Elderly Woman Blogs Herself to Death...and No One Notices!

By Si Dunn

That grim scenario is happening somewhere in the world right now. Indeed, millions of us are blogging at this very moment and attracting perhaps 10 readers each, if we're very lucky.

The World Wide Web supposedly connects us all to each other. We somehow feel that we are now "in touch" with the universe as we blog and Tweet and update our FaceBook and MySpace pages.

Some people, however, are pouring their very hearts and souls into their blogs and Web pages at this moment, and no one is paying any attention to them at all.

Well, at least they have a way to cry out for help, you might be thinking.

Which leads, naturally to: What about the millions (billions?) of people still living in lonely--and non-electronic--isolation? How do they cry out for help and get noticed, if everyone else now is staring at screens or walking (and driving!) with handheld devices held up to their faces?

We can't fix everyone's problems. Many of us can't fix anyone's problems, much less all of our own.

Yet maybe, just maybe, if we step away from our keyboards and put down our handheld devices for a few minutes this challenging Christmas season, we can help bring a bit of comfort and perhaps a bit of joy to someone somewhere.

You may be feeling overwhelmed at all of the needs now surging out there--so overwhelmed that you'd rather just sit at your computer, send everyone on your email list an electronic Christmas card and be done with the holidays.

Don't turn away; don't turn inward. Take time--just a little time--each day for the next few days to do something for someone else, someone less fortunate than you. Then, after the holidays, don't stop. Even if you can do nothing else except tip a waitress an extra dollar or donate an old lamp to Goodwill or help an elderly neighbor rake her leaves. Anything helps; even small gestures matter.

Yesterday, in just a few minutes' time, I mailed some Christmas money to a laid-off relative, then I created a donation bag containing five shirts, two pairs of pants and two pairs of shoes and took the bag to a nearby drop-off kiosk.

I still have plenty of shirts and pants and shoes left. But people much less fortunate than I am may receive my donation and be grateful to have something different and good to wear to a job interview or to a Christmas dinner at a church potluck--or to just get through another winter day with a little more hope.

Today, I will pare down and donate a few more things that have lost their charm for me yet are still good enough to help others. And I will give a few bucks to a local food bank. (Every one of them in America now needs a bailout, because so many people in need are showing up at their doors.)

Of course, what I'm doing and feeling good about today adds up exactly to diddly-squat on the cosmic scale. I know that. And I don't let it get me down. I did something, and I will do something more.

Individually, we can't fix everyone's problems. We can't save the economy. We can't stop the flood of layoffs and foreclosures. The list of We can'ts is absurdly long. Yet, we can do something. (Yes, we can!) We can help someone. The old and shopworn saying is still very much true: Every little bit helps.

We should not try to hide from the overwhelming enormity of the current economic disaster and think that all we can do about it is whine--and blog.

"Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but not be heard." (Proverbs 21:13.) "He that giveth to the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse." (Proverbs 28:27.)

Get up from your screen for a while. Do something tangible now. Donate something; send something; give somebody or some organization a little of your time, attention, effort and--if possible--money.

"Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared." (Nehemiah 8:10.)

Then, once you are back at your screen again, if you happen across someone crying out in a blog or on a message board for help and attention, offer a hopeful reply, if you can. Let them know that someone out here has heard them and has understood what they are trying to say. That may be just enough to help them make it through another hard day, another personal crisis, or another week of isolation and loneliness.

"Thou shalt open thy hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." (Deuteronomy 15:11.)

Even if you have to use the World Wide Web (and ridiculous shock-jock headlines such as "Elderly Woman Blogs Herself to Death...and No One Notices!") to help do it....

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Welcome to the Depression

By Si Dunn

West Texas is the wrong place to be driving while listening to the latest job-loss figures, the latest appeals for bailout money, and the latest--deeply gloomy-- prognostications from learned economists.

Parts of Highway 287 between Decatur and Amarillo seem like the surface of Mars. Rugged, uninhabited land for miles and miles; low hills in the distance.

What looks like patches of snow in some fields turns out to be cotton left unpicked because of falling demand and weakening prices.

Now and then, a house appears along the highway--windowless, holes in the roof, abandoned years ago. Its nearby barn is missing boards and shingles and leans precariously toward collapse. Or, it has already fallen into a rotted, weatherbeaten heap.

At dreary rest stops along the highway, signs implore people heading into the restrooms to "Watch Out for Snakes."

It's too cold for rattlesnakes on this early December day. But there is plenty of wind sweeping tumbleweeds across the road. A big one suddenly rolls and hops into my grille and hangs there like a small, dead Christmas ornament in the 70-MPH slipstream.

The seemingly unending land occasionally gives way to small towns along the highway. I pull into one to get gas and stuff the tumbleweed into the pumpside trash can. Nearby, almost every building in the small business district is abandoned. Some were boarded up decades ago, in a previous economic downturn, and never reopened. But some of the newer buildings sport fresh plywood or empty windows festooned with "For Sale" or "For Lease" signs. Even a church building is for sale.

In one small town not far from Amarillo, however, there is one small sign sign of hope along the road. A restaurant advertises: "Now Hiring Smiling Faces."

But as I pass the sign, an economist being inteviewed on a newscast predicts the unemployment rate--already at 6.7 percent--will surpass eight percent in 2009.

The restaurant probably pays $2 an hour plus tips. And there won't be many big tippers among the farmers, ranchers and oilfield workers now watching their incomes fall like meteorites. Will one of them soon become one of the "smiling faces"?

Meanwhile, what will the hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed do, now that their jobs in the financial industry, manufacturing, telecommunications, automobile sales and housing construction have gone away?

They can't all be "smiling faces" at small-town restaurants. They can't all build roads and bridges and clean up parks in a 21st-century rehash of the Works Progress Administration. Where else can they work? Will they now pack up their cars and head west, like 1930s Okies, looking to take away jobs from the illegal immigrants now working in California's agricultural fields?

Another news report on the radio describes an increasing number of two-parent families moving into homeless shelters, because Dad and Mom both have lost their jobs and worn out their resources and the resources of their relatives. The homeless shelters now are desperate for financial help, but companies and individuals are cutting back, because their incomes have fallen.

As I reach Amarillo, I turn off the radio and check into a motel. At the restaurant next door, I eat a small meal. I am the only customer in the place. The dozens of tables, booths and counter chairs are starkly empty. The three waitresses stand and look out the window, hoping for more customers to come in. To have something else to do besides straighten napkin holders and check salt shakers, they occasionally drift by and ask me if my meal is okay and if I need anything.

When I finish, I leave them each a $3 tip. It is all I can do.

In my motel room, I tune the radio to a classical music station. I lie down and let Mozart wash over me. It cleans away some of the day's gloom.

It is all I can do. All I can do.

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While the National Economy Burns, Bush Fiddles with Killing Endangered Species

By Si Dunn

Companies are collapsing, unemployed workers are streaming out onto the streets, and Americans are losing their houses and burning through their savings in hopes of surviving the current recession that may turn into a depression.

So what is the Bush Administration now doing about these crises that have occurred on its watch?

Killing endangered species.

According to an Associated Press report at the CBS News website: "Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don't pose a threat, under regulations the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them."

The rules have to be published by Nov. 21--tomorrow. Otherwise, once President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20, he could quickly undo the new regulations.

Among other things, according to the AP report, "The rules eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, allowing the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself if it is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

"Current regulations require independent wildlife biologists to sign off on these decisions before a project can go forward, at times modifying the design to better protect species."

The AP likewise noted: "The regulations also bar federal agencies from assessing emissions of the gases blamed for global warming on species and habitats, a tactic environmentalists have tried to use to block new coal-fired power plants."

Clearly, harming the national economy, the national reputation and the American people is not enough for the scurrilous hacks who comprise the Bush Administration. Now, on their way out, they want to finish off a few endangered species, too, just for "good" measure.

There may be no way to immediately stop this latest outrage--just one in an incredibly long string of outrages--generated by the outgoing Administration. But perhaps the incoming Congress will have the courage to overturn Bush's new "gotcha" rules by using the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows review and rejection of new federal regulations.

Two months and counting.

There is still plenty of time for new political mischief and outright political retribution by the outgoing Bush Administration. But the nightmare of the worst--the worst--Administration in modern American history is, thankfully, at long last coming to a close.

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Bail Out the Hurricane Ike Victims--NOW!

By Si Dunn

Two months after Hurricane Ike slammed into Texas' Galveston Bay area, many people are still waiting for help from the Federal Emergency ("You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie!") Management Agency (FEMA).

Coastal residents who live and work in fishing communities especially have been hit hard and remain caught up in a vortex of federal buracracy and red tape that has delayed the arrival of the infamous FEMA trailers. According to the Dallas Morning News, at least 2,000 families are still without FEMA trailers in areas devastated by Ike.

"People's lives are literally stacked up on the side of the road," Anahuac, Texas' mayor, Guy Jackson, told the Morning News.

Still Stuck in the Mud

On tiny Oak Island, for example, what once was a bustling fishing community "is now a giant mud flat, dotted with cheap tents and interrupted by heaping mountains of debris," according to Morning News reporter Emily Ramshaw.

In a few cases, FEMA trailers have been delivered but must remain padlocked until inspectors show up and okay them for occupancy. So some families are having to keep living in tents right next to trailers that are supposed to be helping them.

Meanwhile, their houses, jobs and belongings have been swept away, and they are trying to restart their lives literally from nothing.

