"OUT OF THE BLUE" -- Despite inane country music radio station owners and DJs, and fans, none of whom have the vaguest concept of "Freedom of Expression," The Dixie Chicks continue to dominate the charts. And, "Big Bully" Bill O'Reilly is wrong most of the times he opens his piehole, but rarely more so than when spouting off about the military.

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(This column appeared in THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST, Crawford, Texas, and at www.LoneStarIcon.com the week of June 5, 2006.)

Congress takes two weeks off, and there’s more nonsense going on than you can shake a stick at.

The hardest thing for me to learn is that I can’t find a resolution for all of America’s ills in a once-a-week column.

So, how about something on the positive end of the spectrum:

To Martie Erwin (Maguire), Emily Erwin (Robison) and Natalie Maines, a.k.a. The Dixie Chicks, I say, “You go, Girls!”

Just prior to the invasion of Iraq, Natalie informed an audience in London, England that they were not proud to acknowledge George W. Bush as a Texas homeboy. In a firestorm straight out of The Old Testament, the blinded-by-George’s-divine-light Country Music community immediately ostracized these three women of song.

It offended the sensibilities of the self-righteous purveyors and fans of mindless ditties based upon drinking oneself into a nightly stupor and spousal infidelity as ways of life that these “little wimmin” would dare be so unpatriotic as to speak out against the president. Why, their musical instruments must be crafted in hell by gargoyles relegated to eternal damnation; their music, previously held in such high regard as to have received eight Grammy awards as well as numerous additional accolades, most assuredly was written with a pen guided by the hand Satan himself.

(They have earned 39 RIAA gold, platinum and multi-platinum certifications, and are the only female group with two Diamond Awards for sales of over 10 million units. Must have been that pact with the Devil that brought all the success.)

In a replay all too eerily reminiscent of the insanity that erupted after John Lennon was misquoted about The Beatles being more popular (in many instances) among their fans than God, Country DJs (collectively not the brightest group of people on the planet) led the charge to banish and bankrupt the ladies by never playing any Dixie Chicks songs again. How lame. A broadcaster should be the absolute last of all people to trample anyone’s 1st Amendment Right to Freedom of Expression into the ground. It’s the very duty of all broadcasters to uphold that most important of American Freedoms – that’s why it’s listed at the very beginning!

Without the safety net of Freedom of Expression the broadcaster stands subject to be the first victim of unjustified silencing, even unwarranted arrest and incarceration.

These DJs incited folks to, or at a minimum went along with, marches and demonstrations denouncing The Dixie Chicks. Just as imbecilic preachers had done with their hypnotically-mesmerized teen faithful during the late ‘60s, events and gatherings were held with the sole purpose being to burn Dixie Chicks CDs and cassettes.

How dare some upstart musicians – girly musicians, no less -- defy the edicts and power of the Fuhrer… er, King… oh, whatever the hell George is.

To the standing-on-its-head, Jack-and-Miller-soaked logic of the baloney and mayo on white bread, F-150 drivin’, Christian-bred sundry Country Music aficionado, if you ain’t fer Bush and his war of egomaniacal gratification, then you ain’t fer our troops.

Anyone who’s read this far perceives the sheer inanity of that line of thinking.

Well, The Dixie Chicks have not softened any in their rhetoric; if anything this cold shoulder treatment has only steeled their resolve.

As George’s lies came back around to bite him in the ass, folks began to realize the depth of his phoniness and utter incompetence, while his poll numbers sank lower than whale excrement – creating dissidence within the GOP – the fans are returning to The Dixie Chicks in droves.

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.

“Big Bully” Bill, in his true blowhard, Neo-con mouthpiece fashion, tried to spin it out of control, as if he, the “military-never-been,” knew more than hero Murtha, who was not present to respond, and guest Gen. Wesley Clark.

One of the Bully’s asinine observations was that Murtha should not have brought an issue under investigation up on national television. Gen. Clark shot that ignorant suggestion down as Murtha doing precisely what he should.

The Bully then attempted, at length, to smear the incredibly courageous, selfless men of our fathers’ generation by accusing them of purposely slaughtering innocent civilians during World War II; Clark all but told him he was crazy, that there were never any such allegations.

So, O’Reilly altered his “fair and balanced” rant to state documented proof exists wherein American troops shot unarmed SS men, and burned Japanese soldiers in caves with flamethrowers. Again, Gen. Clark admonished him for making an unreal comparison, that there is absolutely no way to judge what transpires in the heat of battle with the systematic execution of civilians, as what happened at My Lai.

Whenever “Big Bully” spews chunks about anything involving the military, his complete nescience of the subject shines through. O’Reilly’s logic of that which should transpire on the battlefield, or simply within the ranks of fighting men and women far braver than he, reeks with a stench of implausibility matched only by Rumsfeld.

It’s not for me to judge what happened at Haditha. However, at this juncture forensic results are beginning to paint a picture that’s not entirely positive for those members of the USMC who were present. I hate to think that’s the case, but why did the Corps and NCIS wait this long to begin to conduct a thorough investigation?

