James Wolcott: Nothing Honors the Dead like an Old-Fashioned Hoedown

[Dudley_DUright]

News report: The Pentagon will hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of 9/11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an unusual announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing yesterday.

"'This year the Department of Defense will initiate an America Supports You Freedom Walk,' Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of 'the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation.'

"The march will start at the Pentagon, where nearly 200 people died on 9/11, and end at the National Mall with a show by country star Clint Black."

Wolcott: Rumsfeld was disappointed that famed documentarian Leni Riefensthahl will be unable to film the event for posterity because, well, she's dead. But he's pleased as punch ("you bet!") that he'll be able to duet with Clint Black as they perform Rumsfeld's original honkytonk composition "It Takes Big Feet to Fill Big Boots (and I'm in the High Teens, Baby)."

Steve Gilliard said this showbiz/military exploitation of 9/11 will provoke a "shitstorm" of indignation and it will and it should.

But it also strikes as incredibly...pathetic. Lame. Desperate. Even the name--America Supports You Freedom Walk--sounds tonedeaf and klutzy, like a bad charity fundraising walkathon through the park.

more...

http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2005/08/nothing_honors.php

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Speaking of Clint Black, he is the "composer" of this silly little song

Black is the man behind "I Raq and Roll," a country ditty that conflates Saddam Hussein with "the devil" who attacked the United States on 9/11: "We can't ignore the devil, he'll keep coming back for more ... If they won't show us their weapons, we might have to show them ours. It might be a smart bomb -- they find stupid people, too. And if you stand with the likes of Saddam, one just might find you."

:puke:

Source:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/10/911/index.html

[delen]

9. What no Dixie Chicks

Just kidding.Guess the beltway types really do have something to celebrate, just look at all 9/11 has done for them.

[Fovea]

10. Not life imitating Art

But Kitsch imitating Art.
What awful lyrics.
Really, just pathetic.

[RethugAssKicker]

2. Redneck Dumb-fuckers

[jbane]

3. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING...RIGHT!

Is this for real? I can't believe even the Red State citizens of Dumbfuckistan would be so STOOPID as to sign on for this!

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Nope, not kidding

See this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1690216

[kskiska]

5. Reminds me of NYC's "Jazz at the Tomb"

a summer jazz series held at Grant's Tomb. Having read quite a lot on Ulysses S. Grant (not a corrupt man, BTW, but a genius of a military man not suited for a desk job) I was stunned at the lack of respect for this American hero and his wife.

[Dudley_DUright]

6. I visited Grant's house in Galena IL a few weeks ago

Very impressive place since it still has all the original furniture. I really liked his library!

[kskiska]

7. He didn't get to spend much time there, though

since he became President in 1868. After that, he went on a two-year-long world tour, then settled in NYC, where he went broke partnering with a friend of his son who bilked their brokerage firm and skipped town. He was so destitute he had to sell most of his Civil War memorabilia. Then he developed cancer of the throat and wrote his memoirs (thanks to Mark Twain) to provide for his family.

I always wanted to visit Galena. You can also visit the cottage where he died in Saratoga Springs, NY.

[Dudley_DUright]

8. True, but he was living there when he heard he was elected

and to celebrate, he had a big reception for the townspeople in his salon.

[shrike]

12. He was so ill at the time he wrote his memoirs

that eventually he had to turn to dictating them, in a voice barely above a whisper. But Twain's generous contract allowed him to provide for his family after he was gone.

[susu369]

11. Nothing Honors the Dead like an Old-Fashioned Hoedown

That header is absolutely priceless.

:rofl: