Naked


Three years after my bike accident, following "top" surgery in an out-patient clinic to remove breast tissue and reshape my chest in a masculine way, when I looked like a man but had undergone no lower surgery, I once again found myself in a hospital, this time for back surgery.

I had been forced off work and onto medical disability by a ruptured spinal disk, which left me in constant pain and unable to walk without a pronounced limp. Drugs, physical therapy and a spinal epidural had all proven ineffectual at treating the injury, leaving back surgery as my final option.

I was scared. While my surgeon considered the procedure routine, any surgery carries risks, and this one included paralysis from the waist down and possible loss of bladder and bowel control. Contemplating this, and the fact I would be under general anesthesia and therefore completely at the mercy of the surgical team, I sat down for a one-on-one discussion with the surgeon's chief nurse ten days before entering the hospital.

The surgeon knew I was transsexual, but as I'd only decided that day to go forward with the surgery, he hadn't had a chance to inform his nurse. I wondered to myself, was disclosure necessary? With back surgery, maybe they'd only strip me down to my boxers, in which case no one need know I wasn't a "normal" male. I thought about this as the nurse asked me a series of routine questions about my health, including confirming I was on testosterone without inquiring as to why. When she finally asked if I had questions, I took a deep breath.

"Yes,” I said. “First, will I be unclothed during the procedure?"

Across the expanse of her large, polished wood desktop, the nurse looked up from my thick medical file. Ramrod straight, an older woman with just the trace of a German accent, she nodded. "Yes.”

"Oh…." I said. “Then you won't be leaving on even my underwear?”

"No.” Her tone registered the slightest impatience. “You will be completely naked."

“Oh.” I slumped down a bit in my hard, straight-backed chair. "Well then, there's something I have to tell you."

I took a deep breath. Then, "I'm a female-to-male transsexual and I haven't had lower surgery. You say I'll be unclothed during the procedure, so I want to make sure the surgical team and after-care nurses and everyone else are all informed ahead of time, to make sure they’re not surprised..."

I trailed off. I could see I’d lost her at the word "transsexual." She was hefting my medical file, a blank expression on her face and as I watched she dropped the file over the edge of her desk and onto the floor by her feet. It almost seemed like a deliberate action, though I knew it wasn’t. She bent over to retrieve the file, grabbing a confusion of papers and pages which she dumped in a pile back on her desktop.

"Oh," she said, avoiding my eyes while she tried to stuff the unruly mass of papers back into the file-folder. "Ok…Well, that's fine. I…I don't see any problem."

I watched a crimson blush climb her pale features as her hands scrabbled with the papers, thinking I'm really glad you're not monitoring my anesthesia level right now.

Then I tried again. "I wanted to tell you this now,” I said, “because not everyone has a positive reaction to the information and I don’t want them to be distracted or upset while they’re supposed to be taking care of me."

She cut me off. "But you said you haven't had the surgery yet.” She scowled, as if I was intentionally trying to ruin her day. “So I don't see what problem there is!"

I suddenly realized the words "female-to-male" had slipped past unnoticed in her reaction to the word, "transsexual." As was true for many people, the existence of females who transitioned to live as men was clean off her radar screen. She had assumed I was male, transitioning to female, saw I looked completely masculine and wondered why in the world a lack of surgery would pose any challenge to her staff.

I sighed again. Leaning forward in my chair, I annunciated very slowly and distinctly. "I have no penis."

Her jaw dropped. "You?! What? …Oh!” She inhaled sharply and sat back in her chair. Comprehension slowly washed over her features and, though I hadn’t thought it possible, she blushed even redder. "That...the…then…that explains the testosterone."

"Yes," I said, squaring my shoulders. And, as was my strategy in situations where someone was reacting badly to my disclosure, I adopted a calm, sympathetic demeanor. Treating the whole thing matter-of-factly when it obviously wasn’t exhausted me but it tended to take the wind out of the sails of over-the-top reactions.

"Do you understand now why I'm telling you this? It's not that I want to make you--or anyone--uncomfortable. I just want to make sure that everyone can focus on doing their jobs--on taking care of me during surgery. I don’t want them to be caught up in their reactions because they suddenly realize I'm ...different."

"Yes. Yes, I understand now. Of course…of course, I understand." The shuffling of papers slowed as she began to regain control of herself.

I, on the other hand, was shaken. Her meltdown had unnerved me.

After I left that day, I considered delaying the surgery and trying longer to heal my injury with physical therapy. The prospect of, say, my surgeon’s assistant or someone tripping on the physical reality of my body and oops! making even a small mistake, terrified me. I found it hard to shake the vision of the highly trained and experienced nurse reduced to a stammering klutz by my mere spoken revelation. The physical reality of my body was even more dramatic.

Walking abroad in the world possessing what looks like (while clothed) an intact male body, everyone assumes that I have all the expected plumbing. This expectation, needless to say, sets up a tension in my day-to-day existence. I never forget--indeed, society’s insistence on a two-sex system and its discomfort with transsexuals ensures I never forget--that I am different. I live one traffic accident, one false arrest, one ill-chosen confidence away from embarrassing--and possibly lethal--exposure.

One such case of an exposure gone wrong occurred on Christmas Eve, 1993. Twenty-one-year-old Brandon Teena was raped and, a week later, brutally murdered in Falls City, Nebraska, by two companions who discovered that their “male” friend actually possessed a female body. The small town sheriff Brandon turned to for protection was more interested in lurid details of the crime than in arresting the known assailants. His inaction gave the rapists time follow through on their threat to kill Brandon if he went to the authorities.

Word of Brandon’s murder spread like wildfire through the ftm community. On the verge of my first shot of testosterone, I knew that it could have been me. Murder of us is so widespread, frequently accompanied by sexual assault and a viciousness born of extreme emotions, that activists have informally coined the phrase, “the transsexual death penalty.”

I decided to call the nurse back a week later and feel out how she was adjusting. Keeping my voice nonchalant, I asked if she had any questions for me. Any concerns?

"No,” she replied, “none at all."

She sounded a bit nervous but generally under control. I reiterated that my main concern was that no one be distracted from doing his or her job, and she told me to rest easy: her staff were professionals and they would perform their jobs skillfully and well. We finished our conversation and I hung up.

I sat there staring at the phone, my hand shaking slightly on the receiver. At the time, I was living in a second-story flat in the Mission District of San Francisco. My four housemates consisted of two "boy-dykes," a fem lesbian and another ftm who was my best friend. They were at their various jobs, so I had the large, run-down Victorian to myself. Sun splashed in through the windows overlooking Guerrero Street, and I listened absentmindedly to the shrieks and laughter of children at recess at a nearby Catholic school.

What should I do? I wanted to call back and cancel the surgery, but what then? As it was, I couldn't work, couldn't walk much farther than a few blocks at a time, couldn't even cook for myself or do dishes or other household chores. If I canceled now and didn't get better, wouldn't I run the same risks if and when I decided to reschedule the surgery? I felt a flash of resentment. Why should I have to worry about this on top of the risks of the surgery itself?!

Finally, I removed my hand from the receiver and levered myself up out of the armchair and onto my feet. I'd done all I could to make sure my surgery would go well. Now, best let go of my worries and proceed.

Fortunately, the surgery was successful beyond anyone's expectations. Members of the Kaiser surgical team treated me with kindness and respect. The nurse who rolled me into the operating arena pointed out brown paper covering the room’s plate-glass windows. "For your privacy," she said. "Just like we do for our own."

Flat on my back, already feeling the effects of the drugs they'd pumped into me, I was more relaxed than I'd been in a long time. Surgery-smurgery, I thought, bring it on!

They told me to count down from 10: I was out by seven.

An Accident


They said I was unconscious for 10 or 15 minutes. Out-cold, in a crumpled fetal position on asphalt still damp from an early morning fog off the San Francisco Bay, while a crowd of my co-workers gathered, curious to see what had happened. Outside their growing circle, my mountain bike lay, taxi-cab yellow against the dull-gray pavement, its knobby tires slowly spinning down. It was relatively undamaged from the accident that had left me with a concussion, fractured arm, sprained wrist and patchy map of road-rash across my body.

I came to slowly, confused. I’d been dreaming, which made me think at first that I was home in bed. But the voices I heard above and around me didn't fit. One voice in particular, hoarse with excitement, broke through my haze.

"I looked up, yeah, and I saw this guy flying through the air! And he landed and I expected him to get up, but he didn't. He didn't get up…he just lay there, not moving. So I ran over…"

The voice receded again, as if down a tunnel, and my focus shifted to the cold, lumpy surface beneath my back, which resolved abruptly into gravel and asphalt. My heart started thumping as a picture popped into my mind--bicycle handlebars, and beneath them, a fat, off-road tire sunk deep in a roadbed rail-groove. On my final approach to work, outside the gate to Bayer’s Biotech facility in Berkeley, California, I’d tried to cross railway tracks to skirt a double-parked semi-trailer truck. As my tire encountered the wet tracks, however, my bike had jerked beneath me and without warning, slipped into the groove. A split-second later, wheels locked tight, it had stopped dead.

But the guy flying through the air couldn't be me. I'd just had my first shot of testosterone a week before. Fellow Bayer employees all knew me as a woman--a short-haired, cross-dressing odd sort of woman, true, but a woman nonetheless. That I was actually a female-to-male transsexual—or "ftm"—just beginning transition was as yet unknown. No coworker would use male pronouns to refer to me.

