Happy Birthday, Jack

"First, examine our attitude towards peace, itself. Too many of us think that it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are man made. Therefore they can be solved by man, and man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable and we believe they can do it again"

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
American University
June 12, 1963

Had he survived, today would have been the ninetieth birthday of John F. Kennedy, thirty-fifth president of the United States. Of course, even if his motorcade had not passed under the sixth floor window of the Texas Book Depository on that horrible autumn day in 1963, he would have died a long time ago. Jack Kennedy was never destined to live a long life on this planet. So precarious was the state of his health from the day he was born on May 29, 1917, he would be given the last rights of the Catholic Church three times during his all-too-brief life.

He was far from being the perfect man so many of his generation idealized him to be in the months and years following his death. While "Camelot" might have been a tidy and convenient myth for the writer Theodore White, it never really existed. Revisionist biographers have shown us that he suffered from the human frailties all too common to most of us. His motives (particularly with respect to some areas of foreign policy) were not always pure. And yet even with the benefit of 20/20 historical hindsight, it doesn't take away from the hurt felt by most Americans who are old enough to remember November 22, 1963. It was a grief that was felt on a deep and personal level. Nobody who was alive at the time has ever forgotten where they where and what they were doing when they got the news. I had turned five years old three months earlier and I still remember what my father was wearing when he told me, "The President's been shot". Jack Kennedy's murder on the streets of Dallas, Texas all those years ago was a national trauma that America never really recovered from. Who knows if it ever will?

Listening to a recording of his address to the graduating class of 1963 on the campus of American University, one can't help but feel a sense of real sadness - almost despair - at how far we have fallen as a nation in the ensuing forty-four years. It is almost as if, after wandering through the desert for all those decades, we emerged to find out that the shining city on the hill has turned out to be nothing more than a mirage - a cheap and cynical political huckster's vision of a government of the privileged, by the privileged, for the privileged. When JFK took the oath of office on January 20, 1961, America's future was bright and boundless. Today our only glory is in our past. The damage that has been done to the country he loved so well - the country he almost died defending in World War II - will be with us for generations. What would he have thought of the America of 2007?

While he may have, indeed, been a flawed man, the private historical record has documented, more times than can be adequately counted, that he believed in the promise of America as articulated through the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. He really wanted to be a competent and effective president of all the people: rich and poor; black and white.

"Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike: that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today - at home and around the world".

Inaugural Address
January 20, 1961

It was never empty rhetoric with President Kennedy; he meant every word of it. A lot of the man's persona was based on style, no question about it. But it's also an undeniable fact that there was an abundance of substance within him. (As opposed to....well, you know who I'm talking about). Looking at films of him today, how can one not make a comparison to what we've got sitting in the White House at present? How did we manage to fall to the depths to which we have fallen? In our parent's generation, the half-witted son of a failed ex-president would never have been taken seriously. As beloved as Franklin D. Roosevelt was, the reason his four sons never went far in politics is because of the fact that they were four extremely shallow human beings, utterly lacking in vision and ability. That the elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen is not an excuse. Elections are only easy to steal if the margin of victory is razor thin. Had someone with the intellectual capacity of a George W. Bush sought the Republican nomination in the 1960 primaries, he would not have even have won the state of Texas. In that year, the Speaker of the House of Representatives was a legendary Texas congressman named Sam Rayburn. Even the voters of that state had standards in 1960.

Tonight, I'll spend the evening listening to the recorded voice of Jack Kennedy (One of the perks of being Irish Catholic, is our right to refer to the late president as, "Jack"). I'll have a glass of wine, sit back and pine for his vision and prose - his ultimate faith in the destiny of our once-great nation - and I'll ponder what might have been....what might have been....

"I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty; which will protect the beauty of our natural environment...I look forward to an America which will award achievement in the arts as we award achievement in business and statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity, but also for personal distinction".

Dedication of the Robert Frost Library
Amherst, Massachusetts
October 26, 1963

God blessed America.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Here is a You Tube link to Part One of President Kennedy's commencement address at American University quoted at the top of this piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnCps4GHGmY

Happy birthday, Jack!

AFTERTHOUGHT:

For more recent postings on this disgusting, positively subversive site, please click on the link below:

TOM DEGAN'S HIDEOUS BLOG

There oughtta be a law! Come to think about it, at the rate we're now going there probably will be one soon. Never mind.

The Democrats Fail....Again

Well, my goodness! They've done it again, haven't they? For the who knows how manyth time, the Democrats in Congress have cheerfully provided to the American people the undeniable proof of their pathetic cowardice and timidity. Once again they have chosen political expediency over statesmanship. The amazing thing is the fact that after thoughtlessly giving this disgusting, murderous commander-in-chief a free ticket to send the servicemen and women of this country - not to mention the people of Iraq - on a hay ride straight into the pit of hell, they stupidly stood in front of the press, disingenuously consoling each other on how they tried to do the right thing for the country they profess to love so much. Huh???? MSNBC's Keith Obermann, on target as usual, called it their "Neville Chamberlain moment". How stupid do these people think we are?

