Monday Blues...

It's Monday and and of course I wish it wasn't. Of course next week I have Labor Day to look forward to. But that is then and this is now. I hate that it's Monday. (sigh)

• This month, another poetic voice was lost with the passing of poet and short-story writer Grace Paley. The 84 year old Paley was also a prominent political voice in the '60s and '70's in pro-peace and anti-nuclear rallies.

• Poetry Hut turned 4 years old this past weekend.

• News this morning.... Alberto Gonzalez is resigning. Nice start. He still needs to be prosecuted along with a host of others in the Bush administration.

Bush hails freedom, but can he handle a lousy T-shirt?

President Bush's speech at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Independence Day in 2004, invoked the nation's highest ideals: "On this Fourth of July, we confirm our love of freedom, the freedom for people to speak their minds. ... Free thought, free expression, that's what we believe," Bush told the crowd.

Ringing words. Unfortunately, the White House advance team didn't get the memo. Or the message. But the taxpayer got a bill for $80,000. Click here to here about the $80,000.

Hastert Blames Americans' Impatience For '06 GOP Losses

I read with amazement this article about the retirement of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. After all this time he blames the GOP losses in the midterm election on American impatience.

I won't even bother to discuss the numerous scandals among GOP House members which he denied lead to the Republican electoral demise. But I will take issue with the insistence that the American people are impatient where the war is concerned.

Patience, or lack thereof is only a small part of the electoral revolt where the war in Iraq is concerned. It is far more than impatience. He ignores the fact that the vast majority of America realizes that they were mislead in the first place. There was no compelling reason for the US to make an unprovoked strike on Iraq. Information about possible nuclear concerns were grossly exaggerated and information at the time suggested so. We had UN inspectors in the country again surveying the situation.

It is true that the existing government in Iraq was wrought with human rights abuses, but so is the Sudan, so is China, Sri Lanka, Labia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Colombia, Turkey and the list of places with major human rights abuses goes on. Where is the U.S. response in these places? The fact is that our government and in particular the Bush administration found it politically expedient to go to war with Iraq, and they believed it would be a short campaign and there would be minimal causalities. They shifted resources from Afghanistan (a real stronghold for anti-American extremists) to Iraq.

For all the bad you could say about the Saddam Hussein, he did after all rise in power with behind the scenes help from the United States government. Further there existed a stable government environment that was not susceptible to outside interference in the region.

What Representative Hastert ignores of fails to understand is that we know the truth about Iraq and it is an ugly scar in the history of the U.S.

At last count, we've lost at least 3,699 U.S. servicemen and women in the ear in Iraq. At least 25,000 Americans have been wounded. This Mr. Hastert is a pretty heavy price to pay for what amounts to a lie. Your President was bound and determined to go to war in Iraq to the extent that he would present less than honest assessments of facts. That is a polite way of saying he lied.

On the other side, the price has been worse. By other side I am speaking of Iraqi citizens. Bush's war has created a vacuum in leadership in country where there is no consensus among the Iraqi people themselves. There are deep divisions between neighboring people. To the point of bloody civil strife on a daily basis. The death toll in one day alone in a northern Kurdish province that was previously one of the quieter spots is now at least 400.

We've destroyed so much of the countries infrastructure, in the capital alone they are lucky to have an hour or two electricity a day. One seriously has to ask the question, are they better off today than under Saddam?

Efforts to create a democratic government in Iraq have had only partial success. While the structure of a legislative body now exists, the divisions between the Iraqi people themselves are so deep that this brave body of men and women that rick their own lives daily are in worse gridlock than anything we've ever witnessed here in America.

Given this, and the fact that this whole mess has in fact lead to greater disdain for America Islamic people worldwide, how exactly has this made us safer?

In all this it is amazing how prophetic Dick Cheney was in 1994. The question is what lead to his mental lapse?

