FEARING PEACE MORE THAN WAR

Raven is drinking coffee and reading the political writings of Simon Bolivar. His feathered face narrows into a frown.

“Boy is there nothing new under the sun!”

What’s up, Raven?

“Bolivar said, ‘I fear peace more than war’. Do you think that’s what’s going on inside of the Bush Gang?”

Inside? I have a very hard time imagining any of those one-dimensional fascists having what we might risk calling an “interior”.

“What is it, then, that they fear?”

Probably they fear being booted out of the power before they have corralled all the planet’s resources for their various multinational companies.

“Why, then, do you think Bolivar feared peace?”

That’s a whole lot easier question, Rave. Bolivar was able to unify folks in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru at least briefly when he was actively waging war against the Spanish. Guys that in other circumstances were ready to cut each other’s head off would pull together when the Patria was at stake. Then, after a decisive victory, they would go back to intriguing and putting banana peels under each other’s heels. Especially the heels of Bolivar. Let’s not forget that he died broke, wearing a borrowed shirt, driven out of Venezuela and pretty much out of Colombia, too.

“But he was vindicated later.”

Well, yeah—if you call it vindicated that they brought his bones back to Caracas, and that he’s the central figure in their Pantheon. Fat lot of good that did him almost 20 years earlier, when he lay dying in Santa Marta.

“I see a definite similarity. The Bush Gang grabbed hold of 9/11 as a pretext to start declaring wars and limiting the options of US citizens to question them on the basis that questioning their authority was unpatriotic. They wouldn’t have been able to pull off the Afghan Pipeline Caper in Peacetime—the Clinton Gang had already tried that, and after they wined and dined the Taliban, the deal went tits up anyway.”

Okay, I follow you. So when the Afghan Pipeline Caper became clearly unviable for the Bush Gang, too, as they couldn’t control the situation, they declared war on Iraq—with the idea of continuing to wage war so that, first, Bush is elected in November of 2004 and that, second, no one steps aside from the patriotic prattle to mention that the Cross-Eyed Cretin has started to resemble Adolf Hitler.

“Hitler was much more simpatico: smarter, and a vegetarian. He may have had lampshades made out of Jewish skin, but he ate neither his enemies nor his friends.”

Geez, guy, are you saying he achieved the Buddha’s detachment?

No, of course not. But at least he had a few twisted bits of ideologies to pull out of his sleeve. All this guy has is his imaginary playmate: God.”

So, if the Bush Gang gets a shot at another 4 years, we can expect more war?

“Didn’t he say on t.v. in front of his imaginary playmate and everybody that he was the War President? He’ll probably send troops into Syria—it’s right next door—and into Cuba. And probably Venezuela—if Chavez wins the referendum.

If he loses, the Escualidos will hand Venezuela’s oil over to Bush in exchange for a plate of lentils. Al estilo mexicano.

“In that case they’ll use all the troops in Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and the Caribbean to liberate the Amazon Basin.”

So there will not be peace in our time.

“Not a chance. I’ll overlook the reference to Chamberlain.”

This is very grim, Rave. I can’t even run away to the Amazon jungle to escape?

“Afraid not. The US soldiers will be so busy liberating oppressed peoples that you won’t find anyplace on the planet to hide.”

I believe Bolivar had something else to say, Rave.

“He had a lot to say, actually. But in this case, what?” Raven closes the book.

Something on the order of : “The United States appears to be destined by Fate to plague the Americas with miseries in the name of freedom.”

“Seems like he was right, too.”

OBSCENITIES

“So,” Raven dunks a piece of stale bread in his coffee. “How would you define obscenity?”

Gee, Rave, that’s a big question for so early in the morning. I have an easier one for you: How can you stand to eat that stale bread?

“That’s easy. It holds up in the coffee. The fresh rolls get all soggy and fall apart.”

Guess that told me. Very W.B. Yeats. I didn’t realize Ravens were such connoisseurs.

“Gourmets of garbage would be a more apt description, probably.”

Thanks a lot! I don’t see you cooking around here.

“Point well taken. But you didn’t answer my question. How do you know when something is obscene? Does it have to have been intended as obscene?”

Intentional fallacy, guy. Intentions have nothing to do with something once it enters the public domain. I think something is obscene when it violates cultural norms of acceptability.

“That’s pretty slippery. That means that, because cultural norms are not the same everywhere, something could be considered obscene in one part of the world and not obscene in others.”

I suppose so. I’m not sure where you’re heading with this.

“More or less to Lower Slobovia—as the Crow flies. Don’t you think it’s obscene for George W. Bush to complain that Iraqis are not seeing the 'real heart of Americans' because of a few renegade bad apples?”

Yes, I do. Because he is negating and trivializing the pain, suffering, death and humiliation that he has inflicted on innocent people. I also consider the spokesman for the military who dismissed the massacre at a wedding out in the desert by saying “bad people have weddings, too” to be obscene as well.

“You know what else is obscene? The New York Times—the editors made a “light” apology, buried in the middle of the paper, for having been shills for the Bush Gang’s invasion of Iraq. We don’t know how many Iraqis have been killed to date—as the forces of invasion don’t bother to count Arab bodies—but we do know that at least 800 US soldiers have been killed—and who knows how many mercenaries with them—and The Times thinks if they say, ‘Gee, we’re sorry we didn’t do a better job’—that everything’s hunky dory.”

If they didn’t have the courage to do the right thing in the first place, why do you think they would have the courage to admit that they did the wrong thing now?

“Yeah, you’re right. Yesterday’s newspapers are just…yesterday’s newspapers for those guys. Like this bread—they’re only good for dunking in coffee and throwing in the garbage.”

Raven drops his scrap of stale soggy bread in the garbage can.

So that’s it? You’re washing your hands of this whole obscenity thing?

“Anthropomorphizing will get you nowhere. I don’t have hands. Besides, everybody else is so busy washing his that mine will not be an issue. Obscenity is, after all, unique to your species. We feathered fellows are free of all that. And this feathered fellow is off to pursue the pristine here in—what’s this place called?”

Don’t ask, Rave.

DARK WISDOM

"Here's a good quote to start the weekend off on the right wing!"

Raven is puddling with coffee in his saucer.

Okay, what is it?

"From the Common Dreams site, a writer quotes 'from the testimony of Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials, not long before Hitler's vice-fuhrer poisoned himself in his jail cell:

"... It is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Just what we needed, Rave. In the US they will be celebrating Memorial Day with more new graves. Whose coffins had flags draped over them.

BURNING UP THE TRACK OF TYRANNY

With 132 Colombian paramilitaries slapped in the slammer in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is still not breathing easy. Raven, what's your take?

"Where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there's 132, there are more. Hey, the US-supported "opposition"--opposition?, give me a break--isn't going to give up that easily."

But the signature reparations are this week. They can still get their referendum.

"Hey, those jokers had weeks to come up with 2.4 million signatures. And they didn't make it. To take out Chavez in a referendum they'd need to get 3.7 million IN ONE DAY--the number he received in the last election. Chavez says there's no way, that he will get 4 million this time. And even Wall Street agrees with him."

Wall Street doesn't have a lot of political credibility in this case, Rave. This is Theater of the Absurd, where the opposition says Chavez is a tyrant.

"Yeah, well. yesterday on his t.v. show he said that the mere fact that they have the freedom to call him a tyrant negates the claim. he said, "Some folks say I am walking towards tyranny, but I must be walking awfully slow because I have been governing for 5 years and 3 months. Although in Washington they say that I am walking very fast."

Burning up the track to tyranny. And in the US all it took was 9/11 and bzzzt--all the way to tyranny in 60 seconds.

"By the way, Michael Moore received the Palme d'or in Cannes for "Fahrenheit 9/11" on Saturday."

I am behind on the news, Rave, but good for him! He'll probably do more to unseat the Crawford Cretin than all the other political activity combined.

"If he can show it in the US."

He will, Rave--after the Palme d'Or they can't stop him.

"They'll blame the French, again. Liberty, equality and fraternity are swear words in the Oval Office."

Or at least words the Cretin can't pronounce....

AS EASY AS FALLING OFF A BICYCLE

Ah, Rave, here’s a bit of interesting news: yesterday morning—just after midnight, actually—three bombs exploded in banks in Cuernavaca.

“Who did it?” Rave is licking peach jam off his feet.

A group that calls itself Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo. They sent this e-mail to La Jornada titled “42nd Anniversary of the Murder of Ruben Jaramillo”: “Let no honest forces be surprised by this shout of protest that we have been given as our only option! Sergio Estrada Cajigal and your gang of delinquents and drug-traffickers, get out of the government of Morelos! Corrupt and inept politicians, get out; all of you, go! (Que se vayan todos.) “

“Sounds good to me. Xochicalco still carries the stain of the murder of Jaramillo and his family. How they could kill someone there is beyond me. Zapata must have been spinning in his grave—well, in his statue.”

I don’t think it was a case of cultural continuity or anything like that, Rave. Although apparently there were human sacrifices at Xochicalco. I think they took Jaramillo and his family there and killed them because they figured there would be no witnesses. Only the stones.

“Humph—and a bunch of birds like your humble servant!”

You guys have big mouths but not very many people understand your lingo. Anyway they thought they could do their dirty deed unobserved. Interesting that this new group has appeared. Not altogether surprising, though. Things have gotten pretty desperate in the state. Lots of heads have rolled, but not the head of the frivolous fop at the top of the dungheap.

“Speaking of frivolities, they haven’t gotten rid of the fool on the hill in Washington, either.”

He will not go gentle into that good night, guy. Nor will any of the other corrupt, inept politicians leading the world down the primrose path to ruin.

“In the bird kingdom, they would be tarred and feathered—literally.”

It’s not so easy to do that in the hallowed halls of government.

“Hallowed my tushie. Blake may have said that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom—or some such nonsense—but he was just wrong.!”

Big Brother was wrong, too: ignorance is NOT strength! Fat lot of good that recognition does toward throwing the bums out.

