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Mind if I savor vindication after 45 years.
"The American public was jolted the night of March 31, 1968, when, at the end of a nationally televised speech on the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Baines Johnson looked directly into the camera and solemnly, unexpectedly, declared: 'I shall not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.'"
Except me.
Within hours I had formed a "committee" (me and a painter friend) called DBJ - Don't Believe Johnson. With stationery printed, I wrote letters to newspapers across the country saying Lyndon is lying, this is a sneaky ploy to go for the nomination without having to campaign in this horribly hostile Vietnam war era.
DBJ was not effective because I offered no evidence. No one jumped on my bandwagon.
Is it too late to jump?
The BBC reported in March, 2013, that the LBJ Library just released the last of the Johnson Presidential tapes they will release. Declassified tapes of Johnson's phone calls provide new insight into his world.
Among the revelations - he had planned a dramatic entry into the 1968 Democratic Convention to capture the nomination. No joke.
He didn't do it, of course. The urban guerilla war and police riot that the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention turned into prevented his being there.
But I was right! Goddam it, I was right!
What's it like to be the first person to arrive at the scene of a remote airplane crash and find everyone dead except one?
"Don't step on that" is the story of the day in 1959 when I found Piedmont Airlines flight 349 on Bucks Elbow Mountain outside Charlottesville, Virginia. 23 passengers and three crew died instantly. Passenger Phil Bradley survived more than 35 hours of November weather strapped to his seat, unable to move.
The story was related in a 2006 radio interview and is a podcast, saving me the need to write it up.
Greetings from your police state!03/07/2013 A memo from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says anyone within 100 miles of the nation's borders can have their electronics seized and the contents examined for any reason, or none, under the guise of "national security." That's phones, laptops, desktops, anything electronic. And "anyone" means you. DHS claims the Fourth Amendment - the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures - does not apply wherever they say it doesn't. Does this include the area to 100 miles inland of the Atlantic & Pacific oceans, which are part of the nation's borders? Yes. That's what unaccountable government - tyranny - is all about. On the bright side, they did release a memo to tell us this. That's how sure they are they have Obama's support, and how little they have to fear from the congress or from us. Their reasoning for ignoring the 4th Amendment opens a window to their soul. DHS is fucking evil. "We also conclude that imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits," the executive summary said. Your government has told you "Screw your goddam Bill of Rights!" and you don't really care. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/02/electronics-border-seizures/ They were wrong 80 years ago when they said totalitarians would come marching in wrapped in the flag and reciting prayers. That's the fan club for tyrants. Tyrants themselves have always been an evil cancer subverting government. After 911, they saw their chance to take control under the guise of national security. The noose around us tightens every year, and the only power to stop it comes from the barrel of a gun. Can a billion bullets in bubba's leaderless hands make a difference? Tell me how.
It's just a coincidence
Over the course of a long life, everyone experiences astounding coincidences. They should be included as part of every autobiography. They can supply some gee whiz in an otherwise drab life. I can think of some that happened to me.
8/15/2012
Coincidence No. 1 Dad knew of an unusual restaurant there called "Jimmy's Just a Hobby." If you didn't know Jimmy you didn't get in. Jimmy also had a restaurant in Miami Beach where dad met him. At the hobby shop, Jimmy made one price-fixed gourmet meal a night, no substitutions, and fed it to all 35 customers who fit in the room for his one nightly serving. (Our night was filet mignon so good you don't forget.)
Jimmy's tables could seat at least 4. We arrived early, and eventually a couple, man and wife, were seated with us. The conversation revealed:
Coincidence No. 2 I opened it and found a Webster-Chicago wire recorder from the 1940s in pristine condition. My parents owned wire recorders since I was 8, including this early model. Now 30 years later I was the family nerd who had our collection of nostalgic recordings in a closet. I was even a go-to techie for wire recorder maintenance and repair. Anything is possible. There's a possibility of a more qualified Keene dump user than I being the first to find that box. But if you think that, you're weird.
Coincidence No. 3
I pulled out the motor and took it with the International Harvester shop manual to "Shorty," the legendary machine shop guru at Motor Specialty Co. on 10th St. Shorty had a reputation as the mechanic you trust to pack your parachute. It was ready on Friday. Saturday I had it halfway back in the tractor when a feeling I can't explain made me bring it to the workbench, disassemble the engine, and check Shorty's work. Wow! According to a very visible arrow, he had installed a critical part backwards. Running the engine that way for any length of time would destroy it. I re-assembled it properly, finished the job, and cut the grass. Very early Monday morning, Shorty phoned. "Don't run the motor," he said. "Over the weekend I read the shop manual and learned I installed the connecting rod backwards."
Coincidence No. 4
When my folks died and it was time to settle the estate, we needed a Florida lawyer. My brother arranged for that and my wife and I met with a para-legal. We developed a friendly relationship and asked where she lived. Surprise. It was in the building next door. Surprise number two, she and her pilot husband lived in that penthouse directly across from us. "Oh," she said, "YOU have that royal blue bedroom."
Coincidence No. 5
Much later, after six years of college, I wanted to move to Europe. To afford it, I cashed in grandma's stock. It brought more than $4k. That was decent money in 1961, the equivalent of $30k today. I bought a new car in Switzerland and lived well. Eventually I motored to Brussels, a city known for shops selling exceptional hand-made Belgian lace. Grandma, 78, was a lace-loving Victorian, so hand-made lace would be valued and appreciated. I bought the most interesting set of handkerchiefs I could find, and shipped them off to her with a letter of appreciation for the gift of stock. They were delivered to her apartment on November 11, 1961, at around 10:30 AM, several hours after she died in her sleep. Nearly our entire family was on hand when they arrived. Can you recall some coincidences in your life?
I Can't Hold My Liquor
Social boozing for me now is a drink or two, no more. It has no noticeable effect. But a lesson had to be learned over and over before I would accept that. For example, on my first dance weekend at college I did what was expected of a first year student not of legal age to drink. I bought a pint of Virginia Gentleman bourbon and took my blind date to Carroll's Tea Room, the local beer joint. We had some drafts before going up the road to watch a polo game. That's where I drank the pint. We had time to kill before dinner, so took a walk around the Grounds, the college campus designed by Thomas Jefferson. As we walked through the gardens, suddenly I was on the ground rolling into the shrubbery. That was around 5 pm. Next I knew was 22 hours later. I was on my bed in the dorm returning to the world. Sitting on the floor was a stranger talking to me, oblivious to my being comatose. Seems this guy and I met at the polo grounds. He played the game, had a pilot's license, and was a fellow Yankee. We talked about renting a plane to fly home on Thanksgiving break. We did that, and became lifelong friends. And a bit more. Thanks to Bob Schlesinger's sudden need to see his Scarsdale sweetie, we probably hold the record for a car trip from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Union Station in Washington, DC. He got into the car after class at 10:55 and 95 minutes later caught the 12:30 to New York. 120 miles in 90 minutes is an average of 75 mph on a mostly 2-lane highway. A few years later there was a chance to drink again when three theater girls I knew had dates for an Air Force Academy football game in Chicago, but no way to get there. I had a car and a desire to see Chicago, so off we went, picking up one's mother to chaperone. After the game we went to a popular watering hole of the day, Trader Vic's. The house specialty was Planter's Punch, a huge, delicious drink with a reputation for its kick.
