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The Image
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?
Karen
Great thread! I am one who believes that all art is political, in that nonpolitical art is making a statement that the person has other priorities than to be overtly political. I also think that any piece of art is a "conversation" between the creater and the experiencer, just as our dialogues on this blog might be. Each has their baggage and each projects, but the art piece is the place where they intersect. Part of the beauty of subjectivity is that no one sees quite the same thing, nor is it probably possible to know exactly what the artist was intending (which may have been evolving).
Political art may exist along a spectrum, with some being coldly manipulative (such as government propaganda illustrations) to that which is a spontaneous outpouring of a deep feeling. I would imagine it could exist anywhere on the political spectrum, from left to right (although some of it might feel very creepy to someone from another part of the spectrum). The Nazis were known for promoting only literalist art. Bush has mostly Western art on his website, with the exception of the Sun King carpet in the Oval Office.
I started out in art, then changed to clinical practice, then to science, back to clinical practice, then back to art. I guess I'm a flip flopper, blowin' in the wind. I prefer to think of it as eclectic. My camera just came back from Sony in Laredo and a friend said that without it, I reminded her of a child without her favorite stuffed animal. We walked during the "magic hour" past a rose that had a Victorian post in incredible colors next to it and I had to just make it a memory. That's what she witnessed. Kayakbiker was very sympathetic, as he said he didn't know what he'd do in such a situation!
I think art by both the creator and the witness is personal and one's acceptance of it is personal as well.
For instance, few years ago, songs about peace against the war would not have gotten much airtime on the radio. Now you can hear more of it.
Or another example of personal meaning in art comes with the art from WWII. A while ago, at my mom's temple, I saw photos, art, and newspaper articles about the camps. Those displays have special meaning to Jews. And even though you can see some incredible art work at the Holocaust museum, you don't see churches renting the Holocaust exhibits. (Of course, I could be wrong about that. It's not like I've visited every church to know for a hundred percent fact that they don't.)
What seems to make a difference is when the art is able to withstand the authoritative figure and speak to the masses. Shostakovitch is one example of a dissenter jailed for many years in Russia while his music held a foothold in many Russians' hearts.
Or if you look in our own culture at the art of quilting and how the diagrams in it was used as part of the underground railroad to help bring slaves north. Hidden messages on each quilt. Really amazing stuff.
I remember when I home-schooled my daughters, we did a whole unit on art and the underground revolution. Technically we also studied political art because it wasn't always hidden messages in artwork or in cartoons. Our cartoons today from Doonesbury or Bob Geiger will show future generations that there were people fighting this evil regime in their art.
Just think...5 years ago, artwork criticizing the war and the president was rare. But now, people are allowing themselves to intentionally view more of it.
The artist is the antenna of the race.
Ezra Pound
I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso.
::: Diego Rivera :::
The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.
::: Piet Mondrian :::
The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.
::: Banksy :::
The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
::: Bono :::
You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.
::: Renoir :::
I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.
::: Mark Rothko :::
Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.
::: Damien Hirst :::
Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.
::: Rumi :::
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
::: Michelangelo :::
Believe it or not, I can actually draw.
::: Jean Michel Basquiat :::
O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.
::: Jim Morrison :::
Who hired a quote curator?
Man, thats a handy person to have when you think about it.
Me too, great threader. And me, too. I believe all art is political.
For the last few days I have been really thinking through symbolisim in art, things that somehow became universal.
For example, a dove, or lamb represents peace. A lion = God. A black cat, evil, or the supernatural.
What amazes me though is how art can jump cultures and show history to be the political fraud it truly is.
For example, lotus flowers found carved into the Myan and Incan temples. Now, how on earth did that happen?
Or the Da Vinci Code Templar Chapel, Rosslyn Chapel I think.
The carved pillar that looks like it was carved by someone insane, has corn on it. Again...how did that happen?
BTW, speaking of art..
Ally, darlin.
Please pick an accent color for your green and blue, because until you do I am simply in my shop banging away, rearranging endlessly.
You should see it though! OMFG so cool. I figured out corner molding is a good canvas shelf and I have never seen so many of my own works displayed in one room at the same time! VERY EXCITING!
I hung up all my frames and stood up all my canvases and all the sudden, it looks just like a real art shop. Almost exactly like that little one that lived in my head all my life, but I never dared dream would be real.
The only thing different between the dream and the real thing now is I have to sink some windows into the back wall for natural light. Other than that... I AM IN LOVE!
If you dont pick an accent color soon, I will just have to paint an 8 ft mural to keep myself busy.
Needed immediately - some graphic, easily-processed way of warning the American public that the US is planning to strike Iran some time after the primary candidates are decided but before the 2008 election. It's leaking and being reported both on the left (Guardian) and the right (NewsMax). It's spearheaded by Dick Cheney.
Analysts: US Strikes on Iran Predicted Over Nuclear Fears
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091507Z.shtml
The Guardian UK's Julian Borger and Ian Black published a "special report" Saturday warning that "the growing US focus on confronting Iran in a proxy war inside Iraq risks triggering a direct conflict in the next few months."
This summer while in Boston, I visited the New England Holocaust Memorial, just adjacent to Fanuel Hall/Quincy Market in front of the historic Union Oyster House. It is a free, on the street, memorial.
This is an immensly moving piece of political art, although I hate to use the term political here, as that word smacks of cynicism to me lately.
