As a child there was nothing more fun in grade school then singing those wonderful patriotic songs.  This Land is Your Land, America, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the mother of them all, the Star Spangled Banner.  The room would shake with the voices of us wee bairns singing our hearts out.  Loudness was more present then accuracy, but heck we were enthusiastic.

Now days I think you would be harder pressed to find that happening, but the Star Spangled Banner remains legend in it's own right.

In the Air Force there were not too many days where I did not hear it played.  When the music played we stopped whatever we were doing, we saluted the flag and we maintained silence and respect.  Like my views about the flag,  I admit I am somewhat biased about the Anthem.

But even the general public treasures their Anthem.  Sung at sport events, played to honor athletes at the Olympics and even the rock instrumental versions by Boston and Hendrix: It is timeless.  Whitney Houston, in her glory years. brought the nation to its knees with her rendition years ago, and Roseanne Barr brought the same nation to its feet in anger with hers.

It is powerful, emotional and inspiring.

And of course, controversial.

Spanish Version of 'Star-Spangled Banner' Draws Protests

British music producer Adam Kidron says that when he came up with the idea of a Spanish-language version of the U.S. national anthem, he saw it as an ode to the millions of immigrants seeking a better life.

Take a moment to savor the irony of a Brit wanting to use the Anthem, considering it's place in our history.  More on that later.

But in the week since Kidron announced the song — which features artists such as Wyclef Jean, hip-hop star Pitbull and Puerto Rican singers Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon — it has been the target of a fierce backlash.

Some Internet bloggers and others are infuriated by the thought of the "Star-Spangled Banner" sung in a language other than English.

Now there is a contradiction, eh?  I want you to go , but I won't.  The reasons why are fairly complicated, as is my feeling about the movie.  In certain ways the movie is a good thing and a bad thing.

The story of how the passengers of Flight 93 is a grand epic on some senses and a tragedy in others.  To look at it in the terms of the "hero" film one can easily see the elements that make it compelling:  The drama was playing out live, via cell phones and recordings as the passengers of the flight found themselves not only hijacked but due to the timing, forewarned as to what there fate would be, and in knowing that, they took fate in their own hands,

That immediately brings many conflicting emotions and images.  For the families, the heart wrenching feeling of loss and despair, as the families knew their loved ones were doomed.  There must have been an intense feeling of the inevitable, the waiting for their deaths, then a rush of adrenalin as the revolt takes place, pride then fear as contact is lost, and lingering hope that is shattered with the news of the crash.  Hollywood prides itself on movies that take you on "an emotional roller coaster" but the reality of this event makes that seem tame.

To those of us not connected as closely to the flight, we can say we shared their pain, but it is a lie.  I cannot share any of that, and moreover, I have to deal with my own personal shame: Would I have had the guts to do the same?  If faced with my certain death, would I have hidden in a corner, or struck back against the hijackers?  I can hope in my life, if I am faced with that manner of choice, that I would be remembered with such pride.  I can hope.

The lawmakers on Capital Hill are frantic tio take the gas crisis and turn it to a partisan advantage.  President Bush speaks about our addiction to foreign oil, while the Politicians on the left accuse him of being cozy with big oil companies and everyone around them scream for an investigatoin into oil profits and price gouging.,

I am of two minds about the last item.  Living in a free market economy we have to deal with prices that inflate due to market speculations and demand.  It happens.  That said, I think there should be some scrutiny to ensure that the players are not greasing the process to their profit outrageously.

As for the big oil and republican conspiracies, I would say it's just a baseless aprtisan attack.  But it resonates with the people and the dems know it.

Bush though is on the track to the heart of the issue.  We are too dependent on foriegn oil and our habits are hurting us.

Bingo.  The era of cheap gas has spoiled us to the point we stopped caring.  When you adjust the gas prices to reflect inflation, we are only paying slightly more then we did historically.  And since we could afford it, no one really cared about SUV's versus hybrids.  We bought what we wanted.

I offer as proof the Democrats in the gas station stunt below; the Republicans at their Caucus, also below; and all politicians in general, as noted in this article. 

Lawmakers talk gas, drive away in SUVs

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, another sign that America is addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it.

But America is in the denial phase of this addiction, as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: Americans drive too much in big, gas-guzzling vehicles.

Ann Coulter points out the inherent hypocrisy in the Democrat's wailing and gnashing of teeth over high gas prices. 

It's Hard Out Here For A Pump

By: Ann Coulter

I would be more interested in what the Democrats had to say about high gas prices if these were not the same people who refused to let us drill for oil in Alaska, imposed massive restrictions on building new refineries, and who shut down the development of nuclear power in this country decades ago.

But it's too much having to watch Democrats wail about the awful calamity to poor working families of having to pay high gas prices.

Imposing punitive taxation on gasoline to force people to ride bicycles has been one of the left's main policy goals for years.

For decades Democrats have been trying to raise the price of gasoline so that the working class will stop their infernal car-driving and start riding on buses where they belong, while liberals ride in Gulfstream jets.

