I'd Rather Whine Than Resign!

The UN Building, with about 7 stories lopped off the top, in honor of John Bolton (click to enlarge)


Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the world of corporate government, where incompetence and inflexibility are directly proportional. You might want to keep the following links bookmarked for the next time you screw up at work and have the pink slip waved in your face.

Olmert: yeah, I killed hundreds of innocents, so what? I'm stayin'!

Wolfowitz: yeah, I handed out a mega-salary job to my main squeeze in clear violation of the rules of my organization, so what? I'm stayin'!

Gonzales: yeah, I might have fired some attorneys for purely political reasons, though I don't exactly recall--so what? I'm stayin'!

And now, our feature piece for today comes from Shady Acres Mike, who we haven't heard from in a while. Today he answers the question, "is a Bush veto of the $124B Iraq Supplemental automatic?"



It appears so. These guys seem to be highly out of touch. Keep in mind though that they do have at least a year to forge a political deal (if it gets to be more than that, no one will deal with them--it will become the next administration's headache). If they are able to foster a political deal they would look somewhat reasonable.

As for the loyal opposition, they cannot lose in the eyes of the reasonable American. Thank God that the forces of reason won both houses because the position the Dems are in now is only because of their ability to set a legislative and oversight agenda.

However, I am not optimistic that a political deal is in the offing. There is no military solution to being an occupying force in the midst of a civil war where neither warring party wants you there. So only a political solution remains. This administration has not done the hard work needed to lay down a path for such a deal. As a matter of fact, they seemed to have done just the opposite by refusing, at least publicly, to deal with the various factions whether inside or outside of Iraq. They have been defiant by taking a unilateral course. They believe that the US no longer needs to be a participant in history-making with others, but rather be THE history maker. It is this hubris that will make it difficult to cut a deal. In effect, they thought they could take a short cut. They initially tried to favor the Shia so that they would hold sway over the country. That backfired and they are still in the process of backing out of that strategy.

In the meantime, no real centralized body or association of various Sunni factions exists. Who represents the Sunnis? The Shia seem split down the middle between two main factions as well. At the same time, this administration has threatened the neighbors who continue to fuel the sectarian violence. No short term political solution looks likely. This will take time, patience, negotiations, and compromise -all things this administration either lacks or has shown no actual ability to afford.

I found myself in rare agreement with Donald Trump the other day. He recently stated that he sees Condi flying all over the world, meeting with many world leaders, but he never sees a deal. What, he asked, is the secretary of state supposed to do other than cut deals? Perhaps it is too late and they have gone too far to be trusted at the negotiating table for any major negotiation, including peace in Iraq. What a mess they have made. What a mess they will most probably be leaving to the next administration.

Have you seen the new poll results form NBC? The Bushies are so out of touch once again. Large majorities of Americans think there should be a timetable - by approximately a twenty percent margin. Only 22% of Americans think we are headed in the right direction as a country. Large majorities of Americans thinks that the surge is not working - again, by approximately a twenty percent margin. This is why anyone associated with the quagmire that is Iraq is being painted with the same brush. McCain has hit free fall, even Hillary is sliding. Obama and Giuliani who did not vote on the subject have risen in their place.

As for the neocons, the noose is tightening around these hoodlums and incompetents: Abramoff and 10 other K Street influence-peddling convictions with three more Congressman to come about to go down, Plamegate and the Libby conviction, Tillman and Lynch, politicizing the Justice and other departments, Katrina, with investigations on torture, spying on the public without warrants, and intelligence manipulation yet to come. It's going to be hard for anyone who supported this administration to survive once it all comes out. Thank God for checks and balances, thank God for karma, for justice, for true oversight, and for the rooster coming home to roost. And the far right are out of touch again, they are simply trying to stall and deceive by making false comparisons with other administrations and by changing the subject.

