Eerie Hurricane Isaac engulfs New Orleans on 'Katrina Day'

Hurricane Isaac grows and grows into what may end up being a massive storm the size of Texas that's also feeling the storm's impact

Then Tropical Storm Isaac yesterday., making its way to New Orleans

CNN reports from Grand Isles and the city of New Orleans.  Isaac's hurricane storm surge already reaches levies just outside the $14 billion main levy built after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.  Let's hope the levy 'doesn't run dry' on the people of 'The Big Easy'.  The dude on the right of Anderson Cooper is Rob Marciano. Any relation to Rocky?  A million people are expected to lose their power and Isaac may dump 20 inches of rain or more on the 'Crescent City'.

Eye of Isaac blurs half of the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast before fateful dawn of August 29th

 

3.25 pm Tuesday, August 28, 2012 

Hurricane Isaac begins to strike the coast of Louisiana at 3:25pm CDT.

Bands of thunderstorms from the giant Hurricane Isaac begin to hit New Orleans.

Isaac will lash the city of New Orleans with hurricane force winds for the next day and a half, 24-36 hours of 85 mph plus winds, of an ocean surge twelve feet high and tornadoes; the massive storm, thought by some to be the size of Texas, so far isn't packing 95 mph plus winds weathermen had feared.  

Heavy rains are striking Grand Isle and Lake Pontchartrain at this moment, not any extreme bands, yet. 

Hurricane warnings are up from New Iberia and Jeanerette, Louisiana to the barrier islands off Pensacola in Florida's Panhandle.  Flood warnings are up from Orange, the first town across the border in Texas, on the Sabine River stretching east into parts of southern Alabama, reaching toward Montgomery.  Tropical storm watches and warning reach west to around Port Author and Beaumont, Texas east to Chattahoochee, Florida and Lake Seminole in Georgia. 

Isaac's width stretches more than 300 miles from the Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana border to more than 100 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico.

But Isaac's clouds size is enormous, a hurricane stretching along a line from Padre Island, Texas to Fort Myers, Florida.   

The storm now crawls northwest, hugging the coast of Louisiana, at 8 mph, slowing down but gaining strength with sustained winds of 80mph and gusts of 125mph.  Forecasters believe Isaac may reach Cat 2 force winds of 100 mph with greater gusts. Isaac will raise havoc for the next day or so. 

New Orleans and Louisiana were spared another Hurricane Katrina, as Isaac traveled over "cool eddy’s" of the Gulf waters, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology.  Thanks, Cool Eddy.

Meanwhile, Isaac pushed gas prices in Butler County, Ohio this morning from 3.67 to $4 a gallon.

 Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology story on why Isaac may not be another Hurricane Katrina

Cooler Waters Help Diminish Isaac's Punch

Color-enhanced image of sea surface heights in the Gulf of Mexico, showing Hurricane Isaac's path through the Gulf and around its warmest waters. Image credit: LSU Earth Scan Laboratory/U. of Colorado CCAR/NASA-JPL/Caltech
› Larger view

2

August 28, 2012

Seven years after the powerful Category 3 Hurricane Katrina caused widespread devastation along the Gulf Coast, a Category 1 Hurricane Isaac, with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (70 knots), is making landfall today in southeast Louisiana. And one of the reasons why Isaac is not Katrina is the path it took across the Gulf of Mexico and the temperature of the ocean below, which helps to fuel hurricanes.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina's maximum wind speeds increased dramatically as the storm passed over a warm ocean circulation feature called the Loop Current that is part of the Gulf Stream. The storm evolved quickly from a Category 3 to a Category 5 event on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in a matter of nine hours as it drew heat from the Loop Current. It subsequently dropped in intensity to a Category 3 storm at landfall.

Because the Loop Current and its eddies are warmer, and thus higher in surface elevation, than the surrounding waters, they are easily spotted by satellite altimeter instruments, such as those aboard the NASA/French Space Agency Jason 1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellites. Scientists use the latest satellite measurements of sea-surface height from these and other satellite altimeters to create maps showing the location, direction and speed of currents in the Gulf of Mexico.

