Moving Day

The day has come for Stacy and I to bid adieu to our manse on Oglethorpe. We will be laying out the welcome matt at our new place on E. Jones today. We will also be out of pocket until the DSL is connected - sometime before the election returns start coming in I hope - as I will be a mess if I can't keep up with the returns. Talk to you later. And hopefully the next post will have something to do with the political fall of GWB and the NeoCons. Godspeed!

Named after your father perhaps?

Brush with Greatness.

I had the incredible pleasure a few hours ago to meet one of the last great British Roaring Boy actors, Peter O'Toole.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that this incident will be filed away under, "Brush with Greatness - High Enjoyment Factor" as I have seldom recieved more pleasure than when I am taking in a flick starring either O'Toole, Burton or Harris or a combination of all three. Burton and Harris are gone now, so I'll never get the chance to pluck a pearl of wisdom from their potted skulls, but O'Toole is still going, still working and apparently still swilling the nectar (he was tonight).

How did I meet him? Well, the Savannah Film Festival is in full swing at the moment and I went to see O'Toole collect an life time achievement award and view a "film' of his choosing called "Jeffery Bernard is Unwell," which is really a filmed stage play performed at the Old Vic in London in 1999. It is an excellent piece of work and if you ever get the chance to see it, do yourself a favor and watch.

Anyway, long story short, I found my way into the VIP section at Gottliebs and in glides Mr. O'Toole, hanging like a dinner jacket on the arm of the actor Jason Patric (O'Tooles designated lamp post I assume) and they were followed by a rather sickly looking Roger Ebert (I believe he has been battling some form of cancer). I initially walked up to O'Toole and told him how much I loved his book of youthful memories, "Loitering with Intent" and he gave me a great big knowing, "I can't believe you read it" look, said "thank you sir, you are so kind," and that was that. I was quite sated by this quick meeting.

Then I talked to Roger Ebert, the film critic, about a fantastic piece he had written about a shit film called "Jack Frost" (Michael Keaton flick) that I have in a collected works book of his called "I hated, hated, hated this movie." I told him that my girlfriend and I had read this particular piece aloud at many parties to the hoots of our assembled guests and he seemed to really appreciate that slice of information. Then, an English woman came up to me - she heard me pretending to BE English with some other real English blokes - who all knew I wasn't English but were playing along - long story - and she really wanted to meet Peter O'Toole. He was in a converstational huddle not five feet away, and I said, "So, you say you want to meet Peter O'Toole do you, well come with me, I'll introduce you to him."

So, with no further ado, I confidently strolled right into the middle of the huddle and said, "Mr. O'Toole, may I present Jane, who is also from England, as she would love to meet you sir."

O'Toole was a real gent about it and after some pleasantries, he looked at me and I wasted no time, I siezed my moment to pick his brain and get him to tell me a yarn. I greased the wheel with a question concerning Richard Burton's love for books and words and he said with a nice smile, remembering Burton, "Yes, he always had a few books in his pocket..." and this segued somehow into, "...He was just 12 years old and shoveling shit in Wales..."

I REMEMBER these two quotes, in fact I shall never forget them. Wow, FAN MOMENT: There I was, a glass of red wine in my hand and By God, PETER O'TOOLE was leaning down (he's quite tall) into me, inches away from my face and giving me a classic old raconteurs take on his old pal RICHARD BURTON's love of books and the magical power of WORDS!

Very cool.

Oh yea,

The Red Sox swept the WORLD SERIES in FOUR GAMES! The curse is lifted. Bodes well for Kerry?

I VOTED!

Today was the day I have been waiting for. The chance to cast my vote. I voted for Kerry and against Bush. I voted for Denise Majette who is running for crazy Zell Miller's senate seat. I voted for John Barrow who is running against that fascist good old boy Max Burns for Georgia's 12th Congressional district. I voted and it felt great. In a little over a week I will know (or hope to know) if all this work that I have put in over the last year pays off - it has already paid off at a far deeper level in my heart and soul - but I do hope that our country can turn a corner on November 2, 2004.

I also marched down Oglethorpe and Broughton streets with a ton of loud, placcard waving democrats. We made a lot of noise, got some boos and thumbs down action from some redneck type Bush fans but all and all we seemed to get a lot of support from people on the sidewalk and in their car. Most of the local media were there to cover it. They were all going to vote early too, though I went to vote before the march because I knew it was going to be a mob scene. It was.

The die is cast.

here is a good article in todays Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Bush People and the Trouble with Reality

The Lion in Winter

To all my people out there for whom I was never privaledged to procure a brew for at the Stone Lion Tavern in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the time for doing so is quickly slipping away. For all my pals who I did buy a beer for and for those who I cadged a few from, you already know what I'm talking about.