If property values continue to sink and the economy slows down on top of all of the above, the 30 year trend to the right may be about to be swing the other way. The right could lose the independent vote for a long time to come. Even without the economy taking a slide, rising energy costs, rising health costs, rising education costs, and continued reliance on big oil and foreign carbon based energy at the expense of the very environment we live in could cost the Republicans the middle class independent vote for a long time to come. And the right is out of touch again if they think that can rely on all their past bromides with which they ran America into the ground.

It's time for a new America. Lets see who will be ready to usher that in.

--Shady Acres Mike

Monday with McKenna: Inside the Artist's Brain

Monday with McKenna today features a trip inside the mind of an artist, but first let's take a tour of the brain of neocon ignorance. The graphic here is the front page of this town's leading tabloid, a Rupert Murdoch property that lives to offend. And what can be more offensive than this cover insult to a man who's in the hospital, and was still listed in critical condition at the time this moronic Photoshop smut was created? And if Mr. Corzine was a good Bush Republican, do you think we'd have seen this? I think this crap makes Imus look like a choir boy by comparison. Kicking a man when he's down is one thing; kicking him when half the bones in his body have been broken and he's breathing through a tube...it's journalistic dementia.

And while I have you thinking about sick, psychotic institutions, check this out: the U.S. Army now has an insurance claims department. They examine claims arising from our military's incidental murders of innocent Iraqi civilians, and pay or deny based on the most randomly corrupt judgment imaginable. Read some of the examples from Greg Mitchell's column at E&P, and see whether your blood pressure hasn't gone up by a factor of two by the time you're done. Incidentally, it was the ACLU that got these files on military killings of civilians; so purchasing a membership would not be a waste of $35, if you ask me.


So this isn't just a troop surge, ladies and gentlemen; it's a bureaucracy surge. But according to Clueless from Crawford, the Dems are "handing victory to our enemies" because they refuse to fund this shit without a timeline for ending it all. Click the graphic for Stewart's roundup, which includes the "airing of the platitudes."

Ah, god, if there's anybody from Norway reading this: how's the job market there, and could I get a green card? Will it help me if I tell you that my kid's playing Grieg on the piano these days?

Never mind, let's all just escape from it for a few minutes, to go inside the mind of my artist co-blogger. So while I go onto my ISP's servers and delete a few thousand emails (for more on that, join us on Geek Wednesday), here's Monday with McKenna...



Where does artistic inspiration come from? And I don’t mean this to be an abstract question. If we are to discover the poetry within ourselves, we’ll need to know how to muster the force of artistic inspiration.

This week I’ll review inspiration from the initial flicker to the finished work of art. In my example, I’ll use inspiration from this past week. The finished work is also mine, though from a long time ago. And by the way, if I haven’t made it clear in past essays, I am a trained fine artist; so, while I earn my living in business, I still paint from time to time.

Artistic inspiration varies a little bit with the specific art involved. The same flicker may tickle the painter or poet, and both may pick up a notebook to memorialize their ideas, but then their courses diverge. The visual artist works with line and tone. If words are included at all, they supplement a sketch. On the other hand, the poet works exclusively with words. And we include a musician, who would compose by setting down notes on a staff.

This week, my inspiration came from the return of Spring. And despite our being solidly into April, Spring did not seem all that present for those of us in the New York City area. Our weather was cold and blustery, and as of this writing, we await a Nor’easter and possibly snow. Still, it was Spring that aroused me from my drowsy train ride home. My daily commute starts in dank Penn Station; we spend the first 10 minutes in a dark tunnel. After we emerge into the light, we pass through the dreary salt marsh known as the Jersey Meadows. Newark is our first city. As we move past, the towns get progressively smaller, the lawns get larger and the people whiter. My ride ends more than an hour later in suburban Morris County.

On a typical day, I read and slumber. Last Tuesday, I suddenly noticed a flicker of bright colors and movement. In the middle distance, on a playing field, a group of girls were arrayed in a circle practicing wheeling motions with their arms. They were led by an adult (their coach?) stationed in the center. I guessed they were junior high school girls, and were practicing cheerleading.


As I said, I was dozing, but the late-afternoon raking sunlight and the bright colors on the girls clothes sparked my interest, so I opened up my notebook and scrawled the following scribble.

