Joan Baez Banned from Walter Reed

I suppose the Bush Crime Family is afraid Joan Baez will start patching the holes in the walls and fixing the plumbing, or maybe even sing because she is banned from Walter Reed Medical Center and from performing with John Mellencamp, whose "Our Country" has been the patriotic cry and all the rage last summer. Hell, it was used in Chevy commercials before it was released!

In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.

"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago," she wrote. "I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."

...in an e-mailed statement published Monday on RollingStone.com, [Walter Reed] spokesman Steve Sanderson said the medical center received the request for participation by Baez just two days before the concert.

Not so, says Baez's manager, Mark Spector, who told the Post that Mellencamp's management invited Baez to perform in March and handled all the arrangements. The Post said Mellencamp's manager, Randy Hoffman, did not return calls requesting comment and that Mellencamp's publicist said the singer was ill Tuesday and unavailable.

But Mellencamp earlier told RollingStone.com: "They didn't give me a reason why she couldn't come. We asked why and they said, 'She can't fit here, period.' "

Maybe they can invite Lee Greenwood instead and have him sing that "God Bless the USA" dirge, because after all aren't we "proud to be an American"? What's the next line? Oh yeah, "Where at least I know I'm free." Hmm... careful Lee, you might have to rewrite your lyrics at the rate we're going.