But the driver of the double-parked truck might. The man with the excited voice might be him, in which case, the guy he was referring to could be me. Flying through the air.

There was no escaping it: I must be lying in the road. Had been for a bit of time, it seems. Who—if any—of my coworkers had seen the accident? More importantly, who had heard the truck driver call me "he?" With any luck, they’d just think they’d misheard. Or that the truck driver was befuddled. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked up…to see a circle of Bayer employees five or six people deep surrounding me.

Shit! I clenched my eyes shut again. Heart racing, fighting nausea, I rolled over onto my side, struggling against the tangle of my bike-bag. All I wanted to do was escape the stares of those 30 or 40 people. Nothing else mattered. Not my head, which was pounding. Not the palms of my hands, scraped raw, nor my arm, which screamed in pain.

Somehow, I managed to get up onto my hands and knees and crawl a few feet—no one tried to stop me—before once again collapsing. Face down, fighting not to throw up, it occurred to me then that I might have a neck or spinal injury and should not have moved at all. The full extent of my predicament began to sink in. Still, so strong was my desire to flee the stares of coworkers who knew me as a woman but had heard the truck driver call me "he," I would have kept on crawling if I’d been able to.

Instead, I rolled over on the pavement and stared up at the sky, avoiding the eyes of my coworkers, wishing more than anything I could turn back the clock and walk, not ride my bicycle over those damned railroad tracks.

The ambulance arrived. Two paramedics jumped out and knelt on either side of me. One immediately immobilized my head and neck while the other checked my pulse and looked me over for injuries.

"What's your name?" He asked, shining a penlight into my eyes.

"Brynn C."

"What’s the date?"

"March 2nd, 1994."

The two men worked over me, untangling my bike bag, packing sandbags around my head and neck, and immobilizing my left arm. That was when I heard someone tell them I'd been unconscious for more than 10 minutes and really began worrying I might have caused permanent damage by trying to crawl away.

"Who's the president?" The EMT broke into my reverie, leaning over me. They really ask that? I thought before answering, "Bill Clinton."

His next question brought me up short. "Are you on any medications?"

Medications? Testosterone was a "medication," wasn’t it? I stared up into the inquisitive faces of my coworkers. Did I need to mention it? Would testosterone's side-effects be of any concern under the circumstances? My mind raced.

A concussion, which I must have suffered to lose consciousness for 10 minutes, causes the brain to swell, right? And testosterone leads to water retention and weight gain when first injected by a female-bodied person. So, could water retention worsen a concussion?

"Are you on any medications we need to know about?" The EMT repeated his question, his tone more insistent. In my state of mind, everyone in the surrounding wall of people seemed to be hanging on my reply. If I said, "Yes, testosterone," word would spread like wildfire, and Bayer's several thousand employees would all know by day's end that I was a transsexual. Hardly the way I'd planned to come out.

"Are you?" The paramedic asked again, his face looming.

"I.… I'm..." Suddenly, my stupor cleared enough for me to see the simple solution. "I’ll tell you later, ok?" I said in a low voice.

The EMT hesitated just a beat. Then, "Sure," he said, and the two of them finished strapping me to a body board and loading me into the ambulance.

Having never ridden in an ambulance before, I'd thought it would be exciting. The wailing siren, flashing lights, the drama of being the center of all that attention. Well, it was anything but. My condition wasn’t serious enough to warrant a siren, it seemed. A blessing I failed to appreciate at the time, so intent was I on not throwing up, as every bump in the road, every corner, every time we accelerated or braked, I prayed for unconsciousness.

"I feel sick," I finally managed to croak, but the words fell monumentally short of describing my misery.

"Hey, Joe, ease up a bit," the EMT spoke through the partition to the driver. Then he turned back to me. "So, what about those medications?"

Ah, jeeze, how was I going to tell this young guy I was on testosterone? That, in essence, I was one of those?

I took a deep breath, then blurted out, "I'm a transsexual and I had my first shot of testosterone a week ago. I don't know if it affects a concussion or not, but I thought you should know."

There was the slightest of pauses. Then, "That's cool," the paramedic said and wrote something down on his clipboard.

I felt so exposed. The silence lengthened and out of nervousness, I started talking. "Have you ever, ah, seen or dealt with anyone like me before?"

"Nope." The guy looked at me over the edge of the clipboard. "But that's okay." Then his face creased in a smile. "We're trained to deal with all sorts of things. Don't sweat it."

Gratitude washed over me. I was so thankful that he wasn’t put off. I was eternally grateful, in fact, that he was willing to treat me like a fellow human being. I exuded gratitude as I went back to fighting nausea, bouncing over potholes and careening around corners, until the ambulance arrived at the Oakland Kaiser emergency room.

Where, in short order, my composure met with a series of setbacks. A quick assessment by the triage nurse relegated me to an out-of-the-way section of a corridor. Still strapped to the stretcher, my body began to fail me. I started shivering uncontrollably, the room began spinning, my stomach was heaving and, worst of all, I had to relieve myself. Immediately. And they hadn't left me with a call button or any way to signal for assistance.

So I called out, not too loud. "Nurse?" Then a bit louder, "Nurrse!" Images of patients clamoring for attention in third-world hospitals flitted through my mind's eye. At the moment, though, the only thing more humiliating than yelling for help was the prospect of losing control of my bowels while strapped to the stretcher. Pretty soon I was shouting at the top of my lungs, "Nuuurrrsse!"

A white-haired, grandmotherly woman in a white uniform—the quintessential nurse—finally appeared, and I realized my ordeal was just beginning. Defecating into a bedpan while several nurses looked on was bad enough. But there was also the issue of the packer.

That’s right, I was packing—not in a suitcase, in my briefs. My ftm brothers and I had devoted an inordinate amount of time to devising a sort of handmade prosthesis, to give heft and a bulge to our trousers. After much trial and error, we'd settled on a fabrication of condoms filled with hair-gel and sewn inside a cut-off section of pantyhose. The "packer" looked quite lifelike beneath the fabric of pants. Exposed, it looked ridiculous, if not downright obscene.

And I had one in my briefs.

The urgency of the situation gave me little time to deliberate. I briefly considered putting my hand down my pants and sneaking the packer out before they undressed me. But then, where would I put it?

With seemingly no other choice, I came out under duress for the second time that day. "Ah, excuse me, but before we go any further, I have to tell you something," I started.

The nurse was down by my feet, pulling a blanket off my body. She paused and looked up expectantly. "Yes, dear? What is it?"

It's hard, that’s what it is. I sighed, then plunged on. "I'm a transsexual," I said. God how I hated that word! But nobody knew what ftm meant. "I'm female-to-male and I'm wearing a…a thing in my pants. It's kind of embarrassing and I want to take it out…"

"Oh, that's okay, dear!" The nurse actually chuckled and kindly patted my knee. "We've seen everything here. Don't you worry about it a bit. Diane?!" She called to another nurse. "Just a second, she'll bring you something to put it in." A younger woman appeared, disappeared, then returned with a large, white plastic bag.

"Here you go." While the first nurse finished removing my shoes, the other held open the bag. I reached down awkwardly with my unbroken right arm, pulled the packer from my underwear, and shoved it quickly out of sight into the bag. The nurse then stashed the bag discretely under my stretcher. The whole thing, disclosure to concealment, took just a couple of minutes, and neither nurse displayed the slightest unease or prurient curiosity. They were true professionals, for which I once again felt excessively grateful.

There remained the ordeal of the bedpan. Suffice it to say, only dire necessity made the humiliating feat possible. The tact of the nurses salvaged a modicum of my dignity. Still, by the time I was cleaned up, tucked under the blanket again and wheeled off to X-ray, I'd had quite enough of this hospital experience, thank you very much! Yet it would be hours before I’d eventually be released to go home.

I daresay, my experience would have been much more trying had I been farther along in my transition that day. As it was, after only one week on testosterone, my voice was still high-pitched and feminine, my face and body relatively hairless. Despite the fact I felt like a man, I still looked totally like a woman. With no surgeries, a doctor or nurse would find exactly what they expected beneath my clothing.

That wasn’t true the next time I found myself, by chance, in a hospital.

Something different....

I'm going to try something new here.

I'll be on vacation in Brooklyn (with my sweetie!) starting tomorrow and rather than leave Krieg9 to languish, I've decided to post excerpts from my (in-progress) memoir.

I plan to post every day or every other day, depending on my schedule and on readers' interest.

Please be aware, the details of my life could rock your world, especially readers who have come here seeking war news and political commentary. Even a few of you who know me personally may be surprised.

I am not telling my story to shock or offend, however, but because I believe it's worthy of telling for a variety of reasons. In regard to this blog, my politics and radical perspective have been intimately shaped by the events of my life.

As for my timing, I just finished reading the book, Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides--a tour-de-force, I highly recommend!-- and the fact that Eugenides was just awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, gives me hope that readers, or, at least, my readers, are ready to hear my story.

One final caveat: What I'm posting here will be truth, not fiction. I know, it's the Internet...where truth is as malleable as twice-chewed bubble-gum and just as precious. But I'm serious. This is the true story of my life.

With no further ado, the first installment will follow ....

