Look, ma, I'm a post modernist!

I thought I'd copy my comments from another blog. Having a to-do in an Obama section with a shrill leftist. Like I once was. I've not copied my opponents comments but you can surely infer what they were!

There hasn't been a mass movement with any political impact in this country since the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, with the possible exception of the right-wing evangelical churches. The US just doesn't work that way, no matter how much the left wishes it did.

---

The Vietnam war ended because a) the North Vietnamese military was winning, b) the costs vs benefits for the American government didn't add up and c) the US wanted to be pals with China against the Soviet Union and withdrawal from VIetnam was part of the ticket. Sadly, the antiwar movement--which I completely supported and participated in--was not effectual and imploded into cultural and political disarray and demoralization. Its more serious elements were subverted by the state.

I don't mean to condemn the idea of mass movements. It's just the hyperbole of the left clouds the very real history of defeat after defeat due in large part because the left has no actual message nor actionable methodology besides being against "bad" things and for "good" things. The left routinely stomps its feet, winds up handing what little power it has to democrats, and is left sitting alone in the dust.

The left's role is little more than a steam valve for unhappiness, and a fairly irrelevant steam valve at that. Sad, but the way it is. No amount of sounding super revolutionary will cover up the left's complete failure to intersect with the consciousness of Americans.

LIke it or not, the real choice for Americans right now in this plane of reality is Obama vs. McCain. I now who I'm choosing. How about you?

--

1) the immigration movement is made up of people who (laudably) just don't want to be deported. either its members will be deported or they will gain citizenship. end of movement.

2) abortion was made legal by an action of the supreme court; an action made possible by evolving consciousness not the (laudable) declarations of the feminist movement. ERA? Yeah that didn't happen did it.

3) the GLBT community is not a movement. as you can plainly see here on JMG it's about as politically diverse as humanly possible. yes Stonewall gave us some gumption. When I first moved to NYC there was a big gay political movement which I was extremely active in. You know what? They're mostly dead, my friends on the left and foes on the right. Our progress as a community came from the recognition of our humanity, and it pains me to say this, not because being gay was a revolutionary act or because of a serious of movement-based victories.

My point, and sorry for drawing this out, is that it's not the shouting that wins

Barack Hussein Osama?

This hilarious slice of satire on the upcoming New Yorker is, to my mind, the perfect distillation of right-wing American stupidity. Sadly, in going over the heads of those morons who actually do believe Obama is a muslim, it's not hard to imagine it becoming un-ironic rightwing propaganda.

Obama casts a disgusting vote

Quite unnecessarily, Barack Obama has cast his vote in favor of the senate bill revising FISA to allow warrentless wiretaps and grant immunity against telecommunications companies who cooperated with Bush's justice department and might be prosecuted for violating the law during Bush's reign of illegality.

Even Hillary Clinton had the sense to vote against this bill. By casting this vote, Obama has betrayed his original opposition to the war, and made the same capitulation to Bush's violations of the constitution that Congress has made over and over, repeatedly enabling the rule of lying scumbags without apparent threat of reproach.

I'm truly disgusted.

Which One the War Hero, Which One the Criminal?

There's been a big flap over John McCain and his war record. It started when former U.S. general (and now Democrat) Wesley Clark stated that McCain's years in a prison camp in Vietnam after being shot down didn't automatically grant him the experience necessary for the office of president. While some people--mostly right-wingers--went on to suggest some duplicity in McCain's POW time, most everybody, including Democratic candidate Obama went on to laud McCain's service and say it should never be questioned or criticized. McCain's time as a POW and veteran makes him a hero, they said.

Well I for one would beg to differ.

What, exactly, was John McCain doing when he was shot down over North Vietnam during the U.S. war of aggression? Was he delivering humanitarian messages? Dropping toys and candies to babies? Perhaps enlightening Vietnamese with peace propaganda? I think not. John McCain was a military officer on a bombing mission aimed at killing innocent people and destroying Vietnam's civilian infrastructure. He owes the debt of his life, saved by Vietnamese rescuers who McCain continued to call "Go*ks" well into his post-war political life, to those he was mercilessly trying to murder.

In my opinion this does not qualify McCain for the role of hero. He was not some unfortunate draftee forced to serve thousands of miles from home. He was a career military man, an officer not an enlisted man, a member of military management, if you will, plotting and carrying out the near genocidal war the US waged against the Vietnamese using all manner of weapons including chemical weapons and weapons that had no possible intended function but the maxiumum extermination of civilian life. McCain belongs not in the white house but in prison.

Nguyen Van Troi (1947-1964) was a young South Vietnamese man who, acting for the National Liberation Front--the so-called Viet Cong--attempted to assassinate Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, who were both visiting Vietnam scheming to increase US military commitments to the corrupt South Vietnamese dictatorship. Van Troi was executed at the age of 17.

Now THAT is a hero of the Vietnam war.

Thomas Disch, 1940-2008

Writer Thomas Disch has died. Apparently bereft over ill-health and the death of his partner, the speculative fiction writer committed suicide.

His "On Wings Of Song" is one of my favorite books. I'm saddened that a writer so important to my growing up is gone. But I feel clueless in somehow not actually knowing before that Disch was gay. I guess I must have assumed it in some way: the sexuality in "On Wings Of Song" is so true and clear it could only have come from a gay man. The book tells the story of a near future--now even closer and easier to see--when right-wing religious fundamentalists rule the land, when food shortages force people to eat doggie kibble, and when people find comfort in artists embracing and re-envigorating outdated forms of art or in transcendant drug-like states. It's a funny book, and a tragic one, but its hints of gay identity meant a lot to me as a young man and I read and re-read it many times.

Thanks Thomas Disch. May you find peace.

Oh No He Didn't.....

Un believable item on the Huffington Post.

So the PRESIDENT of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is having a state visit with President Bush and this is what he says:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

He is referring, of course, to his kitchen help. The mind boggles.

And now a few words about John McCain

Sheer awesomeness.

The Democrats' Future War Problem

Several things have been evident on the world stage lately. First, the Iraq "war" is on hold until Bush leaves office. The pro-Iran Shi'a government has been trying to wrestle authority from the pro-Iran Shi'a militias including Sadr's Jaish Al-Mahdi, and while sections of Sadr city have been destroyed or turned into walled ghettos, mostly the militias have backed down rather than stand and fight. Both Shi'a forces have been busy denouncing the U.S., who continues to sprinkle the country with money. The various Sunni forces have decided to milk the occupation for money and guns, establishing their own mini-states while they wait out Shia-U.S. drama. And meanwhile, the conflict in Afghanistan has been heating up and spilling over into Pakistan.

Since the U.S. and its Nato "allies" have taken over the job of fighting mujahedeen from the Soviets, it's increasingly evident what a trap Afghanistan is for imperialism and neocolonialism. Unable to root out the bases of so-called terrorists, or even to dislodge the Taleban medievalists, the mightiest war machine ever is about to find itself stuck in the same mud that helped destroy the Soviet Union.

Assuming Obama wins, and assuming he actually withdraws American forces from Iraq even as the violence restarts, Afghanistan will remain as dangerous quicksand. Since most Americans, even liberals and leftists--yours truly notwithstanding--believe somehow that the U.S. and Nato are doing something good in Afghanistan by punishing the 9/11 planners or preventing their resurgence, they will follow this colonial adventure blindly until it's too late to see it for what it is. Now Obama gains points for saying that the conflict in Afghanistan should be escalated while the one in Iraq should be ended. What's gonna happen if it turns out that Afghanistan is the real Vietnam here, not Iraq?

I think it's predictable that the mildly modernizing puppet Karzai regime will come to the same end as the succession of home-grown communist regimes that the Soviets rushed in to bolster. Surely the Taleban was odious and its policies abhorrent. (Though I still recall its first mention in the NY Tiems years back when it was presented as some band of religious students trying to end corruption and bring peace and a golden age to Afghanistan as it struggled to drive out the mujahedeen warlords between the occupations of great powers.) But surely the lessons of colonialism and imperialism and its meddling shows that the medicine is always as bad if not worse than the nativist brutality it seeks to remedy.

