THE GASPS OF DEMOCRACY

In the snow and bitter weather of icy New Hampshire, the alleged deciding of our fate continues with a wide-margin win for John Kerry, but the mainstream media, not sated with last week’s spontaneous destruction of the Dean campaign, leaps ahead with full scale trivialization; tales of Drew Barrymore doing a documentary on the presidential campaign and traveling with Wes Clark, Kerry having to deny he's using Botox, Al Frankin getting his glasses knocked off, and NY Times resident nitwit David Brooks attempting to spin Edwards “Two Americas” speech. Meanwhile the Bush machine stands in menacing reserve like the fiscal equivalent of an SS panzer division, with the capacity, I understand, to spend a million bucks a day on the SOB’s reelection all the way clear to November. Shee-it, I know with that kind of money, I could probably fix anything. I even wonder about today’s rumor that the real reason Dick Cheney is running all over the planet trying to convince the world that he has no plans to conquer it is only to thwart a palace coupe that in which Bush would dump Cheney in favor of Rudy Giuliani as VP. It could so easily have been concocted in some evil White House sub-basement, and tossed like a bone of false hope to the opposition. Kinda like the python giving the mouse a fleeting but erroneous idea that it might not be swallowed and digested after all.

One of my problems, of course, is that Democrat primaries always take me back 1968, when the Dems milled about like chickens in the rain, as cities burned and the SE Asia war raged, and Hubert Humphrey presented himself as the natural succesor to LBJ, while all the time the dark prospect of Richard Nixon bore down on us. But, wonderous day, a white knight in the shining form of Bobby Kennedy suddenly made it seem as though democracy might actually work one more time. Then finally the shock, horror and a scream of “No! Not again!”as, in the moment of winning California, he was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel by yet another implausible lone gunman (with a cleanup by the LAPD and a young-but-rising Daryl Gates) and the sun went out, Hell moved closer, and everything turned ugly.

FROM THE EMAIL

HC Beck informs us...

NO PAPAL THUMBS UP FOR BIKER FLICK

In an official statement released today, a spokesman for Pope John Paul II disputed widely published reports that His Holiness saw and enjoyed the new biker film "Torque." The film, which went into wide release on January 16, ignited a firestorm of controversy when studio publicists started spreading the word that the Pope had viewed the film in his Vatican City apartment and had pronounced the film "awesome." According to the publicists, producers of the film had presented Pope John Paul II with a special DVD edition of the film, complete with narration by the film's director, never-before-seen footage, outtakes and bloopers. Coinciding with the release of the film, reports started emerging in the mainstream press that the Vatican had issued the following summary of the Pope's private screening of "Torque" "He saw it, and it was good." But in a strongly worded statement released today, a spokesman for the Pope denied in no uncertain terms that the Pope had given two papal thumbs up to the biker flick, adding, "His Holiness did not see 'Torque,' nor is he entirely sure what the word 'Torque' means."
In other news, the Dalai Lama today denied widely published reports that he called "Along Came Polly" "the feel-good movie of 2004." In a prepared statement, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama said, "The Dalai Lama was, frankly, disappointed by 'Along Came Polly,' and warns moviegoers that all of the funny parts are in the trailer."

AND COUPLE OF LINKS

John Skipp, novelist, filmmaker, splatter punk, wit, gastronome, and a damn fine dude with whom to share a table at a book signing, blogs and more at – http://www.johnskipp.com/

While the spendid Jay Babcock of Arthur mag fame does the same at – http://www.jaybabcock.com/magpie.html