Krome is Burning

Because..

2007-05-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

they probably won't let it stay up for 30 seconds on their "Share your thoughts on Dubai as a Vacation spot" page:

My thoughts on Dubai as a vacation spot? How about mandatory viewing of the stoning death of the young woman in Kurdistan under the ignorant gaze of the security forces? See it on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIZJNrc8sKw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecrooksandliars%2Ecom%2F

http://tinyurl.com/2ppc4o

And if the NYT censors this because of the YT mention just go there and search for Du'a Khalil Aswad.

This is what the war in Iraq is supporting. I used to keep these types of comments for my blog but since you are asking for my thoughts on visiting the future base of Halliburton, I thought it my duty.

2007-04-29T01:58:00.000-07:00

"It has long been evident that President Bush decided to invade Iraq first, and constructed his ramshackle case for the war after the fact."

From http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29sun1.html?hp

It has also long been evident that your paper, ie. your editorial board,
decided to pursue this war without any evidence of its necessity. I
have mentioned it before and I will continue to do so: you owe it to
the public and to yourselves and to your god to remind your readers of
your own culpability in getting us into this useless war on the evidence
which you now impugn so regularly. Have you no shame?

2007-01-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/opinion/04thur1.html?hp

Yeah, and you helped bring us to this point. Never forget it.

And then..

2006-11-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

You tube offered me the opportunity to watch this video of a Rush song I have always liked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hilod_JRlds&mode=related&search=

Take a look at the poster on the studio wall.

etc

2006-11-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

I have been doing alot of thinking about what I want from and where I am and where I am going with my life in preparation for my first xmas with my mother in over 20 years. And the only real question that I have is: why do we spend so much time thinking of the past and what might have been?

I spent this morning watching Mulholland Drive and playing guitar while I watched it. The first time I saw this movie 3 or 4 years ago it scared the hell out of me. Tonight I watched it again while playing guitar with the recorder going. We'll see what it sounds like. But MD again is about the past.

In memory of Robert Altman on his death, I DLed The Player and that led me to DL Cinema Paradiso which, of course, led me to DL MD. These 3 together, in pretty much any order, destroy Hollywood and the movies. Or at least their mystique. They destroy it thoroughly. So much the better.

alright

2006-11-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

OK, I stopped posting here in June because I didn't have anything to add to the political discourse that was going on. It seemed then that the people and media were finally fucking waking up and last night they proved it. I am told that AP, Reuters, ABC,CBS, and NBC are all calling the VA race for Webb which gives us both houses back for 2 years. Good. Do something with it.

I might even close this blog if I knew how.

But, WE FUCKING WON!

ya know?

2006-06-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a little bored with this excercise of reminding the bleeping NYTimes that they were completely, and utterly behind going to war in Iraq when they complain that now we can't do anything about North Korea. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/weekinreview/25sanger.html
?hp&ex=1151294400&en=495df1c82378d9ae&ei=5094&am
p;partner=homepage

I said in the previous post that in every issue you should remind your readers, above the fold, that you got us into this war, so the least you can do whilst you are whining about some ill defined threat from someplace you have utterly ignored as they probably built nuclear weapons, is to remind us about the uselessness of this Iraq war for oil which you helped drive us into. Will the hypocracy never cease?

to the Times wrt "bringing it all back home"

2006-05-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

WRT this.

"Still, an understandable gloom had been cast over the room."

A typically well rounded story from you guys, but in all the 10 pages I
didn't see ONE single mention of the fact that it was your reports by
Judy Miller and Elizabeth Bumiller that helped lead this nation into
this useless and probably illegal war.

On the front page of every issue, above the fold, until we are removed
from Iraq, you should be reminding your readers of your very large part
of starting and sustaining this war. There is blood on each and every of
your pages and you have the GALL to report on the disfunction of
returning soldiers when it was your organ that helped to send them
there. You, obviously, have no shame. You have created the story you
report and you expect applause. You get none. Send your glory seeking
reporters to Iraq and have them stay there until the US pulls out.

You put us there and you should not be allowed to make money off of your
war-mongering. Feh!

On turning 41

2006-05-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't read my post of last year at this time it is here.

After speaking with my youngest sister and my brother by telephone today, I believe that I am doing alright. Poor, but doing alright.

My sister had the grace or insight to ask, after I had gone through my monetary lamentations to ask, "But, the creative stuff is still going"? Yes, it is! And thanks for asking! That is exactly what we are about over here at www.kevarts.com. Thank you for noticing!

My brother, later said that he hopes I can find the balance I am searching for. I think I can. I mean most people have really, really fucked up priorities... I mean really fucked up priorities, but I have some small hope that I can live my life as I wish. And that is all I am asking for(I promise I will get more into this soon, as if I can presume to teach anyone).

I am working too many jobs for too little money but getting alot done, and that is what's important. Check out the arts and music sites and BUY SOMETHING!!

Thank you in advance.

New Paintings

2006-03-17T03:52:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of new paintings up at the Arts Site and here is a slight analysis of one of them:

"politics 2385: What would be a fitting monument to the Bush
Regime...?
#17 of 119: Tell your piteous heart there's no harm done. (krome) Sat
01 Oct 2005 (10:37 PM)

"If you want a picture of the
future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever"

Anyone remember what that's from?  I imagine the boot bright yellow
with a happy face on it and lug soles coming down on you next to a
rifle butt.  It is now on my list of things to paint, but may be a
month or so down the road."

So, this idea became this:

http://www.kevarts.com/heart.html

Rather than the boot which is a bit too representational for me, I
decided to put Big Brother(bb) on a grafittied subway wall in the form
of a smily face whose eyes are lenses and without a mouth to betray any
emotion.  But I still wanted the boot reference so the eyes are formed
with boot heel marks.  I thought I would reenforce the idea with a few
other treads.

The attempt at a mouth I wanted to look like had been done by a
drunken rebel with some lipstick(so, lipstick was actually used) and
the shoe print at the bottom is that of a sneaker favored by punk
rockers(there is also another of these prints in pale yellow towards
the center).

All this really underscores my long time issues with political art;  I
have a hard time making ugly things to comment upon ugliness and
sometimes I am afraid that by trying to make something beautiful and
political it will miss the political.  The take home point I suppose is
that we will always win even if we must always fight TPTB.

Again to the Times...

2006-01-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

"I have just watched James Risen refuse to respond at all to questions posed by Andrea Mitchell over the Times sitting on the NSA eavesdropping story for a year. When asked if he knew of this before the election, he refused to comment.

You guys are in it deep and you aren't doing yourselves any favors in lying by omission to the American people. I believe that you did know about this eavesdropping before the election and that you sat on the story to curry favor with the Administration. I believe you only printed it when it became obvious that Risen's book was imminent. You have, once again, given up any right to refer to yourselves as investigative journalists. You have, in fact, given up any right to refer to yourselves as honest.

Between allowing Judy Miller to help the Administration justify an unjustifiable war by reprinting their lies and distortions as fact and abetting this illegal wiretapping by *not* printing the truth in a timely manner, you and all at your paper have done the greatest of disservices to this country and to the spirit of democracy."

ho hum

2006-01-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

It's been over 3 months since I updated this thing and just yesterday Jack Abramoff knelt and offered to su...uhm cooperate with the justice dept. Sooooo, everything is coming up roses. All I have to say is, "To everyone who voted for these corrupt bastards, and everyone who was/is behind this useless war: FUCK YOU!" and that includes the NYTimes.

Who is Karl Rove?

2005-10-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

(per a post of mine on the WELL)

politics 2034: Karl Rove
#1489 of 1508: Tell your piteous heart there's no harm done. (krome) Wed 26 Oct 2005 (02:22 PM)

"He's a brat and a bully wannabe.  He doesn't have the physical
presence or acumin to take his 'rightful' place at the top of the world
so he shepherds proxies who have more money and connections into the
powerful positions he craves.  Then he holds on tightly and viciously
to the power he gets on the sidelines.  He believes that this is his
right so any attempt to screw with him he fights as if he is fighting
an intruder in his home.  He is a meglomaniac.  Bush is a narcissist.
They both believe without doubt of any sort that they are of the elite
of which Leo Strauss spoke but they haven't his objectivism.  They are
lost and are struggling against a force that doesn't exist outside
their own feverish dreams of power.  They are, in fact, struggling
against their own ineptitude and powerlessness over death of which they
are deathly afraid(witness Bush's 2-3 hours per day of excercise).
Both of them are deeply ashamed that they have never had much of a
libido.  They are afraid of women.  They are afraid of life because
they have never been able to take full part in it.  They are impestuous
children and most of the electorate are lazy children.  Condi and
Harriet Miers are Bush's protection against sexual women.  They are
women who tell him it is OK not to desire women because they do not in
any way desire him.

This is one seriously fucked up situation."

Yup. But when are you gonna get real, fuckers?

2005-10-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/opinion/23publiceditor.html?hp

To the NYT editors,

All very nice and mostly true. But, you conveniently make no mention of the death toll(almost 2000 American troops and untold tens of thousands of Iraqis) or the billions of dollars pocketed by the contractors who were given no-bid contracts to 'rebuild' Iraq. You and your paper are culpable for every life and every cent. You will never escape this fact. It is good and important that you do not.

On a personal note, I am down to 1.5 jobs bartending and waiting tables. And making rent at it so life is OK.

Art Shows

2005-09-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

For readers of this blog in the Bay Area who aren't on my email list: I will have paintings at 2 SF art shows in the next 2 weeks. On October 2 there will be arts and music and stuff from 12-6 at Art in the Alley which takes place in Kerouac alley which is between Vesuvio and City Lights. Check out vesuvio.com for more details.

Then on October 8 from 11-5 or so, we will be having the First Annual Boeddeker Park Arts Festival. The park is here in the Tenderloin at Jones and Eddy. It should be fun.

3 words not often heard...

2005-09-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

"linmc said...

I miss you.

8:25 PM

krome said...

I miss you too, I'm sure.;)

10:50 AM

From the previous post's comments. Not words I hear much. Not that I'm the only one. It's so easy to feel alone wherever one is. Wherever one is so very far from 'home', whatever 'home' means. When I moved to where I am 9 years ago, I had a lot more people on my winter card list than I do now. Those who don't respond after 2 years get cut.

I don't know who linmc is. It doesn't matter. I miss so many things that I can be very sure that I miss linmc among them. There are a great many things worse than loneliness. Trust me. Sometimes it seems that having things to miss is a luxury.

And these cold distances we cross everyday...well, they just seem to get longer, don't they?

IbMePdErRoIoAmL

2005-09-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

I wonder vaguely, as I get ready for another 11 hour day, how many times since 1983 I have listened to this record. There is, of course no way to even begin counting. Which is probably why I bother entertaining the thought.

Arguably, but not really, EC&TA's best ever.

Mammonistas

2005-09-02T02:14:00.000-07:00

"Mammon

• noun wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship.

— ORIGIN New Testament Greek mamonas, from an Aramaic word meaning ‘riches’; see Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6 and Gospel of Luke, chapter 16."

From http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/mammon?view=uk

2 nights ago I catered an event. It was a sales celebration by one of the largest software/internet communications companies in the world. The router through which I am writing this has this company's name on it.

200+ people stuffed into the Old Federal Reserve Bank building to be told that so-and-so sold 126+% of goal and whosit sold such and such and over and over again for 3 hours. An hour less than planned. They should have ditched the bamboo seating and brought in prayer rugs and a huge neon dollar sign. People could have a few drinks at the bar and then come and pray to the only fucking god they know, the only piece of this godforsaken planet they have any stake in.

At the time, I had a message on my phone from someone who wanted to chat about a sales position that I might like to take. It happens that this is a company and a product line that I would be very happy to represent, except . . . except that I can't go to any more dinners like the one above as anything other than a caterer. Can't do it. I can't sit there with some piece of "cheap, landfill plastic"(a catering colleague) corporate souvenir(these are always handed out) and cheer for all the money that is going to fill the hole in these people's souls.(Yes: one hole, many souls)

I am no longer living 'up to my potential'. Again. I spent many years, happy ones, not living up to my potential and a few unhappy ones trying to live up to it.

The next day I returned the call to the sales position's voice mail and told him that I was 'not a viable candidate at this time'. Fuck it. Life is way too short to live like this.

I knew something was wrong long ago. It is still wrong.

Cindy Sheehan

2005-08-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

OK, the good thing is that the war is getting play in the media. The bad thing is that the Right Wing Noise Machine is, once again, being allowed to dictate the terms of the discussion. I've heard the same stuff coming out of the Fox bloviators and now the preznit saying it means that the NYTimes and, presumably, others are printing it as fact.

"He said he has thought ``long and hard'' about her demand to ''get out of Iraq now'' and strongly disagreed, saying a premature withdrawal would betray the Iraqis just as they are being trained to defend themselves and allow for a U.S. pullout."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-bush.html

Cindy Sheehan, as far as I know, has never made any statement advocating immediate troop withdrawal or troop withdrawal of any sort. She wants to know why her son died in Iraq. Two years ago she would have been called a traitor and arrested. Now that larger and larger portions of the American sheeple are finally waking up to the outright lies that led us into this misbegotten quagmire, they just pretend that everything's going according to 'plan'(I won't even go there) and if anybody wants to know why the hell their son has died that means they want immediate pullout.

Well, it doesn't and I've heard that there are lots and lots of others making the trip down to Crawford. Their machine is starting to falter as people wake up. We just have to keep tripping them.

And if you're wondering how much this is costing you, check out the realtime calculator just under the Global Stupidity Monitor to your right.

Here are a couple of flags I painted for the Air America bumper sticker contest. I may be making t-shirts out of them. Let me know if you'd be interested in one (~$15).

Yeehaw...

2005-08-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

I just got carded at the Whole Foods buying some wine!

For UNIX dweebs...

2005-07-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

like me. This is a wonderful take on the War on Terroir. So glad that we are finally going to take the French wine growing regions from the frogs...mmm? Hold on....oh, hmmm. Uhm nevermind. This is the War on *Terror*. So I guess Wes Craven is gonna get it now.

