Dispatches from the Homeland

2008-02-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with America....

Here's one thing:

NEW YORK - Morgan Stanley on Friday said Chief Executive John Mack received compensation valued at about $41.7 million in 2007, a regulatory filing showed, a year when the investment bank's profit plunged 57 percent.

Imagine if, say, the barista at Starbucks did his or her job so badly the store lost 57% of its customers in one quarter.

I don't imagine he or she would be walking away with an equivalent cool amount.

One set of rules for the wealthy, another for the rest of us.

From here.

2008-02-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

“My give a damn’s busted….”

The statement above was in the form of a window-sticker on a shiny, late-model jacked-up F-150 Ford pickup truck, ahead of me at a stop-light on an off-ramp in Escondido, CA.

Now why in the name of god would somebody want to advertise their utter lack of human compassion? Especially when they’re living in one of the wealthiest nations (and neighborhoods) in the world, driving a vehicle that gets about 13/17mpg city/hwy and is rated 3 for CO-2 emissions at a time when their country is bogged down in an unwinnable, $3-trillion war over oil, and global warming is an undeniable and increasingly frightening threat to the survival of human culture as we know it?!

Just what terrible injustice has twisted the undies of this well-heeled driver to the point that he or she no longer gives a damn? And doesn’t the monster vehicle they’re driving alone convey that message well enough?

The window-sticker showed up roughly an hour-and-a-half after two other incidents made me question my viability in this culture. The first occurred in front of our local Von’s. On the way in with my 87-year-old dad, I’d noticed a man and woman gathering signatures at a card-table and because the guy had been asking people if they were Democrats, I foolishly let myself believe their petition was progressive. On our way out, I approached the table and asked what the issues were.

“Are you a Democrat?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“Do you want to switch parties?” he asked?

“Absolutely not,” I replied, my hackles rising.

He went on as if he hadn’t heard. I missed whatever the first issue was but the second got me. “You want to protect marriage from gays?” he asked.

“No!” I replied, starting to turn away. “And your question offends me.”

“Offends you?! What, do all Republicans offend you?” he continued.

Ignoring the implication that all Republicans oppose same-sex marriage, “Yep,” I replied.

“Well all Democrats don’t offend me,” he lied. “And we need to keep gays from marrying.”

“Well good luck with that,” I said, walking away now. “Cuz you’re on the wrong side of history.”

He shouted toward me, “Well I’m not worried: God’s got my back!” I could only shake my head as I got into my car, shaking with anger.

I wish I’d been more articulate—I rarely think fast on my feet, especially when angry and there are few issues that make my blood boil as much as the fundies attacking our families. As I drove away, I recounted the exchange to my dad, who’d missed much of it. “Well, that’s not the way my God would feel,” he said. And once again I thought of how the bigots have hijacked religion in this country and turned it into a perversion.

As we neared my dad’s house, I found myself trailing yet another shiny, like-new Ford-150 pickup—they’re ubiquitous in this area. I was admiring the cool green color of this one when for no apparent reason, the driver pulled to the side of the road. Thinking he was going to chat with a golfer who’d left the course we were passing and was approaching the truck, I turned on my left blinker and pulled around him. As I did so, he started to roll again but I just pulled ahead, then made a quick left on the next street. I looked into my rear-view mirror just in time to see the huge pickup bearing down on us. The guy had turned left to follow me and accelerated until he was inches from my rear bumper. I thought he was going to run us down.

He rode my bumper for the next half-mile, until I pulled into my dad’s driveway. At that point, he slowed in front of the house, to make a point, then roared off.

I have no bumper stickers( yet) on my car to explain his aggression. And I don’t think the driver witnessed the encounter at Von’s, though I’m not sure.

Basically, I have no idea what I did to make this testosterone-fueled insecure maniac so angry he almost ran down my dad and me. But it made me think: in three-and-a-half years in Ireland, among many, many drunken Irish males, I almost got into a fight only twice, and both those times involved me on my bike foolishly confronting aggressive car drivers.

I’m not sure I’m ready to be back in the U.S.A.

[Cross-posted at The Bilerico Project from the Homeland.]

2008-02-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Update on Oxnard shooting....

Even though law enforcement officials are refusing to comment or give details, it's looking like they will charge 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, who shot and killed eighth-grader, Larry King, 15, (pictured above) this past week at an Oxnard middle school, with a hate crime. Prosecutors are also seeking to try the teenager as an adult.

Prosecutors decided to try him in adult court because the law allows them to do so with juveniles as young as 14 who are accused of serious crimes. Officials said McInerney is facing a long prison sentence if he is convicted of shooting his classmate, 15-year-old Larry King.

"The first-degree murder carries 25 (years) to life. The use of a firearm carries 25 to life, and the hate crime carries an enhancement of one to three years," Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said in an interview. "In Ventura County, we've never had a school shooting like this. It is very tragic."

I must say I was surprised to see that the hate-crime designation carries only an additional 1 to 3 years. For this the right-wing makes a huge uproar every time another jurisdiction seeks such legislation?!

Complete story here, and more here.

[Cross-posted at The Bilerico Project.]

2008-02-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

Dam*ed hypocrites...!

Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain, formerly against waterboarding--after all, the guy knows firsthand what torture is all about--is now ok with it.

“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” McCain said in interview with the New York Times in response to Giuliani comments. “They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.”

But on Wednesday, when the Senate voted on the intelligence bill, which includes a provision that effectively bans waterboarding from being used as an interrogation technique by all 16 intelligence agencies, McCain voted against the bill.

The bill passed 51-45, but President Bush has promised to veto it. [Of course he has.]

Gotta throw those contentious conservatives a bone!

To quote my dad vis-à-vis presidential candidates, "You can't believe any of 'em!"

Good thing you can't (yet) be tortured in America for hypocrisy.

2008-02-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

R.I.P.

Lawrence King, the eighth-grade boy was shot and wounded by a classmate at E.O. Green School in Oxnard Tuesday, has been pronounced brain dead, authorities said this afternoon.

Oxnard police released a statement this afternoon saying King had died.

[Full story.]

May Mr. King rest in peace, and may his family and loved ones find solace in this terrible time of needless, horrific and incomprehensible loss.

I spent eight formative years in the Ventura area when I was growing up, living and attending high school roughly 20 minute’s drive from where this tragic shooting took place.

For those who don’t know, Ventura is Oxnard’s county seat. And while I understand that such a heartbreak could take place anywhere—or at least anywhere guns are readily available—knowing the area the way I do, I’m sadly not surprised this tragedy happened in Oxnard.I sometimes tell friends that I’m surprised I made it out of Ventura alive. While I’m referring more to the risk of suicide than to murder, in this case the genesis of the each would have been similar: being queer in Ventura was akin to being a round peg trapped in a community of happily oblivious squares. Totally checked out and barely conscious that a larger world existed, I couldn’t imagine cities like San Francisco or Berkeley, where oddballs like me sat in cafes and passionately discussed art, literature, politics, history, and other such reviled-in-Ventura-especially-among-young-folks topics.

Ventura was—and possibly still is, despite the current prevalence of trendy coffee shops—a place where difference was reviled if not outrightly punished and complacent conformity greatly rewarded. I’d never lived in a more progressive location so like a gill-less fish in water had no idea why I was drowning. Looking back, I marvel I got out more-or-less intact and I thank the goddess-of-my-lucky-stars that I wasn’t born male and forced to grow up there. If I had, I can almost guarantee I’d be dead, in prison, living on the streets, or institutionalized now.

Masculine girls can fade into the woodwork and are usually fierce enough to defend themselves if picked on. Effeminate boys, on the other hand, walk around with bull’s-eyes on their backs that draw in every sadistic, insecure-about-his-masculinity asshole for miles, be they the kid’s own father or his jock heads-up-their-asses classmates. And for some twisted societal reason, femininity tends to take the blows rather than physically fight back.

The facts in this sad case remain sketchy, so I may be totally mistaken that Lawrence King was a sweet sissy boy struck down before he had a chance to really live by a warped tormenter with a gun in a place where bullies and available handguns abound.

Sadly, though, having lived nearby where he died, that’s exactly the picture I have.

[Crossposted at The Bilerico Project.]

2008-02-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

For shame....

The Democratically-controlled Senate today handed the Bush administration everything it wanted (again!).

This time, the prize was retroactive immunity for telecom companies who illegally spied on American citizens in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Glenn Greenwald at Salon has been following this story. Today's update is worth reading in its entirety, but the short version is that 19 Democrats broke ranks with their party and their constituents to hand this gift to Bush and Cheney.

UPDATE V: Final passage in the Senate of the Cheney/Rockefeller bill was 68-29. 19 Democrats joined all Republicans to vote in favor of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty: Conrad, Rockefeller, Baucus, Webb, Kohl, Whitehouse, Bayh, Johnson, Bill Nelson, Mikulski, McCaskill, Lincoln, Casey, Salazar, Inouye, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Carper, and Landrieu. Neither Obama nor Clinton voted on final passage.

2008-02-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

“God wouldn’t create somethin’ less than perfect, now, would He?

The words above, uttered in a Southern Californian drawl by the large woman cutting my hair as we chit-chatted about baldness—of all things!—caught my attention and hit me harder than anything has so far.

I’m no longer in the EU!

In Dublin, Ireland, where I spent much of the last four years, almost no one offering a public service like a haircut would dare throw out such a loaded bomb, then follow it—as she did—with a pregnant pause during which she pointedly held my gaze in the large wall-mirror. Way back in the early 1970’s, I’d spent an unforgettable (though thankfully brief) stint with the “Jews for Jesus,” so I recognized the drill. Respond, “No…indeed He wouldn’t! Our Lord acts with infinite wisdom” or some such drivel, and off we’d be on a self-congratulatory Jesus love-fest.

Responding, as I did instead, with an uncomfortable silence and white-knuckle grip on the arms of the barber chair beneath my plastic poncho, I was readily identified as one of the damned.

So be it.

What is it that makes these obviously-insecure, so-called Christians think that God-talk to perfect strangers—or more to the point, paying customers—is acceptable? It’d be one thing if the Religious Right hadn’t turned the populist brand of American Christianity into a spiteful, misogynist, self-centered and homophobic sort of mass cult. But they have. In retrospect, I wish I’d have parried her query with something like, “I don’t believe in the literal truth of the fairy-tale myths of an ancient people who wandered the Middle Eastern desert thousands of years ago.” But that strategy seemed risky while she held in her hands the fate of my haircut.

So…here I am back in the USA after 3-1/2 years in Ireland. And wow, is it a shock in certain ways, specifically, the obvious advances made by the Religious Right. Jesus bumper stickers on every fourth or fifth car. A Republican presidential candidate who talks openly of rewriting the Constitution to be more Christian--and news commentators don't blink an eye. Even a so-called “liberal” presidential candidate who feels compelled to pander to high-profile homophobic preachers. “God bless America,” has become a standard sign-off for presidential speeches, as well as “God bless you” an everyday farewell for many ordinary Americans.

This has happened gradually enough that even those Americans who express alarm over the trend may be somewhat oblivious to its extent. Nothing like three years in a formerly-religious-now-conscientiously-secular nation to give me perspective.

And with that perspective, I find America’s sanctimonious religiosity extremely disturbing, especially in light of the stuttering economy, the widening gulf between rich and poor, and the country’s widespread and obstinate ignorance about history and the rest of the world. Add to that, a widespread indifference about the Iraq war, which has murdered up to 1.033 million Iraqis, killed at least 4,913 Americans (including contractors), displaced an additional 4 million, and driven America’s national debt to 3.658 trillion dollars (and counting).

Yet turn on the news, and you’d think the worst events facing the nation weren’t the war, a sub-prime meltdown that’s wrecking havoc on the domestic and global economies, and an absolutely staggering level of personal credit card debt among average Americans, but rather Heath Ledger’s untimely death and Britney Spear’s drug problems and custody battles.

The country seems in the grip of mass cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, you have vast numbers of people who live lavishly due to an American financial and military hegemony that ensures control over a hugely disproportionate amount of the world’s finite resources. On the other, Americans ignorant of the world’s true feelings assert “America is number one!” yet want to deport migrants who dare try to escape the poverty caused by America’s global policies by sneaking across the border to pick lettuce, dig ditches, or clean toilets.

An appallingly large number of Americans eschew Darwin’s scientific theory of evolution, yet use a perversion of it to justify their coldhearted domination over those weaker, poorer or more vulnerable than themselves. Many of the same express devotion to a Jew who (may have) preached a gospel of voluntary poverty, humility, and non-violence in the face of social injustice in a far-flung province of the Roman Empire some 2,000 years ago, then these Americans turn around and vociferously support a murderous and completely unjustified empire-building American war that has devastated an entire nation.

The hypocrisy and/or oblivion of America’s Religious Right has driven me to the point where the mere mention of God makes me want to leave the room and have nothing further to do with the person speaking. So, until the actions of these religiously obsessed individuals become more gentle, generous, kinder and forgiving—in short, more “Christ-like”—I’d like to ask them to keep their insecure, death-fearing beliefs to themselves.

[Cross-posted at Bilerico.]

2007-03-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Gulf of Tonkin II...?

From the Guardian:

The Iranian navy has seized up to 15 British sailors, the Ministry of Defence confirmed today, sparking a diplomatic standoff between the UK and Iran.

Iran's ambassador to the UK was immediately summoned to the foreign office for what the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, described as a "brisk" meeting.

He was "left in no doubt" that Britain expected the immediate return of the sailors and their boats, she said.

However, Iran's government responded by summoning the British charge d'affaires to Tehran to protest at what it said was the illegal entry of British naval personnel into Iranian waters.

I find this more than a little frightening, when you consider that the Bush administration has been (1) lusting for months for an excuse to carpet-bomb Iran, (2) under increasing legal threat from Congress on Attorneygate, and (3) facing, for the first time since 2003, the possibility that Congress will reign in Bush's imperial aspirations in the Middle East.

Also, something I read (can't remember where) suggested that if Bush were going to start bombing Iran with no warning, he'd commence when the moon is either waxing or waning.

I hate to say it, but it's currently a waxing crescent.

2007-03-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Happy St Paddy's Day...!

And it wouldn't be Ireland if we weren't experiencing gale force winds, near freezing temperatures and rain!

But who cares?! It's almost spring and the days are going from mid-winter's 7 hours of daylight to a rollicking 12 hours worth! (Well, not counting clouds and rain.) Whoo-hoo!!

So, I took some photos today. And I’ll bet those of you who haven’t been to Ireland in the past decade expect Dublin’s St Paddy’s Day parade to look something like this:

Or maybe this:

Or even this:

All photos I took today. But did you ever expect something like this?

And yes, that is a drag queen on the float in the background!

Or this?

And this:

Ireland has changed so dramatically from the poverty-stricken, parochial, papal-dominated and totally white country it used to be, and the Dublin St Paddy’s Day parade really reflects this. But for the Georgian architecture, freezing weather and resultant lack of bare skin, a spectator might think she was watching Carnival! (Well, Carnival in a mostly white country.) Samba bands, wild and colorful masks, dancers on stilts, and irreverent religious iconography reign supreme. It’s so much fun!!