Let so-called terrorists be dealt with as a law-enforcement problem. Let the Afghan and Iraqi peoples determine their own destinies. And let the armies of imperialism be brought home... there's a country to be rebuilt. Yeah, that swords into plowshares bit sounds damned good.

A Little Reality Check

So after his briliant speech last night, upon his apparent win of the Democratic Party nomination, Obama today joined the parade of politicians kowtowing before the (conservative, republican) zionist confab AIPAC.

Sadly, Obama said noxious things like Jerusalem must remain "undivided" and the capital of Israel, and went out of his way to show his support of Jews by showing his support of toughness for Israel and against its victims, er, opponents.

One of the tragedies of Israel is what it has done to the America's Jews. The Jewish political establishment is no longer an institution of social justice or labor; it's a cheering section for the vile and racist zionist settler state. Just as America is turned blind to the racism, futility and organized-crime-enablement of the war on drugs, so does this knee-jerk support of Israel turn peace-loving people into the allies of monsters who use cluster bombs, apartheid/nazi style ghettos, nazi-style collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, land-stealing, and military confrontation.

I'm glad Obama says he "supports the Jews" but I am horrified that he is doing the same old dance of stupidity to the orchestra of Zionism. One should not need to prostrate oneself before the state of Israel to show one's commitment to social justice for all American ethnic groups. No matter how much Obama is forced to grovel, these war-mongering conservative Zionists will not support him anyway; they are too poisoned by their cheerleading of the up-is-down politics of Zionism. They have moved on from the civil rights movement and the black-Jewish alliance of old time social justice.

On the other hand, since I don't really believe in a two-state solution, I guess Jerusalem should remain undivided. As capital of a democratic and secular state of Palestine, open to all its Muslim, Christian and Jewish residents. One can only hope.

President-To-Be Barack Obama!

That pretty much says it. Barack Obama has received enough delegates in the flawed and corrupt democratic party system to be the party's nominee in November.

He's not perfect, and it's gonna be a hard fight against the republicans (and hopefully not any more against the Clintonites), but, God bless him, I think he's got a chance to be president. What a potential revolution in American society we are in store for.

The audacity!

Obama in 2008!

get out get out get out get out

Shockingly, Hillary Clinton did not concede tonight. It is past time for this self-serving unprincipled carpetbagger to go.

ENOUGH!

Honor for Heroes of the Past

Today, May 19th, is the birthday of two long-gone heroes.

Malcolm X, of course, was the heroic African-American muslim leader who made a long journey from being a petty street criminal to devout muslim to "black nationalist" to a leader with a complex and nuanced view of American capitalism. An amazing orator, he was gunned down in his prime by assassins rejecting his political evolution, including, allegedly, the later minister Louis Farrakhan.

Ho Chi Minh, on the other hand, did not die young. A complex figure, he lead his small nation to stand up against the mightiest powers of colonialism and imperialism in 20th-century history. Successfully resisting French, Japanese, and American domination of his country, he died before the reunification of Vietnam and the route of America's military adventure. While his adherence to Stalin-style communism considerably narrowed the focus of his country's political opposition, his humble nature and heroic leadership showed that destiny was not in the hands of European-American aggressors and their gangster-like local lackeys.

Assassination Humor

Yes, that's former serious Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, speaking to the NRA, joking about how funny it would be if somebody tried to assassinate Barack Obama. And also, what a sissy Obama is. Wait til you hear the jokes Huckabee cracks when he visits the American bed linens and rope manufacturers associations. Hil-ar-ious.

Seriously, WTF. What is wrong with this country.

In better news, if my boyfriend and I lived in California we could get married. Yay!

Hillary Says Obama Only Supported by Lazy Ni**ers

In an interview with USA today, Hillary Clinton said:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Um, did I really read that right? Why do the following lyrics pop into my head about now....

I was working part time in a five-and-dime
My boss was Mr. McGee
He told me several times that he didn't like my kind
'Cause I was a bit 2 leisurely

Seems that I was busy doing something close 2 nothing
But different than the day before

Newly released photos of weapons of mass destruction

A fascinating set of photos, found on an unknown camera, has been released after a 60-year embargo on publication. They're of the aftermath of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and unlike most published photos, show the human aftermath and not just damaged buildings. They're hard to look at, but as we contemplate Hillary Clinton's pledge to obliterate Iran they're a useful reminder that one nation--not Iran, not the old Soviet Union--has used nuclear weapons of mass destruction against civilian targets and that nation is the U.S.A.

The collection can be seen here.

The War on Children.

Literally.

Above, a fatally wounded child removed from a building demolished by a US airstrike in Baghdad. This week.

Below, the "collateral damage" (read: murder) from a US missile strike on an alleged "terrorist" in Somalia. From the BBC:

"We heard a huge explosion and when we ran out of our house we saw balls of smoke and flames coming out of house," Dusamareb resident Nur Geele told the BBC.

"The house was totally destroyed to the ground, also other houses nearby," local elder Ahmed Mumin Jama said.

Dr Ahmed Mahdi at Dusamareb Hospital told the BBC he was treating eight civilians, including women and children, for burns and shrapnel wounds.

"The house that was attacked was a small concrete villa and it has been destroyed," he said. "The adjacent houses which were made from traditional mud were also destroyed. The sight is quite horrific."

One of the women has since died, bringing the death toll so far to 11.

Yessir, proud to be an American. Due process. Right to a fair trial.

Jump, ni**er, jump!

The sad spectacle of media crucifixion of Barack Obama continues. When Obama first responded to the media/Clintonite uproar over the rev. Jeremiah Wright with his speech on racism, he took the high road. Making an emotional and intellectual appeal for clarity and realism on the subject of race, Obama's Philadelphia speech was compared by the media to JFK and MLK. For a moment.

But the manufactured Wright "controversy" did not end there. The attacks continued. Not in a way that actually debated anything said by Rev. Wright, or any position actually held by Obama, but in the way of insinuation and implication. Obama was even asked how patriotic Wright actually was.

I've heard and read some very thoughtful explorations of this subject. Usually, the more of Rev. Wright's sermonizing and speechifying they play the better and better he sounds. I agree with most everything Ive heard him say, and that which I don't agree with, I completely understand why he would say.

But then Wright came out of his period of silence, and repeated many of the things he had said before. And the media, beholden to the corrupt political establishment that has bought and purchased it over the last few years, basically forgot everything Obama had said and started repeating the same old nonsense.

Nevermind that Hillary Clinton organizes a prayer breakfast led by a right-wing cultist, or attends a church that codifies and institutionalizes bigotry against gays. Nevermind that McCain sought out the endorsement of a super-rightwing nutcase preacher who, in addition to his anti-gay hatred, organizes Christians to support Israel to help bring the apocalypse closer. Nevermind that the North Carolina governor pretty much used a mild form of the word "faggot" ("pansy") when he was endorsing Clinton and she offered no distance or protest.

But the media called Obama to eat shit and throw his former pastor under the bus. And sadly, that is what Obama did. "Jump!" they said. And he did. And now he will discover, I fear, that they just wanted to see if he would jump. They will continue to say "Jump! Ni**er! Jump!" and each time Obama will be sadly disappointed he's really not welcome at the party at all. The racism he hopes to transcend has just been mashed in his face.

I'm disappointed that Obama didn't find a way to transcend this circus of crucifixion. I don't know, of course, if it will be fatal to his campaign. I hope not. It doesn't change my support, which is as strongly qualified as it is strong. But if I was in Chicago, I know damned well I'd be trying to find where Jeremiah Wright was preaching now. I may not be a Christian but I do know who's on the side of the righteous.

