I read this story this morning and laughed myself sick...it's just plain comedy GOLD...Petty is awesome!
Tom Petty reportedly wants Bachmann to stop using ‘American Girl’
(Photo of Petty: Jason DeCrow/AP)
Following in the steps of David Byrne v. Charlie Crist and other legendary artist versus candidate smack downs, Tom Petty is reportedly preparing to take legal action against Michele Bachmann's campaign, after she played his 1977 hit "American Girl" at her 2012 announcement rally in Iowa Monday.
Petty's manager tells NBC's Kelly O'Donnell the rocker wasn't pleased about the use of the song and is planning to send a cease-and-desist letter over the matter. It's the second time Petty has asked a GOP politician to stop playing his music. During the 2004 campaign, Petty issued a similar letter to George W. Bush's re-election campaign after it played the singer's hit, "I Won't Back Down," at political events.
Usually, a cease-and-desist letter settles the matter, but the legal spats can get nasty. In 2008, Jackson Browne sued the Republican National Committee, Ohio Republican Party, and John McCain's campaign for an ad the Ohio GOP ran featuring his song, "Running on Empty." When the parties couldn't get the lawsuit dismissed, McCain publicly apologized.
Earlier this year, as The Ticket previously reported, Byrne sued Crist's campaign for playing a Talking Heads song in an ad against his then-GOP opponent Marco Rubio during the 2010 campaign. Earlier this year, the suit was settled after Crist recorded a pretty embarrassing video apology for using the song, "Road To Nowhere," without Byrne's permission.
A spokeswoman for Bachmann's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
(Photo of Petty: Jason DeCrow/AP)
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Yeah, I think that's pretty damned funny if you ask me. God help ANY idiot politician who EVER tries to use a Journey song...I will personally smack that person upside the head if they ever try to do such a thing. "Who's Cryin' Now" might be a funny politician song, but PLEASE don't let 'em do it. "Back Talk" might even be funny, but JUST SAY NO!!
My favorite song from Frontiers was "RUBICON," and I wanted it for my high school graduation song---the message is awesome and appropriate---so I voted for it...but nobody (and I mean NOBODY) else voted for it, and instead, we got stuck with Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All." Talk about narcissism...I hate that song. The people I graduated with are idiots. That's why I have decided NOT to attend my 25th class reunion this fall. I have nothing in common with any of them anymore, 9 out of 10 people in my high school never left my hometown, most are losers, and frankly I'm a snob when it comes to knowing them. I have a few close-knit friends, but I see them whenever I am home, so I don't need a reunion.
(By the way, why the HELL did you ever allow Mariah "Bleeding Ears" Carey to sing Open Arms? She MUTILATED IT!! It was TERRIBLE!!) Don't ever do that again, Mr. Perry, or I'll have to beat you up. She is awful, I hate her voice, you can hear wraspy AIR all around her voice as she sings, which drives me crazy, and she squeals in a horrible falsetto like a friggin' pig. That's NOT TALENT.
Anyway, so how was your weekend? Mine was rather...bittersweet. My nephew's graduation party was fine, I saw my arch-nemesis, (my dad) for about, oh, 2 seconds as he was leaving, his sister was with him, and acted all surprised that I was there, I simply said, "Hi," and walked past them both without saying anything else. I've got nothing else to say. As we pulled into the driveway, to park the car, I saw my dad's wife (he cheated on my mom with this woman and she harassed my mom constantly until my mom called the cops, who told this hag point-blank that if she kept doing it, she'd go to jail). I wanted SO BADLY to yell out, "Well if it isn't the ugly hag who fought so hard to get the BOOBY PRIZE of my dad!! Was it worth it?!"
But, of course, my mom wouldn't let me. She just wants to let it go, and move on, but I say, "Give him back some of the hell he gave to you." She won't let me, but she does smile when I say such things to her, and she agrees with it. But, the two of us finally decided that he's not worth it, and neither is his hag wife.