The famed Stone Lion Tavern, which is, as far as this well-travelled southern gent is concerned, is my favorite pub in the world. The sad news is that after 16 crazy fucking years of last calls and punch-ups and hook-ups, the Stone Lion Tavern is closing its doors for good.

I was just a week or so out of a short stint in an Ensenada Mexico jail in 1988 (great story by the way that I'll consider re-telling one of these days) when I stumbled into the brand-spanking-new-and-not-yet-lived-in Stone Lion Tavern and ordered up my first beer from a tall, skinny dude named Mark Hopkins, aka Hoppy. Anyway, volumes could be written and probably should be concerning the level of top notch debauchery that took place or was formulated within its tiny confines by myself and a crazed gaggle of deviants, derelicts, druggards and drunks, not to mention the really fucked up people - the ones who think they are normal.

I love the damn place and I'll miss it and hope to return for the last party - ala the Last Party at Studio 54. I drank one of the first brews sold there so I might as well soak up one of the last. More to come on this I'm sure as the imminent "closing" continues to develop. One of my droogs on the ground is keeping me "in the know" as per any last minute updates. There is talk of a new bar but nothing will ever take the Lions place in many, many hearts. It, like all good things, was all about timing and the personalities involved. Hoppy originally intended the bar to have a "frat" flavor though it was not long, in fact just a few short seconds really, that the freaks got a smell of the place and its cheap beer and shanghai'ed its image and called its tiny confines their crows nest forever.

On another personal note:

Stacy and I are moving into finer digs. Stepping up we are! I've been painting the walls at our new place all day and we'll be completely moved in by the end of the week. We spent 2 years and 2 months here at our fine manse on Oglethorpe Ave and what a grand time it has been though circumstance forced our hand and fate landed us a fantastic new home - I look forward to hosting many friends at our new abode - for friends, the door is open.

Wow, a whole post with no goddamned politics!

Can't have that can we?

Hell no!

So here is a little something, a bumper sticker sent to me from a pal in Berzerkely California:

BUSH: THE ONLY DOPE WORTH SHOOTING

debate!

I get to debate some of Bush's local pit crew tommorow at AASU in front of a crowd with a few fellow Dems.

This should be a hootenany. Here is the question I pulled:

"In retrospect, was the decision to invade Iraq a good decision? If so, how do you forsee the security situation in Iraq two years from now, and what would you do to make it better? If not, what measures would you take to combat terrorism?"

What would you say?

I've got 90 seconds and 60 second rebuttal.

Anyone see Jon Stewart on Crossfire? Calling Tucker Carlson "a dick" and "a hack" (Paul Beluga fell into the hack category too) check it out here:

Calling a Turd a Turd

I thought this was very funny

I rarely agree with David Brooks, but he got his mojo working with this column (I don't care who you are voting for, it's a solid piece and sometimes humor is the best medicine). Oh by the way, if you haven't noticed it yet, you have to register to read many of the pieces I link to. I know you have to register with the NYTIMES and The Washington Post. Well worth it though.

Debate, Declaim, Debacle

The Learning Curve

"They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing."

The President Vanishes

Dick and the Dyke

Since the Bush/Cheney camp can't point to even ONE solid debate performance from their dim-witted candidate, all they can do is jump up and down and whine like a petulant child that John Kerry and John Edwards BOTH brought up the fact that Cheney's daughter is a very public lesbian.

The Goons who troll the sewers over on hate radio have gone so far to say that the Democrats, by picking on little Mary Cheney, are picking on a mere CHILD, how dare they! Bastards!

Here is the Dope on Mary

The GOP and their intolerant minions have made GAY MARRIAGE one of the centerpieces of their campaign, using it as a wedge issue in their attempt to appeal to the emotions of social conservatives - all of whom HATE gay people. I'm still not so sure if the GOP are more afraid of their base finding out that Dick has an openly gay daughter (many of these head-in-the-sand types probably had no idea) OR that by showcasing her to the SWING VOTER, it blasts hot light on their hypocrisies.

This is the same sort of fingers-crossed behind the back, hypocritical, two faced, lying bullshit shoveled out by an Oxycontin infused Rush Limbaugh, an female harassing pompous ass like Bill O'Reilly, a slot machine preachy freak like the former GOP Values Czar Bill Bennett and the list goes on and on and on.

