Gregarius » From the Rooftops

From the Rooftops

A few words of humility

Posted: March 9th, 2006, 11:29pm PST by chimneyswift

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I just want to thank whatever fool nominated me for a Koufax, Jason. But it is true, I have actually had a few visitors from the great beyond.

I just want to say to all you gentle visitors that I know I am not worthy of such an actual honor. I do hope you like my odd little take on things, and hope I can muster something of interest to a few of you during this time.

The blogville sweeps week, heh. Well, anyway, go check out our radio station. They deserve a visit.

Cheers all,
-swift.
Gotta get my two bits in

Posted: March 8th, 2006, 12:48am PST by chimneyswift

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So a friend of mine says of the ports deal that there's no question it will go through. He points out that this is just a money grab. $5.6B in cash is already in the accounts of somebody out there, just waiting for a few details before it becomes usable.

He's got a point. Not chump change. Furthermore, it's not as if the owners of DP World are increasing their capital. This is a rights deal. $5.6 billion for the right to operate what, six ports for twenty years? Something like that. For that kind of money, this thing is getting done.

The problem, though, is that this is inspiring cognative dissonance in the group Dave Neiwert called "transmitters" It's very hard for the demagogic, zinger-slingin' right-wing media agents to find an angle to work on this.

Their audience has been trianed for years to be bigots. The verbal onslaught puts the listener in a position of power by highlighting the target's otherness. Almost always. Now, with this deal, the "bad guy" is buying into the system, so you can't attack them from the same angle. The troops still want to, though. For the Fox News set, arab = bad.

But it's the other side of the equation that nobody really wants to talk about. The people who want this deal done are the sellers. By facilitating the diversification of the Sheiks' business interests many ends are being furthered, and none of them are germane to mainstream political converstaion in any U.S. demographic group. First and foremost is the vassal-state relationship (and cash flow) between the Sheiks and the financial hegemons of the West. Second is the gray- and black-market shipping that benefits so much of the political economy both outside and inside the U.S. Third is the further internationalization of trade and labor that so benifits the "ownership society."

There's more, I'm sure, but what's important is that the existence, power and aims of the beneficiaries of this deal make people uncomfortable. That's the elephant in the room. And it's why, even after some face-saving shuffle is worked out, that people all over the political spectrum will continue to point to it as a harbinger of W's decline.

What's interesting is that we have to assume that these "interests" are either politically indifferent to the Republican Party or that they don't mind maneuvering anybody over a barrel. Perhaps especially some boob who actually thinks he runs the show.
Watching rocks wait

Posted: March 5th, 2006, 11:29am PST by chimneyswift

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Watching rocks wait

for waves of time and passion

we tilt with the spin of the world

So easy to believe

that rocks feel time slow

they sit with such unambiguous patience

Stillness pervades

The crash of the waves does not move us

Is nowness long? It certainly is lingering.

The seagull dips fast

The wind lifts her alight

We feel the wave rising afore us again.
Gut Feeling

Posted: February 22nd, 2006, 6:17pm PST by chimneyswift

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It's ajust a hunch and you know it would never come to light, but the Dubai Port deal is a setup. S-E-T-U-P.

Check it, everybody is jumping on this guy now. The big question it leaves is not what happens to Bush, his time is over. The question is under what program do we govern? Who determines it?

The Republicans have set policy exclusively for a good while, and this is their failure. But the tendedncy will be to tar and feather Bush but let the basic program keep rolling.

The non-opposition party nominally called Democrats will likely do nothing to establish an alternative narrative but this would be a great time to do so. Strike while the iron is hot.

As for the setup, everybody wanted this guy out, he's been a miserable failure. So he will go down as a very early lame duck. The question for interested journalists and bloggers is who actually put the deal together, especially if Bush officially didn't know about it.

Cheers,

Swift.
Humor as a Force Driving Historic Events

Posted: February 17th, 2006, 1:33pm PST by chimneyswift

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Who has not made a joke about our Darth Vader-esqe VP? I dressed up as him for Halloween in '04 (I thought it would be my last chance). He is a scary man.