Many Americans generously have donated food, clothing and other items to Hurricane Ike's victims, and this assistance has reached even remote locations such as the Oak Island community, which is settled by Vietnamese and Anglo commercial fishing families.

But, too often, the federal government still can't seem to organize a one-car parade when it comes to delivering disaster relief. We are supposed to be the world's greatest and most capable nation. Yet what kind of great and capable nation forces its disaster victims to camp in the mud for two months until somebody "official" shows up with a clipboard?

Can't Others Help?

And why wait for FEMA? Surely there are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine and Coast Guard personnel in need of training in debris removal, reconstruction and taking care of refugees--just as our military units are doing overseas. Why can't more of our stateside military help here now and get that training?

The State of Texas has provided some relief, but more aid must be forthcoming from the federal government. According to the Morning News, Gov. Rick Perry has asked for additional federal aid to fund costly removal of Hurricane Ike debris. But a month after making the request, Gov. Perry--a Republican--still has received no response from fellow Texan George Bush's FEMA.

Many private relief agencies have been doing what they can to provide assistance, but their resources are limited and their roles often are constrained by the very federal government that is still printing out and stacking up forms to deal with Hurricane Ike, which blew ashore in September.

Show Them the Money

The private relief agencies need more cash donations as soon as possible to help the victims of Hurricane Ike, the recent wildfires in California, and many other calamities, past, present and future. These private agencies, such as the American Red Cross, often have online sites where donations can be made.

Contributions frequently can be targeted to one specific need or disaster area. But you may have to follow a procedure that is less convenient than simply entering some credit-card digits online. For example:

"If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster," the Red Cross website points out, "please do so at the time of your donation by either contacting 1-800-REDCROSS or mailing your donation, with the designation, to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013."

A dollar, five dollars, ten, twenty. Anything you can afford to give in these economically troubled times can help private agencies provide a measure of comfort and relief to those facing the holidays and winter with much bigger worries.

As for FEMA, the Obama-Biden Administration hopefully will figure out how to kick it into gear again, so its good people can start reclaiming--and redeeming--their battered and troubled agency.

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How One Dollar Can Help the Stupid Economy

By Si Dunn

Most of us can't battle layoffs. We can't bail out banks or corporations or sectors of the economy. Some of us think we can't do anything except stock up on canned goods and water and hide in the attic or basement until the current bad times blow over.

Two hot news flashes for the attic hiders and basement bunker-ites: (1) Things are gonna be bad for a long time; and (2) things are gonna be even worse if you try to hide from the recession.

No, you can't battle layoffs. You can't bail out banks or corporations or economic sectors. But you can help a few people save their jobs. And, in doing so, you will help lighten the load for their families and their families' families.

Tip a waitress or waiter or your barber an extra dollar today. Put an extra dollar in the church collection plate. Buy a birthday card or get-well card from a little, locally owned gift shop. Donate an extra dollar to a charity or a school fundraiser. Add an extra dollar to your kids' allowance or your grandkids' birthday envelope--and forget the usual admonitions to save it. They'd rather spend it anyway.

If there is something inexpensive you have been wanting to buy for your house or your car or your yard or your favorite hobby, buy it now. But don't spend every penny at your local big-box retailer that can still afford to undercut every Mom-and-Pop shop in your town. Go to the little shop in your neighborhood, instead, and willingly pay a dollar more than you would at the big shrine at the edge of town.

Your individual dollar makes no big difference to Wal-Mart or AIG or Bank of America. But to somebody trying to earn a living with a bicycle repair shop or a hair salon or a one-truck lawn service or a tiny hardware store, that dollar can have direct impact on keeping the doors open and keeping at least one person or a small handful of people employed and working.

If each of us keeps doing a little bit--a dollar here, a dollar there--to help out, the recession can be shorted and many jobs and households at the heart of our economy can be saved. But we will have to sustain the effort and keep doing it for a long time.

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Undecided? Just Take a Harder Look Around You

By Si Dunn

My mind was made up long ago. I wanted Hillary Clinton to win, and I wanted Barack Obama to be Vice President. I was hung up on the narrow notion that experience trumps almost everything else.

When Hillary lost, it took me a while to warm up to Barack Obama. But the more I watched him and listened to what he has to say, the more I realized that the man is the leader we need for these greatly troubled and hugely challenging times.

John McCain has served his country with honor and distinction. But now is not the time for Republican solutions, particularly narrow-minded neoconservative solutions. The Republican Party has splintered into factions and completely lost its compass. It may take years to rebuild itself, or it may spin off into two or more political parties.

At a time when Americans are fearful for their familiess, their jobs, their retirement savings, their homes and the very future of this great nation, the current Republican leadership keeps railing about tax cuts, socialism, abortion and 1960s radicals.

As a result, John McCain and Sarah Palin seem to be harping at us from other dimensions and other planets. They want us all to just sit on our little piles of money (if we still have any) and not let any of it get (horrors!) spread around.

Government? Hey, don't need it. Taxes? Evil! Don't need 'em. Change? The economy is fundamentally sound, you betcha. Especially if the wealthy get to keep their tax cuts forever and ever, amen. Iraq? There is only one victory, and that is the victory where we stay there for up to a hundred years and keep blowing up people and goats and things until somebody important says: "Okay, okay, you win! Thank you very much!"

We need experience and leadership in Washington. But more importantly, we need someone with the ability and courage to tell us that we have to make a few sacrifices and do a few things to help our nation out over the next few years. That may include paying a few taxes to help fund government services. And it may include--horror of horrors!--spreading a little of our money around to help our less-fortunate neighbors.

After 9/11, George Bush looked out over a nation angered and ready to fight back. Americans were motivated and eager to do their part for a war effort. Our fearless leader seized that moment and told us all to go out and...shop.

Huh? Fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban with American Express? Just party hardy and pretend they don't exist? Have the difficult and painful lessons of World War II already been forgotten?

Now we are in a major economic crisis, and the Republicans are raging against government spending--the very spending that they exploded to unbelievable levels. Yet government spending on infrastructure and other job-creation programs may be almost the only tool left for resuscitating the economy.

The Republicans have had their time and opportunities for economic and social experiments, and they have made an utter mess of things. Now they want four more, or even eight more, years to create an even bigger disaster.

Just look around and take a hard look this time. Our nation is in peril on several fronts, and the party that has lead us to the precipice now wants your permission to take us all over the cliff to complete ruin.

Stand up, fight back and say "Hell, no! We won't go!" to the Republican Party in its present, bastardized form.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden can lead us away from that precipice and toward better and more sensible times. And they'll ask for--and need--our help.

Many of us are ready to be be part of the solution, even if it means making some personal and financial sacrifices on behalf of our country. We are patriotic Americans, not just mindless shoppers looking for the next sale on tax cuts.

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Okay, More About UFOs! And Ghosts!

By Si Dunn

I have been blogging for more than a year, and the postings that have drawn the biggest readership have dealt with UFOs and ghosts, not with Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin or the economic meltdown.

So, enough politics for now. I've voted early. And enough about the economy for now. I've gone out and spent a few hundred bucks. I've done about all that I can do to keep the national and global economies afloat. Now it's up to you and everyone else.

UFOs! Ghosts!
So let's move on to what Dateline: Oblivion's readers really want: UFOs and ghosts.

One of my first blog postings last year dealt with the time I saw a UFO very clearly in broad daylight. Here's a link to it.

Even earlier than that, however, I saw a UFO in daylight during a 1952 flying saucer "flap." (That's what they used to call outbreaks of frequent UFO sightings.) I was eight years old at the time, riding in an uncle's car as we drove along a straight, flat highway in Southern Mississippi, probably heading from Laurel to Hattiesburg. Most likely, it was summer, because that's when my family used to make driving trips from Little Rock to Hattiesburg to visit my mother's relatives.

Suddenly, the car started bucking and the car's engine started sputtering. My uncle pushed in the clutch to try to keep the motor running. Just then, a light-colored, disc-shaped object bigger than the car streaked silently overhead, following the highway. It quickly disappeared as we watched it through the windshield.

As soon as the UFO was gone, the car's engine quit sputtering, and we resumed driving. I don't remember what was said after that. I'm sure my uncle and my father had heard about flying saucers. I doubt that they filed a report. But I still remember the disc zooming straight down the road toward Hattiesburg and disappearing from sight in just seconds.

As for Ghosts...
Have I ever seen a ghost? I think so. The day after my father's funeral, as I was leaving Little Rock to return to Texas, I saw a man hitchhiking right at the edge of town. He looked exactly--exactly--like my father, and he looked right at me as I slowed my car.

Something, however, told me to not stop, so I didn't. I drove past the man and continued down the road. In my rearview mirror, I could see him watching me as I drove away. He seemed to keep watching me for a long time.

What might have happened if I had stopped and picked him up? Was he really my father's ghost? I have no idea. But I have never been sorry that I didn't stop.

I think it was a sign or a message. Or maybe it was a test, something about letting go and getting on with life. If so, I think--I hope-- I passed it.

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Here Comes the Christmas Bailout?

By Si Dunn

It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas bailout time for U.S. consumers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has told Congress that it should look at passing a new stimulus package to try to jump-start the economy.

Stimulus already has been given to Wall Street and the nation's banking system. If this proposed new bailout package is not directed straight toward Main Street and America's middle-class and lower-income consumers, there will be hell to pay in Washington.

Trickle-down economics should be relegated to the ash heap of economic history. It's time for trickle-up.