GOP Astroturf update....

Editors at the San Diego Union Tribune can console themselves: they weren't the only ones to be scammed by the GOP Team Leaders Action Center.

From from it. According to This Modern World, the list of dupes has become woefully long. Time Magazine just added its name, followed by the Kalamazoo Gazette, the Huntsville (AL) Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Anchorage Daily News, the Gallitin (TN) News Examiner and the Glasgow (KY) Daily Times.

These fine examples of American print journalism all published--verbatim--the same letter on "creating jobs and fostering economic growth," composed by TLAC operatives. They placed it in their "letters to the editor" sections, presenting it as a heartfelt missive, painstakingly penned by a real person, rather than the digital result of a couple of mouse-clicks that it really is.

What an all-time low for U.S. journalism. Granted, astroftuf is nothing compared to the Jayson Blair scandal, which pales in comparison to the appallingly shallow, sporting-event-like coverage of the 2002 election debacle and piss-poor, fawning, Pravda-like reporting of the Bush administration's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

But still.

This Modern World post here.

The Brits have the right idea...!

LONDON, May 19 — Shareholders of GlaxoSmithKline voted today to reject the proposed pay package for the company's chief executive, Dr. Jean-Pierre Garnier, and other top executives.

The vote, by a slim margin of 50.72 percent to 49.28 percent, was the first rejection since a new investor-protection law was enacted in Britain earlier this year requiring executive pay plans to be put to shareholders for a vote.

The component of the pay plan that drew the most criticism was a severance provision that would have entitled Dr. Garnier to $23.7 million in bonus salary and stock if he were to resign or be dismissed any time through 2007; it would also add three years to his age when calculating his pension. Dr. Garnier was paid £2.45 million ($4 million) in 2002.

I love that: adding 3 years to his age! Why not make it 60 years, declare him hypothetically deceased, and cut off the pension all together? With the proceeds of $4 million/year (for how many years?) he'd still be way better off than the tens of thousands of rank-and-file retirees and laid-off workers his American counterparts have hung out to dry with no pensions.

Complete story here.

Glover should dump MCI....

WASHINGTON, May 19 — MCI, the former WorldCom, agreed today to settle accusations of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a $500 million penalty that will ultimately be given to investors.

The penalty was the largest ever sought by the commission, and the agreement resolves the biggest fraud case ever filed by the agency....

The article goes on to say that the SEC had actually sought $1.5 billion from MCI for committing the biggest fraud of all time by using improper accounting techniques to misstate its earnings by more than $11 billion. They accepted $500 million "in recognition that it was all the company could afford."

Lawyers for investors say the $500 million will not satisfy shareholders' claims, which run in the "tens of billions of dollars."

As usual, part of the settlement allowed the company to neither admit nor deny the fraud accusations. Still, WorldCom and its former senior executives are not off the hook yet: they may face additional penalties, and the company--along with its board, top executives and former investment bankers and analysts at Salomon Smith Barney--are all defendants in a class-action suit brought by shareholders and bondholders.

So, what was Glover doing promoting a company run by such a band of crooks anyway?

Complete story here.

MCI coming together to fire Glover....

If this can be believed, MCI is dropping Danny Glover as a spokesperson due to his anti-war views and activism.

Normally, I'm not eager to jump to defend a celebrity's right to schill for corporate America.

But it's already bad enough that everything we see, read and hear through corporate media is falling under the control of fewer and fewer giant companies. Now, those behemoths want to control even the minds of their actors and spokespeople.

If you want to let MCI know how you feel about this, go here.

And, by the way, don't credit (or blame) Joe Scarborough for MCI's actions. This Modern World says here that MCI has been looking for a reason to drop
Glover for some time.

American empire....

Great speech, given by world-renowned author, Arundhati Roy, in New York City at the Riverside Church on May 13, 2003.

Some samples:

Way back in 1988, on the 3rd of July, the U.S.S. Vincennes, a missile cruiser stationed in the Persian Gulf, accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner and killed 290 civilian passengers. George Bush the First, who was at the time on his presidential campaign, was asked to comment on the incident. He said quite subtly, "I will never apologize for the United States. I don't care what the facts are."

I don't care what the facts are. What a perfect maxim for the New American Empire. Perhaps a slight variation on the theme would be more apposite: The facts can be whatever we want them to be.

[...]

So here we are, the people of the world, confronted with an Empire armed with a mandate from heaven (and, as added insurance, the most formidable arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in history). Here we are, confronted with an Empire that has conferred upon itself the right to go to war at will, and the right to deliver people from corrupting ideologies, from religious fundamentalists, dictators, sexism, and poverty by the age-old, tried-and-tested practice of extermination. Empire is on the move, and Democracy is its sly new war cry. Democracy, home-delivered to your doorstep by daisy cutters. Death is a small price for people to pay for the privilege of sampling this new product: Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (bring to a boil, add oil, then bomb).

[...]

When the Turkish government temporarily bowed to the views of 90 percent of its population, and turned down the U.S. government's offer of billions of dollars of blood money for the use of Turkish soil, it was accused of lacking "democratic principles." According to a Gallup International poll, in no European country was support for a war carried out "unilaterally by America and its allies" higher than 11 percent. But the governments of England, Italy, Spain, Hungary, and other countries of Eastern Europe were praised for disregarding the views of the majority of their people and supporting the illegal invasion. That, presumably, was fully in keeping with democratic principles. What's it called? New Democracy? (Like Britain's New Labour?)

Complete speech here.

Way to go...!

ARCATA, CALIFORNIA -- More than 100 cities, and one state, have condemned the USA Patriot Act as giving the government too much snooping power. In Arcata, a liberal fold in Northern California's Redwood Curtain, the City Council has gone a step farther and criminalized it.

Starting this month, a new city ordinance makes it a crime punishable by a $57 fine for a city department head to voluntarily cooperate with unconstitutional investigations or arrests under the aegis of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism bill passed in the dark days after Sept. 11.

Ok, it's little more than symbolic. But with all the disheartening news out there, it's still inspiring!

Complete story here.

Fleischer to resign....

Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary, has announced he will resign in July to enter the private sector.

Say what you will about the Republican's morality, their strategy and tactics, like those of tyrants before them, are extremely effective. And none more so than Spin-meister Fleischer, who never flinched from straightforwardly refusing to answer embarrassing or unwanted questions.

Frankly, I'm surprised he's resigning just as Bush's presidential campaign starts to gear up. I wonder what--if anything--is behind the move?

Does anyone trust the word of the U.S. anymore...?

From the N.Y. Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 16 — In an abrupt reversal, the United States and Britain have indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly and an interim government by the end of the month.

Instead, top American and British diplomats leading reconstruction efforts here told exile leaders in a meeting tonight that allied officials would remain in charge of Iraq for an indefinite period...

Then this gobbledygook doublespeak, to make it seem alright:

Mr. Bremer [the new civilian administrator], who was accompanied by John Sawers, a British diplomat representing Prime Minister Tony Blair, told the Iraqi political figures that the allies preferred to revert to the concept of creating an "interim authority" — not a provisional government — so that Iraqis could assist them by creating a constitution for Iraq, revamping the educational system and devising a plan for future democratic elections.

"It's quite clear that you cannot transfer all powers onto some interim body, because it will not have the strength or the resources to carry those responsibilities out," The Associated Press quoted Mr. Sawers as saying. "There was agreement that we should aim to have a national conference as soon as we reasonably could do so."

Whenever that happens to be....

As recently as 11 days ago, Jay Garner, Bremer's predecessor, said the core of a new Iraqi government would emerge "next week, or by the second weekend in May."

And on April 28, the United States and Britain sponsored a political gathering of about 300 Iraqis and supported their call for a national conference to meet by the end of May to select a transitional government.

Do they look like they're in-over-their-heads and in disarray?

Zalmay Khalilzad, described in the article merely as President Bush's "envoy to the Iraqi opposition," was not that long ago, heir apparent to the Iraqi presidency. He was't even in Iraq for this most recent meeting.

Bremer is quoted as saying he would meet with the opposition leaders for further discussions in two weeks.

Riiiighhht...!

All I can say is, if the Iraqi opposition is surprised, they haven't been following U.S. foreign policy for years.

Complete story here.

Bush's "victory" against terrorism is quickly turning to ashes....

RABAT (Reuters) - At least 20 people were killed in at least four separate bomb attacks in Morocco's commercial capital Casablanca on Friday night, the state news agency said.

Jewish, Spanish and, apparently, Belgian targets were also struck, the MAP agency said. Three of the blasts were car bombs. Two policemen and a security guard at a Spanish center were among the dead. Glass, blood and debris littered the scenes.

``There are body parts all over the place,'' Moroccan journalist Aboubakr Jammai told the BBC...

Damn Bush. Everything's unfolding like a predictable ancient Greek tragedy.

Next act, he and his cabal will respond with more violence. Which will be met in kind. Back and forth, in a sickening slam dance of death, destruction and anguish.

And who will benefit? Arms dealers, religious fanatics and despots. The usual, and--not by accident--Bush's closest companions.

Yes, all along in this, they have been stupid, like a fox.

The complete, sad story here.

And this too....

An insightful, noteworthy blog by a Chasid in Brooklyn....(Here.)

New blog link....

