Author: albert

I read the title of this article from National Geographic News and I thought to myself, fuck me, Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds. I knew that there are a lot of boneheads from coast to coast, but I didn’t think they outnumbered the people who actually learned some stuff in school. The article in NGN is a summary of a larger article from today’s edition of Science. Adults [and judging by this study, I use the term here in America very loosely] were asked to respond to the following statement: “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals.”

In the U.S., only 14 percent of adults thought that evolution was “definitely true,” while about a third firmly rejected the idea.

In European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and France, more than 80 percent of adults surveyed said they accepted the concept of evolution.

The proportion of western European adults who believed the theory “absolutely false” ranged from 7 percent in Great Britain to 15 percent in the Netherlands.

Fuck me. Fourteen percent?!

Below the fold is a chart from the article as well as some more frothing at the mouth.

Evolution

Science Magazine

Religion

Politics

Chart: Jon Miller, et al./Science

As you can see, the adults of the United States of America, home to some of the finest institutes of higher learning in the world, rank 33rd out of 34 with only Turkey finishing behind them. Catholic strongholds like Italy, Ireland and Poland were all around 60% or higher in believing that we Homo sapiens did evolve over the course of several millennia. But why are those traditionally religiously conservative areas so open to the theory of evolution? Well, it seems like it’s a matter of politics.

The article provided this little nugget of information:

The investigation also showed that the percentage of U.S. adults who are uncertain about evolution has risen from 7 percent to 21 percent in the past 20 years.

Why that coincides with the rise of the neo-Con[vict] right wing of the Republican party here in the U.S. of A. What a coincidence. And the people behind the study tested whether or not one’s political views here in America influenced one’s view on Darwinism. In short, YES.

The team found that individuals with anti-abortion, pro-life views associated with the conservative wing of the Republican Party were significantly more likely to reject evolution than people with pro-choice views.

The team adds that in Europe having pro-life or right-wing political views had little correlation with a person’s attitude toward evolution.

The researchers say this reflects the politicization of the evolution issue in the U.S. “in a manner never seen in Europe or Japan.”

“In the second half of the 20th century, the conservative wing of the Republican Party has adopted creationism as part of a platform designed to consolidate their support in Southern and Midwestern states,” the study authors write.

Miller says that when Ronald Reagan was running for President of the U.S., for example, he gave speeches in these states where he would slip in the sentence, “I have no chimpanzees in my family,” poking fun at the idea that apes could be the ancestors of humans.

When such a view comes from the U.S. President or other prominent political figures, Miller says, it “lends a degree of legitimacy to the dispute.”

So the people are listening and it’s coming from the top down according to this study. The neo-Con[victs] have done an incredible job in the last two decades or so and we have a shitload of catching up to do in educating the public on what the rest of the God-fearing world believes.

We’ve got a president that looks like a chimp and acts like a parrot. Don’t these people have eyes? I know they have ears because they’re hearing all this bullshit and soaking it up like a sponge.

The National Geographic News article gives a wonderful summary, but this may be one to go to the newsstand and pickup it up for the full study.

And one last thing for clarification – the chart says that ~40% of adults in the U.S. believe in evolution while the article I quoted from noted the 14% “definitely true” statement – the chart takes into account the “definitely true” and “probably true” to come to that number and the “probably false” and “definitely false” for the other side.

I heard about an event at my local bookstore [Robin’s Books] about The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office, a newish book by journalist Dave Lindorff and lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights Barbara Olshansky. It very much piqued my interest and as an added bonus, it was to be filmed for C-SPAN’s BookTV [geeked out]. The following is my recount of the nearly two hour talk and discussion with the authors from last night’s event. There were lots of things I was already aware of, but there were plenty of new things learned. Above is a shot of the book which you can find at your local bookseller or by copying and pasting the title into the book searches down on the left pane of this site. And if the title, subject matter and existence of this book is news to you, well, you’re not alone as not a single major publication has reviewed it. If they’re coming to a town near you, I very much recommend heading over to listen in. Pictured above is Lindorff before the talk, unfortunately, I didn’t get any good shots with Olshansky to include in this report.

