The other recent BP oil spill you may have missed

With all the devastation going on in the Gulf of Mexico and the 24-hour coverage of it by seemingly every cable news channel, you and I may be forgiven for not paying too much attention to matters oil-related that were transpiring elsewhere in the US. But what of our national media? Apparently they did not see fit to report on it too intensively, if at all. "It" being the Alaska incident, in which no-one was killed and which obviously did not rise to the level of urgency and shock value of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in terms of catastrophic environmental and economic damage, but which nonetheless corroborates the larger narrative herein: that BP's negligence and malfeasance is part of a pattern that rises beyond coincidence. Indeed, I'd argue that such a pattern of willful negligence and criminal malfeasance is intrinsic to BP's business model: this is the very definition of racketeering.

On May 25th 2010, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was shut down after a power failure led to a spill of "several thousands" of barrels of oil. A containment area consisting of gravel and impermeable tarp was reportedly successful in heading off any environmental damage, though there are ongoing concerns--amid watchdog groups and reporters who've covered the pipeline in general and the activities of BP specifically--about the pipeline's serious corrosion problems, the system's insufficient staffing and the lax maintenance of equipment, and the integrity of the pipeline itself.

Subsequent to this incident, the pipeline was re-opened, first at a reduced flow, then an even more reduced flow, for days; normal oil flow has since been restored.

BP (British Petroleum) is the majority owner of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline's operators, Aleyska. According to the wildflower-bedecked Aleyska corporate website, here's the breakdown of Aleyska's ownership (ironically, though not at all surprisingly, Aleyska is an Aleut word that means mainland, yet the consortium described below would not appear to include any Native Alaskan people or groups whatsoever):

BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc. 46.93%
ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska, Inc. 28.29%
ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, 20.34%
Unocal Pipeline Company, 1.36%
Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, L.L.C., 3.08%

(You may recognize the name Koch: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has reported on Koch Industries' significant and secret funding--to the tune of $24.9 million between 2005 and 2008--of global-warming denial campaigns via organizations such as the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. These campaigns disseminate lies and disinformation and, among other nefarious, self-serving goals, seek to affect public policy. They do this by undermining support for developing alternative energy sources like wind and solar as well as by downplaying and even denying the benefits of reducing, and ultimately doing away with, the nation's dependence on fossil fuel, aka oil.)

BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast has been covering the TAPS concerns for years. Here's his latest:

With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there's no space in the press for British Petroleum's latest spill, just this week: over 100,000 gallons, at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be a lot. Still is.

On Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of hydrocarbons after "procedures weren't properly implemented" by BP operators, say state inspectors. "Procedures weren't properly implemented" is, it seems, BP's company motto.

Few Americans know that BP owns the controlling stake in the trans-Alaska pipeline; but, unlike with the Deepwater Horizon, BP keeps its Limey name off the Big Pipe.

There's another reason to keep their name off the Pipe: their management of the pipe stinks. It's corroded, it's undermanned and "basic maintenance" is a term BP never heard of.

How does BP get away with it? The same way the Godfather got away with it: bad things happen to folks who blow the whistle. BP has a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of those who warn of pipeline problems.

In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had complained of conditions at the pipe's tanker facility. BP tapped his phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP's acts were "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."

I encourage readers to click over and read the entire article.

Why Attorney General Holder should pursue RICO charges against BP

As photographs of the Deepwater Horizon disaster's innocent victims--the dead and dying birds and turtles, the soon-to-be-bankrupt fishing familes and hoteliers of the Gulf states--float across our screens, a number of Americans are calling for the President to show some emotion, to get mad.
I submit that right now, we, the people, would be far better served by reason than by rage.
And reason and logic dictate that the best way to guarantee the most effective, efficient, and expeditious remedies to the widespread damage this disaster has wrought, and the havoc the spilled oil will continue to wreak, is to first guarantee that we, the people, have the funds necessary to bring to bear every conceivable course of action toward making this right, as the nice English man in the advertisement says. Every conceivable course of action: from thorough cleanup efforts of our marshlands, shores, and beaches; to relocation of the threatened wildlife; to fair, adequate, and proper financial support for all citizens whose livelihoods have borne, and will continue to bear, the brunt of this economic catastrophe at a time when all but the wealthiest Americans were already struggling with their bills (or living in drastically reduced circumstances or, indeed, not living in their homes at all.)
Recent history shows us that despite continuing to rake in unimaginably large profits, massive multinational oil companies do not voluntarily--or even grudgingly, upon feeling the gentle pressure of the implied threat of having a stockinged foot brush against their cervical spines--man up, pony up, and "make it right".
I would refer anyone questioning this to the sordid, outrageous story of Exxon Mobil Corp., whose infamous tanker accident in 1989 wrought environmental and economic damages both immediate and immeasurably long-term; who despite, to this day, posting record-breaking quarterly profits in the multiple billions of dollars, engaged in despicable legal tactics over a nineteen-year period, the results of which left the injured parties receiving a paltry $507 million in sum. This insulting amount was only one-tenth of the original jury award, and it was finalized so staggeringly late in the game, some of the plaintiffs had died. (Bear in mind that these damages did not take into account the devastation to body and mind wrought by losing one's livelihood, or, in the case of one Alaska mayor, watching in despair as his constituents lost their livelihoods and deciding to end his own life.)
In light of all the aforementioned, I believe there is a strong case to be made for pursuing charges, against British Petroleum (BP), under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
RICO's requirements are relatively easily-met, focusing as they do on an established pattern of behavior that under US law qualifies as racketeering: namely, a member, or members, of any enterprise found to have committed two of 35 crimes--which list entails 27 federal and 8 state crimes--within a 10-year period, is guilty of racketeering. (Even disregarding the implications of the recent SCOTUS ruling in Citizens, BP does fit the definition of "person"--see paragraph 3 of Title 18, Part I, Chapter 96, § 1961 of the United States Code, which states: “person” includes any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property.)
In addition to its criminal provisions, RICO embraces a broad (and in the case of BP, well-deserved and much needed) application of civil charges which may be brought against the defendant. The language--and, I'd add, precedent set by the application--of RICO provide for the recovery of punitive damages that are three times the amount of compensatory damages so awarded.
Viewed solely in terms of their quantity and the timeline over which they were committed, I believe BP's criminal acts to date, including two felonies for which the company is still on probation, provide more than enough to establish a pattern of behavior determinable under RICO as racketeering. To wit:
1999: BP pleaded guilty to the felony crime of illegal disposal of hazardous waste on Alaska’s North Slope and paid $22 million to resolve criminal fines and civil claims.
2005: following the tragic Texas City Refinery Explosion that killed fifteen people and injured many dozens more, BP pleaded guilty to felony violation of the Clean Air Act. The company was fined $50 million and sentenced to three years probation. Thereafter, having found at the refinery some 270 cited but still-unaddressed safety violations--plus 439 new ones--OSHA (the Occupational Health and Safety Administration) levied against BP an additional fine of $87 million, the largest such penalty in the history of the agency.
2007: BP energy traders in Houston, TX, were charged with illegal manipulation of propane prices, which led to the company narrowly avoiding criminal charges and paying, yet again, a record-breaking fine: $303 million total, which included a $125 million civil fine to the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), $100 million to the Justice Department, $53.3 million to a restitution fund for consumers, and $25 million to a US Postal Service consumer fraud education fund.
2010: On April 20th, an exploratory Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling platform owned by Transocean Ltd. and operating on behalf of its majority owner BP, exploded and collapsed, killing eleven people and unleashing a torrential and ongoing oil spill into the ocean which continues, unabated, to this day. Geologists, engineers, and oceanographers now describe the Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest oil spill in human history. Yet in its 2009 exploration plan filed with the MMS (Mineral Management Service), BP repeatedly and confidently downplayed the risk of any such catastrophe; indeed, they told the MMS that it was "virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals."
That's at least two criminal convictions, possibly three, and counting. And those are just the main crimes BP committed within America's territories. Time and space constrain this writer from going into the details of BP's history of crimes against man and nature in other countries, but Google assures us there are many.
What other benefits are there to invoking RICO? In addition to the treble-damages specification, the act provides broad framework for initiating criminal forfeiture of BP's real and tangible assets. It even provides for doing so peremptorily, if the government feels reasonably certain it will prevail on the issue of forfeiture.
A nationwide movement toward doing just this is organizing and expanding at this very moment: Seize BP. And it is not, contrary to the blatherings of morning news pundits, fueled by people's irrational anger; rather, the movement exists because citizens know all too well that lies, legal delays, obfuscations, and, ultimately, the very likely re-organization and/or bankruptcy of BP--and the concomitant transfer and hiding of its monetary assets--will undeniably translate to a miscarriage of justice the magnitude of which, like the oil spill itself, will be unprecedented.
Attorney General Holder: pursue RICO charges against BP and seize its assets. Now.