“It’s because your species sees processes like that as difficult. A military coup would do the trick in a heartbeat. As easy as falling off a bicycle.”

Which, by the way, Bush did on the weekend at his ranch in Texas. I didn’t know birds had a military chain of command.

“We don’t. But we know our place in the food chain. Which your species doesn’t. I suppose he fell on his least vulnerable part—his head. Speaking of which, I think you should buy a bit of head cheese in the mercado.”

I hate that stuff, Rave. It tastes like—I don’t know—something rotten.

“It’s very popular in Denmark, I hear. And in Crawford, Texas. Buy me a little piece. I can imagine I am eating Bush’s brain.” Raven rolls his eyes, and lets loose with one of his eardrum-shattering cackles.

It’s going to be a difficult day.

THE AMERICAN WAY


“Here in the paper a columnist is asking why people in the US are not incensed about the torture in Iraq. Why they aren’t demanding accountability and demanding that their leaders be replaced.” Raven slurps his coffee and pecks off the corner of a cinnamon roll. “What’s your theory?”

My theory is not a theory, Rave. It’s a description based on empirical observation. Unfortunately, the majority of folks in the US are addicted to violence—either directly or as spectators. They think the US should be kicking ass around the planet. That’s what they see their heroes in the Hollywood action movies doing.

“They think they’re Rambo?”

Rambo is sort of old hat. Now the violence has been passed through the production values of Hong Kong and the sieve of computer-generated special effects, so that watching an action movie is like watching a video game on the big screen. The old, horrified responses to violent images have been replaced by excitement. It’s violence as another form of pornography. And we know with addictive behavior that the addict doesn’t want to give it up.

“So you’re saying that a lot of folks are getting their fix looking at the torture pics?”

Sure I am. When the social context is violence, when the cross-eyed cretin in the Oval Office thumps his chest and grunts, “Let’s go kick some ass”, the rest of the addicts are given permission to indulge their addiction. That’s what the soldiers and paramilitaries in Iraq are doing. And the folks at home are kicking Arab ass vicariously, living out their violent and pornographic fantasies looking at the photos and videos of torture—let’s not forget that lots of folks in the US are racist and xenophobic in the extreme. It’s the American Way.

“And people have been conditioned to live through fantasies--in front of their t.v. sets, primarily.”

And beating off to pornographic magazines—some of which have very violent components.

“I have said it before, and I will say it again: your species deserves to be eliminated from the food chain.”

Raven has given up on the cinnamon roll, tosses it into the garbage can.

BLOWING HIS COVER—RINGERS AND OTHER PERVERSIONS

Rave, bad news. I just got an e-mail from Rifle with an article about ravens from…the Economist.

“Why is THAT bad news? THIS stuff is bad news.” Raven is playing with spaghetti he didn’t eat last night and which is now hardened threads of paste on his plate.

Well, perhaps you should decide for yourself. Want me to read you the article?

“Why not? Meanwhile, I’ll be thinking about ways to commit suicide.”

Okay. It’s called “Quoth the Raven”—from the Poe poem.

“That’s where all I say is ‘Nevermore’, right?”

Umm. Ready? “Now, it seems, even the bird-brained have theories of mind.”

“Offensive! What is this bird-brained horseshit?”

Rave, I am just reading you the article. Okay? “HUMANS like to regard themselves as exceptional. Other animals do not
have complex, syntactical languages. Nor do most of them appear to
enjoy the same level of consciousness that people do. And many
philosophers believe humans are the only species which understands that
others have their own personal thoughts. That understanding is known in
the trade as having a "theory of mind", and it is considered the
gateway to such cherished human qualities as empathy and deception.

Biologists have learned to treat such assertions with caution. In
particular, they have found evidence of theories of mind in a range of
mammals, from gorillas to goats. But two recent studies suggest that
even mammalian studies may be looking at the question too narrowly.
Birds, it seems, can have theories of mind, too.”

“I’ll give those bird brains theories of mind!” Raven is getting hot under the collar—er, feathers.

“FEATHERBRAINS
In the PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, Bernd Heinrich and Thomas
Bugnyar of the University of Vermont, in Burlington, describe a series
of experiments they have carried out on ravens. They wanted to see how
these birds, which are known to be (at least by avian standards) both
clever and sociable, would respond to human gaze.

Response to gaze is reckoned to be a good measure of the development of
theory of mind in human children. By about 18 months of age most
children are able to follow the gaze of another person, and infer
things about the gazer from it. Failure to develop this trick is an
early symptom of autism, a syndrome whose main underlying feature is an
inability to understand that other people have minds, too.

To test whether ravens could follow gaze, Dr Heinrich and Dr Bugnyar
used six six-month-old hand-reared ravens, and one four-year-old. The
birds were sat, one at a time, on a perch on one side of a room divided
by a barrier. An experimenter sat about a metre in front of the
barrier. The experimenter moved his head and eyes in a particular
direction and gazed for 30 seconds before looking away. Sometimes he
gazed up, sometimes to the part of the room where the bird sat, and
sometimes to the part of the room hidden behind the barrier. The
experiment was videotaped.

Dr Heinrich and Dr Bugnyar found that all the birds were able to follow
the gaze of the experimenters, even beyond the barrier. In the latter
case, the curious birds either jumped down from the perch and walked
around the barrier to have a look or leapt on top of it and peered
over. There was never anything there, but they were determined to see
for themselves.

A suggestive result, but not, perhaps, a conclusive one. However, the
second study, carried out by Dr Bugnyar when he was working at the
University of Austria, and published last month in ANIMAL COGNITION,
suggests that ravens may have mastered the art of deception too.

In this case, the observation was serendipitous. Dr Bugnyar was
conducting an experiment designed to see what ravens learn from each
other while foraging. While doing so he noticed strange interactions
between two males, Hugin, a subordinate bird, and Munin, a dominant
one.

The task was to work out which colour-coded film containers held some
bits of cheese, then prise the containers open and eat the contents.
The subordinate male was far better at this task than the dominant.
However, he never managed to gulp down more than a few pieces of the
reward before the dominant raven, Munin, was hustling him on his way.
Clearly (and not unexpectedly) ravens are able to learn about food
sources from one another. They are also able to bully each other to
gain access to that food.

But then something unexpected happened. Hugin, the subordinate, tried a
new strategy. As soon as Munin bullied him, he headed over to a set of
empty containers, prised the lids off them enthusiastically, and
pretended to eat. Munin followed, whereupon Hugin returned to the
loaded containers and ate his fill.

At first Dr Bugnyar could not believe what he was seeing. He was
anxious about sharing his observation, for fear that no one would
believe him. But Hugin, he is convinced, was clearly misleading Munin.

As it happened, Munin was no dummy either. He soon grew wise to the
tactic, and would not be led astray. He even stooped to trying to find
the food rewards on his own! This made Hugin furious. "He got very
angry", says Dr Bugnyar, "and started throwing things around." Perhaps
ravens have something else in common with people--a hatred of being
found out.” There you have it.

“Hey, I never said we were perfect. But at least we aren’t ringers.”

Would you care to explain that?

“Avec plaisir, madame. For example, John Kerry is not a real candidate. He’s a ringer.”

Oh?

Haven’t you noticed that he and Georgie Porgie continue to be Tweedledee and Tweedledumb? First we find out they’re cousins several times removed. Then we see that they have the same anti-program: invade Cuba, send more troops to Iraq, invade Venezuela, send more troops to Iraq, invade Syria. Ad nauseum. It’s obvious that they came up with this guy—this cardboard cutout—so that the voters would not have a real choice. He’s a ringer!”

That sounds way beyond Maquiavellian, guy.

“So? Those neocons were writing their How to Take over the World manual more than 12 years ago. They cooked the ballot boxes in Florida to get Georgie into the Oval Office. But it was a close shave. And the Supreme Court his daddy packed had to bail them out. They’re not going to let it happen again. Now they have two candidates. And the voters can go to hell.”

I see. So when are you going to talk to Ralph Nader about this theory?

It’s not a theory of mind. It’s plain common sense. The one party system is here. The end of elections as we know them.

So that’s it for free choice, Rave?

“Right. Nevermore.”

He got me again….

JUNE BUG AT THE WINDOW

Raven is pecking at the cap of a pen.

Rave, you’re pecking pensively, I think.

“Idly is more like it. The Devil finds work for idle beaks, and all that. By the looks of things, there must be millions of idle folks out there.”

Oh no. Does that mean more scandals?

Raven scrolls through the news headlines in La Jornada.

“The usual suspects, that’s all. Invading Venezuela. And hundreds of thousands of venezolanos marching to protest US intervention and Plan Colombia.”

What else?

“More torture pics. Three Iraqi journalists who work for Reuters denouncing that they were picked up and tortured by US soldiers. Oops—there’s a June Bug here—just flew in the window.”

Is that a news item, guy?

“Don’t be silly. I am talking about a real bug. Don’t you see him there on the table?”

Well, yes I do. And it’s only May. Wonder what it means.

“They always start revving up in May. What do you mean what does it mean?”

Don’t you remember the Jung story, where the patient dreams about the scarab beetle and goes to her session with Jung and there’s a scratching at the window and it’s a scarab beetle wanting to get in?

“No.”

Jung uses that scarab apparition to talk about synchronicity—that everything in a a given moment has the properties of that moment.

“In that case, we’re in deep doo-doo. Look at the moment we are living—chaos, torture, perversion all over the planet. Your species running amok and dragging the rest of us down with you. And a long list of etceteras. What would Jung make of that?”

Probably he would say that the unconscious—the unaccepted shadow exemplified by the dark deeds in Iraq and other places—has exploded into consciousness, and has taken over. He saw that happening before both World War I and World War II.

“And the June Bug? Where does it fit in?”

I suppose as a harbinger. of something. The scarab is also a symbol of rebirth in Egyptian cosmology.

“And in Mesopotamian cosmology?”

Probably it’s about the same, given the cultural overlap.

