Madonna Takes It Down to the Borderline…of Sanity in Recent Concert Performance Linking McCain to Huckabee…and Hitler!

Give all credit to Madonna (one of reason's 35 Heroes of Freedom, along with Margaret Thatcher, William Burroughs, Brian Lamb, and others!).

The Material Girl continues to coax periodic attention from an incredibly cramped and degraded square acre of land, like some sort of musicological Norman Borlaug (another one of our heroes) breeding drought-resistant crops that keep coming to harvest no matter how parched and played-out the soil!

Madge's latest controversy is a concert video that links Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to murderous dictators Robert Mugabe and Adolf Hitler…and, arguably more legitimately but even more damningly, presidential washout and weight-loss hero Gov. Mike Huckabee (what saint can a lapsed Catholic pray to so that the evolution-disbelievin', nanny-state lovin' Baptist preacher doesn't get tapped as McCain's running mate?).

A quick summary of the show:

Amid a four-act show at Cardiff's packed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe's authoritarian President Robert Mugabe—and U.S. Senator John McCain. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama.

More here. No truth to the rumor that Bob Barr and Ralph Nader would have been included too if they'd been polling at 15 percent or better.

And the grainy, clearly illegally captured video:

Memorable quotes from Madonna, who performs the useful function of reminding us that celebrities, like artists and politicians, are often rich, famous, and generally stupid:

I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon… but I want to stay alive.

Never forget to dream.

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

I laugh at myself. I don't take myself completely seriously…. Even in my concerts there are so many moments when I just stood still and laughed at myself.

Many more here.

Comments

[John-David]

She needs to stick to buying adopting poor kids from their parents.

[joe]

When did John McCain turn into an emo kid?

Think he'll go to New Hampshire and work up some tears?

[Abdul]

a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming,

What's an image of global warming look like?

[JW`]

What, only McCain?

I suppose if she had to list the rest of Congress + the executive branch, she'd have run *way* over. That'd have killed her in union overtime.

Memorable quotes from Madonna, who performs the useful function of reminding us that celebrities, like artists and politicians, are often rich, famous, and generally stupid

Oh, we never forget that, but sometimes, it's helpful to remind us of just what level of overachievers they are in that particular category.

[Episiarch]

"Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it's like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the Great Escape, he's digging tunnels. Now, she's gettin' the serious dick action and she's feeling something she ain't felt since forever. Pain. Pain. It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her, you know her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, 'Like a Virgin.'"

[P Brooks]

What's an image of global warming look like?

Polar bears, swimming.

And, Madge, honey- we're not laughing with you...

[Travis]

Epi,

I always wondered what Chris Penn thought about that scene. Being that they were talking about his former sister in-law.

[Polar Bear]

What's an image of global warming look like?

That's drowning.
If we were just swimming it would be cute

[Mad Max]

"What's an image of global warming look like?"

Haven't you seen *Waterworld?*

"I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon... but I want to stay alive."

I see nothing "stupid" about that quote. Who *wouldn't* want to as revered as King, Gandhi and Lennon while still alive?"

Unless by "like" Madonna meant [respectively] that she wanted to be a Protestant, a Hindu or a rock star. Come to think of it, she's got one out of three.

[Episiarch]

I always wondered what Chris Penn thought about that scene. Being that they were talking about his former sister in-law.

Considering how tumultuous his brother's relationship with Ms. Ciccone was, who knows if he didn't find it funny?

[John]

You mean Madonna is still alive? Wow. That is news to me. What is she playing Vegas or Branson these days?

[BDB]

Heh, that won't help Obama.

[Tim]

There is a minority of Madonna fans who think she is a serious thinker and social visionary. Most other people pay their money to have a good time and go home.

Madonna is indisputably an amazing pop performer, but she's committing the worst crime she possible can -- she's repeating herself.

The music is getting boring, the performances are all the same, nothing is truly tantalizing and new. Madonna leftovers.

PS I'm looking forward to the moment when Madonna's sheer willpower hits the wall of human biological limitations. I just don't know when that will be. (I remember an ancient German woman, easily in her 70s, who worked out 4-5 hours a day in my local gym. She had the musculature of a twenty-year-old, surrounded by a loose wrapping of tanned, wrinkled skin. It was eerie.) Will Madonna ever hang up the tights and be a regular person?

[J sub D]

The previous post asked "What's Sexier than Public Policy?"

Partial answer, not Madonna. Please Madonna, I'm begging you, go away. Go far, far away.

[Kolohe]

(what saint can a lapsed Catholic pray to so that the evolution-disbelievin', nanny-state lovin' Baptist preacher doesn't get tapped as McCain's running mate?)

Thomas More?

[Kolohe]

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

And stopped clock and all, but I can't find much to argue with in this statement.

[R C Dean]

What's an image of global warming look like?

A time-lapse shot of a thermometer, going up 0.6 of a degree?

[joe]

The music is getting boring, the performances are all the same, nothing is truly tantalizing and new. Madonna leftovers.

She's the first performer ever to move seamlessly from pop to retro.

One day, she's going to look out in the audience and realize that there are more people who are there to see a Madonna reunion tour than a concert from a contemporary artist.

[John]

"She's the first performer ever to move seamlessly from pop to retro."

See Stones, Rolling.

[rules to follow/pills to swall]

Pop star mouthed hyperbole aside, McCain is an evil imperialist. He'd send our sons all over the world to kill or die at the drop of a hat for reasons as varied as "we are all Georgian now!" to "gosh, those impoverished folks on top of that oil sure look sad" and most any other reason that presents itself. When all you have is a hammer...

