LA, tar pits and all

We're back from LA after dashing down there over the weekend. I knew we were going just not when. Lee needed to pick up the bass but he wanted to get a room through Priceline. In the summer the hotels are inclined to wait until the last minute to make them available. Anyway, we made a trip out of it and had a great time. We walked the beach for miles, visited tar pits filled with fossils from the last Ice Age, hiked in the mountains, caught a street filming of a movie, ate dinner in an Indian grocery store, saw some really interesting work by artist Tim Hawkinson, and a few floor sweepings by Rembrandt all without ever leaving the city limits. I took lots of photos (naturally) but it's 1 am so that will have to wait until later.

Photofile update, Mexico journal

I just added a third page to my Mexico file. These are all photos I took on our travels there last year. So far I've only posted three pages but you might find them interesting. I'm in the rears with this project so more to come. In fact, I have to get busy. We're planning to go back there this fall then I'll really be behind. It starts here.

New Salad Fingers episode

On the bright side, there's a new episode of Salad Fingers by David Firth. I find him very refreshing. He's one of my favorite artists. However, if you've never seen an episode, it might be best to start at the beginning. As ol Pastry Pete says himself, he's not for everybody wha-ha-ha-ha-ha.....

Treasongate in Mordor

I know it's silly comparing the White House to Mordor. Melodramatic. Childish. Evil empires are always the other guys, right? And anyway, we're a democracy, aren't we? Apparently some think otherwise. According to New York Times reporter Ron Suskind, the Bush people consider themselves rulers of an empire. Add "evil" to that, and I'll go along in part. Treasongate is a peek at just how dirty they're willing to be for power. It's inconceivable but they outed a CIA undercover agent for personal political advantage. If it weren't so serious, I'd almost find it amusing how the conservative press and politicians are at fever pitch trying to discredit the story. It reminds me of the movie "Wag the Dog". Remember that one? Hollywood's comic attempt to portray the dark side of capitalist politics. The idea was people will believe anything if you sell them the idea long enough and with enough aplomb...as though the tail can wag the dog. Treasongate is the product of Karl Rove's regime and his signature game plan, shock and awe. It's like poop wagging the dog.

Merikans going along with it are like the Germans who went along with Hitler and his war. Looking back, it's inconceivable but now the same thing is happening in the US. Bush supporters are completely in denial about how evil this administration is. There's no excuse. Denial is voluntary ignorance. They're like people sitting in a burning house with paper bags over their heads. Too bad. Things will probably have to get even worse before they think about getting out and fighting the fire. In the mean time, the task falls to the rest of us.

Merikan's are responding to Treasongate with things like "Kerry lost. Get over it". Talk about stale rhetoric! These guys must be huffing glue. Pathetic doesn't begin to describe them. The Republican Party, the corporate media whores and their stooge followers are morally, spiritually and ethically bankrupt. Naturally they're all doing everything they can to shore Rove up. He is their ace in the asshole. For the moment Bush & Co. rule from the Land of Shadow. So be it. They are too dense and arrogant to consider the notion of karma i.e. the law of cause and effect. But it's simple. Even they are subject to consequences. They have really fucked up and at some point, some Smeagol will destroy their magic ring. Like they say, it's not a question of if, it's only a question of when.

FIRE ROVE, mister president

They laughed at Bushie Boy. They called him a dilettante, a wastrel, a trust fund baby, but Bush had dreams and the money to buy them. That's where mercenary Karl Rove, aka Turd Blossom, comes in.



Like any disease, Rove is most effective out of sight, but given an inch, he stole the horizon. Over the years Turd Blossom has metastasized, transforming the Republican Party into a modern day Mafia. People who are a threat are either embarrassed and contained, like Senator John McCain,
or simply squeezed out and left behind. Ethics, fair play, even the truth seem powerless before Rove's assault. He is not hampered by morals.

The lesson for the kiddies? Crime pays. Today Turd Blossom, as Bush calls him, is the co-president of the United States of America. Karl is the brains. He has the power. He is the Commander-of-the-Chief of the United States military and puppet master and moral conscience of the Republican Party and its evangelical foot soldiers. Everyone is on the payroll. Not bad for a leech. Put simply, Karl Rove is a sociopath and we are all fucked.

Or is there a slim, slight, nearly impossible chance that Treasongate, Rove's outing of undercover Valerie Plame, might have...oh dare I say it... consequences? Like Nixon's Watergate, it could bring down their house of jokers.

excerpt from:
Rove: out of White House, into jail?
by Tim Wheeler

WASHINGTON —

“Bush’s Brain,” a political biography of Rove by Dallas Morning News reporters James Moore and Wayne Slater, reveals that Rove’s political skullduggery dates back to 1970 and was an important factor in the ultra-right’s rise to power in the U.S.

