My Dad has been dead for more than 20 years, now. But while he was alive, he was a dedicated Republican. But not the kind of Republicans that run our country now. Oh no. Were he alive today, he would be agreeing with what Garrison Keillor has written at Truthout, which begins:
Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned – and there was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans were giants compared to today’s. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.
How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk? Keillor asks.
I think part of the answer is that too many Republicans like my Dad and Dwight Eisenhower are dead. And with them were buried the values and ideals of a Republican party that upheld the Constitution. And so, as Keillor goes on to describe:
The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.
As my father got older, he got interested in the “Gray Panther” movement, got on the city’s Housing Commissioner and worked for decent housing for low-income and senior residents. He frequently talked about the value of a “socialist democracy.” My father was a Republican in his heyday. But he would be embarrassed to be one today. And I’m sure that he would not vote to continue into four more years of this tragic failure of American leadership.
It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile, and it’s not my father’s Republican Party.

Wherein he returns to the commentary scene of the most important election of his lifetime.
Who he? He’s The One True b!X, who has set up a “One True b!X’s War Prayer” weblog because, years ago, he was moved and inspired by Mark Twain’s “War Prayer” and set up a site to publish a readable version of that document. And now, he says:
…as we enter the final two months of what is the most important election of my lifetime (in addition to entering the week of the Republican National Convention), it’s time to take some of the energy I spend screaming at the television, ranting on the telephone, or posting comments on other people’s sites and just say whatever I have to say right here.
He takes on the skewed local reporting of the anti-Bush demonstrations in NYC here.
There is sure to be more good ranting to come.

Over at Pressthink, Jan Rosen reports:
Bush will speak from a theatre in the round, addressing the nation by standing among citizens. It’s a switch to a more vertical image of authority. CNN announced a similar move. They will speak from a diner. MSNBC will come to us from Herald Square. Why?
I’ll tell you why. It’s just more manipulation of the public with show rather than substance. I can’t help thinking of the circus barker, out there working the crowd. Theater-in-the-round is tricky. It’s a lot harder to pull off than the traditional “up there on the stage” approach. The GOP is using it as a metaphor, and it is a good metaphor for speaking “with” an audience instead of “to” it, of getting on the same level with the people you want to reach with your words. It can also distract from the words — make the audience focus on show rather than substance. I have a feeling that not only is Bush going to affirm his lack of talents as a facile extemporaneous showman; he’s going to wind up showing, from all sides this time, just how lacking in substantial truth his words really are.

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she’s losing. time. all the time. never knows. she just had it in her hand — the pills, the bill, that pair of scissors, the pink comb. she leaves the bag of frozen pierogi on the counter, wonders what’s dripping all over the floor. always turns on the wrong stove burner.
in the car on the way back from visiting her son — my brother — her talk gets smaller and smaller:
She: why do they build houses so close to the highway.
me: those houses were there before the road was put in, ma.
She: look at all those different kinds of cars on the road.
me: yup.
She: what are those yellow “P” letters on all those cars.
me: they’re not ‘”P”s ma, they’re magnetic yellow ribbons and they mean “support our troops.”
She: that sign says it’s 90 miles to Buffalo.
me: no, ma. It says that this is Interstate 90 and it leads to Buffalo.
She: look at all those trees. all different kinds of trees. who planted all those trees.
me: [silence]
She: people are using Polish words when they talk English. that man on the radio just said “Jak tam….”
me: i don’t think so, ma. you must have heard it wrong.
She: there’s nothing wrong with my hearing. you’re all trying to make me believe that i’m crazy. i can hear just fine.
me: [silence}
She: look at those birds. you can learn a lot from birds.
me: yup.
She: when your father was alive………
and as she loses herself in time, i succumb to the hum of the open road, wish for wings, for the blessings of solitude and silence.

From The Nation, through Common Dreams an editorial begins:
As Republicans gather in New York City, the Bush campaign will undergo a drastic makeover, camouflaging gutter tactics with a veneer of moderation calculated to help the President win another four-year term. But the hard truth of this campaign is that George W. Bush, while attempting to impose an extremist right-wing agenda on this country and the world, has compiled a record of staggering failure.
.. and ends
But this President does not admit error. When asked at a press conference whether he had ever made a mistake in office, he couldn’t think of one.
If Bush wins in November, given this record of misfeasance, American democracy is in much greater trouble than even the most alienated citizens imagine. A President so out of step with the needs of the American people can only rule by sowing division and fear. Americans have one recourse: to ignore the costume ball in New York City and fire the worst President in modern history on November 2.
Take the time to read it all here.

why write, i ask myself, when there’s so much else. moving and shaking and making sure she takes all of her medications. out in the park, two pairs of egrets, a lone white duck. cat litter to clean. who has enough time empty of necessity to follow the call of words. hurry up, please. it’s time. i dream of good-byes. wait for rain. time. the toothy smile of a toddler who remembers.

