I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Hang him.
Atrios
Check out my song!
www.simplefears.com
If you like it, a link and a kind word would be killer.
brew
I want to hear Bush and DeLay denounce THIS security breach.
I'm gonna hold my breath 'til it happens....
"the day before September 11, 2001" was September 10, 2001 - IIRC
Where are the freepers on this?
::::crickets chirping::::
eek, a FOX News link!
This though OT was linked on the same page.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (search), D-Calif., wrote Hastert on Friday urging the speaker to reconvene Congress to accelerate consideration of the Sept. 11 commission recommendations. Hastert still won't call all members back but will order significant disruptions in the recess plans of numerous lawmakers.
"A lot of members won't like it but they won't have a choice," a GOP leadership aide said. "The Democrats thought we'd stay where we were but we called their bluff. And when they come back and see the legislation they're not going to like it and they are going to pay."
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaa!
Chuckle, snort, chuckle, bwaahahahah!
Hahahahah!
Gasp! Hahahahh! Gasp!
Whew! It's good to laugh. Releases all those endorphins, loosenes up the muscles, really, a good laugh is a great thing.
Shorter Dems to Rove: See you a Berger and raise you a Shelby.
Shorter Republicans: Look, gays!
don't worry, once drudge cleans off the broken eggs
and changes clothes, he'll post this
Hey, at least Fox is giving it some coverage!
"One woman says to another, "Poor Maisie really has suffered for what she believes in."
"And what DOES she believe in?" asks the other.
"She believes that you can wear a size six shoe on a size nine foot."
Sufi Wisdom
This clown is on the Intel Comittee?
When the enemy knows you know what he said, he knows you've got his phone's tapped.
That might, to a smart enemy (and you better damn well assume he is smart or be a fool), clue him into the fact that you're:
A. Watching Him.
B. Listening to phone calls.
C. Know who is making those calls.
D. Know who is receiving said calls.
E. Watching C & D.
F. Watching anyone associated with C & D.
A smart enemy will take advantage of those data points. This is elementary.
You do NOT, EVER, EVER, EVER reveal the contents of the enemy's conversations to the public unless:
AA. It is part of your game.
BB. You're a complete idiot.
Now, do we think Shelby was playing a cat and mouse game with Al-Qaeda?
If so, do you think he would be facing charges?
This is by a HUGE margin more of a blunder than Sandy Berger walking off with a few pages of notes on his old memos.
This is DAMAGING SHIT.
Shelby should have known better. The enemy, when they heard that, says "Thanks Very much, I will alter my plans or only use these methods of communication when I want the Americans to know something."
Duh.
I am shocked that a SSCI Senator would so such a completely assinine thing. I mean, I'm really fucking shocked, not just being my usual partisan self.
"I'm gonna hold my breath 'til it happens...."
marjo- I'm worried, are you still with us?
*sigh*
Everyone, repeat after me-
IOKIYAR
Haven't we been through this like a thousand million times?
Nice work, brew. I like it.
Okay--I'm going out on a limb here and saying we need to give this a few hours before getting bent out of shape about it. The data got released at a different hour than the Berger story (just as papers were putting together the next morning's final edition).
Let's keep the word lit up, not let it die. Maybe it can make a difference for the Sunday papers (good thing--Sunday is a day when people often actually read a paper) and the Sunday shows.
Sufi Wisdom
“Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.”
Mevlana Rumi
Ambiguities About Shelby
First, Shelby did the classic (cynical) switch from Dem to GOP about TWO WEEKS after the '92 general election. Someone who wants to can research and verify that. He used the the classic (cynical, lying) excuse of "the party left me." Note, of course, that with the election of Clinton, the Democratic Party made a sharp turn to the CENTER/RIGHT, compared to, say, Dukakis or Mondale. But, to Shelby and the cynical, self-absorbed, Southern Party-Switchers, facts have never stood in the way of their own ambition -- or craven ways.
Second, that said, a few Democratic (or, perhaps, democratic) molecules remain swimming around in Shelby's brain pan. An clear example of this is his staunch position on BLOCKING right-wing efforts to strip consumers of their right to take corporate thugs to task in a Court of Law, i.e., Shelby remains in the corner of consumers (read: real people) when it comes to the GOP "tort reform" canard. Shelby was, in fact, one of those "trial lawyers," and many of his friends in Alabama are Democrats cut of the same cloth.
Third, I have actually heard Shelby (don't ask me to cite time and place, but I remember what I remember) speak critically of this Administration, mildly, yes, but at least on issue of "intelligence" he has not been a lock-step apologist for Bush. Which, in the land of DeLay, Hastert, Frist, Santoran, and (Alabama GOP whore Senator Jeff) Sessions, et al, is something.
Fourth, and most importantly, I think that if Shelby or his staff leaked this info, they should be lauded. Remember: this is about pre-9/11 telephone intercepts WARNING (tipping the hand of Al Qaeda) the U.S. Gov't about the impending 9/11 attacks. The Bush Admin decidedly did NOT want the citizenry to know about these pre-attack warnings. Why? Not for purposes of national security (what bull), but to save this administration from further embarassment. *That* position (Bush's) is the traitorous one -- NOT leaking this information to the public. So, whoever did this, Shelby or who-knows, they should be awarded a medal, not vilified.
I'm a Democrat. And I can even call thank a Republican whom I'm not very fond of a patriot, if, from time to time, that shoe fits.
I have said before and I will say it again this only proves that there is a market for socks with secret compartments. It is not just secret agents who have a need for them.
Introducing "NOC Socks" with a place to keep those important papers you don't others to know about.
And "NOC Sock Plus", made of a radar asorbing material for a stealthy get away.
Get yours today.
If the press does decide to cover this, the angle will probably be that Shelby is a former Democrat. (A 1994 turncoat, for those with short memories, and good riddance I say.)
If Berger was stealing documents in order to leak them to the rpess then there is a chance they would have done the same to protect him as well.
MYOB'
.
This is by a HUGE margin more of a blunder than Sandy Berger walking off with a few pages of notes on his old memos.
I don't think it is possible to draw this conclusion from what we know. It may or may not turn out to be the case but until we have more information on exactly what Berger took and what it was Shelby leaked it is all just guessing.
gasp... gasp... sputter...
TDSWJS should report on what Shelby did and then do a montage of hysterical Republicans moaning and crying about Sandy Berger taking some copies out of the National Archives.
Bwaaahahahahahah! Heheheh! Ahem, cough, hehehehhe!
I'll stop laughing shortly.
No I won't.
wierd, hardly any coverage & what little it gets from the big nets is from FOX. i wonder what he did to piss them off. or perhaps they are trying to get a little bit of ammo for the upcoming FTC action vs. moveon.org.
or then again maybe scoops trump politcs over at FRNC..... nah!
NTodd, the only reason Fox is covering it cause they were called in in advance to dampen the fires and ensure that when or if it does break big, they can attack the question if they are so rightwing then why did they give it any coverage at all.
What matters is that it wasn't given front page attention, at least that is what I am noticing. I am not going to go to their website to find out.
MYOB'
.
j. swift - Maybe this should be made available for all researchers planning to visit the National Archives?
Why did Ashcroft turn it over to the ethics committee rather than to a prosecuter? They must have not found any bongs in Shelby's office.
BTW, when is Orrin Hatch going to be prosecuted for reveaing intelligence methods? It's been a couple of years now since Al Qaeda stopped using cell phones after Hatch announced that we were tracking them that way.
"gasp... gasp... sputter..."
marjo
Your lips are turning blue. Stop for the love of god stop. Trying to hold your breath between the rapid fire posting of Holden last week would be hard enough, but what yer askin for......
that was supposed to be
a closed tag
TYPO
Notwithstanding my above screed's overall wonderfulness, I confess that Shelby switch in '94, not '92 as written. He switched with all the Gingrich mess thing going on. Wet his finger, stuck it in the air and . . . Nothing to do with principles or convictions . . .