I left the Democratic party almost eight years ago in utter, bitter frustration at their abandonment of the ideals of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. Every once in a while I would reflect back on that decision and wonder aloud whether I had done the right thing; that maybe I should come back into the fold. Yesterday, they merely reinforced that decision. The Democrats have proven themselves, yet again, irrelevant. Maybe Ralph Nader was right: they really are nothing more than Tweedle Dee to the GOP's Tweedle Dum. Oh! And speaking of Ralph Nader.....The party's "base" is as angry as they've been since their leadership nominated the pro war Hubert Humphrey over the vehemently anti-war Eugene McCarthy in the late summer of 1968. And yet it's not too late for the Dems to pull themselves out of the mess they have helped engender. It's now painfully obvious that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are not going to do the people's will. It's up to the Young Turks within the party apparatus to make damn good and sure that Pelosi and Reid are thrown onto history's ash heap and that new leadership is provided as soon as possible. Otherwise, a third party uprising next year is virtually assured.

Did these people understand the message we sent them in November? Apparently not. The reason we sent them to Washington was not to guarantee their re-election next time around; we sent them there to end this mind-fuckingly stupid war in Iraq. What part of that message didn't they get? Before this obscenity is over, an additional hundred thousand (or more) men, women and little children will end up getting slaughtered for no reason at all! (That's on top of the over half a million people who have been murdered to date). Don't they realize that doing everything humanly possible to end this war will benefit them in long run - not only at the polls in November of 2008 but in the pages of history?

Tuesday will mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of one of the icons of the Democratic party, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Have not one of these crybabies even read his Pulitzer Prize winning 1956 book, Profiles In Courage? Maybe they should. Perhaps we should all read it. The great senator from Wisconsin, Russ Feingold (a courageous senator if there ever was one) put it in perfect context yesterday when he said that, "the desire for political comfort won-out over real action"...."Action".... That was a word that Jack Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt were both prone to use. The Democratic party is in desperate need of people who are going to act. For that, new leadership is required - IMMEDIATELY.

George W. Bush does not need an enabler; he had that for six years with a sycophantic, rubber stamp Republican congress that bent itself backwards to his every stupid and reckless whim - and look where it's gotten us!. The American people sent that Congress, the 109th, packing last November. This president - this hideous, half-witted little thug - needs to be put in check - he has to be stopped. If the current Democratic leadership is not going to put a stop to this insanity, someone has to be found who will end it. And if that leadership is not to be found among the ranks of the party of FDR, I'm afraid that "the base" will once again be forced to seek the answers to the problems facing America from within a third party. We cannot afford to take that risk again.

It's hard not to be reminded of Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy in times such as these. Although bitter rivals for the 1968 nomination, neither man was ambivalent as far as their opinions regarding another immoral and unpopular war. The stand they took against the Viet Nam war almost forty years ago - against the foolish ambitions of Lyndon B. Johnson, a president from their own party - was at great risk to their respective political careers - but they took that stand and never looked back - indeed, Kennedy's candidacy would cost him his life. Does that sort of courage even exist any longer?

No question about it: the American poltical landscape is in dire need of new leaders. Franklin Roosevelt, Gene McCarthy, Jack and Bobby Kennedy are dead and they're not coming back.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Scandal, Thy Name is Monica

How ironic. On a cold and sleepy January morn, almost a decade ago, I spent the better part of an hour phoning various friends of mine, asking them all the same question:

"Have you, perchance, ever heard the name, Monica Lewinsky"?

When each one of them answered in the negative, I replied, "Well, remember that name because that's all you're going to be hearing about for the next year". Sure enough....

Ah! Poetic justice! Dubya's got his very own Monica! This is just too good to be true - literally, the gift that keeps giving and giving! Somebody, please pinch me - I must be dreaming!

A few weeks ago, Congress issued a subpoena to one Monica Goodling, a thirty-three year old graduate of Pat Robertson's pathetic law school, Regents University - a school so mind numbingly awful, it has been rated by the American Bar Association (among others) as one of the worst law schools in the entire Milky Way. To give you an idea as to what a third-rate den of mediocrity the place is, a full two thirds of the graduating class one year failed to pass their bar exams. It is also one of a small number of law schools in the country that doesn't have an ethics course in its curriculum. Would it surprise you to learn that the Bush/Gonzalez Justice Department is littered with Regents grads - hundreds of them? I didn't think so. When Congress informed her that they wanted to question her as to just what her job description under this hopelessly corrupt Attorney General was, she responded, flat out, that she would testify only if given total immunity from prosecution (Interesting!!!) She made this response through her attorney who - one would hope (for her sake) - didn't graduate from Regents University

