The flood is here.  It is an apocalypse of chaotic lifestyles, financial mazes, and governmental insanity or incompetence; if not sinister and nefarious behavior. At a time when the masses seem bent on voting for freebies, socialization of concerns, and ephemeral promises of entitlements to prosperity -- and politicians seem to defy common sense and the will of their constituents -- one must make a bold ark of  redemption to survive.

THIS is an Ark.

This is the official conceptual inauguration of a new political party! THE CLEAN PARTY! There is no budget yet, no war chest, no history; but there is a CLARITY of purpose, that is FUNDAMENTALLY universal in mass appeal.

Reid, Pelosi, Dean, Dodd, Frank - WOW! The Dems suck, big time! Obama is an interesting and dynamic enough fellow, but he's FAR left on almost any major issue. His scant resume (Illinois) is hardly a happy land of low taxes, urban shininess and racial harmony. Please. And never mind all that "black theology" garbage.

But McCain seems to have become weak-kneed, even if he was ever desirable. He's against the bailout, so he votes for it. He's FOR the citizens, but ignores their voice on illegal immigration, anwar drilling, and bailouts. Its embarrassing.

But almost anything is going to be better than the last 8 suffering years under Bush. But who were we SUPPOSED to like? Kerry!? Gore?! Useless. So what are you supposed to do when you see your country going down the toilet spiritually, financially, and legislatively?

I hereby pledge allegiance to the CLEAN party...

Our unfit, unhealthy nation has had a heart attack -- that is how the gurus have described it as they argued for bailouts of financial resuscitation. OK, so the nation's doctors are warning us of our heart condition, our high cholesterol, etc. We must quit the "smoking" and binge drinking...and get clean.

THE CLEAN PARTY PLATFORM:
Clean government:
Clean media
Transparency
Clean out of corruption
Cleaning the tax code
Orientation toward clean energy
Orientation toward clean lifestyles
Clean streets
Clean living
Clean policy (clean out spending and especially clean out waste)
Clean police and justice
Clean commerce interactions
Clean banking
Clean international behavior
Clean air, Clean water.

The clean party will seek clean solutions to hopeless morass we always confront.

The first chore, create two divisions of separation:

1.  "Clean policy" (that which the public and citizenry will have no debate over)
corruption, graft, perversion, theft and crime, constitutional reverence, the maintaining of the branches of power, the tax code reform. While there are perverse minority viewpoints that will contest ANYTHING, the vast majority will find CON CENSUS on MANY issues! IF the party deadlock is transcended!

2.  "Difficult policy" (that which is unresolvable and thorny)
Terminally unresolvable issues will be given special treatments (Welfare, education, guns, gay marriage, illegal immigration, gambling, abortion)

The clean solution to difficult policy will not be RESOLVED in some campaign promise; states will have to react to the will of the people.  There will be pockets of sin, and pockets of salvation.  Difficult morality will have to migrate toward a backyard affair.  It is the cleanest solution we could ever hope to achieve. As for Social Security, entitlements, etc., these will require special handling and will be promptly addressed in such a way, with emphasis on  PUBLIC FORUMS, and public votes directly on the issues. 

The next significant challenge is simple and essential: define the role of government.  It may be beautiful, it may be grotesque, but it should at the least be cleanly defined.  We should not have to debate about what role our government presently has.  For better or for worse, we MUST START with the definition of U.S. government; where it stands and what it is SUPPOSED to be.

This Ark may not save my life, but it is my publicly advertised space of safety.  I am on record and in the public view as occupying this avocation, and no matter what happens I will be able to enjoy commitment to the definitions of this young fresh environment.  It is clean here, and I live politically in this space.

No matter what stupidity surrounds me, I will be free to say "don't blame me". I will be free from accusation, and free from associations of failure, and free from guilt. In devotion to this new party, I shall be a free man.  I shall be free in my conscious and in my relationship to my fellow citizens. While REAL freedoms are sinking beneath the crashing waves of the flood (freedom in your home, freedom to leave your home, freedom to get a job, freedom to create a job, freedom to vote in a clean and honest election) -- I will be free to pursue ideals of escape.

I will suffer these literal truths beside you, but my spiritual, poetic, and philosophic world will be free and clean. I will live proud and brave, knowing I have refrained from the easy and expected (demanded?) path of perpetually electing parties which have long since sold their soul to the devil, sold policy to the highest bidder, sold the public interests to the special dollar interests, sold the People's welfare to their party's welfare, and sold commonsense to the pursuit of personal gain.