Impeachment

The Case for Impeachment

BookTV

Barbara Olshansky

David Lindorff

Larry Robin [the owner of Robin’s] got up to speak for a bit and introduce the two speakers. He told the crowd of forty-five or so that this was the 60th Anniversary of Robin’s Books being open in Philly. Taking a look at the history page of their website, I read that the original store, opened by his grandfather David, was at 21 N. 11th St, just a few blocks from the current site on 13th and Sansom Sts. He handed off to Dave who went straight into the book.

Dave started off by saying that originally, the book was only supposed to be 60K words [he said that was a short book], but as they were writing, events kept on happening and the book ended up having several chapters added on to it and now weighs in at 288 pages. He explained to the crowd some similarities between the current state of affairs here in American and 1930s Germany. A fire in the Reichstag in 1933 prompted Hitler to ask for and receive dictatorial powers. Here in the U.S., after several sites are hit by hijacked planes, BushCo unraveled a shitstorm on the American public grabbing anything that wasn’t bolted down and if it was bolted down, they put a wire on it just in case. Then Hitler went and invaded Poland in 1939 [67th Anniversary on September 1st] without any warning or declaration of war. A few years ago BushCo started drawing up plans to invade Iraq and roll through there and make Dubya a war hero. We invaded, unprovoked and without declaring war, Iraq. Then Dave went into some of the impeachable offenses this president has committed.

Crime against peace – Article 6(a) of the Nuremberg Charter. We attacked a country with no provocation or threat. It doesn’t matter what we thought or perceived, there was no actual threat nor provocation as we’ve found out after destroying cities all over Iraq.

Conspiracy to enter into a crime against peace – Article 6(a) as well. The doctored documents laundered through British agencies claiming the purchase of yellowcake via Niger.

The concerted efforts to obstruct the investigation of the bi-partisan 9/11 tribunal.

The outing of an undercover C.I.A. agent with Valerie Plame. Sources of the leak point directly to the top. And those sources can easily be served with a subpoena by a Judiciary Committee, Lindorff explained that it is harder to bring them in front of a judge in a normal trial proceeding; subpoena power’s a bitch yo.

The warrantless NSA wiretapping/spying violates the a federal statute dealing with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Fourth Amendment which states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The usage of signing statements effectively making Congress a vestigial branch of government and broadening the powers of the executive branch, part of expanding upon the unitary executive. John Dean wrote a wonderful column on Dubya’s use of signing statements here.

Criminal negligence: see Hurricane Katrina.

The refusal to accept the global warming models put forth by every single scientists worth their weight in Bunsen burners agrees that it is real and it is a problem that we must deal with. But it’s not just the issues within our borders. This administration has tthreatened [and followed through on?] trade sanctions against nations signing onto the Kyoto Protocol.

Lindorff handed off the to Olshansky who got right into the history of impeachment. She said that impeachment dates back to Great Britain defending itself against the monarchy and was intended as a sort of balance of power. The “injuries” incurred are always political. The only two impeachments in American history have been highly partisan/political affairs with Andrew Johnson impeached over the president’s powers over Cabinet members and Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice [Nixon would’ve been impeached, but took the easy way out and resigned].

Olshansky is a lawyer representing Guantánamo Bay detainees most notably Jose Padilla. She told of how the CCR was contacted by people who had friends and relatives disappear without a trace. Faceless officers supplying only a first name came by at all hours removing what would later be termed as “enemy combatants” seemingly at will. The CCR went door to door contacting various police precincts to see if they had the people in their custody. Then it went up the ranks to the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. and nadda. Then they started going to jails and prisons in search for the people and after three months, they got lucky and found one person. That person had no idea why he was imprisoned. He had not spoken to an attorney. He had not known that people were actively looking for him for three months. After that, the CCR filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in conjunction with the A.C.L.U. to see how many people were plucked from their daily lives, their race, their ethnicity, if their consulates had been informed… Then Attorney General John Ashcroft [the one with the lovely singing voice] basically did away with FOIA during this War on Terror, pesky people wanting to know what the government was up to.