Ah well, otherwise, I was basically told----no, more like LECTURED---about how MENTALLY UNSTABLE us kinky people must be, there HAD to be something TERRIBLY TRAUMATIC in their lives when they were younger, to cause them to be so kinky and weird NOW, and how horrible it must be to be involved with such crazy people...
This, from my 2 best friends, Annette and Laurie.
The FIRST THING they said as we sat down at the graduation party was, "Soooo, tell us more about that CAMP you went to..." and the next thing I know, they are both going off about how "those people CAN'T be normal," and "I just don't get it, why would anybody WANT to do those things? Don't they realize how dangerous or how crazy it looks to everybody else?"
Trying to explain BDSM to vanilla people is like trying to grab a bowl full of air. They are either too obtuse, or just plain retarded, when they say those things, because don't they realize they are referring to ME when they say all kinky people are mentally unstable??? I said to them both, "Look ladies, it is only "kinky" the FIRST TIME. After that, it's cool." And then I pointed out to Laurie (and Annette did NOT know this), that she came WITH ME to a dungeon in DC and actually used a flogger on ME, and ENJOYED IT. I figured that would shut them both up. Laurie said, "Yeah well, so what, those people were all insane. Most of them are fat and ugly, why would you want to hang out with them?" I looked at her and said, "You weigh a lot more than I do, why do I want to hang out with YOU?" And I got up and went to get a drink. (ZING!) I sometimes get a mean streak when I feel provoked.
I decided to show them both some pictures from camp, some of the same ones I posted here for you...and they were flabbergasted...it was interesting, to see their reactions, because then in the back of my mind I thought, "I wonder if Steve reacted that way too...?" But, because I was feeling slightly mean at that point, I told them all about this guy who gets crucified every year---and I showed them the photos of the nails being driven into his hands and feet. They were like, "Ewww!! What the HELL is he DOING and WHY would he DO that?!" I smiled and said, "Because he enjoys it, and he heals like a starfish---nothing but a tiny scar the very next DAY. He's amazing." "How could anybody ENJOY that?!" I said, "How can YOU enjoy collecting COWS, Laurie, and Annette, how can YOU enjoy collecting PENGUINS? It's just plain CRAZY that you want to be surrounded by slimy, smelly animals, isn't it?! I mean, in some circles, that's called BESTIALITY!!"
I don't think I got through to them.
............Yeah, good times.........
Going home is always a thrill. My nephew is a mouthy little shit, and if he ever came to stay with me, he'd be eating a LOT of soap. I don't care to hear the F word all the time, ya know? And he seems to like saying it, as if it's something he can get away with now that he's 18 and will say it constantly because he's so MATURE, ya know. (rolling my eyeballs). He didn't even bother helping to set up tables and chairs---my mother and I, who had just driven 9 hours to get there, exhausted, were up and helping to do that, and when my sister pointed that out to him, he yelled, "I didn't even WANT a fucking party in the first place!" and he stormed into the house to his bedroom. Such a warm welcome home. I was so glad to leave that damned place, I can't even tell you. Even 4 days was too long to be there.
I swam in my sister's pool...for about 5 minutes....the water temperature was 74, and I nearly froze my nipples off. But, I faked it and told my mom "it's GREAT, come on in!" So she gets her legs in it and yells, "YOU LIAR!! IT'S FREEZING!" and she splashed me, and got out. hehehehehe! I am a total stinker sometimes, but it makes life fun. If the POOL was that cold, imagine how Lake Michigan must feel, even in JUNE!! I didn't bother to go there, what's the point, ice water does nothing for me when it comes to swimming in it.
Stephen, when I tell you I'm going back to Michigan, and when I seem to be looking forward to it, PLEASE smack me and remind me of the LAST time I was there, will ya?!
