September 2007 Archives

Literally and figuratively it turns out.

I heard an interesting factoid this morning while having my coffee. I was watching the travel channel, which I do frequently. Not being of an income bracket to afford actual travel, my travel channel viewing allows me to get a sense of other countries that I can’t (yet) afford to visit in person. Sigh.

But I digress. The first part of the show was set in NYC, featuring a bunch of fancy hotels (massage, boutique cocktails, bla bla bla). Then they turned to the Statue of Liberty - the most famous and recognized symbol of liberty in the history of the world.

And here’s the fact that made me realize how little has changed in our promised land since the statue was conceived and built. It’s worth noting that these facts had not been mentioned to me previously in my 44 years on our little sphere.

Here’s what happened: The nation of France was responsible for the construction, shipment and assembly of the statue in America. The U.S. was to pay for the pedestal on which it would stand.

From the U.S. Parks Department on the French fundraising effort:

Someone with the Franco-American Union had an inspiration: They would hold a lottery. Since very few contributions were coming from France's moneyed elite, the idea of engaging the public's attention with a lottery was a brilliant one. The prizes were highly coveted and valuable, including two works by Bartholdi himself (the statue’s sculptor).

Additional funds were raised in a manner worthy of contemporary merchandising techniques: a signed and numbered collection of clay models of the statue were sold in France and America. By the end of 1879, about 250,000 francs (approximately $750,000 U.S.) had been raised for the statue's construction. Enough, most people thought, to complete the work.

While the statue was nearing completion in France, little was happening on the American side. The American press continued to be critical of the project, especially of its cost. They couldn't understand why the pedestal should cost as much as the statue itself. Congress rejected a bill appropriating $100,000 for the base. New York approved a grant of $50,000, but the expenditure was vetoed by the governor.

Many Americans outside of New York considered it New York's statue. "Let New York pay for it," they said, while America's newly rich, self-made millionaires were saying and contributing nothing. The American half of the Franco-American Union, led by William M. Evarts, held the usual fund-raising events, but public apathy was almost as monumental as the statue itself.

By 1884, after years of fund-raising, only $182,491 had been collected and $179,624 had been spent. It took the intervention of Joseph Pulitzer and the power of the media to make a difference.

Last night I went to see Rhodessa Jones' piece "The Love Project."

Bold and sassy, the performance artist struts and sings and dances and shares stories of risk and change. Perhaps the best moment is a story she shared about an adventure she and her partner Idris Ackamoor had back in 1989:

They were on a train from Graz, Austria to Munich, in a compartment with tons of luggage around, when a family of dark-skinned folks walked by. It turned out that the family was Albanian, and what they were seeking was sanctuary -- a place to hide so that they could escape to Germany, and freedom.

The compartment was small and the luggage was excessive. But Rhodessa described the moment of reckoning, when the faces and voices of Dr. King and Gandhi and Harriet Tubman and all the others who have gone before said to her, "How can you NOT?"

And so she and Idris allowed the family to travel under the beds, behind the luggage, while Idris stood in the doorway of the compartment with his saxophone, looking like the famous jazzman without a care in the world...

And a family disappeared into the Munich night air, to freedom.

***

What must happen to us to truly "be the change we wish we see"?

First they said global warming wasn't happening at all. When the evidence got too overwhelming, they said global warming was happening, but that human beings had nothing to do with it. But a growing body of evidence washed this position away too.

Now we've got the 3rd generation of deniers, as packaged in a new book, Cool It: A Skeptical Environmentalist Looks at Global Warming by Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg.

I'm launching a new web site today that takes on Lomborg's arguments--Putting the Heat on Lomborg--and I'd love for you to come over, learn more about why Lomborg's book is such a threat to stopping climate change, and just put the website through its paces.

Lomborg admits that global warming is happening, and that humans have something to do with it, but that it will cost more than it's worth to stop climate change, and it might even be a good thing. Register and log in and leave a question, a comment, or a website you like that deals with climate change.

What does it take to get you to pick up something off the sidewalk?

Money does it for me--I'll even go after that lucky penny. And I'll stop for any book that still has a cover on it and isn't completely water-logged from being out in the rain.

There's always a certain little burst of joy when I find something unclaimed on the ground, a little ray of fortune bursting through whatever clouds there might be that day.

Things are a little different in Iraq, according to a story in yesterday's Washington Post. On the streets of Iraq, if you happen to pick up the wrong thing lying on the ground, you get a little "kicker"--a high-powered sniper bullet in the head.

