Did New Jersey Lose $400 million Education Grant for Opposing Obama & Teacher's Union?

.

In a state long accustomed to knowing the price you pay for corruption and whose new Republican Governor, Chris Christie, made his mark prosecuting corruption in the state, it seems as if there were some strange actions by the Obama administration, the teacher's union and some of New Jersey's old politicians to inflict cruel and extreme punishment for an innocent clerical error that cost the people and students of the state $400 million in Obama education funds.

The New Jersey application lost the $400 million dollars for two reasons, a clerical error where TWO LINES had the wrong fiscal year data, and because the state teacher's union refused to sign off on the application. Had the reviewers asked the state to correct the two lines out of over 1,000 pages of application they would have received the money. Or, had the teacher's union backed the state plan for students they would have the money.

New Jersey is the only state that was facing a severe financial crisis because of bizarre tax increases and corruption after nearly a decade of Democratic leadership in the governor's office and used the ballot to clean house. The people threw out the old guard, brought in a former straight talking prosecutor, and backed him as he took on the teacher's union to bring sense to the budget and eliminate ridiculous health and pension benefits that would bankrupt the state over time.

That is democracy at work. Unfortunately, the old governor, Jon Corzine, was one of Obama's top economic advisors who had been CEO of Goldman Sachs, the top Obama contributor and fund raiser, and was one of Obama's top political supporters, while he was raiding the Jersey treasury. Obama went out of his way to campaign for his buddy, and the news media said Christie did not have a chance to win. Fortunately, the Democratic party and media no longer tell the voters of Jersey who to elect.

So we know the victory of Christie over Corzine was a huge embarrassment to the Obama gang, in particular the Rahm Emanuel political operatives who grew up playing Chicago hardball. Did I mention the teacher's union is one of the strongest financial supporters of Obama, and of the Democratic Senator from New Jersey Robert Menendez? The teacher's union spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to stop the governor from reforming the entire state budget before being overwhelmed by the people in local school board elections.

Did I mention that Menendez is the head of the most powerful political machine of the Democrats in the Senate, he is Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a strong Obama ally? Did I mention that two citizen watchdog groups, SourceWatch and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, both say the same Senator Menendez is, well here are their words about Menendez.

Under Investigation by: The Department of Justice.

Under Investigation for: Sen. Menendez is under investigation by the Newark, NJ U.S. Attorney’s Office for collecting rent from an anti-poverty group for which he helped win federal funds, the North Hudson Community Action Corporation. The group was run by a donor to Sen. Menendez’s campaign. More recently, in 2007, federal investigators began looking into Sen. Menendez’s relationship with his former chief of staff, lobbyist Kay LiCausi, to determine whether the senator improperly helped her or her clients win contracts and federal funding.

So why do I mention all these different factors in a story about Jersey losing $400 million? Because I worked for governors (including New Jersey) and congress along with federal administrations and I can guarantee you no applicant for a program of this nature would be denied funds for an obvious clerical error that could have been corrected with a phone call.

This incident has all the earmarks of political retaliation by the Obama White House gang to punish the governor and people of New Jersey for daring to take on the all powerful teacher's union. A full investigation of the application process and the refusal of the federal reviewers to ask for the clerical corrections is surely warranted.

More important, as every insider in Washington knows, a US Senator has more influence than anyone else in Congress. Menendez is supposed to have direct links to Emanuel and Obama because of his Democratic party leadership position. He also has no love for Governor Christie who disrupted the plans of the Democrats to keep control of the state.

If Menendez had done anything to ask the Education Department or Obama to allow the state to fix the innocent clerical error it would have been done because that is the Washington way. Never underestimate the power of a sitting senator. Obviously Menendez did nothing to help his own state and students. Or he does not have the ear of the White House. Also did Menendez call the teacher's union and asked them to sign off for the $400 million benefit to students and teachers? I mean is their hatred of the new governor so consuming that the children of New Jersey are mere pawns in a political -power play?

What happened defies logic, is contrary to the Washington way, seems to indicate the Obama people and Menendez used the action to punish the new Republican governor, and would be worthy of criminal action if anyone in the White House or Menendez's office failed to help the state do something that was always done by agencies, help the applicants have a complete application and receive the money they deserved for the students and people of New Jersey. FOR SHAME!