Rove was a Young Americans for Freedom operative working for the GOP in Illinois that year. Posing as a Democrat, he infiltrated Alan Dixon’s campaign headquarters in Chicago a few days before its official opening. Dixon was a Democratic candidate for state treasurer who later served in the U.S. Senate.

Rove stole campaign letterhead and made up a fake invitation to the Dixon opening with promises of “free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing.” He distributed 1,000 copies at soup kitchens. Hundreds showed up. Richard Nixon’s chief dirty trickster, Donald Segretti, went to jail for similar acts in the Watergate scandal.

In 1972, Rove was executive director of College Republicans. He and an accomplice, Bernie Robinson, organized 15 conferences to train youth how to campaign for Nixon’s re-election. Moore and Slater write that Rove “could not resist instructing his young audiences on dirty tricks — pranks, he called them.”

At an August 1972 seminar in Lexington, Ky., Rove, “with considerable delight talked about campaign espionage, about digging through an opponent’s garbage,” Moore and Slater write. “This was the summer of the Watergate break-in, with the first revelations of a scandal that unraveled the Nixon presidency.” Rove and Robinson “even specifically mentioned the Watergate break-in in their seminars, not as a reason to avoid campaign espionage, but as a caution to keep it secret.”

Decades later, Rove, chief strategist of George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, destroyed Bush’s main Republican challenger, Arizona Sen. John McCain, by leaking a racist falsehood that McCain had fathered an “illegitimate Black child.”

When Bush and Cheney saw their lead disappearing in Florida in the post-election battle, Rove recruited 250 goons to terrorize election officials to halt the vote count.

“Documents released to the IRS 19 months after the election show that the Bush team spent over a million dollars to fly operatives into Florida and another million to pay their hotel bills. The effort also relied on a fleet of corporate jets owned by people like Enron chairman Kenneth Lay … and Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney had served as CEO. … Karl Rove, working with James A. Baker III, put it all together.”

But marching outside the White House last week were demonstrators with signs reading, “Bush, keep your promise: Fire Karl Rove.”

Tonopah, NV

I pass through Tonopah on a regular basis and have photographed it a lot. Here's a few pictures I took on my most recent visit.



Tonopah is in the center of the drain. I happen to enjoy the place but then I like lost worlds.



Strange and sad as they may be, they have interesting stories to tell.

Submitting poetry

I don't know why I have such a block against submitting poetry. I know it's "good enough". Total crap gets published. The big boogie fear of rejection is not my problem. Plus I promised myself, and a few pushy friends, that I'd start submitting after the writer's conference, as though that were a reason to wait. Now that's over I have no excuse. Plus I'm having neck and elbow surgery pretty soon and then I won't be able to do anything for a while. So got to get busy..........

....okay then....



Before I begin I have a confession to make. I'm a poet but I don't like writing or submitting, not poetry. Not anything. Clearly I prefer images. I can't seem to do a post without including at least one. Take these, for example. They're from another day I intended to write. I went to Comma Coffee for a change of scene but instead of writing, I photographed the place again. June has a flare, you have to admit. The whole place reeks of ambiance even if it is across the street from the Nevada State Senate.

Okay. I'll get busy now. I don't know why I have to write about it???

Oh. one more thing. Never mind. Why do I do this to myself?

Never mind.

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.

Heil Bush - Independence Day speech

A restricted gathering of about 2,000 carefully picked people listened to Bush's Fourth of July speech today aimed at promoting his bullshit war.

President Bush waves at Independence Day
celebrations at West Virginia University
in Morgantown, W.Va. - AP photo

Area 51 and other roadside wonders

There's a winchy model rocket on sticks at the north entrance to Nevada's Area 51. Before 911 it was decrepit and plastered with lots of interesting stickers. After 911 the government scraped off the stickers, gave the it a new coat of paint and threw a fence around it. It's all about respect, don't ya know. Naturally it was much cooler before. By comparison, I found the cactus flowers, free ranging lama, Great White Pyrenees Shepard dogs and lonely graves we met along the way far more interesting.



The once in a hundred year bloom of desert flowers extravaganza is over but there were still plenty of plants in full bloom. It always amazes me how they prevail in such a harsh environment.



I've got to hurry this little show up. I'm leaving for Portland in the morning so I've got to get to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day. I'll have to let the pictures do most of the talking.



The flower season may be past it's peak, but the Mormon crickets are just now on the rise, at least in Austin where we stopped for gas. Even though I have a couple of giant hissing Madagascan cockroaches for pets, I have to admit that the Mormon crickets creep me out. Guess I haven't attained Buddhahood yet.




I just uploaded the same photograph 3 times. Time to stop for the night. I'll have to save the Belmont graves and the hero Great White Pyrenees Shepard dogs for the morning.