To wit, from the chicagoist.com web page:
Pour rum, grenadine, lime, and lemon juice in a mixing glass with large pieces of ice. Add sugar. Stir thoroughly and pour into a 12-ounce glass filled with cracked ice; fill the rest of the glass with charged water. Delicious isn't enough word to describe it. And did I say huge? 12 ounces is a BIG drink. We all ordered it. I had two. As we left, I finished everyone else's. Kick? What kick? Soon we were zooming along in my Buick station wagon, and I commented to our host, Cal Keet, that the undulating road was hard to drive on. "It's not undulating," he said. "It's flat." Just in time I pulled over, stopped the car, and fell on the floor. Then it was the next day and I was on a sofa in our host's apartment. One evening a few of us had dinner and drinks in Moscow. I overdid the vodka and spent the entire night sitting in the john in my hotel. This time I got there without help. A week later it was too much red wine in a warm cellar bar in Helsinki. They broke into the restroom where I locked the door before passing out. My buddy Heber Clewett carried me home. Commander Blake was a man who could hold it. Drunk as a skunk time and again and never accepted help. Left the party late one night, climbed on his BMW, said, "I'm fine, Rey, fine," and went 40 miles south before noticing it was the wrong direction. I know the feeling. One Saturday night a few friends from around the country came for dinner at the Buffet de la Gare at Hastings-on-Hudson in New York. Having driven 7 hours to be there on the strength of their wine cellar, my destiny was writ. I don't pass out anymore, but I probably should. After a 5-hour meal involving ample wine, I drove away at midnight, turned north on the highway instead of south, and was 20 miles the wrong way before I knew. Medical researchers have ample evidence that a shot of schnaps a day and red wine are good for our health. I can add evidence that regularity is vital. Have a little every day; don't let it pile up for one unrestrained binge. My choice is B&B Liqueur, a French blend of Benedictine brandy and Cognac, if you feel generous.
Farewell Consumer Reports Online
I will not be re-subscribing to the online Consumer Reports.
[update Aug. 12, 2012]
Why? Two reasons. For one, they force an auto-renew and a credit card charge with no way to prevent that except to cancel your current, active subscription. Only after you click the link to take that rash step to lose the access you paid for, does CR THEN give you an option to stop the auto-renewal without canceling your active account. People who do that cannot be trusted. So not only did I make the change to end auto-renewals, I also altered my credit card information at the site to make an unauthorized charge impossible. The second reason for leaving is that the reports and ratings CR posts to the online mag are undated. We have no way to know if the report on auto tires we are reading is this year's report, last year's, or even older. As a result, we might unknowingly put our trust in a tire that once ranked high but no longer does, or waste time looking for tires no longer available. If you follow house paint tests, you know that paints are continually reformulated to control cost. A brand, type, and color that topped last year's rankings often drops way down when tested a year later. Some years ago, a particular shade of Dutch Boy white actually went from first on the list to last in one year. Because CR web site ratings aren't dated, there's nothing to prevent us from spending $10,000 to have our house painted with this year's poorest covering shortest life paint. Why should I pay for that advice? Not dating the reviews and the rankings means CR doesn't care that we are acting on outdated advice. How these people have changed! I've been a Consumer Reports reader since the 1940s. I even donated a thousand bucks once. I am trying on eBay to sell a file of CR going back to 1973. The executives in charge of publications should buy it and see for themselves how good Consumer Reports was before they got here. The cost of doing what CU does, coupled with creating too many money-losing publications for someone's pet project, kicked the legs out from under the quality of the flagship publication. They had a good thing going with Consumer Reports. They should have stopped there. One area they have no expertise in but speak with uncharacteristic know-it-all arrogance is medicine. Since the 30s they have ties to the conservative side of the AMA which sets their attitude on health issues. Their conclusions rely on deadline-limited research done by biased editorial assistants. They cherry-pick for studies confirming CU's bias and ignore those that don't. With religious fervor, they have no doubt whatever they shine the true light. Long ago it became obvious they were incensed at publications like "Prevention" that promote nutrition supplements one-and-all. With an insistence on throwing out the baby with the bathwater, CU advises that our diets have all the nourishment needed for good health, and no vitamin, mineral, herb, etc. supplement is beneficial in any way. That was re-affirmed as recently as September, 2012. We watched as editor after editor presided over CR's quality drain. They couldn't stop it, just re-design to make less appear more, shallow appear wide. They defined improvement as going from 25 complete and in-depth test reports a month to only 5 plus 50 abridged conclusions. Blame it on the economy. Buying 90 test washing machines is expensive, even when they can re-sell most of them after testing. Still, they didn't become a danger to consumers until they put undated ratings on their web site and didn't tell anyone. Fortunately, Amazon's user reviews are far more reliable than CR's rankings + user reviews, especially on home appliances. I can't explain that. I've been comparing both since 2008 and the evidence is overwhelming that Amazon reviewers are more astute, more reliable, more useful. If CU ever turns things around, I'll be back. Sept. 11, 2011 A Constitutional Convention? Consider the possibilities. Did you know that members of congress exempt themselves from many of the laws they pass, such as being exempt from prosecution for sexual harassment. They can't legally harass, but they cannot be prosecuted when they do except by the Senate itself. Recently they exempted themselves from health care changes. Why? Because taxpayers buy them the best insurance and health care available, and they don't want that disturbed. Do you know that any member of Congress can, anonymously, place a hold on any bill to keep it from being put on the calendar? Some do it just to demand a quid pro quo in return for getting out of the way. Nowhere is there a public record of it. Any senator with an agenda, pro-life for example, can prevent the senate from filling a judgeship vacancy on any federal court including the Supreme Court. On Sept. 6 the NYTimes reported the Senate is holding up 55 such confirmations. Without judges, courts have declared emergencies due to backlogs. The Senate could end the problem in half a day but ignores its responsibility. The US Congress is an elite that enjoys being above the law. One after another for over 200 years, they run for office as one of us, promise reform, and upon election become the enemy. Some don't want to. They have no choice. They come into Congress at the bottom of a seniority system. If they don't play ball with the old guys, they are assigned to the least important committees, where they languish and can do nothing for their constituents or for heavy hitter contributors. Congress is impossible to change from within. There is a way - only one way - to change it. By revising the rules it runs by in a constitutional convention. It takes 38 of the 50 states to convene a constitutional convention. Is that realistic? At present, governors of 35 states have filed suit against the federal government for imposing "unlawful" burdens upon them. In a federal republic like ours, it is long established that the central government must win in a tussle with the states. When that happens in this case, the day could come when a constitutional convention is a possibility. Opening that door can be dangerous. People will propose controls on other things beside a corrupt congress. For example, proposing a change in the Free Speech Amendment to stop political demonstrations by outsiders at private funerals. That would come up. Or the right to own hand guns could be expanded or shrunk. Lots of interest on both sides. Government agents could lose their right to reach into your pants and feel your privates at airports, at entrances to federal buildings, at railway stations, subway stations, bus depots, who knows where else. How come anybody at all can drive an unchecked, unsearched truck into a jam-packed 12 billion dollar tunnel, yet absolutely no one can board a regional airline puddle jumper without a massively invasive personal search that takes away her toothpaste? Is it because the government's real target is us? Getting us accustomed to controls? Unless we repair our constitution by a convention, government control is sure to get worse. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that's where we are. The pessimists say it can't be done. That a constitutional convention would be taken over by the same shadow government that aimed the Tea Party's guns at the wrong target and made it political farce. But isn't our only chance worth a try?