Blackwater has been in the news once again, this time because of questionable circumstances in an event which resulted in death and wounding of civilians. In more recent news, they are also suspected of arms smuggling, which they are denying. This story has grown astronomically over the weekend, to where it is looking more like a crisis situation between Iraq and the US. Perhaps now the public will take more notice of the whole concept of private security contracting and whether there is oversight.

I first heard of Blackwater, like many people, when four of their members were ambushed in Fallujah and their corpses were dragged through the streets, then hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. I had also heard about Dyncorp, with members alleged to have been involved in rapes in Kosovo with no legal way to prosecute them, and that they were from Texas with conservative government ties. Prior to that, I had known about "mercenaries" or "soldiers of fortune" and generally thought of them as macho rightwing adventures with a thirst for blood. They are also known as "cowboys" or "hired guns."

More curious than ever, knowing that these contractors remain in Iraq in huge numbers yet are seldom mentioned when there is talk of a drawdown in forces in Iraq, I solicited questions from friends via email, and we came up with some basics. The links we collected are at the bottom of the thread and there will be many more by the time this is published.

Who are Blackwater?
They are the world's most powerful mercenary firm, and growing fast. They are a private army, a private military company, called "mercenaries" by some. They are paid for with tax dollars. On their website, their Vision is: To support security, peace, freedom, and democracy everywhere.

Who founded Blackwater?
Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist megamillionaire ex-Navy SEAL named Erik Prince. He is hereditarily wealthy and his family bankrolls right-wing causes. They are based in the wilderness of North Carolina, named Blackwater because of the region they are based in.

(keep reading for more)

The American store is being quietly robbed by a bunch of slick, pinky-ring wearing lobbyists and corporate hacks, and Congress doesn't give a damn. In fact, they're holding the door open and driving the getaway car.

Glenn Greenwald has written a great article for Salon on the proposed legislation that will wipe the slate clean for any telecom companies that helped the government spy illegally on U.S. citizens. Newsweek also reported on this pending legislation.

If you've got a strong stomach, you can read the Salon article here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/22/telecom_immunity/index.html

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
William O. Douglas

[The above was the opening of FEAR UP: Stories from Baghdad and Guanatanamo.]

When George Bush was elected in 2000, who among us would have said that seven years hence that we would be looking at the loss of civil liberties and a terrible war? Who would have predicted that the Congress would have given him the same power Adolf Hitler had: to round up "enemy combatants", as defined by him?

So often, people say "Well, I knew." But, of course no one did. All we can do is look at historical patterns and project ahead based on past experiences.

My friend Linda and I have played a kind of game over the past year: What year are we in? Is it 1932? 1933? The other night we decided it is 1935, the year the Nuremberg Laws were passed. Perhaps this is hyperbole, but how will we know, except when we look back?

This led to a discussion about whether or people in 1935 understood that 1936 was coming. The Berlin Olympics' focus on Hitler and German glory may have been hoped for, but did anyone understand what the price of German glory might be? They could not have predicted Kristallnacht, in 1938, surely.

Busy week; lots of activities and struggles, and moments of joy, and fears, and plans made, changed, remade...

And you?

I've been thinking and talking about "the movement", especially in light of last week's "march", this week's arrests, and the MoveOn debacle of yesterday. So here are my questions for a Friday discussion:

Is there a peace and justice MOVEMENT?

Is it actually MOVING?

Are you MOVED by anything the MOVEMENT has done?

What is the engine for the MOVEMENT?

What would MOVE you to action?

Do you ever think about MOVING on?

[Image of Dr. Martin Luther King]

Here's a link to CNN's fairly extensive coverage of the protest march in Jena, Louisiana today.

I met one of the attorneys for the Jena 6 at Yearly Kos. She was part of a panel called Rebuilding New Orleans, but she wanted to speak about the Jena 6, and we were grateful she did. She paid her own way to come and speak to us and ask for our help in getting this story out and pushing it to the media.

It's shocking to see the pockets of powerful and ugly bigotry that still exist in our country, and that they are still well supported by the structures of local law enforcement and government in areas like Jena, Louisiana.

When I was at Yearly Kos in the beginning of August, this story was far from well known. Now there's a huge protest going on there all day.

This story is another example of how the power of people and the blog community, can serve to shine a bright light on an injustice, and push the media to cover it.

First this:

Now this:

The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom."

The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderate doctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling "tears apart" the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as "Let's kill innocents," and helps to "bring some of the edge off" the detainees, he said.

[...]

Stone said his staff conducts polygraph tests for detainees who promise to change after undergoing the religious training program. "We were trying to figure out if they're messing with us. . . . You're not talking about radicals going to choirboys." But he also added that they're succeeding in countering extremists in the facilities. "We're busting them down, we're making whole moderate compounds that didn't exist before."

Stone described a sort of religious insurgency that occurred at one detention facility on Sept. 2. "We had a compound of moderates for the first time overtake . . . extremists. It's never happened before. Found them, identified them, threw them up against the fence and shaved their frickin' beards off of them. . . . I mean, that is historic."

I see some people paid attention in Spanish History class.

I'm sure this will all work out really, really well this time.

Last week I wrote about the problems that the antiwar movement has had in generating sustained pressure on members of Congress, citing a story by a Washington Post reporter who traveled around Georgia for three days over the August recess with Republican Senator Jimmy Isaacson and did hear a single comment critical of the war.

In today's Post, there is a story of a different kind, about a recent campaign that worked, paid for by the health insurance industry, and based on mobilizing people at the grassroots. The campaign was led by Karen M. Ignagni.

Ignagni's group, with the help of its members, has been building a list of senior citizen activists since 1999. Known as the Coalition for Medicare Choices, the network is managed by association employees who regularly keep in touch with the seniors who sign up and spur them to action when they are needed.

The network is currently 400,000 strong. In recent months, every senator and nearly 100 congressmen were contacted by multiple seniors in the system. Over the August recess alone, the association clocked about 20,000 calls to congressional offices.

Ignagni supplemented this deluge with a national advertising campaign. Its targeted TV commercials were designed to thank some lawmakers for supporting the industry's position and to remind others who are on the fence that seniors would not be happy if Medicare Advantage were trimmed.

The association also bought newspaper ads to praise the overall legislation, which at its heart expands the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The ad pointedly recommended the Senate's version, which pays for the SCHIP expansion with an increase in tobacco taxes, not a cut in Medicare Advantage.

The effect has been impressive. Congressional aides say they have heard the association's point of view even above the din created by two of Washington's most powerful interests: the American Medical Association and AARP.

Rick Steves is a local travel guru who has a PBS series called "Europe Through the Backdoor." He started as a backpacker and advocates budget travel as a way to be "close to the ground" and meet real people, rather than traveling in a four-star bubble lacking in real local character. He also feels that we sometimes can better understand our own country and culture after leaving it. He shares examples of the value of travel broadening your perspective and how important in a post-9/11 world that is, especially when we live in a society that's using fear as a tactic to confuse us, and powerful people profit from our confusion.

Rick opened up his travel agency (which looks like a miniature train station) to phone callers for progressive candidates during the last election, and he is outspoken in his views that we should not be "Ugly Americans," either personally or collectively, through our behavior and policies nor should we insulate ourselves.

I have excerpted sections from an interview with Rick which appeared in last week's Seattle Times as Rick was preparing to speak at Town Hall here.

RS: When I talk about travel as a political act I'm talking about how travel can change your perspective in a way that when you get home, all of a sudden you're more difficult to con...I'm saying when you travel, you find smart people who would not trade passports. You have people who are ethnocentric like you and I are, but they find other truths to be self-evident and God-given.

..Slow service is good service, instead of fast service is good service. Tolerance of alternative lifestyles. I think in Europe they've learned that society has to make a choice: you can tolerate more alternative lifestyles or you can build more prisons. And they always remind me how good we are at incarceration. We're four percent of the planet with more than a quarter of its prisoners.

If you're traveling in India, don't assume you know what pain and love and the value of time is. If you're a famous rock star, don't hang a baby out the window in Berlin. When Americans go to the Brandenburg Gate ... it frustrates those guides, because all they want to know is "Which balcony did Michael Jackson hang his baby out on?"

MR: Don't you think the teen beauty-pageant finalist's incoherent answer about why Americans can't find America on a map says all we need to know about our ignorance of the rest of the world?

RS: (Laughs.) I love that, too. That clip would not surprise people -- not even in Europe, in the developing world. It's not a fair example of an American, but you can make a case that we think we're a hub and everything relates to us. And the rest of the world interacts with each other, with or without America, which I think is real interesting. One of the most poignant moments I had last year was in Morocco, looking at a beautiful square in Tangier realizing these are successful affluent people going places and they neither emulate America or dislike America. America doesn't even enter into their awareness. And I thought that's a beautiful thing.

MR: You're suggesting actually learning about a culture before invading it? I mean traveling to it.

RS: Yeah, I'm saying if everybody traveled before they could vote, we would not be outvoted in the United Nations routinely 130 to 4. We would not go into wars alone. We would work better with the rest of the planet.

(more interview and photos below)

I don't know why I still do it... but I still do. On some level, it's the mental equivalent of being a self-mutilator. But I still do it. I watch the Today Show in the morning while I'm having coffee.

And thus my Friday morning began with what I am sure resulted in a major blood pressure increase, and death-defying proximity to a cerebral aneurism. Meredith Viera parsing out for the idiot-nation the subtle nuanced interpretation of Mr. Bush's pointless remarks Thursday evening (spewed no doubt to an utterly disinterested nation - strangely, haven't seen the Nielsen numbers on this).

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (pronounced Kee-veen O Cree-awn) is an Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features local scenes as well as images from his travels to the west of Ireland and abroad. His social and political themes range from the local to the global.

Yesterday, I asked if a film can change people's minds. The question is in line with conversations going on on an email list I am on, as well as Christy's comments lately on her painting. Today, I want to extend the question:

Does art lead us or reflect our current views?

Caoimhghin O Croidheain is an Irish artist who responded to a comment from another linguistic analyst:

The first comment:
"But it is much harder, it seems to me, for art to be able to offer social critique - that is, criticisms of the systems of social power and resultant structured social inequalities."

Caoimhghin O Croidheain responded:

Some Notes on Political Art

What is political art? What makes art political?

It is very difficult to define political art. Views on what makes art political can range from the idea that all art is political (i.e. it either implicitly supports or explicitly opposes the status quo) to pointing out, for example, the obviously political murals on walls around Belfast. As a way of narrowing the former and broadening the latter I suggest here a view of political art that uses three categories:

Portrayal, Promotion, or Projection.

Portrayal

In the first category 'Portrayal' covers art that says 'this is what happens if, is happening now or happened in the past'. This kind of art describes events or situations that people find themselves in as a result of social or political structures. Any political perspective is implicit in the art but is also free-floating. For example, a painting of a white man whipping black slaves describes a particular situation where the black man may say, 'Yes! That is how we are treated!' yet the slave-owner may say, 'Yes! That is the way to treat them!' Thus both sides can see the confirmation of their point of view in the work of art.

For the slaves, the ultimate effect of such art may be positive or negative. In a positive sense it may create group awareness and solidarity, or, in a negative sense, it could also consolidate inertia, a feeling that nothing can be done to change the situation. The art styles or movements of Realism, Social Realism and Naturalism could fit into the category of 'Portrayal'.

Promotion

In the second category of 'Promotion' ways and means towards the resolution of the problem are presented. That is, a particular aspect of an event is highlighted over other aspects. This aspect would concentrate on the people or groups who are actively struggling to change the situation in which they find themselves.

Thus one view of an event, that which would encourage others or strengthen an activism already present, is promoted over images of the event that may have the opposite effect. In this case, the politics of representation takes precedence over the representation of politics.

Unlike 'Portrayal', this type of art is harder to manipulate from an opposing point of view. The politics is generally explicit and can have a positive inspirational effect. The art styles or movements of Socialist Realism and 'Political Art' (e.g. murals, banners, posters etc.) and Social Realism to a certain extent could fit into the category of 'Promotion'.

Projection

In the third and last category 'Projection' refers to art that takes disparate elements and then recombines them to form a new image. It is an art which says 'This is what could happen or could be if ...'. Art styles or movements such as Surrealism, collage, utopian or visionary images would fit into this category. Such speculative art can have a positive effect of providing inspiration by suggesting ideas that are outside one's usual ways of thinking, and can be implicitly or explicitly political.

For example, a picture showing the Rock of Cashel (ancient fortress in Co. Tipperary, Ireland) with a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train speeding by may be a jarring conjunction of images but suggests the possibility of a super fast transport system in Ireland. Therefore it has social and economic implications for the Irish State which in turn makes it implicitly political.

However, like in the first category Portrayal, opposing political viewpoints can claim this image for their vision of the future. The same scene would be explicitly political though, if, for example, 'Workers of the world unite' was written on the side of the Shinkansen.

Thus it can be seen from the above categories that the representation of particular actions or the inclusion of particular types of text ties an image down to an explicitly political perspective. The past, present and future, with some overlapping, are also covered in this way of seeing or defining political art.

*****

What do you think about the artifacts of the peace and justice movement? Are the activities: music, poetry, docu-drama, film, etc. helping? Portraying? Promoting? Projecting?

What have you read, created, or experienced lately and how did it help?