For Christmas, most Americans in the middle class and lower-income brackets just want--and anxiously need--a nice little bailout of their own.

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Want to Help Fight the Recession? Buy American...Anything!

By Si Dunn

Billionaire Warren Buffett recently has announced that he is now aggressively buying American stocks, because the current financial crisis has left them undervalued and ripe for turning a profit once conditions improve.

Most of us won't be buying large blocks of stock any time soon, of course. But there is another, less-expensive, way we can follow Mr. Buffett's lead.

The prices of American services and American-made goods also are being depressed by the economic downturn, as providers and merchants struggle to keep their doors open and pay their employees during the long months of recession that lie ahead.

We'll all have to be careful with our money, of course. But those of us who still have jobs and savings should make a special effort to help keep our favorite restaurants, car repair shops, laundries, book shops, gift shops, produce stands and other small firms in business.

We can't help everyone, of course. We can't save the economy on our own. But if we make a deliberate effort, at least a couple of times a week, to buy something extra or get a long-overdue problem fixed, we can keep a little money moving in our local economies.

The laundry owner who makes a few extra bucks today by dry cleaning your suit may decide to buy a hamburger on the way home from work. The tire salesperson who was happy to replace your thin tires earlier this week may have gotten just enough commission to buy a spouse a birthday cake from a favorite little bakery. A $5 gift you're planning to buy tomorrow may help provide the shop owner with just enough lifted spirit to decide to stay in business.

As the old saying goes, every little bit helps.

And don't forget the charities, churches and special programs in your community. The ones you have supported could use an extra dollar or two right now. And the ones that you've thought about supporting are now in need of something more substantial than your intentions.

Everyone is hurting, and we're all in this together.

If we each do a little bit and keep making it a weekly habit, our small gestures can add up to big help in a hurry, for our neighbors, our community and our nation.

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Does Sarah Palin Govern in a Separate Universe? You betcha!

By Si Dunn

Call me old-fashioned, if you wish. But I don't want a lawbreaker serving as Vice President of the United States.

Especially an ethics lawbreaker.

I don't want a Vice President who can't read, either.

On Oct. 10, Alaska lawmakers issued a report declaring that Gov. Sarah Palin "violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which states, "… each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

According to CBS News, in a brief conference call to the press after the so-called "Troopergate" report was issued, Gov. Palin declared: ""I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

Huh? Has Alaska somehow become part of a separate universe?

What part of "violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act" did you not understand, Gov. Palin?

Ethics violators--especially ethics violators who can't read--have no place in government: state, local or federal.

The Republicans should remove Gov. Sarah Palin from their ticket immediately and replace her with any one of several female Republican leaders who have good records on ethics and leadership.

Karl Rove has tied a very loose cannon around John McCain's neck, and the Arizona senator's campaign is sinking fast.

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Help Save Main Street! Spend Money Now!

By Si Dunn

None of us can stop the current worldwide economic disaster. But just by repeatedly spending a few dollars each, we can at least help keep our local businesses afloat, save a few jobs, and maybe keep a few friends and neighbors in their homes.

Go out this weekend and buy a meal at a family-owned restaurant. Or, get a haircut at a locally owned barbershop or hair salon. Or, hire a lawn service to trim the scraggly hedges that have been on your to-do list for weeks. Or, buy something from a neighborhood bookstore or thrift shop or plant nursery. Pick one or two things to do and make a deliberate effort to follow through with some focused spending.

Next week, take a pair of shoes to be fixed at a local shoe-repair shop. Or have a garage attendant change out your car's overdue air filter. Or, get a few donuts or a couple of ice-cream cones. Or get a suit cleaned and pressed.

Don't sit on all of your money. Protect most of it, yes. But part with a little bit of it, too, in a steady and controlled manner.

Encourage friends and neighbors and fellow church parishioners to do the same. Don't panic; just spend a few spare bucks each week in considered ways that benefit your own neighborhood and community.

We all have friends and acquaintences who manage or own small businesses that provide their family income. They need our help now.

So do churches, especially small ones, and the local agencies that help the poor and the afflicted in our communities.

A dollar here, ten dollars there. It won't break us, but it can all add up in this crisis, especially if a lot of us truly will remember to "Help thy neighbor."

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Time to Hunker Down and Focus on What Really Matters

By Si Dunn

Many Americans are about to get back to basics, because of the economy's massive and continuing meltdown.

Suddenly, we don't have nearly as much money as we used to have. Suddenly, we can't get credit. And suddenly, we're terrified, after being reassured just a couple of weeks ago that our economy was fundamentally sound and strong.

Oops. The global marketplace has turned out to be a massive house of cards.

After 9-11, many Americans were ready to sacrifice for a war effort and help fight terrorists. President Bush told us go shopping, instead.

Well, the time to go shopping is here again, only this time, it really is the time to go shopping.

All across our nation, thousands of small businesses suddenly are hurting and teetering on the brink of extinction. Millions of jobs and countless dreams are hanging in the balance in tiny shops, small stores, family-owned restaurants, and moderate-sized warehouses, car dealerships and strip shopping malls, as well as in big companies, factories and corporate headquarters.

Whether you need goods or services, now is the time to buy something from the businesses in your neighborhood, the ones that, even in good times, have provided just modest livings for their owners and employees. They are the real heart and soul of the American economy. They are Main Street.

Just a few bucks spent here and there can make a huge difference, if a lot of us are willing to get off our wallets and make the effort.

Neighbor helping neighbor; family member helping family member; friend helping friend; everyone helping those in need. And all taking care of the basics and focusing on what really matters.

This is how we can ride out the massive financial storms now savaging Wall Street and our own meager savings.

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McCain-Palin Ticket Is Now Imploding, Right Along with the Economy

By Si Dunn

Hey, it's your stupid economy, Republican leadership.

Your promises of more tax cuts and more "market solutions" now are falling on deaf ears as terrified voters suddenly realize they are facing what one prominent retail analyst has warned will be the “worst Christmas shopping season in a century."

Layoffs are surging. Families are losing their homes, their health care and their savings. And many large and small businesses are toppling into the massive financial wreckage you created by overdoing deregulation, then encouraging (and allowing) too much risk and greed.

You can't save yourselves now with wild-ass claims that Barack Obama is a terrorist or that overturning Roe v. Wade will create 20 million new jobs.

The uncommitted voters are waking up, taking a long, hard look at the vacuity of your platform and fleeing in terror toward the Democrats. Or, they are just fleeing. Either way, you ain't gonna get their vote, Jack. And you're gonna lose big-time among the contested seats in the Senate and House, as well.

Ordinary people finally are figuring out--after years of partisan gridlock--that "divided we fall." The momentum is shifting toward one-party rule again, and this time, the Grand Old Party will be marched outside the velvet rope.

The McCain-Palin ticket has bailed out of Michigan, and it's now starting to get its butts kicked in the polls in Ohio, Virginia and a few other key "battleground" states.

In desperation, the GOP is sending its Swift Boats out to attack. But all they are doing is colliding with each other and smashing into big walls of voter rejection and fatigue. William Ayers? Who cares? What about my job, my savings, my house, my Christmas?

Obama-Biden may not be the best governance team on the planet. But compared with the bizarre and twisted package the Republicans have put forth, they are far and away the best and the brightest for these troubled times.

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Alaska Needs More Hockey Moms, So Send Sarah Palin Back Home to Wassila

By Si Dunn

At the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin spouted Alaskan "hockey mom" platitudes fast enough to grill moose meat with her breath. And she almost set some new Guinness Book world records for the most times uttering the words "change" and "maverick" in one minute.

The fact that she didn't provide any substantive answers to the debate questions seems to have completely escaped the notice of her rabid fans in the Republican Party. She simply stared into the camera, ignored both the debate moderator and her opponent, and delivered Republican talking points as if they were minor-league sports scores.

No matter. She apparently has a new role, as the GOP's lead attack dog/sled dog. Will Karl Rove now task her to mush as many lies and half-truths as possible into the presidential campaign's final weeks?

If so, she's off to an Iditarod flying start. CBS News' Scott Conroy has reported that at a fundraiser in Denver, Sarah Palin has criticized Barack Obama as "someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Based on her shockingly thin resume, her media-interview blunders and her debate non-performance, it is fair to ask: Aren't the Republicans now palling around with ineptitude on a scale that would immediately endanger the survival of our nation if Sarah Palin becomes Vice President and sits one heartbeat away from taking over as leader of the Free World?

With all due respect, driving kids to hockey games in Wassila, Alaska, does not give someone experience to do anything except...drive kids to hockey games in Wassila, Alaska.

Alaska needs experienced hockey moms much, much more than it needs an utterly unqualified Vice President of the United States. Hopefully, voters will do our great Arctic state a huge favor and send Sarah Palin back home to Wassila next month, so she can get back to her driving.

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Sarah Palin: Will She 'Win' Just By Showing Up?

By Si Dunn

Republican operatives, deathly worried about Sarah Palin's absence of knowledge and experience in any areas vice presidential, are desperately trying to cram some complete talking points into her head, while also working feverishly to lower the bar for her "debate" against Democratic rival Joe Biden, Oct. 2.

According to some sources, the performance bar is now "on the ground" or "maybe even a couple of inches beneath the surface."

Her handlers will hail her as "The Winner!" immediately after she shows up and opens her mouth, and they will keep drumbeating that message no matter what she actually says in the debate.

The idea, of course, is to ensure hardcore conservative Republican voters continue listening to the drums and not to what their candidate actually is saying--or not managing to say in a coherent fashion.