Brew, your ad has been on every comment thread I've read this morning and whether your product is good or not is irrelevant. It's spam, and every time you drop one on a thread, you encourage other spammers to try. Pretty soon comment threads will be choked with crap. It would be different if you were in on the conversation and invited people to your site; or better yet, provided the url in your signature; or the best solution, purchased adspace from Atrios. But you are dropping and running, and anyone who goes to your site is aiding and abetting spammers. Thank you for your attention.
It's like Bill Moyers said:
"Gingrich mess thing going on"
Dokuritsu
Ahh the halcyon days of the "Contract on America"
Read:
Dokuritsu | Email | Homepage | 07.24.04 - 1:43 pm
from above.
I don't know much about Shelby, except what I'm learning here.
If I remember correctly, when this came out previously it appeared to me that Shelby was slamming the Bush Admin.
Are Bush/Cheney et. al. now beginning to eat their own?
Will the tide truly turn?
And as was explained earlier this week (assuming foxnews is not being sloppy with its terminology), Mr. Shelby is an investigation's target while Mr. Berger is but a subject. The difference being, according to this former prosecutor, targets get charged, subjects do not.
Um, the explainer was the former federal prosecutor. To be perfectly clear.
Um, to be perfectly clear.: The explainer was the former federal prosecutor.
Although I do like the sound of it.
Guh.
Brew, nice song. I'll write to get it air time.
targets get charged, subjects do not
While pigs get fed, and hogs get slaughtered. The Republicans deserve every bit of slime that they can possibly catch for this after their Berger feeding frenzy this week. I guess we know now what it was they were trying to fog over with the Berger nonsense. But, as they always do, they overdid it.
Goddess alive, I hope they charge Shelby. Sandy Berger must be having the biggest laugh of his life this afternoon.
I know I am.
A recruit was asked by a training instructor, "Give me an example of how to fool the enemy."
The recruit answered, "When you are out of ammunition, don't let the enemy know -- keep on firing!"
Sufi Wisdom
And whatever happened to the investigation of the leaking of signal intelligence secrets to Iran by Doug Feith, Undersecretary of Defense? Are the Bushists even PRETENDING to care about that?
The
Republicans
Aren't
Interested in
Truth:
Only
Robbing
Society
Sufi Wisdom
Surf Wisconsin.
If I was a journalist I think I would want a bit of info before I reported on this one. Its easy for Fox, they get their talking points and thinking done for them by the GOP.
I think we can now guess what the Berger thing was about. But surely it would have been better to have warned the congressional folk not to make too much of a song and dance. Or maybe Rove does not mind if they look hypocrites so long as the WH stays out of it.
The other thing to bear in mind is that this is a press leak, the info may well have been stuff that the WH wanted kept quiet. I would want to know a bit more before deciding if he was a whistleblower or playing politics with national security.
"I" is for Intelligence you leak.
"O" is for Opressiveness you seek.
"K" is for the Ku, the Klux & Klan
"I" is for the "Image" of Manly Man.
"Y" is for Yokels in your base.
"A" is for "Assholes" in your face,
and
"R" is for new boy Raperooms in Iraq.
DJ Acronyminator,attaturk, you have been ripped off, with atribution of course.
link
Did I miss the headline that says Bush and Republicans flipflop on 9/11 Report?
"A lot of members won't like it but they won't have a choice," a GOP leadership aide said. "The Democrats thought we'd stay where we were but we called their bluff. And when they come back and see the legislation they're not going to like it and they are going to pay."
Ah, more vengeance legislation; just what the republic needs.
Does the above mean that no Democrats will be called back to participate in the special session hearings?
This one is close Katherine.
House GOP Sees Political Plus to 9/11 Action
Saturday, July 24, 2004
By Major Garrett
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders radically altered their original "go slow" playbook on the Sept. 11 commission recommendations, reversing themselves after reading the report closely and finding a variety of "law and order" issues they intend to use against Democrats during the fall campaign.
After reading zombiebirdhouse's link, it reaffirms what we already know. We have to kick these creeps out of all branches of the government, and don't let the republicans back until they clean the nutballs out of their party. All they care about is politics and power. They have no interest in genuine governance.
Ah, more vengeance legislation; just what the republic needs.
And especially vengeance legislation with Orwellian names, like the USA Patriot Act, Healthy Forests Initiative, and so forth.
I love, too, how their first impulse on this is to use it to dish the Whigs, er, Democrats. Silly me, I'd have hoped their first impulse would be, I don't know, to protect the country against terrorism or something. Maybe even strengthen our intelligence capabilities.
Dear Wile E. Odysseus,
Hi! Thanks for your comment. We just want to say that our Dad is an amazing and totally resolute Dad, er, dictator, er, president! And we love our Dad even if he didn't come to our graduations, but, guess what? We met a foreign-leader-kind-of-guy and he liked the Rolling Stones! And, our Dad is a neat-o kind of Dad. So please don't harsh on our Dad's friends in the government, 'kay?
Yes, I do love Hastert's concern for our national security - he'll make sure the Democrats don't like the legislation. Nevermind what's best for the country, which is the attitude of all these Repugs and why I want to see them all out of work and standing in line for the guillotine.
I'd say Shelby more than makes up for Berger, myself. Haha, indeed.
It was just a headline on a CNN "top story" break. It's getting out there.
Shelby the Lip was mentioned in this context on Olbermann last night. But otherwise there seems to definitely be a gigantic news blackout. Or, it's just the week-end crew (a common culprit thoughout Universe).
Seen at DU:
Wolfowitz and Perle are under criminal investigation by FBI for espionage. (But not in 'news' yet, unless it too is buried somewhere at Faux.)
-
At the Risk of Overplaying My Hand
(a la the 'pubs)
I think that Dems' line *ought* to be something like:
"Well, if Senator Shelby violated the law, then he violated the law. We should let the investigation take its course without adding to the Republicanesque Rancor that now consumes The Hill and our national discourse.
"That said, we should note that *whoever* leaked this information, *if* it was classified, appeared to be doing so in an effort to let Americans know that PRE-9/11, our Intelligence [sic] Agencies *seem* to have had the "silver bullet" warning(s) in hand. Without revealing or compromising any critical source information, someone has stepped up to the plate and said, 'America, the horrors of 9/1l *could* have been prevented.' How bad *is* this, at least compared to 'outing' an undercover CIA operative?"
Cal Thomas has a recent editorial with the title..."Is Sandy Berger Fried?" My local paper has a different title to the same piece...."Sandy Berger's shoplifting" WTF?
More info...
http://tinyurl.com/6oxf3
This also got a mention on the NBC Nightly News last night, but there's no link from them on the 'net.
onehandle and others -
Thanks for reporting for the rest of us what's going on at Conservative News Network, Fux, etc. I won't turn them on, 'cause they just give me agita.
So if we now know the Thug Party will do what we want, because it will 'call Dems' bluff' [except when it comes to what the WH controls, like tax legislation], can we perform some double reverse flip judo to take advantage?
This was another headline on the same FoxNews page:
"The U.S. is vamping up its efforts to protect its seaports from terrorists"
So longshoremen and the Coast Guard are going wear slit skirts and spiked heels now?
NTodd, the only reason Fox is covering it cause they were called in in advance to dampen the fires and ensure that when or if it does break big, they can attack the question if they are so rightwing then why did they give it any coverage at all.
Point.
anyways
Of course they are! All over like a blanket, or perhaps a pillow over the nose and mouth.
Scorpio
Eccentricity
I guess we're going to have to wait for some real indepth high ranking unnamed sources type journalism from Kelli Arena before we know what really happened.
Richard Clarke was on NPR this morning re: the 911 commission and when asked about Sandy Berger he completely debunked the hysterical version. According to Clarke there are "hundreds" of copies of the documents Berger took home. The brouhaha is mostly bullshit, but that said, Berger was an idiot for not realizing the degree of his vulnerability to partisan attack dogs when the moment was ripe. There's definitely a bad case of insider hubris here that explains not only Berger's breaking archive rules but his thinking that he couldn't be taken down over it when he was caught and didn't need to come clean with Kerry. When will they learn ?
As for Shelby, he's not been in lockstep with the administration on this stuff and he's getting his wrists slapped.
