Who is this Liberty?

With almost perfect synchronicity the folks in my office started talking about this article and it was sent to me by more than a couple of sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15004160/

It was spawned by events described here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15002956/site/newsweek/
All I can say is, sometimes stuff don’t always come out in a good way, and people get hurt and angry and take things all personal like and are too above everybody to accept an apology, you know, like Republicans, or the way the Muslims and the Pope got all outta whack with one another (although personally I’d like to see both sides drift a little too far from my shore, if you know what I mean).

What is this all about? I think at the core it's about what in the hell we're fighting for. We're told it has something to do with our "freedom" but it seems to me the truth is our freedom is more in danger than ever. Then again, the truth is really tricky, and NObody likes to hear the truth about almost anything, personal, political, professional. Truth causes problems.

But, sometimes, a smart person like former President Bill Clinton here, takes so much crap up to a certain LIMIT, letting the coyotes have their day with the truth and all, and then all a sudden-like, WHHHAM.

Truth to power -- or in this case, so-called power.

I find it fascinatin’ that the Clintons are trying to conduct a “charm campaign” – you kind of place yourself in a funny position when you open the door to relating with people you know don’t care for you – or who might even kind of hate you. I’ve tried that -- as a good friend reminds me, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That seems to be kind of what a number of Americans are experiencing when they suggest that the bush administration is a vapid crew steering a rudderless vessel o our nation right into the shoals of calamity.

But face it, that's what's happening. Nobody in that shop knows what the hell to say next, and the minute they say it, somebody is right behind them with a piece of evidence proving that what they said is, well, wrong. You'd think that would get old after a while and that it would just be easier to admit being wrong. But that might be even harder than hearing the truth, if my experience is any indicator.

Long ago, but not too long ago, our country was fighting over what to do to survive. We were struggling with whether to attain our liberty. Even then, it was not easy to say or do the right thing. But now it's even harder, even for well-paid and popular news figures like Keith Olberman, who rightly handed Shrub and the rest of a sleeping America a good solid piece of his mind. I hope we don't find him floating in the river, or Walden pond.

Here's an unbelievably beautiful song from that incredible duo of Rice/Rowan, from their first full-length release together, You Were There For Me.

"Miss Liberty" (Lay My Lonesome Down)

I stood on the banks of the waters
Where the Concord River swirls
Alng the shores of Walden Pond
The shot heard round the world

From the cradle of revolution
Unto the cradle of Liberty
Politicians and dictators
Gamble lives for her virginity

I'm a roving gambler, I gamble round and round
And I'm gonna win my liberty
And lay my lonesome, lay my lonesome down

Hey, Mister, have you seen her?
I won't give up the chase
She's the one I'm searchin' for
A name to fit the face

With a glancing eye she beckons to me
From the auction block, in chains
Pleading for her reckoning
I just roll the dice again

I'm a drunken sailor, on a spree, on the town
I'm gonna take my liberty
And lay my lonesome, lay my lonesome down

(guitar duet)

Oh those lies I told you
I was talkin' out of my head
Come on home, baby, it's cold outside
And warm here in my bed

There's an angel at your window
There's a beggar at your door
When you've given all you can take
You must give a little more

Like a thief in the night
When the sun goes down
I will steal away with Liberty
And lay my lonesome, lay my lonesome down

Lay my lonesome, lay my lonesome down