I just got back from walking my dog, the one that survived the africanized bee attack a few weeks ago. I walk her after dark as in Tucson it takes a few hours to cool off enough in the evening for me to want to take a quick jog around the neighborhood. It is 9 pm and 91 degrees.
UMC is just down the street and a helicopter took off from the helipad on the roof while we were walking. I cannot see that sight, even a year and a half later, without thinking of that January day when Tucson changed forever. Tonight that memory was very close to the surface with today’s special election to fill Gabby Giffords’ seat for the rest of her term until this fall and the regular Congressional election.
The two major party contenders and a green party candidate vied for her old seat.
Ron Barber, the Democratic candidate, who was also shot twice on January 8,2011, is ahead as I write this, 53 to 45 percent with half of the votes in. This percentage has held fairly steady for the last hour. I’m breathing a bit easier. Jesse Kelly, the Republican candidate, is to the right of even most Tea Bag Types. He ran against Gabby in 2010 in what was a very, very close election. He hosted the target practice with automatic weaponry that “targeted” Gabby in what I still believe was one of the ugly acts that tainted the atmosphere and energy in Tucson that a very disturbed young man picked up on and interpreted as encouragement to act that horrible Winter day. I attended debates where there were Kelly supporters in Nazi attire.
The white supremacist in Arizona politics is, unfortunately, common enough to bring many individuals and groups to mind at its mention. J. T. Reading, an avowed Neo-Nazi, was running for Pinal County Sheriff when he killed his family and himself earlier this year. Reading was Russell Pearce’s buddy, before Pearce was recalled as Arizona Senate member and president. The border militias that have much in common with the Tea Party, have Nazi and Aryan connections as the trials for murders of a family in Arivaca showed. And of course there is the northern Arizona connection with Tim McVeigh. This shit is real. In this state the border militias, neo-nazis, ultra-conservatives, mingle with the conservatives in what I find to be a very disturbing manner. RNC money was backing Jesse Kelly like he was a good Republican.
Ron Barber has been declared the winner, Kelly has conceded, and Barber has given his acceptance speech. Gabby is right on stage with Ron. There is chanting of “Gabby” from the audience. It signals a bit of closure for us here.
I have made no bones about not being aligned with the Blue Dog Democrat that Gabby was in Congress. But she was my representative. There was an assassination attempt on her life. I was at the UMC vigil the day of the shooting. Tucson came together in a way that was amazing, for her and all the injured, and for those we lost. The event changed us all and political nuances became completely unimportant. Citizens came together to support a public servant who had nearly given her life.
For me, this election has been an extension of the journey we Tucsonans and Southern Arizonans all began 18 months ago. Gabby next to Ron on that stage tonight was the best closing of this particular circle within Arizona history that could have happened.
I’m breathing so much easier tonight than I have since it became obvious that national money, Rove and the RNC, was coming in early on to support the extremist right wing candidate Kelly, complete with his High School diploma and construction experience in his father’s company.
But the November elections are fast approaching and Kelly will probably run again. The redistricting changes the districts for this fall’s elections a bit.
If I Had My Life To Live Over
WEEK #56 (6-10-12 to 6-16-12): If I Had My Life to Live Over…
One of my standard “lines” in my cocktail conversation portfolio is that in a neighboring alternate timeline or parallel universe, barely removed from this one, in which I think I’ve been fortunate as an adult, I’m living in a trailer park on U.S. Highway 30, Indiana taking care of 5 snotty nose grandkids by the time I’m in my 40s. Small, seemingly inconsequential acts can totally redirect the course of a persons life.
How Have I Missed Garfunkel and Oates Until Now?
Seriously, someone has been holding out on me. Why hasn’t someone told me about these two before now? I hold you, yes, you, responsible. You should have told me. How the hell is a 55 year old over the hill fat lady supposed to stay up on these things so that my inner skinny 23 year old punk rocking soul stays nourished, if you don’t share such amazing things with me?
I haven’t laughed so hard since I don’t know when. Holding my side laughing and laughing out loud laughing. Didn’t know which video to share. Sex with Ducks is a favorite, but then so is This Party Has Taken a Turn for the Douche. And I find Gay Boyfriend hysterical. But since this is a politically themed month of posting, I have to share this one, Save the Rich. It is a bit more PC for office viewing in case you are watching this at work.
Seriously, get the app.
Check out their site.
Stream of Consciousness Notes from the Ron Barber GOTV Concert
Stream of Consciousness Notes from the Get Out The Vote Concert
9 June 2012
Rialto Theater
5-8 p.m.
Get Out the vote concert in support of Ron Barber.
“Higher ground” music as the set up ended — Stevie still rocks the vote.
Jen Cox, Ron’s campaign manager introduced the mayor.
Jon Rothshchild, Mayor, “We have three days to win. The nation is watching.”