However, if she does stumble through something about divine intervention and overturning Roe v. Wade as peachy-keen ideas for resurrecting America's economy, watch for Republican operatives to immediately release an edited quote beneath the following banner headline: "Sarah Palin Shows She's the New Spirit of St. Louis!"

Joe Biden will be the actual winner in the debate, of course. But he still won't get much respect, or attention, from his performance. All eyes will remain on Sarah Palin, waiting for something to happen to her hair, her glasses or her lipstick as she recounts how Vladimir Putin gave her important foreign policy experience just by flying over Alaska at 38,000 feet.

For the battered Republicans, their message no longer will have much resonance amid the economic wreckage they will leave the next President. So their new mantra will have to be: "All hail the (former Alaska beauty queen) messenger!"
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Robbing Peter to Pay Paul(son) and Golden Parachutes

By Si Dunn

In just one week, America's Republican-dominated economy has gone from "robust" and "fundamentally sound" to "in imminent danger of collapse" if $700 billion of taxpayer money isn't delivered immediately to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, so he can dole it out to Wall Street, banks, and other financial entitites.

This naked grabbing of money from average Americans' pockets supposedly will help keep the "robust" economy from going bust. But it also will help finance plenty of golden parachutes for the financial executives and leaders who got us into this mess and have been trying to conceal it until just after the end of the Bush Administration.

John McCain is no fan of this proposed bailout. But he can pretty well kiss his election to the White House goodbye. He's Republican, after all, and the Republican Party in general will suffer a very large, and very well-deserved, thumping at the ballot box Nov. 4, in the fallout from this fiasco.

Runaway deregulation plus rampant greed adds up to: (1) financial cycles that swing out of control; and (2) financial bubbles that explode.

The "trickle-down" economics famously championed by the Republicans has never worked. The upper class keeps getting more "upper," while spilling precious few drops of the money that is supposed to dribble down to the middle and lower classes.

Maybe it's time for some "trickle-up" economics, for a change.

To hell with the big financial institutions that lost sight of fiscal reality and got hooked on gambling with their--and our--money. Let them consolidate, downsize or die. Don't give them another dime.

Give most of the $700 billion, instead, to Main Street and small business, the real heart, soul and drivers of the national economy. And set aside some of it to help the thousands of lower-echelon employees in the financial industry who will lose their jobs, pensions and homes as a result of the avarice and selfishness of their corporate executives and the Republican political leaders.

Remind your Senators and Representatives in no uncertain terms: The buck starts here...well away from Wall Street and the Washington Beltway.

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Washington to Average Americans: "Bail Yourselves Out, Turkeys"

By Si Dunn

Thank runaway deregulation and greed for this: a free-market freefall that will cost the federal government (meaning us) upward of a trillion dollars. Suddenly, the only way to stop major banks and other financial institutions from collapsing under the weight of their own bad debts and stupid decisions is to throw mountain ranges of cash at them.

That cash, of course, will not be coming from a Strategic Money Reserve hidden deep under a Colorado mountain. It will come straight from our pockets, straight from programs we support or desire, and straight, no doubt, from China's Central Bank. (Someday we may discover that China now owns us, and we are just another province.)

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also draining billions of dollars per month, the next Administration, Obama or McCain, won't be able to afford to offer us much of anything except platitudes and fervent appeals for us pull ourselves up by our frayed and knotted bootstraps.

Here, without any fanfare for the comman man, is the kind of bailout plan we can expect to receive on Main Street: (1) raise cash by selling your household goods on eBay; (2) raise more cash by selling off your personal library on Amazon; and (3) sell whatever is left over at a garage sale. And if anything remains after steps 1, 2, and 3, donate those items to Goodwill, so you can get a generous tax deduction of, say, fifty bucks or so. Then use the fifty bucks to buy a tank of gas so you can drive away from your foreclosed house.

Oh, and by the way, pay no attention to the golden parachutes now blossoming open all over the sky. It's just those silly clowns from the financial sector, still trying to get us to look up to them.

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Attack of the Killer Attack Ad Killers? (Huh? What?)

By Si Dunn

In a Sunday report from CNN, former Bush adviser Karl Rove declared that Sen. John McCain had pushed "one step too far" in some of his recent ads attacking Sen. Barack Obama.

The ads, Rove said, didn't pass "the '100 percent truth' test."

Rove, of course, has leveled similar charges at Barack Obama's campaign. And the former White House adviser has been accused of supporting the use of savage attack ads to help George W. Bush defeat Al Gore and John Kerry.

This time, Rove urged both McCain and Obama to "be careful" with their attacks on each other.

Has Karl Rove suddenly been infected with a "fair play" virus? Or is he beginning to realize he is backing a losing campaign and is trying to distance himself from the oncoming November train wreck? Or is he trying to reinvent himself with a newer, more neutral reputation so he can hire himself out as a political consultant to the Democrats after the Republicans are swept from power?

At some point soon, attack ads will have to be replaced by statements of substance and examples of proposed policies, legislations and programs. Otherwise, the 2008 presidential campaign will be much ado about nothing much except, maybe, "my change is better than your change" and "liberals don't know shit about eating raw moose meat."

But for now, the political Swift Boats are still making their high-profile runs, shooting themselves with their own torpedoes, and sinking beneath big clouds of smoke...and mirrors...and tubes of lipstick.

Is it November yet? Can't we please just vote now and send all of the clowns out of town?

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Putting Lipstick on This Pig of an Economy

By Si Dunn

Here come the Republican Swift Boats, right on schedule, firing tubes of lipstick at the Obama-Biden campaign.

That's all they've got, folks. Lipstick. They're trying to smear lipstick on the pig of an economy they have created (and looted) over the past eight years. They desperately hope you won't notice how ugly it is--and keeps becoming.

But lipstick attacks or no lipstick attacks, they can't hide the deep pig plop they will leave behind as their legacy once they finally get their butts booted out of Washington in 2009.

The Rove-McCain-Palin-Bush-Cheney ticket is smart enough to realize "It's still the economy, stupid." But with their long track record of economic misfires, lipstick is now all they have left to put into the Swift Boats' torpedo tubes.


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Special Education: The New Political Football...Again

By Si Dunn

So now we have Sen. John McCain's campaign rebuking Sen. Joe Biden for "raising a debate over who cares more for special needs children," according to a CNN report.

"The Republican camp's sharp response came after Biden said GOP advocates for children with birth defects should support stem cell research," CNN explained.

In my view, stem cell research should be conducted with the same scope and urgency as the Manhattan Project. I have never seen any signs that our Creator personally is attempting to block us from using our God-given brains and compassions to solve the sad, painful mysteries of birth defects. All I keep seeing are people who think they can speak for God and make rules on His or Her behalf.

Rather than shoot labels and accusations at each other, I would urge both political campaigns to immediately dispatch some of their aides to spend a day trying to help out in America's underfunded, understaffed special education programs in the public schools.

"Special needs" and "birth defects" stop being simple power plays in a political football game once you are inside the door of a special-education classroom.

Until you have spent at least one long, hard, challenging day working alongside special-education teachers and their aides in a public school, you really have no idea what "who cares more" for special needs children really means.

To both campaigns, I say: Quit using your fingers to merely point. Try using them, instead, to actually lend some helping hands to special needs children.

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McCain Predicts GOP Will Fail in Fall Election

By Si Dunn

You only thought John McCain was warning Democrats when he accepted the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States and declared:

"And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming!"

Actually, McCain delivered the perfect summation of the GOP's record in power during the two terms of the current Bush Administration.

It was a stern alert that McCain is now ready to storm back into the City of Power and stamp his feet while the Governor of Alaska barks at passing cars bearing lobby-coddled conservatives and those dreaded, evil limousine liberals to and from the halls of Congress.

Poor "Maverick." He really wanted to be his own man, with Joe Lieberman at his side on the convention podium. But the Republican powers who pull the puppet strings--i.e., Karl Rove and others--said hell, no! and brought in "the Babe," to use Rush Limbaugh's lustful term of endearment. A pistol-packin', moose-shootin' mama who, if Putin invaded the Ukraine, could lead a savage countertattack on his abortion record.

Not unlike the infamous Blues Brothers, John McCain and Sarah Palin now are on "a mission from God" to offer four more years of failing to meet the basic needs of most of the American people.

Hey, good luck with that.

Change, indeed, is coming to the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives this November. But the party of Lincoln and George W. Bush definitely is not going to like who and what will get changed.

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Karl Rove: The King Who Would Be Doofus?

By Si Dunn

So now we have the once-vaunted "architect" of the current Bush Administration calling Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden a "big blowhard doofus," at least according to CNN.

Biden has responded to the reported name-calling by wryly terming Rove "a great American..." and managing to keep "...pain in the ass" under his breath.

Over time, as the incredible wreckage from eight years of Rove-crafted neocon rule slowly is cleaned up, history likely will become less and less enamored of Karl Rove. (Already, it doesn't exactly think he is peachy keen.)

For starters, various committees and agencies with subpoena and indictment power will be looking at records and compelling sworn testimonies. And investigative journalists and determined historians will have greater access to people, papers and political autopsies left behind by Rove's "architecture" during George W. Bush's two four-year terms in the White House.

Will Karl Rove ultimately emerge as the biggest "blowhard doofus" of them all?

Stay tuned.

