Maggie Brennan And Uke Man say, "Support WCBE 90.5"
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Saturday @ Little Brother's
Hey Folks!
My good pal, Chris Barton is working overtime to entertain and raise funds for the Red Cross and WCBE. He’s got a “Tom Waits-a-Thon” benefit going on this coming Saturday, Oct. 1 at Little Brother’s - $6.00 (and I’m payin’ even though I’m playin’).
Everyone plays a few songs; so if you don’t like what’s going down at any moment, it will soon change – just like Ohio weather.
I kick it off at 9:45 with two songs and will be followed by:
Bobby Sauls
Rezzin
Big Ass Yard Sale
Steve Perakis
The Skilletlickers
Champiple
Medicine Wheel
The Midnighters - (in THAT order)
Please stop by, enjoy Tom Waits’ great catalog, and help out hurtin’ people and the best radio station in the land !
- Uke Man
My good pal, Chris Barton is working overtime to entertain and raise funds for the Red Cross and WCBE. He’s got a “Tom Waits-a-Thon” benefit going on this coming Saturday, Oct. 1 at Little Brother’s - $6.00 (and I’m payin’ even though I’m playin’).
Everyone plays a few songs; so if you don’t like what’s going down at any moment, it will soon change – just like Ohio weather.
I kick it off at 9:45 with two songs and will be followed by:
Bobby Sauls
Rezzin
Big Ass Yard Sale
Steve Perakis
The Skilletlickers
Champiple
Medicine Wheel
The Midnighters - (in THAT order)
Please stop by, enjoy Tom Waits’ great catalog, and help out hurtin’ people and the best radio station in the land !
- Uke Man
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
The "Dictator" has "subverted democracy" by helping the 80% of his people who are destitute and - more importantly - by not kissing Uncle Sam's ass.
Chavez from the Imperialistic Perspective
Below is a column from the Sept. 28 Columbus Dispatch. What crap! Fox distortion in Wolfs' clothing!
I wrote the author; he wrote me; I wrote back. So far, that's it. Everything is here in the order of occurrence.
- Uke Man
U.S. need not panic over Chavez and his revolution
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
DOUGLAS SOUTHGATE
Like Middle Eastern despots who insist that extravagant spending on the military and secret police is needed to counter the threat from Israel, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez claims that the dictatorship he is establishing for himself is largely a response to U.S. plans to invade his country. He raised the specter of invasion most recently on Sept. 16, during an interview on ABC’s Nightline.
Chavez clearly has subverted democracy in Latin America’s largest oil-producing nation. Opponents have been purged from all major institutions, including the military-officer corps and the state oil company. And now that the commission for overseeing elections has been packed with the dictator’s cronies, prospects for free and fair voting are dim. This assault on democracy has been facilitated by high oil prices, which have allowed Chavez to ramp up government programs that benefit Venezuela’s poor. After declining or stagnating living standards during the 1980s and 1990s, these programs are a welcome relief.
Chavez is keen to export his "Bolivarian Revolution" throughout the region. Aside from being cozy with a rogue’s gallery of tyrants and U.S. enemies, including Iranian ayatollahs and Saddam Hussein, he has a close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and hopes to adopt key elements of Cuba’s "people’s democracy," as Chavez insists on calling it. Elsewhere, Chavez sees a kindred spirit in narco-populist Evo Morales, who stands a good chance of becoming president of Bolivia.
So, what is to be done about the leader of Venezuela? The choice is not between assassination and invasion, as TV evangelist Pat Robertson seemed to suggest during a slow-news day in August. Instead, containment is the best solution. In large part, this involves good relations between the United States and Venezuela’s neighbors. Consider Brazil, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed commercial pacts with Chavez and often shares the stage with him. Lula has been weakened, however, because his party, which has been chagrined by the government’s departures from leftist doctrine, faces serious corruption charges. In Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, who eked out victory in a presidential election in which just 22 percent of registered voters participated, is playing every populist card at hand in hopes of future electoral success.
Leaders such as Lula and Kirchner may applaud Chavez when he promises to "flood the region" with cheap Venezuelan fuel. But embarking on a neo-Marxist crusade against the colossus of the north is unlikely as long as the United States avoids panic and maintains normal commercial and diplomatic ties.
A more active element of the strategy for containing Chavez is to provide aid and technical assistance to Colombia, which, with 25 million people, is Latin America’s third-most-populous nation (after Brazil and Mexico) and where fighting among multiple sides threatens the existence of a national state. A close alliance with Colombia makes many Americans uncomfortable. Especially controversial are the efforts of President Alvaro Uribe, who has grown popular as progress has been made against guerrilla forces, to reach a demobilization agreement with rightwing paramilitary groups.
One obstacle is that the United States wants to extradite some of those paramilitary leaders suspected of dealing drugs. Another concern is that many of them have abused human rights. The solution, applied in a number of nations, is to grant amnesty only to those who confess their crimes. Some are uneasy about this approach, which resembles the nonprosecution of Confederate officers after the Civil War. But if an amnesty is needed so that the Colombian military can concentrate on leftists of the Revolutionay Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who these days resemble a criminal gang more than anything else, so be it, especially if disintegration of Venezuela’s western neighbor would unleash Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution regionwide.
If Chavez, an ardent FARC sympathizer, is effectively contained, as seems likely, then economic forces will gradually erode his regime. Sooner or later, Venezuela will be in the same position as the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, when two rubles’ worth of natural resources produced socialist output worth one ruble.
Several years may pass before Bolivarian socialism reaches this dead end, but Chavez’s demise is inevitable.
Douglas Southgate, a professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University, works frequently in Latin America.
southgate . 1 @osu.edu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dear Prof. Southgate,
Your column on the situation in Venezuela is academically and intellectually dishonest, fit for sophists pimping for think tanks, but clearly not the product of an academician attempting objectivity. Say what you will, it is stunningly obvious that you are grinding an axe, not shining a light.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thanks for the feedback, Tom, but I'm a little confused about your position. Are you siding with Pat Robinson's call for deposing Chavez? O eres partidario de la Revolucion Bolivariana?
Kind regards, DS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well Doug,
My point was that an honest commentator would write from neither Robertson’s nor Chavez’s partisan perspectives. I think you know where I’d stand personally if pressed to state it, and your column clearly shows where you personally do stand.
My point was that the column reflected your personal ideology rather than an attempt at objective exposition. I could run through numerous examples, but I’m sure you know what you are doing. Much of what you said could be applied to the Bush administration as well as to Chavez. Much of what you said is far from established; indeed some of what you say has more evidence against it than for it. Much of what you say depends on the notion that the government of Venezuela serves America first, then its own people. Nevertheless, you plow right on.
If you were writing for a think-tank, I wouldn’t have responded to your column; you’d just be doing your venal job. You, however, were identified as a professor at my alma mater. That seems a conflict of interest to me. Think-tank flacks are what they are, and I would hope that academics were what they are supposed to be. One seeks to manipulate by distorting reality; the other tries to liberate by improving our understanding of reality.
?Esta bien?
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
I wrote the author; he wrote me; I wrote back. So far, that's it. Everything is here in the order of occurrence.
- Uke Man
U.S. need not panic over Chavez and his revolution
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
DOUGLAS SOUTHGATE
Like Middle Eastern despots who insist that extravagant spending on the military and secret police is needed to counter the threat from Israel, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez claims that the dictatorship he is establishing for himself is largely a response to U.S. plans to invade his country. He raised the specter of invasion most recently on Sept. 16, during an interview on ABC’s Nightline.
Chavez clearly has subverted democracy in Latin America’s largest oil-producing nation. Opponents have been purged from all major institutions, including the military-officer corps and the state oil company. And now that the commission for overseeing elections has been packed with the dictator’s cronies, prospects for free and fair voting are dim. This assault on democracy has been facilitated by high oil prices, which have allowed Chavez to ramp up government programs that benefit Venezuela’s poor. After declining or stagnating living standards during the 1980s and 1990s, these programs are a welcome relief.
Chavez is keen to export his "Bolivarian Revolution" throughout the region. Aside from being cozy with a rogue’s gallery of tyrants and U.S. enemies, including Iranian ayatollahs and Saddam Hussein, he has a close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and hopes to adopt key elements of Cuba’s "people’s democracy," as Chavez insists on calling it. Elsewhere, Chavez sees a kindred spirit in narco-populist Evo Morales, who stands a good chance of becoming president of Bolivia.
So, what is to be done about the leader of Venezuela? The choice is not between assassination and invasion, as TV evangelist Pat Robertson seemed to suggest during a slow-news day in August. Instead, containment is the best solution. In large part, this involves good relations between the United States and Venezuela’s neighbors. Consider Brazil, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed commercial pacts with Chavez and often shares the stage with him. Lula has been weakened, however, because his party, which has been chagrined by the government’s departures from leftist doctrine, faces serious corruption charges. In Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, who eked out victory in a presidential election in which just 22 percent of registered voters participated, is playing every populist card at hand in hopes of future electoral success.
Leaders such as Lula and Kirchner may applaud Chavez when he promises to "flood the region" with cheap Venezuelan fuel. But embarking on a neo-Marxist crusade against the colossus of the north is unlikely as long as the United States avoids panic and maintains normal commercial and diplomatic ties.
A more active element of the strategy for containing Chavez is to provide aid and technical assistance to Colombia, which, with 25 million people, is Latin America’s third-most-populous nation (after Brazil and Mexico) and where fighting among multiple sides threatens the existence of a national state. A close alliance with Colombia makes many Americans uncomfortable. Especially controversial are the efforts of President Alvaro Uribe, who has grown popular as progress has been made against guerrilla forces, to reach a demobilization agreement with rightwing paramilitary groups.
One obstacle is that the United States wants to extradite some of those paramilitary leaders suspected of dealing drugs. Another concern is that many of them have abused human rights. The solution, applied in a number of nations, is to grant amnesty only to those who confess their crimes. Some are uneasy about this approach, which resembles the nonprosecution of Confederate officers after the Civil War. But if an amnesty is needed so that the Colombian military can concentrate on leftists of the Revolutionay Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who these days resemble a criminal gang more than anything else, so be it, especially if disintegration of Venezuela’s western neighbor would unleash Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution regionwide.
If Chavez, an ardent FARC sympathizer, is effectively contained, as seems likely, then economic forces will gradually erode his regime. Sooner or later, Venezuela will be in the same position as the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, when two rubles’ worth of natural resources produced socialist output worth one ruble.
Several years may pass before Bolivarian socialism reaches this dead end, but Chavez’s demise is inevitable.
Douglas Southgate, a professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University, works frequently in Latin America.
southgate . 1 @osu.edu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dear Prof. Southgate,
Your column on the situation in Venezuela is academically and intellectually dishonest, fit for sophists pimping for think tanks, but clearly not the product of an academician attempting objectivity. Say what you will, it is stunningly obvious that you are grinding an axe, not shining a light.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thanks for the feedback, Tom, but I'm a little confused about your position. Are you siding with Pat Robinson's call for deposing Chavez? O eres partidario de la Revolucion Bolivariana?
Kind regards, DS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well Doug,
My point was that an honest commentator would write from neither Robertson’s nor Chavez’s partisan perspectives. I think you know where I’d stand personally if pressed to state it, and your column clearly shows where you personally do stand.
