Every singer who has not said something regrettable onstage, raise your
hand.

I don't imagine that Natalie Maines meant to make a strong statement with
her remark, one that would need to be "backed up." What probably felt to her
like an informal quip of between song banter has turned much bigger than she
ever meant it to. 

Imagine yourself onstage in front of a recent British audience. You're in
front of a crowd that everyone knows has been very vocal about their
opposition to our, and their own government's recent decisions, and who you
get the feeling might be under the false impression that President Bush is
the quintessential Texan. We can be behind our President all we want, but
one can not ignore the fact that President Bush's actions and motives are
viewed with skepticism by the majority citizens in many nations at best, and
as a liar at worst. He is characterized by most world cartoonists as a
cowboy, who shoots first and asks questions later. Most of the world, does
not get their news from Fox News. The English get it from Sky News and the
BBC who ask tough questions our journalists just won't. The perception
overseas is one of cynicism about America. They report regularly on how
Bush, Rumsfeld et. al. claimed Iraq was building nuclear weapons, had links
to Al Qaeda, etc. and in lieu of providing solid evidence tried to pass off
what had been shown to be falsified, even plagiarized reports, non-credible
reports.  Now that all other reasons have been shot through, we're now
pushing on anyway, "Liberating" and "Nation Building", implementing a policy
that President Bush himself derided in the 2000 election. So whether you're
with him or not, it's all been a bit embarrassing - at least if you find
yourself overseas, away from the Fox/CNN cocoon. Even our President's poor
command of the English language would be an embarrassment for some people
standing before an English audience. If I wasn't embarrassed by the
President I would at least be embarrassed by the false impression people
have that Texans are bellicose people who can't speak well and act on
minimal information [of course being able to act on minimal information is
often a prime requirement for "leadership."]

Unfortunately for Ms. Maines, she's a celebrity and her toss off meant to
endear her to the English crowd was quickly taken out of context and
interpreted as a formal declaration of anti-Americanism. It wasn't. But
these are touchy times we're living in. Careful what you say. Especially if
you're in any way in public, i.e. onstage. The war and its rhetoric are
breeding extremism in many forms, here and abroad.

Peace,

Carl

NP Ryan Adams "Nuclear" - a great power pop song to me.