V4V Did Not Disappoint

Cross-posted at Neddie Jingo:

Wow.

An exhilirating and cathartic film.

The story itself is hardly a nuanced one, but, as Neddie observed, V is anything but a simple character. Hugo Weaving's portrayal of V was brilliant and moving.

Natalie Portman's lines lacked punch, but she made up for the deficit in every other way. The camera absolutely loves the woman, and it is not a relationship she takes for granted.

There were a number of memorable scenes, but the one burned into my psyche is when V confronts the doctor. It speaks to complicity and guilt, justice and forgiveness. I found it haunting and beautiful and powerful.

I'd heard the closing credits featured a Malcolm X speech, but at the IMAX showing I saw, The Stones' Street Fighting Man had taken its place. It was a damn good song to close out the festivities.

The extent to which one enjoys V for Vendetta is largely commensurate with how (or whether) one perceives the Fascist Menace in the United States. The more severe the perception, the more the film speaks to the viewer on a personal level.

It was the best ten bucks I've spent in a long time.

Problem Solved

Why have a prison-industrial complex if creative employers can't have unfettered access to slave labor? (Not that they don't already.)

But why stop there. Just think of the potential for organ harvesting and medical experimentation.

Another Great Republican Idea

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, dismissed arguments made by President Bush and business leaders who say the United States needs a pool of foreign workers. He said businesses should be more creative in their efforts to find help and suggested that employers turn to the prison population to fill jobs in agriculture and elsewhere.

"Let the prisoners pick the fruits," Mr. Rohrabacher said. "We can do it without bringing in millions of foreigners."

Rohrabacher should be careful what he wishes for lest he find himself picking apples with his good friend, Congressional Bribery Expert Jack Abramoff.

Overheard: Immigration

Karena's Blog:

Unreasonable anxiety and fear over immigrants is manufactured the same way it is on other social issues--by social movement entrepeneurs. Americans do not inform themselves or analyze facts; rather, they by and large shop for pre-formed opinions that they in turn make their own through habitual usage. That's why propaganda professionals like Goebbels and Rove use pervasive repetition of lies as a tool of indoctrination; it works.

Posted by: spartacus | March 29, 2006 at 12:23 PM

Robert Scheer via Cymro at Talk Left:

From Having intermittently covered this issue for the Los Angeles Times over 30 years, I can well recall the peaks of panic in which we reporters were dispatched to the border and out into the fields to witness the arrest of people desperate to find work -- only to be embarrassed by the hunted eyes and clutched crosses of the enemy discovered.

Such frenzied attention was inevitably followed by a lull in which most Americans were quite happy to eat the food harvested by those same harassed and abused workers as well as to entrust the "illegals" with the care of American homes and children. On no other issue is there such an extreme disconnect between attitudes and actions.

When Wal-Mart was busted for hiring undocumented workers, did anybody boycott the company? Of course not; consumers value price and aren't concerned, for the most part, about how a company accomplishes cheapness. If, however, people do really care about keeping all jobs open to American citizens, then there is only one effective strategy: Level the playing field by enforcing labor laws.

The astounding number of Mexican-Americans and others turning out to protest the hysterical, hypocritical, myopic, xenophobic scapegoating cranked out by the Fascist Right is truly awesome.

The Left Blogosphere is ripe with discussion about why liberals can't throw together an impressive demonstration. The answer is very simple: It's all about the urgency of the threat. Lefties refuse to acknowledge that democracy in America is now - not "is going to be" - replaced with a Fascist oligarchy. As a group, we reject what our eyes and ears tell us every day because, if we confront the truth, we have to ask ourselves what we're doing to engage those who have taken away our freedom. We do not make threat assessments because we are afraid to be called to direct action. Somebody might call us unAmerican. We might get on a list or lose a sale.

Our Latino brothers and sisters, and those who stand with them, cannot ignore the threat. The consequences -- having relatives turned into felons for the crime of serving as fodder in the smoking barrels of the America's consumer culture; becoming felons themselves for adhering to the most basic principles of human rights -- are potentially far too devastating; the threat, all too real.