My point was that the column reflected your personal ideology rather than an attempt at objective exposition. I could run through numerous examples, but I’m sure you know what you are doing. Much of what you said could be applied to the Bush administration as well as to Chavez. Much of what you said is far from established; indeed some of what you say has more evidence against it than for it. Much of what you say depends on the notion that the government of Venezuela serves America first, then its own people. Nevertheless, you plow right on.
If you were writing for a think-tank, I wouldn’t have responded to your column; you’d just be doing your venal job. You, however, were identified as a professor at my alma mater. That seems a conflict of interest to me. Think-tank flacks are what they are, and I would hope that academics were what they are supposed to be. One seeks to manipulate by distorting reality; the other tries to liberate by improving our understanding of reality.
?Esta bien?
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
*The*Free*Press* book review
Appearing in the July-August 2005 issue of the Columbus Free Press, was my review of Bob Avakian's recently published memoir, "From Ike to Mao and beyond."
It was recently reprinted nationally in the September 25 edition of Revolution, the "voice of the revolutionary communist party, USA" ( http://rwor.org/a/015/bob-avakian-memoir-review.htm ).
That seems like a good excuse to reprint it here. Check it out (keep an open mind - there are worse things to keep).
- Uke Man
Book Review
Rethinking the “Unthinkable”: An updated view of communism
By Tom Harker
From Ike to Mao and beyond
by Bob Avakian. 449 pp. 2005
How does a good California boy of the 50’s, an elementary school “Traffic Boy” who loved Smilin’ Ed’s “Froggy the Gremlin,” a high school quarterback (“a little guy, brimming with confidence”), a serious fan of basketball and music, and the son of a prominent judge go from a nine-year-old supporter of Eisenhower to a supporter of Mao Tsetung and the Chairman of today’s Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP)?
Bob Avakian lays it out in his memoir “From Ike to Mao and Beyond.”
Most of us don’t really know much about Communism. Growing up, we have all been taught to fear and disparage it. Like Avakian, many Americans practiced hiding under their first grade desks in case of nuclear attack by “godless Communists.” Like Avakian, many of us lived through the McCarthy witch hunts that found communists under every bush darkly working for the destruction of America.
Younger folks missed that, but they may have been around for the “Domino Theory” of Viet Nam (“gotta stop the communists now, or they’ll eventually be invading us through Mexico). Folks younger yet, may remember Ronald Reagan, “the Gipper,” ordering “the Evil Empire” to tear down the Berlin Wall.
In any case, most living Americans have never heard much of anything positive about Communism. In a sense, Avakian’s book provides a refreshing rejoinder to the overwhelmingly one-sided view many of us have taken as a given.
Reading through the author’s chronology, the fact of his progression from Eisenhower to Mao and beyond - far from sounding inexplicable - seems the most natural, rational, and heroic path he could have followed.
As a youth, confronted with the blatant racism of the time and the related dissembling of politicians (including Kennedy), Avakian chose to side with the people and with rationality. Living in Berkeley, fate brought him together with Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Huey Newton (movers in the emerging Black Panther Party). Avakian writes that his friends “saw themselves as heirs to Malcolm X . . . They had this revolutionary stance, they were indicting the whole system – that’s what they got from Malcolm X – but they were calling for revolution too.”
The Panther’s view was, apparently, more radical than the contemporary Communist Party of that time (the Communist Party, USA – the CP), which the author characterizes as less radical than Malcolm X, dedicated mainly to working “palatably” within the system, trying to appeal to the “mainstream,” “the lowest common denominator.”
At this point in his life he was not a communist but was searching for something that made sense, something that offered a real chance of addressing the overwhelming problems of the time. Not an easy undertaking.
We humans seem to be wide-awake searchers in our youth, but somewhere along the way arbitrarily shut down and glom on to something, anything - the nearest “life
raft” - that offers some hope of respite from thinking, wondering, and doubt. From that point on, we need not think beyond the common propaganda shared by all who cling to our own particular delusion. Like pet parrots, we can eat, sleep, and rejoice within our cage of secure certainty.
That is what makes Avakian’s path “heroic.” A fundamental aspect of the “Communism” he describes is a steadfastly rational, scientific approach to understanding the world (no faith-based initiatives here). As such, bending the reality observed by his senses to the “reality” demanded by the moment, or the media, or by the dominant culture, or by intellectual fatigue; or even by the iconic example of Mao himself; was not acceptable – regardless of the consequences. This stubborn insistence on facing the facts as they presented themselves led, inevitably, to his leadership of the RCP.
In 1967 visiting Eldridge Cleaver’s apartment, the not-yet-communist Avakian was startled and confused by a large poster of Mao Tsetung hanging prominently on the wall. Cleaver explained, “We have that poster of Mao Tsetung on our wall because he is the baddest motherfucker on the planet earth.” That was a start.
Avakian reiterates throughout the book a major theme: the Marxism/ Leninism/ Maoism he espouses is based on the foundation of science and truth. Today, perhaps more than ever, self-serving spin is promoted over truth in nearly every venue, and the scientific method is replaced by “faith” - faith in our leaders, our nation, and religious authority. It was pretty much the same in Avakian’s formative years, and he deserves credit for resisting it, demanding to search rationally for the hard facts of the situation we faced then.
Apparently, not blind “faith” or patriotism, nationalism, personal need, peer pressure, or anything else could turn him from his effort to honestly appraise the world he found around him. And, importantly for those who have heard nothing but negatives regarding communism, Avakian let the criticism he developed fall wherever he thought it was merited; addressing not only the brutality and imperialistic lust of the ruling class, but also the shortcomings of leftists and communist groups he felt had lost sight of the goal or historically had made honest mistakes in judgment along the way.
True to the notion that Marxism is a scientific effort, open to the development of a higher understanding that can allow avoidance of the mistakes of the past, Avakian readily admits the mistakes of earlier attempts at establishing a world free of “people who so viciously rule the world [and] oppress and exploit people in the most ruthless and murderous way,” a world “under the domination of this system and the way it twists and distorts the relations among people and turns people into instruments either to be used for the amassing of wealth on the part of a relative handful, or else just to be thrown onto the scrap heap like so much useless material.”
In addition to recounting a life lived during very interesting and important times; in addition to recounting his involvement with significant historical figures and events; beyond sharing his personal story; in “From Ike to Mao and Beyond,” Bob Avakian offers a fresh, new look at a system of thought that has, by some, been consigned to the “ash heap of history.”
As we presently experience what many of us see as the demolition of everything America has claimed to be and to stand for over the years; as we experience the demonizing of gays, the suppression of women, the scapegoating of minorities, the “Christianizing” of what has been a secular, tolerant, diverse, open, and progressive society; as we witness the steady degradation of working people, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled; perhaps we are ready to entertain some doubt about all the negativity heaped on “Communism” over the years by folks like those presently destroying what many of us believe in.
Bob Avakian’s new and innovative conception of “Communism” deserves consideration.
Dunkle's Digest: read this book!!
It was recently reprinted nationally in the September 25 edition of Revolution, the "voice of the revolutionary communist party, USA" ( http://rwor.org/a/015/bob-avakian-memoir-review.htm ).
That seems like a good excuse to reprint it here. Check it out (keep an open mind - there are worse things to keep).
- Uke Man
Book Review
Rethinking the “Unthinkable”: An updated view of communism
By Tom Harker
From Ike to Mao and beyond
by Bob Avakian. 449 pp. 2005
How does a good California boy of the 50’s, an elementary school “Traffic Boy” who loved Smilin’ Ed’s “Froggy the Gremlin,” a high school quarterback (“a little guy, brimming with confidence”), a serious fan of basketball and music, and the son of a prominent judge go from a nine-year-old supporter of Eisenhower to a supporter of Mao Tsetung and the Chairman of today’s Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP)?
Bob Avakian lays it out in his memoir “From Ike to Mao and Beyond.”
Most of us don’t really know much about Communism. Growing up, we have all been taught to fear and disparage it. Like Avakian, many Americans practiced hiding under their first grade desks in case of nuclear attack by “godless Communists.” Like Avakian, many of us lived through the McCarthy witch hunts that found communists under every bush darkly working for the destruction of America.
Younger folks missed that, but they may have been around for the “Domino Theory” of Viet Nam (“gotta stop the communists now, or they’ll eventually be invading us through Mexico). Folks younger yet, may remember Ronald Reagan, “the Gipper,” ordering “the Evil Empire” to tear down the Berlin Wall.
In any case, most living Americans have never heard much of anything positive about Communism. In a sense, Avakian’s book provides a refreshing rejoinder to the overwhelmingly one-sided view many of us have taken as a given.
Reading through the author’s chronology, the fact of his progression from Eisenhower to Mao and beyond - far from sounding inexplicable - seems the most natural, rational, and heroic path he could have followed.
As a youth, confronted with the blatant racism of the time and the related dissembling of politicians (including Kennedy), Avakian chose to side with the people and with rationality. Living in Berkeley, fate brought him together with Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Huey Newton (movers in the emerging Black Panther Party). Avakian writes that his friends “saw themselves as heirs to Malcolm X . . . They had this revolutionary stance, they were indicting the whole system – that’s what they got from Malcolm X – but they were calling for revolution too.”
The Panther’s view was, apparently, more radical than the contemporary Communist Party of that time (the Communist Party, USA – the CP), which the author characterizes as less radical than Malcolm X, dedicated mainly to working “palatably” within the system, trying to appeal to the “mainstream,” “the lowest common denominator.”
At this point in his life he was not a communist but was searching for something that made sense, something that offered a real chance of addressing the overwhelming problems of the time. Not an easy undertaking.
We humans seem to be wide-awake searchers in our youth, but somewhere along the way arbitrarily shut down and glom on to something, anything - the nearest “life
raft” - that offers some hope of respite from thinking, wondering, and doubt. From that point on, we need not think beyond the common propaganda shared by all who cling to our own particular delusion. Like pet parrots, we can eat, sleep, and rejoice within our cage of secure certainty.
That is what makes Avakian’s path “heroic.” A fundamental aspect of the “Communism” he describes is a steadfastly rational, scientific approach to understanding the world (no faith-based initiatives here). As such, bending the reality observed by his senses to the “reality” demanded by the moment, or the media, or by the dominant culture, or by intellectual fatigue; or even by the iconic example of Mao himself; was not acceptable – regardless of the consequences. This stubborn insistence on facing the facts as they presented themselves led, inevitably, to his leadership of the RCP.
In 1967 visiting Eldridge Cleaver’s apartment, the not-yet-communist Avakian was startled and confused by a large poster of Mao Tsetung hanging prominently on the wall. Cleaver explained, “We have that poster of Mao Tsetung on our wall because he is the baddest motherfucker on the planet earth.” That was a start.
Avakian reiterates throughout the book a major theme: the Marxism/ Leninism/ Maoism he espouses is based on the foundation of science and truth. Today, perhaps more than ever, self-serving spin is promoted over truth in nearly every venue, and the scientific method is replaced by “faith” - faith in our leaders, our nation, and religious authority. It was pretty much the same in Avakian’s formative years, and he deserves credit for resisting it, demanding to search rationally for the hard facts of the situation we faced then.
Apparently, not blind “faith” or patriotism, nationalism, personal need, peer pressure, or anything else could turn him from his effort to honestly appraise the world he found around him. And, importantly for those who have heard nothing but negatives regarding communism, Avakian let the criticism he developed fall wherever he thought it was merited; addressing not only the brutality and imperialistic lust of the ruling class, but also the shortcomings of leftists and communist groups he felt had lost sight of the goal or historically had made honest mistakes in judgment along the way.