God DAMN America.

Sean Bell, murder victim

The name Sean Bell can now be added to the growing and tragic list of innocent people murdered, with the full support of the law, and for no real reason, by New York City policemen. A Queens judge has just found the officers indicted in his death not guilty.

A sad sad day for justice and the people of New York.

one giant prison

So last month or so it was announced that ONE PERCENT of the American population is behind bars. Yes, one in every hundred people. Today it was announced that the absolute number of people behind bars in the US is the highest in the world. Yes, higher than the number of people in prison in China, which has a population well over one billion people.

Statistics show that over 50 percent of the people in prison are there for drug-related offenses, which is complete madness.

Hey, it's a free country!

"we will obliterate them"

Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. ABC News' Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Nice way to go after Jewish votes? To prove you're tough? How about answering with truth like, "Iran doesn't actually have nuclear weapons." Or saying, "The middle-east should be nuclear-free."

It's tragic, really, how beholden to Israel politicians are. Even Barack Obama has taken some really disgusting positions on the subject. When former President Carter recently visited with Hamas leaders in exile in Syria, even Obama condemned him for meeting with "terrorists."

Will Israel be the destruction of any progressive movement in the US?

Bitter? Damn right I'm bitter.

So Barack Obama said that voters in Pennsylvania have become bitter over years of failed promises. War criminal lunatic McCain and my (hah!) senator Clinton are condemning him for being an elitist, for not saying that Pennsylvania voters are optimistic.

Well well well. Let's talk about bitter. Let's talk about elitist. Let's talk about optimism.

Laid off after giving 16 years to a single company because of a crappy economy and because american corporate culture is closer to that of medieval feudalism than 21st-century democracy? You bet I'm bitter. Reading the news and reading casualty reports of an american war, and seeing pictures of americans smashing in the doors of innocent civilians and bombing the fuck out of a country just like the vietnam war I witnessed in my childhood? you bet I'm bitter. A senator who has nothing better to do but feather her own multi-million dollar nest, support fascistic resolutions against flag burning, war against Iraq and threats against Iran, who coddles the racist swine of the zionist movement like they were tonguing her asshole? You bet I'm bitter. A president who has in eight years nearly destroyed the constitution, yes I'm bitter. A population who has been hypnotized into thinking voting for American Idol is more important than voting for President, who re-elected Bush and is actually considering voting for a senile right-wing pig like McCain? You bet I'm bitter.

A presidential candidate who sat on the board of Wal-Mart for 5 years and who, with her husband, made ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS in seven years dares to call someone ELSE elitist? You bet I'm bitter. Who has danced around flinging shit and negativity and had her surrogates toy with racism and loaded language and she has the nerve to say now that Obama doesn't understand how OPTIMISTIC the voters are? Yeah I'm fucking bitter.

A man running for PRESIDENT who doesn't even understand who is fighting who in the war he suggests continue for A HUNDRED YEARS and people are gonna vote for him and he says Obama is OUT OF TOUCH? Jesus H fucking Christ.

I don't know how Obama does it. To stay so positive, to avoid getting sucked into this swamp of disguting garbage. I admire him. Me, I want to set something on fire. Maybe I'm just gonna go back to listening to jazz. Better for my heart.

Vote for Obama. Your life depends on it. Heck MY life depends on it.

Hillary Clinton's Line of Bullshit on Iraq

Hillary Clinton is now trying to position herself as "more anti-war" than Barack Obama. Leaving aside for the moment the fact that unlike Obama, Clinton helped start the war in the first place--and that's some big thing to set aside--here's what Clinton said in December:

Hillary Clinton: Goal to remove all troops from Iraq by 2013, but no pledge
Q: In 2006, Democrats were elected to the majority in the House and Senate, and many believed that was a signal to end the war. You have said that will not pledge to have all troops out by the end of your first term, 2013. Why not?

A: It is my goal to have all troops out by the end of my first term. But it is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting. We do not know, walking into the White House in January 2009, what we're going to find. What is the state of planning for withdrawal? That's why last spring I began pressing the Pentagon to be very clear about whether or not they were planning to bring our troops out. And what I found was that they weren't doing the kind of planning that is necessary, and we've been pushing them very hard to do so. You know, though, about the Democrats taking control of the Congress, I think the Democrats have pushed extremely hard to change this president's course in Iraq. The Democrats keep voting for what we believe would be a better course.

I think it's a fair criticism of Obama to say he is waffling a little on his exact plans to end the war. Kucinich and Richardson, who both pledged to remove troops immediately, with none of this ridiculous "slow draw-down" crap, had a better position. This is a tremendous failing of the Democrats. But at worst, Obama has the same position as Clinton, who as shown above has waffled plenty. I have suggested she could easily be the LBJ of this war before, and I say it again.

Her current posture on the war is solely political. Her actions, as shown by her capitulation to Bush's war drive 6 years ago, speak louder than what she's currently saying. The war must be ended, immediately. Clinton will simply not do that. The proof of this pudding is in her vote for the Lieberman/Kyl amendment, virtually granting to Bush the power to go to war with Iran that she granted him to go to war with Iraq.

Om Mani Padme Hum?

Shangri-La is under attack! The holy spiritual people of Shangri-La are being oppressed! The Oympic torch must be stopped!

Well I must point out with all the hullaballoo about the Beijing Olympic torch and the unrest in Tibet, that in American liberal fascination with Tibet, the Dalai Lama, Buddhist spirituality, and the certainty of its self-righteousness opposition to oppression in foreign countries, not everything is what it seems.

Tibetan Buddhism surely is a wonderful spiritual path, and while I have heard that the Dalai Lama has some unfortunate views on homosexuality, as a religious person outside the mainstream of Abrahamic tradition I throw no stones at its belief system or adherents.

However, I would point out that his supporters in the west seem to be endorsing a medieval theocracy with a documented and unglorious history of slavery and feudalism. I say to these supporters of Tibet the same thing I would say to supporters of Israel: if you believe separation of church and state is a defining principle of modern democracy in the United States, you need to believe the same thing about separation of church and state in other countries, no matter how like Shangri-La you imagine them.

It may be that the Chinese are oppressive to the Tibetan people, and Tibetan autonomy and self-determination is no doubt a laudatory goal. I don't excuse the subjugation of peoples. But the smashing of a brutal and backwards feudal theocracy? Go Chinese People's Liberation Army!

To the Americans caught up in protests of the Olympics, I say, your main enemy is at home. You want to help the people of Darfur? You want to help the Tibetans? End US imperialism and international corporate rape. Dismantle the CIA. Remove American troops from Korea. Remove American troops from the middle east.

Here's an interesting perspective on Tibet.

My Second Choice for President

The Moment passed

Forty Years

Forty years ago today, one day after giving his prophetic "mountain top" speech, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a white supremacist in Memphis.

I remember as a boy of nine hearing the news on the radio. The high-school student who looked after me til my mom got home from work told me she was worried what would happen at her school the next day. That evening we walked to the corner and looked down the broad avenue we lived near in super-segregated Chicago. The black neighborhood down the way was on fire.

The world lost a great great man that day. May his spirit shine forever.

Embrace of the War Criminals

Americans seem to have a dangerous weakness for doddering old fools.

It needs to be said, Senator John McCain is not some kind of liberal republican maverick. He is a dangerous right-wing scumbag. John McCain was bombing civilian and military targets in North Vietnam during the American war of aggression against Vietnam. When he was shot down, he was rightfully and justly imprisoned. Neck deep in the blood of murdered innocent Vietnamese--who he proudly called "Gooks" until just a few years ago--John McCain is not some war hero but a war ciminal.

McCain's recent and repeated comment about Al Qaeda returning to Iran to rearm and retrain is not an excusable confusion, it is either senile dementia, stupidity, or more of the same duplicitous manipulation of American ignorance about the world that we've had from 8 years of the corrupt Bush regime.

