Every year on the 4th of July, my family sits down to watch the film, "1776." Besides just being appropriate to the holiday, it is a good movie. Musical, to be more precise.

If you don't know what I'm talking about read about it here. "1776" is a musical written by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone. It was a stage play (it won the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1969) before Columbia Pictures committed it to film and released it in 1972, just 4 years shy of the Bicentennial.

Come down below the fold to find out more...

It was a courageous act for those who signed the Declaration of Independence to stand up to the tyranny of King George in defense of their "unalienable rights." Yet still they stood up, knowing that human rights are just too important to give up.

They were patriots. They stood up for what they knew was best for the people.

My question for you in 2008 is, do you have that same courage - the courage to be a patriot and do right by our country? And what are you going to do for our country to make it live up to its ideals?

I read with horror Nyceve's diary on the rec list about junk health insurance and the many comments on the diary from people with health problems and their fears about healthcare.  I wanted to offer some simple solutions that everyone--yes everyone--can do to improve their own health, which can reduce your anxiety about future diseases and health problems.  More below the fold.

I was shocked by the results of today's Cheers and Jeers Poll. Samuel Adams got smoked by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.  He even lost to Abigail Adams.

Does this community need an introduction to the Father of the American Revolution?

Among other things, he was a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.  We should all get to know him better, IMHO.  Brewing beer was a business he inherited from his father, but business was not his specialty.  Politics was what he lived for and American Independence was his idea.  He was a close friend of Thomas Paine and one of the few founding fathers to call for independence before Lexington and Concord.

WHEN THEY CAME FOR THE FIFTH AMENDMENT...

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

...and declared Americans to be 'enemy combatants' without constitutional rights, I did nothing. I was not an enemy combatant.

I am voting for Barack Obama.  It will be the first vote I ever cast as an American citizen and it will be done so with all the pride and honor a human being could possibly feel.  This entry is my story.  It represents what is most beautiful about this country, and the supreme importance of not taking that beauty for granted.  I hope that by telling it, I can inspire you to be a better American.

After observing human nature for sixty years I see that most folks are basically nice....but some of them....well, ‘clueless’ is too impolite a word, and calling people dumb as a bag of hammers wasn’t attracting many buyers either, so maybe I’ll just say that a lot of people don’t have a well-developed sense of situational awareness. Or, as I sometimes mumble..."Here’s your sign".

My son has the "blessing" of being born on the 4th of July. Growing up in and around Philadelphia, I can remember a time, the years around the Bicentennial mostly, when the idea of being born on Independence Day might have meant something. Currently, it's good for a day off, and the relatives have a better reason to congregate in a big group other than to hear and see fireworks explode overhead. As George W. Bush and his kleptocratic cronies have forced a sunset on the America I loved and admired, I don't know whether I'm looking at a toddling future patriot or a future refugee.

I've always seen the continuing hole at Ground Zero as symbolic of the last 8 years of political leadership. With the full weight of New Yorkers & the American people behind them to do what's right after a terrible tragedy, instead the reconstruction at what used to be the World Trade Center has been plagued with cronyism, flawed engineering, piss poor aesthetics, numerous design revisions, cost overruns and general ineptitude that has left more or less a 16 acre hole in Manhattan 7 years after the attack. It's basically the same quality of judgment exemplified with Iraq & the rebuilding of New Orleans.

To pour more salt on the wound, this week a report by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey said the project may go as much as 20% over its $15 billion dollar budget. Also, construction at the site, originally slated to be done by this year, may not be completed until as late as 2014. That would make the rebuilding process at Ground Zero longer than the time it took NASA to put men on the Moon.

I have been extremely proud of my country over this past year because of Barack Obama's candidacy for the presidency. In 40 years, we went from the slayings of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers to having Barack Obama heading full steam towards the White House. It is a mark of extreme progress, yet sometimes I'm reminded of the latent racism that pops up to rear its ugly head during these times. Today, the day before our day of national pride, I received one more reminder that we've come a long way, but still have far to go. Today, I got home to see this on my younger brother's back windshield:

edit: Just for those that doubt some racism claims, last summer I was told I was stupid for voting for "some dumb n*gger"

Well it has been 232 years!  Actually things went sour quite a while ago, but that is the time from then until now.  The last really strong thoughts I had about a new American revolution were during the Vietnam War.  I wasn't alone.  Not at all.  I just reached over to my bookshelf to pull out my copy of the book that sums that all up.  It is entitled: The Movement Toward a New America: The Beginnings of a Long Revolution  Assembled by Mitchell Goodman, A Charter Member of the Great Conspiracy, in behalf of the movement.  It is 752 pages long and the size of a big city phone book.  Here's how it starts:

WHAT IT IS

This is not a book of the mind alone.  There are minds here - some of the best in America.  The Movement is not mindless.  It is a book of bodies, souls, minds - inseperable.

