THE BEAUTY OF AMERICA on MEMORIAL DAY

If you missed it Saturday, you can hear our interview with Presidential candidate Mike Gravel by clicking on BASHAM & CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK Just click on 'archives' and you can hear all of amazing guests, including: Congressman Rangel, Brian Katsulis; Media Matters' Paul Waldman, Eric Boehlert, Karl Frisch, Dennis Yedwab; Mikey Weinstein; Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega; and other bestselling authors, scholars and political leaders.

SATURDAY MORNINGS TUNE IN LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS and LOS ANGELES to our show BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK
from 9 - 10 a.m. We broadcast live on KLAV -- or go to our website and click on the link to hear the entire show in the archives.

MIKE GRAVEL, 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate and the MAN WHO STOLE THE first DEMOCRATIC DEBATE. We did a 45 minute interview with Gravel, who served 2 terms in the House and was a Senator from Alaska. He is primarily known for ending the draft following the Vietnam War, and for having put into the public record, the Pentagon Papers in 1971!

Gravel is a hero of mine; he is the only cadidate committed to telling the truth and standing for his convictions. He has nothing to lose and no one to impress — but his conscience. He passionately speaks for the majority of Americans, but the mainstream media is focused on dumbing us down with 'celebrities-gone-wild' gossip and obsessive Clinton-bashing.
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Military Coffins: The Photos You're Not Supposed to See
"Not to See the Fallen..." by mcjoan at thinkprogress.org

While memorializing those fallen today, don't forget the 143 journalists and media support workers, the most in any major conflict, who have been killed in Iraq.

If there's one thing the hapless war planners and conducters in this administration managed to do right, at least by their calculation, it's been to manage the media's access to and coverage of the actual story on the ground. Since the war began, they've made the increasingly instituted more stringent rules on what can be covered.

Since last year, the military’s embedding rules require that journalists obtain a signed consent from a wounded soldier before the image can be published. Images that put a face on the dead, that make them identifiable, are simply prohibited.

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From blogger MCH1968:
On Memorial Day, people frequently will say "Thank You" to those who gave their lives for our freedom, and certainly I give my thanks to those who perished in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, World Wars 1 & 2, and so on ...

For those who have died in this Iraqi war, thank you doesn't seem to quite fit. Instead, all I can say is "I'm sorry."

I'm sorry it came to this. I'm sorry that the president didn't value your life enough to keep you alive. I'm sorry you aren't still here to help keep us safe from our nation's true enemies. I'm sorry that those in charge treasured their pride, money, greed, and political ambitions too much that you're considered expendable. I'm sorry that lies and deceit was all it took to have you killed. I'm sorry I didn't fight hard enough or effectively enough to keep you home.

To the 3455 (and unfortunately still growing) service men and women who have died for a reason other than our freedom -- we miss you, we love you, may you rest in peace.


Here is a great article posted by Larry:

THE MYTH OF A HERO

On May 26, 1907 in a one bedroom home in Winterset Iowa, America's hero a thirteen pound Marion Robert Morrison was born. This was the same town that George Washington Carver lived and worked before he achieved greatness. This quaint little town was also a stop for the Underground Railroad.

Today in Winterset, the town will show three films that the towns most famous citizen has starred in. These films will be shown free to residents of Winterset because the star of all three films is Marion Morrison.

Marion Morrison wore a hairpiece for most of his life, a tidbit very few know. He made his last film in 1976 and he died of cancer three years later. He made action adventures and war films, but he was best known for his westerns.

This maker of such hits at True Grit,(his only Oscar) El Dorado, Rio Bravo, Stagecoach and the Sands of Iwo Jima, and his last film The Shootist were classics in the days when the term hero was more than a political catch phrase. Marion Morrison was in reality John Wayne.

Many are unaware that John Wayne was a staunch conservative. Wayne was a vocal anti-communist and at one time was President of the right wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Critics say Wayne was a racist.

John Wayne was also an outspoken supporter of the Vietnam War and he openly criticized anti-war protesters. Few knew that John Wayne himself was reported to have sought and received numerous deferments to avoid serving in World War II.

John Wayne was a hero to millions on screen, and an ultra-conservative off-screen. John Wayne criticized those who were against the Vietnam War, when in fact his refusal to serve himself was telling of the real Republican John Wayne.

In 1979, John Wayne released an album of narration of which two of the cuts were hits, and it is only fitting that during the weekend of his 100th birthday celebration that we remember the myth of John Wayne instead of the truth. The following prose was one of John Wayne's hits of 1979.

America, Why I Love Her
Written by John Mitchum Poet/Actor
You ask me why I love her? Well, give me time, and I'll explain...Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?

Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines? Or heard the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachia mines? Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar? Do you look with awe and wonder at a Massachusetts shore...Where men who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth Rock? And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock ?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies...way up high?Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea...Or bow your head at Gettysburg...in our struggle to be free?

Have you seen the mighty Tetons? ...Have you watched an eagle soar?Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winters day,Her waters rage along the shore in a thunderous display?Does the word "Aloha"... make you warm?Do you stare in disbelief When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?
From Alaska's gold to the Everglades...from the Rio Grande to Maine...My heart cries out... my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.You ask me why I love her?... I've a million reasons why.My beautiful America... beneath Gods' wide, wide sky.