"Things will get better," the rest of us keep telling ourselves. It never does. Until we choose to make our voices are heard, it never will.

Temp Gigs for Aspiring Carnies

Regular readers - few though you are, God bless your aching hearts - already know I'm bound for tropical exile for a couple of weeks spanning the last week of April and early May.

I refuse to subject you, the web's most courageous and intelligent marks, to further indignities. The Carnival has suffered from my recent absences, and now is the time for atonement, as well as something for which I have little experience: Planning.

The Show Must Go On.

Even as I travel to mysterious lands to swim in the beauty and violence of All That Is, reveling in the laughter of fellow mortals on The Quest, the smoldering fires of discontent must be stoked, and fresh ones ignited.


You don't have to be a Blogger.

You don't have to be a Graphic Artist.

You don't have to be a Writer.

You don't have to be an Intellectual.

Hell, you don't even have to be a pariah among our fellow Lefties, although that's a looming possibility should you choose to accept the gig.

I don't care if you're from Singapore, Brussels, Santiago, Oaxaca, Kalamazoo or Lufkin, Texas. In fact, to my global friends, should any of you volunteer, I would encourage posting in your native tongue if you can provide an English translation for us poorly educated American monolinguists.

If you know how to strike a match, drop me a line:


You'll be free to light whatever fires you see fit as frequently or infrequently as you choose. I'll even make some graphics available should you need provocation or a visual flourish for your screed. If you have a Flickr account or other means of hosting your own images, you are welcome to use them, and I will copy & upload them to my account later for the archives.

I have absolutely no idea what kind of response this proposition will generate, but if you're ready for The Carnival, The Carnival is ready for you.

Lunatic versus Heretik

Too bad it's not a knife fight. David Horowitz may be the most loathsome little punk-ass snitch since... well, ever.


David Horowitz vs. Ward Churchill

On April 6-7, 2006, Students for Academic Freedom will host its First National Academic Freedom Conference featuring a debate between Students for Academic Freedom Chairman David Horowitz and University of Colorado-Boulder Professor Ward Churchill. The topic for debate will be: “Can Politics Be Taken Out Of The Classroom, and Should It Be?”

The debate will be held Thursday evening on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC. Young America’s Foundation and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture are the co-hosts of the debate.

The conference will also feature U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, House Leader Jack Kingston, and Colorado high school student Sean Allen whose recording of an anti-American rant by his geography teacher, Jay Bennish, created a national furor over classroom indoctrination. The conference (apart from the debate) will take place at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, DC.

Oglala Sioux Warrior

If the man crackers of South Dakota thought they could subjugate their sinful women without a fight, they are - with any luck - approaching Aneurysm Territory today after hearing about this story appearing in Sunfell's diary at DKos.

Cecilia Fire Thunder, Oglala Sioux president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe at Pine Ridge, reportedly told Native American Times (subscription only) she was "incensed...that a body made up of mostly white males would make such a stupid law against women."

"To me, it is now a question of sovereignty," she said to [Tim] last week. "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."

That, my friends, is resistance.

Another Cliche Put To Rest

James Wolcott, pooh-pooh'ing the inclusion of a dream sequence in last Sunday's Sopranos (although I'm not sure why he mentioned it considering he doesn't watch the show), was rolling his eyes and sighing loudly this week:

Dream sequences are a curse on series TV, equal in their artsy-kitschy intrusiveness to ghostly visitations from deleted characters, and perhaps even worse than dream sequences are dream-sequence interpretations, which compels talented critics to smack at every symbol that pops up from the watery unconscious with wooden paddles.

Maybe he's just watching "Medium" too much. "The Sopranos" has always been rich in symbolism and, when it comes to dreams, what else is there? David Chase made excellent use of the device, but, then, I've been fascinated by the phenomenon of dreams for as long as I remember.

When I took the link to gawk at the geekery (I have a soft spot for "talented" film critics, of which there are few), it was a pleasant surprise to see the former Dallas Observer film critic Matt Zoller Seitz up to his eyeballs in the dissection. Reading the discussion was like listening to 1973's "Yessongs" but, hey, it's a blog. People no doubt think the same thing when they read some of my, uh, extended commentary.

