Great Writing: Joe Bageant

I've long been fascinated by synchronicity, which Merriam Webster defines as:

the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality; used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung

Two things have occupied my mind a great deal lately: (1.) matters of spirit, and (2.) quality writing. I take this to mean I have a hunger for both and would do well not to resist them like a child pushing away his vegetables. So it was with much good fortune I encountered the musings of a writer who encompasses both: Joe Bageant. And, even better, his work has been appearing with some frequency at one of my favorite blogs in the whole wide world, King of Zembla.

If either of these subjects interest you, be kind to yourself today and read Joe Bageant's The Wild Palms of Etowah, In praise of holy madness.

Joe's other writings at King of Zembla are equally extraordinary
and can be found here. Joe Bageant's work shines with humor and grace conveyed in a distinct voice filled with honesty, insight and humility sorely lacking from most essayists. His is a level of writing I can only aspire to. And I do.

How that rogue Simbaud ever snagged such talent, I'll never know.

And on that note, my work here for the day is done. My computer will be turned off for the next 72 hours, and this time I mean it. Enjoy your weekend, friends.

Is is uncouth to say

...my brain was mush last night? I thought it was Thursday when I posted (below) about what a long week it'd been. *sigh* So in the spirit of new millenium, which King Bush has declared HARD WORK, I'll put in a few hours at the keyboard before going away to slack.

Following up at American Street

I posted the following today at American Street. Preserved here for my own selfish reasons.



WalMart is already the American posterchild for employee abuse.

Are there worse companies? Are there worse industries? When answering either question (or both) in the affirmative, are these companies and/or industries represented by a brand which has greater customer recognition than WalMart? I would say... no.

WalMart has pharmacies. How does their prescription care coverage rate among their employees? I was hoping not to actually have to apply for a part-time job there to find out... but, hey, at this point, it's not off the table.

WalMart employees - considering they work for the most heavy-handed brand identity in America - cannot protest on their own behalf without losing their jobs.

Others could.

I'll refrain from commenting point by point on Java Black's post, in large part because it would end up sounding like "Yeah, what he said." With one exception: So what if it's "only" one victory.

At my site, LarryE and I tangled on this issue and despite our differences reached a very similar conclusion (and, no, you won't find hugs and kisses and teddy bears): There is no magic bullet.

One of the points I made and will continue to make is that The Left is in dire need a success, and it is unlikely that any success will come harder than the first. With one success, we at least have something to build upon. We cut our teeth. We build community. We learn the meaning of solidarity, sacrifice, commitment and cooperation. And we fucking succeed. Only then is it possible to succeed a second time. And, then, a third and a fourth.

Will I live to see a quarter of the freedom America has lost in my lifetime recovered by an engaged Left? No. Will you? No. But our progeny might. Or theirs.

At some point, we either stop counting the reasons why we cannot accomplish *something* and start counting the reasons why we must at least engage our adversaries... or we give up completely. It is one or the other, friends. There is no midway between inaction and action. It is one. Or the other.

Yet, in the bigger picture, what we discuss here now is not about one action, but a lifetime of action - a lifestyle. And that scares the living hell out of pretty much all of us. It's not the lifestyle or dream we were sold, but the hard truth is that we bought a fake product. And I find it hard to believe that every person of conscience reading this doesn't implicitly understand this by now.

Will we succumb to that fear and remain paralyzed, knowing full well we held the option of engagement but chose instead to go down without a fight? Men and women, real people with families and livelihoods and pets and love... real people sacrificed themselves for us on the frontlines of every struggle we are proud of... every struggle from which we have vacantly leached since birth. Our past and future deserve better from us, and my greatest fear is of going to the grave knowing that I was not willing to honor their sacrifice by doing for our children what our forebearers did for us.



[insert humorous, flippant remark here]

Over Ampin'

Man, it's been a tough week, starting off with a viral bug that's been damn slow to resolve accompanied by one of my semi-famous permanent headaches and bad case of blah blah blah blah blah blah.

There's a strange rhythm to this whole blogging enterprise. The cycle begins with a more or less blank slate. Blog by blog, link by link, post by post it slowly accumulates like arsenic in the bloodstream. After a week or two, I start feeling polluted and reprimand myself for not taking more breaks and getting some fresh air. I realize I haven't been returning phone calls. That simple one or two things I had on my To Do List never got done. And then I start questioning what the hell I'm doing.

Blog lighter, I tell myself, not so much with regard to frequency as subject matter. The world isn't going to stop rotating after stepping down from the soap box. Should I feel ashamed for enjoying "The Apprentice" and writing about my physical ailments? Embarassed to write about my spirituality and personal beliefs? I think the answer is 'no' but I'm not sure; what does that say about me as a person? Am I supposed to feel the shame of narcissism when I write about mundane, egocentric subjects? If I feel averse to writing apolitical material, is that an indication I should be writing apolitical material because I have something to learn? It's not like I ask for contributions or have advertisements or owe anyone anything... so what is the source of that nagging pressure? Am I being too goddamn self-conscious by even pondering these questions aloud? It's a blog, for pity's sake.

And that, my friends, is what happens toward the end of the cycle.

So if I don't blog for a couple of days, you'll know I'm recuperating from the usual and customary blogitis. And that freakin' headache. My weekend's pretty full, so I think I will steal Friday for myself. Turn off the computer. Trim the crepe myrtles. Watch the birds. Listen to that Hartman/Coltrane CD I haven't heard in a while. Prepare a nice meal for Mrs. Hill. And return a long overdue phone call or two.

When I return, I'll probably have an amusing anecdote about having taken my father, who is 73, to the air show on Saturday. Naturally, he's got that generational infatuation with all things military, so it'll be better than Christmas for him. He's not exactly a fan of the Fascist Right, so I'm not really sure how he reconciles his love of military jets with the tragic path America has taken. I suspect it's primarily a matter of nostalgia, and nostalgia is a mighty phenomenon.

Despite my own hitch in the Air Force, I expect - for obvious reasons - the day will be like having my teeth drilled sans anesthesia hour after hour as I wonder how many of the planes I worked on long ago have since rained death on innocent people who never did a thing against my country. But neither fathers nor sons live forever and I know the VIP tickets I managed to snag will make my dad a very giddy geezer, indeed. That makes it well worth whatever discomfort I will undoubtedly be experiencing throughout the day.

Come to think of it, I probably won't have such an anecdote. I think it just wrote itself.

But with any luck, I will be resuming my mission - whatever it is - with a fresh, clean slate so I can do it all over again. Have a great weekend.

21st Century Radical - More on Protesting

Note to new guests, if any: If you're interested in proper context, please see this post and the comments section before hurling yourself into the vortex of the this one.

I posted the following at Your Right Hand Thief.

I am a radical. I have been made a radical because what used to be called "radical" has become mainstream. I didn't change; the political landscape of my country did.

What The Left does NOT understand is this: The revolution has already occurred. Genius, isn't it? A revolution sponsored by the Fascist Right, and nobody's said a word about it since Newt Gingrich. No wonder they threw him out - he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Even the Fascist Rank & File don't get it, because their elites know their very successful revolution can only last as long as their footsoldiers harbor the illusion they are oppressed by liberals. Hence, the permanent victimhood status by the True Believers on The Right.

Think about what post-Constitutionalism means. It changes everything. This isn't about theory or "going down the slippery slope." It's about what's going on right now. Until we start fighting like we mean it, America is doomed.
Arvin Hill | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 11:17 pm | #

Oyster, the joyously slimey proprietor of Right Hand Thief says: "MLK's nonviolent methods will always be my template for effective protest."

I respect that. After all, in my criticism of the ever popular placid protest - the kind in which people are herded to a place where they stand around like cows and then go home - I singled out "interfere with commerce" as one of the major tenets of effective protest. Don't think for a *second* that Martin Luther King, Jr., did not understand this. He did. The bus boycott in Montgomery was such an action.

What renders The Left powerless - aside from its collective failure to understand what post-Constitutionalism means and recognizing that it is here *now* - is our failure of imagination. Protesting the way protests have always been done - or, at least the way they've been done in contemporary society - is a LOSING PROPOSITION. Once we rule out the status quo, we can begin to search *in earnest* for alternatives. But we are loathe to do it because we're all about comfort. We are lazy. And we have lost our democratic constitutional republic as a result of that laziness and cowardice. I'm sorry there's not a nicer way to say that, but that's the cold, hard truth.

The second someone suggests "What we are doing is not working and will not work," people automatically take that as a recommendation of saying "Let's do the complete opposite," -- which is most often taken to mean violent protest. Yet between non-violent protest and violent protest is an infinite array of possibilities. Think about that.

We're all so afraid of being labelled criminals that we are standing down in the face of ever-increasing tyranny. Our nation's founders would be ashamed of us, and rightly so.