Congressman Hastert needs to understand that the American people are not simply an impatient bunch. No, we realize that George Bush pulled a Gulf of Tonkin on us (see here, here, and especially here) and are angered and the loss of lives on both sides, the loss of American prestige, the monetary cost of over $450 billion of non-budgeted tax money and counting , and creating a cause celeb for recruiting anti-American terrorists. If THIS is not a crime against the American people and humanity as a whole, I don't know what is.

In the News

• UA Poetry Center moves into new home (here) : According to Gail Browne, Executive Director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, they will begin moving to a new facility on Wednesday. With more than 60,000 items it is one of the largest such centers in the country. I'd like to browse through this when they are finished.
• Classified evidence debated / Court likely to allow suit against AT&T (here) Wednesday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco - hearing arguments about President Bush's clandestine eavesdropping program, appeared inclined to keep alive a lawsuit accusing AT&T of illegally letting the government intercept millions of Americans' phone calls and e-mails.
• Acclaimed poet Pavel Chichikov debuts on Catholic Radio International (here)

at&t altering content & collecting personal data around the globe

AT&T moves from carrier to censor (story here)

The Making of an American Police State

The following 41 Democrats grew weak at the knees when Bush suggested some may be soft on the war on terrorism. They voted with the Republican House members to give the president an even more powers of surveillance by a 227 to 183 vote.

They are:

1. Jason Altmire (4th Pennsylvania)
2. John Barrow (12th Georgia)
3. Melissa Bean (8th Illinois)
4. Dan Boren (2nd Oklahoma)
5. Leonard Boswell (3rd Iowa)
6. Allen Boyd (2nd Florida)
7. Christopher Carney (10th Pennsylvania)
8. Ben Chandler (6th Kentucky)
9. Jim Cooper (5th Tennessee)
10. Jim Costa (20th California)
11. Bud Cramer (5th Alabama)
12. Henry Cuellar (28th Texas)
13. Artur Davis (7th Alabama)
14. Lincoln Davis (4th Tennessee)
15. Joe Donnelly (2nd Indiana)
16. Chet Edwards (17th Texas)
17. Brad Ellsworth (8th Indiana)
18. Bob Etheridge (North Carolina)
19. Bart Gordon (6th Tennessee)
20. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (South Dakota)
21. Brian Higgins (27th New York)
22. Baron Hill (9th Indiana)
23. Nick Lampson (23rd Texas)
24. Daniel Lipinski (3rd Illinois)
25. Jim Marshall (8th Georgia)
26. Jim Matheson (2nd Utah)
27. Mike McIntyre (7th North Carolina)
28. Charlie Melancon (3rd Louisiana)
29. Harry Mitchell (5th Arizona)
30. Colin Peterson (7th Minnesota)
31. Earl Pomeroy (North Dakota)
32. Ciro Rodriguez (23rd Texas)
33. Mike Ross (4th Arkansas)
34. John Salazar (3rd Colorado)
35. Heath Shuler (11th North Carolina)
36. Vic Snyder (2nd Arkansas)
37. Zachary Space (18th Ohio)
38. John Tanner (8th Tennessee)
39. Gene Taylor (4th Mississippi)
40. Timothy Walz (1st Minnesota)
41. Charles A. Wilson (6th Ohio)

Thank you for bringing us closer to a police state!

Call for Censure by Feingold

Over the weekend Sen. Russ Feingold called for the censure of President Bush by Congress. He laid out his two part basis for censure on Meet the Press Sunday Morning. You can watch the program here.

Four GOP Hypocrites reaffirm their ownership of the War In Iraq

Republican Senators like John Warner, George Voinovich, Richard Luger, and Pete Domenici say they have reached a point opposition to President Bush's present course on the war in Iraq. Yet, when it comes to delivering a vote to change this mistaken course, what do they do? They vote the President's party line. They are hypocrites. Every time they to vote to continue to keep the US smack dab in the middle of a sectarian war, propping up a government that shows no sign of ending critical differences between waring factions, and continues to commit billions of U.S. dollars and American lives, they reaffirm their personal ownership in the massive mistake that is the War in Iraq.

