Where there's a Will, there's a way

I've picked some controversial movies for Liberty Brew & view and Meeting Resistance might top the list. It's a news documentary showing interviews with eight Iraqi insurgents. The movie synopsis states,

Voices that have previously not been heard, male and female, speak candidly about their motivations, hopes and goals, revealing a kaleidoscope of human perspectives. Featuring reflective, yet fervent conversations with active insurgents, MEETING RESISTANCE is the missing puzzle piece in understanding the Iraq war.

My only criticism is that they can't capture what happened after they stopped filming. Things are changing rapidly in Iraq. If we had a useful news media in America they would give us updates instead of passing along Bush administration claims about the Iraqi insurgency, as though this administration has any credibility left.

Most of the movie is in subtitles since those being interviewed don't speak English, but it kept me captivated form start to finish. The camera work and production are excellent. Its a powerful, dramatic movie that will challenge your views about the Iraq war, whether you support it or not.

Meeting Resistance
Free Showing followed by a speaker
Tuesday, September 16
Movie starts at 6:00pm
Doors open at 5:30
City Nights Theater at Capital City Bar & Grill
3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy, Springfield

Shut Up and Sing at 8:00pm will be the second part of the double feature commemorating the International Day of Peace.

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John McCain picked the Governor of Alaska as his running mate today but that contradicts his earlier opposition to the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million.

McCain, who was then known as a maverick, criticized his fellow Republican William Seward for making the purchase, calling Alaska a "polar bear garden" and "Seward's Folly."

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Remember when Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines told an audience in England that she was ashamed George W. Bush is from Texas? The Dixie Chicks sure do! That's the subject of "Shut Up & Sing" by "Harlan County, USA" director Barbara Kopple. Its the second movie in the Liberty Brew & View double feature commemorating the International Day of Peace.

Shut Up & Sing
Free Showing
8:00pm, Tuesday, September 16
City Nights Theater at Capital City Bar & Grill
3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy, Springfield

The movie website describes it...

The movie from two time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple and Cecelia Peck that chronicles the lives of the Dixie Chicks from 2003 to the start of their 2006 tour.

All the highs, lows and mayhem that occurred just before and for the three years following “the incident” are all here.

The personal attacks, personal growth, a changing world, making music, having babies, receiving death threats, and even a fair amount of laughter.

This is a fun movie that will be interesting to anyone who cares about free speech, private-sector censorship, dissent during war, or likes the Dixie Chicks.

First in the double feature will be Meeting Resistance at 6:00pm. There will be a soon-to-be-announced speaker between the two movies.

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A coalition of peace and justice groups in Springfield are hosting a series of events around the International Day of Peace in September. The Liberty Brew & View double feature on September 16 will be part of the series.

You can download the flier here or check for more information at the Pax Christi Springfield website.

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I can't get over the arrogance of the corporate news networks claiming that most of the Democratic convention is unimportant because its nothing but a stage show while simultaneously believing that their own constant inane spinning is more important as they talk over the convention speakers. Was listening to their talking heads make another desperate attempt to create drama more important than John Kerry's amazing speech last night?

Four years ago the networks didn't carry Barack Obama's convention keynote speech. Was whatever drivel they were airing more important than the inspiring speech that lead to this day? Once every four years the Democratic Party has the chance to communicate its own values and message directly to the American public but the news networks can't bring themselves to stop their dog and pony show long enough to let viewers hear what's being said.

Count me among those who are watching on C-SPAN, PBS and online. Cable news is a wasteland.

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Springfield joined the Cool Cities program today when Mayor Davlin signed the US Council of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Cool Cities calls for cities to measure their global warming emissions and develop a plan to reduce carbon dioxide pollution to Kyoto Protocol levels (7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012).

At the announcement, Mayor Davlin said the clean energy agreement between CWLP and the Sierra Club is something the city can be proud of, and becoming a Cool City will increase Springfield's reputation as an environmental leader. This is a way for the city to evaluate what needs to be done and work with the community to plan the next steps.

The press release from the city quotes the Mayor as saying:

“We have already taken the first steps toward achieving some of these goals. Now, we must rally the entire community to creatively find additional ways to reduce emissions and make our planet a better place to live for our children and their children.”

IEPA Director Doug Scott spoke after the Mayor, followed by myself speaking for the Sierra Club. Scott spoke about the city providing wind power for state buildings as called for in the Sierra Club agreement and how Springfield is being recognized for its actions.