Gone. That’s where the time went.
Working on grant proposals (current free-lance gig).
Reading Alice Hoffman’s Blackbird House. I want to write like that.
Also reading book of speeches by Howard Zinn: Artists in Times of War. sent to me by one of my sorority sisters. That reunion we had is paying off in all kinds of ways.
Had my annual physical today. In pretty good shape for an old broad — except for the 15 pounds or so I wish were gone, gone, gone.
Leaving for my daughter’s tomorrow to take them to get their first car. Will be listening to an audiotape of J.D. Robb’s Rapture in Death to keep me awake on the drive across just about the whole state of Massachusetts.
Coming back Friday to take care of mom. Driving out again on Monday to help my daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and their two cats move closer to the rest of us.
Somewhere in there I’ve got a few more proposals to churn out.
I’m supposed to be retired. Yeah, right.
Going….going…..going…..

ONE THOUSAND REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR BUSH.
You don’t have to buy the book to read the reasons. Just scroll down and take note of items like these, complete with links:
Attitude: The ‘don’t blame me’ presidentTHE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.
When Harry Truman was faced with miscalculations regarding the Korean conflict, his attitude was: “The buck stops here.” And when John Kennedy was faced with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he took full and unqualified blame. These men lived with the aftermath of their mistakes and blamed them on no one else.
George Bush must assume responsibility for the intelligence failures and all other mistakes made on his watch. And he must do so without qualification. That is what honorable men do. If they cannot or will not, they are not worthy of the offices they hold. Boston Globe 2004-07-15 link
Attitude: To Err Is Human, to Flip-Flop Divine
NEW YORK — President Bush is working hard to convince the American people that John F. Kerry has a fatal flaw: He changes his mind. Or, in the current political lexicon, he “flip-flops.” But isn’t a willingness to change course — even to admit error — an asset in a leader?
Throughout U.S. history, important decisions, some of monumental proportions, came about because presidents changed their minds. In his first political statement, in March 1832, the 23-year-old Abraham Lincoln said, “Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I thought. So soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.” LA Times 2004-07-06 link
Attitude: A Willful Ignorance
According to The New York Times, President Bush was genuinely surprised to learn from moderate Islamic leaders that they had become deeply distrustful of American intentions. The report on the “perception gap” suggests that the leader of the war on terror has no idea how badly that war — which must, ultimately, be a war for hearts and minds — is going. Mr. Bush’s ignorance may reflect his lack of curiosity: “The best way to get the news,” he says, “is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff.” Two words: emperor, clothes. NY Times 2003-10-28 link
And there’s more. More than a thousand more.

I wear red on Fridays.
Today is Friday the 13th, I and several of my women friends will be wearing red as we meet meet for dinner (even though going out to dinner on Friday the 13th is supposed to be bad luck).
But we do not have Paraskevidekatriaphobia (an irrational fear of Friday the 13th). What we have is Georgedubyabushyphobia (a rational fear that Dumbya will get re-elected).
We’ll go out to dinner and wear red and talk politics and I’ll do a little ritual involving giving each of us a red dragon.

And then I’ll share the following information about Friday the 13th, snipped and re-arranged from here.
Some say Friday’s bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Adam bit, as we all learned in Sunday School, and they were both ejected from Paradise. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday; and, of course, Friday was the day of the week on which Christ was crucified. It is therefore a day of penance for Christians.
Other sources suggest the number 13 was purposely vilified by the founders of patriarchal religions in the early days of western civilization because it represented femininity. Thirteen had been revered in prehistoric goddess-worshiping cultures, allegedly, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The “Earth Mother of Laussel,” for example, a 27,000-year-old carving found near the Lascaux caves in France often cited as an icon of matriarchal spirituality, depicts a female figure holding a cresent-shaped horn bearing 13 notches. According to this explanation, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar with the rise of male-dominated civilization, so did the number 12 over the number 13, thereafter considered anathema.
In pre-Christian cultures it was the sabbath, a day of worship, so those who indulged in secular or self-interested activities on that day could not expect to receive blessings from the gods