Until next year

Whew! It's over. The Juniper Creek conference was wonderful, but it was a lot of intensity crammed into one tiny little weekend. It's Tuesday and I still feel like I'm slogging back across mud flats after being swept out by a huge wave.



It was great seeing people I met last year. Nice meeting new people. I learned a few things. I got some good feedback, good direction.
Gayle Brandeis was especially helpful. Thanks again, Gayle. Plus we sold enough copies of Ash Canyon Review to pay for the next two issues! Also, I picked up several new poetry books and journals: Hard Night by Christian Wiman, The Dumbbell Nebula by Steve Kowit, a couple of issues of The Sierra Nevada College Review, three issues of Caveat Lector, and a copy of Quercus Review. I've scattered them around the various places I sit for quiet and a cup of coffee. I've got some good summer reading ahead of me.

The best part of the conference for me however, was that my daughter attended it. I don't mind saying that, besides being a completely cool person, she is a wonderful writer. Contrary to popular opinion, moms are not disqualified from objectively knowing things like that! It was so incredible being there together as writers, friends and mom and daughter. It really doesn't get any better than that!

Juniper Creek Writer's Conference 05

We're mid-way through the writer's conference. Last night Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry Magazine, gave a nice keynote address. He addressed the pitiful irrelevance poetry has fallen to over the last several years. I couldn't agree more. The journal is the oldest in America and, since receiving a 200 million dollar endowment from a dear departed reader a couple of years ago, the richest. Maybe they'll be able to up the stakes a bit. I hope they manage to stay independent doing it. He mentioned he recently wrote an article critical of a government writing program offered soldiers returning from Iraq. He said for about a month after that his life was very uncomfortable, a bit like having Tony Soprano mad at you.

One of my poems was a finalist in the poetry contest and Christian is critiquing it in his workshop today, which is cool. I"m looking forward to hearing what he has to say about it.

Bush and the good ol boy network

What lies will Karl Rove cobble together now to save his ass? I'm sure it will be very creative. He is, after all, the master strategist that has guided Bush & Co. through so many scandals it's hard to keep track. Too bad he works for the dark side. He's a talent, that one.

Naturally, Bush flipped flopped on his promise to dismiss anyone involved in the Plame scandal. No surprise there. Bush needs Rove like the feet need the brain. Bush couldn't find his way to the bathroom without a instructions from Karl. And who better tends to Bush's chronic disorder, foot in mouth disease?

I'm so glad I don't have a television. I don't have to not watch what's not being covered by the right wing propaganda machine Fox and the other media whores parading as legitimate journalists ....... the truth about Karl Rove and Co. and his revenge on people telling it. Karl says black is white, evil is good, shit is ice cream....the media reports it and Amerrrkans believe it.

In WW2 traitors were executed. How times have changed. Now Republicans crucify Clinton for a blow job while Rove blows off the CIA and national security and gets the president's personal protection.

Bush & Rove - liars and traitors

George W(ar) Bush is a liar, a flip flopper, a promise breaker and a traitor. Karl Rove's treason has been exposed, still Bush refuses to cut him loose or turn him over to authorities. Why? Because, as he said today...

"Any individual who works here at the White House has my confidence. Everybody who is working here is helping us to advance an agenda, and that includes Karl in a big way."

Decoded, Karl Rove is the mastermind behind Bush's media success and it does require a genius to keep this idiot afloat. Too bad. America is getting reamed by loose lips and flaming assholes.

Karl Rove - mission aborted?

Excuse me while I go over the facts. Karl Rove leaked the secret CIA identity of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife, Valerie Plame. He did this to send an intimidating message to any other government officials preparing to publicly tell the truth. What truth was that? That President Bush lied to the American public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. That President lied to get support for his invasion of Iraq. Bush was then, and is now, a liar. No surprise to me. I think the guy's psychotic anyway. Now Karl is taking the rap. What a stand up guy. I don't think so. Karl Rove is a rat bastard. He's merely being shoved in front of the oncoming train by the other, bigger rat bastards. Bush is the commander-in-chief. He's responsible for this mess. If ol' Commander Codpiece hadn't been so busy trying to cover his ass with lies none of this would have happened. Impeach the bastard! In fact, send em all to Guantanamo. After all, they are all traitors.

If the Dems let this one slip through their hands, send them too.

Polar Astronomy

Tony Travouillon is a scientist who works in some very exotic places. He also posts wonderful photos from his travels. His field? Polar astronomy. My god! I get instantly dizzy thinking about what the stars must look like from the South Pole. At least check out Dome C. There are some amazing pictures of walls of translucent blue ice, and fun ones of baby penguins and snoozing seals.

How many bombs is enough?

Saddam didn't have any WMDs but ever wonder just how many nuclear weapons the United States actually has? Hands down, we have the world's biggest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Any is too many but Bush & Co. certainly don't agree. Why should they? They make huge, private profits building, selling and buying them "for" us, to us. How many bombs do Americans currently "own"? Ben of Ben & Jerry's demonstrates the extent of America's nuclear arsenal in this very well done video. Bush doesn't want you to think about it so it must be important.

Merrily we sail along

I found this photo on a site about a hawk, Pale Male, who lives with his family on a ledge of a building along New York's Central Park. It's urban wildlife photography at it's best. Lincoln documents other critters as well, including this duck family. I think this photo is hilarious. It's not posed. They live in Central Park, not a zoo or an animal trainer's compound. I wonder who's in the boat behind them. Maybe it's a race and there is a crack team of sparrows manning the challenger craft. Or again perhaps it's a pigeon couple on a date. Notice the New Yorkers in the background. Nothing fazes them.


Ps. This month's Vanity Fair magazine includes an article on Pale Male and his mate Lola in case you want to read their story.

War

Nothing, not even victory
will erase the terrible hole of blood:
nothing, neither the sea, nor the passing
of sand and time, nor the geranium burning
over the grave.

~ Pablo Neruda

Karl Rove, American traitor

Given Bush's tendency to trip on his dick, keeping his presidential image on track requires a wizard. Up until now, Karl Rove has been just that man. He is a master of perception management, seducing public opinion with newspeak and doublespeak. I suspect he is the anonymous "senior advisor to Bush" who bragged "we are an empire now." Karl is the administration's number one expert empire builder. He is ruthless and it's worked. As the anonymous senior advisor bragged, "you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"


Unfortunately for Karl and the boys, some people have been keeping up with the lessons. Seems Karl Rove may be the one who revealed the cover of the undercover CIA agent to the media or at least approved the deal. That would make him a traitor. What's that old saying from World War 2? Loose lips sink ships? Which side are these guys on? Bush commits our military to Iraq, a country that wasn't a threat until he invaded it, and "someone" in the White House outs a US undercover operative who just happens to be investigating who is buying and selling weapons of mass destruction.