There was no spin, as usual: I heard it from Brit Hume (6PM!) in his segment: The Political Grapevine ("and now, the most intriguing two minutes of Television, the latest from.....!")

I wonder if anyone has a video copy of GWB singing the anthem in Spanish back in 2000. I'd like to see the folks at "Faux" news spin that one.

Didn't Congress commission a Spanish-language national anthem back in 1919?

Conservatives can not thrive without having something to bitch about! Last December they griped about the phrase "Happy Holidays" and about not having "Christ in Christmas". Never mind that Christmas has been primarily a commercial holiday since retailers found out that they could make money off of it in the 1950s.

Now they're bitching about a Spanish-language version of the national anthem. How long is this going to go on? I'm guessing maybe a month or two. Then their favorite commentators will tell them to complain about something else, and they'll follow along like lemmings, as they always do.

if the anthem can only be performed in english does that mean that people can't use american sign language?

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Shakespeare’s words definitely fit today when we’re told that up is down, war is peace, and the so-called leader of our country stands for one thing and then utters utterly stupid negative statements related to it.

The flak about performing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish sent me on internet search (you know, that vast land of bogus data?).

On wikipedia.org I found that our national anthem has been translated many times in 150 years. It was translated the first time into Spanish in 1919 by the U.S. Bureau of Education. (That’s the government, isn’t it?) Well before that, however, it was translated into German by Niklas Müller in 1861. French Acadians of Louisiana translated it into French, and Jewish immigrants translated it into Yiddish. In 1999 a Latin version appeared. There’s even a Samoan translation!

We know George Bush is not the most informed man in the universe, but is his memory so bad he can’t recall it being sung in Spanish, at his request I've heard, during his campaign? Now he's having Karl Rove spin things so that his "base" will forgive him for his idea of a guest worker program.

I was proud to see those millions of gutsy people marching in cities across our country. Forget the crap about legal immigrants going through the process. What was the process when slave ships arrived at our shores with kidnapped Africans chained together in their hulls? They were met by people who planned to sell them—not assimilate them! At the other end of the spectrum, was there a process when the Mayflower landed here? Were they met by officials of the INS and made to fill out immigration forms?

I thought Bush’s guest worker program was probably the only good idea he’s had since he took office in 2001. All the rest is just spin for political purposes, and we need to wake up and realize when we're being handled

Boy, do I beg to differ with Salon and the majority of respondents:

I'm an independent,and proud of it. I do not subscribe to the far left or the far right--I'm somewhere in the middle, as are most Americans. Why do you think that we feel the way we do about changing the lyrics of the song?? Translating it into Spanish is one issue, but changing the lyrics is another, and that is what the new version has done. Yes, the melody is hard to sing, but the words are the power behind our ballad. Have you read the history behind the song? Here, take a minute: http://www.chiggerridge.com/mailbox/national_anthem.htm

These words are part of our history, the same history that has taken us to this point in time. Warts and all, this is still the country that people will break laws in order to enter. How would you readers feel if I went into Mexico (or wherever) illegally, then edited their national anthem to suit my purposes? To do so would be an insult to them and their culture.

Is it just a song? Nope, just like the Mona Lisa is not just a painting.

the morons that get worked up about a Spanish language version of an unsingable song about a battle in which Aunt Sam got her ass handed to her are going to vote fascist anyway. Fuggem.

just a note here about the anthem and monday march. i listened to local radio a lot yesterday and it was astonishing . the anger was phenomenal both with the callers and djs. this is a red hot issue. the democracts should not be so dismissive. even the newspapers were cited for their mild statements concerning this. this is not a minor issue but a core identity issue. can the dems and such be wrong again.

then the most intellegent thing to do would be to ignore it. Salon instead chooses to make it an issue leading to readers calling the 2/3 of americans who are against it rednecks. Wow. Brilliant. You see an obvious wedge issue and you just go and take a whack at it?

Insulting 2/3 of Americans is not a good idea. It was a non-issue until you encouraged people to talk about. Now not only do liberals think we should sing the national anthem in spanish but they also think anyone who disagrees is a "stupid redneck." Smooth.

I am totally with the War Room on this one. Why it would bother anyone if our national anthem was sung in another language is beyond me. Isn't the important thing that across America this summer, at Polish-American fairs, Cuban-American festivals, and Mexican-American fiestas, our national anthem will be sung? They share their culture with us, we share our country with them. We sing our anthem in English, they sing our anthem in their language. Either way, it is all about a love of this country we all call "home".