Left, Right, and Center--My Family Has It All

My brother, with whom I spent the last two days in Vermont, is decidedly apolitical, but I can`t say the same for a cousin we decided to visit and another cousin who called from Las Vegas.  That would be Eddie, the black jack dealer who`s actually called into my show from time to time.  Eddie would represent the moderate element of our family.  He dislikes his senator Harry Reid (although not as much I dislike him--no one could top me there--I loathe Harry Reid more than any other human being on the political scene) but Eddie was never too big on Sharon Engle either.  I got the sense he`d like to see this debt ceiling issue settled to everyone`s satisfaction.

Not me.

I remain with the freshman tea party Republicans who are unwilling to compromise.  We need to face this overspending now, once and for all, and unfortunatey, a crisis is the only way we`ll ever do it.  There may be some short term pain, but that`s nothing compared to the pain we`ll be passng on to future generations if we fail to swallow tough medicine prior to August 2.    This crisis is like a two by four which we need to use to hit the big spenders in Washington over the head (figuratively speaking of course; I wouldn`t want to arouse the wrath of people like kathythes with any politically incorrect metaphors).

But I digress.  The point is I am decidedly more conservative than Eddie from Las Vegas, but the cousin--my age--we visited in Middlebury is another story completely.  Mind you, these are all relatives from my mother`s side of the family.  My grandfather (Welch American, a farmer and part-time gambler--illegally of course) and most of his children--my aunts and uncles-- were of Yankee Republican stock, most assuredly conservatives.

But as I`ve noted in the past, Vermont has done a 100 percent turnaround since I grew up there in the 60s as was evident from my conversation with this cousin.  I suspect she`s an extreme left winger, and my suspicions were realized to the point where my brother and her husband kept trying to change the subject when she and I got into politics.

While we`re all social libertarians--and proud of it--there`s a strain that`s developed in my conservative family that could best be descibed (I trust she doesn`t follow my blog) as left wing loonies.  Let`s tax the rich more, especially big oil companies, she insisted.  It was almost like she was parroting Rachel Madcow and MSNBC talking points.

I knew we`d disagree but she kept asking my opinion, and you know me, I couldn`t lie.  I told her what I`ve been saying here for months.  Government must live within its means, but I`ve actually added a new twist.  Pointing out that more than 50 percent of Americans pay no taxes at all, I ran this idea up the flag pole--we should all pay the same taxes.  You mean, her husband intoned, the same percentage of taxes.  Actually, no that`s not what I mean.  We should all pay the same amount in terms of real dollars, an idea so radical I readily admit, that I`ve never voiced it before nor have I heard anyone else.

I hope I wasn`t saying it just to get her goat, but that`s exactly what it did.  Remember in the past I`ve mentioned my cousin Kurt who just barely lost out in the race for Mayor of Burlington a few years ago.  I thought Kurt was the most conservative of all of us, but this cousin from Middlebury said I`m worse than Kurt (or better than Kurt depending on where one comes from).

Oh my...at least we`re all for such things as gay marriage.  In fact while I was helping to get it passed here last term, cousin Kurt was one of a handful of Vermont Republicans who joined Democrats there in overriding the gubernatorial veto.

When it comes to fiscal policy, I sense my mother`s family has all corners of the political spectrum covered, but apparently the most liberal ones are still living in Vermont while Eddie and I are long gone.

It`s far safer to talk about how nieces and nephews and distant cousins are doing.  I guess my apolitical brother has the right idea, but hey, that`s what a trip to Vermont (circa 2011; with its socialist Senator) will produce.  Next time, I guess I should catch a plane to Las Vegas.

Channeling Ethan Allen and George Aiken

Dateline:  Bixby Library, Vergennes, Vermont

Thursday, July 28, 2011

For the second time this summer, apparently I'm going to make it back to Vermont (where I was born) and fail to get footage of President Chester Arthur's birthplace in Fairfield up near the Canadian border.  I've long contended that Arthur is arguably the least known American President (right up there with Millard Fillmore), but apparently he's so obscure that the state of Vermont doesn't do much with his homestead.

Vermont tourism tells me the home, located off a dirt road nonetheless, is only open weekends and Monday holidays even in the summer.  I'd rather spend the weekend in Montreal for Divers Cite, so it looks like I'll miss out on Arthur again--maybe Labor Day.