Monica Goodling (who, by the way, has zero experience as a prosecutor) was given the job of assessing the qualifications of people looking for positions at Justice - which apparently boiled down to asking them such questions as: "Are you loyal to President Bush"? "Are you a registered Republican"? "Did you engage in premarital sex"? "Do you support faith-based initiatives"? "Do you believe in No Child Left Behind"? - important stuff like that. The fact that she needed to have herself immunised means that she probably has a firsthand knowledge of - and might very well have partaken in - many of the hundreds of criminal acts that have been committed by the most overtly criminal administration in the history of the republic - things that George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzalez and Karl Rove would prefer you and I not know about.

The fact is that this administration, in flagrant violation of the law, politicized the Department of Justice. Most of the attorneys who were fired were from key (read: swing) states who refused to prosecute various Democratic operatives for lack of evidence. As the late Molly Ivins once said, "This is soooo Karl Rove 101". During the nineties, in the midst of some particularly mean and vicious political contests in Texas, Rove's was the invisible hand behind the persecutions of a number of people connected to various Democratic campaigns across the state - some of whom went to prison. After years of investigation, it is now an accepted fact that these people were more than likely innocent. Their only crime was to walk into Karl Rove's political cross hairs. No doubt about it, the man is a sociopath. For more on the subject, by all means, read the book Boy Genius by Lou Duboise, Jan Reid and Carl M. Cannon.
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Monica Goodling has worked out a limited immunity deal and is scheduled to spill some extremely nasty tasting beans before a Congressional investigating committee on Wednesday morning. Bad news for the Bush Mob! Looking at film and photographs of the First Fool during the last week or so, it's obvious that the hideous little bastard is on the verge of a complete psychotic break down. He has been transparently despondent, almost robotic at times; mumbling his words in a listless monotone that makes him appear almost catatonic. No question about it: the disgusting little thug is going to go over the edge any day now. My biggest fear is that in a moment of utter psychological collapse, he violently turns on someone in the room with him, murdering that person in a burst of cold-blooded, primitive rage - possibly poor little Alberto Gonzalez - the moment the little geek is forced to explain to his pathetically clueless boss that a president can not legally pardon himself. Oh yeah; this is gonna get ugly, campers - extremely ugly, indeed! Here's a little something you can take to the bank: by this weekend, the roof will be blown off this White House. An entire army of murderously angry chickens will soon be coming home to roost. The impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney is within our grasp. This despicable, incompetent, nightmare of an administration will not survive the year 2007. Count on it.

You've got to hand it to Jerry Falwell; you really do! Talk about timing! The man chose the perfect moment to buy the farm, did he not? The entire "Reagan Revolution" which Falwell, more than anyone is responsible for bringing about - of which George W. Bush is the rightful political heir - is deader than Jerry and Ronnie combined. The Christian Right, it seems, is starting to focus on other things such as (Are you sitting down?) THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST!! A beautiful and wondrous theology that Jerry Falwell (like so many so-called "Christians" on the right) chose to desecrate throughout his entire career.

In homage to Charles Dickens, while this may very well be the worst of times, it is also, in many fundamental ways, the best of times. And, man, I'm lovin' this!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

POST SCRIPT:
For more on the career of Karl Rove, see the documentary, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, which is based on the book of the same name by James C. Moore (no relation to Michael, I promise) and Wayne Slater.
PEACE!

AFTERTHOUGHT 5/22/07:
Who would like to make a little wager that between now and tomorrow the administration will create some sort of diversion in order to distract us from Miss Goodling's much anticipated testimony? Whaddaya say? Any takers?

Michael Moore Goes to France

Michael Moore is a national treasure. The man has single-handedly taken on the responsibility that most of the so-called "serious journalists" in the American main-stream media abandoned a long time ago; which is, as Upton Sinclair eloquently phrased it one-hundred years ago: "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". I seriously believe that two-hundred years from now, his films will be studied in civics classes much in the same way Thomas Paine's writings are studied today (that's assuming that the American republic survives that long - a big and depressing "if" any way you slice it). He is truly one of the great patriots of the era. God bless 'im!


