Even out here in the reddest of states, people tired of the status quo are doing amazing things. Case in point, an Iraq war vet from Logan, Utah, Marshall Thompson, is on track to completing a protest walk the length of the state of Utah to draw attention to issue of the Iraq war, "to talk about ways to bring his fellow service members home."
Here’s an excerpt from the piece Mathew D. LaPlante:
Stationed on a large, often-attacked base in northern Iraq, the Army propagandist traveled all over Iraq on orders to seek uplifting stories about fellow troops. Yet Thompson's experiences only further confirmed his fears.
Among U.S. troops he found low morale, brutal tactics and a dehumanizing distance from the people whose country they occupied. Among Iraqis he found anger, fear and distrust of the American occupation.
His superiors allowed him to write about none of those things.
"We wrote in code," Thompson said. "Like, when we would write, 'This soldier has overcome many obstacles', it meant he pretty much complained about his job during the entire interview."
He returned home on July 24 - Pioneer Day in Utah. The blasts of exploding fireworks left him anxious and jumpy.
In Utah, where polls indicate support for the Iraq war runs higher than in any other state, Thompson found many who wanted to hear the kind of news he had been assigned to find in Iraq.
"I felt so alienated," he said. "What people wanted to hear was not what I was able to tell them."
Before returning home, Thompson and his wife, Kristen, discussed how they could help make the case for a withdrawal of U.S. troops. A few weeks after his return, they decided: From Idaho to Arizona, he would walk across the "reddest" state in the nation. He could do it in a month - roughly a day of walking for every 100 service members killed in the war.
The stunt, as Thompson called it on his Web site - www.soldierspeace.com - had its intended effect: Media attention drove thousands to his site before he had taken a single step.
The journey began early on the morning of Oct. 2. Approaching Logan that afternoon, Thompson braced himself for a spiteful response, akin to what he had tasted during the prewar protest. <Read More.>
U2 and Green Day joined forces to commemorate the opening of the New Orleans Superdome, the Louisiana Superdome, on Monday night September 25, 2006. Green Day sang their giant hit "Wake Me Up When September Ends;" and then Bono came on stage to help sing the electrifying song "The Saints Are Coming." The set ended with an adapted version of U2's "Beautiful Day." (The bands also participated in a Jazz set commemorating the music of New Orleans.)
Proceeds of the single The Saints Are Coming help benefit Music Rising, a charity created by U2's The Edge to bring instruments and music programs back to New Orleans.
The studio version of the song is availabe for download tomorrow, October 30, 2006. The CD single is available on November 6, 2006. The song will also appear on U2's new Best of Album, U218, which will be released November 20, 2006.
Here is the music video "The Saints Are Coming." Extraordinary!
"There is only one real reason to read a poem," writes Jane Hirshfield, "and that is to find your way to a larger life than would otherwise be yours to live."
This great thought begins her equally great article "Telescope, Well-bucket, Furnace: Poetry Beyond the Classroom," published for The Writer’s Chronicle, a publication of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) in the summer of 2003. In the article, Hirshfield highlights many points about reading and/or writing good poetry. Most implicitly, however, she explains the utter expansiveness of good poetry and how the discovery of it is a liberating experience, as described in this paragraph:
Kafka called literature an axe that breaks open the frozen sea inside us. His sentence describes the liberation and discovery of genuine art. It also holds a diagnosis: we are beings in need of breaking open, if we are to know the full dimensions of who we are. In his works, Kafka drew portraits not just of individuals but of an age still recognizably our own. The frozen sea is not only an individual prison, it is the quality of a culture in which, as the Siberian herders might say, certain powerful but stupid gods hold sway. It is not necessary here to name them, the list would be long and also boring. But one can say this much: these cultural forces do not want us to find our way to the serious depths. They want to keep us as they are: uni-dimensional and shallow and hungry only for a life of the surface.
If you enjoyed this article, you can read another marvelous interview by Ivy Alvarez, Jack Anders, and Jenni Russell for MiPO's print edition, Volume 19, Edition 2, March 2005.
The DSCC has released an effective ad today about Bush’s sudden change in rhetoric. He no longer wants his policy to be "stay the course." Now, in all honesty, it is quite progressive, psychologically speaking, that Bush has finally come to his senses. I mean, haven’t we all been asking ourselves if he is living in a state of denial about how bad things really are? But here is the question of the month: do you really believe that Bush has seen the light and is beginning to understand that their strategy for Iraq’s democracy is in serious straits? Do you honestly think that he is changing his policy because less than 40% of America supports it? (Ok, that’s two questions but I couldn’t resist.)
This is what voters have to ask themselves, especially those who have been recently disenchanted with how the war has been going, before they punch that electronic vote and re-elect those rubber-stamp republicans fighting for their incumbency.
I am leery of this sudden shifting of long-standing policy because we are sitting two weeks out from a significant midterm election in which there is likely possibility that Bush will lose the House and maybe the Senate. With this as the backdrop, this seems a last ditch effort (one of many it seems) to save the sinking ship. It’s totally slapdash. And seemingly ephemeral – After the election, especially if the GOP retain one or both of the houses, how likely is it that he’ll fall off the wagon and return to his old policies for re-shaping the Middle East? Besides, is there anything that this guy has said or done that gives me cause to believe him now? Hell no.
Enjoy these two ads.
This is the ad pre-change. You can see what a heavy weight this policy was around their necks.
This is the ad post-change. (Notice that they lie about never having "stay the course" as a policy.)
Okay movie lovers, here are the films that showed up at my house today:
David Mamet's latest film Edmond (2005), starring William H. Macy, Mena Suvari, Bokeem Woodbine, and Julia Stiles. Mamet directed or wrote these great films: Spartan, Heist, Hannibal, State and Main, Ronin, and Wag the Dog, to name a few.
Robert Altmann's A Prairie Home Companion, starring Garrison Keiller, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, Maya Rudolph, and Lindsey Lohan.
Michael Haneke's Cache (Hidden) (2005) (France) was recognized by both the Chicago Film Critics and Los Angeles Film Critics Associations as the best foreign film of 2005. It is a story about a couple who are terrorized from threatening videotapes that begin showing up on their doorstep.
Here is a foreign film garnering a lot of international acclaim and buzz: Volver, from the award-winning Pedro Almodóvar, who directed the Oscar winning film Talk To Her (2003) and the acclaimed films All About My Mother (1999) and Bad Education (2005). Volver was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes this year; he was recognized for the best screenplay.
The plot does sound very intriguing. According to IMDB, Volver is about a mother (Maura) who returns to her home town after her death in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life. Her ghost slowly becomes a comfort to her daughters (Cruz, Dueñas), as well as her grandchild (Cobo).
Volver opens in select theaters nationwide this weekend. Here is the trailer:
Growing up, I was lucky to have parents enthused about the arts and music, in general. They loved film, stage musicals, and artists with skilled vocal and/or musical talent. This included an appreciation of the operatic voice. So I grew knowing the likes of Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
Lately, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of the male operatic voice. This is evidenced by the likes of Andrea Bocellie, Josh Groban, Mario Frangoulis, and the international supergroup IL DIVO.
In November of 2003, I spotlighted the Greek tenor Frangoulis’ beautiful "Vinchero Perdero." I found a live version of it tonight on YouTube. The vocal track is one or two seconds off, but the song is still breathtaking. It’s one of my favorites. Enjoy.
Many of you know that I love U2. This next song I’m spotlighting is the song U2 recorded with Luciano Pavorotti about the issues in Sarajevo during the Bosnian conflict during the 90's. This concert footage comes from the "Pavoratti & Friends" Concert in 1995.
John Hall of the 70's band Orleans, running as a Dem in NY, and beating the incumbent, Sue Kelly, is interviewed by Steve Colbert. Oh, and they harmonize at the end to Orlean’s hit song "Dance with me." Watch & Listen.
At Georgetown University this afternoon, Bill Clinton gave a speech titled "The Common Good" (hosted by The Center of American Progress, which I support) and once again Clinton gives us pause to reflect on what a true president should sound like. No loose marbles rolling around in this guy’s head. No deer-in-the-headlight stares into the camera. Sure, there are a few moments stammering over words, but at least those words weren’t eighth grade level tied into phrases any caveman couldn’t write.
On the contrary, Clinton’s speech about politics needing to get back to a grounding in reality and out of the ideological trappings that currently rule the policies of this government is excellent. The topic couldn’t come at a more important time as citizens are taking a scrutinizing look at the government and its vision of the future. It’s engrossing. Clinton is captivating, utterly convincing in his knowledge and assessments; erudite in his phraseology, thinking; and statesmen-like in his delivery. Yes, Clinton shines.
Listen to an excerpt here, courtesy of Crooks & Liars. I’ve tried finding the whole speech but have not yet been able to.
Keith Olbermann again gives a profound and scathing editorial on Bush’s signing of the Military Commissions Act and the loss of Habeas Corpus. Watch it here, courtesy of Crooks & Liars.
Here’s a teaser:
And if you think this, hyperbole or hysteria… ask the newspaper editors when John Adams was President, or the pacifists when Woodrow Wilson was President, or the Japanese at Manzanar when Franklin Roosevelt was President.
And if you somehow think Habeas Corpus has not been suspended for American citizens but only for everybody else, ask yourself this: If you are pulled off the street tomorrow, and they call you an alien or an undocumented immigrant or an "unlawful enemy combatant" — exactly how are you going to convince them to give you a court hearing to prove you are not? Do you think this Attorney General is going to help you?
This President now has his blank check.
He lied to get it.
He lied as he received it.
Is there any reason to even hope, he has not lied about how he intends to use it, nor who he intends to use it against?
"These military commissions will provide a fair trial," you told us yesterday, Mr. Bush. "In which the accused are presumed innocent, have access to an attorney, and can hear all the evidence against them."
'Presumed innocent,' Mr. Bush?
The very piece of paper you signed as you said that, allows for the detainees to be abused up to the point just before they sustain "serious mental and physical trauma" in the hope of getting them to incriminate themselves, and may no longer even invoke The Geneva Conventions in their own defense.
'Access to an attorney,' Mr. Bush?
Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift said on this program, Sir, and to the Supreme Court, that he was only granted access to his detainee defendant, on the promise that the detainee would plead guilty.
'Hearing all the evidence,' Mr. Bush?
The Military Commissions act specifically permits the introduction of classified evidence not made available to the defense.
Your words are lies, Sir.
They are lies, that imperil us all.
"One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks," …you told us yesterday… "said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America."
That terrorist, sir, could only hope.
Not his actions, nor the actions of a ceaseless line of terrorists (real or imagined), could measure up to what you have wrought.
Habeas Corpus? Gone.
The Geneva Conventions? Optional.
The Moral Force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection? Snuffed out.
These things you have done, Mr. Bush… they would be "the beginning of the end of America."
I'm having Radio Salon problems. My graphics aren't uploading to the server, so that is why my pic of Evie Shockley is not displaying. Plus, trying to edit a previous post out and out isn't working. My system is not locked up. I can work on other things. It simply won't work. So that is why I haven't been able to remove the non-displaying graphic. Again, I'm wondering if this is some McAfee problem manifesting itself after an update a few days ago. I'll figure this out eventually.
On another note, I saw Scorsese's film The Departed tonight. It was everything I expected it to be: an absolutely amazing film. Though I'll be writing a review soon, I have to say a few things.
1. I'm so impressed. This film is a classic, a masterpiece.
2. The film succeeds like any other great film --because it has a very smart script (with exceptional dialogue), exceptional acting; and spot-on photography that uses the cityscape, sidestreets, and the underbelly areas of Boston to bring the film to life. The exceptional acting and directing would not be if it weren't for Scorsese's directing.
3. Speaking of acting, this film has so many great performances that it could nearly fill both Actor categories. Naming my picks: Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, and Mark Wahlburg.
This year is already lining up to be a banner year for the esteemed Oscar. Prove it, you say. Consider the following possibilities:
Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby), could become one of the most winningest directors in history if he wins for his World War II epic Flags of Our Fathers. (John Ford won four awards. Frank Capra and William Wyler both received three each.)
Jack Nicholson, in a highly-acclaimed performance as a crime boss in The Departed, could tie Katherine Hepburn for the most acting Oscars won (4).
Seven-time loser Peter O'Toole could finally win an Oscar for his performance in Venus.
Five-time loser Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, GoodFellas, Gangs of New York, and The Aviator) could finally win his first Oscar with his critically-acclaimed Boston mob film The Departed.
Spain’s Pedro Almadovor could win his fourth Foreign Film Oscar for Volver, starring Penelope Cruz, who could wind up receiving her first Best Actress nomination.
Stay tuned for a complete list of the films creating the Oscar buzz.
Over the weekend, I accepted a request to review Evie Shockley’s soon to be released book a half-red sea from Carolina Wren Press. After accepting to write the review, I couldn’t get it out of my head that I knew the name Evie Shockley. And sure enough I did know it. She was just one of many poets featured in the All Ladies Issue of MiPoeasias this past February.
The vivid and highly visceral title of her book, a half-red sea, is taken from this very poem.
I’m honored to be writing this review. And I’m not one to hold onto expectations, but from what I have read from her, I am expecting great things. Stay tuned for an update on where you can read the review.
Evie Shockley‘s poetry appears in her chapbook, The Gorgon Goddess (2001), also from the Carolina Wren Press, and in numerous journals and anthologies, including African American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Blue Fifth Review, Brilliant Corners, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Fascicle, From the Fishouse, Hambone, HOW2, nocturnes(re)view, Poetry Daily, Rainbow Darkness, and Talisman. She was awarded a residency at the Hedgebrook Women Writers’ Retreat in 2003 and is a graduate fellow of Cave Canem. An assistant professor at Rutgers University, Shockley teaches literature and creative writing and is at work on a project theorizing the relationship of innovation and race in African American poetry.
A sampling of her work is online. I recommend these poems:
"You can say that again, billie;" "Poem for when his arm open so wide you fall through;" "Meditation: Having everything to live for, the poet worries;" and "Miles’s Muse." (Read them all here.)
Saw this on the Dau Report over at Salon.com this evening. An excerpt from a post at Left In The West, titled "The GOP Has to be Terrified."
This election year is absolutely unreal, in large part because what the Republicans have done is simply unreal. They’ve screwed everything up. I mean everything. They even screwed up the Congressional page program. That’s like screwing up the cub scouts.
Keith Olbermann is a news anchor and commentator on MSNBC. He currently hosts "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," an hour-long nightly newscast that reviews the top news stories of the day. He closes each show with political commentary that reminds me of a contemporary Edward R. Murrow. And let me tell you, if there ever were a time we needed such a commentator, it is now. And if there were any commentator who could fill the shoes of Murrow, that person is Olbermann. So it seems more than fitting that Olbermann closes each show with Murrow’s arresting and substantive adage: "Good night, and good luck."
In the past two months, Olbermann’s impact on the political landscape is obvious from the skyrocketing presence of his name, quotes from his commentaries, and distribution of his closing editorials on the blogosphere and You Tube. It is also evidenced, most unfortunately, in the fact that he was the target this past month of a mail attack – an envelope sent to his home contained white powder. (Read commentary about this here and here.)
Some of his most recognized commentaries recently have been the following:
Tonight, Keith Olbermann delivers yet another landmark editorial on the President’s prevarications in his speeches while campaigning this week in Nevada, Arizona, and California. You can watch the editorial in its entirety here.
Here are a few highlights:
And lastly tonight, a Special Comment, about — lying. While the leadership in Congress has self-destructed over the revelations of an unmatched, and unrelieved, march through a cesspool… While the leadership inside the White House has self-destructed over the revelations of a book with a glowing red cover…
The President of the United States — unbowed, undeterred, and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: The Democrats.
Yesterday at a fundraiser for an Arizona Congressman, Mr. Bush claimed, quote, "177 of the opposition party said 'You know, we don't think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists."