As usual, there were marching bands from US high schools and colleges. I noticed Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, Kansas, Colorado, Tennessee and Arizona. And I couldn’t help wondering what expectations those young Americans came to Ireland with, and what impressions they’d take back with them. Drinking age is 18 here, too, and the kids’ adult minders already looked more than a bit jet-lagged. Ha!

So, to America’s Ancient Order of Hibernians, who still won’t let openly LGBT folk march in New York’s St Paddy’s Day Parade, I dedicate this closing photo of blue-robed, samba-playing “nuns” from today's parade in Dublin!

2007-03-03T02:52:00.000-08:00

Hate-speech is now mainstream....

I honestly don't think American leftists realise how far the US has moved toward fascism.

The Right has shifted public discourse so far toward hate-speech, with the full cooperation and approval of the corporate media, that Ann Coulter's latest episode of verbal diarrhea has gone all but uncriticised by most people.

Were a public figure as well-known as Ann Coulter to pull such a stunt as this where I now live, not only would public opinion widely condemn her homophobia--yes, even in Catholic Ireland!-- but she'd probably also find herself facing slander charges, if not worse.

Andrew Sullivan is finally starting to get it.

(H/T to Shakespeare's Sister (comment thread) and Crooks & Liars.)

2007-03-01T01:23:00.000-08:00

We are everywhere...!

When I give presentations on transgenderism, I start by telling audiences that we have been found in every time and every culture for which there are detailed historical records.

And for more proof of that:

A previously unpublished letter by Richard Wagner to a firm of Milanese couturiers offers the intriguing possibility that the great composer was, in fact, a cross-dresser.

The letter is published for the first time today in the inaugural edition of the Wagner Journal. In it, the composer of the Ring des Nibelungen details the cut of an outfit, ostensibly intended for his wife, Cosima.

Requesting "something graceful for evenings at home" he continues: "The bodice will have a high collar, with a lace jabot and ribbons; close-fitting sleeves; the dress trimmed with puffed flounces - of the same satin material - no basque at the front (the dress must be very wide and have a train) but a rich bustle with a bow at the back, like the one at the front) ..."

Complete story here.

2007-02-28T03:31:00.000-08:00

The almighty dollar always trumps politics....

Trust a capitalist to put profits before politics or ideals. (I've posted the entire Irish Times February 23rd article here, as it's a subscription-only site.)

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are using their Irish-based subsidiaries to ship product to Iran and skirt US trade sanctions with the pariah state.

The two cola giants are shipping concentrate from their Irish operations to Iran, where it is then bottled for sale.

A loophole in the sanctions allows American companies to ship certain foodstuffs to Iran by using overseas subsidiaries.

This means Coca-Cola and PepsiCo can sidestep the trade sanctions, while also benefiting from Ireland 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate.

Reliable statistics for the size of the soft drinks market in Iran are not available. Some reports, however, suggest that it could be worth as much as $1 billion annually. In 2006 Iranians drank an average 95 bottles of soft drink, which is expected to rise to 120 by 2010.

PepsiCo confirmed that it has shipped concentrate from Ireland to Iran since 2002. "This is perfectly lawful," said Dick Detwiler, senior vice president for pubic affairs at PepsiCo International. "The products of dozens of companies in America are sold in that market."

PepsiCo, which has manufacturing operations in Cork, employs about 400 people in Ireland and has invested more than €200 million here in the past five years, according to Mr Detwiler.

"Ireland is one of our larger concentrate facilities," Mr Detwiler said.

Coca-Cola, which has had manufacturing facilities in Ireland since 1974, would not confirm that its Irish subsidiary ships cola concentrate to Iran. "Our Irish concentrate facility exports to customers on six continents," said Charles Sutlive, a senior communications executive at the Atlanta-based multinational.

Informed sources, however, confirmed that Ireland is being used by Coca-Cola to ship concentrate to Iran. This is bottled in Iran by a local company called Khoshgovar, which also produces its own brands of cola and is thought to control about 50 per cent of the soft drinks market there.

Khoshgovar also licences Fanta, Sprite and Dasani water from Coca-Cola, although it is not clear if all of this is sourced from Ireland.

Relations between Iran and the US have been frosty since the 1979 Islamist revolution, which saw the Shah overthrown. That resulted in Coca-Cola and PepsiCo leaving the market and trade sanctions being put in place.

These were eased in the early 1990s, with the result that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo gradually built up relationships with local producers again.

A tightening of sanctions under president Bill Clinton's administration and the current stand-off between Washington and Tehran over uranium enrichment has since made it difficult for US corporations to do business in the country.

Neither brand is popular with conservative clerics in Iran and hardliners often appear on television to denounce both Coke and Pepsi. This has not stopped trendy, young Iranians from consuming the American brands in large numbers.

"Coke is ubiquitous in Iran," said John Teeling, an Irish entrepreneur who controls a company called Persian Gold and is a frequent visitor to Iran. "You see people drinking it everywhere."

Complete story here.

2007-02-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

Eliminationist sentiment, anyone...?

Over the past few days, I got into a discussion with a couple of commenters at Effect Measure. What really surprised me about the way this played out was that the focus of Effect Measure is mostly bird flu, and posts are written by public health officials or employees using pseudonyms so they can speak frankly without jeopardizing their jobs. The blog seems to attract a pretty middle-of-the-road readership.

The post I responded to was actually about Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories. Instead of being deluged with hate mail accusing the blogger of anti-Semitism, however, the comment thread took off in a discussion of undocumented Mexican workers in America.

I was shocked when one commenter suggested offering Mexican undocumented workers a choice between returning to Mexico, or a rope. I know anti-immigrant wingnuts express such ugly sentiments, but judging from previous comment threads, Effect Measure doesn't attract the far Right fringe. So I found myself wondering it that sort of eliminationist thinking has now infected the more middle-of-the-road Rightists.

I was even more shocked when no one commented on his comment, especially the moderator. One person from Canada even said he was glad to see Americans "arguing in such an enlightened manner"!

So I responded. And you should see the response to my response.

It’s all here:

Pretty scary stuff, especially considering that these people might represent the more “moderate elements” of the Republican Party.

2007-02-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

(Anna Politkovskaya)

Despotism in Russia...

This two-part article in today's Guardian details the critical part played by the Russian media in the evolution of the modern Russian oligarchy. Americans, whose own media is evolving into a corporate-controlled, sports-and-celebrity-obsessed government lapdog would do well to read it in its entirety.

Regarding the lack of official censorship:

...'It's a magic process now,' Anna Kachkaeva, who broadcasts a weekly interview show on Radio Liberty, told me. Kachkaeva, who is also the head of the television department at Moscow State University, went on: 'There is no censorship - it's much more advanced. I would call it a system of contacts and agreements between the Kremlin and the heads of television networks. There is no need to start every day with instructions. It is all done with winks and nods. They meet at the end of the week, and the problem, for TV and even in the printed press, is that self-censorship is worse than any other kind. Journalists know - they can feel - what is allowed and what is not.'

Gee, she could be describing the New York Times and ABC News.

The article also explores the brutal assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, one of 13 journalists murdered in Russia in the seven years since Putin came to power.

The Putin government has made a clever calculation: a few newspapers, with tiny elite audiences, can publish highly critical investigations and editorials as long as that reporting and criticism stays absolutely disconnected from television. (And as long as their reporters keep out of Chechnya.) Anna Politkovskaya began writing about the war in 1999, after the rules of press freedom changed, and she violated those rules every time she went to work. Not long before her death she wrote, 'I will not go into the ... joys of the path I have chosen - the poisoning, the arrests, the threats in letters and over the internet, the telephoned death threats, the weekly summons to the prosecutor general's office to sign statements about practically every article I write (the first question being, "How and where did you obtain this information?"). Of course I don't like the constant derisive articles about me that appear in other newspapers and on websites presenting me as the madwoman of Moscow. I find it disgusting to live this way. I would like a bit more understanding.' The fact that Novaya Gazeta [Politkovskaya's paper] continued to exist says more about the paper's minimal impact than about its openness.

Politkovskaya didn't only write truthfully about the Chechnyan war, but about the modern Russian state, where economic stability has become everything.

Putin, who has called the break-up of the Soviet Union 'the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century', clearly agrees. Sick of the queues, the empty shops and the false promises of Soviet life, Russians looked first to the west - and particularly to the United States - to provide an economic model. What followed was an epic disaster: the sell-off of the state's most valuable assets made a few dozen people obscenely rich, but the lives of millions of others became far worse. The healthcare system fell apart, and so did many of the social services networks. Russia became the first industrial country ever to experience a sustained fall in life expectancy. Russian males born today can, on average, expect to live to the age of 59, dying younger than if they were born in Pakistan or Bangladesh. It is not surprising, then, that by the time Putin became president most Russians were only too happy to exchange the ideas of free speech and intellectual freedom for the concrete desires of owning a home and a car and possessing a bank account. They also wanted to feel that somebody was in control of their country.

In today's Russia, as Politkovskaya wrote, stability is everything and damn the cost. Gorbachev and Yeltsin are seen by an overwhelming majority as historical disasters who provoked decline, collapse, chaos and humiliation before the triumphal west. The opportunities created in those years, the liberation from totalitarianism, have been forgotten. 'Yes, stability has come to Russia,' Politkovskaya wrote. 'It is a monstrous stability under which nobody seeks justice in courts that flaunt their subservience and partisanship. Nobody in his or her right mind seeks protection from the institutions entrusted with maintaining law and order, because they are totally corrupt. Lynch law is the order of the day, both in people's minds and in their actions. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'

Of particular interest to me, an opponent of Shell's corrupt agreement with the Irish government to exploit the Corrib gas field in Ireland's west despite staunch opposition on the part of local residents, is the following paragraph.

The Kremlin recently provided a particularly audacious example of how it sees its role as an 'energy superpower': Royal Dutch Shell, which had invested billions of dollars to develop the world's largest oil-and-gas field, Sakhalin II, in the Russian far east, was forced by the government to sell its controlling stake in the project. The company had endured a year of regulatory harassment - including ludicrous threats that the pipeline would not meet Russia's environmental standards. The moment Shell surrendered to Gazprom, however, those environmental concerns vanished. And what was Shell's response after its holding in the project was reduced from 55 to 25 per cent? 'Thank you very much for your support,' the company's chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, told Putin at a meeting three weeks ago. 'This was a historic occasion.'

Complete story here.

2007-02-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

Tell that to this guy....

The US government tonight welcomed Britain's decision to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, despite its own surge of more than 20,000 soldiers to the country.

Tony Blair announced a cut of more than 2,000 UK personnel in Basra by the end of the summer, in a special statement to parliament today.

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president called it "an affirmation that in parts of Iraq...things are going pretty well."[emphasis mine]

Complete story here.

2007-02-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

Speaks for itself....

H/t Lefty Tube.

2007-02-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

First watch this....

(H/T Crooks and Liars.)

Then read this.:

Still convinced Americans can "win" in Iraq?

Still think the war was a good idea?

Impeach Bush.

2007-02-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

The real world....

Dennis Perrin at Red State Son has written a characteristically thought-provoking piece on the Edwards blogger controversy. Although this one hits closer to home than usual for me, as Melissa at Shakespeare’s Sister is my friend.

I find myself in the unusual position of disagreeing with Dennis, perhaps simply because Melissa’s my friend and I fear for her safety. I wonder if the target of death threats and verbal assaults had been Dennis’ wife or daughter, would he have responded differently? And I ask this sincerely, not snidely.

Or maybe I just shy away from the concept of martyrdom in general. I fled the US, after all, rather than commit civil disobedience against the Iraq war and risk prison. Most of my reasons for this relate to being ftm and fearing incarceration in a male prison. (Exactly which prison they’d put me in is open to question, but that’s another discussion.) Am I merely lacking the strength of my convictions? Am I just a spoiled citizen of a privileged nation, unwilling to make any real sacrifice for the principles I profess to support?

It’s quite possible.

On the other hand, it’s extremely important to pick the causes one's willing to die for. In the case of Melissa and Amanda, is John Edwards or the American Democratic Party worth potential martyrdom?

I think not.

One element largely missing from the discussions of the blogger controversy has been the utter lack of mainstream institutional support for the two women. Take the media. Melissa's and Amanda's perspectives have been missing, while the Right’s has been fully presented.

Equally missing was support from Edwards and the Democratic Party. The designated “far left” candidate cravenly hung Melissa and Amanda out to dry by his failure to unequivocally defend their freedom of expression and hit back hard against Donohue, Malkin, O’Reilly, et al. Protected by the best security money can buy, he put right-of-center voters --who will never back him!-- ahead of the safety of two of his most ardent (and idealistic) supporters. To say his cowardice is emblematic of the Democratic party is a gross understatement.

Imagine how differently this whole travesty would have played out had Edwards not hesitated but come out guns blazing in support of freedom of expression and religion (or lack of it) and gone after Donohue’s bogus tax-exempt status as soon as the right-wing assault dogs started their mad baying. Imagine if other Democratic candidates had added their voices to his.

Instead, after rumors of firing and 24 hours of silence, Edwards issued a “statement of support” that read like a backhanded slap, accompanied by clearly forced statements from Melissa and Amanda that offered their throats to Donohue’s blade. I feared then that their resignations would follow.

The weakness of institutional resistance to the Right in America is central to this controversy. Chris Hedges points out in his brilliant book, American Fascists, the significance of the destruction of traditional institutions—labor unions, liberal churches, a strong, independent press, healthy families and communities—that used to present an organized resistance to the American right. I’d add to this, the transformation of the Democratic party into an institution more fiercely committed to the corporate gravy train than to the progressive principles held by its core supporters.

In the absence of institutional resistance, martyrdom becomes mere murder. The political becomes personal, to perversely twist the famed feminist catchphrase. For examples in microcosm, regard how rightwing detractors attacked Melissa and Amanda in comment threads on their blogs. You’re fat. Ugly. Potty-mouthed. Just need a good fuck. Hate Catholics. Deserve what you got. Bwah ha ha, you were fired! You're gonna burn in hell. The attacks ignored issues and were almost entirely ad hominem.

When an organized and well-funded right-wing noise machine drowns out lonely voices of dissent, the context and meaning of personal injury are lost. Why put yourself at risk of bodily harm if a (god forbid) assault against you would be seen as an unfortunate but isolated event by most Americans, rather than the predictable outcome of a series of well-planned, funded, and orchestrated actions?

The progressive blogosphere offers a slight counterbalance to the rightwing monolith, but the Net also provides a breeding ground for rightwing extremists. Extremists who are, like the larger rightwing, much better at suppressing internal dissent and presenting a unified front to opponents.

The end result of all this is that, were Melissa or Amanda harmed by some rightwing lunatic inspired by Donohue’s mad ravings, the vast majority of Americans would remain ignorant, unconcerned and solidly convinced that America remains the “best democracy in the world.”