Some things written by other people are too important for you to miss. This is one. It cuts to the heart of religious hypocrisy. There is nothing respectable about cherry picking parts of a religious bible to force on yourself and others, and parts you choose to ignore. Cherry picking is the mark of a religious fraud. Why Can't I Own a Canadian? October 2002 Dr. Laura Schlesinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative: Dear Dr. Laura: Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them: When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them? I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians? I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself? A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here? Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die? I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your devoted fan,
Some say this first appeared on a West Wing episode. Perhaps it did.
Aug. 20, 2011 Surveys in 2011 reveal that a disproportionate number of Republicans and Tea Partiers have taken personal or business bankruptcy. Popular idol of the bozos Donald Trump uses bankruptcy as a normal business tool. Could people be as reckless with a nation's finances as they are with their own? Absolutely. This is not the country of our history. All the values that made our people great have become values of the minority today, like sound credit, good reputation, traditional family, respectable morality. They were replaced by the Donalds, by clever schemes, by lawyer schemes, by public relation schemes, and everywhere you look, by advertiser mind rot. Now what matters is the spin. What behavior is allowed is what has been spun to media approval. Underneath the hypocrisy of claiming to have a value system, the vast majority of today's Americans including you and me are pragmatists of the "If it feels good, do it" school, though we deny it. * Moral pragmatists who give in to nature, like Palin's daughter and Clinton/Lewinski, etc., and those who have no problem with it; * Religious pragmatists whose direct word from Allah or Christ is whatever they, personally, happen to want, like the Taliban and the Christian fundamentalist "Family" jerking Washington around these days; * Education pragmatists skirting the real job by teaching-to-test instead; * Entertainment pragmatists who responded to the lowest common denominator and compete now to find ways of lowering it; * Sports pragmatists to whom the game is less important than obscene amounts of money; * Corporate pragmatists earning each hour what an employe earns in a year, and eager to cut staff to please Wall Street capitalists; * Hollywood screenwriter, director, and producer pragmatists oblivious to motivation; * A president who can watch the country's jobs flow offshore by the thousands and do nothing but say over and over, despite having a job, that he shares our pain; * Politicians, if they care about winning, have always been pragmatists, saying whatever the crowd in the hall wants to hear. And the public, not just the tea party, falls for it every time. Could we see the country default and declare bankruptcy? Could we see Congress pass laws to preserve their personal retirement, wealth, and health care while the rest of us lose everything? Could we see a Supreme Court majority say it's perfectly constitutional? With people as corrupt as they are, and an electorate as fool-able as we are, and a government as militarized as ours is, nothing could stop them.
Aug. 20, 2011 "Where did all the good jobs go?" With respect to Pete Seeger
Where have all the good jobs gone?
Where has all the hiring gone?
Where have all the statesmen gone?
Where have all the leaders gone?
Where has all the wisdom gone?
Where have all our freedoms gone?
Where did all our future go?
Nov. 21, 2010 The American myth that we live in a free society is modern history's outstanding propaganda success. Free? In fact, we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, and the largest number of people behind bars. More than 4,450 activities are federal crimes, and 300,000 federal regulations can result in jail time, according to an October feature by McClatchy Newspapers. And many of those laws jail us for the "crime" of merely talking about something, with no action taken or even possible. Congress makes laws "abridging the freedom of speech" at will, and most are upheld by the courts despite the crystal clear wording of the First Amendment. The founders created the free speech amendment as a bowl to hold our basic rights. After 230 years we turned it into a sieve leaking far more protection than it holds. You can double or triple those numbers when you include the laws of the 50 states and 15,000 local governments. And of course your neighborhood school which will suspend every first grader who points a finger and says, "Pow." To illustrate its point that Congress went overboard creating "crimes," McClatchy noted that Miami seafood importer Abner Schoenwetter, 64, just finished a six-year stretch in prison. Abner's crime? He contracted to purchase lobster tails from a Honduran seller whom federal authorities learned was violating lobster-harvest regulations. Most nations impose a fine. We impose jail. Typical American reaction on a newspaper blog? "Good! He deserves it. Six years isn't enough. Poor lobsters ...." The US a free society? The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, 754 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, or 0.75%. The US is the third most populous nation, (China 1340 million, India 1190 million, US 310 million), but we have the highest prison and jail population on the planet. This isn't "them" doing it to "us." This is us doing it. American voters want it this way. We send to Congress, to state legislatures, to local councils, and to run our institutions only those who promise to take freedoms away by criminalizing activity or increasing penalties. How lucky we have a respectable past and so many hollow patriotic lies about the US to hide behind. It's not only us, of course. According to the BBC, a professional clown, Tiririca (translation "Grumpy"), was elected by resounding vote to the Brazilian Congress from Sao Paulo in October under the slogan "It Can't Get Any Worse." If the Palin twit ran under that slogan, would she beat Obama after two years of a deadlocked Congress? After two years of headline-screaming congressional investigations of Obama? Now that Republicans chair and control all the committees, they can make Obama's term hell like they did Clinton's, with endless investigations at our expense. Two years of front page people claiming to Congress there is doubt about that Hawaiian birth certificate, even though there isn't. Two years investigating and lying about aspects of his life, and his wife's, and his family. The last time they had majority power, Republicans spent $50 million in taxpayer funds investigating the Clintons just for the headlines. Can it get any worse than another two years of the conservative media machine, backed by the House of Representatives, churning out media coverage to make Obama look radical to his enemies, and useless oratory to the rest of us? Since the GOP won the House November 2, it's like looking down off the mountain and spotting an avalanche heading straight for the ski lodge. Nothing to do about it but watch, or march with a sign and pretend this is exercising power. Historians tell us that since 1776, every 50 years or so Americans re-discover that political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The next wake-up is due around 2020. As we've seen ever since 9/11 provided the cover to get away with it, Congress, the administration, the courts, and government contractors have been working diligently to have in place iron controls so reformers - freedom fighters - will be SWAT teamed, droned, tasered, and sent away. That is now, alas, the American Way.
Blog for Nov. 1, 2008 By Rey Barry Copyright 1999
In 1999, jazz station KCSM in San Mateo, California, had a jazz poetry contest.
Rey's huge WNEW larger-than-life lobby posters are originals from the John Kluge MetroMedia collection. In addition to Peggy, Ella, and Louis, there was Frank. A friend bought that one.
Some have nary a clue, There's a way to tell them apart, Here, I'll explain it to you.
Take a name like Edward Kennedy,
Woodrow Charles Herman rings no one's bell,
We heard not of Julius Gubenko,
Ian Earnest Gilmore Green,
Everyone knows Francis Albert,
Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith
Was she ever Norma Jean Egstrom,
Shirley Luster was no misnomer, her
For John Haley he didn't give a hoot,
Melvin James Oliver we know as Sy,
John Birks Gillespie is Dizzy,
Little Jazz, the Prez, Sweets, and Swee' pea,
Everyone's a Buddy, a Shorty, or Butch,
Rey once wrote a song called "Bam Bam Poppa That's a 2 Bam Dad." The song sucked, the movie was worse, the TV pilot stank, and no one bought the book, the T-shirt, or the coffee mug. But the bumper sticker can live forever on your car as it does on mine. Get one from Rey's store PUCKISH TENDENCIES at Zazzle.