“So that means we’re on the way out, right? I mean, you have to die before you can be reborn.” Raven looks doubtful.

‘He not busy born is busy dying’—in the words of Bob Dylan.

“I don’t see a whole lot of emphasis on being born right now, do you?”

No, dying seems to have the upper hand.

“He should have been a cockroach.” Raven pokes at the June Bug with one talon.

How do you know it’s a he?

“We lower animals have not lost our ability to relate to other species.”

Okay, and why should he have been a cockroach?

“Those guys are not about being busy dying and being born again. They are about being busy surviving. Hunkering down and just getting through it. Which is what we probably should be doing.”

Oh, Rave, I don’t know. I think I’d rather go write my will. All things considered.

“All things considered, I don’t think you need to bother.”

Raven has to have the last word.

THE MOST STUPID, CYNICAL ARGUMENT!

Raven is outraged. Again.

“Get a load of this: in the newspaper they are quoting Dick Cheney’s reaction to the torture routinely applied to Iraqi prisoners by occupation forces.”

Okay, Rave, I’ll bite. What was his reaction?

“He said the important thing to remember is that the soldiers didn’t try to conceal that they were torturing Iraqis.!”

Oh my….Actually, I am not surprised. I suppose that’s why all the photos and videos of the torture sessions were made—so that the invasion forces could parade their hijinks in front of the international community?

“Hmmm. And I had assumed they made the videos to sell to porno distributors in the States. Poor misguided me….”

Nothing like a stupid cynical leader to establish the priorities.

IT'S ALL THE FAULT OF THE PICTURES?


Listen to this, Rave:

'"There is no question that these pictures … make our work much more difficult," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged in an interview with Agence France-Presse news agency Friday.

"These images are very destructive to our foreign policy efforts," he said, including the effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.'

"Apparently, one picture is worth more than a thousand words. Powell seems blithely unconcerned with the fact that the pictures, the images were photographic evidence of aberrant BEHAVIOR." Raven is outraged.

Yeah--it's like the guy who murders his wife and then complains about the inconvenience of being caught. Being caught was a mistake. Killing his wife was not.

QUE SE VAYAN TODOS!

Raven is pecking at a cookie while he scrolls through the news in Internet.

“Yesterday US Secretary of Offense Rumsfeld apologized for the torture of Iraqi prisoners. But he refuses to resign. What’s with this guy?”

Well, I suppose he doesn’t want to give up his lucrative “chamba”, Rave. Besides that, he probably feels that he shouldn’t have to be the sacrificial lamb when the entire Bush Gang is in this mess up to their necks.

“For how many months now have we been calling for a regime change?”

Far too many, I’m afraid. And this week 58 former US diplomats echoes the statement issued by 52 former UK diplomats, expressing their complete inconformity with the occupation of Iraq. But the Bush Gang presses on—now aiming their artillery at Latin America in the hopes of capturing Miami Mafia votes in November. Cuba is digging in for another Bay of Pigs.

“And the US citizens? Where is their hue and cry against these outrages?”

In the progressive community the usual voice are activated. But the general citizenry—who knows? You’d think when they pulled their SUVs up to the gas pumps they would notice something—even if they don’t care about the havoc being wreaked in their name around the globe.

“Probably they just blame the high prices on Chavez and OPEC:”

Chavez responded to that a few days ago with a “yo no fui”, saying that the person rsponsible for petroleum at 40 bucks a barrel is none other than George W. Bush—that if the Bush Gang hadn’t invaded Iraq to grab the petroleum that they haven’t been able to produce, petroleum prices would be the same as in March of 2003.

“So who’s going to pay the piper for this misadventure?”

In a fascist, patriarchial society the prime targets are women. Please note that the lady general’s head has rolled—sort of—and that the Trailer Park Tootsie with the Dominatrix Complex will probably be drummed out of the corps.

“For not being photogenic? Big deal. They aren’t decision-makers.”

Of course not, guy. But can you imagine Bush—with his double digit IQ—articulating something in the way of an apology to the planet, admitting that he and his minions were too greedy and too stupid to see where their actions were leading?

“You know, if the US were a Latin American country, folks would be in the streets banging on their frying pans, demanding a new government. If the US were Argentina, maybe. They’s be demanding that the whole kit and kaboodle get out.”

Yeah, but Argentina is a democratic country—at least for the moment. The US is a totalitarian state—where even the Disney Company is too cowardly to release the new Michael Moore film, “Fahrenheit 911”, because it’s critical of Bush.

“They’re afraid ol’ Jeb Bush will pull the plug on their tax-free boondoggle, Disney World, in Florida. Mickey Mouse must be spinning in his grave.”

Mickey—no. But Walt Disney must be.

“Even Richard Nixon must be! He was a saint compared to these guys.”

Let’s not canonize him quite yet, Rave. But you’re right: these guys are right down there with Hitler and Stalin.

“I’m not big on nostalgia. Que se vayan todos!”

Raven grabs a spoom amd begins to beat on our frying pan. If we had two, I would join him.

IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT….

Ha! Get this: Bush is blaming Clinton for 9/11. TIME magazine is fanning the flames of contradiction in their web site.

Raven scratches his tiny head.

“Huh? I thought Clinton went out of office in January of 2001.”

He did, Rave. But a small detail like that is invisible to Mr. 79 IQ.

“Small potatoes, indeed. Just how is he blaming him? And why is he stealing the thunder of the future from the CIA? They went to great lengths to orchestrate 9/11.”

It says here that Bush told the Commission that when he met with Clinton during the transition period that Clinton was all wrought up about North Korea, and that he downplayed the importance of Al Qaeda. Therefore, clearly it’s all Clinton’s fault. How embarrassing: to have a sniveling simpleton like Bush in the Oval Office.

“He belongs in a sandbox, that’s for sure. Something doesn’t add up. Not surprising, I suppose. Clinton told the Commission that Al Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden would be the number one problem of the new administration. And I think he said that in a number of different venues.”

Bush also claims that he was not notified of any worries the CIA and the FBI had in regard to Zacarias Moussaoui, a pilot who was arrested in August of 2001 and who was a member of the commando that hijacked airplanes on September 11th.

“What, he worry? Alfred E. Newman Bush?” Naw!”

Speaking of the CIA, that lady general who had the can tied to her last week is saying that the CIA and Army Intelligence (oops, just a tiny oxymoron there) were responsible for inciting soldiers to torture Iraqi prisoners, that those guys were in and out of the prison at all hours of the day and night doing their dirty deeds.

“And wasn’t she supposed to be in charge? Sounds like the lunatics were running the asylum all right. I would have fired her for incompetence.”

There are more photos emerging, Rave. British soldiers urinating on Iraqi prisoners, forcing them to drink urine while blindfolded, breaking their jaws. Chavez called them SAVAGES on his t.v. show, “Alo Presidente” yesterday. Said that the mistreatment was an “aberration”, and that the young woman shown in one of the photos inciting the mayhem was “sick”.

“I believe that’s what we said yesterday.”

Raven is playing with bread crumbs on the tie-dyed tablecloth—our one souvenir of Guayaquil.

Chavez said, in regard to the photos: “This is the war of Mr. Bush—let the world judge him.”

“It’s the least it can do. But let him be judged by ALL species, as we are all being damaged by that very damaged homo sapiens—well, sapiens, no.”

No, of course not. After all this is the offspring of a mother who said that no photos of body bags and dead soldiers should be shown—that she shouldn’t have to trouble HER BEAUTIFUL MIND with those things!

“Wow! Well, of course she has had no experience of that; Georgie Boy was AWOL in Alabama during Vietnam. What else did Chavez say?”

Seems he decided to accept CNN’s media war against him. Probably he said “Bring it on”.

“In the ironic sense, of course.”

No one could quote Georgie Boy and not be ironic.

“How about bringing on a cup of coffee?”

GOLPE DE ESTADO!

Raven is peering at photos of torture in Iraq in the Internet: Iraqi prisoners being tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers.

"This is what your species does when they have helpless victims in their grasp."

Those photos show what's behind the mask of the supposed bringing of democracy to Iraq, that's for sure.

"What also disturbs me is that whoever took the shots is highly suspect, and clearly part of the torture brigade."

That's true, Rave. A very different kind of photographer than the one who took that famous Vietnam image of the little naked girl who had been showered with napalm running down the road screaming.

"'Weren't we just talking about the Heart of Darkness, the Horror?"

These Iraqui shots are so cynical I don't believe there's any heart there--dark or otherwise. It's more like the Anus of Darkness.

"Considering the assholes who cooked up the Iraq Invasion Caper, I'll buy that interpretation. I find it interesting, though, that the head that rolled for this had tits and ass atttached to it: a woman general."

I was surprised at first, too--but then there have been a fair number of lady sadists: sickies with Dominatrix Complexes, Big Nurse in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"....

"Birds have taken it in the beak there. In fact, except for mad dogs--rabid dogs, really--I don't know of any crazy animals."

There's a dicho in Spanish that applies here: "Muerto el perro, se acaba la rabia."

"When the dog is dead, the rabies is over?"

Something like that. Dick Cheney, by the way, has always looked like a mad dog to me.

"Are you suggesting putting him out of our misery? And I mean OUR in the most global sense possible, embracing all species."

I'm not calling for a firing squad, exactly, but given the level of incomformity on the part of the US military high command with the Iraq Caper, the exposure of rampant human rights violations on the part of the forces of occupation--on top of the violations in Guantanamo--and the presidential options being The Cousins, Tweedledee and Tweedledumb, I'd say it's a good time for a golpe de estado.

"A military coup? Hmmm. That would be a pointed irony, since the Bush Gang backed the failed coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002, and then celebrated 200 years of Haitian independence by putting a coup against Aristide just this year."

It'd de interesting to see if Chavez would recognize a military government in the US.

"Well, he's been on both sides of the coup coin. Could be a tough call."

I'm no fascist, and my honorable discharge from the US Army for my 11 days as a conscientously objecting sergeant in Fort McClellan, Alabama, notwithstanding....