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Hurricane McCain

By Si Dunn

I dislike and deeply distrust neoconservative Republican politics. But I give good marks to John McCain for his level-headed decision on Sunday to abbreviate the Republican National Convention and send some delegates home as Hurricane Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast.

I hope the GOP will be able to resurrect at least some of their convention plans after the storm and have their fair shot at good media coverage during the runup to the Nov. 4 general election. I also hope they can mitigate the unintended financial damage to vendors and hotels in St. Paul and Minneapolis now that nature has chosen to trump the Republicans' political spectacle.

I still believe Barack Obama and Joe Biden represent the best hopes for change to the nation's broken economy, trashed political system and deeply damaged international standing.

But score one for McCain and the Republicans for putting nation ahead of party as Gustav roars toward a fragile coastline still trying to recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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McCain-Palin: A Big Snowball's Chance in Hell?

By Si Dunn

Is it bold...or just bizarre?

John McCain's pick for vice president appears to be both at the same time.

Ultimately, however, it will turn out to be just a slightly bigger snowball, once it starts melting in the hell of American presidential politics.

These amazingly troubled times cry out for a stronger and more qualifed #2 to stand a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Calling up the "aggressively pro-life" commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard--brave and noble though that unit may be--is not a sound act of presidential decision-making on Maverick McCain's part.

Gov. Sarah Palin surely is a rising Republican star (particularly with her political nickname, "Barracuda"). But a bolder and more grounded pick would have been Glenn Close, who, after all, has more national, international and universal experience, serving both as Harrison Ford's vice president in Air Force One and Jack Nicholson's First Lady in Mars Attacks!, AND as a Supreme Court justice in The West Wing. Hey, and she also has narrated a documentary on George and Martha Washington. That, my friends, is experience.

Faced with new threats to European security by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his presidential da-man, Dmitry Medvedev, what would a President Palin do, based on her national and international track record thus far? Aggressively condemn their stances on abortion? Throw snowballs across the Bering Strait and send dog-sled troops into Siberia to try to force regime change?

Bottom-line predictions from this pundit: (1) Joe Biden's gonna make moose-burgers out of her in the vice presidential debate. And (2), the Bush/McCain-Palin ticket will have only a big snowball's chance in hell once it starts melting down over the next few days and weeks.

Gov. Sarah Palin indeed may be a political barracuda. But the media's thousands of tiger sharks now are circling, and they just see a fresh new fish sandwich in the sea.

In the new age of instant journalism, instant Swift Boating, instant attack ads, and instant disinformation campaigns, it's still a long, long time until November.

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Change? What Change? My Seven Houses Can Beat Your House?

By Si Dunn


I will vote Democratic in November, but so far, I'm depressed--not impressed--by the campaigns of "change" mounted by both candidates.


Now the Swift boats are out, firing torpedos at houses. McCain can't remember how many houses he has. Obama has only one house (that cost a million or so). Nyah-nyah-nyah!


It's a battle worthy of an historic new slogan: Damn the torpedoes! Full speed to the bottom!


Things won't change much, of course, after the two candidates announce their vice-presidential picks.


The Swift boats from both sides immediately will fire torpedoes at their houses, too. And any other ridiculous target they can conjure up or invent.


Nothing, so far, has changed in this "historic" campaign of "change."


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Hang Up and Shut Up

By Si Dunn

Recently, I went to a public library hoping for a couple of hours of quiet escape.

I stacked a few books on a clean, well-lighted table and settled down to pick the ones I wanted to check out.

Ring!

A cell phone gave off shrill sounds at the next table until a woman finally dug it out of her purse.

Hello? Oh, I'm just sitting here in the library waiting for Joe to get out of traffic court. What's new with you? Really? A new water pump? That's great!

And so on.

I moved my books to another table in what seemed to be a quieter corner.

Ring!

This time, a man pulled a fancy phone from his khaki shorts.

Hello? No, I don't know where Bobby left his sandals. What's for dinner, and what do I need to get at the store? Uh, huh. Uh, huh. Uh, huh. Unh, uh.

I tried other locations in the library:

- The "quiet" reading room. Ring! Hello? No, honey, she has too much Hello Kitty stuff already.

- The restroom stalls. Ring! Hello? Yep. Uh, huh. Uh, huh. Uh, huh....

- The lobby area right next to the check-out desk, where surely a librarian would enforce the "quiet" rule. Not so. Ring! Hello? No, I'm still at the library, but I need to go to the beauty shop in about an hour. Do you still think I should get my hair cut shorter or leave it about the same? Uh, huh. Uh, huh. Uh, huh...

After the library fiasco, I tried to find some quiet escape in the aisles of a nearby bookstore. Maybe, just maybe, I figured, I can quietly buy a few books and take them home to read.

In every aisle, somebody--sometimes, two somebodies or three somebodies--stood there blathering on a cell phone.

I checked out no books that day and spent no money at the bookstore. I couldn't hear myself think long enough to make any selections.

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'Dark Signals' Wins Award at Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference

By Si Dunn

My latest book project, Dark Signals: A Navy Radio Operator in the Tonkin Gulf, 1964-65, won the 1st runner-up award in the manuscript competition at the 2008 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference, July 19.

There is ongoing publisher interest, but no deals have been signed yet.

While I continue researching and completing this book, I would like to hear from former enlisted sailors and officers who were in the Seventh Fleet in the Tonkin Gulf and South China Sea at some time between July, 1964, and May, 1965. I especially would like to hear from former shipboard and shore station radio operators. I am still gathering material and conducting interviews for final drafts of the book.

For more information, please contact Si Dunn, sidunn@hotmail.com.

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Drive OPEC nuts! Drive Big Oil nuts! Drive Hugo Chavez nuts!

By Si Dunn

According to a recent Christian Science Monitor opinion column, the "patriotic answer" to $4-a-gallon gas is: "Drive less, and slow down."

That simple strategy worked during World War II, when gasoline was rationed and speed limits were lowered. And it worked during the panic-driven 1979 energy crisis, when gasoline again had to be rationed and speed limits had to be lowered to bring demand back into balance with supply.

It isn't rocket science to suggest that making heavier use of the Internet, email and telephones also can help conserve gasoline. More people working from home at least one day a week will lower gasoline consumption and also ease gasoline-wasting traffic jams. Furthermore, having a workforce able to continue business away from the office is a good survival strategy for companies suddenly hit by a disaster, such as an earthquake or fire. Californians have demonstrated the success of this strategy over and over in recent few decades.

The next President of the United States (and it would have to be Obama, not McCain) will need to give Americans a patriotic challenge: Slow down, drive less, and use every technical and common-sense means at your disposal to help push down our nation's thirst for oil. Our nation needs your help.

Congress may have to have the courage to impose some restrictions on highway speeds or higher taxes on gasoline sales (and use the money to fund mass-transit improvements).

American automakers may have to move economical vehicle designs off their back shelves and into showrooms at breakneck speed.

Motorcycles, motorscooters and bicycles may become even more trendy and numerous on the roads.

Perhaps civilian Hummers and oversized SUVs can be donated to the military in return for a tax break and refurbished for combat or for duty as live-fire training targets for pilots, drone operators and artillery crews. We aren't likely to see many solar-powered Hummers festooned with peace symbols and flower-power slogans buzzing down the road.

Speculators and oil executives aside, gasoline prices mainly are a matter of supply and demand. The less we demand, the more supply will remain in the pipeline. And prices will drop.

It should become both patriotic and socially trendy to use mass transit and to shop closer to home and to work closer to home or at home. We also should recall how to walk or ride a bicycle or hitch a ride from friendly neighbors when making short trips.

Neighbors may need to step away from their big-screen TVs long enough to get to know each other and work out schedules for carpooling to shopping centers or grocery stores.

More goods can be ordered online, even from local companies, and carried to you via the U.S. Postal Service, which already is delivering in your neighborhood. Local businesses may have to hire more bicycle delivery riders. You may have to walk a half mile to your next haircut and actually get some beneficial exercise.

The basic goal should be to "Drive OPEC Nuts! Drive Big Oil Nuts! Drive Hugo Chavez Nuts!" by driving less and spending less on gasoline. And this new lifestyle should become a permanent fixture in American culture, even as gasoline supplies once again rise and new energy alternatives such as wind power, solar power and hydrogen power increasingly come on line.

Drive OPEC nuts. Drive Big Oil nuts. Drive Hugo Chavez nuts. We know exactly how to do this, if we will just have the courage of our conniptions. We are rebels and innovators at heart. Instead of Don't Tread on Me, we can fly flags that proclaim Gasoline??? We don't need no stinkin' gasoline! and Let them eat oil!

If we do this, we won't be driving tanks, Hummers, mine-resistant behemoths, and thousands of our young men and young women into any more trillion-dollar battles for sand and Middle Eastern oil.

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McCain Advisor Dr. Phil (Gramm) Declares We're All Mental Cases

By Si Dunn

We're all a bunch of whiners, and the recession is all in our minds, one of John McCain's economic advisors, Dr. Phil Gramm, recently told The Washington Times.

"Whew! I feel better already!" a recently laid-off airline baggage handler declared after learning of the upbeat economic diagnosis by "that other Dr. Phil."

"For a moment, I thought was severely depressed about losing my job and not having any money or benefits. It's great news to know that I am just imagining all of this and whining without appreciating how well off I really am! Things could be much worse. I could still be commuting 40 miles each way to that job I used to have and still paying record prices for gasoline. I should count my blessings," the ex-baggage handler declared.