Just added another blog to my recommended: Bush Wars. (Here. )

Check it out!

Democrats losing ways....

Emma Goldman over at Notes on the Atrocities has been critiquing the Democratic Party’s national election strategies—or lack thereof--and her remarks have got me thinking of something I first read online (sorry, I can't remember the link). It has provided me with the most sensible explanation ever since for the Democrats’ often baffling actions.

The assumption underlying most liberal criticism of the Democratic Party (including Emma's) is that it wants to "win elections," not merely "stay in power."

A subtle distinction, admittedly, but a critical one.

In a two-party system, staying in power--as the minority party--is a given, no matter how badly you represent constituents. All you have to do is please enough voters and avoid offending too many, hence, a “middle-of-the-road” strategy is favored. The “fringes” are expendable: too far right, they’ll vote Republican anyway; while the left has traditionally been shunned in this country for fear of losing the center. Even the risk of severely alienating voters--as has come to pass with the left--is considered worth it because the disgruntled voters often fail to vote for either party, thereby hurting none.

This theory might sound idiotic at first. But if the Democrats’ real goal is to keep the campaign contributions rolling in and hang on to their jobs—as apparatchiks, candidates and, when possible, elected officials--the secret is to avoid distancing too many voters and--most important--don't upset donors, who tend toward the conservative. It doesn't matter if you always come in second place. In fact, in some ways it's preferable.

As perpetual runners-up, the heat’s off. Look what the media and the Republicans put President Clinton through! When the reins are not in your hands, you don't have to expend so much effort. It's not your fault when things go wrong, you can blame the other guy. And you can even use your second-place status as a campaign tool to raise more money.

Money is the key to understanding the Democrats' insistence on nominating milquetoast candidates and constantly advancing disappointing, middle-of-the-road campaign strategies. Since the ascendance of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party has been a money-making machine, not a party. Keeping the principals in power and cash is the machine’s main goal, winning elections is secondary.

That’s not to say that individual candidates don’t want to win--lord knows, Lieberman and Gephardt are ambitious. Or that some, like Dean, are even idealistically motivated. But they are at the mercy of a party whose main purpose is to perpetuate its machinery and keep the gravy train rolling.

Threats to a woman's right to choose....

From the N.Y. Times:

MIAMI, May 14 — Gov. Jeb Bush has asked a court to appoint a guardian for the fetus of a developmentally disabled rape victim...

[...]

At issue is whether appointing a guardian for a fetus could force a woman to maintain a pregnancy if the interests of the guardian for the fetus conflicted with the interests of a mother or her representative. In a 1989 case, the Florida Supreme Court declared that it was "clearly improper" to appoint a guardian for a fetus. In the current case, neither the woman nor anyone caring for her has sought to abort the fetus.

[...]

Critics say the governor actions are intended to keep the issue in the courts until the woman is in the third trimester of her pregnancy and can no longer obtain an abortion.

"Our take on this is that this woman's needs, her desires and her interests need to take precedence," said Bebe Anderson, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, an advocacy group. " If she is incompetent, someone else should represent her and her interests alone and make that decision for her."

[...]

Religious groups praised the governor's actions.

"If a guardian is appointed, there would be a clear recognition that there is a human being occupying that womb," said Brian Fahling, senior trial lawyer for the American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy. "The governor has the constitutional duty to uphold the right to life."

On a local level, for the past two days a group called, "Justice for All," --a misnomer if ever there was one-- has invaded the University of California, San Diego, campus with a 20' by 9' triple-sided display of huge, lurid, color photos showing what they claim are aborted fetuses.

The obviously well-funded, anti-choice nonprofit, based in Wichita, KS, says it is not religiously subsidized--a ludicrous claim. Apparently, the group travels the college-campus circuit with its foot soldiers and shockingly offensive and misleading exhibit. It gets its foot in the door on state-funded campuses through the ruse of being "invited" by the local affiliate and thrives on controversy. It would like nothing better than for the university to kick it off the premises so that it could then scream "First Amendment Rights" and initiate a high-profile lawsuit. (Already happened with the University of Texas and perhaps others.)

What sickens me about this extreme Right group--in addition to its stand on a woman's right to choose--is the way it hides behind Constitutional protections that you know it would dismantle if it ever achieved its ultimate goal of an American theocracy.

Jeb Bush story here.

Put Tenet's feet to the fire...!

The 9/11 survivors and their loved ones deserve the truth.

WASHINGTON, May 14 — Seven months after telling Congress he would do so, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, has yet to provide the names of agency officials responsible for one of the most glaring intelligence mistakes leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, according to Congressional and agency officials.

Soon after the attacks, the mistake emerged, showing that the Central Intelligence Agency had waited 20 months before placing on a federal watch list two suspected terrorists who wound up as hijackers.

Had the information about the two hijackers been promptly relayed to other agencies, the government might have been able to disrupt, limit or possibly even prevent the terrorist attacks, intelligence officials and Congressional investigators said.

The N.Y. Times article says that two agency leaders responsible for tracking Al Queda in 2000, when the CIA failed to put the 2 suspects on the watch list have actually been promoted!

Full story here.

First apply for American citizenship....

Then join the Republican Party and get in tight with Bush, Cheney, et al. Haven't you noticed whose getting the Iraqi contracts?

Mr. Henderson, a South African entrepreneur, thought last week that he had lined up everything he needed to start Air Baghdad, the first commercial air service into and out of Iraq since the war.

Mr. Henderson had flight approval from American military commanders to operate his first route between Baghdad and Amman, Jordan. He had a plane and crew. Because armed gangs are attacking and killing road travelers with increasing frequency, he had throngs of customers ready to pay one-way fares of $650. He even had insurance from Lloyd's of London.

But just as the first passengers were ready to board his 50-seat commuter plane last Thursday, Air Baghdad was grounded. The decision boiled down to this: he was moving too early to make a profit and might get a jump on his competitors. [Emphasis mine.]

But, hey, no worries about Bechtel, Halliburton or the others....

Full story here.

Pro-choice does not equal progressive....

It turns out that pro-choice Democratic women elected with bundles of checks from thousands of contributors to Emily's List, the high-profile feminist national PAC, have been voting less-than-progressively on non-Choice issues.

...In the 107th Congress, for example, Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Hillary Clinton (NY) voted against bankruptcy protection for the poor. Who knew? Emily's List also helped finance the election of Senator Debbie Stabenow (MI) so that she could vote against food safety and for the nuclear industry; for Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both from Washington State, who cast numerous votes for Fast Track and nuclear subsidies as did now-former Senator Jean Carnahan (MO) who also voted to open ANWR for oil drilling.

The votes of several women who were first elected with the support of Emily's List should put them in good standing with the Republican right. Once in Congress, Blanche Lincoln (AR) and Mary Landrieu (LA) were 'delisted' for violating their agreement with Emily's List and casting ballots against abortion choice. A glance at their voting records, however, gives ample evidence that their support from a "liberal" and "progressive" PAC, as founder and president Ellen Malcolm describes Emily's List, was always questionable. Mary Landrieu, who bragged during the 2002 election cycle that she voted with President Bush 74% of the time, cast votes against food and workplace safety, against fuel economy standards, and in favor of the John Ashcroft confirmation and federal subsidies for nuclear power. Blanche Lincoln voted against campaign finance reform, against food and workplace safety, against consumer bankruptcy protection, against fuel economy standards, but for nuclear power and Fast Track. By the next election each had a well established name in her state, and voters returned both of these women to Washington without the support of the PAC that had helped place them in Congress to begin with.

According to this piece on Common Dreams, it seems that Emily's List does not track any aspect of candidates' agendas beyond reproductive rights, and therefore sometimes ends up endorsing the less progressive candidate in a race merely because she is a female.

As a one-time contributor to Emily's List, I am dismayed.

Westinghouse story is false....

Well, I couldn't verify the Westinghouse allegation (see below) made at On the Fritz, because it's bogus.

And yes, I knew the photo was a fake. Puhleeze.

It seemed such an apt visual comment, however, and it really cracked me up. I love hyperbole. The problem is, there's a fine line between it and downright falsehood.

[Note: added on 5/20: The photo was a great sight gag, but I'm taking it down. It's slowing this site's load time tremendously....]

Revolting.....

In every sense of the word.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted Thursday to suspend taxes on stock dividends for three years, restoring the centerpiece of President Bush's economic plan in a package of tax cuts that is still half the size he wanted.

"It would encourage investment, it would encourage jobs, it would encourage growth," Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., said just before Vice President Dick Cheney cast the tie-breaking ballot in the 51-50 vote to abolish dividend taxes in 2004, 2005 and 2006....[Emphasis mine.]

Cheney stands to gain around a cool quarter of a million dollars each year, by most estimates, if the plan he cast the tie-breaking vote on becomes law.

How's that for democracy?

The two Democrats, Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Zell Miller of Georgia, who gave Republicans the edge they needed for passing this today should be booted come next election.

Full story here.

Vinnell a CIA front...?

This brief article in today's Times/U.K. says the target of Monday's terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia may be a CIA front.

AS BEFITS a company that has been accused of being a CIA front, of recruiting “executive mercenaries” and attempting to overthrow the Prime Minister of a Commonwealth state, the Vinnell Corporation kept a low profile in Riyadh.

