Carolina Chocolate Drops

at Loco Pops, Hillsborough St., Durham

Continue reading Carolina Chocolate Drops

Yet another reason to love Durham

via email:

Hello everyone. In case you haven't heard, Locopops is having a customer appreciation event on Memorial Day (that's this coming Monday the 29th of May) to celebrate our one year anniversary and to thank our customers for a terrific first year. We'll have music by the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Light Fare (snack type stuff and non-alcoholic drinks) from 4:30 to 8:30. The shop will be closed on Monday, but we'll open the doors during the party - all proceeds will be given to Habitat for Humanity. So come and hang out before or after dinner - or bring your own cooler full of vittles and libations. All goings on will take place in the parking lot (let's hope it doesn't rain - bring your umbrella if it does) so please plan to walk or park nearby. Hope to see you there!

Continue reading Yet another reason to love Durham

Memorial Day

Also here.

Continue reading Memorial Day

A sharp stiletto between the ribs

Fresh from their hard-hitting tabloid style expose of Hillary's sex life, the Times takes out the sharp knives and stabs John Kerry in the back with both blades. Not that Kerry, whose non-response to the so-called swift boating he experienced in the 2004 campaing was one of the hinges upon which the outcome of the election turned deserves any better.

But still, what's the point of the article except to bring up the slander yet again and legitimize those who, 35 years on, are still pissed that Kerry went before the Congress and acknowledged what every sane person who lived through those times knows to be true (namely, that US forces in South East Asia committed atrocities against civilians), to remind us that Kerry failed to adequately defend his reputation two years ago when it might have mattered, and still doesn't seem to get that this debate is not taking place in a court of law.

I mean, we're not seeing articles reminding us that George Bush still hasn't put to rest charges that he was AWOL when he was supposed to be flying fighter planes in Alabama.

Continue reading A sharp stiletto between the ribs

Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Roxboro St., Durham

Continue reading Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Friday afternoon garden blogging

Squash and beans

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I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde

Shit.

i can remember a time, probably in my late teens, when it seemed like every evening at the dinner table, my parents would be lamenting the death of yet another of the pop idols of their own youth. There is, at the last, nothing new under the sun.

Israelites was one of the first 45s i owned (along with Sly's "Every Day People.") I never did figure out the lyrics.

Continue reading I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde

O frabjous day!

Enron's Lay and Skilling guilty

Funny, i haven't noticed any rolling blackouts in California since these guys went down, either.

Continue reading O frabjous day!

Another thing to love about Durham

Assuming, of course, that it gets built.




That's an artist rendering of the new bike/pedestrian bridge to replace the old monstrosity over the Durham Freeway that was shut down a decade ago for safety concerns.

via Nicomachus

Continue reading Another thing to love about Durham

What we love about Durham

A few years ago during a morning stroll in downtown Durham, a young man approached and with great enthusiasm told me about his new restaurant, the Cocoa Cafe. He urged me to give it a try. I agreed. We walked a few blocks and to my surprise entered another business, Mr. Shoe. In the back of the store an old man waited on a customer. Near the front, amid the racks of repaired shoes, was a table and two chairs and a counter with several packages of store-bought cocoa. I smiled as the young man boiled some water. He asked how I liked the cocoa. I told him it was great. I left the Cocoa Cafe, amused by Durham's quirkiness. Later that evening I spotted him handing out business cards on Ninth Street.
--Bill Pope

Take that, Houston!

Read the rest here.

Continue reading What we love about Durham

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial

Happy Birthday, Bob.

Don't forget to sign up for Part D.

Continue reading Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial

Christensen

I couldn't tell if Rob Christensen was making an attempt at self-deprecating humor in his Sunday column on "the netroots" in the N&O, or if he really is dumber than dirt. And that's a sign all by itself that he didn't have a clue what he was trying to talk about. For a guy who, according to his blurb, has been "writing about politics for 31 years," he seems to have a hard time figuring out where Daily Kos fits in the grand scheme.

The Daily Kos is sort of the left's version of Rush Limbaugh, a vehicle that provides red meat to activists, strongly criticizing the war in Iraq and Bush administration policies.