Anyway - 6 hollow glass rectangular towers representing six different concentration camps, each maybe 50 feet tall, each etched with one million numbers - prisoner numbers. As you walk through the towers, there are etched quotes from survivors that you read, while you stand on metal grates with steam rising around you, symbolizing the gas chambers.
I was so moved. Go and see it if you are anywhere nearby. It is worth the visit.
http://www.nehm.org/
Here at the conference, we are talking about the empowerment of dancers, particularly, how to talk about embodiment of ideas, kinesthetic empathy, and other aspects of democratic discourse.
Just from your description I would like to see that memorial Carol. That does sound very... interactive/interesting/visual... as art should be.
It is amazing what can not be expressed with words, through art, and dance, or even ritual, like Japanese perfecting the 'art' of pouring a cup of tea. I think God gave us things like art and dance, simply because there are not enough words.
It is amazing what can not be expressed with words, through art, and dance, or even ritual, like Japanese perfecting the 'art' of pouring a cup of tea. I think God gave us things like art and dance, simply because there are not enough words.
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 12:09 PM
Beautifully stated and I will share it here!
I posted this at another website after listening to more of the Senate hearings with Patraeus and Crocker (a special thanks goes to Senator Evan Bayh who pointed out the complete lack of a long term American policy for Iraq and the region):
Lazy Bu$h leaves Iraq to General, Congress should act
Bush doesn't give a damn about what is going on in Iraq - he is going to leave at least 130,000 troops in Iraq until he leaves office in 2009 and want to dump the Iraq mess on to the next president.
It is time for the Congress to take over the Iraq disaster: Bush has no idea what to do and doesn't care. Bush has no new strategy, no new diplomatic efforts, no pressure on the Iraqi government, no regional talks with Turkey, Syria, Jordan, or Iran as recommended by the Iraq Study Group. Bush will just throw troops at the problem - WHICH IS A CRIME - A WAR CRIME... Congress is going to have to step in and come up with a short-term and long term policy that might have a change of succeeding or, at least, minimizing the impending disaster.
Let Bush go on vacation in Crawford - he will do less damage there...
Uploaded another You tube video:
War for Oil and Empire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHpeE5iWfUA
Posted by: Carol at September 15, 2007 11:33 AM
I'm sorry I missed it. (Or didn't notice it.) I'm not sure if it was Faneuil Hall I went to.
Here in my state, they have a Holocaust museum that I've driven by and somewhat avoided due to frankly wanting to avoid the issue. From the main road, the exterior looks like a concentration camp with the high towers and a wired looking fence in it's steel architecture.
Last time I drove by it, I was finally willing to go in.
They were closed. I guess I'll have to get up my nerve another time.
What Global Warming Looks Like
New Report Visualizes Impact of Sea Level Rise on U.S. Coastal Cities
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/TenWays/story?id=3602227&page=1
But these bastards will not let the military might of this empire collapse without doing everything in their power to stop the hemmorage, they do not care if it means our kids die. Our kids are already expendable to them.
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 07:42 AM
Its called colatoral damage remember, only it is never any of their children that are the colatoral damage.
Posted by: not my president at September 15, 2007 09:07 AM
Oh, my gosh, nmp. I was just going to lurk and be real quiet, but that is one of the funniest posts I have ever read. (Re: Gingrich and Kumbaya) (ROFLOL!!!!)
They have been planning and preparing for it all along.
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 07:48 AM
Georgie will bring it in right at the end of his term, he doesn't give a shit about anything or anyone, not even the GOP party, never has given a shit for anyone but himself, from the time he was born.
War profits all taste the same no matter which side of the table you are being served on.
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 08:08 AM
The powers they are giving Georgie, they want for themselves, easier to give them to Georgie now, on his watch, than have to fight for them at a later date and have the citiaens up in arms as they are now. Actually the dumb ass is playing right into their hands, they are amassing lots
of power, for when they get the Presendency, the Senate and the House, they will have no one to stop them.
After all Georgie will have laid the GOP to rest, they will no be able to do a thing the democrats will have a large majority, I am thinking
Wow. I never thought I would say it, but how can we be living in the days where Newt Freaking Gingritch looks sane?
Gingrich: Republicans need "clean break" from Bush
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 08:29 AM
Hahahaha I was thinking the same thing myself as I was reading that little titbit
Sparrow,
I remember when I was in high school our history teacher brought in films showing what the Holocaust was all about, and showing the victims and explaining and showing what they did to people.
I remember thinking then when I was so young that that was "along time ago" when it had only been twenty something years ago at that time.
I thought at that time that surely the worst we would ever face in our future was the Communists and the Cold War, and that since the U.S. had helped conquer those responsible for the holocaust in WWII, no one would EVER be evil enough to treat people like that again.
I am once again feeling very anxious for my children.
Cone http://cone.gq.nu
Do you realize art alone could completely cure the economic ills of every country?
Let's invent a country shall we, that is art crazy. I mean loony. Willing to spend money on it like it was nothing. All art, all forms of art or cultural expression. All mediums, pro and hobby artisians.
In the same basic sense we already give grants, give the grants to artists/ musicians /dancers/ entertainers, on the condition they provide a set number of top quality product that they then return to our national treasury.
A few things would happen simultainiously and the change would happen fast and be totally obvious.
For 1, all the sudden, you have a whole society of people willing to express their talents. Those people will start consuming raw materials and need regular services to keep producing.
It would create support industries, and literally manufacturing jobs as well, as artists that want to can produce on a large scale..
The government would begn to amass a huge and very valuble art collection, unrivaled in either size or value. The history of our countries people would be right there, like visual history books.