Bank of America: Skullduggery Unlimited I have a credit card issued by Bank of America. The July, 2008, statement included a $171 "Cash Advance" and a $10 fee for same. We were confused by this, having not made a cash advance since we vacationed in Puerto Rico 12 years ago. After a painstaking search, we traced the so-called cash advance to the purchase over the phone of 100 Euros from Bank of America that we charged to the Bank of America credit card. Seeing a chance to tack fees on top of their deplorable exchange rate, they recorded the charge as a "Cash Advance" without informing us, and added a $10 nuisance fee in addition to the mailing fee. But that's not all. Beginning on day one of this bogus cash advance, they charged us an interest rate of 24%, also of course without telling us. In the several years we had this soon-to-be-canceled card, we never carried a balance. Not once. $2000 to $4000 paid off every month. Yet these SOBs charged a usurious interest rate for a concealed cash advance without informing us we were being charged at all. But it's the last line that says it all about Bank of America. At the bottom of our July statement, in an admission included only because it's required by law, it reveals the "Annual Percentage Rate for this billing period: 89.40%." That's Bank of America today ... skullduggery unlimited. If you hear of anyone, anywhere bringing an action against them, civil or criminal, let us know. We want so much to be part of it.
One of America's political treasures today is Larry Sabato, the guru who heads the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia here in Charlottesville. Larry is universally recognized in the co-dependent worlds of politics and journalism as having all ten fingers on the political pulse of America. Just as important, he's not afraid to put his mouth where his mouth is and make predictions. His constant appearances on TV, radio, and print gain him the thanks of news editors and the label "Dial-a-quote" by admirers. Larry is one of the few people today who, after listening to him, we know more. Being involved in politics in the same small town, Larry and I were friends, but he outpaced me decades ago. I can testify he earned and deserves the distinction he enjoys today. I was reminded yesterday, when cleaning out closets and crannies for a yard sale, that Larry was not always right with predictions. High on a closet shelf I ran across pictures I took of Larry cheerfully preparing to dine on crow at a luncheon meeting of local politicos.
This was 1985, a momentous year in Virginia and the nation. That was the year an African-American state senator, L. Douglas Wilder, was elected Lt. Governor of Virginia. Sabato was one of ever-so-many who predicted not only that Wilder would lose but that there was no question he would lose. His loss was so certain Larry said he had but "one chance in a hundred." Larry could hardly be blamed. He knew Virginia. As Jim Latimore, Virginia's leading political reporter, explained it later: "... traditionalists made a basic mistake: they agreed with the conventional wisdom that anybody with a white face could trounce the best of well-known blacks in ... racially conservative ... Virginia .... "On election day, 1985, the black turnout was relatively low but Wilder netted some 44 percent of the white vote, polled 52 percent of the total turnout, and racked up a winning margin of 48,634 votes." So Larry cheerfully dined on crow at our next luncheon. I re-captioned some old New Yorker cartoons and made up a booklet commemorating the event. A copy of that was in the closet. Here's a couple:
"Sabato quoted odds of 100-to-1 so we bet it all"
Russia under Stalin - USA under Bush - So many differences, but it's the similarities that are going down in history. Today's Americans are seeing what it was like to be an ordinary German of the 30s and 40s. Like them, we cast votes on election day that have no influence on what the elected do, have no say in the direction the country goes. Like the Germans under Hitler, like the Russians under Stalin, we vote and are ignored by a government fully aware it's insulated from our control, a government relishing its imbalanced power. A government possessing the reins of persuasion, confusion, control. A Congress of egos addicted to re-election; an executive branch running on secrecy, security, and lies; a judiciary of cowardice, all merge into a government so involved with private industry as to be the poster boy for 21st century fascism. And you know. And I know. Just as the Germans knew. How many of them do you think were, as they put it, kaknaiv (naive as shit?) How many of us are? In 1940 we could ask the Germans but today we can ask ourselves: When your country is feared and your leaders loathed by much of the world, who is being served when your news media treat seriously only friendly viewpoints and belittle the rest? We have as a press, and a TV press especially, an onrushing torrent of the basest human qualities: petty, gossipy, shallow, impolite, crass, biased, arrogant, devious, nosy, and desperate to please. Humans have hearts, the press does not, so there is nothing in the press credo about "doing no harm." Those are excellent tools of the trade but they deprive the press of authority to guide or chide. When the laws of decency you breach, no one listens when you preach. One wonders how much of this Thomas Jefferson would have endured before rebellion occupied his thoughts. Would he have sat idle watching liberty shrink, as we have? His was the credo: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." On the other hand his successors, today's revisionist Americans, revile Jefferson and cling to the belief that artificial manure - the talk from politicians and pretentious patriots - is sufficient to preserve liberty. Clearly it is not. Who do we see about that, if not you?
"British sports car: pretty to look at but built like crap." Seeing this line by Tony Long, copy chief at Wired News, reminded me of the day I was to die. It was in September of 1958. I had just bought a brand new MGA in Greenwich, CT, for $2300 list price, and drove it to Virginia. It was two days old and I was on my way into town to buy anchor bolts for an aircraft seat belt, and car insurance. Seat belts weren't yet standard in cars but I was an early user, thanks to seat belt pioneer Dr. Fletcher D. Woodward, the father of a close friend. I lived in a cottage at The Riggory, an Albemarle County, Virginia, farm six miles from town, a nice old place dating from 1775. I was 21 and in my third year of college. As I motored toward town that Indian summer day, the top was down and my big old 29-lb Zenith Trans-Oceanic vacuum tube radio was in the seat next to me, singing away. Country roads in Virginia like the Stony Point Road saw little improvement in the 1950s. Hell, they barely saw minimal maintenance. That didn't affect the speed limit. Country roads in Virginia were all 55 mph unless posted otherwise, and this one wasn't. So at 55 I entered a downhill, decreasing radius, left-hand bend. Not a sharp bend, just gradual. It didn't even call for down-shifting, though I'll never be absolutely sure of that. The turn should have been no problem for a sports car. Suddenly the MG front end turned sharply left, the car followed, the front wheels went into the ditch, and the roadster went flying up in the air and crashed upside down onto the road, and onto me. But I wasn't crushed. As it overturned I was partially tossed out the back. Amazingly, the car came down with enough force on the hood to keep the back from making contact with the ground or with me, who was lying under the trunk with my feet still in the cockpit inches below the rear cowl. Above my face the gas tank cap was dripping on my nose. I crawled out, stood up, and realized that aside from a dirty sweater I was untouched. As I turned off the key there was music coming from the meadow on the downhill side of the road. Walking over, I saw the Zenith lying on the ground, also unbroken. People came by, we turned the car onto its wheels, and a bit later it was towed away to Grant Cosner, the local wreck repairer. The left front tire pointed left; the right front pointed straight ahead. The car was uninsured. In Virginia then, if you bought a new car without selling your old one, as I had, there was no automatic insurance on the new one. I was out of luck. Grant quoted $2400 to make things right. That's $100 more than the car had cost two days before, and $2000 more than I could afford. If I was to have any bargaining power, I'd have to fix it enough myself to drive it off his lot. The first thing I found wrong was the steering arm. It was severely bent. I removed it, installed a new one ($5,) and brought the original to the engineering school of the local university. I removed what was left of the windshield and installed a racing windscreen my brother provided when he drove my old car down from Connecticut where it had been left to be sold. The MG wasn't street-legal but it was now drivable, and I had my old blue Chrysler New Yorker convertible for daily transportation. My older brother had a racing windscreen to spare because he raced Triumph TRs in the 1950s. Ah, the good old days of Sports Car Club of America gentlemen's amateur racing. I took a full-time job as a radio announcer for $1 an hour, found a talented body shop foreman needing work in his spare time, and within four months had the MG back looking like that day on the showroom floor. I never did put seat belts in the car. They would have killed me. I never used the top. That, too, would have killed me. The convertible top, partly decomposed by battery acid, hung permanently on a hook in Ed Mittendorf's Riggory barn. In January I sold the Chrysler and used the MGA for three years, 12 months a year, with no top, just a fitted tonneau cover. Fortunately I love rain and snow. Sailors and other outdoor types can relate. After the wreck, one of Virginia's legendary deputy sheriffs, T.M. Mac Whitten, cited me for reckless driving. That was the beginning of a cherished 20-year friendship with Mac. RIP My insurance agent, Harry Lewis, suggested I hire an attorney. He thought the judge might be harsh because of my appearance. In 1958 not many men or college boys had facial hair, let alone a wild, shaggy look. Ahead of my time, I hadn't touched a razor in two years. The attorney I hired was brand new in practice. He told the judge the hair was for a part in a play at the university, which was true enough. Explaining that my brand new car was destroyed, he asked for mercy by way of reducing the charge to "Failure to slow down," an obsolete statute dating from the horseless carriage days. The judge went along and imposed a $2 fine. The lawyer charged $75. And what of that British-built steering arm? The engineering school reported the arm was not of uniform hardened steel and was easily bent. The strain of taking the car through the turn bent the arm, causing the car to go out of control. "British sports car: pretty to look at but built like crap." You can still find that downhill, decreasing radius, left-hand bend but it's no longer officially the Stony Point Road. It now parallels a quarter mile bypass. And you can still find that lawyer who did a good job as a novice. Leigh Middleditch made the grade. For years he's been a key partner and then some in the largest law firm in town. Also a stalwart was the 1953 Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio that was flung from the car. A year later it was struck by lightning at The Riggory, and all the parts were fried. Zenith, at no charge, sent the complete set of replacement parts, wire, and a diagram. Over a weekend I re-built it. Half a century later now, and the radio's in my den, still singing away. And yes, it's true, in the 1950s in small southern towns a radio announcer even at the oldest, largest station in town, got a measly $1 an hour. But what doors it opened. And what a surprise to learn that desirable women find DJs an aphrodisiac.