I am at the annual meeting I always go to in September; this year in St. Petersburg, Florida. The first day is always catching up with colleagues: who is here, who is ill, who died, who is new...life cycles.

So I have not kept up with the news cycle in the past 24 hours. OK, let's face it, I am Bush-avoidant right now.

However, in the past week, we did see a documentary I want to share with you:

WAR MADE EASY.

Along with the others we have seen recently, it is a powerful reminder of why we all must continue to educate, activate, and empower those who are new to truths.

I plan to host a movie night with friends, and to invite a few who need to think a little more deeply about what is happening to our democracy now. Please consider doing the same; all of the following are available in the theatres or at Netflix. The trailers alone are worth your time:

WHY WE FIGHT

THE GROUND TRUTH

THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO

UNCOVERED: THE ROAD TO IRAQ

THE VALLEY OF ELAH

NO END IN SIGHT

Can a movie change an opinion? Let's find out...

[Work is pastels on paper, titled, Mindless, by David Ross]

Suggested title for this week's news? I vote for "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics". But not necessarily in that order.

We started out the weeks with the lying statistics of the dog and pony show known as "The Petraeus Report", which was not so much a report, as the facts on Iraq getting so intense a public massaging, it should be R rated. R for ridiculous.

So much for the statistics part.

We will end the week with the White House version of this report delivered to Congress on Saturday, and the President delivering his fifteen millionth version of a "Stay the Course" speech this evening.

When watching the speech, it might be helpful to print out the speech from January in which he promised all of the wonderful things the surge was supposed to do, none of which actually happened. Just for comparison. He will also reveal that the 30,000 troops that have to go next spring forced by troop rotation, will still be having to go home next spring. He will take credit for this as proof positive that the surge is working. So well, in fact, that it's time to stop doing what was sucessful. And then he will take credit for the sun rising in the east.

So much for the damn lies part.

And today brings us the lies. Courtesy of Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, and Think Progress:

Earlier this week, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell claimed the new expansive FISA legislation passed by Congress prior to the August recess — the so-called Protect America Act — had helped to thwart an alleged terror plot in Germany.

A government official later told the New York Times that McConnell was wrong, and that the intelligence had been collected under the old FISA law which required warrants. A chorus of House Democrats immediately raised concerns about McConnell’s claims.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) demanded McConnell back up his sworn statement. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) said the Protect America Act “played no role in uncovering the recent German terrorist plot.” House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes urge McConnell “to issue a public statement immediately” correcting his remarks.

In a statement released today, McConnell unapologetically acknowledged he lied to the Senate:

During the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on September 10, 2007, I discussed the critical importance to our national security of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the recent amendments to FISA made by the Protect America Act. The Protect America Act was urgently needed by our intelligence professionals to close critical gaps in our capabilities and permit them to more readily follow terrorist threats, such as the plot uncovered in Germany. However, information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act.

Read the statement here. McConnell would be well-advised to officially correct his testimony.

Yep, it's all about Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

But,when I really stop to think about it, "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics", doesn't merely sum up the week's events, it really sums up the entirety of the Bush administration. It's all just been long stretches of lies and damn lies, punctuated with a period of massaged statistics thrown in.

This week's production just highlights the pattern.

This in from Editor and Publisher:

NEW YORK The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago. Now two of the seven are dead.

Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the incident which was reported just as Gen. David Petraeus was about to report to Congress on progress in the "surge." The names have just been released.

Sen. Joseph Biden had raised the message of the Op-Ed in questioning Gen. Petraeus yesterday.

[...] One of the other five authors of the Times piece, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head while the article was being written. He was expected to survive after being flown to a military hospital in the United States.

Oh, and according to General Petraeus, we are making so much surgetastic progress, that by the end of summer 2008, we can be in exactly the same place militarily that we were at the end of summer 2006.

Except for the dead people.

There is a war going on my friends and it's not just the one in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is the war against 'We the People', the common folk, the middle class, and the poor.

Just because it's been happening under the radar doesn't mean it isn't important. For years we have watched as jobs were outsourced to slave labor overseas. For years we have watched as corporations and those in power tried to break up labor unions.

Since Reagan's time they have largely been successful in doing so.

But now, the latest assault is against American truckers and the American people and very few even knew it was coming.

I know I didn't!

But today, my brother called. He is a trucker, and a self-employed businessman, and he was telling me about the new border crossing plan that just took affect last week, and I didn't even know about it!

Last week unbeknownst to most of us, Bush started a program aimed at bringing in cheap truck drivers from Mexico and allowing them free access to roam far and wide across our country. (To be fair to President Bush, the law was actually passed in 2001 as part of NAFTA and he signed it into law.)