"Alabama! Sounds like Deliverance country."

That it is, Rave, but as I was saying: I would support a military coup against the current regime--which was imposed by a non-military coup anyway--because I don't believe that the military high command could possibly be as stupid, inept and unethical as The Cousins--and some of them may have even learned something from the Vietnam experience.

"With all the protesting statements being made by ex-chiefs of staff, etcetera, I think you may be onto something."

Not to mention that the presidential candidate I felt was the best of the litter would be the logical choice to head the military junta.

"Ah. Wesley Clark."

Bingo. The manure is piling up higher every day, Rave. Time to get ol' Wesley cleaning the Augean Stables.

"He's got my vote--er, molotov cocktail?"

I have just one word for you, boy: plastics. As in C-4.

"Speaking of military coups and C-4s, the star of Kaddafi is shining in the sky again: the Alpha Centauri of Arab Modernism. Since when are tribes modern?"

We tribal types have always been hip, Rave. Some folks are just slow to get the picture. Remember all the flak that Chavez caught a few years back when he visited Kaddafi and jump-started OPEC?

"And now Tony Lapdog Blair beats a path to his tent in Tripoli and everything's cool."

And Bush cancels the sanctions against Libya--and the C-4s are forgotten.

"Do you really think that Bush even remebers the Lockerbie Incident?"

Of course not. You don't remember something you never knew. But I bet Chavez is laughing in his papaya juice. Speaking of which, a tall glass of papaya juice would go down pretty good right about now.

"It would go down better than these horrifying torture pics. Saddam had nothing on these guys and gals. By the way, didn't he take power in a military coup?"

He did indeed.

"I have a hunch he would go down a lot better than the Marines with the Iraqis right about now."

Raven rolls his beady eyes and heads for the refrigerator.

Always the joker. Or is he?

FLIES IN AMBER

Raven and I have been in a state of suspended animation—like flies in amber—for several weeks.

Rave, I feel like Kurtz in “The Heart of Darkness”. At the end all he could say was “The horror”. And then he died.

“Sounds like Brando in “Apocalypse Now” commenting on the acting style of Dennis Hopper.”

You got it! I open the newspaper and read that 900 people—mostly women and children—were mowed down by marines in one town in Iraq. And then I read in the next headline that the US is “disappointed” that Iraqi soldiers don’t want to kill folks who are resisting. Disappointed!

Raven picks at a slab of left-over vegetarian lasagne.

“Why do they need Iraqi soldiers anyway? They have over 18,000 mercenaries there earning up to 1,000 bucks a day. Retreads from Pinochet’s DINA, from the jolly Ulster boys, the Apartheid reinforcers from South Africa, etcetera. There must be a lot more assiduous readers of Soldier of Fortune magazine out there just burning to sign up.”

Interesting choice of term, Rave: burning. Four of those soldiers of fortune were burned and hanged from trees or lampposts or something. That’s what set the marines on the massacre path this time.

“Hmmm. We could listen to “Strange Fruit”. Seems like we haven’t played “The Best of Billie Holiday” in ages.”

We haven’t played anything in ages. Too bummed out by the horror.

“What was that Robin Williams movie about radio? Ah yes: “Good Morning,
V-I-E-T-N-A-M!”

Sure smells like napalm to me, Rave. Maybe it’s time to break out Country Joe and the Fish? A blast from the past:

Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! We're all gonna die.

“Yeah, a blast like C-4 plastic explosives. Or we could snicker over the transcripts from Aunt Jemima at the 9/11 hearings. Looks like she would have moved heaven and earth not to have been there.”

The truth will never be acknowledged, guy. No committee is going to state publicly that their government allowed—or paid—those crazy Saudis to crash into the Twin Towers so that Bush and his cronies could blast off on their broomsticks to take over the Middle East oil fields. The smoke from the Reichstag Fire and the wreckage from the battleship Maine were all over Ground Zero, but almost nobody had the balls to say the Bushies did it. One columnist here in Mexico caught all kinds of flak for his 9/12 piece, “The Martians Speak English”, that made a very solid logical case for the only possible culprit having been the US government.

Raven narrows is beady eyes.

“You mean justice will never be done?”

Rave, I can’t believe you’re asking that. In the world we’re living in! Or the state of Mexico we’re living in, for that matter. Where the fox is paid an obscene number of pesos to guard the henhouse!

“I know—and he builds a landing strip out back for the narcotraficantes.”

And then, when his two top cops are caught with their mitts in the cocaine jar and popped in the slammer, he fires 500 cops. So now we have 500 unemployed semi-literate delinquents roaming the streets with the weapons they didn’t turn in.

“Oh, happy day. I guess that means we won’t be going out today, right?”

I think we’ll do our bit to fight the explosion of excop crimes right here at home.

“And you said another world was possible.”

But not a better one. Apparently.

REAL ESTATE PRICES SKYROCKET IN MISSOURI?

As a result of last week’s scandal with Tony Blair attempting to suppress the commentary of David King, a scientist from the UK who had commented that Bush’s policy of denying global warming was even more dangerous than terrorism (how does that play in Spain?), more information is coming to the surface about the disastrous effects of abrupt climate changes.

Yesterday’s PROCESO magazine ran a story, “Apocalipsis, ya” (Apocalypse Now), about the report by the Global Business Network that was commissioned by the Pentagon and later given the deep six by the same government agency because it contradicted the Bushites’ position that global warming doesn’t exist.

Raven, I think this is serious business.

”Science fiction, more likely. Those CBN guys say that the US and Mexico will be going to war over the use of the water from the Colorado River!”

They have practically done that already, Rave. Where have you been hiding your head?

“I think I won’t pursue that….”

Listen. There’s more than just that PROCESO article which is a scary script. On the Common Dreams site there’s more:

Ten years after the ratification of a United Nations treaty on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming are still on the rise, signalling a "collective failure" of the industrialized world, according to the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), a leading environmental think-tank.

"We are quickly moving to the point where the damage will be irreversible," warned Dr. Jonathan Pershing, director of WRI's Climate, Energy and Pollution Program. "In fact, the latest scientific reports indicate that global warming is worsening. Unless we act now, the world will be locked into temperatures that would cause irreversible harm." “

“Your species, again. Destroying the planet.”

I know, guy. But what’s going to be done? Listen:

Studies over the past decade have shown that the warming trend continues. "The five warmest years in recorded weather history have taken place over the last six years," noted WRI's president, Jonathan Lash.

"The ten warmest years in recorded weather history have taken place since 1987. Whether it's the retreat of glaciers, the melting of the permafrost in Alaska, or the increase in severe weather events, the world is experiencing what the global warming models predict," he said.

Europe, the main champion of the Kyoto Protocol, suffered its hottest year on record last year. Some 15,000 people in France alone died due to heat stress in combination with pollution, while European agriculture suffered an estimated $12.5 billion in losses.

Britain's most influential scientist, Sir David King, recently excoriated the Bush administration for withdrawing from the Protocol and ignoring the threat posed by climate change. "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today," he wrote in Science magazine, "more serious even than the threat of terrorism."

Even the Pentagon recently issued a warning that global warming, if it takes place abruptly, could result in a catastrophic breakdown in international security. Based on growing evidence that climate shifts in the past have taken place with breathtaking speed, based on the freshening of sea water due to accelerated melting of glaciers and the polar ice caps.

“Freshening?” What kind of word is that?"

I don’t know, but the article goes on to say:

Given enough freshening, the Gulf Stream that currently warms the North Atlantic would be shut off, triggering an abrupt decline in temperatures that would bring about a new "Ice Age" in Europe, eastern Canada, and the northeastern United States and similar disastrous changes in world weather patterns elsewhere--all in a period as short as two to three years.

Wars over access to food, water, and energy would be likely to break out between states, according to the report. "Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life," according to the report. "Once again, warfare would define human life."

Even if climate change is more gradual, recent studies have argued that as many as one million plant and animal species could be rendered extinct due to the effects of global warming by 2050. A recent report by the world's largest reinsurance company, Swiss Re, predicted that in 10 years the economic cost of disasters like floods, frosts, and famines caused by global warming could reach $150 billion annually.

"Accelerated development of a portfolio of technologies could stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, enhance global energy security, and eradicate energy poverty," noted David Jhirad, WRI's vice president for research. "We urgently need the political will and international cooperation to make this happen."

Raven bursts into hysterical laughter.

“Political will? International cooperation? Who are they kidding? Don’t they know that this is the Age of Unilateralism?”

There’s hope, Rave. Yesterday the voters in Spain threw out the burros that hitched their wagon to the Bush star.

“A tiny ray of hope, that. The US burros need to throw out Bush. Then maybe international cooperation will have a shot. In the meantime, how about microwaving a spot of Earl Grey?”

I’ll microwave your spot, all right…Even Walter Cronkite is up in arms over global warming. Listen to this:

One thing we have to keep in mind: While these might only be worst-case scenarios, many of the conditions and processes scientists think might trigger them already are present or under way. Global warming is at least as important as gay marriage or the cost of Social Security. And if it is not seriously debated in the general election, it will measure the irresponsibility of the entire political class. This is an issue that cannot, and must not, be ignored any longer.

"Okay. I give up. I'll make my own tea."

WASP IN THE COFFEE

Raven and I have been loafing since we returned to Mexico. He has several buddies in the area that meet up with us at the swimming complex here in the village, so he’s happy.

This morning it’s back to trying coffee for me—blood pressure inching downward makes me feel invincible again.

Raven is mooning around in the sun coming in the kitchen window.

“Hey. There’s a wasp in my coffee!”

The bird is having none of that. He dumps the cup and the wasp beats a hasty retreat, buzzing in zigzags to the front door.

“So. What would Jung make of that?”

Probably he would be more on target if it were a scarab beetle. But I think it means that you are supposed to look at things more closely, not just gulp down adventure after adventure.

“In that case, the message should have been for you. In your cup.”

Or maybe it’s something we can analyze politically. Who is the wasp in the coffee, politically speaking?

