NFL's Bush-bashing, Christian-insulting Thanksgiving halftime show

various | self

[spycatcher]

What is the NFL thinking after the recent "In your face America" naked desperation Monday Night Football fiasco?

According to the NFL, the theme of the Thanksgiving halftime show in Detroit was supposed to be “Join the Team: Millions of People Giving Back in Hundreds of Ways to Celebrate One America.”

So what did the NFL choose to represent this theme? They gave us a Christian-insulting, George Bush-hating, Bush voter-insulting song by John Mellencamp who famously said:

"George W. Bush has lied to us, failed to keep our own borders secure, entered a war under false pretense, endangered lives, and created financial chaos. How is it that he hasn't been recalled? Perhaps this time we could even have a real election...but that wouldn't fit the Bush administration's 'take what you want and fire people later' policy. Take an election; take an oil field; take advantage of your own people--a game of political Three-Card Monte.

The fight for freedom in this country has been long, painful, and ongoing. It is time to take back our country. Take it back from political agendas, corporate greed, and overall manipulation. It is time to take action here in our land, in our own schools, neighborhoods, farms, and businesses. We have been lied to and terrorized by our own government, and it is time to take action. Now is the time to come together."

Here's the lyrics:

Walk Tall by* John Mellencamp

The simple minded
And the uninformed
Can be easily led astray
And those that cannot connect the dots
Hey look the other way
People believe what they want to believe
When it makes no sense at all
So be careful of those killing in Jesus's name
He don't believe in killing at all

And I wish you a long sight line
And the strength to walk tall
Walk tall
Yeah walk on
Through this world
Walk tall
Somewhere out in the distance
Is the death of you and me
Even though we don't think of it much
It's still out there for us to see
If you treat life like a bar room fight
You'll die stinking of gin
No drunkards are allowed in heaven
No sinners will get in
Walk tall
Yeah, walk on
Walk tall
Through this world
Walk tall
So be careful in what you believe in
There's plenty to get you confused
And in this land called paradise
You must walk in many men's shoes
Bigotry and hatred are enemies to us all
Grace, mercy and forgiveness
Will help a man walk tall
So walk tall
Yeah, walk on
Walk tall

I can only conclude that the NFL clearly despises more than half of America and for some reason they decided that Thanksgiving would be the time to let us know.

[Rastus]

BTTT.

[sinkspur]

Who watches half-time shows?

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Good comment.

The irony about the lyrics of this song is that it describes the LIBERALS and its Bush that is walking tall.
I think we should co-opt this song. ha. ha. would that be a hoot.

[spycatcher]

No if you wrote such a song the meaning would be quite clear to me, the meaning would be that you are a shallow and pathetic person who chooses to be angry, and attempt to make others angy, on a day of happiness, a person that seeks to hurt others feelings on the one day a year we set aside to thank. Very sad indeed, I pity you.

See. That's exactly what Mellencamp did, and you completely missed my point, as you missed Mellencamp's. And all I did was pose the possibility of writing a Mellencamp-like b^itch-slap song about you and your family to show you how you would be offended then--and you already feel offended. Yet Mellencamp has already written such a song about all of us as a family of Americans (remember the theme here is "One America"). Then the NFL had him sing it in a hundred million homes to smack us around with his little liberal "you hypocritical Jesus freaks and your ex-alcoholic Jesus-freak President are morons" wake up call.

[discostu]

Given that most "artists" in whatever media are liberal, because liberalism appeals to emotion and artists are emotional, I don't really care what the message is. I already know I'll disagree with them.

Except Mellencamp's lyrics don't actually work with the war in Iraq. Only complete liberal morons think our half of the War on Terror is religious. Now that described Mellencamp to a T, but it doesn't describe me, I know to much to see his imagery as referring to Iraq or Afghanistan. If that's what Mellencamp wants ME to think then he needs to write a better song.

Eminmem is a moron, and white rappers are the most pathetic doofuses on the planet. There is no artistry in Eminmem.