Seitz was always a pleasure to read, but I'd lost track of him since moving to the boonies from Dallas some years ago. Despite his exhaustive knowledge and insightful reviews, I never felt like I'd just been mugged by a film snob.

Checking out Seitz's blog, The House Next Door, I noticed a sidebar link, Feature film "Home". Matt The Critic has taken on a dual role as Matt The Film Maker.

I have no way of knowing whether "Home" will reflect Matt Seitz's nuclear potential as an artist, but now that he's crossing the Rubicon, I'm certain this guy has a stellar future crafting films for thinking people.

Feed 'em to the wolves.

Left the following comment at Mia Culpa in response to a post about Pennsylvania Attorney General seizing hard drives from the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal:

The American media establishment still views itself as completely separate from the public it purports to serve. They agitate for *their* rights while getting rich brokering the sell-off of our rights.

Abandonment of Constitutional governance would not have been possible without the invaluable and enthusiastic assistance of our corporate mouthpiece elite.

Read Robert Parry's latest [linked] - every word of it - and you'll get an idea what I'm talking about.

Until George W. Bush executes Katie Couric with an axe in Times Square, the U.S. media machine will continue to earn the enmity of those who reject Fascism. If members of the arrogant, self-aggrandizing media expect liberals to spring to their defense, they should know they can only count on the dumb ones.

South Dakota and You

Pack your bags. We're going to South Dakota.
Since attempting to implement pseudo-Christian sharia in South Dakota, there has been much talk of a tourism boycott:

Tourism is South Dakota's second-largest industry, behind agriculture, with visitors to the state spending $809 million in 2005, according to the Tourism Department. Mount Rushmore received 2.75 million visitors in 2005.

Among those calling for a boycott is the Women's Medical Fund, an abortion rights organization based in Madison, Wis. "Our message is that if they are going to treat women in this inhumane way, they can expect to pay a price," said Anne Gaylor, the group's director.

State Tourism Director Billie Jo Waara said that her office has been getting a dozen or so calls a day from people on both sides of the issue. Some say they will not vacation in South Dakota, but very few of those who had already made travel plans have canceled, she said.

We are going about this all wrong, as usual.

Let's say that, like most people in America, you weren't planning to vacation in South Dakota. Withholding tourism dollars you never had any intention of spending is not an act of rebellion.

Instead of staying away, I have a different strategy for indignant leftists: Make South Dakota a destination. For every dollar you spend on gas and corn nuts, do not leave there without costing them two dollars. How? Not My Problem. Just use your imagination and make sure no one gets hurt.

____________________________

Post Script: And just for the record, lest this post be the one that brings a knock at the door, let me say very clearly I am not proposing violence. Further, to spell it out for the Officially Thick, what I am saying is that our failure as citizens is one of imagination. If you still have one, take it out for a walk every now and then.

Late for the Funeral

ddjango at American Samzidat says "Now is the Time to Stuff the Democrats.". Being an agreeable chap, I left the following comment:

America has squandered democracy just like it squanders everything else.

It's not that we were ever perfect - far, far from it. But we once shared some lofty ideals, and that commonality was the glue which held this country together.

After '04, I finally tore up my voter registration card and walked away from the absurdist role play we call free and fair elections. Thanks to the perversion of the electoral process and the American people's insistence on being goverened by elites, voting is now a top-down enterprise that has little to do with political representation and everything to do with rubber-stamping the inevitable.

The fatal blow was delivered in December 2000 when we - every person who didn't take to the streets and fucking stay there - accepted The Dirty Five's judicial coup d'etat.

At this late hour, we are well past the bleeding stage. Those who can no longer avert their eyes now see corpse of our ideals rotting beneath the scaled feet of corpulent vultures.

And, still, we sit.

Where do we go from here, you ask. Look within for the answer. Waiting for a knight in shining armor is a losing proposition.

K is for ....

kakistocracy:
government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

Thanks to the erudite Hugo Zoom for informing me of this painfully relevant word. Not one I'm likely to forget soon, either. The two K's make it a Scrabble gem.