The scene vanished before I finished. On the same ride home, I made a few more sketches for later use. But as far as getting a second shot at drawing the scene again, I was never able to. I had my pad and pencil at the ready the rest of the week, but the girls and their teacher never reappeared. Still, I had my inspiration.

But how do I turn a brief notion into a finished painting?

In the days of the “academy,” artists went to great lengths to reassemble a scene. They would dress models in the correct garb, and sometimes recreate an entire battlefield or similar large scale backdrop. Contemporary artists by and large shun such practices. For myself, I will make lots of preparatory sketches, but that’s as far as I go.

Then it’s on to the grunt work of artistic composition. And as much as the several arts differ each from the other, there remain lots of similarities. Painters cover their canvas once and then re-paint again and again. So too, writers make a first draft and rewrite obsessively. From what I’ve heard, Ernest Hemingway’s first drafts were remarkably pedestrian. Each draft tries to push closer to the original spark. Countless re-paintings or redrafts eventually reach a conclusion (or a stalemate, when a work is abandoned). The key is to be unafraid to destroy (tear up – paint over) your previous hard work, even if a particular passage seems a great success. Finish occurs when the work clicks.

Works that fail may be picked up again after months or years.

And that’s it. An obsessive process of rewriting or repainting until the work is done.

So… how do you keep reaction fresh when you’ve had a work of art in front of you for months?

For painters, we can re-assess several times a day. After each break, your return to the studio gives you a brief moment for a fresh reaction. But for writers of novels, re-engagement comes slowly. Nonetheless, the artistic quest remains the same: did I get what I was after? If not, keep trying.

The what you are after is much less solid matter. Unvoiced, the artist tries to keep it alive in mind’s eye while continuing to prune and refine. But the specific “what” is never explicitly stated. Eventually, a work is finished. Even then, you may give yourself a time off, and one more look. Did you get what you wanted? If yes, then you are done.


So… what about my finished work. This one was finished some 34 Springs ago after a month of daily painting. I no longer have my original studies, but I can remember what I saw and what I was after. It was late March, and I was home from art school (I was sick for about eight days… a rare experience for me). I passed a local park and watched two boys take turns with a basketball. I can’t say what it was about the scene inspired me, and the work changed a lot as I painted. After a month of painting, I stopped with the following entitled the Rites of Spring.

By the way, if you pay for Showtime, you ought to watch the new series: This American Life. In an episode entitled ‘God’s Close-Up’ a young Mormon painter is shown selecting his models, posing them in an elaborate crucifixion scene, and photographing the scene to use are reference for a finished work. The links won’t allow you to see all that much, but if you have access to Showtime, watch this interesting episode. The art itself is relentlessly pedestrian. And no, I don’t know the artists name, nor do I have a link for him.

—T. McKenna

Chocolate Balls of Jesus

I'm working a block away from the Roger Smith Hotel, where a new exhibit was to open today at their well-known art gallery. You may have heard or read some of the buzz about the Chocolate Jesus and the Church's successful efforts to kill the exhibit. It appears the Catholic hierarchy has more important things to do than investigate its own cadre of child molesters and rapists. Nope: they've got to start a campaign against anyone showing Jesus' dick.

So here's some news for the bloviating Catholics: Jesus had balls, and so did lots of other gods throughout religious history. If I believed that god was a human, I'd want to get to know every inch of Him, wouldn't you? Damn, I'd want to know what God's asshole looked and felt like, too.

But god doesn't have an asshole, nor any genitalia that we'd recognize as such. Pan (above left) did, and so did Bes (right). They, too, were the work of imagination and visual metaphor, just like Jesus. But the cultures that spawned these gods had no FOX News commentators or hypocritical Cardinals to suppress artistic imagery.

By the way, guess what else—I found this page, which is loaded with pics from Christian iconography featuring some pretty well hung guys, including "Saint Priapus."

That this sort of oppressive censorship is happening in the cultural capital of the world, under the guiding hand of Cardinal Egan, is mildly sickening.