Last but not least, when I hear news that another woman has been murdered somewhere across the globe for acts of resistance, such as Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Afghani teacher Safia Amajan, Irish reporter Veronica Guerin, and many many others, I find myself awed by their incredible courage. Would I think less of them had they decided instead to put their own lives or those of their families first and flee or remain silent in the face of injustice?

No, with the proviso, “As long as they weren’t actively collaborating with the forces of repression.” Every person has the right to chose their fights, especially those that carry the risk of injury or death. My decision to walk in an anti-war march with tens of thousands of others carries little potential of harm beyond bad blisters. My choosing, on the other hand, to chain myself to the gates of the White House (probably not even possible in this era of “Free Speech Zones,”) is riskier. More dangerous still, would have been for Melissa or Amanda to continue working for the Edwards campaign in face of a deluge of death threats and surprise visits by enraged strangers.

In light of all this, I believe Melissa and Amanda were wise and totally justified in resigning from the campaign, and Dennis’ post, in this unusual instance, unreasonably harsh and judgemental.

2007-02-16T02:45:00.000-08:00

I'm baaaack....

I've been missing in action for the past few months. No excuse, other than I was swept up in life and a bit burnt out.

Watching the co-dependent American media dutifully beat the drums of war, facilitating Bush's bloodlust to invade Iran—aping almost to the word the phrases the president used in his run-up to the last Iraq war!—has bummed me out and made me sick. Literally. (Seems I've got asthma.)

Wake up Americans! Can’t you see that your republic is slipping slowly into the waiting grasp of a right-wing Xristian cabal?

The recent assault on bloggers Melissa McEwan and Amanda Marcotte (the latter requires watching a short ad) has inspired me to start blogging again.

And “assault” is precisely what it was. Not only have the two women been subjected to the verbal bile spewing forth from the keyboards of anonymous right-wing thugs (who seem almost universally challenged by proper spelling!) but the threats have gone farther. Melissa reports that at least one stranger has driven up to her home (how the hell did they get her address?!), parked, got out, and tried to pound his way through her front door with his fists.

Fascism when it comes to America will not be dressed in brown shirts, goose-stepping and saluting “Seig heil” --although America has its share of neo-Nazis. No, from where I sit across the pond it looks like the American version will be wearing crosses and carrying bibles while they crash left-wing websites through DoS attacks (a modern form of book-burning?), force creationism into public schools, menace women as they enter abortion clinics, control the public discourse through their celebrity and reality-TV crazed corporate media, whip up fear by screaming "Terrorists!" at every turn, deny global warming til it’s too late, and ignite a nuclear holy war that will engulf the Middle East and beyond.

Their “Jews” will be lesbians, gays and transsexuals. Their gypsies, Arab and Mexican-Americans.

The way it’s going, if they don’t gain outright control of the US military through sheer numbers among recruits, likeminded chaplains, and Xristian operatives inside the Pentagon, they will simply outgrow and outgun the military with corporate militias like Blackwater USA, 3D Global Solutions, Critical Intervention Services, etc.

The Right’s dirty work—defacing campus lgbt centers, burning books, murder, and generally silencing anyone with the guts to criticize or oppose them—they’ll leave to the less mentally-stable among their ranks, whipping them into a frenzy through the loudmouthed ravings of the likes of Bill Donohue, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage,…Ugh! The list is too long and too nauseating to cite.

Starting to blog again, I’m struggling against a debilitating sense that resistance is futile. When the borg collective suspended habeas corpus last October, enacting the Military Comhttp://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifmissions Act of 2006 and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007), the US may have crossed a line of no-return--especially when you consider the Democratic Party's abject eagerness-to-assume a supine position.

My friends in America seem concerned, but not concerned, as in "We're on the verge of dropping nuclear bombs on a country that poses no military threat to us at all!"

Mostly my friends seem beaten down. As Chris Hedges points out in his brilliant book, American Fascists, the institutions that were strong and coherent the last time the American Right grew this powerful and threatened the foundations of the republic, such as labor unions, liberal churches, public schools, small-town communities, and an independent, diverse and courageous press, have all been weakened or utterly destroyed during the past 25 to 30 years. It’s no wonder my friends are exhausted and disheartened: outnumbered, isolated, and surrounded by an apathetic, ignorant or hostile population they’re resisting well organized, funded, and energized right-wing forces.

I wonder if this is how concerned Germans felt, in the 1920’s and 30’s as they tried in vain to warn their friends and family of the looming threat of Nazism?

2007-02-15T05:30:00.000-08:00

Cool T-shirts....

And the profits go to my friend--an awesome blogger and role-model to us all--Melissa, at Shakespeare's Sister.

2007-02-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

The mouse moves more right....

From today's Irish Times:

With only two days to go before its opening night, a play to be staged by a gay and lesbian students' society at NUI Galway had to be pulled yesterday after organisers received notice from entertainment conglomerate Disney threatening legal action if the production went ahead.

Members of the university's GigSoc were in final rehearsals for a production "loosely adapted" from the Disney film Sister Act, which was to debut at the Black Box Theatre in Galway tomorrow after six months of preparatory work.

But yesterday afternoon, in a letter sent via a Dublin-based solicitor, Disney informed the students that the performance would breach its intellectual property rights and threatened legal proceedings if the play went ahead, according to GigSoc.

The play's producer, Jeff Rockett, said cast members were "completely devastated" when told the news at a meeting yesterday afternoon.

Way to go, Disney.

Complete story here.

2007-02-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

I am Spartacus.

Go here. And here.

And damn the forces of reaction!!!

2007-01-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Classic Father Ted...!

I bought the three seasons of Father Ted for my dad for Xmas and kept copies for myself. What a brilliant show!

Here's a taste.

2006-12-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

Some xmas cheer....

H/T to Crooks & Liars.

2006-12-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Musician, visionary, artist, lover, father, New Yorker, and peacenik....

Silenced by a bullet 26 years ago.

I saw The U.S. vs. John Lennon this morning. Excellent movie, and so timely.

Why can't we give peace a chance?!

(H/T Crooks & Liars.)

2006-12-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

Authenticity....

Johnny Cash shortly before his death, covering "Hurt," from Nine Inch Nails. Incredibly powerful.

2006-12-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

And the rich get richer....

If you want to understand--really understand--what's been happening economically in the US during the past 60 years, read this article by Paul Krugman.

Krugman is no left-wing commie, in fact, he started off as a stern critic of Democratic economic policies in the 80's and 90's. In this article, he demystifies America's transformation from a nation in which the working-class could live fairly well, into one in which the working class has become the working poor, the middle class is vanishing, and the wealthy are living like pashas.

...During the 2000 election campaign, George W. Bush joked that his base consisted of the "haves and the have mores." But it wasn't much of a joke. Not only has the Bush administration favored the interests of the wealthiest few Americans over those of the middle class, it has consistently shown a preference for people who get their income from dividends and capital gains, rather than those who work for a living.

Under Bush, the economy has been growing at a reasonable pace for the past three years. But most Americans have failed to benefit from that growth. All indicators of the economic status of ordinary Americans -- poverty rates, family incomes, the number of people without health insurance -- show that most of us were worse off in 2005 than we were in 2000, and there's little reason to think that 2006 was much better.

So where did all the economic growth go? It went to a relative handful of people at the top. The earnings of the typical full-time worker, adjusted for inflation, have actually fallen since Bush took office. Pay for CEOs, meanwhile, has soared -- from 185 times that of average workers in 2003 to 279 times in 2005. And after-tax corporate profits have also skyrocketed, more than doubling since Bush took office. Those profits will eventually be reflected in dividends and capital gains, which accrue mainly to the very well-off: More than three-quarters of all stocks are owned by the richest ten percent of the population.

The US is on its way to becoming a sort of Latin American economy, Krugman says, in which both income and political power are inequitably distributed to the wealthy few at the top.

Article here.

2006-12-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

Did lack of division of labour doom the Neanderthals...?

I love reading and speculating about why the Neanderthals vanished, while we "modern humans" went on to spread across the globe.

A new explanation for the demise of the Neanderthals, the stockily built human species that occupied Europe until the arrival of modern humans 45,000 years ago, has been proposed by two anthropologists at the University of Arizona.

Unlike modern humans, who had developed a versatile division of labor between men and women, the entire Neanderthal population seems to have been engaged in a single main occupation, the hunting of large game, the scientists, Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner, say in an article posted online yesterday in Current Anthropology.

Because modern humans exploited the environment more efficiently, by having men hunt large game and women gather small game and plant foods, their populations would have outgrown those of the Neanderthals.

[...]

The meat of large animals yields a rich payoff, but even the best hunters have unlucky days. The modern humans of the Upper Paleolithic, with their division of labor and diversified food sources, would have been better able to secure a continuous food supply. Nor were they putting their reproductive core — women and children — at great risk.

Hmmmm...it's a thought-provoking hypothesis.

Complete story here.

2006-12-05T01:25:00.000-08:00

Bye bye Bolton...!

Woke up to good news this morning:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — President Bush reluctantly accepted the resignation of the United Nations ambassador, John R. Bolton, on Monday, conceding that the envoy could not win Senate confirmation and signaling that the administration was unwilling to make another end run around Congressional opponents in order to keep Mr. Bolton in his job.

And so, slowly, recovery from the formidable damage done by Bush begins.

And The Decider isn't happy, his words belying his recently stated desire to promote bipartisanship.

“They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time,” Mr. Bush said. “This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation.”

Ahhh, Mr President Lameduck McPeevish, I suggest you get used to it. You and yours are on their way out!!!

Complete story here.

2006-12-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to fix the "beneath the fold" feature in the post below... please bear with me til I do...

2006-12-03T06:48:00.000-08:00

From today's Guardian:

...Luis Padilla, 29, father of three, had been kidnapped, driven across the Mexican border from El Paso, Texas, to a house in Ciudad Juarez, the lawless city ruled by drug lords that lies across the Rio Grande. As his wife tried frantically to locate him, he was being stripped, tortured and buried in a mass grave in the garden - what the people of Juarez call a narco-fossa, a narco-smugglers' tomb.

Just another casualty of Mexico's drug wars? Perhaps. But Padilla had no connection with the drugs trade; he seems to have been the victim of a case of mistaken identity. Now, as a result of documents disclosed in three separate court cases, it is becoming clear that his murder, along with at least 11 further brutal killings, at the Juarez 'House of Death', is part of a gruesome scandal, a web of connivance and cover-up stretching from the wild Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush.

These documents, which form a dossier several inches thick, are the main source for the facts in this article. They suggest that while the eyes of the world have been largely averted, America's 'war on drugs' has moved to a new phase of cynicism and amorality, in which the loss of human life has lost all importance - especially if the victims are Hispanic. The US agencies and officials in this saga - all of which refused to comment, citing pending lawsuits - appear to have thought it more important to get information about drugs trafficking than to stop its perpetrators killing people.

The US media has virtually ignored this story, which implicates officials from the Immigration and Customs Executive ("ICE," previously US Customs), the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco, and the FBI, including officials very close to the White House.

Of course, why should the media cover it? We're not talking blow-jobs in the Oval Office or salacious texts to Congressional pages, but rather brutal kidnappings, torture and murder, all in the name of the "War on Drugs." (Remember that bastard, felonious progenitor of the "War on Terror"?)

More details below the fold on how the GW Bush administration has re-introduced morals to a White House. The facts are shocking, even to one who thought I'd moved beyond open-mouthed stupefaction when it comes to this administration.

Or complete story here.

When Lalo [Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, the US informant] arrived, two cops were already there. He went out to buy the quicklime and duct tape, and when he returned Santillan turned up with Reyes. The policemen jumped on the lawyer, beating him and trying to put duct tape over his mouth. Lalo, wearing his hidden wire supplied by Ice, recorded Reyes's desperate pleas for mercy. 'They [the police] asked me to help them get him to the floor,' reads a statement he made later. 'They tried to choke him with an extension cord, but this broke and I gave them a plastic bag and they put it on his head and suffocated him.' Even then, they were not sure Reyes was dead. One of the officers took a shovel 'and hit him many times on the head'.

When Lalo returned to El Paso on the day of Reyes's murder and told his Ice employers what had happened they were understandably worried. They knew that, if they were to continue using Lalo as an informant, they would need high-level authorisation. That afternoon and evening he was debriefed at length by his main handler, Special Agent Raul Bencomo, and his supervisor. Then he was allowed to go back to Juarez - Santillan had given him $2,000 to pay two cartel members to dig Reyes's grave, cover his body with quicklime and bury it.

Meanwhile the El Paso Ice office reported the matter to headquarters in Washington. The information went up the chain of command, eventually reaching America's Deputy Assistant Attorney General, John G. Malcolm. It passed through the office of Johnny Sutton, the US Attorney for Western Texas - a close associate of George W. Bush. When Bush was Texas governor, Sutton spent five years as his director of criminal justice policy. After Bush became President, Sutton became legal policy co-ordinator in the White House transition team, working with another Bush Texas colleague, Alberto Gonzalez, the present US Attorney General.

Earlier this year Sutton was appointed chairman of the Attorney General's advisory committee which, says the official website, 'plays a significant role in determining policies and programmes of the department and in carrying out the national goals set by the President and the Attorney General'. Sutton's position as US Attorney for Western Texas is further evidence of his long friendship with the President - falling into his jurisdiction is Midland, the town where Bush grew up, and Crawford, the site of Bush's beloved ranch.

'Sutton could and should have shut down the case, there and then,' says Bill Weaver, a law professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who has made a detailed study of the affair. 'He could have told Ice and the lawyers "go with what you have, and let's try to bring Santillan to justice". That neither he nor anyone else decided to take that action invites an obvious inference: that because the only people likely to get killed were Mexicans, they thought it didn't much matter.'

In the days after Reyes's death, officials in Texas and Washington held a series of meetings. Finally word came back from headquarters - despite the risk that Lalo might become involved with further murders, Ice could continue to use and pay him as an informant. And although Santillan had already been caught on tape directing a merciless killing and might well kill again, no attempt would be made to arrest him.

[...]

Then, and on other occasions, Santillan told Lalo in advance he was going to hold a carne asada [code for a murder]. The deposition gives details of 13 murders, all but one of whose victims were later found buried at Number 3633. Each time Lalo crossed into Mexico his Ice handlers sought and obtained formal clearance from headquarters to allow their source to travel to a foreign country while working for a US agency. Throughout the period, Lalo says, he continued to talk to his handler Bencomo up to four times a day - usually in person, at the Ice El Paso office. He says his meetings with Santillan were all covertly recorded, while documents show that Ice had arranged for Lalo's phone to be bugged.

[...]

While Santillan and Lalo went on killing, Bencomo, his Ice colleagues and Assistant US Attorney Fielden were assembling their case. In December 2003 Fielden drew up a sealed indictment against Santillan. But although there was already some evidence of his involvement in killings, the indictment was only for trafficking, not murder. Before they could lure him to America and arrest him, they needed permission from the DoJ. They got it on 15 January, a day after Luis Padilla died.