Its discreet security fooled nobody, however: the bomb attack was the second it has suffered in eight years. In 1995 seven people were killed....

According to the article, Vinnell was brought to Saudi Arabia in the 1970's to train Saudi troops to guard oil fields. Since then, it has helped the Saudis increase their National Guard strength from 26,000 troops to around 70,000. Vinnell employees were even seen fighting alongside Saudi troops in the 1991 Gulf War. (I didn't know Saudi troops fought in that war.)

Meanwhile, the article says, on the other side of the globe in the early 1980's, two Vinnell employees were embroiled in a failed attempt to overthrow Maurice Bishop, the left-wing Prime Minister of Grenada. Soon after that, a former employee was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.

CIA front or not, it doesn't exactly sound like a company with clean hands.

Information in the NY Times is just as damning. It identifies Vinnell as "a Virginia subsidiary of Northrop Grumman." (Here). Northrop, a "$25 billion global defense enterprise" (by its own self-description) is anything but an innocent noncombatant in the Middle East.

A fact Vinell employees seemed cognizant of. A Northrop spokesperson said in the NY Times article, that the compound in Saudi Arabia was referred to as "Camp Vinnell" on the company website.

Thus, contrary to the way Bush officials are trying to spin this latest attack, Vinnell employees were aware that they lived on the front lines of the "battle against terrorism" in Saudi Arabia.

There's more.

[Note added on 5/20: the following regarding Westinghouse is false, a bogus posting. See post on 5/15....] According to On the Fritz, Westinghouse--a Northrop affiliate--just won a multibillion dollar contract to provide "infrastructure redevelopment" for post-war Iraq--despite the fact it has little or no experience in the large-scale construction field. (I haven't been able to independently verify this yet. I'll keep you posted.)

Not in any way to justify terrorism, but these connections shed quite a different light on Monday's bombings, don't they?

(Thanks also to Common Dreams.)

Wag the dog real-life....

If you haven't read elsewhere that the famous Jessica Lynch "rescue" was a staged media event, check out this Guardian/U.K. story.

Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war. An all-American heroine, the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict. It couldn't have happened at a more crucial moment, when the talk was of coalition forces bogged down, of a victory too slow in coming.

Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived. It provides a remarkable insight into the real influence of Hollywood producers on the Pentagon's media managers, and has produced a template from which America hopes to present its future wars.

Via Common Dreams.

S.D. Tribune update....

Remember the astroturfing incident involving the San Diego Union Tribune, discussed here on and on This Modern World on 5/9?

Well, I never heard a word from the UT, despite the fact I emailed and faxed a letter to them. But the link to Steven Zasueta's "letter to the editor," --which was actually written by someone at the GOP's Team Leaders Action Center website-- has been killed. Whether this was done in response to public consternation or simply due to the passage of time, I guess I'll never know.

How to win friends and influence people....

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 13 — United States military forces in Iraq will have the authority to shoot looters on sight under a tough new security setup that will include hiring more police officers and banning ranking members of the Baath Party from public service, American officials said today.

Full story in the N.Y. Times here via Common Dreams.

What next, Saudi Arabia...?

I have been struck in recent days by the increasingly critical tone adopted by U.S. media and the Bush administration toward Saudi Arabia.

According to This Modern World, (here), CNN has finally been emphasizing that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis. (About time!)

Then there's this disapproving tone (echoed throughout the nation's media) in today's N.Y. Times:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 14 — The United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia charged today that some weeks before the car bombs of Monday night, American intelligence operatives picked up signs of an imminent terrorist attack and urged the Saudi government to improve security at foreign compounds here, but got little or no response.

Reflecting what some officials said was increasing American frustration with the Saudi efforts against terrorism, the ambassador, Robert W. Jordan, praised Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, for their "sincere" vows of a crackdown on military groups. But he also said that "executing the plan to provide additional security is another matter, and I think there's some ways to go on that, quite frankly."

[...]

Even the White House, which has tried in recent months to repair relations with the kingdom, said today that Saudi efforts to combat terrorism remain inadequate, despite some recent improvements.

"Repair relations with the kingdom"?

Since when? Is this not the same Bush administration that facilitated the evacuation of bin Laden's family by air out of the United States in the days following 9/11 when all civilian aircraft were supposedly grounded? The same administration that has been bedding down with the Saudi royal family since before the time of G.W.'s daddy?!

Have I missed something? Or is "repair relations with the kingdom" yet another White House phrase slipped manipulatively into press releases to re-write reality in preparation for another Machiavellian twist?

I would worry if I were a member of the Saudi royal family--who, by the way, are denying that the kingdom failed to heed U.S. requests for greater security. The U.S. has decided to close its Saudi military bases. And now, nonessential American personnel have been ordered out of the country because, again from the Times:

"Saudi Arabia is now one of the fronts in the battle against terrorism," an aide quoted the [American Ambassador Robert Jordan] as telling them. "Innocent civilians and children don't belong on battlefields."

That's damned right, they don't. And just where, by definition, do terrorists' battlefields lie?

Eight Americans were killed in Monday's attack, out of a total of 29 - 34 victims--depending on the news source. (Breaking news, as reported here yesterday, erroneously placed the death toll in the 90's.) As tragic as 8 violent deaths are, they are negligible compared to the nearly 6,000 slain on 9/11 by Saudi hijackers. And we didn't tell Americans to leave Saudi Arabia then.

Just what exactly does the Bush regime have in store for the Saudi Kingdom?

Complete N.Y. Times story on the administration's irritation here.

The face of our future...?


If we U.S. citizens do not oust Bush and the NeoCons from power and replace them with leaders willing to address the root causes of terrorism--the war between Israel and the Palestinians, dire poverty throughout much of the Third World, the out-of-control arms industry, the widening gulf between the globe's haves and have-nots, the proliferation of despotic, repressive regimes, and so on--this will become our daily reality.

And it will increasingly take place on U.S. soil.

Don't believe me? Look at Israel. If ever there were a lesson against using force to respond to terrorism, Israel is it.

Yet what other response does Bush offer?

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 13 — The death toll rose to at least 90 today in the three suicide attacks against residential compounds and a business in the Saudi capital, according to news reports quoting the State Department.

[...]

Mr. Bush called the bombings "despicable acts committed by killers whose only faith is hate." The crowd of 7,000 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds roared its approval when he said, "The United States will find the killers, and they will learn the meaning of American justice."

And people applauded....

The U.S. electorate's mindless adulation of Bush more and more evokes images of Nazi Germany's devotion to Hitler.

If we don't stop the Republican juggernaut, we are all going to learn the bitter meaning of "American justice."

Lessons continue apace in San Diego: ballooning government budget deficits; massive lay-offs of school administrators, teachers and others; libraries cutting their hours; social services disappearing; businesses closing. And all we hear from Washington are drums of war and tax-cuts for the wealthy.

Complete story of the Saudi Arabian bombings here.

Two views of the situation in Iraq....

The mainstream view, promoted by President Bush on May 1st and embraced by Americans who seek no further for their news than Fox or ABC:

"In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country," the president told some 2,000 sailors and airmen aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln some 100 miles off the American coast. "In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment "

(Full story here.)

Alternate view, believed by the rest of the world, including Americans who are more discerning in their choice of news sources:

You have only to step inside Saddam Hussein's old palace complex - where coalition officials trying to rebuild Iraq are based - to see that the task is way beyond them.

When the civilian administration of the ORHA (Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance) first arrived there, it was said there was only one working shower for 800 people. The situation has improved a little now, but they work in sweltering offices and sleep five or six to a room.

There are no telephones on the desks, and the real world of looted buildings and car thefts outside the palace is a distant prospect. No one is allowed out without an escort of soldiers....

According to the Telegraph/U.K. story, Barbara Bodine, the (recalled) U.S. official in charge of Baghdad, was unaware for 24 hours after the event that US soldiers had shot dead more than a dozen Iraqi protesters in Fallujah a fortnight ago. Likewise:

More than a month after the fall of Baghdad, the city still has no authority - no mayor and practically no police on the streets - while looters continue to pillage government buildings and honest folk keep their daughters at home for fear they will be abducted by armed thugs.

(Complete Telegraph story here.)

Which one do you believe?

NPR concludes their Graham crusade....

Well, I woke up to what I hope is the final NPR story on Billy Graham's religious revival here in San Diego.

The closing night was last night. True to form, NPR's local affiliate covered the event in a reverential, dare I say "worshipful?" tone. They devoted 3 or more minutes to the story (I didn't actually time it--it seemed even longer!) and once again inflated the numbers of attendees.

NPR introduced the story saying, "a quarter of a million attended," neglecting to qualify, "over the four days." Yet, NPR numbered last night's crowd at only 54,000.

So, according to NPR's coverage, there was a capacity crowd the first night (70,000, according to Qualcomm's website); 46,000 the second night; not sure Saturday night, so let's be kind and say 70,000; then 54,000 last night. That's maximum 240,000--IF it was a capacity crowd on Saturday, which I doubt. And that's not accounting for people who attended multiple nights. It's possible, though again, doubtful, that the same 70,000 attended each night.

There again, maybe NPR was consulting the local ultra-conservative San Diego Union Tribune for their crowd estimates. The U.T. numbered the attendance at 270,000 over the 4 days--a true miracle, considering the stadium can't hold that many people.

