At The Zoo!

Inspiration: while contacting my blue-dog congressman about health care, I noticed his website had an invitation for contituents to come visit his D.C. office and his staff will arrange a personalized tour of Washington D.C. and a free memorial U.S. flag! OMG! An invitation to the congressional zoo ... a chance to observe homo politcus in its natural habitat! caution: many links ahead ... cue music ...

Something tells me it's all happening AT THE ZOO. I do believe it; I do believe it's true ...





The monkeys stand for HONESTY












Giraffes are INSINCERE








And the elephants are kindly but they're DUMB.







Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages











And the ZOOKEEPER is very fond of rum.









Zebras are REACTIONARIES









Antelopes are MISSIONARIES









Pigeons PLOT IN SECRECY












And hamsters TURN ON frequently ...







WHAT A GAS!




yeah, baby ...

You gotta come and see!




AT THE ZOO ...









AT THE ZOOOOOO ...
Lest you think I'm too flippy today, I'll close with the more somber American Tune, still valid after all these years ...

We the People eat Fruit Salad ...

Invitation found stuck on my front door regarding a neighborhood rally: "WE THE PEOPLE invite you to join your neighbors for an informational meeting about protecting your rights. Learn about our constitution and government. Don't miss this opportunity to get involved. Fruit salad will be served."

Suspecting this "WE THE PEOPLE" group to be a spawn of the Tea Baggers or Birthers, I had no interest in attending. The Tea Baggers held local rallies here over the 4th of July weekend featuring T-Shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs sporting old tired propaganda about Obama not being an american. yessiree. time warp.

But as fate would have it, tonight the D.K. family found themselves walking our dog near the neighborhood park where the "Fruit Salad" being served by WE THE PEOPLE was already in progress. We witnessed a small gathering of people rapturously listening to a lively speaker. As we drew closer, our ears began picking up isolated words like, "Hitler" and "Propaganda Machine".

Taking our time walking the dog around the perimeter of the gathering, we were able to hear more than we cared to about how Obama is worse than Hitler, about how socialism and communism are taking over america, about how it is now up to the people to revolt and take back their government. Hoping to hear HOW they intend to this, something that eluded democrats during Bush's 8-year reign of constitutional assault, we hung around long enough to understand that their insidious plans include, gasp, the compilation of an email list in order to alert fellow like-minded people of further Hitlerian activities as they occur!

Jeez, we thought, is that the weapon they intend to fight Hitler with, an email list? Needless to say we did not eat any fruit salad, which in any case had attracted more flies than people to the rally. The lack of people who showed up did not go unnoticed by the speaker who taunted, "your neighbors are AFRAID to show up because they are anti-christian." REALLY? In the most religious state in america, my neighborhood is full of christian-haters? Good to know!

I think what we witnessed is an example of the mental break-down of right-wingers who just cannot stand it anymore. It's happening in every state to those who follow the ravings of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, et al. I feel kind of sorry for them because they are apparently experiencing the same feelings of powerlessness that many of us felt for eight long bush-years ... not sorry enough to suppress my inner glee, but as long as they stick to verbal or email rallies, they are not violating any laws, assuming they are not promoting violence.

I didn't always feel so tolerant, but after viewing the HBO documentary, "Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech", I feel pretty good about resisting my urge to shout at my fruit salad eating neighbors ... where was their constitutional concern when Bush was suspending Habeus Corpus, extending Illegal Wiretaps, invading a Foreign Country based on a pack of lies, setting himself up as a Wartime President with unprecedented powers, using fear to enact The Patriot Act, implementing free speech zones and loyalty oaths, etc/etc/etc????

{Link to 1-minute Promo YouTube for "Shouting Fire"} ... produced by Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus. The whole documentary is definitely worth seeing, especially the conclusion about how our first amendment rights will continue to be adversely affected for at least the next 30-years by Bush's "young" Supreme court appointments. And yes, that is Prof Ward Churchill saying 'kiss my ass' in the promo (click his name to read the "manifesto" that got him fired from Univ Colorado Boulder).

Final D.K. thought of the day: avoid the fruit salad at any neighborhood rally, especially if Hitler is being discussed! Luckily we had already eaten our dinner, which included the salad pictured, and so were able to leave the rally with our brains still intact.

Singing Dolphin Dreams

George Clooney sang to me last night. His voice was not pleasant. In fact, it was so high-pitched, it hurt my ears, like dolphin chatter. Maybe that's why I couldn't get the song he sang out of my mind all day today.