For some reason, I suspect getting a quick look at the house without the inside being open would be sufficient, but then I'm beginning to suspect that it might not even be worth the trip over dirty back roads.  Maybe I should give up on Arthur, and head to Fort Ticonderoga, just across Lake Champlain from Shoreham, Vermont, where I lived the first ten years of my life (my brother was six months old when we moved to Vergennes).  "Fort Ti" was important in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.  As we Vermonters know, Ethan Allen, leader of the Green Mountain Boys, captured it "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress".  Cannons were then hauled overland from New York down to Boston to help relieve the siege of that city, forcing the British to move on down to take New York.  As you'll note here, Allen (actually born in Connecticut) died young, probably from overindulgence in alcohol (not the first or last Vermonter to so succumb--hey, I have dispensation to criticize this state--I was born here).  Of course, if you google Ethan Allen, most likely you'll get the furniture, not the patriot.

Ethan Allen
January 21, 1738 (1738-01-21) – February 12, 1789 (1789-02-13) (aged 51)

History abounds in this area I grew up in, and when I was growing up in Vermont in the 50s and 60s, it wasn't the socialist republican (with Bernie Sanders as senator) than we know today.  Only one Democrat, Governor Phil Hoff, was ever elected here in my childhood.  Republican senators like the great George Aiken (who said we should simply declare victory in Vietnam and come home) and Winton Prouty held sway.  I suppose they would be RINOs by today's standards, but at least they weren't socialists like Bernie who's made the news this week by suggesting that Obama isn't liberal enough and needs a challenge from the Democrat (or socialist) left.

My brother, upon watching my B52s concert footage from the Fourth of July, was interested in just how old lead singer Fred Schneider is.  I should have googled it before I filmed the concert because he turned 60 on Canada Day, July 1, three days prior to the concert in Montreal.  Fred is exactly five months older than I am.  Unbelievably, Kate Pierson (the redhead) is 64; Cindy Wilson is only 55.  Keith Strickland, who I thought was 47, is in fact 57.  If we're lucky, we're all getting older.  In fact, my brother was talking about two teachers I had back in 1968-69; they've both retired now, but still live in the area (once a Vermonter, always a Vermonter for some, but not me).

I've checked out the Burlington Free Press the last two days, and there's nothing on the front page about the crisis in Washington over the debt ceiling.  It made page 5.

This library in which I blog is far less regimented than Manchester where one is limited to an hour of computer time.  Here, just stay on until someone else shows up and wants to cut in.  That's apparently the Vermont way.

Things are different here, not necessarily better, but certainly different.

Around the corner in this library is were I researched my longest term paper ever.  We had to choose an American author when I was in 11th grade.  I did 40 pages, replete with traced cartoons, of the great (albeit sad) humorist James Thurber (Walter Mitty).  In college, I don't think any papers were longer than 12 pages, but then Goebbels and Goring weren't in the same league as Thurber.

I'm off to some historical site somewhere... 

Channeling Christian Ebsen...Come In Buddy

Two confessions are in order, nothing serious, kinda fun actually.

Last Saturday I discovered the Manchester library has gone to a 2:30 closing hour--nothing wrong with that; we cut back funding, they cut back hours.  You can't have one without the other; government cannot be all things to all people.

But here's the confession.  When I have an hour or two to spare, as I unexpectedly did Saturday, I admit to shopping at Building 19.  In fact, not only do I shop there, I browse and revel in the sociological experience. 

For book lovers, it's a bargain paradise, not new releases mind you, but you can find older books of all types marked off not just 20 or 30 percent, but priced at 80 or 90 percent off.

A $45 book--quite the tome--on the history of comedy in America (based on the TV series "Make 'em Laugh") was $8;  come back next week and it'll probably be $4.

Another heavy, literally, book on the first 50 years of baseball was marked down from $40 to $4.

An almanac, albeit two years old, went for $2, and not only did I scoop it up, I used it immediately--to find out that the population of Norway is about what I thought.  It's actually 4,700,000 or so, about 1.5 percent of the U.S. population.  Do the match, and a proportional basis, that massacre in Oslo last weekend would have amounted to 6000 or so people killed in the U.S., roughly twice the amount killed on 9-11.  That's one way of grasping the impact on the Norwegian people.

Thanks Building 19.

Ah, but here's confession number two.  In 1962, I was 10 years old living in Vergennes, Vermont (where I'm actually writing this blog today, the Bixby Memorial Library).  Like 40 or 50 million Americans, I was hooked on The Beverly Hillbillies--I admit it; critics hated it, but people loved it.  I loved it then and still do, especially the early episodes.