One thing has become crystal clear to those of us willing to take an honest look: We can no longer condemn establishment Democrats for being "spineless" and "lacking the courage of their convictions" without indicting ourselves in the process. How can we expect of them what we are not ourselves willing to do? It's not about votes! Votes mean nothing in a corrupt system! At some point, we must do what is right or resign ourselves to failure. We cannot magically heal others, but we all have the power to heal ourselves... yet we cannot do so without coming to terms with our affliction. To deny our own complicity is to deny nothing less than truth itself.

Protesting: Why Bother?

Yesterday, American Street's eRobin proposed the following: We need a march on Washington against the Bush Agenda. I’m suggesting August 14, the day that FDR signed Social Security into law or August 28, the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. It's a good post which emphasizes the importance of activism on the ground. She closes with the following questions: "What in the name of Heaven is stopping us? Are our hobbies interfering with our chores?"


I wanted to wait a while before responding because when people are implored to act - at least act in a way that doesn't involve something like "contact your representatives" or "sign this petition" - the usual suspects who usually have much to say become eerily silent. Sure enough, 24 hours later, not a single response. I'm reposting my reply here to preserve it and, hopefully, provide a little food for thought.

1. Arvin Says:
March 24th, 2005 at 9:32 am
No responses yet? Funny how even the loudest liberal blogophiles get conspicuously quiet as soon as the discussion turns to non-keyboard related action. It’s also why we get our asses stomped every day by the Fascist Right.

The short of it is that too many of us doubt our ability to impact politics by mobilizing on the ground. And it’s not without reason.

Personally, a blurb in the NYT or a 10-second spot on the network news (and that’s if you’re really “successful”) just doesn’t do it for me. That’s not the kind of result worth time off work and loss of income and a long trip.

A little story: In the Spring of 2001, I participated in VoterMarch to protest Bush v. Gore and voter disenfranchisment. I took time off work and spent more than a little money getting to D.C.. I marched. I stood at The Capitol with my "Consent of the Governed DENIED" sign and listened to speakers all day. Nobody gave a shit. The sad fact was that most people didn’t care about widespread voter disenfranchisement in Florida and the very foundation of democracy being shattered by the United States Supreme Court. We had just entered the era of post-Constitutionalism and nobody cared. I went home exhausted and dead broke, congratulating myself for having participated. VoterMarch organizers declared it a success. It didn’t change one goddamn thing.

The Powers That Be don’t give a damn if you demonstrate, marching here or there with your indignant little signs and silly street theater and rowdy chants — as long as you play by their rules. In fact, it’s safe to assume the Bush Crowd actually gets off on this kind of thing. It gives them something to ridicule and reinforces their sense of superiority and authority.

Here’s the deal: State-sanctioned protest is nothing more than role-playing.

Conversely, thousands of people camping out - basically taking over a city - and saying “We’re gonna shut this fucking place down until we get what we want,” - that’s something. If you’re going to demonstrate, you have to be a problem for somebody. Infuriate them. Embarass them. Humiliate them. Interfere with commerce. To do these things, rules must be broken. In a demonstration, provoke a response or go home; otherwise, the only thing it’s good for is an ego massage, and most of us can do that at home just fine. Ask any blogger.

Americans have forgotten how important it is to break rules; how to stick our necks out together in solidarity; how to demand change. We’re a nation of slaves and robots conditioned to obey authority.

“Ten thousand people marched on the nation’s capitol today and then they all went home. And now, the weather…” Big. Fucking. Deal.

Do you - my dear carnival marks - have any thoughts on the subject? Don't be shy. I am genuinely interested in hearing your opinion.

Move On: Anti-War "not a winner"

I am in complete agreement with David Cogswell

As GNN contributor Norman Solomon writes, nowhere is the left's abandonment of the antiwar movement more clear than in MoveOn's agenda. One MoveOner explained to me that weekend in Maryland, social security is their number one issue for 2005 because 'it's an issue we can win.' Iraq, he explained, is not a winner."

This is a very sad development. The war in Iraq is the mother of all issues. What could bind one to a political movement if it made no issue of the war in Iraq? What other issue could create the passion and commitment to a group that was cool toward the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Sure, everything else the Bush administration is doing, like trying to destroy Social Security, giving ever greater control to the big money interests every day in its march toward a corporate totalitarian state needs to be opposed at every step. Every thing it does is lethal, destructive. But the war against Iraq is the mother of them all, it is the one central most criminal act of the lawless administration, and the evil from which all the others flow, and to which they return. For MoveOn to take such a position is baffling, and disheartening.

MoveOn.org has marshalled millions of Americans in support of a liberal agenda - in large part, by pointing out just how "spineless" our Democratic leaders are. Now that they've gotten they've assembled a formidable force, MoveOn.org is following in the footsteps of cowardice, refusing to stand on principle despite the blinding consequences of not opposing Bush's war against the Iraqi people. Shame on them.


For those of us who recognize just how important developing an anti-war movement is, contributions are better invested in The Ruckus Society, an organization which unequivocally does NOT shirk its moral obligations simply because a particular issue "is not a winner."

Not a winner. I could not be more disgusted with MoveOn.org, and would hope MoveOn supporters think twice about how their contributions are being used - or more importantly, not used.

Lotus on Schiavo Whackjobs

I'm still squirming with a viral bug, so today I'm leaching off everyone else instead of coming up with something novel and/or amusing graphics.

First on the List: Despite my differences with the thoughtful LarryE of Lotus... Surviving A Dark Time, there's no mistaking we share the many of the same indignations. See his posts from yesterday, Monday, March 28th, concerning the parents of Terry Schiavo "authoriz[ing] a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups[, the New York Times reports on Tuesday]."

As they say on the old Ronco and K-Tel commercials, "But wait, that's not all!" You also get Larry's commentary about the vicious attacks on Michael Schiavo from the Nutcase Right (yeah, I know - they're all nutcases these days) including the guy putting a contract on him and an unnamed judge.

It's a great post. Read it.

"It's okay. He's one of us."

via Kevin Hayden at American Street


Literal Media Whore to appear before Figurative Media Whores

Leave it to the National Press Club to outright legitimize Jeff Gannon, J.D. Guckert or whatever he's calling himself these days. Too lazy and embarassed to expose Bush's Propaganda Machine, they settled instead for admitting - if indirectly - their own role in it by inviting the GOP Male Prostitute to appear at their luncheon. As Kevin Hayden said, "the modern mass media at least recognizes that it’s no longer in the news business."

GOP Taliban: No IMAX For You!

From my friend, Hugo Zoom, who gave me the heads up on skimble which cited the following:
No Such Thing As Volcanoes

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) -- IMAX theaters in several Southern cities have decided not to show a film on volcanoes out of concern that its references to evolution might offend those with fundamental religious beliefs.

"We've got to pick a film that's going to sell in our area. If it's not going to sell, we're not going to take it," said Lisa Buzzelli, director of an IMAX theater in Charleston that is not showing the movie. "Many people here believe in creationism, not evolution."

The film, "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," makes a connection between human DNA and microbes inside undersea volcanoes.

Buzzelli doesn't rule out showing the movie in the future.

IMAX theaters in Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas have declined to show the film, said Pietro Serapiglia, who handles distribution for Stephen Low, the film's Montreal-based director and producer.

"I find it's only in the South," Serapiglia said.

America is so profoundly fucked it's not even funny. But since I've known it so long, it is funny. This is the type of over-the-top story that needs to be brought up around the ones who proclaim themselves "fiscal conservatives" -- the drinkin' & whorin' variety that seem embarassed by the fundies running their party. Hey, come to think of it, didn't deficits use to be those guys' major concern? Man, those were the days.

Big Media's "Hillary Factor" vs. Democracy

It's Spring 2005 and corporate media has decided who the Democratic nominee will be for 2008. Now, the media folks will tell us it's all "speculation" and so forth, but the fact is they have decided Hillary Clinton is the star of their script in the next presidential campaign. They've got their script in hand and everything - EVERYTHING - involving the Democratic Party or progressive issues, in general, will be forced to fit that script.

Words cannot adequately explain just how offended I am about this, and I do not offend easily. The corporate media itself will call their Hillary obsession "speculative" and they'll talk about how silly it is and then they will do it anyway.

But the corporate media's "Hillaryism" is neither speculative nor silly. It is an example of how they serve as the long, muscular, unofficial arm of the Republican Party. Their transparent attempt to influence the Democratic nomination process should be viewed as nothing less than a direct assault on democracy itself.

Based on what I'm seeing today in the liberal blogosphere, as a group, we have already fallen into the trap by furthering the "speculative" horse race propaganda laid out before the American people.