This color-enhanced image of sea surface heights in the northeastern Gulf, produced using data from available satellite altimeters, including NASA's Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites, shows Isaac's path through the Gulf. The storm skirted around the Loop Current, then caught the outer edge of a warm eddy before passing directly over a cold eddy. The storm's track away from the Gulf's warmest waters has helped to keep Isaac from intensifying rapidly, as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did in 2005.

Warm eddies have high heat content and great potential to intensify hurricanes, whereas cold eddies have low heat content and may even cause hurricanes to weaken, as was the case with Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Latest Public Advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami

 

000

WTNT34 KNHC 290058

TCPAT4

BULLETIN

HURRICANE ISAAC INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER  31B

NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL092012

800 PM CDT TUE AUG 28 2012

...ISAAC MOVING SLOWLY NORTHWESTWARD ALONG THE COAST OF SOUTHEAST

LOUISIANA...DANGEROUS STORM SURGE CONTINUING ALONG THE NORTHERN

GULF COAST...

SUMMARY OF 800 PM CDT...0100 UTC...INFORMATION

----------------------------------------------

LOCATION...29.0N 89.6W

ABOUT 30 MI...50 KM WSW OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

ABOUT 75 MI...120 KM SSE OF NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...80 MPH...130 KM/H

PRESENT MOVEMENT...NW OR 315 DEGREES AT 8 MPH...13 KM/H

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...968 MB...28.59 INCHES

WATCHES AND WARNINGS

--------------------

CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY...

NONE.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* EAST OF MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA TO THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER...

INCLUDING METROPOLITAN NEW ORLEANS...LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN...AND LAKE

MAUREPAS

A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* INTRACOASTAL CITY TO MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER TO DESTIN FLORIDA

* MORGAN CITY TO CAMERON LOUISIANA

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* EAST OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS TO JUST WEST OF CAMERON LOUISIANA

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE

INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY

YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE.

DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK

------------------------------

AT 800 PM CDT...0100 UTC...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE ISAAC WAS LOCATED

BY NOAA DOPPLER RADAR NEAR LATITUDE 29.0 NORTH...LONGITUDE 89.6

WEST. ISAAC IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 8 MPH...13 KM/H. A

NORTHWESTWARD MOTION AT A SLIGHTLY SLOWER SPEED IS EXPECTED OVER

THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER OF

HURRICANE ISAAC WILL CONTINUE MOVING NEAR OR OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN

COAST OF LOUISIANA OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS...AND MOVE FARTHER INLAND

OVER SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 80 MPH...130 KM/H...WITH HIGHER

GUSTS. ISAAC IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON

HURRICANE WIND SCALE. SOME SLIGHT STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE

BEFORE ISAAC MOVES INLAND...WHILE GRADUAL WEAKENING IS EXPECTED

AFTER THAT.

HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 60 MILES...95 KM...

MAINLY TO THE NORTHEAST AND EAST OF THE CENTER. TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE

WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 185 MILES...295 KM. TROPICAL STORM

CONDITIONS ARE OCCURRING ALONG THE COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHEASTERN

LOUISIANA...MISSISSIPPI...AND ALABAMA. A SUSTAINED WIND OF 52 MPH

WITH A GUST TO 64 MPH WAS OBSERVED WITHIN THE PAST HOUR AT

LAKEFRONT AIRPORT IN NEW ORLEANS.

THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS

968 MB...28.59 INCHES.

HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND

----------------------

STORM SURGE...THE COMBINATION OF A STORM SURGE AND THE TIDE WILL

CAUSE NORMALLY DRY AREAS NEAR THE COAST TO BE FLOODED BY RISING

WATERS. THE WATER COULD REACH THE FOLLOWING DEPTHS ABOVE GROUND IF

THE PEAK SURGE OCCURS AT THE TIME OF HIGH TIDE...