For $1 at Building 19, I scooped up "The Beverly Hillbillies, From the Small Screen to the Big Screen The Complete Guide to America's All Time Favoite Show".

Struggling to get through a new biography of Noah Webster, I decided what ta heck (whoops, I'm slipping into hillbilly lingo).  Let's just take a quick peak at the Hillbilly book. 

Not.

I read the whole thing.  It's the best dollar I've ever spent.

For example, the episode "The Giant Jackrabbit" in which Granny mistakes a kangaroo for a rabbit (oh, those zany hillbillies--out by the cee-ment pond) grabbed the highest rating for a single half hour in the history of television.  It aired January 8, 1964 (I believe I was watching right here in Vergennes, at the house I slept in last night--my brother lives there still) and scored an unbelievable 65 share and 44.0 rating, five or six times what most shows get today.

But this is supposed to be a political blog, and I discovered a true political gem in this book.

Buddy Ebsen Jr. (first name Christian) achieved early fame on Walt Disney's Davy Crockett series.  He closed out his career in another hit, Barnaby Jones, but in between, he was the ultimate iconoclastic figure, J.D. (Jed Clampett).  On any number of very hot or very cold days, I found myself channeling Jed Clampett's line, "Well, doggie" as in "Well doggie, sure is hot today."

But did you know that, unlike many Hollywood stars today, Buddy Ebsen was an unapologetic conservative?

Not only that, but he helped determine the outcome of a 1984 Congressional election in Pennsylvania's ninth Congressional district.  Liberal Nancy Kulp, Miss Jane (banker Drysdales' secretary on the Hillbillies) decided to act on her urge to run for office.  She poured a lot of her own money into the race and apparently was claiming to have the support of her Hillbilly castmates (the show ended in 1971).

What she didn't count on was that Christian Ebsen Jr. (Uncle Jed) was not only not in her corner; he was very much against her.  Apparently, they had argued politics on the Hillbilly set frequently, and Christian was not about to let Miss Jane have a free path to Congress.

But let Stephen Cox, author of the $1 book from Building 19, tell the story.  "Ebsen recorded a detrimental 30 second radio spot that opposed Kulp.  Her opponent broadcast the advertisement frequently, and Kulp felt she lost because of it." 

The two actors weren't on speaking terms for years but apparently reconciled when they ran into each other by chance at a restaurant shortly before Nancy Kulp died in 1991.

I recall having heard that story in the past--maybe even as it happened in 1984, but it's great to relive, and I wouldn't have it to share but for two passions--my desire to browse at Building 19 and a lifetime love of the greatest TV show in history (move over Lucy, move over Seinfeld), the story of those good-hearted, wayward millionaires from the Ozarks.

Now, I'm sure you'll want to hear about how Max Baer felt about dressing in drag to play Jethrine, about Donna Douglas and the animals (she actually loved them all), about Irene Ryan who brought Granny to life, not to mention Raymond Drysdale (Mr. Drysdale) who apparently was a real s.o.b. to work with.

You can read about it all for just a dollar and a trip to Building 19...or apparently it's only one penny (plus postage) on ebay.

Media Watch--Fox's Five at Five Fails

When Fox let Glenn Beck, with his boffo ratings in the 5 p.m. time slot, slip away to form his own internet network, some genius (Roger Ailes comes to mind) decided that it would take at least five people to replace the great one.

In fact, from the blurb the network put out, it's more than five people who are filling the slot in the new 5 p.m. show called The Five. 

Caution.  Don't get too used to it.  While I have no ratings' numbers to verify this claim, this show has all the earmarks of a first rate failure and very well could be gone by the end of the summer.

It's bascially five talking heads, usually four conservatives or Libertarians plus former Democrat drug addict Bob Beckel, sitting around a table trying to fill an hour dissceting the issues of the day.

Please note.  I do not call Beckel a former drug addict to disparage the man but rather to point out how sick and tired I am--already--of hearing him constantly allude to his history of drug abuse.  Enough already, Bob, we don't care about your sordid personal past.  Actually, we do care about your his political past--he was at the helm of one of the worst campaigns in American history, Mondale carrying his home state of Minnesota and nothing else in 1984 against Ronald Reagan.