Criminal Negligence & National Security

Still amazed at this story, which illustrates the lie that Americans have forfeited civil rights in exchange for national security. There is no national security. Quite the opposite. With seaports and airports more vulnerable than ever after wars, invasions, occupations and untold billions doled out to cronies from the public coffers, Americans are sitting ducks. Exceptionally stupid and lazy sitting ducks.

Someday, we will look back mournfully on the interval between 911 and the coming attack wondering why we sat here like lumps as Congress and the Bush malAdministration bankrupted the nation and pocketed the dough. By then, the criminals responsible will be shooting pool in their bunkers while the rest of us entertain ourselves watching flesh fall from each other's bones.

Airline Screeners Fail Government Bomb Tests
21 airports nationwide don’t detect bomb-making materials

Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports.

In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.

But, hey, at least we got a fully functional Police State out of the deal.

Your Aesthetic Pleasure

... may be limited here at The Carnival.

My sidebar hosed in IE (thanks for the heads up, Juli), but the place looks fine with Firefox & Netscape.

I'm working on it.

Well, not right this second.

But I'm aware of it.

It's all Blogger's fault. They hosed my damn template a few months back. Bastards. But the price is still right, so I love you guys. Blogger rocks.

Even though you probably shouldn't be using Internet Explorer, I'm still going to fix it. Cuz, like, it's my sidebar. There's stuff there. And I feel sorry for you.

As you can see, I'm not in a particularly cerebral mood tonight. So be glad I'm not working on that template.


Speaking of two too many tarminis, an agitated Neddie Jingo posts Dan Jenkins' Ten Stages of Drunkenness.

* * * * * * * * *

Sunday Night Post Script: The problem has been rectified. Enjoy your clunky browser.

Film and Fear

The undercurrent of drenched diaper fear running through many of the reviews is noteworthy.

Michael Phillips, arts critic for the Chicago Tribune:

Call me a neocon -- that'd be a first -- but this film is in fact about a glam-terrorist who believes in better government through the demolition of landmark buildings. It's only a movie. But would "V for Vendetta" stand a box office chance today if it were set in America, not England, and the U.S. Capitol were blowing up instead of Parliament? Unlikely. We all enjoyed seeing the White House get it in "Independence Day," but there's nothing political about space aliens.

Tell it to the space aliens.

No, one doesn't have to be a "neocon" to believe violence inflicted on the citizenry by its government is sometimes justified while armed struggle against a tyrannical, lawless government never is. By all appearances, most Americans agree with Mr. Phillips, but that doesn't make them neocons. What it makes them is host organisms for today's dominant parasitic political ideology.

As to the question Phillips asks and mistakenly believes he answers, the film simply could not have been set in America, and the reason has nothing to do with box office prospects or the original setting in the graphic novel. It has everything to do with with the very real climate of fear that's been dropping IQ points and vertebrae in the Home of the Brave since September 2001. Setting aside this point (as if a thinking person can), Phillips' assertion that V4V would have been a box office flop had it been produced with American landmarks is merely wishful thinking on his part.

Movie critics are no different from the rest of the population. They've been scared shitless for years, and cloaking their fear with smarm and condescension is a predictable and transparent reaction, vastly more comfortable than the alternative of honestly confronting the difficult questions of armed struggle against tyranny.

Scott Foundas, LA Weekly:

I’m not quite sure what’s more contemptible — that V for Vendetta wants us to take all of this seriously or that, on some level, it doesn’t. It’s selling armed revolution in much the same way the movie version of Rent was selling beatnik counterculture — as a fashion accessory to be sported alongside your tattoo, pierced nipple and Che Guevara T-shirt. The script is loaded with lofty talk about people who’ve been killed while defending their ideas; Malcolm X’s “On Black Power” speech even comes on the soundtrack underneath the closing credits. Not once, however, does V for Vendetta seem the least bit conflicted about its endorsement of fighting terror with terror, or concerned about exalting the legacy of Fawkes at a time when one needn’t buy a movie ticket in order to see London (to say nothing of New York and Washington, D.C.) going up in flames. At this rate, it surely can’t be long before the members of the Weathermen are reconstituted as action figures in a McDonald’s Happy Meal. It may be V who wears the mask, but it’s the Wachowskis who should be ashamed to show their faces.