All the rights and privileges of personhood with none of the responsibilities and ethics pertaining thereto

Good grief, could the case be more clearly stated for enacting dramatic campaign finance reforms--indeed, for completely publicly-financing our elections--and curtailing, if not outright reversing, the ill-considered, inexplicable, and nefarious accordance of First Amendment free-speech protections to voiceless, inanimate entities like corporations?

As Congress investigated its role in the doomed Deep Horizon oil rig, Halliburton donated $17,000 to candidates running for federal office, giving money to several lawmakers on committees that have launched inquiries into the massive spill.

The Texas-based oil giant’s political action committee made 14 contributions during the month of May, according to a federal campaign report filed Wednesday — 13 to Republicans and one to a Democrat. It was the busiest donation month for Halliburton’s PAC since September 2008.

Of the 10 current members of Congress who got money from Halliburton in May, seven are on committees with oversight of the oil spill and its aftermath.

Halliburton’s political contributions in May are the highest they’ve been since September 2009, when the PAC also gave $17,000 in donations. In fact, the last time the company gave more than $17,000 in one month was when it donated $25,000 during the heat of the presidential campaign in September 2008.

Introducing The Fifth Column: Pearl; Athens, GA; 2010

I know him as David Ferguson, dear friend and confidante.

You probably know him as TRex, the wickedly funny blogger whose words were sharper than a theropod's claws--the writer who, for many moons, entertained the late-night crowd at Firedoglake before starting his own blog.

Now meet David the talented singer-songwriter: in this hastily-put-together but totally charming debut video--recorded in a single take on David's Mac for less than the cost of three lattes--he's performing his own Pearl, along with his brand-new band, The Fifth Column.

(You sound awesome and look mahvelous, David. Stop worrying. And keep writing and recording!)

Something wicked this way comes

(Yes, that's an actual BP ad, ca. 1999 T-shirt at Despair.com)

Readers, if you're wondering why you have not yet heard my take on The Great Gulf of Mexico Oil Geyser Disaster Enabled by the Dismantling of Regulations--and Corruption of a Federal Agency With Oil Industry Accomplices From Top to Bottom--by a Certain Ex-Vice President's Secret Energy Task Force, all Fueled (pun fully intended) by This Nation's Insatiable Appetite for Oil That Exists Courtesy of Some of Her Citizens' Stubborn Insistence On Driving Enormous, Wasteful Fucking Cars and SUV's Because Damn it, That's Our Right, God Bless America, well, it's because I have been struggling to find the appropriate words.

I try, and I try once again and always fail, to put into sentences, just a few of them even, how upset I am, particularly upon seeing the oil-coated birds, turtles, and porpoises--the barely alive and the newly dead--upon watching the clogged and dying marshes and mangroves stream across my television and computer, upon looking at photographs of the distraught faces of fishermen and beach hoteliers whose livelihoods are flat-out destroyed for who knows how many years to come.

I turn to my husband, who loves these shores and those waters, and who, along with my father and brother, has spent countless hours filled with wonder and joy while scuba-diving, filming, and spear-fishing in their rich, life-filled depths, and he tells me how it breaks his heart to think he'll probably never be able to take our sons into the once-vibrant sea that he has enjoyed for the better part of his life; and his eyes fill with tears now as he laments the certain demise of the gentle whale sharks--one of which he clung to and rode like an enormous and dappled underwater pony just a few years ago--as he imagines them swimming through those ghastly plumes of toxic crude and suffocating, and dying horrible, poison-choked deaths, and for what...and you know, I am actually still failing to properly express my outrage.

And for someone who prides herself on being able to wield a strong word or two, normally, that's really saying something.

