Time Travel

Driving on the highway the other day, a perfect confluence of events punctured the space-time continuum and transported me back to when long hair for men was ok and my guitar strap was red with white doves alternating with white peace symbols.

The radio was playing Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. As the vocal wailed "Four dead in Ohio" I passed a pick-up with a bumper sticker reading America, Love It or Leave It. Serious flashback, man.........................Today, we'd say Blue or Red, Joe the Plumber or "palin around with terrorists". ( I meant to spell it that way!!!!)

Why there are people who "'oppose your interests' and 'really believe that if they can make you afraid enough or angry enough, you can be tricked into voting against yourself. It is all part of the same contempt, and [on Election Day] you can show them the mistake they have made.' The debate wasn't between left or right, but between 'the politics of fear and the politics of trust. One says: you are encircled by monstrous dangers. Give us power over your freedom so we may protect you. The other says: the world is a baffling and hazardous place, but it can be shaped to the will of men...cast your vote for trust, not just in leaders or policies, but trusting your fellow citizens, in the ancient tradition of this home for freedom and, most of all, for trust in yourself."

If that don't sound like the Bush/Cheney era and the tone of the 2008 presidential campaign, I don't know what would. Divisiveness, the culture wars, an unpopular military action overseas, fear of terrorism and crime......The above is from Nixonland by Rick Perlstein on pgs.536-537. The context is a televised speech by then Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine exhorting voters to cast their ballots the next day for Democratic candidates. The fear-mongers were Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. And their speeches and approaches would be so familiar to John McCain and Sarah Palin----because they are the same. And for me, Edmund Muskie's words ring as true today as when he spoke them on that evening in 1970.

Vote early if you can (I did) and please vote with your head, not your fears!!!!!

Plumbers and Attacks

Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber.....A campaign that gets too much money can become corrupt.....
These are Republican talking points, coming in large part from the candidate John McCain himself. Personally, I'd be distancing myself from Plumbers and corruption if I were a Republican. Or doesn't the Maverick remember a little break-in at the Watergate Hotel by someone linked to him personally, G. Gordon Liddy, a member of Nixon's Plumbers, the epitome of corrupt campaigning. John, John, John, where did you go?

So there I was, walking through the bedroom. When a flash erupted from the top of the Nargle. Poor little Weetzie the look-out fled in terror. AndromeClee had leaped from the mast of the ship and slashed her vicious claws at the look-out. And the Captain is brooding in the recliner.......

Another Roller Coaster

So another roller coaster week comes to a close. The president addressed the nation about the economy and caused the Dow to fall and our retirement investments to lose value. I'd estimate he's causing me to add 2 months to my planned retirement date every time he opens his fool mouth!!!!! Enough already----let's inaugurate the winner of Nov. 4 on Nov. 5 before W can wreak any more havoc.

Then Saturday Night Live---Sarah "'Cuda" Palin and Sarah "Tina Fey" Palin on the same screen. Holy secret identity crisis!!!!! That's like Superman and Clark Kent or Batman and Bruce Wayne appearing in the same frame!!!!!!!!!!!! Will this nation ever recover................

Next, there was Meet the Press on Sunday. Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama. But even more tellingly, he emphasized what America is all about. It makes no difference if a candidate is Arab, Muslim, black, or a veteran, old, white, and out of touch. As long as he's an American and eligible for the presidency. Powell showed more sense with his observations than either candidate has shown with their attacks. Maybe McCain's biggest error was not getting him for V.P. Or perhaps it's a sign of how low the Republican Party has sunk that it could not field him as their candidate.

Thursday night was miraculous. Not only do los socquitos rojos thrive on being 3 games down, they came back in 2 innings from SEVEN runs down as well!!!!! And they won Saturday!!!!! Isn't it a foregone conclusion who will win Sunday and sweep the Phillies in 4???? Like there's any suspense left to the baseball season.........

Space Cadet

Talk about appropriate venues for campaign appearances!!!! Sarah Palin (click on the link and click on objects around the picture, especially the door on the left---do that several times!! Save the red phone for last.) has a rally scheduled for Sunday in Roswell New Mexico.


For the uninitiated, Roswell is the home of the only UFO crash that yielded an alien body. Even the McDonald's has an alien and flying saucer theme. The creature was whisked off to Area 51 in the Nevada desert for scientists in the employ of the US Air Force to examine and experiment on. I kid you not--here's proof:

Down that dirt road is the crash site, now on private property. The sign has the contact info for the tour company that can show you the site. Guess beef prices were down and this guy needed something to hold him over...............

Speaking of abductions, shouldn't the government and Wall Street do that to the formerly lame-, now dead-duck President W? Have you noticed that the biggest drops in the Dow this past week all came on days when George W. spoke to the American people about the economic crisis and how his government's actions would get us through it!! Maybe the 'Cuda-Pit Bull-Hockey Mom should go to Wall Street and W can visit Roswell. Then we'd know there was really extraterrestrial life because I'm sure he's a fish those UFO pilots would throw back!!!!!!!!

