I’m Voting Edwards




John Edwards in Conway SC
Originally uploaded by evilgenius

Over the course of the primary season, my only real question was whether I was going to vote for Kucinich or Edwards. That question has been answered over the last few weeks, and I’m proudly voting for John Edwards.

I’ve long ago decided that I hate that triangulating style of politics that Bill Clinton mastered so well. If I hate that from politicians, how can I do any different with my vote? I hear people not wanting to vote for candidates because they “aren’t electable.” That’s crap. It just makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’d have been happy to vote for either because they are the two candidates in the field who unwaveringly support the ideas and ideals that I care about. Kucinich disappointed me hard in Iowa when he urged his supporters to move to Obama, despite the fact that Edwards is much closer to him in his beliefs. At the Myrtle Beach debate and really all through the campaign, Edwards has stood out for me as the true progressive candidate.

I’m voting for him today and I’m using his “virtual phone bank” tool to make phone calls to other South Carolinians on his behalf. I refuse to accept the Big Media brokered coronation of Clinton over the last year, or Obama since Iowa. Let’s throw a wrench in their game plan and have John take this state, the state he was born in. Stick it to the man, vote Edwards!

Around the Podosphere A Little Farther

I saw notices about the passing of Joe Murphy of the Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas. My sympathies to his friends and family. I don’t think I ever met him at a PME and I had never actually heard their show until today. As I remain underloaded on new shows, I’m digging back into older shows I had downloaded last year and moved to the external drive when my laptop was full. I just heard their episode on Sterling’s Holy Fire. I’ve got to say that a program where half the panelists can dismiss that book because “nothing happened” is probably one that I can pass on safely. As quality goes it wasn’t bad, but I think my sensibilities and theirs have a large impedance mismatch.

*

I’ve been listening to the John Edwards podcast since the beginning, as well as the Barack Obama podcast. I started listening mainly to see what they did with the medium, not necessarily because I was in their camp. I’d have to say if one of them was swaying me harder with it, it would be John Edwards. In particular, the speech he gave at the Riverside Baptist Church was killer. In general in the podcast, he seems more willing to take chances and more sincere. He also is more personal considering that his wife is a co-host on most of them and they frequently give updates on what their kids are up to. Having listened to both since they began, I feel more invested in Edwards than Obama from a podcast sense.

*

When it started up, I listened to Radio Open Source but dropped it after a few months. I know a lot of people seem to like Christopher Lydon but I find his breathless interview style a real impediment and the show generally less than the sum of its parts. I had heard his proto-podcast blogger interview series that Dave Winer was working with him on, and I had the same problems with those interviews. I had decided to give it another try last year and downloaded the episode where he talked about the NSA wiretapping and included William Gibson. I have to say, I’ve never heard an interviewer get less out of Gibson. It was just downright disappointing. Looking at the website to blog this, I see they had Sonny Rollins on the show last week. I recently subscribed to Rollins’ video podcast, although I haven’t watched any episodes yet. I might give them one more listen on that. If Open Source manages to underwhelm me with him as a source, I doubt I’ll ever be back.

*

I listen to the Dread Daze podcast, which has a lot of that 60s and 70s reggae vibe. I generally care very little for modern dance hall style reggae and prefer the older sounding stuff. I rely on Najashi to inform me of current bands with old school reggae sensibilities. In this old episode from last year, I think it is my favorite of the series. I liked all the music, I liked the vibe. It was exactly what I was looking for at the moment I listened to it. I’m going to look up the music of Tuklan and Jah Roots. Almost 10 years ago in the heyday of MP3.com, I found some songs from a South African reggae band that were unmistakably old school reggae but had that distinctive “Soweto sound” guitar in them. I’ve been on the search for bands like that ever since, so if you know of good African reggae that combines all these musical traditions, let me know.