Throw your money away on Rey's Puckish Tendencies creations at Zazzle
An interesting sidelight on a US Senate race. Virginia Republican George Allen was denied a second term - and a shot at the GOP nomination for president in 2008 - by the people who know him best. Jim Webb defeated Allen by 8,935 votes, at current count. Those votes to defeat him came from Allen's home base. Allen entered politics by winning a seat in the state legislature from central Virginia. He lived in Albemarle County; he practiced law here in Charlottesville. And in the 2008 senate race, we who know him best delivered 12,256 more votes for his opponent. Had it not been for his home town voting against him, Allen would have been re-elected and bound for glory.
The vote One should not make too much of this, of course. In the presidential election of 1944 in which FDR creamed NY Gov Tom Dewey, Dewey won in Hyde Park - FDR's home town - and Independence, Missouri - running mate Harry Truman's home town.
The surest way to decrease Muslim terrorism is to decrease terrorists. There are big numbers involved. The role model, Osama bin Laden, sired more than 40 children whom he rears with old testament certitude. Some of his followers have more; the rest are trying to catch up. The people in the best position to find terrorists are other terrorists. Beyond question, helping terrorists kill each other is in the world's interest. It's good news when we hear that some fundamentalist Imam sent his lackeys to shoot up the fundamentalist mosque across town. For the rest of us including moderate Muslims the only sane reaction is "Atta boy!" So we should set a date to leave Iraq and get out of their way. The United States is a warrior state. Waging war is what we do best. We are not diplomats. When not making open war we make back room war, destabilizing governments we don't like. When it's time to make peace we shower money on the side that gives us the best trade agreement. That's the nature of Americans. That's US history without the patriotic rhetoric. We always return to it. We will in Iraq eventually, and it's time to compose the patriotic rhetoric this or the next administration will need to support "Mission Accomplished" and ticker tape parades for the troops. We justified the Iraq incursion on the bogus evidence there were weapons of mass destruction. It worked; the lie reached critical mass. So it can be bogus evidence that lets us out. Ideal for the job is "We brought democracy to Iraq." We can point to their constitution; we can point to their elected leaders. Mission accomplished. Reach critical mass. Leave. At the moment the press won't let us reach critical mass because of the mess over there, so we're going to need covert operations to take things in hand. Those familiar with America's clandestine services (or Stephen Kinzer's recent book "Overthrow") know the tool we use: money. We pay people on site to carry out a plan. In this case, an exit plan, a truce that brings a few months of stability to Iraq that lasts long enough for us to get out. There's one problem with that: no one in Iraq is safe being associated with us. So we have to hire a conduit, a surrogate power to pass out our money and run our exit plan. Alas, any nation with positive influence in Iraq has so much oil money we can't hire them. So don't hire a nation. Hire tribes. This isn't rocket science. These are, after all, Arabs. No group on earth is more associated with a characteristic nature than the Arab. Fortunately Arab nature is precisely the same as ours: pious self-interest. Grasp the unfair advantage and call it god's will. We talk the same language. Between the intelligence services, the academic specialists, and the indigenous implants, we have the tools to find clients who can bring a fleeting peace to Iraq and let us leave. Let's get on with it.
Noel Coward said it best: "If only we were not so humiliatingly determined to uphold the mediocre with all our might, protect the fools and decry the intelligent, elevate the condition of ... the working man to such a point he becomes thoroughly dishonest and works as little as possible for as high wages as possible, and methodically destroys our prestige which for centuries has been the highest and most respected in the world." In his day, Cole Porter wrote songs like "You're the top." Today he'd look at us and write, "You're a flop." Since Cole's not around I did it for him. The target is my pick for the lowest form of mass entertainment thus far, hip hop. Herewith, the Ode to Rappers. Intro ... in Cole's footsteps.
