One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.”

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”

I’m exhausted at the moment, yet have no idea what it’s linked to. I think it’s the withdrawals… not the typical booze, pills, heroin, etc. combo, but one of a more intangible state. The political withdrawals are now taking over the office, as we look around on the web trying to ignore the latest Obama and Palin jokes, turning a blind eye to a (probably) fictitious story of how Cindy McCain is cheating on Johnny boy. Alas, I went back to my drug of choice today, and found an enlightening article from an Australian news source.

The writings state how Obama is looking to bring in key figures into hit political network and is trying to drop the bullshit labels of ‘liberal this’ and ‘conservative that’. Sure, some issues it’s a clear cut decision on which party aligns with what issue (e.g. pro-life v. pro-choice). At this point, however, our Pres-Elect is looking to reach out and figure out a solution to how to fix what we can only call an emergency state of our country. Beautifully worded, when Obama was asked how he’s going to fix the mess we’re in, he said

“What I don’t want to do is get bottled up in a lot of ideology and is this conservative or liberal - my interest is finding something that works. And whether it’s coming from FDR or it’s coming from Ronald Reagan, if the idea is right for the times, then we’re going to apply it.”

It’s enlightening that the man is open to brining in his past opponents, hinting that Clinton might be the likely candidate for Secretary of State, and that he believes John McCain is a wise man whom he’ll be needing advice from over the next term.

Check the one of the articles HERE, then go waste the day away drinking bourbon until the waiting game is over January 20th.

Today on the way to work I witnessed a really heartwarming scene: Emerging victoriously from the pawn shop, a bedraggled, toothless bum carrying a Fender Squier practice amplifier in one hand and a green Stratocaster in the other. His ginormous, tooth-barren smile was the kind that a child gives when they get their first puppy, or when an octogenarian wins the lottery. Dude was stoked to get his gear out of hock; if he had a free hand I would have given him a high five right there on the spot.

The spare-changers have been on the grind lately. Whether its the recent Obama-spawned goodwill, the nearing ThanksChristmas holidays or just the fact that it’s mid-November and it’s still a sunny 75 degrees in Chico, folks are in a good mood. The free change flows like beer from a freshly-tapped keg.
The young, well-dressed, earringed dude who ran into me at 2 PM in downtown who just “ran out of gas and is waiting for his girlfriend to borrow a gas can. I just need to get home, could you help me out?” was just as friendly wen I ran into him later at midnight at the AM/PM in the north side of town. “Hey… I thought that was you!” he exclaimed as he quickly jingled up to me. I asked if someone ever helped him out to, you know, get back home with his girlfriend. This garnered me a happy-ending story about some nice old lady. Thwarted from 2nd attempted spanging, he took refuge around the corner with his other young pal and waited for me to take my leave so he continue saving up for whatever their poison. AH, hard at work.

These are the heartwarming stories that make my day. Here’s to your own successful derelict wanderings.

Because you deserve it… Okay, fine, Canada, you can get in on this too.

You know what? To all those in palaces and parliaments, to the forgotten corners of the globe huddled around radios, this is for you too. You’re simply the best.

Yesterday’s Presidential election, some are saying had the biggest voter turnout this country has seen in over a century. The numbers are pretty convincing I must say, some are estimating an over 60% of registered voters actually voted. The following story shows just how many people, and the insane variety of people that actually seemed to care about this election. A friend of mine and I went to San Fransisco to see our friends of ours who are on tour and were playing a show in San Fransisco (love you Pizza and Maine boys). As the election results were getting closer and closer to being the final nail in John McCain’s coffin we took a walk to Mel’s Dinner which was down the street from the venue. On the way out of Mel’s there was lady who definitely had a steady meth intake for probably a decade or so, had little to no teeth and probably haddn’t showered in weeks yelling OOOBBBAAMMMAAA!! over and over again. For me the fact that this lady probably had no idea where she was and knew Obama had just got elected and was excited about it blew my mind. After the Mel’s and the show ending and good bye’s were said, my friend and I were walking back to our car which was a little over a mile walk through The Tenderlion District in downtown San Fransisco. As we were walking another, more well put together than the previous meth addict, but a meth addict none the less started yelling at my friend and I. He was saying something to the effect of “it’s you guys, it’s you guys”, at this point we had no idea what this guy was trying to get across. He proceeds to say “It’s all thanks to you young, white college kids that we have Obama, thank you”. He yelled and mumbled this for about a block walk behind us. Again, the scope of how far this election actually reached blew my mind. An older, “semi-bumly”, African American male, thanking two 20 something white kids walking in downtown San Fransisco past midnight for the outcome of the presidential election. It was a very odd experience I must say. Everywhere we walked there were chants of “OBAMA” and “WE DID IT!”. Reguardless of who you wanted to win this election, republican or democrat, everyone should agree, people must have wanted change if bums in the street are celebrating over the outcome. I’m just glad that we were out of the city by the time it was more official that Prop. 8 would actually pass.

http://www.patrickmoberg.com/