But let me tell you, this is a grave and dangerous mistake.

I met this woman at a peace vigil the other night and admired her t-shirt. I read my weekend newspaper stories, and then had time to look at some commentary. It didn't take long to substantiate the message on her t-shirt! I wanted to share this piece by Ted Rall, one of my favorite alternative cartoonists. Consider that this "study" by the Heritage Foundation was dutifully and unquestioningly reported by major news media.

KILL THE POOR
Phony Poverty Study Fools Lazy Journalists

NEW YORK--They're baaack! Once again the Heritage Foundation is mangling statistics to whitewash the ugly facts of life in Republican-run America.

Last time, in 2005, they attacked the image of U.S. soldiers as cannon fodder being exploited for Halliburton. Au contraire, claimed the conservative propaganda mill. American troops, they said were actually "wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average" citizen. Of course, this wasn't true. "Military personnel are poorer and less educated" than the average Joe, I found when I took a closer look. Heritage's soldier study used junk logic and apples-to-oranges statistics to promote the GOP's wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. And it worked.

The lazy men who run the big newspapers and TV networks, deluded into believing there are two sides to every story, dutifully repeated Heritage's lies. They never questioned a word. More soldiers died. The Heritage story made us feel less guilty about it.

Now Heritage is telling us that there are no poor people--very few, anyway, and then only for short periods of time--in the United States. The truth is that capitalism is failing millions of Americans. The less we think about the problem, the less we think it is a problem, the worse it will become.

The pseudoacademic demagogues of the right want us to distrust our own eyes. Panhandlers? "Homeless by choice" urban campers, Ronald Reagan, patron saint of modern Republicanism, called them. Single mothers? He said they were "welfare queens." Americans who live in the sprawling slums of the inner cities, the washed-up Walmarted Main Streets of the farm belt, and the scary barred-window suburbs of California and Georgia and Illinois? They're living large, says the Heritage Foundation in a "study" whose dubious findings have already been reprinted--completely unquestioned, as usual--by hundreds of newspapers read by millions of gullible subscribers.

The Census Bureau says that 36.5 million Americans--one in eight--are poor. But "if poverty means a lack of nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, then very few of the people identified as living 'in poverty' would, in fact, be characterized as poor," says Heritage's Robert Rector. "The typical person defined as 'poor' by the Census has cable or satellite TV, air conditioning, a microwave, a DVD player or VCR, and two color TVs."

No doubt, poor people in a technologically advanced nation like the United States don't live as minimally as those in undeveloped states like Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, on the other hand, a middle-class American homeowner would be spectacularly wealthy. A man worth $500,000 could become a warlord. There are no Afghan billionaires. Poverty is relative.

Even the claim that gadget ownership is incompatible with true poverty doesn't hold up: Rector refers to "a DVD player or VCR." But VCRs are antiquated, a decade out of date. It's like saying that someone who owns "a computer or a typewriter" isn't poor.

"Poor Americans living in houses or apartments, on average, have more living space per person than does the average citizen living in European countries such as England, France and Germany," the Heritage study asserts. There's a footnote--but the source material doesn't include figures for per-capita housing density in Europe. (As far as I can tell, such data doesn't exist.) Even if it's true, though, it's a factoid without a point. Europe, urbanized for the past 2000 years, has an overall higher population density than we do--yet enjoys the world's highest standard of living.

The more you think about Heritage's BS, the worse it gets.

(story continues below)

I've written before about the MSM's failure to communicate the truth to the American people. Often, they do this through omission. The other day, all the "journalists" were reporting on the President's surprise visit to Anbar province... except he wasn't there. He was at the isolated and heavily fortified Al Asad Air Base, known in Iraq military circles as "Camp Cupcake," for its relatively luxurious accommodations... The guy never set foot in the actual streets or anywhere that he may have seen anything not so swell going on, like large scale murder and such...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300333.html

Didn't get a mention in any television news coverage I saw. And that made me angry. But then, a sort of frightening calm followed my anger. And I realized that it will be exactly the myopic, corporate-driven, media spin machine that's going to save America.

Because Americans will create another way to communicate, and the MSM will become, in my lifetime, wholly irrelevant. And that ladies and gentlemen, will mark the beginning of the healing of this great wounded nation.

The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting."” ~Theodore H. White, The Once and Future King

Long before Harry Potter, there was the above-quoted book, which I read out loud to my children. The myth of Arthur, whose true nature is hidden and revealed only through the guidance of his wise teacher, Merlyn, would, I hoped, help their imaginations to take flight, and to look around for those wise guides in the world, magical or not.

