RIP Eight Belles

Three-year old Eight Belles, moments
before being killed after she broke her
two front ankles in the Kentucky Derby.


I don't know what Eight Belles means to her owners but according to Wikipedia, "eight bells is a way of saying that a sailor's watch is over, for instance, in his or her obituary. It's a nautical euphemism for "finished". For the three-year old filly Eight Belles, her end was yesterday's Kentucky Derby after her stunning, second place victory resulted in BOTH her front ankles breaking. She was put down where she fell and I am outraged.

After her death, her trainer Larry Jones, told the media, "They put their life on the damn line. She was glad to do it." Bullshit, Larry! You are blinded by self-centeredness.

Three-year old BARBARO, fatally
injured in the Kentucky Derby, 2006

For however much this beautiful filly might have "loved to run", she is another victim of brutal, greed driven cruelty. Horse racing is just another example of how we exploit animals for our special "entertainment." It's touted as the "sport of kings" (only because it takes a king's ransom to foot the cost) but I rank right it right along with dog racing, cock fights, horse fights (a favorite in China), bull fights, circuses, zoos, and the rest of the animal entertainment industry and so-called "sports" which depend on us ruthlessly cross-wiring the animal's talents with the most basic instinct, one we all share, fight or flight. We provoke, force, train, taunt, strain, whip, starve and beat animals into extreme reactions to extreme conditions ... for our profit and amusement, not because the animals want to sacrifice themselves for us.

We bet on their lives. They always lose. Not just the ones culled early in the game, the ones discarded like trash before they ever make it to the limelight. "Winner" or "loser", none of them end well. What's with us? Seems to me, when all our other excuses fail, we use religion to dignify our cruelty and greed. "Dominion over the animals"? My ass. I agree with Ghandi, "The greatness of a nation and its morals can be judged by the way its animals are treated". About her death, winning jockey Kent Desormeaux said, "Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today. I'm deeply sympathetic to that team for their loss." Not my pleasure, bub. Rest in peace, baby girl.


Barbaro's fatal fall

The Rescue
by Robert Creeley


The man sits in a timelessness
with the horse under him in time
to a movement of legs and hooves
upon a timeless sand.

Distance comes in from the foreground
present in the picture as time
he reads outward from
and comes from that beginning.

A wind blows in
and out and all about the man
as the horse ran
and runs to come in time.

A house is burning in the sand.
A man and horse are burning.
The wind is burning.
They are running to arrive.

The Horseracing Industry: Drugs, Deception, and Death

Eight Belles Barbaro Kentucky Derby horse racing

Crossroad

WWFSMD?

Seems to me America has outgrown the two party system. Watching Obama and Clinton duke it out, I'd say the Dems are split beyond repair, which conveniently takes the heat off the Repubs who are themselves only held together by the tattered posters of McCain plastered over their numerous rifts, ruptures, schisms, scandals, war crimes, high crimes and misdemeanors.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying convince you of anything but I do assume that a savvy person such as yourself is, at least in part, as weary as I of this political charade. What the hell? Let the shards fall where they will. I think the differences between the Progressive and Corporate points of view are irreconcilable and make no mistake ... for however many shots she knocks back at the local bar while the press is watching, Clinton represents the Corporate Elite not We, the People.

Sinkin' down

The Cheney/Bushwackers have abandoned America at the legendary crossroads where they made their deal with the Devil. Both McCain and Clinton, Neocon and Neocon Lite, are determined to consummate the deal. I can only hope that Obama actually does represent CHANGE and that he gets elected. We need to reclaim our collective American soul from the deal makers and war profiteers, the torturers and hedge fund traitors, and the rest of the power elite who would trade it finally and forever to secure their "Bottom Line Billions". But not to worry. If nothing else, the planet itself will pull us up short. Something is gonna' give.


Robert Johnson - CROSSROAD

Drubbing

This morning I was thinking about a bumper sticker I saw yesterday and the word drubbing came to mind as in,"He needs a good drubbing". Dictionary.com explains that "drub, to drub, drubbing" originated in Arabic around 1625-35, but, of course, the idea has been around lot longer. It's not a happy thing, a drubbing. The bumper sticker screamed out, "Why the hell do I have to push 1 for English?" Clever. Anger wafted from it like a bad smell from an outhouse. My knee jerk waftback was, "Because you live in a multi-lingual world, asshole."