The last time the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency was in 1993. Immediately after trying to put gays in the military and socialize all health care, Clinton's next order of business was to propose an energy tax on all fuels, including a 26-cent tax on gas. I think the bill was called "putting people first in line at the bus station."

Al Gore defended the gas tax, vowing that it was "absolutely not coming out" of the energy bill regardless of "how much trouble it causes the entire package." The important thing was to force Americans to stop their infernal car-driving, no matter how much it cost.

And mind you, this was before we knew Gore was clinically insane. Back then we thought he was just a double-talking stuffed shirt who seemed kind of gay.

Democrats in Congress promptly introduced an "energy bill" that would put an additional 25-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline to stop "global warming," an atmospheric phenomenon supposedly aggravated by frivolous human activities such as commerce, travel and food production. This is the Democratic Party. That's their program.

I am a little under the weather tonight, so i am just going to repost this essay from Stop the ACLU. ~ LSU

Many of us find it disturbing to hear the sympathetic apologists defend the ACLU’s work to protect pedophiles over our children. We watch the ACLU fight for sex offenders to live next to Elementary schools, and playgrounds. We watched in horror as the ACLU defended NAMBLA, under the banner of free speech, to plan and talk about how to rape young boys. It doubles the anger to hear the apologists defend the ACLU with some twisted talk perverting the Constitution.

In Mississippi, billboards of sex offenders and child molesters are being errected, but of course the ACLU oppose this. Of course all of these things we hear excused away by liberal apologists, but lets take a deeper look at the ACLU’s agenda. Let’s take a deeper look at the industry that the ACLU wants to defend here.

“It would be a mistake to think that all the children who are being exploited sexually are kidnapped by “kid porn” operators. Many of the children are being sold to people by their parents. In some cases, the parents have agreed to perform incest with their children. Gonorrhea of the throat in infants as young as nine and eighteen months has been reported”.source

This is as sick as it gets folks. But the ACLU believes it is a freedom being denied to people. And before liberals start to ask. Yes, the ACLU has a current policy advocating the legalization of child porn distribution and possession.

“Students of liberty, from John Stuart Mill to Thomas Emerson, have all intentionally excluded children from their formula for freedom. The ACLU does not. Not even when the subject is pornography.Quote from Twilight Of Liberty

In 1982, the ACLU, in an amicus role, lost in a unanimous decision in the Supreme Court to legalize the sale and distribution of child pornography.”

The case is…: New York Vs Ferber, 458 U.S. 747
It can be found here.

The Washington State Democratic Party today filed an FEC complaint against Us Senate candidate Mike MCGavick.

The essence of the complaint is that when Mike announced his candidacy to run against incumbent Maria Cantwell, his employer gave him a retirement package that amounts to an illegal campaign contribution.  The core of this is that Safeco Insurance modified an agreement to allow him faster access to several hundred thousand stock options via accelerated vesting.  This effectively gave him a war chest for what will be a hard battle against Cantwell.

The irony here is on two levels.  First, Maria Cantwell played a similar game when she successfully ran for Senate in 2000.  At the heart of the complaint filed against her were:

• Cantwell pledged as collateral a $375,000 home to set up a $600,000 line of credit despite FEC rules requiring collateral for a campaign loan to be at least as much as the loan.

• On a second loan, a $4,000,000 line of credit on which Cantwell ended up borrowing $3.2 million, Cantwell pledged as collateral RealNetworks stock which was then worth $5.6 million.  Both loans were from U.S. Bank and on both Cantwell received the lender's prime rate, "potentially saving her tens of thousands of dollars" according to the Associated Press article.  The article went on to state, "FEC rules prohibit candidates from receiving a more favorable rate than another bank customer for the same type of loan."

• While Cantwell had a legal obligation to disclose both loans by mid-October in her committee's report to the FEC, she failed to make any disclosure until January 31, 2001, and then only after receiving two letters from the Federal Election Commission.  After illegally failing to disclose the large loans during the campaign, Cantwell was elected by a mere 2,229 votes.

Cantwell's complaint was essentially dismissed except for an admonishment letter sent due to a failure to disclose.

I will leave the legal arguing to the lawyers.  But a couple things strike me.

Congratulations to Tony Snow who will be announced as the new White House Press Secretary tomorrow.

I know it will cement the accusations about Fox News being in the pocket of the Republicans but honestly he is exactly what Bush needs, if Bush let's him do his thing.

Sources: Tony Snow to Be Named White House Press Secretary

Tony Snow will be named new White House press secretary on Wednesday morning, FOX News has learned. Snow is expected to be at the White House for the announcement. He has been mulling the offer for the last several days.

Long before the announcement, oddsmakers were banking on Snow, host of FOX News Talk's "The Tony Snow Show," to be tapped for the highly visible White House post.

"I expect to see him at the podium in just a few days, in the press room at the White House," Fred Barnes, editor of The Weekly Standard and a FOX News contributor, said Tuesday.

The talk radio host was given a clean bill of health by his oncologist Tuesday, following a CAT scan and other tests that were undertaken last Thursday. Sources said Snow was President Bush's first choice, but he needed the all-clear from his doctors before he takes the job. Snow is recovering from colon cancer.

