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 | Bat for Lashes What's a Girl to Do?  | Creepy, sad and so well executed. One of the best songs, videos and bands of 2007. |
 | Duran Duran Falling Down | Classic Duran Duran yet with a contemporary sound. |
 | Beirut Cliquot | Sexy and classic-sounding French village music from a musical savant just barely old enough to drink. |
 | The Bird And The Bee Carol of the Bells | The enigmatic re-do of the classic Christmas carol (with lyrics!). The only thing wrong with this song is that it is the only child of a non-existent album. |
 | Erasure Sucker for Love | Yes, Erasure. |
 | Jarvis Cocker Running the World | A poignant song sung with the right ingredients of the rock-n-roll spirit and pop catch. |
 | Just Jack Starz In Their Eyes | Everyone wants to be a pop star. Even Just Jack. |
 | KT Tunstall Saving My Face | As usual, I love the album that is not the commercial success of the two. Give it a try... |
 | Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs Different Drum | A brilliant pairing of artists that find their voice in the songs of the 60s. This song still applies to life today. |
 | Pink Crash & Burn | This is a bonus track on I'm Not Dead that has become the mantra of my personal life. Pink describes the busy and demanding rock star life from an airplane, massaging it into the positive spin of "I'll never crash and burn." |
 | Iron & Wine House By the Sea | I am immediately withdrawn into the world of Gordon Lightfoot and Dan Fogelberg but with an alternative music spin. This is good working music. |
 | Bruce Springsteen Radio Nowhere | I am a product of the 80s and damn proud of it. Unfortunately this also means my 'first experience' with a lot of classic music acts is disgraced with some of their worst music. The Boss is in this category and I am happy to change my mind with his latest effort. |
 | Tegan and Sara The Con | This song is like an Indiana Jones movie; it starts with quick opening credits that dive straight into non-stop action. If inclined, check out the brutally honest lyrics online. |
 | Rilo Kiley The Angels Hung Around | I don't know why this album is so different from Rilo Kiley's others. This song sounds like a classic 70s country song sung with the crystal clear voice of a Southern Belle. |
 | Maria McKee Late December | Maria is the best musician alive and probably one of the most forgotten if ever known. Of course, she is my number one. |
 | M.I.A. Paper Planes | Controversial? You decide. War profiteering epitomized into children's voices, gunshots and the 'cha-ching' of a cash register. |
 | Lavender Diamond Open Your Heart | Channeling Olivia Newton-John circa the mid to late 70s. If you like this song, get the album. If you want to keep liking the album, don't ever watch the band's videos on YouTube. |
The air was misty and cold on November 7, 2006. Deep into the night and into Wednesday morning, we watched election returns roll in. As the dawn broke we knew that the elections had brought change, and hope. Just months after Congress had debated the Federal Marriage Amendment, anti-GLBT titans fell. Rick Santorum (R-PA) lost his Senate seat and his bully pulpit. Nancy Pelosi, whose career began with AIDS activism, would take the Speaker's gavel. As HRC staffers returned from campaign victories across the country, the hope and excitement here were palpable. We bid goodbye to the FMA, goodbye to hostile leadership, and welcomed the opportunities that lay before us.
2007 was a year that began with great hope, and ends with promise. Looking back on this momentous year, I am proud of how far we have come. In 2007, the nation's most conservative institution-our military-demonstrably shifted toward equality, with 28 flag officers coming out in opposition to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Eric Alva, the first service member wounded in Iraq, became HRC's spokesman on the issue, capturing the hearts and minds of Americans everywhere. Business support for GLBT rights continued to grow, with 195 corporations earning a score of 100% on HRC's Corporate Equality Index, over 50 supporting tax equity for domestic partner benefits, and 153 Fortune 500 companies protecting transgender workers from discrimination. For the second time, major presidential candidates came to a forum and discussed GLBT issues for a TV audience. HRC's Family Project published the first ever guide for foster care and adoption agency leaders working with GLBT foster and adoptive parents. HRC brought 230 clergy from every state in the country to the Capitol to lobby Congress on our legislative priorities.
While the 108th and 109th Congresses saw our community attacked through cheap election-year politics, the 110th Congress portended hope for a new politics of possibility. That hope translated into results. Hate crimes legislation covering the entire GLBT community passed both chambers of Congress by wide margins; in the Senate, hate crimes was one of the few progressive priorities able to muster the 60 votes needed for cloture. It was the first time that the bill had passed the House as a stand-alone measure. Embroiled in Iraq war politics and facing a strong veto threat, the legislation was dropped from the Department of Defense authorization bill, but now we know that without this anti-GLBT president standing in the way, it would become law. And with all of the Democratic candidates supporting the hate crimes bill, 2008 brings great promise for its passage. HRC has worked for over a decade to make this law a reality; we are committed to getting the job done.
For the first time, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was introduced with protections for transgender employees. This marked the culmination of years of lobbying, drafting, and educating members of Congress. The measure secured 173 co-sponsors, a strong showing for the first session it existed. And although the House ultimately voted on a more limited bill, the vote was a historic one: it passed 235-184. In the 108th and 109th Congresses, merely holding a vote to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation would have been impossible-leadership focused on the FMA and the House even passed a bill to prevent GLBT people from having our day in federal court. But in 2007, we won. We have more work to do, particularly educating members of Congress about how to protect our entire community. But our high hopes translated into tangible progress.
Now the year is coming to a close, and the traffic through the halls of Congress has slowed. Behind us is 2007, the year of hope, when our community's voice was more powerful and more relevant than it had ever been. Down by the White House, the National Christmas Tree glows beneath a grim grey sky. It is a beautiful sight. Like so many Washington traditions, from Fourth of July fireworks to election night parties, it reminds me that we are in the center of everything. In 2007, George W. Bush lit that tree for the seventh time. Ironically, he is what keeps us in the periphery, at the brink of great accomplishments, but short of making law. By this time next year, we could be celebrating the election of a supportive president. We know that this is what it will take to translate promise to results, and we are committed to making it happen.
From all of us at the Human Rights Campaign, happy holidays and a peaceful New Year.
Warmly,
Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
-Albert Einstein
(source: quotationspage.com)
M.I.A. has made a video for Paper Planes and has found the song hitting roadblocks with the censors. Apparently, the gunshots used in the chorus are too much for America to handle and the meaning of the song has been convoluted into a pro-violence mantra - which is all too ironic.
M.I.A. performed the song on Letterman and during the middle of her performance, realized that the gunshots had been "censored". Watch the performance on YouTube. It is obvious that she was unaware of the change from her earlier sound check because she turns her head to the DJ during the first chorus as if to inquire about what was going on. MTV also joined in on the skewing of ideals by censoring out the gunshots in the official version of the video as well. She responded to it all on her official MySpace blog.
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