6:47 pm CST
The Way I See It
by Raymond Dogg
Political Writer, Washington Star-Gazette

Today’s announcement that comic strip character Jokey J. Jokey will run as an independent candidate in the 2004 presidential election has surprised everyone, including his creator, cartoonist Mack White.

“I first learned about it this morning,” says White, who is believed to be the only person able to translate Jokey’s strange language. “He came running into my studio in a high state of excitement, saying he was going to run for president and would I mind being his campaign manager and translator. Naturally, I agreed.”

When asked about Jokey’s positions on the issues, White said, “Your guess is as good as mine. Frankly, I’ve never known Jokey to be political. I don’t know if he’s liberal, conservative, libertarian, anarchist, or if he subscribes to some ideology as-yet-unheard-of in this dimension.”

In addition to questions about Jokey’s political beliefs, there are other serious questions regarding his qualifications for public office, as well as the legality of his candidacy. One political analyst raising these questions is James Collingsworth, Director of the Elmbrook Institute for Public Affairs.

“We’ve had film actors as political candidates,” says Collingsworth, “but never a comic strip character. Film actors (whatever else may be said about their qualifications to hold public office) at least exist in the real world, but there is serious doubt—in my mind at least—whether or not a comic strip character meets even this minimal requirement. And then there are the other requirements for presidential candidates—that they be native-born Americans at least 35 years of age. Jokey looks rather young to me, and it is my understanding that he was not even born in this dimension.”

In response, White says: “In the first place, Jokey is not as young as he looks. He is at least fifteen thousand years old—true, not yet an adolescent by the standards of his home dimension, but more than old enough to be president, according to the Constitution. In the second place, while it is true he is extra-dimensional in origin, his home dimension happens to co-exist geographically with the continental US. That makes him a US citizen in my book. And, as for his relative reality, unreality, surreality, or whatever, I can only say that Jokey is not like most comic strip characters. He is real. I did not create him. I have always channeled him. There’s a difference. In fact, Jokey—because his home dimension is on a higher plane than ours—may be more real than you or I.”

These are of course complex legal and philosophical questions which will take some time to iron out. But, supposing for a moment that Jokey is a legitimate candidate, there still remain other questions, chiefly having to do with what effect—if any—his candidacy will have on the presidential campaign. It is doubtful that he will win the election, but he might cause a split ticket. And, if so, which of the other candidates—Bush, Kerry, or Nader—will his candidacy hurt?

This question—like so many—is of course impossible to answer until we get some idea where the extra-dimensional, multi-eyed candidate stands on the issues.

This is Raymond Dogg, and that’s the way I see it.

1:16 pm CST
NEWS BULLETIN …

Popular comic strip character Jokey J. Jokey has announced his candidacy for President of the United States. Stay tuned to this website throughout the weekend for more developments in this breaking story …

JOKEY for PRESIDENT …
HE’S NO JOKE!

3:25 pm CST
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and ENTER THE NEW SECTION on this website devoted to THE BUSH JUNTA. On display for the very first time anywhere is the brilliant cover produced by acclaimed political caricaturist and writer Steve Brodner. You can see more of Steve's work and read about him HERE.

This new section is under construction. Over the coming week, I will be posting more samples from the book on a daily basis. So check back often.

3:47 pm CST
My friend in Argentina, David Paleo (who illustrated my script "The Bush-Hinckley Connection" for The Bush Junta), sends the following thought-provoking email:

I read your childhood reminiscence, and the reader's letter; I wonder how widespread it is, I grew up in the seventies, and it was hardly an idyllic time (though The Alamo was one of my favourite movies, my morbid little me can't get enough of the heroes, for once, dying, uh, I was raised Catholic, duh! ) but I remember playing in the streets all the time, just going walking randomly, looking for abandoned houses to pillage; now, that's unthinkable!  If you see a kid on the street, he's usually working. People here are, with reason, really paranoid, lots of crime going around, but even so it doesn't explain why the streets are deserted of kids ... now, if they want to play soccer or whatever, they spend the entire day inside school grounds or a private club, they spend their entire childhoods under the gaze of adults, adults with authority over them to boot, professional party poopers... Poor bastards! My entire life as kid was lived in secret, oh well, I'm lucky to have had the luxury of growing up like that, it's all gone now...