But there was no hate America in Mellencamp's performance, and outside hard conservative circles he's still considered a "classic mid-American" performer. You might not be able to forgive him for campaigning for Kerry, but most of America didn't care about it in the first place, he's the Farm Aid guy as far as their concerned. And before you cheer about the wonders of Destiny's Child weak boring lipsynched dance routine (I hate pop music and everything it currently stands for, which is the musical equivalent of spamO) check out their demographic:
black
female
"artist"
I garauntee they're at least as liberal as Mellencamp. They're just mindful enough of the bottom line to keep their political opinion to themselves.

[discostu]

Might as well, we co-opted Born in the USA (the ultimate example of a song whose meaning is totally missed, and frequently deliberately missed, poor song writing leads to ready misinterpretation).

It's just a song, people gotta mellow out. Frankly I didn't even listen to it when he was playing it, couldn't even tell you for sure that's the other song he played. Paid attention to ROCK in the USA, I like that song. Haven't found anything he's done without "Cougar" remotely interesting and just ignored it, he just doesn't boogie anymore.

[ladyinred]

According to John Cougar Mellonhead:   "George W. Bush has lied to us, failed to keep our own borders secure, entered a war under false pretense, endangered lives and created financial chaos." 

Hmmm, some of this looks like some freeper posts to me.

[discostu]

Problem is Mellencamp's song is only a bitch slap if you agree with him. It's easily re-interpreted by anyone that actually understands the war in Iraq as being a condemnation of the Jihadists. That's not what he intended, but if Mellencamp wanted everyone to get his anti-American "message" he should have written a better song. Slimey as he is Barry Manilow excels at making sure there is only one possible interpretation for his songs, that's his specialty, it's why he's so good at commercial jingles; Johnny should take some lessons.

Now why in God's name would the NFL decide to piss off 51% of their viewers?! That would be stupid, they're a corporation and want money, and Thanksgiving weekend is their most viewed non-playoff games, reaching their largest audience. The NFL isn't that stupid, they aren't sending messages, they're putting popular singers on stage for 10 minutes, that's it. They didn't "have" John do anything, other than perform for 10 minutes. Maybe Mellencamp was slapping people, but his song is so poorly written the slap had no effect, until YOU decided that you WANTED to be slapped by a whiney singer with dyed hair. YOU slapped YOURSELF and now you're whining even more than Mellencamp about how badly you've been mistreated. Learn to stop being so angry all the time, it's unbecoming and shortens your life expectancy, 99% of America didn't notice or care what songs he played, didn't pay attention to the lyrics and don't feel slapped about it. Only YOU and the other members of FRs perpetually pissed off club feel slapped, get over it.

[AmishDude]

John Cougar Mellencamp is not the only person in this country with free speech rights.

[discostu]

I'm not impeeding anyone's free speech. Just pointing out that getting one's panties in a knot because Mellencamp is a moron accomplishes nothing more than making one's nether region uncomfortable.

[spycatcher]

Look I know Mellencamp was also a moron last week too, so that's not the issue. And you're still missing the point. Let me clarify.

The NFL made a bizarre political calculation to showcase him singing this particular song today as a supposed call to unite us as "One America" -- as opposed to the NFL making an intelligent political call in selecting U2 for the post-9/11 SuperBowl halftime.

All you need to do is read U2's perfectly appropriate liberal political/religious lyrics in the great songs they chose to sing in 2002 and compare to Mellencamp's "sermon smackdown" from today.

U2 are also very liberal Christians who don't like Bush, but they're also smart. They would never sing Bullet the Blue Sky as an election/war protest at an NFL game then or now. As an artist, you absolutely must consider who invited you for what occasion, what the theme is and who you're temporarily representing with your words.

The NFL was wrong, and Mellencamp is an idiot.

[spycatcher]

Bump for U2 comparison.

[Chieftain]

They're just mindful enough of the bottom line to keep their political opinion to themselves.

That is my point. Destiny's Child 'show' was exactly that: a show, entertainment. I don't care that they lip synced.

I care that they did NOT thrust their political upon the whordes watching the game. Destiny's Child and every other 'artist', is entitled to their political opinion, but the public is also entitled to be entertained and NOT subjected to listen to to political opinion in an 'entertainment' setting.