Kevin Pakoulis with Amy Langley opened with their Rockabilly 50 50 deal — not what you hear at Republican rallies, I suspect. Uncle Harlan was the second number. Green thumbs and volunteers. Amy sang lead on the third song. Something about her voice reminded me of Bobbi Gentry. Now that is a blast from the past. “So this is your style…” Nest song was off of “Shadesville” album. All is forgiven. They have that Tucson minor chord twang in this song… with the lyrical spoken word lyrics at times. Amy has a really strong voice. I will have to check ’em out on iTunes. Next song Mockingbird Radio….Utah…Canyons now that is a SW song. He has a wah wah pedal… not to be confused whammy bar.
Duncan ? on keyboards amy – vocals , Kevin on bass, Johnny ben wah wah? on drums Terry (Kerry..?) lead guitar.
Last song’s Chorus: “Outside of Tucson, got my groove on, in the shadow of Rincons…me and this desert, man we get along. It is hot here, hot as hell here. swamp cooler and a cold beer. i ain’t saying we got it made, but we’re getting there.”
Couple hundred in seats. Hundred plus more dancing and swaying.
Next set being set up while Hubby fetched water and went down to the dance floor to mingle and take pics.
Ron Barber and family
Thanks to Rialto
maestro charley levy (his 3rd get out the vote concert) organized this concert.
must get everyone out to vote!
Staff: jennifer cox,
nancy barber
more family: kieran ailsa jenny blaine elliot chrissy jason
june 20th
45th anniversary of ron and nancy’s marriage and celebration of a win if we get out the vote.
Salvador Duran
guitar with standing bass at side (from calexico?)
spanish language ballad about beautiful woman
2nd song -light land
3rd was… traditional guitart that made my feet want to move.
intense and passionate
tapping
whistling
wishing people would shut up and listen
4th traditional story
He played a bit too long.
Sergio Mendoza y la Orkestra with special guests Jacob Valenzuela of Calexico.
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Jenn Cox 211 new shifts signed up for today.
4262 doors knocked on today.
21000+calls, did not get exact number, made today!
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just your 11 piece latin orkestra
can see ron and nancy dancing back stage
intermission music songs of my father linda ronstadt
as Calexico warms up.
jenn again.
jessica schultz com director
Ron Barber with Gabby and Mark coming up on stage was an amazing site. Gabby looked good and was exuding happiness. Such a huge role to play. She provides so much inspiration. Just a year ago they were driving by the Rialto and Gabby read the marque out loud, Tucson Loves Gabby.
The wonder of Joey Calexico with Sergio Mendoza y la Orkestra and Salvador Duran on several songs with them. Then just Calexico.
Then special song for Gabby and Mark.
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Hubby and I both popped out a bit early as the sound level, heat and dehydration had left us both with headaches. When did we become old farts?
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Quite the political day hubby went to the Trident with other military vets as extras, this am, to film a Carmona commercial. It is very, very important we get former Surgeon General Richard Carmona in the Senate to replace Kyl.
Six Months until the World Ends
I don’t actually think so; the world will be much the same on Dec. 22nd, 2012 as is was the day before. I’m planning a party for December 22nd of this year, but the apocalypse aficionados are hopeful that I’m wrong. There are some seriously demented folks out there and they seem to want horrible things to happen this year in some kind of end times death wish. The same jokers that want endless war and glorify its pursuit on the History Channel are also promoting the end of the world, Revelations-inspired, fear-porn in their lighter fare, too, in the likes of the “Ancient Aliens” series.
I mean, really, come on now, the same jokers that bring us the psycho-babble of the “theorists” in the cable series, Ancient Aliens with its “ancient astronaut theorists say” or “ancient astronaut theorists believe” on the History Channel that I personally believe is the perfect fodder for a drinking game. Down a shot every time the phrase “ancient astronaut theorists..” plus your choice of verb is uttered. Each participant chooses one of the most likely to be used verbs such as: believe, contend, suspect, suggest…. and so on. You might want to have some sort of handicap per the greater occurrence of the word “believe” over other words.
But I digress, and I haven’t even really started to cover today’s topic, which is the psycho-babble of the purportedly world-ending Winter Solstice this coming December. The only apocalypse I can envision is the Zombie Romney Apocalypse that would accompany a Willard Mitt win in November. Now that is scary!
Feel free to listen to the following REM music video while you read the rest of the post.
I want you all to ask yourself the question, in conjunction with the Presidential candidates,
“Which man, Obama or Romney, you would rather see in office if the end of the world as we know it happens to be on the predestination palette for six months out:
- O) A man who has traveled all over the world and was raised by a mother who was an anthropologist, R) or a man whose ancestors thought the Great Salt Lake in Utah, of all the God-forsaken places, was the promised land, and whose only survival skills have been honed by being a missionary in Paris?
- R) A man who, in this own words, “knows how to read a balance sheet,” O) or the Commander-in-Chief who got bin Laden?
- because of alien invasion and there is a need for negotiation…O) a skilled orator and negotiator, R) the most boring man in the world?”
I think you get my drift.
But the progressive politicos could also benefit from mass manipulation of public gullibility by also employing alien contact to their benefit. Paul Krugman actually suggested this on Bill Maher the other day.
