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.
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Monday, May 03, 2004
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?”
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?”
Sunday, May 02, 2004
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?
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?
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
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.
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.
Monday, March 15, 2004
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."
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."
Saturday, March 13, 2004
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….
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….
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
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.
"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.
Monday, February 09, 2004
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...."
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...."
Thursday, February 05, 2004
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."
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."
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
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...."
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...."
Friday, January 30, 2004
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.
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.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
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.
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.
Friday, January 23, 2004
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.
(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.
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....
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....
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
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.
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.
Monday, January 12, 2004
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.
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.
Saturday, January 10, 2004
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."
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....
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?"
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?"
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