True to the notion that Marxism is a scientific effort, open to the development of a higher understanding that can allow avoidance of the mistakes of the past, Avakian readily admits the mistakes of earlier attempts at establishing a world free of “people who so viciously rule the world [and] oppress and exploit people in the most ruthless and murderous way,” a world “under the domination of this system and the way it twists and distorts the relations among people and turns people into instruments either to be used for the amassing of wealth on the part of a relative handful, or else just to be thrown onto the scrap heap like so much useless material.”
In addition to recounting a life lived during very interesting and important times; in addition to recounting his involvement with significant historical figures and events; beyond sharing his personal story; in “From Ike to Mao and Beyond,” Bob Avakian offers a fresh, new look at a system of thought that has, by some, been consigned to the “ash heap of history.”
As we presently experience what many of us see as the demolition of everything America has claimed to be and to stand for over the years; as we experience the demonizing of gays, the suppression of women, the scapegoating of minorities, the “Christianizing” of what has been a secular, tolerant, diverse, open, and progressive society; as we witness the steady degradation of working people, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled; perhaps we are ready to entertain some doubt about all the negativity heaped on “Communism” over the years by folks like those presently destroying what many of us believe in.
Bob Avakian’s new and innovative conception of “Communism” deserves consideration.
Dunkle's Digest: read this book!!
Note to those of you who comment here:
I’ve been getting a flood of spam comments (you may have noticed); so I’ve turned on the filter to stop machine-run spam. Sorry to do it, but please just type in the code and keep on commenting!! Hopefully, only good folks like you will get through now!
Yours - Uke Man
Yours - Uke Man
Letter to the Columbus Dispatch
To the editor,
Why am I not surprised that your recent editorial on the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation mentions “employers” (four times), insurance companies, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, privatization, and the “marketplace,” but never ONCE mentions workers?
The only oblique use of the word is found in the naming and defining of the Bureau of “Workers’” Compensation.
That could be corrected, however, by simply changing the name to “Bureau of Employer Uber Alles.”
- Uke Man
Why am I not surprised that your recent editorial on the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation mentions “employers” (four times), insurance companies, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, privatization, and the “marketplace,” but never ONCE mentions workers?
The only oblique use of the word is found in the naming and defining of the Bureau of “Workers’” Compensation.
That could be corrected, however, by simply changing the name to “Bureau of Employer Uber Alles.”
- Uke Man
Monday, September 26, 2005
The Tour
What a trip!! What a wonderful time!! What music!!!
We left Wednesday and returned Sunday, but we packed a lot in between!!
Below, you’ll find a posting for each of the three days.
We left at 8:30 Wednesday night and drove as far as Duboise PA (pronounced: do-Boyz) and the Duboise Manor a fine flophouse.
Next morning it was off to NYC and the fabulous hotel Gershwin – recommended by my friend Ron Hester and his friend Sarah. The place is an art-lover’s dream!! Quite exciting and pleasant.
Quickly we were off to the Bowery Poetry Club where Jason & Ted / Sonic Uke got us off to a warm, cheery, and theatrical (a costume change) start.
We were up next and had a terrific set! Maybe the best we’d ever played!! I was high!! What a band!!!! You’ll eventually be able to decide for yourself; Jason filmed it and will put it on his TV/Stream show (http://www.ukuleledisco.com/live 9:00 p.m. every other Tuesday – next show Oct. 4 ) and archives ( http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ ) sometime in the future.
Then it was my friend from Rhode Island, Rick Russo, the Ukulele Crooner! He blew everyone’s mind with his unbelievable voice and styling.
Then Bostonians Craig Robertson and the Sob Sisters put on a classy “Noir” set with cellos, ukes, classic songs, and the Noir look.
We finished the evening with the inimitable whirling dervish, Mr. Energy, Ukulele Lloyd!!
We had a great, enthusiastic crowd! Saw a lot of friends! Made some new ones! What a night!!!
We left Wednesday and returned Sunday, but we packed a lot in between!!
Below, you’ll find a posting for each of the three days.
We left at 8:30 Wednesday night and drove as far as Duboise PA (pronounced: do-Boyz) and the Duboise Manor a fine flophouse.
Next morning it was off to NYC and the fabulous hotel Gershwin – recommended by my friend Ron Hester and his friend Sarah. The place is an art-lover’s dream!! Quite exciting and pleasant.
Quickly we were off to the Bowery Poetry Club where Jason & Ted / Sonic Uke got us off to a warm, cheery, and theatrical (a costume change) start.
We were up next and had a terrific set! Maybe the best we’d ever played!! I was high!! What a band!!!! You’ll eventually be able to decide for yourself; Jason filmed it and will put it on his TV/Stream show (http://www.ukuleledisco.com/live 9:00 p.m. every other Tuesday – next show Oct. 4 ) and archives ( http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ ) sometime in the future.
Then it was my friend from Rhode Island, Rick Russo, the Ukulele Crooner! He blew everyone’s mind with his unbelievable voice and styling.
Then Bostonians Craig Robertson and the Sob Sisters put on a classy “Noir” set with cellos, ukes, classic songs, and the Noir look.
We finished the evening with the inimitable whirling dervish, Mr. Energy, Ukulele Lloyd!!
We had a great, enthusiastic crowd! Saw a lot of friends! Made some new ones! What a night!!!
Day Two - Boston & the Sky Bar
Next morning it was off to Boston, where we stayed with Erin, a sweet young lady who had worked with Melissa Starker; and with Pete Cassani who had – along with Bobby Ray - formed the Peasants there twenty-some years earlier.
That night it was off to the Sky Bar for “Ukulele Noir 6.” Craig Robertson & the Sob Sisters, Rick Russo, and our band were on stage again; and we – I swear – played even better!! Hott damn!!! (it’ll be on Midnight Ukulele Disco in time too).
We also were privileged to hear Davis Sweet & August, Melvern Taylor & the Meltones, Robert Wheeler, Mark Occhionero, and Tim Mann – backed by Greg Hawkes (of the Cars).
But what really blew me away and pumped me up for my set was the rendition by my friend Dave Wasser – co-founder of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum – of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow” arrangement. Dave’s voice was perfect for the piece, and he delivered it with a depth of feeling commensurate with the lyrics!!!! His wife, Sue, helped out on a few songs too – a nice touch.
That night it was off to the Sky Bar for “Ukulele Noir 6.” Craig Robertson & the Sob Sisters, Rick Russo, and our band were on stage again; and we – I swear – played even better!! Hott damn!!! (it’ll be on Midnight Ukulele Disco in time too).
We also were privileged to hear Davis Sweet & August, Melvern Taylor & the Meltones, Robert Wheeler, Mark Occhionero, and Tim Mann – backed by Greg Hawkes (of the Cars).
But what really blew me away and pumped me up for my set was the rendition by my friend Dave Wasser – co-founder of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum – of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow” arrangement. Dave’s voice was perfect for the piece, and he delivered it with a depth of feeling commensurate with the lyrics!!!! His wife, Sue, helped out on a few songs too – a nice touch.
The Last Day - And Home Again
On our last day east we were the guests of Pete Cassani of the Peasants. He and his band had played “The Pit” on Harvard Square all summer, and he was kind enough to let us alternate sets Saturday night right there on the Harvard campus!
A lot of young people (smart ones) and some old people too. We had a great time under the stars, played well, had fun, and made a little money too (thanks, Pete!). What’s more, I can now honestly say, “I went to Harvard!”
From there it was 13 hours on the road heading home – there and back again, as Bilbo would say. Yep, we're back in the Shire, and safe in our Hobbit holes.
- Uke Man
p.s. We also met Leon - a member of Ben Harper's Band - at our first pull-over for gas – it’s quite a story – I’ll tell you more later.
A lot of young people (smart ones) and some old people too. We had a great time under the stars, played well, had fun, and made a little money too (thanks, Pete!). What’s more, I can now honestly say, “I went to Harvard!”
From there it was 13 hours on the road heading home – there and back again, as Bilbo would say. Yep, we're back in the Shire, and safe in our Hobbit holes.
- Uke Man
p.s. We also met Leon - a member of Ben Harper's Band - at our first pull-over for gas – it’s quite a story – I’ll tell you more later.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
DC Rebellion Sept. 24
The life of Kkkarl Rove has proved one thing and, I believe, is about to prove another.
Kkkarl has demonstrated well beyond doubt that a single-minded sociopath schooled in marketing can sell the people anything – even a shit sandwich – which they will eat (after giving thanks) and then ask for more, please.
I believe that this weekend’s attack on DC, on the politics-as-usual crap perpetrated by the Republicans and blessed by Democrats – by their silence in some quarters and by their active support in others – will start to prove the second fact inherent in the life of Kkkarl Rove.
The DC rebellion - followed soon on Nov. 2 by the “World Can’t Wait – Drive Out Bush” uprising - will demonstrate the following:
Yes, you can sell the people shit sandwiches,
one after the other, on and on.
But, feed them enough shit, and eventually
they will puke it all back up in your face!
- Uke Man
Kkkarl has demonstrated well beyond doubt that a single-minded sociopath schooled in marketing can sell the people anything – even a shit sandwich – which they will eat (after giving thanks) and then ask for more, please.
I believe that this weekend’s attack on DC, on the politics-as-usual crap perpetrated by the Republicans and blessed by Democrats – by their silence in some quarters and by their active support in others – will start to prove the second fact inherent in the life of Kkkarl Rove.
The DC rebellion - followed soon on Nov. 2 by the “World Can’t Wait – Drive Out Bush” uprising - will demonstrate the following:
Yes, you can sell the people shit sandwiches,
one after the other, on and on.
But, feed them enough shit, and eventually
they will puke it all back up in your face!
- Uke Man
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
A Last Reminder before we take off for Eldorado
The Ukulele Noir Cabaret (http://noir.ukulelecrazy.com)invades Manhattan September 22 at the Bowery Poetry Club (http://www.bowerypoetry.com/),10:00 p.m. until forever.
"Ukulele Noir" is the concept of Bostonian Craig Robertson(www.robertsonstudio.com) and has played to raves at the Sky Bar (www.skybar.us) regularly for almost a year.
Craig will emcee the review and perform as well, teamed up with the "Sob Sisters" (www.sobsisters.com). The "Ukulele Crooner" and Boston Noir regular, Rick Russo (www.jazzukes.com/crooner/friends.html) will also perform.
Joining the Mass.-ive uke talent will be Manhattan's own "Sonic Uke" (www.sonicuke.com) the team of Jason Tagg and Ted Gottfried, happy residents of the "Murray Spaceshoe" building on West 10th Street (http://www.sonicuke.com/nytimes.php).
They also produce the popular "Midnight Ukulele Disco" every other week on Manhattan public access TV - also streamed live on the net. Their site (www.ukuleledisco.com) is loaded with delicious archives as well.
New Yorkers should also check out their monthly "Ukulele Cabaret" at Julius in the Village.
In addition!!! The irrepressible and totally cheeky Ukulele Lloyd – stealer of the show at the Fez anti-W party- (http://www.ukulelelloyd.com/ukulele) will get you up and at it with his inimitable shenanigans!
Last but not least:"Ukulele Man" ( http://www.ukuleleman.net/blog.html) & his Prodigal Sons," a six-piece band, will be there too!
The songs are original, and the lyrics are in keeping with the venue: the Bowery POETRY Club. Peter English on guitar, Bob Hite on accordion and slide whistle, Bob Starker on saxophone, Ty Barnes on bass, Karen Greene on trombone and snare, and Jon Dilgard on harmonica will have you dancing on the roof!