Sunday Meditation: Awadagin Pratt performs at the White House

I was so pleased to find--finally--a video recording featuring my favorite American pianist, Awadagin Pratt. In this one, he's playing for President and Mrs. Obama, along with their elder daughter daughters Malia and Sasha, in November 2009 (how did I miss this?!) The piece is J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582. Toward the end, you'll recognize that ominous-sounding theme Keith Olbermann uses in his Worst Person in the World segments.

Awadagin throws in a final, witty flourish, too: the Hail to the Chief riff. (I'm certain no subtext was intended!)

Back in the 90's, I was channel-surfing and happened upon Awadagin playing piano (I'm thinking it was probably on CBS Sunday Morning). I was transfixed and completely bowled over by his passionate style and unusual, off-the-beaten-path selections (Franz Liszt's Funérailles [Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, No. VII], for heaven's sake, and do have your Kleenex ready for that one), so I set out to find a recording of his music, something that was considerably more difficult to do in the pre-Intertubes days.

On my next birthday, my dear friend Cynthia, who was an amazing finder of All Things Unfindable and who passed away in 1999, surprised me with Awadagin's first CD, A Long Way From Normal. I can't listen to it without crying--especially not the aforementioned Funérailles--but it remains my favorite (and I have bought everything he's recorded since).

Awadagin is an extraordinarily gifted musician--he was the first student in the history of the Peabody Conservatory of Music to receive diplomas in piano, violin, and conducting--and if he's ever performing in a city near yours, you must do whatever it takes to get yourself tickets. I've had the privilege of attending two of his concerts in Florida: he's brilliant.

***In closing, I'd like to wish dear TRex a very happy birthday. Cheers to you, my friend!***

Friday Saturday Frank: Watermelon in Easter Hay; Barcelona, 1988

I could never pick a single FZ favorite, of course, but Watermelon, with its exquisite and moving extended guitar solo, is definitely right up there.

And given that, both here and at Cogitamus, sweet fruit has been a running theme of late--I'm referring, of course, to my lemony pound cake and Minstrel Boy's fresh cantaloupe ice-cream--today's Frank offering had to be either this one or Peaches in Regalia (next week, promise).

May your Memorial Day weekend be a bright and delicious celebration of summer's beginning.

XXX
D.

*Cake or Death? Limoncello Polenta Pound Cake

Lemon Slice with Knife by Michael Naples

Just about everyone loves a good old gooey chocolate cake; I know I do. But I often find myself fancying something with a crisper, more citrus-y bite--chalk it up to the sun pouring in the windows (or who knows, maybe I'm finally growing up? Nah.) Anyway, several months ago I played around with a polenta cake recipe from the brilliant Moosewood Desserts cookbook, added my favorite Italian liqueur, and came up with a cake that's become an oft-requested favorite. The texture is wonderful--buttery yet slightly gritty, the way Milano cookies are--and the Limoncello's alcohol will evaporate during baking, making the cake fine for kids (I know mine adore it, though it contains nary a speck of chocolate), but if you like a genuinely boozy cake, you can also sprinkle some of the liqueur on top of your creation while it's still warm. Off to the kitchen with you, then, to make...

Limoncello Polenta Pound Cake

1 lb. unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus a little for greasing the pan.
3 cups sugar
the finely grated rind of 2 lemons
6 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 teaspoons lemon extract
3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup Limoncello (a gorgeous, intensely lemony Italian liqueur)
1/4 cup milk
1 cup cornmeal (organic if you can, so as to avoid all the GMO corn out there)

--------

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. (give or take a few degrees if your oven is wonky like mine--I always err on the side of going a bit lower and baking longer in order to prevent an overly dark crust). Butter and flour a nonstick bundt pan and set aside.

Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar until light, then add the lemon rind and mix well. Continue beating and add the eggs and the vanilla and lemon extracts, and beat until fluffy. Sift the flour and baking powder and mix it into the egg-butter mixture, using a wooden spoon now. Then add the Limoncello and milk, and stir until smooth. Mix in the cornmeal until just blended.

Scrape the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan and place in the center of the oven. You'll want to check on it in an hour, then every five minutes or so (it may take up to 1 hour and 15 minutes to be done). When your cake looks golden and is pulling away, slightly, from the edges of the pan, remove it from the oven, allow it to cool for 10 minutes, and invert it onto a large, flat plate. (Gently tap the edges of the pan if necessary.) Remove the pan from the cake, and voilá! A picture-perfect cake with an intoxicating fragrance is yours--to eat plain, to dust with powdered sugar and adorn with candles, or to serve warm with vanilla or lemon ice cream. Enjoy!

*

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Frank: Appearing on Forum Musiques; Paris, 1968

This is a rare treat for us Zappaphiles: video recording of FZ and the Mothers of Invention making their first appearance on the French TV program Forum Musiques. The music is at once inventive, amusing, bizarre, and deeply beautiful--in short, very Frank.

And come to think of it, those adjectives might well describe my hopes for the impending summer and the activities (and lack thereof) in which I'm considering engaging myself and the boys: we shall aim to fill our days with the inventive, the amusing, the bizarre, and the deeply beautiful.

So: what are your warm-weather plans?

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio

From 1980, Ronnie James Dio sings Black Sabbath's War Pigs.

Dio, 67, lost his battle with cancer this weekend. My boys are heartbroken, and me, well, I am reminded once again that even the musicians we consider rock legends are mortal. But like the music, the legends themselves live on, as will Mr. Dio's music and legend; perhaps his family will find some comfort in that. I hope so.

War Pigs

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor...

Clustershag to 10 Downing: The Daily Show on Great Britain's new (and old) PM

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Clustershag to 10 Downing - New Prime Minister
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

From beginning to end, this is brilliant, painfully funny stuff.

(As for our last president's shame-free departure by helicopter, I agree with John Oliver: WTF?)

His Rudeness on the Gulf oil spill

Cartoon by Patrick Corrigan, The Toronto Star

You are regularly reading The Rude Pundit, yes? If not, get yourself over there right now and be sure to bookmark the blog. (I wouldn't recommend reading his posts aloud if there are tender-eared children present, but oh my, can Lee ever make me laugh, and wince, and cry...)

He lambasts the GOP's hypocritical response (this is all President Obama's fault? Really?) to the horrific and ongoing oil spill that is already killing sea turtles and fish, and which is now threatening the entire west coast of this state--where several of America's most beautiful, pristine beaches are located--right down to the Florida Keys, where delicate coral heads and ocean ecosystems are barely hanging on as it is, and after this disaster, will likely suffer for many years to come, if indeed they're ever able to recover.