* MISSISSIPPI AND SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA...6 TO 12 FT

* ALABAMA...4 TO 8 FT

* SOUTH-CENTRAL LOUISIANA...3 TO 6 FT

* FLORIDA PANHANDLE...3 TO 6 FT

* APALACHEE BAY...2 TO 4 FT

* REMAINDER OF FLORIDA WEST COAST...1 TO 3 FT

THE DEEPEST WATER WILL OCCUR ALONG THE IMMEDIATE COAST IN AREAS OF

ONSHORE WINDS.  SURGE-RELATED FLOODING DEPENDS ON THE RELATIVE

TIMING OF THE SURGE AND THE TIDAL CYCLE...AND CAN VARY GREATLY OVER

SHORT DISTANCES.  FOR INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE

SEE PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE.  NEAR THE

COAST...THE SURGE WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY LARGE AND DANGEROUS WAVES.

A STORM SURGE OF 9.5 FEET WAS RECENTLY REPORTED AT A NATIONAL

OCEAN SERVICE TIDE GAUGE AT SHELL BEACH LOUISIANA.  A STORM SURGE

OF 5.7 FEET WAS OBSERVED AT A NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE TIDE GAUGE IN

WAVELAND MISSISSIPPI.

WIND...TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD ACROSS THE

WARNING AREA THIS EVENING...AND HURRICANE CONDITIONS SHOULD SPREAD

ONSHORE ACROSS SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA DURING THE NEXT FEW HOURS.

WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE

SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR GROUND LEVEL. AT ABOUT THE

30TH STORY...WINDS WOULD LIKELY BE ONE SAFFIR-SIMPSON CATEGORY

STRONGER THAN AT THE SURFACE.

RAINFALL...ISAAC IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF

7 TO 14 INCHES...WITH POSSIBLE ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 20

INCHES...OVER MUCH OF LOUISIANA...SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI...SOUTHERN

ALABAMA...AND THE EXTREME WESTERN FLORIDA PANHANDLE. THESE RAINS

COULD RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT LOWLAND FLOODING.

TORNADOES...TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST

THROUGH TONIGHT.

SURF...DANGEROUS SURF AND RIP CURRENT CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO

AFFECT THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA AND PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN GULF

COAST FOR THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

-------------

NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY...1000 PM CDT.

$$

FORECASTER BROWN/KIMBERLAIN/BERG

I don't know what those two dollars signs are for, but thanks "Brown Kimgerlain and Berg for a very cool Hurricane Isaac Public Advisory.

Muhammad Ali: A Kiss for 'the Greatest'

Muhammad Ali pop painting
by John Stango

A kiss for 'the greatest'

by Mike Marcellino

When I returned to Singapore in 1979, I was stunned by my Indian-Chinese sister-in-law's story of the kiss she gave Muhammad Ali.  

Dindi Devi, then with the Singapore government, was working at the United Nations in New York City that day. 

As she walked in a hallway, Ali walked toward her.  She quick stepped up to him and planted her kiss on the check of her hero - "The Greatest, and a hero of the world. Listening, I felt like I was there.  To me Ali is more than an icon.  While he is the greatest boxer of all time, he is also a wonderful and courageous human being.  

Ali reminds me of my Sicilian, Italian-American Dad, Tony Marcellino, who my boyfriends called, with great respect,"Big Tone"  Both have fists of iron and hearts of gold.  

Tony's was my "father" since I was a 3-year-old when my mother, Katherine, me and my freckled-faced older brother lived in the Fleetwood hotel on Miami Beach.  It was at The Fleetwood where Katherine and Tony fell in love.

Our mother, Katherine Ricker, and father, Emory Ensor, split up.  I wrote a poem about those days, "Flying Over the Fleetwood" but haven't yet recorded it as a lyrical poetry song.  I have performed it a couple of times on stage in Cleveland and Baltimore. 

Beautiful Katherine, with long flowing light brown hair, was Presbyterian Protestant from Alsace Lorraine on the French-German border.  There was some English and Scotch in there too, but I'm all mixed up.  All I do know is something my dear Aunt Dot wrote in pencil on a  piece of white paper.  I still have it.  