$ cd /middle_east
$ ls
Afghanistan Iraq Libya Saudi_Arabia UAE
Algeria Israel Morrocco Sudan Yemen
Bahrain Jordan Oman Syria
Egypt Kuwait Palestine Tunisia
Iran Lebanon Qatar Turkey

$ cd Afghanistan
$ ls
bin Taliban
$ rm Taliban
rm: Taliban is a directory
$ cd Taliban
$ ls
soldiers
$ rm soldiers
$ cd ..
$ rmdir Taliban
rmdir: directory "Taliban": Directory not empty
$ cd Taliban
$ ls -a
. .. .insurgents
$ chown -R USA .*
chown: .insurgents: Not owner
$ cd ..
$ su
Password: *******
# mv Taliban /tmp
# exit
$ ls
bin
$ cd bin
$ ls
laden
$ cd ..
$ rm -r bin/laden
bin/laden: No such file or directory
$ find / -name laden
$
$ su
Password: *******
# mv bin /tmp
# exit
$ pwd
/middle_east/Afghanistan
$ cd ..
$ cd Iraq
$ ln -s /Bad_Guys/Al_Qaeda .
ln: cannot create ./Al_Qaeda: Permission denied
$ ls
saddam
$ ls
saddam
$ ls
saddam
$ ls -a
. .. saddam
$ find / -name [Ww][Mm][Dd]
/korea/north/wMd
$ wall Propaganda.txt
Broadcast Message from USA (pts/1) on USS_Abraham_Lincoln Th May 1st
Mission Accomplished!
$ rm saddam
saddam: No such file or directory
$ find / -name saddam
/var/opt/dictators/spiderhole/saddam
$ wall NewsWorthy.txt
Broadcast Message from USA (pts/1) on Time.Magazine Sat Dec 13
We Got Him!
$ mv /var/opt/dictators/spiderhole/saddam /opt/jail
$ cd /opt/USA
$ cp -Rp Democracy /middle_east/Iraq
$ cd /middle_east/Iraq/Democracy
$ ./install
Install Error: Install failed. See install_log for details.
$ more install_log
Install failed!
Prerequisite packages missing
Please read the install guide to properly plan your installation.
$

Courtesy of http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/ThinGuy?entry=the_war_on_terror_as

And if you don't know UNIX, trust me it's funny as hell.

check it out...

2005-07-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Quickly, your last preeznitdential election was stolen and your fucking news media don't want to talk about it. Y'all. Check out the August issue of Harper's and listen to this:

http://www.harpers.org/art/mp3/OhioVoteForum-2005-07-21.mp3

Also, I am probably going to move to London soon, fyi.

When I first...

2005-07-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

started going out with S., I drove a Honda Saber V65(something like 1098cc, 65ci, V4, water cooled). I had it for probably the first year we were going out before we moved in together. One day, much later in the relationship(it lasted for 7 years) we were walking somewhere in Austin and a motorcycle passsed us. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that it was a SaberV65. She said, "That sounded a lot like the motorcycle you used to have". Some comforting nostalgic feeling knowing that she knew that sound and listened for it among all others at some point in time. Apropos of the Lone Justice song that I just heard, with chorus of, "I know the sound of your wheels...".

Uh Huh...

2005-07-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Apropos of the last post, I tried again today calling one of my ex-friends and when he picked up the phone, got so far as, "Hey, this is..." before he hung up on me. Twice. Left a message the third time saying, "Yeah, that's classic. Don't want to talk about the fucked up mess that you *wanted to happen*. You are, for the last time, too fucking stupid to be allowed to vote." Or some such.

I Blinked First.

2005-07-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here's something I posted on the Well and I thought would interest those who thought I was being hard on Dad with my email of late May:

"

politics 2362: moral relativism and other political bogeymen
#6 of 6: Tell your piteous heart there's no harm done. (krome) Sun 10 Jul 2005 (07:45 PM)

Well, this shiny, new topic seems just the place for the following.  I
blinked.  Since the election I have cut off contact with the 3 or 4
people I know who voted for Bush and/or support the war in Iraq,
including my father.  Today I was feeling rambunctious and decided to
call these people up and see how their war was going.  Dad was the only
one home.  Dad has no idea what the Downing St. Memo is.  None.  Dad
has no idea that Judy Miller was hawking this war on the pages of the
Times, though he did say that he had read a book by Howard Stern that
said that the Times was a left leaning anti-Bush organ.  When told that
Howard Stern has had strippers on his radio program, Dad was shocked.
Dad, despite being reminded 2 or 3 times that both Bush and Cheney
have stated that there is not a shread of evidence linking Iraq with
9/11, repeatedly equated the war in Iraq with a response to 9/11.

Dad lives in Conroe, TX(suburb north of Houston) annd doesn't know
much of anything, but he is very sure that if Kerry went against Bush
today, he would vote the same way.  Why?  Because Kerry lied.  What did
Kerry lie about?  Kerry told the people of Ohio that he would get
their jobs back and that, according to 'economist' Dad(he does have a
BS in math and an MBA, but this is the first time I have heard him call
himself an economist) is a lie unforgivable.  Even when pressed to
admit that 'lying' about getting someone a job is not as bad as lying
about things that get 1800 young, American men and women killed, he was
still going to vote for Bush in a heartbeat, because "all politicians
lie".

The most surreal moments were when Dad, first, asked if people didn't
lie to go to war in the Middle Ages and, later asked what King Arthur's
true motives might have been.  When reminded(?) that (1) we aren't
living in the Middle Ages and (2) King Arthur is a fairy tale, Dad had
nothing to say.

I'm sure some of the more grounded souls around here get tired of me
and others talking about Mythos vs. Logos but I'm afraid that's exactly
where we are.  At least with respect to one 64 year old,
ex-photographic agency executive, semi-retired resident of Conroe, TX
who, as far as I know, has only left this country thrice(honeymoon in
'64 in Mexico, going to visit Mom during the seperation(with all 4
kids) that ended in divorce in Paris in '77 and Canada circa 2000) in
his life and doesn't regret that.

We are in deep, deep trouble."

How it's going.

2005-07-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Someone on the Well asked me how the opening to my show at Vesuvio last night went and this is what I had to say:

"

It was fun.  I mean, I'm a pseudo regular there so I get a friend who
used to bartend there to make up really nice foodstuffs and that always
gets people in the door.  And since I am somewhat known(I didn't say
'liked') in the neighborhood, lots of regulars show up and you get the
happy hour crowd, etc.  I passed out flyers, per usual, to all the
downtown galleries who have seen me doing the same 3 times this year,
so maybe they are getting used to the fact that I exist and produce.
But it was 1st Thursday so they had their own gigs(what a great excuse
for not having gallery people, eh?).

Everyone had good things to say and the one or two other artists who
showed up asked intelligent questions and made sensible comments
leading me to believe that they were interested.  The woman who did the
food told me at one point, "If you were in New York everyone would be
saying that you were fabulous."  And I told her that, indeed, if after
I have 12 paintings(plus my photos) I still can't get a gallery show in
SF I will be heading for NY or London(I'm a UK citizen as well as US).
That's the first time I have ever, even privately, put a deadline on
my stay here(9 years in August).  When I moved here, I told myself that
I would stay 10-15 years and then go elsewhere, so this new deadline
jibes with the earlier one.

All in all a good show.  Even got some people who really don't know
nor care about art saying they liked the pieces, which is the point.
Painting loud enough to get the blind interested. "

Which is to say that I am back to doing what I was doing-and loved doing- when
I was 15-22 then gave up for 20 years or so.  Just so you know the plan.

To the Times

2005-06-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

Regarding David Sanger's review of the President's speech this evening(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/politics/29prexy.html?pagewanted=2&hp) he states at one point that, "As he has in the past, the president melded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the enemies Americans now face in Iraq." The least respect for the truth, as I'm sure you know, would require the addition of 'erroneously' into this sentence as in, "As he has in the past, the president ERRONEOUSLY melded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the enemies Americans now face in Iraq."

You know better than this. You are prostituting yourself to this warmongering, illegal regime. Have you no shame? Had you ever?

OK...

2005-06-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

I don't have much time for this shit. If there are any of you out there who still believe that this war in Iraq is a righteous thing(including, presumably, my dumbass father) you need to sign up and get your ass over there 'cuz the recruiters have been missing their targets for 4 months now. At this point they'll probably take any fatass that comes along, so don't let that get in your way. As to the speech tonight, I find it difficult to believe that anyone listened to it without choking, crying, banging their head against a wall or drinking themselves quickly into oblivion.

But let's go to the NYTimes coverage, hot off the presses. They say, "As he has in the past, the president melded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the enemies Americans now face in Iraq."

How about an "erroneously" in there somewhere, guys? Eh? "As he has in the past, the president ERRONEOUSLY melded the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with the enemies Americans now face in Iraq."

It's really not a stretch and not editorializing to say this. This is a FACT! There is NO connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. And none between 9/11 and the war we are fighting over there. except in youor insane preznit's mind.

1984 All Over Again

2005-06-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

I have posted a couple of excerpts from "1984" on the Well and thought I'd also post them here for those who haven't read it and those who haven't read it in a long time. To wit:

"There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place.
Merely it became known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once,
that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy.  Winston was taking part
in a demonstration in one of the central London squares at the moment
when it happened.  It was night, and the white faces  and the scarlet
banners were luridly floodlit.  The square was packed with several
thousand people, including a block of about a thousand schoolchildren
in the uniform of the Spies.  On a scarlet-draped platform an orator of
the Inner Party, a small lean man with disproportionately long arms
and a large, bald skull over which a few lank locks straggled, was
haranguing the crowd.  A little Rumplestiltskin figure, contorted with
hatred, he gripped the neck of the microphone with one hand while the
other, enormous at the end of a bony arm, clawed the air menacingly
above his head.  His voice, made metallic by the amplifiers, boomed
forth an endless catalogue of atrocities, massacres, deportations,
lootings, rapings, torture of prisoners, bombing of civilians, lying
propaganda, unjust agressions, broken treaties.  It was almost
impossible to listen to him without being first convinced and then
maddened.  At every few moments the fury of the crowd boiled over and
the voice of the speaker was drowned by a wild beastlike roaring that
rose uncontrollably from thousands of throats.  The most savage yells
of all came from the schoolchildren.  The speech had been proceeding
for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried onto the platform
and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker's hand.  He unrolled
and read it without pausing in his speech.  Nothing altered in his
voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly
the names were different.  Without words said, a wave of understanding
rippled through the crowd.  Oceania was at war with Eastasia!  The next
moment there was a tremendous commotion.  The banners and posters with
which the square was decorated were all wrong!  Quite half of them had
the wrong faces on them.  It was sabotage!  The agents of Goldstein
had been at work!  There was a riotous interlude while posters were
ripped from the walls, banners torn to shreds and trampled underfoot.
The Spies performed prodigies of activity in clambering over the
rooftops and cutting the streamers that fluttered from the chimneys.
But within two or three minutes it was all over.  The orator, still
gripping the neck of the microphone, his shoulders hunched forward, his
free hand clawing at the air, had gone straight on with his speech.
One minute more and the feral roars of rage were again bursting from
the crowd.  The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the
target had been changed."

                               pages 184-185

Osama Hussein?  No, Saddam bin Laden.  Terrorism?  Yes, Iraq."

and:

"I have bookmarked lots of entries before this one, but thought I'd do
this 'cuz power is one of the thinngs I am interested in.  This is in
Room 101 and the speaker is O'Brien, Winston's betrayer and torturer:

  "How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?"
  Winston thought.  "By making him suffer", he said.
  "Exactly.  By making him suffer.  Obedience is not enough.  Unless
he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and
not his own?  Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation.  Power is in
tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new
shapes of your own choosing.  Do you  begin to see, then, what kind of
world we are creating?  It is the exact opposite of the stupid,
hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined.  A world of fear
and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled
upon, a world which will grow not less but *more* merciless as it
refines itself.  Progress in our world will be progress toward  more
pain.  The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love and
justice.  Ours is founded upon hatred.  In our world there will be no
emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement.  Everything
else we shall destroy--everything.  Already we are breaking down the
habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution.  We
have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and woman.
No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer.   But in
the future there will be no wives and no friends.  Children will be
taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen.  The
sex instinct will be eradicated.  Procreation will be an annual
formality like the renewal of a ration card*.  We shall abolish the
orgasm.  Our neurologists are at work upon it now.  There will be no
loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party.  There will be no love,
except the love of Big Brother.  There will be no laughter, except the
laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy.  There will be no art, no
literature, no science.  When we are omnipotent we shall have no moore
need of science.  There will be no distinction between beauty and
ugliness.  There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of
life.  All competing pleasures will be destroyed.  But always--do not
forget this, Winston--always there will be the intoxication of power,
constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler.  Always, at every
moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of
trampling on an enemy who is helpless.  If you want a picture of the
future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever"

                                     Pages 276-277
*cross-reference "Brave New World" for removing the need for natural
birth/removing the parent/child bond.

Not much to say.  The last line is, perhaps, where we are.  Might be a
good pseud. or tattoo or watch-phrase.  I'm sure that when I last read
this in '81 or so, it's one I took to heart.  The ideas some people
have of what constitutes power are of grave concern to all of us.  All
of us."

Foolish things

2005-06-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

How many foolish things were said to you yesterday? Well, I remember a few that were said to me:

Someone(who apparently did some schoolinng in England) asked where I stayed last time I was in London. I said Bayswater, as one commonly uses the nearest Tube station as reference. She, "that's not very central". Um, The Bayswater Tube is in zone 1. It is on Queensway which ends at the south at Hyde Park. It is 2 stops from Kensington High Street and 4 from Oxford Circus. Of, course I would probably just walk down the street to the Queensway station and take that line so that makes it 3 stops to Oxford Circus. Why do people who have no idea of what they are speaking say things like that?

