July 19,  2004 Monday

US Exploring Possible Iran-9/11 Link
Tallahassee Democrat, FL - 7-19-04
... the president, who has branded Iran as part of an "axis of evil" along with North Korea and prewar Iraq when it was ruled by Saddam Hussein. Bush accused Iran ...

Dave Casey

THE LARGE EDITOR - AHNC

In the four years since the presidential election farce, I’ve had an unusual perspective from which to watch public disenchantment grow into outrage at the bumbling, stumbling Bush administration.

My wife – now for better or worse my boss – launched All Hat No Cattle in response to the 2000 debacle. Lisa’s a political junkie, and

AHNC initially was little more than a personal protest against the Republican takeover of the White House.

From the beginning, the response to AHNC was generally positive. Most of the e-mail Lisa received then – and now – has been favorable. Even some conservative viewers who wrote to disagree with her phototoon satires of Bush and the far right acknowledged that they found humor in the web site. And providing some laughs during dark times was exactly her intent.

Some e-mail in those early days was derogatory, generally sent in by humorless or history-challenged conservatives who parroted Neo-Con dogma. Occasionally, it came from the fanatically religious or the militantly far right – the American Nazi Party types I’d seen rallying while I grew up in Chicago during the ’60s.

I’ve watched as the tone and number of disparaging e-mails has dwindled to almost nothing. People who formerly would have zipped off an e-mail in disagreement with AHNC have less and less to say as scandal and controversy mount around the Bush administration and the body count climbs in Iraq. The guy who claimed to be a police officer in California no longer writes to say that liberals like Lisa need to be dragged off by their hair, handcuffed and beaten with nightsticks. Fewer Christian conservatives write in to say that it is divine destiny of the United States to challenge the Muslim world and unquestioningly support Israel because that’s where the Second Coming will occur.

I’ve watched as AHNC has become one of the more popular political satire sites and a full-time avocation for Lisa. The gradual success of AHNC also has enabled me to come on board at a time when I wanted a break from daily newspaper journalism.

So what can I tell you about Lisa that will provide insight to the personality and creativity at the core of AHNC?

• She’s quick-witted and funny, offering scathing one-liners when warranted. When a mutual acquaintance introduced us 20 years ago in south Florida, I had been drinking heavily and was in a somewhat abrasive mood. My first words to her were “Did you ever consider getting a nose job?” She looked through me with blue-grey eyes and said, “Actually, I’ve already had three. You should have seen what it used to look like.” Then she turned her back and rejoined conversation with others while I choked between laughter and fumbling apology. I sensed immediately that she was a keeper for any man lucky enough to get close to her, and I spent the rest of the night trying to atone for my obnoxiousness.

• Lisa is an accomplished artist and teacher. She was teaching at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and composing the cover and inside pages of a newspaper’s Sunday edition magazine when we met. If you like AHNC, you’d probably enjoy her painting, sculpture and design work.

• Lisa’s no pushover. She can debate politics and other subjects with the best and won’t back down if she thinks she’s right. And in a more real-world sense – driven in part by growing up and working for years in the Miami Vice scene that south Florida became – she’s not a blind follower of every cause pushed by the ardently liberal left. In fact, she’s a pistol-packing mama and a moderate to conservative Democrat who sometimes has voted Independent or – dare I say it? – Republican.

• Lisa’s a looker. Although the picture of her in the AHNC banner was taken more than a few years ago, she occasionally posts more recent photos of herself and friends. As you may have noticed, she’s still a blonde head-turner who knows how to dress to kill. It has been an interesting two decades for me with a woman who’s almost as smart and good-looking as me. (I’ve already requested that she replace the photo of me she posted in the last edition with a more flattering shot.)

For more revelations about the woman mastermind of AHNC sprinkled among commentary about the machinations and misdeeds of the unrighteous far right, check out this space. Future columns will appear in weekend editions.

Until then, keep up the good fight. The political conflict now underway in the United States will be as historically critical as what happened in Spain in the 1930s. And a lot of Americans and free-thinking people of other nations thought that was worth dying for.          

I wonder what Dave wants?