LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Calling President Bush a
“destructive man,” singing legend Barbra Streisand on Monday
fired off a blistering three-page memo to top Democrats in
Washington calling for a “strong, strategic, targeted offense
against the Republican revolution.”
“This is not the time to be weak,” Streisand writes in the
memo titled “Nice Guys Finish Last” sent last week to several
dozen top Democratic legislators and released to media outlets
Monday through her publicist.
“Unless we win, we'll be consistently on the defensive with
our fingers holding the dike against the resurgence of the far
right. … You don't have to be ruthless like the Republicans,
just be strong.”
In her note she blasts Bush's record on environmental
issues, reproductive rights and the protection of people with
disabilities, children, and U.S. workers. She lambastes the
record of Bush's father, former President George Bush, on
pardons, and urges Democrats and journalists to investigate
Republicans vigorously, charging that they are controlled by
big business.
Streisand writes: “We have a president who was selected
rather than elected. He stole the presidency through family
ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican
operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by
disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other
minorities.”
Streisand's publicist Dick Guttman said on Monday that she
has no aspirations to become a politician and her motivation to
send the memo was concern about the issues and the American
people.
“She said people confuse political passion with political
ambition,” Guttman said, adding that since releasing the memo
to Democrats last week Streisand has been flooded with offers
to speak publicly.
“She sent it to top Democrats who responded very favorably,
to it calling it a very important wake up call,” Guttman said.
Stevie Nicks Returns to Spotlight in Private Gig
by Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Admitting to being “a little nervous,
but I'm going to hang in there,” Fleetwood Mac member Stevie
Nicks unveiled several new songs at a private concert on
Saturday.
Nicks, who turns 53 on May 26, is on the promotional trail
for “Trouble in Shangri-La” (Reprise), her first new solo album
since 1994. It is due in stores on May 1.
Rocker Sheryl Crow, who produced some of the songs, put in a
guest appearance as Nicks and her seven-man band played 12 songs
for about 300 record industry types at a Hollywood rehearsal
studio.
Inevitably, Nicks dusted off some of her Fleetwood Mac gems,
including “Dreams,” “Gold Dust Woman, “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,”
and solo hits “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen.”
She introduced Crow as a “really, really good friend and she
saved my life on this record.” They performed two new songs
together.
Nicks told Reuters after the show her nervousness passed
after the second song. “Thank goodness, because if it didn't go
away then that would really be a drag.”
She said her personal highlight was performing the new song
“Fall from Grace,” which she described as a “rockin' drivin'
blues song” in the style of 1960s rock duo Delaney and Bonnie.
Playing the old Fleetwood Mac stuff was also a thrill, Nicks
said.
“Every time it's a different bunch of people that are in the
band and in the audience, it makes the songs different. It brings
different things out of the songs every time, otherwise I could
never still be doing 'Dreams' and 'Gold Dust Woman,' and (be)
totally enjoying it.”
Nicks said she will begin a U.S. tour on June 29. She was on
the road with Fleetwood Mac when the Anglo-American supergroup
reunited with the 1997 concert album “The Dance.” Plans for a new
Fleetwood Mac album have been put on hold because the members
were unable to lure Christine McVie out of retirement in England.
Nicks' last studio album was 1994's “Street Angel.” She
released a boxed set, “Enchanted,” in 1998.
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