Over and over again John McCain has shown a willingness to embrace the worst of nascent American fascism, the so-called "conservative" movement. LIkely to die in office before his term is up, he is clearly also a kind of trojan horse for dengerous right-wing forces. Look to his vice presidential candidate to see who, in fact, the Blackwater/Oil company corporate axis truly seeks to entrust with the reins of corrupt corporate state power.

Beware.

President Bush Arrested, to Stand Trial

President Bush was jailed today after a citizens' delegation arrested him for war crimes, sedition, and crimes against the humanity. Several other members of his former administration were also jailed. Vice President Cheney is not, howeer, expected to recover from the stroke he suffered shortly after being taken into the people's custody.

A congessional delegation has travelled to the United Nations, where a representative is to tomorrow deliver a statement entitled "we apologize to the world."

In other news, shares in the Trans-middle-east Plowshares Corporation increased in value today after a donation of American weapons of mass destruction to the Jerusalem-based scrap metal corporation.

sadder landmark

dead Iraqis: previous post x 20? x30? x40? x50? who knows?

sad landmark

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A Guide To Campaign English

The following translations may be helpful to observers of the 2008 elections:

"Obama is inexperienced" = Obama is a negro and therefore can't be trusted (funny, no one ever called John Edwards inexperienced. why is that??)
"Obama is arrogant" = Obama is an uppity ni**er

Presidential Candidate Embarassed by Association to Bigoted Institution

"I have always had a deep personal faith that was rooted in the Methodist church in large measure because I was christened into it, I grew up in it. But, it also very much reflected how I thought about faith as I matured. You know, if you look at the Methodist book of discipline it talks about the four contributing streams of faith -- scripture, tradition, experience and reason. I always resonated to the fact that it was both revelatory and scripture-based but that you were invited to use your power of reason to think through your faith and to work through what it meant to you and how you would live it in your daily life."
--Hillary Clinton

"While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.....The General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church] shall be responsible for ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. The council shall have the right to stop such expenditures. "
--From the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church.

And now some fresh air:
“I refuse to limit my God, to lock God into my cultural understandings because culture is fickle,” Wright said. “And culture is often wrong. Culture was wrong about slavery. Culture was wrong about women. Culture was wrong about Africans and Indians, and culture was wrong about Christ,” he said. “I have been the pariah among many of my clergy colleagues who somehow see me as defective or not quite saved because I won’t join them in their homophobic gay bashing and misquoting of scripture.” (Rev. Jeremiah Wright)

Link removed

Well it saddens me a little but I've removed the link on my blogroll to Joe.My.God. I've enjoyed reading the blog for a while now, but I think it has crossed the line recently and I can't really endorse it even for entertainment.

It's proved recently that racism is indeed rampant in the gay male community, a sad fact I guess I had forgotten. Sorry Joe. I can suffer through the shilling for Hillary but not the racism.

You Have To Want It To Be Different

Barack Obama delivered an important speech today on race in America and the racial issues surrounding his campaign.

There's a couple things in his speech I disagree with, but I have to say I am truly impressed with it. In the face of all the Hillary Clinton supporters flinging mud and negativity at his campaign, Obama consistently makes the same point over and over again: if you want change to come, you have to find common ground to stand with all people and make the effort to make things different.

Having watched a few of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's speeches floating around on the internets (and one can guess which campaign is helping to distribute these) I'm struck by how wide the gulf is between those who share Rev. Wright's point of view--and frankly I find far more to agree with in his fiery sermons than to disagree with--and those who are offended by them. I think Obama has struck an important balance in his approach to this controversy.

As a person with strong beliefs far to the left of the general point of view, I'm willing to set my disbelief and distrust aside and say I will vote for this man, with hope, and optimism. I call on those with opinions far to the right of me, or of Barack Obama even, to meet me in that middle ground.

I don't agree with Obama's statement herein on Israel; but you know what? Somebody with my beliefs on the middle east isn't going to be elected president of the united states.

It is so time for change, and Barack Obama is perhaps the only person who can deliver us from the dire precipice we find ourselves on.

Vietnam-War Avoider Has Career Regret

From a George Bush videoconference with military leaders in Afghanistan:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

If only he had stayed home reading Rudyard Kipling instead of being responsible for the murder of thousands.

wow.

Keith Obermann really calls out Hillary Clinton over Geraldine Ferraro. Impressive.

of seminaries, yeshivas, and madrassas

So just to get it out of the way, a massacre of students in a school is a pretty awful thing, even if that school was a training ground for the racist ultra-zionist Israeli settler movement. It's despressing to think that the soul-deadening mathematical response is necessary, but I point out that Israel just killed a hundred people in Gaza, certainly no less an awful thing, the disgusting display of official Israeli "regret" at civilian casualty notwithstanding. (I always learned that regretting something meant you intended not to do it again. The Israeli "regret" is complete and utter racist bullshit.)

All of that said I find it fascinating that the attack on the school was immediately reported as an attack on a seminary. One could argue that seminary is a fair translation for yeshiva. But then isn't it a fair translation for madrassa as well?

A seminary is full of earnest young spiritual seekers, learning the details of faith so that they might commit their lives to prayer and betterment of mankind. A yeshiva is a walled-off temple of mystery, where weirdly-dressed quaint, if somewhat distasteful strangers go to engage in weird mumbling, seeking ancient knowledge to preserve their alien presence in the world of normal people. A madrassa is a nest of terrorist vipers, where they keep their machine guns and scimitars (the ones for cutting off human heads), where crazed and delusional fanatics rouse themselves into an anti-human frenzy before going off and murdering innocents.

The problem here is that seminaries, yeshivas, and madrassas are all the same thing, just as all blood is red. It's really the problem, isn't it, with discussions of the middle east, that the mathematics of this tragedy and its translation are in the hands of manipulators, liars, and killers, and the ones who love them.

dearth of posts

Sorry so little posting of late. Been spending more time on my other blog, which keeps me pretty happy. Anyway, check it out.

Lessee: good news, Obama leads in delegate counts. Bad news, Clinton is still in the race. It's pretty discouraging to see her machine in action. I just don't understand how people fall for it. Bad news, war in Iraq still on. Good news, kittens are still cute.

(rant on islamophobia)

I love blogs. Everybody's got one. I know the person who read mine the most is me!

So I'm saving my latest rant from the comments of Joe.My.God. cause it took me a while to write and for once I feel reasonably articulate.

Apologies if--for shock--anybody has actually followed a link from JMG expecting to read something new here. Gasp!

---

(the subject was an anglican predicting sharia in england)

OK. I'll be the one.

I am so fucking sick of this islamo-phobia. I enjoy JMG, but if you get your knowledge of islam or world-events from this ZOMG!!1! React-to-this-immediately medium, you're doing yourself a disservice.

I live in Brooklyn, in a very mixed but mostly latin neighborhood. About ten blocks away is a super-super orthodox jewish neighborhood. The men wear slippers, long beards, weird hats, long coats. The women wear the jewish equivalent of the burka: wigs, long skirts. The kids are well-behaved. The shops close early on Friday and stay closed on Saturday. There are strings high up on poles around the blocks to mark off the eruv. There are jewish schools and jewish doctors and jewish everything else....and jewish social custom ruling the way the entire community acts. And you know what? These people are happy. They're not hurting anybody. They're not threatening anybody.

Now their beliefs are not my beliefs. You can argue that an ultra-orthodox man who wakes up and realizes he's gay faces awkward choices of removing himself from his community or enduring the closet or disapproval. And eventually I believe enough ultra-orthodox gay jews will get around to building a community where no one is forced to make that choice. But the problem is NOT that jews want to live in a world of cultural comfort. There are ultra-orthodox jews who would like to dictate NY city law, like Noach Dear and his opposition to gay marriage, and that's wrong. But screwing things up for the rest of us is NOT what MOST jews in this very self-contained community spend their time doing.

