ANDREW'S TIKI LOUNGE HAS MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION!!!

Dear Blog Pals,

I am pleased to announce that Andrew's Tiki Lounge has moved to a new location!

My friends at the Waterloo Region Record have given the Tiki Lounge a wonderful new home. You can access the weird and wild world of the Tiki Lounge by clicking HERE. Other than the location, nothing really changes. You will still get the same news and views from a Jeffersonian/humanitarian/irreverent/Canadian-American perspective.

I am still going to leave the Old Tiki Lounge open for business, but new posts will appear on the New and Improved Tiki Lounge.

Please join me at the New Tiki Lounge. I look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Andrew Hunt
Proprietor, Andrew's Tiki Lounge

Campaign Trail Follies of 08 (part 2)

The S.S. McCain: One Rapidly Sinking Ship!: You know things aren't going well for John McCain's presidential campaign when the candidate attacks the media for being too biased in favor of the "other guy." In a combination mass email and YouTube video, the McCain campaign declared, "It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair. The media is in love with Barack Obama. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny." To the tune of the 1960s' hit "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," the video shows images of influential media figures swooning over Senator Barack Obama. Sad. Very sad. These are the tactics of a desperate, go-nowhere campaign. And this isn't the only troubling sign -- not by a long shot. Campaign deserters tell tales of entire communities without any real McCain campaign presence. The refusal by the New York Times to print an op-ed piece by McCain added to his woes. The extensive media coverage of Obama's recent trip overseas also heightened frustrations in the McCain camp. As conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh noted, "My prediction is that the coverage of Obama on this trip will be oriented toward countering the notion he has no idea what he is talking about on foreign policy and defence issues and instead will prop him up as a qualified statesman. McCain, on the other hand, is a known quantity on these issues and his position does not excite nor fit the mainstream media's narrative on Iraq and Afghanistan, so they simply ignore it and him." Then McCain was stung by the news that one of his big donors, Craig Berkman, is being sued in a fraud case and has been ordered to pay $28 million in damages. Arr, me maties! From where I'm standin', the S.S. McCain don't look none too seaworthy!

The Gutter Gazette Strike Again: The National Enquirer is reporting that former North Carolina senator John Edwards "met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21"and left the Hilton (in Beverly Hills, California) in the wee hours of the morning. The Enquirer is insisting that Edwards and Hunter had a "love child" together (what a nasty term). Luckily, the story has failed to get much play in the mainstream media. Edwards, easily the most progressive and humane political leader out there, is now in the midst of trying to launch his own one-man War on Poverty. He is busily touring the country, speaking out for a higher minimum wage, improved medical insurance for the poor and other measures to protect the jobs and livelihoods of ordinary, working-class families. A Rocky Mountain News headline said it all: "John Edwards passion to war against poverty." No other politician is out there fighting the good fight on behalf of the poor as aggressively as Edwards. Unfortunately, the sleazy Enquirer has never given a damn about the plight of the poor in America. All they want to do is destroy good people and good reputations -- as long as it translates into selling copies. Let's hope this story stays in the gutter where it belongs. Edwards, more than anyone else I know, deserves a prominent spot in the new Obama White House.

A Watershed Year for Democrats?: A recent article in the British Guardian quoted New York senator Charles Schumer is predicting several Democratic victories in Red States this fall. So far, poll after poll seems to support this prediction. Local state polls show Obama way out ahead in most races. Nationwide, the numbers tell the same story. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll says Senator Obama leads Senator McCain by 47 per cent to 41 per cent for the November 4 election. Senator Schumer predicted a watershed for the Democratic Party this fall that may rival that of 1932. He said, "Every generation, generation and a half, there are these dramatic changes, and if they're permanent they are governed by people's relationship to government." In a letter to the Republican leadership earlier this year, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) expressed his concerns: "The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worse since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006." But the battle is far from over. The Chicago Tribune's political reporter Matthew Hay Brown's latest Blog entry is appropriately headlined, "Dems: Beware 'Irrational Exuberance.'" Or, as Han Solo told Luke Skywalker, "Don't get cocky kid!"

