At first I didn't believe it. I was on the way to work but planned on grabbing a burger first since I was early. I decided to go ahead and go in. We didn't have cell phones yet. Actually, I had a little transistor radio in my car but it didn't work very well unless it was hanging by its strap from the mirror. I hung it up there and was able to pick up a little news over the AM static. Nothing was definite but they thought the President had been shot. All thoughts of that burger left my mind as I broke all speed limits and got from Norman to OKC in record time.

I ended up working all night, all day the next day and into the next night. They thought the Russians were coming. It was a Communist plot seemed to be the big opinion at the time.

Somebody on the newsdesk made copies of all the AP flashes, and I still have my copy in a drawer someplace. Looking back, I can still recall the feeling of total confusion and disbelief. It was a really, really rotten time for the country.

Had Kennedy lived, it would have been a different world. The riots of '68 might have been prevented with the work that Kennedy would have done in a second term. Would Nixon have been prevented as well? Maybe. Who knows. Would Al Gore not have had the election stolen from him? If so, then he probably would have paid attention to the memo about the upcoming 9-11 attach and maybe that could have been prevented and we wouldn't be drowning in the quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe the Reagan and Bush II years could have been prevented. Without Reagan, we wouldn't have hate radio and hate TV today, since he was the one who did away with the fair use act. We might be a more civil country today. Who knows what course history would have taken.

Maybe Kennedy would have lost the second term and the Republicans took over even earlier. Alternate universe speculation of the third kind.

One little remembrance...I usually handled Page 2, which was the "jump" page--all stories that continued from Page 1 jumped to Page 2, where if really long they might go on to inside pages. Page 2 layout was right down to the wire because you never knew too far in advance how much space you had. There were usually no ads on Page 2 and I always filled empty spots with little stories. So in the morning paper the next morning, 100% of the stories were about the assassination. Except for one small 3" or 4" story I managed to squeeze in to Page 2. It was Aldous Huxley's death. The Daily Oklahoman might have been the only paper in America that reported Huxley's death that day.

I'm a little bit of a conspiracy nut about this. Not that Oswald didn't do it, he did. But I think others were behind it. Did you ever read Norman Mailer's big huge historical novel about it? Fascinating read. But I never believed all that till recent years, now that I've seen how the anti abortionist crazies and right wing gay bashers can influence their lunatic fringe to take action while they hide in safety, saying, "We didn't do it--he's a nut case." Dr. Tiller in Wichita is the most recent example. They've killed others. And people don't just decide one day to hate gays, they are told to. There in an AP story in our paper today about the right wing militia groups forming all over the country these days. A huge upsurge since Obama's election. And they have killed several people, and the death threats against Obama are in the hundreds, just as they were with Kennedy. Finally one of them took action. I also think that's why Jack Ruby shot Oswald. Some group, CIA rogues according to Mailer, probably convinced him he would be an American hero if he silenced Oswald. The power of words. I wouldn't have got to this point of thinking that without the actions of hate groups today. With the 24 hour a day garbage spewed out on the right wing air waves, it's not that difficult to get somebody to pull the trigger. The lunatic fringe is always out there, just waiting.

If Sarah Palin actually wrote a book, it would be in the same category as George W. Bush actually reading one. Ain't gonna happen. To say I have not been curious about her book would be a huge understatement. However, I have been curious about who her ghost writer might be. I assumed it would have to be another extremist. Guess what--I was right.

Here's more than you really need to know about Sarah Palin's Ghost writer.

First of all, I just noticed this is my first post in several months. I pretty much dropped the whole thing. It was just too depressing. The election of Obama and a slim Democratic majority has changed nothing. Noam Chomsky was, as always, correct. Unfortunately. Doesn't matter which party is in control, KorporateAmerika runs things. The same investment bankers that financed the Bush reign of insanity are now contributing heavily to the Democrats. As is Big Insurance. And the steady drumbeat of the right wing media and shallow reporting of "mainstream media" goes on and on.