There might even be some unexpected, mystery guests as well !!!Come join the merriment!! The Bowery Poetry Club, Thursday, September 22,from 10:00 p.m. until the last dog dies.
- Uke Man
"Ukulele Noir" is the concept of Bostonian Craig Robertson(www.robertsonstudio.com) and has played to raves at the Sky Bar (www.skybar.us) regularly for almost a year.
Craig will emcee the review and perform as well, teamed up with the "Sob Sisters" (www.sobsisters.com). The "Ukulele Crooner" and Boston Noir regular, Rick Russo (www.jazzukes.com/crooner/friends.html) will also perform.
Joining the Mass.-ive uke talent will be Manhattan's own "Sonic Uke" (www.sonicuke.com) the team of Jason Tagg and Ted Gottfried, happy residents of the "Murray Spaceshoe" building on West 10th Street (http://www.sonicuke.com/nytimes.php).
They also produce the popular "Midnight Ukulele Disco" every other week on Manhattan public access TV - also streamed live on the net. Their site (www.ukuleledisco.com) is loaded with delicious archives as well.
New Yorkers should also check out their monthly "Ukulele Cabaret" at Julius in the Village.
In addition!!! The irrepressible and totally cheeky Ukulele Lloyd – stealer of the show at the Fez anti-W party- (http://www.ukulelelloyd.com/ukulele) will get you up and at it with his inimitable shenanigans!
Last but not least:"Ukulele Man" ( http://www.ukuleleman.net/blog.html) & his Prodigal Sons," a six-piece band, will be there too!
The songs are original, and the lyrics are in keeping with the venue: the Bowery POETRY Club. Peter English on guitar, Bob Hite on accordion and slide whistle, Bob Starker on saxophone, Ty Barnes on bass, Karen Greene on trombone and snare, and Jon Dilgard on harmonica will have you dancing on the roof!
There might even be some unexpected, mystery guests as well !!!Come join the merriment!! The Bowery Poetry Club, Thursday, September 22,from 10:00 p.m. until the last dog dies.
- Uke Man
Monday, September 19, 2005
Tony Ellis in New York too
My friend Tony Ellis, the great banjo/fiddle player from Circleville, Ohio ( http://www.tonyellisbanjo.com/ ) will be on the Letterman Show Wednesday night and will be appearing with the Steve Martin, the Earl Skruggs and other great banjo players in concert - the same weekend we’re in the Big Apple.
Check it out – Letterman – Wed. night.
- Uke Man
Check it out – Letterman – Wed. night.
- Uke Man
Uke Man on TV Tuesday Sept. 20
Tuesday night, thanks to the camera work and the technology of my friends Linda Blain and Charlie Jackson, I’ll be appearing on my New York friend, Jason Tagg’s TV program !
“Midnight Ukulele Disco” can be seen Tuesday, September 20th at 9:00 pm. All you have to do is go to: http://www.ukuleledisco.com/live
You can also view wild and crazy Uke Man Videos from earlier shows (and others’ performances as well) at your leisure at http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ a part of: http://www.sonicuke.com/.
This is the website of my friends Ted and Jason, the inhabitants of Manhattan’s one and only “Murray’s Space Shoe” emporium( http://www.sonicuke.com/nytimes.php ), who are also the members of SONIC UKE - with whom we will be performing Thursday night at the Bowery Poetry Club (they are in my “links” – for your easy access).
Tune in Tuesday, or check out the archived show later on at http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ .
- Uke Man
“Midnight Ukulele Disco” can be seen Tuesday, September 20th at 9:00 pm. All you have to do is go to: http://www.ukuleledisco.com/live
You can also view wild and crazy Uke Man Videos from earlier shows (and others’ performances as well) at your leisure at http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ a part of: http://www.sonicuke.com/.
This is the website of my friends Ted and Jason, the inhabitants of Manhattan’s one and only “Murray’s Space Shoe” emporium( http://www.sonicuke.com/nytimes.php ), who are also the members of SONIC UKE - with whom we will be performing Thursday night at the Bowery Poetry Club (they are in my “links” – for your easy access).
Tune in Tuesday, or check out the archived show later on at http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ .
- Uke Man
Saturday, September 17, 2005
WCBE Fund-Raiser - Great Fun!!
Wow! What a nice way to spend a few mid-day hours!!!
I got to eat wonderful food, play my ukulele, sing, and hear Chief Johnny Lonesome play that great New Orleans music!! I even got to do a couple numbers with John and his band (including my old pal Dan Sagraves).
Besides that, I got to visit with the WCBE Crew!!! Good folks! AND I got a free face-painting!!!
Can't beat that with a stick!
- Uke Man
I got to eat wonderful food, play my ukulele, sing, and hear Chief Johnny Lonesome play that great New Orleans music!! I even got to do a couple numbers with John and his band (including my old pal Dan Sagraves).
Besides that, I got to visit with the WCBE Crew!!! Good folks! AND I got a free face-painting!!!
Can't beat that with a stick!
- Uke Man
Double Talk
Judge Roberts says he doesn’t want to answer questions about what he believes because that would prejudice his decisions in future cases before the “high” court. But he also says he will make his future rulings based solely on the law, not on his beliefs.
While he obviously does have beliefs, he claims that keeping them secret now will somehow allow him to rule later solely on the basis of the law.
Supposedly, then, it doesn’t matter what he secretly believes. It’s only if he lets US in on his secret opinions that he’ll have to throw the law in the trash and vote his prejudices.
That’s double-talk.
I guess he is qualified to serve as Chief Justice.
- Uke Man
While he obviously does have beliefs, he claims that keeping them secret now will somehow allow him to rule later solely on the basis of the law.
Supposedly, then, it doesn’t matter what he secretly believes. It’s only if he lets US in on his secret opinions that he’ll have to throw the law in the trash and vote his prejudices.
That’s double-talk.
I guess he is qualified to serve as Chief Justice.
- Uke Man
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Saturday!! Uke Man & Chief Johnny Lonesome at Wild Oats for WCBE
From the WCBE web site: (http://events.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/events.eventsmain?action=showEvent&eventID=331360
Wild Oats 18th Birthday Bash / WCBE Fundraiser
Price: $10 ($5 for children)
Saturday, September 17; 11am - 2pm
Join in the celebration of the national grocer's birthday while helping support WCBE!
A Build Your Own Burger smorgasbord includes vegetarian, seafood, bison, portabello mushroom, free-range beef and turkey options and more. Traditional and exotic toppings such as grilled pineapple and guacamole, plus sides, salads, cake and more will be served up with live musical entertainment provided by the Ukulele Man & Chief Johnny Lonesome.
Plus: facepainting, caricature artist drawings, a chance to win great prizes from Wild Oats & WCBE and more fun activities.You'll also have a chance to meet WCBE's Dan Mushalko, Maggie Brennan, Richelle Antczak, & Wendy Craver.
Where:
Wild Oats Upper Arlington
1555 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington - (614) 481-3400
All proceeds from this event benefit central Ohio's NPR station, WCBE!
Wild Oats 18th Birthday Bash / WCBE Fundraiser
Price: $10 ($5 for children)
Saturday, September 17; 11am - 2pm
Join in the celebration of the national grocer's birthday while helping support WCBE!
A Build Your Own Burger smorgasbord includes vegetarian, seafood, bison, portabello mushroom, free-range beef and turkey options and more. Traditional and exotic toppings such as grilled pineapple and guacamole, plus sides, salads, cake and more will be served up with live musical entertainment provided by the Ukulele Man & Chief Johnny Lonesome.
Plus: facepainting, caricature artist drawings, a chance to win great prizes from Wild Oats & WCBE and more fun activities.You'll also have a chance to meet WCBE's Dan Mushalko, Maggie Brennan, Richelle Antczak, & Wendy Craver.
Where:
Wild Oats Upper Arlington
1555 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington - (614) 481-3400
All proceeds from this event benefit central Ohio's NPR station, WCBE!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Unintelligible Design
First, let me say, I don’t believe in god.
It would be nice to, but I really can’t find any reason other than that it would be nice for me personally – but “nice for me personally”isn’t enough.
It would be nice to believe all sorts of things, but most of us don’t do that – unless we are high or drunk or deranged. So, why do it with god?
Which is not to say that I have any problem with otherfolks believing anything they want. You see, I was raised with the strange notion that we all have the freedom to believe whatever we want. You want toworship the Tooth Fairy? OK by me. I think you’re a bit “off,” but go for it.
This orientation is one of the few aspects of my being that (I think) is shared by a majority of Americans. Most of us don’t stay up late worrying about whether OTHER Americans worship the Tooth Fairy or not. We figure that if anyone is goofy enough to worship the Tooth Fairy (or handle poisonous snakes), that’s their problem and welcome to it.
The rest of us don’t have to (at least so far) bow down to the magnificent TF; we can concentrate on Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Boogey Man, or Paris Hilton – whomever we might choose.
Now, isn’t that pretty simple? Each one of us can believe whatever we want. We can even believe things that most people find revolting, evil, unethical,sinful, or illegal. AS LONG AS WE JUST BELIEVE IT!! We’re not allowed to ACT on just ANY of these things we believe! We’re just allowed to BELIEVE them. And that’s fine.
BELIEVING in the universal curative power of lying naked upon a bed of squirming porcupines is quite acceptable – as long as you don’t actually DO it. AND, I’d go so far as to say that, if you personally are prepared to either die from infection or pay your own medical expenses resulting from your faith in the curative essence of barbed quills, GO FOR IT! Just DON”T incorporate your personal faith into the schools or the government!
Don’t try to force ME or ANYONE ELSE into emulating your “truth.” Please, give us a break! All of us may not be as smart and authoritative as you, but we don’t really want you cramming your special “truth” into us or our children.
Now, there are a significant number of nut-cases out there, who mistakenly call themselves “Christians,”who believe that EVERYBODY has the right to their opinion, but that most other people’s opinions are WRONG, and therefore they don’t REALLY have the right to their opinions.
These folks have dedicated themselves to FORCING the "unenlightened" into the sunshine of truth (i.e. into believing in the Tooth Fairy/faith-healing/microfilm or whatever they personally have fixated on). I hate to say it, but these people are stupidly designed.
They“get” the idea of “Freedom of Religion” as far as meaning that THEY can believe whatever THEY want; but,somehow, they convince themselves that since only THEY are correct (and because ONLY they, as my dead soldier friend Gary Leach used to say, “have a hammerlock on the infinite”), THEY have the "freedom" to cram their “correct” views down the throats of all the less-enlightened, "incorrect" folks.
Somehow, because their view – which they DO have the right to have –includes the notion of suppressing heretics, they think they – unlike everyone else - are being persecuted if they are KEPT from persecuting every doctrinally “incorrect” soul on earth!
Don’t think so? Listen to them. They don’t complain that they are persecuted because they are not allowed to BELIEVE their idiotic,un-Christian tripe (they’d have one hell of a time backing THAT up)! Instead, they complain because people don’t readily and willingly allow them to IMPOSE their particular crazy views on their brethren.
They have this psychotic perspective that everyone can believe whatever they want, but nobody but THEY can ACT upon a personal view. Acting against THEM based on one’s personal views is "persecution." THEIR acting against everyone else based upon THEIR personal view is not only NOT persecution, but a justified, therapeutic, missionary action.