Ya know, I also had a very sad revelation while sitting in the hotel that last night...I was watching the new CSI show with Dana Delaney in it (I love her), and one specific line stood out to me, "He loved her so much, that he killed her." I thought about my dad, and how he killed ME by causing my family so much hell, how could that be "loving too much?" I wondered, he only loves himself, nobody else, and it just struck me as odd...so I pondered it for awhile...and then I thought about my best friend's daughter, Emily, whom I love more than the sun and moon---and I felt that I suddenly understood that phrase, "I loved her so much that I ruined our special bond." I didn't even get to see Emily while I was there. When she was 15, she told me off, accused me of "deserting her and her brother and sister when they needed me most," (I had moved back to DC because her dad was angry that I spent more time with those kids than he did), and that I'm not REALLY her "aunt," so I have NO RIGHT to be in her life at all.
I cried for 3 solid weeks after that. She stabbed my heart so hard, I never thought I'd recover. I didn't contact her anymore after that. But, when she turned 18, she apologized to me, saying she now had a better understanding of why I had to leave and go back to DC, and that she'd always think of me as her aunt, no matter what.......but, by then, the damage had been done, and I just don't bond with her anymore. I mean, suddenly I realized that I loved her so much, I felt the best thing to do was give her some space, and not interfere anymore...but it ended up hurting her, and then it came back to kill ME too...I was between a rock and a hard place, didn't know what else to do, but I didn't want to cause anymore upset to her dad for being there, ya know? I was too close to the whole thing, and I had to bow out as gracefully as I could....but I really WANTED to calls social services to take those kids away from him, he was so verbally abusive, always yelling and screaming, I hated him.
So, rather than cause some major upset by doing that, I just decided to leave. Remove myself from the equation, and everything would settle down and get back to normal, right?? Well, it didn't. And so I was accused of deserting them when they needed me most. And that really does haunt me all the time.
But then I spin on this.....why the hell doesn't anybody understand ME??!! Why do I have to be the one who tries to understand everybody ELSE, and yet they don't even TRY to understand ME?? What the hell kind of FRIENDSHIP is that, to say I'm mentally unstable to be involved with kinky people? Laurie even said at one point during the conversation, "Well, I do like being blind folded..." and I said, sharply, "Well guess what? That's how it starts. Before long, that "kinky" blind fold will seem boring, and you'll be on to the next kinky thing, and it will get you hooked, and then you're a mentally unstable GONER just like me."
It just hurt my feelings, ya know? Then I started feeling sad, while sitting awake at the hotel the night before we left, knowing that if I ever invited Laurie and Annette to come visit (they were talking about that too), they would take one look at this huge house of mine, and be all snotty about THAT too, "you don't have as many people living in YOUR house, that WE do, but our house is so much SMALLER than yours, it's just not fair." I can see my sister doing that too, getting all jealous and acting like a total hag. I showed my sister pictures and she said, "Oh. You have a pool table too?" (She and her husband had just gone out and bought a small one for their basement, and bragged about it....OURS, however, was left here by the previous owners, for free, and it's a huge one).
So I realized, I don't think it's a good idea to invite any of them here, for any reason, ever. I mean, it's obvious they love to live vicariously through me, they love talking about the "taboo" and the "kinky" stuff, and yet at the same time, they put it all down and make fun of it, just to make themselves feel better. I just don't like it. Not one bit. I don't deserve that bullshit. It's kinda like living with my dad, who did the very same stuff, all the time to me. "You like ELVIS?" he would say, "He's a DRUG USER, he's a JERK, how could love HIM? Johnny CASH is so much BETTER than Elvis will EVER be...."
Anything I liked, anything I enjoyed, he would immediately put down or make fun of.
So it must be a Michigan thing. The economy there sucks, unemployment is rampant, lots of people have left the state without even selling their houses because the housing market is so crappy---dozens of houses are for sale on every street, but nobody's buying them. So, it is a depressed place, people there are depressed, and times are hard. This seems to cause people to lash out at anyone who is having fun, or doing things they themselves would enjoy doing but can't afford to do.