Ran into an aquaintance at the usual bar and he decides to explain to me how many much bigger things there are in the world than the information/political stuff that I spend a lot of my time on. I ask if he knows about "The Downing Street Memo". Nope, never heard of it 5 weeks after it was initially published by the Sunday Times. So, I proceed to try to explain that it is a document that seems to PROVE that this preznit lied lied lied when he was telling us in 2002 that war with Iraq would be the last resort (go here to get the full scoop if you haven't already).
His response to his proven and willful ignorance is the following(from memory): "You don't think that people were being lied to during the Crusades?" I say I have no doubt that they were. He, "So, the real question is, are we better off than we were during the Crusades."
Nope. No that is NOT the real question. The real question is why people who are too fucking lazy and/or too fucking dim to understand the world in which they live hold up this condition of blissful ignorance as something one should seek? Know what? if you haven't a fucking clue, shut the fuck up!

So, the guy on the other side of me has to chime in and I get to find out that the FBI is really doing a great job and that's why we haven't had any terrorist attacks since 9/11. Of course when I tell him that I, in fact, believe that our government at least failed to stop an attack that they knew was coming and was probably complicit in the act(google PNAC and take a look at the document in which Donny Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and others say we need a "new Pearl Harbor" in order to acheive their stated goal of a new, better armed and more powerful America), he doesn't disagree, but says, "Oh, they planned it." Crank. Fool. He then proceeds to pull some stuff out of his satchel that seems to be a design for a perpetual motion machine that will give us all the cheap power we need. I scanned it and the only blurb I remember is, "Since water can't be compressed...". Whoo boy.

BTW, my father hasn't yet bothered to reply to the email below that I sent to him. Oh well. Chickenhawk is one thing, but if you can't even defend your decisions.....Feh

Two things....

2005-06-05T00:49:00.000-07:00

First, for those who don't habitually read Harper's, here are scanned versions of 2 very important pieces on the Right Wing Dominionist movement that wants to convert you or kill you.

http://word-detective.com/harpers.html

And, in case you had forgotten that BushCo was screwing you
to feed the rich, the NYTimes,
loooooong after it was due has finally admitted that, yes,
those tax cuts really do benefit the
wealthy more than anyone else:

"President Bush said during the third election debate last October
that most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans. In
fact, most - 53 percent - will go to people with incomes in the top 10
percent over the first 15 years of the cuts, which began in 2001 and
would have to be reauthorized in 2010. And more than 15 percent will go
just to the top 0.1 percent, those 145,000 taxpayers."(and we were WHERE
just after the 3rd election debate last October?
Perhaps dealing with another 'security crisis'?)

"From 1950 to 1970, for example, for every additional dollar earned by
the bottom 90 percent, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an
additional $162, according to the Times analysis. From 1990 to 2002,
for every extra dollar earned by those in the bottom 90 percent, each
taxpayer at the top brought in an extra $18,000. "

And

"The Bush administration says that the tax cuts have actually made
the income tax system more progressive, shifting the burden slightly
more to those with higher incomes. Still, an Internal Revenue Service
study found that the only taxpayers whose share of taxes declined in
2001 and 2002 were those in the top 0.1 percent."

Can you say 'Class War'?   Start slowly, I know your middle brow American
mouth has a hard time with it.....Class.....War.  Yeah, that's it.  Class War.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/class/HYPER-FINAL.html

Further into 40

2005-06-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Just listening to the first "This Mortal Coil" record(check here) , called "It'll End in Tears" and struck once again by that sliver of a generation who defines their formative years by that album(circa 1984, yours truly not yet 20) and their and my ability to dance positively to a negative. A song called "Not Me" intones relentlessly, "you didn't touch me, you didn't touch me...' anthemically, driving away the ghosts of unhappy affairs or relationships and settling into being alone once again. Can't say it's specific for my sliver of a generation, but it is invariably associated with love affairs from those days. "You didn't touch me." morphing into, "you can't touch me" or "I can't touch you".

Ahem...check, check...

2005-05-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

We have sang(yes, I know it should be 'sung') to the saints for millenia(yes, that's the proper plural of millenium) and n'er have they answered. For how long are we to believe that they will come to us in our need...before we take it upon ourselves...to answer our own prayers, to provide our own justice, to build a world after our own designs since they don't seem, having been built themselves in our most honorable(thus we pray...to whom?) image, to be destined to save us from ourselves?

Email to Dad.

2005-05-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

"Dad, I don't know if you know this, but I have stopped communicating with people I know who voted for Bush. Therefore I wasn't sure whether or not to write and thank you for your B-day message and gift. I decided I should. so, thanks for the phone message and the book. I appreciate the thought. However, I will also take this opportunity to remind you that the man you voted for for President is a war criminal among other things and your vote has brought us many steps closer to fascism in this nation. This is not only my opinion. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune has even now decided that this war in Iraq has no justification and is killing our young people for no reason. If you have reason to doubt this and would like proof, since I know you don't get any real news let me know. This Memorial Day, I want you to know that the blood of the US soldiers and that of the perhaps 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed so far in your President's war is on your hands.

Krome"

Addendum

2005-05-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

Rereading my birthday note below, I thought I would just note that that slight 'review' of 'Brave New World' and '1984' begs more questions than it answers. I have no intention of soon giving full reviews of either. But just to muddy waters, last I was in London(did I mention that I am now a UK citizen and should recieve my passport sometime next week?), I was there to see a concert at the University College London and walking to pick up my tickets walked by some laboratory buildings that are certainly the same that Huxley descibes as housing the London labs in 'BNE'. One or the other had big banners on it proclaiming the wonderful science that was going on inside. Well, as a lapsed scientist, I still don't buy it.

And, just in case you've forgotten

2005-05-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Featuring the inimitably wonderful Mike Malloy:

http://www.bushflash.com/14.html

Demand answers from the admin!

2005-05-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, here are a couple of links that youu should visit

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

http://www.johnconyers.com/

Both will get you to a letter that Rep. John Conyers is asking 100,000 of us to sign demanding that the admin respond to the implications in the "Downing Street Memo" which the first link describes in great detail. Do it!

On 40 and "Brave New World" and "1984".

2005-05-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well, that's a pretty ambitious title, isn't it? On 5/21/2005, the day of the last of my posts here, I turned 40 years of age. While this is not uncommon, I will tell you that I have had reason to believe, at more than a few points in my life, that I would never do this. I don't mind it. I think I minded becoming 35, but not 40. Some friends and I went to a gun show at the Cow Palace Saturday morning and I drank not as much as I thought I might during the day. I was stunned to reach 25. 40 seems like a nice plateau on which to reflect. Thus:

I believe I know what it is to be in love and I know what it is to have that dream completely shattered. I think. That is I think I was in love with the woman who stabbed me, at least at some point, but I'm no longer sure. I mean, I don't know what 'being in love' means anymore. I don't know if I ever did. And it doesn't matter.

I know what it's like to be brought up 'right' and go 'wrong' and still end up 'right' by your own effort. I know what it's like to have a degree in chemistry that you have paid for and are no longer using. I know what it's like to pass out for 3 days from intentionally taking too many Mandrax. I know what it's like to have friends take turns sleeping next to you all that time to make sure you "don't choke on your own vomit or something"(Thank you Linda Smith, Diane Herrera and Dede (nee) Harrison(I don't know what her last name might be now)).

I know what it's like to watch the Sun come up over the desert(TX, NM, CA) , being hundreds of miles away from 'home', having nowhere to go, and knowing that the Sun may be your only friend and thriving on that.

I know what it's like to have people want to have you love them so much that they must destroy you.

The record that just ended(actually a CD copy of a cassette that I bought on the street for $1 a couple of years ago) was the Stranglers "Dreamtime" which came out in '86 or '87. I was 21 or 22 at this time. I had gotten my GED and was taking classes at Austin Community College so that I could transfer to UT without taking the SAT. I was, by this point, very well aware that this world was a very, very sad place and I had decided that it was in my power to make the best of it. Things were looking up. If I had been 12 going on 21, then I was now 22 going on 35. Most of what I've described(or alluded to) in the above paragraphs happened before this, some of it after. I once had a cassette of "Dreamtime" that I played in my '61 Cadillac driving to ACC. It got totaled when I was t-boned by someone going fast enough to bend a '61 Caddy frame with an Isuzu Trooper. Since he never even tried to stop there were no skid marks to measure by which to judge his speed. I was cited for failure to yield the right-of-way. There is a traffic light at that intersection(Avenue F & Koenig) now to keep from happening to others what happened to me.

Apropos of nothing except the current political situation, which looks a lot like the situation in 1981 or so(except worse) , I recently reread Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World' and I am currently rereading "1984". I haven't read either of these in over 20 years, since I was 16 or so. It's interesting to read what were "world-view shaping" books on the other side of quite a bit of experience.

They are very different works dealing with common themes. If one didn't know it in advance, it would not be surprising that the years between their publications('32 and '48 respectively) contained a brutal world war, one that certainly changed London(where they both take place) greatly. One theme that shows up in both that I may or may not have noticed 20 years ago is the 'desexualization' of the upper class. First obviously, they both deal explicitly with explicit class distinctions and in both the lower classes are pretty much left to their own, natural sexual devices. In "Brave new World" the upper classes are 'desexualized' by 'hypersexualization'. All passion and possession, jealousy and desire are removed from the sexual activities and expectations of the upper class(Alphas and Betas) because they are expected to have sex with as many people as possible. This is stated explicitly in one mantra expounded by the characters; "Everyone belongs to everyone else". And sex in this book is never for reproduction since natural reproduction is unnecessary.

In "1984" the 'proles' are the lower class left to deal with sex naturally while members of the Party are expected to engage in sexual relations only with their spouse and only for reproductive reasons. Indeed, Orwell says that the Party goes out of its way to select spouses that have no physical attraction for eachother. The female Party members actually wear red sashes signalling their membership in the Anti-Sex League.

Now that I think about it; of course I noticed this 24 years ago. If the politics of these works was only faintly understood, sexual inhibition or the lack thereof was an extremely important part of my daily life. I am asexual these days just because it's more trouble than it's worth. I've had enough over the years. I don't miss the sex. I miss my youthful ability to believe that lust was love, that sex was actually touching the other. I can't get drunk enough to be as naive these days.

Anyway, the other thing that I've come across in "1984", which was undoubtedly the more important of the 2 for post WWII residents of this planet, is the idea that the 'proles' hold some charm/intelligence that the indoctrinated do not. This probably had something to do with my early decisions to abandon school and set out for the world(I hitchhiked and rode trains across the western part of this country twice before I was 17).

I have lived and worked among the 'proles'(restaurant workers and such) for longer than I have worked among the corporate 'educated' class and I can tell you that the 'proles'(short for 'proletariat' if you haven't read the book) aren't necessarily smarter than the 'corps', but they are typically more fun, more imaginative and more realistic about the state of the world than are these 'educated' folks. We feed you people and you are not always on your best behavior when you are in public. You are occaisionally demanding, ill-mannered, loud and self-important. And we smile and give you what you want in exchange for your money(I very rarely get a tip of below 20%). This is the simplest form of business there is and, yet, not everyone can do it . Most of the 'corps' I have ever met wouldn't last a day or an hour on the floor of a Denny's much less the place I work. They are far too uninterested and uninteresting. And they have no style. That's the shame of it all. They spend their lives making money that they spend on ugly clothes. How boring.

Anyway, that is my birthday note to myself. No links, no rants, just the merest tad of didactism. If I was 35 going on 60, I am now 40 going on 25. There are a great many things I don't have to learn. So I can spend my time learning things that perhaps aren't as urgent. If most of my life until now has been spent making up for lost(in advance) time, I believe I have caught up and can make more informed decisions about how I will live.

For instance, it is now 9AM and I have the day off. I have been up since 5. I think I will have a beer and turn on Air America and get ready to do a little painting. Ciao.

Tada!

2005-05-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

It's gone! Disappeared! Nothing to see here, folks! Just pretend you never saw this. Guess what! We are in deep, deep trouble and it has nothing to do with whether or not the chef at work hates me.

Oh,

2005-05-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Here they are and it's only, oooooh, TEN DAYS AFTER THE STORY BROKE!!!! Or so

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/politics/20weapons.html?

AND, it's a really bad piece, supposing a great many things to basically dismiss the importance of this memo.

And, guess what? I was pasting this

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html?hp&ex=1116648000&
;amp;en=6cca0512a38427c3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

all over the place last night. This is good stuff, you guys, but so is the PROOF that this admin and this preznit was determined to go to war in Iraq WMDs or no! AAAARRRRGH, you people drive me nuts! Will you at least tell us WHAT YOUR EDITORIAL POLICY IS?????

Sooooo...

2005-05-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

Care to see and hear how a well-spoken UK MP deals with sanctimonious US senators?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4556113.stm

About as clear an indictment of this lying government's failed Iraq policy from the ground up. And the ground is several decades ago.

Rhetoricocity?

2005-05-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

So, here's Editor & Publisher on the the "Downing St. Memo"

And here's Paul Kruman on the the "Downing St. Memo"

And here's the LATimes on the "Downing St. Memo" Hmmm, couldn't find this link....

And here's the Washingtoon Post on the "Downing St. Memo"

And here's CNN.com with a "White House refutation of the 'Downing St. Memo'" (which includes Scottie McClellan lying again)

So, where the hell is the NYTimes with even the slightest mention IN THE NEWS SECTION!!??

NYTImes redux

2005-05-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here you can find a letter to the Times from Mediamatters.org which includes the following:

"This is especially important now, at a time when the current administration has, for all intents and purposes, declared open war on the very idea of an independent press. The administration's conservative allies have simultaneously endeavored to impose a post-modern ideology of doctrinaire relativism on the media, so that all news is seen as ideological and there is no common set of facts on which we can all agree. In this context, the "he said-she said" trap into which the Times and other news organizations so regularly fall becomes particularly pernicious."

And here we find that the Times will start charging for certain online features:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050516/165886.html?.v=1

Well, I can only hope that they use the money to actually start covering some news again.

And...

2005-05-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

just to make myself clear: Karl Rove is a fascist, George W Bush is a fascist, Tom DeLay is a fascist, Denny Hastert is a fascist, Bill Frist is a fascist, all the "Christians" that you regularly hear from like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and Pat Robertson are FASCISTS. These are enemies of freedom at least.

well...

2005-05-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

here's the response to my younger brother's response to the previous post. I will repeat the Flannery O'Connor quote of many posts ago;

"To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures."

