Dixie Chicks stepped over the line

The (New Jersey) Star-Ledger ^ | March 23, 2003 | Paul Mulshine

[EveningStar]

"We've been overseas for several weeks and have been reading and following the news accounts of our government's position. The anti- American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding."

This just got the poor girl in deeper. The only thing that would astound the typical country fan about Maines' encounter with anti- Americanism is the fact that she didn't slug the person expressing it. Another singer from country's classic era, Merle Haggard, put it this way: "When you're runnin' down my country, man, you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me."

[Britton J Wingfield]

Cage match, no holds barred, Dixie Chicks against Merle Haggard.

[Violette]

You know, not only that. But we have had soldiers captured and beaten and abused. Do you think they would have voluntarily said that they were ahamed of the President of the United States? C'mon! These girls were in Europe, travelling in comfort, treated with respect by their hosts and they stand up and say something like that. What the hell is their excuse?

[SolutionsOnly]

Absolutely! "Walkin' on Fightin' Side of Me" is the perfect response. That girl needs her head deflated, so let's not let this off the radar!

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

You notice that stars like Merle Haggard are either not being asked by the media to voice their opinion, or don't believe their opinion to be of any more import than the average 'Joe' on the street.

[driftless]

Not to beat a dead horse er I mean chick, the fact is Mizz Maines is just not the sharpest tool in the shed. She's probably not even as intelligent as her friend Sheryl Crow who will not be attending Mensa meetings any time soon. Liberals are either not-to-bright reality-challenged fools like Maines, Crow, Julia Roberts etal or committed leftists like Chomsky and his lap-dog flunkies on DU.

[MississippiMan]

Hate to break the hearts of everyone on this thread, but Merle Haggard trashed Bush and the war within the last few days himself. I forget exactly what he said but it was as sickening as what she said.

MM

[Noumenon]

Crow's so phony, she can't even write her own lies.

[SolutionsOnly]

I heard that too, see what happens when an Okie from Muskogee finally gives in and starts smokin a little weed?

[sonofatpatcher2]

[EveningStar]

Bummer. :(

Can anyone find a link to this?

[sonofatpatcher2]

Re: Absolutely! "Walkin' on Fightin' Side of Me" is the perfect response. That girl needs her head deflated, so let's not let this off the radar!

[Walkin Man]

LOL! Love those pics!

[MississippiMan]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/640241/posts

[sonofatpatcher2]

Re: Delete your mp3's, that'll show them!

"Well, boys & girls,
you gona burning them CD or whistle Dixie?"

[EveningStar]

Thanks. I just bumped it.

[sonofatpatcher2]

How about this one?

And that could also mean Natalie slept with Tom's wife!

[gcruse]

The Anti-War Movement and Its Critics:

[Excerpt]

The night after the Democrats nose-dived I drove fifty miles through the first storm of the fall to my local town of Eureka, for a concert by Merle Haggard. Merle has a rap sheet for no-shows and there'd been worrying talk about him canceling on this tour because of a herniated disk. But at 9 pm there he was on the stage with his band, The Strangers, walking a bit stiffly but looking and sounding good.

When it comes to the big themes of love and war and history nothing concentrates the mind like a few songs by Merle, whose 1969 pro-war country anthem Okie from Muskogee lambasted the dope-smoking hippie peaceniks and earned the former resident of San Quentin a full pardon from Governor Ronald Reagan.

Sitting there in a white, mostly working class audience even a tad older than the equally white crowd listening to Bob Dylan in the Greek amphitheater in Berkeley a few weeks ago, an obvious question bulked as large as the Stars and Stripes hanging above Merle: had Merle changed since the time when he riposted to the antiwar movement of the Sixties with Muskogee and The Fighting Side of Me? Back to Merle.

Yes he has, as we already knew. Cheryl Burns reported to CounterPunch this a few weeks ago from Kansas City: "I saw Merle Haggard tonight in KC--great show. He said something about 'so now we're in another war' and went on to say he was still proud to be an American and all that, so I was wondering just where he was headed. But then he said there was nothing good about any war except the soldiers, sailors, etc.

"Then he says, 'I think we should give John Ashcroft a big
hand...(pause)...right in the mouth!' Went on to say, 'the
way things are going I'll probably be thrown in jail
tomorrow for saying that, so I hope ya'll will bail me out.'

Merle wasn't in this ripe form in Eureka, but he dropped some hints. "Friends and conservatives", he began, then he made a joke about George Bush's colonoscopy, and the search for Osama bin Laden. "He's up there somewhere," Merle said somewhat cryptically, and the crowd wasn't quite sure how to take it. Then he said off-handedly, without enthusiasm, "Looks like we're in another war," and sang The Fighting Side of Me.

At another concert, June a year ago , he was quoted by John Derbyshire in National Review online as saying, "Look at the past 25 years we went downhill, and if people don't realize it, they don't have their fucking eyes on ... In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available to an average citizen in America right now... God almighty, what have we done to each other?"

by ALEXANDER COCKBURN

[Dante3]

A great song.