A coalition of groups have been spreading the word and passing petitions in support of Cool Cities, so a lot of people are very happy about today's announcement. For individuals, this means the city will make it easier for people to reduce their personal global warming emissions.

The next CWLP Smart Energy Forum will focus on the Cool Cities program and give people an opportunity to offer suggestions and hear new ideas about what Springfield can do next. It happens Thursday, September 18, 6 p.m., Illinois National Bank, Fourth and Jackson Streets.

This is big news for Springfield as we act locally on a global problem!

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I'm not sure why there's so much media discussion of the 1968 Democratic convention. I don't see many parallels. That comparison might have made sense if Democrats had nominated someone who supported the war in Iraq.

Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing, had some advice for those who protested the '68 convention. In Rules for Radicals he wrote:

In the midst of the gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention many students asked me, "Do you still believe we should try to work inside our system?"

These were students who had been with Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire and followed him across the country. Some had been with Robert Kennedy when he was killed in Los Angeles. Many of the tears that were shed in Chicago were not from gas. "Mr. Alinsky, we fought in primary after primary and the people voted no on Vietnam. Look at the convention. They're not paying any attention to the vote. Look at your police and the army. You still want us to work in the system?"

It hurt me to see the American army with drawn bayonets advancing on American boys and girls. But the answer I gave the young radicals seemed to me the only realistic one: "Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing--but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates."

In 2008 Jerry Kellman, an Alinsky style activist and early mentor to Obama, spoke inside the convention about the anti-Iraq War Democratic nominee who he trained as a community organizer. Mission accomplished.

I'm sure Obama isn't exactly the same now as he was when he worked as a community organizer. But anyone who has done similar work will recognize the familiar themes of building consensus and uniting a community for change. Some people hear those words and are reminded of Clintonian third way rhetoric. I hear echoes of the training I received in the community organizing tradition. I hear Alinsky's advice to accept people where they are and encourage them to take the next realistic step forward.

I recently got an email from the campaign encouraging people to join Camp Obama to get the same kind of training Obama received as a community organizer. I've seen how this campaign conducted itself in the early primary states. This is the first major Presidential campaign run on community organizing principles and its working very well.

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Someone on DailyKos asked why Obama didn't hold the Biden announcement event in Chicago. How can you compete with the Old State Capitol where Lincoln delivered his "house divided" speech? Instead of emphasizing that Obama is a big city pol, form a city with notoriously corrupt politics, it highlights that he spent most of his political career exactly where Abraham Lincoln spent most of his.

I always thought Everyday People was kind of a corny song but I liked hearing Joan Jett cover it at the State Fair. I can't get it out of my head when I think about the speeches Saturday.

1858 - Lincoln delivers his "House Divided" speech at the Old State Capitol in Springfield.

1908 - Hysteria about black men supposedly defiling the virtue of white women motivates the Springfield race riots that spurred the formation of the NAACP.

2008 - Barack Obama announces a Catholic as his Vice Presidential running mate at the Old State Capitol in Springfield and the press forgets to dwell on the conspicuous lack of a white protestant on either end of a major Presidential ticket.

Is this really happening?

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Some pictures of things going on before the big speeches by Biden and Obama.

Uniformed security were on the tops of buildings to make people feel safe...or paranoid, depending on the person. You can click on these to enlarge.

Illinois' Senior Senator Dick Durbin did interviews on the press platform and received enthusiastic applause even without introduction.

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is interviewed by a local reporter.

Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin spoke first before everyone recited the pledge of allegiance and a local Lutheran pastor gave a prayer.

By the time Mayor Davlin spoke people would have been happy if Mickey Mouse had come out and been named the Vice Presidential candidate if it meant getting on with things. Waiting for several hours in the sun was making people surly.

Campaign Field Staff reminded everyone to volunteer.

The candidates worked the crowd for a while after the speech but I decided not to push my way up for a handshake or picture. Overall, it was another fun event with Barack Obama and a few thousands of his local friends in Springfield.

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It looked like the campaign had plenty of volunteers so I decided to go as a spectator to this one. I got a pretty good spot thanks to my friend Karen!

Obama spoke first to introduce Biden and explain his choice.

I was close but the teleprompter kept getting in the way.

I didn't think Biden was a very exciting choice when I heard the news but by the end of both speeches I was impressed.

You can click on this one and some of the others to enlarge.

Sometimes a sign in the way makes the picture more interesting.

The candidates and their wives.

Turning back to the crowd.

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He's back! Grab-a-Java on South 6th Street in Springfield brought back their Obama painting for the big event Saturday.