Why should we trust the opinion of any left wing partisan who lost 49 states?  When Beckel isn't talking about his own sorry past, he's using words like punk and anarchist to describe those who disagree with him or he's making funny faces into the camera.  He utters the words "tea party" with more disdain than most people use when they swear.  Hey Bob, these people you so despise were voted into office because of the mess Obama made.  Beckel calls Obama the best economic president since FDR--hard to tell whether he's being serious or silly, but either way, ENOUGH FROM THIS CLOWN!

This is supposed to peak our interest in the spot Beck left behind?

The other four (usually) are libertarian Greg Gutfeld whoM I enjoy tremendously as the Red Eye host at 3 a.m. (but he's overexposed at 5), former Bush media person Dana Perino (her parroting the GOP party line is as tiresome as Beckel saying when Democrats want us to hear), business person Eric Bolling, and Andrea Tantaros.

In its p.r. blurb, Fox allurdes to others who sit in-- one of my favorites, libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano, Ron Williams (pushing his new book these days), Monica Crowley, and Kimberly "I'm Still 100 percent Sure Casey Anthony Was Guilty" Guilfoyle.  Boo to her especially.

No matter who the five are, this show is doomed to fail, hopefully sooner rather than later.  Fox risks overexposing too many from its limited talent pool--a little Beckel goes a long way!  If worse comes to worse, the network can always move Red Eye from the 3 a.m. slot to 5 p.m.--that show is far superior to the 5 although it's true, Bill Shultz is no Bob Beckel, and the halftime man Andy Levy is no Dana Perino, thank the cosmos gods for small favors. 

Union Leader Hypocrasy--Last Friday, the Union Leader ran an editorial about how few people had filed for Manchester city offices.  Tuesday, as most of the slate had been filled, the same paper ran another editorial congratulating those who filed.  But guess what?

In between, the paper that was so concerned about people filing ran ZERO stories announcing what a great turnout there was at the last minute. 

I checked the Saturday paper.  Nothing.

I checked the Sunday paper.  Nothing despite the fact that there was a lengthy city hall column that day.  Apparently it was written prior to 5 p.m. Friday, and heaven forbid, no one at William Loeb Drive would muster enough brain power to come up with the idea of updating the story.

I checked the Monday paper.  Again, nothing about the filings.

Then Tuesday, the same day the second editorial ran, there was a story which mentioned some but by no means all of the people who signed up Friday.  For example, there was no mention that I'd signed up to run in Ward 8--don't get me wrong, I never expect to be treated fairly by this paper.  In fact, I expect to be maligned.  However, the story mentioned the other candidate running in Ward 8 but not me, and one would think the paper would have been happy that I helped fill the slots they were so concerned about Friday.  That's cleary beyond the reasoning capacity of W and his minions.

You just can't make this sutff up.

I wasn't the only candidate that Manchester voters still know nothing about if they get their news from this poor excuse for a paper.  To borrow a phrase from Dr. Henry Lee in the O.J. Simpson trial (remember O.J.?--a guy who was just as not guilty as Casey Anthony), "Something wrong."

When I do a better job reporting on this blog what's going on than a lame stream media source, "Something wrong", espcially when the paper had so recently commented editorially about the lack of candidates.

Oh, by the way, Union Leader publisher W, editorial page writer, city hall columnist, top political columnist (and others) all receive everything I blog here, including my Monday blog entitled "Why I Do Choose To Run".  As always, they cannot claim ignorance as an excuse for their incompetence.

Monitor Discovers Humor--While the Union Leader is busy ignoring the news, the Concord Monitor has decided that comedy shows contain great news value.  In attack pieces against New Hampshire Republicans, the Sunday column duo and other Monitor staffers just had to get in references to John Stewart's The Daily Show and something that crazy man Keith Oberman did to attack the NH GOP.  Actually, I appreciate mention in the Monitor because I don't get Comedy Central and I'm not sure anybody gets whatever channel Oberman has surfaced on, so without the Monitor, I never would have known how the national folks are apparently so hard up for comedy gems (apparently Obaman's lies about the debt ceiling just aren't good enough) that they would have to scrounge around here to New Hampshire. 

Speaker Bill O'Brien should feel honored.  After all, left wing loonies only attack threats to a status quo which has led this country down the road to ruin, not that you'd know that by watching Stewart and Oberman, but then I really can't say that because--I repeat--I don't watch them except when other media pick up their comments.  There was something today about Stewart staring blankly into the camera when the Anointed One asked people to call their congressmen to complain about the lack of a debt ceiling compromise. 

