Free Republic

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Marian Anderson perform before an integrated audience at Constitution Hall. The Board of Education of the then-segregated District also refused to let her perform in the auditorium of a white public high school. So Anderson turned to a symbol of freedom: the Lincoln Memorial.That April, Anderson held an open-air concert on the steps of the monument to the end of slavery and the ideals of the Republic.

A group of high school students attending a conservative leadership conference in Washington, D.C. said they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a June 25 visit to the Lincoln Memorial. “They told them to stop singing,” said Evan Gassman, a spokesman for the Young America’s Foundation. “I was taken aback. You wouldn’t expect a display of national patriotism to be censored." ... “If their idea of civil disobedience is singing the national anthem, then so be it,” Gassman said. “Let them disobey.” The crime was "singing it loudly".

A group of high school students attending a conservative leadership conference in Washington, D.C. said they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a June 25 visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

"Roger Waters" NEW YORK – The Pink Floyd rock music classic "Another Brick in the Wall" has been transformed by a Canadian band to reflect dissent young Iranians have for their government. The song replaces the teacher reference with "Hey, Ayatollah, leave those kids alone!" It's performed by a Toronto-based rock band fronted by two Iranian brothers called Blurred Vision. It's been seen by more than 160,000 viewers on YouTube. Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters gave Blurred Vision

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812 (“Defence” proper spelling for time period). Most people can recite the first verse of the poem, as it is the verse our National Anthem is based on. However, at a recent Tea Party event, a man began singing the...

Tea Party Member Stuns Crowd! Asked a question by Herman Cain ...and responds by bursting into song! http://youtu.be/f9_bP219ehQ

... Since 1993, Maine has required sellers of individual health-insurance policies to accept all applicants—foreshadowing a key provision of the national overhaul that will fully take effect in 2014. ... Anthem says these requirements, along with the state's high medical costs, have helped push up expenses, with 1% of individual policyholders in Maine driving 50% of claims costs. As premiums then rise, it says, they give healthy people incentives to forgo insurance in Maine, which has had no requirement that everyone be insured. "As those younger, healthier folks choose not to participate in the risk pool, the average costs per...

Incredible Vvdeo from the '08 campaign.

VIA EMAIL AND OVERNIGHT DELIVERY Assembly Member Dave Jones Chair, Assembly Health Committee State of California Assembly 915 L Street, Suite 110 Sacramento, CA 95814 Dear Chairman Jones: Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and the members of your Assembly Health Committee last Tuesday. Committee members’ questions were, by and large, thoughtful, appropriate and aimed at getting to an understanding of the drivers of escalating premium costs. I am sorry I was not better able to answer questions regarding the Individual market; however, I am assured you will receive responses to your questions on those issues in...

Retreats, Million-Dollar Salaries Paid For As Anthem Blue Cross Sought Rate Hike Rob Hotakainen WASHINGTON - While Anthem Blue Cross proposed a 39 percent rate increase on thousands of its California customers, its parent company paid 39 of its executives more than $1 million each and spent more than $27 million on 103 lavish executive retreats, congressional investigators say. "One question we asked is where does all of this money go?" Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles said at a House subcommittee hearing today. "Corporate executives at WellPoint are thriving, while its policyholders are paying the price." In response...

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner says the insurer failed to pay medical claims on time and misrepresented policies from 2006 to 2009. The firm faces up to $7 million in fines. California's largest for-profit health insurer violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policies to customers, the state's insurance commissioner said Monday. Anthem Blue Cross could face fines of up to $7 million stemming from the alleged violations from 2006 to 2009. Commissioner Steve Poizner said that the insurer repeatedly failed to respond to state regulators...

'Oh, Say, Can You See, by the...Um...Help!' They can ski down steep slopes at lightning speeds, perform quad spins on ice and do backflips on halfpipes, so how's this for a new, novel Olympic challenge: Singing your country's national anthem on the medal stand. A scant 21.2% of gold-medal winners in these Games actually sang their entire national anthem, with an additional 18.2% mustering bits and pieces while mumbling or entirely missing other parts, according to a Wall Street Journal study of 33 winners through Thursday's events. Six Americans were part of this assessment and only one, snowboarder Seth Wescott,...

Following the White House’s lead, “Good Morning America” criticized insurance companies on Feb. 17 going so far as to insinuate they might be breaking the law by raising premiums. “Now to the outrage over skyrocketing health insurance premiums, some Americans covered by Anthem Blue Cross were recently hit by a whopping 39 percent rate increase. President Obama called out Anthem and a congressional hearing on this big rate hike is coming next week, but in the mean time regulators are trying to determine if rate hikes like this are even legal,” George Stephanopoulos said. Those rate hikes averaging around 24...

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following statement is being issued today by Consumer Watchdog -- Anthem Blue Cross's announcement today that it will temporarily suspend a premium increase of up to 39% or more should not deter the California Legislature from taking immediate action to regulate health insurance premium increases, said Consumer Watchdog.

An unofficial anthem for Tea Partiers??An awesome song

Grammy Award-winning music artist Ray Stevens has recorded a song and video that is fast becoming the anthem of the Tea Party Movement. “We the People” is about Obamacare and the health-care reform bills that have passed both houses of Congress. The lyrics express a comic, but pointed warning to members of Congress: “You vote Obamacare, we’re going to vote you out of there. We the People have awakened to your tricks. You vote to let this pass, you’re going to be out on your (sound of foghorn).” ...

If Patriotic "on hold" music on the Capital switchboard was enough to irritate Mrs. Pelosi, this song just might make her melt!

Mikhalkov, Author of Soviet and Russian Anthem, Dead at 96 28 August 2009 By Nabi Abdullaev / The Moscow Times Sergei Mikhalkov, author of the lyrics of the Soviet and Russian national anthems and a Rolls-Royce of Soviet poetry for more than four decades, died Thursday in a Moscow hospital. He was 96. "He died of old age. He simply fell asleep," said his grandson, film producer Yegor Konchalovsky, RIA-Novosti reported. President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered condolences to his family, including his two sons, prominent film directors Oscar-winning Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky. Both of his...

I could use some help solving this mystery. This has not been confirmed, the The American Thinker speculates: An anti-Obama website, The Obama File, posts a photograph purporting to show President Obama putting his hand over his heart during the playing of the Russian national anthem, during his visit to Moscow. How can it possibly be a genuine photograph, when we know that the President didn't put his hand over his heart during the playing of the American national anthem, as demonstrated in this now-infamous photograph taken during the campaign? UPDATE: The above photo of Obama holding his hand over...

Reminder: download "The Tea Party Anthem" to play at your 4th of July Tea Party. http://bit.ly/zMYfG Hear "The American TEa Party Anthem" here: http://bit.ly/6mfvC