You can see it surrounded by snow from Obama's announcement in February.

Last night I volunteered to make signs for the rally and Senator Dick Durbin showed up. I may post pictures later.

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Months ago I saw a former member of some boy band on the Jimmy Kimmel show. He told a story about how he had a back and forth on-stage rivalry with one of the other band members.

Most nights they would trade insults but at one show he decided not to fight back. The other guy kept throwing out more outrageous and wild insults trying to get a response. Pretty soon the audience started booing the guy throwing unprovoked insults.

That sounds a lot like Obama's strategy for dealing with ugly attacks. When Alan Keyes and Hillary Clinton started going negative it ended up hurting them far more than it hurt Obama because he refuses to act in the same ugly manner.

But that doesn't mean Obama fails to respond. His usual response is to: 1) point out that this is the kind of ugly politics people are sick of, 2) point out how ridiculous the ugly attack is, and 3) talk about the issue in a more substantive way. In that way, Obama is able to go on the attack without giving people that slimy feeling they get when they hear negative attacks from other candidates.

We saw it recently with McCain's tire gauge silliness. Obama essentially called McCain an ignorant liar and no one in the press called it a negative attack. How slick is that? But it works because McCain was in fact lying and being obnoxiously ignorant.

George W. Bush and his dad ran some of the most notoriously ugly and negative campaigns in modern politics. They do that because they know that in the long run it always helps Republicans to go negative. In most elections one candidate goes negative and the other responds with equally negative attacks. Everyone gets sick of the process and starts talking about the lesser of two evils. That depresses voter turn-out by increasing cynicism, which traditionally helps the Republican Party because their wealthy and upper-middle class base will always vote regardless. It's no coincidence that the Republican landslide in 1994 was the lowest turn-out election in decades.

We finally have a candidate who knows how to escape that trap. We have a Democratic nominee who knows how to make ugly attacks hurt the other party more than it hurts him. I've heard some people argue that Obama needs to go aggressively negative against McCain, but I think he needs to keep doing what he did so well in the Democratic primary and his US Senate election.

We have a candidate who knows how to respond to attacks without fueling the cycle of cynicism and voter disenchantment. Keep it up Barack.

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By now everyone in town knows that Barack Obama is coming to Springfield Saturday with his Vice Presidential pick. He has a knack for making this little town feel important. Hopefully he comes back for Lincoln's 200th birthday celebration next year.

In order to make our out of town guests feel welcome, I have a few recommendations for the staff, press, and supporters visiting Springfield for the event.

First, there's no good reason to go to Starbucks. There are two very good locally owned coffee and sandwich shops within a block of the Old State Capitol, Andiamo and Trout Lilly Cafe, both on the 200 block of South 6th Street. I haven't asked the owners if they support Obama but I know both have supported progressive causes or Democratic candidates in the past. Skip the chain and go local.

If you're in town early you can attend the Springfield chapter of Drinking Liberally to talk politics Thursday evening at Brewhaus, 617 E Washington St.

Brewhaus

Of course, there are a number of good restaurants and bars all along 5th and 6th Streets downtown. Maybe some of them will even stay open over the weekend for the event. I'll probably eat at the Blues & BBQ festival.

If you're just dying to try a stereotypical sports bar then head to Sammy's. If Sammy's is too classy for your taste then walk down to the Firehouse. Otherwise, try Floyd's or go see one of the bands at Marly's or Brewhaus Friday night. Remember to behave yourself at the intersection of 5th & Adams since the city installed cameras.

Have a fun weekend!

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I helped a friend move to Chicago this weekend so I didn't see the Illinois Times Cap City write-up about Liberty Brew & View until today. They claim:

After exposing Will Reynolds to such "enhanced interrogation" tactics as prolonged sleep deprivation, stress positions, forced nakedness, and waterboarding, we finally got him to cough up the names the next two Liberty Brew & View films — and a little bit of blood.

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The concept of due process is one of the lasting traditions of the Magna Carta, which states,

No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Rendition dramatizes the Bush administration's violation of that tradition through the extraordinary rendition program. By claiming the power to capture and torture individuals without providing any legal rights or evidence of guilt, George Bush is tearing down the wall that separates presidents from dictators.

For that reason I thought Rendition would be a good movie for Liberty Brew & View. I also enjoyed it as an entertaining drama that shows multiple perspectives. Rather than simplistic portrayals of good guys and bad buys, it has reasonable characters who participate in the program (or fail to stop it) and feel they're doing the right thing.

