Nice to be back

after all these years.

Peggy Noonan is a real dingbat

It's get dark early these days in New York. I'm finally getting fired next week, after Thanksgiving.

A lot of things are pissing me off these days, but I've decided to take it easy, and the newly released Talking Heads double live CD set -- from shows of a couple hundred years ago -- helps. So do some Eddie Izzard DVDs finally issued over here.

Today is the 41st anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. I couldn't see much that day -- I was riding on a motorcyle well back in the motorcade, and I was very short in those days.

More later.

Thanks for tuning in.

A Call for a Cultural Insurgency

My life was the election. For months I watched every Sunday morning political chat show, from "Meet the Press" to "Face the Nation." I flipped between the bloviators on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Every night I lapped up the Daily Show, parched for the humor of Jon Stewart and his faux correspondents. I peeled through The Onion every week, as well as The Nation, The Progressive, The New Yorker, The New York Times. I surfed through Josh Marshall's Talking Points, Andrew Sullivan's Sinking Points, Wonkette's smutty points, Salon's fired-up War Room. I clicked on e-mail after e-mail, from MoveOn.org, the DNC, Concerts for Change, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, America Votes.

The last weekend before the election I joined a busload of New Yorkers and went to Ohio, canvassing voters and knocking on doors in greater Cleveland, often in the rain. It was a great feeling, trying to make a difference, but it didn't work. We lost. Big. I'm still in shock.

Adding insult to injury, I've had to listen to the Wednesday-morning armchair pundits – James Wolcott's "attack poodles" – second-guess the Democratic strategy. Kerry was "too patrician," he should have "expressed his religious faith more" but "been more himself" (a clear contradiction).

I actually think Kerry did a pretty good job. But there's a huge swath of religious people in this country who are just on a totally different frequency. And there's no reaching them.

In Ohio I met a sweet old lady who said she was voting for Bush. When I asked why, she said, "Because he's a Christian." I pointed out that Kerry was also a Christian. She replied (with the sweetest smile), "I don’t think he is."

You can't argue with that. It won't compute.

I say, don't bother. As Jon Stewart recently observed, it seems that the major issues – the Iraq war, jobs, security, healthcare – "were all trumped by the idea of dudes kissing." There's an ignorance and intolerance in this country that won’t be quickly or easily fixed. These people are not idiots, but they believe the literal truth of the Bible and they live in the "faith-based" reality, not a "reality-based" reality. They don't believe in science. As children they were all left behind. The education system in this country has produced a generation of willfully uninformed citizens. The good news is that gradually the schools will improve (perhaps not until well after Bush is out of office) and intolerance polls poorly among younger people. They don't much care either way about gun rights or "dudes kissing."

So I say, stay the course. As Kerry's Springsteen-penned campaign song put it, "No retreat, baby, no surrender." In the late 60s and early 70s, in response to the cultural and political divide in this country, there was a counter-culture. We need a new cultural insurgency. Already on board are our artistic brethren who stumped against Bush – a rich artistic spectrum ranging from Springsteen to Eminem, Errol Morris to Michael Moore, Jon Stewart to Al Franken, Edward Albee to Tony Kushner. We have actors, artists, writers, comedians, musicians, composers, dancers, designers. If this is truly two nations, then we've got the motherload of cultural talent, and I say let's put it to action.

I'm ready to join. I think it's the only thing that's going to get me through the next four years.

Slow Work, Fast News

It’s been such a slow day here at work that they held a pumpkin-carving contest. (I came in second.) On the news front, it’s been mostly bad for the Bushies, which is music to my internet-addicted eyes (pardon the mixed metaphor – but use it, use it!). Salon has a pretty good overview of all the crap that’s been raining on the White House lately. Between the Alquaqua (al-kaka? Alcuca? Alcoa?) munitions dump scandal (followed by Guiliani blaming the troops!), the Halliburton no-bid FBI probe, the additional 70 billion about to be requested for Iraq, the doctored Bush-Cheney ad (with photoshopped soldiers), even an prematurely exploding confetti machine in New Hampshire – it’s all thrown the President a bit off message. A friend recently sent me an editorial featuring a Kerry endorsement from The American Conservative! All this is good news for the Kipper (and all of us).

I’ll be heading out to Ohio tomorrow morning with members of ACT-New York (a black-clad contingent of Noo Yawkers helping Buckeyes find the polling places), so I’ll be incommunicato probably till next Wednesday when, hopefully, we’ll know who the next Prez. And hopefully...it’ll be President Kipper

Anecdotal Evidence

With the Red Sox crushing St. Louis (is that in Ohio?), it seems all the more likely that The Kipper will eke out a victory either late Tuesday night or very early Thursday morning. I voted by absentee ballot here in New York on Monday afternoon as I’m heading out to Ohio Saturday morning to help ACT-New York get out the Kipper vote there. By coincidence the Manhattan Board of Elections is located in the building where I work – just one floor down, in fact. So I figured the whole thing would take about five minutes. Boy, was I wrong; the place was packed, and it took 40 minutes to complete the maneuver. And this is in about the un-swingingest state you can imagine. So take it from Fear of Jazz: There is HUGE interest in this election. And I think that helps The Kipper.

Fear of Jazz Endorsements

Fear of Jazz officially offers the following endorsements:
George W. Bush for Best Guy to Have a Beer With
John F. Kerry for President of the United States

Let's win one for the Kipper!

The wolverines are howling... the weapons in Iraq are missing... President Clinton has returned and he looks like crap... The Kipper is getting taller... The Bush is shrinking... Let's send the Bush back to Bush Gardens and let's win one for the Kipper!