Linda Ronstadt isn’t piping down. (Continues to comment at concerts)

[Cannikin]

Undaunted after being booted by the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas for making pro-Michael Moore comments, the singer did an encore speech in a concert on Sunday night, again igniting the audience. “Half the crowd heartily applauded her praise for Moore, the other half booed,” reports the San-Diego Union-Tribune. “In an instant, the intimate outdoor venue on Shelter Island filled with a roar of cheers and jeers that grew to a near-fever pitch, “

Ronstadt made a few other political references that evening, as well. She dedicated “Straighten Up and Fly Right” to “the good folks at Enron who brought us the energy crisis.” She also poked fun at California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s controversial “girly men” comments, saying, “Now I’m wondering. What if you’re a female legislator,” she said, according to the Union-Tribune. “Does that make you a ‘manly girl’? Or a manly woman’?”

Unlike the bosses at Aladdin, the folks running her San Diego concert didn’t boot Ronstadt for her comments.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5479648/

[Frodo]

1. Why wasn't the CROWD the problem??

I got the impression a few of them went a little crazy and tore some stuff up in the lobby.

Normally I'm sensitive to performers who shout "1st amendment" when people tell them they don't like what is being said and/or that they won't give them money any more to say it..... BUT in this case, why weren't the VANDALS kicked out instead of the performer?

[tom_paine]

3. In this Orwellian environment, do you even need to ask

Aladdin management was a Bushfriend. For Bushefriends, loyalty to the Imperial is more important than a piffling crime.

But if the roles had been reversed and the Vandals were Leftist Country Music Fans angry at Toby Keith comments?

Oh the humanity! Oh, the savagery!

You know and I know it.

Just like in the Old Soviet Union, Communist Party could do and say ANYTHING, while the SLIGHTEST INFRACTION by the opposition would be punished to the fullest.

You know and I know it.

Life in Imperial Amerika is just a tiny taste of what life was like in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the Imperial Family wants to bring us much closer than this.

There is always a certain amount of double-standard in life, that I am prepared to accept, even if I'm not happy about it.

But Imperial Amerika, like the Soviet Union (only less brutally so, Thank God) is imposing Double Standards too great to be acceptable in a Free Nation.

[Karenina]

5. There is an element to this "near-riot" story

that has me rather perplexed. I hope someone can help me out here. According to mainstream press, an encore Linda has been doing throughout her tour caused BEDLAM to break loose. According to a REPORTER who was AT the concert, reading the account of "what happened" shocked her as she recalled no such thing. Now this is a CONCERT. That means there were more than a few eyewitnesses. How is it that we have heard NOTHING from anyone else in attendance? Knowing the song was on the playlist, is it possible disruptors were errrraaaa... PLANTED? ;-) :tinfoilhat: ;-) WHERE ARE THE ACCOUNTS from people who actually attended the L.V. event?
I just don't get this.

[DrWeird]

11. Consider that it was at a casino.

Golly gee whiz, I wonder if any of it was caught on security tape.

[Karenina]

14. Honestly, Dr. Weird

Don't you find it, well, a bit WEIRD that Timmins version is blasted through the megaphones, the reporter gets barely a mention and NO ONE ELSE SEEMS TO HAVE COMMENTED?

[spanone]

16. The Guardian, the British newspaper, said it was less than 2 dozen

and given it was the encore, they may have been headed for the parking lot anyway. I e-mailed the bastards and said i would never set foot in an alladin casino for any reason.

[Karenina]

20. There's something about this "dust up"

that has got my knickers totally twisted and up my ass crack...
:tinfoilhat: PSY-OPS :tinfoilhat:

[tom_paine]

2. Hurrah for FIGHTING BACK!

Good for her.

:toast:

[lottie244]

4. What's name of her latest album? I want to buy it!!!

We have to support our own the way the RW does when they buy all those bulk books by Coulter and Hitchens.

[TeacherCreature]

7. Here you go

http://www.elektra.com/lindaronstadt/music/?release=5018789-5018789

[T Roosevelt]

6. I love this quote from her interview

"I'll damn well say what I please, as I always have," she says. "And if they cancel my show, they'll just be doing me a favor. They'll still have to pay me, and I could use a day off. I have no idea how ticket sales are going, and I never worry about record sales."

Reports of casino incident not accurate, Ronstadt says

[nodictators]

8. Great find -- I'd only heard the "news" media version until this

Also from the Tucson Citizen article:

She also said, "The American media has been completely hijacked by corporate interests. The news is so biased, and we've got to get it through any way that we can.

[Karenina]

9. The accounts from the press

certainly prove her point, eh?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

10. I work with her Friday in Saratoga, CA. I'll report what goes down.

Tomorrow she performs at Villa Montalvo Garden Theater near San Jose. I run the sound system there for the summer and I heard from the box office that they got lots of calls cancelling ticket purchases when the news from Vegas broke. Saratoga is very affluent and conservative.

I'll give a firsthand report of what she says and how the audience responds for sure.

[Name removed]

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[Booster]

13. I disagree completely.

No one is going to listen to any of the rest of us, but these celebrities get to thousands, and in this case, millions of people. I do care what they think and say, even the ones supporting Bush. We need all the help we can get to get Bush out of DC, so I want Linda, Whoopie, the Dixie Chicks, and whoever else cares about this country to voice their opinions in any venue they can find, after all, Hannity, O'Lier, Rush, etc are certainly getting to their fans in a big way. Seems only fair to me that we get ours too.

[tishaLA]

15. When are these audiences going to learn?

I pay to hear a performer, not to hear the audience boo when they hear something that displeases them. If they want to leave, fine. Let them listen to the performer at home on CDs, DVDs, or television. But stop being so goddamned rude to other people at a concert by thinking other people who paid want to hear your voice intead of the performer's. And learn some fucking manners or go back to your barn.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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[oldcoot]

18. Where have you been the last 40 years?

Musicians and other entertainers have been expressing their political views since the early 1960s so why should they stop now? Because somebody might get offended? Frankly, anyone who finds the comments made by Whoopi Goldberg or Linda Ronstadt offensive needs to get a life.

[Bridget Burke]

19. Speak for yourself, please.

Do not tell us what "we" want to hear.

Linda Ronstadt pointed out that her comments were quite brief, just before the encore. For most of the show she concentrated on her songs. The initial account of the incident was a lie; booing was quite sporadic & the club manager overreacted.

Whoopi Goldberg was speaking at a fundraiser. Her comments were quite suitable for the occasion. Nobody else would have heard about it if the Republicans hadn't gotten into a prudish snit.

Singers usually talk a bit between numbers; they're allowed to say what they want. In fact, some songs have been known to make a political point or two. Comedians may well tell jokes with political content. I don't know about football announcers but I like Hunter S Thompson's columns at ESPN.com; they're not apolitical.

Personally, I wouldn't seriously "boo" a performer unless they were dreadfully insulting. They might fall off my list of favorits.