A bump in the week & Dana Gioia's NEA

While my week has not exactly been zipping by, I always view Wednesdays are a sort of speed bump in the week. Maybe on weeks like this one, it is more like reaching the crest of a giant hill and knowing the rest is all down hill. Anyway, Wednesday constitutes that great divide between the start of the work week and the end of same. It's not quite Hazzah... but perhaps acceptable to exert a small sigh.

Thanks to Jilly the source for Free dreams, fond bores or why you should always read poetry twice (I say three times).

After Senate all-nighter, war vote at hand today, but it is expected fall short of the 60 votes that are needed. It's anticipated that only three Republicans, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon are likely to vote with Democrats calling for this change in war policy. Even Republican Sen. Richard Luger and Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who have indicated to the press in recent times they are breaking with the President on the war, are not likely to to exhibit the courage to abandon the Republican party line on this vote.

A literary forum run by poet Lu Yang has been blocked by the Chinese government - See Reporters Without Boarders.

Last night I attended a reception at the new Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City for NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. The invitation only event was nicely attended. The intent I suppose was two-fold. To get local art enthusiasts inside the newly opened building and showcase it, as well as to partner withe the NEA and it's mission to encourage and broaden support for the arts.

Couple of personal observations...

• The building which as been criticized by some in the neighboring community needs to be seen in the context of what the architecture offers on the inside. The external structure has a functional purpose that needs to be considered.
• Although the NEA is funded by the government - putting Laura Bush on the cover of the NEA Vol 3 - 2007 publication is not in my mind a good marketing strategy.
• Dana Gioia is an interesting individual. I have often been captivated by the unusual nature of his assent in the arts as it is definitely unorthodox. I've not always been convinced that his approach is the best, but I was impressed in his brief remarks that the NEA's mission was a valuable one and that it needed to reflect the pluralism of American culture today. While this is an expansive mission statement, and intelligent people may disagree on how you achieve such a mission, it is in the end, the right mission for the arts community to embrace.

Lazy Saturday Morning...

Not much of my plans for the day have quite unfolded yet and it is just past noon. I sit drinking a diet coke - the rest of the family is out on a shopping adventure.

Was writing earlier and came to a standstill.

We cling to the handles of customs
Crusted through years of oxidation
In the hands of others through
A buildup of broken resistance

... then the wall. But that's ok, I had not planned on writing this early in the day anyway, so I suppose I am ahead of the game.

As I surveyed the news this morning, I see that Russia has suspended its participation in an European arms control treaty that governs deployment of troops on the continent. This in response Bush's plans for a missile defense system in former Soviet bloc countries. I suppose his Iraq war legacy is not sufficient, he feels to need to refuel the cold war.

Nothing is ever simple... Harry Potter's success has the publishers fighting bootleggers. A legal team has been commissioned to prevent copies of the new book being pirated on publication.

Last night we went to see Wild Hogs at the $2 picture show. It was really kind of mindless fun. I didn't have any expectations going in so I was pleased that it was entertaining. Last week my wife and I watched The Devil Wears Prada in bead on a portable DVD player. Besides enjoying the movie, I really liked that atmosphere. I could stand to watch a lot of movies that way.

Was planning to take my daughter and do some video footage today to incorporate into a poetry video. With any luck, when they get home from shopping it won't be too hot and she won't be exausted. We shall see.

From my journal this week....

A few extracted bits from my journal:

• Though I'd like to remain an optimist... believing in that which is so minute / it leaves no shadow trailing.
• A hint of something greater / God sitting on a pin head.
• A dog whose gender was truncated / his head on a pillow keeping / his thoughts to himself.
• The boundary between them / more a smudge than a line.

~0~

At Age 92 - Ruth Stone deservedly is named Vermont's State Poet [here]

~0~

On the war.....

Bush's optimism is impossible to square with the situation in Iraq

Defying Bush, House Passes New Deadline for Withdrawal From Iraq

Bush acknowledges administration official leaked Plame's name, immediately 'moves on'

The Raw Story Bush acknowledges administration official leaked Plame's name, immediately 'moves on'

At a White House press conference Thursday, President Bush acknowledged that someone in his administration leaked the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, but he avoided addressing the question of whether he saw it as a moral issue or was at all disappointed in his senior advisers.