The government of this country could then make art a international trade, artists do not just produce art, they almost always become consumers of it as well, if they can afford it, which thanks to government grants helping support such efforts they can afford it.
In return, that would then put a whole lot of other artists all around the world into business as well. And when they do start making money they too will become consumers who need a support industry.
People who have nothing in life, will always find a way to turn nothing into something beautiful and valuable. Imagine if you gave them proper brushes, or even proper scissors.
Art has been a global craze for all time. I am surprised governments have never understood its economic or socio-political impact before. After all, it is an endless and cheap resource for them that is always there as long as people are allowed to create art.
Rossi I swear everytime I see Newts face, I just chuckle a little inside.
I like the idea NMP had. HAHAHA! That was pretty damn funny. If there is any justice left he will face a rainbow laden gauntlet on his way to the devil.
Remember the live nukes heading out over America from Minot?
Look how many are showing up dead from Minot.
Source: http://cryptogon.com/?p=1299
B52 Nuke: Minot Air Force Base Airman DEAD ...
Minot Air Force Base Airman Died While on Leave.
September 14th, 2007
Airman 1st Class Todd Blue was assigned to the unit that provides security for that bomber wing at Minot Air Force base. He died while on leave in Virginia. No further details have been released.
Read more: http://www.kxmc.com/News/161562.asp
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=726_1189529465
NWO 'BENT SPEAR' UPDATE: Body of missing Air Force captain found in Washington
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The body of a missing Air Force captain from Florida has been recovered in Skamania County, Washington.
Skamania County undersheriff Dave Cox says Captain John Frueh's rental car was found yesterday near Badger Peak and his body was discovered not far from the vehicle.
Cox says foul play is not suspected. The 33-year-old captain arrived in Portland late last month to attend a friend's wedding. He last spoke with family on August 30th.
Minot airman dies while on leave
MINOT, N.D. — Minot Air Force Base officials say an airman from the base has died while on leave in Virginia.
A statement from the base says Airman 1st Class Todd Blue, 20, died Monday while visiting with family members in Wytheville, Va. The statement did not say how he died but said the incident is under investigation.
The base says Blue was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron. He enlisted in the Air Force in March 2006 and was assigned to the Minot base the following August.
“He constantly stepped up to help out his fellow airmen and was a vital presence in squadron sports and volunteer programs,” Lt. Col. John Worley, the 5th Security Forces Squadron commander, said in the base statement.
Minot, N.D. (AP) Authorities have identified a Minot Air Force Base man killed in a crash on the outskirts of Minot...
Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night.
Barrs was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver is identified as 20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett.
He was taken to Minot's Trinity Hospital in critical condition
http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=140988
Minot Airman dies in motorcycle accident
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 23rd Bomb Squadron
MINOT (AP) - A Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tennessee, the base says.
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said.
Kissel, a native of Tennessee, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004, and arrived at the Minot base in July last year, the base said.
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/07/20/news...
www.minot.af.mil >
..Coincidence?
I just got done watching a documentary that I think should be required in every classroom across the globe!
It was called, "White Light, Black Rain; the Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki".
It should also be watched by pResident Cheney and v-pResident Bush. Seriously, it showed the aftermath of those bombs. It showed the devastation to the humans and to the environment. People were begging to be killed as they lay in hospital rooms getting treatment after the bomb. And they were the 'lucky' ones.
Those that lay dead and skeletal on the ground were the luckiest. They had no burns. No cancers. No disfiguring scars. and No pain. They showed corpses with burned off skin and the clothes were all burned off.
One witness said that he was far enough away to 'see it safely' and that it wasn't a 'mushroom cloud' but of smoke, but it was FIRE.
Another group called the Hiroshima Maidens who lived with disfiguring scars and spent a year in our country in the 50's, proclaimed their difficulties to be "worth it. If it has stopped anyone else from ever using an atom bomb."
Another person stated that the people who want to "drop a bomb on Iraq just don't know anything!"
And another person showed us the Japanese constitution that was created by the "occupying government". It said, "No Navy. No Army. No production of weapons."
Sh** sounds like we need the same constitution, doesn't it?! (We are the world's new aggressor.)
That is four different airmen on leave. Did they see or witness something?
I am afraid either way I will lose my son. If they do draft, I will have no choice but to beg Rossi to put him up for a while and pay coyotes to take him across the southern border.
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 06:45 AM
Whats another one more or less, all my other kids from around the world love our country, fabulous experience for youngsters to get to know about other countries, experience other cultures. Just what Jahere in Karens video was talking about, I think this new generation of youngsters are travellers, I really find it amazing how travelled they are, and I think this will work against Georgie and his likes in the end. Seems to be working against Georgie and the GOP now with the youngsters of America, judging from the polling.
By the way one of my Muslim students has 65 brothers and cousins just on his fathers side of the family, multiple marriages, Can you imagine that, maybe I should have explained that little bit of information to your idiot president, I sat there thinking when we where talking about his culture of killing a calf and putting it on the front gate, for his just married sister and their guests to walk under to the wedding breakfast, just another 65 youngsters from one family to fight us over there, so we don't have to fight them over here.
By the way their govt the Dubai Royals pay for everthing for their students to travel and study, I mean everything, if they want a computor they get a computor the best, the get paid an allowance for the month, their fees are paid, all they have to do is get if I remember rightly 95% for their leaving exams.
OMG NMP.
Were all these deaths since that day?
No way in hell they had 5 live warheads on that plane by accident. It can't happen.
Mistakes like that do not happen here because they CAN'T happen.