There's an empty bunk in the cathouse tonight,
He was the smartest one since Jefferson
There's an empty bunk in the cathouse tonight,
He believed in being fair and just,
There's an empty bunk in the cathouse tonight,
They investigated his every move,
There's an empty bunk in the cathouse tonight,
They converted a plump and oafish troll
There's an empty bunk in the cathouse tonight,
I'm just an ordinary retired guy in Virginia you never heard of who's had enough. It's time to do something about Big Oil. Gasoline has been pushed to over $3 a gallon in most of the US this year due to the cost of oil. Every mile we drive or fly, every mile an 18-wheeler travels delivering goods, every watt of electricity generated from oil by the power company, national defense, medicine, every bit of plastic to wrap anything else in, each uses petrochemicals and cost more. Everyone in the chain of manufacture and sales can pass the added costs along. The only ones with no one to pass the costs to are you and me. We are the ones the others pass them to. We reimburse everybody. Who do we see about this? We can't expect anything but spin tokenism from the Bush-Cheney administration. Those families have been part of the oil industry since long before these men ran for office. We knew that all along. We can't expect help from the best Congress money can buy. Someone can, just not us. We can only do something about price gouging and excess profits ourselves. We can make intelligent choices. Here's who I'm not buying from. Exxon-Mobil Corporation announced on April 27 that it had $86 billion income in the first three months of 2006, and that $6.9 billion was profit. There's probably a good reason for this. They may even be entitled to it. Wall Street was disappointed it was so little. I don't care. Exxon-Mobil is the largest company in the U.S. as ranked on the Fortune 500 list. It's also the largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world. And it's the most profitable. Its operating profit in 2005 was $36.13 billion, an all-time record for any publicly traded company, replacing Wal-Mart as the world's largest corporation by revenue. Who does Exxon-Mobil blame for high oil prices? Car makers. John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute notes that, referring to a recent Exxon Mobil ad that blamed auto companies for the rising price of gas, Chrysler chief spokesman Jason Vines said: "Despite a documented history of blowing their exorbitant profits on outlandish executive salaries and stock buybacks, and hoarding their bounty by avoiding technologies, policies, and legislation that would protect the population and environment and lower fuel costs, Big Oil insists on transferring all of that responsibility on the auto companies." Which could explain why US auto companies are losing billions while Exxon-Mobil is making them. Exxon-Mobil is regarded by many environmentalists as an example of corporate irresponsibility and disregard for environmental concerns. The company has been a target of a number of campaigns by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and People and Planet. In 1989 the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled approximately 10 million gallons of oil into the waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound, the most devastating oil spill of all time in U.S. waters. 34,000 people, most of them touched by the fisheries industry, were harmed by that spill. In 1995 a court fined Exxon $5 billion in damages. How much has the company paid? Zero. Exxon has been working the legal system all it can filing appeals and delays. This is a bad corporate citizen, one of the worst. For window dressing they donate a smidgen of their monster profits to charitable causes. A little here for Little League, a little there for the opera company. It gives them something cheerful to blurt about in full-color, full-page magazine ads. Expensive ads are a powerful influence on magazine and newspaper publishers not to take a hard look at a generous supporter like Exxon-Mobil. That's the American Way. But YOU don't have a magazine. I don't have a newspaper. We have no reason to look the other way. Except that we were taught to turn the other cheek when we encounter abuse. Abusive companies like Exxon-Mobil act like we have no end of cheeks to turn. I've reached the end, and now is when I stop supporting Exxon-Mobil. There's nothing special about their gasoline. There are plenty of other filling stations with fuel of the same quality. In fact the two best German car companies say other brands have better additives, but that's not the issue here. The issue is that for the rest of my life, none of the four cars in my family will be gassed up at stations selling Exxon-Mobil products. I hope you do the same, if not avoiding Exxon-Mobile than whatever company you prefer. I hope you send this email to everyone you know. If enough people in America have backbones, the monster corporations might learn there are limits to the corporate abuse we will tolerate. Or maybe there aren't any limits to the abuse you'll take? That's your decision. Nothing is without fallout. It's unfortunate that filling station operators must suffer, but we can support them with car repairs and other automotive needs. You can expect to read newspaper stories and hear TV interviews attacking this idea. That's why corporations have public relations departments. Enjoy it; ignore it.
The Kelo decision was a triumph of a basic plank of the Democrat Party, my party. Kelo put us face-to-face with a cherished Democratic Party belief: that social planning can accomplish public good. Kelo affirmed the good of the community over the property rights of the individual. Removing urban blight, protecting an unspoiled environment, and yes, tearing down private homes and businesses to replace them with something creating jobs and generating taxes - like it or not - are what my party stands for. We Democrats have maintained for generations that forced sale of private property to enable economic development will, if done properly, benefit all. That's _our_ trickle down theory. Help the overall community and the benefits trickle down. Does it work? Did benefits trickle down after urban renewal bulldozed away neighborhoods in your town? I guess that depends on your point of view. Kelo originated in the town of New London, CT. Democrats dominate the New London city council. Democrats should think twice, at least twice, before wringing their hands and back-peddling from a Supreme Court decision that reinforces what the party has stood for and fought for all our lives. It was the liberal side of the court that decided this case. The conservatives and reactionaries voted to protect private property. We Democrats have a dark side? Well now you know. Does that dark side, not respecting private property, have anything to do with why there are more red states than blue states? Who knows ...
If you're from the government, I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you increase your tax base and provide jobs in your community. But not all communities. Specifically the communities where five Supreme Court Justices reside, have vacation retreats, or own investment property. These are the five Justices who agreed in the Kelo decision to let government take our property and give it to any developer who offered greater economic benefits. Lucky you if David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or Stephen G. Breyer owns property in your jurisdiction. This isn't a bloggy promise. I've been a real estate broker for 30 years and I'm familiar with drawing up development plans. I can show you how to bulldoze Ruthie Ginsburg's home sweet home and replace it - and her penny-ante real estate taxes - with the greatest boost to the local economy known in America. Who pays more local sales taxes than anyone else in the US? Who provides more jobs to Americans than anyone else? Wal-Mart. No one else comes close on either count. Whatever their faults, they pay the most taxes and provide the most jobs, and that's what it's all about now. A Supreme Court majority of one said that's the law of the land. If you will write me and invite me, I will come to your community and draw up, in Justice Stevens's words of blessing, "carefully considered development plans" to replace the properties of those five Justices with efficient, economy boosting Wal-Marts. It's the American way. God, do I feel patriotic.
Rey Barry
(Someone else had this idea first but it was sophomoric, defensive, and over-board. You'll like my version better; it's sophomoric and over-board but not defensive.) A day in the life of Joe Doe, Conservative Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his conservative coffeepot with water to prepare his conservative coffee. The water is clean and pure because liberals fought for minimum water-quality standards. (It was Joe's conservatives they fought against.) With his first swallow of coffee he takes his daily medication. His medicine is probably safe because when Democrats were the majority they fought to insure drug safety, and that drugs actually work as advertised. It was Joe's party they fought to get this. Now that Joe's conservatives are running the show, drugs like Vioxx are coming to market that have to be pulled a few years later after people die from them. All but $10 of Joe's medicine is paid for by his company medical plan because Democrat unionists negotiated with employers to provide medical insurance. Joe - who won't join no stinkin' union - gets the benefits just the same. He prepares his morning breakfast of bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because liberals fought laws through Congress to regulate the meat-packing industry. Joe's conservatives want to abandon government meat inspection and let the meat packers regulate themselves. They believe Joe can find out perfectly well on his own if the meat is safe by eating it. If it's not and he gets sick or dies, he or his survivors can buy a different brand next time. They call that the power of the marketplace. And if they must, his survivors can sue the packer of bad meat, though Joe's conservatives are trying to cap the value of any award at $200,000. In the shower Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is labeled with the ingredients because liberals fought for his right to know what he's putting on his body, and for food labeling to let him know what's going IN his body. If Joe has an allergy, he doesn't have to break out in hives to learn the product contained what he's allergic to. Democrats saw to that over Republican objections. Joe walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air is cleaner than it would be otherwise because liberal environmentalists fought for laws to curb industry pollution. It could be a lot cleaner but Joe's Republican party represents the industries, rather than Joe and his air. Thanks to Joe's vote his party controls the government now. Cleaner air costs the industry money, so higher standards are watered down and postponed. Joe walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. He saves parking and transportation fees because liberals fought for affordable public transportation. Joe has a good job with decent pay, medical and retirement benefits, paid holidays, and a vacation because Democrat unionists fought and even died to get these basic working standards. Joe's employer meets these standards because, and only because, the union sees to it. Joe has been working here 12 years. He doesn't know it yet but he will lose his job the week before Christmas. His boss is moving Joe's plant to Mexico. Joe's Republican party gave the employer a tax incentive to shut down and move out of the country. Conservatives tell Joe that moving American jobs offshore is good for our economy, so even after he loses his job Joe will go right on voting Republican. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get worker compensation or unemployment benefits because liberals didn't think he should starve and lose his home because of temporary misfortune. If there are no jobs for Joe because employers moved off-shore to get the tax incentives, he will lose his home because unemployment compensation abandons him after a few months. Democrats tried to extend benefits when the economy crashed after 9/11 but the Republican majority voted no. When noon comes, Joe leaves to make a bank deposit. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because Democrats fought Republicans to protect Joe's money from bankers who wiped out the savings of earlier generations. Joe will use this deposit to pay his FHA federally underwritten mortgage and his low rate, federally insured student loan. Liberals provided these programs under the theory that the nation is stronger if more Joes are college educated and own their own home. After work Joe visits his father out in the country. He gets there by car. His car is among the safest, cleanest-operating in the world because liberals fought conservatives to get car safety and environmental standards through Congress. His father is the third generation to live in the house financed by the Farmers' Home Administration, a program created by Democrats because bankers balked at making rural loans. Dad's farm didn't have electricity until liberals provided rural electrification. He told Joe how that came about, but Joe is convinced that electricity, no less than the country's national treasures like oil and coal, belong in private hands. Joe thinks conservatives are probably right when they say water and sewer services should be spun off from government and privatized. Joe enjoys visiting his retired father, who receives enough money to get by and not be a burden to the kids. His father lives on Social Security, a program liberals created. He also gets a union pension because it was part of the employment package back when he worked. Coming along later, Joe was never offered a retirement package. Decades of successful Republican union busting saved Joe's employer from having to offer a pension. Pensions cost employers money and Joe doesn't feel that's fair. After all, who knows, someday he, himself, might be an employer. In his car Joe turns on a talk radio show. The radio host tells him "liberals" are bad and "conservatives" are good. He's extolling the side that tried to block every protection and benefit he and Joe enjoy, and Joe goes along with that. Joe tells everyone he knows, "We don't need tax-and-spend liberals ruining our lives! I take care of myself. If I can do it, you can. Everyone should look after himself, like I do."
