Blog: Thursday, July31, 2008: Wednesday and yesterday, two highly significant developments occurred in bringing President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to justice.
Wednesday morning, Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens, 84, longest serving and most senior of Republicans in the Senate, was indicted on seven charges of lying to the FBI, by a Federal Grand Jury. Stevens, a man of immense power and clout, was replaced Thursday afternoon as Ranking Member on the powerful Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. [If you have watched proceedings of that committee on C-span, you will know that she is one of the more intelligent the GOP contingent on the committee. Stevens, self-described as "the meanest man in the Senate and proud of it," made a fool of himself recently by explaining the Internet as a series of great "tubes," for instance, and Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe often states flatly that Global Warming is a hoax.] The Justice Department, stung by tardy watchdog reports of widespread unethical behavior, including its own, may be pushed to examine the corrupting influence of Stevens PAC funds on fellow Republicans, some say on Senator Hutchinson herself.
And Thursday morning, the House Judiciary Committee took its first practical step toward Impeachment, or if you prefer, "Hearings on the Limitations of Presidential Power," by holding former George W. Bush Advisor, Karl Rove, in Contempt of Congress for refusing to answer a Committee subpoena to testify under oath. The Committee has questions for Rove ranging from his possible influencing of false indictments against Democrats to lying before the Congress to helping to orchestrate the outing of Covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame as an act of revenge. [The latter is an Act of Treason under the Constitution.]
The President has claimed that all of his conversations and dealings with advisors are "privileged." Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will take the matter under advisement and make a decision in September whether or not to press on with the prosecution or not. A likely move would be to add the act to two others currently before the Supreme Court, in order to achieve a definitive ruling.
However these matters play out, they provide the platform for the investigation, indictment and prosecution of criminal acts by hundreds of members of the Bush Administration and their corporate cohorts.
No matter, those painfully slow Mills of Justice are beginning to grind, as they did in Watergate, and they have the Bush/Cheney gang, the war profiteers, the looters of the Treasury, and the despoilers of our Constitution firmly in their teeth.
Let's keep 'em there.
Macresarf1
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Blog: Monday, July 28, 2008: The name of the House Hearings, last Friday morning, was "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations," and many of us watched the nearly six hours of proceedings on C-Span.
Though last month, Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, and recent Presidential Candidate, had directed 35 articles of impeachment at President George W. Bush, yesterday, in what appeared to be a careful compromise agreement with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and the other Democratic Congressional Leadership, no mention was to be made of Impeachment or directly of any officials of the Executive by name.
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers distributed to all witnesses in writing the order that any "personal abuse, innuendo, or ridicule of the president" or any "suggestion of mendacity" would be ruled out of order and dealt with firmly.
That noble goal was substantially swept away as the hearings went on.
From the beginning the feisty audience, not to mention the witnesses, threatened to get out of hand. A rattle of applause, shouts, and cries sounded for Representative Kucinich and his wife as they entered the hearing room. Later, invective was shouted, and crumpled papers were hurled at the dais. Chairman Conyers, with or without the urging of the Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Tx) and other Republican Committee members, repeatedly appealed for decorum. Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan, who is running for Nancy Pelosi's seat in San Francisco, was ruled out of order and escorted from the gallery, as were others.
Besides Rep. Kucinich, the explorations of Constitutional limitations on Executive Power were presented by former Federal Prosecutor and Congress person Elizabeth Holzman, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, former Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein, former Mayor of Salt Lake City Bob "Rocky" Anderson, Professor Schwartz of Northwestern, and former LA Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi.
George Mason Law Professor Jeremy Rabkin and Northwestern Legal Professor Stephen Presser spoke for the Republican defense.
Elizabeth Holzman appeared to me as having the most comprehensive understanding of what might be done. A former Watergate prosecutor, as well as representative, she grasped the major argument that egregious abuses of power, which she listed, had occurred over the last eight years, and if something were not done now, the pattern of power, nearly out of control, would likely become permanent.
She suggested that a swift, narrow, singular stab at impeachment (without calling it that, except by indirection) was the only viable immediate remedy. Because some of the charges carried a penalty of capital punishment, no statute of limitations would apply.