Let's be clear. Rush Limbaugh is a brand name for a particular kind of hypocritcal bloviating that consists mostly of name-calling and making shit up, with the occasional hiding behind grandma's skirts when challenged on the toxicity of some of his spew and claiming it's just entertainment.

Markos is building a community where anyone with a keyboard and common sense can contribute and be noticed, where ideas are hashed out until what emerges can stand on its own regardless of the name behind it. Yeah, the discourse can get uncivil at times, but so fucking what? That anger is real, not for show.

One other difference between Markos and Rush. Markos served in the Aarmy. Rush had a pimple on his ass.

Continue reading Christensen

Sunday morning church marquee blogging

W. Markham Ave., Durham, NC

Continue reading Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Friday afternoon garden blogging

Lilies

for Rainbow, 1988 - 2006, R.i.P

Continue reading Friday afternoon garden blogging

Crooks and Liars

Looks like somebody is hijacking this very useful site.

Continue reading Crooks and Liars

All-Name team, revisited

Last week i mentioned in passing that EPL soccer players have it all over their American baseball counterparts when it comes to great names. I think i said that there hasn't been a great baseball name since Harmon Killebrew retired 30 or so years ago.

Watching the Mets and Cardinals last night, i realized i was mistaken.

Yadier Molina.

He can't hit a lick, but he's got a great name.

Continue reading All-Name team, revisited

Love Durham?

Then tell the world. The Indy is running a piece on "What I Love About Durham" next week. Distill your thoughts down to 100 words and send them off to "editors at indyweek dot com".

Do it today.

Continue reading Love Durham?

Tinky Friedman: The song remains the same

FAIR nails the flat earther in a way that, well, anybody can understand:

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Tom Friedman is considered by many of his media colleagues to be one of the wisest observers of international affairs. "You have a global brain, my friend," MSNBC host Chris Matthews once told Friedman (4/21/05). "You're amazing. You amaze me every time you write a book."

Such praise is not uncommon. Friedman's appeal seems to rest on his ability to discuss complex issues in the simplest possible terms. On a recent episode of MSNBC's Hardball (5/11/06), for example, Friedman boiled down the intricacies of the Iraq situation into a make-or-break deadline: "Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out."

That confident prediction would seem a lot more insightful, however, if Friedman hadn't been making essentially the same forecast almost since the beginning of the Iraq War. A review of Friedman's punditry reveals a long series of similar do-or-die dates that never seem to get any closer.

Best laugh i've had this week.

Continue reading Tinky Friedman: The song remains the same

A question about immigration and immigrants, legal and otherwise

From the BBC:

Controversial Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has said she will resign after admitting she lied on her asylum application.

. . .

Ms Hirsi Ali came under pressure to resign after a Dutch television programme last week broadcast details of her falsified, 1992 asylum application.

In the documentary, Ms Hirsi Ali said that when she arrived in the Netherlands she said she had come straight from Somalia, whereas in actual fact she had lived in three different countries in the interim.

. . .

Dutch media has reported that Ms Hirsi Ali will go to work for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, in Washington.

So, a Somali immigrant Member of Parliament is kicked out of the Netherlands for falsifying her asylum papers. In other words, she was an illegal immigrant. But she can come to this country to go to work for the American Enterprise Institute, and nobody is going to raise a question as to her immigration status?

I guess it really is OK if you're a Republican.

Continue reading A question about immigration and immigrants, legal and otherwise

Duke lacrosse: AP gets it wrong again

At the end of the report on the indictment of Duke LAX captain David Evans yesterday, AP writer Aaron Beard tells us:

After the woman reported being attacked, Duke canceled the rest of the lacrosse team's season and accepted the resignation of its coach.

Let's go to the videotape.

University President Richard Brodhead did not cancel the lacrosse season and accept the resignation of Coach Pressler following reports of the attack.

The season was cancelled following the leak of the infamous Ryan McFadyen email to the press. You know, the one in which a Duke lacrosse player used his university email account to fantasize about killing and skinning some bitches and cumming in his duke issue spandex.

Yeah, that one.

Continue reading Duke lacrosse: AP gets it wrong again

You gotta fight for your right to party

Or not, as the case may be.