Standing in line to mail my package, I tried guessing whose truck it was but, not seeing any scruffy dudes hunkering down in Monday's 5 o'clock shadow, I decided the proud owner was probably next door at Hamdog's drinking his lunch and that, anyway, I probably didn't really want to get in an argument with him.

Of course lots of people feel like that, not just alcoholic rednecks, and the arguments seem reasonable. "They are taking all our jobs away, getting benefits without paying into the system, bringing their gangs, reducing English to a choice..." We benefit from their work then complain because they are working for us but, for all the huff and blow, these people ignore the fact that cheap, under the table labor, is one of the pillars of our false economy.

Plus, Americans won't do those jobs because they want, need, more money for their time. Or can't do them because they are in jail doing time. In case you didn't know, the US has the largest prison population on the planet. We build prisons ... not schools and libraries ... then put our "problems" behind bars, drop another prozac, eat, shop, have a little drinky poo, turn on the TV and pretend that we are The People and the rest of the world is somewhere else starving and better stay there if they know what's good for them, so eat your damn dinner. Seems someone should tell Lady Liberty to cool it. She's lookin' real out of touch.




immigration illegal aliens border politics Mexico

Christmas loop d' loop and new year's resolutions

As today is the first day of 2008 and a socially agreed on new beginning for a lot of people, I decided to break with my past tradition and make a new year's resolution or two.

Number one: I will move more. Not only will I ride my bike more and walk more and go to the gym more, I have set up the new laptop I got for xmas on a separate desk in my office so that I will have to get off my ass more when I am home, because the way it is, once I sit down in front of the monitor, until forces conspire against me, that is where I stay.

Number two: I will do more comix, write more poetry, more flash fiction, do (some) videos with action and/or content, play more music etc. etc. etc., although doing anything along these lines is almost automatically more than I did last year.

Number three: Stay open to change and continue to work on smoothing the edges, being less self-centered and more kind, compassionate all that.

Number four: I will keep my office neat and clean.

Before I get to Number four, I want to mention that Driftglass posted a smokin' year end post last night which set me off on a rant this morning which I include as prelude below. Warning. Some of you might want to go away now. I'll wait...



Okay then...

Like Drifty, I don't believe that lockstep Republicans are capable of facing (much less "compromising") with reality however, having made many mistakes in my own life, I have come to believe that consequences cannot be bought off forever so something has got to give with this nonsense, be it global warming and environmental collapse, a depression, the rise of China or simply internal betrayals, back stabbing and total panic as moron Repukelickers finely get it, that they have been sodomized en masse by the GOP which is unraveling our democracy and long ago sold America into unwitting slavery or all of the above plus handfuls of other karmic delights long ready and waiting to go in the pot. But then there's always the possibility that mass hysteria will finally and throughly engulf 'merika and undo this country from the inside out, as the fundamentalists already hold a sizable portion of the dark age patriarchy and their women folk in hypnotic sway, so as for even a thorny, long range, hard won political solution? We shall see but this leads me to...

Number five: It's a new year and I chose to begin it with faith, confidence and resolve, to throw my shoulder to the wheel and do my infinitesimal part, break the silence, speak the truth as I see it, and support and vote for whoever manages to buy, bribe and crawl to the top of the steaming heap in order that, in my wild dreaming, collectively we will create an articulate, successful global resistance to the subversive cancerous fascist corporatocracy even now carving up the world for its own lewd consumption although I suspect that, in our heart of hearts, many of us hold out hope that we won't have to actually do anything to save the planet and ourselves to boot because, like in the movies, the comeback kid and others will magically, at the last minute, appear and do it all for us.

So here's to new beginnings and better times. Cheers. There is a mouse in the trap from last night so I have to go now and release it into the wild and yes, the Christmas loop d' loop is still singing its little heart out in the trash can, 48 hours and counting.

Cannibal goes vegetarian

You can file this one under "What Ever Happened To Ol' What's His Name?". Plus, there are a few interesting things to glean about life from this curious story, starting with the forbidden fact that humans taste like pigs. Or so says Armin Meiwes, the world's current most infamous cannibal. Or x-cannibal as he recently went vegetarian, but more about that later. I'd heard that before, about humans and pigs. It does add a little punch to the old line, "cooks my bacon" or however the saying goes. Being a vegetarian, I generally avoid meat references. For instance, I don't say, "I've got a beef with you", or a "bone to pick with you", but if I do and catch myself in time, I'll substitute the work "tofu" for "beef". Ends up odd in translation but what the hell? I"m not trying to impress anyone. And I never did like "bone to pick". I'm not sure I used that one, even as a meat eater.