"Indeed, I know it is a harsh statement, little brother, but I can't keep supplying links to important news that no one reads. I just recently had lunch witth a very bright friend who didn't know that we had a memo from 10 Downing that proves that we have been lied to as I have known for a week. Why? Because this person has never bothered to check out the links I supply along the right margin of this blog. They are not there for decoration. I am not a dispensor of information, only a conduit. You guys are going to have to get it from the source eventually. Or not.

I have seen this happen b4 and if you guys want to blunder your way into fascism or McCarthyism again....well, I will do my best to allow you to do it without me.

Chill indeed. Apparently, I can't adequately describe to you where you are. That is extremely frustrating.

8:20 AM"

No...

2005-05-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to give you the f**king links. You already have them to the right of your screen and most of you have never bothered to check this stuff out. You are sheep. You think you are too busy to find out that you are under the rule of fascists, but what you are busy doing is watching the TV which lies to you constantly. And maybe bitching about your worthless lives. Yeah, life is tough, babe! Go listen to some fucking Dave Matthews(Oh American baby....) or some oldies station that will make you feel OK. YOU ARE STUPID! Face it. You can't be trusted to govern yourselves. You simply don't understand the world around you and how it came to be. It came to be through your fanatical self regard you stupid fucker. It came to be because you can't possibly understand how you might fit into this world without being at the top of the food chain. Your Ego is your undoing, you stupid fuck. I could provide links to numerous articles to prove that I am not the only one who feels this way, but why bother? You won't read them anyway. Fuck you!

BTW

2005-05-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know that we have a memo from 10 Downing that proves that BushCo was intent on going to war against Iraq before they had any evidence of WMD(remember that reason for going to war?) or about the article saying that Italy went to Iraq to protect an oil contract, first, get a look at the f**king news, you assholes. I am sick and tired of talking to bright, intelligent people who have no idea what's going on. You people aren't even smart enough to know that you are living in a fascist state! I'm over it. It's almost 6AM and you stupid f**ks are sleeping soundly while BushCo screws you. You probably deserve it.

Back tomorrow with links. Not like you are going to read them, fools.

Stupid is as stupid says...

2005-05-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

I hate Scottie McClellan. He may not be the stupidest person on the planet(our president is stupider and those who voted for him far, far stupider) but he is one of the most annoying daily occurences. For your drinking pleasure, the daily gaggle:

"Q: Scott, yesterday the White House was on red alert, was evacuated. The first lady and Nancy Reagan were taken to a secure location. The Vice President was evacuated from the grounds. The Capitol building was evacuated. The continuity of government plan was initiated. And yet the president wasn't told of yesterday's events until after he finished his bike ride, about 36 minutes after the all-clear had been sent. Is he satisfied with the fact that he wasn't notified about this?

McCLELLAN: Yes. I think you just brought up a very good point -- the protocols that were in place after Sept. 11 were followed. The president was never considered to be in danger because he was at an off-site location. The president has a tremendous amount of trust in his Secret Service detail. ...

Q: The fact that the president wasn't in danger is one aspect of this. But he's also the commander in chief. There was a military operation underway. Other people were in contact with the White House. Shouldn't the commander in chief have been notified of what was going on?

McCLELLAN: John, the protocols that we put in place after Sept. 11 were being followed. They did not require presidential authority for this situation. I think you have to look at each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation. And that's what officials here at the White House were doing. ...

Q: Even on a personal level, did nobody here at the White House think that calling the president to say, by the way, your wife has been evacuated from the White House, we just want to let you know everything is OK?

McCLELLAN: Actually, all the protocols were followed and people were -- officials that you point out were taken to secure locations or evacuated, in some cases. I think, again, you have to look at the circumstances surrounding the situation, and it depends on the situation and the circumstance. ...

Q: Nobody thought to say, by the way, this is going on, but it's all under control?

McCLELLAN: And I think it depends on each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation when you're making those decisions.

Q: Isn't there a bit of an appearance problem, notwithstanding the president's safety was not in question, protocols were followed, that today, looking at it, he was enjoying a bike ride, and that recreation time was not considered expendable to inform him of this.

McCLELLAN: Well, I mean, John mentioned 36 minutes after the all-clear. Remember, this was a matter of minutes when all this was happening. ...

Q: But has the President even indicated that even if everything was followed that he would prefer to be notified, that if the choice is: tell the commander in chief or let him continue to exercise, that he would prefer to be informed?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, it depends on the situation and the circumstances. And you have to take all that into account, and I think that's what people were doing here at the White House, as well as those people that were with the president.

Q: I think there's a disconnect here because, I mean, yesterday you had more than 30,000 people who were evacuated, you had millions of people who were watching this on television, and there was a sense at some point -- it was a short window, a 15-minute window, but there was a sense of confusion among some on the streets. There was a sense of fear. And people are wondering was this not a moment for the president to exercise some leadership, some guidance during that period of time?

MR. McCLELLAN: The president did lead, and the president did that after September the 11th when we put the protocols in place to make sure that situations like this were addressed before it was too late. And that was the case -- that was the case in this situation. ...

Q: I have one more question. When we walked out of this door yesterday, when those of us who heard that there was a situation, when we walked out of the door, we heard aircraft, jets overhead. There is a concern that that plane came closer to the White House than the White House said, more -- it came within the three-mile radius, it was closer than you --

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I said that it came within three miles.

Q: OK, but you said three miles. How close --

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, it came within three miles.

Q: How close was it? Because someone has taken a picture of a plane being escorted on K street. How close was the plane?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I mean, if the Department of Homeland Security or FAA has any additional information, I'm sure --

Q: Scott, how close was it?

McCLELLAN: April, it was within --

Q: You know how close it was. Please tell us.

McCLELLAN: Yes, within three miles. I don't know beyond that. Go ahead.

Q: Might there be something wrong with protocols that render the president unnecessary when the alarm is going off at his house?

McCLELLAN: That's not at all what occurred, Ken. And I would disagree strongly with the way you characterize it for the reasons I started earlier, and that I talked about. This was a situation where the president was in an off-site location. He was not in danger, a situation where protocols have been put in place to address the situation. The protocols were followed. ...

Q: And those protocols are OK with the president despite the fact that his wife was in a situation where she might have been endangered?

McCLELLAN: She was taken to a secure location, as were some other officials.

Q: And wouldn't he want to know about that as it was happening?

McCLELLAN: He was briefed about the situation.

Q: After it happened.

McCLELLAN: He was briefed about the situation, Ken. And I think that he wants to make sure that the protocols that are in place are followed. The protocols that were in place were followed.

Q: Scott, to follow on the same line of questioning, if there is a possibility that a plane may have to be shot down over Washington, doesn't the President want to be involved in that type of decision?

McCLELLAN: Well, Keith, I think again, it depends on the circumstances in the situation. You have to look at each individual situation and the circumstances surrounding that situation. There are protocols --

Q: Doesn't the President want to be involved in what could be a decision to shoot down a plane over Washington?

McCLELLAN: To answer your question, I was just getting ready to address exactly what you're bringing up. The protocols that were put in place after Sept. 11 include protocols for that, as well. And there are protocols there. They're classified. But they do not require presidential authority. ...

Q: They don't require presidential authority, but they don't obviate the need for presidential authority, do they? They don't say the president cannot be involved --

McCLELLAN: Like I said, that depends on --

Q: -- wouldn't he want to be involved --

McCLELLAN: It depends on the circumstances and it depends on the situation.

Q: And wasn't there a possibility that a plane headed for the White House, that this was the leading edge of some broader attack, isn't the president concerned that maybe he should have been alerted to the fact that this could have been the beginning of a general attack?

McCLELLAN: That was not the case, and I think the Department of Defense yesterday indicated that they didn't sense any hostile intent on the part of the plane, so again --

Q: How did they know -- how did they know this plane wasn't laden with WMD or some other type of weapons like that? Did they get reassurances from the pilot? Or how did they know that?

McCLELLAN: Well, again, if you want to give me a chance to respond, I'll be glad to. The protocols were followed. This situation, as you're well aware, turned out to be an accident. The Department of Defense pointed out yesterday that they didn't sense any hostile intent on the part of the plane. There were fighter jets scrambled. There was a Blackhawk helicopter scrambled, as well, to get in contact with the plane. ...

Q So if it was assessed that there was no hostile intent on the part of this aircraft, can you tell us why 30,000 people -- 35,000 people were told to run for their lives?

McCLELLAN: Because of the protocols that are in place, John. We want to make sure that the people in the area of the threat are protected. After --

Q: But what was the threat? You just said there was no threat.

McCLELLAN: John, after Sept. 11, we have to take into account the world that we live in. We live in a very different world than we did before Sept. 11. And the president is going to do everything in his power to make sure we are protecting the American people and to make sure that the people in areas that could be high-risk areas are protected, as well.

Q: Right, but there seems to be so many disconnects here. You've got a plane that was assessed as not being a threat, you've got 35,000 people evacuated, you've got a person who you claim is a hands-on commander in chief who is left to go ride his bicycle through the rural wildlands of Maryland while his wife is in some secure location somewhere, it's just not adding up.

McCLELLAN: Well, John, I disagree, and let me tell you why: You have highly skilled professionals who are involved in situations like this, in a variety of different fronts, from our Homeland Security officials to our National Security Council officials to our Secret Service officials and to others and to local officials, and they work very closely together. The protocols that were put in place were followed, and I think they were followed well."

Ugh...

2005-05-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

OK, per the previous post and perhaps through other channels, we know that the Rev. Chan Chandler of the East Waynesville(N.C.) Baptist Church led a purge of church members who voted for John Kerry. I gave the NYTimes until Sunday to come up with a story as I figured they would need to get someone down there and all. I looked through the National section of the online paper everyday looking for some mention and never saw it.

Interestingly enough, today we find this which includes the following:

"The committee also recommended that the paper "increase our coverage of religion in America" and "cover the country in a fuller way," with more reporting from rural areas and of a broader array of cultural and lifestyle issues."

which one would assume includes mention of a rural church purging members for political reasons. So, for completeness sake, we do a search for "Waynesville" and get:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Church-Politics.html

which, in fact, gives us the story and is dated Sunday. But, check out that link; it's not in the National section but in something called the aponline section which I didn't even know existed. Plus, it is an AP story with no NYTimes reporting.

News Flash, guys: it's never too frigging soon to start reporting on the nascent religiofascist movement in this country! This same movement would surely shut you guys down as a first order of business so I think you might be interested in bringing it to everyone's attention. Sometimes I think you people are just waiting to cash in your own insurance policies. Come on!

The new F-word

2005-05-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

First this http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/5/211218/4946. It is still breaking and tough to find the whole story, so this link is prolly the best place to start.

And here's something I wrote on the WELL. I have had problems searching for arcticles on Harper's website so go out and buy a copy. It's very much worth it.

"

Just finished reading Jeff Sharlet's and Chris Hedges' pieces in the
latest Harper's and, news flash, we have a problem.  I won't bother
quoting here.  If you haven't seen them, you need to.  We are on a
rapid slide towards fascism disguised as religion in this country(duh).
They are intolerant of everyone who isn't they, hatefully dismissive
of the slightest tinge of intellectualism and are willing to cull their
own ranks of those not fundamentalist enough brutally and in an
instant.  In short, I believe there is no middle ground with these
people.  They are a cult of fanatical hatred of the world wrapped in
the Word.  They are, indeed, impatient for the rapture they hate their
own lives so much.  They are certain that the rest of us, who have
learned to live with a sense of humour and dignity are having more fun
than they are and this cannot be tolerated.  If they could,without
drawing the attention of the still secular rest of America, they would
send out armed squads this very evening and we would be paying tithes
on demand by Monday.  They must be stopped.  They *must* be stopped
now.

How?  How do you fight fomenting fascism that hides behind religion?
Note that while other fascist regimes may have cloaked themselves in
moral and religious garb after coming to power, these people will use
the American idea of freedom and tolerance of religion against America
itself by insisting that they are only following the Word.  It is a
particularly troublesome nut.

These two articles and others are good for those of us who will read
them, but how do we get the rest of the tolerant people in this country
to understand what these people want?  How do we make them understand
what a theocracy would really look like?  Pat Robertson cannot simply
be laughed off anymore.  Everytime he says something it must be rebuked
and rebutted.  Same with James Dobson and the rest.  Perhaps Air
America should start a short segment on one show or another announcing
and rebutting daily what the religious right has said much as they do
with O'Reilly etal.  I don't know.  A particularly troublesome nut,
indeed."


Please let me know if you have any ideas.  We need some.  These people
are dead serious and none to bright.

To The New Yorker(again).

2005-05-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

"My dears,
Please consider the following 2 sentences:

1) "P.p.m. is the usual abbreviation for 'parts per million'."

2) " 'Parts per million' is usually abbreviated p.p.m. "

These are equivalent sentences, no? And yet they are not. Any abbreviation must have all it's points regardless of where in a sentence it stands. So, in fact, the second sentence is missing a period. This is plain to see here and on page 68 of your May, 2 issue.
You may, of course, edit your magazine in any way you wish, but you will still be wrong if you continue to do this."

Of course, 'cooperation' doesn't have an umlaut either, but one battle at a time.

Well yeah, say it out loud...

2005-04-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's Jim Moran(D-VA) in an interview with RawStory tellin' it like it is. Even calls Cheney an asskisser...whooHooo...are we having fun yet?

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/jim_moran_interview_bush_republicans_429.htm

alas...

2005-04-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

here's a little bit of bio that I posted on a WELL punk rock topic, all true(to life as the Roxy Music song says):

"#11 of 17: Tell your piteous heart there's no harm done. (krome) Thu 28 Apr 2005 (03:54 PM)

I have a Dead Kennedys backstage pass(Houston Rock Island show) circa
1979 or 80 attached to my flute case.  'Nuff said, except I don't play
it anymore and, yes, I have been asked at least once if I played flute
for the Kennedys.