.

Shirley Sherrod Turns Down Obama Offer - Now Free to Sue Obama

.

Yesterday Shirley Sherrod, the Ag Department official who was fired by the Obama administration, met with the Secretary of Agriculture and turned down the offer from the Obama people to rejoin the team. As usual the media has continued to sidestep the most important questions to ask Shirley as if not asking will make the truth go away.

Since her story broke in the media we have consistently wondered why the mainstream, cable and progressive media have all chosen to ignore facts and pass sweeping judgments with no justification yet they still seem to have learned no lessons.

Silent is the media on whether Shirley and her husband stand to gain $350,000 from suing the Ag dept for discrimination on a long pending settlement. Should she get a large award and the answer lies in a pending bill for over a billion dollars buried in Congress, then one wonders how a former Ag official could sue and win money from the very department she works for. Sounds awful close to a conflict of interest.

Better yet, why did no media ask if she intends to sue the Obama administration for one of the most blatant acts of discrimination every admitted to by the government. Any half baked lawyer could win a huge settlement based on the dumb mistakes the Obama people made, then admitted to making.

If she has already sued the government before, did Obama or Ag Secretary Vilsack attempt to talk her out of suing again when they met with her? Did they ask her to wait until after the fall elections before going after her retirement fund?

Shirley deserves to win big because she was a victim, not of the media though the media and NAACP were stupid in how they handled it, but of the Obama administration because they should have known better than to find her guilty with no review of the facts. When the White House can ignore due process we are all in trouble.

As for the media, they remain silent on the issues I raised weeks ago and that are just as important today. If the media were truly interested in the facts this information would have been disclosed long ago. Did she sue before? Will she get $350,000 when Congress approves the bill? Will she sue again? Did the president, Ag Secretary or anyone else try and talk her out of suing or ask her to delay the inevitable? Why did the media not check out the obvious?

.

Sarah Palin continues string of stunning upsets as America's #1 Political Outsider

.

In spite of the extensive and ongoing national and cable media efforts to sink Sarah's ship her candidates continue to shake the foundation of politics in America, control of politics by the national political parties, and the progressive liberal media's dying grasps to have a voice in the fall elections.

As the Palin touch brought down yet another incumbent previously declared the clear winner by the left, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Palin had endorsed long shot Joe Miller last June, he holds a clear lead with the majority of votes counted. While several thousand absentee votes remain to be counted, no major race has been decided this year by absentee votes in spite of the hesitation of the media to call the race.

The Palin juggernaut has stunned the political pundits and professional politicians of both parties and when combined with the huge Republican lead in total primary votes cast in state after state should foreshadow a massive Republican victory and setback for the progressive agenda in the fall elections.

Add to that the fact the Obama economic program has failed in spite of efforts by Administration talking heads to plea for patience, the public shows no mood for patience when jobs are stagnate, the future looks bleak, the cause for the economic crisis, housing, has continued to undermine the American dream and the Obama deficit continues to dwarf the Bush years.

If the progressives and liberal media continue their two year coordinated campaign to destroy Palin they are in danger of creating a voter backlash that could well leave liberals an endangered species. Each time the left elite try to end the career of the new American candidates they fail. From the New Jersey and Massachusetts races long ago to Rand Paul in Kentucky, Nikki Haley in South Carolina to Joe Miller yesterday, just when the liberals pronounce them dead on arrival they win.

Even the races lost by the populist candidates, particularly those backed by Palin, have been far closer than the polls indicated and might have been won on recounts in some cases. People are really upset and the media still doesn't get it. One day the pundits who are consistently dead wrong may finally get it, like when they no longer know any politicians in Washington.
.

The Second End to Combat in Iraq Celebration Featuring VP Joe Biden

.

As the carefully staged White House theatrical play of The End to Combat in Iraq continues it's road show this time the second team took center stage as Joe Biden filled in for the vacationing President Obama to declare, according to the Los Angeles Times Joe Biden update:

No 'Mission Accomplished' claim on Iraq, but no 'victory' either.
 

