“Three...Two...One... You’re On The Air!”

Well, it figures I’d start this thing the day former President Gerald Ford finally dropped dead. If we can’t forgive him for pardoning Nixon, we can at least give him props for inspiring one of the funniest headlines in history. With his passing, we can officially say that moderate Republicanism died with him. Of course, please don’t anyone be shocked if we’re not treated to an absolutely insufferable, week-long hagiography a la St. Ronald. It’s not that Ford wasn’t a decent enough fellow, who ably steered the nation along without making waves. It’s just that he wasn’t a big enough war criminal, delusional maniac or simply enough of an outright bastard to make good coverage. Considering the incalculable damage the current GOP “leadership” has wrought on the country over just the past six years alone, I’d give anything to have Jerry running again on the GOP side in ’08, and I'm a liberal Democrat. He may not have had any answers, but at least he wouldn’t go actively to the mat to make things worse, and the resulting pablum of the presidential “race” would at least give the nation a chance to breathe, rub its eyes, come to its senses, and try to begin cleaning up the mess the fanatical extremists currently in power have made.

Of course, mentioning Ford’s death without mentioning another recent one would truly be criminal: James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. What else can possibly be said about this man that his spectacular music doesn’t already say for him? For all you young ’un’s who’ve never experienced him, get your asses over to iTunes and start downloading, pronto.

As for me, I’m electrolite, host of this particular just-barely-functional-at-this-point little bit of the Internet, and the main (though not the only) writer that will be appearing here. Expect the site to undergo visual changes fairly soon, and I’ll have the “About Me” section updated eventually. Probably quicker than that, but you know how it is.

Update: Walter Shapiro has a good piece in Salon on Ford. The title says it all.