Holy crap, how many dead people is in that one post? 5...Did all that happen in the last week or so?
Oh. Man.
Christy
Yeah - we're wondering about this here in Seattle, eastern OR & MN. It seems like alot of Minot airmen to have gotten killed on leave since the mistake with the live nukes. Just wondering.
That is four different airmen on leave. Did they see or witness something?
Posted by: not my president at September 15, 2007 03:37 PM
The truely sad thing is that you can't believe anything that comes out of this administration today.
Four in how long, this just happened in the last couple of weeks did'nt it.
Operation Millenium Dragon
The unit's logo is a winged skull and below it "Guardians of the Upper Realm."
Look at the LiveLeak site in what I posted and there is more.
Check out the AFB site for clues.
Mystery involving nukes. Not normal.
Ok some of the stuff is showing up first at New World Order paranoia conspiracy sites.
Even so, I think about 30% of Americans trust everything the government does, 30% are highly suspicious and then there are the bunch in the middle that don't pay much attention til it's on their doorstep.
We KNOW the government is holding all sorts of war games out in the ocean, up in the sky, under the water (killing our dolphins and whales with sonar) and on the earth in the name of "protecting our interests" (resources that we want to get our hands on) and "winning the war against terror" (the exercises are quite irrelevant to how one might go about doing this).
War games with sinister sounding names involving Dragons and Eagles can be found right on government websites or even on the news. It's like something out of World of Warcraft or heavy metal or the Nazi era.
Protest in DC
http://www.comcast.net/news/national/index.jsp?cat=DOMESTIC&fn=/2007/09/15/764249.html&cvqh=itn_protesters
Video of missing airman from 3 days ago
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=726_1189529465
(the one who was found dead in the wild following an uncharacteristic disappearance, acc/his family)
what worriers worry about - false flag operations as pretext for war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag
Pentagon: Use Of Petraeus Image In Political Ads Done "Without His Consent"
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/09/pentagon_raps_use_of_petraeus_in_political_ads.php
There going after Move On
Rossian
Hasn't he reached iconic status yet where he's in the public domain? I don't watch television and actually don't think I would recognize him in someone's living room.
O. M. G.
Sorry if this is old news, but this just cracks me up! the hypocracy of these people is just ..... I just have to laugh. :0)
"Secretary of State, who keeps private life shrouded, co-owns home with female filmmaker '
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Secretary_of_State_who_keeps_private_0914.html
Iraqi Lawmakers: US Should Stop Passing Blame
Reuters September 15, 2007 02:27 PM
Iraqi lawmakers said on Saturday that Washington should take responsibility for the turmoil in Iraq and stop blaming Baghdad, Iran and Syria.
Frustrated by criticism from the United States over their slow progress towards political goals meant to foster national reconciliation, Iraqi leaders said Washington would be better served by examining its own progress in the unpopular war.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070915/ts_nm/iraq_dc
Now that is the truth, after all it was Georgies Shock and Awe, his preemtive war into a Sovereign Nation that has bought about all this chaos, the buck stops with Georgie and His Neocon Thugs.
"Secretary of State, who keeps private life shrouded, co-owns home with female filmmaker '
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Secretary_of_State_who_keeps_private_0914.html
Posted by: Carol at September 15, 2007 05:20 PM
BEAUTIFUL ISN'T IT.
Gates Breaks With Bush, Says He Wants Sharper Troop Cuts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/15/gates-breaks-with-bush-s_n_64542.html
It's, always bring them out just before the Presedential Election in 2008, hopefully they will be to far down with the American public, to ever be able to pick up any momentum.
Get This, at least Gonzo ate well,
An internal Justice audit, released Friday, showed the department spent nearly $7 million to plan, host or send employees to 10 conferences over the last two years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070915/justice-pricey-snacks/
That is 7 million!!!!!!
The audit by the Justice Department's inspector general can be found at: . http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/plus/a0742/final
Rossian
He brought an entourage of over 600 people when he came to Australia.
Carol, Rossian
Click on my name (illustrated Condi)
Also I have a friend who was her neighbor when she was Provost at Stanford. Double life.
Rossian
He brought an entourage of over 600 people when he came to Australia.
Posted by: nmp at September 15, 2007 06:07 PM
But this is Gonzo Dept, isn't it, not Georgies little escapade here Down Under, it is employer conferences.
Yeah it's just typical bureaucratic waste. The military-industrial-congressional-etc-complex is a gigantic welfare system that we all pay for. Who are the real "welfare queens?!"
Greenspan says GOP Deserved to Lose
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/09/greenspan_says_gop_deserved_to.html
That's the former chief of the Federal Reserve for you Australians. In his upcoming book he predicts the peak of cheap labor possible under globalization and that we can only make it with double digit interest rates and a period of inflation. Reagan revisited. Greenspan is a Libertarian Republican so not down with these "big spenders." He also predicts catastrophe as "baby boomers" retire en masse & provisions haven't been made for sufficient Medicare and Social Security. The man is 81 years old.
nmp,
Posted by: nmp at September 15, 2007 06:29 PM
All I have to say to that is that NOW is a HELL of a time for him to tell us.
TSP
Really! Too little too late from most of them!
GOP Sen. Hagel: Republican Party hijacked by incompetence
He's getting out while the getting is good. he sees the writing on the wall in big letters.
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Sen_Chuck_Hagel_Republicans_are_NOT_0915.html
Posted by: not my president at September 15, 2007 05:10 PM
He has a very clean cut image, that's why they are using him. He looks like your boy next door.
