Obama told me so: 11/02/14

Sunday, 2 November 2014

Have A Listen: Don Gonyea's 2014 Campaign Playlist

National Political Correspondent Don Gonyea covers hot political races all over the country. Don Gonyea/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Don Gonyea/NPR

National Political Correspondent Don Gonyea covers hot political races all over the country.

Don Gonyea/NPR

Join NPR on Election Night, Nov. 4th, at elections.npr.org for live reports from reporters across the country, live results and our live blog. We asked NPR's National Political Correspondent Don Gonyea to help kick off our Election Night party by sharing some of the music that's playing in his ear as he covers the 2014 campaign.

My editors gave me an unusual election assignment: Come up with a playlist for the 2014 midterm campaign.

I'm a good one to ask, since I have a deep love of all kinds of music AND because I spend a lot of time in planes flying from one battleground state to the next. Add in the long drives across any given stretch of politically competitive America, and you've got a guy who needs a great selection of music to keep him sane.

So here is my Personal Campaign Playlist for the 2014 Election.

I should note that you'll likely find none of these songs on the official playlists of any campaign anywhere. These are not the songs that blare from the loudspeakers at political rallies. No classic rock hits (U2), no modern country (Brooks & Dunn), no rock anthems (Springsteen, Kid Rock). Instead, I've burrowed pretty deep into the encyclopedia of eclectic music to find some songs that take me (and you) on a journey through the states where I've found myself covering hot political races this year.

14 Songs. 45 minutes. Here we go:

1) The Old Man Of The Mountain / Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

What better place to start than a song about a giant rock formation in the northern part of the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire? There's a pretty good U.S. Senate race this year as well. Not to mention all the early stops by potential 2016 presidential candidates. This is a new version of a classic Cab Calloway tune. How can you not love this?

2) County Fair / Phil Alvin

Cover politics for NPR and you spend a lot of time at the fairgrounds. This song makes me think of lots of places, from Iowa to Ohio to Michigan to Kansas. Phil Alvin is a founding member of that great American roots band, The Blasters. This is a solo performance I've loved for years.

3) Wa Da Da / Bix Beiderbecke

For this one, we go to the other state that kicks off the presidential season, Iowa. Perhaps the hottest U.S. Senate race is taking place there this year.

As for the great Bix Beiderbecke, he's one of the finest trumpeters in the history of jazz – and he just happens to be the hometown pride and joy of Davenport, Iowa.

4) Blue Moon Of Kentucky / Brian Setzer

The most expensive race in the country this year is the Kentucky Senate race. So in this selection we present this take on the legendary Bill Monroe's Blue Moon of Kentucky.

5) Somewhere In Kentucky Tonight / Tom T. Hall

Staying in Kentucky for one more. I'm a sucker for classic country music, and this is from one of the genre's finest storyteller/songwriters.

6) Wichita Lineman / The Meters

I never thought I'd be spending time in Kansas this year. A year ago, it didn't seem like there would be much in the way of drama in the state's politics. But suddenly the incumbent governor and U.S. senator, both Republicans, are fighting to survive. I found myself in Wichita as harvest season rolled around. And I kept looking at those telephone poles along the highway. Hence this Jimmy Webb classic, but likely a version you haven't heard before – a beautiful ballad by the New Orleans funk band, The Meters.

7) Arkansas PT.2 / Bill Frisell

Arkansas. Home of William Jefferson Clinton. Another big U.S. Senate race there this year (not to mention a pretty good governor's race). So I bring you this musical interlude from guitarist Bill Frisell. A variation on The Arkansas Traveler.

8) On A Night Like This / Buckwheat Zydeco

Let's go to Louisiana. Another battle for a U.S. Senate seat. And a great opportunity for some Zydeco. Here's a Bob Dylan song that gets the accordion and washboard arrangement. Plus the title just feels right for election night too.

9) Snowin' On Raton / Emmylou Harris

Colorado features some of the most interesting politics in the country these days. A battleground U.S. Senate race. Closely watched in presidential years. And now, legalized marijuana. Here, Emmylou Harris brings her gorgeous voice to a song by the late Townes Van Zandt.

