Impeach Bush, Cheney, Rummy & Rove

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Throw them all in jail!

What to do when the Emperor has no clothes

Garrison Keillor
Chicago Tribune / Salon.com
Published March 1, 2006

What to do when the emperor has no clothes? These are troubling times for all of us who love this country, as surely we all do, even the satirists. You may poke fun at your mother, but if she is belittled by others it burns your bacon. A blowhard French journalist writes a book about America that is full of arrogant stupidity, and you want to let the air out of him and mail him home flat. And then you read the paper and realize the country is led by a man who isn't paying attention, and you hope that somebody will poke him. Or put a sign on his desk that says, "Try much harder."

Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life? The Feb. 27 issue of The New Yorker carries an article by Jane Mayer about a loyal conservative Republican and U.S. Navy lawyer, Albert Mora, and his resistance to the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. From within the Pentagon bureaucracy, he did battle against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and John Yoo, who then was at the Justice Department, and shadowy figures taking orders from Vice President Dick "Gunner" Cheney, arguing America had ratified the Geneva Convention that forbids cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners, and so it has the force of law. They seemed to be arguing that President Bush has the right to order prisoners to be tortured.

One such prisoner, Mohamed al-Qahtani, was held naked in isolation under bright lights for months, threatened by dogs, subjected to unbearable noise volumes and otherwise abused, so that he begged to be allowed to kill himself. When the Senate approved the Torture Convention in 1994, it defined torture as an act "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering."

Is the law a law or is it a piece of toast?

Wiretap surveillance of Americans without a warrant? Great. Go for it. How about turning over American ports to a country more closely tied to Sept. 11, 2001, than Saddam Hussein was? Fine by me. No problem. And what about the war in Iraq? Hey, you're doing a heck of a job. No need to tweak a thing. And your blue button-down shirt--it's you.

But torture is something else. Most people agree with this, and in a democracy that puts the torturers in a delicate position. They must make sure to destroy their e-mails and have subordinates who will take the fall. Because it is impossible to keep torture secret. It goes against the American grain and it eats at the conscience of even the most disciplined, and in the end the truth will come out. It is coming out now.

Our adventure in Iraq, at a cost of billions, has brought that country to the verge of civil war while earning us more enemies than ever before. And tax money earmarked for security is being dumped into pork-barrel projects anywhere somebody wants their own SWAT team. Detonation of a nuclear bomb within our borders--pick any big city--is a real possibility, as much so now as five years ago. Meanwhile, many Democrats have conceded the very subject of security and positioned themselves as Guardians of Our Forests and Benefactors of Waifs and Owls, neglecting the most basic job of government, which is to defend this country. The peaceful lagoon that is the White House is designed for the comfort of a vulnerable man. Perfectly understandable, but not what is needed now. The U.S. Constitution provides a simple, ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.

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Garrison Keillor is an author and the radio host of "A Prairie Home Companion."

Thanks to Liberal Agit-Prop for the photo Naked Bush.

No fee writing contests - Spring 2006

Academy of American Poets
James Laughlin Award
A prize of $5,000 is given annually to honor a second book of poetry by a U.S. poet. Copies of the winning book will be purchased and distributed to the 5,000 members of the Academy of American Poets. Poets who have published one book of poems in a standard edition are eligible. Publishers may submit manuscripts that have come under contract between May 1, 2005, and April 30, 2006, by May 15. There is no entry fee. Visit the Web site for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

Academy of American Poets
James Laughlin Award
588 Broadway, Suite 604
New York, NY 10012-3210

(212) 274-0343, ext. 17.
Ryan Murphy, Awards Coordinator.
www.poets.org/awards

Cave Canem Foundation
Cave Canem Poetry Prize
A prize of $500 and publication by a participating press is given annually for a collection of poems by an African-American poet who has not published a book. The winner also receives 50 copies of the book and an invitation to give a reading with the judge in New York City. This year's winning manuscript will be published by University of Georgia Press. Carl Phillips will judge. Submit a poetry manuscript of 50 to 75 pages by May 15. There is no entry fee. Send an SASE, e-mail, or visit the Web site for complete guidelines.

Cave Canem Foundation
Cave Canem Poetry Prize
584 Broadway, Suite 508
New York, NY 10012.
ccpoets@verizon.net
www.cavecanempoets.org

Italian Americana
John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award
A prize of $1,000 is given annually to an Italian-American poet for lifetime achievement in poetry. Poets who have published at least two books of poetry, excluding chapbooks, have published poetry criticism or edited poetry-related works, and promoted poetry through various activities are eligible. Poets may not nominate themselves. Editors may submit a list of the nominee's published books and poetry-related activities by May 1. There is no entry fee.

Italian Americana
John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award
University of Rhode Island
Providence Center
80 Washington Street, Providence, RI 02903

(617) 864-6427. Carol Bonomo Albright, Editor.
bonomoal@etal.uri.edu

Lotus Press
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award
A prize of $500 and publication by Lotus Press is given annually to an African-American poet for a book-length manuscript. Submit 60 to 90 pages of poetry by March 31. There is no entry fee. Send an SASE, e-mail, or visit the Web site for complete guidelines.