Liberal bloggers have a very real responsiblity to recognize and expose the corporate news media's attempt to corrupt the democratic process. This is something we can do together. We can STOP this naked attempt by the corporate media to choose our representation, but we must do so with ONE VOICE. Join me in calling for solidarity on this very important issue. Spread the word:

Democrats - NOT BIG MEDIA - will choose our nominee.

As it stands today and for the foreseeable future, Republicans enjoy - without press scrutiny - the advantage of blackbox voting and brazenly unethical voting officials willing to engage in fraud to get GOP candidates "elected." The corporate media CANNOT be allowed to pre-ordain the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and it falls to US - you and me - to call them on it each and every time they attempt to do so.

If you disagree with the gist of this post, let me just remind you the corporations which decide what is news have an agenda, and it is profoundly foolish to underestimate the detrimental effects of that agenda. Three years of every member of America's Royal Punditry obsessing on Hillary Clinton as the nominee WILL have an effect on the Democratic Primary. Better to recognize the hazard now and make a serious attempt to mitigate its effects beforehand than complain about it after the fact when there's absolutely nothing we can do.

The Draft: Why It's Far From Unlikely

You can't throw a stick without hitting someone explaining why a military draft isn't going to happen. "Suicide for the Republican Party," they'll tell you with a perfectly straight face and utmost sincerity, as though the monolithic hydra we call the GOP actually "thinks" like a real, live human being.

They're partly right and mostly wrong, these rueful analysts who have given the issue much serious consideration.

Self-destruction is not on the hydra's To Do List. Yet, somehow, The Beast must be fed, and its growing appetite will not - cannot - be ignored. There are lies to maintain; delicate, elaborate, entrenched illusions The Beast depends on for survival; "resources" to expend and a bounty to claim as its own.

It has not been so easy, this empire business, but it's working out just fine for those who profit from the spattered blood, screams of anguish and lonely cries unheard in the stifling, claustrophobic smallness of a million dark, desperate nights. The widows. The prisoners. The orphans. The killers. The victims. How unfortunate. How sad. This is the way of the wicked world, say our lords and masters. Freedom is hard work. And it must be true - it is true - because it is what they tell us every waking moment. They point to the evidence and we nod our heads solemnly in quiet and not so quiet consensus. There is a cost to that "truth" and these are inflationary times.

But enough of these silly metaphors. Let's talk about the real world; the world of amoral human beings and the bureaucracies through which they dictate the terms of our existence. The world of treasure and trash. And fear. Lots and lots of fear.

So how would one go about instituting a draft without jeapardizing that stranglehold on power? There is only one way. With all this evil running amok, terrible things happen. And when horror descends on us like poison rain, we are sick with sadness and despair. And fear. Lots and lots of fear.


I don't presume to know what will happen, nor where, how or when. But I do know why - because The Beast must be fed, and it will secure its survival at any cost. The hydra's head we call the corporate media will proclaim it "the unthinkable" and in its aftermath, a draft will seem far from unreasonable to just enough people to make it work without exacting too a high a price from those who currently hold the reigns of power.

The Dearth of "Thoughtful Analysis"

The following is my reply to Fact-esque's BushCo is Fucking Up Friedman's Most Excellent War, which is a commentary on Thomas Friedman's George W. to George W. published in today's NYT.


You know, this hindsight is 20/20 crowd is mind-numbing.

As events like Abu Ghraib unfold, "experts" like Friedman portray serious concerns & objections as imaginary inventions of "the far left fringe" -- as though we want this kind of thing to be true. Then they'll exonerate the Bu$h Machine ever so thoughtfully using profoundly weak rationalizations - or worse, strong rationalizations which have no basis in fact. They say things like The Administration deserves the benefit of the doubt and other trite bullshit.

Friedman and rest of America's Royal Punditry have proven themselves wrong about everything from helping Bush sell the mountain of lies to invade Iraq to the rotten quagmire we're in now and the rosy picture he paints of "freedom" and "democracy" in the Middle East. The incessant - if occasionally cautious - cheerleading from him and his peers has only emboldened the lunatic grifters at the helm of American foreign policy.

If Friedman's so sensibilities are so offended, why doesn't he call for an outright end to torture? Why doesn't he name names? Why doesn't he mention the word "rendition" in his tidy little indignant column? Because he supports it. "Just don't kill 'em" he seems to be saying, "because it's rotten PR."


Thomas Friedman typifies all that's wrong with the Beltway types, these narcissistic "experts" comprising the ghost of The Fourth Estate; people who either can't or won't level with the American people out of fear of being tossed out of the D.C. cocktail circuit. He's got as much blood on his hands as the next Bush cheerleader and it makes me literally nauseous that he gets away with such transparent intellectual posturing.

"Thoughtful analysis" my ass. Thomas Friedman, you are a fraud.

Leave the Dying to Others

Midland Reporter-Telegram
Even in president's hometown, recruiters can't reach goals

U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. Tomas Barrios flashed his debonair smile at hundreds of Lee High School students during a lunch hour last week. He greeted each student who walked by with a gentle salutation and a promotional key ring.

Hardly a single student smiled back.

A couple of students stopped dead in their tracks and hopped a few steps to change their course away from the table covered by an immaculately clean black tablecloth proclaiming the familiar "An Army of One" slogan.

Barrios' uniform - the camouflage of a soldier, the mirror-like shiny black boots, the impeccable appearance - was something they felt compelled to avoid.


To the average young person, recruiters said, camouflage equals war, which equals death. That notion has kicked at the shins of the Army and Army National Guard that so far have successfully manned, along with the other military branches, the largest conflict the all-volunteer force has undergone.

Without an end to involvement in Iraq in sight, can the United States complete the efforts there with strictly an all-volunteer military?

Even in President Bush's hometown, where decals announce support for troops on more bumpers than not and where a potent majority is behind the war, the thought of being on the front lines in the Middle East transforms a mind frame of support and patriotism to apprehension and fear, recruiters said.

One has to wonder how many of these kids engage in freeper-like behavior online. I sometimes visit sites young people are attracted to and there's never a shortage of bravado and pro-Bush demagoguery.

The apples never stray far from the tree. These kids are closer to their chickenhawk leaders than they'll probably ever realize; and for the few who do make the connection, something tells me they will remain oddly unaffected. What a pity SUVs run on fossil-based fuels and not cognitive dissonance.

The recruiters all said they are approached by strangers daily who offer a handshake of appreciation for serving. Those who are young, or those with young family members, typically immediately proclaim why they won't join the military as soon as they discover they are thanking a recruiter, they said.

Burton said he was thanked by a woman one day who told him she was delighted with how the Army is completing its tasks. He asked if she knew anyone who'd be interested in joining. She said a brisk "no" and hurried away, Burton said. He learned the next day that she has a 17-year-old son.

"There are a lot of patriots in Midland, but that's kind of strange because we don't always get the immediate feedback from that," Burton said. "It's like they love their country as long as it's not them in the Army."

More at link

Culture of Strife

Scalia: What America needs

... is MOB RULE!

...Scalia said unelected judges have no place deciding issues such as abortion and the death penalty. The court's 5-4 ruling March 1 to outlaw the juvenile death penalty based on "evolving notions of decency" was simply a mask for the personal policy preferences of the five-member majority, he said.

"If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again," Scalia told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. "You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility."

And I'd prefer The Court limit its "flexibility" in installing presidents, but it's a little late for that, isn't it?

Blame it on Turkey & Tommy

CS Monitor
On Friday, the Turkish government said it supported the plans of the Turkish president to visit Syria in early April, despite the US warning that he should not go. On Saturday, the US ambassador to Turkey resigned, following a tumultuous two-year appointment. And on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that by "blocking" US efforts to get into Iraq from the north two years ago, Turkey had allowed the insurgency there to "flourish."

Turkish Weekly
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that he is upset that the US could not enter Iraq from the north (Iraqi-Turkish border) during the Iraq war and added that fomented the resistance to grow in the aftermath of the occupation. The level of insurgency in Iraq would not be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade through Turkey, a NATO ally, Rumsfeld said Sunday.

Mr Rumsfeld yesterday hailed Iraq's liberation and January elections, but said the insurgents' success was a result of the Government in Ankara blocking US troops from entering Iraq from Turkey, to the north.

"Given the level of the insurgency today, two years later, clearly if we had been able to get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north, in through Turkey, more of the Iraqi, Saddam Hussein, Baathist regime would have been captured or killed," Mr Rumsfeld told Fox News. "The insurgency today would be less."

..."General Franks made a call, and he made a judgment that not only would they not be needed and it would not be appropriate, but that it would be ill advised to put that many more, quote, 'occupation forces' in," Mr. Rumsfeld said on the ABC News program "This Week."

