Glen Beck rally

 An interesting and entertaining clip from Sam Seder.

Moran being investigated for C street

 KC prime buzz:

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported today that House investigators are checking into the well-known "C Street house" that was home to several members of Congress.
The issue: Have members received an improper gift in the form of below-market rent?
Among house residents have been Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, a candidate for governor this year, and Kansas Congressman Jerry Moran, who is now a candidate for Brownback's Senate seat.

The Hill:

At an April campaign event with Coburn in Wichita, Kan., Moran was asked about the CREW complaint. He described the C Street house as a place where Members gather for Bible study, and he said, “It became a residence of mine several years ago. I rent a room there with other colleagues and moved my bed in and share a bathroom with other folks.”

Moran added, “I’ve never even showered at C Street.” (my emphasis)


Moran has said he believes the complaint is groundless, and he said at the Wichita event: “I do believe that there are those people that want to make certain that one’s religious faith is not something that is mingled with their public service. ... My public service is clearly related to my beliefs as a Christian.”

NYT Times on Tiller

The Sunday New York Times had a long profile on murdered abortion doctor George Tiller.

Registration is required, but it is free.

Here's an excerpt

Long ago, he had accepted the possibility he might be assassinated. It was something he and his fellow abortion providers had quietly discussed, and friends said he had lost count of all the death threats.

Even so, there was a mood of stunned rage when local abortion rights advocates gathered the Friday after his killing at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Wichita. ...

But it was a demoralized group. In Topeka, the state capital, they have long been outmuscled by conservative Christians, who have been steadily chipping away at abortion rights. One woman, a lobbyist for abortion rights, described how some legislators literally turned their backs when she testified.

Gail Finney, a junior member of the Legislature, stood and asked why there had not been more outcry from the state’s leaders over Dr. Tiller’s killing. “Where’s the anguish?” Ms. Finney said.

Not a single Kansas politician of statewide prominence showed up the next morning for Dr. Tiller’s funeral, which drew 1,200 mourners. Nor were any at Reformation Lutheran the next day, the first Sunday service after his death.

In the foyer where he was shot, the juice and coffee table had been turned into a memorial, with Dr. Tiller’s photograph next to a basket of buttons he had passed out by the boxful to patients, employees and friends. “Attitude is Everything,” they said.

Outside, Pastor Michelson greeted families with hugs. “There was no way I was going to hide inside,” he later said.

The Tiller clan took their usual spot in the pews, and Mrs. Tiller, radiant in red, was embraced again and again. Flowers from her husband’s funeral framed the altar.

The church was more crowded than usual.

In his sermon, Pastor Michelson openly acknowledged his own apprehensions. “Our sanctuary has been violated,” he said. He urged his congregation to rise above fear and anger, and took note of the supportive letters and e-mail messages from churches all over the country.

David Brooks is an"exceptional" idiot

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

David Brooks is a conservative-leaning New York Times columnist and is supposedly one of the smartest political commentators around. How then to you explain his bizarre comment Friday on NPR. Brooks observed that it was the 500th birthday of John Calvin.

According to Brooks, Calvin was responsible for democracy, capitalism, and "American exceptionalism."

American exceptionalism is, according to Wikipedia,

the theory that the United States occupies a special niche among developed nations^[1] in terms of its national credo, historical evolution, political and religious institutions and unique origins.

Now how Calvin can be responsible for this special character of America is beyond me, especially since he died 40 years before the first British colony in North America.

The demented mind of Dennis Miller

I'm trying to remember if Dennis Miller was ever really funny. In his new right-wing radio incarnation, he certainly isn't. Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck strike me as being occasionally humorous. Miller more often comes off as just plain creepy.

Bob Newhart started his career with an album entitled "The Button-Down Mind." I wonder what a collection of Miller's radio raves might be titled.

On a broadcast I heard on Sunday, Miller said

"it's the romantic in me that wants to see Ahmadinejad's brain's splattered on a wall"--romantic!

Joseph Lowery and Big Bill Broonzy

The right-wing cretin Glen Beck is attacking Joseph Lowrey for calling America racist in his benediction.

Here's what Lowery said that got Beck and other cons all upset

LOWERY: Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.

Beck attacked then Obama, saying he “was shocked” that Obama “actually smiled when he said this and shook your head.”

It's likely that Obama was appreciating the twist that Lowery put on a classic blues by Big Bill Broonzy.

This little song that I'm singin' about,
people, you know that it's true
If you're black and gotta work for livin',
now, this is what they will say to you,

they says, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but if you're black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back"

I was in a place one night,
they was all havin' fun,
They was all buyin' beer and wine,
But they would not sell me none,

they said, "If you was white, You'd be alright,
If you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I went to an employment office,
I got a number and I got in line,
They called everybody's number,
but they never did call mine.

They said, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

Me and a man workin' side by side,
this is what it meant
They was payin' him a dollar an hour,
and they was payin' me fifty cent.

