Since the election of President Barack Obama the Republican Party has embarked on a singular mission to come to the aid of the American people. The main, and perhaps only, thrust of their action is to rename the Democratic Party as the Democratic-Socialist Party. True the loonier elements of Republicanism, if such distinctions hold, had for a time held out for the Democratic-Fascist Party. However after much wrangling it was decided that Fascist had a decidedly foreign ring to it and Democratic-Socialist won out in order to keep things well within the bounds of Americana.

Howard Hughes on Trial

From Gazette editions of July, 1934:

TIMMY’S TREE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Regarding Mrs. Whipple’s tree named for her son Timmy, which was mutilated by the construction of a parking space, and displayed on these pages — perhaps not life and death as Mrs. Whipple so delicately states, but certainly front page news in the hearts of those who love this beautiful Island.

Jack Schimmelman

Levittown, N.Y.

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CALL IN THE NIGHT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Robert Strange McNamara: 1916-2009

He was without doubt the most powerful and controversial American secretary of defense in the twentieth century — and the most scorned. He served as defense secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from 1961 to 1968 and his name soon became irretrievably linked to the long and tragic years of the Viet Nam War. His many and often fierce critics called the bloody conflict in Southeast Asia McNamara’s War. That name and that public blame would stick with him until death.

Robert S. McNamara: 1916-2009

Excerpted from a 1972 column by the late William Caldwell in the Vineyard Gazette:

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He’s a newspaper editor, decent and stern in his judgments on events and men, including himself, and he is troubled by the decision he made on the Kopechne case. Kopechne. Mary Jo. The Dike Bridge, remember?