The CCR found more detainees by word of mouth. Inmates finding other inmates. Telling their lawyers. Getting more lawyers. Finding more inmates… The CCR found that people were held in solitary confinement all across the U.S., shackled, strip searched every time they entered and left their cells, consulates were either not informed or lied to, guards were ordered to lie to people inquiring about said inmates. The CCR was asking for Article 5 (of the Geneva Conventions) battlefield hearings for these people. With a battlefield tribunal, the detainee’s status would be determined – whether they were actively fighting for the enemy, whether they were a rogue fighter or if they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismisses the Geneva Conventions. With the U.S. no longer abiding by the Geneva Conventions, they didn’t commit human rights violations, woohoo!

Olshansky told us of Camp Iguana. A section of Guantánamo Bay holding juvenile enemy combatants. She said that there were kids there as young as seven years old. What the hell are we doing taking in seven year olds? If they’re there long enough, once Camp Iguana detainees reach sixteen, they’re transferred to the larger Guantánamo population. She also reminded us that the administration has no definite definition of “enemy combatant” and they won’t do so enabling them to basically take whomever they want whenever they want wherever they want.

During the Q&A sesssion, it was revealed that this book, which has sold over 30,000 copies since it was published in May 2006, has not been reviewed by a single major publication. Lindorff agreed that there was a reluctance by the media to cover this topic.

One question was raised about the recent suicides at Guantánamo. Olshansky answered the question starting off by telling the crowd that she was the person who was to be representing one of them. A technicality of incorrect name spelling had prevented her from ever meeting with the detainee. Had she had a chance to meet with him, she would’ve been able to tell him that he’d be freed very soon – three days after he committed suicide.

Lindorff spoke about how a recent Zogby poll revealed that 80% of Democrats polled believed that the president should be impeached. This poll has not been reported on by the MSM or anywhere that I’ve seen. He noted how Karl Rove took the news of rising amounts of Americans seemingly in favor of impeachment – he said that it would be great for Republicans come election time as the base would be motivated and get out to the polls. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA-05) took the bait and stopped talking impeachment not wanting to engage the base of the Right. Lindorff chastised the move and asked why the Democratic leadership doesn’t ignite its base [which I think is the correct move and the only move that will save the party].

The 94% white crowd [three out of about forty-five, this is a problem] listened intentively for almost two hours before the signing of the books began. Lady and I jetted stepping over camera wires down the stairs. We were both very glad we went. No idea when this will be on BookTV.

A lot of heads rolled during the French Revolution. Many powerful people met their death in the modern day Place de la Concorde, among them, Marie Antoinette. But she wasn’t executed until October 16, 1793, but for the purposes of yesterday’s Bastille Day celebration at Eastern State Penitentiary.

This is a yearly event here in Philly, this year being the 12th Annual. It’s a mishmash of French Revolution history done Philly style and I can’t describe it any other way. Pennsylvania has tons of American Revoutionary and Civil War re-enactors with Philly and Gettysburg being central places respectively. I’m sure many brought along similar garb for this re-enactment, but there were also lots of French peasants and French aristocracy in full garb as well. So read on and check out how we roll in Philly. How did you spend your Bastille Day?

Bastille Day

Eastern State Penitentiary

There were tons of people there in traditional dress. I have no idea how accurate the clothing was, but I gotta give them credit for getting all dolled up in the sticky Philly heat. People in several layers, carrying muskets, tri-corner hats… It was quite a sight.

As the story goes, after the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, rumors were spread that the royals, hiding out in Château de Versailles, were hording all of the grain [which makes the bread]. Several reenactors were holding loaves.