As it always has, controversy has dogged the making and completion of his latest offering, SICKO, a film that, according to its producer, Meghan O'Hara, "will rip the band-aid off America's health care industry". The rescue workers who labored heroically to clean up the rubble of ground zero following the hideous attacks of September 11, 2001, were exposed to toxic substances that have subsequently impaired the health of many of them. Although the Bush administration knew that the people doing the clean up were in danger of exposure, they not only didn't bother to issue a warning to that effect, they publicly stated that the air was perfectly safe. One year later they would be claiming that Saddam Hussein had a serious weapons of mass destruction program - but that's another story for another day.
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In the five and a half years since, the very people who cleared the area where the World Trade Center once stood - some of whom have died because of their injuries - have been all but abandoned by their once-great country's sick and dysfunctional health care system. To make a point, Michael Moore brought them to Fidel Castro's Cuba (WOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!) where they received the needed treatment they were unable to obtain here. To put it bluntly: Moore has put America's way of dealing with the sick and infirm to utter shame.
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And now the Bush White House has made veiled threats to prosecute Michael Moore for violating the U.S. embargo that prevents American citizens from traveling to Cuba to conduct business. OFAC chief, Dale Thompson, in a letter to Moore, said, "This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba". The problem with this argument is the fact that Moore wasn't there to "conduct business", so to speak, he was there to film a documentary! Documentaries - American documentaries - are made in Cuba all the time. In fact, come to think of it, even Fox News has gone into the place a time or two. Usually, however, the reports that come out of Cuba tend to focus on the negative aspects of the country. Moore was focusing on its positives. Therein lies the problem. The threat coming from the Feds was real enough to force Moore and his production team to make two master negatives of the film and spirit (alright, "smuggled") it out of the country as carefully and as quietly as possible. You'll be happy to know that a positive print of SICKO has arrived safe and sound in Cannes and is ready for its premiere there next week.
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The right wing smear machine is going into overdrive. "I have no expectation that Moore is going to tell the truth about Cuba or health care" said possible presidential hopeful and failed actor, Fred Thompson, "I defend his right to do what he does, but Moore's talent for clever falsehoods has been too well documented". Thompson was unable to offer one example of any of those "clever falsehoods". Is it possible that he has Michael Moore confused with Karl Rove? Intriguing thought. In a short video on his website, Thompson then stooped to the GOP's tried and true tactic of questioning Moore's sanity. My goodness! What these assholes won't do!
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The Bush Mob has every reason to be frightened - seriously frightened - by the release of a new Michael Moore film. Immediately after the American people were able to view his last work, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bush's poll ratings began to fall drastically - and this was a year before Hurricane Katrina! SICKO will be opening in theaters all around the country next month and of this you may be certain: this summer will see the dawn of the pharmaceutical industry's day of reckoning. We the people will start to ask some serious questions. We're going to demand some answers.
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Pray for peace.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
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POST SCRIPT:
Tell George W. Bush and his geeky little sycophants in the Justice Department to FUCK OFF!!!...as politely as possible, of course.... Tell them to leave Michael Moore alone! Send your comments here:
comments@whitehouse.gov
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Here is the text of the e-mail I sent this morning to the White House:
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Hey George!
Tell your goons to leave Michael Moore alone. The film is out and there is not a thing you can do to stop it. You might as well try to stop the sun from rising.
Sincerely.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY.
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They immediately sent me this reply:
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"On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence. We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions [OH, BULLSHIT!] Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message. Thank you again for taking the time to write".
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Well, wasn't that sweet of them?

Saint Richard?

