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AP - "Compromise, hell!" Jesse Helms screamed in a 1959 editorial that captured what would become the legacy of his Senate career and his place in the conservative movement.

AP - Kevin Youkilis created the drama. Mike Lowell gave Boston the win.

AP - For years Spain's famed Prado museum had its suspicions about one of its most prized Goyas. Now the museum says it is certain the painting is not by the 18th-century master.

AP - It's Staff Sgt. Edgar Covarrubias' second Fourth of July in Iraq. No family barbecue, no fireworks, but Covarrubias says he'll call his mom, wife and kids to share the day anyway.

AP - Soul diva Amy Winehouse sipped from a glass of red wine and looked a bit unsteady on her feet as she appeared in front of a large audience at the Rock in Rio music festival southeast of Madrid on Friday.

AP - The National Park Service is considering reopening Lady Liberty's crown for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to documents a congressman released on July Fourth.

Helms key to Reagan revolution; McCain strategist worked for Helms' racially charged campaigns.

Welcome to the second installment of Hit and Miss, a column that takes a look at the positives and negatives in society.

So here’s an obvious hit: Independence Day! Yes, the Fourth of July represents a lot of things to us today. Many of us enjoy a day off work, getting together with family and friends, watching parades or fireworks, and, yes, even those ubiquitous holiday sales that mark our consumer society.

Independence Day should be celebrated. We should rejoice in the freedoms that we have in this country. We should be happy about the wisdom and courage shown by those (primarily Virginian Thomas Jefferson) who penned the Declaration of Independence.

While our Founding Fathers set up a great democracy that grew strong over the course of a couple centuries, George W. Bush and his cronies have made an active effort for seven years to take away our freedoms, our rights, and our democracy. And for that, the Bush administration is a major miss!

First, let me give credit where credit is due. The Bush administration has done a masterful job during the past seven years. Of course, Hitler was masterful, too, at certain things. And the Bush administration has been masterful at wrecking the economy, sucking up to corporations, fear mongering, harming our environment, starting illegal wars, and, for the purpose of this column, eliminating individual rights.

Let’s go all the way back to the beginning of this slippery slope—the USA PATRIOT Act. Bush wanted this thing passed and Congress was stupid enough to allow it. First, do you even know what the official term USA PATRIOT act stands for? Don’t worry, most of us don’t. It stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Even though Bush doesn’t read, or perhaps he can’t, I’m not sure, apparently Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, et al. could at least read George Orwell.

Bush Corp. proposed that we eliminate our rights and allow secret governmental intrusion in our lives and Congress passed it. Easily! The USA PATRIOT Act, according to our friend Wikipedia, “increases the ability of law enforcement agencies to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial and other records; eases restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expands the Secretary of Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and enhances the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA Patriot Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied.”

Wow, that should be making us rise up in a revolution, but we sat back and took it quietly. And in fact, Bush and Congress reauthorized the Act in 2006, again, with little fight from we the people.

Then there was the elimination of habeas corpus. And how about that illegal wiretapping, with the help of the big telecom companies? (You can count on Bush and major corporations to always do a little “you-scratch-my-back” politics.) And don’t forget holding “enemy combatants” indefinitely and without telling them of the charges against them or allowing them access to legal counsel.

The list of offenses against our rights goes on and on with this administration. And while we celebrate our freedom, I mourn our loss of freedom—or loss of inalienable rights taken away by a dictatorial theocracy while the American public and the Congress elected to represent us stood idly by, at best, or at worst was complicit in stripping our rights.

Our Founding Fathers understood the importance of these rights. Our brave and valiant military men and women have given their lives in protecting these rights that our own president, not some terrorist or foreign invader, has taken from us.

And perhaps that’s the biggest miss of all.

AP - Americans across the country mixed patriotism and plain old good fun to mark Independence Day on Friday, with solemn ceremony alternating with parades and hot-dog-eating hijinks.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama mixed presidential politics with parades and barbecue on U.S. Independence Day on Friday, celebrating his daughter's birthday with a picnic and fireworks in Montana.

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday.

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Reuters - U.S. defending champion Joey Chestnut won the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Friday by downing 64 hot dogs in a competition that stretched into a first-ever overtime.