But the true believers are getting a little uncomfortable these days, with bestselling authors like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris around. Pastor Rick Warren recently challenged the latter to a debate, which had some amusing highlights. Here's one:

RICK WARREN: I see the fingerprints of God everywhere. I see them in culture. I see them in law. I see them in literature. I see them in nature. I see them in my own life. Trying to understand where God came from is like an ant trying to understand the Internet. Even the most brilliant scientist would agree that we only know a fraction of a percent of the knowledge of the universe.

Yep, Pastor Rick, yer right. Religion is a lot like the Internet. The Bible is the original proto-blog; televangelism is like really loud spam; and the Torah is kind of like Internet Explorer, what with all those rules and the potential for malware attacks at every turn. When I consider the world's religions, I often feel like my spiritual IP address keeps changing; and who can deny an insidious connection between the Old Testament and myspace.com?
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Now here's a story that doesn't mind being dirty. For while MC Rove sanitizes everything he touches, spinning deceit and corruption into pristeen, germ-free truth; and while those Catholics raise their kids to be Easter-Sunday perfect (cleanliness is next to godliness); science is pointing us in another direction: it's good for you to get dirty.

Exposure to dirt may be a way to lift mood as well as boost the immune system, UK scientists say.

Lung cancer patients treated with "friendly" bacteria normally found in the soil have anecdotally reported improvements in their quality of life.

Mice exposed to the same bacteria made more of the brain's "happy" chemical serotonin, the Bristol University authors told the journal Neuroscience.

Common antidepressants work by boosting this brain chemical.

I am reminded of a comment I heard from an old RN with whom I worked many years ago: "Bacteria aren't evil, Brian, they're just doing their jobs."
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Finally today, a tribute to a man who is arguably the world's greatest living writer. I remember getting chills on reading the first few pages of 100 Years of Solitude, and again for Love in the Time of Cholera. Happy 80th, Senor Marquez.

Why Diplomacy is Stronger Than War

We're going to return to Jimmy Carter's book tonight, but first I thought I'd have a quick look at how the righties are taking the Scooter verdict. Over at FOX, it was hard to find a thing: plenty of stuff about Rosie bashing FOX; various murders; and a cat surviving a 75 foot fall. Finally, I found that Gibson is calling for a do-over based on the fact that one of the jurors is a reporter.

Now I've been through a jury trial (take me out for a few drinks some night and I'll tell you to whole sorry tale), and I seem to recall both the prosecution and the defense being allowed what are called "peremptory excusals". That's when you kick a juror out just because you have a feeling about him, or have heard something. And even before that, there's a prolonged period of questioning from both attorneys and the judge. If the legal power of the White House couldn't tease out what Gibson calls a "smelly" coincidence in a juror's professional background, then maybe that's simply yet another instance of the Bushies' total incompetence. Thanks, John, for pointing that out for us.
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I want to stay with Jimmy Carter's book this week, first because of the unfounded attacks it has received, but also because it's so topical. Today, the King of Jordan appeared before Congress, asking them to focus on Palestine, and reminding them that "a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was more urgent than the conflict in Iraq." (watch video of this speech, here).

What he is recommending to Congress as a solution is basically what Carter proposes in his book: support for a 2002 Saudi plan that calls for universal recognition of Israel as an independent nation by all her Arab neighbors, in exchange for the formation of a viable Palestinian state in the region that would be freed up by a rollback to 1967 borders. Until this is done, said King Abdullah, the situation in Iraq would not improve, and "we are all at risk."

This moderate message seemed to accord with what Carter's impression is of the Jordanians:

...many Jordanians feel that a failure to resolve the Palestinian issue may lead to the destruction of their own nation, and they listen with anger and concern to some extreme Israeli spokesmen who say "Jordan is Palestine." The threat is real and vital to Jordan's leaders...Abdullah II...has seemed to continue his father's [King Hussein] attitude of cautious idealism. Despite limits to his influence, his personal integrity and commitment to Middle East peace are acknowledged.