I also avoid equating people with animals, unless it's complimentary to the animal, which it generally is not. But we humans draw a lot of power from animal references which, when you stop to think about it, pepper the language. Once, when M. Lee was negotiating the jeep along a desert "road" at about 5 miles an hour for hours, we made a list of some of the more common ones. Of course, if you are one of the ultra hip who read my old zine, Reddog Review, you've already seen it but this is the new, improved version.

Common animal/human references:

hen / hen pecked
buzzard
leech
cow
horse
snake
pig
chick / foxy
(hot babe, but "chick" also indicates
inferior standing as in chick to rooster
whereas "foxy" is without the baggage )
chum
(good except if you're the bait)
weasel
hawk
hawk-eyed / hawk-eye / ol' hawk-eye / eagle-eye
(cool)
bear / bull
(aside from being financial icons, can go either way)
bull-headed
worm
vulture
dog
cat
(cats are cool)
catty
(not cool)
monkey
gorilla
(not complimentary)
strong as a gorilla
(complimentary)
shark
(compliment if you're the one doing the eating,
not so if you're the one being eaten)
turkey
slug
sloth
pussy
pup / cub
(diminutive but generally indicates fondness)
filly
(see "chick")
sucker
hog
sow
chicken
amoeba
wolf / fox
(see "shark")
old fox
(admiration)
ass
jackass
hyena
moose
pigeon
squirrel
piss-ant
spider
loon
hippo
elephant
toad
shrimp
mole
beaver
(complimentary when "busy as",
not so as a sexual reference. )
rat
mouse
peacock
sheep
lamb
(complimentary when "gentle as",
definitely creepy reference to human sacrifice
and all other forms of religious servitude)
stallion
stud
buck
tiger
lion
(Studly)
wise owl / doe-like /doe-eyed / eagle eye
(complimentary)
deer in the headlights
old frog
lobster
whale
shrew / old shrew
parrot
clam
bat / old bat
goat / old goat
cold fish
goose / silly goose
queer bird / queer duck
spineless jellyfish
slippery as an eel
ferret out
sang like a canary
bats in the belfry
clam up
pig out
squirrelly
squirrel away
fish brain
coo-coo
horse’s ass
crow / old crow
My little chickadee

The list goes one. Add your own.

I suppose if you drink you may have a fondness for Old Crow, the feather of the old crow and all that, but I digress. My point is, we humans are in the habit of comparing ourselves favorably to everyone else, top o' the heap, pinnacle of evolution, God's kids enjoying "The Father's" permission to treat and eat everyone else any ol' way we want.

But back to Mr. Meiwes, the fellow who killed, filleted, froze and ate a chat room acquaintance, 42-year-old Bernd-Juergen Brandes who, it seems, responded to Meiwes' on-line post "Man seeking man willing to be killed and eaten", which apparently Mr. Brandes was. Meiwes, now in jail for life, has become a vegetarian because he objects to the grizzly factory farm slaughter house practices with are a true hell on earth. Since acquainting himself with the realities of animal's plight, Mr. Meiwes now finds "the whole idea of factory farming as distasteful" as his own crime was. He ought to know.

As a footnote, I find it interesting how much more humane German prisons are than American ones. Three months ago Meiwes was voted to head up the Green Party section in the maximum security jail in Kassel where he is serving his sentence. The group is made up of murderers, paedophiles and drug dealers and now has a cannibal as its leader. Meeting every Tuesday, they discusses tax, legal and environmental policies. Fancy anything like that happening in an American prison. The only "salvation" our poor mopes have is to join a gang and then enhance that status by becoming a member of the soul-snatching, blood-thirsty Army of Khrist. Anyway, Good for ol' Meiwes. It's never to late to have a change of heart.

