My thoughts on politics, foreign policy, sports, America, and anything else I come up with.

 
"Let America Be America Again"
by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It was never America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There never has been equality for me,
Nor freedom in the "homeland of the free.")

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In that Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every birck and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let, America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America was never America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack of ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!


Posted by Brian Adams at 03:31 | Permalink | |

 
President Bush Distracted by Pretty Ladies, Shiny Things at Debate

How many of you out there did a double take on something President George W. Bush said during Friday night's debate? Well, if you were paying close attention, you probably did that several times. Here the best Bush quote from the second presidential debate.

Senator John Kerry had just finished answering the question about promising to not raise the tax burden on the middle class.

GIBSON: Mr. President, 90 seconds.

BUSH: He's just not credible when he talks about being fiscally conservative. He's just not credible. If you look at his record in the Senate, he voted to break the caps -- the spending caps -- over 200 times.

And here he says he's going to be a fiscal conservative, all of a sudden. It's just not credible. You cannot believe it.

And of course he's going to raise your taxes. You see, he's proposed $2.2 trillion of new spending. And you say: Well, how are you going to pay for it? He says, well, he's going to raise the taxes on the rich -- that's what he said -- the top two brackets. That raises, he says $800 billion; we say $600 billion.

We've got battling green eye shades.

Somewhere in between those numbers -- and so there's a difference, what he's promised and what he can raise.

Now, either he's going to break all these wonderful promises he's told you about or he's going to raise taxes. And I suspect, given his record, he's going to raise taxes.

Is my time up yet?

GIBSON: No, you can keep going.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: Good. You looked at me like my clock was up.

Yes Mr. President, your clock is up. But that's not the point in question. I was just dumbfounded when I saw Bush look at a couple ladies in the left side of the crowd, and in the middle of answering a debate question, he commented on the similar eye shades of these two women in the crowd.

WTF?! Is the President that easily distracted? How can anyone who has a brain with as much damage from cocaine use as George W. Bush be president?

Idiots: I like him, he's not much smarter than me. I can relate to him. (drool)

But don't you people expect more from a president? I hate ignorance, but I despise ignorance by choice. Damn, this country is full of morons!

Posted by Brian Adams at 04:24 | Permalink | |

 
Phone Banking for Kerry & Feingold

So tonight I went into the local county Democratic Coordinated Campaign HQ, and called a list of people who we have been unable to pindown thus far as to their vote for president this year. We also asked whether they planned on voting for Senator Russ Feingold for another term, or the Republican challenger Tim Michels.

I was actually not that surprised at the number of people who were voting for Bush and Feingold. That shows the level of support Feingold has in this state. Russ Feingold must run, or be drafted to run for president in 2008 or 2012! I can think of no one else in this entire nation that I would want to be president ahead of Feingold. He has a reputation for being one of the few honest, thoughtful voices in Congress. And he would make one hell of a president. This country needs someone like him at the helm.

Back to phone banking, screw that. It was a group of people all chattering away on phones in the back room of a store front in downtown Janesville, WI. I simply could not hear the person talking to me on the phone, or my own thoughts! I know my hearing is getting worse and worse. The background is becoming more and more amplified, while the close noises I am trying to pay attention to are completely overpowered. I'm a little worried, but I'll go to one of those free hearing screenings, and then the doctor.

So it back to my personal favorite, door-to-door canvassing. Knocking on doors, delivering a short spiel, and handing them some pamphlets. I'm much better at the door than on the phone anyways. Right away tomorrow, 4:00 PM in Janesville. The added benefit of exercise is a big plus. So I'll report back on how that goes tomorrow.


Posted by Brian Adams at 05:36 | Permalink | |

 


Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004)

Few people have ever made me laugh harder than Rodney did in Caddyshack. He will be missed, but never forgotten.




"Hey! You scratched my anchor!"




Posted by Brian Adams at 01:55 | Permalink | |

 
28 Days Later...

This month last year I placed all my hopes behind the Chicago Cubs, and I was served up with one of the most crushing of defeats. Only Red Sox fans have seen worse. This year the Cubs decided to spread mythic collapse over the entire final week, rather than one half-inning of one playoff game.

But this year, there's a whole lot more on the line than ending a 95 year-old championship drought. At the very least the economic, legislative, and Supreme Court futures. Quite possibly the fate of thousands of men and women in the U.S. armed forces. And the further development of the place America holds in the world. At the extreme, maybe the expansion of war in the Middle East, a conflict with North Korea, and a nuclear exchange in either region. And maybe the very existence of the United States of America, as we know it, or at all.

28 days from now, it will be around 1:00 AM CST on the day after Election Day. Hopefully a winner will be known for sure by then. I know I didn't get any sleep on Election Night four years ago. Those of us hoping for - well hope, will have voted for John Kerry and John Edwards for President and Vice-President. What will our emotions be at that time? Will I be partying like it's Mardi Gras and Katie Holmes is on my arm? (Hey, a man needs fantasies.) Or will we be starting our survival kit checklists, and working on our excuses out of a draft? (I feel pretty solid in my medical excuses.) I for one just want the whole fucking thing to be over with, as I'm sure many of us do.

---

157 days ago, I made last post here. I have a lot of reasons for not posting. Maybe my thoughts were just scattered, the election coverage was starting to get under my skin to where I didn't want to talk about, I was burned out on writing, or I was just burned out period. This whole medium has me a little perplexed sometimes. I'm not a journalist, but writing about the news is what I feel most comfortable doing here. Some people use it more as a journal, but I've never been that much of an open book.

I will tell you that a damn good friend of mine got married this summer, to a wonderful girl. Am I being chauvinistic, or God forbid un-PC, by referring to a woman in her 20s or 30s as a girl? Fuck it, I know it has no demeaning connotation. I may have just turned 30, but I still think of myself as quite young. Anyways, the two of them are out in L.A. now. And the wedding was completed with anyone punching the groom's father. Oh he deserved it, but discretion was exercised by all.

I explored once more my feelings for an old friend of mine, Stephanie. I had pushed the romantic feelings aside for a few years, but I had it bad for her again this summer. She's a great listener, a very caring person, and I think a match for me in a lot of ways. She reminded me of what great friends we are, and that despite she having some similar feelings for me on the romantic front, it just isn't meant to be now. There's a chance that we may find out paths cross again, when I am at a better place and things are different, but I will be happy as hell to continue to have her as a close friend, for years to come I hope. It did feel nice to tell someone I love them as more than a friend, for the first time in a few years.

We spent a really fun week hanging out a month ago, and that actually got me feeling that we may be best as just friends. It's so nice to talk to someone who can understand you, is of high intellect, and very thoughtful. When you can talk about the mysteries of the cosmos, or just stare at a fire together. I've probably thought it before, but never put it into words. She has the most soothing voice. So yeah, we left the summer better than we started it.

So this shows how eager I am to talk about politics. I ended up making this mostly a journal entry. I'll be adding more of each in the days to come.


Posted by Brian Adams at 01:53 | Permalink | |