Circus Games

It's really a shame that the Gay Marriage Revolt was the deciding factor in the election. However, I wouldn't blame the surge of lovers who made national headlines sharing nuptials and rebellion. Dollars to day-old doughnuts, Karl Rove masterminded that one, with a little help from some gay Republican field ops. I hand it to them; they played the hell out of the gay scene. Their unwitting accomplices fell in line like lambs frolicking to the slaughterhouse...or Wedding Tent. Now they can amuse themselves watching the Bushwacker perform slight of hand tricks in the Domestic Issues Tent, making things like Lawrence vs. Texas (which overturned state sodomy laws) and Roe vs. Wade (granting abortion rights) disappear.


Republican hand puppets

There is a fine economy to this blood-letting, again compliments of Karl, who keeps Bush on a need-to-know basis. Karl is a bright guy. He understands his road blocks to civil rights will be challenged sometime in the future. It's the old hop-scotch game of democracy, but for now it pays off the tunnel vision voters who kept Bush in office and keeps all the kiddies focused elsewhere as the Iraq civil war and the terrorist jihad reach boiling point; something the rest of the world is already acutely aware of. Certainly they are gnashing their teeth over how stupid and dangerous we Americans are but, here at home, there's a bright side to it all. The newlyweds could be spared the cost of a divorce.

Nameless Writers

Cowee and I are going to Reno this morning to attend the monthly Unnamed Writer's Group speaker event. They have a pretty good tshirt. Otherwise, I'm not so sure. Cowee and Ellen Hopkins recently became officers there and have plans to bump it up a bit; offer monthly publishing information, that kind of thing. They will definitely make things more interesting. I attended one of the UW meetings a couple of years ago and wasn't much impressed. They definitely could use a kick in the ass. The guest speaker didn't even know her magazine had an online edition and that all the back issues were available there.

Day Two

Okay, the stun guy effect of Bush's re-election is yesterday's news. It's another sunny day, somewhere, even if only here in Nevada or the future. For now, Bush will lurch onward, waving his so-called mandate and half the people will press on with him, waving their little flags.

The way I see now, just about every other person on the street is someone who thinks and feels like me; that Bush is very, very wrong and by following him, American is falling behind. And there is some dark humor about it all. Bush spent his first term loading the fan with shit. Now let him face it.

Dawn of an old day

Okay. Kerry has to make a show of wanting every vote counted. That's his job after Gore stiffed us in the last election. The upside is that we know we're not alone in our view. But no surprise really that George won this time. He is the straw Americans grabbed in the moral aftermath of 9-11, their panic over the gay marriage revolt, the continuing rise for people of color, developments in technology and science, and as always, more and more women empowering themselves. But his fusing of politics and evangelicalism is a mere place holder, a stand-in for the eclectic moral compass we seek. It is a shallow pond in a time of deep thirst.

High on hubris

"We're an empire now" - senior adviser to President Bush

The New York Times Magazine recently posted an article by Ron Suskind titled "Without a Doubt". In it he presents a rare and candid look at George W. Bush, religious fanatic and right wing extremist. I highly recommend reading it, especially if you think Bush's confidence and decisions are based on facts or even an informed intuition. I've included a couple of paragraphs from the article below but you can read it in its entirety here, here or here. As Kerry said during the debates, "You can be certain and still be wrong". Bush is so wrong it's nothing short of chilling. In fact, even Pat Robertson has trouble with Bush's megalomania.

Excerpt from "Without a Doubt".

"REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY"
"In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

This madness is rooted the neoconcervative program of Perception Management. George Orwell with his Newspeak has nothing on these guys.

--Ron Suskind was the senior national-affairs reporter for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000. He is the author most recently of "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill."

Magic Johnson

Magic Johnson called yesterday. He wanted to remind me to vote. General Westley Clark called today. He also reminded me to vote. Busy guys. I suppose you've also heard from them too and probably many others. I was already planning to vote. In fact, I voted today. There was a pretty good line, but it went quickly. I have to say it. I hope you vote too, and early if possible. Nov. 2nd is sure to be a very busy day. Have a question about where to go? Go here, enter you zip code and you'll be directed to local information. If you're voting early, be sure and double check on the location. It may be different than it is on Nov. 2nd. So vote, damn it!