Haven't you noticed they are getting rid of all the OLD images for the new election cycle. Rummy, Rove, Gonzo, Snow is out now because of his cancer I think - is being replaced by a woman.
Posted by: nmp at September 15, 2007 06:43 PM
Yeah, and you know, I just don't think that dude knew what he was doing when he did it all those years, do you? Unbelievable.
Greenspan? The market is so manipulated. The same people end up making money no matter what happens to the economy. They hedge their bets & rely on insiders. Dick Cheney will never starve.
Center for Public Integrity used to have a feature where it was possible to find out that Dick Cheney pays nary a cent in taxes.
Posted by: Christy at September 15, 2007 03:26 PM
The happiest people I have ever met in my life were the poorest financially. When we get too rich and too fat we get really neurotic and our conscience becomes jaded. Not that I mind money.
nmp,
I was, of course, being sarcastic. Not for one minute do I believe he didn't know what he was doing. I just wonder why he is trying to cover his bottom now? Does somebody know something we don't?
tsp
Here I read the Gingrich thing - not sure if it's same posted earlier
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402338_2.html
It amazes me that seasoned people like he and Greenspan are being so candid, except that they want to distance their own selves from Bush, as they're advising others to do. They have legacies to worry about too, and as Gingrich says, even Republicans realize that how Hurricane Katrina was handled is nothing to be proud of.
When I had more money I didn't realize it and just spent it - I bought a piano, a laptop, a Swatch watch - didn't think twice. I was in private practice.
Now? We hardly eat out, wear the same clothes alot, try to double up on trips so as not to use gas (or bike or walk), spend alot more time at home.
We don't really feel poorer, as we didn't even appreciate it before. I think it's the same for people who learn to live on credit. It's a trap. It doesn't seem like real money - because it isn't. Everything is going to cost more because of the interest.
Think of the very wealthy. They have a wealthy peer group and constantly have to keep up with them, especially those nouveau riche celebrities with no class.
Money is so relative. I felt that way when I've been in Vegas and watched people win and lose. Or when stocks go up or home equity is up & you're not selling - the money is all on paper if it's not in your hand.
There aren't many sure bets and there is no way to guarantee good health or that you won't be in an accident of some kind, or involved in some random violence or act of nature.
I saw on an email list that some people my age were converting their vast record libraries on all the formats from over the years (cassette, vinyl, 8 track, whatever) to digital and wondered when they would get the time and would they really listen to all those old songs from the past?
That's one reason I like the Buddhistic idea of transcience. We see it in nature all the time, the cycles. I have to kind of laugh when I hear about life extension through trying to freeze the body and all that.
A Jewish friend told me that they have it too - celebration of transcience amidst plenty. It's going on around this time of year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot
FactChecking Bush's Speech - this is great
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14428711
Can you tell I'm supposed to be cleaning my house?
Christian,
If you're still reading...
I just watched "Alive Day: 10 Memoirs of Iraq Soldiers" and I think you and your friends should watch it.
Have your mom find the youtube clips (or you find them) from the Walter Reed news stories (that our soldiers were coming home to vile conditions at the Walter Reed Hospital) and watch that with them.
"Diplomacy is the best first-strike tool in our arsenal; in today's complicated global system, the United States should be making more friends than enemies."
General Wesley Clark
I saw him in Tacoma and Boston in 2004, in Vegas in 2006 and in Chicago this summer. He is wise and intelligent, pro-science and keeps his looks as he ages!!
WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands of protesters marched Saturday from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war, leading to the arrests of at least 150 people.
Many of the protesters were arrested without a struggle after they jumped over a barricade near the base of the Capitol. But some grew angry as police attempted to push them back using large black shields and a chemical spray. Protesters responded by throwing signs and chanting: “Shame on you.”
Before arriving at the Capitol lawn, the demonstrators marched on Pennsylvania Avenue holding banners and signs and saying, “What do we want? Troops out. When do we want it? Now.”
Counterprotesters lined the sidewalks behind metal barricades. There were some heated shouting matches between the two sides.
At the Capitol lawn, some protesters lay down with signs on top of their bodies to represent soldiers killed in Iraq.
Capitol police said between 100 and 150 people were arrested on charges of crossing a police line. No arrests were reported at another demonstration at the White House.
Sheehan makes appearance
The protesters gathered earlier Saturday near the White House in Lafayette Park with signs saying “End the war now” and calling for President Bush’s impeachment. The rally was organized by the ANSWER Coalition and other groups.
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan told the crowd is was time to be assertive.
“It’s time to lay our bodies on the line and say we’ve had enough,” she said. “It’s time to shut this city down.”
Army veteran Justin Cliburn, 25, of Lawton, Okla., was among a contingent of Iraq veterans in attendance.
“We’re occupying a people who do not want us there,” Cliburn said of Iraq. “We’re here to show that it isn’t just a bunch of old hippies from the 60s who are against this war.”
Counterprotesters congregate
About 13 blocks away, nearly 1,000 counterprotesters gathered near the Washington Monument, frequently erupting in chants of “U-S-A” and waving American flags.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson, speaking from a stage to crowds clad in camouflage, American flag bandanas and Harley Davidson jackets, said he wanted to send three messages.
“Congress, quit playing games with our troops. Terrorists, we will find you and kill you,” he said. “And to our troops, we’re here for you, and we support you.”
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., made a surprise visit to the counterprotest, which was organized by Gathering of Eagles, a nationwide nonpartisan organization founded this year by Vietnam war veterans.