Anyway, in case you didn’t watch this embed, he jokingly suggested that the Obama administration could solve our economic woes by creating jobs building and repairing infrastructure, such as light rail, schools, and roads by floating the implication that we are preparing for some kind of alien contact that may or may not be friendly, but for which we have to be ready, as a way to get the country behind a jobs program.
Excellent idea Krugman! I just wish we didn’t have to play to the lowest common denominator. We used to aspire to greater things as a people.
Defining Myself: Progressive, Pissed-off, Action-prone, Multiple Genre Music Lover, and Late Boomer
There is one thing I love about blogging every single day in these monthly blog challenges like NaBloPoMo, and that is finding new blogs that I can learn from. Dangling participles or not, cross-sectional slices of culture are deserving of a dollop of whipped cream in my book, almost as much serendipitous mind-bending explosions of realization that everything has changed (since some unbounded time in the past that we consciously or unconsciously us as a reference.) What the hell am I talking about? Stuff I’ve “discovered” this morning, oh silly one. It is Saturday. I intended to write about the complete and utter dishonesty of corporate identities and how they lie with impunity. But I also intended to write about “self” for GBE2 which I have decided is a dy-no-mite community of women writers and readers in a way that is completely different from so many of the purported communities I see online. So do bear with me as my first cuppa joe kicks in and I cool down from a quick doggie-dash around a few blocks with my pooch Daisy before the temps climb to the 102˚F it is expected to get up to today. It is June in Tucson! It is 80˚F at 8 a.m. The humidity has risen a bit from a few days ago, thank heavens, to 13%, so it isn’t quite as dehydrating to just breathe as it was. Did I mention it is hot?
I’m consciously trying to put more of my self into my writing. I am not disclosing more, in fact I may well disclose fewer personal “facts” as my voice takes on more of my personality. I know exactly when I found my writing voice. It was when I wrote Art, Angst & Zeitgeist which I published on July 24th, 2002. But then I became distracted by a little old thing called War that had evolved from the invasion of Iraq and turned into the occupation of Iraq. I wrote as Pink Tucson from 2004 to 2007 and published on various blogs, but that was only a part of my self. My truest depiction of myself is as a Late Boomer. I can’t help it. I am from the very top of the demographic birth bubble that was the post WWII baby boom. That boom peaked in 1957 and I was born smack dab in the middle of that year. Sid Vicious and I were both born mid-May of that year. Others in the “oh my god, where are we going to put them all” year of 1957 include: Judge Reinhold, Spike Lee, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, LeVar Burton, Melanie Griffith, Gloria Estefan, Lyle Lovett, Vanna White, and Osama bin Laden, Katie Couric… you get the idea. Not exactly Hippie Boomers, now are we?
I started thinking about compadres this a.m. when I sat down to write. I then flipped on Pandora and it was on an ambient/new age “station” and when I went to change it over to something that had a better chance of playing Neko Case, Natalie Merchant, or Calexico, I saw that the piece that was playing on the spa music station was by Rick Wakeman. My ex from my errant youth imagined himself a Rick Wakeman type guy. He wasn’t, but he listened to Yes, long after I decided Patti Smith was more my type. Somehow it struck me as hysterically funny that the trip-meister, rock icon is making elevator and massage music! This was in juxtaposition to stumbling over, pre-coffee, to a fellow politico, nablopomo sojourner at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News who is big into sustainability, but grabbed my attention with reference to The Mote in God’s Eye and Van Halen’s Jump. The inclusion of these two refs suggest that this guy is no spring chicken. Now, say, with reference to, er, Peter Gabriel, for example, you don’t know if you are talking to some panty waist Gen X-er or a British Art rock devotee from the early-mid 1970s. But Van Halen? I resisted the urge to mention him in reference to “Jump” which is the nablopomo theme for this month because he is so 70s and reminds me of all the things I was glad to get away from when I left the mid-west where the 1970s never left.
Okay…. now to get to the corporate liars part of this post” – watch this little split cam presentation about how the duplicitous right was trying to set up Planned Parenthood by lying with film so as to have “evidence” for the ridiculous legislation introduced, and defeated, this past week. They sent this woman out to attempt to entrap a social worker who actually mentioned adoption and was very non-judgmental with a client who was obviously psychotic or an actor. This is a Huffington Post clip that I found that perfectly captures the lying, manipulation, and attempted entrapment that is mainstream right-wing politics. The article that highlights the heavily edited sting video is here.
After I watched this comparison video, I did some digging into sex-selective child abuse via a U.S. government statistics in a report entitled, Child Maltreatment 2010, which is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/index.htm#can. It does not exist from what I can tell per the extensive, fifty-state coverage of data in this 200 plus page report. If there was any sex selective abortion being widely practiced in this country, it would also show up in sex selective child abuse and death, which it doesn’t. This whole thing is so contrived it would be ridiculous if it wasn’t intended to limit the rights of women to legal and necessary healthcare.
Hmmm….. self? This was supposed to be a post about “self.” I guess I’m a progressive, pissed off, action-prone, multiple genre music lover, and Late Boomer.