The hell they did.
177 Democrats opposed the President's seizure of another part of the Constitution*.
Not even the White House press office could actually name a single Democrat who had ever said the government shouldn't be listening to the conversations of terrorists.
President Bush hears… what he wants.
Tuesday, at another fundraiser in California, he had said "Democrats take a law enforcement approach to terrorism. That means America will wait until we're attacked again before we respond."
Mr. Bush fabricated that, too.
And evidently he has begun to fancy himself as a mind-reader.
"If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party," the President said at another fundraiser Monday in Nevada, "it sounds like they think the best way to protect the American people is — wait until we're attacked again."
The President doesn't just hear what he wants. He hears things, that only he can hear.
It defies belief that this President and his administration could continue to find new unexplored political gutters into which they could wallow.
Yet they do.
Just 25 days ago, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, this same man spoke to this nation and insisted, quote, "we must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us."
Mr. Bush, this is a test you have already failed.
If your commitment to "put aside differences and work together" is replaced in the span of just three weeks by claiming your political opponents prefer to wait to see this country attacked again, and by spewing fabrications about what they've said, then the questions your critics need to be asking, are no longer about your policies.
They are, instead — solemn and even terrible questions, about your fitness to fulfill the responsibilities of your office.
No Democrat, sir, has ever said anything approaching the suggestion that the best means of self-defense is to "wait until we're attacked again."
No critic, no commentator, no reluctant Republican in the Senate, has ever said anything that any responsible person could even have exaggerated into the slander you spoke in Nevada on Monday night, nor the slander you spoke in California on Tuesday, nor the slander you spoke in Arizona on Wednesday… nor whatever is next.
Well, you get the point.....I could quote the speech in its entirety, it is that relevant and significant.
The new Barry Levinson film starring Robin Williams, The Man of the Year, is released to American audiences next Friday, October 13th. It's about a late night tv show comedian, played by Williams, who runs for president and wins.
Also stars Laura Linney, Christopher Walkin, and Jeff Goldblum.
Check out this scene from a debate to see how funny this film could be.
If anyone thinks that this is going away anytime soon, they’re smoking something they shouldn’t. Today’s revelations were worse than yesterday’s, the finger-pointing and prevarications among the House Leadership became a joke, the first Foleygate campaign ad from Patty Wetterling (http://www.pattywetterling.com/) (whose 12 year-old son was abducted by a predator) was aired today, and the first congressman (R-KY) asked Hastert not to help him campaign this weekend. They have been describing Hastert today as "radioactive."
Late this evening, Hastert announced a press conference for tomorrow morning. Is he going to resign effective immediately or after the elections? It seems logical that it will be the latter. However, if Foleygate gets stinkier, look for Hastert to be gone sooner.
Some interesting current articles, editorials, and opinions from the past two days related to Foleygate. They are all good. But if you must choose just a few, so be it.
Though you have not seen any posts for 40 lately, let me assure you that I have been working on it in between exercising and recovering from my lumbar epidural injections.
1) I am nearly finished editing the first six segments. The edits, however, are not reflected in the blog posts. I have a reader/editor lined up to help me hone it for an agent.
2) I am writing and doing research for my next segment of 40, which is an extensive dream sequence where the narrator, Mark Byatt, has gone in search for his wife and kids. I am planning on submitting this story, tentatively titled "Shadow Dreams," to a journal or online magazine.
In the meantime, I wrote up a brief description of the novel. Tell me if it would sound good enough to end up on the back cover.
In a hotel room high above the scintillating lights of the Las Vegas strip, a middle-aged man wakes up to discover he is not the man he thinks he is. He has aged. He's wasted away. And a driver's license insists he not only has a different name but also resides in a town he's never heard of and in a state where he's certain he has never lived.
As memories from a tragic past surface, a collusion of events unfold in the sweltering days and nights of Sin City that force him to wrestle with his new identity, mete out justice, and salve the aching loss that consumes him.
40 is a mosaic of fantastical dreams, adventures, and exploitations through psycholgoical landscapes and the seductive and criminalistic underworld of Vegas.