10) Georgia On My Mind / Ray Charles

Another very interesting U.S. Senate race in the Peach State. Hey, are you gonna build a list that includes Georgia without including RAY CHARLES??!!??

11) Carolina In My Mind / James Taylor

North Carolina. One of the newest and biggest members of the battleground state club. So why not give its native troubadour his due here? It's always great to hear James Taylor.

12) Just A Little Bit South Of North Carolina / Gene Krupa & His Orchestra with Anita O'Day

Staying in North Carolina for a moment...sort of. Techincally, this one is about South Carolina. But close enough for election year playlist rules.

Plus it's got Gene Krupa on drums. A wonderful piece to settle you down after deadline.

13) Louisiana Man / Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams, daughter of former U.S. Poet Laureate Miller Williams, singing about her home state. Music to watch the election returns by. Or to eat crawfish etouffee. Or both. I'm in.

14) Election Day / Lyle Lovett

This one's title is self-explanatory. Written by an Austin legend, a street musician and denizen of the local clubs named Blaze Foley. Lyle gives it a nice ride.

Happy Election Day folks. Hope you enjoyed the trip.

Geagea rules out presidential vote, Rai calls for election

BEIRUT: As Parliament is scheduled to meet to extend its mandate this week, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea Sunday ruled out the election of a new president soon, linking the presidency issue to regional bargaining.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, meanwhile, warned against attempts to change the country’s power-sharing system between Muslims and Christians in favor of a tripartite formula between Christians, Sunnis and Shiites.

For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri said he was waiting for the major Christian blocs to outline their final stances on the extension of Parliament’s term ahead of the voting session set for Wednesday.

Berri, according to visitors, said that quorum for the session as well as the voting on two draft laws to extend the deadline for an electoral law and extend Parliament’s mandate were secured.

But the speaker strongly upholds the need for a constitutional, particularly Christian, vote on the two draft laws, the visitors quoted Berri as saying.

Berri scheduled a legislative session for Nov. 5 to vote on a number of bills, including one that would extend Parliament’s mandate for two years and seven months.

The country’s major Christian parties, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Kataeb Party and the Lebanese Forces, have spoken out against the extension, but it is unlikely that their members will boycott the session.

In an interview with Reuters at his home in Maarab, north of Beirut, Geagea said: “This goes beyond Lebanon. The issue of the Lebanese presidency is on the table for discussion in the bargaining over the entire Middle East. Therefore, unfortunately, I don’t see a presidential election in the foreseeable future. We are waiting.”

Parliament last week failed over a lack of quorum for the 14th time in more than five months to pick a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year tenure ended on May 25.

Geagea, the March 14-backed candidate for the presidency, renewed his call on his Christian political archfoe, MP Michel Aoun, for talks to agree on a consensus president as a way to break the five-month-long deadlock.

“I call on Gen. Aoun to reach an agreement with us on a third candidate,” Geagea said.

But he added: “I do not see Gen. Aoun changing his political decision to obstruct the presidential election. He will not retreat.”

Geagea along with March 14 parties have accused Aoun and Hezbollah of scuttling the presidential vote by boycotting Parliament sessions to elect a president.

Aoun, viewed as the March 8 alliance’s candidate for the country’s top Christian post, and Hezbollah have repeatedly called on their March 14 rivals to reach an agreement on a consensus president acceptable to both sides.

Geagea, who led a powerful Christian militia during Lebanon’s 1975-90 Civil War, ruled out the outbreak of renewed strife despite the nearly 4-year-old civil war in Syria and sectarian violence in Iraq.

“With everything that is going on in the region, look at Lebanon, it is holding together,” said Geagea, 62. “There is a political decision by all the factions not to play with Lebanon’s civil peace, and not to play with Lebanon’s existence as a nation,” he said.

“But unfortunately they don’t believe in this decision to the degree necessary to establish an effective state in Lebanon,” he said.

“So Lebanon as a nation will remain, and civil peace will remain, albeit with the current disturbances that you see. I am not more worried than that.”

Geagea, whose Lebanese Forces party opposes the extension of Parliament’s mandate, warned of attempts by some to push the country toward a full constitutional vacuum that would set the stage for a new ruling system in Lebanon.