“Disingenuous question, I see. Hugo Chavez already nailed that for us this week when he said that the biggest single threat to the survival of the planet is George W. Bush.”

Some scientist in the UK said much the same thing. He said that Bush’s disregard of global warming was more dangerous than the wars he’s intent on waging all around the planet.

“Then you have it. The wasp in the coffee is Bush. Too bad he didn’t drown.”

You’re the one who saved his life.

“Just a reflex action. Next time I’ll let him drown.”

If there is a next time….

CLEANING THE AUGEAN STABLES

"Well, your favorite candidate for President of the US just dropped out of the race."

Raven turns his head away from the TV screen.

I said he was the best of a bum litter, Rave. Wesley Clark. Too bad he's out of the race, but I hope he ends up on the ticket. He's the only one with the common sense and organizational skills to clean up the mess the Bush Gang has created. Especially in Iraq.

"Clearly a Herculean task."

Yeah, right up there with cleaning the Augean stables. Look what the petrocriminals have done in Iraq: created anarchy. In the past 24 hours alone at least 100 people have been killed in car bombings.

"Not to mention the ongoing inferno of Afghanistan."

I'm sure the CIA operatives are happy there. They've got their opium trade back up to where it was before the Taliban closed that caper down.

"Making themselves the first priority target in the process."

And look at the chaos here in Caracas. The opposition is agitating for another coup attempt--with US financial backing, of course. On Sunday President Chavez denounced the continuing flow of NED (National Endowment for Democracy, haha!) dollars to opposition groups. Documents declassified under the US Freedom of Informaction Act show that after the failed coup in April of 2002 (staged with somewhere between 1 and 3 million dollars from the NED) the money has continuing pouring in to those same folks, and is scheduled to continue at least through September of 2004. The hysterically conflictive atmosphere that's driving me to the plane for Mexico tomorrow morning has the Bush Gang's oily fingerprints all over it.

"It's too goofy for me. I guess they want to try another coup because the polls all show that even if there were a referendum and a new election, Chavez would win with more than 50% of the vote."

We're not talking about rational people, Rave. The Bush Gang includes such luminaries as Alfred E. Bush, Mad Dog Cheney, Death's Head Rumsfeld, Rasputin Rove, Wile E. Wolfewitz and, as cheerleaders, Uncle Tom Powell and Aunt Jemima Rice. And the oligarchy here is so inbred--doubtless because of being terrified of sharing human rights with their fellow citizens--that they can't have 2 brain cells to rub together.

"And your species is at the top of the food chain. Evolution is ironic, isn't it?"

Sure is, guy. We need a revolution within evolution or all the species--except maybe cockroaches--are going to be history.

"Bummer. What have I done to deserve this?"

Don't take it personally, Birdy Boy. You may have put the sun and the stars and the moon in the sky, but you didn't create the atom bomb.

"Thankfully, that's one trick they can't blame on me. Didn't Einstein say if he had known they were going to build a bomb he would have been a watchmaker in Switzerland?"

Probably. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project said, as the test bomb exploded over Trinity, New Mexico: "I have become death".

Raven is peering intently at the TV screen again.

"Hey, why do they keep calling that guy, Howard Dean, John?"

Beats me. Maybe it's another way the media has cooked up to discredit him. Especially since he asks the hard questions. I think John Dean did time for the Watergate caper. Anyway, he was one of Nixon's gang.

"NIxon! Now there's a good candidate."

He's dead, Rave. And he was a Republican anyway.

"Too bad. I liked that they called him Tricky Dick."

Rave, you're impossibly egocentric today. Pretty soon you'll be printing up bumperstickers.

"'Clean a sticky wicket with Tricky' has sort of a nice ring to it. Besides, if dead people can vote--and they seem to be model citizens in that regard--they should be ablt to run for office. And be elected, too."

I suppose they would do less damage.

"I think we've figured it out: the recipe for peace in the world!"

Right. Dead presidents. Thanks, Rave.

LEAVING MY CLOTHES

Well, that's it, Rave. We're booked for Mexico City on Thursday.

"You mean you're booked. I'm the Invisible Flyer."

Whatever. I'm sure you'll be happy to see your buddies again.

"Yeah. I'll get to have a social life. Instead of hanging around here watching TV news and you wasting away to nothing."

I never knew depression was a way to weight loss. Probably it isn't. Probably it's being on the Saturn line. I won't have to pack most of my clothes, but it's not worth it to lose weight suffering.

"Suffering in stereo, too. Polarization in the public sphere, hysteria, name-calling, death threats, conspiracies. And that's just here in Caracas. On TV the same stuff is on cable, but with different countries' names attached to it: Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, the US, the UK, etc. Makes my head ache."

Gee, Rave, I'm sorry I got you into this. Can birds take aspirin?

"I don't think so--pills are dosed by body weight. But you what probably would beat back my headache for awhile?"

(I had to ask.)

"A little stroll through the sushi bar at the Hilton might just do the trick."

You know I'm allergic to fish.

"Order carrot tempura or something. That'll keep you busy while I'm chasing Salmon upstream. Anything but be here listening to some Archie Bunker lookalike talking about playing in a rock band with John Kerry, back when dinosaurs were top dog on the planet."

I think Archie was on something else. Playing somebody's father.

"Okay, okay. Are we heading for the Hilton or not?"

Sure. The Bourgeois Bird will get the Salmon. Considering the Bolivar went to 2,800 to the dollar on the black market this morning, maybe I'll be able to pay the check.

"Or you could leave them your clothes...."

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

Yesterday Raven and I were going to check out the solidarity march to celebrate 12 years since President Hugo Chavez' failed coup of February 4, 1992--an attempt which led to his spending 2 years in the slammer and being elected President in 1998. I am afraid we were not as intrepid as the thousands of folks that marched 8 kilometers and spent much of the afternoon and evening being rained on.

Did you notice, Rave, that in the opposition's march most of the folks had umbrellas?

"Yeah. And there were very few in the chavistas' march. Maybe umbrellas are a bourgeois symbol here?"

Maybe. I am sure glad I have one, though. I would have been soaked without it.

"Well, I have nothing to do with that. My feathers see me through just fine."

Raven and I were watching the end of the march on tv, listening to Chavez' very emotional recounting of the 1992 attempt to change the trajectory of Venezuela--a country with one of the most venal oligarchies in Latin America, divided by race and class and intensely dependent on imported food and goods to satisfy basic needs. Toward the end of his speech, Chavez talked about reclaiming more land in the areas surrounding Caracas to plant yucca and other basic food products.

"I don't like yucca", Raven indicates. "It doesn't have any flavor."

I have to admit that I don't care for it either. But it's a traditional element of the diet here in the Caribbean Basin. And the point is not the taste, it's to have a self-sustaining agriculture.

"My species inclines to hunting and gathering, not planting. Speaking of gathering, what do we have for snacks?"

Some kind of cream puffs. And peach yogurt.

"I'll pass on the yogurt. Break out the puffs."

Raven beaks into one of the puffs. Ravenously, you might say. I am giving him the eye.

"What's the problem? We're watching tv. Watching tv without eating is like--oh, I don't know...."

This isn't exactly "The Simpsons". Or "El Chavo del Ocho".

"I know that. Eating is a learned response to watching tv. Probably why most of the people in the US are so grossly overweight."

Shut up and listen, will you? We're watching a country's people grab hold of their future. Those moldy oldies in the opposition march with their candles and black dresses and wreaths of flowers, they're all about the past--when their privileges were all that mattered here.

"And umbrellas." Raven crams the last of the cream puff into his beak. "Don't forget about their umbrellas. Who said, 'After me, the deluge'?"

One of the Louis--15th or 16th. That was a question in questionable taste, guy. Under the circumstances of a nation's people recovering their birthright, anyway.

"Sorry. Speaking of taste...."

Have another cream puff.

"Hmmm. Sounds a little like 'Let them eat cake', don't you think?

Maybe you'd rather watch "Grounded for Life"?

"I'm ignoring all threats--with veils or umbrellas. Turn up the volume, will you? This guy is dynamite."

REIGN OF TERROR

Raven and I had a singularly bad theater experience Sunday night at the Caracas Atheneum.

"You know, when you had that attack of diarrhea at the intermission, we could have voted with our feet. With your feet, anyway."

And with your wings, guy. It's that I couldn't believe what an insane production it was, as if they had deliberately decided to shoehorn all the exaggeration, hysteria and lynch mob mentality of the Venezuelan society into Büchner's "Danton's Death". And they tarted it up into the bargain.

"The tarts were the only good part, I thought--though smearing rouge on their nipples was abit much."

Rave, it's not a play about prostitutes. It's about the Reign of Terror, about Robespierre leading the Jacobins--and France--down the path to disaster. A path strewn with severed heads. And acting "holier than thou" while he did it. Instead of creating a republic, he created state-imposed terror and civil chaos.

"Are you sure we weren't watching a play by Orwell?"

I see your point. Napoleon was right around the corner waiting to cross out "All animals are equal", and substitute "Some animals are more equal than others".

"So much for liberty, equality and brotherhood. More like Robespierre as Big Brother. And maybe Danton had to die because he, too, had blood on his hands?"

Not too many revolutions are bloodless, guy. Although here in Venezuela, maybe. Though the counterrevolution here has not been bloodless. By staging this play in Caracas, though, I believe the US-backed opposition is trying to make Chavez into either Danton or Robespierre.

"He doesn't strike me as being either. But I guess if I had to choose I would make him Danton. More than anything else because he tried a military coup 11 years ago."

Eleven years ago tomorrow, in fact. It's nothing new that the opposition is calling for magnicide, so if Chavez is Danton, who is Roberspierre?

"He's not here. He's in the Oval Office. Probably drooling on his desk. As a born-again believer he thinks God's on his side when he sets heads rolling around the globe."

Too bad his own head isn't still unconscious on a tavern floor in Texas.