Former Mayor Anderson was more passionate, along similar lines.
When asked how limitations on Executive abuses of power might ever be dealt with short of Impeachment, former Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein said: "Short of impeachment, there isn't anything you can do about a president."
Both former Congressman Barr, now Libertarian Candidate for President, and former Prosecutor Bugliosi tended to argue that all of the more serious crimes committed by those in the Executive Branch could be dealt with in the Criminal Courts after the malfeasors left office.
[Prosecutor Bugliosi took much of the Republican shrapnel, and had the most trouble adhering to the Judiciary Committee guidelines for the Hearings. After all, has just published a new book entitled: THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER.]
The Republican witnesses, Professors Rabkin and Presser, argued that there was no credible evidence of abuse of power or obstruction of justice in the present Administration. Professor Rabkin called the tone of the deliberations "slightly demented," and suggested that the evidence for Impeachment brought by Representative Kucinich and the witnesses supporting that evidence, constituted "a wild conspiracy theory."
Professor Rabkin also came up, on two occasions, with examples of Presidents as far back as Woodrow Wilson and as recently as Lyndon Johnson who had committed violations similar, which might have brought unfair demands for Impeachment.
Professor Presser, who appeared before the Committee in 1998 to present evidence against President William J. Clinton, made the distinction Friday morning that President Clinton had acted out of self interest, but there was no evidence that President Bush had.
Repeatedly requesting that Chairman Conyers reprimand the audience or have the floor cleared, Ranking Member Republican Lamar Smith of Texas said that nothing was going to come of the hearings because there was "no evidence to support impeachment."
Republican Representative Dan Lungren, a former California Attorney General, sneered at the proceedings, calling them "Friday morning show trials."
But both Professors Rabkin and Presser seemed forced to admit that, if evidence supporting Kucinich's allegations proved accurate, Congress should act to investigate.
"The options are limited, but there are options," Holtzman said.
Some suggested a bill which would limit the president's authority to pardon members of his administration to six months before he left office.
And drawing on the experience of Watergate, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) proposed the start of an inquiry into possible illegal actions in the Bush Administration, similar to that of the Senate committee that investigated the Nixon Administration, which would carry over into 2009 and beyond. Those hearings led to the indictment and jailing of a dozen Nixon officials, including the Attorney General.
*****
That latter solution struck me as one which might be adopted, in the light of mounting evidence in every governmental/corporate element of our nation, that numerous examples of massive fraud and criminality, aided and abetted by the Bush Administration, have taken place. And that, as banks, real estate groups, and industries by the hundreds begin to collapse, we have not yet begun to drain a swamp which might well pollute the next Administration.
If so, SOMETHING HAPPENED ON FRIDAY, and beleaguered champions of the Constitution, such as Representatives Kucinich and Ron Paul, should be celebrated for their patriotism and farsightedness.
Depressingly, virtually no element of our Major Network Media bothered to cover these Hearings seriously. An exception was MSNBC and their Countdown Correspondent Keith Olbermann, who interviewed former Representative Bob Barr on his testimony before the Committee.
Blog: Saturday, July 11, 2008: Hard to say if it really is those phone calls you and others have been making to the Members of the House Judiciary Committee, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi allowed on Thurday morning that Chairman John Conyers' Committee might well discuss the Impeachment Proposals presented by Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich. Formerly, the cautious Speaker Pelosi had said, "Impeachment is off the table." The Speaker may also be driven by a combination of conscience, a re-election challenge on the Impeachment issue in her home district (San Francisco) by Peace Activist Cindy Sheehan, or the new evidence of massive criminal and treasonous actions carried on by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and their Administration.