This was another headline on the same FoxNews page:
"The U.S. is vamping up its efforts to protect its seaports from terrorists"
So longshoremen and the Coast Guard are going wear slit skirts and spiked heels now?
cs
No, it just means they'll just brush their hair and begin reapplying their lip gloss.
Dokuritsu
Dokuritsu, (damn cat!), I think you make some good points. Shelby has been critcal of this admin's handling of 911 intel & I believe that they are hanging one of their own out to dry.
Also, I think this may be just another way to deflect scrutiny of this admin's mishandling of intel i.e. 911 report.
I hear Richard Shelby smuggled them out in his panty hose...
I heard he stuffed them into his tights and that he specifically wore tights that day because he knew that his everyday pantyhose couldn't take the additional abuse.
And where did he get those very tights? A gift from the Clenis way back in 1992.
At least, that's the way I hear it.
Richard Clarke was on NPR this morning re: the 911 commission
Whom did Scott Simon have on for "balance" this morning? Someone from National Review, wasn't it?
OT - There's a fascinating article on salon today about chess master Bobby Fischer. Title: Bobby Fischer's strangest endgame"
"Arguably the greatest chess player of all time (and one of the weirdest human beings) is detained in Japan, wanted by the U.S. Will he escape an ignominious fool's mate?" By Rene Chun
*
Jenny, I read it also and found it fascinating, especially the part where the author knocks down the gov's line that Fischer was so elusive.
Upthread grytpype aptly reminds us:
And whatever happened to the investigation of the leaking of signal intelligence secrets to Iran by Doug Feith, Undersecretary of Defense? Are the Bushists even PRETENDING to care about that?
This has all but gone down memory hole.
no imagination said "Also, I think this may be just another way to deflect scrutiny of this admin's mishandling of intel i.e. 911 report."
Honorable
Commission, Toothless Report
By RICHARD A. CLARKE
July 25, 2004
...Among the obvious truths that were documented but unarticulated were the facts that the Bush administration did little on terrorism before 9/11, and that by invading Iraq the administration has left us less safe as a nation. (Fortunately, opinion polls show that the majority of Americans have already come to these conclusions on their own. )
Actually, I think there have been investigations of Shelby for alleged leaks before. And that this is probably the Bushies' attempt to get an occasionally rambunctious Republican to behave.
NTodd, the only reason Fox is covering it cause they were called in in advance to dampen the fires and ensure that when or if it does break big, they can attack the question if they are so rightwing then why did they give it any coverage at all.
i agree, i should have followed MYOBs advice and not gone to the site (my first instinct) but curiosity got the better of me. unfortunately my curiosity was not satisfied.
OT: but saw ted turner on c.rose last night. he lambasted murdoch. ted is quite mad but he was talking my language last nite. Capt. Outrageous, indeed.
shelby (i think he's a moron) but this should be like berger, wait and see. one thing i know, these Mthr. Fckrs are hiding something, SECRET GOVERTMENT is bad.
Hmm, wonder what sibel edmonds would say about this?
no imagination -
reading about his childhood hardships and also his spiral into poverty after his fame and fortune phase -- and the cult connections in L.A. was eye-opening stuff. I'm not particularly interested in chess, per se, but this is a great read. And this (for anyone who can't access the article...
"Then, as abruptly as he had vanished from the chess scene, Fischer miraculously reappeared in 1992, ready to play his old rival, Boris Spassky, again. The $5 million chess match, promoted by a Serbian arms dealer, was to take place in war-torn Yugoslavia, which at the time was under U.N. sanctions and a U.S. embargo. To discourage Fischer from playing a high-profile sporting event in a country rife with ethnic cleansing, the Department of the Treasury sent a cease-and-desist letter, warning that if he played in Yugoslavia, the penalty would be a $250,000 fine, 10 years in prison, or both.
Undaunted, Fischer held a press conference and, with the cameras rolling, pulled the warning letter from his briefcase and proceeded to spit on it. He then rattled off a series of astonishing proclamations: He hadn't paid his taxes since 1976 (and wasn't about to start now); he was going to write a book that would prove that Russian grandmasters ("some of the lowest dogs around") had "destroyed chess" through "immoral, unethical, prearranged games"; he really wasn't an anti-Semite, because he was pro-Arab, and Arabs are Semites too. His assertion that Soviet communism was "basically a mask for Bolshevism, which is a mask for Judaism" elicited the most quizzical expressions.
Zombiebirdhouse, good article, but I must admit that Chapt 8 of the commisssion report is pretty damning. Best lines in the article you referred me to:
"We need to expose the Islamic world to values that are more attractive than those of the jihadists. This means aiding economic development and political openness in Muslim countries, and efforts to stabilize places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Restarting the Israel-Palestinian peace process is also vital." Clarke, NYT
As I recall, right after 911 such language was considered treasonous.
Hmm, wonder what sibel edmonds would say about this?
If John Ashcroft ever allows her to talk again, maybe we'll find out. The way I hear it, the gag order she's under won't even let her order a cup of coffee in a diner...
"The U.S. is vamping up its efforts to protect its seaports from terrorists"
I picture 'em swanning around in drag, a la Bugs Bunny vamping Elmer Fudd.
Jenny, yeah, a lot of people don't/didn't know he became a stark raving lunatic. And that staement, communism was "basically a mask for Bolshevism, which is a mask for Judaism" has to be the strangest thing I've ever heard out of a wingnut.
Funny how the 9/11 commission came to the same conclusions I came to on 9/12, and I daresay most of us did too, regarding the best way to deal with extremist Islam.
*sigh*
As I recall, right after 911 such language was considered treasonous.
Unfortunately, I think it still is for a lot of people. We hear plenty of rattling sabers, but little about what positive steps can or should be taken. The idea seems to be that they (the brown Islamic people), are all just ruthless natural born thugs and killers who for no apparent reason "hate our freedom". Come on November! We need a dose of sanity.
staement=statement
and I haven't even had a drink, yet, today.
no imagination -
wish i could donate a year's subscription to everyone on this blog. it's a good site... nice to share it with you.
*
OT, but would someone tell me why Republicans are so obsessed with trying to screw children?
Lawyer pleads no contest in sex sting
By Michael Shaw
Of the Post-Dispatch
07/19/2004
Kevin T. Coan, a former official of the St. Louis Election Board, acknowledged in court Monday that he had solicited what he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex over the Internet in 2001.
[snip]
Maybe we need a slogan along the lines of "Kerry/Edwards 2004: We Don't Want to Fuck Your Kids!"
Okay, I know this guy who listens to talk radio, he's otherwise a sensible person, but he's listening to this stuff way too much.
Want to know what they're whining about re: the Berger story?
That the liberal media is covering up for Berger, because...wait for it...
The NYT put its first Berger story on page A17.
He kept going on and on and on about that A17 thing, and that if it had been a conservative who took those docs, the NYT would have put the story on page one.
I'm not kidding. This is how it's being spun, and these Rush junkies (ha!) just will not let reality sink in about the newspaper business. Things like not putting a story on the front page that you don't have time to verify properly (interesting how the AP story came out so late that evening).
And I asked him how long it took the Valerie Plame outing to get to page one, how long it lingered there, unnoticed, unreported, except for a brief mention in the beginning, and its placement. He had no idea, of course. I was happy to tell him.
Chris Matthews extremely lame attempt at controlled interactive blogging has comments from the same people who write for twin chat with Jenna and Barbara Bush.
Also in Andrea Mitchell's first post she wonders aloud if she has the right shoes. I wonder aloud if she even recognizes her bias and that it shows in what you think is important and what questions you ask. And that the bosses at Nothing But Crap like her.
Seen at DU:
Wolfowitz and Perle are under criminal investigation by FBI for espionage. (But not in 'news' yet, unless it too is buried somewhere at Faux.)
I just might start believing in god if that turned out to be true.