Lotus Press
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award
P.O. Box 21607
Detroit, MI 48221

(313) 861-1280. Constance Withers, Assistant to the Editor.
lotuspress@aol.com
www.lotuspress.org

Paterson Fiction Prize
A prize of $1,000 is given annually to honor a novel or collection of short fiction published in the preceding year. Publishers may submit books published in 2005 by April 1. There is no entry fee. Send an SASE, call, or visit the Web site for the required application and complete guidelines.

Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College
1 College Boulevard
Paterson, NJ 07505-1179

(973) 684-6555. Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Executive Director.
www.pccc.edu/poetry

Poetry Foundation
Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships
Two fellowships of $15,000 each are given annually to aspiring poets to allow them to continue their study and practice of poetry. U.S. citizens under 30 years of age who are currently undergraduate or graduate students in creative writing or English and who have not had a collection of poetry published or accepted for publication are eligible. Program directors or department chairs may nominate one student poet from their programs by submitting three copies of a letter of nomination, an application, and no more than 10 pages of poems. The Poetry Foundation will also consider applications from any writer not enrolled in a creative writing program who meets the criteria above. In these instances, applicants should still provide nominating letters from teachers or colleagues familiar with the applicant's work. Those who have completed a graduate program in creative writing are ineligible. The deadline is April 15.
There is no entry fee. Send an SASE, call, or visit the Web site for an application and complete guidelines.

Poetry Foundation
Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships
444 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1850
Chicago, IL 60611-4034

(312) 787-7070
www.poetrymagazine.org/about/prizes.html

Washington Center for the Book
Washington State Book Awards
Prizes of $1,000 each are given annually to honor books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by writers who were born in Washington or have lived in the state for at least three years. Publishers or authors may submit six copies of books published in 2005 by April 1. There is no entry fee. Send an SASE, call, e-mail, or visit the Web site for the required entry form and complete guidelines. (See Recent Winners.)

Washington Center for the Book
Washington State Book Awards
Seattle Public Library
1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104-1109

(206) 386-4650. Christine Higashi, Associate Director.
chris.higashi@spl.org
www.spl.org

Wild horse blues

Willie Nelson
I don't know if you've been following it, but a couple of years ago Congress approved the sale of wild horses to slaughter houses. There was a huge outcry so they passed an appropriations bill designed to stop the practice but as soon as people looked away the USDA approved a petition submitted by the three foreign-owned horse slaughter plants in the United States to resume slaughter. Now the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, Humane Society of the United States, the Fund for Animals, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals the American Humane Association plus other groups and individuals have banned together to sue the USDA. I hope you will consider participating in this effort. It has the best chance to succeed if we act together.

"Think occasionally of the suffering
of which you spare yourself the sight."
Dr. Albert Schweitzer

A horse can smell the blood and hear other horses crying from the "kill chute" and by the time it is lead into the "knockbox", it is generally shaking violently from fear, and scrambling and falling on the blood and urine soaked floor in an effort to escape because it sees other horses hanging upside down, bleeding to death. Once the horse is tied down the butcher bludgeons it with what they call a "captive bolt", a horrible name for a despicable act. The "captive bolt" is a four inch retractable nail, that is suppose to knock the horse unconscious, horrible enough on its own, but all too often the poor animal is still awake, terrified and struggling as one of its hind legs is shackled and it is yanked upside down into the air where its throat is cut and it is left hanging to "bleed out".

American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act: a permanent ban is still needed, and that's still only a start if we are to become a compassionate and ethical society.

Salad Fingers #7

David Firth has posted a new episode of Salad Fingers titled Shore Leave. As always, I find it strangely soothing.

Follow the money

It's depressing watching billionaire Bush and his billionaire cronies plunder the world. We are like villagers under a spell. We cannot grasp the evil that is upon us. Even when we hear the truth we crave the lie, prefering it's twisted comfort.

How does that joke go? It reminds me of all this. Oh yeah... If you teach a man to start a fire he will be warm for the night. If you set a man on fire he will be warm for the rest of his life.

Anyway, here's an article about the Corporatacracy and the Dubai port deal. It appeared in the Palestine Chronicle. You might find interesting. At least I did.

Dirty Little Secret Behind Port Scandal by David Sirota

Politicians and the media are loudly decrying the Bush administration's proposal to turn over port security to a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - a country with ties to terrorists. They are talking tough about national security - but almost no one is talking about what may have fueled the administration's decision to push forward with this deal: the desire to move forward Big Money's "free" trade agenda.