"Oh, he's still unconscious, all right. He's making decisions based on the primitive unconscious archetypes your species has about Good and Evil. That's why I believe he is Robespierre."

Only his Reign of Terror is on a much bigger scale. He's not just terrorizing US citizens; he's exported terror to other countries: Iraq, Afghanistan and whatever other country he can find on a map.

"In that case the only good thing is that he probably can't read a map. But he's also fueling terror in Israel, Colombia and Paraguay. In Paraguay, at least, a front is organizing to resist the militarization of the Triple Border--to keep the world's biggest aquifer out of US control."

If they don't resist, the next step, as we know, will be grabbing hold of the Amazon and the Orinoco. And in this case these guys started heads rolling without even a revolution--just a palace coup after the last presidential election.

"So, instead of 'The revolution devours its children--like Saturn' like in the Büchner play, it's 'The government destroys the citizens'."

And citizens of other countries, too.

"By the way, didn't you say you're on your Saturn line here?"

I'm definitely feeling gnawed on by the hysterical atmosphere here, Rave.

"I've been meaning to mention that we've only been here a week, and already your clothes are too big...."

WAITING FOR GODOT, CARACAS VERSION

In the recption area (read glorified guardhouse) for Palacio Miraflores. Day 3 of waiting for President Hugo Chavez' personal secretary.

Raven has the magical ability to make himself invisible. He's lucky. I, in my traditional black line A-line dress, could use either his invisibility or his feathers. Today he's invisible, so I have to be fairly discreet when I talk with him. I don't need to be labeled La Gringa Loca. Not yet, anyway.

There are 7 of us here waiting who were also here waiting yesterday. Eight, if you include Mr. Invisible. Of those of us who are visible, I am the only one smiling. The others all have their arms crossed and look decidedly grumpy. But they don't have Raven whispering in their ear.

"I'm trying to keep my feathers from ruffling:"

(You disn't have to be here.) I am talking without moving my lips. Like Joe--er--Charlie McCarthy.

"Yeah I do. The only part of my natural habitat that is here is you."

(Geez, Rave. I've never been called a habitat before. You make it sound like I have cooties or something.)

"Iwasn't trying to offend. I would just rather suffer here with you than hide from the chain-smoking chambermaid in the hotel."

(What do you mean, HIDE? You're invisible!)

"Keep your voice down. People are staring. I don't FEEL invisible in the hotel. I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb."

(So do I, guy, and I'm not a bird.)

"You might as well be. You don't look like these other folks."

(Rave, do I hear the tiniest tinkle of racism here? Shame on you!)

"No way. I'm just pointing out that you stick out like a sore thumb, too."

(So my solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution might appear suspect?)

"Probably. I don't know if it's always the case. I wasn't here with you last April in the Solidarity Event. I was chicken."

(Ouch. Now you're looking down on other birds?)

"Just a figure of speech. I have nothing against fowls. Well, maybe a little against their stupidity."

(I think we're going in circles here. I'm starting to feel dizzy.)

"You shouldn't have bleached your hair."

(Now you're slinging stereoptypes around.)

"Naw. I'm just trying to entertain myself. And you."

(Thanks. Maybe you could do something else: take a nap, for example.)

"I don't want to miss the action."

(Action? Waiting? The sound of one hand clapping?)

****

After a tour and a little wait in the chapel, a sweet mix of First and Second Empire, we finally meet our Godot. Raven even stays awake in the meeting, and doesn't use his invisible condition to pull any capers. I breathe a big sigh of relief that he doesn't send all the documents on the guy's desk into outer space.

(Thanks, Rave. I know you could have made a real mess in there.)

"My patience between tricks is legendary."

Then he leaves my shoulder to open the door in the outer office--that would have been a fun trick--and finds that we are locked in.

RAVEN'S LAST WALTZ

Raven was feelilng out of his element here in Caracas, missing his fellow Ravens from the village in Mexico. Then he saw two Ravens on television--flying, playing, flipping acrobatically--and with snow-covered mountains in the background.

"Must have shot that footage in mating season," he commented. As the program's emphasis changed to Snake, he changed the channel.

The beautiful face of Robbie Robertson appeared on the screen.

Wow, Rave, it's "The Last Waltz"!

"Wouldn't be surprised."

No, guy--it's one of my favorite films. The Band, Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, etcetera.

"It was the farewell aspect that I noticed."

Raven is very homesick, already. After only 2 days.

****

Raven is rocking
and rolling with "The Last Waltz"
on television.
He was watching himself fly,
changed channels when he saw Snake

and flapped his wings for
the joy of nostalgia
as The Band struck up
the end of the Seventies.
Raven can live eighty years;

if he looks backward,
and keeps flying straight forward,
he'll never get lost.
He will live in reflections
like the Hootchy Kootchy Man

of Muddy Waters,
dry his eyes remembering
both singer and song,
and further up the road no
one will give him trick for trick:

he is no prisoner
of white lines on the freeway.
This midnight rambler
is ready for his close-up;
he will stay forever young.

REQUIEM FOR THE RIVER

(Raven is feeling cheerier, has gone out to say his farewells to his buddies who hang out by the river.)

Raven is circling
raindrops over the river,
whooping and cackling:
it is the first rain in months,
and he's spinning his feathers

at the novelty.
Although the sign by the bridge
says "Don't throw garbage
in the river!", plastic bags
of trash swirl their way downstream:

a smorgasbord for
Raven, no ecologist,
to pick and choose from.
Pecking at the plastic scabs,
he stains the river with death.

PAJAROS

Raven is trying to get himself together for the trip south. In La Jornada he found a quote from St. John of the Cross that he hopes will bolster him in a place where no other members of his species will be available to crony around with:

"The conditions for a lone bird are five:

1. He must fly to the highest point.

2. He must not suffer for lack of company, nor for the lack of his own kind.

3. He must point his beak toward the sky.

4. He must not have a definite color.

5. He must sing softly."

Raven is not in agreement with point number 4, as he is big on Black Pride. Singing softly has never been part of his repetoire, but he's willing to give that a shot....

I think we're getting close to getting him off the ground again.

GOIN' SOUTH

Raven and I are packing our bags for Venezuela again. Raven doesn't have a whole heck of a lot to pack, but he is a little edgy that he's going to be away from the friendly confines of his habitat again. (The range for ravens stops more or less at the border of Mexico with Guatemala.) Our few months in Guayaquil, Ecuador, really bumbed the bird out. But venezuela is where the action is, so we're off to spend three months in the crosshairs....

COFFEE AND CANDIES

The Special Summit of the Organization of American States, hosted by Mexico’s President Fox—on his knees before the power of Washington—in Monterrey was so entertaining—sometimes so infuriating—that Raven and I did not squeeze in a blog during the 2 days of the conference.

As my blood pressure edged toward the normal range last night, I fell asleep before the hour of the 10 o’clock news. Raven was out catting around (can birds cat around?), but the kids woke me up to watch an interview with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez—fun to watch him restraining himself from turning the sheep-eyed interviewer upside down and spinning him around. He ended with a few bars of “Mexico Lindo”….

Today’s La Jornada, Raven pointed out, has some very entertaining passages from Chavez’s contribution to yesterday’s sessions. Raven has been kind enough to translate them:

In the third and final work session Chavez said: “Latin America is at the gates of hell—it’s on the wrong track, and it’s necessary that the continent’s leaders assume their responsibility to revert this situation.

About the humanitarian fund which was proposed in the final declaration, he asked that it be financed by a part of the resources that Latin American pays for external debt and by money impounded from drug trafficking.

Finally, he expressed that his government was glad that corruption would be combated, and could not resist adding: “I have located various corrupt Venezuelans. I know where they live and that they have many millions of dollars that they took out of Venezuela. I can give you their addresses right now.”

In the press conference Chavez affirmed that a new leadership is forming in the continent: “No one should feel offended, but this new force, this whirlpool, in South America is stronger than the currents of the Amazon and the Orinoco.

In the dispute that emerged between the presidents of Chile and Bolivia (result of Chavez saying he was dreaming of going swimming at a Bolivian beach, then seconded by Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and others), Chavez took Bolivia’s part: “Lagos squashed Bolivia”—and added with uncontainable sarcasm: “and he’s a socialist!” He recognized that the Chilean leader received a lot of internal pressure, but decided to continue putting his finger in the wound: “When Bolivia obtains the corridor to the sea that they’re demanding, I will offer Bolivia the resources necessary to construct the highway.”

And he finished by saying: “When I heard Ricardo Lagos say that Chile owed nothing to Bolivia, I got so mad that I demanded coffee and candies!”

Thanks, Rave.

RADIOATAQUE

Raven and I are watching and listening to a clip from yesterday's "Alo President", as Hugo Chavez comments about the horrendous results of the application of neoliberalsim/savage capitalism in Latin America--and in passing, in his own words, Chavez shoots an arrow from the bow of the indigenous leader Guaicaipuro, returning the blast of artillery that Condoleezza Rice unloaded at him last week.

*The story of Guaicaipuro is a model of heroism. The Spanish conquistadores, led by Diego de Losada (founder of the city of Caracas), waited until night to sneak into Guaicaipuro's village in the mountains and set fire to the houses. After they launched a fire bomb onto the roof of his house, Guaicaipuro was forced to open the door and go out. He held a club in his hand, and faced with the superiority in weapons and numbers of the Spanish, shouted:

"Come here, cowardly spaniards! See how the the last free man in this land dies.!"

"Sounds like Che Guevara in La Higuera, Bolivia, when the guy who was assigned to shoot him entered the room, and Che told him to pull himself together, that he was going to kill a MAN," is Raven's opinion.

This morning Chavez landed in Monterrey, here in Mexico, to give a piece of his humanistic philosophy and his mind to the Bush Gang. Although he has commented that for him to speak his mind in the 3 minutes allotted in the Cumbre Extraordinario (convoked by Bush to threaten the governments of Latin America with his belligerent manequeism) is a ridiculous proposition.

"I expect they will give more than three minutes to Bush, though", Raven sneers, "although in his case he could empty his cerebrum in less than 15 seconds."