Forlorn more years. They affirmed they want a police state. What does that tell us about respect for the Constitution? They affirmed they want a theocracy. What does that tell us about respect for a pluralistic society? The great experiment in self-government showed as always that in a democracy, everyone gets the government the majority deserves.
Nov. 1, 2004 It's always instructive to let conservative Republicans who quote Thomas Jefferson guide our voting. Charlie Reese writes for the Orlando Sentinel. He's a Conservative Republican.
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Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers. I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a front man, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the world of any president in my memory. It's no wonder the president avoids press conferences like the plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely talk. Americans should be embarrassed that an Arab King (Abdullah of Jordan) spoke more fluently and articulately in English than our own President at their joint press conference recently. John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than Bush's comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers. It's unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very intelligence and refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his presidential election efforts. But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he observed that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be. People who think of themselves as conservatives will really display their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for Bush. Bush is as far from being a conservative as you can get. Well, he fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice. It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to vastly increase the power of government, to show contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of American jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits don't matter, and that people should not know what their government is doing. Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive president in the 20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward the authoritarian. It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted a few Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that either you can plea-bargain this or the President will designate you an enemy combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration ? This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons, but because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race. America is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends anywhere in the world thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the Bush administration. Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found us, Israel, North Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace. I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world and us with it. Go to Kerry's Web site (http://johnkerry.com) and read some of the magazine profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to Kerry than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe. Besides, it would be fun to have a president who plays hockey, windsurfs, rides motorcycles, plays the guitar, writes poetry and speaks French. And . . it would be good to have a man in the White House who has killed people face to face. Killing people has a sobering effect on a man and dispels all illusions about war.
Daddy Warbucks said it when Orphan Annie came into his household: "Isn't it strange when fate takes a hand." Historians of the future will tell our descendants that the Presidential election of 2000 was stolen for the Republican candidate by his brother. Jeb Bush, as governor of Florida, had the rolls improperly purged of tens of thousands of legitimate voters in Democratic precincts. That turned out to assure victory for brother George. Of all the ways this changed the course of history one has been ignored, and to one group of people it's the most important. Ponder what would have happened if Al Gore had won, Joe Lieberman became vice president, and a year later the World Trade Center was destroyed by Arab muslims. No matter how wrong, the conclusion would have been immediate, universal, and inescapable that 9/11 happened because the US elected a Jewish vice president. There would have been no way to shake that belief. How could there be? The circumstantial evidence was elementary and convincing. That conclusion would have seemed obvious. No facts could have been found to refute it. Osama Bin Laden himself, a cagey strategist, might have claimed it was true. The ramifications would have been huge. For starters, there would have been a widely held conclusion - held world-wide - that 9/11 would not have happened had a Jew not been elected. The Jews would have suffered a massive blow to electability everywhere. Jeb Bush was the reason that didn't happen. Further, every single thing the US did in response to 9/11 would have its motivation questioned at home and abroad. "Is this a US response, or the result of zionist pressure?" Certainly US military retaliation against the Taliban for shielding Bin Laden would have been available to Gore. From there the Bush and Gore paths diverge. Bush family ties to the Saudi royal family combined with Republican party obligations to big oil, when combined with the neo-conservative drive to alter world order, made the attack of convenience on Iraq imperative. But if Gore had wanted to take down Saddam, could he? The Democrats also have obligations to big oil, and neo-conservative arguments would have been aggressively trying to shape public opinion. But under Gore-Lieberman, attacking Iraq in the face of overwhelming international opposition would invite the claim the US was waging a war, and Americans were dying, as a result of zionist pressure to rid Israel of a threatening neighbor. That would not have sat well anywhere with anyone, and would have ruled perceptions for generations. The fact that Saddam was not part of Al-Quada or involved in 9/11 would have played a much larger part in public discourse under Gore-Lieberman. Wild claims from the vice-president, so influential from Chaney, would have been counter-productive coming from Lieberman. It's not likely Gore would have had much support to launch a war on Iraq, not in Congress, not in public opinion. Not that he would have wanted to launch the war. So because Jeb Bush finagled Florida's 21 Electoral votes for brother George, the Jewish people, those victims of harrowing threats century after century, escaped their first harrowing threat of the newest millennium. Coincidence, cause and effect, fate, randomness, deviltry, divine intervention ... if you need a reason, choose whichever you like.