Zombiebirdhouse, yes, I agree. I've advocated, oh since the 80's, that in foreign relations we should not just react to circumstances, but also base our policies on a reasoned analysis of the other party's grievances. I believe that like health care, we should engage in more proactive, preventative medicine, (in a positive context, not blowing folks up, installing dictators etc.).
reminds me of the nixon era dirty-tricks biz.
it's time for the libs to pull some super-shitty stuff out of their bag.
my pet goat, indeed.
wish i could donate a year's subscription to everyone on this blog. it's a good site... nice to share it with you.
*
Jenny from the Blog
Yes, same here. I've actually given friends and family gift subscriptions. I don't think Salon is the greatest, but they do publish some great stuff the mainstream would otherwise ignore. I also love the political cartoons they post, particularly Tom Tomorrow and Fiore.
About Bobby Fischer,
Anyone heard the interview on some Filipino radio show just after Sep 11? There's an mp3 somewhere around.
Fischer was utterly ecstatic about the attack. He was so happy!
Prompt.
"He switched with all the Gingrich mess thing going on. Wet his finger, stuck it in the air and . . . Nothing to do with principles or convictions . . ."
Shelby is hardly alone in lacking principles or convictions. I am voting for Kerry, but I have yet to see a glimmer of convinction or anything remotely related to principles coming from him. And, this makes me feel very sad.
Magnum -
Here's his quote from September 11...
"When the twin towers were ablaze, Fischer was watching the tragic event play out in real time on a television screen and could barely contain his delight. "This is all wonderful news," he said excitedly, as if he were watching his favorite team pulling off an unprecedented upset. "It is time to finish off the U.S. once and for all."
*
way OT
does anyone know what is up with the AP?
every story i read from the AP these days has a serious rightward slant to it.
is this a new development for them?
did they get bought by murdoch?
any helpful hints or links would be appreciated.
...base our policies on a reasoned analysis of the other party's grievances...
Instead we launch a preemptive attack on an Arab country justifying it all with an ever changing set of lies as images of victims of the bomb blasts and our torture and rape of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib are broadcast throughout the Islamic world. Hate Freedom - Love Terror blah, blah, blah...
I have yet to see a glimmer of convinction or anything remotely related to principles coming from him
Really? You see Kerry as just that craven?
Zombie, [sigh] I could post all day about this crap, the illogic of it all, the way many of us act like sheep, but you know, I've gotta' go do some serious drinking- this admin has driven me to it, (and to think I once thought Reagan was the worst president we'd ever have). I leave you with my quote of the day:
"The connection between vice and meanness is a fit subject for satire, but when the satire is a fact, it cuts with the irresistible power of a diamond." - Thomas Paine
Beautiful! Hoist one for me, NI! I hope to see you around.
I'll hoist a 12 pack for you and the wonderful Atrios crew! Have fun guys and gals, vent some rage and insight, it'll do ya' good.
Friday afternoon - release payroll records proving that 1st Lt. Bush defrauded the government during his National Guard 'duty'.
Saturday morning - feed Richard Shelby to the lions (er...Fux News) thereby ensuring that the two "journalists" who may've been inclined to follow up the AWOL story have something else to chew on.
Someone really ought to tell the Congressional Rethugs that whole 'Bush Admin loyalty' thing only works one way.
Jenny, yeah, a lot of people don't/didn't know he became a stark raving lunatic.
no imagination | Email | Homepage | 07.24.04 - 4:16 pm | #
There's a thin line between genius and complete luluville. I'm amazed a guy as sharp as Albert Einstein wasn't a complete nutjob, frankly. Look at guys like Tesla or the "Beautiful Mind" guy who's name is escaping me right now. There's a local character here in Athens named Ort. If you listen to an hour of his spiel, you'll hear the most dada-ist, free-ranging thought and tall tells, 55 minutes of complete horseshit and five minutes of pure beauty.
Go figure.
Cheers No Imagination!
I too will be hoisting a few too.
Its the only thing to do after another weekend with our SCLM. When, oh when, is this worm gonna turn?!?!?
I have yet to see a glimmer of convinction or anything remotely related to principles coming from him
Here's something I think qualifies and wish Kerry's people would publicize -- going after the Iran/Contra guys.
“From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”
~ Albert Einstein
I have yet to see a glimmer of convinction or anything remotely related to principles coming from him
Google "Kerry" and "BCCI Report." You'll be pleasantly surprised.
Why did Ashcroft turn it over to the ethics committee rather than to a prosecuter? They must have not found any bongs in Shelby's office.
I bet Asscroft still has dreams of future glory on Capitol Hill, if he can find an opponent who's been dead long enough.
BTW, when is Orrin Hatch going to be prosecuted for reveaing intelligence methods? It's been a couple of years now since Al Qaeda stopped using cell phones after Hatch announced that we were tracking them that way.
Orrin Hatch needs to be prosecuted for his singing, and I wouldn't mind seeing certain parties come after him for software piracy.
But as for cellular eavesdropping: off-the-air eavesdropping is reasonably possible on some networks, and not on others. Anybody who really cares about security of communications will know this, and will know which networks to avoid. It's only technologically benighted populations such as members of Congress who really need the kind of totalitarian prohibitions and legal remedies put in force by the ECPA of 1986.
Ultimately, however, our intelligence agencies have a documented history of gaining physical access to the telecom network itself, at which point protecting yourself from eavesdropping would become sort of pointless.
I always have to wonder when the *susans* of the world make comments like that about Kerry. If *she* spent five minutes googling about his accomplishments as a senator, she couldn't possibly have that opinion. Well, susan, Philalethes and wishful thinking have given you some homework. Go do it and then get back to us. Spoonfeeding suit you?
About Bobby Fischer,
Anyone heard the interview on some Filipino radio show just after Sep 11? There's an mp3 somewhere around.
Fischer was utterly ecstatic about the attack. He was so happy!
I try to remember Fischer as the guy who used to write a column for "Boy's Life" magazine. And who played brilliant chess.
Not as a complete nutcase. But it's not easy....
And Einstein was totally inept as a father and a partner. I think we all have multiple personalities...
The sad thing is, Fischer did for chess what Lance Armstrong has done for cycling.
But Armstrong isn't likely to go nuts...(I hope).
Backslider,
I'll always put up with the 55 minute of hs for the 5 minutes of pure beauty.
Reminds me, for some reason, of the poem that says:
Life has lovliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things:
Blue waves whitened on a cliff
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup
***
Spend all you have for lovliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost
And for a breath of ectasy
Give all you have been, or could be.
Yes, I have had a drink; why do you ask?
Kerry has had the most consistent career in the Senate, and it has all been based on trying to keep foreign relations legal and honest. Charley linked yesterday to a piece by Sid Blumenthal that details all of it and it is a thing of beauty. Kerry is exactly what we need right now - exactly.
I even have a glimmer of faint hope that some of the criminals in the administration might actually see prosecution and real consequences.
And if Hastert thinks that the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission are in line with Republican ideals, he has another think coming. Either that or (more likely) he hasn't bothered to read the report. I haven't seen the "Executive Summary," but I read the report, and the conclusions and recommendations are, in many ways, your classic Liberal Democrat stuff.
Don't believe me? Read it yourself. Betcha Hastert won't. Hopefully the Democrats will.
MSNBC has a story about it now, written by Pete Williams and Robert Windrem.
WASHINGTON - Information about a criminal investigation of possible intelligence leaks by Sen. Richard Shelby was referred to the Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday, senior law enforcement and intelligence officials have told NBC News.
"and to think I once thought Reagan was the worst president we'd ever have..."
Me too! I almost miss him, and NOT because of the Ronniepalooza funeral. Sure I disagreed with him on damn near everything, but I never feared as much as I do Bush.
The link isn't coming through here Pie. It's blue but dead.
But Armstrong isn't likely to go nuts...(I hope).
Well, he only has one left..
Sorry, I'm going now. I'll just fetch my coat.
Oh I thought that never again in my lifetime would we have anyone in office as dangerous as Nixon. Ha ha ha. Then we got Reagan, and now look at us. I hope we make it to November.
Hmmm.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5504846/
I hope we make it to November.
Tena, I see light at the end of the tunnel and no longer think it's an approaching train.
“Leaking the exact language would presumably tell the two ends of the conversation not to use that channel again since it had been compromised,” one senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News.
