<begin rant>

Goddamn assholes!

Get back to WORK and deal with some PRESSING issues, scumbags!

Fucking meddling bastards!

I'm REALLY dissapointed to see Randy Cunningham sign off this piece of shit.

<end rant>

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59369-2003Nov18.html/

Legislators Protest Beer Logos on Museum Exhibit

By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 19, 2003; Page C01

Just weeks before the opening of the Smithsonian's new aviation museum, 20 House members have asked the Smithsonian to remove beer logos from a historic aerobatics plane.

In a letter sent this week to Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small, the congressmen said the Loudenslager Stephens Akro Laser 200, which won several U.S. aerobatics titles as well as the 1980 World Aerobatic Championship, deserved to be in the museum. However, they said the Bud Light emblems were an advertisement and an inducement to drink -- the wrong signals to send to young visitors.

"The display of the plane with the Bud Light logos would needlessly commercialize the plane's exhibition while marginalizing its true historical significance. The logos are nothing more than an advertisement that would constitute an implicit endorsement of Bud Light by the Smithsonian Institution," wrote the members of Congress.

"Having a historic plane covered in gratuitous beer advertising sends misleading and dangerous messages to the millions of annual museum visitors who will be under the legal drinking age. As you may know, alcohol is the leading drug problem among American youth. . . . Alcohol-related advertising has no place in one of our nation's premier public museums. We respectfully request that you remove the Bud Light logos and restore the Laser 200 to its original color scheme prior to displaying it."

The letter's signers, 13 Democrats and seven Republicans, include Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.), members of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Smithsonian budget. Six others are also on the appropriation committee. Other signers included Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). No Maryland or Virginia representatives signed the letter.

The Laser 200 is a visual standout in the new facility, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which opens Dec. 15 at Dulles International Airport.

The bright red plane, displayed at Air and Space's flagship museum on the Mall for almost two years, was the first to be installed in the new building. It is hanging from one of the 10-story-high trusses in the museum.

The plane was given to the Smithsonian in 1999 by the family of Leo Loudenslager, a pilot who built his own aircraft. During its competitive days, it was painted blue and yellow.

Loudenslager won his first national championship in 1975 and followed with six titles. In 1983 he retired from competitive flight and performed at air shows. The plane was repainted in 1983 to announce its sponsorship by the Anheuser-Busch beer.

The issue of the logos has also been raised by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a group of state governors' spouses. "The Bud Light insignia has nothing to do with the championship years of a well-designed, well-flown plane. It is almost historically inaccurate. It is emblazoned much as a NASCAR race car," said George A. Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policies Project of CSPI.

Gen. John R. Dailey, director of the National Air and Space Museum, did not have a response to the congressional letter yesterday.

In an earlier reply to the governors' spouses, Dailey said the Laser 200 was historically accurate. He said the plane was in good condition when it arrived at the Smithsonian and it was not restored or changed by the museum. After its turn as a competitive plane, Dailey said, "it was then repainted as it is today, and began a second career in air shows. It was during these air shows that the plane gained its popular fame and became familiar to a mass audience. The current paint scheme thus has legitimate historical value."

Hinchey said yesterday that his concern grows out of his annoyance at what he sees as commercialization at the Smithsonian, where spaces have been renamed for private and corporate donors.

"This is one of the most crass examples. Bud Light has nothing to do with the historical and educational value of this plane. The historic value is associated with its competitive years," Hinchey said. "There is a place for commercial advertisements, but those places are elsewhere other than the Smithsonian. I don't think the Smithsonian should allow itself to be appropriated for those reasons."

"With all due respect, the main proponent behind this attempt to rewrite history is an anti-everything advocacy group that would like to tell all Americans -- young and old -- what to eat and drink," said John Kaestner, Anheuser-Buch vice president for consumer affairs. "If they are truly interested in doing something meaningful to fight underage drinking, they should put down the decal scraper and get serious."

The Anheuser-Busch Foundation gave $1 million toward the construction of the Udvar-Hazy Center after the Laser 200 was donated. The Smithsonian says the gift came with no strings attached. The company also sponsored Steve Fossett's Bud Light Spirit of Freedom, which made the first solo balloon flight around the world. The craft's capsule, which has a Bud Light decal, has been at the Mall museum since 2002.

The new objections follow a request by scholars and writers to change the text and treatment of the Enola Gay bomber in the new facility.

Dailey and the curators decided to display the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, in the same fashion as the other aircraft. It carries a label with its technical dimensions and a one-sentence description of its role in World War II. The organizers of a petition wanted a fuller explanation of the damage and loss of lives caused by the bomb, as well as conferences on nuclear policy. Dailey refused.

I always find the intermingling of religion and politics amusing.

Alcohol is legal, but you shouldn't drink.    Riiight.  Seperation of church and Nanny-state?

TRG

It was said best by the Joker in the original Batman movie and makes perfect sense when applied to our current gov losers:

(Joker)"It's time for an enema"

Quoted: I always find the intermingling of religion and politics amusing. Alcohol is legal, but you shouldn't drink.    Riiight.  Seperation of church and Nanny-state? TRG

I'll raise a beer to that.  Several times.
And I'll try to remember (if I can) not to post while intoxicated.
Oh yeah - screw Congress.

Quoted: It was said best by the Joker in the original Batman movie and makes perfect sense when applied to our current gov losers: (Joker)"It's time for an enema"

Uh, I believe the quote is 'This town needs an enema', but(no pun intended) you are quite correct regardless of the wording!


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Quoted: I always find the intermingling of religion and politics amusing. Seperation of church and Nanny-state?

Funny, I didn't notice anything in the story that had anything to do with any religion whatsoever.

Quoted: Hinchey said yesterday that his concern grows out of his annoyance at what he sees as commercialization at the Smithsonian, where spaces have been renamed for private and corporate donors.

Hey ASSFACE - if the government gave more money to the Smithsonian instead of wasting it on stupid bullshit programs, maybe they wouldn't HAVE to!

IIRC The aircraft in question is basiclly budweiser red with a huge "Budwieser" from wing tip to wing tip on the underside of the wing painting it out would alter the appearance of the aircraft as to make it unrecognizeable. Cant believe Duke Cuningham is supporting it as a pilot I would think avaition history would be more important than some tee-totallers delicate sensabilites being offended.
If you ever get to the smithsonian there is an interesting exibit based on the original tail of Lindbergs aircraft (cant remember if it was the Spirt of St Louis or and earlier aircraft of his) which had as a good luck symbol a swastika on the tail (Long before Hitler or the Nazi party stole the swastika as a party symbol it was a good luck icon) and it was vandalized by people to the point it had to be removed and replaced with a replica without the swastika. Nothing like stupidity altering or denying history.

I need a drink!

The logos were on the plane when it was donated?!

FUCK!! LEAVE IT ALONE! IT'S HISTORIC!

If Anheuser-Busch put the logos on the plane and they were not supposed to be there, I would have an issue with it. But if they were there BEFORE the Smithsonian got the plane (they were), they are a part of the planes history.

I can't stand people who want to "revise" history.

Av.

Next thing you know, they'd be covering up the scantily clothed nose arts of all those bombers and fighters.

Think of the children.

And I guess the swastika on the Smithsonian’s Messerschmitt Komet promotes fascism:

So, let me get this straight:

A bunch of small minded fucksticks in Washington want to force their views of whats right and wrong on you and me for the children.

What else is new?

SG

Oh, and I always said that when they were through excoriating the smokers, the beer drinkers were next.