But this did not bring the House of Death killings to an end. Under torture, one of Santillan's victims had revealed the address of Homer Glen McBrayer - a DEA special agent resident in Juarez who operated under diplomatic cover. At 6pm on 14 January, two men rang his doorbell continuously for 10 minutes. Afraid, his wife phoned him at work. McBrayer rushed home and ushered his wife and daughters into their car. As soon as they left the estate where they lived, they were stopped by a Mexican police car. Two civilian vehicles hemmed McBrayer's car in. Their occupants got out and waited while McBrayer talked to the cops. They were Santillan's men.

Having showed his diplomatic passport, McBrayer phoned a DEA colleague, who arrived within minutes. Unwilling, perhaps, to abduct two US agents, a woman and two children on a busy street, the cartel men backed off. As the standoff unfolded, Santillan twice called Lalo. He asked him to find out what he could about an American called Homer Glen - the corrupt police had not given McBrayer's surname. Santillan, claimed Lalo, said he thought he worked for the tres letras - code for the DEA - and intended to blow up his house.

The McBrayers were lucky to be alive, and the DEA, kept in the dark about the continued use of Lalo after the first murder six months earlier, reacted with fury. Even as Ice debriefed Lalo, it refused the DEA access to him and to recordings of the events of 14 January. Every principle governing informant handling and inter-agency co-operation appeared to have been flouted, and the Mexican government was not told of the carnage taking place on - and under - its soil.

[...]

The House Of Death suddenly seemed set to become a major national scandal. Bill Conroy, a reporter who works for an investigative website, Narconews.com, was about to publish an article about it. On 24 February, Sandy Gonzalez, the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA office in El Paso, one of the most senior and highly decorated Hispanic law enforcement officers in America, wrote to his Ice counterpart, John Gaudioso.

'I am writing to express to you my frustration and outrage at the mishandling of investigation that has resulted in unnecessary loss of human life,' he began, 'and endangered the lives of special agents of the DEA and their immediate families. There is no excuse for the events that culminated during the evening of 14 January... and I have no choice but to hold you responsible.' Ice, Gonzalez wrote, had gone to 'extreme lengths' to protect an informant who was, in reality, a 'homicidal maniac... this situation is so bizarre that, even as I'm writing to you, it is difficult for me to believe it'.

But Ice and its allies in the DoJ were covering up their actions, helped by the US media - aside from the Dallas Morning News, not one major newspaper or TV network has covered the story. The first signs came in the response to Gonzalez's letter to Gaudioso - not from Ice, but from Johnny Sutton.

He reacted not to the discovery of corpses at Calle Parsonieros, but with concern Gonzalez might talk to the media. He communicated his fears to a senior official in Washington - Catherine O'Neil, director of the DoJ's Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Describing Gonzalez's letter as 'inflammatory,' she passed on Sutton's fears to the then Attorney General, John Ashcroft, and to Karen Tandy, the head of the DEA, another Texan lawyer.

Tandy was horrified by Gonzalez's letter. 'I apologised to Johnny Sutton last night and he and I agreed on a "no comment" to the press,' she replied on 5 March. Gonzalez would have no further involvement with the House of Death case and was ordered to report to Washington for 'performance discussions to further address this officially'.

Gonzalez was told that Sutton was 'extremely upset'. Gonzalez, who had enjoyed glittering appraisals throughout his 30-year career, was told he would be downgraded. On 4 May, DEA managers in Washington sent him a letter. It said that, if he quietly retired before 30 June, he would be given a 'positive' reference for future employers. If he refused, a reference would dwell on his 'lapse'. Gonzalez resigned, and launched a lawsuit - part of which is due to come to court tomorrow.

Complete story here.

2006-12-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

Wow...!

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 1 — Until recently, many children who did not conform to gender norms in their clothing or behavior and identified intensely with the opposite sex were steered to psychoanalysis or behavior modification.

But as advocates gain ground for what they call gender-identity rights, evidenced most recently by New York City’s decision to let people alter the sex listed on their birth certificates, a major change is taking place among schools and families. Children as young as 5 who display predispositions to dress like the opposite sex are being supported by a growing number of young parents, educators and mental health professionals.

This is a fascinating article about new approaches taken by parents to nurture transgendered children, rather than force them to conform to the norms of their birth-sex.

My life would have been so very different had I been allowed to grow up as a boy!

Thing is, while a part of me wishes it had happened, mostly I'm glad my life took the path it did.

First, if I had been raised as a boy and therefore not gone into denial in my late teens and tried to live as a woman, I wouldn't have had my daughter--the light of my life! And what a huge, unimaginable loss that would have been. Being pregnant, giving birth, and mothering her are among the best experiences of my life.

And no, that doesn't make me doubt my manliness, but if it challenges yours, so much the better.

Being socialised as a girl against my will civilised me. In short, it forced me to learn to identify and deal with my emotions. When I was a kid and feeling most like a boy, I led a stunted emotional life. The only emotions I could name were happiness and anger. Grief, loss, empathy, fear, desire, sorrow, outrage, pain, and others were a huge, bewildering confusion that prompted me to behave reactively in ways I was totally unable to understand or take responsibility for.

This is allowed for boys (and men) and it was allowed for me when I was very young. The older I grew, however, the more society forced me as a girl to process my emotions, understand what I was feeling and why, and behave accountably. Which, over time, forced me to evolve as a person.

Don't get me wrong: I believe boys and men are just as capable of evolving as women. But society gives them a pass. If I'd been born a boy, not only would I have not been expected to process my feelings, I would have been pressured to cut off from them the older I grew. I likely would have become an angry, violent, macho jerk, as that's definitely the direction I was headed and the sort of community I was raised in.

I probably would have volunteered for the infantry in Vietnam (I wanted to at one point, but couldn't as a girl) which if I'd survived, would have fucked me up even more. I used to look at the many burnt-out vets homeless, addicted, and struggling on the streets of California, and think, "There but for the grace...."

Another thing, the standards my dad held me to as a girl were so much easier to meet than those applied to my brother. Consequently, I could do no wrong in my dad's eyes, whereas my brother was mercilessly criticised and belittled. You know how it is between fathers and sons, especially first-born sons. I avoided all that. My dad now regrets what he did, but my brother, in his 60's, is still affected by it.

Of course, this train of thought is running more toward if I'd been born a boy, not raised as a tranny boy. Presumably, if my parents had been enlightened enough to respect me as transgendered, they would have also ascribed to more humane and nuanced gender roles.

Now we're really drifting into fantasy, though, considering I was born and raised in the 1950's American West!

No, given the cards I was dealt, like I said earlier I'm grateful my life took the path it did. While it has been anything but easy, how many people in our gender-segregated society get to experience life as both a woman and a man?!

On the other hand, I'm also glad modern parents are nurturing their transgendered kids. I hope the trend grows. Any and all improvements in the way we practice gender are appreciated.

And while we're at it, let's advocate that everyone be treated with respect, dignity, and kindness regardless of sex, gender, age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or disability --have I forgotten any?

Complete story here.

And, oh, that's me in that photo above--many decades ago--on the left (naturally!).

2006-11-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

Mr (President) Geekazoid....

Don't tell my favourite blogger that, ummmmmmm, [squirm], uuhhhhhh, [shift nervously from foot to foot]...if I had to be honest [gaze away], well.... Ok! Ok! I never really liked Al Gore!!

But after seeing An Inconvenient Truth and reading this GQ interview, my feelings have evolved. Even allowing that in the past six years, a large percentage of his words may have been scripted and his appearances PR-managed, I'd still gladly vote for the guy if he ran in '08.

The GQ interview is worth reading for his assesment of Bush alone:

...But dammit, whatever happened to the concept of accountability for catastrophic failure? This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!

2006-11-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

Sentiments on self-serving delusions....

Dennis Perrin is, without doubt, one of the best bloggers out there.

Excellent writer: original, thought-provoking, gut-wrenchingly honest and always worth a read.

Would that America produced more with his grasp of history and powers of critical thinking.

The following gives a taste of his well placed moral outrage.

I will offer this: the notion that the US held "honorable intentions" as it tore the lid off of Iraq is not only self-serving piety, it's a widespread sociopathic delusion. Yet, US politicos from Chuck Hagel to Russ Feingold utter this line whenever possible, keeping a straight face while another thousand or so Iraqis are blown to bits, and a few dozen more US soldiers and Marines have their heads, arms or legs blown off by IEDs, or are felled by snipers. "Honorable"? Are you fucking kidding me? Criminal would be the first word out of my mouth, but then, I'm not trying to appease the fantasies of the political elite nor those among the greater mass who seriously buy into this insane logic.

The complete post also includes a video clip of Marx/Engels set to classic American cartoons.

2006-11-28T04:07:00.000-08:00

Women's situation worsen in Afghanistan....

This article makes my blood boil. Remember Bush allegedly championing women’s rights after the US invaded Afghanistan? Well, like so much of his hypocritical posturing, this stance too has proven to be completely disingenuous.

It’s a fact that Afghani women’s rights were a low priority before the invasion. I’ve been following this issue since the Taliban took over Kabul in September, 1996. If you remember, that was when the mullahs forced women from all workplaces because it was "immoral" for females to be labouring outside the home. This included nurses and caregivers, which left children abandoned in orphanages where, with little or no warning, 10 and 12-year-old children struggled to care for toddlers.

So much for Taliban morality!

And now—surprise! surprise!—according to this Guardian article, the US government is once again making a low priority of woman's rights. While the situation improved a bit for women in Kabul immediately after the American invasion, it is now worsening everywhere across the country. Women and girls are facing such horrors and despair that they’re committing suicide at appalling rates.

.… "Afghan women are killing themselves now," she says, "there is no liberation for them." This is not just rhetoric: the Afghan Human Rights Commission recently began to document the numbers of Afghan women who are burning themselves to death because they cannot escape abuse in their families.

Women's troubles are part and parcel of a bleak picture of poverty, ignorance, prejudice, violence and suffering in Afghanistan that the NATO presence has done little to alleviate.

Everywhere I go, from the offices of big international organisations such as Oxfam, to government ministries, to little Afghan organisations, I hear anger and frustration. Anger at promised money that never arrived, even from blue-chip donors such as the World Bank. Anger at unaccountable donors who set up useful projects, but decided to move on after six months, leaving workers penniless and floundering. Anger at US aid that was tied to using US contractors with little knowledge of the country, so that, say, a vital health clinic in Badakhshan was built in a region where it would only be accessible by helicopter during the winter months. Anger at poor central planning and lack of transparency in the government.

These failures of development mean that people still do not have the clinics, schools, clean water and roads that they need to start rebuilding civil society after decades of war. Even in Kabul most areas are still desperately poor, with no functioning sewage system and just a few hours of electricity a night.

But because Afghani women are often treated no better than chattel, women and girls suffer much more than anyone else amid this horrendous situation.

Go. Read this story. And for more, check out RAWA's website.

2006-11-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

(Photo by S'ra DeSantis)

Behind the Israeli contradictions....

...If my analysis is correct, Israel is willing to settle for peace and quiet rather than genuine peace, for management of the conflict rather than closure, for territorial gains that may perpetuate tensions and occasional conflicts in the region, but which do not jeopardize Israel’s essential security. Declaring “the right to be normal” thus becomes a PR move designed to blame the other side and cast Israel as the victim; it is not something that Israeli leaders sincerely expect. Indeed, their very policies are based on the assumption that functional normality—an acceptable level of “quiet,” a strong economy, a fairly normal existence for an insulated Israeli public most of the time—is a preferred quid pro quo to the concessions required for a genuine (and attainable) peace.

Interesting analysis that explains some of the contradictions. It's short. Make it required reading for all of Israel's American supporters. (H/T: Crooks & Liars.)

P.S. And for European supporters of Israel, too!

Only when the international community—led by Europe rather than the U.S., which appears to be hopeless in this regard—decides that the price is too high and adopts a more assertive policy toward the Occupation, will the ability of Israeli governments to manipulate it end. Since governments will not do the right thing without being prodded by the people, what the Israeli public needs for a peaceful resolution to the conflict is not the “support” of its supposed “friends” but the active intervention of international civil society.

Complete story here.

2006-11-26T01:13:00.000-08:00

Hope for peace in Gaza...?

Palestinian militants have agreed to stop firing rockets into Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a halt to targetted killings, it emerged last night.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, telephoned Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, and told him that all Palestinian factions had agreed to a ceasefire from 6am this morning.

Olmert replied that if there was no rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli forces could stop their operations and begin to withdraw from Gaza. The ceasefire could bring an end to a spate of violence which has seen the death of more than 100 Palestinians in Israeli operations and two Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian rockets within the past month. [emphasis mine]

I see this as a step forward. I remain pessimistic, however, about prospects of long-term peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

Even while this agreement was being finalised, Israeli troops killed one "militant" and wounded six Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy shot in the head while standing outside his house.

Moreover, Israel continues to construct its hundreds-mile-long "security wall," essentially walling Palestinians into a huge prison, while the world looks on and does nothing. How would you like to live next to that (pictured above)?! Imagine the loss of an unobstructed view of sky and landscape, in addition to access to hospitals, jobs, relatives, olive groves and freedom of movement in your own community.

That the construction of this wall continues with no real objection on the part of world governments illustrates perfectly how little Palestinian lives matter in the political equation between Israel and Palestine. As long as this remains true, extremists on both sides will have access to a ready pool of volunteers in their desperate, asymmetrical war of suicide bombers vs. the Israeli state.

Complete story here.

2006-11-25T05:11:00.000-08:00

Green Zone too unsafe for Bush....

...On Wednesday, assassins killed a bodyguard of Iraq's parliament speaker one day after a bomb exploded in the hot-tempered politician's motorcade as it drove into a parking lot inside the Green Zone.

The bomb attack on the motorcade of Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a hard-line Sunni Arab nationalist reviled by many Shiites, was a major security breach in the heavily guarded compound that houses the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government. It was also the fourth assassination attempt against a high-ranking Iraqi government official in recent days. [emphasis mine]

So Bush is planning to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik in Jordan instead of Baghdad next week. That is, unless al-Malik backs out due to threats from radical Shiites to boycott parliament if he goes.

I can't believe that the mainstream media is still quibbling over whether or not Iraq is engaged in a "civil war." Look at this (from the same story as above):

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 101 Iraqis died in the country's unending sectarian slaughter Wednesday, and the U.N. reported that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll of the war and one that is sure to be eclipsed when November's dead are counted.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq also said citizens were fleeing the country at a pace of 100,000 each month, and that at least 1.6 million Iraqis have left since the war began in March 2003.

Life for Iraqis, especially in Baghdad and cities and towns in the center of the country, has become increasingly untenable. Many schools failed to open at all in September, and professionals — especially professors, physicians, politicians and journalists — are falling to sectarian killers at a stunning pace.

Lynchings have been reported as Sunnis and Shiites conduct a merciless campaign of revenge killings. Some Shiite residents in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah claim that militiamen and death squads are holding Sunni captives in warehouses, then slaughtering them at the funerals of Shiites killed in the tit-for-tat murders.