Just askin'

HERE IS THE QUESTION AS I SEE IT:

Can a spoiled frat boy, trust fund baby whose father bought him a degree at a prestigious university, dry drunk alcoholic/addict, draft dodging corporate shill for the self-entitled untouchables in his uber rich "Base" (his Masters), idiot liar, chiseling megalomaniac religious freak with the reverse Midas touch, Peter Pan loser, fascist puppet traitor successfully spearhead the destruction of the United States Constitution and American Bill of Rights while intelligent, well-informed, committed patriots stand by watching everything this country stands for get chopped up, melted down, twisted and retooled into a fascist machine run by and for the Corporate/Military Elite for the sole purpose of waging endless, preemptive war on the peoples of the world on the backs of the American people which drains, not only our economy but shackles us, and our children for generations to come, to endless war with its unbearable loss of life, crushing debt and searing shame before the world for our war crimes as, all the while they, insulated from the consequences, remain behind the scenes in their boardrooms and war rooms, enclaves, compounds, gated communities and posh international resorts protected by private, evangelical armies paid for by We the People, where they gorge themselves on the spoils of war and an environment laid at their feet by their proxy, the President of the United States, whose Congress, courts and spies collude to intimidate, suppress, control and silence We, the People, so that We give up our power and cower and surrender and hope to be passed over during the sweeps by relinquishing our Democracy, abandoning our freedoms and betraying, not only our own way of life, but life in general and our planet upon which we all depend, our conscience, our morals, and our God, if we have one and however we understand that, so that they can make of themselves Over Lords in their psychotic vision of a New World Order?

Just askin'.



George Bush Fascism rants

Wake up and smell the latte

“We the People”. Ha!

The House authorized the government to spy on us and people are blaming the Democrats. Of course, I'm also furious that they caved into the Republican agenda but still it's pathetic scapegoating.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” .

Sadly we, the American people, expect other people to take care of the dirty business for us. If we pay attention to politics all, we prefer to focus on our own pet issues and leave the big picture to "them". Screw us. This is what we get. America is a Corporatocracy now, that is a perfect slave state. Our chains are different but even stronger than the leg irons worn by slaves in days gone by. We are shackled by our addiction to “credit”. It’s the perfection of the slave state. There is no need for the slave master’s whip. Desire is the perfect master and the Corporate media stokes ours day and night. Naturally when the planet's natural resources run low these salad days will end but for now life still seems pretty good in the corporate kingdom, as long as you squint.

"The printing press has done for the mind what gunpowder has done for war." - Wendell Phillips

Life without replay

I find the bank of TV monitors in front of the stair steppers at the gym incredibly annoying. We canceled the service and gave our set away a few years ago so I don't have any tolerance for replay after replay after replay, changing only when there's another clip or program to take its place, the endless foie gras for the brain, that is television. The brain drain. Outside the window it was snowing and a couple of cows were standing over a very young calf sheltering it from the storm. It's sad knowing what they don't, that probably by the time summer arrives that calf's loving mother will be hanging by her back legs with a slit throat.

I will not waste my afternoon blogging.

I will not waste my afternoon blogging.

I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.

I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
Or posting on message boards.

Republican 3 point plan

The Republican 3 point plan:

DENY EVERYTHING.
When that fails ...
BLAME A DEMOCRAT.
When that fails ...
BLAME AlCOHOL.
Skivvy bastards!

Global warming.
Over a half a million citizens dead from war in Iraq.
Sexual abuse of minors by Republican Congressman.
Sexual abuse of minors covered up by Republican leaders.
Congressmen pimping their votes to lobbyists.
The President of the United States is insane.
Fill in the blank ___________________________.
Don't worry. Lie about it!

If you let the Republicans buy you off with their "tax cuts"
you are no better.

republican plan conservative politics bush co.

Musings on a summer afternoon

Warning. I'm on a rant, talking into the gale here. I'm sick of nursing this leg. It hurts. Yes, it's getting better. Yes, I was the star at the gym again today but it's getting old. I want my leg back. I'm sick of hobbling around on the cane and crutches. I'm sick of being in the house all the time. I'm sick of being grateful because I'm not in war zone. What kind of touchstone is that anyway? Just be glad I'm not beating you today? Fuck that. And yes, I'm sick of the wars that the crazy, wingnut, authoritarian, fundamentalists are waging upon us all. Who cares what label they give themselves, christian, muslim, jew, conservative or whathefuckever, I'm sick of em all.