"He would like to do it. If he gets an OK from his doctor, I expect it will be Tony Snow and the press will welcome him with open arms," Time magazine columnist Margaret Carlson said during the day.

"He has a great common sense, a great understanding of the issue. He is able to do it with good humor. We see him handle cancer with good humor, I think he can handle (NBC's) David Gregory with that same great humor, but also be somebody who would really communicate to the American people in a good common sense way," said Barbara Comstock, a former director of research and planning at the Republican National Committee. Gregory is known to aggressively challenge current White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan during daily press briefings.

The call has been issued for Diane Sawyers resignation over a Primetime special that aired last Friday.  This is a case that illustrates the cold hearted callous disregard for people that the news sometimes exhibits in order to get a "good story."  And their actions have ensured a child abuser gets to go unpunished.

During the filming of a story on dysfunctional step families, ABC cameras caught a beating of a teenage girl by her father on video tape...and did nothing about it....for 4 years

Calls for Sawyer to Resign After Teen Beating Report

The shocking beating of a teenage girl by her father that aired during a Diane Sawyer report about dysfunctional stepfamilies has set off a firestorm.

State police officials in upstate Lake Placid say they are going over the tape of last Friday's "Primetime" news magazine to determine if charges can be brought against the natural father, a Iraq War military reservist, and the teen's stepmother.

The investigation -- which includes the local Franklin County DAs office, police said -- was only part of the fallout from the broadcast.

Outraged viewers have filled up the ABC News Web site's message board with more that 1,400 messages in the first 36 hours after the broadcast -- many calling for Sawyer and the program's producers to be fired for not going to the authorities immediately.

The beating was caught on videotape recorders that the family -- identified as Lynn and Joe Nelson -- had allowed ABC News to install in their home for a program on the difficulties stepfamilies have getting along.

This is sickening.  They taped it, saw it and just decided not to do anything about it.  They could have called social services, or the police, but didn't. 

Are your ratings so much more important then a child's pain?  Was it worth it to the girl?  Did you pay perhaps her by the bruise?  Or were you secretly hoping for a broken bone maybe?  A little more screaming and blood perhaps?  "Grimace for the camera sweetheart, and make sure the fear looks real....and ACTION!"

In case you have not seen it, Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit and author has launched new site called Hotair.com

According to the site:

Our mission at Hot Air is to:

• Expose new viewers to the revolutionary world of videoblogging, animation, and Internet broadcasting;
• Recruit dynamic, enterprising people with creative skills from across the country to help us challenge (and CONQUER!) the dinosaur broadcast media outlets;
• Laugh. Report. Laugh. Entertain. Laugh. Inform. Laugh. Make money. Did we say laugh?

If this recent submission is an indicator, they are serious about their laughter and on a good track.

Doug TenNapal is a brilliant animator, artist, filmaker and musician.  And now he is a contributer to Hotair.com

It’s a Hot Air exclusive as animator Doug TenNapel weighs in on the immigration “debate.” Click the image for video. A most unholy union indeed.

(video link here)

If that looked amazingly professional to you, well, there’s a reason. Two reasons, actually. Our deepest thanks to Doug and EEF for gracing us with one of their originals. (And there’s more on the way.)

Doug also has a blog. Head over and congratulate him on having committed career suicide by outing himself as a conservative.

Go Doug!

I just got this email from Factcheck.org concerning a new video produced by Russ Feingold.  He claims it is just a parody shown at a fund raiser, but the group who produced it indicates they may use it as an ad in a shorter version. 

You decide:  Parody or Parisian hatchet job.

http://factcheck.org/article388.html

Is This A Joke?

Sen. Russ Feingold's Leadership PAC suggests the White House wants to wiretap political opponents.

Summary

Sen. Russ Feingold's leadership PAC sponsored an Internet video making an unfounded suggestion that President Bush is being urged to eavesdrop "on anybody who has the nerve to disagree with [him] - court order or not."

A Feingold spokesman says the ad is a parody. Funny or not, it makes an accusation for which there's no evidence.

Feingold himself says in the video that "our country hasn't stood for this kind of abuse of power in 200 years." We think he's forgetting such things as FDR's forced internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans in World War II, and Lincoln's summary jailings of Confederate sympathizers.

Analysis

The Progressive Patriots Fund founded by Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin posted a video titled "W" on their website last week.  On Friday, the group's website posted an announcement that Feingold had shown the ad at a Texas fundraiser.  They say they are considering airing a shorter version of the video as a TV ad in the future.

Eavesdropping on everybody?

The video shows a presidential advisor who bears a strong resemblance to Karl Rove addressing someone as "Georgie baby" and "GW," who appears only in shadows. The Rove character says, "The war still got everyone running scared.  They'll go along with whatever you say.  Forget the rules and quit treating the Constitution like it's set in stone.  For starters, we should be eavesdropping on anybody  who has the nerve to disagree with you - court order or not. . . . It's not domestic spying.  It's terrorist surveillance." At that point "GW" is revealed, dressed as George Washington. He says "I would never condone that."