Wednesday's death count included 76 bodies found dumped in four cities, 59 of them in Baghdad alone, according to police, who said at least 25 people had been gunned down.

The U.N. figure for the number of killings in October was more than three times the 1,216 tabulated by The Associated Press and nearly 850 more than the 2,867 U.S. service members who have died during the war. [emphasis mine]

Words fail me. I simply cannot express how horrified and sickened I am at what the country of my birth has wrought in Iraq.

In October when I visited my dad in California, I was reminded how luxurious life in the US is. How easy it can be there. How incredibly abundant and cheap material goods are! Walk into the Vons near my dad's house and you're greeted with an array of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, canned goods, drugs, alcohol, sweets, magazines, deli items, household products, electrical gadgets, etc, etc! Unimaginable almost anywhere else in the world. And that's a small Vons, by local standards!

Most Americans don't think twice about all that abundance. They rumble from place to place in their obscenely huge trucks and SUVs, oblivious or not giving a damn that the flip side of their carelessly lavish lifestyle is Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico and other poverty-stricken, subjugated areas of the world that supply the cheap oil and cheaper labor to sustain them in the lap of ignorant luxury.

As much as I miss the ease and comfort of So Cal, the trade-off--supporting the horror in Iraq with my taxes in order to experience the luxuries of empire--isn't worth it to me. I'm grateful I have the option of Ireland. Where, to be fair, life is quite comfy by the standards of most of the world.

But it's a far cry from life in Cali.

News story here.

2006-11-24T15:23:00.000-08:00

Chronicle/Chris Stewart

Mark your calendars...!

Living on their houseboat off the Marin County coast, anti-war activists Donna Sheehan and her partner, Paul Reffel, concocted a way for the world to communally create a lot of peaceful vibes.

They want everyone to have an orgasm on the same day.

On Dec. 22, they're asking the world to contribute in their own way to the Global Orgasm for Peace. Sheehan said not to worry if you don't have a partner.

Moreover, "You don't need a good reason to have an orgasm," [a quoted source] said. "Even a stupid one is OK."

I'll drink to that!

Not to mention, Donna, 76, and Paul (no stated age) are looking damned good for their ages. If you need yet another reason to take up peace activism and orgasms!

Story here. (H/T A Tiny Revolution.)

2006-11-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

A bit of role-playing....

This is so perfect! (Can't remember where I first saw it....)

2006-11-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

Go Harvey...!

How did I miss this in 2003?! The clapboard editing gimmick is annoying, but wow, what a clip!!!

Of course, here we are three years later and same-sex marriage remains the Republican's preferred dead horse.

(H/T to Salon Video Dog.)

2006-11-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

Danny Hoch provides insight into Michael Richards' recent racist explosion on stage. (H/T to one of my favourite bloggers, Red State Son.)

2006-11-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

Wingnuts....

This video footage of British scientist Richard Dawkins confronting the (now) infamous Ted Haggard chillingly illustrates evangelicals' snide smugness, muddy logic, frightening ignorance, and utter lack of intellectual curiosity.

What an arrogant prick Haggard is!

H/T to Crooks and Liars.

2006-11-04T14:47:00.000-08:00

Kick their worthless asses out this Tuesday...!

There's been a lot of understandable pessimism, bitterness and fury directed at Democrats over the upcoming mid-term elections by bloggers I greatly respect. (Prime examples here and here.)

While I strongly agree with their opinions and have almost lost faith that the US will pull itself back from the edge of unequivocal despotism rather than leap into the abyss, I guess I haven't lost all hope yet, for this video stirred me.

Moreover, I did vote (absentee) before leaving California to return here to Dublin.

(Big H/T to Shakespeare's Sister for the video!)

2006-11-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

Unique idea to save a whale...!

The World Society for the Protection of Animals is trying to save the life of an endangered fin whale by raising enough money to pay the Icelandic government, intent on killing the whale, the price it would receive for the meat.

Please help! Go bid 10 British pounds on eBay here. And spread the word to all your friends.

For more details, go here.

2006-11-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

Yep they're smart...!

Elephants are self-aware enough to recognize themselves in a mirror.

And then we have cats:

2006-10-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

Shell to sea...!

What first caught my attention about this campaign was the Rossport 5's arrest. Anytime average people are willing to go to prison for their beliefs, I pay attention.

The more I learned about Shell in Mayo, the more shocked I became. Many political campaigns have good and bad on both sides, but not this one. The Irish people are getting nothing out of this deal, while Shell is being handed a windfall.

Please spread the word about this to everyone you know.

2006-10-31T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm back....

Sorry I didn't post a "Gone Surfing" sign. I was visiting my dad and friends and catching waves in Southern California. I couldn't have asked for better weather! And the surf started off small, glassy and easy, then built during the two weeks I was surfing until the last three days, I paddled out in waves generated by Hurricane Paul off Baja. By then I was able to handle the overhead, awe-inspiring walls of translucent blue-green water. It was exhilarating!

No doubt about it, Southern California is a paradise--for the prosperous. I was blown away by the abundance and cheap prices of restaurants, produce from all over the world, petrol, electronics, clothing!

The flip side is that the lucky wealthy residents seem invested in keeping the real costs of that cheap affluence well hidden. No signs of war were visible, unless you count the ubiquitous stars and stripes on bumpers, front lawns, car lots and everywhere, and this despite the fact that my dad lives only 30 minutes from Camp Pendleton, home base of many of the Marines in Iraq.

The city council of Escondido, where he lives, just passed an ordinance permitting law enforcement to investigate tips that residents may be “illegal aliens.” The cops can demand immigration documents, forward same onto the Immigration authorities, and fine (perhaps jail) the landlords who rent to the “illegals.”

I was sickened to hear of this! Though not surprised. Escondido is one of the few places in San Diego County with rents low enough for poor Mexican immigrants to find housing. The ones with greencards will now face legalised harassment, while those without will be forced to live in fear or flee. To me, this mean-spirited law epitomises the So Cal attitude: the rich will hire undocumented immigrants as nannies, maids, gardeners, and handymen, but don’t expect them to allow them to live nearby! Tortilla Curtain (by T.C. Boyle) anyone?

I’m happy to be back in Dublin. Life, while good, is not nearly so easy here, but neither are people so determinedly ignorant.

2006-10-05T05:03:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to feminists...!

I was tagged by my favourite blogger, Shakespeare’s Sister, to share Five Things Feminism Has Done for Me, with the hope being (according to Shakes) that feminist bloggers in America run with it as they have in Canada in response to the Canadian federal government's funding cuts to Status of Women Canada.

I’m delighted and honoured to be a part of this effort from the other side of the Atlantic! Sorry I’ve lagged in responding: it’s NOT due to lack of interest, but because one of my favourite friends from CA has been visiting while I’m preparing to return to CA for the first time in nearly three years on vacation, and consequently I haven’t had time for blogging lately. (Shhhh, don’t tell anyone: I’m trying to sneak this in now at work…)

1) First and foremost, feminism offered me the framework upon which to define myself, a necessary first step to clawing my way out of the darkness and confusion that resulted from growing up transgendered in a backward, red-necked American community in the 1950’s. The book that opened my eyes was The Women’s Room, by Marilyn French, still relevant and inspiring to young feminists after all these years. I read it in my late 20’s and the protagonist’s experiences, while different in specific detail, mirrored my own in emotional truth. The light bulb went off and suddenly I understood, at least partially, why I was depressed, frustrated, angry and, as I was isolated from feminists at the time, very lonely.

2) The oppression I experienced as a working-class girl and woman then provided the lens through which I viewed and analysed all subsequent oppressions, including against queers and trannies. I’ll never forget how harmful the ubiquitous set of restrictions, controls, expectations and general invisibility were as I was growing up. Even now, though I am perceived as a man, my fundamental identification and political passion (not to mention, romantic passion) remains primarily with women.

3) Some of the most transcendent emotional experiences, the greatest highs, I’ve ever had were in feminist gatherings or demonstrations before I put it together that I wasn’t a dyke, but rather an ftm. The first was at a Northern California Women’s Music Festival, it must have been around 1983. I know Women’s music festivals have a history of exclusion of trannies and others and problems with lack of sensitivity around race, class, disability and other issues. But I was blissfully ignorant at the one and only festival I attended, and what I felt was pure ecstasy to be OUT in a spectacular rural setting, listening to the icons of woman’s music in the company of hundreds of proud, feminist women. I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite that euphoric again.

Add to that my first “Take Back the Night March,” around 1983 or 84 in San Francisco. My first Pride Parade. My first few times at a dyke bar. As proud as I am to be FTM and all the highs I’ve experienced with my FTM brothers, and there have been many, because we are such a tiny minority there is simply no equivalent to the experience of being a feminist woman in the company of the feminist masses.

4) My mom was born in the United States in 1918, before women had the right to vote. As a child, the only women professionals I ever saw were nurses and school teachers. I never saw women bus drivers, police officers, scientists, medical doctors, corporate executives, mayors, senators, or congresswomen. Likewise, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and members of other trades. Women are still far too underrepresented in almost all high-paying, high-profile professional fields and in politics, but compared to the era when I was a child, progress has been immense. All due to the sacrifice, struggle, commitment and courage of feminists.

5) The first time I got pregnant, by accident in 1975, abortion had just been legalised in my country of residence at the time, France. Contraception had been legal for only eight years. A woman’s ability to control reproduction is critical to her ability to determine and control her future. Likewise, the liberalization of marriage and divorce laws. These rights are far from perfect and far from universally available, and are under siege in places where they do exist. Without freedom to choose whom to marry and the ability to control when and with whom one has children, women become baby-making serfs. Progress to date on this issues has been thanks to feminists. And I, for one, remain eternally grateful.

2006-10-01T02:19:00.000-07:00

You can't make this shit up...!

Mark Foley's slimy pursuit of Congressional pages perfectly illustrates the moral depravity at the heart of the Republican Party.

Republicans preach and strut, condemning queer families like mine, banning same-sex marriage because they say we’re "perverts," preventing us from adopting or fostering children, while they sneak into hotel rooms with both male and female prostitutes, divorce their wives when they’re undergoing chemotherapy, and sexually pursue high school students while heading Congressional committees charged with protecting children from pedophiles.

Throughout all, the one principle the holier-than-thou gang follows faithfully is protecting one another.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 — Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

What revolting hypocrites!

Not to mention, arrogant imbeciles. How in the name of William Henry Gates the Third could Foley have imagined he could send explicit emails to pages and never be caught?!

A quick net-search shows Foley has been fighting gay rumors for years. Watch Republicans denounce him now and turn this into a "Gays are molesters" issue. Bastards.

NYT story here.

2006-09-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the future...

Even the middle-of-the-road Gray Lady recognised the danger of the Bush administration's Military Commissions Act of 2006.

From yesterday's editorial:

...Last week, the White House and three Republican senators announced a terrible deal on this legislation that gave Mr. Bush most of what he wanted, including a blanket waiver for crimes Americans may have committed in the service of his antiterrorism policies. Then Vice President Dick Cheney and his willing lawmakers rewrote the rest of the measure so that it would give Mr. Bush the power to jail pretty much anyone he wants for as long as he wants without charging them, to unilaterally reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, to authorize what normal people consider torture, and to deny justice to hundreds of men captured in error.

The editorial compares the bill to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Personally, I think this legislation is worse.

And while I'm glad I live outside the US, that doesn't make me safe.

This law gives the president power to name anyone an "illegal enemy combatant," subjecting both legal residents of the United States and foreign citizens living abroad to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal.

2006-09-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

Irrestible....

This little guy is my current favourite at The Daily Kitten. (Though there are so many to chose from!)

2006-09-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

(David Scull for The New York Times)

Death knell of a republic....

When I visit the US next week for the first time in more than two years, I'll be entering a country which no longer recognises a Constitutional guarantee of the writ of habeas corpus.

I’ll be entering a country which has legally codified the right to torture.

I’ll be entering a country which four years ago, granted Bush the power, formerly vested only in Congress, to declare war.

In other words, I’ll be entering a dictatorship: “an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.” (Wikipedia.)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 — The Senate approved a measure on Thursday on the interrogations and trials of terrorism suspects, establishing far-reaching rules to deal with what President Bush has called the most dangerous combatants in a different type of war.

The bill would set up rules for the military commissions that will allow the government to proceed with the prosecutions of high-level detainees including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

It would make illegal several broadly defined abuses of detainees, while leaving it to the president to establish specific permissible interrogation techniques. And it would strip detainees of a habeas corpus right to challenge their detentions in court. [emphasis mine]

The bill is the same as one that the House passed, eliminating the need for a conference between the two chambers. The House is expected to approve the Senate bill Friday, sending it to the president to be signed.

To say this makes me more than a bit nervous, is a huge understatement.

Chris Floyd has a few, more succinct words on the subject here.

And the NYT story is here.

2006-09-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Small victory...?

From today's Salon:

...At a time when substantive victories in Washington are rare, the failure of Congress to enact legislation authorizing warrantless eavesdropping -- thereby ensuring the continuation of the National Security Agency scandal, enabling various lawsuits challenging the legality of the president's actions to proceed, and virtually assuring full-scale investigations if Democrats take over one or both houses -- is significant.

According to Glenn Greewald in a later post in War Room the delay and probable victory for rule of law has nothing to do with Democrats' opposition (big surprise!) but rather Republican disarray.

If Friday sees no passage of a bill, however, the chance that the FISA issue will stay alive for the mid-term elections and--if Democrats regain control of Congress--lead to criminal indictments for members of the Bush administration is to be fervently hoped for.

(Salon requires subscription or ad viewing.)

2006-09-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Not with a bang, but a whimper....

Ok, if Congress passes the McCain-Warner (misnamed) compromise bill, I think we can agree that America as we knew it will be officially kaput.

The new America will be a nation without habeas corpus. A country which imprisons indefinitely without charges, trial or the chance to repudiate "evidence" against oneself. A homeland whose government sanctions and openly employs torture.

Or, as Glenn Greewald over at Salon puts it:

...Put another way, this bill would give the Bush administration the power to imprison people for their entire lives, literally, without so much as charging them with any wrongdoing or giving them any forum in which to contest the accusations against them. It thus vests in the administration the singularly most tyrannical power that exists -- namely, the power unilaterally to decree someone guilty of a crime and to condemn the accused to eternal imprisonment without having even to charge him with a crime, let alone defend the validity of those accusations. Just to look at one ramification, does one even need to debate whether this newly vested power of indefinite imprisonment would affect the willingness of foreign journalists to report on the activities of the Bush administration? Do Americans really want our government to have this power?

The changes that the administration reportedly secured over the weekend for this "compromise" legislation make an already dangerous bill much worse. Specifically, the changes expand the definition of who can be declared an "enemy combatant" (and therefore permanently detained and tortured) from someone who has "engaged in hostilities against the United States" (meaning actually participated in war on a battlefield) to someone who has merely "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States."

Expanding the definition in that way would authorize, as Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies points out, the administration's "seizure and indefinite detention of people far from the battlefield." The administration would be able to abduct anyone, anywhere in the world, whom George W. Bush secretly decrees has "supported" hostilities against the United States. And then they could imprison any such persons at Guantánamo -- even torture them -- forever, without ever having to prove anything to any tribunal or commission. (The Post story also asserts that the newly worded legislation "does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant," although the Supreme Court ruled [in the 2004 case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld] that there are constitutional limits on the government's ability to detain U.S. citizens without due process.)

[Salon requires subscription of ad-viewing.]

2006-09-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

(Catherine Opie for The New York Times)

The kids are alright....

When Brian Sullivan — the baby who would before age 2 become Bonnie Sullivan and 36 years later become Cheryl Chase — was born in New Jersey on Aug. 14, 1956, doctors kept his mother, a Catholic housewife, sedated for three days until they could decide what to tell her. Sullivan was born with ambiguous genitals, or as Chase now describes them, with genitals that looked “like a little parkerhouse roll with a cleft in the middle and a little nubbin forward.” Sullivan lived as a boy for 18 months, until doctors at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan performed exploratory surgery, found a uterus and ovotestes (gonads containing both ovarian and testicular tissue) and told the Sullivans they’d made a mistake: Brian, a true hermaphrodite in the medical terminology of the day, was actually a girl. Brian was renamed Bonnie, her “nubbin” (which was either a small penis or a large clitoris) was entirely removed and doctors counseled the family to throw away all pictures of Brian, move to a new town and get on with their lives. The Sullivans did that as best they could. They eventually relocated, had three more children and didn’t speak of the circumstances around their eldest child’s birth for many years. As Chase told me recently, “The doctors promised my parents if they did that” — shielded her from her medical history — “that I’d grow up normal, happy, heterosexual and give them grandchildren.”

Needless to say, doctors' predictions proved far from the mark. I met Bonnie/Cheryl at a party in San Francisco just around the time she was starting ISNA (and I was eager to begin transition). She is an absolutely brilliant person and has accomplished so much in the short period of time since then. I remain ever in awe of her.

Bravo to her and the other brave people who have come out publicly in their fight to end the barbarous practice of non-essential surgery on babies!

Chase’s position — that cosmetic genital operations on intersex children should be stopped and that children should be made to feel loved and accepted in their unusual bodies — is still considered radical. Most people believe, reflexively, that irregular-looking genitals would be extremely difficult to live with — for a child on a sports team, for an adult seeking love and sex — so why not try to make them look more normal? Katrina Karkazis, a medical anthropologist at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford, interviewed 19 clinicians and researchers of various specialties who treat intersex individuals, 15 intersex adults and 15 parents of intersex children, and she found that a majority of the doctors and parents felt surgery was a good idea. “We chose surgery for my daughter mainly because we did not want her to grow up questioning her sexual identity,” one mother explained about her baby, who was born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a genetic defect of the adrenal glands that causes girls’ genitals to appear masculinized at birth. “We felt that she should look like a female, so we chose the clitoroplasty and the vaginoplasty. We felt that she would have a better self-image if she did not have a ‘phallic structure’ and ‘scrotum.’ ”

Within the medical community, Chase has been successful in tempering the explicitness with which people publicly make this argument. As Chase has explained innumerable times, intersex babies are not having difficulty with sexual identity or self-image. The parents are, and parental anxiety about the appearance of a child’s genitals should be treated with counseling, not with surgery to the child. [emphasis mine]

The article goes on to detail the discomfort some parents feel when their little "girl" starts to play with her enlarged clitoris around age two.

In other words, parents would rather subject a toddler to the physical pain and emotional trauma of surgery and risk destroying nerve sensation and their child's sexual functioning later in life, than deal with the reality that their child is a sexual being who may not fit into the neat little box the parent has constructed.

As for the prospect of children or adults living normal lives with “unusual” bodies, one of the most widely read articles I ever wrote was at Cheryl’s invitation for a special issue of Chrysalis focused on intersexuality.

In it, I explained a technique to shower in an open (male) gym setting when one lacks a penis. At the time I wrote it, I thought it would be read by all of 12 people. Instead, it is (to date) the sole piece I’ve written to be cited in a couple of professional books, journal articles and to have influenced (very slightly) a Pulitzer Prize winning author. Much to my chagrin (due to a playfully chosen title) it’s often the first link to come up when I’m googled

Chase's long-term goal is the eradication of infant genital surgery conducted for the sole purpose of altering appearance, a goal that the NYT article describes as "outlandish to many medical professionals and to most of the general public as well."

All I can ask is, "Why?!"

2006-09-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Go get 'em, Bill...!

Damn! This is one of the most satisfying news clips I've watched in years! Bill Clinton nails Fox News! Fantastic!

(H/T to Crooks & Liars, where you can view the complete clip. This is the longest clip I could find on You Tube.)

2006-09-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

Must see...!

As usual, the trailer doesn't do this movie justice. I saw it today, and it's one of the most powerful movies I've ever seen. Absolutely incredible. GO SEE IT!

2006-09-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

New music...!

My ex, Michael, turned me on to Iron and Wine today.

We were IM-ing, he in San Francisco, me in Dublin. How would I manage without the internet? Living as I do as many as 8 time zones away from so many of the people I love.

I've experienced many deaths in my life, from an early age. Lost my beloved nana when I was 14. My mom at 17. One of my first loves, in fact the man who set my feet on the path to eventually healing from my mom's death, at 22. Another first love, many years later at 44, when he crashed his airplane into the Pacific. Many friends passed away to AIDS when I was in my 30's. And others died from various causes throughout the years.

Breaking up can feel like death. Especially when the breakup is bitter, leaving no possibility of a gentle re-connecting after the initial searing pain dissipates. In those cases, the separation feels nonnegotiable, like death.

Blessedly, I'm still close to my sweetest, most extraordinary exes, Michael and Nicole. I was with each of them as a guy, Michael shortly after transition when manhood felt like a gift to be opened each morning as if it were Christmas; Nicole years later, after I'd settled more into my masculinity.

They are both much younger than me, although ftms tend to experience puberty and young adulthood at whatever age we find ourselves when we first start testosterone. Many of us look a good 15 or more years younger than we are, too. I got carded when I was 43: the waitress refused to sell me a beer because I didn’t have my id. Thus, my age difference with Michael and Nicole wasn’t an obstacle in the usual sense of shared interests, excitement for life, first times, and mismatched egos.

Where it did pose problems had to do with larger developmental issues. There simply are certain adventures and misdeeds a person needs to be footloose and fancy free enough to take on, else resentment and frustration sets in. No amount of love and longing can bridge that gap, believe me.

In each case, the breakup was extremely amicable, though far from painless. With Nicole, it required three attempts and me to remove myself to the other side of the Atlantic to finally make it happen. And yet, we still manage to think so much on the same wave length that out of the blue we’ll email each other simultaneously after a silence of weeks. And Michael still makes me smile like no other person in the world.

I will love them both as long as I live.

2006-09-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

The truth about the military....

I wish this video had been available when my nephew was planning to enlist in the late 1980's into the Marines. I wrote him a long letter, trying desperately to dissuade him. But his parents, both Right-Wing Christians, supported his decision and signed the permission papers, as he was only 17.

He wasn't sent to war, but emerged from the military a wrecked man nonetheless. He was discharged early (I'm not sure why) and has been a total mess ever since. Can't hold down a steady job. Drifts from place to place. No friends. Never in a relationship. Holds scary extreme right views. He's fascinated with guns, knives and survivalist views.

Clearly, I can't blame the military for all his troubles. But (a) if he was that emotionally vulnerable, he should never have been allowed to enlist, especially as a teenager; (b) something happened, in basic training or during the couple of years he served, that sent him completely over the edge; and (c) the military could give a damn that they discharged a broken man back into society who can't cope, holds extremely anti-social views, and has advanced military training.

His latest attempt to pull his life together? More military training, this time under the auspices of a private contractor, and two tours in Afghanistan.

In other words, he's become a mercenary.

(H/T Red State Son.)

2006-09-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Oh my god....

I've been trying not to think about this, as the mid-term elections approach and my trip to the US nears. God save us, if Bush escalates this to a full-scale invasion of Iran. (H/T to AlterNet.)

2006-09-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's him...!

...Rich draws a quick but brilliant sketch of Bush as a lazy, entitled boor, lacking in any real ideology beyond crony-capitalist Republicanism, who above all wanted to win and was accustomed to winning -- because he had always played with a rigged deck.

[snip]

"...Iraq was just the vehicle to ride to victory in the midterms, particularly if it could be folded into the proven brand of 9/11. A cakewalk in Iraq was the easy way, the lazy way, the arrogant way, the telegenic way, the Top Gun way to hold on to power. It was of a piece with every other shortcut in Bush's career, and it was a hand-me-down from Dad drenched in oil to boot."

Brilliantly apt description from a review of The Greatest Story Ever Sold, by Frank Rich in today's Salon. (Requires subscription or ad viewing.)

2006-09-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Another clever ad....

Ok, this is for alcohol. But loving the ocean the way I do, I find it really appealing.

2006-09-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

Lovely vibrator ad....

I've been finding world events a bit much lately. It's all I can do to follow the news. Darfur. Gaza. Iraq. Afghanistan. An Inconvenient Truth. Bush at the UN. Bird flu.

Time to turn to You Tube again!

And what better place to start than this charming, faux-retro, pro-lesbian vibrator ad?

2006-09-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Go, Keith...!

Keith Olbermann at MSNBC has been on fire lately on the subject of George W. Bush! Too bad his mettle is so rare among American journalists.

2006-09-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

What really happened...?

I just came across this interesting critique of the official 9/11 story (H/T to The Gaelic Starover).

It caught my eye in part because I had just commented on the very topic over at Salon today, in response to a review of What Terrorists Want, by Louise Richardson (requires subscription or ad-viewing).

In my comment, I queried whether we really know beyond a shadow of a doubt that bin Laden and al-Qaida were responsible for the attacks on 9/11.

Given the Bush administration's track record for lying, and the obvious benefits for bin Laden of claiming responsibility, I really wonder. I'm not a Bush-blaming conspiracy nut, far from it! But until bin Laden is given due process and a trial--something unlikely to happen--I believe the idea that a defined entity, "al-Qaida," under the leadership of bin Laden, planned and executed the attacks of 9/11 should be treated as open to question.

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed explores the question in more depth.

Five years after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that shook the world, scepticism [sic] about the Bush administration account of what happened, as well as of the “War on Terror” in general, has increased exponentially. This has accompanied the emergence of all kinds of pet theories about what happened, some of them truly bizarre, others intriguing but vacuous, and perhaps a few based on compelling facts.

For someone not familiar with these theories, it’s difficult to know where, and why, to start. And particular variants of 9/11 “truth”, such as the “no planes” theory that the whole event was merely an audiovisual technicolor chimera concocted on our TV screens, don’t help.

But is it all just a pile of lunacy? If only it was, I could sleep much better at night. Unfortunately, beneath the mountain of theories and speculations, there remain disturbing and persistent anomalies that have yet to be resolved. In this respect, the mainstream media’s approach to criticism of the 9/11 official narrative has been wanting in the extreme, focusing largely on bizarre pet theories and fringe speculations, suggesting that anybody who has doubts about the official story must be delusional, dumb, or both.

His exploration is worth reading, if for no other reason than it raises issues I've not come across elsewhere. Such as the charge that al-Qaida's operational links to the CIA and DEA were (indeed, still are) very much alive and well in September 2001.

Read it here.

2006-09-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

R.I.P.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Tyron Garner, one of two men [on the left, in the photo above, John Lawrence is on the right] whose 1998 arrests led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down bans on sodomy, has died, according to a spokesman for the legal firm that represented him.

Garner died early Monday at a Houston hospital, said Mark Roy, a spokesman for Lambda Legal in New York City. Garner had been suffering from meningitis and had been in his brother's care for the past six months.

Garner and Lawrence were arrested when police entered Lawrence’s apartment on September 17, 1998, responding to a false “weapons disturbance” call, and found the two men engaged in sex.

I wonder what role race played in the arrest. Would the Houston police have arrested two white men caught having consensual sex in the privacy of their home?

According to Wikipedia, Lawrence must have been around 44.

How very sad he's gone.

Complete story here.

2006-09-13T03:13:00.000-07:00

Stop homophobia...!

This from the Guardian's Comment is Free:

Fifty-eight alleged lesbians and gays have been outed by the Ugandan newspaper, Red Pepper - the latest outrage in an on-going homophobic witch-hunt orchestrated by the government, police, media and churches of Uganda.

Uganda is the new Zimbabwe. President Yoweri Museveni is the Robert Mugabe of Uganda - a homophobic tyrant who tramples on the human rights of gays and straights alike.

Taking a lead from Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Museveni has found it politically convenient to demonise and scapegoat gay people as "the enemy within", thereby helpfully diverting attention from human rights abuses, poverty, unemployment, corruption, unfair elections and mass deaths from HIV.

In the latest tabloid outing, last Friday, 8 September, 13 supposed lesbians were exposed by Red Pepper. They include two boutique owners, a basketball player and the daughters of a former MP and a prominent Sheikh. Under the headline, "Kampala's notorious lesbians unearthed", the sleazy tabloid published a photo of two very glamorous, unnamed, scantily-dressed women embracing at a party. The article urged readers phone a hotline to "name and shame" any lesbians they know:

"To rid our motherland of the deadly vice (lesbianism), we are committed to exposing all the lesbos in the city. Send more names us (sic) the name and occupation of the lesbin (sic) in your neighbourhood and we shall shame her. Call: 0712XXXXXX," wrote Red Pepper.

Citizens who are happy, healthy, sexually fulfilled and free to pursue love and affection from partners of their choice do not fall prey to the manipulations of corrupt despots, like Yoweri Museveni, Robert Mugabe or, for that matter, GW Bush.

Which is why authoritarians and tyrants of all stripes seek to control and restrict the sexuality of the people they desire to dominate.

Campaigns like the one above also divert attention from society's genuine ills and the myriad ways crooked leaders fail their people.

My heart goes out to Uganda's LGBT folk. Please check out the entire column and write (a polite email) to the Red Pepper’s senior editor, Arinaitwe Rugyendo at: rugyendo@mail.redpepper.co.ug

Oh, this explains it...!

2006-09-12T14:23:00.000-07:00


(H/T to Salon's Video Dog.)

2006-09-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

President Smirky McTorturer....

There are five-year-olds who have greater reasoning and mental capacity than this president of the United States.

The mainstream media's not giving him quite as free a ride as they used to...

2006-09-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

War criminal....

I (obviously) didn’t see Bush’s “9/11 address to the nation” last night, as I'm(thankfully!) out of the nation.

I heard snippets on the radio this morning, which were enough to put me off my feed. I could barely bring myself to read it in its entirety today.