Jesus, compare that with the Berger allegation!
Absolutely, positively OT, but here's the of the day: a simulation of six lanes of traffic meeting at an intersection controlled by a computer (Java required)...
Oh I thought that never again in my lifetime would we have anyone in office as dangerous as Nixon. Ha ha ha. Then we got Reagan, and now look at us. I hope we make it to November.
Yeah, never thought I'd look back wistfully to Nixon and the "secret plan to end the war."
Good times. Good times. All things considered.
"So we're hanging out," Kutcher says. "The Bushes were underage-drinking at my house. When I checked outside, one of the Secret Service guys asked me if they'd be spending the night. I said no. And then I go upstairs to see another friend and I can smell the green wafting out under his door. I open the door, and there he is smoking out the Bush twins on his hookah."
Maybe we need a slogan along the lines of "Kerry/Edwards 2004: We Don't Want to Fuck Your Kids!"
Philalethes
interesting, the other nite, i responded to incognito that there was only one unforgiveable sin in my book, being a repug. well one more, but it's too awlful to mention. and now you have gone and made it into a campaign slogan.
Shelby is hardly alone in lacking principles or convictions. I am voting for Kerry, but I have yet to see a glimmer of convinction or anything remotely related to principles coming from him. And, this makes me feel very sad.
that's complete horse shit, i mean comparing shelby to kerry. sure he sticks his finger in the wind, he's a politician, and a damn good one too. ya, know humphry didn't win in 68 cause of LBJs war. we got NIXON! i know many liked howard dean, it would have been a sure defeat. my personal responce to ideas is kucinich or nader, but being president takes more than ideas. ideas are like opinions, you know the saying. being president takes leadership qaulities, and kerry has those, in spades. i am convinced, despite the insurmountable odds he will face, KERRY is the man, and if not Bush is, ponder that. new slogan from me, and i think the most critical difference in this campaign.
George Bush is Dumb
John Kerry is Smart
personally, i believe being smart is a prerequisite to being a good president, at the present juncture it is imperative. bush, is just not qaulified.
Dave, 'of the day' needs a question mark just before 'timewaster'
Not that I would be wasting a Saturday or anything.
-
HOW TO DIE
Dark clouds are smouldering into red
While down the craters morning burns.
The dying soldier shifts his head
To watch the glory that returns;
He lifts his fingers toward the skies
Where holy brightness breaks in flame;
Radiance reflected in his eyes,
And on his lips a whispered name.
You'd think, to hear some people talk,
That lads go West with sobs and curses,
And sullen faces white as chalk,
Hankering for wreaths and tombs and hearses.
But they've been taught the way to do it
Like Christian soldiers; not with haste
And shuddering groans; but passing through it
With due regard for decent taste.
Ashton,
You loser! We are so not ever hangin' with you ever again! And our Dad is going to come whip your ass! And stop em-ing us cuz' you are such a fucking loser!
OK?
GDWPA,
Who wrote that?
It's good and I've never seen it before.
pie - Actually, I've known in my bones for some time now that Bush is over. I just worry about what the hell he can do to us before we can fire him.
First off, I see pardons galore!
"Don't believe me? Read it yourself. Betcha Hastert won't. Hopefully the Democrats will.
Nora"
On that CSPAN re-showing of the presser with the congressional repubs (where there were actual journalists asking real questions), it was so obvious that Hastert and Delay are going to do their best to play both ends against the middle. They said some of the right things, but you can tell where turf is involved, they're going to bury it under a pile of shit. Hopefully, someone can dig out the pony. Probably the 9/11 families.
Hecate -
Siegfried Sassoon, of course. Of course. You and Sara Teasdale. And Olav Glad and Big (who -still- owes me herring) with ee cummings.
Gotta be careful though, I've got some Robert Graves that'll change history. Again.
He had better be careful what he does. No pardons from a Kerry administration.
I love Robert Graves. And G.M. Hopkins. He's my second fave, after Mary Oliver.
"Oh Mr. Travis: Try not to die like a dog."
-
Hecate - try this.
Or, Travis, like a damn dapple-dawn-drawn falcon, either. All that galling gash-gold fruppery, really.
-
"He had better be careful what he does. No pardons from a Kerry administration.
pie"
You realize, though, that not granting GWB a pardon will be that administration's Lewinsky. I can see the press now, saying, 'it just shows how divided we are, and how ugly the dems are, that in the spirit of politics, he wouldn't give Bush a pardon.' I don't disagree with you, and will be tres pissed if he is pardoned, but the consequences of it (especially if the dems don't take over congress) will be awful for him.
pie - Actually, I've known in my bones for some time now that Bush is over. I just worry about what the hell he can do to us before we can fire him.
Tena
Mission already accomplished: trillions transferred to the 'have-much-mores' by tax cuts and stuff like missile 'defence'. The future: gated estates and guards to keep the rabble out. No shortage of cheap labor. Two Americas, a paradise and a hell.
This was another headline on the same FoxNews page:
"The U.S. is vamping up its efforts to protect its seaports from terrorists"
cs
Reacting to Farenheit 9/11??
OT - For the first time in the campaign cycle, tradesports.com has Bush's reelection at under 50% (bid=49.8, ask=50.0). I only bring this up because the freepers post the number weekly to refute the polls. Also, the polls are about who you would vote for today, versus a wagering line is prediciting a future event.
I don't know why Kerry would have to pardon Bush. The reason Ford did it was because it was part of his deal for becoming VP, at worst, and because he was of the same party, at best.
I don't think people will make much of a deal of Kerry not pardoning Bush. They'll figure it's politics as usual, or, better yet, that Bush didn't deserve one.
If a no-pardon is a story it all, it would be a tempest in a teapot for a few days, then it'll blow over. Iraq will steal a lot of thunder, like it or not, with this bleeds-it-leads media. I'm more inclined to believe our stenographers will be more interested in spinning every death against a President when the name following it is Kerry. Expect them to suddenly show a LOT of concern about that.
OT, but this is making me so crazy I can't think straight.
Today's NY Daily News has an editorial that says the 9/11 commission report states that "at least through 1998 and 1999, Iraqi intelligence officers did enjoy 'friendly contact' with Al Qaeda operatives ... The commission says there is no evidence Iraq and Al Qaeda ever had a 'collaberative operational relationship.' But neither did the administration ever say Baghdad had an 'operational' hand in 9/11 ... 'There was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda.'"
In other words, they are lying to their readers, plain and simple, by twisting the commission's report.
I can't let them get away with this. I want to write back to them, but I'd like to have a solidly factual response to their blatant attempts to mislead their readers.
I'd appreciate quotes from of any of you who have access to the report or to other documents that refute what Mort Zuckerman and his sleazeball crew have said here.
For those of you who want to also let them know what you think, their email address is: voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
Thanks.
GDWPA, Great cartoon!
Here's my favorite Hopkins, and it's even easy to understand, although you wouldn't think a witch would love it so much:
Though the last lights over the black West went/Lo, morning at the brown brink Eastward springs/Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods/With warm breast and with Ah! bright wings.
Not sure which is more appropriate, Dylan or Yeats:
". . . Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'."
" Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
Auden is always good:
Only a smell had feelings to make known,
Only an eye could point in a direction,
The fountain's utterance was itself alone:
He, though, by naming thought to make connection
Between himself as hunter and his food;
He felt the interest in his throat and found
That he could send a servant to chop wood
Or kiss a girl to rapture with a sound.
They bred like locusts till they hid the green
And edges of the world: confused and abject,
A creature to his own creation subject,
He shook with hate for things he'd never seen,
Pined for a love abstracted from its object,
And was opressed as he had never been.
And for all who have seen war, Wilfred Owen (I know, I know, venturing on cliche; but so, sadly, does "The Second Coming." I much prefer Yeats' longer poems, and his "Tower" poems, or, in the vein of "2nd coming," the two poems to his children.).
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
This is better than group sex. How do you all know all of my favorites?
Brooklyn Girl,
You can download the 911 report here.
This is better than group sex. How do you all know all of my favorites?
So I should cross that off my list of things to do before I die?