Rendition is showing for free on the big screen Tuesday, August 19 at 7:00pm. Doors open at 6:30pm. Capital City Bar & Grill, 3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy, Springfield. The Central Illinois ACLU is co-sponsoring the showing and will give some ideas about how to take action after the movie.

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I went to a few of the pre-Democrat Day receptions yesterday evening. Its always fun to re-connect with friends from campaigns past. Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis had a particularly large and diverse crowd this year. The fact that he doesn't ask for money at the door probably helps.

Its funny that given everything going on in the state I didn't hear hardly anyone say anything about the Governor, Mike Madigan, Emil Jones or the state budget. People talked about a lot of races around the state but everyone is too cautious to say anything good or bad about the current showdown. In a political crowd, you never know who you're talking to and what their allegiances are.

I didn't go to the breakfast this morning but I'll be at the State Fair this afternoon. I'm volunteering at the environmental tent in conservation world Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, so feel free to come say hi or heckle me if you're at the fair!

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I don't have any insider information about who Obama is considering for Vice President and no one on the campaign asked my opinion. But I'm going to give it anyway because the guesswork is fun, and giving unsolicited opinions is what bloggers do.

I'm suggesting five potential running mates that I don't see mentioned as much in the press (at least as far as I know). I don't watch cable news because it rots your brain.

1) Joe Sestak
Why: He's a retired Admiral and one-term Democratic Congressman from a Republican district in Pennsylvania. He could help deliver a swing state, rally the military vote, brings an impressive military and foreign policy resume to the ticket, and as a political unknown, will reinforce Obama's change message. Not having a long voting record means fewer flip-flops to dissect.

Why not: As a newcomer to national politics he could make rookie mistakes and hasn't been thoroughly vetted by the press.

2) Tom Vilsack
Why: When Bill Clinton picked Gore in '92 it allowed them to not only carry Tennessee but several other Southern states as well. Obama could take a similar approach by picking another Midwesterner who would reinforce his strength in a region where he did well in the primary. Vilsack could help deliver Iowa, as well as bordering Midwestern swing states, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Minnesota. As Hillary Clinton's former campaign co-chair, Vilsack would help keep her top donors and supporters active for Obama.

Why not: Vilsack's two week long Presidential campaign didn't impress many, and Hillary still finished third in Iowa despite his backing. He's a former chair of the DLC, which became a dirty word after Dean's '04 campaign.

3) Ted Strickland
Why: He's the Governor of Ohio. If Obama wins Ohio then the election is over. McCain can go home and make sure the neighborhood kids keep off his lawn.

Why not: McCain might get bored and lonely.

4) Kathleen Sebelius
Why: Another Midwestern candidate with executive experience. I see her name mentioned often but what I don't hear mentioned is her environmental record. She made a difficult veto against the construction of new coal fire power plants. After the coal industry ran a series of very ugly attack ads she still held her ground. People like candidates with conviction!

Why not: She lacks foreign policy or military experience. Kansas may not be winnable, even with her on the ticket.

5) John Kerry
Why: There might be someone outside Illinois who has done more to help Obama get the nomination than John Kerry but I don't know who. He chose Obama to give the '04 Democratic convention speech. Former Kerry staffers helped with the Springfield announcement and the early days of the campaign. Kerry gave an early endorsement and important fundraising help. More recently he's been an effective surrogate. If Obama wants a close ally with vast experience then Kerry is a good choice.
I keep waiting for a creative reporter to do a story on how Kerry and Obama first formed a political alliance.

Why not: I doubt Kerry brings in many votes. Republicans will play the "Northeastern liberal elite" card with glee.

Ok, those are my ideas. If Obama picks one of them I'll brag about my insight and if he picks someone else I'll quickly forget I wrote this.

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I'll admit it. I went to the Wierd Al Yankovic concert at the State Fair last night. He's a talented guy. I laughed when he sang "Sue" his spoof of a Rage Against the Machine song, a week after I saw Rage Against the Machine. A song about addressing grievances through the legal system set to the music of a hard core anti-establishment band is at least clever.

When he sang "Eat It" I realized that Wierd Al's career has officially outlasted Michael Jackson's. I never would have guessed that in the 80's.

I thought about Billie Jean when I watched the John Edward's interview about his affair. Still a good song. I tried caring about the Edwards story for a minute but still don't.

The Nightline interview included a response from Obama, but none from John McCain. I wonder why?