3:25 pm CST
On Infowars.com today, two articles about the death of free speech in America:

The Planned Destruction of Cable Access TV in Austin, Texas

Fortress (Against Freedom) Boston

What is the best kept secret in Washington?

The War Wounded

Speaking of war wounded:

When Americans opposed to Bush are called unpatriotic wimps, a disabled Vietnam veteran has THIS to say.

3:25 pm CST

Above is the actual cause of Flight 93's destruction, as depicted in my contribution to The Bush Junta. By the way, a write-up about the book will appear in Rolling Stone one week from today.

3:24 pm CST
Holy Warren Commission, Batman!

9/11 Commission Ignores Evidence of Flight 93 Shoot-Down

9/11 Commission Spins bin Laden Exodus Down Memory Hole

9/11 Commission Finds No Evidence of Insider Trading

2:25 pm CST
Florida and Texas continue to lead the way in setting up the Police State Control Grid. In Florida, the Department of Transportation is planning to track drivers. And here in Austin, Texas, a controversial toll road plan was passed which would create more toll roads than in the larger cities of Houston and Dallas combined. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to travel around the city without paying an estimated $80 a month in tolls. Interestingly, there will be no tollbooths. Instead, electronic monitors will mounted on overpasses and bills will be sent to the drivers-in other words, drivers will be tracked.

2:15 pm CST
A READER WRITES: Just reading your posting of 7/21/04 brought back fond memories of my innocent childhood. I was born in 1960, so my memories are of the later 60's/early 70's. As a young kid I grew up in Minnesota where there were lakes everywhere. Every kid knew how to swim of course, and we would get up early and walk to any one of a number of nearby lakes, taking Cokes and snacks ,fishing gear, swim trunks. The fishing was good, and nobody ever got hassled for having no license. We would walk to a little local "mom and pop" store and buy penny candy. In the afternoons we would get together with the guys and play ball or light firecrackers. You see, back then we didn't have all of the "do-gooders" of the world to save us from such dangerous  devices. On any given day we could go over to a friend's house and our mothers didn't worry about where we were going, because all of the moms knew each other well.  When my dad got home from work in the evening he often would play catch with my brother and me ,or another baseball warm-up game "pepper". How many guys remember that one? Then there were the road trips. We took summer vacations to California, Washington state and New Mexico, where we would ultimately relocate in 1973. I remember the view from the back seat of a '68 Ford, the loud ,constant blowing wind from the open window as we had no air conditioning. Later, in New Mexico I would take a BB gun, or in my teens a .22 rifle, sling it across the handlebars of my bike and ride out to the foothills to go plinking. Cops would see me ride by and they would smile and wave, knowing that I was just a kid going shooting....harmless. Those really are very fond memories of a great childhood in America ; an America that now seems like a completely foreign country and culture. Hell, actually it seems more like we grew up on a different planet. When I talk about those days with my children,(ages 14 and 7) they simply can't comprehend it. No computers, cell phones ,CD's etc... They also can't comprehend that I went to school in a day when there were no bogus slogans like "zero tolerance" and you could play guns on the playground with your chums. Now my kids deal with things like nice little color coded terror alerts, thanks to our government sponsored terrorist attacks and constant fear mongering. I am so grateful that I got to live in and experience the last vestiges of a truly great nation, but I am angered at the world my children have to endure. Sometimes I just feel like crying out "Jesus, take us home".

Amen.

Thanks for sharing your memories of the America we have lost. I, too, remember the days of a more rational attitude towards firearms.

When I went to high school, it was common to see shotguns on the window racks of pickups in the parking lot. No one gave a second thought to the fact that students (and faculty) not only owned guns, but were taking them to school. Also, it never caused a problem. I repeat, NEVER.