“We’re a people of faith, courage and fidelity,” said Hunter, a 2008 presidential candidate. “It’s for this generation that we will win this war on terror.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20788877/
Speaking of Wesley Clark, he is endorsing Hillary Clinton, though characterized as "the darling of the antiwar blogosphere." On my website I have sandwiched him in between Madonna and Britney Spears. He is about the same height.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/09/gen_wesley_clar.html
Newt contemplating a run:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170155,00.html
Heidi Fleiss is another Clinton backer but I didn't realize Heidi was a tree hugger. http://www.lvrj.com/news/9255101.html
Wow tv looks pretty good for Sunday breakfast - not sure what I could pick up with my "rabbit ears" - but John Kerry and John McCain will debate about Iraq and Wesley Clark is going to be on and Gates, buncha other fellas. It'll be all about Iraq.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/sundays-breakfast-menu-sept-16/
This relates perfectly to the thread header:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/15/165819/853
Art & Progressive Values
What they think, we did not know.
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil
AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.
However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.
Greenspan, 81, is understood to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the security of oil supplies in the Middle East.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece
Now that is the truth, after all it was Georgies Shock and Awe, his preemtive war into a Sovereign Nation that has bought about all this chaos, the buck stops with Georgie and His Neocon Thugs.
Posted by: rossiann at September 15, 2007 05:21 PM
I think it stops with ALL of us, who allowed it to happen. There were more people all over the world who said NO! We let our autocrats have carte blanche over our children and our cash.
Petreus will be happy with any publicity. After all, he's gearing up for his presidential bid for 2012.
Haven't you noticed they are getting rid of all the OLD images for the new election cycle. Rummy, Rove, Gonzo, Snow is out now because of his cancer I think - is being replaced by a woman.
Posted by: TSP at September 15, 2007 06:48 PM
Well, Gates is still around making me puke!
For Nadia and others like her, George Bush's last throw of the dice is irrelevant.
Victims of the death squads: One family's harrowing story of kidnap and murder in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2966961.ece
Petreus will be happy with any publicity. After all, he's gearing up for his presidential bid for 2012.
Posted by: woz at September 15, 2007 10:22 PM
Not a friking chance now, General Betrayus won't be so easily forgotten, expecially in 5 years
Victims of the death squads: One family's harrowing story of kidnap and murder in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2966961.ece
Posted by: rossiann at September 15, 2007 10:34 PM
I can't get the link to work :(
There are an awful lot of people who slid straight into the slime, rossi. And they believe Betrayus said that we're winning.
I'll say this. Seeing Apocalypse Now in 1978 on the big screen of the Ziegfield Theatre, in Manhattan, scared the living daylights out of me; and if a movie about serving in Vietnam could so terrify a person, I could only imagine what serving there must have been like. It was then and there that I decided that I had an obligation to do what I could to keep American soldiers out of harm's way. And seeing Oliver Stone's "Platoon" and Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" only confirmed that view. Randall Wallace's "We Were Soldiers" (starring Mel Gibson, and Lt. Col. Hal Moore) is more recent vintage, but no less tragic.
Agreed Matthew. I didn't see all of those movies and at my age now, I just can't watch them. My view is that in a war, everyone loses. There is no such thing as a winner in war.
I think it stops with ALL of us, who allowed it to happen.
Posted by: woz at September 15, 2007 10:19 PM
Sorry woz I disagree with the ALL of us, as far as I am concerned it was the bush enablers that are responsible the GOP, the CHURCH some DEMS, HOWIE, BLAIR, CABLE NEWS, the MEDIA, and the 80% of the American public that believed his lies and kissed his ass after 9/11.
I will never take responsibilty for Georgies illegal war and occupation. I knew what that BASTARD was about in 2000, while a lot of the world kept their heads in the sand. It took Katrina to wake a lot of people up to what they actually allowed to be put in the White House.
LYING THUGS.
Chemical spray? On peace activists? Chemical spray? What are the long term effects of being doused with the stuff, I wonder?
Anti-Iraq war protesters march in US
September 16, 2007 - 11:54AM
Tens of thousands of protesters marched from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war, and at least 160 people were arrested when they jumped a barricade at the foot of the Capitol steps.
Many of the protesters were arrested without a struggle after they jumped over the waist-high barricade.
But some grew angry as police attempted to push them back using large shields.
At least two people were showered with chemical spray and protesters responded by throwing signs and chanting "shame on you".
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/AntiIraq-war-protesters-march-in-US/2007/09/16/1189881320604.html
Try again woz, I had trouble getting it to, even had to go in and google it a couple of times
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2966961.ece
Another link to it
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m36304&hd=&size=1&l=e
at my age now, I just can't watch them. My view is that in a war, everyone loses. There is no such thing as a winner in war.
Posted by: woz at September 15, 2007 10:47 PM
Same here, have watched most of them, but I just can't watch them now.
Yikes! The stuff of horror movies!
'Dead' man wakes during autopsy
September 16, 2007 - 7:24AM
A Venezuelan man who had been declared dead woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain after medical examiners began their autopsy.
Carlos Camejo, 33, was declared dead after a highway accident and taken to the morgue, where examiners began an autopsy only to realise something was amiss when he started bleeding. They quickly started to stitch up the incision on his face.
"I woke up because the pain was unbearable," Camejo said, according to a report in leading local newspaper El Universal.
His grieving wife turned up at the morgue to identify her husband's body, only to find him moved into a corridor - and alive.