Well Duh!

Read this....

A MUST READ for everyone.... What is Al-Qaeda?

There was a similar story on NPR today - If I can find the link I'll post it later.

Spend a day in the "real world"

US President George W Bush, facing new pressure to start bringing troops home from Iraq, says he will not consider it until he hears a fresh assessment of the war effort from his top commander there. "That's what the American people expect. They expect for military people to come back and tell us how the military operations are going," Bush said. "And that's the way I'm going to play it as commander-in-chief." (AP wire story)

I would challenge the President to spend a day out in the real world. Away from the pep rally crowds. Away from military bases and military schools. I believe he would be shocked to learn what the American people really expect. He is clueless.

I don't think it takes top military brass to figure out how the operations are going. It seems pretty obvious to everyone but the President, Vice President and a hand full of others. Even many of his most ardent GOP supporters of this war now understand the reality in Iraq.

Why should we continue this path until September's report. When that one looks bleak will he argue for another in January... April.... ?

Perhaps we are getting close

There is a growing sentiment among Republican members of the Senate that the American military action in Iraq has not, is not and will not work. One by one GOP Senators are leaving the ship. It is about time.

The handwriting has been on the wall for a very long time. The American people fell out of favor with this war long ago. The majority of Democrats in Congress have tried to deliver on an exit strategy but have lacked enough bipartisan support to do so. Many of those Republicans abandoning President Bush have been ardent defenders of this failed war. Their numbers are eroding so quickly that Defense Secretary Robert Gates today canceled a South American Trip as we approach the July 15 date for a report on the President's surge of troops. No doubt the President will argue he needs more time. More time equates to more deaths and more expense.
Few Americans have any idea what this war is costing the U.S.

I'm not referring to the money for military support and rebuilding Iraq (which has failed to do much but pad the pockets of contractors), those figures are readily available. And while they are shockingly high, I am talking about the intangibles... the things we cannot see, like:

• The loss of American respect overseas.
• The boost this war has given to recruitment of those terrorists who hate us the most.
• The stress that will be felt on our economy for years to recover from the unbudgeted hundreds of billions of dollars spent.
• The impact this war will have on the mental health of families of returning veterans.

It is true that the exit from Iraq will likely not be a pretty sight. As bad a the government was that we took out, it provided a minimal amount of stability in the region. I know all the arguments for overthrowing the government in Iraq. For every valid argument to take out Saddam Hussein, there are a half dozen equally bad or worse leaders of nations we do nothing about. The argument for overthrowing Saddam was just an add on to the otherwise misinformation that the Bush Administration used to build it's case for this war.

The men and women serving this country in uniform have not lost a war, they were given an unrealistic mission that was a mistake from the start.

The only questions that remain, are how to best extract ourselves from this. What kind of help can we realistically provide an unstable interum government that has been ineffective and struggles for legitimacy amid a civil war that has at the very roots a long history of religious disagreement, intolerance, and fear that spills blood on the streets daily, much less resist outside forces.

My hope is that in the next couple of weeks, enough Republican members of Congress can finally do the right thing and help put an end to our military presence and bring our troops home.

Tuesday Flashes~

• Cheney was central voice in torture debate -He helped lay path for Gitmo interrogations / The Washington Post
• Editorial -Soft on Crime - New York Times or, it all depends on who the criminal is. Guess what Paris Hilton and Scooter Libby don't have in common.
• I see Paul Wolfowitz has a new job. Hey maybe he can get his girlfriend yet another plum job....
• Mary Ellen Solt, Poet of Words and Shapes, Dead at 86 /New York Times
• World-wide reading against the regime of Robert Mugabe
• "War and Peace Art Exhibit" - More than 100 artists and writers have contributed their work toward a "War and Peace Art Exhibit" this month at a gallery in Makawao, Hawaii. The exhibit includes a signed poem titled "Ogres" by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin and several prints about the war in Iraq by nationally known artist Sandow Birk. The exhibit attracted more than 500 people on opening night and has had crowds in excess of 150 people on several other nights. / Star Bulletin

Bush Legacy - Lies & Lawlessness

I suppose it should come as no surprise that the President would commute the sentence of Scooter Libby, after all, Bush and Cheney has shown they believe they are afforded a status "above the law." I am none the less appalled.