They said, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
If you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I helped build the country,
and I fought for it too,
now, I guess that you can see,
what a black man have to do.

They says, "If you was white, you's alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I helped win sweet victory,
with my little plow and hoe
Now, I want you to tell me, brother,
what you gonna do 'bout old Jim Crow?

Now, if you is white, you's alright,
if you's brown, stick around,
But if you's black, hmmm, hmmm, brother,
get back, get back, get back.

The Truth about Acorn

Missing from the GOP Convention

Ethicial questions about another Kansas political pastor

Last year a secular right wing talk radio station dropped a radio program co-hosted by Rev. Terry Fox, a conservative powerhouse pastor. Soon, the church dropped Fox and it turned out that he had spent large sums of the church's money on the radio program without authorization.

Now it seem that another right-wing pastor who played a key role in passing Kansas's anti-gay marriage and civil union bill is in ethical hotwater.

See this AP story in today's Topeka Capital Journal

OVERLAND PARK — Questions about financial accountability at a fast-growing megachurch have prompted a leading Christian radio network to drop Rev. Jerry Johnston’s daily show.

Bott Radio Network, which aired Johnston’s 30-minute program Monday through Friday on KCCV-AM 760, dropped the program Monday.

The move came a day after The Kansas City Star reported that hundreds of people have left Johnston’s First Family Church in Overland Park in recent years because of concerns about a lack of financial accountability.

The church has 4,200 members, a $17 million annual budget and a TV ministry that has gone global, and Johnston has become a leader in speaking out on conservative causes.

Dick Bott, founder and president of the radio network, said he was surprised to learn the First Family Church isn’t a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which sets standards for charities and religious groups.

The KC Star article (registration required) is pretty devastating.

Lavish lifestyles at odds with pastor’s calls for the faithful to sacrifice
Johnston and his family travel abroad, live in big houses and drive church-owned SUVs.By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Expensive trips. New homes. An elite credit card.

The lifestyle of the Rev. Jerry Johnston’s family has raised eyebrows among former members of First Family Church.

“Everything is extravagant,” said Melisa Gingrich, who left the church last year. “That’s the way the Johnstons live.”

Johnston and the church board will not reveal his compensation, nor how much he makes from his for-profit corporation that handles his books, videos and speaking engagements.

The Johnstons go on several “Christian tours” each year. Last year, Jerry and Christie Johnston went to Hawaii, the Holy Land and Rome. Last month, the Johnstons spent six days in Hawaii. They plan to visit England in May and Germany in July....

Former members also complain that Johnston’s family members drive expensive sport utility vehicles owned by the church.

And then there’s the black American Express card. Church members said they were surprised when the Johnstons used it to pay for lunch.

Known as the Centurion card, it is offered only to “a small but affluent group of card members for whom individual attention and access to previously unavailable elite travel benefits was of great interest,” according to American Express. The annual fee alone is $2,500.

Johnston, however, declined to answer questions about whether he had such a card.

“The credit cards used by Pastor Johnston and the other employees of the church,” his spokesman said, “are a personal matter.”

EARLIER:
Rest of the Story about Rev, Terry Fox resignation (September 27, 2006)


Leading Kansas Conservative Pastor Resigns Suddenly (August 07, 2006)

Long may it wave

Seems everyone is all excited about a new version of the American national anthem--because the lyrics are sung in Spanish. President Bush has denounced it. "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English." Michelle Malkin denounces Bush for having a Spanish language web-site.

Liberal/communitarian sociologist Amitai Etzioni in a TPM Cafe post ("No Affirmative Action for National Anthem" argues that "it has been a long and productive tradition for ethnic groups to sing both the national anthem and that of their country of origin, to celebrate both the 4th of July and --"their" independence day, and--to display both the American and "their' flag. To have ethnic specific NATIONAL anthems, instead of a shared one (which may be modified) cuts into the bone."

According to a Los AngelesHispanic dee-jay intervied on NPR , even Latinos don't like it, he said by a 60-40 margin.

Now I'm a Norman Thomas (wash it, don't burn it) and Todd Gitlin (Intellectuals and the Flag) type of leftist, but I don't see wait the fuss is all about.

After all, there is the Negro National Anthem and "How High the Moon" is the bebop national anthem.

What's wrong with a Spanish version of the SSB, when most of us don't know the English version very well

nearly two-thirds of Americans ... do not know the lyrics of the national anthem's first stanza, according to a recent Harris survey of 2,200 Americans. The song includes four stanzas, but only the first is usually sung.

What's more, of those who claimed to know all the words, only 39 percent knew what follows "whose broad stripes and bright stars," which is "through the perilous fight." One-third answered, "were so gallantly streaming," while a fifth said, "gave proof through the night." Both phrases appear later in the first stanza.
[For a source on the Harris poll, click here--March 29, 2009

Many people feel that the martial spirit of the SSB doesn't reflect the real spirit of America and feel that we deserve better music in our national anthem. Some would prefer "America the Beautiful" or "This Land is My Land." But that's a question for another day. Today, people are talking about whether the SSB should be English only.