He was interviewed while standing in a block-long line outside the local office of his state unemployment agency. When others in line overheard Dr. Gramm's diagnosis, loud choruses of "Hallelujah!" erupted, and many people left the line and headed home with big smiles on their faces.

"John McCain and his brilliant advisors will save us all from the economic sins of poverty!" one woman shouted as she tore up her unemployment application form. "It's all in our heads, people! All in our heads!"

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John McCain to Fight Global Warming by Cutting Earth's Atmosphere

By Si Dunn

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Building on his promise to preserve and extend George W. Bush's tax cuts for wealthy Americans, Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced today that he will fight global warming by removing 50 percent of the nitrogen from Earth's atmosphere by 2012.

"It's mostly an inert gas, folks. It just floats there, takes up space, and does nothing to contribute to economic growth," McCain declared at an impromptu press conference near the Lone Sailor statue at Washington's Navy Memorial. "So we're gonna suck it straight out of the sky and start creating more room for carbon and other aerial byproducts of a robust, growing economy."

To avoid a nitrogen glut, McCain also announced a plan to encourage automakers to voluntarily retrofit existing SUVs and other gas-guzzling vehicles to run on nitrogen by 2058. "Yeah, the cars will be pretty old by then," McCain conceded. "But if they are kept up on blocks in a decent garage, they can provide affordable transportation and housing for the poor--housing that the federal government won't have to subsidize--fifty years from now. What low-income family wouldn't want the chance to live in a classic Ford Expedition or Chevy Suburban or Lincoln Navigator and also drive it around burning almost-free nitrogen?"

A spokesman for the Obama campaign had no immediate comment. But a well-placed Obama consultant hinted that the Democratic contender may now be working on a plan to reduce hot-air emissions inside the Beltway. "He'll say that we deserve a cooler government. And the best way to get it is to reduce Republicans in the House and Senate by 60 percent, or more, by 2012."

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White House Declares: 'If We're Toast, Let's Have Breakfast!'

By Si Dunn

A top NASA scientist has declared “We’re toast…!” if we don’t act quickly and urgently to counter global warming.

According to a source deep within the White House, the Bush Administration has been spurred into high gear by this new NASA warning and is pushing forward its latest environmental action plan: generous tax breaks for all American manufacturers of bread, butter, margarine, jellies, preserves and jams.

“Hey, if we’re toast," the White House source said, "we may as well go out in grand style with a good breakfast. How about a short stack of carbon-credit pancakes and some greenhouse eggs and ham on the side?”

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Republicans Promise FREE Gas for All!!!

By Si Dunn

CBS News has reported that Republicans once again have blocked Democratic efforts to tax bloated oil profits and use some of the money to fund research and development of alternative energy sources.

The Republicans apparently have a new energy plan of their own. And here are some key details, leaked exclusively to Dateline: Oblivion by sources deep within the GOP.

"Making President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent, at least into the 29th century, will drive down gasoline prices by $3 a gallon immediately," one high-level Republican promised.

"And if drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve in Alaska is approved and made permanent," another top-level source added, "gas prices will drop by at least another $3 a gallon, right away."

Asked if this means what it seems to mean, yet another top-level GOP policy wonk grinned enthusiastically. "That's absolutely right! If gasoline prices stay below $6 a gallon, the federal government then will have to start paying you to drive! Is this a great plan or what? All you have to do is let us extend a few little bitty ole tax cuts out toward infinity--which ain't nothin' but an '8' tipped on its side, anyway--and then kick a few mangy seals and caribou out of the way. Next thing you'll know, you'll be topping off your Hummer again and getting rebate checks every time you fill up!"

Sources equally deep within the Democratic Party said they are aware of the secret Republican energy plan. "We have moles--secret Obama admirers, in fact--already at work within their ranks. Whether they try to bring this scheme up for a vote before the November election or after President Obama is inaugurated, it will be toast. We'll even stage a big photo opportunity and cook it in a solar oven, to save energy," the Democratic source declared.

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Obama-Clinton: Make It So

By Si Dunn

After the results in the South Dakota and Montana primaries are known, Hillary Clinton is expected to acknowledge that Barack Obama has gathered the necessary delegates to secure the nomination, and she will end her run for the presidency.

The best strategy now for uniting the Democratic Party and defeating John McCain will be for Sen. Obama to ensure that Sen. Clinton becomes his running mate. This will help minimize race and gender in the equations for future presidential campaigns. And it will unite two powerful and inspiring voices for renewed action and change in our tired and troubled land.

Obama-Clinton. Make it so!

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Power from Space: Come Fry With Me…

By Si Dunn

CNN recently has trumpeted a plan by an Indian engineer with Space Island Group to gather solar power from a gigantic orbiting satellite and beam it down to Earth to provide cheap electricity to rural villages in India.

According to CNN, “American scientist Peter Glaser introduced the idea of space solar power in 1968.” Since then, the concept has been studied several times by several agencies and shelved each time mainly because of potentially massive costs.

But the Space Frontier Foundation, “a group promoting public access to space,” thinks this latest scheme to draw electric power from space basically is peachy keen, CNN adds.

Not to sound like a Luddite here, but there is one fundamental problem with this grand plan, which the CNN article makes sound so simple: “The satellites would electromagnetically beam gigawatts of solar energy back to ground-based receivers, where it would then be converted to electricity and transferred to power grids.”

Here’s the problem. The only way you can “electromagnetically beam gigawatts of solar energy” anywhere is via a microwave radio signal or something even higher in frequency, such as a laser beam. And, no matter how narrowly you try to focus an electromagnetic beam, you’re going to get signal spreading and side lobes of energy--maybe only a few gigawatts or so--shooting down at Earth and hitting people, places, animals and random things outside the energy capture areas.

Hey, and what if your giant energy satellite gets hit by a space rock big enough to knock it slightly off course. Then the main beam will shine down on people, places, animals and random things rather than on the intended capture area. And what if radio communications to the errant satellite are lost and it just starts shooting the energy beam randomly at points on Earth until it can be taken out with nuclear missiles or restored to equilibrium by astronauts?

Gigawatts of power hitting you directly from space probably might be a bit more intense than sticking your head inside a microwave oven for the TV-dinner cycle. But even mere megawatts passing through you over long periods of time possibly could have some very serious medical consequences. People are advised to not stand in front of radar antennas for a reason: The antennas radiate brief pulses of microwave radio power measured in gigawatts, and the pulses can cook you or kill you. A similar technique would have to be used to send energy down from space orbit.

Hey, Jack, need some power for your isolated village? Here, have a couple of minutes of brain-frying microwave radio signals. They were supposed to be received only via the special antennas a hundred miles east of you. But the beast is loose, so the power is free. Capture all you can before the satellite wobbles a bit more and cooks the next village, too.

Instead of spending trillions to put more junk into space, why don't we just spend billions on learning how to live with lower energy consumption and route the saved energy to the rural villages that don't have enough power?

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John McCain: Open Mouth, Insert Foot

By Si Dunn

According to the Associated Press, Arizona Republican John McCain believes Democrat Barack Obama has no right to criticize McCain's position on military scholarships because the Illinois senator did not serve in uniform.

"And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did," McCain said in a statement issued May 22.

McCain lashed out at Obama's personal history despite Obama's repeated praise of McCain's military service, the Associated Press reported.

An Opposing View
Barack Obama has every right to criticize John McCain on this issue. Our nation is shortchanging recently returned veterans at almost every turn, while giving away and throwing away countless billions of borrowed dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, President Bush and John McCain are claiming that current legislative proposals for a new GI Bill would be too expensive for America.

Speaking of “too expensive,” returning veterans are coming home expecting to be able to go to college with their promised benefits, only to find that their vouchers barely will cover a fraction of the costs they will face.

Thousands upon thousands of men and women enlisted on the promise--the guarantee--of a college education after service. So where is it? Currently tied up and hamstrung by misplaced political priorities and unbelievably massive financial waste.

No, Barack Obama did not fly a jet and spend years in North Vietnamese captivity. And yes, John McCain fought honorably in two conflicts—Vietnam and his battle for personal survival in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. But Sen. McCain seems to be forgetting exactly why he was fighting. Didn’t it have something to do--at least vaguely--with preserving democracy and protecting the rights of people--including Senators from opposing parties--to speak freely?

Personal Experience
The GI Bill gave me just enough money to go to college after I served out my enlistment in the Navy and came home from the Tonkin Gulf. Yes, I had to work some part-time jobs, and yes, I sometimes had little more than a few Cokes and a loaf of bread to live on while waiting for the next check. But the money, when carefully managed, was at least enough to pay tuition, to buy books, and to eat. Part-time jobs covered rent, clothing and inevitable extras. Without the GI Bill, I could never have earned a degree and worked at good-paying jobs.

Bottom line: Those few thousand dollars of assistance I received from the Vietnam-era GI Bill have been returned to the U.S. Treasury many times over as tax payments during my 40-plus years of employment.

Not giving today’s veterans enough money to have an equal chance at college is not just unfair. It is politically and socially immoral.

John McCain should be deeply ashamed of his opposition to more funding for American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. He, of all people, should be acutely aware of how much they have sacrificed-—and are still sacrificing--for our country.

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What Now for Hillary?

By Si Dunn

The Democrats’ nominating mess/process effectively could be over by early June. But many political columnists and political leaders want Hillary Clinton to drop out now, while she’s riding high in West Virginia and still--theoretically--has some sort of mathematical chance, visible at least through rose-colored magnifying glasses.

