SATURDAY
hotel rwanda
trekked out in the middle of a snowstorm
to see hotel rwanda at the local art theatre
it is perhaps the most powerful most moving
film ive ever experienced
it captured the best and the worst of the
human condition
and i will never forget it
if it is not in your vicinity
you must force someone to bring it there
the local art movie house, the local college
someway somehow the word must get out
about this film
it is a must see work of art
and my congratulations to don cheadle
for a masterful performance
arf
good move
democrats have asked the social security administration
to turn over articles, ads and contracts of their "covert propaganda"
campaign
this is in response to news that admin paid armstrong williams
to covertly push its education agenda
and recently enlisted reluctant social security employees to
push its view that social security was insolvent
by putting the congressional spotlight, no matter how weakly
on their 'education campaign' they are trying to spollight the
admnistration strategy of imposing socialsecuity cuts
and hopefully blunt the republication propaganda machine
im glad to see the hometeam on the field
in this matter
FRIDAY
ending tyranny
bush says that his goal this next four years
is ending tyranny around the world
this is such a joke i dont know what to say about it
hes been taking away every quality of life program
he can get his hands on here and practicing torture
as american policy and stripping away civilrights protections
whereever he can and ruling thru lies and hardball
politics so heavily we got trick elections and
a one party state
but hes going to stop tyranny around the world
which would be a big task for somebody who is
actually sincere about it, which bush is not
the hypocrisy of it boggles the mind
we all know that this is him just trying to
justify his WMDless iraqi adventure
his im just trying to spread democracy routine
then you get all these news reports seriously reporting
that bush is going to stop tyranny around the world
with little to no commentary on the irony of it all
bush champions global freedom
says the buffalo news
it just boggles the mind
somebody needs to tell somebody
that stopping tyranny, like charity
begins at home
its like hes in a little fantasy world all his very own
if he thinks he is going to go around the world
planting freedom and destroying tyranny
so now hes said it, whats he gon do
he will either use it to justify iraq and maybe threaten iran
otherwise ignore it and go on about his business
which is what i think he planned
or will the attention given to the speech cause him to
try and follow through
his current attempt at big thinking has been a disaster
god help me we dont need no more
of his unholy crusades
can you imagine 2, 3, 4 iraqs
apparently he can
arf
WEDNESDAY
forget the numbers
i used to check my readership numbers daily
monitoring and recalibrating according to whether
numbers were going up or down
dont do that no more
every once in awhile maybe but i just dont care no more
im drawing back from engagement this year
i got to finish my novel this year, got a research leave
coming up for the fall semester and its showtime
again
and my little discretionary time these days im putting
into shortstories - i feel like im behind on my
shortstories careerwise
so i got to minimize my various political initatives
of which this is one
gone do enuf to maintain and i still fear im speaking
to a choir of one - myself - but for the moment i just
dont care
its me and rest for the weary
lawrence summers does it again
after running cornel away from harvard
and damn near dismantling the afroam
dreamteam there, summers has roiled
harvard again when he attributed the
disparity of women in math and sciences
to biological differences
hes pissed off faculty alumni and students
"we were just upset," one young female student said.
"It's disconcerting that the man who
is supposed
to have your best interest in mind and is the leader
of your
education community thinks less of us."