Mission already accomplished: trillions transferred to the 'have-much-mores' by tax cuts and stuff like missile 'defence'. The future: gated estates and guards to keep the rabble out. No shortage of cheap labor. Two Americas, a paradise and a hell.
France tried that in the 1780s.
It didn't work out quite like the "nobility" hoped it would.
I'm so glad I went to my parents today. Just as I was walking in, my mother took a call. Just by her responses of "well, maybe not this time, dear. No, sorry. Please, I can't this year." that she was getting a fundraiser call from the GOP. I picked up the other line after she motioned to me that she did not want to talk to them and listened in. The fundraiser (telemarketer is more like it) sounded almost desperate trying to convincer her to contribute to the dying campaign that is the gop. Finally she won out and hung up with a thanks but no thanks. They have voted republican since reagan's first term (with the exception of clinton's first term) and now plan on voting Kerry.
You shouldn't egg me on.
This is one of my favorite of Auden's sonnets, if only for the last line: a small masterpiece of prosody:
Here War Is Simple by W H Auden
Here war is simple like a monument:
A telephone is speaking to a man;
Flags on a map assert that troops were sent;
A boy brings milk in bowls. There is a plan
For living men in terror of their lives,
Who thirst at nine who were to thirst at noon,
And can be lost and are, and miss their wives,
And, unlike an idea, can die too soon.
But ideas can be true although men die,
And we can watch a thousand faces
Made active by one lie:
And maps can really point to places
Where life is evil now:
Nanking. Dachau.
Well, Robert, it's nice, but, at least in my experience, little poetry is quoted.
Naming of Parts
by Henry Reed
Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.
-
Margaret are you weeping
over golden grove unleaving?
Leaves like the things of man
you with your fresh thoughts care for,
can you?
But as the years grow older
you will come to such sights colder
by and by
nor shed a sigh though worlds of wanwood
leafmeal lie,
but you will weep and know why.
Now no matter child the name
sorrows springs are the same.
Nor tongue no nor word expressed
what heart heard of, ghost guessed -
It is the lot that you were born for,
it is Margaret you mourn for.
I likely got some of this wrong - I'm doing it from memory and the middle of the last verse has always tripped me up. My favorite Gerard Manley Hopkins. And I like him. A lot.
Well, Robert, it's nice, but, at least in my experience, little poetry is quoted.
Thanks for the information.
Now, if I can just find a way to combine the two.....
All this incredible poetry takes me back to my days as an English major. They say that one gets a different perspective reading the same works at different times of your life, but Wilfred Owen hits me in exactly the same way as it did when I was nineteen.
I don't disagree with you, and will be tres pissed if he is pardoned, but the consequences of it (especially if the dems don't take over congress) will be awful for him.
Humanitarian Do-Gooder, it depends on what crimes Bush actually gets convicted. It might be a slam-dunk for Kerry.
heh.
One more favorite by Mary Oliver:
Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith
Every summer
I listen and look
under the sun's brass and even
into the moonlight, but I can't hear
anything, I can't see anything --
not the pale roots digging down, nor the green stalks muscling up,
nor the leaves
deepening their damp pleats,
nor the tassels making,
nor the shucks, nor the cobs.
And still,
every day,
the leafy fields
grow taller and thicker --
green gowns lofting up in the night,
showered with silk.
And so, every summer,
I fail as a witness, seeing nothing --
I am deaf too
to the tick of the leaves,
the tapping of downwardness from the banyan feet --
all of it
happening
beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum.
And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt
swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear?
One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body
is sure to be there.
Remember this one?
A rock, A river, A tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their
hastening doom
is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us,
clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no more hiding place
down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spelling words
Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out today, you may
stand on me,
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song,
Come rest here by my side.
Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud.
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more. Come,
Clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your
Brow and when you yet knew you still
Knew nothing.
The River sings and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African and Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
Today, the first and last of every Tree
Speaks to humankind. Come to me,
here beside the River
Plant yourself beside me, here beside
the River.
Each of you, descendant of some passed
On traveler, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name, you
Pawnee, Apache and Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Forced on bloody feet, left me to the employment of
Other seekers -- desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot . . .
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree
I am yours -- your Passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward.
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, no the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning
There will come Soft Rain
There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire.
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly.
And Spring herself when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Sara Teasdale
I was there, working as a volunteer the first time it was read. It was a new day. The dark days of the Reagan and Poppy Adninistrations were over.
It was very moving. I hope to feel the same way this January.
Good morning.
Alright, now I'm not playin' anymore:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front: A Manifesto, by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
With tears in my eyes I say you have confounded all trolls in this lovely spot today. Thank you all.
MY PET GOAT
I’m sure you’ve heard tales of a train or a boat,
But please let me tell you about my pet goat.
He’s funny and frisky and jumps when he walks,
But what’s really strange is that my pet goat talks!
“Your goat really talks?” But of course! Yes indeed!
And his words are great treasures you really should heed.
He speaks with the wisdom of prophets of old
(You’re getting so sleepy and you’ll do what you’re told...)
I found a wonderful poem called Yiddish Speaking Socialists of the Lower East Side, in a book I bought used - American Poetry since 1970, selected by Andre Codrescu. I wish and have wished in the past that I could share it with ya'll, but it is entirely too long - pages. It's by Ed Sanders. If any of you ever bump into it, read it. I love it so much; it reminds me of this band of intrepid commenters here.
Where'd all the war poetry go? Ok, if it's pot luck:
Apple
The dead litter so,
leave clothes in drawers,
old photographs, everything,
and go.
They are as thoughtless as children,
who will get up with the sun,
take an apple,
and set out for the world's end.
William Hedrington
-
All this poetry is making me dreamy on a hot summer day
Time for some Laudanum:
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The poem I quoted was On the Pulse of the Morning Maya Angelou wrote it for the Clinton Inauguration, where she also recited it.
Ed Sanders?
The Fugs?
Woo hoo!
Please stop posting unabridged rock n' roll lyrics on this board.
Now I sit here
Broken hearted
Came to shit
But only farted
He's a bit more like an industrial irrigation system than a leaker.
I don't think "leaker" does this justice.
Please stop posting unabridged rock n' roll lyrics on this board.
???????????
I must be really out of touch.....
If Shelby actually did this, I'm glad. Those two communications, received on the eve of 9/11 said:
"The match begins tomorrow".
"Tomorrow is zero hour."
They were *found* on 9/12 (when a lot of intelligence sources were changing their diapers on an hourly basis.
Still, if the prez had been on top of things, maybe attention would have been paid per his directive.
Instead...
Please stop posting unabridged rock n' roll lyrics on this board.
Er..Kubla Khan really was by Coleridge, not by Rush or Olivia Newton John.
CNN has picked it up.
Clinton shook the trees until they sang "Mariah". That helped Berger save lives. With more of that, I wouldn't need so many baseballs.
-----------
The Origin of Baseball
Someone had been walking in and out
Of the world without coming
To much decision about anything.
The sun seemed too hot most of the time.
There weren't enough birds around
And the hills had a silly look
When he got on top of one.
The girls in heaven, however, thought
Nothing of asking to see his watch
Like you would want someone to tell
A joke - "Time," they'd say, "what's
That mean - Time?", laughing with the edges
Of their white mouths, like a flutter of paper
In a madhouse. And he'd stumble over
General Sherman or Elizabeth B.
Browning, muttering, "Can't you keep
Your big wings out of the aisle?" But down
Again, there'd be millions of people without
Enough to eat and men with guns just
Standing there shooting each other.
So he wanted to throw something
And he picked up a baseball.
Kenneth Patchen
-
What Are Years?
What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt,-
dumbly calling, deafly listening-that
in misfortune, even death,
encourages others
and in its defeat, stirs
the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment, rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.
So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
This is eternity.
Marianne Moore
"Humanitarian Do-Gooder, it depends on what crimes Bush actually gets convicted. It might be a slam-dunk for Kerry.
heh.
pie"
lol Pie. Good point.
It's cold and rainy here today. Thanks everyone for sharing the poetry, it's a perfect day for it. 
Oooh, poems!