Whatever did it, keep those phone calls going to the Judiciary Committee:
Committee Email: http://judiciary.house.gov
Committee Phone: 202-225-3951
Individual Numbers:
John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) Chair 202-225-5126 Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) 202-225-5635 Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) 202-225-1510 Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) 202-225-3072 Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) 202-225-7931
Howard Coble (R-NC) 202-225-3065 Trent Franks (R-AZ) 202-225-4576
Blog: Thursday, June 12, 2008: On Monday, June 9th, Ohio Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich read before the U.S. Congress 35 detailed particulars of a proposal to Impeach President George W. Bush for High Crimes and Misdemeanors under the Our Constitution. Neither Reuters nor the N.Y Times online bothered to give the event a headline, and aside from Keith Olbermann and a mention by Dan Abrams on MSNBC, the networks seemed to ignore the matter.
The entire reading, taking over four hours, was repeated for the Record by four Clerks of the House on Tuesday, June 10th.
[Former Representative Cynthia McKinney had first proposed Impeachment of President Bush in 2006. Kucinich, a year ago, sent a similar bill of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney to the House Judiciary Committee.]
Yesterday afternoon June 11th, without the formal support of Democratic Leader Denny Hoyer nor Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the bill was considered by the full House. Representative Kucinich asked the House of Representatives that his his Impeachment resolution be sent to the Judiciary Committee for action. Twenty-four Republicans joined all the House Democrats present to approve his motion: 251-166. The resolution is now in the Judiciary constitutional law subcommittee.
We are much more concerned with the price of gas, and trivia about the Election Nominees than we are about the coming end of the American Republic, or the end of the World as we have known it.
I come from east of Cleveland, where Kucinich has his district, and I can remember walking in the waters of Lake Erie, near "Indian Creek," where the body of a Toledo gangster was found floating when I was a boy. Nothing much has changed, except I wouldn't walk in the water there anymore. Aside from "Dennis the Menace," as Kucinich is called by his detractors, Ohio has become as toxic as much of the rest of the nation since I grew up there.
It comes down to this: Unless, we begin value the Constitution, and forget the Media sideshows and horse races, I will no longer want to walk through America much more either. We do get the Government we choose and deserve. For a long time, at least the last eight -- perhaps 30 years, now, we have been choosing fascism as our form of governance at almost every opportunity.
More on this subject, in days to come. Meanwhile, check out the impressive history of malfeasance and incompetence Kucinich has gathered on our43rdPresident:
Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio In the United States House of Representatives
A Resolution
INDEX
Article I Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.
Article II Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.
Article III Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.
Article IV Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States. Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.
Article VI Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.
Article VII Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.
Article VIII Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.
Article IX Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor.
Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes.
Article XI Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq.
Article XII Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources.
Article XIIII Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries.
Article XIV Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq.
Article XVI Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors.
Article XVII Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives.
Article XVIII Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy.
Article XIX Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture.
Article XX
Imprisoning Children.
Article XXI Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government.
Article XXII Creating Secret Laws.
Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
Article XXIV Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment.
Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens.
Article XXVI Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements.
Article XXVI Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply.
Article XXVIII Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice.
Article XXIX Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Article XXX Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare.
Article XXXI Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency.
Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change.
Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.
Article XXXIV Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001.
Article XXXVEndangering the Health of 911 First Responders.
____________
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:
Resolved, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors.
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed the following abuses of power.
_____________
FOR THE FULL TEXT, GIVING THE DETAILED EVIDENCE, GO TO THE FOLLOWING SITE:
www.democrats.com/files/amomentoftruth.pdf
********
EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY. AND KEEP EMAILING THEM. WHETHER IT IS TOO LATE TO IMPEACH BUSH AND CHANEY OR NOT AT THIS POINT, A NEW ADMINISTRATION SHOULD INDICT EVERYONE THE EVIDENCE WILL INDICATE, INCLUDING THE ENTIRE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, THE BUSH-CHANEY GANG, AND THE 7O NEWLY REVEALED REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS WHO WERE PART OF THE ABRAMOFF WAR PROFITEERING SCHEMES.
Now it is up to us and everyone we know to contact the members of the full Judiciary Committee to begin examining and laying out the evidence in hearings:br> If you would like to help brave Dennis Kucinich, please contact members of the House Judiciary Committee and demand a hearing on the articles of impeachment:
Committee Phone: 202-225-3951
John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) Chair 202-225-5126 Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) 202-225-5635 Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) 202-225-1510 Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) 202-225-3072 Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) 202-225-7931 Howard Coble (R-NC) 202-225-3065 Trent Franks (R-AZ) 202-225-4576
The Windfall Profits Tax Bill on the Oil Companies which failed in the Senate yesterday would have been only a band-aid on the massive sore the the above indictment represents.