Time and time we are shown proof that all of that conservative repression creates vast amounts of pressure on the vice nodules found in the nether regions and it is only a matter of time before each and every one of these morally constipated, lust-bloated, eye-of-the-needle political and religious evangelical drones is caught projectile vomiting the contents of their deviant inards for all the world to see.

I salute you, each and every one of you anger-headed, moralistic, tunnel-brained, dunderheads! You have shown that you are, shockingly, even disturbingly, though still quite possibly, human after all.

Who is next, Hannity?

As Bush would say, "Bring it on!"

puh-lease.

I want a new drug

I thought Thomas Friedman's piece in the NYTIMES today hit the nail on the head. Whadaya think? Sometimes I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day - and if Bush, who has cast a dark shadow over our lives with his policies, wins - we'll never see spring.

Check Please!

Wrong Is Right!

More adventures in the land of the dim!

Ever since the final report on WMD was released last week, the administrations "talking points" have been this:

It doesn't matter. We are right. The war is necessary. Intent is enough. Thoughts are enough. Bad man + Bad thoughts = potential harm.

Now I intend to make a lot of money some day in my life - which will give me more room to maneuver - though just because I intend to do it, does not mean I will.

What the Dems are not pointing out, and they should, is that the Bush team had their beady red eyes focused on Iraq way before 9-11. It was a fat slab of under-cooked meat on their gilded plate and they were going to get at it one way or another. 9-11 (which took ALL of us off-guard, except for a few analysts whose memos went unheeded) was tailor made to their grand plan. Want to take a look at this grand plan, well check this letter out, dated 1998 to Clinton from the Iraq obsessed war ghouls over at the PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY. (This is the NeoCon Think-tank where most of the shit we've been forced to swallow over the last three years came from)

Read it carefully and look who signed it: If some of these names are very familiar, it's because they are now on the GOVT. Payroll, working at the highest levels of your government and have been doggedly at work crafting a radical, neo-con agenda.

LETTER TO CLINTON

This New American Century crowd is made up of the remnants of the first failed Bush presidency who were forced to sit and chew their inner lips for 8 years while a DEMOCRAT ruled the roost, the world was at peace and people were better off. They hated it. They are ruled by a need for Chaos and the subsequent establishing of a very Conservative leaning state of Order. I could go on for days on this and I know a lot of you know about these guys, but I thought, that as we move toward the election, it might be a good idea to REMIND ourselves of just who it is we are voting FOR and AGAINST on November 2.

Please, God, save me from your followers

There are some days when I think, "yes, we're going to do it, we are going to rid ourselves of George W. Bush." Then there are day's when I overhear some linthead (usually the day after one of the debates) tell another flat-earth type, "I like Bush, but Kerry seems too smart, Bush is tough and consistent - he never changes his mind."

Being "Consistently Wrong" is seen as a very positive trait amongst his supporters. Bush's total lack of curiosity and intellectual depth is seen by these people as some sort of "strength" (too much Brain Power and reading just clogs a man up - it's hard to see things in only two colors, black and white, if exposed to the grand palette of colors, is it not?).

The most obvious pattern that I see in my daily life is that the Democrats, and this is especially true down here in the south, are seen as a party of big city, morally corrupt, intellectual weaklings. Why else would Democrats care about the rights of GAY people for instance, if they weren't in some way, sort of all gay, deep down, themselves?

Same goes for Guns and God. The Gun is the symbol of macho dumb strength. Any half-wit with a few fingers can fire off a gun. There is a large segment of our society that bases their entire self-worth on the high caliber of their gun(s), the size of the engine in their truck ("it's a HEMI son!") by how far they can keep any semblance of intellectual stimulation at bay (being ill-informed is seen as a character trait).

As for their pissed off God, in the new-rights view of the cosmic order, God is a very angry white man concerned only with the 2nd amendment, his "fenced in area" and lower-taxes for the wealthy (it is always baffling to me how these dimwits, pulling $7 dollars an hour at Wal-Mart for instance, are so intrinsically opposed to institutions that want to actually help them; like labor unions, the idea of universal healthcare, higher minimum wages, etc.). The GOP, who could care less about the plight of these people, except during an election season, has done a bang up job of convincing POOR Southern people that they are somehow being better served by voting Republican. They were able to do this by corralling them into the SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE wing of their house. The Ralph Reed's of the party keep the lemmings in line while the true conservatives, the corporate giants who are the brains of the party, continue to raid the government larder by weaving an intricate web of corporate loopholes that fit their agenda, while their angry little foot soldiers get all riled up about Guns, God and Gays and now, Terrorism.

