Please actually read

If you can't actually get your hands on this song by Ani, then at least read the song lyrics. Its another call to arms against the disastrous Bush administration. If only the rest of America could just realize how inherently evil everything they do is. Domestically and Internationally. Economically and Socially. This country of ours seems to want to run faster and faster to our eventual explosive suicide.

Ani Difranco's "Self Evident"

self evident

(inspired by the WTC disaster)



yes,

us people are just poems

we're 90% metaphor

with a leanness of meaning

approaching hyper-distillation

and once upon a time

we were moonshine

rushing down the throat of a giraffe

yes, rushing down the long hallway

despite what the p.a. announcement says

yes, rushing down the long stairs

with the whiskey of eternity

fermented and distilled

to eighteen minutes

burning down our throats

down the hall

down the stairs

in a building so tall

that it will always be there

yes, it's part of a pair

there on the bow of noah's ark

the most prestigious couple

just kickin back parked

against a perfectly blue sky

on a morning beatific

in its indian summer breeze

on the day that america

fell to its knees

after strutting around for a century

without saying thank you

or please



and the shock was subsonic

and the smoke was deafening

between the setup and the punch line

cuz we were all on time for work that day

we all boarded that plane for to fly

and then while the fires were raging

we all climbed up on the windowsill

and then we all held hands

and jumped into the sky



and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast

and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed

and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar

looked more like war than anything i've seen so far

so far

so far

so fierce and ingenious

a poetic specter so far gone

that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling

over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on

and i'll tell you what, while we're at it

you can keep the pentagon

keep the propaganda

keep each and every tv

that's been trying to convince me

to participate

in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution

perpetuate retribution

even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution

is still hanging in the air

and there's ash on our shoes

and there's ash in our hair

and there's a fine silt on every mantle

from hell's kitchen to brooklyn

and the streets are full of stories

sudden twists and near misses

and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters

with tales of narrowly averted disasters

and the whiskey is flowin

like never before

as all over the country

folks just shake their heads

and pour



so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine

afghanistan

iraq



el salvador



here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation

under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore



here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors

who daily provide women with a choice

who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city

just to listen to a young woman's voice



here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now

awaiting the executioner's guillotine

who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads

to find peace in the form of a dream



cuz take away our playstations

and we are a third world nation

under the thumb of some blue blood royal son

who stole the oval office and that phony election

i mean

it don't take a weatherman

to look around and see the weather

jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks

and boy did he ever



and we hold these truths to be self evident:

#1 george w. bush is not president

#2 america is not a true democracy

#3 the media is not fooling me

cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation

i've got no room for a lie so verbose

i'm looking out over my whole human family

and i'm raising my glass in a toast



here's to our last drink of fossil fuels

let us vow to get off of this sauce

shoo away the swarms of commuter planes

and find that train ticket we lost

cuz once upon a time the line followed the river

and peeked into all the backyards

and the laundry was waving

the graffiti was teasing us

from brick walls and bridges

we were rolling over ridges

through valleys

under stars

i dream of touring like duke ellington

in my own railroad car

i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches

in a grand station aglow with grace

and then standing out on the platform

and feeling the air on my face



give back the night its distant whistle

give the darkness back its soul

give the big oil companies the finger finally

and relearn how to rock-n-roll

yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there

so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets

and clear the air

get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand

of someone else's desert

put it back in its pants

and quit the hypocritical chants of

freedom forever



cuz when one lone phone rang

in two thousand and one

at ten after nine

on nine one one

which is the number we all called

when that lone phone rang right off the wall

right off our desk and down the long hall

down the long stairs

in a building so tall

that the whole world turned

just to watch it fall







and while we're at it

remember the first time around?

the bomb?

the ryder truck?

the parking garage?

the princess that didn't even feel the pea?

remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?



can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design

following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!



it was a joke, of course

it was a joke

at the time

and that was just a few years ago

so let the record show

that the FBI was all over that case

that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face

and scoping that scene

religiously

the CIA

or is it KGB?

committing countless crimes against humanity

with this kind of eventuality

as its excuse

for abuse after expensive abuse

and it didn't have a clue

look, another window to see through

way up here

on the 104th floor

look

another key

another door

10% literal

90% metaphor

3000 some poems disguised as people

on an almost too perfect day

should be more than pawns

in some asshole's passion play

so now it's your job

and it's my job

to make it that way

to make sure they didn't die in vain

sshhhhhh....

baby listen

hear the train?

Weekend of change

This weekend saw some pretty significant changes in my life, although I did fairly little. It was a relaxing weekend for sure, even though I helped out my roommate in her move to distant Davis, why yes that was a bit of sarcasm there. It's nice to now have the apartment between me and my boy. It seems strange to me that it doesn't field weird that she has moved. I have been living within a mile of her for the past seven years. In my voyage through Berkeley, she was always there, whether for good or not.

What else happened this weekend?

My father got married. Yes after seven months have since the end of my parents 29 year marriage, my father has remarried. Not entirely sure how I feel about it. Just think he is being an ass in how he is approaching me and my sister's. Hmm... It is nice to vent I suppose.

Kick him out, no I'm not talking about Bush this time

This time I'm talking about Donald Rumsfeld, our fucked up Secretary of Defense. At least I'm not the only one too agree. Here's another newspaper agreeing with my sentiments. I honestly can't understand how the current administration can look at themselves in the mirror and think they are descent human beings. Its sad. Very sad.