Andrew Malcolm went on to report:

Fortunately, Sen. Barack Obama was about as wrong as he could possibly be opposing President Bush's 2007 troop surge in this news video from the former state senator's favorite TV channel.

As one result, the vacationing president and, this week, the peripatetic vice president are busy celebrating the U.S. military's success in Iraq with the withdrawal this month of the last American combat brigade.

Of course, the Democrats are not dumb enough to repeat the notorious "Mission Accomplished" banner of the previous administration. Nor is the White House No. 2 going to repeat his notorious claim from a February "Larry King Live" show that Iraq represents one of Obama's "great achievements."

Today, in an Indianapolis speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Joe "Let's Divide Iraq Into Three Parts" Biden did not mention his opposition to the Bush troop surge either. But he was naturally effusive in his praise of American service personnel, present and past.

Two other things to note in this administration's public relations war wind-down:

A) The administration's third commander in Afghanistan in 19 months, Gen. David Petraeus, as JB so carefully put it today in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Indianapolis, "now has all the resources that the strategy calls for." (Full text below.)

B) What's missing from Biden's remarks about all the sacrifices being made as it was missing from Obama's 4,582-word West Point speech announcing his second Afghan troop surge and outlining a strategy there (including a pre-announced withdrawal starting next July), is the key word: "Victory."

Additionally, 50,000 heavily-armed American troops still remain in Iraq for....

... not always courteous counter-insurgency operations in coming months. So, "non-combat troops in Iraq" all depends on what your definition of "combat" is.

But with homefront approval of the nation's wars waning and an angry, frustrated electorate scheduled to vote in a midterm looming for Democrats on Nov. 2, we will be hearing much more on this from Obama post-Martha's Vineyard.

Now some might think after the NBC End of Iraq Combat staging last week this might be the end of the Administration efforts to capitalize on the public relations surrounding this ongoing historic event which is scheduled to really be completed August 31 but the President has now scheduled a major address for August 31 about, what else, the end of combat in Iraq in case you missed the first two events proclaiming the end of combat.

Apparently the hoopala is designed to make us overlook the fact about 50,000 combat ready troops will remain in Iraq after we have finished combat, that thousands of private contactors will be hired to fight in Iraq and that no one thinks the remaining 50,000 troops will be withdrawn by the end of next year as also promised.

I find the Administration reference to private contractors not being a combat force rather odd as long ago governments and kings hired such private contractors to fight their wars only they called them paid mercenaries and they were the fighting force.

One final note as I mentioned in my last article is that the real last remaining combat brigade in Iraq is the Stryker 2-25 brigade as reported by a soldier still in Iraq fighting after the NBC end of combat show. Perhaps Obama will acknowledge this truth as the 2-25 is from his home state of Hawaii and would make for more great theater.

.

NBC Iraq Staging Drama - The Latest in News Media Reality Shows?

.

Call it manufactured news, news manipulation or whatever the NBC extravaganza showing the last combat troops leaving Iraq was high in theater and low on truth. For a few hours yesterday even the Huffington Post, the liberal sanctuary, posted the Coltons Point Times article exposing the sham as nothing more than a public relations stunt by NBC and MSNBC to prop up sagging ratings.

However, the Huffington Post caters to the will of the White House and someone must have called for dropping the negative article about NBC because it disappeared soon after it appeared. However, since truth is so hard to find on the internet, here is a copy of the Google search that showed the Coltons Point Times article on the Huffington Post yesterday.

Now for more truth, the same day NBC was heralding an end to combat in Iraq Obama was speaking in Ohio and said the following:

“We are keeping the promise I made when I began my campaign for the presidency,” Obama said at a fundraiser at the Columbus Anthenaeum. “By the end of this month we will have removed 100,000 troops from Iraq and our combat mission will [end].”

No mention that all troops would be out that day and a reinforcement of his goal to be out by August 31. A military web site, Open Security contemporary conflict, reported the following in reaction to the NBC snow job:

"The last United States’ army combat brigade left Iraq early this morning, crossing the border into Kuwait in a carefully-planned, top-secret journey. The departure of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, will leave 6000 support troops in Iraq until end of August, when US combat operations will formally end.

