New Name for Andrea's Blog

That which was "I'll say it with these hands" has been renamed "Extraordinary". And she earns the title with her music selections, particularly when she sets out a playlist, like her mood-setting selections from a late night. Another reason to love the internets, every single one of 'em.

Oh, and she's interviewing for a job today, so send out the positive vibes . . .

Yellow Elephants

Why are the right wing sissies so afraid of commenting? Even worse, why do they purport to allow commenting, but then, when you post, they have a notice that says something along the lines of "Your comment has been received. To protect against malicious comments, I have enabled a feature that allows your comments to be held for approval the first time you post a comment. I'll approve your comment when convenient; there is no need to re-post your comment."? But then, no matter how mild your comment is, they refuse to post it?

On the other hand, this is a relatively mild form of the yellow elephant disease that is troubling our formerly brave Republican youth. All things considered, I'd rather have them enlist than alter their commenting policy.

Jazz is the Sound of God Laughing

A breath-takingly beautiful essay by Colleen Shaddox. I admit that I lived for years here in Kansas City, surrounded by great jazz venues and performers, and never really listened to jazz. Recently, though, I've been listening more often - both live and recorded, and the music resonates.

I believe in the fundamental optimism of jazz. Consider the first four notes of "Rhapsody in Blue." Can you hear it? It's saying, "Something monumental is going to happen. Something that's never happened before. And you are alive to witness it."

Jazz is always like that. Even the songs that take you to despair lift you. That’s because the music remembers where it came from, from people kidnapped and enslaved. It came from a humanity that was attacked a thousand different ways every day, but never defeated. It's the People's Music.
. . .
In jazz, anybody can sit in. It's dogma-free, which allows the music to take more than its share of detours. This forces you to have faith. Faith that if you keep moving forward, you'll get there.

Take a minute and read the whole essay - it's wonderful!

Do Me (And Yourself) a Favor

Dropped in on Black Belt Barbecue this weekend, in that strip mall in Westport behind Chili's. Awesome food! I had jerk pork, which was tender and tasty. My companion had fine barbecued chicken, and a plate full of sweet potato fried that were better than any I've seen in town.

There weren't many people there, though. So, here's where the favor comes in. Next time you're hankering for a good lunch, and you start thinking Sonic or Wendy's or some other national monstrosity, swing over to Westport and get yourself something wonderful and different.

That way, next time I have a hankering for Jamaican food, I won't find a locked door.

Summer Entrepreneurship

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm quite proud of my children. They give me good reason to be proud, as evidenced by my son's most recent attempt to find additional employment this summer. Rather than selling his soul to McDonald's or some other fast food outlet, he has chosen to offer assistance to other people helpers. In short, he seeks to aid those who would aid others. What could be more noble?

Here is the advertisement he has placed on KC.Backpage.com:

Professional Massage Recipient
posted: June 21, 2005, 01:12 AM

Reply: Anonymous- click here
Are you a massage student looking for someone to practice on?
Have you ever wondered whether your massage skills are good enough, or if your partner is just acting like they're enjoying it?
Do you just enjoy giving massages?

You're in luck. For the summer, this Professional Massage Recipient is in Kansas City, Missouri. For a rate beginning at $20.00/hr (negotiable), he will receive a massage from your hands. Afterwards, if you desire, he will tell you what needed work.

Forcing him to be subjected to aromatherapy is extra.

Females preferred.

Location: Brookside
Salary/Wage: $20/hr
Education: Some College
Status: Part-time
No other company or person should contact this advertiser for solicitation for any product or service.

The boy was obviously raised right, if I do say so myself . . .

New Link - Media Lies

I've added a new link to the left side. Media Lies is a strong (strident) right wing critic of what he perceives to be leftist media. While I probably disagree with him 95% of the time, he's well-informed and he challenges my point of view.

What in the Heck is This?

A couple years ago, I found this in a flea market in southern Missouri. It was weird enough looking that I could not resist buying it. It is made of clay, and is painted with bizarre male characters. Its back has holes in it, and it appears to be some kind of whistle, though I have not been able to get a sound out of it. It is about 7 inches tall, about 8 and a half inches across, and 3 and a half inches deep. Do any of you wise readers have any thoughts on what it is, and where it comes from? Or have any ideas who to ask?

What's For Dinner?

Tonight, it's Amuse-Crostini Toscani, Artisanal Salami by Armandino Batali with Cremona-Style Mustard Fruit, Marinated Roasted Peppers with Coach Farm Goat Cheese, Olive and Fett'unta, Warm Octopus and Potato Salad, Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage and Fennel, Radicchio Tortellini with Parmegiano Cream, my choice of Pork Loin in the style of Porchetta, Braised Duck Leg with Dried Oranges and Almonds, Scottaditti-grilled Lamb Chops with Garlic Confit and Mint, or Jumbo Shrimp Marsala Housewife Style, and then Sanguinacchio (a bitter-sweet chocolate pudding with whipped cream and pignoli), Local Cherries in primitivo with Walnut Biscotti, and Nearly Austrian Strudel with Vanilla Gelato.