Oh yeah, they are sexy without being over the top and literally 'letting IT all hang out'.

[bushfamfan]

Did Johnny Cougar actually sing that? I see he's done a duet with Travis Tritt, called 'What Say You?' about tolerance of political views but clearly Johnny Cougar doesn't have any of that. What a scum. What do you expect from a league that gave us the Timberlake-Janet Jackson fiasco?

[bushfamfan]

What was the reaction from the crowd?

[bushfamfan]

Sorry. I've read further and see you answered the questions I had. Johnny Cougar is a bitter, washed up man.

[discostu]

No I'm not missing the point, you don't have a point. You think you do, but you don't.

The NFL picked a theme of One America, and decided to have their musical guest be a mid-western guy whose marketed image for the last 20 years has been a down home American farm country regular dude. It's absolutely hilarious that you think U2 was a good political choice, U2 is the Eurotrash band that campaigned against BOTH Bushes and has been unabashidly critical of W for his supposed lack of Aids research funding. If Mellencamp was a bad political calculation so was U2, the fact is neither was a political calculation, they were ENTERTAINMENT calculations, and both paid off.

All I have to do is know that BOTH U2 and Mellencamp are anti-Bush liberals to know that you're a hypocrite who's just making up reasons to be angry because you want to be.

The NFL wasn't wrong YOU'RE wrong, you're mad because you want to bwe mad, Mellencamp insulted you because you LIKE to feel insulted. YOU made this an issue, they didn't. ANd your attempts to compare this to U2 show that the only difference is that in February of 2002 you didn't want to get mad, and yesterday you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and wanted to get made about something. Your lack of emotional control isn't the NFL's problem.

[discostu]

Destiny's Child doesn't thrust their politics on anyone ever, they're bubblegum pop and keep their music politically nuetral. Mellencamp made his music politically active when he first started moving away from "Cougar", that's who he is now, a socially and politically active semi-rock star. Just because you maybe agreed with him back in the Little Pink Houses days and don't now doesn't mean he should suddenly stop expressing himself. That's the entertainment he makes, and has made for a quarter of a century, but he's still thought of as an all American down home guy, which was the theme of the day. His show was also just that, only a show, until YOU decided to make it more than just a show. I garauntee less than 1% of the people out there detected any kind of message in it, and we know from the election results that half the people that did detect it agreed with it.

Beyonce let it all hang out at Grant's Tomb last year. They've had their super slutty moments, they weren't yesterday but that doesn't mean they aren't over the top frequently.

[spycatcher]

You obviously have serious problems following lines of logic and reason. I was joking before about you being a moron but maybe I subconsciously picked up the truth.

And you're also projecting feelings that don't even exist in my mind, which is additionally funny. You seriously need to get a grip on yourself.

Oh and FWIW, yesw you *still* have completely missed the point of the words coming from a person's mouth in a particular setting being what matters. That fact the U2 are liberals is meaningless when they didn't bash America or Bush by singing Bullet The Blue Sky when given the platform. They properly honored America and our 9/11 dead.

If you can't get your mind around that, then just compare it to someone being asked to give a commencement address (only to 50-100 million people). It's not about the person, it's what they choose to say at the time. And if the College knows in advance it's likely to be a leftist diatribe, then they're at fault too. If you can't follow that simple logic, you might need professional help. I can't help you.

[spycatcher]

If Mellencamp was a bad political calculation so was U2, the fact is neither was a political calculation, they were ENTERTAINMENT calculations

Again, you're so dead wrong it's hilarious, but FWIW here's more for you to gloss over:

U2 performs at Super Bowl XXXVI February 2, 2002, in New Orleans

After seeing a U2 concert in New York in October, 2001, NFL officials decided U2 was the band they wanted to perform at halftime of Super Bowl XXXVI. The league had been planning a patriotic-theme for the game to pay tribute to and remember the events of September 11th. U2 played "Beautiful Day", then "MLK" which led directly into "Where the Streets Have No Name." The names of the victims of September 11th scrolled heavenward for most of MLK and Streets.

That's a political choice, entertainment is secondary to the NFL's chosen theme.