This is all that's fucking happening in England with the muslims except it's new. Nobody's talking about cutting the hands off thieves in muslim Liverpool, or stoning pakistani gay boys to death in London. Joe, give me a break. You're really baiting controversy here.

You wanna go out and learn something about islam, do so (I recommend a book by a guy named Reza Aslan I'm pretty sure is a gay muslim called "No god but God".) It's not my religion. I understand many of you don't like any religion, and I can't argue with that. Although I do have a religion, I understand religion has mostly treated us like trash. I'm not apologizing for that.

But this hysteria is just ridiculous. Islam is just the new "other" in the next neighborhood over. Let's welcome them and convince them some of western secularism is good, without threatening their religion.

And let's stop this stupid fucking ignorant racist ridiculousness. The world is changing. Help make it better.

Yes we can!

On Super Duper Tuesday February 5, vote for Barack Obama.

Awesome Erykah Badu video

so cool. classic record covers come to life. Thanks to 4 brothers beats blog for turning me on to this.

Obama Routs Hillary in SC

Barack Obama got 55% of the vote in the democratic party primary in South Carolina. That's pretty damn impressive.

Things are likely to get uglier though. Check out this headline on Time.com

"Obama's Rout Rejiggers The Race"

Rejiggers? Are they kidding...has anyone ever seen this word in a headline before? I understand that it's not actually an offensive word but doesn't it sounds like they might as well say "Ni**er Wins" or "Ji**aboo Takes SC". The depth of American racism is gonna reveal itself in a huge way.

Check out this shocking headline from the Hamptons Independent reported on Gawker: "Why I Should Be Your Next President, by Yo Mama bin Barack." This from the enlightened liberal northeast's resort community on Long Island.

On to Super-Duper Tueday.

Share the Joy

So I have become completely fascinated by music blogs. There are a bunch of music-sharing download blogs out there. Some of them are all about people ripping off the system, and it's actually shocking what you can avoid paying for if you look hard enough. I understand now why the record industry is in trouble: it's clear a new money-making paradigm is needed.

I don't approve of downloading just to get something for free. Musicians deserve to be paid for their labor, just like the rest of us, and unfortunately for them they have to share their income with big record companies.

But there are a lot of music blogs that I think are actually doing the artists a bit of a favor, and these are the ones who rip long-out-of-print vinyl that's not currently available on CD reissue and share it with other music heads. There's a big community of "other music" fans out there after '70s jazz and rare groove, lost psychedelic folk, prog rock from all over the world, you name it. I know I spend a fortune on CD reissues, and hopefully some of those profits go off to the artists. But meanwhile, rather than paying exhorbitant amounts for scratchy used vinyl, there's this whole group of people that's all about sharing sounds and rescuing them from obscurity. Hopefully in so doing they're creating a demand that might generate legit CD reissues for deserving artists from back in the day.

Here's some cool links. As near as I can tell, none of these sites link to downloads that cheat anybody.

* My Jazz World
Great lost jazz sides wth an emphasis on the seventies. The blogger has a taste for organ-based soul jazz and smooth-fusion which I don't share, but he also has some awesome rare groove nuggets up for share.

* Loronix
The most amazing collection of Brazilian albums from bossa to MPB to prog to pop, from the 1950s to the 1980s.

* Abracadabra
More incredible lost Brazilian music.

* Hippy Djkit
Lost psychedelic folk and prog folk and rock with a counterculture sensibility.

* Orgy In Rhythm
Obscure rare groove jazz site.

* Disco Delivery
Amazing disco site. This guy really researches and analyzes the music he shares. A real labor of love.

* Ile Oxumare
Promising new jazz site.

Enjoy!

Barack Obama For President

New York's primary in the 2008 presidential election cycle is part of "Super Duper Tuesday" on February 5. After much consideration, I have finally decided to cast my vote for Barack Obama on the Democratic Party ticket, and I urge readers to do the same.

It must be said right off that the Democratic Party is twin partner to the Republican Party, and as long as Americans are shackled to the good-cop-bad-cop routine with which these two corrupt bastions of American imperialism have enforced the will of the mlitary-industrial complex for the greater part of this country's history, we will be repeating an endless cycle of tragedy and disappointment, leading, eventually, to some disastrous collapse of self-avowed democracy to dictatorial despotism. However, someone will win the 2008 elections, and, however sad the fact might be, that person will not be cast up from the ranks of the righteous. That person will not even be a radical reformist in the mold of congressman Dennis Kucinich, nor a third-party critic like former Democrat Cynthia McKinney. That person will be a Democrat or Republican, and I believe that we are all better off--especially given the future composition of the Supreme Court--that that person be a Democrat. In a field of Democrats I believe the best choice is Senator Obama.

Barack Obama is not perfect. As for the global dominance of American capitalism and imperialism, from foreign interventionism including unquestioned bolstering of the State of Israel, to the ridiculous privatization of health and government services, to the tragic repressive waste that is so-called war on drugs, Obama's allegiance to the status quo is writ plainly and clearly. I do not argue that he is a revolutionary, nor even on the order of social heroes of the past who likewise shared a commitment to American capitalism despite their heroic challenges to the worst of American excess like the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

Sadly many of the reasons to vote for Obama are negatives. The biggest of these is to deter NY Senator and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. At this writing Clinton and Obama are engaged in a somewhat bizarre LBJ vs MLK role-playing exercise. If Obama is no MLK, Clinton is unfortunately all too LBJ-like, and that should concern anyone whose priority is the swift removal of US troops from Iraq. The ugly race-baiting spectacle, complete with rambling threats by the former president Clinton himself and somewhat bizarre faux-folksy calls for solidarity with the Clintons from millionaire founder of BET Bob Johnson, reminds me, for one, of the worst of the Clinton years. Having suffered through America's self-inflicted Bushite nightmare I worry we have remembered only the good parts of Clinton's era and not the bad.

Speaking of millionaires, born-again populist, former senator and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards also represents an acceptable alternative to four more years of the Clintons or Republicans, but currently it seems unlikely that his trajectory is anything other than downward.

As everybody knows Barack Hussein Obama is the child of a white American woman and black man from Kenya. His upbringing was anything but typical (for non-Hawaiians or non-Indonesians that is): growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. He is a lawyer, and a veteran of something he calls community organizing in Chicago. While not in national office at the time, he vocally opposed the US attack on Iraq from the beginning. He can be an inspiring speaker. His calls for change and hope do seem genuine and refreshing, and while I'm not particularly interested in building bridges with Republicans, his promise to unify and heal the sectarianism of the recent past feels like something more than just another election-year political bromide.

Obama does not support gay marriage, and handled the appearance by gospel singer and arguably anti-gay preacher Donnie McClurkin at a campaign event clumsily. But at his appearance at that ground-breaking candidates forum sponsored by Logo months back, I felt what he did say in support of gay civil rights was heartfelt and less equivocal than Clinton.

Obama seems to genuinely oppose the war in Iraq, and seems to raise questions about the whole idea of the "war on terror." But he clearly does not oppose American intervention abroad. His critique of the war is not as solid as that of say, Kucinich, or even perhaps the now-dropped out of the race Eeyore candidate Governor Bill Richardson. But his opposition to the war seems much clearer than that of Senator Clinton, who I believe would prolong and deepen it, much like LBJ did back in the 1960s.

It's widely reported that African-Americans are concerned that Barack Obama is setting himself up for assassination. It's hard to argue with that. The deep deep racism of many white Americans would seem to virtually guarantee that Obama would become a target of violence at some point. One can only pray--and I guess I mean that literally!--that such a fear doesn't come to pass. But it's because of that racism that I think Obama offers the most hope for me.