And no, I don't feel better for ranting. I sick of humans in general. All this talk about human rights, humankind, humanity, human life. I'm sick of humans taking the center stage on every fucking thing. Human history, human needs, human achievements, human casualties. I’m sick of human exploitation of all the other sentient beings residing on this planet. I’m sick of the gut wrenching cruelty inflicted on animals round the clock, year in and year out. I’m sick of so-called decent people turning a blind eye to the exploitation, torture and murder of peaceful species for food, for clothing, for medicine. For fun. For the hell of it. Because they can. On and on and on ... all humans all the time. Religions that are strictly about humans and god, humans and their fucking fantasies of salvation. And that's another thing. Salvation is a crock a shit. It rubberstamps more atrocious behavior than everything else combined. Do it for Jesus. Praise Allah. They all make me sick. You all make me sick. Piss off. Your gods suck. They are war masks. Nothing more. There may be a god, but it ain’t what you think, mother fuckers.

Okay then.

Mysteries of netiquette revealed

I have only bad things to say about people who include me in Cc'd group emails. An acquaintance did that recently, beginning her letter with something lame like, "Oops. Sorry for the Cc but I'm really busy". Yeah, well thanks a lot, bonehead. Now I am getting 200 to 300 pieces of spam a day. I'm furious. Before she tossed my email address into the shit river of spam, my inbox was virtually spam free.

So, in hopes this may spare someone else the misery, I'm posting something I found online that lays out, in plain language, why savvy people use the Bcc instead of the Cc. I don't know why people have such a hard time switching to the Bcc. I myself had an irrational fear of it and it took me several attempts before I was willing to try it. Big surprise. It worked just fine but so many people I have sent this to prefer to take me off their email list rather than Bcc me. It's weird.

"This came to me direct from a system administrator of very large corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails.

Please read the text below....

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% do NOT. Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are two easy steps:

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message and forward the message, NOT all the other forwards that came with it! For this reason, we must open multiple messages before we get to the real meat message. Just forward the message that's within the message and that's right, DELETE the email addresses. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message.

If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: columns for adding e-mail address.

Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) column for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way that people you send to only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry listname and email address on a petition.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded (via Bcc of course).

spam email netiquette

Replay

I gotta bitch. I'm sick at heart now that it's clear Special Investigator Patrick Fitzgerald has let Cheney, Rove and Bush skate after exposing Valerie Plame. Un-fucking-believable. No consequences. Nada. I’d say this makes it official. Our Republican "leaders" are completely ABOVE THE LAW. They can commit treason, lie us into war, rig and steal our elections, cheat, take and make bribes, spy on us, torture us, etc, etc, etc. No one will stand up to them or for us. We know how far the Right got in Germany. Now, with the new name, "neoconservative" and new look, "ownership society", they're really cleaning up. Americans are standing in the slaughterhouse line but are too stupid or too busy to notice or care. Old story. Makes me sick.

The Eternal Value of Privacy

Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy

Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.

My thoughts exactly and as I'm very busy with Spring at the moment this will have to do for my current rant. The volunteer sunflowers are up and vying for prominence in their oh so tiny garden and need my help as they can't walk to a less crowded spot by themselves. The crows are standing on the fence demanding more (terrible but don't tell them) organic blueberry waffles. They soak them in water first, something I didn't think of. Healthy food. Ya gotta know how to eat it. Then there's a little lopsided tree still waiting for me to find a place for it to live out its life in peace and enough sunshine. Plus, I have to finish Delicata's memorial including the Coda for Three Cockroaches and that's just the fun stuff. The world is demanding things of me as well but it all has to wait in line with everything while I finish this blog post, doesn't it? Anyway, speak up. Rail against the machine. As always, silence is death.

Sir! No sir!

And, if you want to lighten up and are up for a little slight of eye, check out John Sadowski's latest illusion. Very cool.


UPDATE: Okay, So I'm ADHD-PI but here's another exciting little adventure from the Bird Park, as it happens. I call it Waffle and the Crow. Now, I've really got to get busy.

Questioning the SILENCE

2448

Ben Metcalf, the Literary Editor for Harper’s Magazine, wrote a wonderful, brave article for their June issue. Do yourself a favor and read it. It's on page 9. But in case you don't get around to it, I have included a couple of paragraphs from it below. Metcalf asks a question that I'm sure has crossed the minds of more than a few decent, rational, upstanding citizens in the last few years, at least it has crossed mine.