I still appreciate hearing some punk.  Caroline does a great show on
KUSF 12-3 on wednesdays, that I don't get to hear often enough.  But I
was so young(14 in 79) and so poor that I never bought any of the
records.  To me it always was more of a live phenomenon, mostly about
alleviating suburban boredom while maybe learning something about the
politics of the day.  One of my favorite bands, still, is Au Pairs
though they wouldn't qualify as punk.  I really, really love the late
70's/early 80's stuff that took punk and roasted it with Ska and other
stuff.  That era is lost forever, but it was *alot* of fun to be a
teenager(and a runaway) in:no AIDS, cocaine and speed everywhere and
walking around with ripped jeans and 3 earrings was enough to get you
kicked out of the public library.  I will be 40 in fewer than 4 weeks
and I still don't know how this has happened.  I still don't know if I
care. "

Here we go!!!

2005-04-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

That's better, Denny Boy, you arrogant twit! So , Denny Boy Hastert, Bugboy's Bed Buddy, has decided that packing the House Ethics Committee with people who have given money to Bugboy's defense fund may be a tad too f**cking much. You know what, D-Boy? I could have told you that you were gonna regret slipping into the sack with DeLay ages ago. I really hope your constituents in Illinois or whichever hellhole you're from, you know the ones you can't possibly have time to represent since you're so busy tickling Bugboy's privates, get this point and vote your sorry ass out ASAP! Twit!

This is IT

2005-04-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

OK, F**k Microsoft. I started using LINUX rather than MS years ago, but we have all been able to believe that they are just harmless miscreants trying to monopolize a market. No, not anymore. They are the enemy. Check out this. F**k them forever(will I edit this in the morning? Dunno.).

P.S. I did edit it for family-style viewing, but that's all.

Whole Foods Update

2005-04-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't heard back from them, but I did go shopping today and they are still carrying the 'Nasoya' tofu that I love. I would like to make it clear that I am not trying to tell them what to sell. My main point is that they not become a single brand store. Unfortunately, I know that it makes more economic sense to buy black beans from a variety of producers and then sell them all under one label. At this point, I trust WFM to do this as consienciously as they have run their business from the start. But it starts to look a little 'Starbucksy' like someone's comment on the earlier WFM letter alluded to. And if economics can drive you to that point, why wouldn't it drive you back to buying beans that weren't grown organically. I am not insinuating anything here, let's be very clear, but image counts for a lot and what is best economically often looks like hell.

Talking 'bout the Media, Y'all

2005-04-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

I strongly encourage everyone to check out the following, strongly.

streaming video:
Part I:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8560.htm
Part II:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8561.htm

or,
download RM files:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/orwell_rolls_in_his_grave_1.rm 
(47.6 mb)
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/orwell_rolls_in_his_grave_2.rm 
(49.5 mb)

DeLay and Hastert

2005-04-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

OK, it's time for Hastert to step up and go down too. As reported here, the changes to the House Ethics Committee rules that now allow a lack of a majority to kill an investigation(this panel is 5R and 5D, so if all 5Rs choose not to pursue an action, it just never gets going) came straight out of Hastert's office without any notification of the Dems. Pure politics. What the Times has failed to mention again is that Lamar Smith, one of the Rs on the Committee, has given $10,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund and Tom Cole, another member of the Committee, has given $5,000.

Now, let me point out that if you go to the second link, it is a Times story...From March 12!. I don't understand how you can do a report on the Ethics Committee, as in the first link, without mentioning the information found in the seccond. It is germane as hell, you guys.

From the Well(someone else this time)

2005-04-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

From Bill Bryan on the Well, reposted with permission, just about sums it up:

"

 The odds are so against getting working people to wise up. I have
just been indelibly reminded of that by working four jobs alongside
"working people" over the last seven  months: machinists, caretakers,
electrical contractor outlet, newspaper delivery. They don't know the
difference between Republican and the Queen of Sheeba, don't care, and
don't want to know. I asked a mousey little blonde woman about 50 doing
finishing on electronic casings if she voted for Bush. She just looked
straight ahead and said in a hushed disapproving tone, "That's
private." They are happily disgruntled sheep, fiercely protective and
secretly vexed simultaneiously by their boss who they know is gently
screwing them. They are fortified by their endless little collections
of wrongs and miseries done them by people and THE SYSTEM and that
world out there which they know damn well you can't "change." What are
you, nuts, man? But it's all okay because, don't you see, they have The
Church. And that ecstatic womb of that church keeps them medicated
with the sure knowledge that things may seem rotten but they must
remember they are only a breath away from heaven and if they try they
can feel it right now. So just grin and bear it. This is the best of
all possible worlds, people. Now let us pray. This scenario entails so
much more of this country than I ever realized--making me realize how
skewed a view I was inculcated with by my and my peers' intense
youthful political experiences of the sixties and seventies. The mass
bulk of this country--and that's what this country is to such a
near-incredible degree it seems anymore: a mass of gluttonous, obese or
just fat, ignorant, illiterate, provincial, not lazy--quite the
opposite, disinterested and uninterested in the world, acquisitiveness
being their main lifestyle, industrious, sanctimonious sheep. The
relentless, ubiquitous Republican propaganda juggernaut cuddling,
coaching and "rewarding" them every inch of the way at every private
and public gathering has their heads and hearts snugly wrapped in blind
faith and buried in the sand. They are impenetrable."

Uummm, I think we need to wake these people up. I reaaaalllly don't want to
live through a Depression.  Poverty sucks.

So what else is gonna do it?

To Whole Foods

2005-04-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

The letter that follows speaks largely for itself. Those of you who remember the funky little store at 9th and Lamar will understand. And those of you who don't know where Whole Foods came from should. I said I had been shopping with them since "I came to Austin in 1981 or '82" because I wasn't sure when they opened. They opened in '80 and there is documented evidence that I was in Austin permanently in mid 1981.

"Hi there, I have been shopping at Whole Foods since I arrived in Austin as a runaway in 1981 or '82. I came to San Francisco in 1996 and was pleased when you guys opened a store the same year. It seemed like destiny. So, I have been a faithful customer for over 20 years and I am the first to defend you guys when people call you "Whole Paycheck" and stuff, explaining to them who you are and where you have come from. You probably won't be surprised to hear that quite a few people don't have any idea of your history and how you have played a very large role in redefining the American shopping experience. Perhaps you don't want them to know.

Having grown up in Houston and Austin, I know it first hand. You guys were a light in the darkness of a universe of Krogers and HEBs and Safeways. At least once, I helped sandbag the original store at 9th and Lamar when Shoal Creek was about to flood. We go back a long, long way and I am, for the most part, just as proud of you today as I was in the early '80s.

However, I will not contribute to your current(last 5 years or so) hegemonistic tendencies, I don't care if they are more economically sound or not. Part of the joy of shopping at your stores, and I have shopped at stores in TX, CA, and CO, is finding the best items from around the world, be it fresh vegetables or olive oil. In short, I have gone and will go out of my way to not buy 365 branded items.

I was shopping at the SF(franklin) store yesterday and went to pick up some tofu. Not only had the item moved(no biggie) but my favorite brand wasn't available. In fact, the only tofu available was the firm Wildwood(which I used to eat but quit buying) and several versions of 365 branded tofu. Needless to say, I bought the Wildwood. My concern is that you may be planning to do away with my favorite brand(alas I don't really remember the name. 'Novsoya' or somesuch) and carry only the 365 stuff which would necessitate my going to Cala for my tofu. I have noticed such a trend in the bean section. I can no longer get Progresso beans at WFM, but I can get some non-365 stuff which works as well. Please don't do this.

I know you have a business to run. I know it works on paper, but this trend toward hegemonisation of your product line is discomforting to those of us who grew up with Krogers and HEBs and Safeways.

Yours until you start looking like a 'real' grocery store,

Krome

P.S. This will also be posted on my blog, kromeisburning.blogspot.com"

back in the saddle

2005-04-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Ok. Hi again. It's been a busy couple of weeks, getting back into the restaurant biz again after 6 or 8 years. It's a business I know since I've been in it since I was 15 years old. I started out as a dishwasher and have been a prep cook, line cook, sous chef, chef, pastry cook/chef, baker and bartender. Now bartending again. After 2 lay-offs in 14 months from the corporate world, it's good to get back to something I know this well even if it doesn't pay as much. You can make pretty good money for the work.

Anyway, got my annual Social Security Statement recently and, sure enough, they are politicing in it. At one point it notes that "The law governing benefit amounts may change*" and below says, "*Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2042, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 73 percent of scheduled benefits. (Emphasis mine) Well that sounds like they know exactly what is going to happen in the next 37 years doesn't it? Nevermind that their own actuaries have come up with different numbers! Nevermind that Congress could, instead of changing benefit amounts, change the tax structure. Changing the tax structure to allow FICA taxes after the $90,000 earnings mark changes things significantly. This coupled with the disinformation spewed by the administration during their barnstorming is just more scare tactics. Without going through it all again, just go here, http://kromeisburning.blogspot.com/2005/03/your-social-security-response-kit.html to see what I wrote about it in early March. It still holds.

Tom DeLay, aka Bugboy, is going down fast and hard. It is all over the national news so I won't go into it except to say that the NYTimes ran an article on his problemos that was pretty good but missed one very important point. When, in this article, they say:

"A spokesman for Mr. DeLay, Dan Allen, was quoted by The Associated Press on Sunday as saying that the majority leader "looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee" in the House "to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that's being launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies.""

They fail to go on and mention what I mentioned here. That DeLay has stacked the Ethics Commision for himself.And we see here that Rep. Louise Slaughter is getting the brush off from Rep. Dreier about setting a date for the ethics investigation. Politics as usual? Perhaps, but it is quite obvious that many Rethuglicans can't quite decide whether or not they want to hang with DeLay or help him hang alone. Al Franken suggested that we help them along by calling your Rethuglican Reps to encourage them to dump DeLay and then calling back to encourage them to stand behind him. I think it's a good strategy. I went one farther and actually called 2 of DeLay's offices to encourage him to keep up the good fight knowing that my Rep, Pelosi, is fighting to get him out of there. Nothing like a catfight to make things interesting. I actually hope he fights tooth and nail so as many Rethugs as possible get stained with his s**t. He's going down and I want him to take as many of his buddies with him as he can.

On Okrent's latest: Not a lot to say. He addresses the 'scoop' mentality of reporters and editors which needs to be mentioned.

On Negative Space: it's what we call empty space in art and I work with it at times. Check out my Arts Site to see what I'm talking about. I will try to get around to discussing it later. For the time being, suffice to say that I find it harder to work with than filling space up and also more vibrant and challenging in this world where we try to fill up all empty space all the time. In a world of cramped cities and small apartments, the illusion of space is very important. To me anyway.

Long Been Gone

2005-04-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

OK, I have been quiet for awhile. Mostly because the Rethugs are doing it to themselves. Also I started bartending again so have been getting used to that and trying to figure out how I'm going to make enough money to survive. When I get time(later today?) I do want to talk about a few things; Social Security, Tom DeLay and the NYTimes' failures there, and a little bit, perhaps on Daniel Okrent's latest. And, of course, Negative Space. So, read up for the quiz!

Daniel Okrent

2005-03-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

When, in his most recent column, Daniel Okrent says,

"Most readers would already have learned about Bonds's explosive meeting with the press from broadcast or Internet news sources, or even from the guy in the next seat on the subway.",

he is right on top of my main point in some of my notes in the A Trip through Editorial Space posts. If the NYTimes is going to rely on its columnists and op-eders to bring to its pages news, even if one may credibly believe that this news is already widely known, then it has ceased to be a news gathering organization and become simply a reporting one. The question becomes, do I want to know the news or do I want Maureen Dowd's take on the news. At times I do want Ms. Dowd's take on an issue, but I consistently find her opinion more valuable when I know as many facts about the case as she does. So you are forcing me to get my news elsewhere. Which I do. I always check 3 or 4 news sources (including blogs) before turning to the Times. I used to turn to the Times first.

Far be it from me to say this is right or wrong, but these guys have powerful, far-reaching news organizations whose stories are often the staple of other papers in the country, so we out here are getting yesterday's news when we get it at all. And the papers wonder why they aren't making any money.

Speaking of which, I am going to do something I never thought I'd do. I would like to say that the San Francisco Examiner (a free paper) appears to be becoming a rather good Local/State paper which is what the Chronicle does (among other things) for s**t. Kudos.

And when the NYTimes is reporting on issues on the op-ed page others feel perfectly justified in following suit. Remember when there was a difference between a Paper and a Newspaper? I do.

Schiavo silliness

2005-03-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, I finally got sucked into it. This is such obviously shallow grandstanding that we should all ignore it but we can't because the MSM is infatuated. Fuck. I wrote this on the Al Franken Show blog today and went back and got it because it is more lucid and coherent than what I was writing last night on DailyKos and elsewhere.

"

The dems aren’t scared of their shadow, but they’ve had there pee-pees slapped and can’t bring themselves to further alienate the reactionary rightwing minority that DelayCo enflames with such seemingly simple calls as “life vs. death”. Admittedly it’s a tough battle to go into but not when you are speaking to people with mental ages greater than 8 or so. The Dems and regular republicans need to be willing to stand up to the rapturists and the silly MSM needs to not let this stuff run for a week above the fold. Just because people are emotionally attached to a falsity doesn’t mean it’s not false. And just because they’re emotional does not mean we need to take them seriously. The more attention they get, the more important they think they are and the better chance you have of someone doing something really, really stupid when Terri Schiavo dies. It is time we remarginalize this grouup of extremists.

BTW, the Schidlers are part and parcel of this farce. This is not happening around them. They have engaged all sorts of quacks and fundamentalists to help whip up the frenzy. If Terri dies on Easter, we have really big problems.

Posted by krome on 03/24 at 03:06 PM"

Cut and pasted with all the typos uncorrected because we really, really need to stop pretending that this is about anything except an extremist minority being propped up by the sickened and sickening rightwing to advance g*d knows what agenda. They will do anything to keep their nefarious shenanigans from light.

And though I am sick of hearing about it here's an article that caught my eye. And let's not forget that State's Rights are very important to the rethugs until things don't go their way at the State level.

and here he is

2005-03-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a recording of our friend from my window above the Tenderloin .

Spring is sprung

2005-03-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

The first robin of the season is right now singing on the TV antenna atop the building next to mine.