Emory Ensor, with dashing black hair, a sometimes assistant starter at Pimlico and horse racing tracks up and down the East Coast, was a wild Englishman, and Scotch-Irish Catholic. Katherine was a strong-willed woman, and stern, but she had a giving heart.  She was raised like Cinderella by a cruel aunt and uncle.  They made her scrub the floors on her hands and knees all the time while everyone else her age was out having fun in Baltimore City in the Roaring Twenties. 

Katherine was the kind of mother, I never called her "mom," that cooks and cooks great stuff like English meatloaf with mashed potatoes and string beans; the kind that never sits down until everyone else is up from the table.  One thing I know - my father's side is a family of horse people, thoroughbreds.  The proof is my great uncle, Buddy Ensor, the greatest hand rider ever, is a hall of fame jockey. She had never been further than The Maryland Shore in her working class life, but she somehow took us down to south Florida.   Perhaps she'd been down to Hialeah race track and had connections.  That I'll never know, but it would make a good story.

Tony, I always called him with the greatest respect, fought in the ring as a teenager all over the Midwest and East Coast during the years of The Depression.  

Tony Marcellino - he fought light and middleweight for thirty-five dollars if he was lucky.  He told me he often fought under made up names, like an actor.  He had a lot of fights, hundreds, but not too many and turned professional.  Said he was never knocked out.  Not even knocked down.  Once he said  a referee called a knockdown.  He said it was a slip.  I believe him. Tony was as honest as an arrow.  I believed and listened to every word he said.  He was quit a philosopher too.

In Los Angeles I almost seriously took up boxing.  After school I would spar with a friend named Mike Palooka, I swear that was his name, but the comic book character was "Joe."  One day I realized he was a bit quicker with his hands than me.  I kept getting hit in the head. I quit boxing.

My boyfriends in Cleveland always asked me if he was in the Mafia.  We never used the word.  I never asked Tony about it.  I did know where he kept his stubbed-nose thirty-eight revolver - in the top drawer of the dresser.  

I always felt safe with Tony; I never called him Dad. There wasn't a need for that; he was a great father.    He got me a BB gun before I turned four and a few years later a .22 rifle and a .410 shot gun.  He didn't have to teach me how to use them.  The longshoremen from the docks in San Pedro Harbor showed me. I was a natural.   

I'll never forget one New Year's Eve outside our one-room apartment (it was new).  Tony got his .38, loaded it with blanks and he let me shoot it off. Quite a celebration for a eight-year-old.   We made quite a racket that night in Wilmington, California.  But, I must stop here, I'm getting into a whole 'nother story. 

Today, at 70, suffering with Parkinson's disease he was diagnosed with in 1984, Ali is a living legend.  He'll always be remembered for carrying the Olympic Flame at the 1996 in Atlanta, shaking but determined, he climbed those stairs. He won the Gold Medal as a light heavyweight in the Rome Olympics.  He's a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. At the London Olympics he was the titular bearer of the Olympic flag.

He'll be also be remembered for his refusal to be drafted into the U. S. Armed Forces in 1967 because he was against the Vietnam War.  He considered himself a conscious objector.  He said it was against his faith, by then Muslim.  

"War is against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger," he told the world.  

At his trial on felony charges of draft evasion, on June 20, 1967, after only 21 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Ali guilty.  The New York State Athletic Commission stripped him of his World Heavyweight title and suspended him from boxing.  I was about to go to Vietnam as a U. S. Army correspondent. 

Ali had the courage of his convictions.

On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court reversed his conviction for refusing induction by unanimous decision in Clay v. United States. That's justice for you, better late then never.  

I had returned from the war in September of 1968, got out of the Army, turned around after two weeks at home and went back to Singapore to marry Lohmani Dev, daughter of Ram Paul Singh, a devote Hindu and engineer for the British, a gentle and pure Indian and became a newspaper reporter at the Painesville Telegraph in Ohio, east of Cleveland.  I often wrote about of the wounds and sufferings of that war and the courage of my brothers in arms - soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors.  I wrote many stories about war protests and covered the largest march on Washington in our nation's history in October of 1969.  I sometimes struggled myself, fighting my my own demons, nightmares and flashbacks. Along the way, after the war had finally ended, I managed to capture two national awards for my stories, but not for the ones I did on the struggles of our nation and its people trying to find their conscience.   