“We are entirely against operating in these circumstances because it would throw Lebanon into the unknown,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rai reiterated his call on Parliament to quickly elect a president, while warning against any attempt to change the power-sharing system between Muslims and Christians to a tripartite formula between Christians, Sunnis and Shiites.

“We appeal to the political groups and the public authority in Lebanon to respect the Constitution, the National Pact and its applicable formula [on equal power sharing between Muslims and Christians],” Rai said during Sunday’s Mass in the St. Charbel Church in Sydney, Australia.

“We also call on Parliament to quickly elect a president as stipulated by the Constitution. Parliament should have elected since last March 25 the only Christian president in the entire Middle East who guarantees Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon,” Rai said.

The Maronite patriarch added that the president is the one who “guarantees the people’s unity ... and enhances the formula of partnership in governance and administration and equality between Christians and Muslims.”

Rai warned the government and Parliament against violating the Constitution and the National Pact that guaranteed equal rights and representation for both Muslims and Christians with calls for “a constituent assembly” to set up a new system or a tripartite power-sharing formula between Sunnis, Shiites and Christians.

Sidon reels from flooding after heavy rains

SIDON, Lebanon: Residents of Sidon took to boats Sunday as the southern city’s flooded streets turned into canals in the aftermath of heavy overnight rainfall.

The fact that the Public Works and Transport Ministry was carrying out infrastructure projects only made the flooding worse in routes like Quds Street, according to residents, where storm drains couldn’t accommodate such high levels of rainfall.

Asma Blouli, a lingerie shop owner, said that a lot of her merchandise had been damaged by the flooding.

“Why didn’t this happen in the past when infrastructure couldn’t handle this much rain, but now after one month of renovation you have this flood? Who do we hold accountable?” she asked.

Issa Awad had just stepped out of his ground-floor apartment when part of the wall of the building collapsed on top of him.

Awad was taken to the nearby Hammoud University Hospital, where he is being treated for moderate wounds.

Residents in the area are afraid that the entire building would collapse as a result of the heavy storms.

Water levels were as high as 30 cm on Riad al-Solh Street because of clogged drains on the road. The owner of a local toy store used a small inflated row boat to locate the storm drains, and residents attempted to clear the blockage.

The heavy floods even entered some of the houses located along Riad al-Solh Street.

Meanwhile, fields on either side of the main highway linking Sidon to the southern city of Tyre were flooded, and water collected in pools on the main roads.

The Meteorological Department at Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport said the weekend’s rainfall was expected to extend into Tuesday before clearing up, with no rain forecast after Wednesday.

An emergency team from Sidon’s Municipality opened the clogged sewage drains Sunday. But that was after the flooding had already damaged several local stores.

Saber Moussa Abdullah, a furniture shop owner, said water had been entering shops since dawn Sunday.

“We called Lebanon’s Civil Defense teams as well as the municipality of Sidon, which drained the water, but that was only after it had already damaged most of the furniture,” he said.

A building in southeast Sidon was damaged when the structure’s supporting wall collapsed as a result of the rainfall.

Hezbollah lawmaker Musawi hits back at Rifi

BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Musawi Sunday lashed out at Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi over recent comments against the party, accusing him of becoming a burden to, rather than a minister for, justice.

“He who envisages justice should be a minister of it, and not a burden on it,” Musawi said in a clear message to Rifi. “Such attempts to compare the weapons of the takfiri groups with the weapons of the resistance are wrongful attempts that have no link to justice.”

Rifi Saturday called on the Army to raid Hezbollah’s warehouses in the southern suburbs of Beirut and other areas just as it was confiscating the weapons of jihadists in his home city of Tripoli.

He said that the state should not discriminate by raiding the warehouses of militants in Tripoli while turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s arsenal all over Lebanon.

“It is unfair to compare the men of the resistance to the nationless murderers and criminals of the takfiri groups,” Musawi stressed in the speech he gave at an Ashoura ceremony at Marjayoun’s Mais al-Jabal village.

“There is a difference between a takfiri weapon killing Lebanese Army soldiers and innocent civilians and another [weapon] whose carrier gets martyred in defense of Lebanon and all the Lebanese.”