Well, fuck them! A dumb-ass can, as is presently apparent, grow up to be president, but stupid,arrogant, self-centered morons like Pat Robertson and Rob Parsley aren’t getting a pass from me.
- Uke Man
It would be nice to, but I really can’t find any reason other than that it would be nice for me personally – but “nice for me personally”isn’t enough.
It would be nice to believe all sorts of things, but most of us don’t do that – unless we are high or drunk or deranged. So, why do it with god?
Which is not to say that I have any problem with otherfolks believing anything they want. You see, I was raised with the strange notion that we all have the freedom to believe whatever we want. You want toworship the Tooth Fairy? OK by me. I think you’re a bit “off,” but go for it.
This orientation is one of the few aspects of my being that (I think) is shared by a majority of Americans. Most of us don’t stay up late worrying about whether OTHER Americans worship the Tooth Fairy or not. We figure that if anyone is goofy enough to worship the Tooth Fairy (or handle poisonous snakes), that’s their problem and welcome to it.
The rest of us don’t have to (at least so far) bow down to the magnificent TF; we can concentrate on Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Boogey Man, or Paris Hilton – whomever we might choose.
Now, isn’t that pretty simple? Each one of us can believe whatever we want. We can even believe things that most people find revolting, evil, unethical,sinful, or illegal. AS LONG AS WE JUST BELIEVE IT!! We’re not allowed to ACT on just ANY of these things we believe! We’re just allowed to BELIEVE them. And that’s fine.
BELIEVING in the universal curative power of lying naked upon a bed of squirming porcupines is quite acceptable – as long as you don’t actually DO it. AND, I’d go so far as to say that, if you personally are prepared to either die from infection or pay your own medical expenses resulting from your faith in the curative essence of barbed quills, GO FOR IT! Just DON”T incorporate your personal faith into the schools or the government!
Don’t try to force ME or ANYONE ELSE into emulating your “truth.” Please, give us a break! All of us may not be as smart and authoritative as you, but we don’t really want you cramming your special “truth” into us or our children.
Now, there are a significant number of nut-cases out there, who mistakenly call themselves “Christians,”who believe that EVERYBODY has the right to their opinion, but that most other people’s opinions are WRONG, and therefore they don’t REALLY have the right to their opinions.
These folks have dedicated themselves to FORCING the "unenlightened" into the sunshine of truth (i.e. into believing in the Tooth Fairy/faith-healing/microfilm or whatever they personally have fixated on). I hate to say it, but these people are stupidly designed.
They“get” the idea of “Freedom of Religion” as far as meaning that THEY can believe whatever THEY want; but,somehow, they convince themselves that since only THEY are correct (and because ONLY they, as my dead soldier friend Gary Leach used to say, “have a hammerlock on the infinite”), THEY have the "freedom" to cram their “correct” views down the throats of all the less-enlightened, "incorrect" folks.
Somehow, because their view – which they DO have the right to have –includes the notion of suppressing heretics, they think they – unlike everyone else - are being persecuted if they are KEPT from persecuting every doctrinally “incorrect” soul on earth!
Don’t think so? Listen to them. They don’t complain that they are persecuted because they are not allowed to BELIEVE their idiotic,un-Christian tripe (they’d have one hell of a time backing THAT up)! Instead, they complain because people don’t readily and willingly allow them to IMPOSE their particular crazy views on their brethren.
They have this psychotic perspective that everyone can believe whatever they want, but nobody but THEY can ACT upon a personal view. Acting against THEM based on one’s personal views is "persecution." THEIR acting against everyone else based upon THEIR personal view is not only NOT persecution, but a justified, therapeutic, missionary action.
Well, fuck them! A dumb-ass can, as is presently apparent, grow up to be president, but stupid,arrogant, self-centered morons like Pat Robertson and Rob Parsley aren’t getting a pass from me.
- Uke Man
Monday, September 12, 2005
Ah, the Ladies!!!
Hey!!
I visited my two girlfriends today!! My 92 year old girlfriend Gracie – you may remember, she had the room next to my Mom at the nursing home; and as a duet (with uke accompaniment, of course) we won the nursing home talent show (first place and a Blue Ribbon) a while back. She’s doing fine, and we laughed and sang together.
You may also remember my three week old girlfriend, Frances! She’s my grand daughter and she’s doing fine as well! We cuddled and I acted foolish!
Looks just like me, huh!!!
- Uke Man
I visited my two girlfriends today!! My 92 year old girlfriend Gracie – you may remember, she had the room next to my Mom at the nursing home; and as a duet (with uke accompaniment, of course) we won the nursing home talent show (first place and a Blue Ribbon) a while back. She’s doing fine, and we laughed and sang together.
You may also remember my three week old girlfriend, Frances! She’s my grand daughter and she’s doing fine as well! We cuddled and I acted foolish!
Looks just like me, huh!!!
- Uke Man
Part of what the Pissing Contest hopes to hide
The New York Times
September 12, 2005
All the President's Friends
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina revealed to everyone that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which earned universal praise during the Clinton years, is a shell of its former self. The hapless Michael Brown - who is no longer overseeing relief efforts but still heads the agency - has become a symbol of cronyism.
But what we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other government functions have been crippled by politicization, cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals? How many FEMA's are there?
Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from some version of the FEMA syndrome.
The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of experienced officials over the past few years. In particular, senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental law.
Yesterday The Independent, the British newspaper, published an interview about the environmental aftermath of Katrina with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst in the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, whom one suspects is planning to join the exodus. "The budget has been cut," he said, "and inept political hacks have been put in key positions." That sounds familiar, and given what we've learned over the last two weeks there's no reason to doubt that characterization - or to disregard his warning of an environmental cover-up in progress.
What about the Food and Drug Administration? Serious questions have been raised about the agency's coziness with drug companies, and the agency's top official in charge of women's health issues resigned over the delay in approving Plan B, the morning-after pill, accusing the agency's head of overruling the professional staff on political grounds.
Then there's the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose Republican chairman hired a consultant to identify liberal bias in its programs. The consultant apparently considered any criticism of the administration a sign of liberalism, even if it came from conservatives.
You could say that these are all cases in which the Bush administration hasn't worried about degrading the quality of a government agency because it doesn't really believe in the agency's mission. But you can't say that about my other two examples.
Even a conservative government needs an effective Treasury Department. Yet Treasury, which had high prestige and morale during the Clinton years, has fallen from grace.
The public symbol of that fall is the fact that John Snow, who was obviously picked for his loyalty rather than his qualifications, is still Treasury secretary. Less obvious to the public is the hollowing out of the department's expertise. Many experienced staff members have left since 2000, and a number of key positions are either empty or filled only on an acting basis. "There is no policy," an economist who was leaving the department after 22 years told The Washington Post, back in 2002. "If there are no pipes, why do you need a plumber?" So the best and brightest have been leaving.
And finally, what about the department of Homeland Security itself? FEMA was neglected, some people say, because it was folded into a large agency that was focused on terrorist threats, not natural disasters. But what, exactly, is the department doing to protect us from terrorists?
In 2004 Reuters reported a "steady exodus" of counterterrorism officials, who believed that the war in Iraq had taken precedence over the real terrorist threat. Why, then, should we believe that Homeland Security is being well run?
Let's not forget that the administration's first choice to head the department was Bernard Kerik, a crony of Rudy Giuliani. And Mr. Kerik's nomination would have gone through if enterprising reporters hadn't turned up problems in his background that the F.B.I. somehow missed, just as it somehow didn't turn up the little problems in Michael Brown's résumé. How many lesser Keriks made it into other positions?
The point is that Katrina should serve as a wakeup call, not just about FEMA, but about the executive branch as a whole. Everything I know suggests that it's in a sorry state - that an administration which doesn't treat governing seriously has created two, three, many FEMA's.
September 12, 2005
All the President's Friends
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina revealed to everyone that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which earned universal praise during the Clinton years, is a shell of its former self. The hapless Michael Brown - who is no longer overseeing relief efforts but still heads the agency - has become a symbol of cronyism.
But what we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other government functions have been crippled by politicization, cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals? How many FEMA's are there?
Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from some version of the FEMA syndrome.
The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of experienced officials over the past few years. In particular, senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental law.
Yesterday The Independent, the British newspaper, published an interview about the environmental aftermath of Katrina with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst in the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, whom one suspects is planning to join the exodus. "The budget has been cut," he said, "and inept political hacks have been put in key positions." That sounds familiar, and given what we've learned over the last two weeks there's no reason to doubt that characterization - or to disregard his warning of an environmental cover-up in progress.
What about the Food and Drug Administration? Serious questions have been raised about the agency's coziness with drug companies, and the agency's top official in charge of women's health issues resigned over the delay in approving Plan B, the morning-after pill, accusing the agency's head of overruling the professional staff on political grounds.
Then there's the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose Republican chairman hired a consultant to identify liberal bias in its programs. The consultant apparently considered any criticism of the administration a sign of liberalism, even if it came from conservatives.
You could say that these are all cases in which the Bush administration hasn't worried about degrading the quality of a government agency because it doesn't really believe in the agency's mission. But you can't say that about my other two examples.
Even a conservative government needs an effective Treasury Department. Yet Treasury, which had high prestige and morale during the Clinton years, has fallen from grace.
The public symbol of that fall is the fact that John Snow, who was obviously picked for his loyalty rather than his qualifications, is still Treasury secretary. Less obvious to the public is the hollowing out of the department's expertise. Many experienced staff members have left since 2000, and a number of key positions are either empty or filled only on an acting basis. "There is no policy," an economist who was leaving the department after 22 years told The Washington Post, back in 2002. "If there are no pipes, why do you need a plumber?" So the best and brightest have been leaving.
And finally, what about the department of Homeland Security itself? FEMA was neglected, some people say, because it was folded into a large agency that was focused on terrorist threats, not natural disasters. But what, exactly, is the department doing to protect us from terrorists?
In 2004 Reuters reported a "steady exodus" of counterterrorism officials, who believed that the war in Iraq had taken precedence over the real terrorist threat. Why, then, should we believe that Homeland Security is being well run?
Let's not forget that the administration's first choice to head the department was Bernard Kerik, a crony of Rudy Giuliani. And Mr. Kerik's nomination would have gone through if enterprising reporters hadn't turned up problems in his background that the F.B.I. somehow missed, just as it somehow didn't turn up the little problems in Michael Brown's résumé. How many lesser Keriks made it into other positions?
The point is that Katrina should serve as a wakeup call, not just about FEMA, but about the executive branch as a whole. Everything I know suggests that it's in a sorry state - that an administration which doesn't treat governing seriously has created two, three, many FEMA's.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Beware the Pisscontest, my son!!
Bush & Co. are out in force pointing at “finger pointing” and the “blame game” - pointing their fingers and “gaming” blame in every direction but the mirror.
The goal, as I suggested in an earlier post, is to get us all either defending ourselves from blame or putting massive energy into “proving” BUSH is to blame so as to patch over the REAL issue.
Bush didn’t cause the hurricane or global warming – he’s just the latest representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth at the expense of the general population – the few make the money; the many live in a fouled world and impotently face world-wrenching climate change.
Bush didn’t invent racism - he’s just the latest representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth at the expense of a group easily identified, scapegoated, and kept in poverty to serve their “betters” at slave wages.
Bush didn’t invent classism - he’s just the latest representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth by the few at the expense of the rest of us who ACTUALLY create the wealth.
