An Open Letter To Tom Watson

Dear Tom,

You're dead meat.

Totally dead.

I just got over a huge case of writer's block.  Thoughts all gunked up in my mind.  Jennifer of Saying Yes... and Grasshopper of Diary of a Heretic helped me over that last hurdle.  And now it's all starting again!  (They probably don't even know that.  They're so sweet.) 

Where was I?

Oh yeah.  You.

Watson, you owe me so big, I can't even tell you. 

You know why I've got such a huge problem writing about politics these days?  Because everything seems so obvious to me that I'm having a hard time thinking that I even have to talk about it!  I've been a huge political junkie my entire life!  All 29 years of it!  And I'm not stopping now!  But, I'm hear to say, that if people don't think big changes need to happen after everything that's gone on in this country over the last five years, well then, they're as thick as a brick and nothing I'm going to say on this blog is going to change their mind!

You think Iraq is going just swell?  Well, think again, chumps!

Did you hear about the new study that says the "Excess" Death toll in Iraq has reached 655,000?
Wow.

Think the economy's going gangbusters?  Not in Northeast Ohio, people!

Did ya hear Bush just appointed someone to head up the EPA who has strong ties to the pesticide industry?  Brilliant!

You see, I could go on and on like this.  But so many other people already do!  And now I'm afraid I have writer's block again.  All I try to do over here is string a few words together to make a few sentences and I try to do it in a goofy way so I crack myself up.

You know what I did read today though?  Read Graydon Carter's letter in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair.  Loved it.  Everyone's who's reading this should make sure they read it.  But, you know what part I loved?  This...

The Reader-in-Chief, on the other hand, has been behaving like a dim teenager trying to bluster his way with a brainy date by talking about his prowess with the printed word.  In an interview with NBC, he informed Brian Williams about his summer book list, saying, "I also read three Shakespeares."  Three Shakespeares---I mean, who talks like that?

The president added that he had an "eclectic" reading list.  A Decider-in-Chief who insiders say is incapable of getting through even one- to two-page summaries of issues -- or "coverage" in Hollywood-speak -- now expects us to believe that he has read 53 books so far this year.  Fifty-three books?  In one year?  Including Jung Chang and Jon Holiday's acclaimed 832 page biography of Mao?  All this reading by a man who is asleep before 10:30?  Unless 53 of those books were on the order of "The Pet Goat," I simply don't believe him.  Nor should you.

I don't Graydon!  I never.  Ever.  Did.  53 books.  Give me a huge break.

Them trying to pull that fast one reminds me of what Frank Rich wrote in his new book. It's not that George W. Bush is stupid, it's that he think everyone else is.

Tom, I can't promise you that I'm going to write about politics every day until November 7.  I might write some!  I might even include a helpful link or two for my fellow Ohioans.  But, I will get out and volunteer here where I live and do as much as I can!

You just might have to put up with more goofy posts from me is all I'm saying.

Oh wait.  There's another thing I want to say.  Back to the -- you owing me part.

You owe me.  Make no mistake.  I'm going to feel guilty about whatever goofy post I write next and it's all your fault.  But, I'm going to post it anyway!  Yes I am!

But you're going to have to pay for that guilt. 

Drinks next time I'm in New York?

Dinner at the Hog Pit?  Pshaw!  It'll be a better place than that.

I haven't totally decided yet.  I have to ponder this.

Just wanted you to be apprised of the situation.

Yours truly,

Blue Girl

Comments

[Michael Bains]

Will you be eating in The Oak Room? It has the piano for atmospheric material for future posting.

I can keep the Skimmer and a steak company in the Blue Bar while you collect from Tom. Hey, I know! We can talk about how Blue Girly you truly are, and art and why do people fly planes into buildings and stuff.

Ahhh... I do miss the city.

