Old Shell Road has claimed yet another of my cats. This one, by all counts the Alpha male of the house, had been warming the hearts of the families on both sides of me as well. He's buried next to Kinky, Booger, Callie and a few others that never even had names. He'll be missed forever.

 

6:09:35 PM     comment []

 

9:16:22 PM     comment []

In case you haven't heard, 60 minutes will do a follow up Sunday on Don Siegleman and Dan Abrams on Monday night will air a live interview with Governor Siegelman. Watch if you can.
5:13:45 PM     comment []

 

 

1:45:31 PM     comment []

Where were you when the lights went out? Last night there were three houses on Old Shell Road who cut the power at 8 pm and turned it back on at nine pm. We all were having lasagna at my house during that time and it was quite a fun evening. I'd learned about earth hour only earlier in the day - which is odd for me since I usually hear about these things sooner - but I suppose my focus has been on other issues of late -

Anyway, I found out just in time to let my two neighbors know and since we had already planned to gather around my famous lasagna it turned out to be a great evening of good food and good friends. I was sorry that my oldest son couldn't be there as it had originally been intended to welcome him to Mobile since he's just this week moved here. But he was otherwise engaged and I had already gotten my energy up for the lasagna by then. All I have to do is say that word and my neighbors are all eagerly awaiting the results. This was an interesting batch because it was made with deer meat. I don't think we even told everyone that, but it was quite good.

I'm off to do other things today but there are a couple of other things I've found that I'd love to share. One of them I may have already talked about - ForaTV is a web portal that has lots of interesting speakers and videos that you will enjoy - and another one called TED I just learned about has even more interesting stuf (okay, that's not a fair statement as they are both fascinating places to check out each in their own way. TED, however, is always just one person and that person has 18 minutes to make a presentation. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, and it has a unique history - it is all about fostering action and collaboration - there are all sorts of presentations - musicians, physicists, philosophers, etc. Here, let me let them tell you more about themselves:

 

Our mission: Spreading ideas.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. Over time, you'll see us add talks and performances from other events, and solicit submissions from you, as well. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it. Have an idea? We want to hear from you.

There's more at their website, but since I've got lots of other stuff to do, why don't you just hop on over there and check it out for yourself?

Have a great day wherever you are. And WELCOME HOME, Don Siegelman!

10:51:59 AM     comment []

The more this sits in the sun the more it stinks: The Siegelman release has brought out all sorts of backstory that many of us didn't know - and I'm learning about a slew of writers who've already worked hard to expose all this but who until now have't had much success. It reminds me of the Leo Frank Lynchers story.

 

 My friend Stephen Goldfarb called me one day in 2000 while I was still reeling from the stolen election and asked me to build him a website. It was to be about a document he had discovered that pointed to new evidence in the 75 year old case of Leo Frank, who was lynched in Marietta, Georgia in 1915 by a secret mob of well known people in the dark of night for a crime it's pretty clear he didn't commit.

My friend Stephen had found this new evidence and had for TEN YEARS been trying to interest local historians and newspapers in the story.No one wanted to touch it because it involved prominent people who wielded power in the area and it was a stain on the reuptation of some of the big newsppaers in the area for a long time. His request to build a webiste was met by me with some trepidation considering that these were the frightening days of the Gingrich revolution and of Bob Barr (who had successfully lynched Bill Clinton in the media in my opinion -- and who to be fair has since come full circle as has to some extent Gingrich) but at that time the general population was in a mindset that wouldn't hear anything that didn't fit their mass hysteria.

I also knew that another reason that this story was not going to be popular was that some of the descendants of these lynchers who were named on my friend's discovered list were prominent people and I was not anxious to anger them. So I built the webiste anonymously. I never put my name on it until five years later when it wasn't on anyone's radar screen. I built the website and forgot about it until suddenly it began to be exposed in the mainstream media all over the world. I learned a great deal during this experience, and received a barrage of emails from people everywhere thanking us for exposing this information.

I spent a good bit of time pondering how it was that a group of men who were known to be involved behind the scenes could have orchestrated this lynching and even though it was carried out by a second group the lynchers were never caught, never prosecuted and frankly never even named until our website came out. It was CRONYISM at its worst. That same cronyism still operates today and is at the heart of what has happened to Don Siegelman.

The site is gone now, but there are many articles that still refer to it. The site itself was the topic -my friend made the front page of the Wall Street Journal and was interviewd on NPR. I was NEVER mentioned, which is fine by me. Our site is referred to in several books and has inspired all sorts of things including a juvenile book on the case. My reason for bringing it up is to look squarely at the phenomenon of secrets that exist in broad daylight and how hard it is to get most people to believe that evil exsits right in front of their face.

We are not at all reluctant to believe, like the masses who celebrated the lyncing of Leo Frank, that strangers in our midst are guilty of all sorts of evils. Leo was a likely victim for several reasons - first of all he was a Jew and the myths in that part of Georgia among the common folk were well known concering jewish evils. Leo was also a bit strange in his demeanor and appearance. One of the books on the case is called A Jew Accused and looks at the behavior of both Jews and the general population when a Jew is accused of a crime. Black people the world over could identify with this. They are ALWAYS suspect - the darker the skin the more automatic the suspicion of guilt - comedians for years have used the image of a black man running through a white neighborhood as an instant mental image that works as a joke. I'

What I'm getting at is that Alabama politicians are also suspect in the same way. Thanks to a few really bad apples and a tendence to self-reinforce these stereotypes, Alabama politicians have been perceived in the larger media  as automatically crooked. That is patently unfair, and shows not only laziness on the part of the speaker who assumes that all Alabama politicians are corrupt but an ignorance that frankly is unacceptable in today's world.

How about a song break about now? Here's Randy Newman on YouTube...

We don't have time for such ignorance any longer. Don's case should be a wake up call to all of us that to remain silent is to condone, to refuse to speak up or speak out is to help hold the rope, to chuckle at the jokes and not call out those who are repeating erroneous rumors and unquestioned assumptions is to to invite the devil to dance. I know it's easier to walk away - I've done it many times myself. It's also easier to hide behind an anonymous blog post or email than to speak out in public, with your name and address as part of the information you provide. My friends Lynn and Ernie Sewell are heroes in my book for being tireless writers to the Mobile papers when they find errors. I've NEVER written a letter to the editor. In the years I've been a reader of Salon.com I've NEVER (or maybe only once or twice) posted a response to the forums even though I read them religiously for years and considered it as essential to my life as eating and sleeping.

I get very few comments on this site probably because I tend to go in so many directions, but I wonder what I would do if I did get lots of responses. I suspect I'm better at starting a fire than keeping one going. That's why I was so proud of my boss recently when he posted some poems to his poetry email  (another one here) list that were pretty controversial and in doing so he got a few responses that were not in agreement with the ideas expressed in his poems. Rather than back down or avoid a dialogue, he actually challenged and confronted the issues involved without losing the friendships with those responders. It consumed him for weeks, and I know he was concerned that he should soft-pedal h is responses, but I am proud to say he didn't back down, and the conversation was fruitful I think to everyone involved.

Now that we've got the conversation going on what happened to Don Siegelman, I hope we'll keep the conversation going, engaging those who haven't heard all the allegations and what might be going on behind the scenes. The way we got into this Bush nightmare is by preying on the rational expectations of Americans that things like "that" could not happen here. They can, and they do.

I was listening to the Ambassador to China the other day being interviewed on NPR, and when he got through repeating the propaganda he's paid to parrot, the only thing I could think of was how much he sounded just like Bush. "There's nothing wrong with the economy" - "The Surge is working" -  etc. Bush can't possibly even know what is going on in the world. They don't want him to know - I wrote a poem about his lack of curiosity once.

Incurious George

 

He glances at the headlines

No need to read he says

They brief me every morning

And then it all makes sense

 

No need to read the headlines

They tell me what to do

And then it all makes sense

There’s been a military coup

 

They tell me what to do

Economics, law, defense

There’s been a coup, that’s true

And now it all makes sense

 

Economics, law, defense

They brief me every morning

And though it all makes sense

I find it very boring

 

As a state I find Alabama's lack of curiosity part of the problem as well. I hope that the recent flurry of blog posts and stories brings out the voices that have been working to get the truth out for a long time. I celebrate writers and artists who have tried to bring change to this state and propose that we continue to share good posts, good blogs, good letters to the editor, and good poems with each other. There are numerous websites out there and as I find them I'll add them to my favorites link at the right. If you know of more send them to me. And if you want to comment, do so. I welcome it. My email address is also in the right hand column if you want to email me privately.

 

Here's another blog that you need to see concerning the Siegelman case - sent to me by a new friend from my boss's mailing list : Thanks Peggy!This one's called At Largely. Another one sent to me by Peggy that I didn't know about is called Flashpoint and he also has a nice link to other Alabama blogs. Peggy sent me an email yesterday in which she described some of the ways she's trying to make a difference:

 I plan to continue the same activities that I have engaged in thus far--writing our senators and national figures on Congress.org. Recently I purchased a Soapbox spot and posted comments entitled "Red flags in a red state."  For a few dollars extra, I was able to tract the number of hits and actions taken. I have gotten over two hundred hits, but less than ten actions. I plan to take this approach again and place more emphasis on the importance of taking an action.
 
Heck, I even wrote the First Lady after she supported the Tibetan Monks and suggested that she take a look at the Siegelman case.  I have written in support of everyone that has taken positive steps such as Sixty Minutes and have received some correspondence back, a very nice note from Sixty Minutes assuring me that my letter would be shared with not just the Sixty Minute producers, but the executive board of the CBS News as well.  I have duked it out with some real Rovian dragons on a few blogs, which actually challenged me to research further to support some key points. I send encouraging letters to Honorable John Conyers and Senator Leahy regularly via email that they continue to hold Miers, Bolten, and Rove in defiance of the law for not testifying before the Judiciary Committee.  I have written Don, Lorie, and Dana over the past nine weeks and of course donated to the legal fund.   One of my favorite strategies now is when anyone sends me a political or religious email, I send them an update on Don.  They either respond favorably, or they stop sending me junk mail. Either way I am happy.

I LOVE the idea of responding to one of the ubiquitous religious emails with something like what she's doing. Excellent, Peggy! I'd love to know what others have done to make a small dent in the thick wall of ignorance that seems to surround this state. Let me know what you do...I'll post it here.

 

10:39:45 AM     comment []

Rejoice, rejoice in the good news, and then get back to work. This may be a wonderful step in the right direction, but there's a good bit going on that we aren't aware of, trust me.

I've had lots of emails and conversations today and I've decided that this is a time to step up efforts, not back off or back down. In order to do that we need to be singing off the same song sheet and keeping each other well informed. I've added some links in the right hand column to a few blog sites I've been recommending, and on those sites are many other links. Also, if you have google alerts go right now and put in a link to Don Siegelman (I know I keep spelling his name wrong) and you'll get as much as I get - the more converstations we have with others about this the better.

I've been thinking all afternoon about a conversation I witnessed back in 1997 or so when I first returned to Alabama. I was having lunch at a wonderful little corner store in Magnolia Springs with an old family friend and another old family friend that is also my Godmother. These two women were friends of my mother and would have been born about 1928ish. The conversation turned to politics and I heard one of them say to the other, What do you think about the governor's race? Or something like that. I don't really remember the conversation exactly until the moment when one of them looked at the other in utter horror at the idea that someone she liked would actually think of voting for a Democrat! It was an introduction to Alabama politics that I'd never forget. Since then I've learned that in some areas of Alabama who you support politically has more to do with how many forks you put to the left of your diinner plate than with what your political principals are. In fact, this conversation had nothing to do with policy, experience or anything else except the class consciousness of an old guard family versus a more progressive family of the same generation and class consciousness but who had lived in the nortern part of the state instead of in the more politically dead southern part. I've seen it over and over again in Mobile and Baldwin County since I've been here.

I went to a family funeral about ten years later and there was one liberal there (a cousin actually) and she whispered to me that the whole group were Bush supporters (this was during the 2004 election I guess) and I was told it'd not be good for me to talk about my own political leanings. I didn't. I didn't want to be responsible for a whole lot more funerals when the old women fainted from shock! If there's been anything good that could come out of the Bush years it has to be that the everyday Republican wakes up to the fact that their party has been stolen by crooks and liars.

 

7:44:09 PM     comment []

I am all about Don Siegleman getting out of prison, and I  know he is going to issue a statement later tonight, but in the meantime, I have a link to the most recent article in the New York Times, I've been to LeftInAlabama and other sites that I've told you about below, and at one of those sites I found a link to an Alabama writer who has a blog site called Write Chic Press, and here's what I found there:

 

 

 

It's relevant, believe me. The whole nightmare has been orchestrated by the same group of somnambulent puppets that are doing the bidding of some puppeteers behind the scenes - we suspect we know who those are - and there's no end to the nightmares that are going to accompany the great unraveling. But thank God for the internet and web 2.0 - YouTube in particular.

Gotta love it, even though it's a nightmare coming true.

7:23:18 PM     comment []

 See links to newer stories below:

Wonderful NEWS! I just learned that Alabama former Governor Don Siegleman is going to be released from prison tomorrow morning. I'm beyond thirlled to hear this. As ugly as the rest of the world situation is, and it's still ugly, believe me, it's at least heartening to learn that the wheels of justice are slowly starting to move in the correct direction for Don Siegleman. He's expected to testify in Washington soon according to some sources, and I, like many others, hope that the truth comes out. There was egregious wrongdoing in that situation and the whole world (to the extent that the world cares what happens in Alabama) now knows it. It gives me renewed hope in the future when I learn that the efforts of people like Scott Horton, Dana Siegleman, mooncat at leftinalabama, and a growing number of ordinary Alabamaians, who until recently were under the assumption that imprisoning people for political reasons didn't happen in this country, can take a deep breath and gather strength from this one positive step in a long line of negative occurrences that should never have happened. And one of the lessons we should learn is to keep ourselves informed through these various channels that have brought us together in the recent past. LeftInAlabama with it's way too purple (even if for a good reason) website colors, DailyKos (with it's way too orange colors, for that matter) and bunch of mailing lists that I'm aware of were bringing this situation to the attention of many people who weren't aware of it. And if you still don't know the back story, it's just as important now as it was then, because Don's got a long road ahead of him and the more we support him the more we can help shine the light into some very dark corners where some pretty underhanded and ultimately evil stuff has been going on for far too long.  

Let's do all we can to show Don we support him, and put an end to the type of politics that Lee Atwater perfected and Karl Rove made his stock in trade. Yes We CAN!

Here's a link to the Free Don Siegleman site - give them some love for all the work they've done.

And while we're at it, buy all the papers you can find tomorrow with this story in it. That's one way to show the Press-Register that we care about good reporting. Here's a link to the story on Al.com

 

The New York Times has a good article and a copy of the court order

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Donald Siegelman, former governor of Alabama, was ordered released from prison on Thursday by a federal appeals court, pending his appeal of a bribery conviction that Democrats say resulted from a politically driven prosecution.

In its order, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, said Mr. Siegelman had raised “substantial questions” in his appeal of the case and could be released on bond from the federal prison in Oakdale, La., where he has served nine months of a seven-year sentence. The order did not say what those questions were, but his lawyers have argued for months that the bribery charge on which he was mainly convicted revolved around a transaction that differed little, if at all, from a standard political contribution.

Mr. Siegelman’s lawyers maintained that — as is standard in many white-collar crime cases — the veteran Democratic politician never should have been imprisoned in the first place while he appealed his conviction.  

Rest of this article is here;

 

This just makes me feel like singing! And since I am in such a cheery mood, I think I'll share this interesting article/blog I found on today's NYTimes website about writing songs...

http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/

I've never understood how these guys do it, but this is a pretty fascinating peek into the mind of one songwriter. Enjoy!

8:40:41 PM     comment []

Photo from Bill Lavender's New Orleans publishing house Lavender Ink (see below)

 

Sometimes it pays to check out the links in the side bar that are generated by the computer algorythms that pervade the internet experience. On my gmail account there are always lots of things that I'm usually amused with because I have absolutely no interest in whatever is linked there. For instance, in the margin aside my receipt for a purchase on iTunes, I see a link that asks me if I like Hanna Montana. Well, no.  And right above that one is something about a class action lawsuit involving drivers - have no idea how that connection was made. Oh, wait. There's a link on my email to an album called A Thousand Roads, and the "roads" must have matched something that pulled up the class action lawsuit about drivers. I guess. My point is, usually those things aren't really all that worthwhile. But today in reading my daily feed from Dave Pollard's How to Save the World I noticed a link to something called The Writers Eye, and when I followed that link I was very pleased to find an online magazine devoted to writers who are artists as well. Here's their current issue. Now, I'm not particularly a fan of the checkerboard graphic on the front but the inside is very nice. Go read the poetry and other articles. It's a breath of fresh air.

Speaking of fresh air, I journeyed over to Andrei Codreascue's online site, Exquisite Corpse, and there are some pretty interesting things there as always. Among the most interesting is the series on Katrina, including the 31 Poems by Bill Lavender which I found particularly compelling. I'm going back to that one later today because it is a full experience, not to be passed over lightly.

 

At the very bottom of Bill Lavender's poetry there's a link to something called Lavender Ink, " a small publisher of poetry and literary extravagance in New Orleans" which is another satisfying excursion. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful day. Enjoy the spring if you're in Mobile, and if you're elsewhere, it's coming, I promise. It always does.

6:50:59 AM     comment []