By the way, Baghdad's reputation as "a city once noted . . . for its nightlife and liberal social culture," goes back a whole lot further than the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Continue reading You gotta fight for your right to party

Bush to Say Border Not Fully Under Control

The Pickler fills us in on the Dim Son's address scheduled for later tonight:

"We do not yet have full control of the border and I am determined to change that," Bush is expected to say in remarks prepared for a prime-time speech from the Oval Office.

That's really all they have anymore is fear. When i was a kid, pathetic was one of the worst insults you could hurl at someone. "You're pathetic!" was as bad as, and maybe worse than, "You're a fairy!" when i was an 8 year old.

But this George Bush guy, now, he's just pathetic.

I used to laugh whenever i saw this sticker in the 70s and 80s, but now, it's a call to arms.




Why not click through the link and order a copy?

Continue reading Bush to Say Border Not Fully Under Control

Mother's Day

Remember.

Continue reading Mother's Day

Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Dowd St., Durham, NC

Continue reading Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Prescience

Yeah, yeah, i know, throwing this quote up in the face of any of remaining Bushistas who haven't yet scurried off the deck of the disaster that is the Bush Administration is a bit unfair, an easy target, a cheap laugh, but why pass up low hanging fruit when it's there for the taking?

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Why the need to pick these ripe, juicy berries today?

How about this story:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military reported on Saturday a clash between Iraqi army units that killed one Iraqi soldier, raising questions over the new, U.S.-trained force's cohesion in the face of ethnic and sectarian rivalries.

But the Iraqi Defense Ministry denied all knowledge of such an incident and Iraqi army and police officers in the area gave a different account of Friday's events, describing violence between a mainly Kurdish army unit and local, Arab civilians.

The U.S. military said its troops helped end a stand-off at Balad, 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, between two Iraqi units, one of which had earlier been ambushed by rebels.

But a spokesman declined to say whether the U.S. soldiers actually witnessed Iraqi troops killing a fellow soldier and referred inquiries to the media office of the Iraqi Defense Ministry. There, an official said he knew of no such case.

Who knew Supertramp were singing about George bush when they wrote this song:

Dreamer, you stupid little dreamer;
So now you put your head in your hands, oh no!
I said "Far out, - What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"
You know, - Well you know you had it comin' to you,
Now there's not a lot I can do.

Prescience. It's a beautiful thing.

Continue reading Prescience

FA Cup Final

The FA Cup is kinda like the World Series and Superbowl of England. It's being played tomorrow at 7:30 am EDT between Liverpool and West Ham United.

Fox Soccer Channel will be carrying a special broadcast of the 1977 Cup final between Arsenal and Liverpool. Wonder who won that game 29 years ago? I guess they couldn't pony up for the live telecast rights. They'll end up showing the game on Tuesday night.

Russel Brand has a pretty good column in the Guardian on the superiority of the West Ham anthem "Bubbles" to Liverpool's "You'll Never Walk Alone." He thinks that'll be enough to carry West Ham to victory. I disagree. Liverpool 3-1.

Continue reading FA Cup Final

Friday afternoon garden blogging

Clematis

Notes: this is my first photo for publication from my new Nikon Coolpix L4. I've been wanting a point and shoot for a while, and not having one last week inspired me to bite the bullet. This is shot in macro mode from a distance of about 50 cm. I think the greens in the background were a bit on the oversaturated side, so i'll have to play around a little more. The detail is astonishing, though, especially for such an inexpensive ($120) camera.

Continue reading Friday afternoon garden blogging

Starring role

I'm getting ready for my starring role in the Durham Regional Hospital production of "Up Periscope." Normal irregular blogging will resume as soon as i recover my dignity.

Update - OK, i'm fine. Nothing out of the ordinary in my lower digestive tract. The amnesiafacient drug is not quite all it's cracked up to be however.

In conversation with the prep nurse, i learned that my guess as to how the Fleet Phospho-soda does its job was pretty much correct. By dumping over 3 grams of sodium into the system the body responds by pulling all the water it can into the lower intestine to restore the electolytic balance, in the process flushing out anything that may have been hiding there.

the weird thing is that people do this (the flush job, not the colonoscopy) on a routine basis for their personal hygiene. The idea of sitting on the toilet shitting lemonade for 8 hours because it makes you feel clean is something i don't get. I guess i've lived a sheltered life.