Army raids in Tripoli and other parts of the north came after four days of fighting between the Army and jihadist militants last month which killed 11 Lebanese soldiers.

Musawi’s speech is the latest in the war of words between Hezbollah and the Future Movement.

Last month, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, from the Future Movement, accused Hezbollah of foiling security plans in Lebanon.

Musawi slammed Rifi’s mention of “equality and justice between the Lebanese,” and considered his comments as extortion against Hezbollah and its allies.

The Hezbollah official said that the attempts to picture the conflict as a battle between the takfiri ideology and that of Wilayat al-Fakih was for mere political interests.

“They are extorting the Lebanese by saying ‘if our will as moderates does not prevail you will be facing takfiris,’” he said, saying his political rivals’ strategy was clear and would backlash on them.

“If not for the blood of those martyr soldiers of Wilayat al-Fakih, the takfiris would have reached every Lebanese city and not only Tripoli and the north,” Musawi said.

Rifi said over the weekend that Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah considered himself a “soldier” under the Wilayat al-Fakih doctrine.

Powers push for inter-Lebanese talks as Iran deal looms

Western diplomatic sources have told The Daily Star that serious attempts were being made by regional and international powers to launch an inter-Lebanese dialogue in parallel to the ongoing U.S.-Iranian talks over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

A preliminary deal is likely to be signed between the nations before the end of November under which the U.S. Congress would gradually lift sanctions imposed on Iran.

The Islamic Republic will also be allowed to export oil in order to compensate for the losses inflicted on its economy due to the sanctions.

In the meantime, talks will continue in a bid to reach a final deal between the U.S. and Iran.

The sources said that international activity was accompanying the American-Iranian negotiations.

They noted that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had met Russian officials, and that talks between Russian and U.S. officials have also taken place in an attempt to advocate a political solution to Syria’s crisis mirroring that proposed during the Geneva I conference in 2012.

According to the proposal, the powers of the Syrian president would be referred to a transitional governing body under American, Russian, Saudi, Iranian and Egyptian sponsorship.

The sources also revealed that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem would soon visit Moscow in order to follow up on the U.S.-Russian talks.

Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the director of Syria’s National Security Office, is expected to visit Egypt to determine whether Cairo could propose ideas to solve Syria’s crisis.

The sources said countries taking part in the anti-ISIS international coalition and those involved in the region were not opposed to political solutions to regional conflicts.

This is because the military option, adopted by both the Syrian regime and opposition, has proved a failure and led to rising extremism that could only be addressed by boosting moderate Islam.

The sources said that during their meeting in Berlin last week on the sidelines of an international conference on Syrian refugees, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Tammam Salam discussed rising extremism in the region.

Salam stressed during the meeting that fighting terrorism and enhancing moderation could only happen by first coming up with a just solution to the Palestinian cause, adding that solutions to other regional conflicts should come after that.

On the local level, there are efforts to capitalize on this international support for compromises in the region through reviving dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah.

These talks would be held with the aim of reaching a settlement similar to the deal rival Lebanese political groups struck in Doha in May 2008.

Under the sought arrangement, a new president would finally be elected and Parliament would endorse an election law providing fair representation for all political groups, after which parliamentary polls would be held.

This would be followed by a series of civil service appointments which would contribute to reviving state institutions.

Sources familiar with these efforts said that the threat of sectarian strife had reached Lebanon, pointing to the recent clashes in the north and Arsal.

Fearing this rising danger, political factions are considering a return to moderate stances.

A number of Future Movement officials have traveled to Paris in recent days to discuss a number of issues with Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, including the group’s stance during Wednesday’s Parliament session, which would debate a draft law to extend the legislature’s term. The Future Movement delegation is expected to return to Lebanon within 48 hours.

Sources told The Daily Star that during his meeting with French President Francois Hollande last month, Hariri requested that the French leader convince Iran to facilitate the election of a Lebanese president.

For this purpose, Hollande decided to dispatch Jean-Francois Girault, the head of the MENA Department at the French Foreign Ministry, to Tehran to discuss with Iranian officials bilateral ties, Iran’s nuclear program and other issues in the Middle East, including the situation in Lebanon.