The U.T.'s tone was positively awed. It opened:

His handshake is still firm. His spirit still strong. So don't look for the Rev. Billy Graham to retire anytime soon.

"I'm going to retire when the Lord says retire," the 84-year-old evangelist said....

The U.T. labeled the event, in which "men, women and children prayed and praised in Mission Valley," probably the "largest Christian event in county history," and praised attendees for leaving behind clean parking lots.

What a tribute.

The U.T. reporter said that after he delivered his sermon, Graham bid farewell to San Diego. "I probably will not preach another sermon in San Diego, but I'll see you in heaven."

Not me, you won't.

Complete story, if you can stomach it, here.

If they say it's true, it must be so....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The American general who commanded the Iraq war issued a statement Sunday saying Saddam Hussein's Baath Party "is dissolved," ordering the political organization that ruled the country for 35 years to cease existence immediately.

The message from Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of coalition forces, was read over U.S.-controlled Information Radio on Sunday afternoon.

If it's so simple, why don't they just declare "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians IMMEDIATELY"? Or, "The recession is over NOW"?

And have they forgotten that many upper-level Baath government and party leaders, including Hussein and his sons themselves, remain at large?

Moreover, party membership or affiliation was required for many, if not most white-collar jobs in Iraq. American officials have already been putting Baath leaders back in positions of power--like re-appointing Hussein's personal physician, Muhammad al-Rawi, to his former post as president of Baghdad University, the largest in the country.

AP story here, via My Way.

More from the Center for Cooperative Research report....

It's not that I don't trust you to read it....It's just that it's a long report and the last two paragraphs summarize so well why it's important:

It's doubtful that the Independent Commission investigation will look critically at what Bush did on 9/11 and why he did it. Despite the contradictory reports, no one in the mainstream media has yet demanded clarification of the many obvious inconsistencies and problems of the official version. Anyone even asking questions has been quickly insulted as anti-American, accused of bashing the president in a time of war, or branded a conspiracy nut. Only a few relatives of the 9/11 attacks have been able to raise these issues publicly. For instance, Kristen Breitweister told Phil Donahue: "It was clear that we were under attack. Why didn't the Secret Service whisk [Bush] out of that school? ... [H]e is the commander-in-chief of the United States of America, our country was clearly under attack, it was after the second building was hit. I want to know why he sat there for 25 minutes." [Donahue, 8/13/02] But so far, few have listened to their concerns.

Because the media has failed in its role to ask these questions, much less attempt to answer them, it is now the responsibility of ordinary Americans - of you, of me, and the people we know - to gather the information, look for answers, and sound the alarm.

Once again, full report here.

Is this a bad joke...?

Read the Center for Cooperative Research piece first, then imagine Bush winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian parliamentarian nominated President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, praising them for winning the war in Iraq.

'Sometimes it's necessary to use a small and effective war to prevent a much more dangerous war in the future,' Jan Simonsen, a right-wing independent in Norway's parliament, told Reuters.

I guess it proves that anybody can be nominiated.

Full story here.

Why aren't we impeaching this guy...?


Not only did Bush and his NeoCon cronies lie about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to bin Laden (remember him?) resulting in a war that has slain thousands, maimed tens of thousands and cost billions of dollars and counting.

They also lied about alleged threats on 9/11 to the White House and Air Force One--giving Bush an excuse to hide out in Louisiana and Nebraska all day and avoid D.C. until 10 hours after the WTC and Pentagon attacks.

In fact, according to this report posted yesterday on the Center for Cooperative Research website, the numerous media and official accounts of Bush's actions on 9/11 are riddled with disinformation, omitted details, fudged timing and more. Obvious attempts to rewrite the story, making Bush look better, continue to this day.

And here's one $64 million question...

If high-placed U.S. government officials knew by 8:48 a.m. on 9/11 that:

...three commercial airplanes had been hijacked. They knew that one plane had been flown deliberately into the World Trade Center's North Tower; a second plane was wildly off course and also heading toward Manhattan; and a third plane had abruptly turned around over Ohio and was flying back toward Washington, DC.

So why, at 9:03 a.m. - fifteen minutes after it was clear the United States was under terrorist attack - did President Bush sit down with a classroom of second-graders and begin a 20-minute pre-planned photo op? No one knows the answer to that question. In fact, no one has even asked Bush about it.

The entire piece provides a detailed timetable of the president's actions immediately before and after the 9/11 attacks, and is a MUST READ. Seriously, if you read only one thing this blog points to, read this one.

And much thanks to This Modern World for being first blog to point out the article.

Graham update II....

NPR numbers for attendees at the last 2 nights of Billy Graham's religious revival at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium:

First night, capacity crowd. That would be 70,000, according to Qualcomm's website.

Last night, 46,000.

That's 24,000 below capacity...and it was a Friday night.

Does it mean anything?

There are still 2 nights to go....

S.D. Union Tribune astroturfed...!

I am a bit surprised the editors of our local mouthpiece for the Republican Party failed to catch that this letter (scroll down: it's by Steven Zasueta) is a verbatim suggested email from the GOP Team Leaders Action Center website. In other words, all Zasueta had to do was click a mouse button--the GOP Team Leaders site even provides relevant editors' names and email addresses.

You'd think, loyal party members that they are, the editors would be up on these things.

Thanks to This Modern World, the UT editors are now the laughingstock of blogdom. As well they should be. On May 5, Tom Tomorrow posted the letter here --and alerted readers to be on the lookout. That's 3 days before the UT published Zasueta's letter.

Too bad the UT editors don't read This Modern World.

I've fired off a letter to the editors--that I composed myself. Let's see if they even acknowledge it....

Yeah, Bush really cares about the troops....

That's why he slept like a baby while keeping the crew of the Abraham Lincoln at sea an extra 18 hours.

Pentagon officials said yesterday that an aircraft carrier waited within sight of San Diego last week while President Bush slept aboard, instead of heading straight to port after 10 months at sea.

A Pentagon official said the USS Abraham Lincoln made "lazy circles" 30 miles at sea and took 20 hours to cross a distance that could have been covered in an hour or two. But that official and others said the carrier was slowed to ensure it reached the dock at the time that had been promised, about 9 the next morning.

As usual, Democrats are trying to make political hay out of the delayed revelations behind Bush's $1 million publicity stunt, but the media-savvy Republicans are one-upping them with ease.

A Republican leadership aide on Capitol Hill said the questions being raised by Democrats were "uncomfortable," but noted that the discussion "at least means they're not talking about Medicare or the economy."

Several senior Democrats agreed that the dispute is a loser for them. "It was live on CNN for four hours," a Senate Democratic strategist said. "You can't pay enough for that. Who cares about a few stories later?"

One Democrat moaned yesterday as he watched cable news programs replay hours of footage of Bush on the carrier, with audio about Democratic complaints. "I'm watching him get high-fived and buzz the tower again," the Democrat said. "The White House should have thought of this controversy themselves."

Have you ever seen a more pathetic, ineffectual bunch of politicians than our current Democratic "leadership"? If the stakes weren't so high and the outcome so tragic for us all, it would be hilarious.

From a May 8 Washington Post story via Common Dreams.

Israel arrests & deports peace activists....

You can't see me, but I'm sitting here shaking my head in disbelief and sorrow. This story just seems to keep getting worse.

Today, Israel cracked down on the activities of foreign nationals in the Palestinian territories, targeting the group, International Solidarity Movement (ISM), to which Americans Rachel Corrie and Brian Avery, and British national, Thomas Hurndall, all belonged.

As you know, I've blogged a lot about ISM activists. They have suffered several deaths in the past two months at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). In March, Corrie was run down and killed by an IDF bulldozer. Then in April, Hurndall was shot by an IDF sniper (he remains in a coma) and Avery came under heavy machine gun fire and was seriously wounded in the face.

So far, no Israeli soldiers have been held accountable for the deaths or injuries.

Today, about 22 (!) IDF jeeps surrounded ISM's offices in the village of Beit Sahour and soldiers entered and confiscated six computers, numerous disks and other equipment and arrested three activists. One, Christine Razowsky, 28, is from Chicago; the other foreigner, an Australian woman, works for the New York-based Human Rights Watch. The third woman is Palestinian.

An article in the Israeli newspaper, HaAretz, referred to ISM as a "pro-Palestinian organization," which in Israel and elsewhere is tantamount to labeling them "terrorists." The arrested foreigners are being deported on charges of illegally entering a restricted military zone.

The Israelis are justifying their actions by saying that two British men involved in a recent suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv pub, Mike's Place, posed as ISM volunteers while in the Gaza Strip.

ISM vehemently denies this. From a recent ISM press release:

...There is no connection. They never tried to infiltrate ISM. They never contacted the ISM. They could have attended a memorial service for Rachel Corrie in Rafah that was open to anybody. As far as we know, the reports of them attending a demonstration sponsored by ISM are wrong. However, that too would have been open to the public.

As a policy, ISM requires two days of training for all of its activists. This functions as a screening in addition to training in non-violent peaceful resistance and orientation to the ISM guidelines. All of our groups function by consensus. This process discourages any individuals from acting impulsively. We know our activists, and none have engaged in or have been accused of engaging in, any aggressive, confrontational, or illegal activity.