Harold Washington was Chicago's first--and only, so far--African-American mayor. Chicago was and is segregated in ugly ugly ways. But Washington's tenure, cut short by a heart attack, changed Chicago, and changed Chicagoans, for the better, in ways both subtle and dramatic. While Condoleeza Rice proves there's nothing inherently better about having black faces in government, I believe that Obama offers us the kind of opportunity for fundamental change in attitude, a fundamental blow against racism, that Harold Washington wound up being in Chicago. Jesse Jackson was a flawed candidate, though I worked on his presidential campaign back in the 1980s; my first political steps outside the tiny world of sectarian socialism. Jackson proved to be too complex a figure, too unable to transcend his personal baggage. Al Sharpton was a flawed candidate, and despite the knee-jerk racist reaction he is met with by most white Americans, he made many principled and admirable stands; but his campaign never transcended that of an outsider, like today's Kucinich or Gravel. Racism didn't end with Harold Washington, and it won't end with Obama. Indeed the backlash will likely be ugly. But the hour is late, and every we step we take as a nation so dyed in the wool of racism out of this ugly caldron is a step toward our redemption.

It is unnecessary, I think, to engage in the fruitless argument over whether women or African-Americans have suffered more or are more deserving of fronting our attack against the Republican monstrosity. Let us look to the individuals offering to lead the charge and this time, the man of mixed racial heritage is my choice.

For the Republican machine must be defeated. Huckabee, a likable opponent of scientific reality, a gregarious foe of gays and non-Christians, as ignorant about foreign affairs as he is committed to his religious faith, offers the logical extension of Bush's evangelical champions and must be defeated. Giuliani, a dislikable bully and opportunist, is a would-be dictator, a fear-monger, and deeply, deeply corrupt, must be defeated. Romney, a slimy, corrupt and disengenuous opportunist, must be defeated. McCain, a doddering militarist, a veteran war criminal, and lapdog of the Republican establishment, must be defeated.

For all these reasons, you can hold your nose, you can cross your fingers, you can apply for an immigration visa to the country of your choice, you can stockpile arms in preparation for civil war, you can redouble your commitment to revolution or to spiritual purity, but the only choice for now, for this dismal reality, is to vote for Barack Obama for president. May God have mercy.

Joel Dorn, 1942-2007

I was browsing through my CD collection yesterday and realized how lax I had been in not noting the passing of one of the greats of American jazz, So here is belated notice of the passing of renowed, possibly under-renowned, 1960s/1970s record producer Joel Dorn, who left this world in December. Joel Dorn was the consummate A&R guy, working with the giants of R&B and jazz at a key point in American music.

He worked at Atlantic Records when it was still a pioneering indie label, and went on to be a champion of independent label jazz in the CD era. In later days he owned now-defunct 32 Jazz--and later Label M--which if you're into rare groove jazz/funk like I am, you will recognize as an incredibly generous and important CD reissue label of the Muse and Atlantic jazz catalogs in the 1990s. Among his sons is Mocean Worker, a groove/jazz DJ who thankfully carries on Dorn's excellent tastes.

They don't make 'em like that any more.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday

Courtesy of my friend Andrew, here's greeting for the late Dr. King, whose birthday would have been today. Still hard to believe his birthday became one of our monday holidays... thank you Stevie Wonder.

Barack Takes Iowa, Hillary Takes a Kick in the Pants(suit)

Senator Barack Obama is not perfect. More to come on that later. But wow, delivering a swift kick in the backside to Senator Hillary "Yes to Bush" Clinton (who came in third!), he has won the primary caucuses in Iowa. I think that's cause for celebration. The audacity of hope, indeed.

Below is a link to Obama's victory speech, which is inspiring. Read it here.

Happy New Year?

Mojuba Olorun
Mojuba Olodumare
Mojuba Olofi
Mojuba gbogbo egungun
Mojuba my ancestors
Mojuba Dorothy Scott Horst Holden ibaye
Mojuba George Horst ibaye
Mojuba Olivia Ashcroft Fitzgerald ibaye
Mojuba Thomas Fitzgerald ibaye
Mojuba Quentin Fitzgerald ibaye
Mojuba Conrad Horst ibaye
Mojuba Lisbeth Horst ibaye
Mojuba Bertha Menzies ibaye
Mojuba gbogbo Horsts, Fitzgeralds, O'Neills, Ashcrofts, Scotts, Menzies, and others
Mojuba to those who have passed on this past year
--Mojuba Elsa Izquierdo Ade Doyin ibaye baye tonu
--Mojuba Swami Turiya Sangitananda Alice Coltrane ibaye baye tonu
Mojuba to the spirits of the old world and the new
Mojuba to the Indian spirits
Mojuba to the African spirits
Mojuba to the European spirits
Mojuba to the American spirits
Mojuba to the spirits of light and guidance
Mojuba to the animal world
Mojuba to the animals we eat
Mojuba to the animals we care for
Mojuba to the animals who care for us
Mojuba to my pets Henry and Jimmy
Mojuba Asheda
Mojuba Akoda
Mojuba gbogbo elders who have passed on to Ile Olorun
Mojuba Iyami
Mojuba Babami
Mojuba Baba Tobi Asinyabi Olo Yemaya
Mojuba Ayubona Okan Ara Bi Olo Obatala
Mojuba gbogbo Iworo
Mojuba my godbrothers and sisters
Mojuba my godchildren
Mojuba my partner Jesse
Mojuba my friends and relatives
Mojuba the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars
Mojuba the earth, the air, the fire and the water
Mojuba science and music and art and medicine
Mojuba ori mi
Mojuba ade mi
Mojuba gbogbo Orisha
Mojuba Elegba
Mojuba Ogun
Mojuba Ochosi
Mojuba Osun
Mojuba Ifa
Mojuba Babalu Aiye
Mojuba Ibeji
Mojuba Olokun
Mojuba Oge
Mojuba Shango, kawo kabiosile
Mojuba Oya, hekua hey Iansa
Mojuba Yemaya, iya mi ile
Mojuba Oshun Ibu Kole, ye ye o
Mojuba Oke
Mojuba Obatala Yeku Yeku, Hekua Baba
Ago lona
Bring health and balance and wisdom to me and all those I love
Bring love and happiness and abundance to me and all those I love
Bring peace to the world and keep us safe from war
Kosi iku kosi arun kosi eyo kosi ofo kosi araye
May the new year be filled with peace and light and love
May the evil works of evil men be no more
May justice triumph
May the new year be filled with music
May the new year be filled with joy
May I find better employment and purpose
May I find good health
Thanks to God above and below
Ashe Ashe Ashe

Happy new year 2008

George Bush, J'Accuse

Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated today. A complex figure, she was a populist hero in a culture where most heroes are men. She was an aristocrat, a child of Pakistan's history, and a leader of debatable integrity. But she was undeniably courageous, and, seizing control of the wheels of history, she returned to her country from exile at a key moment to provoke George Bush's pet dictator Musharraf in a time of vulnerability.

While she was hardly an anti-imperialist, it's increasingly clear that Pakistan's dictatorship--fully supported by the Bush regime--is among the puppet masters of so-called Islamic terrorism in the region. The complicated conflict in Afghanistan is perpetuated by the Pakistani military, and nurtured by the corruption of Bush.

Thus while Bhutto and Bush toyed with alliance, her triumphant return to Pakistan and its cinematic welcome parade (which also ended in violent tragedy) pushed her to a position of confrontation with Musharraf and Bush. Her death now at the hands of unknown assassins must be laid at the feet of Musharraf and Bush and their cold alliance of power and brutality.

The world has lost a great woman. J'accuse George Bush: you did this.