<img src="http://www.dragonballyee.com/blogpics/2006/07July/DSC_5844.jpg" alt="marie antoinette"

So Marie Antoinette [the owner of the London Grill one block down the street] got up on top of the castle wall and spoke to the peasants below. The angry peasants attributed the quote “Let them eat cake” [in place of not having bread] to Marie, the most hated of the French royals to further stir up the hatred. And so, “Let them eat Tastykake” is what is cried out from atop the Penitentiary each summer here in Philly. But Tastykake refuses to donate the 2,000 Butterscotch Krimpets for the occassion, so, in protest, ESP uses Twinkies.

And that’s the first volley of Twinkies. Have you ever had 2,000 Twinkies hurled at you from a height of about fifty feet or so? It’s actually frightening. The thuds as they hit the ground were quite loud. If they had a slightly more solid construction, they could’ve done some serious damage, but they’re not and they didn’t. I couldn’t catch anything though. I got my hand on one which sailed behind me. Having a camera with a large lens in my right hand didn’t help things. Scott snagged a few.

I’m sure there are tons of history buffs out there, take apart the French Revolution!

I’ve put up a flickr set of shots from the day.

Things are getting bad when Elmo’s dad is going to war eh? Well, not really. Apparently, Elmo will be used in a DVD, and handed out for free, showing how Elmo deals with its [is it a she or a he? or just an it?] father heading off to war and how things are different when he comes back. The DVD will feature real families in addition to the Elmo family, so it won’t be a full Muppet cast.

The BBC News article points out that some 500,000 children up to the age of five have at least one parent in the service. Isn’t that bad for families? You know, the whole rearing a child on your own thing, isn’t that a no-no? That whole war on Murphy Brown and all. Breaking up families, an effect of the war that isn’t seen as often, it’s a behind the scenes thing, something I’ve never had to experience [but my family did back in Korea].

I recall people [Dick Cheney, cough, cough] getting deferments for constantly knocking up their wives. Cheney got deferred five times! And was famously quoted as saying “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.” in a WaPo interview. Ugh

Elmo

Military families

The DVD will be in English and, gasp, Spanish! I wonder if Joey Vento [the guy from Geno’s Steaks who got into a shitload of national attention from his english-only ordering policy] will throw a shit fit over this and start hurling ‘steaks at his TV. Wait, he probably doesn’t watch public access. He’d probably rather let the families that speak Spanish suffer without the aid of a cheery Spanish language Elmo. I wonder if they have a, gasp, Spanish language version of the national anthem on there as well. Perhaps Dubya himself will make a cameo spitting some of his nifty Spanglish confusing all viewers into thinking they have the incorrect audio track playing.

One weird thing from the end of the article:

“Other kids in school will say, ‘My daddy is away killing bad guys.’ This prepares the mom or dad to prepare the kids with better things to say.”

The cynic in me immediately jumped to the conclusion that there would be some sort of propoganda spewing from Elmo’s mouth into the heads of the impressionable children with parents in service. What will those kids be told to say? “My mom/dad is helping to curb the insurgency of jihadists set to destroy our American way of life”? What “proper” things will Elmo be teaching the children to say at the playground about their parent[s]?

And if there are any The State fans out there, remember that skit where they eat Muppets? Hilarious. “I didn’t know you could eat Muppet!”

According to this WaPo story, Halliburton will no longer have exclusive, no-bid contracts to provide a boatload of services to our armed forces abroad. Oh great. Four years and $14.5 BILLION later [$7.3 B alone in 2005] the plug is being pulled. But holy shit, the damage has been done, and then some.

Cutting the no-bid contracts now, is a calculated move:

The decision on Halliburton comes as the U.S. contribution to Iraq’s reconstruction begins to wane, reducing opportunities for U.S. companies after nearly four years of massive payouts to the private sector.

Wha? No more contracts? So there won’t even be too much money to bid on anyways? Great. That’s sort of like stealing money from everyone in the phone book and then stopping around the letter “X” because there aren’t too many more people to steal from with last names beginning with X, Y and Z and it’s not worth the effort any more because you’ve already made $14.5 BILLION.

Through midday trading, HAL stock is down almost a point.