And as far as the Election Debates we are likely to have between now and November, we can buy the T-shirts anytime.
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Blog: Monday, November 19, 2007: Today is my beautiful Daughter Miranda's Birthday, and Thankgiving Day is her Husband Bruce's birthday. November 25, 2007, is the Birthday of Arndt, the Husband of my other Daughter Melinda, so this is a busy week for rememrances.
And my young star, Nellie McKay, Daughter of my former student, Robin Pappas, will be on Terry Gross's Fresh Air on NPR, Wednesday, November 21st (check for time and station). She will no doubt be singing work from her new CD: Obligatory Villagers.
Give Nellie a try. I think you might like her.
Keep those Emails, phone calls and telegrams going to Chairman Conyers of the Judiciary Committee, and your other Congresspersons to get the ball rolling on impeaching the whole Project for a New America Gang, starting with Vice President Dick Cheney. HR333 has to be voted out to the Floor of the House with a recommendation to Pass.-----
Blog: Sunday, November 11, 2007: On this Veterans Day, I first remember it as Armistice Day, which we observed with "a moment's silence," everywhere in the Western World at "the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month," prior to World War II. It was not an excuse to avoid work, drink beer, and go to the Mall to take advantage of (and be taken advantage by) Pre-Thanksgiving sales of adulterated food and useless, energy consuming gadgets. We have now almost completely desecrated the observance by making it an excuse for political rah-rah for going to war against Iran. Crocodile tears from Bush Administration Officials slosh around ankles wherever a few bereaved families of Veterans may be gathered.
We should be concentrating on impeaching Vice President Dick Chaney, responsible for the sacrifice of so many of those brave men and women; then, continuing up the line through the President and his grafting, incompetent staff, indicting, and if warranted, convicting those responsible for crimes against the Republic, and if enabled, for International War Crimes.
It is time, Fellow Citizens, to restore our Republic to the ideals set forth in Our Constitution. Sign HR333, now in the Judiciary Committee, to begin the task of impeaching Vice President Chaney. Phone, Email, write your Congress people, especially Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and those on the Judiciary Committee, both Democrat or Republican.
Please consider contributing the money you would waste on junk this Thanksgiving and Christmas to bringing the medical treatment, care, and protheses so often neglected by the Bush Veterans Administration.
Also, consider voting for Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards in your State Republican or Democratic primary, early next year. These three are the most unequivocal and convincing in their promises to end "the war" in Iraq and elsewhere.
That would REALLY be honoring the Veterans!
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Blog: Thursday, November 8, 2007: On this Ground Hog's Day, Pakistan teeters on chaos; Afghanistan ships the heroin to Europe and the United States; Turkey about to launch incursion of Northern Iraq; criminals take over al-Quaeda in Iraq. Gas heading soon for $4 a gallon; housing market collapse weighing down already sagging economy. Centrist Presidential Candidates may give way Ron Paul on the Right; John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich on the Left. The House resolution to impeach Vice President Chaney yesterday cut through attempts by both Parties, and is now before Chairman Conyers' Judiciary Committee. On this Ground Hogs Day, the National Debut hit $9,000,000,000,000. How far, how soon, to a google. At least President Bush will not see that astronomical number while he is in office, but twenty years from now, he will be responsible for it. Meanwhile, "the fix" is still in, and we will be at "war" (or maybe, War) with Iran by June 2008.
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Blog: Thursday, October 11, 2007: The great irony now is that the two candidates with the greatest honesty are the Republican/Libertarian Ron Paul, and the fearlessly honest Democrat, Dennis Kucinich. What an interesting team they would make. Please consider voting for one or the other of them in your State primary, next year.
Meanwhile, the fix is in, and we "go to war" with Iran before June of 2008.
