03 July 2011

Jessie J likes to help people with her music, which she says is the most rewarding aspect of her career.

Jessie J wants to "save the world" with her music.

The 'Price Tag' hitmaker is pleased when she receives messages from fans who have related to her lyrics because she has always wanted to make a difference to people's lives.

She said: The most amazing thing is to comfort people.

"Every day on twitter I get, 'Your album saved my life right now' and, 'How did you put my life into words?'

I just don't want to write music that's throwaway. Ever since I was a kid I've written poetry and songs to make people thing. I've always wanted to save the world in my own little way.

"I just don't want to write music that's throwaway. Ever since I was a kid I've written poetry and songs to make people thing. I've always wanted to save the world in my own little way."

The 23-year-old star believes her desire to help people through her music comes from her father, who is a social worker, and she wants people to realise she doesn't have a "sugar-coated, perfect" life.

She explained: "My dad's a social worker and I almost want to give that to the world.

"I think people are done with, 'I'm in the club, shakin' my booty', with running away from their bad day. I think they want someone who's gonna go, 'Fix up - welcome to the real world.'

"I'm fed up of people sugar-coating life for kids, making them think everything's amazing and everyone's perfect looking and artists don't get spots or diarrhoea before a show. We do. And that's what I wanna stand for.

"I want to write music that brings some light into the world."

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Prominent in the move toward democracy for European countries was the feeling among their citizens that their governments had little or no tolerance for the opposition. Slowly, the rights of opposition parties became firmly defined, often leading to the ouster of the government in power. More recently, the citizens of Libya and Egypt have protested against their leaders' similar intolerance for opposition.

Early in my days within the United Nations Secretariat I was shocked to see a newly formed government in Africa exiling their opposition leaders by making them ambassadors to foreign countries where they could do no harm (or have any influence). My more seasoned colleagues laughed at me and noted that this was a step forward for some new countries. Before then, any persons who might oppose the government in power were done away with -- rubbed out. What I'd been appalled at was indeed progress towards a more viable society.

An established democracy, in whatever form, requires a majority that works with a critical opposition offering constructive alternatives -- not that ships them off or rubs them out.

In America, with our non-parliamentary system, the role of the opposition is crucial in making our government function, particularly in moving legislation between the legislative and executive branches.

Is the present Republican Party in Congress fulfilling this essential function? No, not really. It just pretends to.

In our form of democracy, the "opposition" to the executive branch can control one or both of the houses in Congress. The opposition's role is therefore more demanding than in, say, Britain, for it has more power. In my view, under these circumstances, they should feel a heightened sense of responsibility to voters.

Has the Republican Party responded to this heightened responsibility since last November when they won a majority in the House? No.

The Republicans in Congress have presented what they call policy alternatives to any and all of the Administration's proposals. However, their alternatives have but one sole objective stated by their leaders--to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. To make sure he doesn't serve more than one term. Their objective is not just double-edged, it is pointed. The Republican attitude has little or nothing to do with their role as "the opposition" within our government.

In practical terms, they are not serious about any of the issues -- any of the problems -- we expect our government to be addressing. They are not serious about focusing on people who have lost their jobs or the roofs over their heads, or on critical environmental problems, or even on our insatiable preoccupation with terrorism and security. On the last issue, they are highly selective, ignoring solutions to home-grown terrorism, including the threat of guns being freely carried in urban areas. (The attack in Arizona on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords should have been impetus to increase gun control in America, not increase the number of guns.)

Unfortunately, the Democrats respond to this posturing -- at least in public -- as if it is a serious expression of right-wing thinking, thereby compounding the public's impression that there is serious discussion and negotiation taking place in the nation's capital. Are the Democrats afraid of offending their "opposition" by pointing out the absurdities -- the manipulations -- of Republican proposals such as Ron Paul's alternative health care plan? The White House is fearful of saying anything that might disturb potential negotiations. (Apart from his critique of the Paul Ryan budget plan, the president seems still stuck in his notion of a functioning bi-partisanship.)

The latest example of the Republicans placing America at risk is the urgent crisis of our debt ceiling. The United States is in real danger of defaulting (supposedly as of August 2nd) because of potentially exceeding the amount to which the law limits our debt. Not raising the debt ceiling would be a disaster for our financial system, and hence for the economy as a whole, since we remain a nation struggling to get out of its most serious recession since the Great Depression. A June 24th New York Times editorial summed up the situation:

Congressional Republicans, who played a major role in piling up the government's unsustainable debt in the first place, have thrown a tantrum and walked out of the debt limit talks. This bit of grandstanding has brought the nation closer to the financial crisis that Republicans have been threatening for weeks. But, at least now, their real goals are in sharp focus.

Perhaps it is beyond the scope of editors to look behind the "temper tantrum" and spell out "the real goals." Are they suggesting that the Republicans would like to see America in default, with all the disastrous implications for our financial system, as well as our leadership role on the international scene, hanging around their necks? What do they really think the opposition party is up to?