Halliburton sucks. Let us shout the ways…

Halliburton

no bid contract

It’s almost unbelieveable, this AP story via Yahoo! on how Western Union is blocking money transfers to/from people named Mohammad or Ahmed. From the article:

Dubai-based representatives from Western Union Financial Services, an American company based in Colorado, and Minnesota-based MoneyGram International said their clerks are simply following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. Most of the flagged transactions are delayed a few hours. Some are blocked entirely.

I read the article twice, dumbfounded by the stupidity. I may need to read it another two or three times to really let it soak in. Holy fucking shit. But how surprised should I be at this? The U.S. Treasury Department, still under the leadership of that genius John Snow, has really thrived, eh? It seems like the wonderful guidelines set in place during this administration have worked wonders.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Mohammad is the single most popular name in the world. It’s like John or Michael, but more. Can you imagine every ATM withdrawal by a person named John delayed or completely blocked? How about narrowing that down to all those named John Smith.

This is another one of those stupid “safeguards” put in place by those geniuses up top. How hard could it possibly be for a well-funded terrorist network to get a few fucking fake IDs. I can probably go get one quite easily. I’m confident that I could get a perfectly good looking form of identification right here in Philly in twenty four hours for $100 that could handily fool the incredibly close inspection of a Western Union clerk.

And what have all these disrupted transactions resulted in? Jack fucking shit.

At another Western Union office, an executive who deals with security measures said about 1 percent of the store’s 30,000 daily money transfers — about 300 a day — are delayed or blocked because of suspected terrorist links. Thus far, all have proven false, the executive said on condition of anonymity, because she wasn’t permitted to speak to a reporter.

Big surprise.

via /.

Western Union

money transfer

Photo: Joao Silva/NYT

I’ve never been in the armed forces and I don’t plan on doing so [the enlistment age was recently raised to 42]. I have no idea how things are normally done under “normal” situations of war, but this war we’re in over there just feels wrong and I don’t think I have to be a seasoned soldier to feel that way. I think torture and espionage happens everyday and in every war, but the way this administration has gone about handling just about everything is the coarse salt constantly rubbed into the gaping hole of a wound we have on the face of our nation.

Reading this NY Times article about how our dead soldiers are airlifted out in body bags under the cover of darkness just got to me. I understand that in this instance, the area where Sgt. Terry Michael Lisk, 26, of Zion, IL, was killed is an intense area where air traffic is limited to the cover of darkness. But I still get angry over it. Angry that Sgt. Lisk died. Angry that the tears must be shed in the dark. Angry that more like Sgt. Lisk will die. Angry that the tears were shed in silence.

Of note in the photo above [click on it for a larger version hosted on NYT’s servers]: you can actually see the body bag. And it is partially open so you can see Sgt. Lisk’s 26-year-old face. Eyes closed. Head slightly tilted to his right, probably jostled a bit as they placed his lifeless body on the cart as his fellow soldiers, taking on the role of pallbearers, paid their last respects awaiting the transport helicopter. You don’t see too many of these kind of shots out there. I’m glad it’s there. We need to be reminded of the real costs of the war: our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, neighbors, friends, teachers, drinking buddies and everyone else sacrificing it all – for what? There are too many feelings the photo above brings up for me to discuss coherently. How does it make you feel?

America has lost well over 2,500 soldiers now. There is no official count for the Iraqis, some estimates put the number well over 150,000.

Iraq War

Body Bag

Sgt. Terry Michael Lisk

***CORRECTION
That is not a body bag. It’s a wounded soldier saluting Sgt. Lisk. But the emotions brought up by the photo still ring true.

Buuuut, you gotta join the Navy.

This NY Times article discusses how the Navy is getting a great pool of fighter pilot candidates as more and more top-of-class candidates are opting to get the free laser eye surgery and competing for the small batch of pilot gigs. But less people want to go underwater for submarine duty as it’s regarded as a less glamorous job requiring more schooling.

For generations, Academy graduates with high grades and bad eyes were funneled into the submarine service. But in the five years since the Naval Academy began offering free eye surgery to all midshipmen, it has missed its annual quota for supplying the Navy with submarine officers every year.