I know it cuts John Murtha to the quick -- as an American, as a member of Congress, but mostly as a Marine – to have this dark cloud hovering over his beloved Corps. Yet, there’s no one else I’d rather have on the hunt than this truly honorable man.

As to “Big Bully” Bill O’Reilly and his attack upon Rep. Murtha’s vociferous questioning of the handling of this tragedy, I send a salute – with a single-finger.

This is the kind of mess that arises when young adults are forced into stress situations, fighting for a cause to which they have been given no proper explanation. They aren’t over there to save America; they’re not there to save Iraq. At this point the U.S. military is only in Iraq to try to keep each other alive.

I can fully understand the utter frustration with losing all decorum over seeing your friends killed and wounded on a daily basis by an “enemy” that essentially does not exist.

These brave young people are mired in a war not of their own making, begun with lies, for the sole purpose of making the illicit, Fascist “leaders” who stole control of our Nation nearly six years ago, and their pals, wealthier than they already were.

Many of our current military leaders are woefully inadequate for the task, because for decades the modern all-volunteer Army and Marine Corps have been breeding grounds for bureaucrats and politicians rather than warriors, especially throughout the officer grades. Take a look at Gen. Peter Pace, Gen. Mike Hayden, and the other senior officers who appear in news briefings or as shills for White House policies.

No officer was even with the patrol that day in Haditha – the highest-ranking man was a Staff Sergeant.

If in fact these Marines did flip out en masse, it’s not too difficult to comprehend how a combination of a lack of mature leadership, a neverending war that’s more like a series of daily murders, repeated rotations to the front, and one IED plus one dismembered friend too many could lead to the creation of hell in a small village.

We would all have to be blind, deaf, dumb and stupid to think this was a singular occurrence.

Therefore, I submit: Whom should the blame be put upon?

The poor lost sheep who cracked after being pushed beyond human endurance?

What about the miscreants who’ve been slithering out of every crime they have committed all along, lo these five-and-a-half years and longer?

George W. Bush has promised the World that whoever was responsible for these grisly acts shall be punished.

That’s a statement we’ve heard escape from his lie-infected lips all too often before.

This time, the blame should go posthaste to the Oval Office.

Along the way, the crimes of murder and sedition, as well as myriad Constitutional malfeasances should be charged against every general, bureaucrat, cabinet member, and rubber-stamp Congressperson or Senator who has allowed Bush to gain this dictatorial hold over our Government, especially the Prince of Torture, Inquisitor General Alberto Gonzales. We should then hold a special tribunal just for Herr Oberst Karl Rove.

I would like to have discussed the first salvo of tyranny from King George’s Right Wing Supremes. In a five to four decision the New Supremes concluded that Government employees do not have 1st Amendment protection when blowing the whistle on superiors. In short, an administrator in any Government workplace can now use the concept George W. Bush (Herr Rove perhaps, eh?) stole from Hitler of Fuhrerprinzip -- and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

The Federal Communications Commission continues to kiss the rumps of self-righteous evangelistic loons by upholding its insane $550,000 fine levied on CBS-TV ($27,500 maximum per each of the 20 network owned-and-operated stations) for Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

The network is entirely correct in its assertion that the charges as outlined by the FCC defy all logic because neither was the incident planned, nor could it have been avoided since the broadcast was live. This is nothing more than Right-wing pandering, considering that costume errors happened quite often throughout the early days of television, when live programming was the norm, and nobody was ever fined for an “oops” situation.

Also, that only the CBS-owned stations and not its hundreds of affiliates have been hit with fines further suggests that this is more specifically political payback for non-support of George W. Bush and his harebrained policies than an attempt to uphold decency in broadcasting.

If the FCC wanted to fine somebody for the “wardrobe” incident, it should have gone after Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Their act was indecent with or without clothes.

Now, The Dixie Chicks, well…

Note to “Big Bully” O’Reilly: One of those WWII vets you attempted to malign, Robert Yazzie, a Navajo “Windtalker,” passed -– fittingly -- this Memorial Day. He would have turned 82 on Tuesday, May 30.

Mr. Yazzie was one of 400 Navajo men who joined the Marine Corps and developed a code based upon their native, unwritten language. They were instrumental in confounding the Japanese, who never broke the unique code, in battles all across the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including Iwo Jima.

Although the white invaders stole their land and forced them to live on a reservation, these Native American men willingly served when our, their Country needed them.

Lest we forget…

Shalom, friends and neighbors.

© 2006, The Lone Star Iconoclast

Authors Website: www.lonestaricon.com

Authors Bio:
An erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator, Jerry Tenuto is a veteran of seven years service in the U.S. Army. He holds a BS and MA in Broadcast Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. For two decades Jerry filled the airwaves with rock, roll and banter as a disc jockey -- until greed, the rebirth of payola, and de-Reaganlation ruined that medium. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly "Out Of The Blue" feature in THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST, Crawford, Texas, www.LoneStarIcon.com -- because somebody from that community has to do the world right.