From the Well

2005-03-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

here's something I posted on the Well that I think sums up how I feel about things quite nicely. Posted here for those who aren't Well members. It's a great place that I visited back in the late '80s/early '90s and have recently rejoined. Go to Well.com to check it out or join($15/mth or so):

"

politics 2159: Continue to pay attention to the men behind the curtain
#1379 of 1396: Tell your piteous heart there's no harm done. (krome) Mon 21 Mar 2005 (12:52 PM)

I grew up believing that the Democratic party was the party of common
sense and intelligence.  Fiscally, morally, environmentally and
diplomatically(eg standing against the Vietnam War).  I think that to
any intelligent being they still are especially when compared with the
current administration and congressional leadership.  Consequently, I
have struck out against anyone and everyone that voted for Bush and/or
any other rethug by simply impugning their intelligence, which may not
always be fair.  It will not be easy for me to accept swing voters back
into "my" party, but I don't have to, the party does.  I hope Howard
Dean can convince these people that they are voting against their own
interests, financially, morally, environmentally and diplomatically and
that the Democratic party will look out for their interests.
Unfortunately, it may take a draft to start these people thinking.

Here we go again.  When we can figure out how to pass along wisdom
genetically, we will finally win this war against ourselves."

It's not all politics

2005-03-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

To the New Yorker:

"Re:http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/index.ssf?050321ta_talk_mcgrath

The main fact, as far as I know, that determines that a tomato is a fruit rather than a vegetable, is that a fruit carries its seeds within the part of it, the "fruit", that we eat. Vegetables do not. So, at least in my experience, your average eggplant is also a fruit. A curious omission on your part."

I'll let you know if I get a response.

Ummm...

2005-03-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

Is the NYTimes now running personal ads alongside news stories?

Well I just checked that link and you get a different ad, so I will try a screen capture...

And since blogspot is so lame that I can't upload a file here's a link to the screenshot.

Sunday Blahs

2005-03-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well, should be heading down to the "Ulysses" discussion group that I really enjoy, but I'm sick. Some nasty virus that has been coming up for a week or so. Checking in at the DailyKos Sunday talk show diary I find that it's all rethuglicans and generals...and Sinn Fein. The Democratic Party is sitting on the sidelines while the right spews lies and innuendo. Again. Come on!! You people are starting to embarass me with this laziness. Get your asses on the tube and call the liars liars.

Yesterday, walking to get some beer before heading down to the anti-War rally, I saw this adorable latina child in a beautiful burgundy, velvet dress with lace at the neck and cuffs, walking next to her mother who was pushing a stroller(pram). The child was carrying a doll. I happened to look down at her as she, while apparently looking straight ahead, walked right into a brick wall corner. I'm sure there wasn't really a sound, but I imagined a thunk and she fell down and, after a moment of stunned wonder, began to cry, softly at first and then wailing. As if the first wimpers were for the pain, not too severe since she wasn't moving that fast, followed by wails for the injustices of the world. Just walking along a Tenderloin sidewalk dressed for church or a birthday party on a Saturday, carrying your favorite doll and this...wall just jumps up and hits you in the face. I hate when that happens.

The probable draft

2005-03-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

OK, here are some links that you might want to browse if the idea of a draft for this war concerns you. From Stars and Stripes.

Link to Daily Kos diary outlining the plans with links.

Here's a link that appears to be a good outline of how to claim conscientious objector status.

More links as I run across them. This is probably going to happen.

Poll...

2005-03-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

Is there a better album to wake up to than Parliament's "Mothership Connection"? I don't think so, but feel free to comment.

yeah, we know...

2005-03-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

Here it's said that the US had plans for Iraqi oil long before 9/11. Can't say that I'm at all surprised. But interesting that the destruction of OPEC isn't necessarily what the oil companies want.

By comparison...

2005-03-17T15:48:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't seen a lot of rejection notices, here is one I recieved today. This is of the much more usual sort and I think it will help you understand why the previous was so welcome.:

"Please find enclosed the return of your visuals. While your work is engaging, at this time we find it unlikely that we will be expanding our program.

In the interim, we thank you for considering this gallery and I encourage you to investigate other Bay Area galleries and local institutions. Again, thank you and we wish you much future success.

Best regards,..."

Not horrible, but preetty plain and printed on really cheap paper as opposed to the previous. Even if the previous is a form letter, it's a really good one.

Why, thank you for not showing my art!

2005-03-15T16:29:00.000-08:00

Got probably the nicest rejection letter today that I have ever seen and I have seen quite a few:

"I greatly appreciated the opportunity to review your images. While you are obviously quite talented, after careful consideration, I have elected to return the materials to you. At the present moment, the imagery does not match the current aesthetic of the gallery.

Thanks again for your interest and I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

Warm Regards,..."

My, my, now that's the kind of note that makes it OK that they don't want to hang your stuff.

"I have to do my Happy Dance"

2005-03-15T14:07:00.000-08:00

The above is from a post by somebody at RawStory this morning when we learned that 4 ethics groups were going to look into Tom(bugman) DeLay's(say isn't that a French name, bud?) crimes. We also now know that tomorrow at 10AM there will be a vote on whether or not the Congress will demand all information on the Gannon/Guckert scandal. Of course we know it won't pass the Rethuglican controlled House but at least we have the f***ers on the record. Social Security Destruction is deader by the minute. Oh yeah!!!

Now, I don't want to gloat when nothing's for sure...Oh Wait!! Bernie Ebbers convicted on EVERY, SINGLE one of the 11 counts of fraud and other stuff!!!Yeah!! (doing Happy Dance to King Crimson) F**k you, Bernie! and tell your wife to suck it up and stop crying. While you're answering to "Bitch!" for , perhaps, the rest of your life(possible 85 years for all counts), she's gonna have to deal with the fact that she married a Punk, an Asshole and a shitty businessman. Poor Mississippi baby! (doing Happy Dance to Lone Justice).

Now to all you people who voted for the schmucks and their supporters, let's talk. We've had our differences in the past and I will admit that I have been somewhat rigid in my belief that you mean nothing but the destruction of this country to come from your party and your votes. But, I know not all of you could see what was so obvious to the rest of us, so, I just want to say, "Step back, raise your hands where I can see them, slooowly, and GET YOUR F***ING HANDS OFF OF MY COUNTRY!!!!! NOW!!!"

OK, I have to go hand out bartending resumes.

(Doing Happy Dance to OMD and whatever else comes on...)

Rich's piece

2005-03-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

Careful readers will recall the following from "A Trip through Editorial Space" part 3:

"Whoops, I almost forgot about this one. It's not just that they aren't reporting it. When they do report it they do a really weak job,2/20:

“Web Site Owner Says He Knew of Reporter's 2 Identities http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/national/20gannon.html

"Texas Republicans said he(Bobby Eberle. kmw) was not well known in the party."
Of course they said this!!! You nitwit! He was a delegate to the 2000 RNC(http://txgop.org/newsroom/newsDisplay.php?id=112), he purchased a website from a political insider(Bruce Eberle, relation unknown, but you certainly can't just say the aren't related when Bruce says he's handing off MillionsofAmericans.com to one of the Texas Eberle clan). You guys are just determined to bury this story aren't you? “"

Searching NYtimes.com for gannon/guckert shows no new articles since I wrote that except for Frank Rich's Arts editorial of March 6 in which he writes, (quoting the Daily Texan? No offence to at least one of this blog's readers(who edited the DT), but i spent 13 years using the DT for birdcage liner. Either they've gotten a lot better, not so according to another friend in Austin, or the NYTimes is really falling) "...today's White House press corps is less likely to be invaded by maverick talents like a drug-addled reporter from a renegade start-up magazine than by a paid propagandist like Jeff Gannon, a fake reporter for a fake news organization (Talon News) run by a bona fide Texas Republican operative who was a delegate to the 2000 Bush convention." (emphasis mine)

Now, I was not the only one reminding them long ago that Bobby Eberle was well known in TX Rethuglican circles. The point here is that the NYTimes is "covering" the story in the Op-ed columns and so is everyone else. The editorial pages are a good place to ask questions that may never be answered(eg "Who was actually paying G/G?" ), but it is not the place to inform readers of the depth of cooperation between TalonNews and the DC Rethuglican machine.

I still don't understand why the NYTimes has been so afraid of this story. I mean, they are reporting on DeLay's corruption connections. It seems that they and many others were scared that at some point it would cave and they'd end up looking like a tabloid. But the facts were pretty solid a week or so into it and once they were ready to publish the skimpy articles they did, they were committed as far as I'm concerned.

Yet, they pulled back or out.

And you will notice that Rich goes out of his way to point out that ABC and CBS didn't report the story. You know that's just ridiculous...Calling the fucking kettle black, Frank!

They're either pusswas (thanks to Go Fug Yourself) or suckups. Either way, I'm still not buying their paper.

SS this week

2005-03-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

Well the Bush/Snow(job) zamboni is rolling along and, surprise, there aren't any new outright lies to confront. They've already used them all and they have all been debunked repeatedly. So we get things like Snow invoking Albert Einstein to tell us why he wants to destroy Social Security and GWB saying that the private accounts will be on top off and outside of Social Security. Bullshit. They have been insisting all along that these accounts would be to provide the lion's share of benefits(Thanks to Dailykos for reading my mind and giving the perfectly succinct link to an analysis). The math still doesn't work people, and Snow, if you expect anyone to believe that you would have the first idea of how to understand anything Albert Einstein ever said, think(or try to) again. Links to transcripts when I can. And I will be dealing with Frank Rich's (pretty good) recent editorial that manages to cover information about Gannon/Guckert that the Times has previouosly failed to cover in the News section.

InRe: the Mclaughlin Group

2005-03-07T22:49:00.000-08:00

Here

Anyone who even thinks about believing that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are forthcoming is automatically, in my book, besniggen. I just made this word up, "Besniggen: to be as useless as snot that has been wiped away and tossed into the trashcan, that is, unthinkably useless, naggingly useless, more useless than 3 day old black snow, more killingly useless than black ice on the Tahachapis, more pathetically useless than Icarus's wings as they began to melt, as worthless, in fact, as a poet laureate for the United States. Utterly, utterly and completely not worth a fraction of the energy it takes to stage your junior high school debate class every week. A dead skunk you drive over one night on your motorcycle."

Hmmm...Saturday, broke, happy...

2005-03-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

I will be 40 years old in 10 weeks or so and the other day I got carded when ordering Sake at the Sushi bar. Cool.

Since this is a blog, perhaps I can lay off the politics for a bit and just chat. Listening to 'Another Green World' after dinner of home-made lentils and fresh bread, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the fridge. BTW Sierra Nevada means "snowy mountain range" so the only correct way to truncate the name is "the sierra" rather than "the sierras" which would mean "mountain ranges" while we only have the one.

And Junipero Serra was the monk responsible for most of the California missions. Depending upon which traffic commentator you are hearing it is pronounced as "Junipero" as in soft G up front or "Junipero" as in sort of soft H up front. Either works. But " the Sierra" is the only proper way to say that.

40 doesn't mean anything to me. 35 meant more. It has taken me longer than it should have to realize that most people don't have a goal for their lives. If you had asked me 30 years ago what I wanted to be, the response would probably be the same as it is now, "an Artist". Art, as little as it means to most people, is really the only thing that matters to me. It has taken me awhile to realize this as well. I am not as sharp sometimes as I think I should be.

A few years ago I stopped in a bar here in SF and in the newspaper rack there was a copy of the fanzine "Maximum Rock&Roll" which I hadn't seen in awhile. Reading through the letters to the editor, I came across a letter from a guy in prison in TX who used to be the singer for a band called Verbal Abuse. His stage name was Nikki Sicki(sp?) . His real name is Nicky Hanson and I knew him many, many years ago in Houston. I fed him at my Dad's house and I met his parents once at their place in Memorial Drive. Not sure what this means but it screws with one's mind to pick up a fanzine in a bar in SF and find a letter from someone you haven't even thought of in 15 years or so. Reminds you of where you aren't.

Have another friend going to prison for 2-3 years for tax evasion and other things. When I was distraut to hear this, he said that "you can't tell what life is going to bring". I have heard the same from others. It's as if they are just standing around waiting for life to happen to them.

And since I cannot stop with the politics check this out http://mediamatters.org/items/200503050004
They really are trying to stop all thought.

It seems that I knew this as a child as I know it now. Why can't we stop this? Why are we so wedded to stupidity and fascism?

As to the title of this post: it is Saturday and there's nothing to be done for it. Not that I wish for it to not be Saturday. I'm broke because I have been laid off 2 times in 14 months and am, once again, having to figure out how to live on unemployment. Happy because being really, really poor simplifies so much. I mean, you don't have to think about what to do with your money.

yeah, so, I'm cool...but I do wonder why we can't use wisdom more to govern youthful surety and ignorance

And for those of you who, like me, have found yourselves in that oh so dark land of trying to figure out WHY GWB wants to do what he does, here it is in all its disturbing psychosis and pathology http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/31/levy.html
(or the longer version at http://www.awakeninthedream.com/georgew.html )

Good Night.

OK,

2005-03-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

These are the guys we have to look out for.

And, isn't it interesting how scared the Rethugs are of Howard Dean?

Courtesy of Media Matters for America.

Quote Time!

2005-03-04T12:27:00.000-08:00

"To the hard of hearing you shout and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures."
-Flannery O'Connor

"What we gotta do in this day and age, we gotta Agitate, Educate, Organize"
-That Petrol Emotion, circa 1987

And this from

2005-03-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

Rawstory,
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=146

they are going to fall...the more Sun we shine the more they fall.

letter to Pelosi, Feinstein & Boxer

2005-03-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

To: Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Representative Nancy Pelosi(strictly alphabetical, no bias or favoritism),

I am writing you to ask you to keep doing exactly what you have been doing with regard to this administration's attempts to destroy Social Security: Nothing but responding to lies with facts. Please do not offer any compromise. The Bush/Snow team is about to head out on a barnstorming trip to drum up support for this fiasco and I think we should do the following:

Address lies and misconceptions as soon as they crop up on the local TV/Radio stations in whichever market they appear.

Otherwise simply allow the administration to further spin its wheels. The more people learn about what this administration wants to do(as far as that means anything since they have no real proposal) the more they dislike it and for good reason.