Give Those Girls a Raise!: Finally, from People magazine comes the news that Obama gives his daughters, Malia (10) and Sasha (7) a $1 a week allowance. $1??? Come on, Senator, you can do better than that. If you win the race for the presidency -- no, no, no... make that, when you win -- in November, you have got to give those girls a raise. According to People, they do a lot of work around the house (and on the campaign trail, too!).

Hello! Reality check! These days, $1 a week just doesn't cut it. In fact, it hasn't cut it since, oh, 1971. Get with the times!

From the Nixon Files: Nuggets of Wisdom From Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon on Italians: "They're not like us. They smell different, they look different, they act different. The trouble is, you can't find one that's honest."

Richard Nixon, Man of the People: "This would be an easy job if you didn't have to deal with people."

Richard Nixon on Golf: "By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you've blown seven hours."

Richard Nixon offers Reassuring Words: "Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too."

Finally, Pat Nixon on Her Husband's Peculiar Nocturnal Habits: "Nobody could sleep with Dick. He wakes up during the night, switches on the lights, speaks into his tape recorder."

Honoring the Noble Side of America: The New Civil Rights Memorial in Richmond, Virginia

It was thrilling to see the dedication of the new Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, the "Heart of the Confederacy." The statue honors an early and largely forgotten episode in the history of the Civil Rights Movement: A 1951 protest, led by local activist Barbara Johns, against the deplorable conditions in the all-black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The main goal of the protesters was to push for a new and improved school house. They ended up becoming pioneers in the infancy of the Civil Rights Movement, several years before Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat on a public transit bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Many of the older figures depicted in the statue -- including protest organizer Barbara Johns (who passed away in 1991) -- are now dead. Sadly, they did not live to see the day when a glorious statue honoring their noble work was dedicated on the grounds of the state Capitol, where the Confederate Flag once flapped proudly in the wind.

A great deal has changed since 1951. Now, an African American is the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States and he stands an excellent chance of winning the election in November. If you could somehow go back to 1951 and tell Barbara Johns or any of the other protest participants that one day, there would be a statue honoring them in the heart of Dixie, or that an African American man would be running for the highest office in the land, or even that black and white kids would one day sit in the same classroom together, they'd probably think you were a foolish, wide-eyed idealist; maybe even a raving nutjob. Back in the dark days before the Civil Rights Movement, virtually nobody -- not even liberals -- envisioned the day when the virulent Jim Crow racism so pervasive across the American South would become a relic of the past.

Most inspiring is how a small group of dedicated Virginians went from door to door, raising money to finance the $2.6 million memorial. This celebration of the Civil Rights Movement was built with private funds, including a generous donations from over 400 groups. Fund raising began in 2005 and continued for the next few years. The end result is a statue depicting 18 heroic men and women -- including young students -- in what sculptor Stanley Bleifeld refers to as a "living memorial." Similar monuments have been built in other key Civil Rights Movement battlegrounds, including Columbia, S.C.; Little Rock, Ark.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Memphis, Tenn. Another memorial will soon go up in Raleigh, N.C. Lisa Collins, former First Lady of the state of Virginia, was one of the leading forces behind raising money to build the statue. One day, several years ago, her young daughter asked why only white men were commemorated on the state Capitol grounds. Thanks to the Civil Rights Movement Memorial, that has changed. As Collins put it, "It is a statement of knowing that these African Americans, who happen to be Virginians, at great personal risk brought about sweeping change to our society and legal system."

It's easy to find what's wrong with America. All you have to do is read most of the headlines in the newspaper. Sometimes, it is important to take a moment to find out what's right with America. The country has come a long way. But as Barbara Johns said fifty years ago, "It seems like we were reaching for the moon." It's important to remember that quote. Justice is not guaranteed. It takes brave people -- ordinary people with extraordinary courage, often struggling against enormous odds -- to fight for it. This memorial is a celebration of those people.