The Last Debate

OK, I'm sure you've all been deluged with the analysis and commentary about the last presidential debate Wednesday night. So what have I got to add? Probably not much, but............
As the Pirate Dogs and I watched the candidates, we noticed a couple of statements that screamed out for some further exposition but as of this posting I haven't seen any---in the N Y Times, on MSNBC, the BBC, FoxNews, etc.

First, does John McCain really equate Down's Syndrome with autism??? And does the fact that Sarah Palin has a Down's baby make her one of the world's foremost authorities on autism and special education as Mr McCain stated???

Second, did anyone else out there catch the bit about making people who serve in the army teachers without making them go through all the rigors of certification?? Does John McCain believe that any veteran can teach?? Enlistment standards are so low that they waive high school graduation and minor drug offenses!!!!! I think BETTER teachers are what's needed, not just more of them.

Don't forget to pay attention to reason and think before you vote. The Pirate Dogs are counting on you since they can't get that armament ship and take over in DC.

Flashback

"We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad...We see Americans hating each other...at home. And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish. Did we come all this way for this?...When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war...with no end in sight; When the richest nation in the world cannot manage its own economy; And when the president of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration-then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America...My friends, America is a great nation. And it is time we started to act like a great nation around the world."


So did John McCain say this? Or Barack Obama? Maybe Joe Biden? In my humble opinion it seems to exhibit too much understanding of our times to come from Sarah Palin.


The answer is---NONE OF THE ABOVE. The quote is excerpted from Richard Milhous Nixon's speech accepting the 1968 Republican nomination for president of the United States as reported in the book Nixonland by Rick Perlstein (pgs 304-305).


The parallels to 1968 just keep on manifesting themselves. Obama "pals around" with terrorists according to Ms. Palin. Did she, or anyone else in the McCain organization, note that the terrorist, Bill Ayers, formerly with the Weather Underground who botched a couple of bombings when Obama was 8 years old, was named citizen of the year in Chicago in 1997? For helping with educational reform in the City of Chicago---serving on the same board as Obama? Which educational kudos have the Republican ticket won? And do you, watching your retirement funds bleed away into the bank accounts of the stupor-rich like Cheney, W, and, yes, John McCain, really care about this issue??? If you do, then you deserve what's happened to you.

Syndromes

Syndromes seem to be in the forefront around here this week. The Pirate Dogs' look-out has SDS, the Captain has SDS, and even I was SDS. And they're all different syndromes!!!!!!!!

Weets is part chihuahua so she is very noisy and aggressive---Small Dog Syndrome.
'Roid has the foulest breath in the western world, the result of a peculiar and disgusting habit I won't go into here--Stinky Dog Syndrome.
And this blogger was fairly radical in his younger years, even joining Students for a Democratic Society in college.
So why all the "syndrome-icity" this particular week??
How's your 401-k? How's your trust in the sitting government to get us on the right track? If you have any syndromes, now's the time to give them free reign. Loosen that halter and give them their head.



I think I've decided on the elections. Paris Hilton for Prez, Tina Fey for VP. (Although Gina Gershon does a good job as well.) Paris makes sense on the environment and the pool-side shots could be inspiring as well as profitable for the government. Sales of her exploits would dwarf the tax cuts of either main-stream candidate and could result in a surplus. Tina does a better Palin than Sarahcuda. Only problem is after she gets elected, where would she get her material? No worry though, the current VP candidate has just regurgitated the same lines since she was nominated. Is there really that big a difference between 6 weeks and 4 (or 8) years??
Hey, after this week we need to exhibit a sense of humor more than ever.

In a more serious vein, I'm currently reading Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. The sub-title pretty much summarizes the premise--"The rise of a president and the fracturing of America." I'm only about a quarter of the way through the 800-plus pages but the parallels from the 1968 campaign to today's are striking and, for me, terrifying. I have watched film of the current Republican rallies where either of the candidates whipped up the crowd to the point of denouncing the Democratic nominee as an Arab, a terrorist, or, even worse, calling for his head. First off, pandering to racism and fear is Nixonian. That's a large part of how he won. The "Silent Majority", "law and order", the menace of racial warfare. Have we learned nothing in 40 years? Watching McPalin is remembering Tricky Dick and Spiro. I've long felt that the Baby Boomers squandered their potential with their pursuit of riches pre-empting the idealism of the counter-culture. Now we pay for it with the Republican attacks that, let's face it, are racist without saying that word. I've seen comments on other blogs where people wrote about their fathers saying "Good, they shot another Kennedy" about RFK's assassination in 1968. I can remember comments about how "that uppity nigger" Martin Luther King got what was coming to him, also in 1968. I get the same feelings of foreboding listening to some of the McPalin supporters today. And I try to remember that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" but still there's this thing in he back of my mind..............a motorcade in Dallas, Nov 22 1963....

See http://zeesgowest.blogspot.com/ post for October 11 for a powerful video. We can take back this country. We can undo what Nixon spawned and W has promulgated.

WE ARE THE ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!