A note to the press. Just because some of the National Enquirer story about Edwards turned out to be true doesn't mean this isn't a tabloid story. Its another in a long line of pathetic excuses to talk about the trivial and sensational instead of meaningful election coverage. Once again, people who presumably had some kind of journalistic training or ethics at one time are doing their best to impersonate conservative hate-radio.

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Several environmental groups are hosting a series of town meetings on how global warming effects Illinois with some impressive speakers at each event. They've already been to Decatur and Bloomington. Alton, Peoria and Belleville are next.

Alton
Aug. 12, 6:30pm
The National Great Rivers Museum, 2 Lock and Dam Way
Aur J. Beck, an energy efficiency and renewable energy installer who runs Advanced Energy Solutions in Carbondale, is the main speaker.

Belleville
August 27, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Southwestern Illinois College, PSOP building

Peoria Heights
September 9, 7:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Forest Park Nature Center

A September forum is planned in Carbondale with details TBA.

Since the focus is how global warming will effect Illinoisans directly I assume they wont' be talking about polar bears. Check the IEC website for more details.

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As the Olympics near I occasionally wonder, what is China? Is it really a communist country? They certainly don't resemble anything Marx envisioned, although I doubt any communist dictatorship ever has. Even comparing it to Mao's government is a stretch, other than continued authoritarian repression. I haven't seen many articles about this and no one I've raised the question to has a good answer either.

Naomi Klein, who proved that I can still get celebrity crushes after all, has an interesting article where she calls it McCommunism.

But her main point in the article reminded me of something I read in Capitol Fax today. Klein wrote:

Much of the Chinese government's lavish spending on cameras and other surveillance gear has taken place under the banner of "Olympic Security." But how much is really needed to secure a sporting event? The price tag has been put at a staggering $12-billion -- to put that in perspective, Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics just five months after September 11, spent $315 million to secure the games. Athens spent around $1.5-billion in 2004. Many human rights groups have pointed out that China's security upgrade is reaching far beyond Beijing: there are now 660 designated "safe cities" across the country, municipalities that have been singled out to receive new surveillance cameras and other spy gear. And of course all the equipment purchased in the name of Olympics safety -- iris scanners, "anti-riot robots" and facial recognition software -- will stay in China after the games are long gone, free to be directed at striking workers and rural protestors.

What the Olympics have provided for Western firms is a palatable cover story for this chilling venture. Ever since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, U.S. companies have been barred from selling police equipment and technology to China, since lawmakers feared it would be directed, once again, at peaceful demonstrators. That law has been completely disregarded in the lead up to the Olympics, when, in the name of safety for athletes and VIPs (including George W. Bush), no new toy has been denied the Chinese state.

There is a bitter irony here. When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was that international scrutiny would force China's government to grant more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems of population control and repression. And remember when Western companies used to claim that by doing business in China, they were actually spreading freedom and democracy? We are now seeing the reverse: investment in surveillance and censorship gear is helping Beijing to actively repress a new generation of activists before it has the chance to network into a mass movement.

…the governor is considering installing speed cameras in each direction of every interstate in the 20 State Police districts across Illinois to raise $50 million a year in revenue — enough for 500 more troopers. The money could support an “elite tactical team” and bolster everything from crash investigations to cold-case murder probes, Trent said.

Currently, camera-equipped vans nab speeders in construction zones, but state law does not allow speed cameras on interstates, Trent said.

Governments are always on the path of either providing more freedom and liberty or less, and Blagojevich's plan takes us down the wrong highway.

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Rampant rumors circulated around Lollapalooza that Obama might make an appearance. Would it be during the Wilco show? Kanye West? He never showed but you couldn't escape Obama's name for all three days of the festival.

By day three I had seen a lot of official campaign t-shirts but luckily for the sake of my originality I had brought along my iconic Obama face shirt that I didn't see anyone else wearing.

It looks suspiciously like a take on the famous Che shirt but I don't think we're supposed to talk about that. It was strange walking around in an Obama shirt. From the moment I walked in the gate to the walk home from the El people were shouting "Obama!" "Great shirt!" giving high fives and terrorist fist bumps. Of course, it happened more often later in the evening when people had been drinking for a while, but plenty of sober people were excited too.

I heard a few bands mention Obama. Broken Social Scene reminded the crowd that Americans are voting for the entire world and to make the right decision. DJ Girl Talk sampled the Ludacris lyric "the world is ready for change 'cause Obama is here."