[grasshopper]

Blue Girl, You are **obligated** just like every writer to write what you want! Your blog is not sponsored by a shampoo company or the Democratic Party (who have, true blue as I myself will always be, made a few greedy little political mistakes handling this mess), any more than Ronald Reagan is paying you big money to run ads on your site.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post to someone, somewhere saying of course I agreed. In fact, I advocated an all-out revolt. After all, hadn't we ALL heard Bush whine that Iraq had dissed his daddy? That really was one of his first justifications for the war. And, after 9/11, news got out that the flight school in Florida where the airplane terrorists learned to fly, had entertained their notions for skipping any lessons re: taking off and landing. Couldn't they get a discount because they only wanted to learn how to steer the plane?
Yes, for those who can rant and rave: that's important. For those who really don't believe they can persuade someone like, say, Dick Cheney to open his eyes and see the light, maybe writing what fills our minds between working the telephone logs and handing out leaflets and storming off in a huff at our relative's Thanksgiving table, is precisely what we should be doing. Not everyone's one born politician. Or a political commentator. I get so frustrated and angry; I go to such wild extremes, trying to make "a point" that people laugh.
So pundits throughout the Internet: hear ye, hear ye: no political chicanery these past eight years is blue girl's fault. (PS. Who's Tom Watson?)

[The Fat Lady Sings]

Sorry to hear about the writers block, honey. I know how hard that can be to get past. And I agree with you on Bush's pretend intelligentsia. The mans a mattress. I doubt he reads anything other than the occasional menu. And talk about detached! The main ammo dump for Bagdad goes kablewie – and Bush says not one damn thing about it. Neither does Rumsfeld. What does he expect our troops to do without bullets? Go around pointing their guns and saying, “a-bang, a-bang, a-banga?”

[blue girl]

MB, Yes! Let's all go to New York! Um, today! We'll talk about everything and Watson can buy *rounds* of drinks!

grasshopper: I started this blog to write about politics but quickly started writing about everything else because so many other people write about it so well. I *want* to write about it, but don't feel I have any original thoughts on the subject. Tom Watson is a great guy and a great blogger. He's on my blogroll, down near the bottom. Go visit!

TFLS, "a-bang, a-bang, a-banga"

:)

See? Everything just aggravates me so much about these people that all I'd do is rant and rave instead of *write* about it. Another reason I don't blog much about it.

[Jennifer]

BG... you're 29??? Wow! You're OLD! I guess I never realized! Thanks again for being my fairy blogmother. It makes sense now that I realize you are so much older than I...

As for Tom, maybe he can buy every Democrat and Independent a drink... Is it possible for dead meat to pick up the tab??

[blue girl]

I know Jennifer. It's hard to believe the big "30" is coming up so fast. But 30's the new 12, so I'm ok with it.

:)

That's a *great* idea! Watson can buy everyone a drink! All they have to do is promise to vote!

That would out-do Karl Rove -- don't you think?

[Adorable Girlfriend]

You are under no obligation to blog anything you do not want to. Having said that, you are under obligation to expose one website a year that is pathetic and get us to go over and take on the kids there.

That is what makes blogging so worth it. For example, shootaliberal is my favorite when I am steamed. I just pop by, leave a comment about how pie-in-the-sky they are and I feel better.
Then I link to one of their sites and share with the readers of RoD.

In the end, it's about getting your rage out before getting in the car or whatever.

P.S. I'd be up for Tom buying drinks.

[Claire]

Amen to this entire post, BG. Though the whole pesticide EPA thing slipped passed me. GOOD LORD!!

I too was raised on politics and my mornings are spent shouting in disbelief at what NPR tells me is happening in the world and Washington. Blogging about it is just *too* much. It's all I can do to keep myself plugged in to know what's going wrong. But at least your governor election is obvious! I mean, mine is too (I guess), but the two major people are both completely crooked. I think I'm going to go third party and I just don't know how I feel about that.

[Tom W.]

The drinks I can handle (all invited), but "who's Tom Watson?" - that's the killer. Grasshopper will just have to wait outside, nose pressed to the Algonquin glass.

Clearly writer's block has been broken here, but your complaint that "everything seems so obvious to me that I'm having a hard time thinking that I even have to talk about it!" resonates. We all have that problem. It's too damned easy to write about GWB, and who wants to "caption this photo" or talk about how lame he is endlessly into the night. We know all that...

But I'd love to know what you think about Sherrod Brown, because we don't know him very well in NY and he seems to be a rising star (the NYT has a good profile today). Also, is Democratic economic populism stuff working in Ohio - and frankly, is it deliverable post-election?

You're at ground zero BG, the epicenter of electoral politics - I can hear that Neil Young guitar lick opening the classic "Ohio" right now....