I share it with my students as well. Today I share it with you, especially sparrow.

I, too, am sad today. Another favorite of my children, Madeleine L'Engle, has died.

Reading A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and Many Waters to my son was a chance for some mind-opening and far-flung discussions about the nature of reality, physics, religion, and death. We read those books in the first year we lived in this house, with Richard and his daughters, and they became guides to how to ride change.

The guides in the first book are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs Which. Mrs Whatsit is a ditherer, an old lady dressed in eccentric clothes, and she reminded me of my grandmother (the Miami Beach one, not the Brooklyn one!), who was both dither-y and insightful and carried the family wisdom in one of her many straw bags, along with chocolate. Mrs. Whatsit eventually becomes a beautiful centaur, with wings, who carries the child-heroes of the story across the tesseract (the wrinkle in time).

So many lessons: about how true nature is revealed through actions, not dress; how wisdom is often accompanied by comedy (a lesson my son has learned deeply); and how our imaginations can conceive of impossible but beautiful ideas, like re-arrangements of time and space, or goodness in man.

The most powerful element, Meg Murry discovers, the element that overcomes fascism, mindlessness, and arrogance, is love.

In addition to the arrival of my students, and the departure of all our offspring, the activists returned to our nation's capital this week.

Believe me, that giant Preamble will find many opportunities for exposure in the next few weeks.

Later that day, we gathered a few folks to do some message delivery INSIDE Congress:

We met at Rep. Barbara Lee's office in the Rayburn HOB, hoping to deliver her Spine Award from the Backbone Campaign, but, for the umpteenth time, she was off trying to end the war, or something. The sign above is outside her office.

[Photo of Luciano Pavarotti, Budapest Information Services]

Tramontate, stelle. Tramontate, stelle.
All'alba vincerò! Vincero! Vincero!

"Nessun Dorma", from Turandot by Puccini

I am sure there are folks who will be looking for something more political this morning, but I couldn't help but note the passing of the great Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, who died at five o'clock this morning, in his native town of Modena, Italy.

One of the reasons that movies have music in them, is that music has the power to evoke, establish, or even embellish our experience of living.

Each of our lives have some sort of soundtrack or another. Luciano Pavarotti has benn an important part in the soundtrack of mine.

My father and I would listen to opera together when I was growing up, and go to operas together in my adult years. At first, I didn't really like it. The women sounded screechy, and there seemed to be an excessive amount of unnecessary pageantry. I hate pageants, parades and the circus. Always have, always will. But opera was a way to get some coveted "alone time" with my father in a sea of competing children, so I endured.

Then one day I remember hearing Pavarotti. It was Sunday, and I had stayed home from church to keep my Dad company. He quit going to church when the Catholic church started letting the John Birch Society hand out pamphlets on the front steps after Mass. I had no idea who John Birch was, but if my father could get out of going to Mass every Sunday because of it, by God, so could I.

I was lying on my stomach reading something or other, probably an Archie and Veronica comic book, and my Dad was listening to some soprano, screeching her way through some song in a language I didn't understand. Not that it mattered. I had my Dad to myself and everyone else was sitting in cold pews, bored to death, with stomachs growling, because you can't have breakfast before Mass or you can't receive communion. I had my Dad and snacks and books and haha on them.

Dad put on the next record, and the room filled with the rich sound of a man singing. I noticed. I rolled over on my back and listened. And listened. The man singing was Pavarotti, and my love of opera, all kinds, began in earnest.

I was lucky enough to have a chance to hear, Pavarotti, the "King of the high C's", sing in California after the World Cup soccer matches in Pasadena. The Rose Bowl seats 100,000 people, which is a ridiculous venue to hear any sort of music, but I was lucky. My friend was dating Pavorotti's sound man, and that who we got to sit with. Tucked on the floor under the sound table, dressed all in in black and silent as the grave, I could close my eyes on a breezy summer night and float across the sky on that rich and magnificent voice. Even now, I can put on a CD and feel myself dissolve into the music and my spirit is lifted out of my body and beyond.

Pavarotti's voice had diminished greatly by the end of the last century. Such is the fate of aging singers who specialize in the hitting the high notes. But the high notes in Pavarotti's career, for me, will always remain in tact, as they are intertwined the experiences of a lifetime with my loving father, sharing Pavarotti's great gift of music.

With the death of noted mezzo soprano Beverly Sills earlier this summer, and Luciano Pavorotti this morning, the choir in heaven is lush with music.