Of course, I am speaking of a dream I had in which George Clooney appeared ... not in the way that a woman might wish him to appear in her dreams, but as a singer ... a very pushy singer who made sure his song sung in a dolphin-voice would not be forgotten.

Since I can't get the words of the song out of my head, I will post it. I think that's what Dolphin-Clooney was trying to tell me to do by singing it so obnoxiously. Hey, who am I to argue with either Dolphin-Clooney or my unconscious mind?

Here are the words, straight from my George Clooney dream to your eyes (blogger not responsible for bad prose imparted in dreams):

"Quiet as a blinking eyelash
Watching waiting for our time
Thirty years is now completed
Time for roaring like a lion.

"Rising like a Grand Tsunami
Riding on a Sea of Green
Thirsty for a taste of freedom
Trust us after thirty years.

"People soft and people harder
Call to heaven, hear their plea:
Cast the tyrants out of power
Trust us after thirty years."

Now, I don't often bother to analyze my dreams, but this one is obviously about Iran. Thirty years refers back to the original Islamic Revolution in 1979. The rest is easy to figure out.

There was one very odd occurance that happened yesterday evening that might have prodded my subconscious brain in this dream's direction. It happened when the D.K. family took our dog for his evening walk. Even though we waited until 9 PM, temps were still in the 90's. In one direction we could see and hear a big fireworks display. Lots of red, white and blue bombs bursting in air! In the other direction there was not much visible in the dark except for the vague outline of a 10,000-ft tall mountain about 20-miles away.

As we were walking toward the mountain, a green light appeared, floating above the barely visible mountain profile. I've never seen anything like it. It reminded me of an occulting green lighthouse light, except the ocean is about 1,000-miles away. It stayed lit, a pure green pulsating light, for about half an hour, then it disappeared.

And the whole time we were walking towards the green light, all I could think of was the Sea of Green that has become the symbol of the Iranian Protests.

The dolphin singing voice remains unexplained as does George Clooney himself (I have NEVER dreamed of him before)!

ps, the light was not borealis like this photo, but it was this color of bright green against a dark sky, which created a similar eerie effect. My mountain light was more pinpointed, more like a lighthouse light. It was not an antennae tower, which in any case, flash RED lights, not green...very odd.

July 4th, Fake and Real ...

Click here for the full page NYT news you WISH was true. The whole thing is a spoof, brought to you by The Yes Men.

July 4, 2009 NYT Edition: "All the News We Hope to Print" ...

Iraq War Ends (troops to return immediately)!

Maximum Wage Law Passed (limiting top salaries to 15 times the minimum wage)!

USA Patriot Act Repealed (a shame-faced congress confesses they only just realized they had the power to do this)!

Evangelicals Open Their Homes to Refugees (limited to the first million Iraqi citizens to qualify, or one-half of the estimated number, whichever is less)!

Ex-Secretary Apologizes for W.M.D. Scare (Condi, not Rummie of course, wants us to rest assured that if there had been even the slightest intelligence that Saddam had real W.M.D. to use against our troops, the Bush Administration would never have sent hundreds of thousands of them to invade Iraq)!

Nationalized Oil to Fund Climate Change Efforts (placing ExxonMobil, Chevron Texaco and other major oil companies under public stewardship, profits to go in a public trust administered by the United Nations, to be used for alternative energy research and development in order to solve the global climate crisis)!

*****DK Note: the above fake July 4th NYT was distributed on the streets of New York this morning. apparently New Yorkers realized immediately that it was a hoax and began using them to wrap day-old fish for garbage pick-up. a few of the less smelly papers have been retrieved as collector's items to be placed in the National Museum of Hope, which due to lack of urban public interest, expects to soon become another rural roadside oddity along with the 2-headed snakes and 6-legged chicken attractions tempting those few brave tourists who venture off the Disney Summer Vacation Trail.*****

And in other news that I first thought was another fake-out, but has been revealed as the ultimate Friday news dump, Sarah Palin has announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska. While I feel happy for the people in Alaska, I do confess to some fear for the caribou, wolves, polar bears and other Alaskan wildlife now that Ms Aerial Huntress will soon find herself with more free time on her hands.

What do you think she's up to? A phony Fox consultancy, or something more ambitious? BTW, that is a fake flag-bikini'd Palin photo, but it goes so perfectly with her announcement on this eve of July 4th, I couldn't resist.

Read: Paul Begala was reminded of a famous Hunter Thompson quote in his analysis of Palin's rambling and infantile mind.

Have a safe and happy July 4th, everyone!