Turkey is to blame Journal of Turkish Weekly
It's Turkey's Fault Journal of Turkish Weekly
Prolonged Insurgency Due to Turkey Zaman Online

That's the Rummy we all know and love, and so typical of every pod in Bush's cabinet: When the shit hits the fan, blame someone else. Turkey did it! Franks did it! And, of course, you go to war with the allies and commanders you have.

For the few who wondered

March is a busy month for The Hills, with two birthdays and an anniversary to celebrate.

Yesterday was our 22nd wedding anniversary. Marriage is a vastly underrated institution, which is all the more reason every adult who aspires to marry the one they love should not be legally prohibited from doing so.

We now resume The Apocalypse.

Bump & Grind, Lose School Funding

"It's just too sexually oriented, you know, the way they're shaking their behinds and going on, breaking it down," said Edwards, a 26-year veteran of the Texas House. "And then we say to them, 'don't get involved in sex unless it's marriage or love, it's dangerous out there' and yet the teachers and directors are helping them go through those kind of gyrations."

Under Edwards' bill, if a school district knowingly permits such a performance, funds from the state would be reduced in an amount to be determined by the education commissioner.

Edwards said he filed the bill as a result of several instances of seeing such ribald performances in his district.


J.M. Farias, owner of Austin Cheer Factory, said cheerleading aficionados would welcome the law. Cheering competitions, he said, penalize for suggestive movements or any vulgarity.

"Any coaches that are good won't put that in their routines," he said. And, most girls cheering on Friday nights were trained by professionals who know better, he said.

"I don't think this law would really shake the industry at all. In fact, it would give parents a better feeling, mostly dads and boyfriends, too," Farias said.

Thank you, Rep. Al Edwards, for bringing forth another heaping serving of embarassment to Texas by introducing this absurd bill. I find it amazing that for all the problems facing the state, Rep. Edwards, a Democrat, believes this is a proper use of his authority and other official resources.

J.M. Farias is a quite obviously a shameless suck-up hungry for the business of parents, but I still have to wonder about a person who goes into the cheerleading industry. I guess it's better than being one of those child beauty queen photographers or a serial killer. And isn't it wonderful Mr. Farias supports imposing legal sanctions so "mostly dads and boyfriends" get a "better feeling" from more wholesome cheering? Bet he does a mean "church lady" impersonation.

It seems fitting that while I was preparing this post, I heard the story about five-year old in Florida taken into custody by police for throwing a tantrum after her jellybeans were taken away. At first glance, you may not see a connection between these two stories, but I do: A troubling tendency to turn to the law at the drop of a hat. Although a cheerleader's bump & grind probably - that's probably - wouldn't result in a criminal offense, reducing the school's funding as a result is just as ridiculous hauling in a "naughty" cheerleader. And busting a five-year old for a tantrum? America grows more disturbed by the day.

Buyer's Remorse - Or Something Else?

It didn't take long to start hearing stories about Bush voters and so-called buyer's remorse, did it? By now, we've probably all heard one or two. The Bush voter who says "Bush is an idiot, but all you guys had to offer was Kerry. And that Dean fellow? Crazy liberal. If only Democrats had something to offer. And if only Democrats would nominate a centrist, just think of all the votes they could have had."

I flat out reject this cheesey "buyer's remorse" posturing. It has one purpose: To let them off the hook and assuage their sorry conscience for making a very bad decision. And the only way it works is if the people who didn't vote for Bush are foolish enough to let them get away with it.

Bush voters, even the reluctant ones, are conditioned to squeeze everything which doesn't originate from Bush's GOP into tired but very effective cliches ("tax & spend" and "weak on defense" etc). If FDR or JFK had materialized before us as a Democratic candidate, these "remorseful" Republican voters would've been throwing eggs at them -- and everybody knows it. Jesus Christ wouldn't be enough to shake the GOP faithful during an election, especially with all that tolerance and feed the poor talk. "What a freakin' commie, that Jesus."


Bush is a spectacularly rotten president bereft of ideas and vision, and his policies are trashing this country in every way imaginable. Those who cast a vote for him had a choice and they made it, and to turn around and blame others for their decision is typical of the "accountability" we see all too often from conservatives. Bush voters - loyalists and otherwise - supported the man destined to go down in history as one of the worst presidents ever, if not the worst. And all of that - 100% of it - is on the conscience of each one of them. Let's not deprive anyone of their accountability moment by indulging their justification as though it was legitimate in any way, shape or form.

So to those idiots who say "Gee, I didn't really want to vote for Bush, but all the Democrats could come up with was Kerry," just tell them this: Maybe in 2008, Democrats will field a candidate who promises to be as fiscally reckless, contemptuous of the environment, ethically challenged and utterly cavalier about the flag-draped caskets coming home from abroad as George W. Bush.

Until then, when Bush voters want someone to blame for the problems facing America, they can look in the mirror.

Evil Liberal Churches

From Cal Thomas's March 14 column:

There is no biblical expectation that a "fallen" world can, should or will be improved prior to the return of the One to whom evangelicals are supposed to owe their complete allegiance.


The first description of Satan [in the Bible] is that he is "subtle." (Genesis 3:1) Another translation says "crafty." Satan tempts to do what seems good. Liberal churches have long believed in a doctrine of salvation through works, as if helping the poor was the chief responsibility of government and an end in itself, rather than a means for individuals to communicate the love of God to poor people.

Cal Thomas knows what many who are to the Left of neoconservatism do not: One of the last obstacles of a complete TheoFascist takeover is what he calls "the liberal churches." Hopefully, what Cal Thomas calls "liberal churches" will awaken from their slumber and recall the meaning of the term social justice before it is banned from discussion.

Note, too, how Thomas refrains from taking the biblical advice, choosing only to apply it to his adversaries. Do the people comprising the Religious Right believe they are doing good? Presumably, yes, or they wouldn't be doing it. Yet, somehow, Thomas never acknowledges he and his allied fundies might be doing Satan's handiwork. Very "crafty" of him.

I'm not a Christian, but people like Cal Thomas - who also can't possibly be a Christian despite his posturing - are almost enough to get me goin' to church. Seeing as I reside in Denton County, Texas, I could just do what everyone else here does and start my own church. Wouldn't that be interesting.

Comatose Press Twitches

This report from Broadcasting & Cable left me shaking my aching head in some disgust and even more wonderment.

The White House, the courts and the Federal Communications Commission all took hits from broadcast journalists Thursday night, who said they were feeling under fire from a manipulative and even malicious government.

NBC News President Neal Shapiro set the tone, telling a roomful of top journalists gathered for the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation awards dinner in D.C. that the press is under attack as never before from the executive and judicial branches, which he says are pursuing journalists with "actual malice" just for doing their jobs.

Imagine that. Let's do a quick recap, shall we?

Journalists were the sleazy torch-bearers during the GOP Witch Hunt of Bill Clinton.

Journalists looked the other way as voters were systematically disenfranched in 2000.

Journalists ignored the contentious 5-4 ruling in Bush v. Gore - the most roundly denounced Supreme Court ruling in modern history - and pretended the massive demonstration that occurred during Bush's coronation never happened.

This has been their pattern from the very start, regurgitating Karl Rove's talking points as though they were doing their jobs.

Journalists sat mum after 911 while Bush stonewalled survivors' families and the vigorously resisted even forming a 911 Commission, which he would later manipulate without scrutiny.

The anthrax attacks came and went, and journalists exerted precious little investigative effort despite the implications.

Through the Patriot Act, two wars and a culture of corporate kleptocracy, the so-called Fourth Estate has been George W. Bush's biggest, loudest and most obnoxious cheerleader, assisting in the mechanical deconstruction of our Constitution.

Journalists, like the neoCONs they empower, laugh at the alarm expressed by the rest of the world.

Protestors? We were condemned as traitors. And we continue to be.

TRUTH? Thanks to its self-proclaimed guardians, America has replaced truth with blind nationalism.

And now they look at each other, bewildered and bemused, as The Machine turns to the press for more grist. Two words spring to mind: Stupid and Corrupt - not necessarily in that order.

It's time to "sound the alarm," he said. That call was picked up by other speakers and punctuated with applause from the crowd.

Shapiro cited Jim Taricani, the reporter for NBC-owned WJAR Providence, R.I., who was convicted of contempt by a federal judge for failing to reveal a source. Only a heart condition kept him out of prison, said Shapiro. Taricani is on six months house arrest.

"This is what reporters do," Taricani told Shapiro after the conviction. But facing arrest should not be part of the job description, said Shapiro, who took the opportunity to push for a federal shield law, which the Radio-Television News Directors Association and several legislators are championing on Capitol Hill.

Yeah, sound that alarm. Now that the house has burned to ground.

Shapiro attributed some of the repressive climate to frustrated governmnent officials who, having failed to please their superiors, take it out on journalists. But he also cited "a handful of scandals" that have tarred the broadcast industry and a post-9/11 climate that contributed to the crackdown. He advised journalists to do a better job of showing themselves as reporters, rather than entertainers.

