WHATEVER HAPPENED TO "LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE"

I was just thinking about the national anthem and how inappropriate it has become since Bush read "My Pet Goat" on 9/11.

Dubya and Dick have succeeded in terrorizing the populace and restraining our civil liberties to the point that "land of the free, home of the brave" is no longer our signature; try "land of the free unless the president decides otherwise" and "home of the absolutely terrified."

Good work, you pseudo-macho chickenhawks. You've reduced a proud nation to a mass of quivering protoplasm. Yeah, that's leadership.

So, Glenn Beck, Darrell Ankarlo, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and you other right-wing fascist talk show hosts who love to decry American "pussies" because some of us don't believe that military force is the first or best choice in dealing with global problems, explain to us how trembling at the feet of terrorists and Middle Eastern countries to the point of restricting American liberties and discarding our most precious institutions (such as the Constitution) makes us "strong."

In my book, letting an external threat compromise our national character is what makes us look like pussies. We didn't let the Nazis or Soviets do it, and they were far more formidable.