I'm just noting for the record

[CanonRay]

Barack Obama got through 8 years in the White House without a scandal. Not a whiff of wrong doing. Not a scintilla of sleaze. Trump? Under a month and the whole place is a sewer. Just sayin'.

[democratisphere]

1. Rethugs are famous for their CORRUPTION and dirty filthy tricks.

It is going to get alot worse before it gets better. Too bad many Americans have such short memories.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

2. Hard to remember stuff you never believed. They never see the Rs as in the wrong.

Lynyrd Skynyrd speaks for a whole bunch of RWers: "Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you?"

[TrekLuver]

4. Skynyrd was not right wing. They were against segregation and for gun control.

They are not even from Alabama...they were against all of it. They were pointing out both Northern and Southern bullshit (Nixon, Wallace). In Birmingham they love the governor...boo boo boooo

Mr. Sat Night Special was anti gun.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

5. If so, they sure do make it hard to see that.

The line I quoted seems pretty RW to me. And the "boo, boo, boo" part is pretty subtle, if that's how we're supposed to know they weren't for Wallace. Too subtle for even for Wallace:

When the song was released, the governor of Alabama was George Wallace, best known for his "stand in the schoolhouse door" to oppose integration. The line "In Birmingham they love the governor," along with negative remarks about Neil Young, led many people to believe band members were racist. However, most people overlook the words that follow: "Boo! Boo! Boo!" and the line, "We all did what we could do." Some people believe that is a reference to those who tried to vote Wallace out of office. Funnily enough, songfacts.com reports Wallace loved the song and made band members honorary lieutenant colonels in the state militia.

Also, my brief little delve into research on this brings up RWers pissed at them for the song being "anti-gun," but also a lot saying something along the lines of what Mad Scientist says here in a thread on the subject at NationalGunForum.com:

The song title answers most of your question. The lyrics are about "Saturday Night Special" guns that are/were too cheap for anyone who liked guns. The main purpose for SNS guns was to be used as a throw-away pistol ...... kill someone, toss it in the river and the killer is out very little. Being a pro-gun guy, I'm glad SNS pistols were outlawed. So no Lynyrd Skynyrd wasn't anti-gun.

Anyway, interesting that I might be wrong about Skynyrd. As overplayed and cliched as it's become, I actually think Free Bird is a pretty awesome song.

[TrekLuver]

7. I don't think it's hard to see.....

When viewed within the context of the entire song, it is the narrator asking Northerners if they believe they should all be judged based on Nixon's actions, as they judge all Alabamians based on George Wallace's. It was really an answer to Neal Young's songs "Southern Man" and "Alabama."
Sweet Home Alabama was written from the point of view of a man from Alabama (but it could be any Southern State really) who thinks they are all getting a bum rap based on the actions of their leaders (George Wallace, Ross Barnett, etc.). The line immediately preceding the Watergate reference is:
"In Birmingham they love the Gov'na (Boo Boo Boo). Well we all did what we could do."
Van Zant (speaking as the Alabama narrator) is saying, "look, there are a lot of us that don't like him (thus the booing) and we tried to get him out of office, but it didn't work. We aren't all like him." And in the next line, he's asking "Do you feel guilty over Watergate? Should we judge all of you by what Nixon did? Are we supposed to think you're all like him? If not, why do you assume we are all like Wallace?"
It's very subtle writing and has been misinterpreted by detractors and fans both.

If you listen to the lyrics of Sat Night Special it's obvious what they are saying:
"Saturday Night Special"

Two feets they come a creepin'
Like a black cat do
And two bodies are lyin' naked
Creeper think he got nothin' to lose
So he creeps into this house, yeah
And unlocks the door
And while a man reaching for his trousers
Shoots him full of .38 holes

[Chorus]
Its a Saturday night special
Got a barrel that's blue and cold
Ain't no good for nothin'
But put a man six feet in a hole

Big Jim's been drinkin' whiskey
And playing poker on a losin' night
Pretty soon, Big Jim starts a thinkin'
Somebody been cheatin' and lyin'
So Big Jim commences to fightin'
I wouldn't tell you no lie
And Big Jim done grab his pistol
Shot his friend right between the eyes

[Chorus]

Hand guns are made for killin'
Ain't no good for nothin' else
And if you like your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why don't we dump 'em people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

11. Well, subtle pretty much means the same as hard to see,

so, if it's subtle, as you say, then it's hard to see.

