Jul 07 2008
And so, the word has come from on high (and I’m sure many others). The ‘Reality’ card has been played.
Now, how can you argue with ‘reality’? Particularly in the ‘netroots’? After all, isn’t that what we’re supposed to be about? Reality?
Of course, we all know that it’s just a catch phrase. It’s just a f’n brand. But, as with most things political, it’s used to try to keep the flock in the pasture. The reality police are the dogs used to keep the flock together.
Jul 07 2008
Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11. Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption. It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts. But most of all, it is a search for identity and meaning in an empty world.
Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb, we did not know our mother’s face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? ~Thomas Wolfe
All installments are available for reading here on Docudharma’s Series page, and also here on Docudharma’s Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.
Jul 06 2008
From one of my favorite radio artists, Joe Frank:
[WARNING: Dark satire — not for the seriously-depressed or humor-impaired.]
If you like this piece, I encourage you to check out Joe’s website for more of his radio shows:
Jul 06 2008
The Storyteller took a deep breath and cast back for another memory, another story to tell. The Listener was patient, but did require the occasional feeding. The Storyteller chuckled at the observation. The Engineer glanced backward and nodded. And the Train switched to another happentrack.
The Storyteller began to sing. The Listener leaned forward. The passenger turned over, but otherwise remained sleeping.
–William Stafford
Pine was at it again, hectoring all of creation. Canyon rolled its eyes as Sun passed overhead. Canyon preferred peace.
Jul 06 2008
Counseling and medication weren’t enough to help Laef Fox recover from his grim war experience in Iraq, and drugs and alcohol didn’t work either, so he tried making a movie instead.
There’s a new Documentary out, that was shown in a premeir private showing on July 4th in Denver.
Jul 06 2008
This is an essay grounded in simple reality, and intended for the perusal of those who are mentally and emotionally equipped to deal in such terms.
As to those who are not, it is my hope that you will herein acquire such tools.
But I’m not holding my breath.
The schoolin’ begins on the jump.
Jul 06 2008
This is an essay grounded in simple reality, and intended for the perusal of those who are mentally and emotionally equipped to deal in such terms.
As to those who are not, it is my hope that you will herein acquire such tools.
But I’m not holding my breath.
The schoolin’ begins on the jump.
Jul 06 2008
This old Chinese proverb is said to be a curse. I suppose that may be true, but we only live in the times in which we live. History will have to be the judge long after we’re gone about whether or not that was a curse.
According to Wikipedia, Robert F. Kennedy was one of the first from the United States to use this proverb at his Day of Affirmation Address to students at the University of Capetown in June 1966. The main message of this speech can perhaps be found in these words of his:
So the road toward equality of freedom is not easy, and great cost and danger march alongside us. We are committed to peaceful and nonviolent change, and that is important for all to understand–though all change is unsettling. Still, even in the turbulence of protest and struggle is greater hope for the future, as (wo)men learn to claim and achieve for themselves the rights formerly petitioned from others.
He then goes on to list four dangers that will be faced in this struggle.
Jul 06 2008
Jul 06 2008
Failure Comes To Japan
On A 747 No Less
Prospects dim for G-8 climate change deal
Bush arrives in Japan for summit; no concessions expected from U.S.
MSNBC News Services
TOYAKO, Japan – Prospects that the G8 would reach a meaningful agreement to fight global warming at their annual summit dimmed on Sunday as leaders began arriving in northern Japan with a raft of global problems on their minds.Climate change is high on the agenda of the summit of rich nations that begins Monday at a luxury hotel in Toyako, Hokkaido, and of a Major Economies Meeting on Wednesday that brings the G8 together with eight other countries, including China, India and Brazil.
‘To Be Busy Helps Them Forget’
Burma’s Storm Survivors Cobble Together a Meager Future
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A01
BOGALAY, Burma — Two months after a cyclone savaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma’s southwest, the bones of drowning victims still clutter the muddy banks of waterways.One bamboo stick at a time, survivors in hundreds of flattened villages are struggling to rebuild their lives. For shelter, they squeeze several families into a single tent. For drinking water, they collect monsoon rains that trickle off tarpaulin roof coverings into buckets or salvaged ceramic vases. For food, they cook communal meals with rice, beans and oil from handouts. Sometimes it is spoiled.
USA
Employers Fight Tough Measures on Immigration
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 6, 2008
Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls.
Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers.Though the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year.