General Yaalon of the Israeli Army gave an order on the eve of the Jewish festival of Passover to remove ISM from the West Bank and Gaza. This order long preceded the bombing in Tel Aviv. The Israeli army wants us to leave because we are providing witness to the atrocities committed by the Israeli army... [Emphasis mine.]

So, the bombing of Mike's Place gave Israelis the pretext to crack-down on ISM. On a much larger scale but in the same manner, 9/11 gave Bush his excuse to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein--an objective advanced for more than a decade by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle and others at the Project for the New American Century.

Also like the American neocons to whom they have close ties, the Israelis plan further measures to militarize civic administration and stifle dissent. From an article in today's HaAretz:

In a further move to clamp down on foreign activity in the territories, the IDF is to take over control of the entry of foreign nationals into the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Friday.

According to the report, individuals who are not Israeli or Palestinian must request personal authorization to visit Gaza from the army, which has taken over all administrative procedures relating to entry to the Strip.

In a separate measure, Israel has demanded that all foreign nationals entering the Gaza Strip sign a waiver exempting Israel from any responsibility should they be killed or injured, a move that has hitherto been restricted to Israelis.

Amnesty International on Friday condemned the demand, saying that it was "categorically opposed to any attempt to get people to sign away their rights."

[...]

The [Amnesty International] site also said that several of Amnesty delegates, who had refused to sign the waivers, were prevented from entering Gaza on Friday.

I wonder when Attorney General Ashcroft will require American anti-war demonstrators to sign waivers before being allowed to protest....

Israel's fear and loathing of suicide bombers are both real and justified. What I don't understand is how they can possibly believe that their increasingly draconian measures are going to do anything but encourage more Palestinian martyrs.

Media Manipulation 101....

Take a look at today's print copy of the N.Y. Times.

Front page, center, is a photo and below it a story about the rage of Iraqi citizens over the appointment of a senior Baath Party member to be minister of health, entitled, "Hussein Loyalists Rise Again, Enraging Iraqis." (Online here.)

In the right-hand column, traditionally reserved for the day's most important story, is a piece entitled, "New U.S. Concerns on Iran's Pursuit of Nuclear Arms." It begins:

WASHINGTON, May 7 — The Bush administration is concerned that Iran has stepped up its covert nuclear program, and the government is now seeking broad international support for an official finding that Tehran has violated its commitment not to produce nuclear weapons, officials said today.

The officials said that the United States was pressing nations that sit on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees peaceful nuclear programs, to declare that Iran has violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it has signed.

Such a finding could lead to punitive action by the United Nations, adding pressure on Iran, which is already nervous about American troops in Iraq, the officials said.... [Emphasis mine.] (Online here.)

Note, even the language employed by U.S. officials and reported in the Times mimics that which led up to our invasion of Iraq.

Not only that, the language is downright misleading. "New concerns?" What exactly is new? Bush, Rumsfeld and others have been openly gunning for Iran ever since the tide of battle turned against the outgunned, overrun Iraqis. "Seeking broad international support" from organizations like the I.A.E.A. and the U.N.? Since when? The Bush junta not only told these institutions they were irrelevant, they rolled right over them to invade Iraq.

Please. Don't parrot government press-releases and call it news.

Regarding the first story, I am not at all surprised that the Bush administration is appointing Baath Party loyalists to high positions in Iraq. Are you? Expect it to become the norm. It suits Bush's aims and besides, what's the alternative? Appoint inexperienced Shiites and sit back and wait for an Islamic revolution?

Overall, this latest development simply confirms that our invasion of Iraq was not about introducing democracy to the Middle East, freedom for Iraqis, or weapons of mass destruction. And to ensure that not too much attention is given to this somewhat embarrassing fact, we have column right. Oh no! Iran is developing weapons of mass destruction. We have to do something!

Nuclear proliferation and an impending war against Iran will distract Americans from a host of major problems on the home front. News of mass-layoffs--teachers, city employees, workers in the private sector--are buried deep, if reported at all. Decimation of social programs, the collapse of infrastructure, rising prices and falling incomes, failing health and no health-insurance. All of it receives scant, if any, attention, in this carefully cultivated hysterical climate.

And that's just fine, because it works in favor of Bush's re-election! Which--along with the wealthy making money hand-over-fist--is what it's all about.

Some good news for a change...!

From today's N.Y. Times:

...Three years after selling the Jim Henson Company and its Muppets to a German media company for $680 million, Mr. Henson's family said yesterday that it was buying it back for a fraction of that amount.

The deal, valued at $89 million in cash and assets, gives the children of Mr. Henson, who died in 1990 at age 53, control of the company behind what is perhaps the most famous troupe of puppets in history.

The purchase, from faltering EM.TV & Merchandising, of Munich, is expected to be approved by U.S. and international regulators.

Apparently, Mr. Henson's children have been sadly watching from the sidelines as EM.TV's financial decline prevented it from pursuing its originally grand plans for the Muppets. All five of the Henson siblings are to have seats on the new board overseeing the puppets.

The buyback covers Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, the Fraggles and dozens of others, but not Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie and other famous residents of Sesame Street, who EM.TV & Merchandising sold two years ago to the nonprofit, Sesame Workshop, of New York.

Gary E. Knell, president of the Sesame Workshop, is said to be pleased by the sale, "It would have been the worst thing that could have happened had the Henson franchise ended up in the hands of people who didn't value them. It would have dumbed down the franchise...no one cares more about the future of the Muppets than the family."

Full story here.

WTC towers' strength NOT tested for fire....

This from today's New York Times:

Federal investigators studying the collapse of the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, say they now believe that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government agency that built the towers, never performed the fundamental tests needed to determine how their innovative structures would perform in a fire. [Emphasis mine.]

The preliminary finding, if it holds up, will undermine decades of public assurances by the Port Authority that the twin towers met or exceeded the requirements of New York City's building code, and therefore would be structurally safe in a large fire....

Not only that, it could make the Port Authority decision makers guilty of criminal homicide.

Not surprisingly, people are scrambling for cover.

The Port Authority has long maintained that it is not legally obligated to comply with the city and state's building codes, but has always insisted that it nonetheless did so in all its major construction, including the trade center.

"I would stress," Mr. Trevor added, "that none of the people who were involved in the making of those decisions at that time are currently working for the Port Authority."

One of those people, Guy Tozzoli, who oversaw all major aspects of the World Trade Center for the Port Authority at the time of its construction, said that his memory was imperfect, but that he thought full-scale tests on the floors and their supports most likely had not been done.

"I don't remember that being done, to be honest with you," Mr. Tozzoli said. "I know there was testing of the fireproofing material. But you are asking a different question. Whether we built a truss and tested that? I'm inclined to say no."

Many yesterday found that startling, even unthinkable.

Indeed.

The story also reports that fireproofing was inadequate; it was being upgraded at the time the towers were attacked.

Full story here.

Scariest man in America...?

You be the judge....
Here.

Graham update....

NPR this morning said "hundreds of thousands" are expected at Qualcomm Stadium for Billy Graham's appearances over the next 4 days.

But the stadium only holds, maximum, 70,000, I thought....I wondered if I'd gotten the capacity numbers wrong.

But, no, shortly after the NPR reporter confirmed them.

So, a capacity crowd every night times 4 would be 280,000. Technically, then, "hundreds of thousands" is correct, though highly misleading. Some --many?-- of those attendees will be repeats.

It's kinda of the opposite of what the media does for peace demonstrations. Then, they'll call a quarter of a million marchers, "thousands." Here, they make sure they count every head, now and again, 4 times.

And, can you ever imagine the media adding up the numbers of peace demonstrators over a multi-day event, and announcing that as the total number to the public? In your dreams!

The driver of the shuttle I take to work everyday told a passenger this morning that someone he knew had flown into town just to see Graham. "We'll be there tonight!" he said, adding that he's taking off work for it.

Not only do I feel like I'm living in the wrong town, I'm living in the wrong universe.

Working-class Republicans....

You gotta admit, the Right knows how to organize. How to motivate activists to work--or at least, vote--against their own self-interests.

My brother, 57, is a case in point. All his working life he's busted his balls selling cars. Not the most esteemed profession, I know, but he's given it his all. And he's got a laundry list of stress-related health problems to prove it.

In fact, both he and his wife are suffering from a variety of serious health ailments. Yet the last time I checked, he still had no employer-paid health-insurance; instead, he was paying out-of-pocket for Blue Cross or some similar high-premium limited-coverage plan.

I don't think he's ever accrued in one year more than two week's paid vacation--and that's working since he was in his early 20's for the same employer. Who's done quite nicely, thank you very much, off the sweat and tears of my brother and others like him.

Nor has either of my brother's two sons earned a college-degree--at least in part due to no money to spare for college tuition.

So, does my brother support progressive politics? Does he vote for a candidate who promises healthcare reform or represents the interests of workers like him? Is he in favor of tax-reform to make corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share?

No. Not only has he been a staunch Republican since he cast his first presidential vote for Nixon, he is a devoted fan of such Right-Wing luminaries as Rush Limbaugh. He vehemently despises Bill Clinton and adores G.W. And, though we haven't dared broach the topic, I assume he's gung-ho pro-war. After all, he and his wife signed the papers for their first-born son to enlist in the Marines when he was just 17.