I do not understand how anyone can be taken in by Bush! His nauseatingly overblown rhetoric is more appropriate to satirical works, like Orwell’s 1984, than to the speech of an honest-to-god sitting president.

Some quotes and my responses:

“Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history.”

No disrespect to those killed on 9/11/01, but America’s history is replete with barbaric acts, many perpetrated by its very own citizens. Against African slaves. Or Native Americans, who initially greeted European newcomers with generosity. Or Vietnamese peasants. The list is tragically long.

“Today, we are safer…”

Every objective measure challenges the veracity of that statement.

“Since the horror of 9/11, we've learned a great deal about the enemy. We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy…”

First, as Bush has reiterated ad nauseam, we have not suffered another attack on American soil since 2001, thanks to his glorious efforts to protect the Homeland. (Otherwise known as good luck.) So, wouldn't it be more correct to say “On 9/11, we learned”?

More importantly, since we had killed, as of October, 2004, more than an estimated 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, wouldn't Bush’s words better describe us?

And finally, simplistically characterizing an enemy as evil killers is a timeworn propaganda tactic. I’m shocked anyone would be taken in by it.

“America did not ask for this war.”

Excuse me? America invaded an innocent country, Iraq, without provocation. (Twice, I might add.) And as for the attacks of 9/11, I abhor and condemn all terrorism, including those acts. But America's long history of meddling in the Middle East, arms sales, coups (such as the one that set up Saddam Hussein or the Shah in Iran), and partisan support of Israel against Palestine, made the US far from an innocent bystander.

“Every American wishes it were over. So do I.”

I seriously doubt that. The “War on Terror” is the primary means by which the Bush administration rammed through its radical authoritarian, proto-fascist agenda.

Not to mention, Bush, Cheney and their allies are making megabucks on the war and its historically high oil prices.

“Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone.”

Straw man argument. No one has seriously made such a ridiculous claim. Other than Bush and his supporters, in order to make their own points in the process of tearing it down.

“They are thrown into panic at the sight of an old man pulling the election lever, girls enrolling in schools, or families worshiping God in their own traditions. They know that given a choice, people will choose freedom over their extremist ideology.”

Give me a bucket, I'm going to hurl! If an Irish leader spouted such treacle, he or she would be jeered off the stage. Are Americans really so stupid?

“And then, on a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage.”

Which calm was that exactly? The calm in Israel and Palestine? Or between Iraq and Iran? Or maybe the calm in Afghanistan under the Taliban? Oh, I know! The calm in Lebanon before Israel bombed the small country into rubble with US manufactured bombs, helicopters, and F16's last month!

“At the start of this young century, America looks to the day when the people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile gardens of liberty, and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and prosperity.”

That Bush can utter such words, given the monumental amount of deaths and destruction he is personally responsible for in the Middle East, is truly astonishing. [Re-reading this a few hours later, I realise that while it's ungrammatical, it effectively communicates my sputtering outrage!]

"The attacks were meant to bring us to our knees, and they did, but not in the way the terrorists intended. Americans united in prayer, came to the aid of neighbors in need, and resolved that our enemies would not have the last word. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. And we go forward with trust in that spirit, confidence in our purpose, and faith in a loving God who made us to be free.

Thank you, and may God bless you."

Unfuckingbelievable. The nation's founders are rolling over in their graves.

2006-09-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

You gotta be kidding...!

SYDNEY, Australia Sep 12, 2006 (AP)— At least 10 stingrays have been killed since "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was fatally injured by one of the fish, an official said Tuesday, prompting a spokesman for the late TV star's animal charity to urge people not take revenge on the animals.

[snip]

Stingrays are usually shy, unobtrusive fish that rummage the sea bottom for food or burrow into the sand.

They have a serrated spine up to 10 inches long on their tails, which they can lash when stepped on or otherwise frightened.[emphasis mine]

Are people completely insane?! To retaliate against a naturally timid, unobtrusive creature in supposed revenge for the life of an avowed conservationist?!

Crikey, indeed!!

Complete story here.

2006-09-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

Incestuous amplification....

Pass this video on, too! Buy the book. (H/T again to Crooks & Liars.) And pray you live long enough to see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of their cronies in prison for war crimes.

2006-09-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

Right on...!

This clip is being edited for use in various netroots campaigns across the US. Catchy tune and excellent idea!!! Pass it on. (H/T to Crooks & Liars.)

2006-09-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Alison Bechdel

My favorite cartoonist has been branching out, publishing a graphic memoir, Fun Home, to great acclaim this year and now, sharing an exhibit at the Pine Street Art Works in Burlington, VT, with artist friend, Phranc. Bechdel is exhibiting these amazing drawings on four-foot wide Kraft paper.

She made a movie of them:

Incredible stuff! Here's the post about the drawings on Bechdel's blog.

[Edited to fix html on 13/9/06.]

2006-09-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Brian's last public performance....

According to Wikipedia, this is footage from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, Brian Jones' last public performance, filmed in December, 1968.

The film wasn't released for 25 years because Mick Jagger was unhappy with the band's performance.

It's certainly not their best. But I love the song and it's Brian's final public gig.

He was found motionless in the bottom of his Sussex, England, swimming pool around midnight July 3rd, 1969. (My mother killed herself in March of that year, half a world away in California.) Controversy surrounds the circumstances of Brian's death, but what isn't disputed is that he'd been on a downward spiral of drugs, alcohol and depression for some time.

And yep, that is John Lennon in the clip! I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I watched it. But according to Wikipedia, he and Yoko Ono performed in Rock and Roll Circus, along with many other outstanding performers.

2006-09-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

the Stones....

On the other hand, the bad boys of rock were always my favorites!

Mick's sizzling sexuality blazes from his eyes, doesn't it? Damn! And then there's Brian Jones, looking like a little kid dwarfed by his sitar!

2006-09-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

Feeling nostalgic....

Surfing through old music videos tonight at You Tube.

I saw this performance (February 9th, 1964) Live on our old black and white TV. Then went out the next day and bought the single. It's possible my brother still owns it.

[edited: added date of appearance.]

2006-09-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Muzzle the mouse...!

From the NYT:

Three members of the Clinton administration have written the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent, to complain that the network’s coming two-part miniseries “The Path to 9/11” is fraught with factual errors and fabrications.

The letters ask that the five-hour movie, scheduled for broadcast Sunday and Monday, be either edited for accuracy or canceled, and ABC gave a small indication yesterday that some changes might be made.

Later in the article,

ABC, meanwhile, continued to explain that the mini-series, though largely drawn from the report of the Sept. 11 commission, was a dramatization, not a documentary. [emphasis mine]

Oh, that makes it alright! We all know how adept American TV viewers are at keeping fact and fiction straight!

Since I prepared to post this, news broke that Bill Clinton's lawyer, Bruce Lindsey, has also written ABC a letter. (HT to Shakespeare's Sister.)

NYT story here.

2006-09-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

What a find…...!

A guy happened upon a box of old photos at a flea market, and from it came what looks like a marvellous book.

To think, I was a confused little transgendered kid in the redneck suburbs of Southern California, when these trannies were crossdressing in the Catskills!

...These men had one foot in the mainstream and the other in the margins,” Mr. Hill said the other day. “I’m fascinated by that position and their paradox, which is that the strict gender roles of the time were both the source of their anxiety and pain, and also the key to escaping that pain.”

What still moves Murray Moss, the impresario behind Moss the store, about the images in the book is their ordinariness. “You think of man dressed as woman and you think extremes: it’s kabuki, Elizabethan theater, Lady Macbeth,” he said. “It’s also sexual. But these aren’t sexual photos. The idea that they formed a secret society just to be ... ordinary. It’s like a mirror held up to convention. It’s not what you would expect. It’s also not pathetic. Everybody looks so happy.”

The NYT is its usual mix of poignancy and clueless in this article, as in these few sentences in the lede.

In those pre-Judith Butler, pre-Phil Donahue days, when gender was more tightly tethered to biology, these men’s “gender migrations,” or “gender dysphoria,” as the sociologists began to call cross-dressing, might cost them their marriages, their jobs, their freedom.

Does the writer really think the same is no longer true, especially in George Bush's America?!

Ah, wouldn't the world be amazed to find out who, among their heterosexual male friends and acquaintances, cross dresses!

I’d like to get this book.

Complete story here.

2006-09-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

(Photo from here.)

Maybe she's a Simon & Garfunkel fan...?

Faye Weldon argues in her new book, "What Makes Women Happy?" (according to Broadsheet) that women should fake orgasms to make men happy and out of gratitude for all the great progress women have made (yeah, like in Japan).

...She seems to base this argument on the fact that "eighty percent of women only sometimes -- or never -- experience orgasm." Even kindly bypassing the fact that the difference between sometimes having an orgasm and never having an orgasm is, uh, monumental, there's something genuinely wacky about solving a lack of orgasms by faking them. But Weldon seems OK with the idea that most women will largely go orgasmless and expects that any thoughtful woman will accept this and redirect her attention to soothing the male ego. After all, why upset his sense of manliness over something that is likely unattainable? You've already won your high-powered career -- to the detriment of his ego -- so stop your complaining and shut up already!

Some feminists are outraged, calling Weldon an unrepentant misogynist. But her argument reeks of nasty disdain and condescension toward men, depicting women as higher intellects stuck with the sorry task of looking after apelike males who think only in primal terms of defending their egos. This isn't just antifemale, it's antimale!

Not sure I agree with Salon on this.

Weldon’s advice may be, more than anything, the reflection of a huge generation-gap. Weldon came of age during the 1950's, when sex was not a proper topic of discussion for polite, young ladies. Without sex-education for men or women, misinformation was widespread.

Moreover, partners were not expected to talk about what they wanted, and thus clear up misconceptions. It’s not surprising that Weldon might hold outdated notions.

That she would in the 21st century, however, get a book past editors that advises women to fake orgasms is as maddeningly frustrating as her advise is sad and misguided. While I question the reliability of the “80%” figure (I hope it’s not true!) fact is, a lot of women do NOT orgasm with a male partner. So, is stating the truth “antimale”?

If men are ever to reach a better understanding of women’s bodies, and thereby be able to assist in attaining the big O, lying about orgasms is a really bad idea. Throws your partner way off base, so to speak, in addition to undermining the foundation of honesty and communication between partners.

Broadsheet snippet here (requires subscription or ad-viewing).

2006-09-07T03:55:00.000-07:00

No shit...!

GOP vows honesty (NOT!)

HT to Harpers; story here.

2006-09-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

(Photograph: John Giles/WPA/PA.)

Bush's bitch under pressure....

Seven members of Tony Blair's government resigned today in protest at the prime minister's reluctance to publicly name a departure date.
One junior minister, Tom Watson, quit as well as six parliamentary private secretaries, after 48 hours of leaks and rampant speculation about an exit timetable.

The open rebellion, after Downing Street dubbed reports of Mr Blair quitting next May "speculation" but did not deny them, led the Conservative leader, David Cameron, to describe the Labour party as in "meltdown."

In his resignation letter, Junior Minister Watson said, "It is with the greatest sadness that I have to say that I no longer believe that your remaining in office is in the interest of either the party or the country."

I would add, "or the world," to that list. Along with George Bush's name to the letter's salutation.

I've never understood why so many Britons remain loyal to Blair, despite his dragging them into the Iraq fiasco.

Complete story here.

2006-09-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

(Photo here.)

Patriarchy survives threat in Japan....

Tokyo, Sept. 6 (AP): Japan's Princess Kiko gave birth to the royal family's first male heir in four decades on Wednesday, easing a succession crisis and quelling a fractious political debate over whether to allow women on the throne.

Kiko, 39, underwent a Caesarean section at a Tokyo hospital, bearing a boy who is third in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito and Kiko's husband, Prince Akishino, 40. The baby's name was to be announced next Tuesday.

The arrival of a new Prince _ Emperor Akihito's first grandson _ defused a succession crunch in the coming generation of the royal family, which traces its roots back some 1,500 years.

[snip]

The closely watched birth was also likely to put the brakes on a divisive debate over whether to change Japan's 1947 imperial law to allow women to inherit the throne. Under that law, only men in an all-male line to the emperor can assume the crown.

While eight women have ruled as emperor over the centuries, the last taking the throne in 1763, they served mostly as placeholders until a suitable male could be found, and none passed the crown to her offspring. [emphasis mine]

For some time now, doesn't it feel like one step forward and two steps back for progressives and feminists?

I was watching this story, hoping for the birth of a baby girl, thinking it could propel Japan's patriarchal, regressive society forward.

But no luck.

I know Japan is far from alone in the world community when it comes to sexism. The US has yet to elect a woman president. The very idea! That in this day and age, one has to possess a penis and balls to be fit for leadership.

Arghhhhhhh!

Complete story here.

2006-09-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Scots invented golf to help men whose self-esteem wasn’t low enough already….

Lewis Black was outstanding last night! He had the audience of roughly 800 people in Dublin's run-down Olympia Theatre falling out of our seats with laughter for an hour and a half. The show was worth every penny of the 29 Euro ticket price.

What presence Black has on stage! He launched into his characteristic and utterly satisfying rants about Cheney and Bush, American culture ("The closest thing to culture we have in the US is when someone, say, leaves the natural yogurt in the fridge too long."), Jesus Christ, Mormons, Michael Jackson, masturbation, his "Jewish lack of mechanical aptitude," and crazy news items. Like the story about the guy whose wife almost bit off his dick after he spilled scalding oil down her naked back while she was giving him head as he was cooking pancakes for her. News items which, as Black pointed out, cheer you up simply because they happened to somebody else.

Black smoothly integrated local material into his shtick, joking about the taxi strike inadvertently timed to coincide with his arrival at the airport, the outrageous prices of everything in Dublin (“My three producers each had a drink and some snacks at a bar and the bill was 100 fucking Euro!”), and, of course, the weather. When the audience informed him that Michael Jackson was in Ireland and possibly planning to settle in Cork, Black joked about the weather and Jackson!

Like all great stand-up comedians, he thinks at light speed on his feet. What a joy he is to watch!

(The clip I've posted is not Dublin. Couldn't find any clips from Ireland.)

2006-09-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

The reality of Iraq....

In my recent downward spiral, I haven't dared read Baghdad Burning.

I surfed over to it today for the first time in weeks, was drawn in, and left utterly sickened.

Previously, the blogger, a Baghdad resident, had maintained a surprisingly upbeat demeanour despite the chaos and violence engulfing her city. No longer. And I don't blame her a bit for her rage, bitterness and pessimism.

Here's a sampling. And if you're American, remember your tax money is paying for this.

...At nearly 2 pm, we received some terrible news. We lost a good friend in the killings. T. was a 26-year-old civil engineer who worked with a group of friends in a consultancy bureau in Jadriya. The last time I saw him was a week ago. He had stopped by the house to tell us his sister was engaged and he'd brought along with him pictures of latest project he was working on- a half-collapsed school building outside of Baghdad.

