Travels With Bubbie

Bubbie's business has taken us "on the road" of late: one journey to Northern California and a second to Western Washington, both by automobile. Even at $4+/gallon, gasoline is less expensive than flying. The Bay Area and Marin County haven't changed much since our last jaunt there in the spring. Bubbie had her meeting in Emeryville, we hung out with family in Corte Madera and San Geronimo, and Pop and I ate oysters fresh at and from Drake's Bay. Cousin Jack was nowhere to be seen, heard or felt, neither in the town nor the city.

The trip back to OR via the Redwood Highway was spooky. The forest fires plaguing CA had driven many of the forest folk to seek shelter along the coast in and about Arcata and environs. All of the motels were full of desperate folks, as were the streets. Even though they roll up the sidewalks at 8 PM thereabouts, at that hour lots of sullen-looking people were sitting around every available table at just about every venue. We scurried home.

WA was more the usual. Again, Bubbie had business in Bellevue after which we headed to Port Townsend and Chimicum for more family revelry (and more oysters for me). The combination of tourists and trust-fund-babies in PT is always remarkable and this last trip did not disappoint. H. Bert Frank, like Cousin Jack, was conspicuous with his apparent absence.

What's Goin On? Part II / Oh, Blackwater...

Unemployment is up; economic growth is down. The cynic in me states that it is now time to attack Iran, or North Korea, or Venezuela...let's make it Venezuela. Bush hates Chavez because Chavez was actually elected by his people, not appointed by his daddy's judges. Venezuela is close by, has lots of oil and we haven't already destroyed their oil-production infrastructure with a previous war. Nah! That just might affect the November election adversely. The following thought gives me chills...

It will be interesting to see what the Bushies do to maintain power come November if McCain is somehow behind in the polls despite all of the coming swift-boating and race baiting. Blackwater USA has announced that it is curtailing its Iraq operations and will concentrate on its security operations. Hmmm...Blackwater has approximately 30,000 operatives on its on-call list and its HQ (in NC) is a relatively short drive from Washington, DC. In keeping with the GOP's history of October surprises, wouldn't it be amazing if the Bush-Cheney crime family were to announce that since we are at war, al Qaeda is in the streets of DC, and our armed forces are otherwise engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Constitution (what little still remains 7.5 years after the coup) is herewith suspended and Blackwater has been deputized to defend the country. Science Fiction you say? Granted, but just keep in mind that the Bush-Cheney family also stacked the Supreme Court with toadies, arranged for the 2000 coup, ignored the Saudi connections to 9/11, ignored the "chatter" prior to 9/11, fabricated an Iraqi connection to 9/11, illegally and immorally attacked Iraq, botched the occupation, cemented the 2000 coup with the 2004 takeover of Ohio, outed Valerie Plame, set new standards for scandals and corruption that make even the Grant and Harding (mis)administrations blanch, set aside the constitution, violated the law at every turn, ignored the courts and congress, etc, etc, etc, etc. Going on will do no good for my disposition. When it happens, I told you so...If it doesn't happen, I will be very happy that I was wrong.

"What's Goin' On?"

The latest presidential poll data has the race very tight, with Barack Obama's slight lead in certain "battleground" states getting slighter. I wonder why. Obama is bright, articulate, young, vigorous, inquisitive, intelligent, well-read, a teacher, a lawyer, etc. McCain is none of these. He may be intelligent, but has yet to prove it. But wait, he is experienced!! Yes, he was a prisoner of war and he was tortured. OK, what else? Experience? He was/is a member of the Keating 5. What else? He tells bad jokes. His picture is next to flip-flop in the illustrated dictionary of politics. He hired the infamous Swift Boat liars to help his campaign. His economic adviser was (and probably still is) former Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) who thinks that there is no current economic problem and states that the country is composed of whiners. Of course, Gramm's wife was a director of ENRON and she and Phil have yet to be implicated for their malfeasance in that crime family. What else? He kissed W after he (McCain) was swift-boated by Rove and company. The upshot? I have to state what is on my mind...racism. The country still fears a black man. Remember the primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky?