9:06 pm CST
Nixon at the Trade Mart (contd.)



Above is the photo I took at Nixon's speech in Dallas (as described in my blog entry two days ago). I was an inexperienced photographer, therefore did not realize that Nixon would appear much smaller in the print than he appeared to me.

The banners behind the podium remind me that the reason for Nixon's visit was an upcoming election (Paul Eggers for governor, George Bush for the congressional seat).



Here's a blow-up. Nixon, of course, is at the podium; the man in the suit at the far right is Bush.



Another blow-up. This is the protester who would shortly be knocked off the bleachers by the flagpole-wielding Republican woman in mink.

Thanks to my good friend Roy Tompkins for suggesting I find this photo and post it ...


6:36 pm CST
Girls, Girls, Girls





6:10 pm CST
"Deadeye Dick Cheney, Fascist Gun in the West"

Cranky the Clown has a few things to say about last week's great vice-presidential distraction: That's My Dick

Also, while you're visiting the new, improved File 23, be sure to check out Brian Roper's Unofficial History of T-Shirts ...


3:00 pm CST
Propaganda Alert

A shabby attempt by the Village Voice to misrepresent the evidence that 9/11 was an inside job and smear truth activists as neo-Nazis: The Seekers: The birth and life of the '9-11 Truth movement'.

Paul Joseph Watson responds: Village Voice Hit Piece Attacks 9/11 Skeptics

As is typical when the mainstream media runs a hit piece of this kind, the Village Voice is not satisfied merely to debunk the 9/11 conspiracy "theory." No, they have to debunk conspiracy "theory" in general. So, predictably, the article is accompanied by another one that attempts to "explain" the strange mentality of the "conspiracy theorist."

Quote (italics mine): "[A] sense of taking action is one aspect of what makes conspiracy theories satisfying to believe. Another is that they bring order to an unwieldy universe: Even a theory that posits an overweening evil force in the world is comforting compared to the images of random tragedy we see on the evening news ..."

Satisfying to believe? Comforting? Good heavens, if there's one thing I don't find comforting it is the knowledge that elements of our own government conspired to kill thousands of Americans in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Why, if someone could prove to me that 9/11 was not an inside job--or, for that matter, that JFK, RFK, and MLK really were killed by lone nuts--I would cry tears of gratitude. It would be so much more comforting to believe the official stories of these and a thousand other government conspiracies. Unfortunately, the official stories do not stand up to critical scrutiny, and I would have to lobotomize myself to believe them.

The truth is, it's the other way around: It is the "conspiracy theorists" who are living in the real world, and the coincidence theorists who live in Happy Lollipop Land.


"Here, little girl. Suck on this: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, Arabs with box-cutters hijacked four airlines on September 11, the Patriot Act is for your safety, your government loves you. Go back to sleep ..."

3:37 pm CST
"Drunk as a Skunk"

Capitol Hill Blue: Secret Service Agents Say Cheney Was Drunk When He Shot Lawyer


3:35 pm CST
Fourth Reich News



Bob Woodward: "9-11 will be a footnote, but it could happen, and if it does, we will become a police state ..." LINK


9:19 am CST
A Scanner Darkly



Hey, who's that guy?!?! He looks familiar!

Richard Linklater's much-anticipated adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly is coming soon to a theatre near you ...


9:17 am CST
Shaking the Hand that Took the Magic Bullet

Roy Tompkins writes: Did you get any pictures of the Nixon rally? It is remarkable how close you got to presidents and/or their incidents in your youth! I've never been close to any of them, in any fashion really, period. Show the Nixon pics?

I did take pictures and still have one in my possession. However, I was an inexperienced photographer and didn't realize that I needed to get a lot closer to get a recognizable image of Nixon. Therefore, he is quite small in the picture. On the plus side, it's a good picture of the interior of the Trade Mart, the audience, etc. You're right, I should find that photo and post it.

Yes, it is interesting how many brushes with political big-shots I had when I was younger. A couple of years ago I wrote on the blog about the time George Bush came to Cleburne and I drove the convertible full of beauty queens in the motorcade, etc. But there are plenty other stories I haven't told.

For instance, once in a while I marvel over the fact that at different times I had brushes with three people who were in the fatal JFK motorcade: Lady Bird Johnson whom I would see when I worked at the LBJ Library in the 70s; Sen. Ralph Yarborough who lived near us in Austin in the 80s and I would see around the neighborhood occasionally; and John Connally. I met Connally in '66 while he was still governor at a Texas Press Association meeting in Nacogdoches; my father introduced me to him after the meeting, and I was awestruck to think that I was shaking the very hand that had been shattered by the Magic Bullet just three years earlier.