A "handful of scandals" huh? I'm not going to list them here. The complacent, uncontested degradation of corporate news media IS the scandal, which is one reason they refuse to admit report the "Jeff Gannon" male prostitute in the White House story, including the propaganda aspect -- because they simply can't do it without implicating themselves.

The "post-9/11 climate" lamented by Mr. Shapiro? His industry created it.

ABC's Sam Donaldson, master of ceremonies, said he had never seen such "vitriolic animus" toward journalists, save for the waning days of the Nixon administration. Donaldson said he hears commentators from the right and left trying to convince the public that the mainstream press cannot be trusted. It's time to "fire back," he said.

Donaldson said he wasn't advocating suppressing commentary, punctuating the point with: "Let every flower bloom." But he suggested that if some flowers were blooming thanks to a load of manure, that should be pointed out, too. "They should have to answer to those who think they got it wrong."

Yes, fire back, Sam Donaldson, but understand the bullets you're dodging today were launched from your very own gun. You think The Bush Machine has contempt for you? They got nuthin' on the freaks at this carnival.

Veteran CBS newsman Ed Bradley took up the charge in his acceptance speech for the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award (named after the late B&C correspondent).

Bradley talked of the pressure by government and corporations to "control the message," saying journalists must fight those efforts. "There is a price to pay," he said, for representing the people.

Yes, there is a price to pay, Ed. And although you and yours are no longer willing to pay that price, it hasn't stopped you from cashing that paycheck, has it?

For his part, Liberty station group President Jim Keelor, winner of the First Amendment Leadership Award, had a bone to pick with the FCC.

He told the audience that at the same time he was notified of the award, he was making the seemingly First Amendment-unfriendly decision not to air Saving Private Ryan on his ABC affiliates.

Sixty-six ABC affiliates preempted the Veteran's Day airing of the film, saying that they could not be sure its four-letter words would pass muster with the FCC.

It wasn't for the potential fine, said Keelor, adding "We had some spare change." It wasn't the five stations he had up for renewal at the time, he said, adding "though that thought did cross my mind." It was to send a message to the FCC that the indecency crackdown has gone too far. "The FCC is getting more political every day," he said.

You reap what you sow, Keelor. You can't feed the beast for ten years and then complain about its increasing appetite. How delusional you all have been to think you could control the after effects of your crimes against the public trust. As long as it's workaday citizens paying the price, whether their votes aren't being counted or they're coming home in flag-draped caskets, you're content to play the willing executioner. Now that you find yourself in the hot seat, it's a different story, isn't it?

In the wake of Janet Jackson, said Keelor, there are some at the commission who want the TV world to look like Ozzie & Harriet and Leave it To Beaver, while pay TV, by contrast is "getting a pass."

Broadcasters in recent weeks have increasingly pointed to the disparity between the regulation of broadcast and cable indecency. Some have advocated cracking down on cable and satellite if broadcasters can't shed their own indecency yoke, though Keelor did not go that far.

Keelor "did not go that far" but I'll bet he damn sure wanted to. What's good for the goose being good for the gander, and all that. Keelor makes it clear his primary concern is his bank account.

The result of the post-Janet craziness, Keelor said, is that live TV, including news,is threatened. He pointed out that some local TV newscasts are tape-delayed and said live shots are being re-thought for fear of somebody flipping the bird.

Talk about compartmentalizing. The situation the corporate media finds itself in isn't just the result of "post-Janet craziness" but their own gross complicity in advancing an extreme rightwing agenda that is now taking chunks out of their collective ass. Some people - a lot, as it turns out - will do anything for a buck.

If the crackdown continues, he said, broadcast networks will be second-class citizens. For First Amendment and business reasons, said Keelor, "we can't let that happen."

No, we can't have broadcast networks being second-class citizens. That's okay for the rest of us, thanks to you who are so special and deserving of the first class citenzship denied to the rest of America.

Hell isn't hot enough for the morally bankrupt corporate news media.

KBR's Spoils of War

I know people's attention span online is extends to about 4.3 seconds per topic, but do yourselves a favor and check out this Vanity Fair piece by Michael Shnayerson. This is what real journalism looks like. I'm not going to blockquote any of it, because the piece needs to be read in its entirety. Save it for later, reformat into a better font, print it out, whatever... but to learn how your tax dollars are absolutely squandered by the Bush Machine's cronies, don't ignore it.


Oh, and if anyone is even thinking about lecturing me for calling The Fourth Estate dead (in light of Shnayerson's excellent work), bear in mind the following: While it's true good journalism occasionally sprouts up like a weed in a mall parking lot, many of the events cited in the article didn't just happen yesterday. A good deal of this information has been ripening on the vine for a long time, yet the media titans - a group to which Vanity Fair admirably does not belong - are too busy congratulating themselves and fellating Bush, Inc., to tell the story. That most Americans have virtually no idea how rotten it is - and, in particular, were not informed of the blatant corruption going on in Iraq prior to Bush's second coronation - only serves to further my point.

Bush Covers for Halliburton

Audit Finds Halliburton Bill Problems... AGAIN

Leading U.S. defense contractor Halliburton may have overcharged the U.S. government by more than $100 million under a no-bid oil deal in Iraq, said a military audit released by a Democratic lawmaker on Monday.

The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) audit, parts of which were released by California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman on his Web site, questioned $108 million in costs by Texas-based Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root for delivery of fuel to civilians in Iraq in 2003 and 2004...

In a letter to President Bush about the audit, Waxman and Democratic Rep. John Dingell from Michigan asked the president what steps were being taken to recover funds from Halliburton.

When a draft audit was released in December 2003, Bush said if Halliburton overcharged the U.S. government, the money would have to be repaid.

"Contrary to your assertions, however, the administration has withheld these audits from Congress for months and Halliburton has repaid nothing under this contract," wrote the Democratic lawmakers to the president.

Surreal Enough For Ya?

Jesus Christ on a Pop Tart, what has America become?

Canada's National Post

"I won't. How's that? Is that categorical enough?" she said one day before jetting off on her latest trip, a week-long tour of Asia that is to include stops in India, China and Japan.

Her disavowals were unlikely, however, to completely beat back speculation that she might seek to succeed her boss, Republican President George W. Bush, and make history by becoming both the first African American and first woman to run the White House, given the strength of the "draft Condi" movement.


It is still more than three years until the next presidential election, but the talk is already whether Ms. Rice could become the first woman to rule the White House, and whether her Democratic opponent might be U.S. Senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton.

Several Web sites and blogs are promoting a White House bid by Ms. Rice, including www.americansforrice.com and the Web site www.Rice2008.com, "dedicated to generating excitement about the possibility of a run for the presidency by Dr. Condoleezza Rice -- and persuading her to run!" the Web site says.

Meanwhile, among opposition Democrats, Mrs. Clinton has completely dominated the shortlist of potential contenders for the presidency.

"I think she'd be incredibly difficult to beat," Senator Joe Biden told U.S. television of Ms. Clinton last month.

"I think she is likely to be the nominee. She'd be the toughest person. And I think Hillary Clinton is able to be elected president of the United States," said the veteran Democratic lawmaker.

This one story is chockful o'nightmares.

So there's a Draft Condi movement. Nice to know, isn't it? She should be drafted, but "president" is not what I had in mind.

And every time I read a quote with lavish praise for this criminal, it ends with a says Biden thud. Maybe he's angling for a VP slot. I really don't like to take speculation any further than that without an anti-nausea pill and a handful of sedative-hypnotics.

Let's stop at those two. I lack a cool enough head to remark on the Hillary factor, so I'll save that for later.

Yes, it's wrong to pray for bad things to happen to people, but America's cast of bad actors is really testing my virtue.

Repeat: There is No Fourth Estate

NYT: Prepackaged News

Karen Ryan cringes at the phrase "covert propaganda." These are words for dictators and spies, and yet they have attached themselves to her like a pair of handcuffs.


"I'm like the Marlboro man," she said in a recent interview.

In fact, Ms. Ryan was a bit player who made less than $5,000 for her work on government reports. She was also playing an accepted role in a lucrative art form, the video news release. "I just don't feel I did anything wrong," she said. "I just did what everyone else in the industry was doing."

As if a mere profit of "less than" five grand couldn't possibly impune her integrity. All it shows is that she's not only a whore, but a cheap whore.

Ms. Ryan is right about two things, though: (1.) She is like the Marlboro man - both spread malignant propaganda, and; (2.) Everybody's doing it! Is there any doubt her "consulting" business has really taken off since the light of publicity illuminated her cockroach enterprise?