Think the Monitor will cover that bit?  I doubt it.

More Politically Alert Is Live Again--There's been a change of plans.  Last week, I announced that More Politically Alert would be pre-empted this Wednesday night for an hour On The Road show I did July 1-4 in Canada, "Jazz, Fireworks, Art, and Fun 2-0-1-1".  I had planned to leave early Wednesday in search of Chester Arthur's birthplace and other fun stuff for use in August, but I've decided that so much is going on that I'll stick around and do a live edition of MPA Wednesday night on Manchester TV23 at 9 p.m. (rebroadcast Thursday at 9 p.m., Sunday at noon, and next Tuesday at 11 p.m.--always available at vimeo.com/channels/mpa).  I'll leave for Vermont after the show and arrive at my brother's in the wee hours and hopefully get to the Arthur home in Fairfield tomorrow.

The On The Road show will air in a special slot on Channel 23 this weekend.  I'll announce when during MPA.

We'll talk redistricting of Manchester wards (time ran out before I got to it last week) along with what will most likely turn into a debt ceiling rant.  I'll either use Love Shack or Party Out of Bounds as my B-52s cut of the week, from their July 4 concert which I filmed live in Montreal.  Thanks to the still existing West side library, I'll be accompaned by the B's as I head out tonight.  They procured three B cds on interlibrary loan, so I'll be rocking and frugging by the time I hit White River around midnight.

I should have another hour of concert footage (from a group called the Boogie Wonder Band which covers 70s and 80s disco stuff) next week.  Hey, it beats Fox's Five At Five.

Did Cultural Affairs Lie To House Finance?

Remember the controversy over four library vans last winter and spring when the state budget was being formulated in House Finance?

Most probably do not remember, but I sure do because when I asked if it was really necessary to have as many as four vans which run around the state for interlibrary loan books (a good thing), Cultural Affairs Director Van MacLeod insisted that oh yes, these vans are 100 percent federally funded so that state would not save a penny by reducing the number even if we wanted to.

My point was that while I probably use the service more than any other State Representative, during tough times economically then we all are forced to cut back, I really don't need to get a book in a day or two.  I could wait a week or even more--I often wait more than a month for popular books which are being read by others--if the state could save money.

Oh no, that wouldn't save any money, Director MacLeod assured us.  It's all federal money.

We in the House accepted that; apparently the Senate did as well because no monies were cut for the vans, and an amendment was inserted in House Bill 2, over the objections of the State Librarian I'm told--to ask for a study to see whether these federal funds could not be used more wisely.

Fast forward to this week.  Having seen the author of a book of John Stossell over the weekend, A Renegade History of the U.S.--I asked the Manchester library if they could get it for me.  The clerk discovered that Derry has the book and they'll get it, but she cautioned, it might take a few extra days because interlibrary loan service has been cut back due to funding cuts.

How could that be I wondered when Director MacLeod swore up and down that we couldn't cut back on this federall funded services.

Anxious to pen a letter to the Speaker and Senate President, I decided I better not take the word of a library clerk, so I asked to see Manchester's head librarian. Oh yes, she assured me.  Van service (not Van MacLeod but interlibrary loan vans) has been cut in half.  Manchester used to get five deliveries a week at the main branch and one at the West Side branch, six in all.  It's been cut to three at the main branch and none for the still-in-existence (although only open three days a week--that's another story) West branch.

"How can that be?" I wondered although the Manchester librarian was clearly not the peson to ask.  She said somthing about the federal funds being supplemented by state funds and a position was eliminated, something Director MacLeod never told House Finance.  Even if it's true (trust but verify), how can service be cut in half when one part-time van driver is let go and four still remain full time (with federal funds).

As has so often happened this year, my spider senses are tingling.  The explanation just doesn't make sense.  I fear that cultural affairs folks are using monies we never intended be taken away from libraries...perhaps keep art programs going.

Could it be?

To quote one of my favorite B-52s lines, "I'm just askin".

Getting to the bottom of this gambit will undoubtedly require hours of phone calls and letters back and forth, and as you may have heard, Speaker O'Brien has decided to allow State House use for Reps for the month of June unless we're on statutory committees.  Hey, that'll make kathythes happy, and undoubtedly Van MacLeod since Van won't have to answer for what he's doing with van money.

In fact, I'm writing this at the main Manchester library now--I'm not computerized at home and never will be--it's too much like work--and my time is running ou