Lynyrd Skynyrd Honored by U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.

Lynyrd Skynyrd Honored by U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. 

WASHINGTON, DC – Lynyrd Skynyrd was honored this week by the U.S. Congress by Florida Congressman Connie Mack, and Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus along with recognizing the achievements of the band during a reception at the U.S. Capitol.
The congressional honor for the group, who are performing in Birmingham tonight, came during a visit to Washington including stops at both the Capitol and the White House.
“The Lynyrd Skynyrd band is a true voice of the South and a legend in the music world.  ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is one of the best advertisements for my state and we now even proudly display the words on our license plates.  We deeply appreciate the fact that the band does a lot to entertain our troops and support military families.  They bring enjoyment to their many fans and it’s a pleasure to welcome them to our nation’s capital,” said Bachus, who is dean of the Alabama House delegation.
After a hosted tour of the Capitol by Bachus’ staff, Representatives Bachus and Mack presented a Congressional Record tribute to the band members, including Johnny Van Zant, Gary Rossington, and Rickey Medlocke, recognizing the band’s career and successes.

The Congressional Record tribute follows.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

RECOGNITION OF THE MUSICAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF LYNYRD SKYNYRD BY CONGRESSMEN SPENCER BACHUS AND CONNIE MACK

 

In the music world, it is challenging enough for a band to record one hit song, much less become a voice for an entire region and a true icon.  That is why Congressman Connie Mack and I are pleased to jointly recognize the accomplishments and patriotic spirit of the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

 

From humble beginnings, Lynyrd Skynyrd has become one of the most revered and accomplished bands in the history of music, having sold nearly 30 million records worldwide in the  last four decades.  Through their live performances and the music and songs still played on radio stations around the world every day, the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd have established themselves as timeless artists who transcend any one musical era or generation. 

 

As validated by their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Lynyrd Skynyrd has had a seminal impact on the development of rock and country music and a profound influence on the career development of many artists who followed in their creative footsteps. 

 

Through their collective voices, the band has become a beacon for regional identity and pride in the American South.  This is perhaps best epitomized by the song “Sweet Home Alabama,” an anthem so universally identified with the state of Alabama that it is the official motto displayed on license plates.

 

Since their start in Jacksonville, Florida in the late 1960s, Lynyrd Skynyrd has been a spokesman for the everyday working man and woman, the friends and neighbors of their formative years.  Their ability to capture a unique part of the American spirit has given their music emotional meaning to many fans and built a legacy that continues to grow year after year. 

  

Amid triumph and loss, these sons of the south have evolved from band to close-knit family.  A tragic airplane crash in 1977 claimed original members Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, but Ronnie’s brother Johnny carried on the tradition as the new vocalist.   Devoted fans also remember and cherish the contributions of Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, and Ean Evans.  Today, led by core members Johnny Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Rickey Medlock, and Michael Cartellone, Lynyrd Skynyrd continues to share an unbreakable bond with the fans they count as family as well. 

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd has been a generous supporter of our men and women in the armed forces for many years.  The band has long understood that our military personnel bravely and unselfishly stand guard over our everyday security and freedom.  They have enthusiastically raised money for military families and played countless shows for our service members in uniform.  Their song “Red, White, and Blue” was written as a tribute to the men and women who serve in the defense of freedom. 

 

As representatives of timeless American values and champions of working class heroes, Lynyrd Skynyrd continues to entertain and inspire millions of fans across the world.  Along with Congressman Mack, I find it highly appropriate that the people’s House takes time to recognize this classic band for lasting contributions not just to the world of music, but to American popular culture as a whole.

Mort Zuckerman: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur - US News and World Report

Mort Zuckerman: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur - US News and World Report

I really would quit posting these little tidbits, but so enjoy the truth finally coming out about obubba.... finally America is seeing what we saw when he announced for the senate in Illinois, let alone for the Presidency.

A Snakebit President

Americans want leaders on whom the sun shines.

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  By PEGGY NOONAN

The president is starting to look snakebit. He's starting to look unlucky, like Jimmy Carter. It wasn't Mr. Carter's fault that the American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran, but he handled it badly, and suffered. He defied the rule of the King in "Pippin," the Broadway show of Carter's era, who spoke of "the rule that every general knows by heart, that it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart." Mr. Carter's opposite was Bill Clinton, on whom fortune smiled with eight years of relative peace and a worldwide economic boom. What misfortune Mr. Clinton experienced he mostly created himself. History didn't impose it.

But Mr. Obama is starting to look unlucky, and–file this under Mysteries of Leadership–that is dangerous for him because Americans get nervous when they have a snakebit president. They want presidents on whom the sun shines.