I took Laurie to the casino, (lots of Indian reservation casino's in Michigan), and she said, "Um, could I maybe borrow a little money? I only have $20." I said, "Sure, no problem." She ended up borrowing $100 which I used from my own account, and then I used $100 from our joint bank account---and we both ended up enjoying the evening, but lost most of it, as usual. She said, "Oh God I feel awful...now I owe you $600..." (she had borrowed $500 last year but hasn't bothered to even try paying any of it back yet).
Then she tells me all about how her car is dead, she has no way to go anywhere, it needs a brand new transmission, yadda yadda yadda, and I thought to myself, "Why didn't you take that $600 bucks that you borrowed, and FIX THE GODDAMNED CAR?! But, I didn't say that. I just nodded and listened, and said, "Well, I'll see what I can do to help if I can." But I told Pete about this, and how I felt bad that she didn't have a car and couldn't go anywhere, etc., and he said, "So as annoyed as you are at her, and as crappy as she treated you by making fun of the kinky things you do, you STILL want to loan her MORE money to get her car fixed?" And it was then that I realized, "I should stop trying to save the world again."
I do have this chronic "save the world" syndrome, and frankly it's annoying me. I just want to help, (here we go again), but it really DOESN'T help anything. Why is life weird that way? All it does is ENABLE her to stay in the same situation, with whatever crisis comes next, and if I keep solving those problems FOR her, she'll never learn to start making better decisions. I know this as a pseudo-parent-type person, but at the same time, I feel BADLY for her because I've BEEN THERE, I've BEEN POOR, I know what it's like to have a car take a crap and not be able to fix it, and have to ride the bus, or get rides from friends, it SUCKS, and when I went through it, I had NOBODY to help ME....which is why I want to help HER when it happens to her, ya know? I want to say to God above, "You screwed ME over with a repossessed car once, and I had nobody to help me, so to spite you, God, I'm going to help HER when SHE goes through this stuff, and you won't be able to get the better of her."
I don't know. On one hand, I have this horrible GUILT feeling, ya know? Did you ever feel that way, when you started making oodles of money while singing with Journey? Did any of your friends come to you with sob stories and hardships and crises, hoping you'd help them out? I'm not rich, by any stretch of the imagination, but when Annette and Laurie came out and asked me how much money Pete makes at Apple, (which is rude if you ask me), I just went ahead and told them. And now, it seems they treat me differently.
In fact, Annette said to me, in a very condescending tone of voice, "Wow....how much?Really? Well....that's great, and you DESERVE it, Beck, after all you went through...you really do...you should ENJOY that." Then she proceeded to tell me how she and her husband---who retired, but can't stop working because they need the money and just recently got another job----each have to work 40 hours per week just to send their oldest son to college and pay their mortgage.
It made me feel creepy and guilty and disgusted.
So I came away from Michigan feeling depressed, as always, and sad, and just plain alone.
Pete doesn't understand any of this stuff either, so I don't bother him with it. It just causes MY heart to hurt, and I'll just have to deal with it on my own. There's nothing he can do. Even my mom, who lives solely on Social Security disability benefits, told me that I should NOT loan my best friend anymore money, Laurie makes bad decisions, and it's not up to ME to rescue her every time she has a crisis. Her family is all around her, they can help if they want to, but it's not up to ME to be the one to give her money when she needs it every time. (Yet, when I went to camp, I felt guilty about leaving my mom alone with Pete's mom for 9 days, and when my sister in England threw a fit about it, I offered to pay my mom $500, which she gladly accepted). So, I rescued HER too. But, of course, that's perfectly okay.
SIGH. I don't like money. I felt awful about life when I didn't have any, and now that I'm married and Pete supports me, I feel awful about life because I have money. And my friends treat me differently now than they used to. And I just don't know how, or even if, to help them out when they need it. God forbid they should ever see this HOUSE we live in....
Well, I've told you more about all this than I've mentioned to Pete, so I guess I'll go for now. Thanks for listening, sorry you're really kind of a captive audience, but it does help me to get it out by writing it to someone I love who is objective and lives far away.
Have a good week, Stephen, and keep working on that new album...
----Rebecca
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