Looking around the nation, a few other reactions:

"When it comes to the law, there should not be two sets of rules - one for President Bush and Vice President Cheney and another for the rest of America. Even Paris Hilton had to go to jail. No one in this administration should be above the law.'' - Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

"While for a long time I have urged a pardon for Scooter, I respect the president's decision. This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life.'' - Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

"Accountability has been in short supply in the Bush administration, and this commutation fits that pattern.'' - Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

"After evaluating the facts, the president came to a reasonable decision and I believe the decision was correct.'' - former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"Only a president clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today. President Bush has just sent exactly the wrong signal to the country and the world.'' - former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

"It is time for the American people to be heard - I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law.'' - Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

"The president said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the president shows his word is not to be believed.'' - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice.'' - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

Dream, Dream Go Away....

Thanks Jilly for the link to the gem If only Bush would have read a little poetry first ... ~0~

Worked on rewrites of two drafts this morning. One was a pretty rough draft. The other was in much better form. They both progressed well in my rewrites this morning.

I hate it when I am writing and I am drawn to a word I am particularly fond of, but know in this instance, a better would for the purpose at hand exists.

A few words I am particularly fond of:

• embellish
• portal
• poignant
• endowment
• precipitous
• supercilious
• conciliatory
• bane

*Note: none of these had anything to do with poems I was rewriting. They are just a few works that I am especially fond of.

~0~

Dream: Okay, I had this dream the other night ( I won't go into all the details) and I was in a parking lot at an apartment complex. My wife and I were carrying things in (I think we just moved in) and I was gathering up all these clothes in the back seat... the clean and the dirty together, like I was trying to get them all, or at least as many as I could at once. They kept falling and flopping around as I tried to gather or swoop them up in my arms and I realized there were all these sharp (kitchen type) knives among them.... but I kept right on going.

I'm sure some wise dream interpreter out there is going to tell me what this all means. What I think it means is that sometime in the near future this will find a way into a poem I write.

Tuesday Misc News...

Poetry fans gather for Ted Hughes's festival.

On a sad note: The poet Rahim al-Maliki wrote about his dreams of Iraqi unity in a place where such appeals are drowned out by daily bombings. One of them took his life on Monday.

NPR feature / More on Guantanamo Poetry. Plus more on the book of poems from Nafeesa Syeed here.

Dick Cheneny fails at American Civics.

Senator Richare Lugar changes tune on Iraq. Lugar called on Bush to "downsize" the U.S. military's role in Iraq and place more emphasis on diplomatic and economic options

Andrew Ervin reviews The Age of Huts (compleat) - By Ron Silliman

Stick Poet went over the 29,000 unique visitors milestone this past weekend. Thanks to all the SPSH readers. By the way, if you are not getting our syndicated feed of each day's posts by email and would like to, see the box in the sidebar to sign up to receive it that way. It's easy.

Sharing the same brain

Couple of interesting news bits that make me think of conjoined twins sharing the same brain.

The White House revealed yesterday that Tony Blair and George Bush have discussed the outgoing Prime Minister taking on a UN role as Middle East envoy. Now there's two peas in a pod. Given the Bush - Blair relationship as well as Blair's failed history in middle east policies, how constructive can this possibly be.

Then there is this hot item...

John Travolta stands by Tom Cruise's stance against psychiatry and the use of anti-depression and other psychotropic drugs. You may recall the thrashing Cruise gave Brook Shields over taking anti-depressants.

"I don't disagree with anything Tom says," and Travolta adds, "...I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is (psychotropic) drugs at the bottom of it."

Way to go Cruvolta!