Saturday, May 29, 2010
Time flies...
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, thirty-fifth President of the United States, would have celebrated his 93rd birthday today. As I calculate it, the planet has spun on its axis 16,990 times since JFK was assassinated. Which is almost exactly the number of days between his birth in Brookline MA and that horrid Friday in Dallas; Kennedy’s life was 16,978 days long. On May 17 of this year, then, John Kennedy had been dead exactly as long as he lived.
Five days ago on May 24, Robert Allen Zimmerman, far better known as Bob Dylan, turned 69 years old. He’s been a professional musician for nearly fifty of those years. Just 22½ in November 1963, Dylan was already a star of the folk/protest/civil rights community when Kennedy died. Since arriving in New York City in early 1961, he’d released two albums on Columbia Records, Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and his third album The Times They Are A-Changin’ was already in the can awaiting release in early 1964. Dylan and Joan Baez were so highly thought of at the time that they had been invited to play short sets at the August 28, 1963 March On Washington, where Dr. King gave his renowned I have a dream speech. The other musicians who performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that afternoon were Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson, and Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Below is a public domain photo of Joan and Bob on that day:
I don’t have much of a point to make regarding this awkward juxtaposition of the birthdates of JFK and Dylan. Merely acknowledging that tempus fugit, whether or not one is having fun.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
(Faint) praise for Dino Rossi
Over the years, I’ve written many negative words about two-time Washington gubernatorial loser, and current US Senate dabbling ditherer, Dino Rossi. Most of those negative words appeared during the 2004 recounts, in my extended WA Gov series of DailyKos diaries.
I’ve called Rossi smarmy, sleazy, crooked, slimy, and odious. I’ve likened him to a used car dealer and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BIAW. I’ve noted with distaste his refusal to concede the 2004 election after his long, long court challenge was dismissed, with prejudice, after Chris Gregoire had already been Governor of Washington for nearly half a year.
But Dino is nowhere near the classless ingrate that is the newly-minted teabagger Republican nominee for US Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul. While Rossi wouldn’t concede after losing his race, last night Paul wouldn’t talk to the candidate who was conceding to him! Talk about a scumbucket…
Dr. Paul (he’s an ophthalmologist) is, of course, the son of US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul (dad’s an OB/GYN). This rotten apple hasn’t fallen far from the crazy tree. Father and son represent the ugly union of the worst features of libertarian xenophobia, the Tea Party/teabagger movement, and the putrefying remains of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, the appellation Know Nothing Party was claimed by their forebears a century and a half ago. That’s too bad, because it’s as fitting a name as there could be.
Paultards now have two avenues for their devotion and their dollars. I wonder whether all the cash those wackos poured into Rand’s run in Kentucky, as well as Ron’s nutty presidential campaign in 2008 (FWIW, he’s already running for 2012), were backed by gold ingots buried in their backyards. I mean, the Pauls want to take the United States back to the gold standard, don’t they?
So what’s my praise for Dino Rossi? It’s that he isn’t as big a scumbag asshole as Rand Paul.
Faint enough for ya?