US State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley said American involvement in Iraq is far from over, but would be less intrusive and more civilian-focused from now on. Crowley emphasised that the US remains committed to its trillion dollar investment in Iraq, and needed to honour the memory of almost 4,500 troops who lost their lives in the war. Crowley made no mention of the estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians who also lost their lives in the conflict.

Despite White House reassurances that continued unrest and a six-month old political deadlock following indecisive elections in March will not “derail democracy” in Iraq, many commentators are sceptical that the end of combat operations can be as clear cut as the Obama administration would like it to be. Although 50,000 troops will remain in support of the Iraqi army until the end of 2011, current plans would see all US forces withdrawing from Iraq by the end of 2011, leaving only a small contingent of diplomats and civilians, protected by less than a few thousand troops."

Finally a serviceman blogging from Iraq wrote that "there is still a Stryker brigade" remaining in Iraq after the departure of the Stryker 4-2 brigade on NBC. He said the Stryker 2-25 brigade, the only combat brigade left in Iraq, will be the last to leave before the end of the month.

His response to NBC was "along the way you missed out on pointing out true facts that there is still a brigade here that is just as large and has the same if not more vehicles than 4-2 does. So look deeper and remember soldiers watch the news as well and the piece as a whole was nice but I hope you come see us since we are the last Strykers here and will be turning out the lights on this show."

You will get the truth if you are open to it. As for me, I really don't like network news using our brave American troops as props for their reality shows. It is a disgrace to journalism, it trivializes war, and makes the blood of over 4,400 Americans who died in Iraq seem more like a TV script than the reality it was to the families and loved ones of those we lost.

.

NBC & Obama Gang Stage "Historic" End to Iraq Combat - Then get Busted!

.

It seems the Obama boys cannot stop trying to manipulate the national news media to get favorable stories and to drive unfavorable stories off the air and there is no grater co-conspirator than the White House propaganda machine at NBC and MSNBC.

Last night on NBC news and then on every MSNBC talking head program we were served a historic story of the last combat troops leaving Iraq and crossing the border to Kuwait. Lights, camera, applause and action and there you have it, Obama meeting his promise to remove combat troops as the MSNBC heads feigned tears.

The story continued this morning on Morning Joe and other MSNBC outlets to maximize the bang for the buck. This well planned and staged media extravaganza went without a hitch as reporter Richard Engel rode with the troops through the border crossing, acting as if he didn't know the scripted moment was being staged and as if he didn't know what the border crossing looked like.

There had to be a sigh of relief from the White House as they watched NBC document history and maybe knock the Moslem mosque at Ground Zero and Obama's strange flip flopping on his position out of the headlines.

But alas they failed once again to trick the American public although they did trick the left leaning media into buying into the deception. You see, after the NBC exclusive of the last combat soldier leaving Iraq we come to find out there are actually 6,000 other combat soldiers still fighting in Iraq who will not be gone until the August 31 deadline.

Does this mean any other liberal media supporting Obama will have their own staging of the historic last combat soldier leaving Iraq? Are these media manipulators insane? Do they really think the public will buy this deception while 6,000 combat troops still remain in Iraq?

Shades of Dan Rather and CBS falsifying the military records of George Bush, Jr. to smear him in the 2004 presidential election. So here we go again, more media lies, more administration lies, and more deception by the politicians and media. These people should be investigated for fraud, the NBC people perpetrating the fraud should be thrown off the air and the Obama people using the brave military combat troops in Iraq as props for campaign commercials should be thrown out of public office.

I wonder if Obama knew about and approved of this cruel deception?

Here is the truth about how the staged broadcast was assembled as reported by Brian Stelter of Media Decoder.

Inside an NBC News control room, they were also nerve-racking, as the network prepared on Wednesday night to broadcast live from a convoy that carried elements of the last United States combat brigade to leave the country. It was a high-stakes broadcast, one that the network had secretly worked for weeks to pull off.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, producers were transfixed on the monitors that showed the correspondent Richard Engel positioned inside one of the vehicles in the convoy. Every time the picture lapsed, a result of satellite hiccups, the volume in the room dropped, only to be replaced by sighs of relief when it was restored a second or two later.

“The magic of live TV,” M.L. Flynn, a producer, remarked to no one in particular.

The existence of the convoy was kept secret until 6:30 p.m. Eastern, the same time that the “NBC Nightly News” started. To transmit the images, NBC at great expense shipped its so-called Bloommobile to Iraq for the first time since the war began in 2003. The Bloommobile is a specially outfitted vehicle that allows the network to transmit live pictures via satellite while on the road.

David Verdi, a vice president at NBC News, said that before the war’s beginning in 2003, network executives asked themselves, “What do we think our audience expects from us in covering this war?”

“The unanimous answer was, our audience most likely expects to see this war live,” he said. “That was the initial idea for the Bloommobile.”

When the time came to talk about the end of the combat mission there, he added, “We came to the same conclusion — that our audience would expect to experience it live as it’s happening.”

On Wednesday night, Mr. Engel was positioned in one of the military’s armor vehicles, directly in front of the Bloommobile. The signal from his vehicle was sent via microwave to the Bloommobile, which transmitted it back to the United States.

NBC had something of a scare on Tuesday when one of its satellite transponders burnt out, a casualty of the hot weather there. A network technician was able to replace the transponder in time.

In the control room on Wednesday night, Ms. Flynn, the producer, communicated with Mr. Engel via an earpiece. As the live shot from Iraq faded a bit, the producer said, “Richard, can you tell the Bloommobile to stay closer to you?”

The images from NBC and other outlets are important for the United States as a public relations tool, as they reaffirm with color and sound that the country is winding down a widely unpopular combat mission. But they are in part a media construct. Though the media may yearn for a dramatic finish to the war, there is not likely to be one, at least not yet.

Next thing you know the war coverage will be filmed in Hollywood.


.

19th Amendment gave Women Right to Vote 90 years ago Today

.

[In the 1800s, women in the United States had few legal rights and did not have the right to vote. This speech was given by Susan B. Anthony after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay.]

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:


"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.

For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.

To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.


Susan B. Anthony - 1873


.

The Roots of Country Music - Appalachia to Nashville

.
Most people probably have little understanding of the roots of country music in America because it has always been taken for granted that country is one of the core genres we have always had around. It is known as the heartbeat and soul of America and been around about as long as the Europeans have been here.

Over the years we may have heard country music we liked, some even crossed over to pop and rock charts, and many stars in other genres either started as country music singers or became famous and then cut a country song or album. But do we really know from whence it came?

When English speaking America was first being colonized in the 1600's the coastal areas were settled first, Virginia, Massachusetts and Maryland, all by 1634 and it did not take long for the European immigrants to make their way to the Appalachian Mountains, the Southern Appalachians that is, which included the Blue Ridge Mountain range and Cumberland Plateau. Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee territories along with pieces of the Carolinas and Georgia made up the region which served as a barrier to westward expansion.
 

Immigrants came to the area because the coastal regions were already populated and with them came the Old World musical instruments were brought together in barn dances and celebrations by these hardy people settling the region. This was in the days before electricity, before electric guitars and synthesizers

The Irish fiddle, German dulcimer, Italian mandolin, Spanish guitar and African banjo were brought to these celebrations and played together in hillbilly jam sessions far from the operas and symphonies of the cities on the east coast. This came to be known as "Old Time" music.

In the 19th century some immigrant groups moved to the Texas area to settle and further integrated the hillbilly sound with Spanish, Mexican and Native American music and large dancehalls were built where the locals could gather and dance to the sounds. This was the final step in the evolution of the roots of Country Music.

 Then came the 20th century with cars and roads and radio which brought down the barriers of communication and people from throughout the nation could hear this unique American creation. The first country recording was in 1921 and throughout the 1920's as radio expanded so did the country music.



Country musicians were great innovators ever since mixing the instruments from five counties up in the Appalachians and electricity, recording and touring gave them more and more opportunities to do this. Hillbilly music grew in popularity driven by the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers and in 1925 WSM-AM radio in Nashville started the first country music broadcast, on November 28, 1925, when the WSM Barn Dance was first broadcast. In time it would become the Grand Ole Opry under the guidance of people like Roy Acuff.