The Tragedy of Victor Jara

This song always makes me weepy, and I just discovered this haunting video on youtube. Victor Jara was a revolutionary Chilean singer who was murdered after the Pinochet coup of 1973. He was actually the biggest Chilean pop star, and his murder at the hands of the US/CIA-backed junta should have shocked the world. This song, "Vamos por ancho camino" (We're going by the wide road) is a poetic metaphor for the Chilean socialists' doomed strategy of popular front; uniting all the segments of society behind their broad banner, and tragically opening the door for the coup and the right-wing resurgance which lasted decades. The song, with its Andean flutes and percussion, recorded long before they became cliched, evokes hopeful innocence, belied by its future soon to be drowned in blood.

May Victor Jara always be remembered.

Oscar Peterson

Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson has died at the age of 82. He was immensely prolific, with an instantly recognizable virtuosic style. My own favorite Oscar Peterson recording is his version of Tom Jobim's "Wave" with a swinging string arrangement by Claus Ogerman, from Peterson's heyday in the late 1960s. It's on Motions and Emotions one of his albums for the legendary German MPS label. He will be missed!

A Christmas Gift...

...from my draq queen pal Candy. And yours truly is along for the party! May one of those presents be for me!

Did Gay Rights lose in Venezuela, too?

I heard a snippet on the BBC this morning and have been trying to find info on it. One of the constitutional amendments in the packet of changes defeated in this weekend's referendum was apparently an amendment adding "sexual orientation" to the list of anti-discrimination protections in Venezuela's fairly new constitution. While I had mixed feelings about Chavez's proposal to eliminate term limits, I think he's a real progressive. In the barrage of anti-Chavez propaganda dominating even "liberal" US media, it's discouraging but not surprising to see this element un-discussed. Because in truth, progressive socialism would be good for Venezuela just like it would be good for the U.S.

Chavez is not the enemy of freedom, the U.S. and its CIA are. I'm glad to see Chavez is on the side of equal rights for us gays.

Dictatorship's biggest fan...

...is apparently George Bush. In a story I cannot believe is not the lead of every news program and paper in the country, George Bush told ABC News, today, three weeks into emergency rule--read, martial law--in Pakistan, that Pakistani dictator Musharraf, "hasn't crossed the line" and "truly is somebody who believes in democracy."

Is the world gone mad? Dictator General Musharraf has just thrown his country's Supreme Court in jail! His forces have arrested thousands... merely for opposing him. This is democracy? President Bush must be arrested and charged with treason immediately. Our democracy is in mortal peril.

A Prayer for All Souls

It's Halloween. Pagans believe the "veil between the worlds" is thin this time of year, the holiday they call Samhain, and the dead walk among the living. Others, like the Mexicans in my neighborhood, believe today is the day to honor the dead. Most people believe the day is one for playing with identity and challenging the rules of life and being and reality.

Let me offer my prayer of thanks to the ancestors and spirits.

Thank you to all my ancestors for living the lives the helped me live mine:
Dorothy Scott Horst Holden, George Horst, Conrad Horst, Lisbeth Horst, Dorothy Ashcroft Fitzgerald, Thomas Fitzgerald, Bertha Menzies, and all the unknown Horsts, Scotts, Fitzgeralds, O'Neills, Ashcrofts, Menzies and all the others, from the US, from Ireland, from Germany, from the Russian Volga, from England; Christians and Jews alike.

Thank you to all the good and kind spirits who open the path and guide me to a better, more knowing life. Thank you to the American spirits, to the Indian, African, and European spirits.

Thank you to the lost souls and my beloved dead, to all my friends no longer with us in physical form.

Thank you to the earth, to the elements, to the spirits of nature. Thank you to the gods of old. Thank you to the Orishas. Thank you to the worlds above and below.

Thank you to God for the world that is, was, and will be.

For peace, for health, for balance, for wisdom, for prosperity, for abundance, for hope...for me, for my parents, for my relatives, for my loved ones, for my boyfriend, for my friends, for my pets.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

10 favorite albums #8: MARVIN GAYE--What's Going On, Tamla/Motown, 1971

Marvin Gaye was the bravest man in Motown. A mainstay of the Detroit-based record company's soul-music hit-making machine he helped turn black music into the "sound of young America." Turning the bright, unthreatening Motown pop sound, favorite of African-Americans, into the favorite of urban white Americans was a kind of miracle, and along with Barry Gordy and Lamont Dozier and Norman Whitfield and the whole roster of producers, musicians and singers, Marvin Gaye was a miracle maker.

I myself had a tremendous boyhood crush on Motown's Miss Diana Ross, though I'm not entirely sure my desire to sing along with "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" in 1968 wasn't some nascent draq-queen stirring in my gay boy soul.

Marvin was brave because in 1970 he turned his back on the hit-making machine and began to self-produce his heart out, creating a concept album on the troubled state of America. By all accounts he struggled to convince the label to release the music, and only after its first single was released and started roaring up the charts did the album become a viable entity.

Gone were the happy love songs. Gone were the sad love songs. Gone were the songs for teenage heartache, or teenage flirtation, or teenage sexuality. Instead Marvin delivered an album of rage and grief and spirit and hope: What's Going On.

America was heavy on Marvin Gaye's mind. From the opening lyrics of the title song, "Mother, mother, there's too many of you crying. Brother, brother, brother, there's too many of you dying. You know we've got to find a way, to bring more lovin' here today. Father, father, father, we don't need to escalate; You see, war is not the answer, For only love can conquer hate..." Marvin's mind is clear. The Vietnam war, then raging, needed to end.

Gaye goes on to address unemployment and social disillusionment ("What's Happening Brother"), drug addiction ("Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky)"), ecological crisis (years ahead of Al Gore in "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"), and urban crisis ("Inner City Blues"). Sprinkled between, though not at all as a happy ending, are calls for faith ("God Is Love," "Wholy Holy"), calls to safeguard the future ("Save the Children") and a rumination on the healing power of love and solidarity ("Right On").

While Gaye used the same Motown studio musicians, including the strings and the choruses and the bells, the scratchy guitars and the conga drums, he turned out something new and revelatory. Alternating between worry, bitter resignation, fear and yet determination to survive, his songs encapsulated the spirit of the times like no other music. It was the problem of the seventies: would the awakening of the sixties bear fruit of change or be snuffed out in darkness and despair.

I don't remember the first time I heard What's Going On. Surely in Chicago the record was ubiquitous. The gym teacher responsible for social dancing at my junior high had a penchant for Motown and surely, if not perversely, "Mercy Mercy Me" joined the Four Tops "Still Waters Run Deep (Peace)" as crowd-pleasing hits. I have memories, fortunately, only for the music, not the clutch of some sweaty-palmed female classmate's forced embrace. Oddly I never owned the album on vinyl, and so never knew its depth, or its lesser-known numbers, until the 1980s when the death of 1960s optimism became complete, when I bought an early CD reissue.

Several CD generations later, I thoroughly recommend the 2-disc deluxe edition, issued in 2001 (prophetically on the cusp of our new post-9/11 era of war and tragedy). The 2-disc set includes the original album as released, plus a version of the entire album in its preliminary form demonstrating the Motown producers' incredible ear for a hit as the final product is just sweetened up so much better than the original mix. Plus there's a live set of most of the tunes, and the original singles issued before the album itself. Well worth the couple extra bucks.

The songs on What's Going On have been covered a million times by black musicians, white musicians, jazz musicians, singers, you name it. The original remains the best though many are worth a listen. It's just only in Marvin's versions are the emotions so raw and the despair so heartfelt. High among my favorite covers is Aretha Franklin's version of "Wholly Holy" on her live gospel set of 1972, Amazing Grace (itself reissued on an extended CD version).

Marvin opened the gate for Motown's next act as a socially-conscious record label. Especially in producer Norman Whitfield's extraordinary work for the label, Motown's repertoire became much more complex. To imagine the Temptations, for instance, gone from sugary bubble gum to politically-charged psychedelia, one has to remember the times and the trajectory that Marvin so bravely travelled. Marvin's sad death at the hands of his father in 1984 is the music's tragic coda.

"Love can conquer hate everytime..."