Continue reading Starring role

Lemonade

I've been quiet, contemplative, and moody this week. Not only because my new neighbors have decided that allowing their dogs to bark continuously from dusk to dawn is a good way to introduce themselves to the neighborhood.

i turned 50 earlier this year, and unlike the vast majority of Americans, when my doctor said it's time for a colonoscopy, i said what the hell, and went ahead and scheduled one.

For tomorrow.

And i was doing pretty good, until i googled "colonoscopy preparation" to see what other gastroenterologists tell their patients. Mine, for instance, told me to avoid corn, beans, seeds and nuts for 5 days, in addition to aspirin and vitamin E. Then there's the 24 hour "clear liquid" diet the day before, and the dreaded Fleet phospho-soda regimen the night before, which one gastroenterologist described like this:

Many patients have a difficult time with the taste of the Phosho-soda. Suggestions include near freezing, and adding vanilla flavoring. Chewing on Dental Ice gum tends to seriously blunt the taste of the Phospho-soda. Ginger ale, or clear Welch's juices have been added to the Phospho-soda with success. As long as the additional fluid is clear, it should be okay. If you come up with other solutions, let us know!

You should expect bowel movements to start after 30 minutes and continue for up to 3 hours. (If bowel movements haven't become profuse in two hours, you can guess that you might need two MORE doses to get clean.)

At 10 PM, again add 1 1/2 ounces of Phospho-soda to 4 ounces of water and drink, followed by 3 glasses of clear fluids. By midnight, the stool fluid coming out should be light yellow, not brown. It should be lemonade-like. There should be no brown sludgy material when finished. (80% of unconstipated persons will be well cleaned with 2 sets of laxatives!)

Life handed me a pitcher of lemonade. Now what the fuck do i do?

Continue reading Lemonade

EPL All-Name squad

Yesterday was the final day for the 2005 - 2006 English Premier League season. Chelsea, despite losing their final two games, won their second consecutive title. Bolton Wanderers dismal run since March saw them drop to 8th place, and lose out on European competition for next season.

While watching the Newcastle - Chelsea match yesterday, i realized that English football has it all over baseball when it comes to names. Lomana Lua-Lua rolls off the tongue in a way that Tom Glavine doesn't. In fact, i don't think there's been a really great baseball name since Harmon Killebrew retired.

So here's my offering for the best names in the EPL from this past season.

On the bench:

Shaka Hislop   West Ham   Keeper
Gerard Pique   Man U   Defense
Gareth Southgate   Middlesbrough   Defense
Pascal Chimbonda   Wigan   Defense
Muzzy Izzet   Birmingham   Midfield
Harry Kewell   Liverpool   Midfield
Momo Sissoko   Liverpool   Midfield
Nigel Reo-Coker   West Ham   Midfield
Ricardo Vaz Te   Bolton   Forward
Eidur Gudjohnsen   Chelsea   Forward
Collins John   Fulham   Forward
Ole Gunnar Solskja   Man U   Forward
Massimo Maccarone   Middlesbrough   Forward


And the Starting XI:
Jussi Jaaskaalinen   Bolton   Keeper
Sami Hyypia   Liverpool   Defense
Titus Bramble   Newcastle   Defense
Celestine Babayaro   Newcastle   Defense
Sun Jihai   Man City   Defense
Eric Djemba-Djemba   Aston Villa   Midfield
Steed Malbranque   Fulham   Midfield
Papa Bouba Diop   Fulham   Midfield
Xabi Alonso   Liverpool   Midfield
Aiyegbeni Yakubu   Middlesbrough   Forward
Lomana Lua Lua   Portsmouth   Forward

Continue reading EPL All-Name squad

Christmas in May

Anyone who's been involved in a relationship that lasted through at least one holiday gift-giving season knows how fraught with emotional danger the entire process of giving and receiving can be. (Actually, i'm willing to entertain the notion that i'm projecting here. Maybe it's just that i'm the only one who had a hard time giving or receiving.)

The best trick i learned, and most of you probably know this, is to watch your partner when she's window shopping, or looking through catalogs, especially at the stuff you know she's not going to buy for herself, and pay attention at what catches her eye. The best gifts to get, i think, are the ones that you really want, but maybe are a little too pricey, or non-essential, to go out and buy for yourself.