A slim majority of Democrats are ready to nominate an inspiring speaker—Barack Obama—-who won’t have quite enough political experience to pull Humpty Dumpty America back together again and also take on an enormous list of challenges at the same time. Not without one hell of a lot of economic and diplomatic Superglue and significant help from both sides of the political aisle. (And don’t count on much from the Republican Party, of course, except grumpy lip service and petulant foot dragging, once John McCain and many GOP incumbents are trounced at the polls.)

Pundits such as E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post also want Sen. Clinton to forgo any thoughts of the vice presidency in favor of becoming “a powerful figure in the Democratic Party”—-which, in case he hasn’t noticed lately, she already is. Dionne wants her to clear the way for a “Clinton supporter” such as Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, or Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania to become the vice-presidential nominee.

Any of these gentlemen no doubt could be reasonably good veeps. But now is not the time for “reasonably good.”

Whether Obama and Clinton secretly like each other or hate each other, millions of people from many diverse corners of this nation have voted for them in almost equal numbers. They want inspiration—-“Yes, we can!”—-but they also know the challenges ahead demand deep ranges of national and international experience, much of which Hillary Clinton (and well-picked advisors) can provide.

Many voters also believe the time is long overdue to break two glass ceilings at once in the White House: race and gender.

We can’t have a co-presidency, of course. But an Obama-Clinton (or Clinton-Obama) ticket would present the strongest possible combination of inspiration and experience. We will need that—-and we will need them--to help get us off our dispirited butts and start cleaning up the massive wreckage left behind by Hurricane Bush.
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Indiana Limbaugh and the Temple of Gloom

By Si Dunn

The Washington Post has reported that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is claiming smashing success for his “Operation Chaos” in the Indiana Democratic primary.

In several recent primaries, Limbaugh has urged Republican listeners “to vote for Clinton to ‘bloody up Obama politically’ and prolong the Democratic fight.”

According the Post: “Limbaugh crowed about the success of his ploy all day Tuesday, featuring on-air testimonials from voters in Indiana and North Carolina who recounted their illicit pleasure in casting a vote for Clinton.” Limbaugh contends that “his” voters cast the votes that gave Hillary Clinton her narrow, 14,000-vote win.

Now, in his own “Mission Accomplished” moment, however, Limbaugh is telling his 20 million listeners that Barack Obama actually will prove to be the weaker of the two Democrats against John McCain. (Meaning: “I know I told you I wanted that Devil incarnate, Hillary, to win. But now that she can’t win and I’m beginning look stupid, I want Obama to win, so I’ll look smart again.”)

Meanwhile, supporters of Obama, Clinton and a possible Obama-Clinton ticket may be tempted to respond: "Hey, wake up and smell the change, Rushmore. Once the Democrats unite and line up their new waves of registered voters, it’s gonna be tsunami time for anything resembling neoconservative Republicanism. Your signal’s gonna take a big-time fade, bud."

I had a Rush Limbaugh-Indiana moment a few years ago while driving through some of that state’s rural areas. I turned on my car’s AM radio, hoping to get some sense of the local, small-town news or music. Instead, on every audible channel from 540 to 1610 kilohertz, it was all Rush Limbaugh all the time, amplitude-modulating his spleen.

It was hot outside in the Indiana sun, and almost no one was visible doing any work in the great fields of corn. There seemed to be no life, either, in the widely scattered farmhouses. Yet, Rush Limbaugh’s radio rants were flowing over and through thousands of acres of corn, from horizon to horizon. And the stalks seemed utterly unmoved by his vitriol.

For just a moment, it reminded me of a grim movie scene where emaciated prisoners stand huddled inside a barbed-wire compound while loudspeakers blare “Achtung! Achtung!” and warn against trying to escape.

American politics has long had its share of colorful scoundrels, thieves and fools. Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos,” however, is just one more sad example of how small-minded people can become once they convince themselves that they are completely right and anyone who doesn’t agree with them is completely wrong.

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Democrats for McCain: Are You Crazy?

By Si Dunn

Pollsters analyzing the Indiana and North Carolina primary results are again reporting a disturbing trend that has been seen in earlier primaries.

A number of voters in the Democratic elections are saying they will switch to John McCain if Barack Obama or (to a much lesser extent) Hillary Clinton is not the nominee.

Of course, some of these party-hoppers are Republicans who have showed up at Democratic polling stations specifically to vote against Clinton or Obama. They are hoping to help steer one candidate or the other into the general election in the belief that John McCain can beat them.

Others are Republicans so disgruntled with the Bush Administration that they are willing to back "an inspiring speaker"--Obama--despite his unabashed liberalism and somewhat thin record. Yet, if Obama is not the nominee, most of those Republicans say they will slink straight back to McCain rather than vote for Hillary Clinton and her slightly more conservative agendas. Never mind that John McCain basically is George Bush in an older--and, okay, yes, genuinely battle-scarred--flight suit. (And never mind that neither one of them could possibly outfly the embattled president in Independence Day.)

Some Democrats completely enamored of one candidate, however, say they will abandon the party and vote for John McCain in November if Obama (mostly) or Clinton (to a much lesser extent) is not the nominee.

Which raises three questions for these voters: (1) Are you crazy? (2) Have you paid any attention to these past eight years? And (3), do you always choose political petulance over practicality and common sense?

We need true change this time, not another pilot who will keep up the bombing runs on Iraq and the nation's economy.

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Burning Manuscripts: A Poem

BURNING MANUSCRIPTS
No words gather meaning
While they flame. No phoenix
Rises. Cold, the ashes collapse.

The poet smirks at his pyre:
A genre of smoke,
Published by the wind.

-- Si Dunn

Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton (Again!)

By Si Dunn

They both want to serve, and the current predictions are, they each will reach the Democratic Convention with no clear advantage over the other.

So here's the proposal: Let them both serve. It will take both of them to help straighten out the enormous messes that the current Administration will leave behind.

By convention time, whoever has garnered the most delegates should be the candidate for President, and the other one should be willing to run for Vice President. No angry arguments, no bitter backroom deals. Drop the balloons; start the grand speeches.

Glass ceilings will be shattered, greatly minimizing race and gender as future issues in American politics. Two very good political camps will be melded into one unstoppable November steamroller. And both candidates will end up in the White House in positions of leadership, power and influence.

With such an agreement in place and known, Senators Clinton and Obama could stop the negative bombing runs on each other. They could focus harder on giving us their visions for our future and let us simply compare them and decide.

Individually, they are very vulnerable to savage attacks by Republican "swift boats." The GOP's "more of the same, only slightly different" message will not resonate with voters this fall. So the inevitable strategy will be to make endless torpedo runs:

"...And, when Obama was eight years old, he grew fascinated with the changing shapes of clouds and soon became a card-carrying member of the Weather Underground. "

"...And, when Hillary Rodham Clinton was six years old, one of her classmates punched her on the playground, and she cried and started espousing liberal causes. Do you really want a crybaby liberal as Commander in Chief?"

Together as running mates, however, Senators Clinton and Obama would be the Republicans' worst nightmare. The GOP swift boats would steam in and start blasting away at a wide array of targets (both Clinton and Obama do have plenty of baggage that reflects political radar signals). But the swift boats ultimately would sink themselves (and John McCain), because voters quickly would tire of the constant explosions of negativity and just tune out the strident yammerings.

Hope and change. Those are the two main messages that will resonate this fall. John McCain and the Republicans can't offer those visions this time. Together, however, Clinton and Obama can...no matter whose name is listed first on the ticket.

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My Baggage Can Beat Your Baggage

By Si Dunn

Yawn. Another Democratic “debate.” Another rash of unscientific online polls claiming Obama “won.” More newspaper articles contending Clinton put Obama “on the defensive.” And major television journalists still harping on flag lapel pins, angry pastors and invisible snipers.

One more voice of opinion won’t matter in this cosmically insignificant scale of things. But here it is, anyway-- just another tiny crackle in the rising, roaring, utterly unfocused static of the blogosphere.

In the Philadelphia television event, Sen. Clinton came across as more competent—and advised and rehearsed—particularly on matters of international affairs, while Sen. Obama came across as more genuine but a bit less ready to serve, particularly on matters of international affairs.

Hillary’s main credibility problem is that her face still lights up with a “Gotcha!” little smirk and smile when she gets an opportunity to score a political dig against Obama. It’s at least partially her inability to disconnect from old-style politics that keeps her low in the polls of personal likeability.

Barack’s main problem is that he is still—bottom line--more smooth political style than actual political substance. Of course, in America, style almost always wins over substance, because most people don’t like to pay any attention to details until after something happens that that they don’t like.

Hillary Clinton may yet squeak out a win in Pennsylvania. However, she may not win the nomination unless she learns very quickly how to come down to the level of talking with (not just to) voters directly across a kitchen table, over coffee and cookies, with absolutely nowhere else to go for a few hours on a rainy afternoon.

She does have baggage; she’s right about that. Countless people have rummaged through it, and some are still rummaging through it, desperately looking for any nuggets of undiscovered dirt—or any new clues as to who she really is behind that policy wonk facade.

But we all have baggage that we struggle to deal with or hide or ignore or wish away.

As our potential leader and commander in chief, Hillary Clinton needs to sit down with us now and tell us honestly, in unflinching depth and detail, how her famous baggage has affected her, how she deals with it, and, most importantly, how she will keep dealing with it if she returns to the White House next January.

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Bush on Climate Change: Better Never Than Late?