I'm writing this jus after an encounter
With an English journalist in search of "views
On the Irish thing." I'm back in winter
Quarters where bad news is no longer news,
Where media-men and stringers sniff and point,
Where zoom lenses, recorders and coiled leads
Litter the hotels. The times are out of joint
But I incline as much to rosary beads
As to the jottings and analyses
Of politicians and newspapermen
Who've scribbled down the long campaign from gas
And protest to gelignite and Sten,
Who proved upon their pulses "escalate,"
"Backlash" and "crack-down," "the provisional wing,"
"Polarization" and "long-standing hate."
Yet I live here, I live here too, I sing,
Expertly civil-tongued with civil neigbours
On the high wires of first wireless reports,
Sucking the fake taste, the stony flavours
Of those sanctioned, old, elaborate retorts:
"Oh, it's disgraceful, surely, I agree,"
"Where's it going to end?" "It's getting worse."
"They're murderers." "Internment, understandably..."
The "voice of sanity" is getting hoarse.
From Seamus Heaney's "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing." Because for four years the voice of sanity has been screaming itself raw over here.
QuentinCompson, I love that!
Thank you.
BUSH TRYING TO COVER UP SAUDI LINK JULY 29
I, Too, Sing America
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
Langston Hughes
You're welcome, pie. Reading The Journal of Albion Moonlight is also great fun, and like you say, maybe at different times in one's life, when one has those.
-
monica_nyc -
that is pure beauty. thank you.
*
Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
[truncated]
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Langston Hughes
Thermopylae:
Go and tell the Spartans,
thou that passeth by,
that here, obedient to
their laws, we lie.
-Bowles
"He is a man who has lied and dissembled, and a man who has crawled. He knows the taste of the boot-polish. He has suffered kicks in the tonneau of his pantaloons. He has taken orders from his superiors in knavery and he has wooed and flattered his inferiors in sense. His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretenses. He is willing to embrace any issue, however, idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him. I do not describe the democratic politician in his inordinate worst; I describe him as he is encountered in the full sunshine of normalcy. He may be, on the one hand, a cross-roads idler striving to get into the State Legislature by grace of the local mortgage-sharks and evangelical clergy, or he may be, on the other, the President of the United States."
From Notes on Democracy, 1926 H.L. Mencken
I stand by my comment about Kerry. He will be far better president than Bush, but if he has core convictions, they remain, as yet, hidden from me.
Came late to the thread and didn't realize there was more poetry. I was speaking of the Langston Hughes in my post -
"Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America."
but would like to thank everyone bringing the poetry to us on this day of saturday. it's so nice to be in this band of brothers...
*
Not as pretty, but so awesome.
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.
There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be right back
after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will b
More Hopkins:
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet,
Long live the weeds and the wildnerness yet.
The revolution will be live
Gil Scott Heron
(Sorry, I dunno why it made me post as Bogartus23)
From CNN on Shelby:
Shelby, now the chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, was the ranking Republican on the joint committee. Joining with many of his Democratic colleagues, he criticized the Bush administration's classification of nearly 30 pages of the committee's report.
"Ninety-five percent of that information could be declassified," he said at the time. "I think [the pages] are classified for the wrong reason."
The pages were being withheld, he said, because the information "might be embarrassing to some international relations."
Perhaps... Bandar Bush?
OT: click homepage for an article in the 'Observer', (UK) about the Bushes in Texas. It's from June '02. Compare to NYT and weep. I found it looking for references to Papa Bush's 911 breakfast with Bin Laden's brother. I wonder how many true believers even know about that?
Robert Burns -- To a Mouse
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!
I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request:
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!
Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!
Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,
An' weary Winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald.
To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!
But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
"Ninety-five percent of that information could be declassified," he said at the time. "I think [the pages] are classified for the wrong reason."
So Berger's faux pas was manufactured? I believe that's the case, since other copies were out there. Correct?
You guys are missing one of my favorite Auden poems. Tell me you don't think of aWol George when you read it:
Epitaph for a Tyrant
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after.
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
-- W.H. Auden
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
Ah, yes.
A Bush supporter.
Mary had a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go
It followed her to school one day
School one day, school one day
It followed her to school one day
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
Laugh and play, laugh and play,
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school
And so the teacher turned it out,
Turned it out, turned it out,
And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near
And waited patiently about,
Patiently about, patiently about,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
Love Mary so? Love Mary so?
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
Loves the lamb, you know, loves the lamb, you know
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The teacher did reply
So Berger's faux pas was manufactured? Yes.
I'd like to see those stuffed docs tested for urine residues.
ah, let me throw in a bit of my all-time favorite. (the opening, which i committed to memory a long time ago. forgive if i've misplaced a word or two. T.S. Eliot, the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock...
Let us go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out
against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table.
Let us go
through certain half deserted streets
The muttering retreats
of restless nights
in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question..
Oh, do not ask what is it
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
*
Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up
holding boots, pack on
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.
Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard on toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel.
I pledge allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun --
With joyful interpenetration for all.
-Gary Snyder
a bit more on topic:
The deepest infamy man can attain,
to strangle Rome or France enchain
whate'er the place, the land, the city be
'Tis to rob men of soul and liberty-
'Tis with drawn sword the senate to invade,
And murder law, in its own court betrayed.
To enslave the land is guilt of such black dye
It is ne'er quitted by God's vengeful eye;
The crime once done, the day of grace expires,
heaven's punishment, howe'er slow, ne'er tires.
Begins to march, and comes seren and calm,
with her steel knotted whip beneath her arm.
Victor Hugo, from "Chastisements", 1852
the previous poem was entitled:
"The Worst Treason."
Totally OT here but....there comes a time when you just need a good laugh.
Go to this site for some of the damndest videos you will ever see.
http://www.rathergood.com/
Poetry is the weapon of, er, poetry and music are the two weapons of, er, poetry, music, and comedy are chief among the weapons of those fighting fascism.
Well, if poetry is on the agenda, I'd like to share one of my favorites, from one of my favorite poets, Marge Piercy:
A Work of Artifice
The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
love to touch.
(did I do good, Hecate?)
Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth
SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
The labor and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here, no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.
Arthur Hugh Clough
Back on topic: Shelby has long been an ass. His comment on the Clinton economic plan in '93 was, "The taxman cometh."
I like the fact he's been harrying this admin., but I fear it's just contrariness.
Eeni meeni mini mo
Catch a tiger by its toe
Pie, Burns (the farmer poet) talks about the "cruel coulter" in his poem.
Was he ahead of his time or what?
(Coulter is the Scottish word of Plow-blade.)
I just love "to a mouse", and have fond memories of my father reading it to me as a boy in his inimitable style sounding every bit like Scotty on Star Trek.
THINK OF IT
Think of it:
the bog soldier of Massada
teaches himself home, most
inextinguishably,
against
every barb in the wire.
Think of it:
the eyeless with no shape
lead you free through the tumult, you
grow stronger and
stronger.
Think of it: your
own hand
has held
this bit of
habitable
earth, suffered up
again
into life.
Think of it:
this came towards me,
name-awake, hand-awake
for ever,
from the unburiable.
Paul Celan
I'd like to see those stuffed docs tested for urine residues.
I love CSI.
Burns (the farmer poet) talks about the "cruel coulter" in his poem.
Was he ahead of his time or what?
Amazing how a name defines a person.
Thanks for the Gary Snyder poem, Hecate. I always smell pine needles and mountain lakes when I read his stuff, and I always want to throw on the backpack and get lost somewhere remote:
Riprap
Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way.
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles --
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
Gary Snyder
I wondered what the "cruel coulter" he was referring to. Thanks for the info 8643!
Yup, Burns was definately ahead of his time.
Nice Ass:
so much gained,
and so much lost,
in these two words.
Richard Brautigan
So "Coulter cultivates a cult" is one of those weird 3-way things that all mean the same thing.
Cutivate, Cultivator, and Cultivated all come from Coulter and a cult is a group all in a row, as plants in a cultivated field.
Crap, we need more open threads!
Anyway, Larry Lessig slags our favorite non-Pulitzer Prize winning wingnut, Bill O' Reilly, for being a lieing liar.
