Republicans for Obama--AND Clinton?

By Si Dunn

If Hillary Clinton loses the crucial and tightly contested primary races in Texas and Ohio March 4, one important key to her defeat will be the sudden surge of Republicans crossing party lines to vote for Barack Obama.

Despite Obama's strongly liberal track record, many disenchanted GOP voters have begun to view the Illinois Senator as someone who truly can bring much-needed fresh air to Washington and work constructively with political leaders on both sides of the aisle.

In Texas and Ohio, registered Republicans can choose to vote in their state's Democratic primary, rather than casting their ballot for the likely GOP contender, John McCain. And many will do just that--mostly for Obama. The irony here, of course, is that Republican leaders such as Karl Rove really wanted Hillary Clinton to be the nominee to go up against John McCain in the general election.

Indeed, many months ago, some key GOP leaders began urging Republicans to vote in open primaries for Hillary, so flyboy McCain could score an easy "mission accomplished" victory this November. They considered Senator Clinton both a very easy and strongly polarizing target.

What the Rove-ites and other Bush Administration nabobs didn't count on is that many everyday Republicans meanwhile have grown sick and tired of their own party's fiercely partisan politics and ultraconservative attitudes toward social and environmental issues. The U.S. economy now is swirling around and around in the toilet, and McCain's stated willingness to stay a hundred years or longer in Iraq has further dispirited many moderate, liberal and even conservative Republicans. The Democrats' strong message of change, whether voiced by Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton, is resonating with them, too.

One other ironic note: some conservative Republicans recently have been urging their fellow conservatives in Texas and Ohio to vote for Hillary Clinton, because she is now seen as being politically more conservative than Barack Obama! These GOP conservatives fear a nationwide groundswell is growing stronger by the minute for Obama-style liberalism. At the same time, they also see their not-so-true-conservative John McCain's chances of getting elected now plunging out of the sky like a 500-pound bomb. Their one remaining hope to keep some faint semblance of conservatism in the White House is to help Hillary Clinton beat...Barack Obama.

Republicans for Obama--and Clinton. Truly, it's gonna be a long fall for the Grand Old Party!

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Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton?

By Si Dunn

After watching the Feb. 21, 2008, debate between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama Jr., I have concluded that experience definitely should trump freshness in the sprint for the White House.

In my mind, the best and brightest ticket the Democrats could field would be Clinton for president and Obama for vice president. Senator Obama still needs a little more time to season and get a wider grasp of our increasingly complicated and interconnected planet. The vice presidency would be the perfect post for gaining that experience and understanding.

If the ticket turns out to be Obama-Clinton, however, it still will pave over anything the Republicans try to offer. McCain-Huckabee? McCain-Romney? McCain-McConnell? McCain-Hutchison? No combination will matter. Even many Republicans now are mad at the Republican Party for allowing so many wanton destructions of their goals and principles by the neoconservatives who have used the hapless George W. Bush as their ventriloquist's dummy. On Election Day, many disenchanted Republicans will cast protest votes for the Democratic challengers. Or they will just stay home and wearily turn their calenders to 2012.

Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton? Either combination is a formidable ticket that would sweep aside hundreds of years of prejudices and artificial limits and move us much closer to a government of the real people, by the real people, for the real people.

You want change? A Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton Administration would represent the most sweeping change this nation has seen in its complex political history. And it would bring two of our nation's best political minds to the forefront of leadership at a time when good leadership now is beyond desperately needed.

Of course, if you hate change and would rather stick with $100 oil and a hundred years in Iraq, then McCain's your man. McCain and whoever else would represent an equal share of more of the same.

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Thoughts on Turning 30...(34 Years Later)

By Si Dunn

Recently, while rummaging through some really old folders, I came across a manuscript I wrote in 1974: my "wise" thoughts on turning 30 that year.

The manuscript had been sent out to a few magazines, returned rejected, then stuffed away, perhaps for future reference.