By Si Dunn

With barely nine months left in his lame-duck presidency, George W. Bush is set to propose a “new strategy” for reducing greenhouse gases.

Details have not yet leaked out. But some pundits predict Bush will proclaim that making his tax cuts permanent is the only way to save the planet from thermal runaway. Others speculate that he will call upon all environmentalists to “surge.” Or, he may send Condoleezza Rice on a secret mission to meet with dissident Chinese climatologists.

More boldly, however, Bush may order a preemptive nuclear strike on water vapor, which causes more of the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide does. That way, if we can’t have victory in Iraq, maybe we can at least have some serious shock and awe… in the stratosphere.

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Water, Water Nowhere? And Who Can Afford to Drink It?

By Si Dunn

Texas writer Joe Nick Patoski perhaps is best known for his books and articles about famous musicians. His latest work, for example, is Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, published by Little, Brown & Company.

But Patoski’s real passion is water. “Water is life, period. We can live without oil; we can’t live without water,” he told attendees at “Writing a Wide Land: A Conference on Texas Nature Writing,” held April 11, 2008, at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

“Water is the most important issue of the 21st century in Texas—period. The price of water is going up. And it’s going to go way up,” Patoski warned.

Patoski, who lives with his family on a modest plot of land along the Blanco River in the Texas Hill Country, regularly practices water conservation, including capturing rainwater for use in his home and on his “ranchette.”

He also is an active environmental journalist, writing on water issues and other topics for The Texas Observer and Texas Parks & Wildlife, as well as national publications. Some of his other books include Texas Mountains, Texas Coast, and Big Bend National Park.

“Generally, people don’t care unless their tap is not producing water. All I want is for people to care,” Patoski told the conference attendees. “If they don’t, it (water) will go away. The one thing we can do about that is conservation.

“I am being a steward the way all of us can be," he emphasized. By working together and individually to conserve water, "every one of us can make a difference.”

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Memo to Obama, Clinton and McCain: Shut Up (Again!) About Each Other Already

The political idiocy just never stops.

In the seemingly neverending--and endlessly stupid--game of campaign "Gotcha!", now we have Sen. Clinton accusing Sen. Obama of looking down his nose at weary middle-class voters. We have Sen. Obama responding by criticizing Sen. Clinton for voting for a bankruptcy bill backed by credit card companies. And we have Sen. McCain's campaign accusing Sen. Obama of being "elitist" and "condescending" and "out of touch" in his views.

Can someone kindly explain how any of this (and its accompanying mini-firestorm in the weekend news media) has helped any voter anywhere learn anything new and useful about any of the candidates and where they stand on any issue?

"Gotcha!" politics is utterly useless, except that it gives the news media a convenient excuse for avoiding more substantial reporting. And it is totally insulting to voters who want to give fair consideration to all candidates.

Indeed, the whole campaign process now is broken and needs to be scrapped and replaced with a long series of public and televised forums where the candidates have to explain themselves and their hopes and proposals for America--without any mention or implied criticism of other candidates in the race.

American voters are smart enough to pick their leaders without the "help" of campaigns that try constantly to undermine their opponents or make them look stupid.

It's the campaigns and their candidates--every one of them--that end up looking absurd.

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Democrats for McCain? Few Will Remain

A new poll is raising flags of hysteria and giddiness among some of the political candidates’ supporters and opponents. And once again the media is focusing mainly on how those flags, metaphorically, are rippling and popping in the wind.

We still aren’t being told enough about who the candidates really are, what they really believe, where they get their advice and counsel, how they really define the major issues facing the nation, and why they really think they can make a difference.

According to CNN, a recent Associated Press poll shows that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain are essentially tied, and McCain may be “benefiting from the drawn out Democratic primary race.”

The AP survey also supposedly found that “[c]lose to a quarter of Obama supporters reported they will back McCain if the Illinois senator fails to get the nomination, while a third of Clinton backers said they'd vote Republican if Obama is the Democratic nominee, “ according to the CNN story.

Actually, it’s difficult to believe that that many supporters of Obama and Clinton would throw over either Democrat in favor of at least four more years of rip-off economics, Middle East quagmire, and political stalemate.

In many other news accounts and blogs, there have been numerous reports of Republicans saying they have had absolutely enough of their party’s hard rightward drift and economic decline under Bush-Cheney and see little hope of meaningful change under McCain. They would rather vote for Obama or Clinton than bear any further responsibly for the possibility of a John McBush Administration.

It’s a safe bet that most Democrats who say they will back McCain if their candidate loses are just trash-talking to hear their jaws flap during the run-up to the Democratic Convention. Once their candidate does lose, and they realize it’s the other one vs. John McBush-McCheney, they’ll likely eat their threats and vote, even if grudgingly, for real change.

Yes, it would be something of a change to have an older Caucasian male succeed George W. Bush. Of course, given the history of the American presidency, that would scarcely count as any difference at all.

Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama--either combo would represent the all-time breakaway ticket for change in American presidental politics.

It will take a mega-change like this to start reviving the national economy and, more importantly, the national spirit, in January, 2009.

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Obama-Richardson or Obama-Clark?

Some political observers started floating the idea of an Obama-Richardson ticket well before Barack Obama announced his run for the White House. Indeed, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson would be a potent vice-presidential candiate, because he has Washington insider experience and a wide-ranging international resume. He is a former U.S. Energy Secretary and U.N. Ambassador who also has been a capable U.S. negotiator during difficult and sometimes dangerous situations involving North Korea, Iraq and Cuba.

At least one other former Presidential candidate may also get a hyphenated shot at the White House, however. Retired four-star Gen. Wesley K. Clark was NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1997 to 2000 and a Democratic candidate for President in 2004. He has extensive combat experience and has held numerous command posts during his 34-year Army career. His civilian-life credentials now range from investment banker to book author, as well as tireless fundraiser and promoter for Democratic candidates and causes. Gen. Clark has endorsed an old friend, Hillary Clinton, and has worked hard to help get her elected. But if her campaign falters in the next primaries, he may be free to entertain offers from the Obama camp.

The next President, whether Obama or Clinton, likely will need Clark's unique background to help oversee the complex process of getting the U.S. out of Iraq. Indeed, Clark and Richardson both might play major roles in the next Administration, even if neither gets a vice presidential offer and John McCain unexpectedly wins the presidency.

Gov. Richardson might not want to be Energy Secretary again, but the nation now faces enormous challenges in its energy future. It would be a bigger and more crucial job this time.

Gen. Clark might not want to be Secretary of Defense, but America's military is exhausted and short-handed at a time when other international powers, such as China and Russia, are rising again. Someone who knows how to regroup, reorganize, re-equip and re-energize fighting forces will need to have the next President's trust and attention.

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Has the Clinton Campaign Now Become Bosnian Toast? If Memory Serves Me…

By Si Dunn

Can you accurately remember what you did 12 years ago or longer? How about things you did last week? Or last night?

CBS News recently has been pounding on Hillary Clinton for claiming to have been under sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996, when their old videos seem to show her mainly receiving incoming flowers and handshakes after arriving in a very dangerous area.

Memories can, as the old saying goes, play unfortunate tricks on you. One case in point: A close Hillary Clinton ally, retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, and I were friends in junior high school. (I am briefly mentioned in one of his books.) For years after he became a famous military leader and presidential candidate, I enjoyed telling people how he and I also had been close friends in elementary school and how he, on more than one occasion, interceded with the principal and saved me from being paddled for misbehaving.

The only problem is, when I met up with Gen. Clark again last year at a Dallas political fundraiser and brought this memory up, he assured me that he and I had attended different elementary schools and didn’t even know each other until the 7th grade. (I have to believe Wesley on this, because 50 years after he edited the school newspaper at Pulaski Heights Junior High School, he still can recite my best times in the 440-yard dash.)

Somebody helped me get off that hook with my elementary school principal, and, obviously, I can’t recall who did it. But it was easy, years later, to conveniently insert Wesley Clark into that scenario, then let the combination meld into a warm memory that I honestly came to believe.

I think Hillary Clinton fell into a similar memory trap, one that snares us all at times. To her credit, she now has admitted that she “made a mistake" and added: "That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation."

If CBS News and other media outlets tried hard enough, they could search back through past videos of all candidates and come up with numerous snippets where memories or claims do not mesh with reality.

Meanwhile, if you asked me at this moment to tell you something I did 12 years ago, I could state with complete accuracy that I had some meals and brushed my teeth. And I probably did not do these things while under sniper fire. But who knows? Maybe a celery stick or my toothbrush was blown out of my hand, and I simply forgot?

I really was in some combat during the Vietnam War. But I didn’t shoot anybody, and only one bullet (sniper fire!) came within 50 feet of me. Still, if I were running for high (or low) office, my campaign staff could intone with complete accuracy: “He saw combat in Vietnam.” My eager supporters then might imagine me dashing into a Viet Cong stronghold with automatic weapons blazing in each hand.

Yet the truth would be this: I watched planes drop bombs nearby. I saw ships fire their guns. I observed Marines hitting the beach. And I was scrutinzing a nearby hillside--gawking like a tourist, actually--when the sniper’s bullet thudded into a metal armor plate.

I did fire some weapons a couple of times during the Vietnam War. My booming bullets made puny little splashes in the Tonkin Gulf and hit absolutely nothing except maybe a poor fish or two. Yet it’s possible two evil North Vietnamese frogmen might have been right under the waves and I got them both with my shots.

I think a heroic new memory may be taking shape.

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