Blog: Saturday, September 1, 2007: I enter September with a strange mixture of elation and foreboding. I am physically much better; mentally and emotionally, marginally so.
Hopeful news is abroad. The most dense among us seem to be having some mental flicker of what a truly tragic waste the last six years have been for the World, as led by the boy Alexander, our own George W. Bush.
Attorney General Gonzales, Karl Rove, and a score of other more lowly factotums are gone from the White House as of this date. They and others may soon be indicted. The good people of the so called "red states" are stirring with a sense of history. The most devout are getting a clue from the resignation this morning of Senior Hypocritic Senator Larry Curtis of Idaho.
And yet, I am filled with a dread that we have dug ourselves into something we can't get out of, that many of us are going to die because of.
For six years, we have been quietly building fourteen "crusader fortresses" -- modern versions of French Foreign Legion outposts in Iraq, not to mention the largest embassy in the World, set within the Green Zone of Baghdad. No one talks of these constructions; we get no pictures; there are no CNN documentaries about their origins or ends. But someone, a lot of people, actually, decided long ago that we were not going to leave Iraq. These imperial redoubts are the evidence of a plan, limned only dimly in "The Project for a New American Century." I believe that its end is the encirclement of China (and Russia, if necessary).
I am reminded of a poem, much quoted (and misinterpreted) at the time of 9/11, which I sampled then for its darkly heroic wisdom:
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden
"I sit in one of the dives/
On Fifty-second Street/
Uncertain and afraid/
As the clever hopes expire/
Of a low dishonest decade:/
Waves of anger and fear/
Circulate over the bright/
And darkened lands of the earth,/
Obsessing our private lives;/
The unmentionable odour of death/
Offends the September night.
"Accurate scholarship can/
Unearth the whole offence/
From Luther until now/
That has driven a culture mad,/
Find what occurred at Linz,/
What huge imago made/
A psychopathic god:/
I and the public know/
What all schoolchildren learn,/
Those to whom evil is done/
Do evil in return.
"Exiled Thucydides knew/
All that a speech can say/
About Democracy,/
And what dictators do,/
The elderly rubbish they talk/
To an apathetic grave;/
Analysed all in his book,/
The enlightenment driven away,/
The habit-forming pain,/
Mismanagement and grief:/
We must suffer them all again.
"Into this neutral air/
Where blind skyscrapers use/
Their full height to proclaim/
The strength of Collective Man,/
Each language pours its vain/
Competitive excuse:/
But who can live for long/
In an euphoric dream;/
Out of the mirror they stare,/
Imperialism's face/
And the international wrong.
"Faces along the bar/
Cling to their average day:/
The lights must never go out,/
The music must always play,/
All the conventions conspire/
To make this fort assume/
The furniture of home;/
Lest we should see where we are,/
Lost in a haunted wood,/
Children afraid of the night/
Who have never been happy or good.
"The windiest militant trash/
Important Persons shout/
Is not so crude as our wish:/
What mad Nijinsky wrote/
About Diaghilev/
Is true of the normal heart;/
For the error bred in the bone/
Of each woman and each man/
Craves what it cannot have,/
Not universal love/
But to be loved alone.
"From the conservative dark/
Into the ethical life/
The dense commuters come,/
Repeating their morning vow;/
'I will be true to the wife,/
I'll concentrate more on my work,'/
And helpless governors wake/
To resume their compulsory game:/
Who can release them now,/
Who can reach the dead,/
Who can speak for the dumb?
"All I have is a voice/
To undo the folded lie,/
The romantic lie in the brain/
Of the sensual man-in-the-street/
And the lie of Authority/
Whose buildings grope the sky:/
There is no such thing as the State/
And no one exists alone;/
Hunger allows no choice/
To the citizen or the police;/
We must love one another or die.
"Defenseless under the night/
Our world in stupor lies;/
Yet, dotted everywhere,/
Ironic points of light/
Flash out wherever the Just/
Exchange their messages:/
May I, composed like them/
Of Eros and of dust,/
Beleaguered by the same/
Negation and despair,/
Show an affirming flame."