must reading
great award categories
great awardees
wish i had thought of it
funny though that condolezza
and powell didnt get anything
they worked hard and should
have got honorable mention or
something
maybe next year
TUESDAY
bushleague bait and switch
let me tell you what bush is going to do w/social security
he is going to strive to make it sound reasonable
he is going to say we will limit the sums invested
to some neglible amount (it will grow)
we will not cut benefits (sure he will)
and restrict possible investments to sure things (yeah right)
in other words he is going to start off as 'reasonable' as possible
then let the program grow once hes got it in place
we have got to regain control of this narrative
according to polls the majority of the american public
is buying his sky is falling scenario
im pessimistic i guess because ive seen him
run so many unreasonable scenarios by the american public
just by being willing to lie with a straight face
he simply does not care
MONDAY
deja vu again or
"there is no education in the 2nd kick of a mule"
i was thinking the other day that
the flak in iraq was the only thing keeping
the bush admin from further adventurism
i dont know what i was thinking about
i keep thinking of them as reasonable people and they are not
article in the newyorker by seymour hersh lays out admin plans
to attack iran, they are already running special forces ops
targeting sites to be attacked and updating invasion plans
apparently the same folk who brought us iraq
rumsfield, wolfowitz, feith et al, have been given responsibility for
planning any iranian campaign
they have 'disciplined' cia analysts who questioned iraq
so as not to be bothered with naysayers in intelligence community
ie, this op is run by the bumblers in pentagon who brought us iraq
rumsfield has been given permission to put together 'counter' terror squads
of local operatives in any country he so desires w/o congressional insight
what one admin source called 'a global free fire zone'
most of rumsfields new powers are without congressional oversight
they have conducted political purges to discipline the intelligence community
they can basically do what they please
apparently the necons have decided that the election was a mandate
to go for broke in the middleeast
the israelis are pushing for a blow on iran and the neocons are listening
more shock and awe
you would think they had enuf on their plate with iraq and the economy
but no, bush apparently still has time to destroy social security and
plan the invasion of iran
talk about hubris, this boy got issues
unfortunately we and our generations will
pay the costs of his neocon dreams
i dont know about you but they scare me
one admin guy said they were being very serious
about their intelligence on this one because of iraqs wmds
there is he said, no education in the 2nd kick of the mule
wish the american electorate had thought about that
before they re elected him
check out that article when you get the chance
hersh is essential reading for those who would be informed
stories, storytelling, the global narrative and me
i have been buried lately in shortstories from around the world
trying to put together a reader for my new class
its been an extraordinary learning experience
so extraordinary in fact that ive started working on shortstories
of my own
in the past story ideas have been sucked into my novels
like some literary black hole but ive always planned to do
a book of shorts called hoodoo tales
after i finish rest for the weary and teaching in an mfa program has
taught me a respect for the form i did not have
thats why i decided to do this new class, part of my attempt to understand
and master the form
i see said the blindman
i will continue immersion for rest of the semester
(and apparently the rest of my working life)
i see that the global faternity i would like to join
have done both novels and shorts and so then too must i
other day i was laughing at myself
here i am in my 50s and still learning the tricks of my trade
i tell you life is funny sometimes, real funny
sistermack
as you know i am
impressed with the bookeristia folk
over at booker rising
the new year tends to find me expressive
so i sent molotov an email, said hello my brother
though we differ ideologically on the issues of the day
there are many in which we are in agreement
though we are on different sides of the great divide
i respect what you do and consider us in many
ways fellow travelers
21st century players
molotov responded gracefully and said wellmet
w/a slight correction, that greeting should have been
hello my sister
well
i apologized for my presumptions
even more impressed
a sistermack
martin luther kings legacy
today is martins birthday
folk always ask me what do i have planned on martins bday
and i always reply the same - i plan to work harder today
than any other day
thats the way martin would want it
hangtough
arf
FRIDAY
mapping the global future
was wandering about google and noticed
article about report from the cias national intelligence council
americas strategic thinking think tank
projecting global trends until 2020
as you know
this is right down my prophetic alley
i cant wait to dig into it
this will help my own strategic/prophetic projections
first off i assume they dont give you the real good info
they probably keep that classified
but still, all i want is something that will stimulate my
own thinking about the strategic future of all things
dont have time to really dig in right now
got too many deadlines howling at my door
but ima schedule it as soon as and update
this post with whatever i come up with
they got all thes projected trends
like the rise of asian superpowers (china and india)
terrorism and global inequality, et al
and a variety of fictional scenarios
and of africa its all doom and gloom of course
but im already trying to finesse that scenario
i figure i will pick up a couple of handles here
also they have a computer simulation program
of the factors they used to run their simulations
and they have it so you can either run it online
or download it and run your own scenarios
i couldnt wait to download it
(even though i am concerned that it will be full
of spyware or something)
but the damned execute file took an hour to download
by itself and this on roadrunner
i have never had an execute file that big
it might be more than my memory can handle but
im going to go for it anyway
the idea of having a globalization simulation program
is too much for the old rootdoctor to resist
will run the online first to see if its worth my while
but i have to tell you, between the report and the program
im so excited
arf
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