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace from the presidency exactly one week before my sixteenth birthday. As young as I was, I think I was fairly politically astute for my age and I was angry as hell at the bastard for what he had done to the country I love so much. I remember thinking at the time that It would never again get as weird as it had been during the Age of Nixon. But then a funny thing happened: in 1980, the American people sent a feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor named Ronald Reagan to the White House and all of the sudden, Dick Nixon didn't look so bad anymore. Truth be told, at times I found myself feeling a sense of teary-eyed nostalgia for the old bugger. Well into Ronnie's second term, I wrote a song parody which was supposed to be sung to the tune of Bobby Goldsboro's 1968 hit, the fabulously maudlin, "Honey":
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One time I thought that Richard Nixon's presidency was the worst thing possible,
But that was many years ago and nowadays that sentiment seems laughable,
In 1980, somehow, the electorate coughed up a brain-dead movie star,
I never had faith in the voters but I never realized how dumb they are....
And Nixon, I miss you
And I'm feeling blue
I've lost all of my senses
I'm nostalgic for you....
And see the debt how big it's grown, but friends, it hasn't been too long - it wasn't big,
In early 1981, the debt that's now a red wood tree was just a twig.
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While Tricky Dick might have been inherently corrupt and dysfunctional as a human being, the man had a real and deep-seated affection for the aims and aspirations of the middle class of which he was a product. While some of his economic policies were questionable to say the least, the Trickster, unlike Reagan, never forgot where he came from. In his youth, he had known real poverty, not to mention personal tragedy - two of his brothers, Arthur and Harold, dying of tuberculosis at very young ages. Say what you want about the Nixon presidency - as bad as it might have been - no one will ever be able to realistically accuse his term of office as being an assault on people of modest means. That assault, which has been going on in full force for over a quarter of a century now, began on January 20, 1981 when Reagan took the oath of office as the fortieth president of the United States. It is now in the process of destroying the American middle class.
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If Ronald Wilson Reagan was able to transform Richard Milhaus Nixon from ogre to grand old statesman - however flawed - the administration of George Walker Bush has turned the man into a virtual saint! And while the Gipper still looks like a doddering old fool, even in hindsight, he at least has the good fortune of being followed into office within the span of a mere twelve years by a man who will no doubt be remembered as the worst chief executive in American history. Reagan and Nixon might have been horrifically misguided as far as their respective ambitions were concerned, but they were surrounded by smart (if not brilliant) people who were at the very least marginally competent. And Nixon, it should not be forgotten, was not by any means possessed of a mediocre intellect. Other than Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he probably had the best mind of any president who ever served. Even the worst administrations (Buchanan, Grant, Harding and Hoover come readily to mind) have had at least some redeeming factors. George W. Bush and the tidal wave of corruption and stupidity that comprises this disgusting administration will not be able to make that claim. When the final chapter of his reign of error is eventually written, nothing positive will be said to have come from this White House. Nothing.
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When Richard Nixon died on April 22, 1994, the passage of twenty years time had somewhat softened the animosity many people had felt for him at the time of his resignation in 1974. Truth be told, I was shocked at how much the main stream media was able to white wash his legacy to the point of ridiculousness. Seeing people like convicted felons Charles "Chuck" Colson and G. Gordon Liddy being sought out to provide "objective" assessments of his life and career just didn't pass the giggle test as far as I was concerned. Nixon had tarnished the office of the presidency to such a degree that it would prove impossible for his hand-picked successor, the amiable and moderate Gerald R. Ford, to be elected in his own right two years later. He would end up being defeated by a relatively unknown, former governor of the state of Georgia named Jimmy Carter.
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Somewhere in the void, Richard M. Nixon, you may be sure, is laughing right now. As revolting as the break in at the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972 might have been, when history finally renders its ultimate judgement, that crime will seem but a paper cut when placed in juxtaposition to George W. Bush's moral and ethical blood bath. Compared to the Bush Mob, the Nixon Gang are starting to look like a bunch of Trappist Monks. For all of their misdeeds (and I can't believe I'm even defending these guys, I assure you!) Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell are remembered by those who knew them as basically decent and intelligent men who did some mean and stupid things. The Bush White House is riddled with far too many human characteristics to adequately catalogue; decency and intelligence are not among them.
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I used to think that it couldn't get any worse than Nixon - then along came Reagan. I would console myself during the eighties by thinking that Ronnie's presidency was the ultimate in foolishness - and then along came a half-witted frat boy named George W. Bush. I'm not going to get fooled again into thinking that this is as bad as it gets - but I will tell you this: if, in the years to come, the American people are ever again foolish enough to send to the Oval Office someone who equals or surpasses this president in terms of sheer corruption and imbecility, it will destroy this country - that's assuming it's not already beyond repair.
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Pray for peace.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
POST SCRIPT:
Happy Mothers Day!

Weird Times in America

Where are we now? Things are moving at such an incredible pace, it's hard to keep up with it all. Someone remarked to me recently that she was amazed at how prolific I seem to be as a writer, having posted eighty-six good sized pieces on this blog (some of them several pages in length) since I started it on June 2, 2006. Prolific? Are you kidding me??? In the age of Bush, these things write themselves, pardner! When Bill Clinton was living in the White House, I was lucky to get in two letters to the editor a year. While this may be the worst time in America since the Great Depression, it is, indeed, the most interesting of times to be alive. That's the good news. The bad news is the fact that it's more than likely going to get much worse - but (more good news!) it also going to get a hell of a lot more interesting. By year's end, you won't even recognize America - that's assuming you recognize it now. You can count on impeachment proceedings to be under way by the end of the summer. The prosecution and punishment of these despicable people for their crimes against humanity will be a long and complicated process; but of this you may be absolutely certain: George W. Bush will die in federal prison. I'm as sure of that as I am my own name.

Tom Degan. Damned glad to know ya!

