When a red-blooded, macho, flag-waving, Bush-voting American country-music fan looks at a gorgeous blond who also happens to make his kind of music, one doesn't normally expect him to pay particular attention to the actual substance of her conversation. Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines didn't think anyone would either, at first. Far from controversial once upon a time, the Chicks were simply playing to a London crowd on the eve of the Iraq war, and Maines happened to mention, off the cuff, that she and the audience were on the same side: Though the band hails from Texas, they weren't feeling too proud of the president who shared their home state. Had there been no such thing as the Internet or blogosphere, the remarks might have gone relatively unnoticed, but juiced up by the right-wing Website Free Republic (the same site that spurred Dan Rather's "Memogate"), Maines's comments led first to a national stir, then some boycotts,... More >>>