I hope my Dad has his favorite seat in the front row, balcony, for every performance.

[Photo of Shirley Shor painting "Leaning, 2005", by Gallery Paul Anglim]

Self loathing is an ugly thing. The despair that it can cause in the human heart can wreak havoc on the world around. And this, sadly, is where Senator Larry Craig seems to be.

Last night, in what I can only think of as a sad and desperate act, Senator Craig (R-ID) indicated, through a spokesman and others, that he wanted to perhaps, rethink, his position on his resignation.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight _ and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

Someone should tell him that the Republican leadership doesn't do takesies backsies, and that public life doesn't provide for do overs. Especially not when the news of your decision comes, not just from your spokesperson, but from the fact that you left a message, on stranger's phone machine, thinking it was your high-priced Washington lawyer's phone machine.

Clearly, stress is having an effect on Craig's judgement, and the pressure he is feeling is evident in his voice. The level of tension and his desperation to hold on to the fiction he has created for himself is tragic.

But the tragedy is compounded when one thinks of the effects of Craig's many votes during his 27-year Senate Career on GLTB issues.

I can only speculate that what is in Craig's mind, which is that he does not see himself as gay. He sees himself as having deviant urges that must, somehow, be suppressed, both in himself, and others. And when that twisted thinking is applied to his voting in the Senate, he turns the tragedy on everyone else.

How does this tragedy manifest itself on a daily basis? Here's one small example: Larry Craig married a woman with three small children. He subsequently adopted those children. To all observers, he has been a steadfast and loving parent to them. So much so, in fact, that one of them appeared on Good Morning America this morning to give public statements of support from himself and his two siblings. But that parental relationship never would have happened in a Larry Craig legislated world, because he opposed gay and lesbian adoption. And as a result, those children likely would have been deprived of the parent/child relationship that quite obviously developed to the benefit of all.

That is the tragedy of the closeted life expanded into a legislative life.

It's a hard lesson to learn, but maybe now Craig will understand that the legislature, be it state or federal, has no place in the bedrooms of consenting adults. And should this public fiasco result in him remaining in the Senate, one would hope that he would bring some newfound compassion for the persecution that homosexuals endure in our society, and reevaluate his Senate votes on these issues.

Of course, I won't be holding my breath, but I can always hold out hope that people will learn from their own personal tragedies.

Craig would say he supports freedom, but what freedom is there in constantly feeling as though you have to hide a most basic part of your self?

[Editor's Note: Link to Talking Points Memos Story added after initial posting of this story. Further note: changes made to correct grammatical and spelling error, incorrect links, and other coffee deprived errors. Apologies for the confusationess. ]

Do you ever wonder why the antiwar movement has been so unsuccessful in bringing the war in Iraq to an end? Is there something missing? Is there some fundamental problem with the organizations that are supposed to be providing leadership? Or does spending time with antiwar organizers blind one to the reality that far too many of our fellow citizens continue to believe that Iraq is a noble cause?

These questions came to mind as I read through a Sunday Washington Post story by a reporter who accompanied Republican Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson on a three-day August recess trip through Georgia.

Here's the sentence that stabbed me in the heart:

"In three days on the road, not one Georgia resident urged Isakson to go back to Washington and end the war."

Let me repeat this sentence:

"In three days on the road, not one Georgia resident urged Isakson to go back to Washington and end the war."

How is it possible that ANY member of Congress could have gone home for this August recess, and not heard a single person ask him or her to go back to Washington and end the war? As Howard Dean so memorably demonstrated with his 50-state plan, it's a terrible mistake to turn your back on states just because you know you can't win there this time around.

I was going to write about Labor Day or perhaps police preparations for APEC in Sydney, when I received these photos and story. Even though I suspect we might have some political disagreements, this is a Mom's hummer, and belongs to Carla Comfort, who loved and misses her son.

(story and more photos below the fold)

The Iraq War is a failure. The War on Terra is a failure. The War on Drugs is a failure. The projected Neocon Jihad on America is a failure. This President, and his entire administration are failures.

And so I have to ask myself...

I approached the tower guard site, between 14th and 15th Sts. NW at Constitution (so ironic for the main thoroughfare from the White House to Congress, no?) from the southeast.

Coming closer, I could see that the setup was brilliant, set against the Washington Monument, or the Dept. of Commerce, the White House, or the Smithsonian Museum of American History, it is a small reminder that, in the midst of business-as-usual and self-congratulatory quotidian activities, greater concerns are at hand.