Now I find I'm still learning about myself and the heroes of our nation on both sides of the war.  

Ali will always be remembered for how he could "dance like a butterfly" in the ring, "sting like a bee and" rope-a-dope."  But, even more, the whole world knows and admires him for his work in human rights and philanthropy for the betterment of all people. 

In doing this story, I had a hard time nailing down the day of the now historic "kiss" of Devi and Ali at the United Nations.  Internet archives only go back to 1980.  So we're some writing history here.  

For the record - Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. on January 17, 1942.  His father, a billboard and sign painter, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. was named after the 19th century abolitionist and politician of the same name. 

Now, I know what happened when Muhammad Ali, a different champion of the nation, visited the United Nations.  I have proof of "the kiss."  

On that day Ali was still heavyweight champion of the world - three time champion, he reminded a room full of reporters at the UN.  He told them he'll retire soon and go out on top, which black prize fighters never had managed before.   

"It would be a sin. The worst thing I could do is go back into the ring," Ali told reporters.

It was 1972 on Ali's visit to the United Nations.  The whole story of the day Dindi kissed  Ali  in the halls of the United Nations.  Without hesitation she planted a kiss on the cheek of Muhammad.  I only wish I had been there.

"I'm painting for peace," he told reporters.  

Ali told reporters in the taped interview that he was having a show at The Roseland Ballroomon on West 52nd Street in New York.  It's known as "the greatest ballroom."

"It will be the greatest," he said.

The Roseland Ballroom, New York City

Hey, if I make this story into a poetry song with music, maybe I can perfom at The Roseland some day.

You can listen to the tape now.  This is how the United Nation's website describes the 34 minute interview - 

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali speaks about God, boxing and using his fame for a good cause in this press conference at UN Headquarters.  It's 34 minutes and here's the link to the website.  

Press interview with Muhammad at the United Nations, 1979

Here also is a link to the official Muhammad Ali website.  On the cover he's dodging and weaving against the punching bag.  It's the greatest!

As stories often go, there's a postscript.  Ali was also a pretty good singer.  I was aware of his albums vaguely.  Here's Muhammad Ali doing a cover of Ben E. King's classic, "Stand By Me" he recorded in 1963.

"Stand By Me" by Muhammad Ali

Then "Cassius Clay" wins the World Heavyweight Championship after Sonny Liston fails to come out in the 7th Round.  The fight, February 25, 1964 in Miami, Florida was almost cancelled because Clay was seen with Malcom X in Miami and other cities.

Slam bang 2012 U.S. presidential election coverage leis an comhfhreagraí file Mike

Presidential fund raising chart of, oh, i forgot just who,
money back guarantee

Slam bang 2012 pesidential election coverage

Okie dokie folks this is the first edition (and maybe the only edition) of our slam bang covered 2012 U. S. presidential election election

- pitting

...in the blue (no red) corner Mitt Romney, the challenger some folks call the... we don't know what kind of car he drives (got to be American made, right?)... so let's just call him the Wolverine who drove the family car vacationing from The Cape to his summer home in Ontario, Canada, that is, with his late Irish Setter in a waterless cage lashed to the roof of the car until Seamus the dog threw up, so he stopped at a Pilot or something, hosed down the car, put Seamus back in his cage on the roof of the family car (what's wrong with a summer home in Cleveland?)

...while in the other blue corner (seems like it should be blue; think war games) still standing president Barack Obama, the...wait  our correspondent says the prez has a lot of school choices and may not decide until the two-minute warning.  For now, we'll just call him the X  president from....

See the blue bars (think 2001 A Space Odyssey, the movie....Was the movie made in 2001?.... Is there a video game?...  What?... What else?... Do you think it was made in 1969 or something?...

Democrats are always blue and they have a lot of women behind them. Don't ask.  (B A R A C K), i always wonder if i'm getting that right. i'll go with it.  Don't ask.

And the challenger in the red corner...no, we already did that.