What's striking about the NYT article is that by publishing an article which is marginally critical of so-called "pre-packaged news" the nation's "stenographer of record" gets to provide the illusion that what they do each and every day is somehow different from the innumerable PR firms littering the United States. It's not, and they are just as fake as the Karen Ryan, "Jeff Gannon" and, yes, Brian Williams & the rest of Talking Heads, Inc..

"Jeff Gannon" Writ Large

From Skippy @ The American Street:
Facts Need Not Apply at NBC News...

Last friday while the left side of blogtopia (yes! we coined that phrase!) was keeping an eye on dan rather’s replacement, bob “my brother works for the bushes” shieffer, we happened to take a look at nbc night news with brian “never reported from the field” williams. brian started out bad enough…when he quoted the recent ap poll, he framed it in the most postive way possible: “more than 1/3 of americans approve of the president’s plan!” he conveniently left out that a majority of americans (56%) disapprove of awol’s approach.

Besides the fact they're flagrant propagandists in the business of shaping public opinion instead of reflecting it, one of the things that irritates me to no end is how Talking Heads, Inc., make the occasional late night TV rounds - Leno, Letterman, etc. - to show us they're really bright, funny people not so different from you and me. The charm offensive is necessary for one reason: They are in the business of obfuscating facts, not disseminating them. Far from having any common interests with the likes of anyone at the helm of the evening news, these people are my enemies and enemies of democracy. To consider them anything less is to cede our national fate to the oligarchy that unleashed the monster of Fascism on America.

KKKaren's Hungry For Flesh

She Has Risen!

The Bush administration signalled yesterday that it was stepping up its efforts to win hearts and minds in the Arab world, launching an international PR campaign to keep pace with an unprecedented attempt to influence domestic opinion.

After several years in which the Bush White House has surpassed all previous administrations in its efforts to build domestic support for its policies, the focus yesterday appeared to shift to the international stage, and an ambitious new programme of public diplomacy.

The New York Times reported that at least 20 federal agencies, from the defence department to the census bureau, had adopted the technique of distributing prepackaged reports and scripted interviews with Bush administration officials to television stations.

Many of the segments were broadcast as news without any acknowledgement from the broadcaster that they were government releases, and put on air in some of America's largest cities.

Congressional Democrats estimate that the government spent $254m on public relations contracts during its four-year term - nearly double the spending of the Clinton administration.

Karen Hughes, 48, an adviser to Mr Bush from his days as governor of Texas, played a crucial role over several years in crafting his domestic message. She gave up her White House job to return to Texas in 2002, citing family concerns, but was active in Mr Bush's re-election campaign.

In her latest reincarnation, she will be in charge of repairing America's tattered image in the Middle East, easing anger about the invasion of Iraq and dampening new fears raised by Washington's rhetoric against Syria and Iran.

The state department spent $685m (£356m) on public diplomacy last year, but critics say the department has failed to effectively counter the appeal of Islamist radicals in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Yesterday, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, appeared to subscribe to that view, telling ABC television that she envisaged a far more ambitious programme.

"It is no secret that the US needs to revamp its public diplomacy role," she said, going on to speak approvingly of the propaganda efforts of the cold war, and the part played by broadcasters such as Radio Liberty. "It was not spin. It was getting people the truth," she said.

Didn't take her long to get sick of her family, did it?

Karen Hughes isn't going to be assuaging any concerns in The Middle East and it's patently absurd to swallow the Bush malAdministration's lie to the contrary.

Her return is about PR, alright - specifically, the vexing problem posed by fewer and fewer Americans remaining brainwashed on Bush's quagmire in Iraq. That's why they're so desperate to spin every development in the Middle East as Bush's "freedom on the march" shtick. Will she be effective? I guess that depends on how one defines "effective."

Bush, Inc., does have one thing going for it: Its co-conspirators. The same corporate news media which whipped Americans into a frenzy to invade Iraq - and condemned the doubters as traitors - are eager to have someone, anyone, get out there front and center to tell America how great everything's going. KKKaren's ugly mug will be hogging every TV camera between LA and NY; more often than not, her propaganda will go unchallenged, as planned. Everything's about marketing with this crew. Nevermind the fact your neighbors are coming home in flag-draped caskets. All that's missing is General Westmoreland telling us there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

I need to do that more often.

It was great to take a few days off from the carnival, although it would've been nicer without the headache. No meds this time around, which sucked mightily.

Insurance plan changes + (-)narcotics = chronic pain.

I had wanted to get some gardening work done, but accomplished very little because I simply didn't feel well. Still, it's really important to separate - not just from blogging, but from any routine - long enough to listen to one's inner voice. Spring is here, and it's time to shed the winter skin. I hadn't realized how much baggage I was carrying from '04, but it was a lot and I'm glad to finally be sloughing it off.

Respite from The Apocalypse

seeds to sow

cuttings to take

clover to mow

love to make

Will He or Won't He?

It's the question everyone wants answered.

Jeff Sanders, a five-year old from Duluth, Minnesota, says he's undecided about a possible run for the presidency in 2036. His parents, Jason and Colleen Sanders, insist their child has not made any firm plans about announcing his candidacy. "He's just a little boy," says Colleen. "With some big ideas," added his father, Jason.


President Jeff Sanders?

Arvin Hill: Carnival of Horror has learned the spirited pre-schooler is being courted by Democratic insiders to run against Noah McCullough, the Texas nine-year old Republican who makes no qualms about his desire to be president. When asked directly if he, too, would like to become president, the pensive Jeff would only say "I don't know." Still, Beltway rumors have been flying for weeks despite the non-denial. "Clearly, he's keeping his options open" said Democratic consultant Joe Trippi, "and so am I."

When shown a picture of McCullough and asked for his thoughts, Jeff said "I hate him," but declined to provide specifics. A confidential source at the Democratic Leadership Council downplayed the aspiring candidate's strong language. "I don't think Jeff really hates Noah. They have their differences, obviously, but there's no doubt Jeff will represent Democrats in a very positive manner."

Senator John Kerry could not be reached for comment.

Whose "Spider Hole" ?

Perusing the blogosphere, I came across this gem at at Martini Republic

Liar, Liar Pants On Fire

via 13WHAM.COM, Rochester, NY

Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying Saddam was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army.

"I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced," Abou Rabeh said.

"We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed," he said.

He said Saddam himself fired at them with a gun from the window of a room on the second floor. Then they shouted at him in Arabic: "You have to surrender. ... There is no point in resisting."

Just Say No to "Journalism"

I really don't care for the direction of this whole "who is and who isn't a journalist" debate going on lately.

Steve Gilliard posts a farewell letter from Newsday's Laurie Garrett. It's a thoughtful, stirring piece of work describing the monolithic trash heap that constitutes the ignoble landsape of American journalism exemplified by Newsday. Steve's caption was "journalists suck" - an opinion with which I happen to emphatically agree (a little too emphatically for many people's tastes).

Nothing rankles a blogger like pointing to an inconsistency - and, of course, being human, we all tend to host a few despite our valiant efforts to be consistent. Much to our discomfort, beneath those inconsistencies lie icebergs of truth which cry out for further investigation.

And so the dialogue goes something like this:


Good for Laurie Garrett.

Journalists DO suck.

Yet, for all the moaning and bitching in Left Blogsylvania, an awful lot of bloggers are just thrilled at the prospect of being classified as journalists.

The stench of hyporcisy is caustic enough to burn my nose hair.

Do journalists really suck? And, if so, why do so many bloggers want to be journalists? Gee, could it be because they're drawn to the seductive flame of the cocktail circuit... just like the journalists who - oh, did I mention? - suck.

Yeah, I think so.

I have to go now. George Stephanopolis is on hold, and it's rude to keep important people waiting.

Arvin Hill | Email | Homepage | 03.09.05 - 11:58 am

Arvin Hill,

Well some of us ARE journalists, and I wouldn't be so quick to sneer at the title, since there are significant legal protections, from press passes to shield laws, which come with it.

But what Garrett is talking about the way a lot of journalists have forgotten about their job and used the craft for personal glory.

A blog is a tool. A journalist is a person.
stevegilliard | Email | Homepage | 03.09.05 - 12:16 pm

Information is the tool. A blog, like a cigarette - or a newspaper - is a delivery device.

Legal protections? Surely you jest. Don't faint, but America has entered a post-Constitutional era. It's here. We're in it. You think you'll get an exception? There is no Fourth Estate, period. It's gone. Finished. Finito. You're chasing a ghost. Knock yourself out, all you journalists out there... but you're a day late and a dollar short. And if you find that dollar, you'll still be a day late.

I'd rather eat glass than be lumped in with the narcissistic Wal-Mart World O'Journalism. Commenting on journalists and journalism is not journalism - it just plays journalism on TV.

