NAMES & FACES
Tuesday, December 27, 2005; Page C03
The Band That Cares
Instead of making laws in Washington, a bipartisan band of congressmen will be making music overseas this week to entertain U.S. troops.
The Second Amendments -- Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) on guitar and lead vocals, Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) on lead guitar, Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) on bass guitar, Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) on drums and Jon Porter (R-Nev.) on keyboards -- were scheduled to fly out yesterday to spread holiday cheer on a five-country tour that wraps up next week.
  The Second Amendments, here at a concert in September, heads to Iraq this week with the expectation that "we always exceed expectations." (Second Amendments Via Associated Press) |
After the fact-finding part of their day, the delegation will rock out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan and at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The group covers a range of performers from Chuck Berry and the Beatles to George Strait and Toby Keith and plans to add holiday tunes like "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Blue Christmas" to its playlist.
"People expect that we can't play, so we always exceed expectations," Peterson told the Associated Press.
"It's a good thing for us to do," Weldon said in a news release. "It sends a clear message to the troops that members of Congress support them. Our trip at this time speaks very loudly to the troops that 'we care about you.' It's an important trip for us."
The band's name refers not to the right to bear arms but to its being the successor to Peterson's earlier group, the Amendments. Peterson has been playing guitar solo and in other bands for years but is trying his chops for the first time as a lead guitarist. Hulshof, a self-taught drummer, has been hitting the skins since childhood.
No word on if the band plans to release an album.
Noted . . .
French children's magazine Mon Quotidien named as its Child of the Year a British schoolgirl who saved 100 tourists on a Thai beach from the tsunami last year. Tilly Smith , now 11, had studied tsunamis in her geography class two weeks before going on vacation to Thailand. Walking on Phuket island beach on Dec. 26, 2005, Smith told the Associated Press, she saw "bubbling on the water . . . and foam sizzling just like in a frying pan" and recognized the warning signs. She told her parents and alerted the staff of the Marriott Hotel, where they were staying. The beach was evacuated just minutes before the wave struck, and was one of the few on the island where no one was killed or seriously injured . . .
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger 's Austrian home town took his name off its stadium over the weekend, amid controversy sparked by his decision to deny clemency to death-row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams . The Austrian news agency APA quoted an anonymous Graz official as saying Arnie's name was removed overnight to avoid public furor . . .
Vietnamese police completed their investigation into the child abuse allegations against British rocker Gary Glitter yesterday. Glitter's attorney, Le Thanh Kinh, told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that he and prosecutors will receive a copy of the police report within the week. Prosecutors will spend the next month deciding whether to put Glitter on trial; if found guilty, he could spend up to 12 years behind bars. Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd , is being held at Phuoc Co prison.
. . . and Quoted
"People think I'm an intellectual because I wear glasses and they think I'm an artist because my films lose money."
-- Director Woody Allen, in an interview with BBC television.
-- Compiled by Ashby Strassburger from staff and wire reports