This is all by way of a preface for what happened last Christmas. We were window shopping on Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, and my honey and i walked into Chapel Hill Comics. She'd heard about Peter Maresca's labor of love, reprinting over 100 of the original Little Nemo in Slumberland broadsheet Sunday comics from the early part of the 20th century into a mammoth, original size, lovingly reproduced, beautifully bound book.

Sure enough, they had a couple of copies in stock, at the list price of $120. "Ah-ha!", i thought. "Christmas present." Of course, it would have been tacky to have bought it right then, and i didn't have the foresight to recognize that this limited edition print run would become an instant collector's item, so when i went back to the store a few days later, the entire stock was sold out.

There was a single copy listed on eBay, for about $350, which was out of my league. The good folks at the comic store told me that, given the success of the first printing, there was going to be a second printing, probably due off the press in the spring, so i left my name and number and waited for the call.

It came late last week, so on Friday evening, on the way down to Shakori Hills, we stopped off at the store and picked it up.

It's really impossible to do justice to this object in a few words. If you love books, if you love the smell of ink, the feel of well finished paper, the way a smythe-sewn binding lays flat when you open it, this is a book that belongs in your house. I'm actually scared to read it; i don't want to get any finger oil on the pages, or risk spilling coffee on the cover. I know a little bit about the process of putting something like this together, from scanning the flimsy and probably deteriorating original newsprint pages, to color correcting and retouching the tears, cracks, bleedthrough from the back of the original page, laying out the signatures, imaging the plates, cutting the paper, the whole mechanical process of laying ink down on paper to create something, that while not necessarily permanent, is not as ephemeral as a web page, that has heft and weight and presence. That you know, when you hold it, is going to be around for generations, is going to be enjoyed by people who are not yet born. And with that comes a responsibility, i think, to make sure that those people will have some appreciation for what it takes to create a book like this, in an era where pretty much anything can and does stream across the fibre-optic cable, through the atmosphere, and into our eyes and ears through two inch screens and bluetooth headsets.

So get down to Chapel Hill Comics, or a store near you, and take a look at, and hold, and smell, this book.

And i haven't even started to discuss what's in the book. What an incredible artifact from a century past, these stories that first saw light wrapped around the Sunday paper as color printing became an affordable mass media technology. Better and more knowledgable scholars of the comic book than i can talk about how Winsor McCay used the dynamic combination of page and story to mold the visual approach to storytelling that still predominates in contemporary comics.

I'm just glad to have had a chance to hold this thing in my hands.

Continue reading Christmas in May

Speaking of marquees . . .

Christa beat me to these last week. Who knew i was going to have to hire staff to compete in this market?

Oh yeah, she does a pretty swellegant radio show, too.

Continue reading Speaking of marquees . . .

Church marquee blogging - bonus trademark infringement edition

Highway 70, Orange County, NC
(any ABC lawyers checking this out?)

Continue reading Church marquee blogging - bonus trademark infringement edition

Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Highway 57, Mars Hill, NC

Continue reading Sunday morning church marquee blogging

Shakori Hills

I haven't made it out to any of the weekend long grassroots music festivals that have been held at the Shakori Hills site over the past couple of years. Somehow, the idea of three days of love and music in the mud doesn't appeal to me the way it did, oh, 37 years ago.

But the good folks out at Silk Hope, NC, have started a Friday night music series at the same location. Last night was the kickoff event. Music by The Gospel Jubilators, from Durham, Hooverville, and Sara Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion filled the evening and kept the rain at bay.

Alas, i didn't think to bring my camera (which was a shame, since i missed what may have been a top 5 all time church marquee: "God wants your obedience, not your opinion." That's going to inspire me to buy a pocket sized point and shoot that i can keep with me at all times.) so i can't share any of the sights with you.

But, i'll back for some of the upcoming shows, and i really hope that you Triangle dwellers take advantage of this venue. It's a pass the hat kind of thing, 5 - 10 bucks suggested donation, bring your own food, beer and wine, they'll provide the hula hoops.

Continue reading Shakori Hills

Friday afternoon garden blogging

Holy shit, these irises lasted almost as long as Porter Goss!

Continue reading Friday afternoon garden blogging

Makes you wonder about their public relations skills

The US has apparently dug up an unedited video of al-Qaeda in Iraq boogie man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Assuming Zarqawi really exists, the video is supposed to be embarassing in that it shows him unable to fix his jammed autmatic rifle, and also wearing a pair of New Balance running shoes.