Officers involved say the failure to meet the quota is due to many factors, including the perception that submarines no longer play as vital a national security role as they once did. But the availability of eye surgery to any midshipman who wants it is also routinely cited.

Navy

Laser eye surgery

Healthcare

The NYT reports that a third of each year’s 1000 person class at the Naval Academy opts to get the surgery. The Navy offers two types of laser eye surgery: Lasik and PRK. Lasik, short for laser-in situ keratomileusis, is the commercially successful surgical option that thousands of civilians have received involving cutting a flap of the corneal tissue and then reshaping the underlying middle corneal stroma. PRK, Photorefractive keratectomy, doesn’t cut a flap, but burns/grinds it off; the reasoning behind this is that a flap in the cornea could come loose during combat and you don’t want that in a $20M+ fighter jet.

Interesting stuff. Our pilots are getting better, but the Naval officers of our nuclear subs may not be as top notch as in the past? Is that a good tradeoff?

I think everyone should have this as part of their healthcare plan: free laser eye surgery for all. I mean, we all gotta see, right? And I’m assuming a growing majority of us sit in front of a flickering screen which is emitting a nice bit of radiation at our faces [remember, our eyes are on our faces]. Yes, there are some who stare at a screen for hours on end for years and don’t have vision problems, I affectionately call those people assholes, no offense. Oh, and also, everyone should have access to healthcare, that’s a biggie too. Perhaps even above the laser eye surgery thing. But that’s a whole nother diary.

So what would happen if, down the line, the only people who had access to “free” healthcare [I’m talking about people who aren’t rich enough to have their own good private healthcare] were those who are enlisted in the Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy. Yes, the draft would still be off the table, but sort of under a different name. Picture our future, twenty-five years down the line…

We’re still under Repug rule. Karl Rove’s disembodied brain, preserved in a jar of formaldehyde and hooked up to sensors, is in its third term as President of the “free” world. Former Vice President Condoleezza Rice, current commissioner of the NFL, has gotten rid of the “tuck rule” and has taken back the Patriots’ Super Bowls [sorry I hate the Pats, go Giants!]. Healthcare costs so much the Bill and Melinda Gates Fund has given up on eradicating malaria and AIDS worldwide and now concentrates on the needy billionaires. The list goes on…

In the future, the only way to get a flu shot or contact lenses or precious Viagra [the age restrictions are all lifted] is through your local Army/Air Force/Marines/Navy recruiter who will authorize a script after you sign on the dotted line for Uncle Sam. Once in the armed forces, you’ve got the full palette of proper medicinal care at your service. But you also have to go and fight in wars, constantly. It’s sort of like in The Princess Bride how Prince Humperdink and Count Tyrone Rugen [the 6-fingered man] likes to heal everyone before hitched up to the Machine.

Yes, the second part of this diary is a tad tin foil hatty, but a little hyperbole to get my point across never hurt nobody eh? And if so, you’ll have to go join the Army to foot the bill for that injury. Hey, I’m a photographer, I’m supposed to have some artistic license!

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 [guess who voted which way!] in the Hudson v. Michigan case as to whether “evidence can be used against a defendant even when seized in violation of a long-standing rule requiring a knock on the door before executing a search warrant” reports the Washington Post.

The 5-4 decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, ran counter to previous decisions requiring suppression of evidence obtained in violation of the so-called “knock and announce” rule.

Supreme Court

Fourth Amendment

Warrants

A little background on the case from WaPo:

Today’s case, Hudson v. Michigan, stemmed from a 1998 drug and weapons search, authorized by warrant, of a home in Detroit.

While the officers yelled, “Police, search warrant!” before opening the door, they chose not to knock, they said later, for fear of being shot on the way in.

Having acknowledged that they broke the rule required under the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure protections, the question today was whether the evidence was then properly admitted at a trial that led to the conviction of Booker T. Hudson or whether it should have been suppressed under the “exclusionary rule” established by the Supreme Court to deter unlawful police conduct.

Just taking a quick read over the AP article and the WaPo one, the impact of the new starting lineup of the SCOTUS is front and center.