Republicans are always red and they have a lot of not gay rednecks behind them. Forget it (no, we're not looking it up, give us a call).

So, we're gonna cover the waterfront.  The whole kit and caboodle will be in her, Cub Scout honor.  So folks turn off all your electronics, except the one you're on now, reading. 

And, here, this here, (we know cut the words down) is our 2012 Slam Bang Election coverage.  All the scoops anyone can shovel.

Now, at the tale of this report you will encounter two trumped up staged crowd pleasing fund raising mug shoots of the two men.  You can easily tell which one's Obama; he's black, well, sort of, but that's another story.

Look, all you need to know is to white people, we're talking about Americans here, citizens that is, but you don't have to be born here.  You don't even have to vote, most people don't.

Anyway, we're not gettin' into that who was really born where stuff.  Mitt was born in money and Barack was born in Hawaii.

Wait we have a news sat flash coming in on the sonar; ok we've got flash, almost, damn secure coded message; drop the codes; we're not going there, ok, here she is -

W H E R E.... W E R E...YOU...BORN?

..CARRY ON.

Now for the real story.  We know the election is 89 days away but we have already nailed the issue; we're so excited; there's a bunch of issues, but they all wrap up into one nicely, like a wade of hundred dollar bills.  Enough said.

Now, for our arts but not a whole lot of culture on the spot correspondent Mike.

Mike, are you with us (Army jargon)?

Who's that?

Mike?

Wait, are you there?  

Wait, my report isn't titled.  I tried to save it... Are you there?...  I'll just slap something on here.  

If you don't like it, change it...here she goes...




the who is john galt

by Mike Marcellino



Who is john galt?

Right, the who is john galt?

no, i mean,
who is john galt?

Right, gotcha.
right.
listen up.
the who is john galt.

Look,
i don't have time for this nonsense,
give me the straight answer
right now.
your country, your world
the one you have right now
depends on it.
It's your future
dumbo
the election's in November.

Ok,
for the third and last time, dustbuster
this is my question -

Our campaign is in every gear.
We have enough hard cash
to build a road to the moon
made of gold (we have a lot of that too).
We have super packs.
We have more money than you can count.
We have more money than you can shake a stick at.
We have so much money piled as far as the eyes can see.

We're talking billions.

No sticks, no trees here
it's the Nebraska sand hills
nothin' but dust 
this isn't New York City.

Don't you watch television?
get on line, you know?

TV broke down
got laid off.
where were you 
when this thing got started.

You wanna buy us one?
do it before electric power 
shuts us off.
mister, only lines we got around here 'er
electric lines,
clothes lines
and the unemployment line.
Hey, Mr. Businessman
what in blazes 
you doin' here
in that black suit?
it's a hundred ten.

You wanna know 
who john galt is?

The is john galt  
don't like my answer?

You shovel it.

the who is john galt? by Mike Marcellino copyright 2012

Thanks Mike, we hope you will join us real soon again for more, 'er, coverage; not right away though. 

Incognito editorial mumbo jumbo

Now, if there's anything the 2012 Slam Bang Election coverage aims to be is fair.  Fair as the hot air gets in west Nebraska.

Let us say right away, make it perfectly clear, we're for liberty and freedom costs.

(that's another story)

So, what we did, we had a puesdo presidential victory flip, coin toss.  

It was Romney for heads (no brainer, that's Washington the first president, most people do get that right, the rest are toss ups)  

It was tails for Obama.  Democrats are always donkeys.

There's no American coin with an elephant on the top (fact check), but the Republicans are always elephants.    

The 2012 Slam Bang Election coverage big flip to see who wins out on who's photograph goes first (that's on the left, layout talk, don't bother with the fine print) was witnessed by an estimated crowd of exactly zero people 

Mitt won the toss. Mitt won!  Mitt won! It was best two out of three with a quarter from Oregon.  God, our first glitch in the 2012 Slam Band Election coverage.  Screw it.  

All you need to know is the Republicans are always right handed and Democrats are always left. That puts Mitt on the left but he's really right, isn't he?  On the other hand, Barack is right here, but he's really left, right?