© 2007 AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Dead-man-wakes-during-autopsy/2007/09/16/1189881315555.html
Chemical spray? On peace activists? Chemical spray? What are the long term effects of being doused with the stuff, I wonder?
Anti-Iraq war protesters march in US
Organisers estimated that more than 100,000 people attended the rally.
See now those numbers stun me, we are talking about 100000 people out of a population of 300 million. Who thought this illegal war and occupation worth protesting.
Rossiann
Organizers usually overestimate and police usually underestimate but even the most conservative sources were saying "thousands" early in the day. The trend in the media is toward downplaying the numbers & they also try to play up the counterprotesters and cover it in a 50:50 "fair and balanced" manner, even though everyone with a brain knows that pro-war people NEVER question authority.
When Bush came, there were about 1000 protesters and maybe 15 supporters outside, but the media gave them equal time with the protesters.
As for chemical spray, if it is pepper spray it is capsicum. It's wicked painful in the eyes but not as harmful as other chemicals they can use. Some cops use it when they barbecue meat, especially in the South. That's Yankee ingenuity at its finest.
I'm having fun watching new YouTube videos pop up for the DC rally and the Paris techno parade. Both were held today. The videos made via cellphone have horrible fidelity but make up for what they lack in street cred, I guess.
Rossiann
Those 100,000 people are bussed from all over the country. There were protests other places, San Francisco maybe. The biggest protest here in Seattle was on 9/11. There was a death march for all we've lost since 9/11 (like services, infrastructure, rights, as well as life and stature).
Daniel Ellsberg spoke at the event in Berkeley and SF did the Impeach on the Beach action again.
http://www.beachimpeach.org/
Acc/DailyKos & IndyMedia, Mpls had an event at the site where the 2008 Republican National Convention will be held. I'm sure Kayakbiker will cover it and put that up on our website with what I have so far.
I wish we had a mass movement again like during Vietnam, when the people closed down the freeways and stopped the University, blew all the windows out of the library. It was intense.
Memory lane, Vietnam era
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9eNgcCTI7c
Me too, nmp. I'll never forget the Vietnam moratorium march in Melbourne. All over Australia too, those marches stopped whole cities. But then, we had the population with us. The baby boomers. There were more in that age group than has ever been since.
rossi, what organisation do you do the student billeting through?
Woz
The peace rallies here are still more heavily represented by the baby boomers than by any other age group. There are more and more young kids (cannon fodder) but the Reagan-born "me generation" are scarce.
great youtube nmp. The best song to come from that era was Alice's Restaurant! Wow! Did that depict the whole sordid affair. Even though there were some great songs during the era - that one really put the hierarchy into their place.
Yes - same here I guess. I look around at protests for peace and for the environment and most are in my age group.
I thought American's disapprove of stem cell research. We're about to lose one of our best researchers to America.
Stem cell pioneer joins science exodus
Peter Weekes
September 16, 2007
AUSTRALIA has lost another of its leading scientists, with the appointment of stem cell and IVF pioneer Alan Trounson to a position in the US.
Professor Trounson, 61, who helped derive some of the earliest human embryonic stem cell colonies in the late-1990s, is widely regarded as the country's top stem cell scientist.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/top-scientist-lured-to-us/2007/09/15/1189277050409.html
Yikes! The stuff of horror movies!
Posted by: woz at September 15, 2007 11:00 PM
Well at least someone up there was watching over him, and his wife sure as hell got her husband back.
the stuff of horrow movies! hell yes
I wish we had a mass movement again like during Vietnam, when the people closed down the freeways and stopped the University, blew all the windows out of the library. It was intense.
Memory lane, Vietnam era
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9eNgcCTI7c
Posted by: not my president at September 15, 2007 11:29 PM
To bad the people are not prepared to do it today, that is what I do not understand I guess.
There are a lot of International Colleges here in Brisbane woz, I started taking students after I had recuperated from the cancer, took me nearly five years to get back on my feet, after two long surgeries and chemo, but then I had to much time on my hand, someone told me to give it a go.
I thought I don't know if I would like that, but I have had a ball with it, One college keeps me more that booked out, though I keep a room available for any student that comes from other homes in emergencies, that happens a bit.
Yes, that's one thing. I think I need to think carefully as I'm still in and out of hospital - 3 long stretches this year and day visits every month. Also, I no longer have a car and don't drive. It's a great city here though - little and countryish. And I'm close enough to walk to the heart of the city. It seems like a good idea - when I'm not sick.
I have been doing it for about 4 years now and I do really enjoy it, the youngsters are a dream, I have never had one bit of trouble with any that I have had, and it would certainly number into the hundreds by now.
I also think that it depends on how you treat them, if they are made welcome and they feel comfortable, and definitely that you feed them well, that is a must.
I listen to them talk about what their friends say, and I know all homes are not the same, which is very sad for the students.
It is a very big risk to leave you children into someone elses care, but then I generally am in touch with their parents via the net or the video cam. Simply amazing what a cam can do, I meet most of their parents, and have had quite a few parents stay with me when they come over to holiday with their kids, and it is great my swiss parents, send me great big blocks of swiss cheese which I love, not into the chocolates much but then I give them to my mother or my sister in law.
Yes, it sounds like a good idea. I know that I'd enjoy it too. But not right now. Health is the pits - still.
I often wonder how they get though customs, but they always do.
I am sorry about that, hope you will be on the mend soon.