And then we could flush its contents.

Meanwhile, we two birds will be awaiting the declaration of sovereignty on the part of Chavez--who said that Venezuela would not tolerate any interference on the part of the US, or any other foreign power--to be the high point of the summit in Monterrey.

A TRUE ILLITERATE

In keeping with the spirit of a government headed (figuratively speaking) by a president with an IQ at the point of being invisible, yesterday's shameful stand-up comedy routine by Condy Rice precipitated her being labeled "a true illiterate" by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez (with an IQ clearly well into triple digits as well as a tongue which occasionally could etch glass.)

"I don't have another word to describe her, " Chavez said. "We'll send her a copy of the Robinson Method; let's see if she can learn to read and to respect the dignity of other countries; let's see if she learns a little bit about us. Yesterday she let loose with her shameful artillery against Venezuela and against our government, saying among other things that Chavez shouldn't oppose the referendum.

"In the first place, what the devil do you have to do with referenda in Venezuela? You have nothing to do with what happens here--this only concerns Venezuelans. Why hasn't she shown any concern for the electoral process in which Bush won, that went down in history as a dubious electoral process. If he's a legitimate president or not isn't our problem, and we're not involved in it, but they also don't have any reason to be involved in anything here."

Chavez also reminded us that Condoleezza Rice, the 12th of April of 2002, celebrated and applauded the coup, giving her blessing to the government of Carmona and the tyranny which began in Venezuela, "and now she says she's defending democracy. Go figure...."

When he's angry, Raven is even more direct than Chavez:

"I'd give her the bird."

CHICKEN FEED

Ralph Nader is talking about running again. He says that it would heps the Democrats, by forcing them to move to the left, instead of being virtually indistinguishable from Republicans:

"I would not do this if I didn't really want to defeat Bush," Mr. Nader said, calling the McCarthy era "chicken feed compared with what we have now."

"Seeking justice supersedes everything," he said, sounding more than ever like a candidate. "Without justice, we have nothing in this world. We can't have freedom without justice. That's what freedom is supposed to be."

"If the second paragraph sounds like a direct quote from Hugo Chavez, well maybe great minds think alike," opines Raven as he tucks into his scrambled eggs.

That's what my grandmother always said. Speaking of chicken feed, Rave, did you see in the paper yesterday that Goerge W's IQ is exactly half that of Clinton's?

"No, but you must remember that we birds are sensitive about measuring our intelligence by the standards of your species."

The bird brain, as usual, has a point....

GEOPOLITICAL RAPE

Every day Raven and I receive e-mails from a group we belong to called "Revolución Bolivariana". Normally all of the content is in Spanish, but today we were surprised to receive one from our companero "LeoLeo", with the following subject referenced:

History repeats itself: about the next geopolitical rape by the USA: Foreign Affairs Minister Roy Chadderton Matos tells Washington D.C. to stay out of Venezuelan domestic politics.

The news article referenced from V.headline.com is in English, so we are going to send it along as a follow-up to our comments on this site yesterday:


Foreign Minister (MRE) Roy Chaderton Matos has again accused the United States of interfering in Venezuela's sovereign political affairs ... the statement came after US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice urged President Hugo Chavez Frias to "demonstrate that he believes in democratic processes" by allowing a possible recall referendum on his rule to "go through unhindered, unfettered ...and then living up to the terms of it."

Chaderton Matos says the possibility of holding the vote is not up to President Chavez Frias but to an autonomous National Elections Council (CNE) which is charged with verifying the more than 3.4 million signatures that Chavez opponents say they've submitted to petition a revocatory referendum. He adds that it is rather "surprising" that Rice didn't understand that or that she must otherwise be ill-informed.

Pro-Chavez Frias parliamentarians have lodged complains over widespread fraud in the November 28-December 1 signature-gathering campaign with many duplicates, signatures from dead voters etc. Meanwhile anti-Chavez Frias groupings are piling pressure on the CNE to resume verifying the signatures, which were turned in three weeks ago ... it has been fraught with procedural delays and the Christmas-New Year holudays.

There has been a week of contentious exchanges between Washington D.C. and Caracas with Cuba-hostile Condoleezza Rice saying it was beyond her believe "why anybody who believes in democracy or wants people to believe that they believe in democracy would want to have anything to do with Fidel Castro."

Paranoid US officials have accused Venezuela and Cuba of cooperating to undermine democratic governments through funding and indoctrination; however Venezuela's MRE Chaderton Matos immediately cites that the United States (in its own questionable interests) had relations with several countries whose governments are indeed not democratically house-clean.

President Chavez Frias has also been quick to deny US statements such as Rice's last Wednesday claim that "Colombia has concerns about activities that Venezuela may have been involved in" ... an obvious reference to earlier (denied) claims that Venezuela has "allowed Colombia rebels to use Venezuelan territory as a springboard for attacks."

Chaderton Matos says: "If Dr. Rice harbors the naive intention of provoking a fight between Venezuelans and Colombians, we can assure her that there is no power capable of achieving this objective!"

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel says Venezuela hopes to have a normal relationship with the United States despite the tensions but that under President Chavez Frias, relations with the United States have undoubtedly been strained over ties to Cuba and criticism of Washington's principal policy goal for Latin America ... a proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. However the rot really set in when Washington clearly took sides against democracy during the opposition-launched coup d'etat in April 2002 although they slammed into damage-control reverse as soon as US puppet dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga was himself overthrown by the overwhelming will of the people just two days later.

Nevertheless, Vice President Jose Rangel has taken on US Secretary of State Colin Powell following the latter's ill-chosen remarks on Venezuela's referendum which Rangel describes as "impertinent!"

Powell had pronounced, Thursday, that there will be a referendum vote against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez if signatures are approved to activate the consultation. Rangel says "It is an impertinency, of course ... but Powell says a very interesting thing -- if the signatures are gathered there will be a revocation referendum. Obviously yes."

"Anyway, it is not up to Mister Powell, the US State Department or the United States ... but the National Elections Council of Venezuela will decide."

Raven looks confused:

"Does this mean that Venezuela is not a U.S. colony?"

NEW GIG FOR CONDY: READING MINDS (FOR A PLATE OF LENTILS?)

“Hah! Now we have another member of the Bush Gang shooting her mouth off.”

Raven pours himself a cup of de-caf.

“This stuff has no get up and go to it.”

It isn’t supposed to get you up and going, guy. It’s just supposed to make you think you’re drinking coffee. I assume the big mouth in question is Condoleezza Rice?

“Who else? That Aunt Tomasina, embarrassment to black people everywhere, including me.”

So, what’s her beef?

“Ah, a wink at the Mad Cow….Nice. Listen to this from Yahoo News: ‘There are roles that Venezuela has played that have not been very helpful," Condoleezza Rice, US President George W. Bush's national security adviser, said in a briefing ahead of next week's Summit of the Americas in Mexico.’”

Helpful to whom? Where is it written that Venezuela is supposed to be the crying towel for the Bush Gang?

“Let me continue: ‘Rice cited tensions between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia as well as Chavez's good relations with Castro, who has outlasted successive US presidents for four decades despite pressure from Washington on his regime.'"

"'It is beyond me to understand why anybody who believes in democracy or wants people to believe that they believe in democracy would want to have anything in that regard to do with Fidel Castro, because that's the one truly undemocratic regime in the region,' Rice told reporters.’"

Hmmm. Seems like the one truly undemocratic regime in this region is The U.S.

“There’s more: ‘She also called on Chavez to abandon efforts to block a vote on cutting short his term after opposition leaders filed paperwork containing 3.4 million signatures gathered to support such a referendum.'"

"'The best thing that President Chavez could do at this point is to demonstrate that he believes in a democratic future for Venezuela by carrying out the wishes of his people in this regard,' said Rice.'"

I see. She is now a mind reader of what the Venezuelan people want. Apparently she thinks their votes in the ballot box do not represent their wishes?

“Well, remember who she’s working for. The US people’s votes in the 2000 election, when they elected Gore president, obviously were not considered.”

Good point, Rave. Is there more?

“Yeah: ‘She added that the United States was "working very closely" with the Organization of American States and non-governmental organizations that are "trying to ensure that this process goes off without interference.'"

Gee, guy, how much is she charging for the mind reading sessions? Seems to me the only interference in the democratic process in Venezuela has come from the US….Is that it?

“On the aporrea.org site they indicated also that when she compared the political situation in Venezuela with that of Peru a few years ago. She used this as an example of how with the help of the Organization of American States a country can come out victorious from a difficult political period.”

What a riot! Not only does she read the minds of entire countries (without, of course, speaking their language), but she also does stand up comedy. The president of Peru has been changing his cabinet every 15 minutes—expelling suspected lesbians and anyone else who doesn’t agree with his World Bank style of managing the country. His approval rating, the last time I checked, was 10 percent—otherwise referred to as “in the toilet”. Even the people opposed to Chavez put his rating at 40 percent—fairly phenomenal in Latin America after 5 years in office….

“Well, at least Danny Glover and a bunch of other African Americans are in Venezuela this week to redress the balance. They are talking about the US campaign of disinformation against Venezuela.”

I noticed that. They also indicated that the spirit of Martin Luther King was alive and well in Caracas.

“Good place to be black. Too bad my habitat stops at the border with Guatemala…”

THE CHOCOLATE BOMBER

“Geez, those guys are idiots.”

Raven turns away from the t.v. screen in disgust.

I wasn’t watching, Rave. Which idiots?

“Some FBI jokers—now running the show at the Mexico City airport—decided that there was a bomb in a guy’s suitcase that was padlocked. So there was a big hoo hah and it turned out that the suitcase contained coffee and chocolate.”

Odd that coffee and chocolate would arouse the suspicion of metal detectors. Or maybe those are now typical bomb ingredients. Does the C-4 in C-4 plastic explosives stand for coffee or for chocolate? And who was this chocolate bomber?