I'll add just one thing Rude's spot-on piece: one of those Panhandle luxury waterfront homes belongs to Karl Rove. Somehow, that fact doesn't make me feel the tiniest bit better.

Anyway, in its no-punches-pulled entirety:

The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Will Wreck Your Pathetic Ideology:

Tell you what, motherfuckers, when dead people are left to rot in the sun because of the incompetence of the federal government, when corpses are floating in the streets, when the President passively ignores the pleas of the governors of Gulf Coast states, when entire neighborhoods have been physically destroyed, when the federal government strands tens of thousands of people without food or water, when the federal government starts to blame the local governments, when the President praises the work of a failed, incompetent bureaucrat while a major city rots, then you can say that this is Barack Obama's "Katrina."

But until this happens, good, sweet conservative bags of fuck who need so desperately to drag this president down, the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is a corporate-created disaster, and it actually serves to demonstrate, starkly, and with a semen-like sheen, as if the ocean floor is in the midst of a prolonged sweet crude ejaculation, the utter failure of deregulation and the bullshit notion that capitalistic enterprises can police themselves when it comes to safety and environmental standards, whether it was, in this case, BP or Transocean or whoever. In other words, once again, as with so many things, this is about your ideology belly-flopping, much like, you know, when Katrina showed how years of neglect of the levees would lead to a nightmare.

So now Bobby Jindal, formerly of the "states can solve problems" crowd, is coming to the federal government with his hands out like a New Delhi beggar with leprosy. Hell, Haley Barbour already knows the routine. Bob Riley's about to discover that money from the fed ain't so bad now. Bow and scrape, assholes, as an environmental catastrophe that's coming your way is gonna destroy jobs, tourism, and wetlands.

Right now, as the Rude Pundit writes this, the booms that were set up to protect the beaches in Alabama and Mississippi are failing. They're being blown onto shore by the winds, by the waves. Dead things are washing up, too. The fishing's been halted. Pretty soon, the white, white sands, the Aryan beaches of the Redneck Riviera are going to get dingier and dingier looking, even more than when swarms of UA kids head there to vomit in the sun on spring break.

Yes, some day soon, a man with his Gulf Shores timeshare, probably a proud and loyal teabagger, will look out over his balcony during the two weeks a year he takes his family on vacation and see the bits of black that are rolling up onto the shore. And he'll wonder, even if they do everything they can, why the feds couldn't clean it up sooner. Then he'll go inside and watch Hannity or listen to Limbaugh tell him that his taxes are too high and that business, not Washington, can solve all his problems.

Jan Brewer is the new Katherine Harris: on the Arizona bill and the GOP's newest voter disenfranchisement effort

I sensed--make that, I knew--there had to be something more to the Arizona "Papers please!" bill than that which the media was reporting, which is to say, the racism angle and the concomitant immigrants-are-fighting-back angle, that classic binary (and delightfully simplistic) narrative of which our newsfolk are so regrettably enamored. I also knew I wasn't alone in my sense of being ill at ease with this whole ugly mess.

(My discomfort with the Arizona bill is rooted not only in my being an immigrant myself--albeit a blonde, blue-eyed one--but also in the fact that I speak Spanish and live in Florida, where entrenched Old White Dude attitudes regularly clash with the heterogeneous, multilingual reality of the state's populace. Then there's this: I'm married to an Italian-American who to this day, despite being a law-abiding and socially responsible citizen, continues to face a dispiriting and disgusting amount of...extra scrutiny, shall we say, because his name ends in a vowel and his black hair and deep tan give the less-enlightened authorities pause to suspect him of doing something he hasn't or being someone he's not. So, fair complexion notwithstanding, I do get it. I observe the manifestations of xenophobia and racism all the time; indeed, I've experienced the former in a more personal way than you might imagine.)

As it turns out, there is quite a bit more going on behind the illegal-foreigners-are-causing-crime-waves fearmongering--and the attendant façade that is Governor Brewer's bill--than meets the eye. Considerably more. And as he has done countless times before, Greg Palast nails down the sickening specifics (emphasis mine):

Don't be fooled. The way the media plays the story, it was a wave of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that moved Arizona Republicans to pass a sick little law, signed last week, requiring every person in the state to carry papers proving they are US citizens.

I don't buy it. Anti-Hispanic hysteria has always been as much a part of Arizona as the Saguaro cactus and excessive air-conditioning.

What's new here is not the politicians' fear of a xenophobic "Teabag" uprising.

What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.

In 2008, working for Rolling Stone with civil rights attorney Bobby Kennedy, our team flew to Arizona to investigate what smelled like an electoral pogrom against Chicano voters ... directed by one Jan Brewer.

Brewer, then Secretary of State, had organized a racially loaded purge of the voter rolls that would have made Katherine Harris blush. Beginning after the 2004 election, under Brewer's command, no less than 100,000 voters, overwhelmingly Hispanics, were blocked from registering to vote. In 2005, the first year of the Great Brown-Out, one in three Phoenix residents found their registration applications rejected.

That statistic caught my attention. Voting or registering to vote if you're not a citizen is a felony, a big-time jail-time crime. And arresting such criminal voters is easy: after all, they give their names and addresses.

So I asked Brewer's office, had she busted a single one of these thousands of allegedly illegal voters? Did she turn over even one name to the feds for prosecution? No, not one.

Which raises the question: were these disenfranchised voters the criminal, non-citizens Brewer tagged them, or just not-quite-white voters given the José Crow treatment, entrapped in document-chase trickery?

The answer was provided by a federal prosecutor who was sent on a crazy hunt all over the Western mesas looking for these illegal voters. "We took over 100 complaints, we investigated for almost 2 years, I didn’t find one prosecutable voter fraud case." This prosecutor, David Iglesias, is a prosecutor no more. When he refused to fabricate charges of illegal voting among immigrants, his firing was personally ordered by the President of the United States, George W. Bush, under orders from his boss, Karl Rove.

Iglesias' jurisdiction was next door, in New Mexico, but he told me that Rove and the Republican chieftains were working nationwide to whip up anti-immigrant hysteria with public busts of illegal voters, even though there were none.

"They wanted some splashy pre-election indictments," Iglesias told me. The former prosecutor, himself a Republican, paid the price when he stood up to this vicious attack on citizenship.