It's easy to forget that a century ago, America was multi-lingual and that a lot of cultural diversity was wiped out in the Americanization campaigns that accompanied America's entry into World War I. I had a sneaking suspicion that this Spanish translation of the Star Spangled Banner was not so unique, so I did a little internet searching. Remember that the SSB wasn't even adopted as the official national anthem until 1931.

YIDDISH

Here are the lyrics of the "Star-Spangled Banner" in Yiddish (albeit not in the original Hebrew characters), in a translation of Ber Grin's, which can be found in _In dinst fun folk; almanakh fun yidishn folks-ordn_, New York: Book League of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order I.W.O., 1947, p. 112.

  

Star spengld bener



fun Frensis Skat Ki



O zog! konstu zen in likht fun sof nakht,

Vos mir hobn bagrist in demer-shayn mit freyd?

Di shtrayfn, di shtern -- in flaker fun shlakht

Fun di shuts-vent mir hobn mit bang in blik bagleyt.



Un der blits fun raket, un der knal fun kanon

Durkh der nakht gerufn hobn zey: es lebt di fon.

O zog! di fon mit di shtern iz zi nokh tsehelt

Iber land fun fraye un iber heym fun held?



Afn breg, durkh neplen fun yam fartunklt,

Vu dem soynes makhne iz fartayet in shrek,

Vos iz es, in bloz fun laykhtn vintl fartunken,

Ot halb-farborgn, ot af a helft antplekt?

Es iz di fon mit di shtern, o, af lang zey tsehelt

Iber land fun fraye un der heym fun held.



O, azoy vet es tomed zayn, ven frayer mentsh mit gever in hant

Bashitsn vet zayn libe heym kegn farlend fun krig un zayn shnit!

Gebentsht mit zig un frid, zol dos land

Loybn di kraft, vos hot undz als folk farhit!



Undzer kamf iz a gerekhter -- undzer iz der nitsokhn,

Zol zayn undzer gebot: "In got iz undzer bitokhn!"

Un di fon mit di shtern, in zig vet zi zayn tsehelt

Iber land fun fraye un der heym fun held!

[Update:This is from discussion list of Mendele, a web forum for Yiddish literature and language.Thanks A.L.]

Another Yiddish version can be found here. and which appears below. It was published by the Educational Alliance in 1943 on the 100th anniversary of the death of Francis Scott Keys.
[Thanks A.L.]




SAMOAN

Aue! se'i e vaai, le malama o ataata mai

Na sisi a'e ma le mimita, i le sesega mai o le vaveao

O ai e ona tosi ma fetu, o alu a'e i taimi vevesi tu

I luga o 'Olo mata'utia, ma loto toa tausa'afia

O Roketi mumu fa'aafi, o pomu ma fana ma aloi afi

E fa'amaonia i le po atoa, le fu'a o lo'o tu maninoa

Aue! ia tumau le fe'ilafi mai, ma agiagia pea

I eleele o Sa'olotoga, ma Nofoaga o le au totoa.



A SPANISH version prepared in 1919 by the U.S. Bureau of Education.


It has also been translated into NAVAJO and applauded when sung in public.

In 2002, the Cherokee National Youth Choir sang their English and Cherokee version of the Banner in a performance at the Department of the Interior! The Cherokee nation has actually revised the SSB into their own United Cherokee national anthem which can be heard here. This is the only version I've come across that actually falls under Etizoni's edict against separate ethnic national anthems.

In 1923, an article in the Scientific Monthly complained that when brought into a class to be taught "Americanism" Finnish immigrants wouldn't sing the Star Spangled Banner. Incidentally, the Finns are criticized for their radicalism and described as "Orientals."

In the early 1940s at the height of war-time unity, Metropolitan Opera Chorus & National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini performed the Internationale sung in Russian, followed by the US anthem. MP3
There was controversy when Jose Feliciano sang the SSB in 1968 and when Jimi Hendrix turned an instrumental version into an anti-war protest at Woodstock, but those passed.
Translating the Star Spangled Banner into other languages--whether Spanish, Navajo, or Yiddish-- is not un-patriotic. It is part of the process of self-Americanization.

Update: Norm Geras discusses the controversy on Norm's blog. I like his conclusion.

Whether or not US citizens should all learn English and know how to sing the national anthem in English, it's perfectly OK to have a Spanish version. It's the land of the free, isn't it? So people can sing the thing every which way they want. And having a Spanish version is a way for Spanish-speaking US citizens to embrace the anthem to their bosoms. It may not be the only way, but it's a way.

Joshua Rosenau on the anthem (O'zog, kenstu sehn, wenn bagin licht dervacht) at Thoughts from Kansas.

Update March 29, 2009 A couple of minor spelling and grammatical changes made. In the qu ote about Harris poll, an ellipsis was added to make it clearer. A source for the Harris Poll has been added. I don't think it was the original source, but a reference is belatedly provided.