(x-posted from Daily Kos).

Preposition: Record companies, on the whole, tend to rip off musicians.

It's not something that music consumers often think about, apart from being a general bit of conventional wisdom. Like the apocryphal stories of star-struck kids heading for Hollywood with the intention of becoming movie stars only to wind up junkies living in skid row hotels after being spat out by the heartless studio machine ("Mulholland Drive," anyone?), it's kind of assumed that naive bands signing deals with cigar-chomping, Porsche-driving label executives are going to wind up getting screwed on the deal. Sad, but kind of a comes-with-the-territory thing.

(x-Posted at Daily Kos)

For what it's worth, and since everybody's weighing in on the subject, I thought I'd post my most recent opinion column concerning Sarah Palin for your consideration. I know that there's no shortage of verbiage on this subject today, but I'd be interested to know what some of you think.

Firstly, a hat-tip to Kos and Trapper John, who variously informed/reminded me of some of dear Sarah's "qualifications" in their front page posts as I was writing this. Invaluable assistance, and greatly appreciated.

Column is below...