But Secretary of State Brewer followed the Rove plan to a T. The weapon she used to slice the Arizona voter rolls was a 2004 law, known as "Prop 200," which required proof of citizenship to register. It is important to see the Republicans' latest legislative horror show, sanctioning cops to stop residents and prove citizenship, as just one more step in the party's desperate plan to impede Mexican-Americans from marching to the ballot box. [...]

State Senator Russell Pearce, the Republican sponsor of the latest ID law, gave away his real intent, blocking the vote, when he said, "There is a massive effort under way to register illegal aliens in this country." How many? Pearce's PR flak told me, five million. All Democrats, too. Again, I asked Pearce's office to give me their the names and addresses from their phony registration forms. I'd happily make a citizens arrest of each one, on camera. Pearce didn't have five million names. He didn't have five. He didn't have one.

The horde of five million voters who swam the Rio Grande just to vote for Obama was calculated on a Republican website extrapolating from the number of Mexicans in a border town who refused jury service because they were not citizens. Not one, in fact, had registered to vote: they had registered to drive. They had obtained licenses as required by the law.

The illegal voters, "wetback" welfare moms, and alien job thieves are just GOP website wet-dreams, but their mythic PR power helps the party's electoral hacks chop away at voter rolls and civil rights with little more than a whimper from the Democrats.

Indeed, one reason, I discovered, that some Democrats are silent is that they are in on the game themselves. In New Mexico, Democratic Party bosses tossed away ballots of Pueblo Indians to cut native influence in party primaries.

But what’s wrong with requiring folks to prove they’re American if the want to vote and live in America? The answer: because the vast majority of perfectly legal voters and residents who lack ID sufficient for Ms. Brewer and Mr. Pearce are citizens of color, citizens of poverty.

According to a study by prof. Matt Barreto, of Washington State University, minority citizens are half as likely as whites to have the government ID. The numbers are dreadfully worse when income is factored in.

Go read the whole thing.

The Easter Sunday earthquake in Baja California, Mexico: whither the American media?

Photo via Border Angels

Yesterday, April 19, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Obama to declare a federal emergency in California, where an Easter Sunday 7.2 earthquake in the Baja area of Mexico has wrought an estimated $91.3 million in damages stateside.

This figure is sure to climb; furthermore, as of this writing, I've been unable to locate even a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the damages on the Mexican side, where the devastation is widespread and horrific, even as the fatalities are, thankfully, few in number.

Forgive me--I know they've all been busy this month, and I mean no snark here--but where on earth is our media on this?

People are suffering, and aid is desperately needed! According to reader and friend to this blog, Minstrel Boy, who lives in the area, there are more than 50,000 people in Mexicali who are now without homes. Writing at Group News Blog, Minstrel Boy reports:

Aftershocks are close to continuous. We don't even notice most of them. Some of them are downright troubling though.

Food, what we have, is moving well. Special thanks to the Firefighters of Calexico and El Centro. I know that their job description is to be the hero when it's what is called for, but these guys are special. Viva Los Bomberos. [...]

Last night, we had a rain. Nothing horrible. We almost never get that kind of rain. It's a desert after all, but, the rain reminded us all that shelter needs are next on the triage list. In a few short weeks the temperatures here will be topping 100° on a consistent basis. The homeless will need shelter from that I'm searching for things to link, but, I can't find any. We are still mostly the forgotten disaster.

Please help if you can, readers; there has been precious little national media coverage of the disaster, but the need is, nonetheless, real and pressing and staggering in its enormity. Even a little money will go a long way in the hands of The First United Methodist Church of El Centro, who've ramped up their food bank efforts. And of course, the aid of the brave Border Angels is needed more than ever.

For updates, please stay tuned to the Group News Blog, where Minstrel Boy, Maggie Jochild, and other wonderful writers continue in the tradition of fearless truth-telling-in-blogging established by the late Steve Gilliard.

The First United Methodist Church of El Centro

Border Angels

The Global Food Security Act, S.384, unfairly benefits Big Biotech and must not, as it stands, be passed

Its name alone makes it seem like a wonderful and much-needed initiative: The Global Food Security Act. What could possibly be bad about working toward eradicating hunger on a world-wide basis? Well, here's what's bad about it: the Global Food Security Act, S.384, contains billions of dollars in giveaways--yes, that's billions--to Monsanto and other biotech giants who are in the business of producing, and then patenting, genetically modified crops, aka GMO's. (Background on the downsides of GMO crops may be found here; a brief summary of Monsanto's behavior as corporate "citizens" and its various legal entanglements is here.)

Here's what the excellent blog Food Freedom has to say (emphasis mine):

[SAN FRANCISCO and JOHANNESBURG] — Experts, scientists and advocates from around the world petitioned the U.S. Senate today in a concerted attempt to strip what they term a “stealth corporate giveaway” embedded in a foreign aid bill which is expected to hit the Senate floor soon. The “Global Food Security Act” (S.384), sponsored by Senators Casey (D-PA) and Lugar (R-IN), is intended to reform aid programs to focus on longer-term agricultural development, and restructure aid agencies to better respond to crises. While lauding the bill’s intentions, the petitioners object to a clause earmarking one agricultural technology (genetically modified – GM crops) for potentially billions of dollars in federal funding. $7.7 billion in U.S. funds are associated with the bill and no other farming methods or technologies are mentioned.

Monsanto has lobbied more than any other interest in support of this bill. The company is one of two or three dominant corporations in the increasingly concentrated biotechnology industry likely to benefit from the new research funding stream as well as from future profits from their patented products (both seeds and pesticides).

Today, scientists, development experts spanning a dozen countries, and 100+ groups representing anti-hunger, family farm, farmworker, consumer and sustainable agriculture delivered a letter urging the Senate to reject the “Global Food Security Act” until the bill is made technology-neutral. Their specific concern: language in the bill that would amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to read “Agricultural research carried out under this Act shall . . . include research on biotechnological advances appropriate to local ecological conditions, including gm technology.”

“The bill’s focus on genetically modified technology simply makes no sense,” stated Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Senior Scientist at Pesticide Action Network. “Independent science tells us that genetically modified (GM) crops have neither increased yield nor reduced hunger in the world. The most credible and comprehensive assessments of agriculture to date say that if we want to end global poverty and hunger, we’ll need to focus on increasing the biodiversity and ecological resilience of small-scale farming systems.”

