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He’s Baaaa-aack
be afraid. be very afraid.
Technorati Tags: cheney, dick cheney, liz chaney, torture, iraq, wmd, weapons of mass destruction
Dude, Where’s My Country?
The world is weird. On my last entry before I stopped blogging here for a few months plus, I made a reference to George Bush planning to walk the world a la David Carradine in the old Kung Fu Series. Caradine died the other day under less than normal circumstances — hanging in a lavish Bangkok with a rope tied around his neck, wrists and genitals. Coincidence? You decide.
But down that road lies Tabloid, and something a little higher is on my mind. The past eight years in this country have brought us to two things — a radical change in the identity and vision of the President of the United States on the one hand and, on the other, an ongoing (and, I believe, growing as a cancer grows) underbelly of racism, hatred, intolerance, stupidity, political sabotage of the mandate for change from the people of this country, and, sadly, much more.
Talk show hosts like Rush “The Pillbox” Limbaugh openly call for the President and, by natural extension, the USA itself to fail. Cheney has crept out of the basement to make utterly absurd arguments designed more to save his ass than save this country. In addition, his daughter, who has absolutely no reason to be on the television 24 times in 22 days is helping Obama and the Democrats more than her dad. The most qualified if not brilliant nominee to the Supreme Court has been dubbed a racist because she dared to suggest the same thing ultraconservative nominees have said in the past — that we are influenced by our upbringing and our experiences and this situation, while essential, must meet the nature of law and decisions about trials. A doctor is gunned down in church and the act is praised by commentators on Fox News and out in the vast undergrowth of America. Fifty percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified - and to those people I would as, “Who would Jesus torture?”
Guys arrested for planning to harm the President. Guns being brought to Church events because, as some churchgoers have said, “It’s my right.” I have more than a passing knowledge of what it means to appreciate Jesus, and I remember when he told his disciples to take to the road with very, very few things. I don’t recall him saying, “And, for God’s sake, make sure you’re packin’ heat!”
I’m not sure we’re going to see any of this come to a good end. I think if you look at the world a moment realistically, which few will, we had better hope Obama succeeds. We certainly should feel that America is making tentative movement toward being what America once was — a place where the world could refind it’s conscience, where we were the good guys and not the torturers and Cheney assassination squad devotees, where we were, through growing pains, demanding the like and just and compassionate treatment of others not like ourselves — this or that minority, women, the elderly, children and, now, the challenge of love one has for another regardless of sex.
We have to ask one thing — is there too much love in this world or too much hate? If the answer is the latter, then you should know what to do. If the answer is the first, you should feel right at home.
Technorati Tags: president obama, obama, supreme court, sotomayor, tortue, gun control, dick cheney, cheney
Toe Back In the Water
Ok, the truth is that the past few months have been rather difficult on a lot of levels — financially, personally. I realized this morning I missed this blog and the great email/comments that came my way.
So, I’d like to get back in the game a bit. Maybe part of it had to do with the remarkable speech yesterday as President Obama (there are two words together that should make anyone marvel and feel joyful about the possibilities this country still has) and Elie Wiezel, the Nobel Prize winner whose photographic image as a prisoner of Buchenwald is part of a permanent display at the site of the former concentration camp.
The Obama speech was adequate, based on his potential and content in previous speeches, but it was Elie Wiezel’s magnificent speech which was a mixture of hope and reality, personal struggle and inclusiveness, with lines such as the following about his father’s death in the same concentration camp during WWII.
“The day he died was one of the darkest in my life. He became sick, weak, and I was there. I was there when he suffered. I was there when he asked for help, for water. I was there to receive his last words. But I was not there when he called for me, although we were in the same block; he on the upper bed and I on the lower bed. He called my name, and I was too afraid to move. All of us were. And then he died. I was there, but I was not there.”
I have yet to find a site with a video of that speech posted on it. Obama? Yes, everywhere. I can’t help thinking that the remarkable content, spoken from the heart of Elie Wiezel is so ripe with imagery and truth — the clash, as I said above, of hope, belief, shattered dreams, unfinished business, certainty, sadness and more. I hope you can find it, even a transcript, although you’re missing a rare opportunity if you can watch the entire speech somehow.
Technorati Tags: president obama, obama, elie wiezel, concentration camp, buchenwald
Bushy Readies for Big Adventure
As Bushy prepairs for his sojurn into the world, he is shown leaving the White House with Mini T, his new Secret Service protection. Mini T, a master of disguise, reflects the cutbacks in security announced by the Secret Service for the soon to be ex-President.
Fresh Briefs will be covering the Bushy’s epic journey to search for himself, blatantly patterned after the original Kung Fu TV-series with David Carridine. Instead of the Kung Fu fighting which typified the original show, Bushy will confront the evil forces he encounters by clearing their brush.
Technorati Tags: bush, kung fu, mini t, a journey worthy of Dante, ex President Bush
Hitting The Road With Bushy
Short of completely circumventing the Constitution again, Bushy plans to hit the road in a matter of weeks, traveling from town to town to discover Truth and, to some extent himself. And margaritas.
Rest assured, Fresh Briefs will be there to cover what promises to rival Dante’s voyages.
Technorati Tags: bush, white house, bush exits, on the road
Tonight “On Leave It To Bushy”
Technorati Tags: bush, bailout, 750 billion, where did it go, economy, depression
Ode To Bukowski
The FreshBrief of the Moment:
A Radio With Guts
it was on the 2nd floor on Coronado Street
I used to get drunk
and throw the radio through the window
while it was playing, and, of course,
it would break the glass in the window
and the radio would sit there on the roof
still playing
and I’d tell my woman,
“Ah, what a marvelous radio!”
the next morning I’d take the window
off the hinges
and carry it down the street
to the glass man
who would put in another pane.
I kept throwing that radio through the window
each time I got drunk
and it would sit there on the roof
still playing-
a magic radio
a radio with guts,
and each morning I’d take the window
back to the glass man.
I don’t remember how it ended exactly
though I do remember
we finally moved out.
there was a woman downstairs who worked in
the garden in her bathing suit,
she really dug with that trowel
and she put her behind up in the air
and I used to sit in the window
and watch the sun shine all over that thing
while the music played.
Charles Bukowski
Technorati Tags:
bukowski, charles bukowski, caricature, poem, poetry