Stayed tuned for our never quite up to date ongoing coverage.

All that we can manage to shovel.  

Don't worry, we'll never be up to the minute.  Read the small print.

If you disagree write us a letter.  

If you can't write send us a card, stamped Miami Beach.

That's what it'll come down to.  

Oh no, we gave the election away.

Sorry, this is not quite the right photo but we're working on it.

Come to think of it, to really be fair, the 2012 Slam Bang Election coverage has instantly and arbitrarily decided to even the playing field by NEVER RUNNING photographs of either of the candidates for president.  Just pretend they have brown paper bags over their heads.

Over an out...

Rover, ah shoot, i mean...ah, Roger...



Post game report - 

In the instance of trying to get people out of their beds and into the voting booths, here, take a look at their pictures.

You'll have to guess who's who. (Yes, we already got calls, another glitch in our coverage).  

Look, aliens own our network.

We know what you are thinking.  

Ní chuireann na meáin a fhios ceart ó chlé nó barr ó bun. Sin ceart go leor, is é Mike Scotch-na hÉireann.

Thank God for undo

Q. How many steel workers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. none, if you don't make steel

Last flight to the gates of heaven, prose poem by Mike Marcellino

Last flight to the gates of heaven

by Mike Marcellino

Part I  The mission

It all became right clear to me

walkin' the dog to the beach

and back

to the gates of heaven

from mission number three.

i found that liberty, you see

can only be

if you respect other people's

rights.  Otherwise you got

nothin' but monopoly and friction.

i'm walking the dog to the beach,

and back

to the gates of heaven

from mission number three -

sometimes under attack

by dogs runnin' free 'cause their masters don't put 'em on a leach,

even if they have one.  Now i'd like to let my dog Button

run as free as he likes, but then, that wouldn't be liberty

and we'd all end up under attack.

Seems you can only have pure freedom when nobody's around.

If you want to live together without fightin' and wars

we have to all share our liberty.

Button, you see, is a young white Poodle

smart and stubborn as can be.  He doesn't much

mind any of the dogs, 'cause he's on a mission with me, you see.

He's a kind of blood hound without the hound.

Secretly enlisted in the K-9 Corps.

i'm tryin' to keep him sniffing for

ways to peace, so our world can still be.

We're walking to the beach

and back

to the gates of heaven

from mission number three

to meet up with all the critters we see,

maybe make a friend or two.

We can all have liberty to a degree,

and together, i truly believe

we can save their world from

man-made destruction,

if we can just be kind to each other,

from here to eternity

and back,

'stead of killin' each other and our planet.

Headed down through rattlesnake turtle dunes,

things kinda turned the other cheek.

Suddenly ahead i see a whole family

complete two boys and two dogs

on their leaches.

"That's the man you like,"

said one boy to the other.

And, low and behold

the man pulling his dogs on their leashes

retreated

letting Button and me

pass through safely;

they were like Moses parting the Red Sea.

We're still walkin' to the beach

and back

to the gates of heaven

from mission number three

when i spy a mighty subtropical

thunderstorm,

a scary black, silver and grey chain covering the western horizon,

wanting badly to spawn tornadoes.

At this point, we're on the point

and i spy a break in the clouds

maybe a path on our road to glory.

Eyeing the growing storm in some increasing disbelieve;

our luck seemed to have run out -

black-grey funnels tryin' their best

to take Button and me off the planet

to Oz.

Then, starting to think some last thoughts

walkin' the dog back from the beach

through the rattlesnake turtle dunes

it dawned on me,

"What a special dog this is;

he's either got some of that PTSD,

or he's much smarter than me."

The Dylan's lyrics run though my brain -

"Mama, put my guns in the ground

I can't shoot them anymore.

That long black cloud is comin' down

I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door"

Thanks, Bob, for those lines from "Knockin' On Heaven's Door,"

i really like that song

from the "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" sound track.

