If you are looking for a change of language, try Givat Hatachmoshet, a song about the taking of Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem during the Six Day War. Kind of in between a protest song and a pretty honest depiction of a very brutal night battle for a deeply entrenched strategic hill. Guess it depends on your politics.
Here’s an English translation of the lyrics with a Hebrew .mp3: http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/publish/HtmlFiles/1616/results_pub_id=4676.html
Have you seen the movie “Born on the Fourth of July”? He’s alluding to being impotent from the injury and he has to live with a) he can’t ever have sex and b) she can’t either if she’s faithful.
It’s really fucking depressing.
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/bob_marley/redemption_song.html
Somewhere Bob is rolling in his grave. I think the whole slavery thing trumps your hate of Bush
How about this song?
I don’t much like Willie, but will respect the amount of time he’s been in his career. But greatest protest song ever? Hardly.
As for mindless sheep? Well, politics is a corrupt game, and laws don’t apply, only money, and the friends you make on the way up or down, who’ll benefit.
It did put me thinking of a song I’ve always liked. Think of it as my little homage to the Iraqi conflict2.
For the purposes of this, GWBush is Colonel Pinkerton, and Mr Hussein is Ms Butterfly.
Today’s the day when I see clear
A tiny thread of smoke appears
Where blue skies fall upon the ocean
And shake this staid emotion
All the while I sing this song
I see a dot on the horizon
Growing bigger every second
Gleaming white in my direction
Who on earth can it be
Coming up the path for me?
What on earth will he say?
Shall I run to him or run away?
Freaking out he’s come to get me
My feet are stuck but just won’t let me
Run to him do I dare?
Madam Butterfly don’t blow it
-snip
Calling Madam Butterfly
His angel plucked right from the sky
Hide my baby in mystic places
I feel the fear that I might die
Right in his arms and embraces
Softly kissing my eyelashes
Got no right no right to doubt it
Ain’t no doubt no doubt about it
Call me fool! Call me stupid!
Bend this arrow kil this cupid
I have faith I’ll always pray
My white honkey’s here to stay…
Which seems apt, LOL.
Logic.
About the Pearl Jam lyric…
While that is one of the greatest lines ever, it wasn’t said about Bush the Lesser. It was popularized about Bush Sr. in 1988 by Jim Hightower speaking at the DNC.
It was first used in Forbes Magazine in 1983, talking about a lesser oilman.
But it’s the kind of phrase that an elucidator might have used growing up in Texas.
My source is Fred Shapiro, who is the repository of all things quotable. He prof’s at Yale. And can search a mean database.
Screw up. Not Forbes but * Fortune*
Sadly and embarrassingly (for me) not.
Bleary, and I thought I’d experiment with a new technique for quoting two different posters in the same reply window. Except I go kind of confused in the process . . . and didn’t extract myself terribly well.
It wasn’t me, I tell you! It was the drink, drugs, dyslexia and general disarray.
Apologies for the numerous unplanned errors. I think I’ll go back to using the tried and tested methodology . . .
It’s entirely possible he could be referring to the US government in general. Or is government a squeaky clean, benevolent force except for the current administration in your world?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by samclem *
…But it’s the kind of phrase that an elucidator might have used growing up in Texas.
[QUOTE]
Not that I recall. Something like…
All hat, no cattle or
Lies so much, has to hire somebody to call his dogs…
or
dictatorship of the proletariat…
All pretty common.
Perhaps one of you is thinking of Kinky Friedman’s response, Asshole from El Paso.
Logicinmotion, that had to be the worst translation of Un Bel Di I’ve ever come across.
Dear Elvis. Not a translation. Thankfully, I know a fair amount about opera, but I stuck my tongue firmly in cheek, and I quoted Malcolm Mclarens song: Madam Butterfly. Just my little ode to Mr Bush, and an askance look at protest songs.
It amused me, more so than: In the Ghetto. Because unless there was a McDonalds there, Elvis never visited. 
Thanks for noticing!
Logic.
When have I ever exonerated the rest of the government? I’ve said repeatedly on this board that the Dems were gutless weasels for going along with this invasion.
Still, they did based (at least ostensibly) on Bush’s claims about WMDs.
Congress may be gutless but they are not the ones who notably lied to us to sell an illegal war.
“How much is a liar’s word worth?” can only refer to Bush.
Diogenes, you ignorant slut!
Clearly, the line references Al Gore’s claim to have invented the Internet!
Wow- Diogenes is lauding a multi-gazillionaire who cheated on his taxes and got away with it!
Who’d have thunk it possible?
Is Willie a multi-gazillionaire?
I thought the IRS took everything.
And what did he “get away” with? He had to pay them back didn’t he?
Anyway, he still has populist credibility. He smokes grass and has a ponytail.
This is off politics, so maybe it doesn’t qualify as a protest song, bu how about Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry”? Certainly that skewers the mindless media drivel of schlock-sellers like Fox News.
Well, anyway – with all respect to both Dio and Mr. Nelson – the best anti-war song of all time has got to be Dylan’s “Masters of War,” hands down.
"Is Willie a multi-gazillionaire?
I thought the IRS took everything."
Willie Nelson, in response to Howard Stern’s question about his IRS trouble:
“The IRS took my ass and most of its fixtures.”
I think the IRS did Willy a favor, in the long run. They forced him to tour. Some guys like to tour, they are energized by thier audience to a high most of us never get within a million miles of. As Barrie of Peter Pan once said, nothing is really work unless you’d rather be doing something else. Further, they forced him to find more reliable advice, and to prepare for his dotage. After all, the guy’s seventy now, in about twenty years, he’ll start getting old!