I pray (something I don't do easily) that my foreboding is unwarranted, and that we shall watch more than young men maim each other on our TV sets, as we seek some hope in the new political season.
-----
Earlier Blogs have been incorporated into my Epinions Site List, or have been archived, and may be seen upon request.
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MACRESARF1's AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:>
Let me tell you a bit about myself. Other clues are scattered throughout the work.
Born in a little town east of Cleveland, Ohio, I attended Kent State, taking a degree in Political Science and History; served in the U.S. Army (Anti-Aircraft Artillery) at Lakenheath Airbase in Suffolk, East Anglia, England.
This experience was one the most memorable of my existence because my people are Scots and, other than my father and mother, I had never met a relative in my life. I was able to visit a number of them in England and Scotland.
I also enjoyed military life. I understand a soldier's mind. My father, the best read, the kindest, the toughest man I ever met, was a machine gunner in the Cameron Highlanders for four years in World War I. (He liked to grow Easter lilies, loved the Tradition of Arms, and taught me the Grandstanders Americans so love, the Custers and the Pattons, make their reputations on the dead bodies of young men, and often, eventually their own).
[UPDATE: AUGUST 31, 2004 -- To this list, we should add what a caller on "talk radio," the other night called, "Onward Christian Nazis [let's make that "Constantinian" because these blood-thirsty folk are not followers of Jesus], Defenders of the New World Order, Marching as to War" -- Chicken Hawks, who avoided combat or Service themselves altogether, in order to better send other Citizens' sons and daughters to fight an "unwinnable war against terror" (as Stars and Stripes extrapolated it, this morning -- 10/24/04: and as the President has now repeatedly termed it, as recently as yesterday) after "a catastrophic success," the product of phenomenal ignorance, in Iraq: President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Chaney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Karl Rove, David Frume, Douglas Feith, John Negroponte, Elliot Abrams, almost the whole Project for the New American Century group, who like to call themselves the Cabal. They have also done more than any other group in the History of the United States to re-establish destruction of the Environment, mislead the Public on the existance of Global Warming and its extent, roll back social programs, break long standing International treaties, and saddle the country with crippling, eventually inflation-creating National Debt. They have insured that America will be regarded as a hate-inducing isolate for decades to come.]
Upon my return, I took graduate work in English at KSU and came west with my first wife to the Bay Area of California. I have been married twice, have four grown children.
I have been active in politics, civil rights and union activities.
Recent news of Macresarf1: March 15, 2005 -- Macresarf1 is cited and acknowledged by Popular Culture Scholar, Clinton Heylin (the definitive biographer of Bob Dylan), in his just published Despite the System: Orson Welles vs. the Hollywood Studios. Heylin refers to Macresarf1's Epinion-memory of the famous "lost" version of Welles' MR. ARKADIN/CONFIDENTIAL REPORT
Please frequent my WOT. I look for good writing, ability, detail, and judgment in the people I select.
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NOTICE FOR THOSE LIVING IN (or PLANNING TO VISIT SOON) THE BAY AREA: Stories by Edinburgh Castle Writers Bloc Members Alan Black, Amy Itzert, Luke James and Katherine McWilliams appear in the Public House Press anthology, entitled PUBLIC HOUSE, now on sale at the Castle and through www.castlenews.com. The anthology includes a free CD of Irving Welsh (of TRAINSPOTTING fame) reading from his recent novel, PORN, as well as pieces by other talented Bay Area writers.
You may read more about "The Edinburgh Castle" in Macresarf1's review:br> www.epinions.com/trvl-review-7EA5-2D4F218-388C8DF4-prod1> The Edinburgh Castle is also co-sponsor with San Francisco Chronicle of LITQUAKE, which it helped found on the edge of the Tenderloin (now incorporated into the more expansive title, Midtown).
This year's Litquake, which continues the gravitation to the Mission District, along Valencia Street (David Eggars' territory), was considered a considerable success.
Unfortunately, the new/old "Underbelly of the City," formerly represented by the authentic Sam Spade-type bar, The Ha-Ra Club, sponsored by Owner "Fireman Rick" Fugari, "Cruel Karl the Bartender," and Noir City's Eddie Muller, was not in evidence. The Bar features Macresarf1's favorite Noir CD's WHITE HEAT and BODY HEAT.