We are emerging today from the first shooting by an office-holder since the Hamilton-Burr business in the very early days of the country, when we were still a Republic.

How does something like this happen? And I don't mean old men drinking and wandering around with guns, although that seems an obvious enough bad idea. What I am getting at is a bit more obscure and bizarre.

When I have been a part of momentous events, I have frequently noticed an aura or "charge" to the time leading up to and during those events. It is almost as if the magnitude of the implications of an event impinge upon the space time surrounding the event.

It is as if, not literally, but with a sense that somehow echoes our more mundane senses, there is a ringing in the ears, a numinous light that suffuses the edges of the field of vision. Actions seem propelled by their inner logics and time slightly distends, leaving a feeling of lag or echo.

So what was the scene of the shooting like? These feelings I am describing surround events that shape the lives of a small group of people. When it is something that shakes the foundations of an empire, what forces are at play?

I would propose that Dick Cheney is so nasty, so without redeeming qualities and so obvious in his avarice that he created a bubble of extreme tension within the National Consciousness.

We needed some way to deal with this. It is no secret that he is a bad guy. You could use him as an example to teach children that bad guys do exist. I told you I dressed up as him for halloween. Let me ask you- have you ever tried to make your face do what his does? It is not easy, yet it is a habitual and ordinary movement of his facial muscles. The infamous sneer of Vice President Cheney betrays an emotional visciousness that can only make polite, concerned patriots of mild temperment and middle age extremely uncomfortable. It is difficult to imagine the man being pleasant at all, for any reason. He is not avuncular, he appears incapable of kindness.

The cognitive dissonance of the mass of Americans, who hold at various levels of their awareness a distate and discomfort with this man, shaped the space around this shooting. Now we can laugh. Laughing is close to crying, after all. Now we can collectively process what has become a very public embarassing family secret.

The funny question that occurred to me was, what did he say after he shot Mr. Whittington? My thought was, "Next time, two hundred thousand." A freind of mine suggested simply, "Got 'im!"
A Difficult Truth in the Midst of a Nasty Situation

Posted: January 21st, 2006, 7:39pm PST by chimneyswift

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I was talking today with my mom. I was trying to convince her to watch the Al Gore speech. She didn't want to because it would only depress her due to the fact that little if anything could come of it. During the course of the conversation she broadly derided blogs as being a bunch of people talking to each other and not producing any organization to speak of. It was worthy of thought.

The problem, as a few others have recently noted, is that the Democratic Party leadership does not read us. They do not, in an real sense, know we exist. It brings to mind the metaphor of sports radio. People call in to the sports radio channel and argue for or against the Vikings dumping Duante Culpepper (who just asled for a RAISE after a horrible 1/2 season and a serious knee injury ) and who, exactly are they talking to? And it occurred to me that that's it, we are just like that. Talking to the coaches and GMs of the party, who don't even ever listen to the show.

This is the nasty situation. Jonathan Weiler nails it over at the Gadflyer, saying of Elaine Kamarck (writing at Ruy Teixera's site):

So, whom does Kamarck propose to carry a strongly critical message to the American people, one capable of demonstrating real differences between the parties, not only regarding the administration's over-reaching on the war on terror but its failures on national security more generally: Hilary? Lieberman? Bayh? Biden? How are any of these folks going to make it clear to the American people that they stand for a meaningfully different, and better, understanding of how to protect America? As posted on Tom Paine today, Molly Ivins raises serious doubts about whether centrists like these are up to the task, on national security and other issues.

Molly Ivins, for her part, brings some her strongest writing ever to bear on the task. She asks, pointedly,

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

And this brings me back to my talk with my mom. She was livid with the Democrats. She was even angry with Hillary. My mom was in Beijing for the Women's Conference in 1995. She has steadily and proudly anticipated Hil's run for Pres for years.

