Oklahoma and Bush.....

This morning on the towpath my dad played the new JJ Cale album, and us dogs heard this song called 'The Problem'. How we laughed. This 66 year old man from Oklahoma sure explains things in a way us dogs can understand.

THE PROBLEM:

Have you heard the news that's goin' round here
The man in charge has got to go
Cause he dances round the problem - boy
And the problem is the man in charge you know

Now, the young knows what I'm talking 'bout
It's a con in the old man's game
The man in charge he don't know what he's doing
He don't know the world has changed

Power seems to be so far up
The man on the street ain't got a clue
The high top cats running your life
Thinks the problem is me and you

Born in a time that has gone by
The old tell the young what to do
Have you heard the news that's goin' round here
The problem is the man in charge of you
The problem is the man in charge of you

Have you heard the news that's goin' round here
The man in charge has to go
The man in charge has got to go

...

Mr Cale, the dogs of Riverbank salute you (Except for Max who says 'You are the problem and if you try singing your song round these parts he will show you the solution.') I dont think you need worry too much though because there's more of us than him.

Name on a list.

There I was this morning happily singing along to my favorite Cat Stevens song 'morning has broken' when I saw the news. Yussuf Islam, as Cat Stevens is now known, was traveling to the US with his daughter when an alert US agent spotted his name on the passenger list. Turns out he was on a list of terrorist possibles, and so the plane was immediately ordered to land at the nearest airport and Yussuf Islam was summarily interrogated and deported back to the UK.

For the generation familiar with the gentle and thought provoking work of this gifted Englishman, the label of 'terrorist' sits at odds with the facts. (I wont go into that here, but his selfless work for the betterment of the less privileged when he could have chosen the fortune building route his considerable wealth opportuned makes him a figure far worthier of respect than any of his nameless accusers.)

In view of this most recent example of America's lunacy can we now expect news of Texans congregating en masse for the ritual burning of their copy of ‘where do the children play’ for the subversive threat it represents to their way of life?

You can imagine the reflection of the flames in their joy filled eyes as they dispense with the threat posed by ‘moonshadow’ and the ultimate thrill when they realise ‘morning has broken’ has been consigned to an appropriately fiery grave.

One wonders what color flames the burning of 'Peace Train' will produce.

No story illustrates Americas decline into barbarous ignorance than this sorry consequence of electing an idiot to office.

My friend Ben (A black scottie) is American. He says he is embarrassed to be American at this time, and I guess about half of America must feel approximately the same. The other half are the ones who lack the basic intelligence to understand the consequences of voting a warmongering idiot into power.

I do hope that when I next travel I don’t find my name on an American list. And I do hope that whoever makes up these lists of people who are forbidden to enter America one day listens to the words of the great Cat Steven songs. Perhaps with the benefit of even this basic education in humanity the extent of their folly will become self evident.

Back to my afternoon snooze now.... I think I shall listen to 'Oh Very Young’ and send the lovely artist formerly known as Cat positive doggy thoughts.

Israel and America, Pippa and me.

Today on the towpath, Pippa the permed poodle told me that Israel controls the world.

'Well' I said demonstrating my new found knowledge of the world order,'That can't be right because George Bush controls the world. Everyone knows that'.

But Pippa was adamant.

She said America has given Israel $46 Billion dollars in grant military aid since President Truman recognised the state of Israel in 1948.

'That's an awful lot of weapons' I thought. Why on earth did America give Israel 46 Billion dollars worth of guns?' Why would anybody need that many guns, and why would anybody give anyone else that many guns.

Pippa explained to me that 98% of Americans are not aware that they finance the state of Israel which would not survive without US aid. And that 72% of Americans are not in favor of US financed killings of Palestinian children, although the statistics are not clear on feeling toward the killing of Palestinian adults, and perhaps that’s where the confusion arises.

We conducted our own straw poll on the Riverbank, and the consensus was that the US support for Israel is directly responsible for all kinds of future accountability, not least for the endless list of human rights abuses their weapon aid enables for the Israeli’s.

The only voice of dissent was from Max, the pedigreed Rottweiler, who says the Israeli’s are right, and Bush knows what he is doing. Max says they remind him of happier days in his breeds past.

46 Billion dollars in military aid does sound like a lot of money. It’s a lot more than the US gave to Iraq in the 80’s, although who would bet against things ending the same way.

It is really sunny today on the towpath, and although I remain drenched in flea powder, I still feel little causes for scratchiness. Perhaps it’s my imagination though.

Time for my morning snooze now........

Fleas

I told them I was being bitten by something but they ignored me.
And so I became infested with fleas, and now I am drenched in flea powder.
Not nice I can tell you. If only they had listened when I first told them.
When will they ever learn.