If I'm not mistaken I think I even heard Zach De La Rocha say Rage Against the Machine was planning to vote for Obama before he gave a short speech about how this generation wasn't going to be satisfied with conventional politics, that young people are going to force change one way or another etc.

Some of the reviews I've seen of the Rage Against the Machine set were pretty good and some got sensational about how rowdy the crowd was. I was near the stage to one side and things did get a little crazy before the band stopped halfway through their third song. Rage broke up seven years ago and there were lot of people very worked up to finally see them, including many fans who were too young to see a concert without their parents in 2001.

When they started people were jumping, dancing, pushing and bumping around. Most of it was pretty typical for a show like that but some people got too violent and things got out of hand a little closer to the stage from where I was. After stopping several times to ask people to take 10 steps back and take care of each other people finally calmed down a little. People who were worried about getting hurt were able to get away from the front of the stage where things were rough.

Throughout the show there were people who pushed their way to the front, got pulled over the front barrier by security, then went back into the crowd to push their way to the front and do it again. I saw a few people shove by me three or four times like pushing through a crowd was their version of a roller coaster ride.

After the show the raucous crowd poured down the streets of downtown Chicago. At some point it wasn't clear if the police had intended to close off so many blocks or if it was just easier to let the crowd take its own course. The crowd had a very different mood than the post-Radiohead exodus, to say the least.

So despite the chaos, or partly because of it, this was one of the most fun, exciting and energetic shows I've ever seen. They didn't play any new songs but their old ones still sound good. Its on my list of top three concert experiences along with U2 and the Rolling Stones.

Ok, just a few more observations about the festival. Bands that are new to me that I enjoyed most include Broken Social Scene, Louis XIV, Okkervil River, Iron & Wine, and Foals. MGMT drew a big crowd and didn't disappoint. Its a little odd that most of the big acts have been around for at least 10 years and many of the newer bands have a retro sounde of one kind or another. Where are the new sounds?

Posted by Will at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't like reading most music reviews and I'm bad at writing them. So instead, I'm going to write a review of the politics seen at Lollapalooza, with some comments about the music mixed in.

The first thing anyone notices is that Barack Obama is EVERYWHERE! Obama is the most popular band in America judging by the number of t-shirts worn by concertgoers. The campaign has an official booth in the vendor section that's always surrounded by a dozen or so people. Beyond that, other vendors were selling their own stylized Obama shirts.

Its amazing to see how quickly Obama has gone from candidate to youth cultural icon. There's nothing wrong with that, despite McCain's transparent display of jealousy in his campaign commercials. This is the most serious effort to reach young voters by any major party nominee since 1992, and the first time the current young generation has had a nominee speak to them in a meaningful way that shows he understands their political viewpoints. In 2004 young voters turned out in large numbers to defeat Bush (after being ignored by the Democratic Party from 1994-2002), and in 2008 they'll turn out even more because they finally have someone they're excited to vote for.

The first song with a political message I noticed was Cat Power's cover of Fortunate Son. Her version is what I imagine the song would have sounded like if it were recorded by the Velvet Underground but with a female vocalist. Some of her slow bluesy numbers sounded like live recordings of Janis Joplin's slow bluesy numbers, but she still managed to stay current. Her show is one of my favorites of the festival.

I've read that Radiohead are politically involved but I didn't hear anything political during their performance. They were a total flop. The organizers made a colossal mistake when they scheduled them as the only headliner with no competition playing at the same time.

For the first half of their set the lead singer whined and screeched to drearily slow songs like he was trying to commune with the whales. I think I heard the whales at Shedd Aquarium answer back. I like my share of slow, melancholy, introspective music but it should be more musically engaging than what I heard Friday night.

Hey Radiohead! You're famous millionaire rock stars. You can stop whining now!

In their second half they picked up the pace a little and played some of their hits. But nearly half their audience had already left by then. I talked to one woman who was a big Radiohead fan but was thinking about leaving because she couldn't take it anymore. I thought maybe I was biased so I asked around. About 3 out of 4 people I asked thought Radiohead was the biggest flop of the festival so far. Even some of the people who liked it mentioned the fireworks and circling helicopter; not the music.

Music critics have been propping up Radiohead for years and even the reviews I've seen of the concert don't admit how badly their show went over. They're one of the most overrated bands of all time.

On day two Rage Against the Machine played a series of emotive songs about love, heartache and the responsibilities of fatherhood. For their encore they covered the Carter Family's gospel-country classic Wildwood Flower and encouraged everybody to "just say no to drugs."

I'll post a real review of day 2 later, which had more happening politically than day one.

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