I am asking now, Who are you, Democratic Party?! How do we speak to you? That is what we are doing here, and if the level of brains displayed by Harry Reid on Lehrer is the best you've got, if the facts of The American Prospect's recent scoop on Democratic Party polling are true (via Digby), what in God's name are you going to do? You do not have the brains to respond to this.

Go Home! Declare it over, quit and let somebody with guts take your place! This is a dire cultural situation and we are too damn busy trying to keep our financial ends met to try to change the system with pot and rock concerts any more.

(For my part, I have thought this somewhat the crux of the matter for some time now. As I was writing in my recent post about John Lennon, our expectations are overwhelmingly shaped by what happened in the early '70s. I get the sense, today, of a sort of subliminal cultural puzzlement (much of it from boomers like my mom) about why no one is in the streets protesting this slow march to totalitarianism. And the answer, of course is that no one has time. That, and like I said, no draft.)

Which brings us to the difficult truth. If we can't stop it, we are slowly marching towards a discontinuity in our governmental structure.

If we can't get the Democrats to listen to us, they will keep losing, and as Al Gore so straightforwardly points out, our Constitution will either change or become meaningless. And that's the nasty, nasty truth. Because nobody else is telling the Democrats this. And if they can't hear us then they will keep believing the poison mirror of the oligarchs' media.

Maybe we need to have a liberal blogospheric position and lobbying event. Develop a platform, take small donations on the Dean model and start targeting specific legislators and party officials. I wonder if the Governor himself wouldn't give us some suggestions where to start. Otherwise, what are we doing here?
Holy Fuck.

Posted: January 18th, 2006, 10:39pm PST by chimneyswift

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Al Gore is reborn. The change is not only thorough but deep, and will be a lasting one. He is now a man who knows what conviction is. We should all write all of our congresspeople and ask if they have watched his speech and ask that they make public shows of support.

I have only one real thought that I want to share this moment with those who come to read my musings, and it has two parts. The basic thought (which I have not seen mentioned elsewhere) is that as a former Vice President, Mr. Gore enjoys certain priveledges. One is a lifelong dispatchment of dedicated Special Service teams, the most advanced security one human being can be provided. Another priveldge he enjoys is the right to a daily security briefing at a level of security clearance coequal with the Office of the President.

Ok, one more thought. There has been a great deal of thought expended be pretty much all of us on the activist and committed liberal end of the political spectrum since 2001. Our efforts have centered around how we will find a place in a nation that is clearly headed for an uncertain future. Al Gore has had a personal involvement on those moments which led to our introspections, and he gets it. Thank God, he really does understand the gravity of this moment in history, and he respects the part he has been given to play.

Go to C-SPAN, watch the speech.
Jottings from a busy man..

Posted: January 17th, 2006, 11:31pm PST by chimneyswift

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Well, started school today. It's something being 30 and entering a major university as a transfer student.

One thing that impresses me is just how many people are there. Maybe because the age groupong is so narrow (and race/demographics, too), it becomes slightly overwhelming. The little (and very diverse) community college I had been attending was full of friendly people. Here, where there are overwhelming numbers of relatively similar people, there seems little impetus for small talk. There would be no real likelihood of connecting again, after all, so why bother?

I have one class in the social sciences building. It is a place marked by subtle indications of a population that feels need to dig in, facing an onslaught. I do not blame them. Academics are often killed first. It did make me really think, however, about how very much sound thought is guarded in academia. Even given the obvious shortcomings of the institution there is a great deal worth protecting.

Yesterday was MLK Day. I saw my son sing in his community choir at the local childrens' museum. They sang a variation of "We Shall Overcome." I was reminded just how radical an act belief can be, when the belief is something that flies in the face of history and precedence. We are in need of reminders regarding the odds faced by the civil rights movement. We should be honored to be able to inherit thier lessons.

Peace,

-swift
Irony strikes again: Bird Flu in Turkey

Posted: January 12th, 2006, 12:17am PST by chimneyswift

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Disclaimer: This post has nothing directly to do with its title.