Excerpt from "On Simple Human Decency"
- by Ben Metcalf - Harper's Magazine, June 2006

"I am therefore led to wonder what the common citizen is allowed to "say" anymore, in print or otherwise, and still feel reasonably sure that some indignant team of G-men, or else a pair of gung-ho local screws, will not drag him away to a detention center, there to act out, with the detainee as a prop, that familiar scene in which one hero cop or another is patriotically unable to resist certain outbursts against the detainee and what were once imagined to be the detainee's constitutional rights. Because I am loath to violate whatever fresh new mores the people have agreed upon, or have been told they agree upon, and because I do not care to have my ass kicked repeatedly in a holding cell while I beg to see a lawyer, I almost hesitate to ask the following question. I will ask it, though, out of what used to be called simple
human decency:

Am I allowed to write that I would like to hunt down George W. Bush, the president of the United States, and kill him with my bare hands?"

Given the mess Bush has gotten us into, I'd say Metcalf's question is a reasonable one. Not only is Bush an idiot, he is a corporate shill who has pimped the White House out to his shady, corporate cronies. And besides being stupid and pathologically unethical, Bush is also dangerously insane. He consults religious fundamentalists to make sure his foreign policy suits their wet dream vision of the Apocalypse. He is also personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, children, animals and our own, beautiful, young American soldiers who he sent to death based on his lies that he covered up by an act of treason, a crime punishable by death in a time of war. Then there's the illegal spying on Americans, the systematic shredding of our Constitution, the corporate rape of environment, the dismantling of our already inadequate health care, what to speak of his current, mad plan to embroil us in yet another war, this time with Iran etc, etc...oh god, the list does go on.

I am grateful there are at least a few brave writers left in the mainstream media who are willing to challenge the suffocating silence that blankets us today but I'm not going to be a spoiler. You'll have to read the article to find out whether or not it's okay to write:

I would like to hunt down George W. Bush, the president of the United States, and kill him with my bare hands.

Sir! No Sir!

harper's magazine ben metcalf constitution question president bush

Rove indicted

Supposedly on Friday Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald gave Karl Rove's lawyers an indictment for the squishy bastard charging Bush's Brain with perjury and lying to investigators about his role in the outing of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame. I sure hope it's true. You can read the complete story yourself at several places including Truth Out and Oped News.

Apparently, Turd Blossom has 24 hours to get his affairs in order. That would make today THE DAY. Please oh please oh. Perhaps Dirty Dick is next? Seems that Fitzgerald has some incriminating notes on the subject penned by the Dickster himself. I can only hope that Sneaky George gets outed as well. They are all treasonist bastards.


Alternate realities: Al Gore on Saturday Night Live




rove indictment patrick fitzgerald cia leak valerie plame cheney bush al gore saturday night live

AJR 39

"At both the state and national levels, we will be paying for the Bush Administration's illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decades‚—not only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinion‚—we can't afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it."

That paragraph is what California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles added to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39 turning it into a bill to impeach Bush and Cheney. Thank the gods somebody's got some guts! Later Koretz's told the press this bill,

"bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."

Thank you Mr. Koretz and the other intelligent people who made my day. It had taken a very bizarre turn for the worse late this afternoon. I was back at that church run thrift store where the fat, amped-up old lady works and browsing for books when a guy with one of those oily personalities was suddenly standing in the middle of the aisle completely blocking it. I excused myself and wedged by but he struck up a sticky conversation anyway. On the surface it was ordinary but it gave me the creeps anyway. Some indefinable something about the guy was really unsavory. A few minutes later the whole store could hear him blabbering to the cashier that he thought "we" should nuke Iran because gas prices are too high then, "after everything has been turned to glass, send the Marines in to paint red and white stripes all over everything."







NUCLEAR WAR?!?!#!


Holy shit! A real, live Bushite! No compassion. No logic. Not even a sense of consequences. Stark raving insane and, as if that wasn't enough, immersed in a bitter irony. He had the audacity ... the hubris ... no ... he was so deranged that he added, in a quieter tone meant to reassure us that dropping nuclear bombs on people is okay if he thinks so because he is a "Christian and a man of peace."

I gotten to the point that I even recoil from "nice" church folks and this is exactly why. They harbor and legitimize these maniacs. This fellow was a member of the Methodist church that runs this particular thrift store so the cashier, who is also a member, nodded and smiled and commiserated with him. Protecting herself from a raving lunatic is one thing. Although I wish I had, I didn't confront him either but when I asked her what she thought she simpered, "Well, gas prices are too high". I blasted her and she grew ever more ambiguous and friendly even throwing in the grimy little notebook I wanted a price on for free.