It is a book of the Movement experience; ideas, theories, analysis are set inthe experiential context.  It is a book of acts, of voices, plans, hopes - of how to live, what to do.

 It may seem funny that we have such a document.  I'll bet almost no one has seen it.  Look beyond the break and allow me to share some things with you.  I think they matter very much right now.

   Thousands of firefighters from across California, and some from out of state, will be seeing fireworks tomorrow, but not the fun kind they would like to see.  Nor will they have a chance to relax at BBQs or picnics with family and friends.  That's because they will be on the front lines fighting the countless wildfires that continue to burn in various parts of California and other states, the biggest currently in the Big Sur area (Los Padres National Forest.)  
 Tomorrow the firefighters my city will hold their annual pancake breakfast, a fundraiser for their firemen's fund.  The breakfast is in conjunction with our county's big 4th of July parade, which attracts local dignitaries, service groups, and performances from the likes of {ugh} the Stanford "band".
 With that inspiration, I'd like to hold a virtual "pancake breakfast" fundraiser for firefighters and other groups involved in helping fire victims.

McCain wants to make this election about judgment and trust. He has called into question Obama’s trustworthiness.  McCain claims that he will "keep his word" to Americans and declares himself a person we "can trust."

Of course this is more double talk by McCain, who reminds us every day about his similarities with George Bush.

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist for CNA/NNOC

Well, well... It’s America’s birthday.  I love the 4th of July and the fireworks and the hot dogs and the summer sun.

And it is my hubby’s birthday on July 7, so this is a great time of the year for us.  But imagine my surprise and disgust when I opened an early birthday card he received just yesterday from, guess who?  Humana.  The health insurance giant that currently holds Larry’s Medicare "advantage" plan and is helping dismantle Medicare one private policy at a time.

The company wants Larry to have a happy and healthy birthday.  You bet they do.  And they send those pretty, glossy cards to one helluva lot of Medicare folks.
 

The New York Times reported in April 2008, "Two companies, UnitedHealth Group and Humana, have captured nearly half of the vast new market for prescription drug insurance under Medicare, according to new data issued Friday by the Bush administration."  That’s 2.4 million Humana held Medicare drug plans and another 792,500 in Humana-Medicare "advantage" policies.

Would Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin have been in church on Sunday? The short answer is yes, no, and maybe.

During that hot summer of 1776 in Philadelphia, when you try to imagine the core leadership of that Continental Congress, without whom the Declaration of Independence might not have been written and approved unanimously by the delegations from the thirteen colonies, what names come to mind?  I know that we and historians could debate this for a long time without consensus, but I suspect few would leave out these three: John Adams from Massachusetts; Thomas Jefferson from Virginia; and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania.  Would you agree?

This takes us back to the question I asked at the outset: would these three patriots have been in church when Independence Day fell on a Sunday? There is much made of "the faith of our founding fathers" that is much more a myth of how some folks wish it had been with these giants in our history than how it actually was.

Two days ago FOX News responded to some reporting on their dive in the ratings.  They did it by attacking the reporter and his producer, but they did it in a way that was, quite simply, blatantly anti-Semitic.

The reporter in question is named Jacques Steinberg.  Yup, "Steinberg."  He might as well have been named "Jacques the Jew."  And FOX, looking for a way to attack him, knew exactly what to do.  Here is a picture of Mr. Steinberg, next to the picture FOX showed on their show:

Do you see anything different?  Did you notice the grossly enlarged nose and the lowered hairline?  Does it ring any bells?  It should. ...

[UPDATE- this is getting noticed around the blogosphere.  The National Jewish Democratic Council noticed the same thing.

Most of us don't really need any more examples to know how far our media has strayed from it's traditional role of informing the public and acting as the public's watchdog because we've already seen far too many examples of that fact. But for me, A Media Tale of Two Generals is about a subject far too important for me to let it go without comment.

Back in a day not too long ago, Bob Schieffer was one of two remaining television journalists with a hint of spine (the other being Keith Olberman).  Every other TV news head in America was afraid of making Condoleezza Rice cry on camera and was just plain afraid of Donald Rumsfeld, but not Schieffer.  Schieffer once snapped "let me just ask you to answer the question" at Condi and growled at Rummy, "Well, you really have not directly answered that question, if I may say so, Mr. Secretary."

I don't know what ever happened to that Bob Schieffer, but he was nowhere to be found on last Sunday's Face the Nation McCain campaign ad featuring Joe Lieberman.  Last Sunday's Bob Schieffer was Tim Russert reincarnate.