[Fluffy]

Come on, Huckabee is the best possible VP choice for McCain.

The GOP needs to embrace its Peronism, not run away from it.

Military fetishism + know-nothing populism + bizarre religious mysticism = perfect for the GOP, and McCain only has two of the three personally.

[joshua corning]

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

Huh?

How is this quote stupid?

[sv]

great... now i have the song 'borderline' stuck in my head

[atrevete]

"I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon... but I want to stay alive."

Sounds like Homer Simpson. Or borderline Jack Handy.

[NSFW]

Madonna then and now.

[Hugh Akston]

Pop star mouthed hyperbole aside, McCain is an evil imperialist.

So when it's mouthed by some idiot on the internet it's all well and good.

[John-David]

Thank you NSFW. I now have to wash out my eyes with gasoline.

[joe]

And thanks ever so much to sv for sharing that. Which he did. Share it, I mean.

[rules to follow/pills to swall]

So when it's mouthed by some idiot on the internet it's all well and good.

How much did you pay for your ticket here? Stop whining, freeloader.

What's the bone of contention? McCain's not an imperialist? Imperialism isn't evil? Or just that we should all strive to make certain we don't agree with Madonna, even remotely, lest we be judged vapid by association?

[Sharon Osbourne]

She needs to stick to buying adopting poor kids from their parents.

Please give me a break, it is like getting a Louis Vuitton handbag.

It is a crock of shit. If she wants to help the kid she should have got the father a little trade going, a fruit stand or something like that and built him a mud hut.

If the kid is sick then get him a doctor. What was the father supposed to do? He can't read or write.

She should have left him in his own culture, that is what I say.

Madonna should have given the money to an orphanage, got them a 24-hour paramedic.

She bought a baby for God's sake.

[Santiago]

As I said a week ago about Roseanne calling out Brangelina on her blog,

Who cares? They're just celebrities. Fame doesn't necessarily equal insight.

And equating anyone to Hitler is about as clich? as aging rock/pop stars who think they can grow old on stage (except for the Stones).

[NSFW]

The Republicans have no monopoly on family values
Madonna endorses Barack Obama

[Ironic]

"what saint can a lapsed Catholic pray to so that the evolution-disbelievin', nanny-state lovin' Baptist preacher doesn't get tapped as McCain's running mate?"

Thomas More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1000537.stm

[Mike Laursen]

Is this year's Madonna still using that damned fake British accent?

[Hugh Akston]

What's the bone of contention?

The bone is that within the same sentence you dismissed Madonna's conjunctions as hyperbolic and then expressed a hyperbolic sentiment yourself. Evil is an opaque and contestable concept, even granting its status as a value judgment. Calling McCain "imperialist" implies that he is literally interested in expanding the political borders of the American Empire. It is more accurate to call him an interventionism nationbuilder who wants to copy and paste our system onto that of other countries to the detriment of our economy and military personnel.

Conflating the two is hyperbolic, making the distinction between what Madonna said and what you said her status as a woman who is wealthy and famous for dubious talents.

[TrickyVic]

The only thing Madonna is taking to the borderline is the age a crotch shot is considered sexy.

[TrickyVic]

"""One day, she's going to look out in the audience and realize that there are more people who are there to see a Madonna reunion tour than a concert from a contemporary artist."""

Just a couple of weeks ago I saw Judas Priest, Black Sabbath (with Dio) and Motorhead. I missed Testament. How's that for retro? Except T

[TrickyVic]

Except Testament

[rules to follow/pills to swall]

Two points: Comparing politicians you don't like to Hitler and the Nazis is ALWAYS hyperbole, and there's more to "imperialism" than a literal interest in expanding political borders. Look it up. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/imperialism

You might be able to argue that McCain's not an "evil" imperialist, but I'm not sure how convincing that would play to a libertarian audience....Here in the 21st century, is there a flavor of imperialism that's not evil?

[NSFW]

Madonna ought to appear at the Convention

[Bob A]

I will not insult a box of rocks by comparing its intelligence with Madonna's.

[ed]

Madonna splendidly refutes tha maxim that with age comes wisdom.

[Marc]

Ooh! Godwin's Law!

Now go away, Madonna. It's the rule.

[B]

"What's the bone of contention? McCain's not an imperialist? Imperialism isn't evil?"

Yes, as we write, McCain is plotting which countries he wants to conquer. He wants to make the American empire as big as the British one. Just last week I heard him say that when he is done, the sun will never set on the United States.
Face it, you are a total moron.

[dpsc]

Episiarch: You've both beaten me to it and completely justified my favorite name for you. Good show.

As for the original article, were Ghandi and MLK rich?

[joe]

How's that for retro?

Ain't so bad, ain't so bad
Could have been a loser.

[rules to follow/pills to swall]

Please, look up the word "imperialism" before you strike again. There's more to imperialism than physical conquest. I'm pretty sure you realize this, and chose to ignore it so that you may throw your "total moron" epithet and then scurry away, smug in your self-perceived sense of superiority. Rudeboi jerk that you are.

[TrickyVic]

"""Yes, as we write, McCain is plotting which countries he wants to conquer. He wants to make the American empire as big as the British one. Just last week I heard him say that when he is done, the sun will never set on the United States.
Face it, you are a total moron."""

Not saying McCain is or isn't, but you have no idea what McCain will do when in office. Bush ran partly on a limited government, non-nation building philosopy in 2000. How did that one workout?

[Francisco Torres]

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

Ironic, considering she considers what should be quintessential nanny-state advocates, "heroes" (Obama, Gore, etc.)