Kate Smith Introduces God Bless America

Sharad Karkhanis just sent me this e-mail. Note: the expression "it's not over until the fat lady sings" may but probably does not refer to Kate Smith.  The expression's origins are unknown, but it may be derived from an old Southern expression. 

The link below will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of “GOD BLESS AMERICA.” But before you watch, you should also know the story of the song. The time was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we’d have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.
This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers – and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith. Kate was also large in size, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.
Kate was also very patriotic. It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring. She had hope for America, and faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (also wrote “White Christmas”) and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country. When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her. He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before - way back in 1917. He gave it to Kate Smith and she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from “God Bless America” – any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America. Over
the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.
This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple versus, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, “You’re In The Army Now.” At the 4:20 mark
of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper – it’s Ronald Reagan. Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said when he and a million other guys first heard her sing “God Bless America” on the radio, they all pretended to have “dust in their eyes” as they wiped away a tear
or two…
To this day, “God Bless America” stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country. Back in 1940, When Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt she realized just how successful the results would be – for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry, and for many generations of Americans to follow… Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you will enjoy it and treasure it even more. God Bless America!
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The Stock Market's Curious Decline

The Wall Street Journal reports that stocks fell dramatically today. The S&P 500, an index of large stocks, fell by 2.56%, or $32.89. In the same issue, The Journal reports Obama's signing of the bill to increase the already massively distended debt ceiling.  The Journal writes:

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law a bill raising the nation's debt ceiling, capping what he called an "unsettling" debate for the economy and helping the U.S. avoid default just 10 hours before the government would have run out of money to pay its bills.The move came after the Senate voted 74-26 to approve the legislation to raise the country's $14.29 trillion debt ceiling and cut the budget deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next decade, a major victory for Republicans who have long battled to shrink the size of the U.S. government.

The market had fallen last week and yesterday. Now, after the signing, the market fell even further.  This presents an interesting hypothesis:  The stock market does not reflect the well being of the economy. Rather, it reflects the short-term profitability of listed firms, many of whose existence harm the economy by keeping out smaller, more entrepreneurial firms that can outperform them. They do this through big government and regulation.  In other words, the market fell because the debt ceiling bill reduced the amount of government waste and overspending that goes to big business. An increasing stock market and America's welfare are at odds.

Americans need to rethink their love affair with Wall Street.  The average American's wage has been stagnant for 40 years while Wall Street has dramatically expanded. Might this latest evidence of a conflict between the nation's economic health and the stock market give one pause about the confusion between the two?

Correction on Police Battering Incident

Town of Ulster Supervisor Jim Quigley called me and told me that the Town of Ulster has done an investigation that revealed that NO POLICE OFFICER from the Town of Ulster was present at the Birchez event where a police officer battered me. I am planning to contact the City of Kingston to determine if the officer was from Kingston and out of their jurisdiction.

US in Extremists' Hands: Ron and Rand Paul the Only Moderates in Washington

I was in the gym this evening and watched CNN for a few minutes.  In that few minutes I heard the phrase "Republican extremists" more than half a dozen times.  I do not consider CNN a news channel, but even for Democratic propagandists the shrill advocacy sounded extreme. 

The American government is in the hands of extremists.  Spending has increased by 50% in less than a decade, yet the cranks in Washington and their cheer leaders in the legacy media believe that everything that the federal government spends money on, from trillions in subsidies to Wall Street, to billions in subsidies to failed automobile firms, to hundreds of millions in pointless government bureaucracies, is essential. 

John Tate of Ron Paul 2012 just e-mailed:

As Congress and the White House cut another "deal" to benefit their Wall Street buddies and further empower Big Government-loving lobbyists, Ron Paul has once again strongly condemned the status quo and promised to implement legitimate changes if elected President.

I hope you'll take a moment to read his statement below and then pass it on to your family and friends to show them that Ron Paul is the leader we need in the White House.

After you read the statement, let your representative and senators know you support Ron Paul's call for fiscal sanity.

Tell them to reject this latest sellout and instead join Dr. Paul in fighting to balance the budget and return government to its constitutional limits.

You can reach them by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

And you can help us recruit millions of more voters for Dr. Paul by contributing today at www.RonPaul2012.com.  Every dollar goes toward growing our campaign, spreading Ron Paul's message of freedom, and winning this race.

A few days ago Matt Hawes of the Campaign for Liberty urged against the GOP's agreement on the debt ceiling:

Why is the GOP leadership scrambling for support? Because they know the American people are outraged at yet another surrender and are putting historic pressure on Republican members to reject any business as usual proposal that will keep our country running full steam ahead toward economic disaster.

I hope you contact your representative today with one simple message. When threatened to “get in line” to support the statist quo and presented with the leadership’s plan today, tell them to just say “no.”

No to phony deals.

No to more debt.

No to more runaway spending.

No to selling out our futures so they can make an unpopular, desperate president happy.

To try to pacify those who actually want to solve our nation’s problems, the leadership put together a plan that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will reduce the deficit by $917 billion.

Over the next ten years.

Meanwhile, they’ll let the President have a $900 billion increase in the debt ceiling – right away.

But wait! The leadership is bragging that their plan will reduce the Fiscal Year 2012 budget deficit by a whole $22 billion – in what’s expected to be an over $1 trillion deficit.

That is, frankly, insulting.

You know how you convince people to “get in line”?

You lead.

Real leadership wouldn’t require a panicked scramble that involves cursing at the people you courted to get power less than a year ago.

Real leadership wouldn’t require threatening your fellow members of Congress.

Real leadership during this economic crisis would inspire the American people, who would take care of putting the pressure on their elected officials because they would see that you were willing to fight for legitimate change.

Real leadership would follow Senator Rand Paul’s example by calling for at least $500 billion in cuts this year and an immediate, fundamental change in how government operates.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of being told I’m “extreme” because I think it’s fiscally responsible to drastically cut spending when we’re trillions of dollars in debt.

So, please, join me in contacting Congress to urge our representatives to oppose the House Republican Leadership’s so-called “plan.”

Over half a million Americans have “gotten in line” with the freedom message by joining Campaign for Liberty because they know we are fighting for solutions – not surrender.

If the House Republican Leadership expects people to join them, then they should start trying to give people something worth following. 

xxx

Let us face the facts, my friends. The United States is in the hands of insane extremists. Led by a Wall Street owned and ignorance purveying media, the American public is hocking its freedom and its financial welfare. In the end, moderates like Paul will be proven right. But many Americans are going to personally suffer, and they only have themselves to blame.