From the AP article:

His fellow fighters and associates appear similarly inept in the newly released footage. One reaches out to grab a just-fired weapon by the barrel, apparently unaware that it would burn his hand. The camera quickly pans to the ground and then away.

"His close associates around him ... do things like grab the hot barrel of the machine gun and burn themselves," (Maj. Gen. Rick) Lynch, (spokesman for the U.S. command) said. "Makes you wonder" about their military skills.

Is Maj. Gen. Lynch a moron, or what?

Continue reading Makes you wonder about their public relations skills

Samuel Delany & John Kessel at Duke 4/30

John Kessel (left) and Samuel R. Delany at Duke University on Sunday, April 30, as part of the NC Festival of the Book.

Although the talk was entitled Science Fiction as a premier platform for discussing race, sex, and politics, the two writers for the most part steered clear of the Duke lacrosse rape case. Nonetheless, a fascinating conversion for this SF fan to observe between two of my all-time favorite writers.

Delany read from his mid-60s novella The Star Pit, an audio production of which was created at WBAI-FM in 68 or so, and which has recently surfaced on the web here. The Star Pit is, to use a trite cliche, quintessential Delany, from the 10 page introductory section built around the metaphor of the ant-farm by which you learn that some things have changed (family structures, educational levels, technologies) and some things haven't (alcoholism, kids' curiousity at the world around them); the jarring transition to the story's present day; the characters living on society's margins, emotionally and physically scarred by the world; the word games (two pages on how golden became a noun); the sly homage to what Delany has referred to as a critical epiphany in his early SF reading (that being the casual, offhand reference, some 200 plus pages into the novel Starship Troopers by Heinlein, that the main character has brown skin) which occurs in an otherwise almost invisible conversation between the main character (Vyme) and a minor character (Poloscki).

I'll post some transcripts over the next week or two, so check back.

Continue reading Samuel Delany & John Kessel at Duke 4/30

Durham elections

Looks like Mike Nifong is going to be staying on as District Attorney for Durham following yesterday's election. So, the Duke lacrosse rape case is going to trial. Maybe not this year, but it'll happen.

Bigger news is that Jackie Wagstaff's slate got turned out from the school board. As reported by the Herald-Sun:

The trio of Wagstaff, George-Bowden and Matherly -- who assailed the other school board members consistently over the past two years -- together received just 3,985 votes, compared with 15,323 votes for their competitors.

The Durham community, black, white, Hispanic, and everyone else, finally got fed up with the bullshit.

Good for Durham.

Continue reading Durham elections

Children of the skull

Went out to dinner tonight at Pizza Palace to listen to Cool John Ferguson at his regular Tuesday night gig. I happened to be facing a TV screen across the room tuned to CNN, which i almost never watch. They were doing something about FEMA, and Michael Chertoff was on briefly, and i realized how lucky the world is that he and Maria Shriver never hooked up to make babies.

Continue reading Children of the skull

Heh heh, redux

From ThinkProgress:

On Friday, President Bush blasted the idea of singing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish. But Bush’s highly-scripted 2001 inaugural ceremony actually featured a rendition of the national anthem sung in Spanish by Jon Secada. From Cox News Service, 1/18/01:

The opening ceremony reflected that sentiment. A racially diverse string of famous and once famous performers entertained Bush, soon-to-be First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President-elect Richard B. Cheney and his wife, Lynne, who watched on stage from a special viewing area.

Pop star Jon Secada sang the national anthem in English and Spanish.

Apparently, Secada singing the anthem in Spanish was a regular feature of the Bush campaign. From the 8/3/00 Miami Herald:

The nominee, his wife Laura, erstwhile rival John McCain and his wife Cindy joined Bush on a platform where children sang the national anthem - in “Spanglish,” Secada explained.

This morning, ThinkProgress revealed that, according to Kevin Phillip’s book American Dynasty, Bush himself sang the national anthem in Spanish. Looks like Bush’s conviction that “the national anthem ought to be sung in English” was something he acquired very recently.

I'm sure this will be the top story on Scarborough and Gerry Rivers tonight as well.

Continue reading Heh heh, redux