The Tragic Decline of the Midwest

Republican presidential candidate John McCain (right) was in Michigan today meeting with General Motors CEOs and auto workers. Things are rough in that part of the country. For the past 30, 35 years, we've been hearing tales of the declining "rust belt." By the time Michael Moore made Roger & Me in 1989 -- by far Moore's best film, about the irreverent filmmaker tracking down GM CEO Roger Smith -- it didn't seem like things could get much worse in America's Industrial Heartland. But in 2008 -- not quite 20 years after Roger & Me played in movie theaters across the country -- things are worse. McCain realizes that the "rust belt" region of the Midwest -- especially Michigan and Ohio -- are feeling the pain of America's economic downturn most acutely. That's why he is spending time there and listening to the stories of troubled auto workers.

"We all know in this room a job is more than a job," McCain proclaimed, right in the heart of Auto Country.

But McCain's tough populist talk is often at odds with his unwavering advocacy of free trade, corporate welfare and minimal regulation of industry and environmental laws. Still, the Arizona Republican knows he is lagging behind in the polls in the race against Obama, particularly when it comes to economic issues. That's why this visit to the GM plant at Warren, Michigan, is so important to him. He has to appear sympathetic to the average American worker or he is going to lose much-needed votes to Obama.

By going to Michigan, McCain is right in the center of the sinking "rust belt." Adding to the woes of that region's inhabitants has been the nationwide housing crisis, which has hit that part of the country particularly hard. A recent Reuters article highlighted the terrible housing slump in the Midwest, which shows no signs of recovery anytime soon.

The Reuters article quoted Katherine Porter, associate professor of law at the University of Iowa College of Law as saying, "I expect the hardest hit places to be those such as Ohio and Michigan where the foreclosure crisis was driven by serious, if not permanent, economic downturns." Porter is quite correct in her analysis. Unlike the "Sunbelt states" of the South and Southwest, the "rust belt" is not experiencing steady increases in population growth or migration. The Reuters article also included a telling quote from Andrew Jakabovics of the think tank the Center for American Progress: "The sad truth is that in economically stagnant places, the value of foreclosed properties is often the value of the land less the cost of demolishing the structure."

Hard to believe that less than a half century ago, the troubled spot that McCain is touring was once literally the engine (no pun intended) of economic growth for the nation. The tragic decline of Michigan -- and indeed, the Midwest -- reflects the shifting economic priorities of the last forty years. As the country has moved away from protectionist policies that favored American industry and toward a greater emphasis on free trade, the service sector and high-tech industry, the ailing "rust belt" has become even rustier. And it is difficult to see how McCain's modest proposals -- which include giving a $5,000 tax credit to Americans who buy no-emissions cars -- are going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Can Rev. Jesse Jackson's credibility be rescued?

In the United States, a lot of commentators, pundits and seasoned political observers have already written Rev. Jesse Jackson's political obituary. Rev. Jackson has apologized repeatedly for remarks he made when he was off the air in a Fox News interview earlier this month about Senator Barack Obama. Jackson, as most of us know by now, said he wanted to "cut off his nuts." It is now known that Jackson remarked, "Barack...he's talking down to black people...telling niggers how to behave."

A short time later came Rev. Jackson's apologies:

I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologise again to Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public. There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me.

Well, that's a start. But Jackson has already used up some of his 9 lives in the political world. In January 1984, he referred to Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown." His critics have also pointed to other, lesser known flubs, strategic mistakes and errors in judgment on his part (too numerous to list here). Which begs the question: Is there any way he can rescue his credibility?

But it is important to remember that, in addition to his notorious blunders, Rev. Jackson has also been at the helm of many great progressive triumphs. His brilliantly organized Rainbow Coalition in the 1980s brought together a number of marginalized groups -- gays and lesbians, veterans, disabled people, working-class families, Native Americans, etc. -- into a massive united front that, if nothing else, showed that progressives were still a force to be reckoned with, even in the Age of Reagan. Jackson rallied this support in his two runs for the presidency, first in 1984, then again, even more impressively, in 1988. His speech at the Democratic National Convention that year was absolutely electrifying -- maybe one of the finest American speeches ever delivered in the final quarter of the Twentieth Century.

Rev. Jackson has said -- and done -- some regrettable things in his political career. It is difficult to forgive or forget his flagrant anti-Semitism from 1984.