What journalism is or isn't can be debated ad infinitum, but one thing can't: The people who utlimately change the rotten course America is on - assuming we change course at all - won't be "journalists."
Arvin Hill | Email | Homepage | 03.09.05 - 11:58 am


I don't presume to know what journalism, per se, is - but I don't think anyone else knows, either. What I do know is I am routinely misinformed and disinformed intentionally by entities most people would recognize as practitioners of journalism.

Understandably, bloggers who aspire to journalism or consider themselves journalists take some offense at having their belief systems challenged. But is this desire to be called a journalist really due to a yearning for "journalistic protections" (which I assert don't exist in today's post-Constitutional America)? One of the dullest tools in the journalist's arsenal is a ridiculously lazy dependence on "confidential sources" - which, having survived the Clinton years, appear to be used at least as often for the purposes of evil as for the public good. Confidentiality is abused with enough frequency to render it vastly overrated, at least in my book.


And if it's not legal protections the aspiring blogger-journalist wants -- well, what else is there? Prestige? Money? Status? A few rounds of foreign policy a-go-go with a pantsless Tim Russert on Sunday morning? Maybe the privilege of sitting adjacent to the animatronic David Broder on Washington Week and expounding on the vagaries of conventional wisdom?

It's not difficult to find a swarm of opinion from liberal bloggers taking the position James Guckert aka "Jeff Gannon" wasn't a journalist because he lacked credentials. Yet, many of the same people who asserted this will tell you they are journalists - and they don't have any credentials, either. While this is another one of those inconsistencies worth pointing out, the point here isn't the credentials. Personally, I'm not big on credentials. I never spent a day in college and have worked for more than my share of morons with impressive academic records, fratboys and sorrority sisters who typically considered me barely a notch above an armed robber or methamphetamine dealer (that's dealer, not cook).

Whatever it is bloggers seek at the end of the rainbow, the ones worth their salt needn't be designated "journalist" by a federal court judge or - god forbid - the United States Supreme Court. Perhaps another word is needed for what bloggers do. Better still, maybe we needn't bother with semantics at all and just keep doing what we're doing right now: Speaking the truth when and where others won't.

The Lobbyists of Melrose Place

Eligere of Noblesse Oblog on The March of Progress. Self-described "anti-lobyists" who - wink, wink - are great lobbyists. Best taken on an empty stomach.

To My Blog Sisters

The brouhaha on women bloggers keeps boiling.

Kevin Drum's often a little slow, so it shouldn't be surprising he professes an annoying ignorance of our hard-workin' sisters in Left Blogsylvania. That said, it's a little grating to hear my righteous blog sisters complaining about blog brothers not linking to them. Hey, I post comments in lots of blogs, and more often than not, nobody blogrolls me, either. Sometimes, I neither know (nor care) about the gender of a blogger - it's the ideas and presentation that captivate me.

Now, it wouldn't be difficult for me to conclude female bloggers tend to be put off by my confrontational graphics and the rhetorical club I often use in posting... but I'd very likely be wrong. The fact remains there are a lot of women and men who just don't appreciate what I do. And you know what? That's really, truly, honest-to-god okay. Who cares? I don't. I blog to preserve what little sanity I have left, and I'll bet a lot of other people do, as well. Granted, I've only been doing this since mid-January, so my blog universe is kinda small, but I like the distinct flavors and viewpoints promulgated by various blogs. Our strength as blogger-activists lie precisely in those distinctions... unlike the Fascist Hordes who mindlessly take the RNC blast faxes and post rote diatribes on the evils of librulism.


That said, just to assure my blog sisters there's nothing sinister at work at The Carnival of Horror, if you would like a link here, by all means, just say so and I'll be happy to oblige. Often, all it takes is leaving a random comment and I'll link you without a request before you ever come back - assuming you come back at all.

I've been married twenty-two years to an enviably strong woman and it ain't the cookies that keep us together. So whether you're a militant feminist, a dyke, a biker chick or a kindergarten teacher - hey, maybe you're all four and more; maybe you're none of 'em - then let me know you're out there and widen your social circle... assuming you're not afraid to include some carny freaks in the mix. Salute!

Corrente on Dominionists

The Farmer at Corrente has a great piece today on the theofascist dominionist agenda, and its prominence among the morally bankrupt sleazeballs running America into the ground.


Unfortunately, a rather substantial number of Christians who aren't aligned with the so-called Religious Right are ignoring the rise of theofascism. In doing so, they turn their backs on social justice and look away from the hijacking of Christianity by those who use their "faith" as a means of consolidating political power.

Ignoring a problem won't make it go away. Denial was the antithesis of Christ's modus operandi.

Related Commentary at Arvin Hill:
Another Final Solution

BC on the GOP's Wedge

Black Commentator: Pulpits For Sale

According to the newly formed coalition, topping the list of issues that Black Americans need to focus on is the protection of marriage. Never mind the war, access to healthcare, HIV/AIDS, education, housing and social security, the number one problem facing Black America is same-sex marriage.
Black pulpits are for sale to the highest bidder and Black Christians are quite possibly being sold to the GOP under the guise of protecting America's moral values. With claims that gays are "hi-jacking" the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.'s message, Sheldon is bribing Black pastor after pastor and church after church with check after check to take another look at the GOP and partnering with their white Christian counterparts all while using the Bible as a justification for their commonality. Yes, the same book that was used to justify racism, sexism and anti-Semitism has both Black and white Christian evangelicals reading from the same page.

I love the fearless and fiercely honest reporting of Black Commentator. This particular story is the perfect illustration of the GOP's eerily effective Divide & Conquer strategy. As long as there are people willing to cave in to their most base impulses, the Republican Party will never find itself far from power.

Sgrena... and Eason Jordan

On the issue of Italian journalist Sgrena and her claim she may have been targeted by by the American military, Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast asks "When does Eason Jordan get his job back?"


My answer: Eason Jordan got what he deserved... his head served up on a platter for his role in helping to cultivate the fascist hordes.

Oh. That was a rhetorical question.

As for Ms. Sgrena, we'll never know whether or not she was targeted by U.S. forces. We've done - and continue to do - worse things in Iraq, but the same halfwits who think torture is a-okay and the GOP represents "morals" will only carry on with their delusional liberation scenario... which is propped up daily by none other than countless Eason Jordan's who make up the "news" business.

Related Commentary @ Arvin Hill:
A Lesson in Self-Consumption

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"I now live with no more certainties. I find myself deeply weak. I failed in my belief. I had always claimed there was need to go tell about that dirty war. And I had to decide whether to stay in the hotel or going out and chance being abducted because of my work. "We don't want anyone any more," the abductors told me. But I wanted to tell about the bloodbath in Falluja through the refugees' tales. And that morning the refugees and some of their "leaders" didn't listen to me. I had in front of me the evidence of what the Iraqi society has become with the war and they threw their truth in my face: "We don't want anyone. Why don't you stay home? What such interview can be useful for?". The worst collateral damage, the war killing communication, was falling on me. On me, who had risked it all, challenging the Italian government that didn't want reporters gong to Iraq, and the Americans who don't want our work that gives witness to what that country has really turned into with the war, despite what they call elections. Now I wonder. Is their refusal a failure?"
My truth (La mia verità), by Giuliana Sgrena March 6, 2005

via Dr. Imad Khadduri's Free Iraq

Expediting Labor's Demise in the U.S.

Although I never belonged to a union, I grew up with a healthy respect for what they represented. My parents were both blue collar workers, but only Mom was in a union, and it was more than evident in her paycheck, medical benefits and pension. It made a significant difference in my life and in the lives of millions of others. I would sooner stab myself than cross a picket line.

Despite manufacturing's decline in the American landscape, I'm not convinced the Great American Middle Class can be saved, much less revived, without a genuine labor movement - and that's not going to happen without some form of a labor union movement.

Unfortunately, the decline of labor politics - its corruption, bureaucracy, ineffeciency and its failure to adapt to what Alvin Toffler called The Third Wave (i.e. the disorienting shift away from the Industrial Revolution to the Age of Information) - mirrors society's decline into the morass of corporatocracy.

While I don't presume to know what form the rebirth of unionism should take, I have a pretty good idea what will advance its decline -- the restructuring of the AFL-CIO being hawked by James Hoffa, Jr..

Despite his old man's legacy, Little Hoffa reminds me of Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman, egomaniacal sellouts eager to ingratiate themselves to the power brokers and captains of industry regardless of who they may be or what their objectives are. Little Hoffa was quick to cozy up to George W. Bush early on and if union members got anything for his prostitution, I'd certainly like to know what it was.

No Real Labor Reform Without Blacks

Far from ameliorating the crisis afflicting what’s left of organized labor in the United States, a number of “reforms” proposed by some of the nation’s largest unions appear as attempted rollbacks of historic gains won by Blacks, Latinos and women unionists a decade ago. Simply put, the vast changes in AFL-CIO structures demanded by the giant (and heavily minority) Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters and others, contain no formal mechanisms to ensure that core labor constituencies have a voice remotely commensurate with their numbers and strategic importance.