Here's something I never thought I would hear myself saying: I feel really sorry for Bush Forty-One. Can you even imagine the turmoil the old bastard must be going through at this very moment? It must be unbearable for him, tossing and turning in his bed at night, knowing that his snot-nosed, half-witted kid is responsible for destroying the country that the old man put his life on the line for in World War Two. I never cared much for Poppy Bush as a man and even less for him as a president. Nor have I ever cared for that hideous bitch he calls "The Mrs." - in fact I'm of the opinion that the whole family is inherently evil (in the strictest, theological definition of that word) - but one can't help but feel at least some degree of sympathy for the man. It must be a terrible thing, indeed, living with the almost certain knowledge that his life - and the the lives of millions of innocent people across the globe - would have been so much better off had he insisted that Barb have an abortion in 1945.
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And imagine what George Herbert Walker Bush must be thinking as far his legacy - or the legacy of his father - is concerned! Under normal circumstances, neither man would have left much of a mark on the pages of history. Prescott Bush, Poppy's father, wasn't much of a senator. Truth be told, he wasn't much of an American either. While his son was risking his life fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, Grandpa Bush was still conducting business with their allies, the Nazis - and would more than likely have continued to do so had he not been caught red handed. He should have been tried for treason but apparently President Roosevelt didn't have the stomach for it. Think about that: FDR could have strangled the Bush Dynasty in its cradle but, to his ever lasting shame, he didn't! I love Roosevelt (politically speaking, he is my guiding star). But in the case of Prescott Bush, he really screwed up - BIG TIME! But all of this is academic and beside the point. George H.W. Bush believes that his father was a great man. He believes that his father would have had an honored place in history's hollowed halls - but that hope has been forever, utterly dashed! From this point on, Prescott Bush will be remembered as the grandfather of George W. Bush, the worst president in American history; the man who destroyed America. That must truly be a horrible thing to live with. Poor ol' Poppy!
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That the immoral war against the people of Iraq has done to the United States what the immoral war against the people of Afghanistan did to the late Soviet Union will become clear to everyone very soon. The sickest thing of all is the fact that it was launched primarily for reasons of politics - they were determined to keep a permanent Republican majority, come what may. By the Spring of 2002, the warm and fuzzy, patriotic afterglow of September the 11th was beginning to wear thin and the American people were starting to see the Bush Mob for the corrupt, despotic assholes they really were. The only way Bush was only going to win the mid-terms in '02 and re-election in '04 was going to be as a war president. From his book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold", by the greatest columnist who ever lived, Frank Rich:
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"This partisan dream, not nation building, was consistent with the president's own history and Washington ambitions. Bush was a competitor who liked to win the game, even if he was unclear about what to do with his victory beyond catering to the economic interests of his real base, the traditional Republican business constituency. If Bob Woodward's account was true and Bush had vetoed the idea of going to war simultaneously with Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein immediately after 9/11, his personal political needs were different as the political glow from 9/11 started to fade. Iraq was just the vehicle to ride to victory in the midterms, particularly if it could be folded into the proven brand of 9/11. A cakewalk in Iraq was the easy way, the lazy way, the arrogant way, the telegenic way, the Top Gun way to hold on to power. It was of a piece with every other shortcut in Bush's career, and it was a hand-me-down from Dad drenched in oil to boot".
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The result of this little publicity stunt of theirs (as of today) has been 3,381 American kids and at least a half a million Iraqi men, women and little children who have been slaughtered for no fucking reason on the killing fields of what was at one time the cradle of civilization - indeed, what may very well turn out to be civilization's death bed. All because of the political ambitions of one inarticulate, hideous little frat boy. Let me repeat myself: GEORGE W. BUSH WILL DIE IN A FEDERAL PRISON CELL. Keep on saying it to yourself - over and over and over again. It will happen; I promise you that - It will happen.
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In the mean time, the plot is thickening; the rats are starting to flee this sinking ship of a White House and they're starting to talk. A talking rat is a wondrous, lovely thing to behold - it really is! It's going to be beautiful to watch them in the coming year as they turn on each other. George Tenet's memoirs are only the first of what promises to be a virtual tsunami of "tell all" books. Each of them will be self-serving, to be sure - desperate and bitter people, trying in vain to sanitize their dubious place in history - but when they are all taken together as a whole, a terrible and unspeakable truth will begin to emerge with regard to the criminality and incompetence of this disgusting administration. The amazing thing is that for everything we've learned - and we've learned an awful lot - we've barely scratched the surface. The investigations will be going on for decades. Many people will be sent to prison for a long, long time - some for the rest of their lives. This president was able to seize the machinery of power as the result of a stolen election in 2000. The damage that he and his Texas cronies have done to our once-great country will be with us for the rest of our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. The next ten years, I believe, will be remembered as the Age of Adjustment. The so-called "New American Century" is over. Get used to it.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:
The Greatest Story Ever Sold
by Frank Rich

How White is Too White?

