“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”

This is not an isolated event either. They also used a song by Van Halen without permission and Jackson Browne is currently suing John McCain and the Ohio Republican party for using “Running On Empty” in one of their ads.

What kills me about this story are the right winger comments. Some of them are priceless.

“We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music,”
Someone who was legitimately concerned could have asked privately. “Publicly” just says “we are seizing this opportunity to drum up publicity for our washed-up band.”
Posted by Zitface September 5, 08 07:28 AM

GO TO HELL HEART…free speech…you release a song, You should be allowed to play it where ever you want…If you do not like that then, do not be a public musician…Give back your thousands(not millions we are talking about Heart here), and go away….And…OBAMA is the anti-christ, keep up the song and dance routine Barack!
Posted by boss September 5, 08 09:12 AM

Florida Voter Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 09:45 AM EST

Grow up Heart, like you would influence anyone to vote for Obama. You and your left wing nut jobs do nothing to help this country, just divide us. I will no longer listen to Heart. I believe Heart is finished now.
BTW, Palin is more of a women than you both will ever be. She DOES represent American Women, unlike your warped sense that women are all liberal huggers like you two are.

Idiots. Just because the title of the song happens to be the nickname that Palin had/has doesn’t mean that it’s an appropriate song to be played. Or maybe it is appropriate. Here’s some lyrics:

“If the real thing don’t do the trick
You better make up something quick
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick.”

Obama ’08

Anywho, I am seriously looking forward to the debates between Senator McCain and Senator Obama. I don’t think the old man stands a chance.

Obama ’08

“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates. (FoxNews)

Senator McCain’s campaign manager sent an e-mail to donors with the subject line, “Hamas Weighs In On U.S. Presidential Election.”

Barack Obama’s foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders. Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said, “We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America.”
We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. (HuffingtonPost)

So we are going to twist this statement around to somehow imply that Senator Obama is a Hamas supporter. In an interview on CNN with Wolf BLitzer, Senator Obama had the following to say in regards to Senator McCain’s statements:

“This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing, because John McCain always says, ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics,’” Obama said. “And then to engage in that kind of smear, I think, is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.”
The Illinois senator added: “For him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don’t need name-calling in this debate.” (Associated Press)

And that brings us to:
Spin #2: Obama Makes Age-Related Attack on McCain:
Senator McCain’s camp wasted no time in firing off an angry retort in regards to Senator Obama’s comments.

“He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not-particularly-clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue,” McCain adviser Mark Salter said. “It is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama, because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.”

I fail to see how losing one’s bearings has anything to do with age. Perhaps they are getting a bit sensitive in the McCain camp. Quite frankly, I feel that Senator McCain’s age is a fair issue. He is 71 years old. The republicans had much younger candidates to choose from. Maybe they should have chosen better.

Obama ’08