“A gringo tourist. Wouldn’t you know? Tall, blond, crewcut—clearly a dead ringer for Osama Bin Laden.”

A very busy guy, that Osama. And omnipresent, like God. Trips to the IMSS clinic for dialysis don’t slow him down from training guerrillas among the five star hotels on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, and kidnapping the aquifers in Paraguay—and now terrorizing the Mexico City airport with chocolate bombs. This is starting to sound like a cut-rate version of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”.

“Good detective work, gumshoe.”

And in other news?

“Just the usual. Twenty five convicts were broken out of a supposed maximum security prison in Michoacan.”

Twenty five?

“I guess they figured it would be as easy to break 25 guys out of jail as the 5 drug dealers they were supposed to break out.”

Apparently they were right. And where are they now?

“Some of the non-drug dealers have been scooped up already. Who knows about the others. They’re probably not at the Mexico City airport, though.”

Unless they are checking the passengers….

MORE U.S. INVASIONS

Raven has crumbs on his beak this morning.

“Rave, you ate the rest of the rosca!”

Raven glances around the room.

“Who, me? Nah. It must have been those 3 wise guys who finished it.”

Ay, wise guys. They’re not supposed to be mafiosos, but Wise Men. Kings. It was pretty tasty, though. And, as the guy from Alcoholics Anonymous who sold it to me pointed out, it was for a good cause. As for the 3 wise guys, who might they be?

“I’ll give you a hint as to who they aren’t: George Bush (father and/or son—take your pick), Dick Cheney and Vicente Fox.

Raven discreetly polishes his beak, effectively disposing of the crumbs from the rosca.

I wouldn’t have picked any of them. The biggest sucker, at the moment (por ahora, in the words of Hugo Chavez after his military coup failed in February of 1992), is clearly Vicente Fox.

“Because he fell on his face while hitting the piñata in Los Pinos?”

No, Rave. because he has allowed the FBI to invade Mexico. They are crawling like cockroaches through all the airports—especially in Mexico City—terrorizing all the Mexican passengers (Monday night the president of the Mexican Senate, who was flying to Los Angeles, was practically strip searched!), and canceling flights (costing the Mexican carriers a big heap of money.) Fox has tossed Mexico’s sovereignty out the window, and even said that the presence of FBI agents, bomb-sniffing (and no doubt butt-sniffing) dogs as well as the flotsam and jetsam from the US Embassy, in the airports was “normal”.

“If human rights violation are the rule of the day, then I suppose he’s right.”

Raven is poking around in the refrigerator.

“Don’t we have anything to drink besides water?”

What do you want, guy: coca cola? You’d better grab the water while you can. The Senate of Paraguay just approved the invasion of US troops in the Triple Frontera (with Brazil and Argentina)—they key to this idiocy is the announcement that they will be joint maneuvers with the Paraguayan navy!

“I’ll say. Isn’t Paraguay—like Bolivia—landlocked?”

So far as I know it is. This time the US believes that Osama Bin Laden has taken control of the world’s largest fresh water aquifer—and they’re going to take it back from him? So start guzzling the H2O, guy.

“Advice taken. Not only that, but the new US primary school geography text, “Introduction to Geography”, by David Norman, indicates that in the middle of the 1980s the US and the UN took control of the entire Amazon region because it was located “in one of the poorest regions of the world and surrounded by irresponsible, cruel and authoritarian countries.”

Irresponsible, cruel and authoritarian? Amazing description of the Bush administration. Now they are changing the maps even before they invade the countries. And your average US citizen, who doesn’t even know on which continent Brazil is located, wouldn’t know the difference. So we’ve got the FBI in Mexico, the US Army in Iraq, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Bolivia....

“The force they sent in October to pulse the peace when The Gringo was booted out of the presidency is still there?”

Evo Morales says yes, and that they’ve killed indigenous folks in the mountains.

“Mexico, Iraq, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia (of course!)....”

And undoubtedly they are dreaming of a beach in Venezuela.

“I assume you’re referring to Hugo Chavez and Jimmy Carter dreaming of a beach in Bolivia?”

I might be, but the latest round of accusations that Castro, Chavez and Morales are buzzing guerrillas all around the continent to destabilize “democratically elected governments” sounds like the US plans to have another go at overthrowing the democratically elected president of Venezuela.

“We ARE coming up on the second anniversary of the US financed 47 hour coup.”

Last year they were too busy bombing the shit out of Baghdad to invade Venezuela. This year they have more troops, and because Iraq’s oil production is still in the toilet, more incentive to go after Venezuelan oil.

“Dogfaces in Maracaibo in April?”

The only thing that surprises me about the agenda of the Bush Gang of Petrocriminals (to which we must now add Aguacriminals) is that almost nobody else seems to regard their invasions and other terrorist acts as being the least bit irregular.

“Who was it who said: ‘There’s a better universe next door; let’s go.’?”

I believe it was e.e.cummings, Rave.

“You think he was right?”

HAPPY HOLIDAYS: State-Induced Psychological Terror

Raven and I are very busy these days, but we want to say just how horrified we are at the Bush Adminstration's (Petrocrimnals') policy of continuing to terrorize the US public. The latest caper of canceling Air France Christmas flights from Paris to LA--although Air France found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in regard to passengers on any of the flights--on the basis that terrorists were going to fly to LA and perpetrate an act of terrorism, was another turn of the screw in the campaign to keep folks in the US scared shitless.

We will say it again: here are two regimes in the world that need to be changed ASAP: those of the US and Israel. They are without a doubt the most dangerous, ruthless and cynical regimes in history. Atilla, Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin had nothing on these guys.

Raven: "Give them the bird for the holidays. Tar and feather them, too. I will gladly donate my tailfeathers for this project!"

(For those of you who read Spanish, LA JORNADA has an excellent article on this topic today: www.jornada.unam.mx)

Raven and I have been doing some hard travelling. His wings are a little worse for wear, and I am hobbling with an ankle support--thanks to Guayaquil taking a final shot at me before we flew off back to Mexico.

But we're still watching what's going on out there--Bush wants to create paramilitaries in Iraq: Hello El Salvador, Hello Iran-Contra Scandal, Hello Colombia, Hello Chiapas--not to mention the big bummer of Viet Nam! Right Rave?

"You didn't hear it here first, but we'll keep saying it: US past due for a regime change!"

It may go down the drain into that good night, along with the dollar--nosediving against the Euro and the Yen, OPEC threatening to switch to Euro only payments (Uh ah, Chavez no se va.)

RAVEN TOURS LA GRAN SABANA

Raven discovers
that the fort he visited,
El Zamuro, means
vulture; here they are very
prominent in the landscape.

He is invading
their territory: winging
over waterfalls,
swooping down on the thatch-roofed
villages; he is whooping,

shrieking his song
in honor of the tepuis—
table mountains
spread with their feast of secrets
served up by hermetic clouds.

Predator he is:
despite noble intentions
of myth and spirit,
he’s ever on the lookout
for victims of his capers.

Buzzing the capped heads
of waders in the river,
Raven is martial
as the red jasper under
their feet; dodging the arrows

the indigenous
artisans fire at him to
demonstrate their wares,
what, after all, does he care?
He is in his element:

The gold uncontrolled
water crashing on the slabs
imitates his laugh,
the mountains his wingspread
and the grasslands his feathers

ruffling in the breeze.
His beady eyes, diamonds
shining in water,
are carbonized creation
dreaming of becoming stars.


Santa Elena de Uairen
Venezuela

RAVEN'S EYE VIEW, FORTIN EL ZAMURO

Perched on the little
fort's roof, Raven listens to
a guide recounting
stories of the place to a
gaggle of high school students.

Raven has flown here
from the river to hear what
goes on when humans
think they have a bird's eye view,
but he hears nothing startling.

He takes for granted
his privileged position,
and wouldn't trade it
for a rung higher up on
the food chain. He knows the trade

offs well enough to
feel satisfied with his lot
of mobility.
The relativity of
historical consciousness

doesn't bother him:
his is a spirit moving
back and forth in time;
banking his wings cloudward,
or diving down hard for his prey.

He changes his mind
at the drop of a feather;
this is the secret
of Raven: he spins the world
on his axis of caprice.

Ciudad Bolivar
Venezuela

RAVEN IN THE POSADA AMOR PATRIA

Raven is circling
the chandeliers, searching in
their crystals for his
eyes, the shadows of his wings
dancing like black diamonds.

Above the hammock
swaying its pendulum of
Orinoco dreams,
Raven imitates a flute
piping in counterpoint to

the cathedral bells
groaning the hour: five o'clock
in the afternoon,
time to light the chandeliers,
not for nothing called spiders

in Spanish, holding
in their interstices the
webs of fugitive,
but very real spiders
spinning in Raven's dark light.

Raven's is manic
light, creation reflected
over and over
in peeling mirrors whose scales
silver off and disappear

as the light withdraws
into his vital organs.
He is Minotaur
crouching in his labyrinth,
Theseus tracking himself

down, Ariadne's
string dribbling from his own beak.
And still he is lost,
unable to break out of
the egg of unconsciousness,

spread his wings and speak
in rational language.
The bells shout again,
marking another hour in
Raven's crystal conundrum.

Ciudad Bolivar
Venezuela

RAVEN AT THE FINE ARTS MUSEUM, CARACAS, VENEZUELA

Raven is watching
the photographs, waiting for
the crocodiles to
leave their two-dimensional
circumstance, and play with him.

Raven sees his face
in the glass—of jeep trails in
la Gran Sabana;
his is the delirium
presupposing creation

of the earth itself:
in the mountainous darkness
he navegates back
in time to starless, moonless
nights, even days without sun.

How did he miss this
sacred place on the planet
when he scattered stars?
A flat mountain top calls him
to enter the foggy shot

the photographer
has carved from primeval mud.
He tries touching down
on the grass, but the glass stops
his feet in their tracks, and makes

Raven feel anger
ruffling his feathers like wind.
In the mirror of
time well past and time present,
he shivers like the future.