Don't worry, Scotty. Jerry Bruckheimer will be here shortly with your hotdog and apple pie.

Speaking of tyranny:

Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation that would solidify the administration's eavesdropping authority, according to some legal analysts who are concerned about dramatic changes in U.S. law.

But an aide to the bill's chief author, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said that is not the intention of the legislation.

"It in no way applies to reporters — in any way, shape or form," said Mike Dawson, a senior policy adviser to DeWine, responding to an inquiry Friday afternoon. "If a technical fix is necessary, it will be made."

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft of the legislation, which could be introduced as soon as next week.

The draft would add to the criminal penalties for anyone who "intentionally discloses information identifying or describing" the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program or any other eavesdropping program conducted under a 1978 surveillance law.

Under the boosted penalties, those found guilty could face fines of up to $1 million, 15 years in jail or both.

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the measure is broader than any existing laws. She said, for example, the language does not specify that the information has to be harmful to national security or classified.

"The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact," said Martin, a civil liberties advocate . . . .

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the language would allow anyone — "if you read a story in the paper and pass it along to your brother-in-law" — to be prosecuted.

"As a practical matter, would they use this to try to punish any newspaper or any broadcast? It essentially makes coverage of any of these surveillance programs illegal," she said. "I'm sorry, that's just not constitutional."

At this late hour, I'm delighted to watch the situation deteriorate because the press needs to have the same knobby fucking boots pressed against their swaller pipes just like everyone else. I truly wish it wasn't necessary, but the ghost of the Fourth Estate remains oblivious to the reality that the public's fate is ultimately its own. When the institution of journalism abandons its shamelessly corrupt elitism, I'll abandon my desire to see journalists brought to their fucking knees by the very criminals they currently serve.

V4V4ME

I don't recall the last time I was truly excited about seeing a film, but "V For Vendetta" has been on my mind since seeing the trailer a couple of months ago. Even not knowing a thing about the graphic novel from which the film was adapted, the imagery was eerie and visceral and all too real when one ponders Abu Grahib and the CIA's secret prisons dotting the globe.


Expect howls of outrage in the coming days. I'll be surprised if our Fascist brothers and sisters can restrain themselves from issuing fatwahs against theater operators showing the film. And, of course, there will be the usual tsk-tsk-tsk'ing from their "centrist" enablers.

James Wolcott writes:

V for Vendetta may be--why hedge? is--the most subversive cinematic deed of the Bush-Blair era, a dagger poised in midair. Unlike the other movies dubbed “controversial” (Fahrenheit 9-11, The Passion, Munich, Syriana), it doesn’t play to a particular constituency or polarized culture bloc, it’s working on a deeper, Edger Allen Poe-ish witch’s brew substrata of pop myth. Cultural conservatives will loathe it without seeing it (they love not having to leave their houses to lament the latest installment of civilization’s decline and fall) once they hear of and read about the movie’s disturbing political parallels (a fascistic TV host with a witty resemblance to Berlusconi, fertilizer explosives a la Timothy McVeigh; torture, renditions, and subway bombings; black hoods that will be forever associated with Abu Ghraib). Yet lots of cultural liberals with educated tastes will find it anxiety-producing and irresponsible too, not only because they’re more comfortable with humanistic stories and documentary techniques than with pop spectacle (as Kael discovered whenever she praised upstart movies like DePalma’s Carrie or The Warriors and received letters from profs and Ph.D couples complaining about her soiling the New Yorker’s space on trash), but because V for Vendetta doesn’t just depict a 1984’s dystopia--it advocates radical remedy, and illustrates what it advocates with rhapsodic, operatic, orgasmic flourish. It follows the course of its own logic to its Kubrickian conclusion, but this isn’t a clinical exercise, like Kubrick at his most voyeuristically detached. This movie is fully engaged."