And then there was his use of the so-called "N-Bomb" in his rant earlier this month (this is the same Jesse Jackson who condemned comedian Michael Richards for using the N-word two years ago his incendiary, self-destructive stage routine). Equally unsettling was his crass, gangster-like reference to cutting off Obama's testicles. Rapper/actor/director Ice Cube (right) offered some especially insightful comments about Jackson's outburst: “It’s kinda sad, for one thing for a black man to even consider cutting off another black man’s nuts. Especially in a country like America, where that’s happened to us over the years countless and countless times, being sanctioned by the government. It’s kinda sad that he would even think about that. Even though it’s not literal, it’s just as painful.”

It isn't enough to say that Jackson should be careful about these sorts of outbursts in the future. For every one of these crass comments Jackson makes in public -- whether it's about "Hymies" or cutting off someone else's gonads -- you have to wonder how many equally vulgar statements he makes in private, beyond the reach of the microphone. The damage has been done and it can't be undone.

But it would be a shame to allow those comments to take away from the legitimacy of the progressive work that Jackson has done and the noble things he has accomplished. Down the road, historians will likely pass a verdict on Jackson that he was an incredibly complicated man, fraught with contradictions. Compassionate yet judgmental, visionary yet reactionary, bold yet self-destructive, perceptive yet narrow minded. Sadly, many conservative commentators are pointing to Jackson's remarks as proof that old-school Civil Rights leaders who still play the "race card" are merely delusional fools who do not understand that racism is a relic of the past. On the contrary, racism still permeates and plagues so much of American society, despite Obama's grand achievements. That is why Jesse Jackson's ideas -- rooted in the age of Martin Luther King, Jr., yet tempered by the realities of post-Civil Rights America -- are so important in today's dialogue on race relations. Sadly, the more he stumbles like he did earlier this month (and like he did in 1984), the less credibility and weight his vision of social justice carries in the eyes of the American public.

Iraq War Deserters and Canada

On Monday, Canadian authorities deported Robin Long (right), a U.S. Army deserter who left America and came to Canada hoping to escape the horrifying bloodbath that is the Iraq War. Even though a recent poll noted that 3 out 5 Canadians believe the Iraq War deserters should be allowed to stay here, the minority opposed to allowing them to stay is extremely vocal here in Canada. And their main argument is that the United States now has a volunteer, professional military and people like Long volunteered to serve in it (unlike Vietnam War-era resisters who came to Canada, many of whom were evading the draft). I wrote a column about it in the Waterloo Region Record that appeared on Saturday, June 12. For my Tiki Lounge friends, I'm posting the column here, too. I hope you find it interesting.

Accepting U.S. deserters is a small step in the right direction

Andrew Hunt

Should the Canadian government give asylum to American military deserters seeking to escape the Iraq War?

The question has prompted a lively -- sometimes contentious -- debate across Canada. An Angus Reid survey of 1,001 Canadians taken earlier this month shows that three out of five people in this country believe Iraq War military deserters should be allowed to stay in Canada.

In early June, the House of Commons passed a non-binding resolution urging the government to permit the deserters to remain in Canada. Of course, the resolution is not official policy. Rather, it was a symbolic statement intended as a sign of sympathy from antiwar MPs.

Nobody knows exactly how many Iraq War resisters there are in Canada, but estimates vary between 100 and 600. Some American asylum seekers, such as 25-year-old Robin Long, have come perilously close to being returned to the United States by Canadian authorities.

Canadians who support sending the deserters back to the United States argue that, in contrast to the Vietnam War, when tens of thousands of draft evaders sought asylum in Canada, there is no draft in present-day America.

The reasoning goes that the Iraq War deserters flocking to Canada voluntarily enlisted to serve in the U.S. armed forces, unlike the Vietnam War-era Americans who dodged the draft. As Citizenship and Immigrations spokesperson Danielle Norris put it, "Those coming to Canada now volunteered for military service."

But that's a specious argument. During the Vietnam War, when the Selective Service Act (or draft) was in place, young American males had as much of a legal obligation to serve the Vietnam War as today's professional volunteer soldiers have to serve in the Iraq War. If we are examining the issue purely from a legalistic position (as opponents of giving asylum to Iraq War deserters often do), then draft evaders were breaking the law and violating rules in the 1960s every bit as much as Iraq War deserters are doing now.

