Grandpa Munster has left the room

In what's shaping up as a busy week for me, I won't have much time to be posting on either blog. I did want to put this up, however. Democracy Now had a great segment on Al Lewis, the actor who played Grandpa on the 1960s Hollywood sitcom, The Munsters. He passed away, Friday, February 5, 2006, at the age of 95 years old.

While mainstream accounts emphasized his work on the popular sitcom, to the exclusion of all else, several alternative accounts of Lewis revealed him to be something much more than a mere actor, playing a bit part.

Like many men of his generation, Lewis was shaped by a hardscrabble life, which included experiencing the depression firsthand. Unlike many of us, who grew up during the post-war period of affluence, he didn't live life with our expectation of everything being handed to us on a silver platter. He took life by the horns and squeezed the most out of each and every day.

The 1997 interview conducted by the editors of New York's Anarchist publication, The Shadow, originally ran in Alternative Press Review, back in 1998. It is a great read and captures the essence of the man foreever known to many as "Grandpa Munster."

One of my favorite parts of the interview is when Lewis chastises today's self-styled activists for their lack of perspective and understanding of the class war.

I think Lewis' offers a perspective that isn't offered much anymore, the perspective of a man who lived life to the fullest, on his terms, not the terms dictated by polite society. He offers a portrait of a generation that sadly, is just about gone. If our nation had any greatness, it was because of the men (and women) of Lewis' generation.

My hope for America

Rather than a blow-by-blow of the President Bush’s speech, I wanted to focus on one word and attribute that he uttered several times. This is my concise contribution at recapping the SOTU, for those of you who skipped it.

While painful, I hung in to the bitter end. Towards the end of his oratory, he apparently decided to offer the citizenry some hope, because up to this point in the speech, I hadn't found anything that I was hitching my wagon to. Beginning the sectionwith this; “In recent years, America has become a more hopeful nation.” After this, he indicated where American's hopes should reside.

“A hopeful society depends on courts that deliver equal justice under the law.”
--With a court stacked with right-wing ideologues and lackeys to carry the water of a conservative agenda and under gird the final corporate takeover, I’m not hopeful about our future in the area of justice.

“A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every life.”
--An obvious ode to his pro-life base, uttered in code, but obvious in its intent. For those like the late Christopher Reeves, and others suffering permanent debilitating injuries, stem cell research offers hope of a possible cure and an opportunity of living a life of fullness. This president insists on removing that hope.

“A hopeful society expects elected officials to uphold the public trust.”
--And since this president heads an administration riddled with cronyism the likes of which America hasn’t seen for decades, we aren’t hopeful that the president will do anything meaningful to instill some hope for those of us who think our elected officials should obey the laws and honor the constitution like the rest of us are required to.


“A hopeful society gives special attention to children who lack direction and love.”
--Actually, under funding programs that level the playing field for all children might give us the optimism that you insist we ought to have. Not enacting the disastrous, No Child Left Behind that leaves schools and programs grossly short of funds and forced to implement rigid pedagogy that robs children of the joys that creative instruction can bring.

“A hopeful society comes to the aid of fellow citizens in times of suffering and emergency -- and stays at it until they're back on their feet.”
--Actually, Mr. President, your administration’s and handling of disaster relief in the aftermath of Katrina, made me hope to God that I never face a disaster of those proportions. For nights on end, I saw witnessed the poorest citizens dying in the streets of one of our largest cities, while you lauded one of your political cronies, Michael Brown, who was under qualified and incapable of running FEMA.

Mr. President, your speech, full of lies, propaganda and once again, pandering to fear and offering nothing but empty rhetoric, left me and many other Americans with only one hope. That we the people will wake up, band together and run your ass, along with your administration's, out of the people’s house. That’s the glimmer of hope I’m clinging to, the morning after your speech.

Impeachment? Is it time?

One of the additional bonuses of my new fitness routine and purchase of a treadmill (hey--it's cheaper than joining the gym, which I hate), beyond being able to see my feet again, is turning on C-Span at 5:30 a.m. and seeing programming that usually is watched by insomniacs and a tiny minority.

This a.m. I got to hear a forum held by a group called, The World Can't Wait and their call for two things:

1. Immediate withdrawal from Iraq
2. Impeachment of President Bush

I don't know alot about them, but I like the provocative nature of what they are calling for. I can't say that I don't agree wholeheartedly with the above two points.

The content below comes from their website:

Will the Democrats stop the war? Or is it up to us?

While public opinion against the war is mounting everyday, there has been debate within the halls of power over what direction to take in the occupation of Iraq. Many are hoping that the Democrats will end the occupation, and beginning to pin their hopes on the 2006 elections.
The Call for World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime! puts it clearly: “There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.”

As the Bush regime is clearly having trouble continuing its occupation of Iraq, and debate is breaking out in Congress, we must ask ourselves what it will take to stop not only the war, but the whole disastrous course the Bush regime is taking us. This will require massive resistance of millions of people taking independent political action (as laid out in our Call), and demanding “Bush: step down, and take your whole program with you.”

We want to encourage people everywhere to debate these questions – from chat rooms, classrooms, work, political discussions, and holiday gatherings – and start organizing to drown out Bush’s State of the Union speech in massive protest.

While some might accuse me of hyperbole, I find much in this piece that I also agree with. Let me just implore those of you who are feeling kind of "blah" and apathetic now that we are in the doldrums of winter. Having your government spy on you, lie to you and spend your tax dollars to kill innocent people in Iraq and other places ought to piss you off enough to at least look into some of the information I've posted here and in other posts.

Find one thing that you can do today, this week, this month, and get at it. Democracy is depending on you!

Going with the flow

And then you have the cowards on the other side of the aisle, the "loyal" opposition party, urging against a filibuster.

Forgive the source, but the pickings are slim on links. ('Gotta love how the copy editor at the local Fox station spelled "A-B-C " and then made sure to phonetically represent Barack Obama's name--as if the morons who get their news there need as much help as they can).

For a guy knighted by progressives as a possible hope in 2008, Obama is turning out to be not much more than a silent fart in church.

While Kennedy and Kerry are fighting a losing battle, I'd at least have a bit more respect for Democrats if a few more went down swinging, rather than planting another Judas kiss on the backside of their base.

Republican swims upstream

I don't know much about Senator Lincoln Chafee, other than he's a Republican and he's from Rhode Island. I suppose I know in a roundabout way, from following politics closely that he's a moderate--something increasingly rare on the Republican side of the aisle.

In a surprising decision, he appears ready to buck his party and vote against the Alito nomination, lending some possibility to a filibuster.

Speaking of moderate Republicans (they used to be called, "Rockefeller Republicans," btw), my own Senator, Olympia Snowe, is also firmly in the camp of moderation. I always chuckle about how the conservative hard-ons in my own state get apoplectic about Snowe, calling her a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and that she ought to leave the party, ala Jim Jeffords (I-Vt). Then, she goes out every election and wins 70 percent of the vote. I guess these knuckle-draggers don't know the voters as well as they think they do.

Well, you know the drill. If you are a Mainer, call her office (202-224-1946) and urge that she vote against confirmation of Alito and seeing the Court hijacked by idealogues. Oh, and be nice--her staff are surely being bombarded today.

If you are in a state with a Senator who might be termed a moderate, a call to their staff wouldn't be a bad idea.

Since Maine has two of the four (in addition to Snowe, Maine's Susan Collins is also termed a moderate), your job is easy. Collins office can be reached at 202-224-2523.

Of the remaining two, I've mentioned Rhode Island's Chafee. That leaves only solitary John McCain (R-Az).

Commence dialing, loyal denizens of Maine and Arizona.