Larry cites
Whoops! "Larry documents Bill's diverse lies in O'Reilly's jihad against the NY Times."
"George Bush is Dumb
John Kerry is Smart"
There are so, so many simple comparisons that are appealing. Edwards in his football uni, George in his cheerleading outfit.
Hell, we don't even need to compare. Just run lots of pictures of George in his cheerleader's outfit, with the caption "Simply fabulous!!"
Gawd.
Why can't we fight dirty?
I wish, for once I was a Republican. If we gave ourselves the license to pull out all the stops like the wingers, damn, but the field is rich with material.
I also saw some GREAT footage of Kerry kite surfing (NOT an easy sport, by any means.) Compare the photos of Bush falling off the Segue or falling off his mountain bike.
MAN.
Why can't our side do some of that?
Just ONCE!
Chris Tucker -
I didn't realize O'Reilly was STILL flogging this issue. Shameful. The young man lost his father and the liar is continuing to torment him and spread foul untruths. Ah, well, thanks for the link.
*
very OT like Gary Snyder:
The Sox just did some baseball like it's supposed to be.
New York Dems catching a game while you're in town for the convention: you suck. Go home.
[insert best Dean Scream]!
my song....8/8/03
and the king says
there is no problem
there is no problem we can't solve
and the king says
there is no situation
no situation we can't resolve
and the king speaks
through his bishops
the sword of god we wield
and the king says
there is no problem prayer shall be our shied
and the king knows
his power
when the people are in fear
and the king speaks
in a fever infectious and sincecre
and the king says
were sacrificing some lambs to bribe the gods
and the king plays follow the leader with an electric cattle prod
and the king once
was a bad boy
but he became reborn
and the king speaks
about jesus as he steals that crow of thorns
and the king says
avenging angels sit in my shoulders and show me signs
and the king makes
war on the bad boy who inhabits his own mind
Crap, we need more open threads!
Okay. Go to it.
"Why can't we fight dirty?"
Because we would lose our souls.
Venice?
I loved the poetry part of the thread, hope it keeps happening in open threads.
Poetry is so much more than just literature, it is a celebration and a record of spoken dialect. It is rich with information that goes beyond any message it is attempting to tell.
Brooklyn Girl, please look at my comments on the earlier threads, particularly the news conference one (from Thursday) and the System was Blinking Red one; the Iraq connection shit is just not there, and the Commission says so -- I think my first post on this report was about the taking down of the Cheney argument. If you need help, I'll go look for it myself -- I'm on a different computer and don't have the report here.
"They said that Richard Shelby went home last night
And put a bullet through his head"
--Edwin Arlington Robinson to Simon & Garfunkel to Fox News: trifecta!
Sorry, that last comment was me -- forgot that I didn't have my info (name, e-mail) on this computer. If you want details, e-mail me and I'll give you ammunition. The factual kind, not the bullet kind.
For the FOX-allergic among us, here's the first three paras of the AP version of this story.
Note that Curt Anderson mentions in the very first paragraph what in the Sandy Berger stories didn't get mentioned until around about the second-to-the-last one: That, just as in the Berger case, actual criminal charges are unlikely.
Sen. Shelby Probe Referred to Ethics Panel
Sunday July 25, 2004 2:31 AM
AP Photo NY114
By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department has referred to the Senate Ethics Committee an investigation into whether Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama or his staff leaked classified information, indicating that criminal charges are highly unlikely, a federal law enforcement official said Saturday.
The referral Thursday means that it is now up to the ethics panel to decide if any action is warranted against Shelby, a Republican who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Both the House and Senate intelligence committees were also briefed by prosecutors and the FBI about the findings of the investigation, said the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe remains officially open.
[...]
OK, someone who bought the Wilson book needs to email Atrios a scan of Shelby holding hands with Saddam.
Liberal softie weiners. WITH no education, family legacy or hard work to fall back on as I have. I defeat you with The Facts (tm) and my unstoppable debating technique every time.
Thersites - I can't tell you how much I love Seamus Heaney. I think he is the greatest poet alive, and perhaps the greatest poet Ireland has ever produced. There was a time I didn't think anyone would surplant Yeats, but Heaney did, at least for me.
hmm, can we make this a little 'news' nugget treat for the repeaters? they seem to like those tasty treats from the Gop.
Poems, huh?
Here's a good one from Christian Morgenstern:
On earth there roams a lonely knee.
It's just a knee, that's all.
It's not a tent, it's not a tree,
it's just a knee, that's all.
In battle, long ago, a man
was riddled through and through.
The knee alone escaped unhurt
as if it were taboo.
Since then there roams a lonely knee.
It's just a knee, that's all.
It's not a tent, it's not a tree,
it's just a knee, that's all.
And here's a charming bit of natural history from Marianne Moore, called "A Jelly-Fish":
Visible, invisible,
a fluctuating charm
an amber-tinted amethyst
inhabits it, your arm
approaches and it opens
and it closes; you had meant
to catch it and it quivers;
you abandon your intent.
And here's something from Bertolt Brecht that's timely, if nothing else:
When the Regime commanded that books with harmful knowledge
Should be publicly burned and on all sides
Oxen were forced to drag cartloads of books
To the bonfires, a banished
Writer, one of the best, scanning the list of the
Burned, was shocked to find that his
Books had been passed over. He rushed to his desk
On wings of wrath, and wrote a letter to those in power.
Burn me! he wrote with flying pen, burn me! Haven't my books
Always reported the truth? And here you are
Treating me like a liar! I command you:
Burn me!
And lastly, a uncredited bit of pathos from Africa:
Chaff is in my eye,
A crocodile has me by the leg,
A goat is in the garden,
A porcupine is cooking in the pot,
Meal is drying on the pounding rock,
The King has summoned me to court,
And I must go to the funeral of my mother-in-law.
In short, I am busy.
It's not just the incompetence, the lying, the corruption or the arrogance of the Republican party. It's the freaking hypocrisy. They are all over the Sandy Berger investigation -- which involved copies, not originals, and thus could not have been a ploy to keep information from the 9/11 commission. It's stupid, perhaps criminal. Buth the we have Delay who is perhaps the most cravenly power junkie in history. We have Cheney, as morally and ethically corrupt as they come...and there are dozens, literally dozens of things for Congress to investigate...such as the FDA colluding with pharmaceuticals against consumers, crony no-bid contracts in Iraq, the lies about the war. But no, Congress is going to investigate the already investigated Berger case -- wasting taxpayer dollars on molehills while ignoring mountains.
If they were even half-ways decent, even moderately honest, even somewhat reasonable, it would be one thing. But they are not. They are beyond hope -- and they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Right now, they stand for nothing but the naked pursuit of power. Free trade interfere with your political goals, go ahead, betray those principles? These missionaries of deficit reduction have created the hugest deficit in history. They preach government out of our lives, but have created the most intrusive, kremlinesque justice department in our history. They no longer stand for anything but the pursuit of power for its own sake -- not in order to win change.
Forget trying to work with them; they are a lost cause. The only thing holding them together right now is the rightwing ownership of the media and the rivers of propaganda and lies that are needed to fool enough of the people. If the media were even someone balanced, they might get 30% of the vote -- but with gerrymandering and the floods of bought and paid for media vomitus, they hang on by their fingernails.
Great show guys and gals.
When the poetry, music and laughter come out, it shows we HAVE reached the tipping point.
This is especially good, considering Shelby's record. He's been a big advocate of broadening the standards for classifying government documents, and of harsh penalties for media outlets that print leaked information that compromises "national security."
He is a long-time member of a bipartisan police state coalition in Congress that includes Hatch, Feinstein, and Schumer. There's a relatively small number of Congresscritters, like the above, who never saw a police state measure that didn't make them come in their pants--and he's a member in good standing.
I hope Shelby does some time in the federal pen and comes out with a size-eleven asshole.
Skipping way back, the verb "vamp" means something different: it means to stall (for example, by continuing to sing and dance long after the number is supposed to be over) on stage because the star isn't ready for his or her entrance on time.
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