He usually left the house at 7 am to avoid the morning traffic jams and the heat. Yesterday, he decided to stay at home because he'd promised his mother he would bring Abu Kamal by the house to fix the generator which had suddenly died on them the night before. His parents say that T. was making his way out of the area on foot when the attack occurred and he got two bullets to the head. His brother could only identify him by the blood-stained t-shirt he was wearing.

People are staying in their homes in the area and no one dares enter it so the wakes for the people who were massacred haven't begun yet. I haven't seen his family yet and I'm not sure I have the courage or the energy to give condolences. I feel like I've given the traditional words of condolences a thousand times these last few months, "Baqiya ib hayatkum… Akhir il ahzan…" or "May this be the last of your sorrows." Except they are empty words because even as we say them, we know that in today's Iraq any sorrow- no matter how great- will not be the last. [snip]

It's like Baghdad is no longer one city, it's a dozen different smaller cities each infected with its own form of violence. It's gotten so that I dread sleeping because the morning always brings so much bad news. The television shows the images and the radio stations broadcast it. The newspapers show images of corpses and angry words jump out at you from their pages, "civil war… death… killing… bombing… rape…"

Rape. The latest of American atrocities. Though it's not really the latest- it's just the one that's being publicized the most. The poor girl Abeer was neither the first to be raped by American troops, nor will she be the last. The only reason this rape was brought to light and publicized is that her whole immediate family were killed along with her. Rape is a taboo subject in Iraq. Families don't report rapes here, they avenge them. We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous. Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?

In the news they're estimating her age to be around 24, but Iraqis from the area say she was only 14. Fourteen. Imagine your 14-year-old sister or your 14-year-old daughter. Imagine her being gang-raped by a group of psychopaths and then the girl was killed and her body burned to cover up the rape. Finally, her parents and her five-year-old sister were also killed. Hail the American heroes... Raise your heads high supporters of the 'liberation' - your troops have made you proud today. I don't believe the troops should be tried in American courts. I believe they should be handed over to the people in the area and only then will justice be properly served. And our ass of a PM, Nouri Al-Maliki, is requesting an 'independent investigation', ensconced safely in his American guarded compound because it wasn't his daughter or sister who was raped, probably tortured and killed. His family is abroad safe from the hands of furious Iraqis and psychotic American troops.

It fills me with rage to hear about it and read about it. The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It's been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can't bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can't bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can't bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can't bring myself to care because it's difficult to see beyond the horrors. I look at them and wonder just how many innocents they killed and how many more they'll kill before they go home. How many more young Iraqi girls will they rape?

Why don't the Americans just go home? They've done enough damage and we hear talk of how things will fall apart in Iraq if they 'cut and run', but the fact is that they aren't doing anything right now. How much worse can it get? People are being killed in the streets and in their own homes- what's being done about it? Nothing. It's convenient for them- Iraqis can kill each other and they can sit by and watch the bloodshed- unless they want to join in with murder and rape.

Buses, planes and taxis leaving the country for Syria and Jordan are booked solid until the end of the summer. People are picking up and leaving en masse and most of them are planning to remain outside of the country. Life here has become unbearable because it's no longer a 'life' like people live abroad. It's simply a matter of survival, making it from one day to the next in one piece and coping with the loss of loved ones and friends- friends like T.

It's difficult to believe T. is really gone… I was checking my email today and I saw three unopened emails from him in my inbox. For one wild, heart-stopping moment I thought he was alive. T. was alive and it was all some horrific mistake! I let myself ride the wave of giddy disbelief for a few precious seconds before I came crashing down as my eyes caught the date on the emails- he had sent them the night before he was killed. One email was a collection of jokes, the other was an assortment of cat pictures, and the third was a poem in Arabic about Iraq under American occupation. He had highlighted a few lines describing the beauty of Baghdad in spite of the war… And while I always thought Baghdad was one of the more marvelous cities in the world, I'm finding it very difficult this moment to see any beauty in a city stained with the blood of T. and so many other innocents…

This post was from July 11th. There are more recent ones, equally and understandably furious. Every American should read them. Each. And. Every. One.

Then DO SOMETHING to stop this war-crime being perpetrated in your name. Join your local anti-war group, then in groups of four or six, chain yourselves to the doors of your federal buildings in protest. Quit paying your income taxes. Refuse to redeploy to your military units if called up. Do something!!!

If you do nothing, you are complicit.

Baghdad Burning is here.

2006-09-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

R.I.P.

Woke up this morning to this news on my radio. What a shock!

The Queensland Ambulance Service have confirmed Australia’s ambassador for our wildlife has died suddenly from injuries sustained earlier today while diving, from a stingray barb to the heart.

Steve, also kwown [sic] around the world as 'Crocodile Hunter' was filming for his daughter Bindi's new TV series at the time of the accident around 11am AEST off Batt Reef Port Douglas in Far North Queensland.

A Queensland Rescue helicopter crew, including a doctor and paramedic was flown in to try and revive him. CPR was administered during the rush to nearby Low Isl but to no avail and he was pronounced dead soon after.

He is survived by his wife Terri and two children Bob and Bindy. Terri was in Tasmania trekking Craddle Mountain at the time of the accident and has been informed.

Steve Irwin and his family ran Australia Zoo north of Brisbane where flowers and condolences are already pouring in. He was a wildlife conservationist who donated money earned from his documentaries watched in 130 countries around the world to help wildlife.

A sad loss and a shock to all Australians.

The guy definitely took risks in the course of doing what he loved. Still, what an unlucky way to die.

I used to work in Scripps Institute of Oceanography at an office located right above a seawall off the La Jolla beach. We were the first point of contact for swimmers and surfers who were stung by rays. It's amazing the damage a ray can do! And from what people said, the pain of the venom is absolutely excruciating. Unless you’re stung near a vital organ, however, it's not a life-threatening injury.

My condolences go out to his wife and kids.

Story from here.

2006-09-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Over the falls....

Lewis Black's reference to the guy surviving a plunge over Niagara Falls got me curious so I googled him.

Crazy!

..."He just looked calm. He just was gliding by so fast. I was in shock really that I saw a person go by," Brenda McMullen told WIVB-TV in Buffalo.

Jones was not seriously injured and remained hospitalized in stable condition.

Surviving a leap from Niagara Falls had intrigued Jones for years, said his mother, who had spoken to him only briefly since the jump.

"He said he always thought there was a spot you could jump and survive," Doris Jones, 77, told The Associated Press from her sister's home in Keizer, Ore. "We never agreed to it. We thought it was risky." [emphasis mine]

No kidding!

Complete story here.

2006-09-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

Black at his best....

A tirade against legislation to ban profanity on air in the US...Effing brilliant!!

2006-09-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

Black on the gay threat to the American family....

Can't wait til tomorrow night when I get to see him in person!

2006-09-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

And this....

What can I say, I'm a cat person!

2006-09-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

Kitty throw rug....

Continuing on my break from posting about hard news, here's something to make you smile....

2006-09-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Fly like an eagle....

I'm afraid of heights.

Moreover, with a vivid, overactive imagination I'm the type of person who would work himself into an absolute state in the hours leading up to a jump rendering me utterly incapable of actually going through with it.

But, jeeze, don't I wish I could do this!!

Don't let the ease and antics of these fellows fool you: base jumping is one of the riskiest activities you can engage in.

From Wikipedia:

BASE jumping grew out of skydiving. Although both share certain similarities, there are three main technical differences between the two. First, BASE jumps are generally made from much lower altitudes than skydives. Second, a BASE jump takes place in close proximity to the cliff or tower which provides the jump platform. Third, the BASE jumper generally has a lower airspeed than a skydiver throughout the jump, because a BASE jump starts with zero airspeed, and due to the limited altitude, a BASE jumper very seldom approaches the terminal velocity (airspeed) of a skydiver. All three factors have significant implications.

The BASE parachute system is designed to open very quickly at low airspeeds. Second, the cliff or tower presents a risk to the BASE jumper if, for example, the parachute opens facing backwards. An off-heading opening is not considered a problem in skydiving, but has caused fatal impact injuries in BASE jumping. Off heading opening resulting in object strike is the leading cause of serious injury and death in BASE jumping.

An experienced skydiver is recommended to deploy their parachute no lower than 2,000 feet (610 m). At that time, if they have already been in free-fall for at least 1,000 feet (305 m), the jumper is traveling 120 miles per hour (54 m/s), and is 11 seconds from the ground. Most BASE jumps are made from less than 2,000 feet (610 m). For example, a BASE jump from a 500 foot (152 m) object is about 5.6 seconds from the ground if the jumper remains in freefall. On such a jump, the parachute must open at about half the airspeed of the skydiver, and more quickly (ie. in a shorter distance fallen). Standard skydiving parachute systems are not designed for this situation. Many BASE jumpers use specially designed harnesses and parachute containers, with extra large pilot chutes, and jump with only one parachute - since, with a total freefall time of 5.6 seconds, there would be no time to use a reserve parachute.

2006-08-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lewis Black on wmd's....

I'm going to see the great Lewis Black on Monday. He'll be in Dublin as part of the Bulmer's International Comedy Festival. I can't wait!

2006-08-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

Puppy v kitty....

This one was making the rounds a few months ago. It's still one of my favorites.

I love the way the kitten keeps charging back for more! The camera-operator has the good sense to keep quiet through most of it. And could you find a cuter puppy?!

2006-08-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

Tired....

Sorry, but my heart's not been in it for the past few days.

I think I hit a bad news overload, what with ongoing death and destruction in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Gaza, the continuing blockade of Lebanon by the Israelis, the anniversary of Katrina, the approaching 5-year anniversary of 9/11, the Lieberman bullshit campaign, and the endless garbage spewing from the mouths of Bush and his morally bankrupt supporters regarding Iran, terrorism, domestic traitors, and on and on.

In short, I need a break.

Hence, it'll be video clips for a while. Til I can face the news again….

2006-08-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Too cute for words...!

(HT to Salon's Video Dog.)

2006-08-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

Gays in the military...

According to the late, great Bill Hicks.

2006-08-29T03:37:00.000-07:00

Mounds of debris fill a waste collection point in New Orleans one year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.
(Photo: Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

Can't get my head around this photo...

The mind boggles at such an immense pile of rubbish!!!

First, the scale of destroyed goods brings home Katrina's immense power.

But there’s also the fundamental, inescapable point: look at how much garbage our society produces! Jaysus, are we totally insane?!

And this photo is from just one city! Multiply that times the number of cities in the US, not to mention the rest of the developed world.

There’s no way such a level of consumption and waste is sustainable.

Photo from The Boston Globe.

2006-08-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

(Photo: NOAA.)

Starving the beast....

One year after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, more than half the city’s population have not returned. Blame Mother Nature for the storm’s birth, but for the devastation it delivered to The Big Easy blame a succession of Republican administrations dating back to President Reagan.

Radical followers of the "starving the beast" philosophy in these administrations systematically dismantled a panoply of FDR-era social programs, including public health programs, consumer safety, public education, welfare, and maintenance of municipal infrastructure, including that of NO’s levees.

The strategy of these proponents of "small government" was to avoid direct assaults on popular programs, favouring a stealth approach instead in which they demonized all taxes while slashing income and property taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Enormous deficits and a zero-sum economy did the rest.

Twenty-five years later, with their city's levees weakened, emergency services understaffed, and evacuation plans nonexistent, New Orleans' poor and infirm had literally no way out. GW's war in Iraq diverted valuable construction and rescue equipment along with the National Guard units to operate it, while his free-market cronyism reversed wetlands restoration and sold the Mississippi delta’s protective acreage literally down the river. Add bipartisan inaction and incompetence, and the city’s elderly, young, poor and mostly black residents were forsaken to drown, swelter, starve and die of thirst in one of the richest countries in the world.

The aftermath reminded me of a much less severe emergency I witnessed in 1989. The Loma Prieta earthquake struck on an October Tuesday while I was in journalism school at UC Berkeley. Red Cross volunteers set up a temporary shelter in the San Francisco Convention Centre, located in the gritty South of Market (SOMA) district. Expecting to house "refugee” baseball fans from the interrupted World Series, the centre was inundated instead with poor, predominately black, Latino and Asian, chronically homeless San Franciscans as word spread on the street that there was free food and lodging.

When I arrived Thursday evening, hundreds of men, women and children, a number of the adults suffering obvious substance-abuse and/or other psychological problems, milled about inside the upscale centre. It was obvious that the local Red Cross were in over their heads with a population they had neither the experience nor the resources to handle, but they meant well and were doing their best. To the relief of homeless women I spoke with, they had enforced compulsorily segregation between the women and children, and the men. Even so, the presence of a range of noticeably sketchy individuals insured the situation felt just short of chaos.

I spent the next three days there, going home briefly each night to sleep. I grew familiar with the shelter’s routine, how a buzz would build in anticipation of celebrities who breezed in for photo ops, then die down as they left. As in New Orleans 16 years later, Jesse Jackson showed up, preceded by a huge entourage of television, radio and print reporters. He swept through on a tour then stopped for questions. Standing there clutching my reporter's notepad, a woman then, surrounded by the big guns of the national media, I gathered my courage and, identifying myself as a student, asked a question.

I’ll paraphrase it from memory here. “Do you think with the eyes of the nation focused on those San Franciscans made homeless by the earthquake, the idea that some homeless people deserve help while others do not might illustrate the wrong-headedness and moral bankruptcy of leaving people to live and die on the streets when there's no emergency?”

Without warning, Rev. Jackson, a large man, exploded into motion, grabbed my arm and swept me along with him in the middle of the cameras, reporters and hangers-on. He was talking the whole time and I was trying to scribble while running to keep up with his large stride. Suddenly we stopped, he released my arm, jumped into a limo that appeared before us at the curb and poof! was gone. Hands shaking, I looked down at my notepad to read what he’d said. Then re-read it. I couldn’t believe it! Consummate politician that he is, Jackson had spoken many words but they amounted to nothing of substance. No real position, no criticism, no proposed solution.

Sometime on Friday or Saturday, professional national Red Cross employees arrived in town. First thing they did was hire the company that oversaw rock impresario Bill Graham Productions to provide security at the doors. “I’m running this like a Dead concert!” I overheard one guard say to another. As word spread that you'd be frisked at the doors, the shelter population shrank by more than half. Which was exactly the goal. With the situation becoming safer, San Francisco politicians and business people had shown up to hold meetings behind closed-doors at the centre. Word leaked out that a convention was scheduled for the following Tuesday and big bucks were on the line. Somehow, someway, the convention centre had to be cleared.

And cleared it was. On Sunday, the “undeserving” homeless, probably a quarter of the number who’d originally shown up, were shipped off in city busses--the men to a decommissioned navy ship tied up at dock, the women and children to the Navy Presidio. From what I could gather later, many (most?) trickled back to the streets in subsequent days.

Nothing was done to address homelessness and poverty in the Bay Area—or the rest of the nation, including New Orleans. Clinton’s business-friendly administration was followed by Bush’s incompetent and utterly-indifferent-to-the-poor regime. Then 16 years later, Katrina upped the Loma Prieta ante.

One year beyond that, and the poor are still waiting.