The Social Security System is a successful and well run system that is infinitely preferable to investing these taxes in Mutual Funds which are not as successfully run and don't have near the record of stable growth.

Until this administration has offered a bill or other substantive document as to their actual plans, the minority party should do nothing. None of the ideas they have floated so far have been worth anything and I don't believe that they have anything but the utter destruction of Social Security and anything else that contributes to the dignity and security of the American people in their sights.

Nancy Pelosi's comments recently have struck straight to the point: The administration has underestimated the intelligence(or was it Wisdom?) of the American people when it comes to this issue. I appreciate that most Democrats have let the administration wear itself out to no avail, but I have started to see some start to offer compromises to what is a nothing so far. Let these people come to the table with a proposal and then shred it if it undermines the security which is the whole point of Social Security.

We can win this one with watchful, careful, mindful activity. There is no reason to address the foe on his own terms which are faulty, let him come to you.

This will also be posted on my blog, kromeisburning.blogspot.com

Thanks,
Krome

Social Security redux

2005-03-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

According to Raw Story, the BushCo is planning on a 60 day barnstorming campaign to sell SS. They've seen the polls and are getting scared. I repeat, this is nothing but an attempt to dismantle the New Deal and anything else that contributes to the dignity and security of the American people. Please collar everyone you know and have them hit my blog or some other place where they can take a look at some facts before they get hit in the face with rank propaganda. Call your Sens and Reps.

Also, quickly, there are things that can be done to shore up the long-term financial stability of SS. I will just mention 2. The simplest is to raise the FICA cap. As it is now, after you have made $90,000 you no longer contribute to FICA(I know this from others, certainly not from real life). By raising this cap or removing it entirely we could essentialy fund SS "forever". Another option that occurs to me is to allow SS to decide if it wants to loan cash to the Treasury. I believe and I will make sure when I can, that as it stands the SSTF is required to trade its assets to the Treasury for TBs on a daily basis. Perhaps, if the SSTF could keep cash on hand it might curb the Treaury's temptation to spend the cash it gets for its TBs.

The first problem with this is that the managing trustee of the SSTF is also the Secretary of the Treasury, so even if it was able to the SSTF might never "choose" not to loan its assets to Treasury.

Oh well, the important thing is that the current push for "reform" is a scam. We must fight it and not compromise. It is important that the Dems stand fast and not offer anything until the administration puts forth a bill that can be parsed thoroughly and discarded if it even looks like it might destroy SS as we know it. God knows if the Dems start compromising they are going to have to deal with amendments and committee language that could make them very, very uncomfortable. The Rethugs brought this up, let them take it to the people and put their best foot forward with no help from us(you listening Senator Lieberman?)

Your Social Security Response Kit

2005-03-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

OK, first a little talk about credit: You love it, I love it, some abuse it, but it is truly what the global economy relies on. Nobody, no state nor nation has, on hand, in cash, the millions or billions that they will need to do what they want (well, OK, some do. Those aristocracies where all the cash belongs to 5 individuals, but most do not) whether that is building roads and schools or paying lobbyists and legislators insane amounts of money to drink lunch and chase their secretaries. They do have future earnings (futures) though. Iraq has oil and the US has a lot of natural resources plus a (rapidly declining) manufacturing value. I want to make it plain here that I am not an economist. I've got some math behind me but that's not really what the argument over Social Security (SS) is about. Believe it or not the numbers aren't all that important. I mean, it's not like any of us can actually understand what a trillion dollars means.

The major questions about Social Security have to do with where the money goes after it leaves my check. And what is it going to be doing until I call for it again when I'm old? And will it be there then?

Suppose you are a child again (and I am only taking it to this level because that is where it makes most sense. I do not think you all are children or stupid), and you have a paper route or a lemonade concession or a baby-sitting concern or are mowing some lawns for money, and every morning you take a look at what you have vs. what you need (to spend) until more comes in: the difference between the 2, if positive, are your assets, if negative, your deficits (doesn't sound quite so childish now). Suppose that every morning, just after you've finished your accounting, your father or mother sticks his/her head in and says, "For every asset you've got, I would like to borrow that and give it back to you later with interest."

Now, your answer depends, rather deeply upon what you think of the parent. If your parent is trustworthy and thrifty and the rent is always paid on time and there is always food around you will probably say ,"OK". But suppose you're not sure. So, you go nextdoor to Germany and ask what they think of this proposal. They say,"Of course, I have no doubt that your parent will repay. In fact I am so sure that I have lent your parent many millions of dollars." Still not sure you might go to the Japanese, or the Brazilians, or the French, or even the Russians. And they all give you the same response.

So you agree and your parent says, "OK, if by June 30 you still don't need this then we will keep it for 1-15 years with a better rate of interest."
"But, what if I need it before then? What if I need it when winter comes and lawns don't need mowing and lemonade isn't selling?"
"Well then," your parent says, "I will give it back to you with a reduced amount of interest."
"But, what if I need it tomorrow or next week?"
"You will never lose any principal. Your quarter will always be worth a quarter even if you need it tomorrow. But if you can wait, it will be worth more."

Cute story, huh? Well, that is exactly what the Social Security Administration(SSA) does with your FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act). The money that is removed from your check (6.2% matched with 6.2% from your employer) goes into the SSA accounts (certainly not as paper dollars, but as an electronic deposit) and everyday (they claim and I believe them) they look at what they need to pay out and what they have. If they have a surplus(assets) then, as far as I can tell, the law says that they will loan this money to the Treasury in the form of either "special issue" Treasury Bonds or "Certificates of Indebtedness". The former being long-term and the latter being short-term. When June 30 rolls around whatever "Certificates of Indebtedness" they have on hand that are not immediately needed are converted to Treasury Bonds(in this discussion it is from now assumed that the Treasury Bonds purchased by SSA are not the same as such bonds that are publicly available, but just like the latter they are...) backed by the full Faith and Credit of the United States Government.

This is a very important bit here at the last:...backed by the full Faith and Credit of the United States Government. It is, in fact the crux of the biscuit in that the Government is essentially claiming that SS is broke because the Treasury Bonds(TB's) in the SS Trust Fund (SSTF) are worthless. But this is the Government telling you that their promises are no good. Now you might say that you knew that, but when it comes to money that's quite a different animal.

If the U.S. Government really believes that its promises are empty even in its financial obligations then we have really, really, big problems. And that may be so. Let's talk about separating SS from the rest of Government spending for a minute.

When Geo. Bush talked about his tax cuts, he spoke of the "surplus" as if we had it laying around in a back room of the White House. But in the Clinton years we had separated SS from the rest of the budget where in BushCo they included it. And spent it in the form of tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthiest among us. For the moment, let's say we don't have a problem with that except that now they claim that SS is broke BECAUSE THE TREASURY THAT THEY EMPTIED FOR TAX CUTS CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY ITS OBLIGATIONS TO THE SSTF! That is really the crux of their argument, "Whoops, it was here a minute ago! Oh! hehe! that's right I gave away the cash to my friends and now all you have are these IOUs(TBs) that, well, we can't afford to pay right now." This doesn't mean that they aren't obligated to redeem the bonds. Whether or not the Treasury has the money right now, it is still obligated to buy back its bonds when the SSTF wants to sell them. The understanding that the US Government is good for its obligations is wide spread and fundamental.

So, whether or not you believe that SS is broke depends on whether or not you believe that the US Government will renege on its obligation to redeem the bonds issued to the SSTF in trade for its cash. The second the US Government declines to redeem a TB held by the SSTF is the same second it has declared its intention to decline its obligation everywhere and the world economy will falter. The second the US Government declines to redeem a TB held by the SSTF in favor of redeeming a TB held by any foriegn power is the same second that this government will have declared war on its own citizens. This is the truth and GWB is so simple that he can't see the contradiction. "I'm the leader of the greatest nation on Earth but we can't afford to pay our retirees because we can't cover the bonds in the SSTF. But, I'm still master of the world ,right? Right?" Yes, he is a fool and Karl Rove is a fool as well, but I promised this would be a Response Kit and so it will be.

So, when someone says that there are only IOUs in the SSTF, you don't have to remind them that a dollar bill is an IOU just go here and here and show them that the Bonds(IOUs) owned by the SSTF are BACKED BY THE FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.

If they want to talk about when SS will go broke(2018?,2042?) go here to see a nice Think Progress page that tells it straight.

When somebody complains about administrative costs of SSA go here to see " SSA's administrative expenses, which are less than 2 percent of total outlays". Which is much less than it would cost to have it run by investment banks or mutual funds.

When somebody claims that they can get a better return in the stock market first explain that nothing is guaranteed and then go here and here to see that SSTF bonds are so secure in part because they are outside the economy and thus will follow their own interest curve even when the economy tanks like it has for the last few years. I mean, MY mutual funds haven't been growing very rapidly. Remember, with a TB you have a guaranteed rate of return.

If someone (G. Gordon Liddy) says that the Supreme Court has declared that the Government is not required to redeem its bonds owned by the SSTF, tell them that its not true. I haven't figured out an easy way to disprove this one, but I can't find evidence of it either. It seems that this rumour springs from a case of someone deported from the US who later sued to get his SS benefits. He was denied.

If someone says that FDR would have wanted to "privatize" SS like GWB wants to go here to see what FDR really said and here to get the rundown on how Brit Hume and others in the RWEC have distorted what FDR said.

If there is anyone out there who is still under the unfortunate impression that this BushCo scheme will do anything for SS solvency take them here to see what VP Cheney says about how much they will have to borrow to make this happen.

If, after you have related to them everything you've read here, they still insist that SS is going broke tomorrow (BushCo doesn't even say this anymore), go here to see the numbers as crunched by SSA actuaries.

If someone comes up with a reason why BushCo's idea is a good one that I haven't rebutted here, let me know and I'll do so tout suite. Remember, this is not a battle over solvency or an "ownership society", but an ideological battle with those who want to destroy SS because they despise FDR and the New Deal and anything else that contributes to the dignity and security of the American people. They ARE the other.

Here is a link to an Ellen Goodman article on what they are trying to do to FDR's legacy.
Here is a link to a John Berry article about how the SSTF works.

Corruption Ahoy(Oy Oy Oy)

2005-03-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

OK, here's the crux of the current administration's biscuit for this week. Of course it's been brewing for awhile, but it's time to howl and scream and make the MSM cover it as real news. This is going to be a forest of links because the articles say it better than I can, but I will give a synopsis. First, though, the cast of characters:

Tom Delay (junior Devil to Karl Rove's Satan)

Jack Abramoff (registered lobbyist and sole proprietor of Capital Athletic Foundation)

Michael Scanlon (ex-aide to Delay and associate of Abramoff)

Ralph Reed (Ex-leader Christian Coalition and general Rightist fuck)

Chris Bell (Texas Congressman run out of office by Delay's gerrymandering after filing an Ethics Complaint against Delay)

Bob Ney (Representative of OH and associate of Abramoff)

So, we know Tom Delay is evil, but now we can take him down if we can get the MSM to cover this story. Actually, there's a better chance of them doing this than covering Gannon/Guckert.

The story: As reported by Raw Story, the Washington Post, The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and others, Jack Abramoff who with Michael Scanlon recieved millions from certain Indian tribes
by trading on Delay's name and access to help them get casinos opened on their lands, has now been shown to have billed his law firm for travel expenses for Delay. This is illegal. Abramoff has also used his Capitol Atheltic Foundation to fund trips for Delay and his aides, Bob Ney (Chairman of the House Administration Committee of 2002) and Ralph Reed and it's highly likely that this oganization has nothing to do with athletics and is simply a front for money laundering and bribery.
The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to look into this. To be fair, Ney is appalled. Here's a report from Bill Moyers. And here you can take a look at evidence presented(including emails between Scanlon and Abramoff) to the Senate Commitee on Indian Affairs where John McCain sought to insulate Delay.

This is all pretty bad, but it gets worse: The House Ethics Committee has changed its rules to require a majority of its 10 members (5R and 5D) to even begin an investigation. And they have installed contributors to Delay on the republican side to ensure that no such will occur (indeed, take a look at the title of the members page in your browser tab. Mine says 'Republicans').

This is part and parcel of the corruption of this administration that cannot stand the Sun. Those of you in TX need to do your best to remove Delay. The rest of us need to shame our Reps into finding a way to sanction and remove him.

A trip through Editorial Space(shiver!) Part 1/3

2005-02-27T11:03:00.000-08:00

Here is a little exchange between me and a couple of the editors(actually the editor's people) at the NYTimes as the Gannon/Guckert story was exploding. In 3 Parts 'cuz this editor sux.

02/09/05 to All the NYTimes Editors:

“Can you please tell me why I can't find mention anywhere in your online paper of the Jeff Gannon/planted "journalist" story that is sweeping AirAmerica and other radio? I mean, this is pretty big stuff and I can't find a peep from you guys.”

And then this the next morning:

“OK, you guys have been scooped on the the Jeff Gannon/ planted correspondent issue. 24 hours after I sent a note asking why I couldn't find it anywhere in your online edition, I still don't see it. Even CNN and the Daily Post have run stories on this, meager as they may be, and DailyKos is planning to issue a press release(more power to them). Your mea culpa for your woefully inadequate reportage in the months leading up to this war in Iraq has been trumped by your utter inability to stand up for your very profession. You no longer stand as much for a free
press and/or investigative journalism as you do for craven marketeering and political prostitution. Please tell me why, besides your crosswords which are arguably the best to be found, I should ever think of contributing to your organization when you have shown yourselves to be so slow to protect the 4th estate which you pretend to embody.”

I wasn't so shocked that my 2/9 letter hadn't spurred them to action but I knew that I was just one of hundreds(thousands?) trying to get this story into the MSM. It still has just barely shown up now 3 weeks later. However there was a story on 02/11 though I can't say I was thoroughly satisfied:

“

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/politics/11gannon.html

Is it any wonder that this administration is able to get away with so much when you guys, with your reach, are so slow to get behind a real story? Not to mention that it's stuck way deep inside. Those liquid lunches sure make it tough to stay on top of the news, huh?”