Now, it has surfaced again, a little time capsule on three fading sheets of paper. I had typed it double-spaced on an ancient Underwood typewriter.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on turning 30 during a time that coincided with the final months of the Nixon Administration:

STOPPING BY THIRTY
ON THE WAY TO FORTY

"At thirty, a man suspects himself a fool." -- Edward Young, The Complaint: Night Thoughts

So it goes for a Born-in-'44. Thirty now. Fat 40 in 1984. A gold watch on a Tuesday in the year 2009. All I have to do, of course, is live that long.

I prepared t00 much for turning 30. In 29's final weeks, I took notes. Did research into the future. Gathered wise sayings and unwise sayings: hooplas and elegies upon entering the fourth decade. Wrote verisimilitude.

Thirty, I decided 30 days too early, is the break-even age. When past is weighed against present and future. When victories and defeats, talents and liabilities are stacked on one side of the mind's scale, and possibilities are piled on the other.

Bullshit, I know now, going on 31. When one reaches 30, it's simply another day in the life of he who has made it that far. No zaps of wisdom from the sky; no earthquakes of depression.

Here is what happened on my 10,957th day counting leap years: Steve McQueen turned 44; and a lovely young lady a decade my junior stopped by with a chocolate cake and kissed my cheek.

I spent the rest of my milestone day alone, with crumbs on my face. I had told my friends that I didn't want a party, and being true friends, they did not give me one. I had meant, secretly, that nothing would have pleased me more than a brief, surprise fete.

I alternated--stretched out on my couch--between staring at the ceiling and reading books. One book seemed especially suited to the ambivalance of moods I was feeling: William Saroyan's Days of Life and Death and Escape to the Moon. In one essay, Saroyan recalled how he had felt on his 51st birthday: "...I was still the wild, swift, arrogant, confident, daring, impatient, laughing man I had always been--with certain reservations or exceptions, thus: I was still the glum, bitter, angry, outraged, stupid, slow, confused, and witless man I had always been."

Yes, I decided, stroking my semi-Saroyan moustache. That's exactly how I feel. I cut another piece of chocolate cake, then turned on the TV and watched Tony and Doug fail again to escape from "The Time Tunnel."

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'You're a Liberal! No!!! YOU'RE a Liberal!'

By Si Dunn

So now we have John McCain and Mitt Romney accusing each other of being "a liberal," as if that label somehow is synonymous with being a creep, a Nazi or a cybercrook.

Look up "liberal" in most any dictionary, however, and you'll find such definitions as "tolerant" and "not narrow in opinion or judgment."

I would wear those labels gladly, and I sincerely hope the next President of the United States is both tolerant and not narrow in opinion or judgment. We've already had almost eight years of overtly constricted opinions and judgments under George W. Bush and his supporters in the House and Senate.

If John McCain suddenly were transformed into a true political liberal, I might, albeit grudgingly, consider voting for him. It would take more than a miracle, however, to convince me of the sincerity of political opportunist Mitt Romney's sudden transformation to liberal.

Of course, none of this "You're a commie liberal! No, you're a slimeball liberal!" is going to matter much in the grand scale of things once we finally--finally--get the chance this fall to sweep the close-minded conservatives out of office and once again put some liberals in real positions of power, at the local, state and federal level.

Washington, D.C., and the rest of America are long overdue for fresh shots of tolerance and leadership thinking that reaches well beyond the pale of tax cut...tax cut...tax cut...tax cut....

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Economic Stimulus--from Planet Clueless?

By Si Dunn

Many Americans have been hurting economically for a long time, approximately the same length of time that George W. Bush and his disciples of greed have been in national power.

If you're middle class or lower, "financial struggle" is your middle name. And no amount of corporate or upper-class tax cuts will make much difference to your quandry, particularly in the near future.

Now that the careless Bushits have helped the nation's economy slam into a recessionary brick wall, leaders on both sides of the political aisle suddenly have been screaming: "Rebates now! Economic stimulus, now! Dole out the cash, now!"

So that's what's happening: Republicans and Democrats recently were trying to decide exactly how much allowance to give us, so we can blow it all in one weekend on pizza, Chinese lead toys, lottery tickets--and campaign contributions.