The end is nowhere near here, but somehow it is easy to believe it is.

Watching the History Channel's show on John Lennon tonight brought home the differences between 1972 and today. The difference is not that the FBI isn't spying on us. The difference is that in the Viet Nam era there were tens of thousands of protesters living in ways that made the FBI's monitoring attempts very difficult.

Today we politely blog from home, secure that our aliases present to the world only the face we want seen. We are fools.

The Republic our founders so quixoticly handed off to us some two hundred plus years ago is dying tonight in Washinton D.C. "Conservative" legal scholars are dancing in the streets and Democrats are standing by the hospital bed offering milquetoast and off-topic rebuttals.

The majority of our contry is asleep at the wheel. Out here in the hinterlands of the liberal blogosphere we are heartened by stories of yore, Nixon's landslide in '72 before his ignominous fall. Well, for years before his fall there had been civil unrest rocking the easychairs of the middle-American householders. Today there is only a feeble bleating. The absense of the Draft and its concomitant deaths makes all of today's challenges to democracy seem abstract.

Today there is a growing sense of unreality as ever worse offenses against common sense and the principles of Liberty and Justice are only pooh-poohed, and yet the day-to-day living of basically all of us remains unchanged. Our lives are unaffected by these viscious blows to our collective dignity because quite frankly, we've mostly given up that dignity years ago. We sacrificed it piecemeal, taking jobs we knew were complicit in the moral quagmire of modern business because we were bereft of better choices.

Even those of us who haven't compromised ourselves this way have grown somehow used to losing. We have seen the futility of every kind of straegem and organization. We have witnessed the rise and dominance of hard cash and plutocratic control and we have despaired even as we railed against it all. And we have watched television. We have sat benumbed as it all floated away. There is no fabric of public gathering left, and without fabric, a tapestry can tell no tales.

Somehow, though, we all believe in the fable of Nixon's fall. We believe that bad guys lose, even if good guys don't necessarily win. This irrational belief may someday be our best strength, if it ever motivates enough people to stand up. With impending news of a court that will endorse even the most foul and blatant eviscerations of Democracy, I hope that people are ready.
But before I go...

Posted: January 4th, 2006, 12:26am PST by chimneyswift

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One big, multi-part question.

Stroll around the lefty blogs, Mathew Gross, Bottle of Blog>, TPM, Hullabaloo, etc. and ask yourself, is this a different universe? Do the emplyees of newspapers and TV news just eat gray mush all the time? Is that why there is no sense of the magnitude or very close proximity of political uproar?

Or is it something else? Do the reporters know what's going on any more? Certainly Andrea Mitchell, wife of Alan Greenspan, has an inkling (follow the TPM link), but what about the writers at major daily newspapers? What about the folks producing news segments for the networks? Because it's either that they don't know or they just don't want to talk about it.

More than any of the other stuff (at least at the moment) this makes me worried. This silence portends denial of a serious sort, the kind that can progress to dangerous, stultifing depths. Once this kind of denial starts to become really ingrained (like, a year or two ago), it becomes hard to change it. Where is the great catalyst that shakes the media rubes from their torpor? And what if there isn't one big shock but maybe a series of small bumps? The kind of bumps one might feel as an oligarchic semi-democracy goes off-road, veering slowly toward the swamps of despotism? How would the docile, sleep-walking media cover it?

Just a question.

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From the Rooftops

Posted: March 9th, 2006, 11:29pm PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: March 8th, 2006, 12:48am PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: March 5th, 2006, 11:29am PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: February 22nd, 2006, 6:17pm PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: February 17th, 2006, 1:33pm PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: January 21st, 2006, 7:39pm PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: January 18th, 2006, 10:39pm PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: January 17th, 2006, 11:31pm PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: January 12th, 2006, 12:17am PST by chimneyswift

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Posted: January 4th, 2006, 12:26am PST by chimneyswift

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