Happy and Safe 4th of July

Come near dark, my neighborhood is going to be raucous with the sound of illegal fireworks. I'm going to a friend's for pot-luck BBQ. Everyone be safe.

Anyway, this is far and away my favorite rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Kelly leads it off, Michelle holds her part, and Beyonce's mom didn't dress her. Oh, and goosebumps at the arrangement. The Supremes song-sigh near the end is so old-school.

Happy 4th!

All Your Answers Are Belonging To Me

The best part of this video...the very best...is the blow-dry journalist asking Pres. Obama if he was influenced at all in his response in this press conference by John McCain and Lindsey Graham whining that Obama was weak.

This is a great compendium of how a public official is supposed to behave. They try to flat-foot him but he's just not having it. And watch the journalist who is annoyed by getting called on his foolishness. Obama gracefully calls it bullshit, yet answers his question nonetheless.

This Is How It's Done

Shirley Bassey is 68 and still showing how it's done.

History Repeating
by RavenTV

H/T Crooks & Liars Late Night Music Club

Truer Words? Never Spoken

The dependably astute young Adam Serwer neatly points out the obvious about the meme du jour that Obama is tackling too much.

A word to the wise for those who think this line of argument will actually succeed at curbing Obama's ambitions: A black man who just got elected president of the United States is not going to be daunted by a bunch of talking heads telling him what he will or will not be able to do.

Does anyone actually think that President Obama would abbreviate his aspirations because beltway pundits think he should?  And as far as journalists go, they have become sheep, harmoniously bleating the new idea.  They are lazy and static and uninterested in real stories.

Wonderful Rest

Here's my bit of bigotry.  I think anyone who doesn't get some spirit moving in them when they hear a good gospel choir is in league with Satan.  By the end of this video, I was boo-hooing with joy for a good 5 minutes.

H/t Jack and Jill.

Feeling Big Now, Little Men?

This made me want to vomit.

H/t Smooth Like Remy from SeattlePI.

Here.  Watch it again.  Throw up.  Then watch what happens after they remove this young lady from her cell.  Perhaps a longer form will put it in context.

I get that policemen have a hard job, but if you can't do it professionally, it's not a field you should be in.  And you know what?  This mouthy young girl at least got to live.

Oscar Grant did not.  Do not watch if watching a young man face down on the pavement being subdued by several officers getting shot in the back upsets you.

I wish I could be more eloquent, but these two incidents just make me sick.

President's Address to the House and Senate

UPDATE:  I found and cropped this from Hulu.com.  It won't automatically play.