 By the 1930's and Great Depression people were poor and the radio became the primary source of news and entertainment. Soon a fledgling movie industry introduced the Singing cowboys while radio was expanding the barn dances with legendary country shows being broadcast from Chicago to Texas to California. In the 1940's these shows introduced singers like Roy Acuff, Bill Haley, Eddie Arnold and singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.



Bob Wills and his legendary Texas Playboys was among the innovators of country music when in 1935 he introduced drums to the band, a first, then became the first group with the electric guitar in 1938. Yet it was not until the early 1960's that the steel guitar and drums were fixtures in country bands.

 Hillbilly music spawned Hillbilly Boogie by 1939 and a new country genre called Bluegrass emerged with the sound of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at the end World War II. By this time country music included Hillbilly, Boogie, Blues, Honky Tonk, Gospel and Rockabilly.



To the rest of the world country music was called Hillbilly until 1944 when the name was changed to Folk and Blues music. By 1949 it was labeled Country or Country Western, the latter referring to the singing cowboys of movies and then television. Honky Tonk saw the rise of Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Lefty Frizell and Hank Williams.



Along came the 1950's and country music changed again as Rockabilly dominated with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins leading the way. From 1955-1960 ABC-TV became the first network with a nationwide country show called the Ozark Jubilee that showcased country stars to the nation. Elvis helped drive the cross-over between Rockabilly and Rock 'n Roll.

Late in the '50's came the Lubbock Sound of Buddy Holly and then there was a country backlash as the industry felt rock 'n roll was to dominate. Ray Price, Marty Robbins and Johnny Horton began to shift the music back to traditional country.

In the early 1960's the Nashville sound became dominant with producers like Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Billy Sherrill reviving the genre with legendary singers Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold. Ray Charles introduced Country Soul in 1962 with his release of I Can't Stop Loving You. A new sound in Nashville called Countrypolitan was created featuring the sounds of Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich. But soon the Nashville sound became stale.

Out west Honky Tonk and Western Swing were merged by Bob Wills and Lefty Frizell to form the Bakersfield Sound. It would encompass the diversity of different styles from Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins and Wynn Stewart.



In other places like Lubbock, Tulsa and Austin the disappointment with the Nashville Sound and control of the record labels was causing an Outlaw movement. Inspired by the success of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Rolling Stones in demanding creative control of their music and control of their songs, the Outlaws gravitated to Austin where Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson became the leaders.

 Not only did their music change but their image as well. Gone were the clean cut, clean shaven cowboys of old and in were the long haired radical Outlaws of the future. Jessie Colter, wife of Waylon, was one of the female pioneers while Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard soon joined forces.

With The Beatles astounding success blending rock and pop music Nashville was hungry to tap into the crossover sound needed to reach the mainstream markets. Others, seeking a return to the "old values" of rock 'n roll, created a new genre called Country Rock.

The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Buffalo Springfield and Eagles exploded onto the music scene as Southern Rock and Heartland became new subgenre spin offs. Ever since there has been a tug of war between traditional country and country rock or country pop as stars like Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Juice Newton, Alabama, Hank Williams, Jr., Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakum, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Keith Urban helped move country towards rock over the years.

By the mid 1970's Olivia Newton John and John Denver captured the Country Pop crossover market and powered their way to CMA and Grammy Awards with multi million selling hits. Soon a whole new group of country performers would take up the mantle.

George Straight, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Tim McGraw among others perform the Classic Country style today while the pop crossover comes from new artists like Carrie Underwood from American Idol fame and newest sensation Taylor Swift who have breathed new life into the country music industry.

What is next? Who knows. Still, those who understand that country music is an ever-changing genre that morphs into a variety of styles depending on the needs of the people and the innovation of the artists, must feel good as a broad range of artists currently dominate the radio airwaves and rule the concert circuit.

As the major record labels collapse, the radio stations strangle on their own automated programming and the formula music once again becomes stale we know it is the time when country music always rediscovers itself. Nashville will be a lot better as a result, all country artists will benefit, the public will reap the rewards of new and innovative country music and history will once again record that the American country sound once again became relevant in a time of need and a time of truth.

.