In his description of his own talks with the likes of Arafat, Assad of Syria, and Begin, Carter reveals the strength of a statesman. This is what we need now, particularly with Iran. It is only a sign of mewlish weakness to threaten an adversary with bunker-buster nukes and aircraft carriers; it takes strength and intelligence to actually talk with some of these hombres. As we have seen time and again, Bush refuses to do it, because he can't; he simply lacks the ability and the experience to do so. Thus, we see more flag-draped boxes being returned to devastated families, with no end in sight.

Yet Bush is not unique in this incapacity for statesmanship. Sharon and Olmert have been (to be charitable about it) inconsistent on this front, and obviously the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been unequal to the challenge of diplomacy. War is easy: you either kill or you die. Statesmanship takes a deeper, less brutish, and more enduring strength.

What everyone in power needs to remember, and what I think Abdullah was implying yesterday, is that these thugs don't represent the people. But killing them only makes more of them: the lesson of Iraq in a nutshell.

You see, people, when you wish death upon a tyrant, you distract urgently needed attention and energy from the work of weakening him. I'm sure most of you have seen the foolish comedian, Bill Maher, have to defend himself before Bill O'Reilly and the court of public opinion. Does this help weaken or stop Dick Cheney? No: it only gives him more power.

So while no one will pretend that what Jimmy Carter did in his presidency was faultless, his approach was and remains the only one that makes sense. You have to talk to the bad guys if you really want to stop them. There is no time when sanity is more essential than when you are surrounded by madmen.

Calling Townhall to Account

I posted a piece about neurosis and the corporate mindset to my Daily Kos diary. It is meant to open a thread on a theme that we intend to take up here over the coming weeks, about the infestation of a corporate consciousness into both our public and private lives.

Anyway, if you'd like to have a little fun to start the week, head over to the neocon punditry center, townhall.com, and take a look around. There are a number of mindless, pointless articles with the lamest possible headlines ("Cheney, Saudi King discuss trouble spots"; "Why Gays Cannot Be Pro-Choice"; "Bad Credit is a Way of Life--It Shouldn't Be!"); along with the obligatory picture of a Democrat looking shrill or silly. But, wouldn't you know, there is nothing of substance about what's going on in the world.

Such as any discussion of civil war in Iraq. Apparently, even the neocon press is beyond the point of questioning or denying that there is now a civil war in progress, although they probably still imagine that a civil war features a gray army and a blue army clashing on a broad meadow.

Nor is there any discussion of General Karpinski's comments about Rumsfeld's written endorsement of torture. I'm sure that once they awaken from the sting of the initial reports, they'll get all shrill and remind us that the General is merely recounting a memory of having seen such a document, and after all, Rummy's been sacked, so what's the point of hacking on about it?

I also couldn't find, even with their search engine, anything at townhall.com about the duration of this Iraq War--that it's lasted longer now than WWII. As Tony Snow would remind us, it's only a number.

The day of reckoning will come for all the war criminals in Washington. But we will also have to recall who in the media used their influence to endorse or disguise the crimes, for they are complicit in every useless, agonizing death. This is no longer a left wing-right wing / red state-blue state issue. The results from the polls three weeks ago showed us that. This is now an issue of a free people holding those people accountable, in both government and the media, who defaulted on a public trust. The next generation, and the one after that, are going to want to know what we were doing when the foul corporate windbags were playing the mouthpiece to tyrants and liars, and why we weren't able to stop them.

No one would dare expect government to be flawless; being responsible will do. And certainly no one would expect journalists to be perfect; to question and to seek truth would be plenty enough for us to accept. But a program of pathological lying, unquestioningly repeated and broadcast by a bought-and-paid media, comprises an attack on every citizen of a democracy.

This is why I disagree with Ms. Pelosi, and many Democrats, about impeachment. We need it--not so much to punish the criminals, but to expose them and their allies in the media; so that we will the more readily recognize them in time when they come back, telling us oily lies and conspiring in the deaths of half a million innocents, through fear-mongering cloaked in the sibilant whispers of a sacred arrogance.