By
MICHAEL SCHENKLER
 |
| John Fogerty’s
recent release, Deja Vu, All Over Again |
I didn’t
have a topic for this week’s column until I opened my email this
afternoon. I knew what I wanted to share with my readers, as soon as
I read the cyber-missive from Dom Nunziato, our Trib cartoonist and
multi-talented self appointed social commentator – check out his
website at www.spoil-sport.com and his cartoons weekly on this page
and on the hot QConf appearing weekly in the Trib.
I’ve avoided any commentary on the Presidential election and have
kept my opinions on the Iraq fiasco to a minimum and as locally relevant
as possible. Sure between now and November 2, I’ll most likely
tell you why George Bush should not be re-elected – if it’s
not crystal clear by now – but I’d also like to be able
to sell you John Kerry at the same time. I’m patiently waiting
for the Senator from Massachusetts to inspire the positive, the way
Bush has the negative.
But as a local political columnist, I recognize that my commentary on
the national election should not dominate this space, no matter how
strongly I feel. And certainly, those that follow this space regularly
knew well before I penned these words that I was not going to back Bush.
(And by the way, we don’t “pen” any more, we “keyboard”).
Just this week, I chatted in the office with Tony Laino, our Trib Controller
– he’s on the fence, with an unfortunate clear leaning to
the right. Bush, under normal circumstances, would be his guy. But Tony,
a Vietnam ‘graduate,’ couldn’t and didn’t try
to deny my brief presentation of the total Bush failure on Iraq. From
the President’s initial action without international support,
to his blatant failure to have an adequate post-war game plan, George
Bush and company have failed us all.
But that topic was on my conversation agenda, not my column script.
That is, until I opened Dom’s email with the subject, “John
Fogerty.”
Of course I knew Fogerty as the lead singer and writer from Clearance
Clearwater Revival, the late-60’s band that dominated the era
with long, acid-rock jams of their swamp-sound blend of bluesy R&B
and potent guitars that evoked images of the hot, steamy Deep South.
“Proud Mary” and “Bad Moon Rising” continue
to throb in my head, well over three decades after I bought my first
CCR album.
But after writing and being lead vocalists on the group’s nine
Top 10 singles from ‘69 to ’71, CCR split, and Fogerty became
one of rock’s elusive mysteries.
In the past 30-plus years, he has offered a mere five albums and appeared
rarely, and although some received critical acclaim, Fogerty has never
approached the magic of CCR.
Perhaps, until now.
He has joined with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, R.E.M. Pearl
Jam, James Taylor and more on the “Vote For Change” tour.
At the same time, he released his new album. I’ve heard bits of
the title song but did not have a chance to hear all the words until
I opened Dom’s email which read:
“John Fogerty came out with a new album this week “Deja
Vu All Over Again” You can hear the title track here: http://www.johnfogerty.com/main.php
It compares the Iraq war to Vietnam”
So, with gratitude to John Fogerty ©2004 Cody River Music / ASCAP,
for his poetic commentary and a message that Vietnam vets like Tony
and all of us who lived through that bleak period in American history,
should be able to relate to:
DEJA VU
(ALL OVER AGAIN)
Did you hear ‘em
talkin’ ‘bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I’ve heard it all before
It’s like Deja Vu all over again
Day by day I hear
the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score
Did you hear ‘em
talkin’ ‘bout it on the radio
Could your eyes believe the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I’ve heard it all before
It’s like Deja Vu all over again
One
by one I see the old ghosts rising
Stumblin’ ‘cross Big Muddy
Where the light gets dim
Day after day another Momma’s crying
She’s lost her precious child
To a war that has no end
Did you hear
‘em talkin’ ‘bout it on the radio
Did you stop to read the writing at The Wall
Did that voice inside you say
I’ve seen this all before
It’s like Deja Vu all over again
It’s like Deja Vu all over again.
--------------------------------------------
Michael Schenkler can be reached at:
MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com
The
State Of The State Legislature
By HENRY
STERN
This has not been a good time for the leaders of the State Legislature.
Assembly Speaker Silver was unable to muster the 100 votes (two-thirds
of the 150 members) he needed to override the Governor’s vetoes
of 195 items in the budget adopted by the Legislature. And in the primary,
one of Silver’s faithful, six-term Nassau Assemblyman David Sidikman,
lost to a candidate sponsored by County Executive Tom Suozzi, who plans
to campaign state-wide against the failings of Albany.
Senate Majority Leader Bruno had it no better. Democratic Assemblyman
Stephen Kaufman, who was Bruno’s candidate for the Senate seat
vacated by the imprisoned Guy Velella, lost both the Democratic and
Republican primaries. Assemblyman Jeff Klein won the Democratic nomination;
retired police detective John Fleming won the Republican nomination.
Kaufman did win the Conservative primary, defeating Fleming. Quite reasonably,
Kaufman was a no-show in Albany yesterday, one of three absentees (out
of 102) who denied the Democrats the veto-proof majority they have in
theory.
Primaries mainly fascinate political junkies. We don’t expect
most of you to have the same level of interest that we do, but it is
worthwhile to get a sense of what is happening around us. And the primaries
do determine who will be each party’s candidates in November.
On Staten Island, Assemblyman Robert Straniere was targeted for defeat
by both wings of the Staten Island Republican Party (the Molinari and
Fossella factions) who hate him as much as they dislike each other.
Normally, divided opposition helps incumbents, but since Straniere only
received 31.9% after 24 years in office, he would have lost even if
his rivals split the vote equally. They claim that he is too liberal
for Staten Island, too remote from his constituents, did not contribute
enough money or show adequate respect to the party, has rented a pied-a-terre
in (ugh) Manhattan, and showed insufficient gratitude when his brother
was made a judge of the civil court.
Besides, they wanted his seat, and the winner, Vincent Ignizio, shows
promise of being a first-rate public official. He won with 42% of the
vote, and will be opposed by a Democrat in November. This primary had
little to do with reform, except that Straniere’s quarter-century
in the Assembly was not considered much of a plus by the voters.
In Queens, first-term Democratic Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik had squeaked
in by 126 votes in 2002 in a race against two Asians. This year there
was only one, and Jimmy Meng won by 518 votes. Grodenchik ran as a reformer,
and was endorsed by Newsday and Citizens Union, but they were not persuasive.
The lodestar in this district was not ideological but ethnic. A basic
rule of local politics is, “Vote your own.”
Speaker Silver’s failure to override the governor’s budget
vetoes, and the defeat of Assemblyman Sidikman show cracks in the Albany
power structure. Whether this develops into anything serious depend
on other Democrats in the Assembly. Many of them tell us: “I’m
against the system, but I can be more effective working from within
to change it.”
These closet reformers should take heart from recent events, but they
remember the massacre of 2000 that resulted from an unsuccessful challenge
to Silver by Assemblyman Michael Bragman, Democratic majority leader
at the time. The members are also somewhat jealous of each other, having
been together for so many years so far from home. They may prefer mild
subjection under Silver to serving under an unknown quantity, or one
they know too well.
Do you remember the couplet by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), one of England’s
greatest writers?
Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog which I gave to His Royal Highness
(1738):
“I am his Highness’ dog at Kew,
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?”
How truthfully will the members of our State Legislature answer the
dog’s question?
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