It does not escape this writer's attention that many folks in my neck of the woods equate Bush's never-ending "war on terror" with a religious crusade, thinly veiled under the guise of "helping", as if some hickory-smoked hilljack in Eastern Tennessee really cares about the "freedom" of the poor Iraqi people. These intolerant, hate filled "Christian" scumbags, folks wouldn't piss on their neighbor if they were on fire for fear of giving something of value away and getting nothing tangible in return, and yet they seem to care so deeply about the peril of Iraqis? Since when?

There are a few of their number who actually express publicly what they all really wish would happen, which is the total destruction of the Arab (or non-evangelical Christian) world. There is a good reason why there are more Southerners in our armed forces who are dying to do Bush's bidding than folks from anywhere else and it is not for the college money I can safely assume. The chance to take out a few unbelieving heathens in the great crusade is reason enough. For instance I heard this asshole named Michael Savage (I think that is his name. If you want to freak yourself out and know what the other side is thinking, tune in occasionally to their preferred medium, talk radio), anyway, I heard him get all worked up the other night about how he thinks we should just do the world a great big favor and put the "Bees" in the air "I want to hear the bees: over Syria, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq." (B-1 bombers) and let um quickly annihilate all those pesky Islamic nations once and for all. Hate speech? You betcha.

Do the flat-earth/hate freaks eat it up? Oh yeah, and they still might win this thing in a few weeks. It will be a sad day for America if this happens.

Dick, meet John and oh, please try to remember his Face, you may see it again.

At last nights Debate, V.P. Cheney said to Sen. John Edwards: "the first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."

Really?

How about this time Dick?



This meeting was in 2001 at the National Prayer Breakfast and what about these other times Dick?

The Associated Press actually found three meetings between Cheney and Edwards:

• "On Feb. 1, 2001, the vice president thanked Edwards by name at a Senate prayer breakfast and sat beside him during the event."

• "On April 8, 2001, Cheney and Edwards shook hands when they met off-camera during a taping of NBC's Meet the Press, moderator Tim Russert said Wednesday on Today."

• "On Jan. 8, 2003, the two met when the first-term North Carolina senator accompanied Elizabeth Dole to her swearing-in by Cheney as a North Carolina senator, Edwards aides also said."

Dick, you are a pompous ass.

VP debate roundup

Edwards did a bang up job getting his message out this evening. He was focused and non-plussed by the VP. Cheney droned on, that is his style of course, and the uber-right flank of the GOP loves him for it. He's got his eye on "The Big Board" ala Dr. Strangelove. A perfect day for Dick Cheney might consist of one long, drawn out, top secret, corporate board meeting that never seems to end. Oh wait a sec, isn't that what his days are like already? I guess he does live in a perfect world. I sure wish I did. How in the world did this tool ever meander into public life? It just doesn't really seem to suit him. Oh but what do I know?

Most of the instant "who won the debate" online polls have John Edwards with a strong lead and they are basically tied on the FoxNews poll, which is surprising to me - in fact Edwards was leading a few minutes ago - we'll see how it pans out. Anyway, tis late, I've got some writing to do. More on this to come.

Bush's Hangover

The halls of 1600 Pennsylvania are quiet this morning, as staffers shuffle nervousy around, trying to avoid eye contact with Rove and the political team. The President is probably pacing the Oval Office, as snippets from the morning news feeds are read aloud to him.

"Hell Yes I won! I felt good! He's a Flip-Flopper! My Message is Simple and to the Point!"

"Sir, it looks like you may have to turn it up at the Town Hall debate, sir and watch your body language."

"I KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS dammit! I talk to the leaders on the phone all the time!"

"Sir, maybe you were a little to, how shall I put it, figgitty?"

"Figgitty, not me, I'm a panther. I was stalking Kerry in my mind, couldn't you see it, and it fueled my sharp panther reflexes. The American people understand that, they know I am a focused laser-beam of a leader, bearing down on a world of EVIL, they understand me."

"We'll just have to see how it all spins out, sir."

"I KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS dammit! If people don't vote for me THEY WILL DIE! Their kids will Die! Their grandparents will DIE! I KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS...I have stood on the MOUNTAIN!"

Meanwhile, over at the Kerry HQ, staffers moved into the low crouch. They feel good, real good. Bring it on.

SOMEONE ON THE RIGHT PEELS THEIR BRAIN OFF THE CURB AND ACTUALLY CALLS IT AS IT WAS:
This is from the managing editor of the NATIONAL REVIEW, which no one would ever accuse of being a fan of Senator Kerry. As a rag, it is a Bona-fide unflinching adminstration lapdog: check it out:

No Spin Zone