Bush didn’t invent the notion of rolling back the “socialism” of the New Deal and the progressive advances made in the 60’s - he’s just the latest and most efficient representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth by squeezing more and more of it from the lives of those who already have the least: the poor, the aged, children, the ill and disabled, and the economically oppressed.
THE ISSUE, then, isn’t “Who is to blame?” The SYSTEM is to blame! It has been to blame from the start, from when our “Founding Fathers” said, “This country should be run by the people who own it” and decided that “too much democracy” wouldn’t be good but slavery would.
The “pissing contest” is intended to cover THIS up, to cover up the fact that the Republicans (and the Democrats, though not as blatantly) don’t care ANYTHING about the people – beyond, of course, what is necessary to maintain the prerogatives of the ruling class.
If this became clear to the people, all hell would break loose.
A bit of awakening did spring from the disaster in New Orleans and the totally callused/oblivios lack of concern by our rulers. Hence, the urgent effort to engage us in a national pissing contest.
Beware the Pisscontest, my son!
The smoke that bites, the mirrors that flash!
Beware the Dubya bird, and shun
The frumious Barbushsnatch!
- Uke Man
The goal, as I suggested in an earlier post, is to get us all either defending ourselves from blame or putting massive energy into “proving” BUSH is to blame so as to patch over the REAL issue.
Bush didn’t cause the hurricane or global warming – he’s just the latest representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth at the expense of the general population – the few make the money; the many live in a fouled world and impotently face world-wrenching climate change.
Bush didn’t invent racism - he’s just the latest representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth at the expense of a group easily identified, scapegoated, and kept in poverty to serve their “betters” at slave wages.
Bush didn’t invent classism - he’s just the latest representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth by the few at the expense of the rest of us who ACTUALLY create the wealth.
Bush didn’t invent the notion of rolling back the “socialism” of the New Deal and the progressive advances made in the 60’s - he’s just the latest and most efficient representative of a system that supports the accumulation of personal wealth by squeezing more and more of it from the lives of those who already have the least: the poor, the aged, children, the ill and disabled, and the economically oppressed.
THE ISSUE, then, isn’t “Who is to blame?” The SYSTEM is to blame! It has been to blame from the start, from when our “Founding Fathers” said, “This country should be run by the people who own it” and decided that “too much democracy” wouldn’t be good but slavery would.
The “pissing contest” is intended to cover THIS up, to cover up the fact that the Republicans (and the Democrats, though not as blatantly) don’t care ANYTHING about the people – beyond, of course, what is necessary to maintain the prerogatives of the ruling class.
If this became clear to the people, all hell would break loose.
A bit of awakening did spring from the disaster in New Orleans and the totally callused/oblivios lack of concern by our rulers. Hence, the urgent effort to engage us in a national pissing contest.
Beware the Pisscontest, my son!
The smoke that bites, the mirrors that flash!
Beware the Dubya bird, and shun
The frumious Barbushsnatch!
- Uke Man
Go to DC September 24 - Go to the streets November 2
- Uke Man
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Hey! If you don't believe me, here's what Maureewn Dowd has to say
The New York Times
September 10, 2005
Neigh to Cronies
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
I understand that politicians are wont to put cronies and cupcakes on the payroll.
I just wish they'd stop putting them on the Homeland Security payroll.
Can't they stick their pals who failed at business in the Small Business Administration and their tomatoes over at the Oilseeds and Rice Bureau of the Ag Department?
At least Bill Clinton knew not to stash his sweeties in jobs concerned with keeping the nation safe. Gennifer Flowers said that Mr. Clinton got her a $17,500 job in Arkansas in the state unemployment agency, though she was ranked ninth out of 11 applicants tested. And Monica Lewinsky's thong expertise led her to a job as an assistant to the Pentagon press officer.
Gov. James McGreevey of New Jersey had to resign last year after acknowledging that he had elevated his patronage peccadillo, an Israeli poet named Golan Cipel, to be his special assistant on homeland security without even a background check or American citizenship. Mr. Cipel, however, was vastly qualified for his job compared with Michael Brown, who didn't know the difference between a tropical depression and an anxiety attack when President Bush charged him with life-and-death decisions.
W. trusted Brownie simply because he was a friend of a friend. He was a college buddy of Joe Allbaugh, who worked as W.'s chief of staff when he was Texas governor and as his 2000 presidential campaign manager.
It sounds more like a Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson flick than the story of a man who was to be responsible for the fate of the Republic during the biggest natural disaster in our history. Brownie was a failed former lawyer with a degree from a semiaccredited law school, as The New Republic put it, when he moved to Colorado in 1991 to judge horse judges for the Arabian Horse Association.
He was put out to pasture under pressure in 2001, leaving him free to join his pal Mr. Allbaugh at an eviscerated FEMA. Mr. Allbaugh decided to leave the top job at FEMA and become a lobbyist with clients like Halliburton when the agency was reorganized under Homeland Security, stripping it of authority. Why not, Mr. Allbaugh thought, just pass this obscure sinecure to his homeboy?
Time magazine reported that Brownie's official bio described his only stint in emergency management as "assistant city manager" in Edmond, Okla. But a city official told Time that the FEMA chief had been "an assistant to the city manager," which was "more like an intern."
Ever since W. was his father's loyalty enforcer, his political decisions have been shaped more by loyalty than substance or competence. Mr. Bush never did warm up to his first secretary of state because Colin Powell rebuffed appeals to help out in the Tallahassee recount of 2000.
The breakdown in management and communications was so execrable that the president learned about the 25,000 desperate, trapped people at the New Orleans convention center not from Brownie, who didn't know himself, but from a wire story carried into the Oval Office by an aide on Thursday, 24 hours after the victims had been pleading and crying for help on every channel. (Maybe tomorrow the aide will come in with a wire story, "No W.M.D. in Iraq.")
"Getting truth on the ground in New Orleans was very difficult," a White House aide told The Times's Elisabeth Bumiller. Not if you had a TV.
As Mexican troops arrived in Texas to help with Katrina refugees, Brownie was recalled to Washington, where he said he wanted to get "a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita." Yeah, it was hard to get any good étouffée in New Orleans given the E. coli. The president should find that little bullhorn from ground zero, put it right on Brownie's ear and yell at him to get the heck out of there.
FEMA was a disaster waiting to happen, the minute a disaster struck. As The Washington Post reported Friday, five of the eight top FEMA officials were simply Bush loyalists and political operatives who "came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters."
While many see the hideous rescue failures as disaster apartheid, Barbara Bush and other Republicans have tried to look on the bright side for the victims. The Wall Street Journal reported that Representative Richard Baker of Baton Rouge was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
Even those who believe in intelligent design must surely agree that Brownie and Representative Baker weren't part of it.
September 10, 2005
Neigh to Cronies
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
I understand that politicians are wont to put cronies and cupcakes on the payroll.
I just wish they'd stop putting them on the Homeland Security payroll.
Can't they stick their pals who failed at business in the Small Business Administration and their tomatoes over at the Oilseeds and Rice Bureau of the Ag Department?
At least Bill Clinton knew not to stash his sweeties in jobs concerned with keeping the nation safe. Gennifer Flowers said that Mr. Clinton got her a $17,500 job in Arkansas in the state unemployment agency, though she was ranked ninth out of 11 applicants tested. And Monica Lewinsky's thong expertise led her to a job as an assistant to the Pentagon press officer.
Gov. James McGreevey of New Jersey had to resign last year after acknowledging that he had elevated his patronage peccadillo, an Israeli poet named Golan Cipel, to be his special assistant on homeland security without even a background check or American citizenship. Mr. Cipel, however, was vastly qualified for his job compared with Michael Brown, who didn't know the difference between a tropical depression and an anxiety attack when President Bush charged him with life-and-death decisions.
W. trusted Brownie simply because he was a friend of a friend. He was a college buddy of Joe Allbaugh, who worked as W.'s chief of staff when he was Texas governor and as his 2000 presidential campaign manager.
It sounds more like a Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson flick than the story of a man who was to be responsible for the fate of the Republic during the biggest natural disaster in our history. Brownie was a failed former lawyer with a degree from a semiaccredited law school, as The New Republic put it, when he moved to Colorado in 1991 to judge horse judges for the Arabian Horse Association.
He was put out to pasture under pressure in 2001, leaving him free to join his pal Mr. Allbaugh at an eviscerated FEMA. Mr. Allbaugh decided to leave the top job at FEMA and become a lobbyist with clients like Halliburton when the agency was reorganized under Homeland Security, stripping it of authority. Why not, Mr. Allbaugh thought, just pass this obscure sinecure to his homeboy?
Time magazine reported that Brownie's official bio described his only stint in emergency management as "assistant city manager" in Edmond, Okla. But a city official told Time that the FEMA chief had been "an assistant to the city manager," which was "more like an intern."
Ever since W. was his father's loyalty enforcer, his political decisions have been shaped more by loyalty than substance or competence. Mr. Bush never did warm up to his first secretary of state because Colin Powell rebuffed appeals to help out in the Tallahassee recount of 2000.
The breakdown in management and communications was so execrable that the president learned about the 25,000 desperate, trapped people at the New Orleans convention center not from Brownie, who didn't know himself, but from a wire story carried into the Oval Office by an aide on Thursday, 24 hours after the victims had been pleading and crying for help on every channel. (Maybe tomorrow the aide will come in with a wire story, "No W.M.D. in Iraq.")
"Getting truth on the ground in New Orleans was very difficult," a White House aide told The Times's Elisabeth Bumiller. Not if you had a TV.
As Mexican troops arrived in Texas to help with Katrina refugees, Brownie was recalled to Washington, where he said he wanted to get "a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita." Yeah, it was hard to get any good étouffée in New Orleans given the E. coli. The president should find that little bullhorn from ground zero, put it right on Brownie's ear and yell at him to get the heck out of there.
FEMA was a disaster waiting to happen, the minute a disaster struck. As The Washington Post reported Friday, five of the eight top FEMA officials were simply Bush loyalists and political operatives who "came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters."
While many see the hideous rescue failures as disaster apartheid, Barbara Bush and other Republicans have tried to look on the bright side for the victims. The Wall Street Journal reported that Representative Richard Baker of Baton Rouge was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
Even those who believe in intelligent design must surely agree that Brownie and Representative Baker weren't part of it.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Beware the Pissing Contest
Hey! It’s a Disaster Pissing Contest!!
The Rape-publicans, the Bushies, the Neo-Coneheads, the Neo-Aristocrats, the neo- rulers of the one remaining Death Star, the neo-grown-ups, those with neo-character, those of the Neo-Long-Vacation, and the Tzar’s Neo-Pit-bull (Bar) ALL want us to be distracted by joining in their “neo-pissing contest.”
Haven’t ever heard of a “pissing contest”??? Well, it’s when two mentally challenged factions face off and call one another names, blame one another, and make excuses – never EVER touching on anything substantial – you know: sticks and stones! / I know you are, but what am I? / poophead! / Your mama wears combat boots!!
It stinks, but it addresses nothing.
That’s what this whole attempt to blame state and local government rather than the feds amounts to. But let’s just not get involved.
It doesn’t matter – all these “details” as to what the governor or the mayor or “W’ or Clinton did WHEN! It’s all bullshit!
The crucial reality is that the clods in control NEVER EVEN THOUGHT about the problem. They didn’t give a shit WHAT happened to a bunch of poor, Black people; AND they NEVER – in their wildest dreams - imagined that fucking such “scum” to death could CAUSE a problem!!
That’s how stupid and disconnected from humanity these self-important shitheads are!