[More chi-chi visitors may wish to explore "The Ambassadors," an elegantly refurbished "Vegas" version of the old "Henry VIII," corner of Geary and Leavenworth (near Macresarf1's "Miles and Irma Archer Memorial Information Center"), which now often features a silent rendition of John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON on its twelve foot projection monitor.
For full details on this year's LITQUAKE, please consult:
www.castlenews.com
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Reviews of MOVIES directed by, featuring, or touching on Orson Welles, an obsession of mine since childhood:
My first Music CD review to reach the magic 5,000 Circle is about the scores for classic movies, even if back in the days I wrote it, I had not learned yet that it is bad form to fudge about only ten selections. Recently I added Jazz improvisations on some of these, at the bottom of this page. Enjoy, as they say. And now the review has gone to . . . hey! -- 6,500, so get your feet wet!
[And over 30,000 people have consulted this next list, growing by hundreds of reads a month -- more 1,500 this past October -- but the figures keep climbing even in the summer months. It must do something for them!] --
<2001 must have been a very good year because, only seven years of Bush later, this ten best list has gone over the 5000 number; I hope this is not a mindless reaction to our casualty lists.
If the Ten Best Movies of the 1940's are so popular, can The Ten Best of the 1950's be too far behind? They, at least, broke the 5,000 mark -- and are now over 6,500:
My first "Destinations" (Boutiques) review to hit 5,000 -- Now, it's 5,500:br> Burberry's (London)
Macresarf1's Epinion of THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY is the first and only of his restaurant reviews to reach the magic "5000 Reads Mark." Epinionators have a sweet fang. The score is now over 18,500. Take a look:
It had to come! [Avoid a bad pun here.] Send the kids to bed with their cheesecake; my only (soft) porn movie review has rolled over the 5000 mark. For Bastille Day 2006, Teri Weigel breaks 6,500! And for Christmas, 7,500! For the New Year -- 8,500! And as Spring promises to dispell Winter chill: 9,000; and now, Glorious Summer: 10,500; It just keeps going out of control, orgasm after orgasm, at about 500 per Quarter: 13,500 by Bastille Day, 2008!
< But here is a link to one of my most popular and distinguished reviews. This single review has been read by over 14,500 people in five years time. Take a chance --
Another "horror" film has joined MULHOLLAND DRIVE in "The Over 5000 Reader Circle," in this case, an obscure film based on the Faust theme, in Black and White, from 1941, based on a short story by a forgotten American writer . . . you figure it out! But it is a darn good little picture. Now at 5,500:
------------------->br> UPDATE: March 2004 -- Though I no longer write enough here to be a Top Reviewer, if there is any of you Epinionators I can assist in your various tasks and interests, don't hesitate to let me know, by the above Email address.
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UPDATE -- November 23, 2006: Here is a little list I posted after our horrendous imperial venture into the Middle East and Central Asia, on March 17,2003 -- Everything which has happened since has reinforced the idea that these Movie reviews make informative reading while George W. Bush continues to single-mindedly drive our Little Red, Black and Blue Waggon toward Armageddon:
Most of the following arrangements come from the Jazz at the Movie's Band CD, WHITE HEAT(reviewed in my list, featured on the juke box at The Ha-Ra Club, Geary Street, San Francisco), in addition to little a little Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Mancini, John Barry, and the most popular song from "my protege" Nellie McKay's GET AWAY FROM ME (also reviewed). You will find many excellent reviews of the films referred to, here at Epinions.
And of course, this Mixaloo is dedicated to the two courageous bartenders of the Ha-Ra Club, Carl Kickery (on the lam) and Jerry Hill -- not to mention, "As Time Goes By," the Boss of the Ha-Ra, "Fireman Rick" Fugari.
I call the mix: Macresarf1's Epinions Music for Cinematic Lovers:
Pointing out that the value of Epinions is always in the work of the Epinionators, I wish you enlightening experiences here . . . .
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