Canales News Briefs

April 28, 2004

“…She asks me why

I’m just a hairy guy

I’m hairy noon and night

Hair that’s a fright

I’m hairy high and low

Don’t ask me why

Don’t know

It’s not for lack of break

Like the Grateful Dead

Darling

Gimme head with hair

Long beautiful hair

Shining, gleaming,

Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair

Shoulder length or longer

Here baby, there mama

Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair…”

-Partial Lyrics of the song

“Hair”, from the Viet Nam-Era

Musical of the same name

To All,

It seems that only John Kerry’s (And Bill and Hillary’s, for that matter) $ 1000 per gig stylist knows for sure. Now the final thing lacking to make this tableau of deja vue complete (Hey, that’s French!) is the visage of “Forest Gore” mugging in the back-round.

In other news:

“…Was That An Iceberg?...”:

James Ridgeway wrote in yesterday’s “Village Voice” about the declining fortunes of John Kerry’s Presidential Campaign.

Ridgeway hints that Kerry “has issues” that are taking him down into the basement of national politics, and that the Democrat Party should consider dumping him in what seems to be a replay of the now-famous “Toricelli Maneuver”.

Included in these issues is how Kerry “fibbed” to his own over the issue of tossing medals/campaign ribbons over President Nixon’s fence for a war badly mishandled by LBJ’s “Wunderkind”. It is eminently clear that liberals such as Charles Gibson and the other “newsies” over at ABC are miffed over Kerry’s failure to keep things square and straight with a largely sympathetic Lamestream Media.

In reality, Ridgeway is on to something here. If Kerry is unable to handle such sycophants as Gibson, or MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, he can hardly be expected to handle the more prickly personalities of such policy midgets as Kim Jong Il, Yasser Arafat, and Jacques Chirac.

More importantly, Americans face an era where foreign leaders have the Modern Democrat Model of Presidential Leadership Style dialed in to the “nth” degree. It is thus certain that America could hardly risk changing horses in midstream, especially when facing dedicated groups of Islamo-fascists. (Or, even worse, hordes of foreign “femino-socialists” come to flesh out the ranks of the Post-Clinton era NOW Gang congregating on the National Mall.).

Yet for all the amusement that the current Kerry Implosion provides for conservatives, one must be certain that there is still a long way to go before the levers get pulled, the bubbles inked, and the chads punched (or not, if one lives in West Palm Beach) on the First Tuesday in November. Kerry’s current predicament may be heavily linked to the $ 50 million in “definition” advertising that is courtesy of a Not-As-Lame-As-Libs-Thought Team Bush. Or it may be related to the Liberal Tendency to be clueless when it comes to such common sense issues as economics and national security in a world full of bandits (Just check out the phone directory of the U.N. to get a feel for this last one.). Who can tell, what with the nature of American Politics.

Yes, it is gratifying that Kerry might be helping himself to an early political denouement (More French, yet). After all, Kerry was born to an “Upstairs” set that most likely was the object of ridicule of the “Downstairs” crowd. But it is best to wait and make sure that the Junior Varmint From Massachusetts' political hide is nailed to the barn door before any obligatory adult beverages are consumed in celebration.

Story basis may be found at:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0417/mondo1.php

Red State Economics:

Data from a variety of sources notes certain trends among “heartland” economic activities that may bode well for Team Bush in the coming election.

For example, data from the Chicago Board of Trade indicate that current soybean futures prices are the best in 4 years, double the price levels from 2001.

The same seems to apply to corn futures, which are about approximately up 33% from the high in last year of the Clinton Administration.

Wheat futures are also up some 35% from the Year 2000 high.

Over at the Chicago Mercantile exchange, live cattle contracts are at some of the highest prices seen since January 2001, though they have recently fallen off from a high in the Fourth Quarter of 2003.

Similar stories in the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s note that overseas demand for steel and iron ores, copper, and other metals indicate banner years for mining companies, and the rural communities associated with those activities.

In essence, the cost drivers that can impact urban dwellers in the pocket book can also mean more income in the pockets of farmers, ranchers, drillers, and miners (subsidies notwithstanding.). Given the more sparse populations in many of the commodity producing states, this may mean that rural voters will give plenty of thought to “re-upping” Team Bush for a second lease on the White House.

Granted, the stock markets may cause some fluctuations in public perceptions between now and November. After all, there is a historical “trough” in stock prices that happens in the 3^rd Quarter of most years, at times extending well into the 4^th Quarter (Just think of all the historical “Black” weekdays in October to get a feeling for this.). Still, what with demand in foreign markets for raw materials, as well as demand for lumber to fuel the current US housing boom, 2004 may just well turn out to be a banner year for rural and/or commodity-related economies.

Given Team Kerry’s alignment with a party leadership often given to writing off the rural voter, this may just prove to be another reef for a campaign ship that is beginning to resemble the ill-fated S.S. Dukakis (Yes, a three hour tour was booked for that case as well.). Whether Kerry can successfully command this “swift” boat remains to be seen, given the winds of good economic news blowing from the West.

Data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange can be accessed at: http://www.cme.com/

Data from the Chicago Board of Trade can be accessed at: http://www.cbot.com/

Near Run Thing:

The AP reported last night that Arlen Specter (R-Pa), survived a late surge by the feisty Pat Toomey in the Republican Primary in Pennsylvania.

AP reports that with some 96% of the precincts counted, Specter was maintaining a whopping 17,000 vote margin over this toughest of challengers.

Now, given Pennsylvania/Philadelphia demographics, this result actually helps a President who needs to do well in the suburbs. What is more, Specter will “owe” those who supported him “big time”, enough to derive a functional modus vivendi should he win an additional 6 year term.

Given the current predictions of a tight Presidential race in November (that, and the fear of a Senate Majority Leader Daschle), the “hold-the-line” nature of this particular result should bring some solace to those who follow the finer (though messier) aspects of Modern Political Realpolitik.

Story basis may be found at:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040428/D827J63G0.html

From The Land of Really Good Pheasant Hunting:

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader is reporting today that Senator Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s campaign was caught using automated phone calls without the proper “I Am So-and-So and I Approved This Ad” disclaimer required by the McCain-Feingold reform legislation.

Team Daschle claimed that the lack of the disclaimer was an oversight, and the ad has since been pulled.

Still, it is interesting that the campaign of such a political veteran as Daschle could “inadvertently” run afoul of the Donkey Party’s favorite election reform. If this is the case, then one can only imagine what may happen in the campaigns of less seasoned challengers from both parties. It may even mean that McCain Feingold may have to be amended, in that inadvertent errors on the part of candidates should not count as “strikes” against them in the arena of politics. After all, Senators McCain and Feingold did not really intend to target their Congressional confreres so much as to protect their glass jaws from the “sweet science” of an informed electorate. Perhaps that which was extended by a Supreme Court befuddled by European jurisprudential theory may actually “fixed” (like in neutered) before it is too late.

In reality, many probably favor that the parchment that McCain Feingold is written on deserves what some wags call the “21 Gun Salute” solution (In other words, the law should be torn up into pieces the size of musket patches, and used by Revolution-era re-enactors in Massachusetts and Virginia until expended.). Something so defective as an attack on constitutionally recognized political speech deserves a quick, first trimester termination. Perhaps if a few distinguished members of the Worlds Most Verbose Deliberative Body end up doing a “perp” walk on Fox News, then perhaps things could be “made a’right” forthwith. Stay tuned.

Story may be found at:

http://www.argusleader.com/news/Wednesdayarticle1.shtml

Respectfully,

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA