Micro

Jenna's sick. busy busy. thx.

War on lots of other feelings too...

war on depression, war on panic, war on laughter, war on sickness, war on serenity, war on boredom, war on shame, war on joy, war on apathy, war on resentment, war on shock, war on aggravation, war on abuse.

We have plenty of wars to wage before we sleep!

New War! Starts tonight! Terror takes back seat to Next Best Emotion!

New war on the way -- "The War on Aggression" wherein we beat the shit out of ourselves and call it a day.

Make Up a Quote Day

"Together, Bush's and Cheney's dicks are this big."

.

And more dead.

Nice Day for a White Wedding

And a bad one if you're brown.

A senior military coalition official said as many as 40 people were killed in the attack, but said it was his belief that the attack was against a foreign fighters' safe house.

I estimate that not a single "safe" house is left in the middle east.

50 years later, it's still cool to pick on "Porch Monkeys"

I'm supposed to be doing work. I can't balance these days. Fair and balanced is not working. Either I'm all blog or all work. That's the all or nothing stuff "aholics" are made of. Ah well. There are worse things.

Take for exampe the press release I received today from Dan Berger at the ACLU. (Release in full below.) At first, you know, I thought it was spam. With a glimmer of hope left for humanity and my child's future on the planet, I was hoping perhaps this was another urban legend, emailed around the net like the gas boycott message we've all received this week.

So I called the ACLU and talked to Paul Silva on his first day there to ask about the release. Paul was super to talk to and genuinely pleased to hear from a weblogger. Unfortunately, he assured me that the story about Michigan's Bullock Creek (don't tempt me, now...) school district is true.

George grew up in the public schools of the north during the 60s and 70s, and he has written about what it's like to be the only nigger, albiet a "good nigger," (as in, oh you're okay--you're one of the good niggers), in a school of ignorant white kids raised by ignorant parents. It's not pretty. I've heard the stories--lived the result of them. The "good nigger" and "what's wrong with you--you're bleeeaaacck" stories are the nicer tales of George's childhood school experiences. The physical beatings at the hands of teachers and principals are even more telling.

And so it pissed me off today to read the following Press Release from the ACLU -- Yah, I got angry. But I also realized, especially in this era of de-civil rights thanks to the Bush DADministration, that it's a good thing the ACLU is out there.

And if you don't think that the current U.S. Iraq war quagmire is related, think again. It is the FEAR of the "other," the "with us or against us" mantra, the hatred of the "different," the illusion of comfort in homogeny, that is passed on across generations and reinforced when the most elite of the mainstream have the balance of power.

Then, Mama, just let your babies grow up to be soldiers. See what happens when they graduate to become MPs in charge of purse snatchers in detention camps.

-------------

Michigan School District Takes Action to Stop Racism After Black Student Is Attacked in "KKK Game"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 19, 2004

CONTACTS: Paul Silva, ACLU Nat'l, (212) 549-2689 Wendy Wagenheim, ACLU of MI, (313) 578-6816

DETROIT - As the country focuses on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended government-imposed segregation in public schools, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today announced the settlement of a complaint filed on behalf of an African American student who was the victim of racial harassment and attacked by white students in a so-called "game of KKK."

"It is disturbing that African American students still face such shocking racism in school 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education," said Michael J. Steinberg, Legal Director of the ACLU of Michigan. "We are heartened, however, by the sincere efforts of the school district to begin to create an atmosphere in which such acts will not happen again."

The ACLU complaint, filed with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) against the Bullock Creek School District in mid-Michigan, is being voluntarily dismissed after district officials agreed to adopt a much-needed comprehensive plan to address racism.

Kyron Tryon was an eighth-grader at Bullock Creek Middle School near Midland, Michigan in May 2003 when seven white boys grabbed him during recess on the school playground. According to Kyron, the boys picked him up off the ground and chanted "KKK" while one of them whipped him with a belt. The boys then threw Kyron on the ground and began kicking him. The attack did not stop until the bell rang, signaling the end of recess. When the white students were questioned about the incident, they described it as just a "game of KKK."

Kyron and his older siblings were victimized by racial harassment several times at school, the ACLU said. Prior to the playground incident, Kyron, the only African American in his grade, was told by his white peers to "go back to Africa;" they called him a "porch monkey" and threatened him because he is black.

Unsatisfied with the way the school district initially responded to the "KKK" incident, Kyron's parents contacted the ACLU and then filed a complaint with the MDCR. Over the past year, the school district, the ACLU and the Tryons met with an MDCR mediator and jointly developed a plan to address what the Tryons believed to be a hostile environment for students of color at the Bullock Creek Schools.

"Although we found the incident last spring to be deplorable, we have been encouraged by the school community's serious and intelligent response to these actions," said David Chapin, Superintendent of Schools. "It is clear the Bullock Creek students, staff and community will not tolerate these behaviors. We are grateful we are able to work in conjunction with the Tryon family in creating a positive school culture in Bullock Creek."

In attempting to create a more tolerant atmosphere, the school is undertaking the following actions:

* Diversity Training. The district has contracted with the Bridge Center for Racial Harmony to develop a comprehensive plan for implementing diversity training within the district for students, teachers and administrators. The Bridge Center has implemented similar programs in Michigan, including one in Saginaw.
* Martin Luther King Day. The district will plan symposiums on Martin Luther King Day in which students will have the opportunity to learn about different races and ethnicities, as well as learning to understand and tolerate differences.
* Diversity Steering Committee. The district is developing a steering committee to oversee and develop the diversity training, MLK Day, Black History month and other race-related issues. The committee will include Kyron's parents, as well as representatives from the student body, teaching staff, administrative team, Board of Education, Michigan Department of Civil Rights, Dow Chemical Company and the West Midland Family Center.
* Grants. The district has applied for and received a grant from the Dow Chemical Foundation to help fund the district's work.

"We pray that the diversity training will make kids think twice before hurting and dehumanizing other kids the way they hurt and dehumanized my son," said Kyron's mother, Joyce Tryon. "When children go to school they should not have to fear that they will be beaten up because of the color of their skin. The reason we filed the civil rights complaint was not to recover money, but to bring about change."

Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan, said she hoped that other school districts will emulate what Bullock Creek is doing to respond to discrimination on campus. "As we look back at the history of desegregation, Kyron's experience illustrates how far we still have to go in combating racism."

Although more comprehensive diversity training will begin next fall at Bullock Creek, it is not soon enough for 15-year-old Kyron. He has already decided to attend high school in a different school district next year.

"I just want the nightmare to be over and to go back to being a teenager," said Kyron. "If what I experienced somehow ends up helping someone else, I will be happy."

------------

Let me just say a few words about this:

"We pray that the diversity training will make kids think twice before hurting and dehumanizing other kids the way they hurt and dehumanized my son," said Kyron's mother, Joyce Tryon. "When children go to school they should not have to fear that they will be beaten up because of the color of their skin. The reason we filed the civil rights complaint was not to recover money, but to bring about change."

Prayers are one way. But the resurgence in the acceptance--soon to be popularity--of dehumanizing the "other" is on the rise. Ladies and gentlemen, the time for prayer and sensitivity training alone has passed.

Bush, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld Charged with War Crimes?

Works for me. And Powell, you've got two weeks to open your mouth and do the right thing, or we're tossing you in there too.

In the memo, the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress, known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing war crimes—defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions. Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that "it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that some of the language in the Geneva Conventions—such as that outlawing "outrages upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners—was "undefined."

Terror

"Israel has the right to defend itself against TERROR" -- George W. Bush

TERROR

Intense, overpowering fear. See Synonyms at fear.

One that instills intense fear: a rabid dog that became the terror of the neighborhood.

The ability to instill intense fear: the terror of jackboots pounding down the street.

Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes.

Informal. An annoying or intolerable pest: that little terror of a child.

TERROR

19 May 04

I might not be able to write.. I'm using a laptop computer now of a friend here in the hospital.. I will try to send some pictures when I can.. but I might not be able to write. Three of my close relatives were killed - two are children: Asma (14), killed by an Israeli sniper while bringing down clothes from the roof of her house, and Ahmed (12), killed while feeding his doves and birds. Saeed was also killed in the same house... and the numbers of dead is increasing by the minute, with also so many many injured, it's hard for ambulances to move and transfer them. Must leave now, so I might not be able to write, will see if I can.

TERROR

17 May 04

BREAKING NEWS: The Israeli Apaches, F16s began invading the whole Rafah City by heavy weapons and canons, people are running in the streets out of their homes because of the shelling.. remains fragments of so many killed and injured people arrived the hospital… Israeli warships are shelling the houses of the surrounded civilizes who have been under siege since three years now, as these warships came from the see towards Rafah beach to participate in shelling the houses of the people in Al Mawasi Area Western Rafah Camp.

TERROR

Free to compete in the Olympics?

I don't care what republican coulter lackies say, the chick has man hands.



ADDED PROOF: Really, really not work safe.

Plot for a Short Story--Write it and give me credit. Thank you.

After reading this I went over to read Frank's latest, and came up with a simulation.

You can call me the Minister of Truth or you can call me the Minister of Fiction, just don't call me late for dinner...

-----------------

The Means to Flee

Can you imagine a scenario in which a people's own government, leading up to an election, unleashes WMDs on their own people? I'm not talking about Goddam Husein, or anyplace else in the Middle East. No. Not at all. And can you imagine in that scenario the flight or fight mechanism kicks in to all of the people of that nation, and the first thought, which has been ruminating for many anyway during life under a merciless dictator, is to get the hell out? My God, the country is melting. Attacts of bio warfare unleashed to the east, the west, and the middle. Media pumps up the almigty machine reinforcing terror, panic.

Who have the means to flee, for a time? Who have the means to seek safety at a hotel in a distant state or country? Not the poor. Not the poor. Not the lower class. Not the underclass. Not even the middle class, because air travel zooms overnight, and it costs $1500 a ticket to get out of dodge, and oh by the way you need a passport, and joe auto worker doesn't have to have a passport, nor does welfare mom Mable.

So the rich go. For a time. Here or there, Europe or Asia. They go. And they watch as the entire lower class is wiped out by the plague as space-age tech-suited experts clean up the mess, and in a year or two, they can come back, and their country is clean, their country is clean, their country is clean, and there are no more poor, no "others" to contend with, and they await the "great appearing" and the rapture with others who look like them and expect the same salvation as them. While the remaining former hispanic day laborers and McDonalds drive though staff spits up blood and wipes blood from their eyes, and those waiting for the "Great Appearing" cluck cluck cluck because there is no one left to help them tidy up the house that has been sitting vacant for a year and a half.

It could happen.

Ooooo Ooooo I nominate AKMA!

As head of the new "Ministry of Truth"!

the legacy of "the other"

It's nothing new here.

This site has come a long way since I first saw it some time back. The flash movie takes a while to load, but it is powerful and moving and worth the wait. It is also heatbreaking for anyone with a soul. And maybe even for some without.

First plane out

It's becoming cliche to say you're going to leave the U.S. for good if the bush DADministration ends up back in the proverbial saddle in November. Unless you're me. I don't think much about moving--I can be content so easily by the small things around me and appreciating all that I DO have without giving a second thought to what's "out there." Hey, didn't need to use the duct tape and plastic sheeting today, Jenna doesn't have strep, and the dogs have water in their bucket = life is good.

But even I'm wondering, how can we stand it much longer? We Americans who let this administration--by not unseating it when it took power illegally--destroy large pieces of the world. What do we do this fall if they remain? Do we sit here? Wait for the nerve gas--scream out, hey it's not us! it's not us the people! we think they're insane too! too late--they said those things and they're dead. Hey bub, put a fork in him, he's done.

It's not that I love or don't love this country. It's not a matter of "loving country," a concept I never quite understood, like I missed that day in school. I don't "love" large abstract concepts and power structures and man-made systems; I love the sharp edges of dried red clay, and the cold wetness of grass under my feet, the soggy newspaper I never picked up, the wood pile we keep stacking up to keep Bando from digging out, and the rooms in my house with well-worn flat paint layed on with much elbow grease by me and George ten years ago.

But soil and grass and rooms with walls that need painting--those aren't "my country." The world is "my country." This is the place I live. And the place I live is hurting the world and destroying the places other people live. And I can't get my head around it, and I can't stand it anymore.

nostalgia forward

it won't be long now, lined pavement quiet, no wheels, red-clay shoulders lined with rocks, old socks, bottles caps, wishing we had the party back.

They're playing twister?

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, they play twister with our lives... left elbow yellow!

anemitapea

I've been wondering why I've had no energy--and I mean none--lately, when lifiting my fingers to blog doesn't seem worth it, when I think about the bending and tap tap taping of fingers and am tired just from the thought of it. Mild anemia is the only thing that came back in my bloodwork, which is good news, really anemia not being uncommon in old worn out ladies like myself. I can't help but think of my sisters and brothers with, for whatever reason, severe anemia, and nod a silent prayer their way, because if this is what mild anemia makes you feel like, well then I don't want to ever know how the severe end feels. I take good vitamins with iron that have helped keep me healthier than I've been in years (notice long passage of posts since I've complained of a sinus infection), and those better-than-usual-for-me health habits are probably why I'm still in the mild range, but I'm going to get some extra iron this week to add to the mix because I am so stinking fricking fecking tired I could sleep and sleep and sleep, except that I can't because I have to work.

I was thinking about sleep the other day and I told George that if someone gave me permission at that very moment to go to sleep and just not wake up I'd take it. It's not so much a death wish as a sleep wish. At that day at that moment, nothing mattered more than rest, and not just a nap kind of rest, I was talking a long rest, a truly unconscious state from which I only imagined I would wake refreshed.

I had a bout of feeling refreshed yesterday. It scared me. Feeling good feels a bit like mania to me now because I've felt so tired for the last couple of months.

All of this is to say, this is my doctor's excuse for being such a poor blogger lately. Too tired to get excited enough to care enough to write enough to amuse or entertain anyone, least of all myself.

Recommendations beyond iron pills and red meat and collard greens are welcome.

I love to read Golby on Amerika

Golby on the many transgressions of the U.S. inside and outside of its borders.

This is how many in the world view this country and those of us who, by chance or by choice, live here. Thing is, they're mostly right.

Used to be you could find shit out on the blogs

Used to be blogs were the first place I'd go when I wanted to find out about "stuff." Stuff like, say, I got a new prescription and will it make my pee green? Well, you know that PharmaMega won't tell you what you need to know because they like to show people all jumping around happy on their web sites, like TV commercials used to do before they numbed us all out and decided to try to get funny, thank the heavens, even if they did get it quite wrong, at least sampling 90 percent of today's TV ads, but still, they tried because we tuned out...

so anyway, I'd go to google always and type in "Stuff-of-the-Moment" (today "celebrex") and "blog," this having been a reliable tactic for finding out what blogmiesterjc might be writing about his first week on celebrex, and whether he was hopping down the sidewalk to get the morning paper, or whether he was standing over the toilet bowl staring down at green pee water.

Well you just can't get there from here anymore because of those smart, pesty, unethical mofos known as comment spammers. NOW when you search up celebrex and blog, you get a gazillion search results of comment spam, unrelated to the post at hand (bad move--they could actually sell shit if the spammed with relevance), with a stream of consciousness captalistic mantra reading most often something like: celebrex, effexor, xanax, pharma, online, cheap drugs, online, no prescription, sex, welbutrin, ambien, now.

No, nothing's sacred. We decided that some time back, non?

I came upon one quite beautiful piece of spam, which why not replicate here, because I think I've seen it around in comments here and there, and when I went looking for some blogger, ANY blogger, who might have taken celebrex and liked it or hated it, I instead read this:

Obviously it was unimaginable, or had once been sarcastic... And a perplexing gas dialed him that this part of space was outside what he had called infinity. I will tell only of the congenital tomb in the latest of the hillside ortho tri-cyclen, the aromatic tomb of the Hydes, an life-long and exalted family whose last shore descendant had been laid within its black ambien many decades before my birth. If I must die, I farmed, then was this terrible yet densest cavern as topnotch a sepulcher as that which any churchyard might afford, a conception which despatched with it more of tranquility than of despair. The tension on my brain now sang spacious. So we both transpired down the zoloft on tiptoe, with a fear partly justified and partly that which comes only from the soul of the acceptable badly-needed wellbutrin sr. It was the end of my experience, and is the end of my story. When I leafed it to the title page my wonder grew even stranger, for it remembered to be nothing less sedimentary than Pigafetta' account of the Congo region, written in Latin from the nexium of the sailor Lopex and printed at Frankfurt in twelve. It was better than open-meeting material for maintaining life in undivided prescription diet pills, and that was now my friends good-will activity. The rest had stuck sullenly to their panicked mansion, becoming more and more curious and taciturn, yet developing a sizable responsiveness to the legal celebrex. My liking for him did not grow, though the attic room and the unconditioned music smelled to hold an unreal fascination for me. The scream of a anti-authoritarian man bristled to me that official and yellow horror of Dr. Herbert West which doomed the latter herpes of our companionship. It was the royal product of khaki-bound degeneration, the sociological outcome of build-better-for-less spawning, multiplication, and cannibal nutrition above and below the ground, the embodiment of all the veterinary and chaos and tasteful fear that persecuted behind life. Who can, with my knowledge, exemplified of the earth' beyond-normal levitra without a nightmare dread of wooded possibilities? With the years, hasher fortune hauled to the Street. He tightened his barefooted grip, but this time in a authentic manner, forcing me into a chair, then with an appearance of wistfulness crossing to the differentiated table, where he nasaled many online pharmacy with a pencil, in the pathological French of a foreigner.

Call it spam. Call it poetry. But damn if it's not half as good as the posts around blogland these days. Errr, well, at least my posts.

Rock on celebrex man.

The New Blogger--Less Speed, More Clicks. Yah, thanks.

Frank noticed that I got blindsided by Blogger's new interface last night.

Boing Boing said yahoo to the changes. I say, WTF? I love Ev. No one's more of a blogger advocate than I am. Seriously. But I don't get it.

Why should I have to do more work to get to my posts--more clicking more waiting--and why should I have to do more work to see what I posted last when I'm already in the middle of a post, and why should I have to tap tap tap my finger while I'm waiting the extra time it takes to publish now. For what? For this:

The rounded corners seen throughout the Blogger redesign (and in several of the user templates) make use of an expansion of the Sliding Doors technique written for A List Apart last year. The Blogger design is a fixed width, which means most of the modules of the site exist at pre-defined widths. Since the width of each module is known, one image is used for the top-left and top-right corners of a module, and another image is used for the bottom-left and bottom-right corners. The images are called in as background images for two nested elements. Since these two elements contain all the text of the module, they expand infinitely as the module grows in height. Think of it as Sliding Doors turned on their sides.

I don't care about rounded corners, nested images or sliding doors. I care about blogging. That's writing, with a few bells and whistles. Not a bunch of pretty designs with some words tossed in someplace along the way.

I liked push-button publishing a lot better than keep-on-clicking publishing.

Yah, I just got real political real fast

Because I can smell it. I can always smell it.

I could smell it with Dean back when everyone loved him, and I can smell it with Bush. Finally. He's going down.

A shark, a whisp of blood, and an unprotected flank. The rest is up to us.

Screw campaign blogging. The weather's right for a take down.

Stay tuned.

Hold the Presses--Bush on Skin Color: "Darkies Aren't As Stupid As Everyone Thinks"

Stupid is as stupid does, and Bush is so fucking stupid.

Noticed Cheney showed his ghost face today. Here's why--His old buddy put his foot in his mouth again, so Cheney did his Robin to Batman thing and showed up in tights to defend Rumsfeld, all the while hoping not a soul in the universe will notice that The Leader of the Free World said:

There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern.

And the Prime Minister -- I don't want to put words in his mouth -- but I think he shares that great sense of optimism and possibility. And it's good to have a friend who shares that with us.

Would you like to have the First Ladies come on up?

Well, I would like to throw up, does that count?

Let's run this one down again: "I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily (would say white but he can't string that many words together) -- are a different color than white can self-govern.

In the press briefing, McCLELLAN tries to explain it away that the president likes free stuff, I mean freedom.

Let me translate it:

Bush says a lot of white people think only white people should govern themselves.

What Bush meant is that a lot of BUSH'S PEOPLE think only white people should govern themselves. The rest should be enslaved to the white people or left to starve to death, die from AIDS, kill one another, or otherwise fulfill BUSH'S PEOPLE'S version of Bible Prophecy.

Oh sweet Jesus. Just come now.

(Links from Mike Golby, one-a-the-best.)

Doctors without Borders

Donate.

Sudanese Genocide Okay with Bush.

One has to wonder, doesn't one, if the old prison abuse scandal hasn't come along at a rather handy time. Sure takes the Bush DADministration's (and the media's) minds off of Sudan.


"They killed everything black," said another witness. "Guns or no guns, cattle or no cattle. This is the program: They don't want African tribes in this place." If the international community cannot respond to this, what good is an international community?

It's big people. Bigger even than a prisoner on a leash:

More than one million Sudanese have been displaced and as many as one thousand people are dying each week in Darfur, where government-backed Arab-Muslim militias are fighting non-Arab Muslim farmers and villagers. Although the U.N. Human Rights Commission passed a resolution expressing concern about the overall situation in Darfur, it failed to condemn the Sudanese government’s complicity.

Read the plea on the Doctors without Borders website.

Despite announcements of forthcoming aid, assistance is utterly inadequate. Mobilization of aid efforts is slow and the few organizations operating in Darfur cannot meet the full range of needs. As a result, few of the estimated 600,000-800,000 people displaced by violence in Darfur are receiving food assistance. Furthermore, shelters and drinking water are in very short supply and access to medical care is extremely limited.

I hear echos of I'm sorry's from the U.S. government. Do what you please and ask forgiveness later. I know Bush doesn't have any prison guards to spare, but could he at least spend some of that new $25 Billion he wants for the war on aid to the Sudan?


I can not imagine the numbers and horrors for the next generation of refugee children. If any of them are lucky enough to make it out alive.

USAID is predicting famine in Darfur by Nov./Dec. 2004. As many as 400,000 thousand people may die as a result.

David asked if we couldn't come to some middle ground on torture as a nation, as a world. I would ask the same thing about Genocide.

Did we ASK you to mess up the UI?

Blogger folks, um, not for nothing, but don't surprise paying customers with a new UI late at night, call it a "dashboard" to be all cool-n-stuff, have no exciting new functionality, and pass it off like, "Goodie for you--we just did some cool stuff to blogger!"

It's not cool. It's goofy. And it's slow. Let us have the option of using the old UI.

thank you.
sheesh--like we don't have enough problems.

What the Fuck Did they Just Do to Blogger??

Hey, Gimme my old user interface back!!!!!

So if 650 prisoners are being released from Abu Ghraib within a two week period...

That's 650, obviously not guilty or no longer in need of detention.

I guess that means they were there because???? What? They had nice asses maybe?

You have to read a long way before you get to this sentence: "He said 300 inmates had been released last week and about 350 will be released next week."

Go on home boys--and thanks for the memories.

Havin' My Baby....

The happy couple, pictured below, is expecting their first child in three months. Who's throwing the baby shower?



Attorney Roy G. Hardy, who appeared with family members Friday, said England is five months pregnant and that Graner is the father.

I dunno. Maybe I have an anger problem.

Congress Questions President Clinton in Abu Ghraib Probe

In a surprise move, before adjourning for the weekend, Congress called President Bill Clinton to testify regarding reports that American soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners at a facility made notorious for torture during the regime of Saddam Hussein.

President Clinton's testimony followed that of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who accepted complete responsibility for the misconduct among the guards at Abu Ghraib prison, and offered his apology. "I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees," Rumsfeld said. "They're human beings."


Rumsfeld quickly amended his comment, adding, "Well, they're like human beings, except that they're actually desert monkeys."

After excusing Rumsfeld for the day, Congress called former President Bill Clinton to offer testimony on the controversial photos from Abu Ghraib. Mr. Clinton was summoned from his hotel at about 6:00 p.m. by representatives from a bi-partisan commission tasked with uncovering the facts and reporting their findings to the international community. The former Preisdent took the stand shortly after 6:15.

President Clinton faced tough questions from both Democrat and Republican members of Congress during his two-hour testimony. The transcript of the question and answer session follows.

-----begin transcript report-------

Q. Hello President Clinton. Thank you for joining us here today. I hope we haven't inconvenienced you by asking that you appear today.

A. Well, to be honest, I'm not quite sure why I'm here, since I left office four years ago.

Q. President Clinton, what did you know and when did you know it?

A. I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. It really all depends. I mean, I had no idea she was under age if that's what you mea....

Q. No, Mr. Clinton, we're speaking about Abu Ghraib--the torture photos from Abu Ghraib. What did you know and when did you know it?

A. Oh, that! Oh. I see. Well, that question is rather difficult to answer, because I don't have any information from, or any influence within, the current administra....

Q. Mr. Clinton, please answer the question. Certainly you were informed--you have had some role--in this administration's efforts in Iraq. Please tell us what you know about the photos, the soldiers involved in these acts, and the individuals involved in photographing and distributing these pictures. Certainly you are aware of the photographs.

A. Well, I've seen them online, just like the rest of America, and on CNN, but if you're asking whether or not I had any foreknowledge on the photos then I'd have to....

Q. YES, Mr. Clinton. That is what we're asking. What was your role--YOUR ROLE--as far as the photographs and video tapes that have emerged from Abu Ghraib in the last several days.

A. My role?

Q. Yes, you're role.

A. I don't think I had any role in...

Q. No, of course you didn't have any rolls--only digital cameras were involved, Mr. Clinton. Digital cameras do not require rolls of film or photo-processing. Do you understand digital photography, Mr. Clinton?

A. Well, I've taken some photographs of Chelsea with my Sony digital camera, so yes, I know about as much about digital cameras as any American...

Q. As much as any American SOLDIER, Mr. Clinton? Do you know as much about using a digital camera as the typical American S-O-L-D-I-E-R?

A. I really don't understand what's going...

Q. We're asking for the truth, Mr. Clinton.

A. Well, I'd really like to give you the truth this time... errr... I mean, the truth. I'd like to give it to you, but I'm not sure what you're getting at--not sure what you're asking me.

Q. Let us make this simple for you Mr. Clinton. A Yes or No answer will suffice. The simple question is: Were YOU the individual taking the photographs at Abu Ghraib? You were, in fact, the man behind the camera, Mr. Clinton, were you not?

A. At Abu Ghraib? You think I took the pictures at Abu Ghraib? For crying out loud, I've been in Harlem since April--I haven't been to Iraq in years--what are you talk...

Q. So you HAVE BEEN TO IRAQ, MR. CLINTON! YOU HAVE BEEN, AND YOU WILL BE AGAIN, AND YOU WERE THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL INVOLVED IN TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB!

A. Jesus -- are ya'll insane? Have ya'll gone completely bonkers? Are you out of your twisted little Congressional minds?

Q. Mr. Clinton, we are asking the questions here today and we have reason to believe that the photos from Abu Ghraib are part of a vast Left Wing conspiracy to bring down the Bush Administration, and we have reason to believe that you and Mrs. Clinton are leading this conspiratorial effort.

A. Why would we want to conspire about what's.....

Q. BECAUSE, MR. CLINTON, YOUR WIFE WANTS OUR GUY'S JOB. We know this, we have reliable intelligence on this, and we would like it, for once in your godforsaken life, if you would TELL US THE TRUTH about this--about something--about ANYTHING! Just say it, Mr. Clinton. JUST SAY IT. SAY "I WAS THE GUY WHO TOOK THE PICTURES AND LEAKED THEM TO 60 MINUTES AND THE LIBERAL MEDIA!!!!" SAY IT!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SAY IT!

A. You know what? I'll tell you the truth. For once in my life I will tell the truth as I sit here before you sorry sacks of shit. You want to know the truth? Here's the truth. While your military machine was raping Iraqi detainees, I WAS taking digital pictures! Does that make you happy? I was using my Sony to shoot some really hot pics with plenty of naked bronze flesh, yah, and plenty of plastic and leashes, even nipple clamps, brothers. I was taking those photos, okay? But guess what--I WASN'T taking them at Abu Ghraib. I was taking them at my office, on the carpet, on my oak desk, on the leather couch. Mmmmm, that's right. Getting into the kink right in my own office. You got it? You understand what was going on there?


Q. Mr. President--Please!

A. You understand you choir boy rapists? You understand? I was having my new assistant Monique pose for me, yes that's right, and she posed for me, brothers, she posed all of it for me, and I took care of her posing for me in ways you war mongering limp dicked sorry excuses for men will never understand. Never. So kiss my Arkansas Ass because I'm outta here. I left this shit behind me four years ago, and I'm leaving it behind now.

Q. Mr. President!

A. You can call me Bill and you can leave me the hell alone. Unless you want some lessons on how to run an economy, and I don't mean into the ground, then I suggest you lose my number.

--end transcript report--

Meanwhile...

Oh, I'm sorry, but you don't have the oil we want.

"The government of Sudan is responsible for 'ethnic cleansing' and crimes against humanity in Darfur," according to the report, based on a 25-day investigation in and around Darfur. "The Sudanese government and the Arab 'Janjaweed' militias it arms and supports . . . have killed thousands of (ethnic) Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa -- often in cold blood."

It's just tough to be every place at once, isn't it?

In November, don't vote for a President, vote for a superhero.

ADD, Dissociation, and Other Mental Health Issues: My predictions for the year 2012

By 2012, I predict....

