by SHANE SINNOTT

Oh, America! At a time when us Canucks are facing a choice between Stéphane Dion and Steve Harper in the most boring election ever, it’s fun to look south and see what operation they’re running. Here’s a taste: Amber Lee Ettinger, the “Obama Girl”—famous, basically, for being good-looking and posting an online video called “I’ve Got a Crush… on Obama”—is now releasing a single, an actual piece of real recorded music, called “Second Time” (get it?), which is available on iTunes, and is from her forthcoming album, Queen of the Web. Her press release cites a Newsweek report that, sadly, describes her Obama video as “one of the most frequently viewed political videos in America in 2007” (emphasis mine). So, in a rare attempt at goodwill, readers, I’ve actually spent $0.99 of my own money to buy this song for you to hear, because I can’t find a blog to download it from. So go to tinyurl.com/6daqnj and hear for yourself as Amber sings, “Be a soldier, be a soldier, be a soldier.”

Sigh. This garbage has made me think about what a “political” song or video used to be—in a word, better—and in that spirit, here’s some political songs that are actually enjoyable.

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” (tinyurl.com/6ya5zp): The classic and almost always misunderstood indictment of America, with anthemic lines like, “I got in a little hometown jam/And so they put a rifle in my hands/Sent me off to Vietnam/To go and kill the yellow man.” Loved by Ronald Reagan.

Lou Reed’s “Sex With Your Parents” (tinyurl.com/57gry9): Not nearly as high-minded, Lou Reed takes aim at Rush Limbaugh et al with this 1996 gem. He names a bunch of right-wingers from the time, and then posits that they all have sex with their parents. “I’ve got statistics,” he sings, “I’ve got stats/These people have been to bed with their parents.”

Nena’s “99 Luftballons” (tinyurl.com/5spqzr): Because who knew that the original German version of “99 Red Balloons” is a protest song about Cold War military tensions?