Oct. 14, 2004 Quote of the Day Who said this: "Let us not dominate others with our power - or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness. This is the strong heart of America. And this will be the spirit of my administration." It was said in 2000 by the man who did precisely the opposite, the man who will say anything to get elected: George W. Bush. The uniter who deliberately divided us. The self-proclaimed "compassionate conservative" who turned the United States into a police state. How anyone can vote for this liar is beyond me, but a majority will do so next month. People who depend on having a job and vote Republican are like chickens who vote for Col. Sanders. They get what they deserve, the party beholden to the wealthy, but it's only small comfort to hear them whine when they get laid off. Simpletons who don't recognize what's in their own interest harm more than just themselves. Here is what a Christian conservative has to say about that. Alexander Pope said "The proper study of Mankind is Man." It's certainly the most convenient. You don't have to look far to find one. To many it's the most fascinating study. How can we be so stupid and so smart at the same time? Cats can't learn the common tricks dogs can. Does that make them dumber than dogs? Or is it a reminder that intelligence takes many forms. One of our curious abilities is an astounding capacity to accept ideas that contradict each other and never realize it. Last year I read an internet chat group conversation where three women were gossiping about someone none of them knew. It lasted several days. A week later another member of the group, writing on an unrelated topic, said that one thing that disgusted her was idle gossip. Almost immediately came the reply "I'm with you 100%!" It was from one of the idle gossipers, and she was serious. Over 40, college educated, a published author of detective stories, intelligent enough yet she didn't have a clue to her own behavior. Many decades ago I overheard a phone call that obviously I can't forget. The caller was objecting to seeing an acquaintance eat a candy bar. She then carried on about her acquaintance's acne condition. Her sentences were filled with "ought" and "should." This person was known for that, constantly making judgments of others. The topic moved on to other things and suddenly she said something that leaped out: "Well, live and let live, I always say." Indeed she always did say it. She believed it described her, and she practiced it never. The mind's ability to embrace contradictory dogma is astounding. I was asked to edit a book titled "What I Believe." The author spent a decade gathering what he thought were brilliant things he agreed with and lived by. It reeked of astounding inconsistency. People love to quote Emerson's line about consistency and "little minds" but almost invariably misunderstand him. Emerson's comment related to an adjective, not a noun. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Emerson would be the first to say that behind a total lack of consistency stands an unexamined life. On adjacent pages of "What I Believe" were these thoughts. First the advice from an important psychologist that you should strive to live your life being happy with who you are and what you are. His point being you cannot appreciate and love others fully until you appreciate and love yourself. On the next page was a set of ten steps to take to become a "good person" you could respect. This came from the Old Testament and like everything in that book, was a "must and should" lesson designed to create guilt for being normal. It would be hard to find two less compatible approaches to life, yet this author would have us believe he embraced both. What he had was an unexamined life and a schizophrenic one. That seems to be the norm for western man since the 18th century Age of Enlightenment. What is more common than for us to raise hell because someone else did what we do. The conversation interrupter is the loudest to object when someone interrupts him. The egoist objects the most to someone else wanting their way. The inconsiderate driver sees only the inconsiderations of other drivers, never his own. The dominator denounces others as control freaks. How curious that mankind should have the ability to analyze and understand others, yet at the same time know so little of himself. I see it in me; we see it in nearly everyone. We see it in professionals. Child psychologists we trust to readjust our children often do poorly parenting their own. Marriage counsellors can be veterans of one or more divorces. Lawyers are the first to admit that a lawyer who represents himself in a legal matter has a fool for a client. Perhaps we should all be given a year's vacation from life for self-analysis. I suggest the 50th year. By then we have established patterns to look at but still plenty of time left to break them. Fred had it right. 50 is a good age. According to this 1967 newspaper clipping from Miami, when pharmacist Frederick Kleinschmidt passed his 102nd birthday he said, "I'd like to be a little younger. Fifty is a good age. A man is settled down by then."
Is it possible we have anarchists working for the Social Security Administration? I ask because nothing else explains what follows as compellingly as the chance some bureaucrats are randomly screwing up just for fun. In August I opened a new bank account, then phoned SSA via the toll free number to have direct deposit moved from the old account to the new. It was a welcome surprise to talk with an informed, friendly government clerk who understood immediately, took down the information and got it right, and assured me this would be taken care of. I was emboldened to ask, "Would this happen in time for the September check, or will it not kick in until October?" "When do you get your deposit?" "In the third week. It arrives between the 17th and the 21st." "I will take care of this today, and it will apply to the September check." Wow. A bureaucracy dreams are make of. A world upside down. It was like Lucy said, "Come kick the football, Charlie Brown" and when Charlie ran up, the ball was there and he kicked it a mile. Forgive my surprise when on Sept. 10 - a week early for the first time ever - a social security direct deposit was made to my bank account. Not the new one, the old one. A week later I was chatting about this with another surprisingly informed, friendly clerk, this one in the local SS office. She offered to check the records. She found they were unchanged. The first clerk had never accessed them. There was nothing there about the new bank account. And there was no indication why the payment was sent in the week two cycle rather than the usual week three. While I watched she made the changes the first clerk failed to make. (Any bets?) Was the first clerk an anarchist screwing up for the fun of it? Consider this. When a letter arrived years ago saying a portion of the SS payment was to be deducted for Medicare, the letter clearly said the amount was to be added to the monthly payment. Added, not deducted. Dead wrong. This was a form letter from a regional office in far off Rhode Island. My letter asking them how this could happen went unanswered. I prefer thinking we're dealing with anarchist sociopaths rather than dumb as dirt fuck-ups. The result is the same but I respect anarchists. ---------------- Do you still go to movies in theaters? We don't, my wife and I, but for different reasons. She's averse to paying to see now what we can see on TV for free in six months. I have an additional reason. Predictability is boring. The stars are not going to die until the end, if then. We know this because the exceptions are as rare as a Miami snowfall. When it happens, such as Janet Leigh dying 20 minutes into Psycho, it's not mere surprise; its unhinging. It's not just a matter of economics. It's economics and ego. Producers need the stars to attract ticket sales. Stars want their films to showcase them. No one gushes about your performance as a corpse. Stars don't take roles where they die early. It's bad for the image. So when the two male and one female star lying on the beach are set on by men in choppers shooting machine guns at them when the film still has an hour to run, the scene bores the hell out of you because you know that 1,000 bullets are about to miss. The director will not find some ingenious way to make it believable. We don't have that level of director anymore. Today's hacks just ignore it. These people should be dead; they weren't even touched; get over it. At the end one star shooting a short barrel 6-shot 32-calibre police special, accurate to 12 feet, will fire 50 rounds without reloading and will destroy a patrol of men in body armor firing machine guns. Heavily armed hordes drop like flies to a police special in the hands of a star protected by this (tap tap) invisible shield. For eight bucks a ticket? We'd rather doze at home.
I've become convinced Kerry will lose the popular vote, that Bush will easily exceed 50%. Three reasons for this. One, Kerry has just appointed to high positions on his campaign staff the man sharing the responsibility for the Dukakis fiasco and the man carrying the responsibility for the Gore loss. That's his last shot at campaign management and it's the wrong turn. New blood from a tainted supply is not the road to health. Two, surveys recently taken show well over 50% of Americans don't trust the news media. ie. they are shooting the messenger because they don't like the message. They are being told truths they don't want to hear. They will believe reassurances and reject nay-sayers. You can't win the game when the ace, king, and queen of truth are trumped. Three is the focus of the Kerry campaign itself. It is offering up serious, analytical, speeches and press releases to an electorate with no attention span. That's preaching to the choir. His one attempt to broaden his appeal with a simple, effective message was to attract veterans, and the GOP successfully blunted that. Now there's nothing but oratory over the heads of the voters. I directed and managed political campaigns for decades. Nothing has changed. If you haven't got a simple message to accompany the issue speeches, you cannot win an election. It didn't have to be this way. A good, focused campaign staff could have won. But for losing, I'd much rather have lost with Dean. He never stood a chance but he had a more important message for America.
I do not have a license to fish. I never had; I never will. To buy a license to fish means granting government the right to say I can't. I will not concede government that right. They have the right to fine me for breaking their laws. They have the right to rule certain waters off-limits to fishing, or certain seasons. They have the right to set minimum sizes to keep. I have no quarrel with the needs of management. Fishing is my right, not something needing government permission. Do you know what that makes me? Un-American by today's standards, just like the people who founded this country.
When I first learned the "Big Bang" theory my response was Bah, creationism in a lab coat. As the evidence of movement piled up, it appeared no one was finding the real reason. No one saw ripples in a pond. No one saw attraction or centrifugal force rather than repulsion. No one saw a time slice of ebb and flow. No one saw. We have such a long way to go before the truth of relativity replaces the faith in absolutism.
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Four years later Wilder became the first African-American in US history to be elected governor of a state. Larry had no problem calling that one.