If you follow the Food Freedom link, and I hope you will, you'll find an impassioned letter to the Senate--the signatories of which go on for pages--concluding thus:

As scientists and anti-hunger, religious, family farming, sustainable agriculture, environmental and consumer groups, we believe farmers and communities working with scientists—not Congress—should identify what technologies are most appropriate locally and what research is needed to meet socially and environmentally sustainable development goals. We ask that the mandate for GM crop research be stricken, eliminating Section 202 of the Global Food Security Act. This will keep agricultural research funding under the Foreign Assistance Act appropriately focused on the priorities and local conditions of small-scale farmers.

Please oppose S. 384 until the bill is made technology-neutral.

I urge readers to contact their senators too--simply go here--and tell them to oppose the bill until it is made technology neutral. Thank you, as ever.

[Full disclosure: as most readers are aware, my husband Robert owns and operates a family farm that grows organic and hydroponic vegetables. He is proving that it can be done--and done sustainably, responsibly, and cost-effectively--while using technology to conserve water and tap alternative energy sources. As opposed to using technology to damage and destroy biodiversity and, ultimately, if the use of patented GMO seeds continues unabated, to control the world's food supply.]

BREAKING: President Obama orders hospitals to grant same-sex couples visitation rights

Oh my goodness, I dearly hope that this is a sign of things to come. Because I've long supported marriage equality, and I'm upset that it's taking so long for for gay friends and family members who love each other to be able to enjoy the same rights that Robert and I--and other married heterosexual couples--take for granted. And as for Don't Ask; Don't Tell, well, even conservative generals agree with me on that one--it's a hurtful, hateful policy, and it needs to go.

Still. Bravo, President Obama. As we used to yell at the Gators: First and ten--do it again!

President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.

An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

The decision injects the president squarely into the debate over gay marriage by attempting to end the common practice by many hospitals of insisting that only family members by blood or marriage be allowed to visit patients.

UPDATE: Pam Spaulding has posted the White House memo, which begins thus:

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

Go read the whole thing. Wow.

For Poland, in solidarity

Stefania Woytowicz, soprano, sings Wiosna (Spring), Op. 74, No. 2., one of various works by Polish romantic poets for which Frédéric Chopin composed melodies; all were gifts to his beloved, Maria Wodzińska, whom he adored but was too ill to marry.

The bright beauty of this spring morning seems appropriately defiant, given the sadness shrouding our world, every moment, in every country. May the people of Poland turn to their artist's heart and find comfort today.

Wiosna (Spring)

Błyszczą, krople rosy,
Mruczy zdrój po błoni,
Ukryta we wrzosy
Gdzieś jałowka dzwoni.
Piękną, miłą błonią
Leci wzrok wesoło,
Wkoło kwiaty wonią,
Kwitną gaje wkoło.

Paś się, błąkaj trzódko,
Ja pod skałą siędę,
Piosnkę lubą, słodką
Śpiewać sobie będę.
ustroń miła, cicha!
Jakiś żal w pamięci,
Czegoś serce wzdycha,
W oku łza si` kręci.

Łza wybiegła z oka,
Ze mną strumyk śpiewa,
Do mnie się z wysoka
Skowronek odzywa.
Lot rozwija chyży,
Ledwo widny oku,
Coraz wyżej, wyżej...
Zginął już wobłoku.
Ponad pola, niwy,
Jeszcze piosnkę głosi
I śpiew ziemi tkliwy
W niebo aż zanosi!

Stefan Witwicki (1801-1847)

Wiosna (Spring)

Sparkling dewdrops glisten,
Streamlet water splashing,
In the heather, listen,
Cowbells gently clashing.
In the meadow's elegance
Every view is alluring;
Flowers spread their fragrance,
Every bush is blooming.

Little flock, go wander
While I play my sweet song;
At the rock o'er yonder,
To myself I'll sing along.
Quiet place and lonely,
Pleasant contemplation;
Yet my heart can only
Weep with desolation.

Teardrops on my face mark
The river in me rising;
High above a skylark
Echoes my reprising;
Spreads his wings and soars there
Almost out of sight,
Higher, higher, higher,
Clouds conceal his flight.
Over stream and and field long
Since his notes are ringing;
With them my heart's sad song
Heavenward is winging!

Saturday Frank: Holiday in Berlin; The Bogus Pomp Orchestra with Jerry Outlaw; Tampa, 2004

St. Petersburg Zappaphiles (and those hailing from the Tampa area) are really, really fortunate in that we are home base to the band Bogus Pomp, a group of brilliant musicians the ranks of which include members of the Florida Orchestra and numerous teachers dedicated to playing the intricate and expansive compositions of the late Frank Zappa. So talented are Bogus Pomp, in fact, various musicians who played with FZ himself have traveled here to guest-star at their performances; Ike Willis and Jimmy Carl Black are just two that spring to mind.

(I'm feeling extra-fortunate this week because Son Two just began studying guitar with Jerry Outlaw, Bogus Pomp's fearless leader--see above--and one of the most talented artists I've ever had the pleasure of watching and listening to.)

Hooray for music! There it is, always, a momentary mental holiday that makes me immeasurably happy no matter how trying a week I've had.

Where do you go, musically speaking, when you want to get away?

Republican Sexytime

Oh dear. As the characters' outfits suggest, this is not safe for work--not unless you have a, er, really interesting job.

Created by the inimitable TBogg on Xtranormal, I think it's probably safe to say no animals or wetsuits were harmed in the making of this video. But don't hold me to it.

Please.

*rimshot*

Learn to speak Teabag!

Happy Saturday, everyone. The boys and I are getting headaches from the race-cars' window-rattling racket (the St. Pete Grand Prix is taking place just a few blocks from our apartment), so I'm off to the country, where I plan to indulge in some truly communist sunbathing by the lake followed by a big fascist pasta dinner with my own darling Il Duce Sr.

What are you up to this weekend?

Sinéad O'Connor on the Catholic Church's ongoing child rape scandals

Readers, I commend this well-written and moving WaPo op-ed to you with my highest praise. I've long admired Sinéad's musical gifts but did not know much about her background, only that her exquisite voice always seemed laced through with an aching emotion the shape of which suggested something darker than the garden-variety lament of the lovelorn. Upon hearing her singing, I often have a lump in my throat, much as I do when listening to certain string pieces, like Samuel Barber's Adagio.