As humans, our very consciousness is shaped by myth. This movie will make a lot of people seriously question, at long last, the nature of resistance and moral sanction in a way no documentary or other medium can. Candid speech is the number one threat to our post-Constitutional authoritarian society, and, as such, a lot of innocent people clinging to a non-existent First Amendment will be surprised when the Homeland Security Goon Squad shows up on the porch to administer a loyalty test because of some overheard conversation or unAmerican internet post.

In the meantime, check out this piece on actor Stephen Rea:

Stephen Rea – no stranger to the thorny world of politics, and terrorism, having been married to convicted IRA bomber Dolours Price (mother of his three children) – wasn’t one of those actors who ran away screaming from the big-budget adaptation of Vendetta. Did the politics of the story attract him, or does he view this as just, well, comic-book stuff? “Well, I don’t think it would be very interesting if it was just comic-book stuff,” he answers with a wry smile. “The politics of it are what gives it its dimension and momentum, and of course I was interested in the politics. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Why not, indeed.

When I've seen it, you'll be the first to know.

Connecticut Suckers

State wants to ban marijuana lollipop

HARTFORD – Lawmakers are considering a proposal to ban the sale of lollipops that tastes like marijuana.

Though the candy doesn’t contain the illegal drug, it claims to have the same flavor.

Many state legislators, at the nudging of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, say the candy enocurages use of marijuana.


Others, such as Sen. David Cappiello, R–Danbury, argue the government should stay out of regulating flavors so long as the candy does not contain anything illegal.

The bill, which passed the legislature's General Law Committee last week, says "No person shall sell or offer for sale any candy or other food containing cannabis type substance ... or containing any flavor intended to simulating the flavor of a cannibis type substance."

Good thing those lollipops don't taste like pussy or Connecticut would be under martial law.

Denny Hastert did it.

Tonight's "Law & Order" focused on the Minutemen and pulled no punches. One need only look at the Google results (the episode was broadcast previously) to get a whiff of the indignation from the white, toothless, scared fat-asses who consider murdering Mexicans their patriotic duty.

And not five minutes later, I run across this story:

Marijuana smuggler killed by gunfire was Mexican, 23

A Mexican man who was killed while smuggling marijuana into the country Friday has been identified as a 23-year-old from Choix, Sinaloa.

Rosario Cuberto Corrales-Vega was shot to death in the desert somewhere between Arivaca and Amado while walking with several others carrying marijuana in backpacks, said Deputy Dawn Barkman, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman.

The group was walking along when they heard someone yell "stop" in English, she said. Gunfire followed.

Corrales-Vega was struck and a friend of his helped him over to a roadway, where they flagged down a sport utility vehicle, Barkman said.

The driver of the SUV dropped the men off at Kino Hospital, where Corrales-Vega was pronounced dead a short time later, she said.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department has not been able to determine where the slaying occurred and asks that the driver of the SUV come forward for questioning.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME, the anonymous tip line of the Pima County Attorney's Office.

The cops are all over it. Sure, they are.


Meanwhile, the RepubliFascii are wailing on this issue like Tom Sizemore on Heidi Fleiss. From the Chicago Tribune:

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a decision last fall to use "illegal immigration" as the Republican Party's next emotionally charged wedge issue. The political calculation is that the resentment and latent racism felt toward our Mexican neighbors can be demagogued for political advantage this year, dividing the Democrats and keeping the House in Republican hands.

Such good old-fashioned "unity" the Grand Ole Pricks are always promoting.

From the same previously linked article:

However, in what appears to be an entirely predictable example of the law of unintended consequences, the immigrant communities in general and the Mexican community in particular have declined to allow themselves to be passive punching bags.

There are few communities in the U.S. that work harder at lower pay and in worse conditions than the Mexican community. Mexicans do this with few complaints in exchange for the promise that their children might live better lives. But the community does not appreciate having its hard work denigrated by being called "criminals" or "terrorists." Signs on Friday said it all: "We are America."

The last big spasm of immigrant bashing was in California during the mid-1990s by then-Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and Proposition 187. Mexican immigrants responded by first marching and then becoming American citizens and voting Democratic in record numbers.