So they are out there, the Jesus freaks who have their heads so far up their asses they look down their noses at the world. They believe Bush in spite of the fact that he is a blatantly corrupt, scatterbrain dolt, dope, dunce, idiot, halfwit nitwit, numskull fool, criminal liar, evil traitor, pinhead, nincompoop.

Impeach the whole lot.

Okay. Okay. I'm done. For now.

On the brighter side:

Coming soon ...
The 7 o'clock Magpie
Another thrilling adventure
from the Bird Park!

impeach bush cheney ajr 39

Second hand salvation

The Christians are celebrating their bloody, vampire "salvation" with special pomp again this Easter weekend. The old lady who runs the thrift store was completely nuts over it. She's always hopped up on who knows what anyway but today she was so jacked she was bellowing hello and Happy Easter in every direction like a crazed minister ejaculating blessings upon his flock. At one point she raved at the top of her voice to everyone and no one about the pure white robe she's wearing in the Easter pageant tomorrow. Now I'm all for freedom of and more importantly from religion but am always annoyed by this woman and her intrusive, fat-faced, presumptuous, evangelical, amphetamine smile, plus the prices there are way too high, sometimes more than new, but she can rock till she pops as far as I'm concerned. I found the 1990 "Paris Review Anthology" today for a buck, perfect condition.

Body bags and image politics

1896

Keeping with the fundamentals of neoconservative leadership, Perception Management, now sacked Bushman and now X FEMA Director Michael Brown's primary concern five hours after the Hurricane Katrina hit land was to "convey a positive "image" of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." To that end he asked for permission to send one thousand federal workers to New Orleans to assist rescue operations. Reality Check. This week, Louisiana officials prepared for the next stage of the recovery operation by amassing 25,000 body bags.

BODY BAGS.
The idea of body bags is a hard one to manage. The Image Manipulators do everything in their power to keep that image out of the public eye. "Body bags" blow the soft focus and mood music Bush needs to look legitimate. But Hurricane Katrina even tore the roof off of Bush's carefully guarded secret and gave the world a peek at what a truly incompetent boob this guy actually is. Team Turd Blossom is scrambling to re-plant their patented PR Sleeper Bullet in the national psyche and save the day but I hope people manage to stay awake long enough to connect a few more dots because Bush, the poofter who golfed while Katrina shredded the gulf, is the same jackal who lied us into this unwinnable war in the middle east. And that's still just the tip of the shit iceberg.


PS:
If you've been getting your "news" from FOX TV and other propaganda organs for this administration I suggest you refresh your definition of the word "reality". Look it up. You'll find it between "rapture" and "salvation" in the dictionary.

Reality TV cartoon source.

Poetry fops

Poetry is a hard gig. It attracts snobs, fops, and experts. Most of it isn't and most po-ets aren't. In fact to call oneself a poet is to invite self-delusion, skepticism, ridicule and shame. And clueless critiques. Which brings me to the subject of my current rant.

I finally got the critique of the poems I submitted to the Nevada Arts Council fellowship panel last spring. You may remember I did not make it past the first cut. At the public judging, one of the judges, heaping praise on the winning contestant, exclaimed her socks were detonated by the line, "I have seen heaven and it looks like Paris". How can I compete? Ah well. Perhaps I am just bitter.

It is clear I did not please the judges. They wrote that they were confused and disoriented by my poems which, obviously to them, is a bad thing. I call it a good beginning but what do I know? Oh well. There's no going back. I'm doomed and nobody likes me. All rightie then. Enough throat clearing. On to the comments...

"There are some marvelous moments here. Taken as a whole, though, the poetry here is a bit uneven. There is something of the mystic-poet here; one is reminded at times of William Blake, at other times, of T.S. Eliot.

I sense no real unity in these poems. Their structure and arrangement shift from poem to poem and from moment to moment in some poems. Occasionally there is an interesting insight or moment of wisdom such as "For every prayer / there is an equal / and opposite prayer." The irregularity of the line lengths makes it seem like there is no design. The images in "Road's Eye View" are captivating, but the second stanza is confusing and disorienting. The poet seems to be focused on and oriented towards moments, some of them entrancing, but those moments don't add up to a coherent all-encompassing effect or anything one might call a theme."