Recent speculation as to Barak Obama's "blackness" struck me as ludicrous at best - "He's too black"! "No! He's not black enough"! - I mean, c'mon, Mr. Media Man! Give it a freaking rest....Until I got to thinking: is it really possible to be too white or too black or not white or black enough? And just where do I fit in in the scheme of things? Am I too white? Or am I not black enough? Or maybe I should strive to be blacker. Damn good set of questions, Watson!
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Recently, I dropped by the Catholic thrift shop here in Goshen (Called "The Red Door" - shameless plug!) to peruse their incomperable collection of used records (I have a weakness for old, weird and wonderful recordings - an incurable vinylphile) when all of the sudden I was almost knocked off my feet by a vision too strange to pass by: an LP (which I am holding in the photo above) circa 1964, of religious music performed by three women, photographed walking hand in hand under a warm southern sky, in identical yellow period outfits, each wearing the coiffed, Jackie Kennedy-style hairdos that were so popular with the women of the time. Appropriately titled, The White Sisters Sing, the album was distributed by an organization called, "Word Records Incorporated" of Waco, Texas (Seriously - you didn't think for a minute that the company operated out of San Fransisco, did you? Get a grip!) I took one look at the record and said to myself, without a moment's hesitation: "No question about about it: these three gals are just too danged white"! I purchased the record without a second thought. How could I resist? It was the best twenty-five cents I ever spent.
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This is not meant to be a forum to pour invective on religious music or the White Sisters. They look like (and I'm sure are) three fine and decent ladies - even though they voted for George W. Bush. How do I know they voted for George W. Bush? Just look at that photo - they didn't vote for John Kerry or Al Gore - THEY VOTED FOR GEORGE W. BUSH - ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!! Even though I have yet to listen to their product (which I'm sure is very nice) I owe the White Sisters a deep debt of gratitude. They have forced me to ask the musical question: How white is too white?
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There is a problem being white in the United States, more so than in, say, Europe or the Middle East. The uncomfortable fact of the matter is that so much of our initial wealth was built on the back of the slave labor that was so prevalent for the first two centuries of our existence. Not that we didn't try to put a happy face on the institution - we really did! But while the image of content and smiling darkies singing "All God's Chill'un Got Wings" under a warm Dixie moon might have been fine for Gone With The Wind, it didn't really pass the smell test in the real world.
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To be sure, there are varying degrees of whiteness. In fact, some white people, in reality, are very black! Take Bill Clinton, for example. It's not by accident that he has been called by many, "America's First Black President". Skin pigmentation had not a thing to do with it. The truth is, Clinton had a deep and authentic gut-level empathy for African Americans because of the fact that he - more than any president since Harry Truman - knew what it was like to struggle through life. Say what you want about the man, that empathy was real. It's a hell of a lot easier to imagine Bubba, saxophone in tow, kicking out the jams with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Cannonball Adderley then it is to picture him at a recording session with....well....The White Sisters. Again, I'm sure they're very nice gals.
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Robert F. Kennedy was probably the only white politician in history who was blacker than Bill Clinton. Although he was born of wealth and privilege, his brother's assassination in the autumn of 1963 changed him radically. He (along with Clinton and Obama) are the only politicians American history who can speak to an audience of any race without appearing inauthentic. What our country might look like today but for Sirhan Sirhan's bullet.
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There are a lot of white people who are more black than white and I'm not referring to those white rapper Afro wannabes - I'm talking about the real thing: Lenny Bruce was black; so was Janis Joplin. Elvis Presley was very black until he joined the Army in 1958. When he was discharged two years later, he'd lost much of that blackness (I'm sure it had something to do with being stationed in Germany all that time - the Fatherland having yet to discover rock 'n' roll). Albino guitarist, Edgar Winter, is actually blacker than most black people! The singer Bobby Darin was as white as they come until the spring of 1968 when his friend and political hero, Bobby Kennedy, was murdered in Los Angeles (Damn you, Sirhan!) It was at that moment that his interpretation of music became more soulful and introspective. Like Kennedy before him, it was a shattering, personal trauma that unleashed Darin's previously undetectable blackness. And do you want to hear the biggest irony? Until he was fired last month for his unfortunate comments about the Rutgers University Woman's Basketball Team, Don Imus was the blackest white man in the main stream media!
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This particular theory of mine is not something I can adequately define but I think you know what I'm talking about.
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It works the other way around as well. There are black people - in particular, black men - who are really, really white! Armstrong Williams, the African American "journalist" who was paid a couple hundred thousand (taxpayer) dollars by the Bush Mob to sell their No Child Left Behind scam is whiter than Lester Maddox; Colin Powell, while not quite as white as George Wallace, deserves an honorable mention. Condoleeza Rice, although not as pure as the driven snow, is about as white as the driven snow - no argument there. And while I may not be as black as Don Imus, I'm a helluva lot blacker than Clarence Thomas! Malcolm X had a term for people like Clarence Thomas: House Nigger - those who not only worked within a racist system but who actually supported it ("Whatever Massa wants, Massa gits") as opposed to the Field Negro - those who hated the system and dedicate their lives to destroying it. Minister Malcolm was, most decidedly, a Field Negro. Come to think of it, I like to think of myself as one also!
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No question about it, the White Sisters - as chock full of goodness and unquestioned virtue as I'm sure they are - are just a smidgen too white for my tastes. Are there people out there who could be described as too black? More than likely; but being a white man, I'm not qualified to make that judgement. I'll pick on my own race - it's a whole lot easier and, quite frankly, irresistible. Maybe if we all tried to be a little bit blacker and a little bit whiter - as the case may be - we might find that happy medium. I'm not saying that we should abandon the cultural characteristics that are unique to each of us - we should just try and emphasize our similarities which are far more abundant than our differences. We might very well do away with the polarization that has become the hallmark of modern day America and, truly, become the color blind society envisioned almost half a century ago by Martin Luther King. You see, he had this silly dream that his children would one day live in a land where they would be judged "not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character".
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Aw, heck! I can dream, too, can't I?
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
SUGGESTED READING:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X with Alex Haley
`