I see this particular crisis over the debt ceiling as just the current expression of the sick mindset that seems to inhabit the Republican Party at both state and national levels. Probably the Times would think it inappropriate to quote Richard Hofstadter's insights from his 1966 The Paranoid Style in American Politics, but I think it perfectly captures today's political landscape: "[W]hat is always at stake is a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil...." Hence the absence of "a willingness to compromise," only "the will to fight things out to the finish. Nothing but complete victory will do."

There may be more seasoned hands in Congress who will be able to persuade the Republican leadership -- probably at the last minute -- that for the Republican Party to be responsible for America's defaulting is disastrous politics for an opposition party to practice, as well as disastrous economics. But who knows. The paranoid style lies deep in our guts.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

But before you settle down for fireworks and BBQ, catch up on the sizzling stories of the past week?because there's nothing more all-American than exercising one's right to indulge in celebrity gossip.

Consider it your patriotic duty!

VOTE NOW: Watch With Kristin's 2011 Tater Top Awards are still yours for the deciding, so click away!

THEY'RE HE-ERE: A few days after enjoying the action at Wimbledon, Prince William and Kate Middleton arrived in Canada for the start of their North American sojourn. The Duchess of Cambridge (and 11th cousin to Jane Austen) switched out of her "casual" traveling togs for a camera-ready midnight-blue affair before they landed and, what do you know, looked pretty picture perfect. On Friday, on what would have been Princess Diana's 50th birthday (thanks, Newsweek, for pointing out the impossible), they made the rounds in honor of Canada Day. The dazzling duo will be in the Americas for 10 days, concluding their trip in Hollywood among the comparably less elite.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: Shia LaBeouf spilled the hookup beans in Details and is now feeling a little remorseful about admitting to an offscreen dalliance with Megan Fox while the pair were playing an onscreen item in Transformers. The "f--king idiot" (Harrison Ford's words, not ours!) and object of Selena Gomez's admiration blames his age?he's 25, which is rather old in Hollywood years?but we blame douchiness. And Fox, because she's so pretty, hence everything is her fault. (And Josh Duhamel wonders why poor Megan gets a bad rap...) Meanwhile, Shia called it a "blessing" that Megan wasn't in the third film, but box-office analysts have another word for it: "inconsequential."

BABY FACE: Newlywed Courtney Stodden is really 16, as proven by the birth certificate first obtained by E! News. But isn't it funny how she looks 25 and her 51-year-old hubby, Doug Hutchison, looks 19? And why isn't this illegal again?

SHE WON'T BE BACK: Two months after acknowledging that they were separated, Maria Shriver filed for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger after 25 years of marriage and one mindblowing admission that the action hero and ex-governor of California had fathered a son with the family's housekeeper?who only just left her post in January! The question wasn't if Maria would divorce her unfaithful hubby, but when.

PLAZA SWEET: Denise Richards adopted a baby girl and named her Eloise Joni Richards?Joni after her mom and Eloise in accordance with her daughters' input. Sam and Lola have stayed in the Eloise Suite at NYC's famous Plaza hotel with their mom?most notably when papa Charlie Sheen huffed and puffed and almost blew the house down while staying in a room down the hall.

MAMMA MIA: Salma Hayek's fashion-industry titan husband, François-Henri Pinault, had a child with supermodel Linda Evangelista years ago. Actually, it was the same amount of years ago that he fathered his child with Hayek.

FREE: Lindsay Lohan completed her stint on house arrest and, after performing more community service at an L.A. women's shelter, headed off to Lexington Social House in Hollywood for supper with Emile Hirsch and other pals.

VOICE OF AMERICA: Seasoned singer Javier Colon won the premiere season of The Voice, which proved enough of a hit for NBC that it will be following the Super Bowl next year?with Christina Aguilera, Cee-Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine all along for the season-two ride. Phew!

IN ON THE ACTION: Stephen Colbert, he being a wealthy individual in charge of his very own Nation, has been granted leave to form a Super PAC, which will enable him and his PACmen to raise unlimited campaign contributions for the candidates of their choice. 

TMI: Way to kick a man when he's dead, Mrs. Brady.

FATHER KNOWS BEST: Dannielynn met not be an oil heiress, but Anna Nicole Smith's daughter will always be a princess in dad Larry Birkhead's eyes.

ONGOING ISSUES: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who's been in and out of rehab for alcoholism, fell off the wagon and ended up in a London hospital...Amber Portwood has admitted she needs help and is in rehab...Brooke Mueller has finished her latest stretch of rehab and is "doing amazingly well"...

SADNESS: Along with Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera mourns the loss of best friend and Jackass costar Ryan Dunn, telling E! News that word of Dunn's death was "the worst news" he's ever heard in his life.

CIVIC DUTY: Los Angeles police are looking to celebs who tweet to spread the word about the July 16-17 closure of the 405 Freeway, which is expected to majorly muck up not only traffic flow but also the Southland economy over that weekend. We are happy to report that every Kardashian kid, plus Kylie and Kendall Jenner, has done his or her part.