a HUGE if - is if Hillary gets the nomination and continues to polarize the left. But even at that, the anti-Hillary forces are nowhere near as fired up as the anti-Republican forces. Only the media pretends those forces are equal. It's not just Bush that's deeply despised, it's everything ‘Republican’ that the American majority wants removed.

McCain is basically a dead-man walking. He's in the same position Walter Mondale was in back in 1980. Everything he represents - from his out-of-touch ideology to the man he wants to succeed - are viewed overwhelming as negatives by the American people. But America wasn’t spinning wildly down-the-toilet, with a pointless and self-immolating war that weakened American security while bankrupting the nation and eviscerating the US dollar, under Jimmy Carter. Things haven’t been this bad in the United States in over 70 years. And talk of the boogey-man “terrorists” by the pathetic laughingstock in the White House appeals only to the most unhinged, “Islamacists-Will-Kill-Us-All” morons.

If the mainstream news media wasn’t in the business of spouting the GOP’s war-is-necessary, be-very-afraid, talking points, they’d realize that 9/11 is only seen as extremely relevant in 2008 by those with a vested, financial interest in using it to achieve their political goals. The American people have long since realized that if the Bush administration had no interest in getting Bin Laden, and that the most detrimental things that have happened to this country and it’s people in the past 7 years (from Iraq to Katrina to torture to removing Habeas Corpus, civil liberties, and constitutional “guarantees”) weren't coming from an outside force, that the biggest threat to this country and it’s people is obviously NOT in the Middle East – it’s on the TV regularly and is smirking at us.