This is my site, I have lots of my students up there
http://rossiannsretreat.blogspot.com/
And this is mine and Christys site, if the darn girl ever comes back and posts.
http://www.rebellenation.blogspot.com/
Unfrikingbelievable
The Spoils of War: Billions Over Baghdad
...Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in US currency - much of it belonging to the Iraqi people - was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled....
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710
Great Pic March on Washington
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1816417
I will be back to posting one day Rossi. When I can do so without being so freaking paraniod it keeps me awake at night.
I am awake now cause I wrecked myself by waking up at 4 am yesterday, by 5 pm I was sound asleep. My mom came and kidnapped my girls and it was so quiet I just slipped right off.
And I am with TSP on Greenspan.
No way in hell he did not 'know'. The first some year and a half after georgie took office, when he was still fed chair, he started going batsh*t insane and doing high risk and unexplained manuvuers. Under Clinton hewas perhaos one of the most discplined fed chairs ever, then georgie comes in and suddenly he pretends he can't add 2+2.
Total bull.
You know why I think he is coming out saying this crap now? War Crimes. He knows he was involved and he knows damn good and well he best try to pretend like he had nothing at all to do with it.
He is trying to get in front of WAR CRIMES charges.
Oh yeah, major problemo.
Sadr has broken with the Iraqi puppets.
It is OVER.
Sadr group withdraws support to Iraq government
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Sadr_group_withdraws_support_to_Ira_09152007.html
Can someone crown that little punk King of Iraq already and just be done with it?
He is trying to get in front of WAR CRIMES charges.
Posted by: Christy at September 16, 2007 03:12 AM
Yes he was diciplined with Clinton, I think he went the other way with Georgie, because I have read that he was supposed to be a lot of the problem for papa Bush losing his second term, don't know how true it is, but he sure as hell did one hell of a turn around.
Can someone crown that little punk King of Iraq already and just be done with it?
Posted by: Christy at September 16, 2007 03:16 AM
Little punk is sure aa hell right, although Layla at Arab Womans Blues calls him a lot worse than that.
William Fisher | Iraq and the Bush "Democracy Agenda"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091407F.shtml
William Fisher writes for Truthout: "Democracy was a word scarcely heard in the just-concluded Congressional testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The principal reason, according to a new report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is that despite sweeping rhetoric about the global spread of democracy, the Bush administration has significantly damaged US democracy promotion efforts and increased the number of close ties with 'friendly tyrants.'"
The principal reason, according to a new report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is that despite sweeping rhetoric about the global spread of democracy, the Bush administration has significantly damaged US democracy promotion efforts and increased the number of close ties with 'friendly tyrants.'"
Posted by: rossiann at September 16, 2007 06:03 AM
This post reminded me of this U Tube video
America God save us from America Peace and Liberty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnlMnf7t4t4
The Squanderer
by The Sunday Simian Solo Ensemble
Oh well I'm the type of guy who likes to double down
Where dead people are are well, you know that I'm around
I kiss em and I love em cause to me they're all so lame
I wink and then I bomb em they can't even stop my game
They call me the The Squanderer yeah The Squanderer
I Rove around around around...
Oh well theres laura on my left and theres dick on my right
And condee is the secretary that I'll be with tonight
And when she asks me which one I love the best
I tear open my shirt and show her Rovie on my chest
cause I'm the The Squanderer yeah The Squanderer
I Rove around around around...
Oh well I Rove from town to town
I go through life without a care
til I'm as dopey as a clown
While I spew fascist lyin' and I'm going nowhere
Well, I'm the type of guy that likes to Rove around
I'm always in one place, I'm loathed from town to town
And when I find myself a-fallin in this world
I hop right into that taxpayer perk, ride around and shovel bull
Yeah I'm the The Squanderer, yeah The Squanderer
I roam around around around...
Oh yeah Im the type of guy that likes to Rove around
I'm always in one place, only registered Republicans around
And when I find myself, a-fallin in the polls
I hop right into Air Farce One and fly around to trolls
Yeah cause I'm The Squanderer, yeah a Squanderer
I Rove around around around...
cause I'm The Squanderer, yeah Thee Squanderer
I Rove around around around...
Excellent video rossi.
Squanderer's too kind. But the song rocks.
Little punk is sure aa hell right, although Layla at Arab Womans Blues calls him a lot worse than that.
Posted by: rossiann at September 16, 2007 05:12 AM
I know Rossi. And maybe I should not say this, because no one really wants to hear anything like it...But.
For now, in this situation, we can not save the women of Iraq. Maybe a few of them at a time, but for the most part... There is nothing that anyone outside of Iraq can do for them.
Because of what we have done to them, the women of Iraq must now do what we have all been doing for time immorial when men turn our lives into hell, they must submit and beg the men surrounding them for mercy.
I will probably go to hell for even saying it. I wish there was another option, but there isn't.
If Sadr is crowned with power, he is right now the only strongman that can maybe have a shot at holding that county together long enough to hold off a global conflict.
We know how the women will be treated, but right now they are being forced to prostitute just to keep the babies from starving.
As slaves to Allah, they won't fare much better, but, almost anything is better than what we have made them right now.
May God forgive us.
Oh, and PS.
It is finally nice to know why Condi makes my gaydar go off for no apparent reason.
I thought it had a glitch or something.
While we are on "arts" topic ..
Here is a new blog that has representatives from ArtKos and others - good diaries often slip away fast at DailyKos so here is another place to go.
I was part of ArtKos and "art" got lost in the shuffle of politics - so much for political art or artful politics.
So .. this may be a good idea.
http://www.docudharma.com/frontPage.do
Here is a good