If I make a product, put a price on it, and put it into the marketplace: may I discriminate with regard to who I will allow to buy it?

If I write a book, publish it, settle on a price of $24.99, and put it on the shelves of the public bookstore -- can I say for example, "no, that black man doesn't get to buy it!" ? If I make a hamburger, and open a public hamburger stand; may I say, "sorry, I don't sell to Chinese"?

When I write a song, establish it as a product, package it, put a price on it, and put it into the marketplace; at that point, do I get to decide who can pay for use of it and who can't? This gets shaky to me.

Well that is definitely what the folks (who've lost) Heart just tried to do.  Heart sent a cease-and-desist notice to the McCain-Palin campaign after their hit "Barracuda" was used at the Republican National Convention. "I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented," Nancy Wilson said. "I feel completely f--ked over." Its a bit narcissistic; no one is endeavoring to "represent" the personalities and character of Nancy Wilson.  An entirely different woman has a nickname, and there happens to be a song that ties into it.

 The Wilsons issued a statement; "Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image." (It seems guitarist Roger Fisher was not so troubled).

Ironically, if they convince the Republican strategists to cease usage, they would be doing them a favor; while the song decidedly rocks, the tone is decidedly dark; and lyrically it is a terrible song for any desireable positive associations.

Heart is the very first band I fell in love with.  I could describe crystal-clear recollections of private moments in the middle of the night; in my parent's living room with my newly purchased Heart album delivering thrilling content from my father's turntable to the crappy headphones on my head.  But I'm no kid now; time demanded I grow up.  And likewise for the Wilson sisters.  These ladies certainly enjoyed the marketplace potentials for generating great personal wealth, but now they want to get to make the rules on how the marketplace works.  I am not an intellectual propertyrights lawyer; maybe what they'd liked to do is completely within their legal power. I bet its a question of how good your lawyer is. But it is wrong. It's not morally excellent, as I'm convinced they believe it is.  They made a lot of money off their product, by "playing ball" in the marketplace.  Now they would like to be repositioned as aloof poets who've never soiled themselves with sale of their product. They don't perceive their product as product; It is their soul. Well, then you inescapably sold your soul for years and years, didn't you?  Because even though I was a little kid, with no income; I had to fork over real cash to enjoy your music, your soul.  It was born of your soul, but it became a product once you put it in the marketplace.

Certainly musical rights have many dimensions.  To have one's song recur over and over in another product's commercial campaign certainly deserves unique measures of clearance and haggling in negotiation.  To deny your musical product to the makers of a toothpaste for such a campaign, seems quite reasonable.  But as regarding public performance licensing, there is a price tag, and should the price be paid, what sort of ethical swamp do we want to invite in declaring, "oh, I don't want to sell it to you, because you are _____"

The heart sisters want to define who is allowed to buy their product.  If the RNC organizers paid for the broadcast/reproduction/public performance rights of the song -- what ethical pretzel twists allows prohibition of the usage of these purchased rights.  Is this limited to politics?  Can we restrict those of a faith, creed, color, or age group as well? How about gender?

Can Shell, Exxon, and their brethren declare that the members of Heart may not buy their gasoline, as the Wilson sisters do not represent wives of oil executives "at all".  The Wilson sisters might want to buy a good mountain bike.

Now, perhaps the organizing elements of the RNC didn't secure appropriate performance/public broadcast rights beforehand?!  That would be a quite a different story!  But I seriously doubt this is the case.  How many lawyers were at that convention? Let's just assume, "gobs".  I strongly suspect the general knowledge of such legal issues didn't escape every law savvy member of the event.

To me, this isn't about politics, its a weird direction heading toward twists of fair business practices and basic tenets of equal access, and indeed equality.

So, Heart, I grew up on your tunes; but it's been a longtime since you generated significant cultural relevance, and now you appear to have lost the spirit of fair play and fair business.  In short, I declare that the the Wilson sisters have just lost the legal use of the term "heart".  Please cease and desist in pretending to own it.  Furthermore, I define right here and now, that any parties associated with the band (except Roger Fisher) have not the right to read this article.  Even if you bought it.

PS.  I owned that "unauthorized" first release version of "Magazine" (to which you Wilsons also applied a cease and desist).  I listened to it endlessly -- though you didn't want me to;  and it was better than your authorized version!!! Oh, hell...I still love you. And Roger Fisher, can I buy YOU a beer?

DEMOCRATS IN A CIVIL WAR?

(Democrats are from Mercury, Repubicans are from Arlington)