Saying "Watergate does not bother me," doesn't seem a very good way to say "both sides are bad," since saying it doesn't bother them presents it as something not bad.

Yeah, subtle. Or, you might say, unclear.

Saturday Night Special, seems more straightforward. But, as I showed, some see it differently.

[Hoyt]

6. Pretty much same as Charlie Daniels, Kid Rock, David Coe and Teddy Nugent, AFAIAC.

Look at the majority of fans if you think LS is not white wing.

[TrekLuver]

8. Um NO. Please see my previous post #7 and you will see they were in a class by themselves.

[Hoyt]

9. Yeah, I guess they waved the American Swastika (conferderate flag) for heritage reasons.

[TrekLuver]

10. Yes they did. It doesn't mean they were backward racists.

[Hoyt]

12. Yes it does. You've convinced yourself that a song about disarming those who carried "Saturday Night

Specials" is a song embracing diversity. I'm sorry, but LS was like Trump, appealing to white wingers for the most part.

[TrekLuver]

13. You are welcome to your opinion and I will disagree with it. And No I said Sat Night Special

is an anti gun song. These fool RWings don't know what the hell they are even supporting. Naturally they just cling to the Sweet Home part and don't really think about what the song is really about....just like you did.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree here....I never said I was a scholar but I do "know a little"

Oh yeah and they're anti drug songs...needle and the spoon and that smell. You need to look at them with different eyes...these guys from Florida that CRANKED.

[Hoyt]

14. It's a song about taking guns associated with minorities, nothing else. White wingers have wanted

to do that for decades. It's racist, just like the band'so symbol --the confederate flag.

[TrekLuver]

15. Where in the lyrics do you see that? Please point it out.

And here's what they said about the confederate flag...so some of their fans may be (are) racist ....but not them and not me.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/21/entertainment/la-et-ms-lynyrd-skynrd-denounces-confederate-flag-angering-some-fans-20120920

[Hoyt]

16. 40 years after the KKK, george wallace, racists used the confederate flag, some old white rocker

"apologizes" for whipping up their racist fans and we are supposed to be impressed. Not me. I'll take Neil Young anyday.

[TrekLuver]

17. There was no feud with Neil Young...you know that right? It's just a myth....

As a matter of fact Skynyrd was trying to say hey don't judge us because everybody in the south is not an asshole Neil...just as we shouldn't think everybody in the north is either. You really think the good ole boys down south liked Skynyrd with their long hair, heavy drinking and that god awful rock (satan) music?

Young and Skynyrd were both fans of each other. Van Zant respected Young.

In his 2012 book Waging Heavy Peace, Young wrote regretfully about the song, “Alabama.”

“I don’t like my words when I listen to it today,” Neil Young wrote. “They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, too easy to misconstrue.”

Young’s ruefulness might have been rooted in both Neil’s and Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant’s struggle to make things right after the damage was done. That effort, based on mutual admiration, was stopped abruptly by tragedy.


I am amazed that the misconceptions still continue to this day.

[Hoyt]

18. Any one who criticizes confederate flag waving, is OK by me.

[TrekLuver]

20. Ok well I see you got nothing...no real rebuttal to anything so you

can just "call me the breeze.....I'll keep blowing down that road... ..and I know that I sure "got that right"

[Hoyt]

23. Never said their music and lyrics were questionable, just the majority of fans they attract.

[HassleCat]

3. Trump showing us how efficient he is.

Not wasting any time. Getting it done. Bigly.

[Lucinda]

19. Yep.

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Obama was textbook, history will note him as a great President

Did you get the idea in the last month or so of his administration as he
was very factual and methodical in all that he did in winding down his
administration as well as dotting all the i's and crossing the t's on the
transition that he knew a lot more than he could reveal publicly? As if
he knew there were big problems ahead. He kept indicating his best wishes
for the United States, for America, for the future, for the people ...

[SleeplessinSoCal]

22. And more and more "America First" sounds alarms everywhere.

Especially when it comes to filling jobs nobody wants or is qualified for.

[sarcasmo]

24. Destruction is all Donnie knows, casino, steaks, the United States.