10 favorite albums #9: MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA -- Apocalypse, CBS Records, 1974

Fusion. Before the caricature of the sci-fi obsessed masturbatory guitar-synthesizer soloist canoodling after a 15-minute trap drum solo becomes burned into your ears causing you to flip to the next album in the rack, consider how vibrant was culture on the cusp of the seventies. Miles Davis--brilliant, misanthropic, misogynist, narcissistic, drug-addled, virtuosic--had keyed into jazz, rock, funk, blues, and like the armies in front of Jericho before him caused the walls to fall with his trumpet. Maybe his great equalisation was as counter-revolutionary as it was revolutionary, but the jazz-head could now lie down with the funkster, the rocker could now lie down with the classicist, the snob with the plebe.

John McLaughlin was one of Miles' disciples: A white guy from England, an electric guitar player no less, whose muses included not only Delta bluesmen but mystical Indian gurus. After bringing the rock to Miles Davis' fusion of jazz and rock, McLaughlin became a kind of high-priest of fusion. He played Coltrane tunes with Carlos Santana on dueling electric guitars. He played delicate acoustic melodies linking the river valleys of Appalachia with the mighty Ganges in India. And he created the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

In its first incarnation the Mahavishnu Orchestra was like a plugged-in jazz rock combo, guitar-drums-bass-keyboard, adding in a fiery electric violinist. McLaughlin's guitar was not only front and center its metallic screeching and rapidfire arpeggios crowding and containing its space. I like the albums of this first incarnation; but they're not Apocalypse.

I first heard Apocalypse in 1977. It was my first apartment in college, shared with two roommates, one a fellow student, both fellow political radicals and activists. One of my roommates was recently back from Europe. He had long hair, and French girlfriends, and wore a gold ring on his thumb. He had tried to turn me on to Patti Smith (who I now love) quite unsuccessfully. His French girlfriends tried to turn me on to the Stranglers. Ugh. And then he put on side two of Apocalypse.

The sounds of a full string orchestra filled the room, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas no less. A lovely, melancholic melody. Kettle drums. A solo violin. And then something happens. Is it a keyboard? A guitar? Sound seems to ripple and distort, electricity takes over. The orchestra remains but the sound of soaring strings is fronted by interplay of electric guitar and electric violin. The orchestral percussion retreats in favor of propulsive rock drumming.

And so I was introduced to the second Mahavishnu lineup: French electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty veteran of West-Coast hippy-jazz-rock scene of Frank Zappa and George Duke, drummer Narada Michael Walden a young prodigy would go on to become a big pop-disco record producer in the early 1980; keyboardist and vocalist Gayle Moran responsible here for adding a voice of human vulnerability to otherwise divine and lofty playing. [Moran's work here is the strongest of her career. Her singing with later husband Chick Corea and her one long out-of-print solo album might please Xenu but they're nowhere near as sublime as on her two appearances with Mahavishnu.] Bringing up the funk is bassist Ralphe Armstrong.

The cover image (in LP days, sans brick red border) was Mahavishnu guru Sri Chinmoy as Krishna himself, there but not there, reflections within reflections, mysteries within reality. The kind of image that, propelled along by the music on the turntable and the weed in the bong could make you weep for its portrayal of another world so visible yet unreachable (Not quite Roger Dean of Yes cover fame, but it worked for me!).

And after the crescendo of orchestra and electricity, notes bent like a Indian raga cooling off: peace, tranquility, catharsis. That was the gift of this record. The catharsis of fusion energy unbridled and then restrained. The record also revealed, in its mystery, the nether worlds of spirit: the unspeakable shared by the knowing. A taste for me of later quests.

The second Mahavishnu Orchestra went on to record one other album, Visions of the Emerald Beyond which is quite enjoyable though not as sublime. Also of note, though a pale shadow of the original, is the tribute album Return to the Emerald Beyond by the New York-based Mahavishnu Project. John McLaughlin remains a virtuosic player, but to my taste his music is no longer as creative or as interesting. I liked his Shakti albums where he toyed more directly with Indian music, but, like an awful lot of what passes for jazz these days, his current records don't move me like the stuff from the seventies does.

Narada Michael Walden's solo albums also frequently attempt a return to the spirit of Mahavishnu. Even as the albums become more and more discofied to the cusp of the 1980s (and quite catchy, it must be said), each contains at least one song harkening back to the cosmic fusions of Apocalypse.

If the Mahavishnu Orchestra's sound was indeed the soundtrack to the Apocalypse, then let the world come crashing to an end.

10 favorite albums #10: BOBBI HUMPREY -- Blacks and Blues, Blue Note, 1973

A friend of mine calls this "shag carpet and cocaine" jazz. It's definitely not for jazz purists. While flautist Bobbi Humphrey was discovered by renowned jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan, her recording career quickly took a turn away from tradition toward the funky, accessible pop sound that Blue Note records was then capitalizing upon.

Her first two solo albums Flute In, reissued on CD in a bizarro-world budget hack job, and Dig This, sadly not yet reissued on CD, are enjoyable period pieces. Primarily covers of pop, soul and jazz tunes they brought a sense of groove to jazz flute. Dig This sounds like nothing so much as a set of instrumental backgrounds for Stevie Wonder. (Indeed she went on to play with Stevie!) The sound was funky but not too funky, intelligent but not effete. Jazz was melding with R&B in ways that many found a kind of dilution. But I am not one of those people.

Blacks and Blues was Humphrey's third album, and the first of three she was to record with ace rare groove producers Larry and Fonce Mizell. Their trademark combinations of analog-synthesizer/keyboard-driven groove, latin percussion, smooth vocal choruses, and busy busy arrangements melding both acoustic and electric instruments created a singular setting for Humphrey's flute and occasional vocals. Like their work with Donald Byrd, the Mizells' work with Bobbi Humphrey conveys sophistication along with an adult sensuality. The essence of what has come to be called Rare Groove, the Mizell sound is the sound of late night. Melancholic, bluesy, jazzy, but also optimistic. The fast tunes are dance music for a house party not a discotheque; the slow ones for making out on a darkened sofa.

While I love all of Humphrey's Blue Note work, Blacks and Blues is my favorite. I first bought her LPs while I was still in High School from, of all places, Columbia House record club. Yes the same company that laid me off thirty-odd years later. The song Chicago, Damn right away captured my nostalgia for the complexities of my home town, since I was then trapped in gray suburban Connecticut. Humphrey and the Mizells are joined by some of the key players of 1970s jazzified R&B: Freddie Perren, Jerry Peters, David T. Walker, Chuck Rainey, King Errison. Check your favorite 1970s groove classics and these names will be associated with most of them.

This record marked the first time Humphrey added vocals to her repetoire. Her vocals are fragile and tentative, but oddly affecting.

It took a while for her work to make it to CD, but now Blacks and Blues along with follow-ups Satin Doll and Fancy Dancer have made it to the digital century. Hopefully her first two Blue Note efforts, as well as her Epic/Columbia albums that followed the demise of Blue Note, will make it out soon. God bless the Japanese and their good taste for leading the way in the 1970s jazz reissue department. Look up the other Mizell productions, especially their work for Donald Byrd, or their rare CTI production for Johnny Hammond, A Gambler's Life.

10 favorite albums, continued.

Wow. This was hard.

7) Egberto Gismonti, Academa de Dancas, 1974
8) Marvin Gaye, What's Going On, 1971
9) Mahavishnu Orchestra, Apocalypse, 1974
10) Bobbi Humphrey, Blacks and Blues, 1973

Runners up:
Airto Moreira, Seeds on the Ground
Madonna, Ray of Light
Rotary Connection, Hey Love
Pharoah Sanders, Karma
Yes, Close to the Edge
Aretha Franklin, Let Me In Your Life
Laura Nyro, Smile
Patti Smith, Horses

I will endeavor to review my favorites over the next few weeks.