They stink!!! And no amount of pissing can cover the odor! Unless we let it.
Bush is going down!!
Go to DC September 24 - Go to the streets November 2
And, oh yeah, “Cheney! Go fuck yourself!”
- Uke Man
The Rape-publicans, the Bushies, the Neo-Coneheads, the Neo-Aristocrats, the neo- rulers of the one remaining Death Star, the neo-grown-ups, those with neo-character, those of the Neo-Long-Vacation, and the Tzar’s Neo-Pit-bull (Bar) ALL want us to be distracted by joining in their “neo-pissing contest.”
Haven’t ever heard of a “pissing contest”??? Well, it’s when two mentally challenged factions face off and call one another names, blame one another, and make excuses – never EVER touching on anything substantial – you know: sticks and stones! / I know you are, but what am I? / poophead! / Your mama wears combat boots!!
It stinks, but it addresses nothing.
That’s what this whole attempt to blame state and local government rather than the feds amounts to. But let’s just not get involved.
It doesn’t matter – all these “details” as to what the governor or the mayor or “W’ or Clinton did WHEN! It’s all bullshit!
The crucial reality is that the clods in control NEVER EVEN THOUGHT about the problem. They didn’t give a shit WHAT happened to a bunch of poor, Black people; AND they NEVER – in their wildest dreams - imagined that fucking such “scum” to death could CAUSE a problem!!
That’s how stupid and disconnected from humanity these self-important shitheads are!
They stink!!! And no amount of pissing can cover the odor! Unless we let it.
Bush is going down!!
Go to DC September 24 - Go to the streets November 2
And, oh yeah, “Cheney! Go fuck yourself!”
- Uke Man
Week 2 of the John Locke Open mic at Stagecoach BBQ & Blues - Uke Man was there and added a few numbers!!!
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Firing “Brownie” ?
According to news reports, critics are calling for the firing of FEMA head Michael “Brownie” Brown.
Although Brown is clearly in over his head, unskilled and unprepared for his important position; although he is clearly incompetent and inept, and although he has consistently demonstrated an inability to rationally answer the simplest questions regarding his performance; most likely he will not be removed.
President Bush, who - likewise - is clearly in over his head, unskilled and unprepared for his own important position; who is clearly incompetent and inept, and who has consistently demonstrated an inability to rationally answer the simplest questions regarding his performance, is not being asked to resign. Moreover, he claims to actually be a “problem solver.”
Those in the know look for “Brownie” to be promoted or given a medal.
- Uke Man
Although Brown is clearly in over his head, unskilled and unprepared for his important position; although he is clearly incompetent and inept, and although he has consistently demonstrated an inability to rationally answer the simplest questions regarding his performance; most likely he will not be removed.
President Bush, who - likewise - is clearly in over his head, unskilled and unprepared for his own important position; who is clearly incompetent and inept, and who has consistently demonstrated an inability to rationally answer the simplest questions regarding his performance, is not being asked to resign. Moreover, he claims to actually be a “problem solver.”
Those in the know look for “Brownie” to be promoted or given a medal.
- Uke Man
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
"Great Men" - Yeah, right!!
It’s interesting how we decide someone is a “Great Man.” William H. Rehnquist is recently dead, and there’s no shortage of copy depicting him as an intelligent, educated man who demonstrated efficiency, good humor and absolute impartiality – one headline says, “CHIEF JUSTICE LEFT LARGE IMPRINT ON COURT.” Yet he was always determined to screw the people: choosing to champion state support of superstition in public schools, restrictions on affirmative action, and urine tests for students – Rehnquist, the great man, believed high school kids should both be ALLOWED to pray and FORCED to piss in a bottle. Yes sir! A “Great Man” resting in peace – at last.
Consider Ronald Reagan, the Great Man. His admirers are working overtime to get SOMETHING named after him in EVERY county in the US of A! For a long time they were pushing the Gipper’s face for inclusion on Mt. Rushmore.
Although Alzheimer’s probably had a grip on Ronnie BEFORE he left office, he never WAS as dim as “W” is now, but he was certainly no bright bulb either. Breaking unions, playing up to racists, creating tremendous deficits that could be used as an excuse to cut the safety net, mouthing platitudes against “The Evil Empire”; Ronnie was no “Great Man” of the people. He WAS, though, a “Great Man” of the people who own this country.
And there you have it, the two major criterion for designation as “a Great Man.”
One must first “leave a large imprint,” and – secondly – that imprint must serve the ruling class, the few at the top who pull the strings to benefit themselves at the expense of the people.
“History” is overrun with “Great Men”: All the wealthy “Great Men” who led our “revolution” against England (sending “little men” out to die to improve the Great Men’s position in the economy, even though if the war were to prove successful, the little men would not be allowed to vote); The “Great” Carnegie’s and Morgan’s and all the Robber Barons who connived and bullied and killed to steal what they wanted – they are all revered today – Great Men all – BECAUSE they “left a large imprint” and were OF the ruling class, benefiting themselves and lesser elites by the abuse of the people.
Cecil Rhodes is a great man too. Bill Clinton and many others benefited from a Rhodes scholarship. Cecil was a cunning and heartless man, but since he succeeded and made a lot of money, it doesn’t matter how many people’s deaths he caused or how much pain and degradation he caused – he’s a Great Man! Sure, some of the folks who died to please Cecil Rhodes were white and of Dutch descent, but most were just Africans.
Then, there’s J. Edgar Hoover, a closet homosexual who dressed up in women’s clothes and kept his male lover nearby as his assistant for years and who relentlessly persecuted other homosexuals who didn’t measure up to his reactionary political standards. This Great Man is STILL a Great Man, with D.C. buildings emblazoned by his name, even though the reactionary ruling class pretends to hate gays in order to “chum” ignorant fundamentalists. Hoover left a large imprint AND he served the ruling class; a Great Man if there ever was one.
Finally, have you ever wondered why historical novels are about knights, princes, and kings instead of serfs? Have you ever wondered why the Holy Bible says so little about women? Have you ever wondered why the press reports that New Orleans blacks are looting but New Orleans whites are “finding food”? Have you ever wondered why we need to cut taxes for the wealthy while increasing penalties for poor people who go bankrupt? Have you ever wondered why it’s good to increase profits by eliminating jobs? Have you ever wondered why it’s wiser to hobble the benefits of Social Security and Medicare than to proportionally tax the wealthy?
Well, not to worry. The “Great Men” have it under control. Poor people, women, people of color, common laborers, old people, and the afflicted are NOT “Great”; they are the little people who live to serve their betters; the more they can sacrifice, the better. And, besides, they’re used to it; no big deal. Just ask Barbara Bush; she’ll tell you just how good all of us unwashed, underprivileged losers have it! Shit! Some of us get to live in a famous stadium in Texas!!!!
- Uke Man
Dunkle's Digest: If Hitler had WON the war and now controlled the world, he would be a "Great Man" too!
Consider Ronald Reagan, the Great Man. His admirers are working overtime to get SOMETHING named after him in EVERY county in the US of A! For a long time they were pushing the Gipper’s face for inclusion on Mt. Rushmore.
Although Alzheimer’s probably had a grip on Ronnie BEFORE he left office, he never WAS as dim as “W” is now, but he was certainly no bright bulb either. Breaking unions, playing up to racists, creating tremendous deficits that could be used as an excuse to cut the safety net, mouthing platitudes against “The Evil Empire”; Ronnie was no “Great Man” of the people. He WAS, though, a “Great Man” of the people who own this country.
And there you have it, the two major criterion for designation as “a Great Man.”
One must first “leave a large imprint,” and – secondly – that imprint must serve the ruling class, the few at the top who pull the strings to benefit themselves at the expense of the people.
“History” is overrun with “Great Men”: All the wealthy “Great Men” who led our “revolution” against England (sending “little men” out to die to improve the Great Men’s position in the economy, even though if the war were to prove successful, the little men would not be allowed to vote); The “Great” Carnegie’s and Morgan’s and all the Robber Barons who connived and bullied and killed to steal what they wanted – they are all revered today – Great Men all – BECAUSE they “left a large imprint” and were OF the ruling class, benefiting themselves and lesser elites by the abuse of the people.
Cecil Rhodes is a great man too. Bill Clinton and many others benefited from a Rhodes scholarship. Cecil was a cunning and heartless man, but since he succeeded and made a lot of money, it doesn’t matter how many people’s deaths he caused or how much pain and degradation he caused – he’s a Great Man! Sure, some of the folks who died to please Cecil Rhodes were white and of Dutch descent, but most were just Africans.
Then, there’s J. Edgar Hoover, a closet homosexual who dressed up in women’s clothes and kept his male lover nearby as his assistant for years and who relentlessly persecuted other homosexuals who didn’t measure up to his reactionary political standards. This Great Man is STILL a Great Man, with D.C. buildings emblazoned by his name, even though the reactionary ruling class pretends to hate gays in order to “chum” ignorant fundamentalists. Hoover left a large imprint AND he served the ruling class; a Great Man if there ever was one.
Finally, have you ever wondered why historical novels are about knights, princes, and kings instead of serfs? Have you ever wondered why the Holy Bible says so little about women? Have you ever wondered why the press reports that New Orleans blacks are looting but New Orleans whites are “finding food”? Have you ever wondered why we need to cut taxes for the wealthy while increasing penalties for poor people who go bankrupt? Have you ever wondered why it’s good to increase profits by eliminating jobs? Have you ever wondered why it’s wiser to hobble the benefits of Social Security and Medicare than to proportionally tax the wealthy?
Well, not to worry. The “Great Men” have it under control. Poor people, women, people of color, common laborers, old people, and the afflicted are NOT “Great”; they are the little people who live to serve their betters; the more they can sacrifice, the better. And, besides, they’re used to it; no big deal. Just ask Barbara Bush; she’ll tell you just how good all of us unwashed, underprivileged losers have it! Shit! Some of us get to live in a famous stadium in Texas!!!!
- Uke Man
Dunkle's Digest: If Hitler had WON the war and now controlled the world, he would be a "Great Man" too!
Monday, September 05, 2005
Welcome to “Slave Labor Day”
The REAL Labor Day is on May 1, when the workers of the world stand up and take pride in themselves and the fruit and worthiness of their labor!
Today, Monday, September 5, is Slave-labor Day.
Today is the day to celebrate Management - to celebrate the Captains of Finance and Oil and Agriculture and Manufacturing and Government and (some people's) God- and to thank them for cheapening labor, for beating down labor, for impoverishing workers, for reducing us to mendicants - easily obtained, easily discarded, righteously ignored in our predicaments, abandoned even in the throes of cataclysmic disaster.
As I've said in earlier postings, the clap-trap we so often hear about "productivity" increasing and "how good that is" for everyone is crap! "Productivity" means "squeezing workers for more work and less pay," and what's "so good" about it is that it increases PROFIT!
That's what I've said. Now today the AP (Columbus Dispatch - p. C3) joined my chorus:
The median hourly wage is lower than in 1979.
Median wages have declined for the last four years.
Researcher Amy Hanauer says, " It used to be that compensation rose with productivity gains. That is no longer the case. Productivity is rising much faster and going to executives and profits rather than to workers."
An economist VP of the Federal Reserve Bank disagrees - he says we all have "a collection of TV's"; so things must be great!!
Well, that's easy for him to say - he's management - that's what he's paid to say.
Have a happy Slave-Labor Day watching your valuable collection of television sets! Everything is just great!!