Mario Batali is cooking at Lidia's, and Sam bought us the meal as an early anniversary gift.

Tomorrow night, back to Go Chicken Go.

Public Humiliation

I expected that some Republicans would be upset by my pointing out that they are hypocritical cowards if they have failed to volunteer to fight the optional war for which they voted. It is, admittedly, a provocative thesis.

I wasn't, however, expecting a comment as downright stupid as this anonymous effort:

Yes, that is brilliant. Only soldiers who vote for the sitting president should fight. If only you had been 60 years earlier you could have issued your words of wisdom to Republican soldiers who did not vote for Roosevelt. I doubt even you can make sense of your incoherent statements. Had your man (sic) Kerry managed to win the war would be going no better, and in fact far worse. After all Kerry voted for the war, but you perhaps you can justify that action by claiming that he voted against it before he voted for it. You have no grasp of history, a liberal characteristic- read something aside from the NY Times, and other leftist publications, and you might find a viewpoint that originates from outside of the Upper East Side.

This comment is so wildly ridiculous that I thought I should address it in the body of the blog rather than in the relative privacy of the comments section. The gutless anonymous commenter deserves a little public embarassment.

First off, A, my comments are addressed to Republicans who are not soldiers. That was the point. If you claim to support this president and his optional war, then you should become a soldier. If you oppose this president and his neo-con lunacy, then you are not under a similar obligation.

Your attempt to liken this war with WWII is offensive and historically inaccurate. The United States entered WWII only after being attacked by Japan. Does Pearl Harbor ring a bell? And then, we went to war against Japan, not some other nation that was more convenient or that possessed more impressive oil reserves.

Even then, though, Americans of all stripes enlisted, just as I am calling upon the Republicans to do. There was also a massive draft, which may well be coming to Bush's America, but has not been announced yet. Republicans enlisted or were drafted after our country went to war with nations that had attacked us, and did not doubt the legitimacy of the war. Perhaps, A, your family had a different experience, and your family has a long history of cowardice extending back to WWII, but most Americans acknowledge that WWII was a legitimate war, not a neo-con white paper come to life.

Your attacks on Senator Kerry are bizarre. Are you attempting to question his manhood? If so, why? Please explain.

Finally, your attack on my grasp of history and on the breadth of my reading is humorous, in light of your comlete misunderstanding of WWII, and in light of the fact that the article I linked to came from the coast opposite the Upper East Side. I have no idea what you read, and I don't care to speculate, but I hope that whatever it is, you do so with a great deal more insight and intelligence than you brought to my blog.

The quagmire that your president has created could be helped out if trolls like you would step away from your keyboards and head on down to the recruiting stations. We're waiting. Anything else is just hot air and cowardice.

A Unique View of Bolivian History Being Made

Just yesterday morning, I urged readers to check out Blog for Bolivia. Since then, turmoil has continued in that impoverished, foreign-dominated, landlocked country, and the head of the Supreme Court has taken over the Presidency on an interim basis. Civil war has been postponed - it remains to be seen whether it has been averted.

I renew my suggestion that you visit Blog for Bolivia, but this time I urge you to check out the comments. There, you will see individuals debating the future of the nation. You will see rumors flying about US troops massing on the border, and arguments about whether "the people" want a revolution.

Most of us don't care about Bolivia, I know, and most of us couldn't find it on a map. But this is live drama with high stakes - it makes for compelling reading. If you pray, pray for peace in Bolivia.

Desperate Recruiters Resort to Kidnapping

A week ago, I suggested that, to solve their recruiting problems, the Army should feel free "kidnap any able-bodied young people found in vehicles with 'W' stickers on them". Apparently, the Marines were way ahead of me. A couple weeks ago, they kidnapped Axel Cobb, a 17 year-old kid in Seattle. Unfortunately for them, they picked the child of a woman who goes to folk music festivals instead of George Bush rallies, so she got him back.

Come on, those of you who voted for W, our "war president". Get on down to the recruiting station! Your country is waiting for you and your children! If you voted for Bush thinking his war is justified and noble, then what on earth are you waiting for??

Nate Fors, Laura Berman, Oz McGuire at the Kemper

Last night, I ventured to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for a "Slideshow Presentation" by Nate Fors, Laura Berman and Oz McGuire. Nate is an old friend, and it's fun to watch him pontificate on something he loves. Plus, I got to see some images I had missed from when his Avenue of the Arts installation, which consisted of painted innertubes, deflated. If you've driven on I-435, you may have seen his sculpture, "lllooppi", for which he has received some attention.