The “reformers” demands dominated this week’s just concluded winter meeting of the labor federation’s Executive Council, in Las Vegas, a “fierce” series of discussions in which SEIU chief Andy Stern and his allies called for “streamlining” the AFL-CIO by paring down the number of unions from 58 to 20, drastically shrinking the size of the Executive Council, implicitly reducing the role of state and local labor bodies and, most disastrous for Black unionists, eliminating constituent group representatives on the Executive Committee.

“If the ten largest unions will comprise the Executive Committee, no Black that I’m aware of, or woman that I’m aware of, heads up a union of that size,” said William Lucy, President of the 33-year-old Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). “How does our voice get in that decision making process? How do we talk about the value of organizing as a community empowerment process? Who do we discuss that with?”

It's not difficult to understand how grassroots influence will be dealt a serious blow by such a reorg, and the whole thing smacks of a power grab that - while it would simplify the logistics of running existing union operations - will ultimately only serve to expedite organized labor's demise.

“Fifty-five percent (or 168,000) of the union jobs lost in 2004 were held by black workers,” wrote Dwight Kirk, in the February 24, 2005 issue of . “More stunningly, African American women accounted for 70 percent of the union jobs lost by women in 2004. Yes, 100,000 black union women – many the sole or primary breadwinner in their households – lost their paychecks, their job security, medical insurance for their families and their retirement nest eggs in just one year.”

Like the Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO is taking its non-white constituency for granted. And as with the Democratic Party, there is a hefty, long-term price to be paid for practicing the politics of exclusion, and all working people - including millions who have yet to enter the workforce - will be footing the bill.

King George The Divider

NYT Link

The struggle, mainly among black Protestants, is taking place in pulpits, church conventions, on op-ed pages and on the airwaves, and the president himself began his second term with a meeting in the White House with black clergy members and civic leaders who supported his re-election.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., the pastor of the Hope Christian Church in College Park, Md., is part of a new breed of leaders who have warmed to the Republican stand on social values. He paraphrases Newt Gingrich as he stumps the country to promote a "Black Contract With America on Moral Values," whose top priorities include opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion.

"Historically when societies have gone off kilter, there has been rampant same-sex marriage," Mr. Jackson said in an interview. "What tends to happen is that people tend to devalue the institution of marriage as a whole. People start rearing kids without two parents, and the black community already has this incredibly alarming and, if I may say, this shameful number of babies being born without fathers."

He said he hoped to collect a million signatures of support this year.

Efforts like Mr. Jackson's have brought a sharp reaction from other black ministers, who bridle at putting their energies into fighting same-sex marriage.


"Oppression is oppression is oppression," said the Rev. Kelvin Calloway, pastor of the Second A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles. "Just because we're not the ones who are being oppressed now, do we not stand with those oppressed now? That is the biblical mandate. That's what Jesus is all about."

At the heart of the debate, church leaders say, is whether to stay focused primarily on issues like job creation, education, affirmative action, prison reform and health care, which have drawn blacks closer to the Democratic Party, or whether to put more emphasis on issues of personal morality, like opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, which would place them deeper in the Republican camp.

"Historically when societies have gone off kilter, there has been rampant same-sex marriage," says Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr.

Pardon my skepticism, but I'd like to hear some examples of such "history."

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn recently remarked that lesbianism was "so rampant in some of the schools … that they'll let only one girl go to the bathroom."

"Rampant" used to be reserved for describing the prevalence of things like disease and crime. Frank Luntz must have issued a proclamation imploring the fascist footsoldiers to always tie the word "rampant" to homosexuality.

Homosexuality simply is. Does Pastor King and Senator Tom Coburn really believe Jesus would spend one second condemning homosexuals? If so, they possess little understanding of the man whose teachings their religion purports to represent. But, then, that's hardly a new phenomenon, is it?

Related Commentary at Arvin Hill: Another Final Solution

The Hornet's Nest - Part II

...cont'd from The Hornet's Nest - Part I

My mother's first husband was an abusive bastard and she suffered from the stigma of divorcing him, with three small children, in a small South Texas town. Technically, those children were my step-brothers although we never thought of each other as such, or at least, I didn't.

Ironically, the guy standing up in the photo of me and my brothers was David, nine years my senior. At fourteen, folded beneath a junkyard car, a jack slipped and almost killed him. He bucked the odds and escaped The Reaper's scythe, his spinal cord mangled and kidneys damaged. Within a few years, he was able to walk on crutches. His is a story all its own. Perhaps someday I'll find the strength to write it, as it is ensconsed not in a gilded frame of mythical heroism, but in the salty tears sadness and joy and laughter and awe.

Each of my brothers was wild in their own way. Each bore a scarred soul. That's what happens in life, even though most people don't really acknowledge it. The wounds vary in depth, severity and frequency from person to person.

I was closest to David. He became a technical draftsman, married someone about as naive as he was and divorced a few years later. We bonded in a way that is hard to describe, but I was mature for my age and he was in many ways an eternal adolescent, if a reasonably responsible one. My home life was often tense and I spent as much time as possible in the warm comfort of my bedroom.

When I turned sixteen, he was living in a small apartment and we enjoyed each other's company tremendously. The days were spent under the hood of his Chevy Malibu Classic and cruising the streets of East Dallas, White Rock Lake and Lake Ray Hubbard. Between casual street racing and flirting with girls, we smoked copious amounts of Panama Red and Columbian Gold. Sometimes with a friend of two, but usually alone, I would make the crosstown trek to his apartment and we would listen to music, watch Saturday Night Live and Monty Python, and laugh hysterically. Nearly twenty years later, he would be gone, his ragged body worn to dust from constant struggle. I miss him enormously.

The same rebelliousness which led me to quit school has accompanied me throughout life. Having come of age in the '70s, it fit like a well-worn cotton t-shirt. Fashion, however, has changed. As early as the late 80s, having made the transition from airman to claims adjuster, society had become increasingly fear-based and blatantly materialistic. Those were the greed is good years; kind of like now, except it was still a novel philosophy. Americans wrung their hands over the rise of gangs, hip-hop and crack cocaine, though not enough to eschew an occasional line at the party of the neighborhood hipster celebrating his or her latest promotion.

Able to write and speak a good game, I found myself working in a professional environment and often competed against college grads for various positions. Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I failed. I could be a well paid claims adjuster one year and clerical temp worker the next. What I really lacked was ambition and a knack for tolerating the vagaries of Cubicle Nation, and this was quite a handicap during the George Herbert Walker Bush years, when little mattered except whether or not one's job held enough prestige to warrant a blue suit and red tie. Usually, mine did.

Whatever my own professional ups and down, a notable constant in my life has been Mrs. Hill, who over the years has forged her way from file clerk to marketing guru. Weilding nothing more than talent, drive and dogged perserverance, she created an enviable career for herself. I've never known anyone who even comes close to matching her professionalism, ethics and capacity for caring about others - all qualities which are notoriously difficult to maintain in the bloody currents and shark-infested waters of corporate life.

By the mid-nineties, people my age were turning away from the euphoria of illicit drugs to the passive numbness of legal ones. Prozac, Paxil and other SSRI anti-depressants became common as rain, and considerably more common than pot. With the national religion of consumerism ratcheting up, it stood to reason. How else were people to tolerate it without cutting their wrists, that moo-cow pasture of compliancy called "office life." Maturity was something of a disappointment, if only because people my age were having children and becoming, for lack of a better word, retarded. The casual and sometimes tumultuous era in which I'd grown up had long been erased, replaced by an age enveloped in the ridiculously thin aura of status and reputation and material consumption.

Nearly everyone who had a kid was either medicating them or feeling guilty for not medicating them. Having been cruelly plagued by cluster headaches my entire life, I joined the herd and found it provided some relief, though not without tradeoffs. Between the rock of restrictive insurance plans and the hard place of finding physicians willing to treat me for pain, it wasn't like I had much choice in the matter. It continues to be a problem. Cannabis offered the best relief and was far superior to pharmaceuticals, but thanks to the government assault on the American brain and human will, it became difficult to obtain, prohibitively expensive and of surprisingly poor quality - where I lived, anyway. Penalties for cultivation were (and continue to be) harsh, and I was unwilling to risk sacrificing the wonderful life Mrs. Hill and I had built together. So, I suffered. And do to this day.

Every place I worked for stayed in the perpetually uneasy state of pending sale. Everything was on the auction block, and if it wasn't worth buying, it wasn't worth anything. Institutional loyalty was required, but never reciprocated. I hated it despite earning a decent income, but my home life was good, warm.

And then came December 12, 2000.

(Final Segment - Part III - tomorrow)