Thursday, January 31, 2008

STARS ALIGN WITH THE POLS


ELECTION 2008 Arlo Guthrie endorses Ron Paul, Huckabee has Norris, McCain has Stallone
Posted: January 31, 20081:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been endorsed by martial arts champion and movie star Chuck Norris; rival John McCain has the support of "Rocky" star Sylvestor Stallone. Now Ron Paul has announced the endorsement of Arlo Guthrie.
"I love this guy," the legendary songwriter-singer whose creation, "Alice's Restaurant," has become a cult classic, wrote in an announcement issued by the Paul campaign.

"Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of the United States had he been there," Guthrie said. "I'm with him, because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago.
"I look forward to the day when we can work out the differences we have with the same revolutionary vision and enthusiasm that is our American legacy," he said.
The announcement, which carried the telephone number of the Paul campaign, offered to set up interviews with Guthrie, and when WND made that request, the campaign said it could try, but Guthrie has a "limited schedule."

Guthrie, the son of Woody Guthrie, grew up surrounded by some of the greats of American music, including Pete Seeger and Leadbelly, and witnessed the transition from ballad singers to singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Jim Croce and Joan Baez, according to a profile on his website.

"He grooved with the beat poets like Allen Ginsburg and Lord Buckley, and picked with players like Bill Monroe and Doc Watson," the description says. "He learned something from everyone and developed his own style, becoming a distinctive, expressive voice in a crowded community of singer-songwriters and political-social commentators."

His release of "Alice's Restaurant" in 1967 launched him as a successful artist, and he went on to star in the 1969 Hollywood version of a movie by the same name, directed by Arthur Penn.
The song, although at some 25 minutes too long for radio play, was a hit at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and for the past four decades, he's toured North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia with his music.

He has his own music label, and he's appeared on the ABC series "Byrds of Paradise" as well as the network series "Renegade."
Guthrie also, in 1991, bought the old Trinity Church, where the events that inspired "Alice's Restaurant" took place, and the Guthrie Center is a not-for-profit interfaith church foundation providing local and international services.
On his website, one forum participant noted, "There's a lot about Ron Paul that sounds great for me, too … even though I'm not an atheist … I don't believe that religion should be involved with government or public places at all … it's a private thing and not to be pushed on to folks to don't choose it."

"There were some ideas of Paul's that were extraordinarily interest," the forum contributor said, " … especially his foreign policy … and keeping government small."
"Alice's Restaurant" dealt with life in the 1960s, Vietnam, the idea of war, rebellion and a host of other issues. One short segment of the lyrics/narrative include:
Came to talk about the draft. They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. 'Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, 'Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604.'
And I went up there, I said, 'Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.' And I started jumpin up and down yelling, 'KILL, KILL,' and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, 'KILL, KILL.' And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, 'You're our boy.' Didn't feel too good about it. Proceeded on down the hall gettin more injections, inspections, detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin' to me at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there, and I walked up and said, 'What do you want?' He said, 'Kid, we only got one question. Have you ever been arrested?' And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacre…

A WND call to the Paul campaign with a request for a comment on the endorsement didn't generate a response.
But in the race for the GOP nomination this year, Sylvester Stallone endorsed McCain, saying, "I like McCain a lot. A lot. As you know, things may change along the way, but there's something about matching the character with the script. And right now, the script that's being written and reality is pretty brutal and pretty hard-edged like a rough action film, and you need somebody who's been in that to deal with it."

In response, McCain said, "I'm going to Philadelphia and running up the steps."
Chuck Norris, a WND columnist, announced on the commentary page of the news site his endorsement of Huckabee.
In the Democratic race, Oprah Winfrey has been plugging for Barak Obama, while Barbra Streisand has offered support to the campaign of Hillary Clinton.
"Hillary is a powerful voice for change as we find our country at an important crossroads," Streisand's statement said. "Under her leadership, our country will regain its respect within the global community. She will prioritize issues of global climate change, universal health care and rebuilding a strong economy. After eight long years, the public will once again have faith in their government."

No comments: