90 For 90s: #90 - #81

Nothing lightens the mood on a dreary, rainy, overall shitty Friday where I have to run home early to wait for Cablevision to come explain why their service is so useless and overpriced like some 90's music. Taking me a little longer than I'd like to churn these out, but if you missed it, here's the introduction, and the "next" 90 that just missed the cut.

#90: WONDERWALL, Oasis. This song now reminds me more of Charlie Pace singing it for change on a London corner more than it does my first semester of college, when I thought these clowns were the next big British thing.

#89: SET A DRIFT ON MEMORY BLISS, PM Dawn. Making the list in no small part to the sampling of the Spandau Ballet.

#88: MAMBO #5, Lou Bega. If "American Idiot" was the defining song of the Bush Era, this would kinda have to be the same for the Clinton years, no?

#87: HOW'S IT GONNA BE?, Third Eye Blind. Slightly whiny with just enough subtle hints of heroin. A true 90's standard-bearer. Bonus points for being used in "American Pie" - the ultimate comedy of the decade.

#86: SEXUAL (LI DA DI), Amber. I have absolutely no idea why I love this song. None at all. I despise club music. But there's something seductive about it that taps in to my psyche and reminds me of all the times I never spent all night in a Hoboken club, on E and grinding cheap 90s girls, who weren't as good as cheap 80s girls but kick the snot out of cheap 21st Century girls.

#85: FLAGPOLE SITTA, Harvey Danger. Further proof that by simply being used in "American Pie" can make me elevate a ahitty one-hit wonder to near-elite status. Goddamn that movie was awesome.

#84: HEART SHAPED BOX, Nirvana. Should this be higher? Eh, probably. Blasphemous as it may be, and after 16+ years of listening to them, I still find about 1/2 of Nirvana's collection to be indistinguishable from the rest. Not to say it's not great or classic, and the other 1/2 is sheer genius. I'm just sayin'.

#83: FAR BEHIND, Candlebox. Initially thought this had top 25 potential. Then I really broke it down. No, it doesn't.

#82: FUEL, Ani DiFranco. I'll let you in on a little secret - from time to time, I love me some lesbian rock. Not often, and there aren't too many artists in the genre I enjoy, but let's just say I was pretty bummed to find that "Closer to Fine" by the Indigo Girls was cut in 1989.

#81: ZOMBIE, The Cranberries. Why was there such a lack of politically astute music in the 1990s? Oh, that's right. We had leadership that wasn't hellbent on breaking the world.

Pussies "R" Us

Surprised that a Republican nude model won Teddy Kennedy’s seat? A seat that hasn’t been held by a Republican since Henry Cabot Lodge? Don’t be. Nobody’s better at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory better than the Democrats, and a simple look at the scorecard just verifies it:

US v. THEM

THEM: They impeached a sitting President over a fucking blowjob. The most basic of simple human pleasures.
US: We won’t even investigate a former Vice President’s confirmed role in torture, a role that he’s pretty much broadcast over every major media outlet.


THEM: They were sitting in office for the worst terrorist attack on American soil in history and act like they’re the only ones capable of defending the country, even though they stalled the formation of a Homeland Security Department 5 years prior to 9/11.
US: One crazy radical with bombs in his underwear gets disarmed in flight and we allow ourselves to be portrayed as incapable and defenseless, by no less of a fraudulent expert than Rudy “The Crossdresser” Giuliani, he who decided an Emergency Response Center should be stationed in the WTC.


US: We have Dick Durban tearfully apologizing for comparing Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graihb to “Gulags”
THEM: They attend raucous rallies where claims are made that the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces is a “Foreign Born Muslim Operative”.


THEM: Won’t think twice about launching a war, clearly without any absence of fact, logic or preparation.
US: Will pout as we both vote to authorize it, and worse, continue to execute it while we have the authority to end it.


THEM: They literally hold hands with the Saudi Royal Family and allow the bin Laden family to fly around the country while all flights are grounded on 9/11. Despite allegedly knowing that 16 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
US: We take it on the chin while they accuse us of attending to Haiti’s needs in time of crisis because “Haitians are brown”.


I can go on and on but what’s the point. Until Democrats stand up for core Democratic values like equal treatment for all, a fair playing ground, consumer protection, reasonable and rational defense and foreign policy and basic worker protections, they’re going to continue to lose elections.


They can’t frame an argument to save their lives and they have no friggin backbone. Health care’s a perfect example. Who gives a flying you-know-what what the insurance industry wants? Come up with your plan and muscle it through, use reconciliation if you must. But instead, they decided to give everyone a tug-job to the point where nobody: left, right or center wants this plan.


Is there hope that the tide will turn? I guess there always is. Look no further than the economic and poll numbers of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton after one year in office. Reagan, as despicable as it was, still managed to push his agenda through with little resistance from the opposition that happened to control both chambers of congress. For some reason he was a renowned speaker and his team used this to forge a mandate.


Clinton, after taking hard midterm losses, became decidedly more centrist, practiced triangulation on everything down to what type of coffee would be served at congressional leadership meetings, and while many results were positive, he still ended up in front of a camcorder during a deposition.


Did record numbers of voters go to the polls last November to elect a boring, middle of the road triangulator like Bill Clinton? Hell no. We had that choice in the primary and we kicked her to the curb. You were elected to be transformative Mr. President, and somehow you let the Republicans (who broke this fucking world) relate more to the middle class than your own party. It's time to take a page from their playbook and raise hell, fuck the facts and get shit done.