- Uke Man
Today, Monday, September 5, is Slave-labor Day.
Today is the day to celebrate Management - to celebrate the Captains of Finance and Oil and Agriculture and Manufacturing and Government and (some people's) God- and to thank them for cheapening labor, for beating down labor, for impoverishing workers, for reducing us to mendicants - easily obtained, easily discarded, righteously ignored in our predicaments, abandoned even in the throes of cataclysmic disaster.
As I've said in earlier postings, the clap-trap we so often hear about "productivity" increasing and "how good that is" for everyone is crap! "Productivity" means "squeezing workers for more work and less pay," and what's "so good" about it is that it increases PROFIT!
That's what I've said. Now today the AP (Columbus Dispatch - p. C3) joined my chorus:
The median hourly wage is lower than in 1979.
Median wages have declined for the last four years.
Researcher Amy Hanauer says, " It used to be that compensation rose with productivity gains. That is no longer the case. Productivity is rising much faster and going to executives and profits rather than to workers."
An economist VP of the Federal Reserve Bank disagrees - he says we all have "a collection of TV's"; so things must be great!!
Well, that's easy for him to say - he's management - that's what he's paid to say.
Have a happy Slave-Labor Day watching your valuable collection of television sets! Everything is just great!!
- Uke Man
Please read Phyll's comment to the post directly below; she shares Bob Herbert's commentary which spells it out in no uncertain terms!
Sunday, September 04, 2005
The Truth is Out!!
As we normal Americans go slowly crazy over the slow-motion annihilation of New Orleans, we hear asked over and over "How could this have happened?" – as if it’s not perfectly obvious!
Some people are afraid to know – they don’t want to fracture their tender illusions regarding how godly, righteous, holy, compassionate, considerate, and loving a nation WE are (as compared to heathens, Muslims, people of darker coloration, and the French).
Some people refuse to know because to accept the truth would require them to reject themselves – or at least the rationalizations they have come to foster in justification of their privileged position in this “godly,” “compassionate” nation.
Some people choose not to speak the truth because speaking lies better suits their agenda: blame it on gays, race, the bureaucracy; say God is pissed off over Oklahoma’s football team!
The folks shitting down their legs in the Bush madhouse don’t DARE embrace the truth. They are flailing madly to AVOID the truth. The Nazgul have been sent out; the Dark Riders have been dispatched to fog the issue, to kill it if possible, to pull the Darkness over our eyes one more time to save the demented presidential dwarf.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may know my answer. It was just a matter of time before disaster overtook Bush – and us as well.
Bush is a total incompetent, and – despite his swagger – he KNOWS it. That’s why he’s such an obnoxious prick to anyone he sees as challenging him. That’s also why he’s so insensitive to “regular folks” when he’s “off camera.”
His handlers aren’t incompetent, but they AND Bush share a distorted and irrational view of their own importance, power, and abilities. As has been reported, they believe that they and their imperialistic designs have disconnected reality from actual facts – that THEY create reality, and the rest of us are left to observe and report what THEY create.
If that isn’t outright insanity, it certainly IS delusional, and leads inevitably to sad results – such as we are presently experiencing.
The evil bastards who run this country, if they think about us at all, do so only in regard to how our situation can enrich THEM – much like a farmer considers the health of his barrows, lambs, and steers – until he takes them to the slaughterhouse.
In every instance when the choice is serving the people or serving the economic interest of the few AT THE EXPENSE of the people, no thought is required. Break unions, undermine public schools, degrade Social Security and Medicare, cut taxes for the rich and safety net programs for the poor , facilitate war profits for corporations and coffins for working class families.
These SOB’s don’t give a shit about the PEOPLE! We are their CHATTEL, their SLAVES, their OBJECTS to be manipulated as they choose in order to further their own economic improvement.
In their arrogant pride, however, they finally fucked up; Kkkarl Rove’s brain, FINALLY, was caught in neutral.
It’s simple how it happened. These devils are masters of manipulation – much of the media drools over Kkkarl Rove’s ability to convince a majority of the population to spit on themselves. This time, though, he fucked up.
Since they take regular folks for rubes and especially look down on the poor and people of color; because they have had so much success dividing and conquering us via their religious, racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, classist, ageist bag of tricks; since in so many situations they have gotten by with saying that “everything’s great – of course SOME people [those being screwed] will have to adjust – but everything’s great!”; because of all this, it never dawned on Kkkarl that some poor black folks up against it in New Orleans and – for god’s sake – Mississippi – could make any waves. Hell, they’re poor! And BLACK!
Well, they fucked up! Just like so many years ago when the world watched prideful pigs hose down, beat, and sick dogs on peaceful, non-violent men, women, and children marching for justice; we and the world watched the Bush administration demonstrate a total lack of concern for the people they supposedly serve. Moreover we heard them blame the victims of this sick system – a system which demands and maintains an impoverished underclass – for their terrible predicament.
Americans DID elect the Idiot In Chief – TWICE (at least "officially")– and they’ve been trying hard to make him look good so they wouldn’t have to admit their own stupidity; but this insanity in the South has broken that resolve.
The people are only so stupid, Bush is going down – and Kkkarl with him!
- Uke Man
Some people are afraid to know – they don’t want to fracture their tender illusions regarding how godly, righteous, holy, compassionate, considerate, and loving a nation WE are (as compared to heathens, Muslims, people of darker coloration, and the French).
Some people refuse to know because to accept the truth would require them to reject themselves – or at least the rationalizations they have come to foster in justification of their privileged position in this “godly,” “compassionate” nation.
Some people choose not to speak the truth because speaking lies better suits their agenda: blame it on gays, race, the bureaucracy; say God is pissed off over Oklahoma’s football team!
The folks shitting down their legs in the Bush madhouse don’t DARE embrace the truth. They are flailing madly to AVOID the truth. The Nazgul have been sent out; the Dark Riders have been dispatched to fog the issue, to kill it if possible, to pull the Darkness over our eyes one more time to save the demented presidential dwarf.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may know my answer. It was just a matter of time before disaster overtook Bush – and us as well.
Bush is a total incompetent, and – despite his swagger – he KNOWS it. That’s why he’s such an obnoxious prick to anyone he sees as challenging him. That’s also why he’s so insensitive to “regular folks” when he’s “off camera.”
His handlers aren’t incompetent, but they AND Bush share a distorted and irrational view of their own importance, power, and abilities. As has been reported, they believe that they and their imperialistic designs have disconnected reality from actual facts – that THEY create reality, and the rest of us are left to observe and report what THEY create.
If that isn’t outright insanity, it certainly IS delusional, and leads inevitably to sad results – such as we are presently experiencing.
The evil bastards who run this country, if they think about us at all, do so only in regard to how our situation can enrich THEM – much like a farmer considers the health of his barrows, lambs, and steers – until he takes them to the slaughterhouse.
In every instance when the choice is serving the people or serving the economic interest of the few AT THE EXPENSE of the people, no thought is required. Break unions, undermine public schools, degrade Social Security and Medicare, cut taxes for the rich and safety net programs for the poor , facilitate war profits for corporations and coffins for working class families.
These SOB’s don’t give a shit about the PEOPLE! We are their CHATTEL, their SLAVES, their OBJECTS to be manipulated as they choose in order to further their own economic improvement.
In their arrogant pride, however, they finally fucked up; Kkkarl Rove’s brain, FINALLY, was caught in neutral.
It’s simple how it happened. These devils are masters of manipulation – much of the media drools over Kkkarl Rove’s ability to convince a majority of the population to spit on themselves. This time, though, he fucked up.
Since they take regular folks for rubes and especially look down on the poor and people of color; because they have had so much success dividing and conquering us via their religious, racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, classist, ageist bag of tricks; since in so many situations they have gotten by with saying that “everything’s great – of course SOME people [those being screwed] will have to adjust – but everything’s great!”; because of all this, it never dawned on Kkkarl that some poor black folks up against it in New Orleans and – for god’s sake – Mississippi – could make any waves. Hell, they’re poor! And BLACK!
Well, they fucked up! Just like so many years ago when the world watched prideful pigs hose down, beat, and sick dogs on peaceful, non-violent men, women, and children marching for justice; we and the world watched the Bush administration demonstrate a total lack of concern for the people they supposedly serve. Moreover we heard them blame the victims of this sick system – a system which demands and maintains an impoverished underclass – for their terrible predicament.
Americans DID elect the Idiot In Chief – TWICE (at least "officially")– and they’ve been trying hard to make him look good so they wouldn’t have to admit their own stupidity; but this insanity in the South has broken that resolve.
The people are only so stupid, Bush is going down – and Kkkarl with him!
- Uke Man
Letter to Jonathan Riskind - Sunday Dispatch Columnist
Dear Mr. Riskind,
Your idea of putting politics aside during the disaster is a warm thought, and it’s kind to make excuses for the president.
But it’s pretty clear that politics caused the problem – the politics of denying global warming, the politics of an unnecessary war (which robbed the dikes to pay our Halliburton & Co. mercenaries), the politics of racial fear-mongering (such as used by Bush against McCain), the politics of marginalizing workers (see WAL-MARTization and outsourcing), the politics that disdains the elderly and the working poor, the politics that is pushing more and more of us into poverty and a hardscrabble existence while cutting taxes for those who already have more than they know what to do with.
I don’t have ANY compassion for our “compassionate conservative.” He is a bungler and a phony, an uneducated clown who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and can hardly read his script. He heads up the gang who claim they “make their own reality.” Well, that works for con men and Neo-Con men only as long as we are stupid enough not to look behind the curtain.
If Kkkarl Rove reads your column, how do you think he will react? “Oh, bless that Jonathan Riskind!” or “Well, at least we’ve still got him fooled!”
- Uke Man
Your idea of putting politics aside during the disaster is a warm thought, and it’s kind to make excuses for the president.
But it’s pretty clear that politics caused the problem – the politics of denying global warming, the politics of an unnecessary war (which robbed the dikes to pay our Halliburton & Co. mercenaries), the politics of racial fear-mongering (such as used by Bush against McCain), the politics of marginalizing workers (see WAL-MARTization and outsourcing), the politics that disdains the elderly and the working poor, the politics that is pushing more and more of us into poverty and a hardscrabble existence while cutting taxes for those who already have more than they know what to do with.
I don’t have ANY compassion for our “compassionate conservative.” He is a bungler and a phony, an uneducated clown who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and can hardly read his script. He heads up the gang who claim they “make their own reality.” Well, that works for con men and Neo-Con men only as long as we are stupid enough not to look behind the curtain.
If Kkkarl Rove reads your column, how do you think he will react? “Oh, bless that Jonathan Riskind!” or “Well, at least we’ve still got him fooled!”
- Uke Man
About Me
- Name: Tom Harker
- Location: Circleville, Ohio, US
Music and Politics, Politics and Music!!! * * * Everything is political. We’re admonished, “Never discuss religion or politics.” Follow that advice, and we’ll have to quit talking altogether. * * * Well, the Uke Man speaks! * * * Keep track here of my musical shenanigans, my political ruminations, and - from time to time - some other interesting eruptions.
Previous Posts
- "Things are lookin' good !!"
- The Chicken are coming home to roost !!
- The Gateway to Crime !!
- Ice Cream and Coffee can be Dangerous !!
- Bush's Pet (scape) Goat ???
- How Smart Are We ??
- Consumed
- A short (hopefully interesting) discussion
- Hi, atus!!
- So rested he by the Tumtum tree and stood a while ...
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