Bolivian Turmoil

Back in December, I wrote about the fact that I will be travelling to Bolivia in October. At the time, I knew little about Bolivia.

I still don't know much, but it sounds like the country is going through interesting times. After a "Water Revolution" a few years ago, in which the masses revolted against the privatization of their water supplies and the resultant profiteering by massive multinational corporations, things were relatively calm. Recently, however, the people have been stirred up by concerns about the selling of the country's natural gas, with many of them calling for nationalization of the resource. At the same time, a divide is growing between the gas-rich areas and the gas-less areas of Bolivia.

People are marching in the streets, throwing dynamite, and the President has tendered his resignation.

A few months ago, I would not have bothered to read the stories about a poor, landlocked country in the Andes. Now, I find them frightening and sad. I worry about the authors of the blogs I read, and I want to know more about the international economic decisions that are made in North American and European boardrooms that result in poor people blockading a road in or out of La Paz.

If you're interested, I highly recommend Blog From Bolivia. What follows is an email I received yesterday from its author. If you're religious, please pray for peace.

Dear Readers:

Bolivia is once again in the international news and with good reason. For three weeks the capital city of La Paz has been largely shut down by protests. The President has announced his resignation. The Congress is poised Thursday to hand the Presidency over to one of its leaders, an action which could easily spark deep and prolonged violence here.

These events change quickly and I encourage those interested to keep up via The Democracy Center’s Blog from Bolivia at:

http://democracyctr.org/blog/

Jim Shultz

The Democracy Center

BOLIVIA IN TURMOIL

As I write this, here is where things stand in Bolivia.

For three weeks the capital city of La Paz has been besieged with protests – largely from the Aymara Indian communities of neighboring El Alto and the vast altiplano highlands – demanding that the country retake control of its gas and oil reserves and that the government convene a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the national constitution. These protests have effectively shut down the national government and, along with smaller actions in Cochabamba and elsewhere, have effectively shut down ground transportation in much of the country. The US is encouraging its “non-essential” personnel to leave Bolivia.

On Monday night, Bolivia’s President, Carlos Mesa, announced his resignation in a televised speech to the nation. He said he was stepping down in the hope that a change in government might help end the protests and bring about the first steps toward national calm and unity. On Thursday the Bolivian Congress will meet in the city of Sucre (where it hopes to escape the protests in La Paz).

Absent some sort of dramatic development, the Congress will accept Mesa’s resignation and the Presidency will fall into the hands of Senate President Hormando Vaca Diez, a deeply polarizing figure with little public support. At various points in the current political crisis Vaca Diez has criticized the President for “not governing”, Bolivian shorthand for using the army to crush the protests. If he takes over the Presidency this week Bolivia seems headed on a clear road toward deepened conflict, and more than likely, an explosion into violence.

How Did Bolivia Get Here?

As I have written before, the events happening this week in Bolivia are the natural outcome of economic policies set in motion over the course of two decades, market-driven economic reforms imposed on Bolivia (and other poor countries) by two US-dominated institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This is how I explained it in an article posted today by the New York Times:

“The bottom line is that Latin America is in open rebellion of the economic policies of the Washington Consensus," said Jim Shultz, director of the Democracy Center, a group in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba that is critical of free market reforms in the country. "Sometimes it happens in the ballot box. Sometimes it happens on the street, like in Bolivia. It is in essence the same rebellion."

The current battle over public control of gas and oil is Bolivia’s fifth major public uprising on an issue of economic globalization in as many years, stating with the Cochabamba water revolt in 2000. What is happening here – and in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and elsewhere – is not an ideological movement. It is not the second coming of Che. Latin Americans are rebelling against the practical failure of these policies. In Bolivia that rebellion is in the streets.

That economic rebellion goes hand in hand with the demand by a large portion of Bolivia’s indigenous majority for a remaking of the political map, in a way that will give them political influence and power akin to their majority numbers. That is a demand 500 years in the making.

Protests – Pro and Con

To be sure, if one talks to average people on the street here in Cochabamba, one can find a good deal of resentment toward the protests and the people behind them. Many Bolivians in the city just want to work, just want their children to be able to go to school, and just want to be able to buy groceries without a fear of the city being cutoff. I find that a majority of people I talk to here support the movement’s demands for return of the gas and oil (and more than 90% voted to do that in a national referendum last July). What they don’t support is the tactics of road blockades and economic disruption.

Leaders of the demonstrations are quick to ask, “What other tactic do we have that will make the government listen?” People have gone on hunger strikes, have crucified themselves in the country’s main plazas, have made their case in the media. None of these is sufficient to counter the invisible pressure being brought to bear on the other side by the likes of the IMF and British Petroleum.