It isn't Mr. Obama's fault that an oil rig blew in the Gulf and a gusher resulted. He already had two wars and the great recession. But the lack of adequate federal government response appropriately redounds on him. In a Wall Street Journal investigation published Thursday, reporters Jeffrey Ball and Jonathan Weisman wrote the federal government at first moved quickly, but soon "faltered." "The federal government, which under the law is in charge of fighting large spills, had to make things up as it went along." It hadn't anticipated a spill this big. The first weekend in May, when water was rough, contractors hired by BP to lay boom "mostly stayed ashore," according to a local official. "Shrimpers took matters into their own hands, laying 18,000 feet of boom," compared to about 4,000 feet by BP's contractors.

The administration's failure to take impressive action after the spill dinged its reputation for competence. The president's failure to turn things around Tuesday night with a speech damaged his reputation as a man whose rhetorical powers are such that he can turn things around with a speech. He lessened his own mystique. Reaction among his usual supporters was, in the words of Time's Mark Halperin, "fierce, unforeseen disappointment." Dan Froomkin of the Huffington Post called the speech "profoundly underwhelming," a "feeble call to action." Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich called the speech "vapid." Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times said the president looked "awkward and robotic." MSNBC's Keith Olbermann famously said "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days." Chris Matthews scored "a lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk." Mr. Olbermann, on Mr. Obama's well-written peroration: "It's nice but, again, how? Where was the 'how' in this speech when the nation is crying out for 'how'?"


As for the center, Nielsen reported that 32 million people watched the speech, as compared to 48 million viewers that watched the State of the Union. Ronald Reagan once said you should never confuse the reviews with the box office. This was the box office voting with its clickers.The right didn't like the speech either.

No reason to join the pile on, but some small points. Two growing weaknesses showed up in small phrases. The president said he had consulted among others "experts in academia" on what to do about the calamity. This while noting, again, that his energy secretary has a Nobel Prize. There is a growing meme that Mr. Obama is too impressed by credentialism, by the meritocracy, by those who hold forth in the faculty lounge, and too strongly identifies with them. He should be more impressed by those with real-world experience. It was the "small people" in the shrimp boats who laid the boom.

And when speaking of why proper precautions and safety measures were not in place, the president sternly declared, "I want to know why." But two months in he should know. And he should be telling us. Such empty sternness is . . . empty.

Throughout the speech the president gestured showily, distractingly, with his hands. Politicians do this now because they're told by media specialists that it helps them look natural. They don't look natural, they look like Ann Bancroft gesticulating to Patty Duke in "The Miracle Worker."


The president could move his hands because he was not holding a hard copy of his speech. Normally presidents have had a printed copy of the speech in their hands or on the desk, in case the teleprompter freezes or fails. Mr. Obama's desk was shiny and empty. A White House aide says the director of Oval Office operations had a hard copy just off camera, and was following along as the president spoke so that if the prompter broke he'd be able to give it to the president at the spot he left off.

But that would look a little startling, an arm suddenly darting into the frame to hand the president a script. And the pages could fall. If one were in the mood for a cheap metaphor one would say this is an example of the White House's tendency not to anticipate trouble.

There is still a sense about Mr. Obama that he needs George W. Bush in order to give his presidency full shape and meaning. In this he is like Jimmy Carter, who needed Richard Nixon, or rather the Watergate scandal, which made him president. Mr. Carter needed Richard Nixon standing in the corner looking like he'd spent the night sleeping in his suit as it hangs in the closet. The image is from Joe McGinnis's "The Selling of the President, 1968." Mr. Carter needed to be able to point at Nixon and say, "I'm not him. He dirty, me clean. You hate him, like me." Carter's presidency was given coherence and meaning by Nixon, Watergate, and without it that presidency seemed formless. Mr. Obama, in the same way, needs Mr. Bush standing in the corner like Boo Radley, saying "Let's invade something!" But Mr. Bush is wisely back home in Texas finishing a book, and the president never sounds weaker than when he suggests his predicament is all his predecessor's fault.

Mr. Obama needs Mr. Bush in the corner and doesn't have him. That's part of why he looks so alone out there.

And seems so snakebit, so at the mercy of forces. When you're snakebit you get some sympathy, and some will come. With all the president's woe there will be some counter-reaction among commentators, journalists and others. There will likely be among the Democratic leadership, too. "Love him or not he's what we've got, and he's what we have for the next two years. Help the guy, cool the criticism, punch back for him." But it's also true that among Democrats—and others—when the talk turns to the presidency it turns more and more to Hillary Clinton. "We may have made a mistake. She would have been better." Sooner or later the secretary of state is going to come under fairly consistent pressure to begin to consider 2012. A hunch: She won't really want to. Because she has enjoyed being loyal. She didn't only prove to others she could be loyal, a team player. She proved it to herself. And it has only added to her luster.

As for the president, the great question is what you do when you start to feel snakebit. Maybe he'll start to doubt his own moves and instincts. Maybe not. Jimmy Carter didn't. He fought hard for re-election in 1980, and until near the end thought he'd win. He trusted the American people, and in an odd way he trusted his luck.

St. Mary's Hospital

Saw Uncle Mike last night. He is doing great, looking like his old self... great spirits. Told him Ann and I were going to come up on our bike, but decided against it since it was so windy, and he laughed, knowing better!