Hastert's short-sighted strategy has gored the Republican business community that understands our nation's labor needs and energized a national Roman Catholic immigrant-justice campaign so muscular that last week Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles threatened massive civil disobedience. The anti-immigrant demagoguery also launched an unprecedented national political mobilization by the Mexican and immigrant community. Oops!

A little-noted fact about the 2004 presidential election was that socially conservative immigrant Latinos were 40 percent more likely to vote for President Bush than U.S.-born Latinos. Now Bush's and Karl Rove's carefully crafted and successful Hispanic outreach strategy is shredded lettuce.

Like the darkening pigment of America, that last paragraph is pure gold.

What time is it?

Do we know each other? What the hell day is this, anyway?

Oh yeah, it's all coming back now.

I've been busy being a patient care technician for the lovely Mrs. Hill, who needed a few weeks to recuperate from a rather common, if complex, surgery. (She's just fine, thanks, so don't get all sappy.)


Well, that's the main reason for my extended absence. Introspection is an annual feature of the season (tortured Pisces that I am), and, at forty-four, I no longer attempt to resist life's natural rhythms. March is my time for critical self-examination and devil-may-care apathy, a purgatory of vexing questions and timid epiphanies dancing in the shadows of my peripheral vision. Since I'm already an introvert, this makes seclusion all too easy.

Spring settled over North Texas on warm, gusty winds and the happy din of chickadees, finches and rambunctious mockingbirds. I've been doing the usual Spring stuff, trimming decidious perennials, planting hanging baskets, preparing beds and avoiding everything else including current events, email, blogging and damn near everything involving a desk or a human being. Nature will be my sweet salvation until June unleashes a plague of triple-digit heat and insatiable grasshoppers conspiring to undo my work.

Chemicals in the landscape, house and, to a lesser extent, brain, are kept to a minimum around here - much of the place is wildscaped - but recently I knuckled under and applied a pre-emergent in hopes of limiting the vicious goat head stickers that plagued us last year, carefully avoiding patches where colorful indian paintbrushes will emerge en masse in the coming week. Regardless of how well or poorly the pre-emergent works, there is no getting around the fact that eliminating the stickers is a matter of hand digging the problem areas a few months from now. On two acres, it is war of attrition. Denton County is expected to be under a burn ban for the next several months; otherwise, I'd take the easy way out. My brush pile will make an impressive pyre when the burn ban is finally lifted.


Throughout Denton County, psychedelic pink blooms are blanketing the small but admirably rugged redbuds interspersed throughout the mostly naked forest of ancient post oaks, stout blackjack oaks, weepy winged elms and evergreen mountain cedar. An unusually warm winter caused the redbuds, like the crab apple and plum trees with their intricate soft pink and white bouquets, to flower earlier than usual, a point of some duress for the organizers of The Redbud Festival on April 8th. The likelihood of any redbud blooms persevering until then is remote.


Speaking of festivals, it is with some ambivalence that I won't be attending this year's Denton Jazz Fest. The ideaof a jazz festival is always superior to its actual execution here, what with the ratio of patrons to cops being roughly two to one and annoying new restrictions on coolers near the jazz stage. For people who live each day paralyzed in fear - which is to say at least half the goddamn country - SWAT teams, drug warriors and various other armed, uniformed assholes are the fundamental components of any family friendly event. (John Q. Family's primary objective isn't to actually enjoy anything, but to MAKE IT HOME ALIVE - preferably without having heard any cussing in public or catching a whiff of wafting marijuana.) Since jazz sets are largely optional after the first evening, organizers might consider reinvigorating the event by adopting "Cop Fest!" as the festival's new name. Still, it's three days of free shows in a nice park, small town comfortable and ridiculously easy to attend.

This year, though, with any luck, the last weekend in April will find me with like-minded comrades in a small Caribbean fishing village where human consciousness, sacred fungi and the mysterious night sky converge to create a diamond-studded portal to plodding satellites, distant worlds and the occasional intrepid UFO. The experience will fade with morning's deep slumber as terra firma is reborn of blue sky, azure sea and chattering villagers surveying the day's colorful catch. And life will begin anew, just as it does each day.


So that's where I've been and, hopefully, where I will be. Between those two points, it's anybody's guess.