Bolivia is a nation that once sat atop a mountain of silver (Potosi) that helped bankroll the Spanish Empire for three centuries. It ended up the poorest country in South America. For many Bolivians the choices would appear to be – either challenge the government in the street or allow history to repeat itself with the nation’s vast petroleum reserves.

The US has charged that the protests here are being fueled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a strong anti-US critic in the region. That reminds me of the Bolivian government’s bogus claim five years ago that the Bolivian water revolt was being fueled by drug traffickers (as opposed to Bechtel’s huge water price hikes). Whether you agree with the protests or disagree with them, there is no question that they are rooted in genuine Bolivian anger at the giveaway of the nation’s gas and oil.

What Next?

So much depends on what happens in the Congress Thursday. President Mesa himself took to the airwaves again last night, calling on the Senate President and his House counterpart to resign and allow succession of the Presidency to fall to the head of the Supreme Court, an act that would automatically trigger new national elections in August. He warned that the nation was on the brink of a civil war.

But political ambition runs deep among the nation’s elite and it is clear that Mr. Vaca Diez is working overtime behind the scenes to arrange his ascension to the Presidency.

It is make-a-deal time again in Bolivian politics and a politician within reach of the Presidency has a lot to deal. When Mesa took over in 2003 he declared the administrative apparatus of government off limits for party operatives. That is a lot of lucrative patronage and opportunity for corruption snatched out of their hands. If you invested tens of thousands of dollars in your party’s efforts to capture the spoils of governing and then get denied those spoils (like becoming a vice–minister), how are you supposed to get back your investment?

We will do our best to keep our readers informed in the tense days ahead, though regular postings on our Blog from Bolivia. You can find it at:

http://democracyctr.org/blog/

Irony Overload - fortunately, we live in an irony-rich age

Get this - G. Gordon Liddy - the scumbag who ACTUALLY ENGINEERED WATERGATE (!!!) complained about Mark Felt's ethics!

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!

Thank a generous God that we live in an age that allows a lying, war-mongering President to give lip-service to a "culture of life". If not for that heavy dose of sick irony, our heads might have exploded upon hearing Liddy's insanity.

Sam in KC Fringe Festival

My son is going to have a play in the KC Fringe Festival, sometime during July 29 - July 31, 2005. He and a fellow student are going to put forward "Einstein's Dice", a series of 6 10 minute plays based on Albert Einstein's observation that "God does not play dice with the Universe." He is writing three one-act plays, as is his fellow student, and they will direct each others' work. Should be interesting. I haven't read the plays yet, but, if one of them is about an obnoxious father, the kid has an amazing imagination.

I'll post details when I get them.

Stupid, Stupid People

About 400 stupid people showed up at a nearby cemetery earlier today to sing "Dixie" and act like complete morons because our weak, weak governor buckled to racist pressure and flew the confederate battle flag at a ceremony honoring people who hated America. I can only assume that these same 400 idiots will also be honoring those enemies of America who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and who are killing American soldiers in Iraq.

I think that their support of anti-American combatants should earn them a trip to Gitmo, so they can be with their friends.

Red X on the Plaza?

Rumors are spreading that the former Saks space will become a plaza outpost for the distinctive Red X from Riverside.

Failures in Military Recruitment Leading to a Draft?

I have written previously about my suspicions that the Bush administration would need to institute a draft to provide enough roadside bomb targets to satisfy their neo-con dreams. So far, history has shown me to be wrong on this point - and I'm damned glad of it.

Now, the Pentagon is playing games with its announcement of recruiting numbers. They have always released them on the first business day of the month, but, this month, they have delayed their release until a Friday (so they will get less news play), and they need another ten days to think up new ways to say "we're screwed." This comes after previous revelations that they are lying and cheating to sucker people in.

Obligatory snarkiness: I'm appalled. If I recall correctly, over 50% of this nation voted for Bush in the Presidential election. Surely enough of those voters are of military age to meet the needs of the neo-cons they support. Even those that are too old could use their powers of persuasion to convince their friends and neighbors to go. I'll acknowledge that some of them are probably gay, but, even there, they can take advantage of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to serve their country. Heck, we could just empower the military recruiters to kidnap any able-bodied young people found in vehicles with "W" stickers on them - that should take care of the problem.

More seriously: I'm worried. My kids are now 19 and 18. I don't think we'll see college deferments in the next draft. Someone I got to know through school recently departed for Iraq. Too many lives have been lost and too many young people have been horribly wounded by this God-damned (literally, I suspect) war for the entire country not to begin feeling the pain.

In all sincerity, I ask that if you voted for Bush, please enlist, and/or encourage like-minded people to do so. You owe us that much.