Now, at least, I have a sense of where Sinéad's pain comes from.

The writing is compelling and I can't decide which grafs to excerpt, so I'll just point you to the Post and tell you to read the whole thing.

(H/T Minstrel Hussein Boy)

A motherly come-to-Jesus talk that might save rightwingers from jail, if not political irrelevance

Children...children!

Come here. Right now. NOW, I said. Sit your bottoms down and listen, because as much as I don't like having to deal with this, it's high time you faced facts.

I've had enough. Everyone has had enough. You know what I'm about to say, because I've said it before, but I made the mistake of speaking to you as though you were intelligent almost-grownups, and clearly you've got a long way to go before anyone in his right mind would call you grownups.

Your behavior is unacceptable, and if you keep it up, you're going to wind up in history's rubbish pile and no-one will want to help you or even talk to you ever again.

But, but...HE DOES IT TOO!!! He's just as bad. He was making fun of my favorite President, Ronald Reagan...

Stop it right there, mister. There is a big difference between drawing political cartoons with your new Photoshop program and standing on the steps in front of your school with a megaphone and telling your friends to reload their paintball guns, it's time to show that school who's boss. Yes, I'm talking to you--everyone heard you say that, it's on YouTube now, and you can't deny it.

Well, the school deserved it. They gave us so much homework this week, it made us mad.

Mmm-hmm. Is that your position, then? Is that your excuse: your brother does something that annoys you, so you're allowed to do whatever you want to get back at him? Or wait, let's try the other excuse: your teachers do something that's good for you, but you don't happen to agree with it, so you can do anything you like in retaliation?

You will to go to your rooms, right now, and read quietly. Yes, I know you've finished your homework, off you go anyway--you're going to do some important reading for the next several hours.

First, here's some information on something called the principle of imminent lawless action. Essentially, it says that when you rally your friends to do something illegal that could hurt people, something dangerous or destructive, and they then get busy doing those illegal things--hurting people, destroying things--before the authorities can get there to protect people from your friends, the words you were yelling into that megaphone are themselves a crime; they're not considered protected speech because they caused imminent lawless action.

Then, I want you to reflect on all the horrible things you've been saying and doing and think long and hard about them. Not just the words and actions themselves, mind you, but the long-term effect they have and the shame they've brought to your family and country. Here, a lady named Digby says it really well with this list of some absolutely dreadful behaviors--examples of what I'm talking about--and the risibly pathetic excuses you've been using:

I can hardly believe it, but apparently America's wife beaters have actually decided to use the defense that these Democrats are "asking for" death threats from the right wingers because they are "making them mad." I documented Sere and Cantor's warnings this morning, but there are more:

Breitbart: Congressional Black Caucus members went "searching for ... racism" by walking through Tea Party crowd

Graham tells Beck -- Beck! -- Tea Partiers "get mad" because they "don't like being called racist

Michael Graham: Pelosi was "asking for" response by carrying Medicare gavel

Rove warns Dems that discussing threats against them may "inflame emotions"

Now. I want you to stay there, in your rooms, reading and reflecting. I'm disconnecting the XBox and the Internet until you can prove to me that you're willing to try hard and do better, which means you're going to have to start over, okay? Hey, you're always saying that when you're losing a game--Waaah, let's start over!--well, now I want *you* to start over. Show me that you want to be a part of this family even if we don't all agree on everything; that you finally realize that you're not the only human being on the planet--not even close!--and that you truly, honestly, deeply understand that what you say and do affects all those other people.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping a close eye on you.

Also at Cogitamus.

Vel Omarr sings Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come

Such a perfect--and perfectly beautiful--song, don't you think?

I've been peeking in on the debate throughout the afternoon and evening, and I honestly can't stomach too much more Republican ridiculousness.

Republicans: we get it. You oppose the bill. You'll never vote for it; but then, you were never planning to anyway. Can you please stop the pathetic grandstanding now? There is only so much localized hypocrisy and lying one planet can handle before it gets thrown off its axis.

Happy Sunday, everyone. Change has been a long time coming, but I really believe it's here. At last. And I've a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more of it in the coming months.

(H/T Jaqueline, who sent me the original audio-only Sam Cooke version.)

Tuesday's musing and Open Thread: Pascal Toussaint, Je suis malade

Meet Pascal Toussaint, male soprano with an angel's voice. The multitalented and generous author and artist Amy Tan--dear friend, prolific writing idol, and world traveler--came across Pascal singing in a Paris nightclub one evening and decided that the world ought to hear his extraordinarily beautiful voice, starting with America. (That's Amy's little Yorkie, Bombo, in the video). Amy writes:

I discovered Pascal in a Paris cabaret Aux Trois Mailletz in the 5th arrondissement on rue Galande. He is the star of a contingent of performers each night.

His voice is that of a boy soprano, which never changed with pubescence due to an anomaly. Some say his voice is like the great Jimmy Scott. But his style is purely his own.

He was born in Guadeloupe, won a singing contest at age 14, was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire, where he received classical voice training for opera. In addition to opera, he branched out into jazz, rock, and cabaret. He is also a composer, actor, and writer.

Thus far, Pascal has performed in San Francisco and New York; I hope to make it to one city or the other when returns, undoubtedly as a serious star next time.

(Dear Petulant, I knew you'd get my reference immediately!)

Je suis malade

Je ne rêve plus;
Je ne fume plus;
Je n'ai même plus d'histoire.
Je suis laide sans toi; je suis sale sans toi; comme une orpheline dans un dortoir...

[I don’t dream any more;
I don’t smoke any more;
I don’t even have a story any more.
I am dirty without you; I am ugly without you; like a little orphan in her room...]

So...how is everyone this morning?!

Your Monday motivation: Bend it like Grayson

I've decided I'm going to make a concerted effort to bring more Alan Grayson goodness to the rest of America--he really is too wonderful a politician, writer, human being, and all-around wit to keep to ourselves here in the Sunshine (finally!) State.

This weekend, former half-governor Palin descended on Orlando, which city is just a couple of hours from my door and smack in the middle of Grayson country. No, we couldn't hear the screeching all the way out here on the coast (heh) but there's plenty of YouTube footage of her speech, should you wish to subject your eardrums and sensibilities to it. Unsurprisingly, Palin rudely slammed Congressman Grayson, a Democrat who was elected by the very district--a largely conservative one, by the way--in which she currently spoke, tossing out lines like, "What can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won't say anything about Alan Grayson that can't be said around children. [Good one, Sarah!] But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That's what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson."

But over in the leftmost corner, in the non-shrinking violet trunks, one of the few politicians blessed with both wit and the will to use same, Alan GraaaAAAaaayson:

In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

But enough with the pie-fighting, though. We know better than to be distracted by it (we do know better, don't we? Please say Yes.) There are more than enough Big Issues to which we must turn our attention. War profiteering, for example, and its less-than-upstanding players and the Caymans accounts that love them. Now, here in the States, this would seem to be yesterday's news, at least it would seem so judging by the paucity of coverage on American networks (not here, though--come on, you know I'm never getting over that noise, not as long as otherwise perfectly logical people keep insisting we can't afford to provide Americans with health care). Over in England, though, the BBC is just getting started. And of course, they're talking to Alan Grayson, since he's been banging the accountability drum for a while now. Watch this and ask your own Congresscritters where the hell THEY stand on the billions (and billions and billions) of tax dollars that have gone missing, that were, in short, lost down what the BBC calls "the back of a very big sofa in the desert".



Keep at it, Congressman Grayson. Please. We've got your back here in sunshine-land.

Divine Comedy: Jon Stewart on the Beck-Massa interview

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sour Gropes
www.thedailyshow.com

This is one of Jon Stewart's best and funniest segments ever, I think, which may have something to do with the state of my sense of humor these days. Enjoy.

Glenn Beck targets litbrit

Oh dear. It seems Glenn Beck has discovered the truth about me. I hope you'll still be my readers and friends. ;-)

Carpe diem! Aaron Copland, The Promise of Living

Several weeks ago, reader Jacqueline sent me this gorgeous YouTube creation: it's Aaron Copland's haunting piece, The Promise of Living, set to a montage of old 8mm and 16mm films of human beings doing what we do best: living and loving. I wonder if you can make it all the way through without tearing up. I certainly couldn't.

I'd also like to share this gem, by tripsadelica, from the comment section beneath the video:

Snippets of light captured upon powdered silver, of a time long ago. Gone, but somehow not gone...preserved forever as if light was the essence of life itself. Most all of these people have left this earth but here they are, walking, dancing, playing...living. You know the expression, "they live on in our hearts"...they live on here in light; light captured with fine silver powder. Luminous argent.

Here in Florida, it's sparkling and sunny outside for the first time in a long while. Spring is almost here--hooray!--the boys will be on break next week, and I have visions of sugar cones and sandy shores dancing in my head. Carpe diem! I say, as I will say next Monday morning when I wake the boys and haul them off to Fort DeSoto for some much-needed vitamin D and fresh air. What will you be doing when it warms up?

Sunday Avoidance Therapy: A favorite show; familiar voices

Top Gear (on BBC-America in the U.S.) is one of my favorite television programs. It's a car enthusiast's weekly thrill ride laced with plenty of humor from the Homeland, and this recent episode happened to feature a family friend and fellow ex-pat-turned-Florida-resident (when he's not touring), a man my boys know simply as "Uncle Brian" (and who refers to me as Li'ul Deborrrrrrah, me darrrlin'). Jeremy doesn't mention it, but Brian is actually an accomplished race-car driver, which immediately becomes evident in the segment when they "Put a Star in a Reasonably-priced Car" and send him around the track. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Mrs. Johnson is also a formidable driver, perhaps even...ah, no, must not go there. Ginger Rogers, dancing backwards, high heels, and so on.

I'd like to post one more video, if you'll indulge me, featuring another Brit. This time it's John Cleese, whom I hope to meet one day and thank for the many times his witty words have pulled me (and who knows how many others) out of the darkest doldrums. Herein, he speaks at the memorial of a fellow Python, the late Graham Chapman, and as you'd expect, it's not a terribly, um, proper eulogy, nor is it safe for work. (H/T Driftglass.)



Apologies for the chronic light posting of late. Sometimes, as Jon Swift would have said, there are no words, you know? Better times, and better states of mind, lie ahead. Surely.

Friday Frank: City of Tiny Lights; Paris, 1980

The weekend must begin right now. I have declared it; so shall it be.

I also wish to say that I adore Ike Willis' voice. And Frank's solo, which begins at 2:45.

We're taking the lads to see Alice in Wonderland tomorrow morning; other than that, I think it will be a make-it-up-as-we-go kind of weekend. The very best sort, in my opinion.

What will you be getting up to?

R.I.P. Jon Swift: A monument more lasting than brass

Exegi Monumentum Aere perennius
"I have made a monument more lasting than brass".
From the title page of Works (1735): Swift receiving the thanks of Ireland.

The brilliant blogger known as Jon Swift has died. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Jon was a gifted, profoundly funny wordsmith as well as a generous and encouraging friend to other writers. I want to honor Jon properly, but I'm struggling to find the right words. I want him to come back, you see, he has to come back because he's going to do the year-end roundup as he always does, and I can't find the right words because this doesn't exist for me, not really, not yet. That must be it.

Jon, I've been missing you for many months now, ever since the blog went quiet. I'm not ready to miss you forever.

UPDATE: Here's a link to The Best of Jon Swift. Fans from days of yore will love revisiting what is surely some of the finest, wittiest writing to ever infiltrate the blogosphere; newcomers, well, you've got a lot of catching up to do--many hours of laughter and reading pleasure lie ahead, lucky you!

And here is the real-life website of Al Weisel--writer, son, brother, and beloved partner. He was the incomparable Jon Swift to most of us; to his loved ones, he was everything.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Something tells me Jon/Al would like it very much if people remembered him with laughter as opposed to (or at least, in addition to) tears. Accordingly, I'll send you over to this wonderful post: Jonah Goldberg's Shining (Liberal Fascism with LOLcats).

Rep. Anthony Weiner: We are going to solve this problem...DEAL WITH IT!

The Republican party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry...

They can try to erase his words--as if the medium you're interacting with right now did not exist!--and they can keep sending him to the corner as though he'd just irritated Sister Mary Evangeline by chewing gum in algebra. But they can't silence this guy, and thank your deity of choice for that.

May I just add my own hearty Hear, hear to the many who are already praising Congressman Weiner's powerful words today. How I wish we had forty more Democrats like Anthony Weiner and Alan Grayson.

(H/T Toast)