My nephew hasn't been the same since he was discharged--early, for some unnamed health reason. Now 33, he drifts across the country from menial job to menial job, embittered, no friends, fascinated with all sorts of war weaponry and spouting Right-Wing ideology, distorted historical points of view and reactionary Catholic dogma.

That's right, religion has long played a role in my brother's conservative stance. Doesn't it always? As I stroll the state university campus where I work, I see more religious and conservative political fliers than I ever see progressive tracts. Just now, for instance, there's a huge banner dominating the central quad advertising Billy Graham's mission to San Diego.

Graham and his entourage have reserved Qualcomm Stadium for the next 4 days. That's San Diego's football stadium--baseball, too, until construction on the controversial downtown ballpark is completed. A 166-acre, open-air amphitheater that holds between 66 and 70 thousand people.

Imagine. They're expecting that many people daily to attend Graham's religious revival....Will they come?

Judge for yourself: out of the blue yesterday, a woman who was assisting me on the phone at a local medical clinic burst out, in a whiny, nasal, 5-year-old tone, "I really wanna go!"

Not sure whom she was addressing, thinking she was wanting to leave for the day her wonderful phone-answering job as it was almost 5 p.m., I responded, "Long day, huh?"

"Ahhh, no," she said, as if on cue. "Actually, I was talking about something else...Billy Graham, you know, is going to be at Qualcomm this weekend? And I really wanna go!" (whiny voice again). She then proceeded to regale me with details of the televangelist's scheduled appearance.

Afraid to have the message to my doctor go mysteriously missing--I'd waited ten minutes on-hold already just to get a person on the line--I let her prattle on. But I was annoyed.

Among other things, I wanted to ask, "Does what you're doing here constitute witnessing for Jesus? Are you earning brownie points in heaven for making me, a captive audience, uncomfortable and irritated? And getting paid for it?"

In the end, my self-interest, namely, wanting to get my message through intact, won out. I didn't confront her.

Which brings me back to my original point. How does the Right win over so many working-class voters when they consistently, systematically and unceasingly work against workers' interests?

Conservative leaders have done everything in their power these past 20+ years to sink every social program that has ever benefited working people, while at the same time shipping almost every living-wage, blue-collar job overseas and making a fortune in the bargain. Never mind! They still own the devoted loyalty of those selfsame workers.

At the rate we're going, not my brother, the phone operator, nor the woman I work with--who is vehemently against the clerical union that represents our interests in negotiations with the Goliathan University of California system--will ever achieve the vaunted American Dream. Republicans--and, to a lesser degree, Democrats--have made sure of that.

Instead, they will labor harder and harder, chipmunks on a treadmill, probably through their dying days without pensions and social security, to hold onto whatever financial high ground they've managed to sandbag. Meanwhile, the rich will sip Martinis and look on from the safety of their gated communities as the rising waters of the Global Economy engulf and drown us all.

But, hey, you gotta admit: the Right knows how to draw a crowd.

The emperor has no clothes....

It looks like the Germans are about to get slammed for telling it like it is....

THE strained relations between Germany and the United States took a turn for the worse yesterday after a senior Berlin diplomat was reported to have told Foreign Ministry colleagues that America was turning into a “police state”.

The comments of Jürgen Chrobog, the State Secretary, reported in the German Focus magazine, threatened to disrupt intense diplomatic efforts to repair the relationship between Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, and President Bush.

According to the article, there have been only two (!) telephone conversations between Bush and Schroder since the Chancellor won the German election last September, and only a few sparse words have been exchanged at summits.

Way to go, Bush! You show 'em that the most powerful military force in the history of the planet is under the petulant command of a man with the emotional development of a five-year-old. (Or does that comparison slight five-year-olds?)

Complete story here in the Times/UK.

Can you believe this...?!

From The Independent, UK, via Common Dreams:

The parents of a British peace activist who was shot in the head by Israeli troops came under fire themselves as they traveled to the spot where their son was critically injured.

Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall were in a British diplomatic convoy entering the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip when Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint fired a shot, which passed narrowly over the top of their vehicles.

The incident on Saturday afternoon took place despite the Israeli Army being given notice of the journey on at least three occasions – the last minutes before the convoy arrived. [Emphasis mine.]

If this doesn't convince you that the Israeli Defense Forces are out of control, I don't know what will.

The two British cars were identifiable by their white diplomatic plates. They were passing through the checkpoint "very, very slowly," in broad daylight. The convoy came to an immediate stop, but it was not until British Defense attaché, Colonel Tom Fitzalan-Howard, had stepped from one of the cars with his hands in the air to talk with the soldiers inside the tower, that they were able to proceed.

Remember: the Israelis shot the 21-year-old British son of these two people, downing him with a high-velocity bullet as he moved towards two frightened Palestinian children three-and-a-half weeks ago. He still lingers in a coma in an Israeli hospital.

Full story here.

SARS virus found to be robust....

This from today's L.A. Times online:

The virus that causes SARS can survive in the environment much longer than researchers had suspected, the World Health Organization said Sunday, suggesting that halting transmission of the disease may be harder than they thought.

Research from laboratories around the world, posted on the WHO's Web site, indicates that the SARS coronavirus can persist on public surfaces for a day or longer and in feces from infected people for as long as four days — much longer than the coronaviruses that cause the common cold. It can survive even longer at low temperatures. And one commonly used detergent does not kill the virus as readily as researchers had hoped.

"This is the first time we have had hard data on the survival of the virus," said Dr. Klaus Stohr of the WHO, which is based in Geneva. "Before, we were just speculating."

Stohr cautioned that the full meaning of the findings will not become clear until researchers learn how much virus is necessary to trigger an infection. That the virus can persist for hours on, say, handrails in a bus station may not be important if there is not enough of the virus present to produce disease.

As of Sunday, SARS has sickened more than 6,300 people worldwide and killed at least 449--none in the U.S. Cases seem to be declining in Hong Kong and China; the latter having tripled the amount of money targeted for the disease to $725 million over the weekend. But authorities are concerned about the situation in Taiwan, where the spread of the disease seems to be accelerating.

Complete story here.

Concern for women's rights in Iraq....

Remember how, prior to the invasion of Afghanistan--way back when--the Bush administration cited the Taliban's repression of women and girls as an important reason to invade the country?

Well, women's rights seem to have played no role in the Bush administration's grand designs for Iraq.

Now that we've "liberated" the country, women find themselves in a more precarious position than ever as Islamic fundamentalists of all persuasions use the ensuing power-vacuum to slug it out in a brutal power-struggle.

Iraqi women, formerly among the most liberated in the region, are watching the rise of fundamentalism with dread.

"I want to move freely, live a joyful life out in the open," said Nimo Din'Kha Skander, the owner of the salon [Nimo's]. Nimo's is small but well known; Ms. Din'Kha Skander likes to recall how Saddam Hussein's second wife had her hair done there.

"I don't want a government of religion," Ms. Din'Kha Skander continued. Religion, she said, is "a private thing."

From this and other articles, I get the distinct feeling we just pulled the rug out from under the very Iraqis--in the upper and middle classes-- who were the strongest proponents of gender equity.

The article blames, among other things, the constraints and privations of the U.N.-sponsored sanctions for creating a generation more socially and religiously conservative than their parents.

Suha Turaihi, a retired diplomat who served in India, elaborated: "For 20 years they didn't travel — they were not exposed to Western values as we were. They are children of wars and embargo."

So, while talk of "traditional values" falls on the young's more receptive ears, women in the story put their hope in Iraq's diverse cultures and religions, believing no single group could easily monopolize power. (Unless under a dictator?)

Ironically, they also count on U.S. repression.

Criticizing Americans for mismanaging the postwar occupation and being slow to restore public services, one woman says,

"We are used to having coups and revolutions. But usually people who stage them take over the country afterward."

Ah, what fertile ground for Jeffersonian democratic ideals!

Full story here.

And by the way, what ever happened to those imperiled Afghani women and girls? Especially the ones unlucky enough to reside outside the boundaries of American control in and around Kabul?

We don't hear much about them from the Bush administration anymore, do we?

This just in...!

Jennifer Miller and Circus Amok will be performing this Tuesday! May 6th, at Galapagos, in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), NY.

Miller will join actress and peace activist, Janeane Garofalo, Lee Gough, of Military Families Speak Out, and John Kim, of Veterans for Peace, and others. Music provided by The Trachtenberg Family Slide Show Players, Danny Kelly and John Dyer, with sound & visual art by April Koester and DJ Andrew.

You lucky New Yorkers! I have wanted to meet Miller since seeing her in the film, "Juggling Gender," at the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in the early 1990's. To quote a promo for the film:

...Miller [is] a lesbian performer who lives her life with a full beard. Miller works as a performance artist, circus director, clown and as the "bearded lady" in one of the only remaining sideshows in America. In public she is often mistaken for a man, an experience she handles with the wit and intelligence that characterize her stage performances. Her lifestyle suggests the impossibility of defining anyone as truly feminine or masculine...

She is truly awesome!

The event is sponsored by Peace Williamsburg to raise funds for Madre, a feminist non-profit organization dedicated to building real alternatives to war and violence through a people-to-people exchange of direct relief and understanding.

Remember: Tuesday May 6. Galapagos, in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), NY, 80 N. 6th Street. Showtime: 7:30 - 11:00p.m. $8.

Be there!

More about Circus Amok here.