Yeah, um, weeeell, I felt it was a justified poke. They were sitting on a story that was burning up the blogs and progressive radio. I mean just burning it up. It was all that was being talked about. The administration(aka Karl Rove) had been caught red-handed and the NYTimes was apparently only going to respond with a buried 5 paragraph piece on a Friday. Who reads the Washington section on a Friday?

But, it did get a response from the Executive Editor's office;

“You'll pardon me if I resent your last sentence.......
Sorry you don't like the placement or the timing of the story ...But what has happened to reasoned discourse? Or must everyone be an idiot or a moron or a drunk because the story they are interested in doesn't make the front page of the paper?”

The story I'M interested in?! Everybody who cares about democracy cared(and cares) about this story. But:

“OK, I apologize for the liquid lunch remark. That was the 3rd note I dropped to you guys and the only one to get a response, so I had no reason to believe that it would be any more closely read than the 2 others. I do feel that this Gannon story and the implications toward a White House disinformation campaign it supplies should be, if not on the front page, front and center on the Washington page. I mean, you know as well as I do(or you should) that without freedom of the press to examine our government there will be no ad revenue and no sense in printing fashion stories.”

Which brought this:

“Thank you for your reply. I'm not making excuses -- but the fact is that on this email site alone, we receive over 3000 emails a day. There are 2 human beings who deal with this site ...Stuff gets lost - legitimate emails get sent to junk mail ... There is no way we can answer them all. If you want to send me something directly, email me at (...). Believe me, no one is more aware of White House disinformation than this newspaper. I'm grateful for your measured response.”

OK, fair enough, but WHERE IS THE STORY NOW?! Going to the NYTimes website and searching for “gannon guckert” gives the articles that were available as of last week(ending 2/20) and an AP National Review blurb that notes that Talon News has shut down. More on this later.

(If you want to read these articles, I would recommend searching at nytimes.com and then googling the name of the article unless you want to buy it from the Times. Or just click on the links as they pop up. I think they show all the articles.)

A trip through Editorial Space(shiver!) Part 2/3

2005-02-27T11:02:00.000-08:00

So we let things develop until 2/17 with the appearance of a Maureen Dowd editorial in which she discusses the story but not the problem with the story. To wit:

“Indeed, but the larger story now is why the MSM(mainstream media in blog-speak) has yet to run a real story on this. Your paper ran a deeply buried short piece last Friday and then dropped it. Kurtz's(Howie Kurtz in the Washinton Post) piece was, I understand, in the style section for God's sake. Though the bloggers and Air America have been talking about this non-stop for over a week and I have sent 3 notes to all the editors at your paper asking why they weren't running the story, it has yet to land anywhere near the front page. You can't believe that the papers are squeamish about the sexual side of it(BTW it's not just that we have a web designer saying he put up nude pictures of Gannon/Guckert, we have seen the pictures: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/man-called-jeff.html). We all read about the semen stains on Lewinsky's dress. Indeed, we had to try not to read about it.
For whatever reason(disbelief, disgust, fear for democracy, fear of loss of access (Please! as if it matters when your news is being totally manufactured)) your paper is a tool for this administration's disinformation campaign by not covering this as news but as commentary on what others have reported. It's truly disgraceful. I have been recommending in the blogosphere and will recommend here that every White House correspondent except Helen Thomas(from whom neither Scott McClellan nor the President will take questions) start boycotting the press conferences. Then we can watch McClellan stand and stare at Helen Thomas, saying nothing and walking away. The net result would be no different than it is! Better yet, why don't all the correspondents start asking real questions so they will all be snubbed and we can watch McClellan or the President stare wordlessly at all of them. Again, the net result is the same only less CO2 being produced.”

That was meant to go to all the NYTimes editors, but I discovered later that it apparently only went to Ms. Dowd's box. Ahh, the joys of working with email clients that have their own rules about listing addresses and won't tell you before deleting your list. I love UNIX/Linux but not always. So, later that evening, it went to the editors with an extra tid bit:

“I have reason to believe that the attached didn't make it to you as it should have this morning. And because I think you need to step up to the plate, check this out:”

As it happens a story appeared, in the News section, the next day:

“OK, getting it into the news section, but still behind the ball. Why was Gannon/Guckert spotted in the White House before Talon was even established as has been reported by Air America and Salon.com? If no strings were pulled to get Guckert into the press room, why did McClellan and Bush(I believe) call him "Jeff"? Are you implying that I can walk up there and get a daily pass without showing any sort of ID? That's absurd and you know it. Finally, why am I having to ask you about your incomplete reporting? You failed(or did you?) at reportage to help the administration get us into a needless war(yes, you are culpable) and now you decide to play it safe by under-reporting the White House disinformation campaign....Ugh, sometimes I wonder if there is any hope for your paper at all. If it wasn't for the fact that editors all over the country won't publish a story that the NYTimes won't publish ,(that power feels pretty good, uh?) I probably wouldn't care so much, but there are FACTS in this ongoing story that you still have yet to report even as 2 of your op-eders wrote about it yesterday(Dowd and Frank Rich). This smells like a whitewash and I would at least like to know what you have to gain from it.
You have to live with your own culpability in sabotaging democracy but I will never let you go quietly.”

And from the office of the Public Editor on 2/18:

“Dear (Sir), Perhaps you missed the following articles. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/politics/18gannon.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/politics/11gannon.html?ex=1108875600&en=6dc6b83cc1ac21d7&ei=5070 And the following two columns in yesterday's paper. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17dowd.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html Sincerely, (...) Office of the Public Editor The New York Times “

To which I sent the last of this thread 2/19:

“Thank you for your reply. I have seen those articles, 2 of which are opeds rather than news. I wrote the note you replied to on 2/17 so I didn't know you guys were going to pick it up again on 2/18. I think I included you in the To: list for my note of yesterday but if not it is attached. I am still disappointed with the MSM coverage of the administration's disinformation campaign which has been well covered elsewhere. I, over the last few days, ran a small, non-scientific survey here in San Francisco. I asked 4 or 5 people who live and work in the City if they had heard of Jeff Gannon or James Guckert. In all 4 or 5 cases I got an absolutely blank stare. I understand that ABC reported some on this yesterday and CNN has reportedly done another interview with him(this according to Editor&Publisher who have been digging at this story pretty well this last week or so). It seems to me that these news media who were oh so eager to bring us Clinton's every peccadillo and to froth over it beyond its natural life should at least be seriously interested that the White House is actively and repeatedly selling them "news" done up from whole cloth and employing tactics that would seem to fly in the face of their so-called security. Perhaps you are numb to it since the spin and dishonesty are the constant state-of-affairs these days.”

A trip through Editorial Space(shiver!) Part 3/3

2005-02-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

Whoops, I almost forgot about this one. It's not just that they aren't reporting it. When they do report it they do a really weak job,2/20:

“Web Site Owner Says He Knew of Reporter's 2 Identities http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/national/20gannon.html

That got no reply and was the last article on the subject from the Times.
Where you see “(...)” or “(Sir)”, I have removed actual names, though it's easy enough for anyone reading this to discover mine. I also fixed some typos and a single case of bad grammer on my part. Otherwise these are unmodified.

It is just before 11AM on 2/27. SusanG on DailyKos informs us yesterday(the joys of time stamps that tell you you were let know before you saw it) that Jeff Gannon is the author of part of the Congressional Record of the Senate of November 17,2003 because Senator Craig Thomas of WY asked that it be so and the question is still,"Where's the story?". Not in the NYTimes and, so, not in the SFChronicle although they did run a reprint of Howie Kurtz's puff piece in a Saturday edition(low readership of news) and an editorial after a visit from Joe Biden who talks a big game but has refused to sign a letter with other senators demanding a full administration investigation. Of course I wrote to the Chronicle the following:

"And just how many stories have you guys run on this in the past 2-3 weeks? I've only seen one reprint of Howie Kurtz's useless article in a Saturday edition. You are part of the problem along with Biden who talks a big game and then refuses to sign a senate letter demanding an explanation from the administration."

Which got no response. I also called Biden's office to ask why he wasn't signing the letter and was told that he didn't want to ask the administration to investigate itself. OK, so, how is he going to get an independent investigation going? "That's a good question.", I was told. When I mentioned that it was an important political statement his aide said that Biden didn't want to make it a political issue. Yeah. Right. Publicly, the Biden camp has said that he didn't have time to read the letter. Go ahead and read it slowly 2 or 3 times and you'll be but half an hour older. I will do everything I can to keep Biden from becoming preident just for this.

Recently The New Yorker has decided that the story is not worth covering because nothing is likely to happen. To which I wrote:

"Well, now that Hendrick Hertzberg has deigned to opine that this story is dead, I suppose all the other print media who have been doing their best to find reasons to run, not walk, away from it can now do so with the comfort of knowing that it has at last been "covered" and killed. How dare you use such a backhanded technique to excuse your publication for being just as lazy as the Times. "

So, where's the story? Pretty much where it started, in the blogosphere (of which I am now a proud member). The MSM occasionally gets some on its fingers but wipes it off as soon as it can. I have yet to see a report that mentions 1/3 of what is commonly known by the bloggers. For instance; every time the bloggers expose another website connected to this thing the site goes down or it is scrubbed clean of whatever drew the interest. Talon news(owned by the Bobby Eberle mentioned above) scrubbed all Jeff Gannon material a few weeks ago and 2 days ago shut itself down.

These people cannot handle scrutiny. They are opportunist scum of the lowest sort that dies on exposure to the Sun or Reason or Reality. Check out USANext who have decided to try to destroy the AARP so they can help push throuugh BushCo's Social Security fiasco. If you want to see what other causes they have whored for in the past go here. Charles Jarvis doesn't look like that because he is a happy, balanced individual.

These people must be stopped and, apparently, we cannot rely on the NYTimes, NPR or the rest of the MSM to do the job though that's what they are paid to do; fight for the truth. If you disagree with how your news media are "covering" things, let them know. And let them know that you will take your dissatisfaction out on their pocket book. Better yet, let them know that you won't read, listen to or watch them. Most of these people need at least the illusion that someone is listening.

I have listened to NPR for less than an hour since I wrote that note and I haven't bought a hard copy of the NYTimes since the 9th of February, though I do still give them $40 per year for access to their crosswords.

1/29/05 to KQED and NPR

2005-02-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

I thought you might want to know why, after 15-20 years of steady pledges to various local(and distant) NPR radio stations, I will not be pledging to my local station(KQED) this time. If I hadn't been laid off twice in the past 14 months(due to this administration's economic failures about which you refuse to report in depth), perhaps this wouldn't have come up, but I now have to be very careful with my money and NPR isn't, at this time, a priority. I have to say, though, that if AirAmerica was asking for a pledge they would get it in a heartbeat.

It may just be my rosy remembrance of the past, but I recall being able to, gratefully, rely on NPR to deliver pertinent, critically analyzed news. I no longer feel that this is the case. The first time I have ever turned NPR off in disgust was a couple of weeks ago when someone, I don't remember her name, did a story on a couple who were going to attend the "Service Member's Ball" during inaugural week. It was an utterly useless and hokey story apparently meant to reassure us all that our current crisis isn't in fact a crisis. She wrapped it up by following these people around a mall to choose the ball gown and ending up at JCPenney(product placement?). Never did this reporter address the obvious: an obscene $40 million on an inaugural while we are at war for no reason(even the administration can't decide on one), a token ball given for service members to prop up some false sense of taking this whole thing seriously. This story was a waste of time, bandwidth and my previous pledge.

I am, right now, listening to "Wait, wait, don't tell me!"(perhaps for the last time) and Peter Sagal was just talking with Helen Thomas, the White House correspondent whose questions are no longer accepted by the President and treating this fact as if it were just another of those things about which we should shrug and laugh. This is a crisis for what you profess to be your business!! This forcedly non-opinionated commentary about very hot items is offensive. Yet it is just this semi-laissez faire attitude that has become the hallmark of NPR. Just about the only critical political analysis found on the network these days is given by Garrison Keillor!! Utterly unthinkable just a few years ago.

I have heard a long story about the trials and errors of a British rock group consumed by drug use. THIS IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING NEWS!!! And if you can't be bothered to critically analyze the wars and lies(documented) of this administration you certainly shouldn't be covering this kind of stuff.

NPR is at grave risk of becoming as fluffy and marginal to real news as any of the mainstream provincial press. Too bad. Like I said, I can remember when the opposite was the case. I will continue to support KUT(1700 miles away) because I rely on it 2 hours a week to keep up with new music from Latin America, but KQED will have to go on without me for the time being.

Er...Um...Yes

2005-02-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

OK, a friend suggested I set up a blog, so here it is.

I am, in the words of Mort Sahl, "...not a liberal. I'm a revolutionary." (I hope someone will correct me if that is not completely accurate). I find it difficult to accept that I am stuck on the same planet as people(for lack of a better term) like Tom Delay, Trent Lott and GWBush. I cannot accept, that is I refuse to accept, that my own father, of whose genes I am made, voted for this president or that certain ex-friends were behind this War in Iraq. I am not one who believes that now is the time to heal the rift between the RightWing and the Sane. No, I think that now is the time to shut them down. They are welcome to keep their party, but the Right Wing Echo Chamber(RWEC) and the prostrate MSM need to come around or be blasted to dust. I have no problem with honest debate, but that is not what the RWEC engages in. The RWEC engages in lie propagation and repetition and they must be stopped. On a good day I am willing to concede that we have the administration we do due to lack of information rather than abject stupidity, but that's not often.

None of this is news. Al Franken, Joe Conasen, Dave Brock just to name a very few individuals, have been working on this for some time and do a fantastic job. Yet, somehow, news media like NPR are being led down the primrose path on things like Social Security as shown here. With that in mind, since this friend suggested that some of my letters I've sent to news organisations such as NPR would provide a basis for this blog, we will start with that one.

Krome is a name I've used for ages on the net. It is the name under which I post on most other blogs. It comes from William Gibson's book "Burning Chrome" and I chose it because back when I logged onto my first BBS on a TI Silent 700 terminal with Bubble Memory and an acoustic coupler(300 Baud) back in the mid '80's I was reading a lot of him and the BBS was called "Black Ice".