The Bush Administration initially wanted to hand out generous tax rebate checks of $800-$1,600, but only to people who already earn enough money to have to pay taxes. According to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, the Bush "largess" would have ignored 30 million working households where wage earners don't make enough to pay income taxes. And another 19 million households apparently would only get partial rebates.

In other words, the Bushy Boys wanted the money to flow straight into the hands of those who already have--at least theoretically--reasonably good to fabulously nice incomes. As for our poor robotniks who grub all year cleaning toilets, mopping floors and changing bed pans, yet never rise high enough on the income ladder to show up on IRS radar...well, let them figure out how to save more of their meager money and create their own economic stimulus packages. In other words, they should just buck up and quit being poor.

The bulletins now emerging from Washington say an agreement has been reached. The money--borrowed from somewhere to be paid back later (somehow) by others--soon will start flowing from the Treasury, even (at the Democrats' dogged insistence) to the "stimulus-unworthy" poor.

Once again, supposedly, we will now save ourselves and also save the world simply by spending a few hundred bucks apiece on electric bills, car payments, SUV fillups, karate lessons or nuclear-powered cell phones with built-in HDTVs.

There has to be a better way to run this economic railroad. And maybe we should start by running the Republicans out of Washington on a rail next year. But first, be patriotic: Spend your rebate! Buy some American cheese. Buy some American peanuts. Buy an American hamburger! Then leave the change as a tip!

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Ghost Haunts Movie Set?

By Si Dunn

Was it the smell of Thanksgiving turkey that briefly brought out a ghost? Or was it just the opportunity to haunt the actors, extras and crew of the movie The Significant Other?

Shot in Gainesville, Dallas and Plano, Texas, in 2007, the romantic comedy feature gained national attention after a ghostly image briefly appeared in a mirror and was captured on video during the shooting of a Thanksgiving dinner scene. The incident occurred at the movie’s main location, an 1896 Victorian-style mansion in Gainesville and has been recounted in The Hollywood Reporter and on CBS News, as well as other in media outlets.

“Maybe it was the aroma of the turkey that brought out the ghost,” said the movie’s director, Shalene Portman. “It freaked a lot of us out, but it never bothered us again” after the dinner scene incident.

A brief video clip of the ghostly appearance can be seen on the movie’s website, http://www.thesignificantothermovie.com/. (Disclosure: I am one of the movie's associate producers, but I was away from the set at the time and did not witness the ghost incident.) Watch the mirror closely as the image appears and disappears.

The house had no known history of being haunted until the movie's producer and director, Shalene Portman, brought in the scene's mantle and mirror and had them installed while the house was being refurbished.

The Significant Other is now in post-production and planned for release during the 2008 holiday season. For more information, contact SamiLu Production at SamiLuProduction@gmail.com. (There is no “s” after “Production.”)

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Siberian Tigers

By Si Dunn

Tragically, zoo tigers once again are in the news. On Christmas Day, 2007, a Siberian tiger somehow escaped or was let loose from captivity and killed one person and badly injured two others at the San Francisco Zoo. Police officers fatally--and correctly--shot the Siberian while it was in the process of savagely mauling one of its victims. Nothing else could be done at that point. Even though the tiger had been born and reared in captivity, it reverted to its nature once it was out of its enclosure.

Where possible, wild animals should be protected and given sanctuary in their natural habitats. This should include very strict enforcement of anti-poaching laws. Numerous animal species, including tigers, are prized in some cultures for their pelts, paws, meat, organs and blood. Poachers can make many thousands of dollars off animals such as tigers and gorillas by selling them, in pieces and vials, in international medical and souvenir black markets.

One example of poacher economics: Fewer than 400 Siberian tigers are still alive in the snowy forests of Far Eastern Russia. But a billion people want them made into rugs and drugs. In a cruel twist of the laws of supply and demand, each endangered tiger now is worth tens of thousands of dollars to thieves willing to kill and steal the animals from nature preserves and zoos.

Unfortunately, many nations are letting economic development--some of it illegal--encroach on their nature preserves. Wild animals are being forced into smaller and smaller spaces that can only support fewer of their species.

More should be done--now--to protect animals in the wild and animals in zoos, just as more should be done to protect zoo visitors wishing to see magnificent creatures up close.

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