67 days and counting

67 days until the election. The closer it gets to the Republican National Convention, the more I feel horrible that I couldn't make it to NYC. I really don't know what to expect, but I hope that the demonstrators apply the principals of peaceful disobedience. All this approval for demonstrations seems to be antithetical to the purpose of the demonstration itself.

Damn men

I was reading this article, and it made me wonder about American men. I would think they would be at least as bad as French men.

I don't know though. Hmmm...

Way to go Swedes. Sort of at least.

Rumsfeld must go

Why Donald Rumsfeld still has his job is beyond me.

The Secretary of Defense wasn't alert to the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the summer of 2001.

Then, like the man who loses his keys in a dark alley but looks for them under the lamppost because there's more light there, Rumsfeld immediately wanted to bomb Iraq because he said there weren't enough targets in Afghanistan.

He repeatedly undercut the diplomacy of Colin Powell.

He grossly underestimated the number of troops needed for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

And he shares responsibility for the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, according to the new Schlesinger report.

"The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," the report notes. "There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels"--including Rumsfeld's level.

One member of the commission, Tillie Fowler, said, "We found a string of failures that go well beyond an isolated cellblock in Iraq. We found fundamental failures throughout all levels of command. . . . These failures of leadership helped set the conditions which allowed for the abusive practice to take place."

One of those failures, according to the report, was Rumsfeld's "decisions beginning on December 2, 2002, to authorize for use at Guantánamo16 additional interrogation procedures more aggressive" than the standard military methods. These procedures included the use of dogs, the stripping of detainees, and making detainees sit or stand in painful positions for long periods of time. "The augmented techniques for Guantánamo migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq, where they were neither limited nor safeguarded."

The verb "migrated" is unfortunate. It implies something natural or instinctive that birds do. But some human beings made the decisions to engage in these abusive practices, and higher ups let such practices go on.

Another unfortunate word choice in the report was the "purposeless sadism" at Abu Ghraib.

What, pray tell, would "purposeful sadism" be?

The torture scandal goes beyond Rumsfeld and the Pentagon.

It reaches into the CIA, whose officers were allegedly involved in the torture. The commission did not receive "full access to information involving the role of the Central Intelligence Agency," the report notes.

The torture scandal reaches into the Justice Department, where the Attorney General and his deputies justified the use of torture by splitting hairs about what the actual definition of torture is, and by stating that torture is OK, anyway, if it is "pursuant" to the President's authority as commander in chief.

And the scandal reaches into the White House. Bush's legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales, referred to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and "antiquated."

So, yes, Rumsfeld has got to go.

But other high officials need to be held accountable, too.

-- Matthew Rothschild

Now that's a party

I was reading this article about V2004, which is a big concert festival in jolly ole England, and I was thinking how much fun it must of been considering how many drugs were confiscated. "Altogether, 495 ecstasy tablets were seized at the festival, along with 26 of LSD, 21.7 grammes of cocaine, 14.4 grammes of amphetamine, and 966 grammes of cannabis." Now doesn't that sound like some party, just consider how much they must have missed in their searches. mmmmm Tasty.

They're quite large people

This is a great news article about a gang of fat female thieves in South Africa. Can't you just imagine it, I sure as hell would have given them anything they wanted. Oh, the humanity. Click here for the list.

Sports news, what?!?

Ok, so normally I wouldn't be reading anything on a sports website. Let alone ESPN. For some reason or other though I did read this one article, which actually made me think.

We really have become a gigantic corporate nation reveling in our evil greed.

ismokebud, billym420, ganjabud

What are the names of three of my opponents in one of my poker tourneys?



Man, poker stoners unite!

I don't understand

I just noticed that one of my polaroids made it on to my blog. I was actually trying to have that be my profile picture, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I figured that I just fucked everything up and nothing would happen. But no, there it is, as a post. Strange. Whatever though, the picture was taken by my bf. Thats me in the photo out in the hills surrounding Lompoc, CA. For all of you not familiar with Lompoc. Its located on California's beautiful and foggy central coast. Known for its murals, flower seeds, prisons, and its proximity to Vandenberg Air Force Base. On a side note, VAFB's main purpose is the testing of the US missle defense plan (grrr...). In other words it fires rockets and missles to the Kwajalein Atoll way out in the Marshall Islands. Anywho, I like the pic a lot so there it is.

Odd

You would think that since I am currently unemployed(It will be for two weeks this Wednesday), I would be blogging quite a bit more than I have been recently. Maybe its because I've been trying to stay away from the computer as much as possible. Other from the poker playing. Which I've slowly become addicted to whether my boyfriend likes it or not. I've also been avoiding the news. This blog started to become a rather scathing critique of the Bush presidency. (Is that an understatement, I rather think it is) Well, I realized my attitude was becoming quite negative. I decided I needed to focus on the positive. Which means I don't think that much, since there are few positives in our time to believe in. (there I go again, Grrrr...) Anyways, I wanted to comment of some uplifting news reports/articles, but, alas, I have yet to find any

Out and About 

Kwajalein in the News

While this article is slightly disturbing considering the escalation of drug use in theMarshall Islnds, I was slightly amused (which is probably more disturbing). But the idea of a bunch of cocaine washing up on the shores of Ebeye is still a pretty rare occurence. Click here for the link.

The Pixies Rock

Ok, so Busty and I bought tickets to go see the Pixies way back in late April, and while the show isn't until my birthday, Sept. 24, I'm hella excited. Well anyways, my beautiful boyfriend sent me a link about them that made me like them even more. Fuck the record companies.

Kwajalein

Can you believe it? I was doing the USA Today crossword online (a new obsession of mine) and there it was. 41 across. Kwajalein is one. Can you believe it?