Or, could these be new, younger, hipper fans?
Does it really matter?
In a way, yes - because warmongering, hard-headed, irrational "My president's always right no matter what"-types don't deserve The Dixie Chicks!
Their latest album, "Taking the Long Way," was released on May 26. That same evening the ladies played to a standing room only crowd at Bryant Park in New York City.
The album sold in excess of 525,000 copies in the first week, making them the only female group in history to have three albums debut at #1 in the Top 200 (#2 in Australia).
Virtually across the board the reviewers are raving about their combination of classic rock and Texas stylings - fighting words, tough music. On July 21 they'll begin their "Accidents & Accusations Tour" in Detroit.
I'm about to buy my first Dixie Chicks CD; I think it'll make a nice complement to Neil Young's newest, "Living With War."
I don't write all this because I'm a Dixie Chicks fan. I never paid the group a whole heck of a lot of attention until the Country Music community made outcasts of them. Just to show how uninformed that segment can be, though, during the 1990s I used to watch Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" every night, first on Comedy Central then ABC-TV. Quite often he would have Country artists as guests: Naomi Judd; Toby Keith; Natalie Maines, to name a few.
Ms. Maines always showed a propensity for progressive thinking and Liberal open-mindedness, as did some of the other Country stars. Had the folks who listened to that genre of music been paying attention, they might not have been so filled with shock and awe at her comment back in January of 2003.
Let's face it - so many of these Country stars who have filled the airwaves with jingoistic pro-war songs have never spent one day in uniform or service to our Nation. It's really easy to praise the glory of war and combat when you have absolutely no idea what misery and horror is left in its wake.
Take that clown "Big Bully" Bill O'Reilly. He recently lambasted Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. for doing his job as a member of Congress - questioning the lack of responsibility the U.S. Marine Corps and NCIS were willing to take regarding the alleged massacre of civilians at Haditha, Iraq.
As an oft-decorated Marine Colonel, a veteran of combat in VietNam who retired after 37 years, and a lifetime servant of the people of this Country with more than 30 years in Congress, there is perhaps nobody more eminently qualified - or deserving - to bring this atrocity out into the public arena.
Rep. Murtha is absolutely, 100% correct in being outraged that the Corps sat on its hands in this matter for some four months, doing literally nothing but accepting questionable reports of the participants until autopsy findings began to hit the media. Once a Marine always a Marine - and this sort of disaster undoubtedly sickens and disgusts every living Marine.
It should sicken and disgust every living American.
It should sicken and disgust every human being who is alive and possesses a conscience.
That, of course, would eliminate George W. Bush, the Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Peter Pace, Herr Oberst Karl Rove, and the rest of their Cabal.
Does it really matter?
In a way, yes - because warmongering, hard-headed, irrational "My president's always right no matter what"-types don't deserve The Dixie Chicks!
Their latest album, "Taking the Long Way," was released on May 26. That same evening the ladies played to a standing room only crowd at Bryant Park in New York City.
Virtually across the board the reviewers are raving about their combination of classic rock and Texas stylings - fighting words, tough music. On July 21 they'll begin their "Accidents & Accusations Tour" in Detroit.
I'm about to buy my first Dixie Chicks CD; I think it'll make a nice complement to Neil Young's newest, "Living With War."
I don't write all this because I'm a Dixie Chicks fan. I never paid the group a whole heck of a lot of attention until the Country Music community made outcasts of them. Just to show how uninformed that segment can be, though, during the 1990s I used to watch Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" every night, first on Comedy Central then ABC-TV. Quite often he would have Country artists as guests: Naomi Judd; Toby Keith; Natalie Maines, to name a few.
Ms. Maines always showed a propensity for progressive thinking and Liberal open-mindedness, as did some of the other Country stars. Had the folks who listened to that genre of music been paying attention, they might not have been so filled with shock and awe at her comment back in January of 2003.
Let's face it - so many of these Country stars who have filled the airwaves with jingoistic pro-war songs have never spent one day in uniform or service to our Nation. It's really easy to praise the glory of war and combat when you have absolutely no idea what misery and horror is left in its wake.
Take that clown "Big Bully" Bill O'Reilly. He recently lambasted Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. for doing his job as a member of Congress - questioning the lack of responsibility the U.S. Marine Corps and NCIS were willing to take regarding the alleged massacre of civilians at Haditha, Iraq.
As an oft-decorated Marine Colonel, a veteran of combat in VietNam who retired after 37 years, and a lifetime servant of the people of this Country with more than 30 years in Congress, there is perhaps nobody more eminently qualified - or deserving - to bring this atrocity out into the public arena.
Rep. Murtha is absolutely, 100% correct in being outraged that the Corps sat on its hands in this matter for some four months, doing literally nothing but accepting questionable reports of the participants until autopsy findings began to hit the media. Once a Marine always a Marine - and this sort of disaster undoubtedly sickens and disgusts every living Marine.
It should sicken and disgust every living American.
It should sicken and disgust every human being who is alive and possesses a conscience.
That, of course, would eliminate George W. Bush, the Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Peter Pace, Herr Oberst Karl Rove, and the rest of their Cabal.
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