Here's your credit -

Copyright ©1973 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2001 by Ram’s Horn Music

Part II  Flashback No. 1

On our final run, Button

and me

i'm back in the wars again

thinkin' Audie Murphy

and To Hell and Back from World War II

now i'm back to tryin' to get back

from Firebase Cleveland.

i had no gun,

hardly ever did 

in the Vietnam War

out in the field, not even a tooth brush

or change for a dollar,

not a bite of food, not a C-Ration can

just notebooks, pens and

thirty-five millimeter cameras

wrapped in plastic,

wading through the rice paddies, sometimes chest deep -

my brothers watching my back.

Part III  Button and me

Trying to keep my cool

there was only one thing to do

right now

if Button and me

are gonna make it through the storm.

Start joggin'

and singin' this old song -

"Up the hill,

down the hill,

Airborne,

Airborne,

Army Rangers.

Up the hill,

down the hill,

Airborne,

Airborne,

All the way."

Over and over. I probably messed up the lines

but it's been a long time

before long a half century.

Then i got to thinkin' we just might

make it through the storm.  I geared back to fast walkin'.

Part IV The night i thought i'd died

These threats in the world

get me flashin' back

to the night i thought i'd died

in the sandy

forested wasteland

on the Cambodian border

at a firebase freshly carved out

Automatic weapons fire

all through the no moon night

shootin' the shit with bare chested GI's

filling bags

for some slim extra protection 

against mortar and rocket attacks.

i'm out there, right there where we're not supposed to be

me, some Army engineers,

artillerymen

and a battery

of big guns,  one five five millimeters

on tracks that looked like tanks.

i got dropped off on the convoy

thanks

to the bird colonel and his helicopter.

from my ride on the bird colonel's helicopter.

Letting me out, barely touching down,

that Alabamian, i guess as close as you can get

to my commanding officer, looked at me

without a word, laughing.  i didn't bother to look back.

He wasn't a bad guy.  He just wanted some good photos and stories

out of me

published so he could be a general.

We rolled on to the border

dust almost blinding.

Then right away in some no man's land

the bulldozers scooped up dirt

by the tons

firing hole for the big traveling guns.

"Boom, boom, boom,

blast, blast, blast"

the guns shook and thundered.

(me shooting pictures, taking notes, without ear plugs, close enough to feel the warmth of the steel)

The artillerymen humpin' all day long

unleashing hell out into the triple canopy jungles

where they enemy was supposed to be -

the NVA (the North Vietnamese Army)

and maybe some VC (Viet Cong) guerrillas i suppose

on their way to hit Saigon, and not the bars.

I don't know how many enemy there were out there somewhere,

hundreds,

maybe as many four or five thousand;

it wasn't any use to think about that.

"Who's out on the perimeter?" i asked the smart-assed lieutenant

who shut me out of his APC.

(armored personnel carriers to you folks back home).

"Mercenaries," he said without a grin.

i thought, "Man, what a fix i got myself in."

With dispatch the lieutenant said,

"Start diggin' your hole,"

he said as he went into his APC

probably to start partying before World War Three.

Our guns were silent, even Alpha's Angels

the whole troop had showered, except the reporter,

from canvas bags filled with cold running water

brought in by slicks, Huey D Model gunships,

(They didn't stick around.)

Nothin' like a cold shower to get some relief from the mind sapping heat.

i had little time.  The sun was going down.

Get the size just right.  i had no time to think

of the rectangular, grave sized bunker

to be topped with corrugated steel for a cover.

Be quick. 

At least someone gave me an entrenching tool

or i'd have been buried alive

before the fireworks began

on the night a thought i'd died.  That's another story.

Part V  Gates of heaven

Then, i got to thinkin' we,

Button and me, that is, just might make it 

walkin' the dog to the beach

and back

to the gates of heaven

from mission number three.

So my story to you,

at least the one from today

does have a happy ending.

Button and me, we did make it home.

Back in the day

toward the end

of the ten thousand day war,

all i know, for sure that is 

58,000 and more,

some of America's finest

young men and women

didn't make it back to the world.

These bands of brothers

i always remember.

They boarded the big airplanes

in body bags and boxes

on their last flight of freedom

to the gates of heaven.

Last flight to the gates of heaven by Mike Marcellino copyright 2012