How much does "free" trade have to do with this? How about a lot. The Bush administration is in the middle of a two-year push to ink a corporate-backed "free" trade accord with the UAE. At the end of 2004, in fact, it was Bush Trade Representative Robert Zoellick who proudly boasted of his trip to the UAE to begin negotiating the trade accord. Rejecting this port security deal might have set back that trade pact. Accepting the port security deal - regardless of the security consequences - likely greases the wheels for the pact. That's probably why instead of backing off the deal, President Bush - supposedly Mr. Tough on National Security - took the extraordinary step of threatening to use the first veto of his entire presidency to protect the UAE's interests. Because he knows protecting those interests - regardless of the security implications for America - is integral to the "free" trade agenda all of his corporate supporters are demanding.

The Inter Press Service highlights exactly what's at stake, quoting a conservative activists who admits that this is all about trade:

"The United States' trade relationship with the UAE is the third largest in the Middle East, after Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two nations are engaged in bilateral free talks that would liberalize trade between the two countries and would, in theory at least, allow companies to own and operate businesses in both nations. 'There are legitimate security questions to be asked but it would be a mistake and really an insult to one of our leading trading partners in that region to reject this commercial transaction out of hand,' said Daniel T. Griswold, who directs the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank."

Look, we've seen this before. Just last year, Congress approved a U.S. taxpayer-funded loan by the Bush administration to a British company to help build nuclear technology in Communist China. Despite major security concerns raised - and a legislative effort to block the loan - Congress's "free traders" (many of whom talk so tough on security) made sure the loan went through so as to preserve the U.S.-China free trade relationship that is allowing lawmakers' corporate campaign contributors export so many U.S. jobs.

There is no better proof that our government takes its orders from corporate interests than these kinds of moves. That's what this UAE deal is all about - the mixture of the right-wing's goal of privatizing all government services (even post 9/11 port security!) with the political Establishment's desire to make sure Tom-Friedman-style "free" trade orthodoxy supersedes everything. This is where the culture of corruption meets national security policy - and, more specifically, where the unbridled corruption of on-the-take politicians are weakening America's security.

The fact that no politicians and almost no media wants to even explore this simple fact is telling. Here we have a major U.S. security scandal with the same country we are simultaneously negotiating a free trade pact with, and no one in Washington is saying a thing. The silence tells you all you need to know about a political/media establishment that is so totally owned by Big Money interests they won't even talk about what's potentially at the heart of a burgeoning national security scandal.

Corporatacracy, port of entry - point of diminishing returns

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The March issue of Harper's has an excellent article by Lewis Lapham titled: "The Case For Impeachment". It details House Resolution 635, Rep. John Conyer's motion to impeach President Bush. In the interview, Conyer explained, "What would you have me do? Grumble and complain? Make cynical jokes? Throw up my hands and say that under the circumstances nothing can be done? At least I can muster the facts, establish a record, tell the story that ought to be front-page news". He's right and I'm grateful to him for taking action.

Lapham writes, "on reading through the report's corroborating testimony I sometimes could counter its inducements to mute rage with the thought that if the would-be lords of the flies weren't in the business of killing people, they would be seen as a troupe of off-Broadway comedians in a third-rate theater of the absurd." Too bad for us, these thugs have made it to the main stage. They are engaged in a very real, very deadly deceit such as Bush's insane plan to turn over six major American ports (including New York City) to the United Arab Emirates. It's another mind boggling triumph of the creeping Corporatacracy. The Arabs. the boys at the Bilderberg Group and the Carlyle Group must be delighted over this one, what to speak of the terrorists scheming in their secret cells.

Birthday strawberries

Today is my daughter's birthday. Her alarm rang this morning just as I called to wish her a happy day, year and many happy years to come. She was born just before dawn that February morning. The night before we had shared a half gallon of strawberry ice cream right out of the box so, once again, I reminded her to be sure to eat her ice cream and promised I would do the same.

Also to celebrate today, I whipped up a batch of Marvel Meal (vegetarian suet) for the bird park. It was a huge hit. Everyone was going for it then a big crow showed up and pried open the cage. Now it's completely gobbled and gone.






My daughter was big, over 10 lbs, and born at home before the midwife arrived. Her (very nervous, well-meaning) dad tried to help but I finally had to ask him to please, just let me be. I'd been practicing a relaxation technique for a while and when the contractions started all I wanted to do was relax and let them happen. I didn't use drugs of any kind but the experience was completely painless, in fact it was ecstatic. It was as though I became a primordial force like a great wave upon which she tilted, riding quickly, easily into the world. Her birth is one of my touch stones. It proved to me that life really does take care of life and that sometimes the best, the only thing we need do, is get out of the way.

I have a strawberry for you, Mother.

It's also my mother's birthday today although she died many years ago. We were never close. We clashed terribly but then I was not easy by anyone's standard. It's hard making amends to a person long dead but I'm picking my way. I like to think it's not, that it's never . . . too late.

Fur Free

The old bottle and the sea

For some reason this bottle has been on my mind for the last couple of days. I photographed it while we were camping on the Caribbean last November.

It was a lovely glass home for the several creatures clinging to its neck. The clouds drifting over the sea are from the edge of a hurricane that was passing by not too far south.