What have we become? Racism is as rampant as ever. Murder rates go up. The government (under Bush) gave billions to the bankers who created the mess and they gave themselves billions in bonuses. Under Obama the government gave billions to General Motors, who promptly laid off Americans and will be importing more from China. At the same time, Volkswagen built a new factory in the U.S. and hired American workers. Nissan and Honda also have plants in the U.S., as does Toyota, all hiring American workers, all building great cars and making profits. But American companies export jobs to China. What have we become?

Racism is worse now that anytime since the Civil Rights Proclamation was signed. it's different, but worse. Thanks to Ronald Reagan for making it socially acceptable to a large segment of our society. And thanks to Newt Gingrich for masterminding the total and destructive dividing of America, the all out war against most Americans by the Republicans. What have we become?

I see the meanness and nastiness on the highways going to and from work every single day of the week. People didn't drive that way in the past. We were a polite society, for the most part. Americans had respect for Americans. Until the Newtster. When I was a kid the Pledge of Allegiance was recited "...one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Then they put "god" into it and now we're a nation divided as never before since the Civil War. What have we become?

In the Bush reign, more wealth was moved from the middle classes up to the upper 1% of the wealthy than at any time in history. It continues today. The critical mass was reached and passed and it won't stop. Even if the President somehow was able to stay in office without kissing up to KorporateAmerika, things wouldn't change. It would take generations--yes, generations--of progressive government to undo the damage that has been done in the past 30 years. Today's Democrats aren't up to the task. Instead of creating jobs to stop the depression, as they did in FRD's day, they have taken half measures, too little, too late, and the big money has only enhanced the coffers of the already überwealthy. What have we become?

Yesterday I was driving back from Atlanta. I drove through downtown St. Louis on I-70, something I had not done for many years, normally bypassing the city on my way to and from places. I was shocked at the blocks and blocks and blocks of abandoned, burned, vandalized buildings, both residential and commercial. Probably hundreds of them. It was reminiscent of Bosnia after their war, or of Kansas City and so many other cities after the devastation of 1968. What happened in '68 happened for a reason. It could have been stopped but not unless the effort had started many years earlier. It's probably one of those things the Buddhists mean when they talk of karma. Today's downtown St. Louis is the same. Our nation squandered its resources on a war in Vietnam in the '60s, today we squander even more on two wars we should never have entered and will never end. What have we become?

Bush the Second had the right idea when he said, "Mission Accomplished." But he didn't follow through. He should have said, "OK, we did it, now let's get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan." Of course he would never have done that. Unfortunately, now the Obama administration is stuck with that stupid and failed legacy and we will be expending our resources for decades.

Think of what this country could do with the money we spend on the war machine. The right wingers like to whine about what public health care would cost over 10 years--but it would not even be a recognizable fraction of what we spend on senseless military incursions into places that did no harm to us. Not even a meaningful fraction of the cost. So here we are, the nation that likes to proclaim itself as the "greatest nation in the world," and we made an illegal invasion of two countries who did nothing for us. And at the same time we let the militants who did do something to us escape into Pakistan. Sure we caught a few, but not the great mastermind. The Iraqis didn't attack the U.S. The Afghanis didn't attack the U.S. A group of religious fanatics, led by a Saudi and made up mostly of Saudis and a couple of Yeminites, did it. Did we attack Saudi Arabia? No. That would have been foolish. Their government, crazy though it is, did not attack us. Neither did the government or people of Iraq or Afghanistan. Yet the right wing crazed Bush administration invaded those countries. And we will be there for the rest of my life, killing and being killed, spending billions of taxpayer dollars. For nothing. What have we become?

If we were truly a peace loving nation, we would not have done the things we have done. If fundamentalist "Christians" truly believed in the teachings of Jesus, they would not say and do the things they say and do. If we really believed in a "free market economy," we would not give subsidies to all the big corporations that we do. If we were a rational society, we would spend the majority of our resources on education, health care, transportation, responsible environmental management, and so on. Having a good, strong military is a part of good government, but giving away trillions of dollars to the crooked, greedy bastards running the military industrial complex is something totally different. What have we become?