Speaking of students with guns, there is a little-known story about the University of Texas Tower shootings that strengthens the argument for the right of citizens to bear arms …

During the shootings, the Austin police enlisted the help of university students who owned rifles. Positioning themselves in the upper floors of the surrounding campus buildings,  these students fired on the Tower. Later, they would be credited with helping distract the sniper so that two police officers could gain entry to the observation deck and shoot him.

As I say, it is a little-known story, not publicized at the time (or since) because it would have undermined the gun control propaganda which followed the incident. Before the bodies of the sniper's victims were cold in their graves, gun ownership was being demonized, and two years later Congress passed the Gun Control Act, a word-for-word translation of the Nazi Weapons Act of 1938.

4:19 pm CST
Summer. The days are hot and hazy. In the afternoon we cool off in the swimming pool and at night watch old movies and eat watermelon under the air conditioner. I've been working on my western novel again. I’ve also been catching up on reading and seeing friends. I can do these things, now that The Bush Junta has gone to the printers. Soon I will go to the coast. And, when I go, I will take the copy of Adventure Comics I took to the coast the summer of '63. What a fine summer that was. Once a week I would go into town with my father and while he worked in his office I would wander around looking for discarded soda pop bottles to sell at one of the downtown grocery stores and would buy comic books and candy with the money. On days when I did not go into town, I would read or draw or watch television or put together model kits or hike across the pasture or ride my bicycle down the road to Sam Jackson's Grocery Store. The store had dark wooden floors and was cooled by ceiling fans and smelled good. There was a rack of comics by the door; usually I didn't have any money so I would read them standing there. One day, while I was there, a caravan of gypsies drove up in cars pulling Airstream trailers. Faye watched them like a hawk to make sure they wouldn't steal anything. Near the store lived a boy who had a BB gun.  One day I saw him shoot a bird; the bird dropped out of the sky and I was sad the rest of the day. Sometimes, in the afternoon, on television, there would be a live press conference with President Kennedy. He was likable and often said funny things. And, once a week, my father would grill steaks outside and after dinner we would eat watermelon. And, once in a while, we would drive to Fort Worth and eat out and shop at Seminary South. I liked to look at the color televisions in Sears—that is, if there was anything being broadcast in color (usually there wasn't). And that summer my mother, sister, and I spent a week visiting my grandmothers in Mineral Wells. On the way to Mineral Wells, we stopped at a cookie factory in Cresson that sold bags of broken cookies cheap. (Before you reached the factory there was a sign with a picture of a hillbilly woman pointing and saying, "Thar' 'Tis, Pa. Fresh Broken Cookies.") One night, in Mineral Wells, we went to the drive-in theatre. Before the movie started, music played over the speakers. "Abilene" was playing while the sunset turned the caprock mountains red. The movie was Kid Galahad, starring Elvis Presley, and there was a Yosemite Sam cartoon before the movie. And, in July, when we went to the coast, I bought a copy of Adventure Comics in a roadside store that, in addition to comics, sold soda pops and snacks and fish bait. I still have the comic and the cover is still stained from contact with my wet hands after swimming in the ocean. On the way back from the coast we stopped in San Antonio and saw the Alamo. The coonskin cap worn by John Wayne in the movie was on display in a case in the gift shop. I bought a cap gun. It was a good summer for cap guns and John Wayne and the Alamo and the ocean and drive-in movies and Elvis and Yosemite Sam and fresh broken cookies and color televisions and watermelons and steaks and Kennedy press conferences and bicycles and grocery stories with dark wooden floors and soda pops and candy and comic books.

But that was the summer of 1963. This is THE SUMMER OF TERROR …

Patriot Act Gives Bush Power to Cancel Elections

Michel Chossudovsky: Coup d'Etat in America?.

5:32 pm CST

Above is an excerpt from Alejandro Alvarez’ “Camp X-Ray Guantanamo” which will appear in The Bush Junta. This chilling 16-page piece is based on the true accounts of three men who were tortured at our government’s ugly little facility at Guantanamo Bay. You can see more of Alejandro’s work HERE.