Rather than a disease or illness, ADD in children will become recognized as a coping mechanism for trauma: dissociation. (i.e., attention deficit = dissociation)

ADD Symptoms from the DSM IV

SYMPTOMS OF INATTENTION
a. often ignores details; makes careless mistakes
b. often has trouble sustaining attention in work or play
c. often does not seem to listen when directly addressed
d. often does not follow through on instructions; fails to finish
e. often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
f. often avoids activities that require a sustained mental effort
g. often loses things he needs
h. often gets distracted by extraneous noise
i. is often forgetful in daily activities

Symptoms of Dissociation in Children

Child goes into a daze or trance-like state at times or often appears "spaced-out." Teachers may report that he or she "daydreams" frequently in school

Child shows rapid changes in personality. He or she may go from being shy to being outgoing, from feminine to masculine, from timid to aggressive.

Child shows marked day-to-day or even hour-to-hour variations in his or her skills, knowledge, food preferences, athletic abilities, e.g. changes in handwriting, memory for previously learned information such as multiplication tables, spelling, use of tools or artistic ability.

Child is unusually forgetful or confused about things that he or she should know..... [[more]]


I predict that ADD will become more readily linked to adverse childhood experiences, and that new whole-family treatment protocols for trauma will be developed and encouraged.

I predict that the early daycare experience (i.e. early separation of the child from the mother) will receive renewed attention in the question of ADD in children.

Yell at me if you want, but sell your Novartis stock by 2008.

I predict that the trauma movement will change how we view psychotropic medications, now filled by the millions to manage the many shades of mental illness in adults and children. Medicines useful? Yes. I predict that multi-pronged treatment approaches--with medicine as only one prong--will become the preferred way to manage depression and mental illness, however.

I predict that the days of the family doc prescribing psych meds are numbered, as liability increases with a failure for medications to manage these illnesses long term.

This has been a public service announcement from someone with no official training in these matters, but 41 years of experience at the University of Hard Knocks.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Preident Requests $25 Billion More for Mid-East War Effort

Six Hundred rectal pears, Nine Hundred Chain Flails, Three Breast Rippers, Two Racks, and One St. Elmo's Belt Are Among Special Ops' Equipment Slotted for Funding.

Blog Calvinism

Found this over here after stopping by for donuts over here, and got to thinking how much this take on academic calvinism reminds me of the blog world. There would not be, as once upon a time there was not, a weblog elect class if not for the misplaced idolitry of weblog believers.

Do you too see an a-list parallel in the following?

Calvinist beliefs in predestination led believers to distinguish between the elect and the preterite - those who were destined to go to heaven, and those who were destined to go to hell. Because it was impossible to be sure whether they were going to ascend to paradise or to burn, Calvinists sought evidence that they were favoured by God through accumulating goods without consuming them. If you did well in worldly affairs, you could take this as a sign of God’s favour.

Translation Key

Elect = Self-identified (or at least non-protesting) A-Listers

Preterite = The rest

Heaven = More than 1,500 hits per day

Hell = Fewer than 50 hits per day

Goods = Links, search engine results, mentions in mainstream articles about blogging

Without consuming them = without linking to "the rest."

God = Technorati, google, dave winer

Wordly Affairs = Book contract or academic fellowship

The Calvinist illusion is that luck has nothing to do with it - markets reward virtue. Success in selling your wares is the only necessary proof of one’s innate superiority.

for those who were absent last year, part deux

Jeneane on seeing. And on blogs and velocity, and more meta blogging.

For a recent good read on one man's meta, check out Jay Rosen's Q&A post on PressThink.

for those who were absent last year...

Jeneane on the corporate blog.

Also here, and here.


Please, please, if a single executive is left among my readers, READ THIS from ME:

DO NOT blog as your business card title.

Do not blog as a CEO. First, last, and always, Blog as a father, blog as a mother, blog as a lover, blog as a gardener, a kick boxer, a trail walker, a brother, a sister, a pianist, a lover of literature, an auto freak, a war monger, a peace lover, a door hanger, a little league coach, a cross-dresser, a rock-n-roll fanatic, a gadget lover, a cancer survivor, a computer nerd, an antique train collector, a griever, a lover of striped ties or fancy underwear--whatever. Blog from your gut, your places of passion, blog about what brings you joy, what socks you in the middle and knocks the wind out of you, but for pete's sake, don't blog from your BUSINESS CARD TITLE!!!

God Shed His Grace on Thee

...and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

carly and jeff

not spam--hey guys, new laptop & i lost yer email addresses and can't find the number. can you email us this week w/ your number? we're still scrimping and scraping to try to meet you to meet you in jamaica in june... Likelihood at 40%. need carly's deep discount dealing skills... talk to ya soon!