Author: Dick

It all depends on the headline or story one reads today as to who is ahead in the 2006 mid-term congressional elections. For instance, the conservative United Press International (See “Washington Times” and its owners, the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon) see the G.O.P. catching up to the Dems:

Republicans gain ground ahead of elections

From the land of Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Bay Area’s abc7news.com:

Day Left: GOP Making Push, But Democrats’ Lead Still Significant

From our friends in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the “Mail and Guardian:”

Democrats tipped to regain House in US elections

And lest we not forget the “Weekly World News:”

Video report: Bigfoot Tracks Indicate Salsa Lessons

I suspect the truth out there, Bigfoot not included, lies somewhere between the conventional wisdom of the Democrats taking the House and just possibly the Senate, to there being some kind of martial law imposed by Gee Dubya who will declare himself “President for Life.” Who the hell knows, huh Bubba?

A lot of what is going on in these last minutes before election day seems to be something akin to football players who signal they’ve got a first down after a fumble when in fact they really don’t know for sure. I don’t know why football players do this. I must ask one one day. But my WAG (Wild Ass Guess) is that players on both sides of a fumble who signal they have a first down do so as a) wishful thinking; b) perception that their gesturing might somehow influence the officials (a.k.a. the zebras); or c) they just washed their hands and can’t do a thing with them.

If you want to know my prediction, here it is: I don’t know who all will win in the final outcome. I don’t even know when a final outcome might take place because both sides have their lawyers ready because no challenge is too silly or ridiculous for a bunch of election lawyers and partisan hacks.

Call me cynical if you will. Then call me when this nightmare is over.

As I’ve told friends before, the one drawback with a job that isn’t 9-to-5 is that it isn’t 9-to-5. It’s Friday afternoon and I have to interview some folks at 6 p.m. for a story I’m working on for a client. This isn’t particularly the way I would rather be spending 6 p.m. on Friday, but it is work and seems like a pretty interesting story so things could be worse.

This morning was crappy. I was once again dealing with medical issues and trying to talk to my doctor at the VA. He supposedly tried to call me but didn’t have my phone number. I only gave six or seven people at the Dallas VA my phone, most of them were honchos to whom I have been raising hell with because I can’t get any answers about possible treatment for my chronic pain and the nagging shaking of my hands which I’ve had a couple of months.

Luckily, I found a great escape from my funk. It is the Los Lobos Web site and in particular “Los Lobos Radio” which has their entire catalog of recordings and videos, and you can play the songs and watch videos for free. Yes, free. That’s what I’m talking about.

Listening to Los Lobos made me remember just what a fantastic group of musicians the eclectic band really is. No one is like Los Lobos. They are an American original which combines a hodgepodge of this country (and Mexico’s) musical genre and seamlessly blends them into great songs. Folk, Tex-Mex, Rock and Roll, Country and Western and varieties of Mexican styles are put together without the result looking like some head-scratcher.

Songs like the rocking “Good Morning Aztlan” quickly picked up my spirits, which might in turn help salvage the rest of the day. If you need an attitude adjustment, check it out!

It’s starting to look and feel like fall in North Central Texas. I took this photo on a footbridge over Cottonwood Creek in Allen on my morning walk today. The colors are hardly the stuff of New England but the view isn’t bad for this part of the country.

I’ve always joked to my friends who have seasons that Fall is the two weeks between summer and winter in Texas. I am not that far off. But some great Fall colors are to be found in Texas, especially down east from where I hail. I say down east. It’s a variation on the theme of what I tell folks in these parts about my origins and my schooling. When people ask where I went to college, I tell them “back east.” “Oh did you go to an Ivy League school?” they ask. “No,” I reply. “I went to Surfing Steve U.”

Surfing Steve is what some call the statue of the “daddy” of Texas — otherwise known as Stephen F. Austin — on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus which is back east in Nacogdoches.

Just in case you are interested, legend has it that the name of Nacogdoches came from some kind of strange Caddo tribal ritual in which a chief set his sons off in opposite directions from the Sabine River on a day’s walk. One son, named Nacogdoches, walked west and the other, Natchitoches, went east.

Where Nacogdoches stopped is now Nacogdoches and Natchitoches landed where the city of Natchitoches, La., now sits. Natchitoches is home to Northwestern State University, which is not surprisingly the rival of SFA.

Each year the two football teams play for Chief Caddo who, as Hank Williams once mused about another Native-American icon, “was a wooden Indian standing by the door.” Well, at least Chief Caddo quite often stands by the door because he’s one big wooden Indian.

Politically correct, or not, Chief Caddo stands 7-feet 6-inches and weighs more than 320 pounds. And yes, I know someone who once helped steal Chief Caddo in order to keep the big fellow from being returned to Louisiana.

So in just this short time that you have paused to read this you have learned about:
a. Fall in Texas
b. Who is Surfing Steve
c. Why Nacogdoches is Nacogdoches and Nachitoches is Nachitoches
d. Why Chief Caddo moves rather slowly

Aren’t you glad you stopped by? No? Maybe even a little glad?

Yes, the absurd and meaningless rhetoric coming from all sides during this mid-term election campaign is scary.

John Kerry was, for whatever variety of reasons, unable to win the presidency in 2004 but he was at least astute enough to have been elected as a U.S. senator. As such, that makes him a fairly decent politician no matter what else you think or don’t think about him.

So if you honestly believe that Kerry was dissing American troops in Iraq during his controversial remarks a few days ago, then I feel sorry for you. And if you also believe that the big s*itstorm over his remarks that was fueled by the Republican attack machine was anything other than politics, I feel even more sorry for you.

The controversy over Kerry’s remarks is just one more instance of both Democrats and Republicans flailing one another with whatever bomb, significant or insignificant, they can throw at the other. Both sides come off of crap like this looking tremendously silly although — and to my many Republican friends, nothing personal — the G.O.P. has usually maintained a sharp edge in the silly department overall.

It seems like politicians would rather crawl over miles of broken glass than bother with meaningful discussions of the issues. And while I freely admit to being a political junkie who devours each hair-raising twist and turn of such an election, I just get a little overdosed on the faux drama for the sake of advantage.

It’s been fun but I now am ready for this election to be done. Sadly, I don’t think it’s going to be done when we all wake up on Nov. 8. I foresee more silliness. It makes me wonder when our country will ever grow up and grow into the nation of which our founding dads left for us to fill in the blanks? I don’t know the answer to that unless it is: probably never. Oh well, it was a good thought.

I was searching the Web earlier this afternoon for an old Navy friend and had the misfortune of finding his obituary in the Pensacola newspaper. James F. “Buddy” Lassiter died Sept. 1, 2006, at the age of 56.

My friend, Buffalo Bob Mayes who is also now deceased, introduced me to Buddy after they returned from an overseas deployment with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 62 to the Seabee base in Gulfport, Miss., where we were stationed. Bob, Buddy and I used to hang quite a bit back then, now some 30 years ago.

I saw Bob a few times after I got out of the service. I visited Buddy once in Pensacola and talked to him on the phone a few times in the intervening years. We exchanged e-mails a few years ago. As happens, we just kind of drifted apart. Buddy was one of my few close friends who stayed in the Navy for the long haul. He retired several years ago as a master chief utilitiesman, as high as you can go in the enlisted ranks.

Buddy served in the Army in Vietnam and with the Seabees in Iraq I. He was a funny guy with a mischievous air about him. Just because one drifts apart from friends doesn’t necessarily lessen a friendship and certainly doesn’t detract from the great memories one accumulates. We had some good times together. Later Buddy.