New Blake Shelton Album Bumped to Nov. 18; Features Miranda

“butt meat” would be a great band name…

i recently made a comment to some friends that the combo of rascal flatts/taylor swift in concert could possibly be the worst VOCAL show of all time

i may now have to reconsider (or at least have a tie)

Does anyone else think that TK is pandering to his ‘audience’ by announcing via CMT that he’s pissed off at all the ‘left wing’ nudges towards Sarah Palin? Pissed enough to make clear he’s an ‘independent?’

“Does anyone else think that TK is pandering to his ‘audience’ by announcing via CMT that he’s pissed off at all the ‘left wing’ nudges towards Sarah Palin? Pissed enough to make clear he’s an ‘independent?’”

Or maybe he really feels that way. If he were pandering to his audience, he would have announced a change in his voter registration a long time ago.

For the record, I wasn’t saying he was being stupid, that’s just the thought that crossed my mind. Nothing more, nothing less.

“I’d like to think I wouldn’t vote for someone totally unqualified just because some mean ol’ bloggers picked on her. ”

Yes, it’s much better to vote for the even less qualified candidate at the top of the other ticket. Um, yeah.

For a lifelong Democrat, he’s always got the Republican talking points pretty handy.

For a guy who has said people shouldn’t listen to celebrities talk about politics, he sure does seem to talk about politics a lot.

Taylor’s cat must of heard she’s been touring with Rascal Flatts.

Chris.D. Yes Taylor Swift is touring with Rascal Flatts on their tour Bob that Head tour.We were there on sept 25 2008.Let me tell you it was so awesome. both artists put on one great concert.You have no taste in great music.

Rick, at least you didn’t play the Muslim card w/your Obama comments.

Dallas:

I know, it was the point. They actually came to my city last month. Some of my friends went and told me how “awesome” it was. (Obviously I don’t agree with them: I dislike RF, and I only like Taylor on record- not live.)

“Talking Points” is one of those perjorative terms one uses when one can’t make a logical argument against ideas one doesn’t like.

Toby Keith is more of what Democrats were before they lost their center, more of a Truman Democrat.

In 1960 JFK ran to Nixon’s right on many issues. Unfortunately, just as the post-Watergate elections of 1976 wiped out most of the liberal and centrist Republicans, so did the 1994 elections wipe out most of the conservative and centrist Democrats. This leaves both parties out on the wings, with neither occupying the political center. Too bad, as the country needs both parties to be more toward the center and less on the lunatic fringes

We need our president to be able to operate in a non-partisan manner and create concensus. At least McCain has some history of being able to do so, whereas Obama has never shown the slightest signs of non-partisanship. Neither one will make a good president. The primaries failed us by not putting forward the best candidates

Libertarian party anyone ?

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Getting back to country music – Joey & Rory are indeed something different, more acoustic country thasn bluegrass, and quite talented (which means radio probably won’t get behind them). I look forward to the release of their album

Somehow there is something fitting about Jessica Simpson touring with Rascal Flatts, a perfect melding of the phony with the superficial (I’ll let you guess which one is which!)

Stormy. You dont like Toby Keith that much. Do you? Hes ok.

george w. bush and dick cheney on a eight year “gunpowder and lead world-tour”, mccain and palin on the “put a girl in it” campaign and finally jessica simpson with the three rascal flatts guys on the “bob that head – tour”. life’s so funny…..and providing ample room for surprise every day it seems, razor x.

dallas: I don’t like Toby Keith at all. He used to be good, but settled for being merely cliche and his desperate attempts to play act being 25 instead of 45 come across as the most painfully akward midlife crises this side of Big and Rich or Montgomery Gentry.

RAZORX. You said it.That song by Rascal Flatts Bob that Head is an awul song and then they name their tour by that song how sick.We were their concert on Sept 20.2008. Rascal Flatts didnot sing that song at all.See they are a shame of it as well.Bad song.

But is he as good once as he ever was?

I think Jessica Simpson may have found her true place in country music.

As a self-professed liberal (socially, at least; I do favor fiscal restraint), I’m only ‘hammering’ on Sarah Palin because I consider her completely unqualified for the office of President on matters of foreign policy, and her qualifications in almost every other field are nearly as tenuous.

(The presidency *is* what we’re talking about here; given McCain’s advanced age and possible undisclosed medical conditions, there’s a distinct possibility that she would finish any term that he starts. And even if McCain was both younger and healthier, the VP candidate should be capable of immediately executing the duties of President as a matter of course.)

And before you attempt to argue the equivalency of Palin and Barack Hussein Obama’s qualifications and experience, and claim that two years as governor of one of the union’s most unique states (which *pays* its citizens from oil revenue instead of extracting sales or income taxes) is as qualifying as two years spent in the United States Senate, let me elaborate on what I mean by “qualifications”.

In a perfect world, a candidate would have an established record of impeccable judgment in every subject that an administration must confront. Such a candidate, once elected, would have no need of a Cabinet to delegate executive authority or provide counsel. Such perfection doesn’t exist, of course; even George Washington, who managed a far smaller administration than any modern president, did so with the help of a four-member cabinet in addition to his VP.

I’ll admit that Obama shares, to some extent, Palin’s lack of qualifications when held to the personal experience standard. I’ll even entertain for the purposes of my larger argument the notion that they are thus similarly unqualified by this standard, although the bulk of evidence indicates otherwise.

Failing this first criteria, you would hope for a candidate with enough sense to surround himself with people who have established a record of good judgment in these areas of personal weakness. Like many, I was specifically concerned by Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience. His choice of Biden, one of the most distinguished Democratic voices on the subject, as his running mate suggests that he is both cognizant of his failings and willing to compensate for them with a similarly distinguished Cabinet.

Palin, on the other hand, has a history of using primarily a Monica Goodling-like litmus test for sycophancy when hiring and firing subordinates, both as mayor of Wasilla and (more notoriously) as governor of Alaska. The latter incident allegedly involved the firing of a popular and competent Public Safety Commissioner after he refused to impose special discipline on a state trooper to further a family grudge against the individual. And while these allegations remain unproven, recent attempts by the McCain/Palin campaign to stop an investigation by the Alaska legislature that Palin previously pledged so support speak volumes.

The final means by which one might qualify for the presidency in the absence of personal experience or astute selection of subordinates is a sort of curiosity about the workings of this country and our world. It’s the sort of curiosity that would lead a governor who aspires to national office to learn a bit about the doctrines of unilateralism and preemption that constitute the Bush Doctrine.

… or learn enough about the history of the Supreme Court to cite more than just Roe v. Wade when asked to list cases she disagreed with.

… or know enough about the legal (rather than moral) arguments that underpin the conservative opposition to Roe v. Wade to understand that denial of a right to privacy is crucial to them.

… or be able to cite some examples when asked what newspapers she read. With this question, I’d have even been satisfied if she mentioned a few news *websites*.

… or take steps, however limited, to interact meaningfully with her foreign counterparts. I’m not expecting her to have met with Putin, but has there even been any contact with her counterpart on the Russian side of the Bering Strait?

(To be clear, each example above refers to moments in her recent interviews with Gibson and Couric that illuminate what appears to be a total lack of curiosity regarding matters of national significance.)

This curiosity, and the quick accrual of knowledge resulting, could give a president the resources necessary to extrapolate an acceptable response in the absence of specific personal experience or good advice from those things he *does* know.

Barack Obama has proven himself a very curious individual, and his curiosity has borne fruit in knowledge, as exemplified by his better-than-even performance in the foreign policy debate with John McCain.

After seeing Palin’s recent interviews, conducted in the absence of notes or a teleprompter, I do not believe that she has any such curiosity, and consequently have no confidence that she will acquire sufficient relevant knowledge to guide the country through crisis if she were to be “called up”, so to speak, in the first term of a McCain administration.

Having said that, I have as little respect for Toby Keith’s political views as anybody here. He was, he claimed, opposed to the Iraq war from the start, but still felt free to exploit the general animosity toward the Dixie Chicks’ in the wake of their admittedly injudicious remarks, even though he now claims they shared the same “core” position regarding the appropriateness of the war in Iraq.

I wanted to write this for people who are truly swayed toward the Republican ticket by the left’s ferocious opposition to the Palin selection. I’m not defending any particular line of attack; I’ve seen some pretty indefensible ones since she was announced. Instead, I wanted to make the reasons for our opposition and its vigor clear. The stakes could hardly be any greater.

Not only does Obama write books, he serves as inspiration for other’s books. Claiming Obama surrounds himself with people who have a record of good judgment is too funny. Anyways, let’s try to keep this about country music as much as possible.

At one time I was a big Toby Keith fan. I was also a big Dixie Chicks fan, long before most people on this forum knew who they were. Both have suffered a decline in the overall quality of their output and are no longer consistantly good. Both still have their good days, so in future I will probably wait for hits collections rather than buying the albums as they are issued

“I wanted to write this for people who are truly swayed toward the Republican ticket by the left’s ferocious opposition to the Palin selection. I’m not defending any particular line of attack; I’ve seen some pretty indefensible ones since she was announced. Instead, I wanted to make the reasons for our opposition and its vigor clear. The stakes could hardly be any greater.”

Lay off the Kool Aid, why don’t you?

Razor X:

If there was concrete evidence that the real challenges that America faces were as amenable to pull-string responses, folksy you-betchas, and suggestive winks as leading conservatives seem to be, I for one would drop my own impassioned resistance in a second.

But the fact is that the next president will need a steady hand to navigate the matters of extreme socio-political complexity that will occupy the first post-Bush term. This is indisputed, and was in fact one of the primary platforms of Senator McCain’s campaign prior to his selection of the governor of Alaska as his running mate.

… and that McCain was so quick to so repudiate, rather than merely abandon, that line of attack with his untested VP choice speaks to either the core motivators for his campaign or the steadiness of his *own* hand. And it doesn’t say anything flattering about either.

Everyone:

I’m truly sorry to keep with the politics in seeming defiance of Mr. Vercher’s mandate, but inasmuch as Razor X’s quoting and outright dismissal of my argument may have indicated a perceived weakness in it I felt obligated to address it.

In getting back to the music (which, absent current circumstances, I’d be far happier to discuss *anyway*) I noted that Stormy reached as far back as Toby’s Dream Walkin’ CD to come up with an allusion to the track ‘Tired’.

The title track to that CD, which was Toby’s final pre-Dreamworks release, is one of my favorite Toby tracks, and (along with Diamond Rio’s ‘How Your Love Makes Me Feel’ and a few select others) among my favorite songs from that era in the genre. Its subject matter makes it less saccharine than “Me Too”, the most prominent release from his previous album, and it’s far less vocally demanding than “We Were In Love”, which requires so much vocal range that it’s impossible to convince myself that I sound good while belting it in the shower. :-)

Anyway, the single Dream Walkin’ was released with one of the more technically inventive country music videos of the era, shot and cut to suggest a setting in which normal rules of time and place do not apply – a dreamscape, in other words, in keeping with the title and theme of the song.