JTMP

MAR 31, 2013 - After 8 years of George W. Bush illegally wiretapping, reading our emails and signing the Patriot Act and shredding the Constitution, Charlie Daniels and other conservative musicians hardly said a peep. Now, when President Obama simply wants to expand background checks for all gun purchases after the Newtown tragedy, Daniels is apparently all of a sudden concerned about the power of the federal government. He wrote an editorial on CNSNews.com implying black helicopters coming to take all of our guns away, and the federal government enslaving us or something. First, what took you so long Charlie to realize our federal government is growing in power and has been chipping away at our civil liberties? A black man finally getting elected? Why didn't you say anything when Bush and Cheney were radically altering the federal government and the reach of Executive Power? 

Mr. Daniels wrote, 'Raw power is being handed over to the federal government in unprecedented and dangerous amounts and, once the power becomes strong enough, the true purposes will be exposed as America succumbs to the very dictatorial system it fought against for a century."

Read the whole editorial on CNSNews.com here.  Start or join a discussion over on our Justice Through Music Facebook Page here. (photo credit: Paul Roszkowski/CC)

MAR 29, 2013 - JTMP is joining and supporting the calls for Reebok to drop rapper Rick Ross as a spokesperson because his new single talks about drugging and raping a woman. In the single he said, "Put molly [a drug] all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it." This is not only totally offensive and outrageous in general, but coming on the heels of the Steubenville rape case shows very bad taste. Sending the message to young people that it is okay to drug and sexually violate a woman is horrible, and he should be dropped as a Reebok spokesperson, and this single needs to be boycotted.

Ultra Violet has a petition going calling for Reebok to drop Rick Ross as a spokesperson here.

MAR 29, 2013 - I ran across this great quote from Jerry Garcia this morning. The Grateful Dead were big time musical-activists. At Earth Day, Bob Weir told me they used to pay for the gasoline for Greenpeace's boats way back on the 1970s. Here is the quote:

"If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously." - Jerry Garcia

More Jerry Garcia quotes here.  (photo credit: Carl Lender/CC)

MAR 28, 2013 - I came across this awesome pic on Facebook of Willie Nelson, after an interview with Texas Monthly, showing his support for marriage equality with a customized version of the popular red equality logo that is going viral on social media. Christian Helms of Helms Workshop designed the sign with the customized logo, and changed the equal signs to two joints, something he has always been associated with. JTMP also supports marriage equality, and hopes the SCOTUS will come back and throw out Prop 8 and DOMA. Read the article on Texas Monthly here.  (photo credit: Texas Monthly)
 

Today's featured activist-musician is Thollem McDonas. From SouthbendTribune:

"Activism and music have been a part of Thollem McDonas’ life for as long as he can remember. He gave his first music lesson at 13, and his activism started a few years later. “My activism started in high school,” the pianist, who performs Tuesday at Merrimans’

McDonas worked with the ecological club and started an animal rights group while in college. He became an anti-war activist in the run-up to and aftermath of the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s. “It was natural for me that once (the war) got started to get into the streets,” McDonas says. “At the very least, I felt that I could not participate in society the way that it was."

Read more on SouthbendTribune.com here.  (photo credit: Angela C. Villa/SouthbendTribune.com)