And the current situation is exacerbated by the "backdoor draft" - the arbitrary extension of military service for thousands of volunteer reservists, often against their will. This problem did not exist in the Vietnam War.

We now know that even before the first American troops were deployed to Iraq, leaders at the highest levels in Washington, including President George W. Bush and former secretary of state Colin Powell, lied repeatedly and flagrantly to the American public (and, indeed, to the rest of the world) about the reasons for intervening in Iraq.

In doing so, they violated the trust of the military personnel serving overseas.

But there is a higher principle at stake. The occupation of Iraq is a catastrophe that is bleeding the nation to death. We will never know the precise Iraqi death toll - estimates have ranged as low as Bush's figure of 30,000 and as high as one million. Whatever figure one accepts, too many Iraqis have died.

Meanwhile, overcrowded refugee camps in neighbouring countries have become massive human rights crises ignored by much of the outside world. The Iraq War has evolved into a lethal combination of civil war and counter-insurgency war, with no end in sight. Iraq needs self-determination and a new Marshall Plan - not continued war -- to bring a halt to its destruction.

Giving asylum to deserters is a small step in the right direction. Canadians assisted runaway slaves in the 19th century and Vietnam War resisters in the 1960s. Today's Iraq War deserters are as deserving of our help as these past victims of misguided policies.

Andrew Hunt is the chair of the department of history at the University of Waterloo.

Odds & Ends: Guns, Dogs & Boycotts!

Welcome to "Odds & Ends," a regular feature of Andrew's Tiki Lounge, bringing you the news of the weird, nutty and downright absurd from North America and, yes, around the world! With no further delay...

From the "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" File: This from United Press International: The Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma canceled its plans to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle away at a weekend gathering of teenagers. The reason? One of the event's organizers could not make it. The good news: Windsor Hills will resume the contest next year and some lucky teenager will be the proud owner of a sleek little assault rifle. Bob Ross, the church's pastor, assured local news outlets that the church has no interest in "putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn't respect it who are then going to go out and kill."

That puts my mind at ease.

From the "So, what's the interest rate on your dog's credit card?" File: A Lhasa Apso dog belonging to a couple in Sacramento, California, recently received a $142.34 bill from Verizon Online, reports UPI. The dog's owners complained vociferously, insisting their dog did not have a Verizon account. Turns out there was a mix-up at Verizon's billing headquarters. The dog's name is Andy Fanelli. It just so happens there is an Andy Fanelli in some other part of the United States that owes Verizon $142.34. How did Verizon find the address of Andy Fanelli, the dog? Simple: Andy Fanelli's owners applied for -- and received -- an American Express charge card in their dog's name. One of Andy's owners admitted he take friends to lunch "from time to time... on Andy."

My question to the owner is: Does Andy get a doggy bag?

Finally, from the "We Shall Overcome Someday" File: In Gallivare, Sweden, 64-year-old Karl Eric-Borg is launching a boycott against a local supermarket. Why? A cashier in the supermarket refused to sell Borg cigarettes because Borg did not have his identification card to prove he was over 18! In the spirit of the heroic Montgomery Bus Boycott of the 1950s, Borg has decided to boycott the supermarket for this terrible outrage. Borg issued this impassioned statement: "Seriously, if the cashiers can't tell the difference between an 18-year-old and a pensioner who has served in six U.N. battalions, it's enough to make you wonder if they can even tell the difference between a 500 kronor note ($83) and a 50 ($8)." There is a silver lining to this harrowing story. Borg happened to be with a female friend who had her ID and was able to purchase a pack of Marlboros for him. Also, the ordeal has produced another unexpected result. As Borg announced, "The whole episode has made me so angry that I've decided to quit smoking for good!"

That's stickin' it to the man!

(Sources: United Press International wire service reports.)

From the "Better to Ignore It" File...

The Blogosphere is abuzz with debates about the controversial cover of an upcoming New Yorker magazine (right) depicting Senator Barack Obama as an Islamic terrorist and Michelle Obama as a 1960s-style Black Radical. While some liberals dismissed it as the work of Karl Rove, the artist responsible for the cover, Barry Blitt, is actually sympathetic to Obama and wanted the cover to poke fun at all the outrageous claims of Far Right loonies who wish to discredit the Democratic presidential candidate. As Blitt put it, "I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic [let alone as terrorists] in certain sectors is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is." No surprise: The Obama Campaign saw the image and went ballistic. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

One of my favorite political websites, Steve Benen's The Carpetbagger Report, had this to say about the cartoon: "There’s clever, poignant satire, and then there’s ham-fisted, garish satire that’s in poor taste. The New Yorker cover falls comfortably into the latter category." The Carpetbagger Report quotes progressive Canadian Blogger Rachel Sklar as saying:

Presumably the New Yorker readership is sophisticated enough to get the joke, but still: this is going to upset a lot of people, probably for the same reason it’s going to delight a lot of other people, namely those on the right: Because it’s got all the scare tactics and misinformation that has so far been used to derail Barack Obama’s campaign — all in one handy illustration. Anyone who’s tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who’s tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism — well, here’s your image.

I tend to agree with New Republic Blogger Isaac Chotiner, who insists that Senator Obama would be better off ignoring the cover instead of making an issue out of it. If you don't like the cover -- and most progressive Bloggers have made it abundantly clear they dislike it -- then keep quiet. The more Obama condemns it, the more his right-wing foes are going to use the cover to fuel uncertainties and misconceptions. Blasting the cover -- calling it tasteless, crude, Islamophobic, right-wing, failed satire, etc., etc. -- is only going buttress its street cred among anti-Obama yahoos.

If you don't believe me, look no further than Canada for an important cautionary tale. A while back, the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against conservative syndicated columnist Mark Steyn (left) for his column in the October 2006 issue of Maclean's magazine titled "The Future Belongs to Islam," which was an excerpt from his book America Alone. Steyn's article claimed that Western society was under the threat of being overrun and taken over by the world's rapidly growing Muslim population. At one point in the article, Steyn quoted a European imam who allegedly said that Muslims are reproducing "like mosquitoes." The CIC's complaint went all the way to the British Columbia Human Rights Commission, which launched a tribunal to investigate whether Steyn's article ought to be considered a violation of the human rights of Canadian Muslims.

It was a terrible move and it backfired. It triggered a firestorm of protest from Canadian civil libertarians across the country (including yours truly), who thought this tribunal threatened to stifle free speech. I fervently defended Mark Steyn in my regular newspaper column, despite the fact I disagreed with his claims. There was a brief show trial out in British Columbia in early June. It was a joke and it was attacked by people around the world as a sham. Luckily, the Canadian Human Rights Commission -- following an outburst of nationwide protest -- dropped the CIC's complaint. But sadly, in the course of the tribunal, Mark Steyn became a hero of "free speech," and untold numbers of readers who would have otherwise ignored his column in Maclean's were instantly drawn to it.

There is something about "taboo," "politically incorrect" topics that atrract people like magnets. While there are no Human Rights Commissions in the United States like the ones in Canada, the same general principle in the Maclean's/Steyn case applies to the case of the New Yorker Obama magazine cover. The moral of the story is: Let sleeping dogs lie. Leave it alone. Ignore it. If you ignore it, it will go away. Make a big deal out of it and your foes will know where your vulnerable spot is located and they will hit you hard there. That is the nature of politics. It was like that long before you or I came along.

Roswell Update

This bit of encouraging news comes from the Las Cruces (New Mexico) Sun-News:

Roswell UFO Festival Attendance Increases

The Associated Press

Article Launched: 07/08/2008 07:42:19 AM MDT

ROSWELL, N.M.—International UFO Museum and Research Center officials say attendance at Roswell's annual UFO festival jumped more than 25 percent this year.

The museum's executive director, Julie Shuster, says 7,216 people attended lectures, workshops, celebrity appearances and other events Thursday through Sunday.

She says she would have been happy if last year's attendance total had been met, especially with the economy the way it is and with gasoline prices rising.

The annual festival marks the anniversary of the Roswell Incident, a purported UFO crash on a nearby ranch in July 1947. The military later said it was a top-secret weather balloon.

At this rate, America might have its first Extra-Terrestrial President in another fifty years.