Photograph of Tom Degan taken on May 3, 2007

Four Dark Years Later

Do you remember the image? Who can forget it? There he was - the idiot! - prancing around the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln with that grotesque smirk on his face! There he was - wearing that stupid flight suit - looking more like a plastic G.I. Joe than the commander-in-chief. Karl Rove's office was ecstatic! Oh! they must have thought, this footage is gonna look just great in the 2004 campaign commercials! As it turns out, the stunt did, in fact, produce some great campaign images - for the Democrats! By the autumn of 2004, the Republicans were trying to forget about May 1, 2003 - four long years ago today. That was the day that a corrupt, hideous, half-witted little piece of shit named George W. Bush - the man that a lot American people were foolish enough to send to the White House two years before - proclaimed for all the world to hear: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. The United States and her allies have prevailed"

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! Don'cha love it?

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When it became painfully clear that the mission was anything but accomplished, they tried to tell us that the huge banner behind him heralding victory had been manufactured by the Navy - as if they actually had the facilities on board the ship to produce such a thing. A little over two months later when it finally dawned on every thinking person in the country (a group which would naturally exclude the First Fool) that a seriously nasty insurgency was taking shape, G.I. George would have none of it:

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"BRING 'EM ON"!!! Isn't that a scream?

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Four years later, in the wake of a "troop surge" that the White House claims is working fabulously - just fabulously, my dears - the number of killings of Iraqi civilians and American soldiers are higher than they've been at any time since our once-great nation lunged into this obscenity. Four years later it has become poignantly clear that the illegal, unwarranted invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq was the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history. The damage that has been done to that country - and to this country - will be palpable a century from today. Four years later it is clear that, for the second time in a generation, a crude and disgusting Texan has launched his country into a war that common sense should have told him it could not win. Four years later the administration of George W. Bush - once so cocky, arrogant and self-assured - is in the process of implosion. Four dark years later the corruption and criminality of this disgusting administration is now even apparent to former true believers. For all intents and purposes, the Bush White House is finished.

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It was never about WMD. It was never about "bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people". Remember, these are the same people who stole two elections in their own country. Are you naive enough to believe that they give a damn about the freedom of the Iraqi people or even your freedom? Please.

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They tried to sell the American people on the idea that it was Saddam Hussein who was responsible for the carnage of September 11, 2001 - and the American people (particularly the viewers of FOX News) swallowed the lie whole. So determined were they to go into Iraq that it was one of the first items on the table the day after the 2001 inauguration. The nation was now in the hands of a failed oil man - but he was determined to finally succeed whatever the cost. That's the most disturbing irony of all: the plunder and destruction that is today occurring in Iraq is really nothing more than another one of this disgusting little frat boy's many failed oil ventures.

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"ABSOLUTELY WE'RE WINNING"! Too funny!

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Administrations have gone down before; that's nothing new. The unspeakable tragedy in all of this is the fact that when this administration goes down, it'll take the rest of the country down with it. George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney - and the tidal wave of human shit that comprises this nightmare of an administration - we'll be gone from view very soon. Bush himself will die in federal prison (I'm convinced of that); Dick Cheney is going to drop dead any day from now. But of this you may be absolutely certain: we'll be living with the after-effects of the Bush/Cheney regime for the rest of our natural lives and beyond. This self-inflicted wound will take generations to heal.

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"I'M THE DECIDER". Are you laughing yet? Ah! I thought not. Come to think of it, this really isn't very funny, is it? This appalling situation might never have come into being had it not been for a compliant, lazy lap dog press that acted as mere stenographers while the Bush Mob catapulted the propaganda. These are, indeed, shameful times we live in. It used to be a point of pride to be an American. Now it's just embarrassing.

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It's interesting. The other day I was looking at some old photos of the 29th president, Warren G. Harding - previously thought by historians to be the most inept occupant of the executive mansion in history. We've lowered the bar to such a degree in the last quarter of a century as to what constitutes an able and effective president that the guy is starting to look like George Washington. Now that's funny!

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Pray for peace.

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Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net