Saw a cool play tonight, called fell in love with a girl. Its theatre season again. I love the little theatres. They are so in your face. There is this girl there who writes plays. She is so smart and funny. I want her. I love that. Reminds you of what you’re really looking for in a girl. You can meet a lot of hot girls. They're the easy ones to meet here in Miami. But how often do you meet one who can go head to head with you verbally. Or make you laugh hysterically. But then the other test is the whole class thing. Cause sometimes you do meet girls who are really smart but they are just so you know street, that they just don't know how to act appropriately. They don't have manners or discretion or diplomacy or grace. That's the tough one. Maybe they’re just too street. We get a lot of that in Miami. Its not like in the northeast. I'd probably be married by now but I just have this image of Julie Andrews in the sound of music. And I just can’t shake it.  

On the plane on the way to Washington DC, just for the night. And appropriately watching a DVD I rented called The War Room. This is the 1991 documentary about how James Carville and George Stephanopoulos engineered the Clinton campaign for president. This is a great movie. Great exploration of American politics. James Carville delivers this really moving speech to his whole crew where he just breaks down and cries once they realize that they are going to win. This guy is my hero. He really believes in what he's doing. You have to see this movie. 

I remember this time well. Me and Shattered were recording a new album, the Aftermath album, our last one. I became a Deputy Registrar with the county that year so I could register people to vote because I hated the Bush years so much. I did everything I could to promote Clinton, every concert we played, every fan we talked to. And after I talked them into voting, I registered them and then tried to talk them into Clinton. Its not like I thought Clinton was all that. I kind of agreed with Mary Matalin that he was always prevaricating and deceiving us all the time---his campaign was riddled with scandal from the moment he announced his intention to become president, but for me personally I didn't care because I felt that almost anyone would be better than George Bush. It was the old school good old boy liars versus the new school young blooded liars. 

I was in shock for four years that George Bush was even elected. It was amazing how horrible things felt in America during those four Bush years. same as they feel now in America. This trapped yucky feeling, like we can’t trust anything being said to us. And then how we slowly reclaimed our pride and our passion as a country over those eight years during the nineties. When bill got elected I was elated. Looking back I may have been young and stupid, but we all felt it.... this excitement that we finally put the old dogs down. We were in the studio recording. We lived in the studio during that album. we never left. There were no windows in there. so we could stay in there for a few days straight and it would feel like just a day had passed, even though maybe three or four days in reality had really passed. The sun would rise and then set and then rise again and we would never know it. Stay awake for days at a time. The night before his inauguration we were tripping that night and on into the next morning, watching him give his speech. We were exhausted but so happy and relieved. I wrote the song ‘Inauguration Day’ that morning watching Clinton get inaugurated. We were filled with hope.

Looking back now, its hard to know what really happened. Who knows if Clinton was a good president or not for America. Some say that he sold us out to China. Others point to the over 30 different coworkers or friends of his that mysteriously died or ‘committed suicide’ during his years in the white house—kind of an unprecedented record. Not such a good one to have. And all the lying about his seemingly endless string of mistresses didn't help either. But our economy rallied like it never did before. that's for sure. But that wasn't Clinton. That was Microsoft and Intel and Yahoo and Amazon and eBay and Motorola and Oracle and all these other revolutions that were going on all over the world. There was the time before everyone had a PC and a cell phone and the Internet and wireless technology and DVDs. And then there was the time after everyone had all that stuff. And we got to experience that revolution. It was a complete evolution of our civilization, and it happened very quickly. And Clinton got to be president during that time. but the money that was generated didn't have anything to do with who was president. It was just where we were at the time.

Technology was the King. But it is ironic when you think about it that George Bush Jr has only been in office for two years or so and things seem so bleak and miserable and without hope in America. Its like these guys are just cursed and they bring it into the white house and it just kind of oozes all over the country. I hope we can get back the old America soon. Im tired of being embarrassed and feeling like we have to hold our head so low all the time because of these old timer republican guys and how dumb evil and slow they seem to the rest of the civilized world. I really hope it’s the last we ever see of them in American politics. 

When you watch this movie you really begin to understand the differences between the republicans and democrats the way they have it set up right now in America. When we get a republican president we basically are electing to be lead by a corporation or a bunch of corporations. The needs of the people take second place to the needs of big business and rich people. Which is cool if you are rich or you own a large corporation, both of which I have been in the past (small corporations really, but enough to know how that side feels...), but I never started thinking like a republican, even when they were taxing the hell out of us... I still kept my perspective. When we get a democrat as president we get one of us, a civil servant, rather than just a puppet for large nameless faceless corporations, someone who usually really cares about healthcare and education and the environment and people. I'm still not going to start claiming to be a democrat or a republican. I'm going to keep my independence. But at least with the democrats you get the idea that there is a person under the political façade (o.k. maybe not in the case of Hilary. Just kidding. Not.) That actually cares about something. Whereas with the republicans they just seem to be beyond all that, as if all they care about is politics and winning for its own sake. Like they don't even know what the hell is going on in the country or with the people. They just want control. 

In his introduction of James Carville on the last day of the Clinton campaign in this movie Stephanopoulos makes this great speech himself, and says because of the work that James has done, Bill is going to become president and because of that people are going to get better jobs, and have cheaper healthcare, and kids are going to get better education. And you can see it in everybody’s eyes in that room that they really believe it. not only do they believe it, but its their true intention. Its why they worked so hard to get Clinton elected. It brings tears to the eyes, because for me, it helped me realize that there are still people, well at least ten years ago, that cared about that. I don't think our current administration even knows what any of that means. Their agenda is just so far removed from the people. I think that to the Republican Party, and this stings a little bit to say because I was raised in a very republican family, but I think that to them the idea of “the people” is just a necessary annoyance to getting into power. Its not why they get into politics. O.k. Enough. 

  

The plane is landing. I love DC. And I love America. I'm going to run for office one day. Not because I have a chance of winning. I'm sure I wouldn’t; after all, for years I was a heavy drinker, drug abuser, and a womanizer.... hey hold on a minute, maybe I have a chance after all... But because I care.