The case was decided: Scalia, Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Kennedy for Michigan and in dissent: Breyer, Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg. The AP article states that now retired former Justice O’Connor was leaning towards ruling in favor of Hudson. The effects of the anti-privacy appointments of Roberts and Alito have only begun.

From what I can tell, this decision does not completely overrule the Fourth Amendment’s “knock and announce” rule, but it does give it a nice unannounced knock upside its head.

How many more cases like this one are coming up on the dockets to come in the long tenure of the 51-year-old Chief Justice Roberts. When will someone pull the reigns of the at the helm of the police state we live in? A police state, ironically, with less officers on the street, but with more leeway now to do as they please. Protesters gathered up by the hundreds. Critical Mass bikeriders dangerously corralled into orange plastic netting. Snatching up people first, asking questions later, if at all. With the extreme that is Guantanamo Bay looking more and more like it could be closer to a norm domestically.

Yes the police did have a warrant and yes there was evidence that was [previously illegally] collected. But doesn’t it just feel wrong? It did to me when I read the two articles. It’s a knock on the door, a technicality if you will. But a technicality still and this ruling narrowly circumvents it.

This case brings to mind Miranda rights. The whole “You have the right to remain silent…” schpeal we’ve all heard a bajillion times on cop shows and movies [and hopefully not on the receiving end]. You do not have to be notified of your rights unless they intend to interrogate you; you can be arrested without being read your rights as I assume those arrested en masse in orange plastic netting were. There are still plenty of people who do not know their basic rights. While it would be great to be able to have a 100% educational rate on one’s basic rights if one is arrested [I’ll save the hopes for a 100% voter turnout rate for another lifetime] it would be quite nice to know my most basic rights before interrogation.

Getting back to the case… Anybody over in Michigan follow this case through the appellate courts there before it hit the SCOTUS? And what are your initial reactions?

Today was the announcement of our nation’s newest poet laureate, Donald Hall, 77, who has quite a polished New England pedigree. Born in New Haven, CT, schooled at Phillips Exeter, BA from Harvard, Litt.D from Bates and throw in a B.Litt from Oxford while you’re at it. The NY Times describes him as “outspoken” and continues:

Mr. Hall, a poet in the distinctive American tradition of Robert Frost, has also been a harsh critic of the religious right’s influence on government arts policy. And as a member of the advisory council of the National Endowment for the Arts during the administration of George H. W. Bush, he referred to those he thought were interfering with arts grants as “bullies and art bashers.”

It would be interesting to see a person from the perch as the nation’s Poet Laureate deliver some noble jabs of prose into the ribs of this administration.

Poet Laureate

Donald Hall

Poetry

The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress serves as the nation’s official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.

States the LoC and judging by this poet’s past actions, Hall very well may just raise the national consciousness, through poetry, over matters domestic and abroad and I think that would be an incredibly powerful statement.

I’m not familiar with this poet’s work, nor am I very familiar with the great poetic works of our country’s and our world’s past, it just never really was my bag. But poetry has undoubtedly touched me in a very deep way at various points in my short life.

Poetry can be used as a very personal exercise in putting emotion to paper when screaming, crying or beating the shit out of something just won’t do [hey, sorta like blogging]. Reading poetry is always a challenge. So subjective. So personal. A word can mean twenty different things to twenty different people said twenty different ways. Sometimes you’re left confused and not even the poet can explain it to you.

The power of the word, spoken and in print, is something I’ve revered since a little kid and have never been able to get a hold of in terms of “poetry” and likely never will. But that won’t stop me from enjoying something that just knocks me to my ass with some incredible pugnacious string of words. One such poem is Amiri Baraka’s Somebody Blew Up America. Baraka was the New Jersey poet laureate in 2002, but later forced out of the position over the controversy this poem caused. It starts:

               (All thinking people
               oppose terrorism
               both domestic
               & international…
               But one should not
                be used
               To cover the other)

Any pieces of poetry or prose which touched you significantly or kept you going in this fight against the crazies out there?