GWL and GWB

"Obviously, there's concern now I read about that-- I'm occasionally reading, I want you to know, in the second term, your stories that is-- that, you know, they haven't formed a government yet. But I take a different look. First of all, obviously, there will be a government formed. But I think it is interesting to watch the process of people negotiating and worrying about this and worrying about that, and people seeking out positions as to their stands on issues that'll be relevant to the future of Iraq. It's a wholesome process and it's being done in a transparent way. I mean, you've got the press corps all over them, watching every move, which is a positive example for others in the region, and that's important. It's important for people in that region to see what is possible in a free society."

-- G.W. Bush, March 16 press conference

"BAGHDAD, March 29 -- Iraq's attempt to fill the first posts in a national-unity government erupted in shouting and factional strife Tuesday, as what politicians described as last-minute power plays overran a Shiite- and Kurd-led effort to form a coalition with Sunnis. . . Assembly leaders abruptly ordered news cameras out of the hall after 22 minutes. For the Iraqi public, television broadcasts of what was only the second session of their new parliament snapped to black, then went to a Saddam Hussein-era-style tape of a popular singer warbling an Iraqi national anthem."

-- Washington Post, Effort to Form Iraqi Government Collapses

"Whence it follows that God who possesses supreme and infinite wisdom acts in the most perfect manner not only metaphysically, but also from the moral standpoint. And with respect to ourselves it can be said that the more we are enlightened and informed in regard to the works of God the more will we be disposed to find them excellent and conforming entirely to that which we might desire."

G.W. Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics, 1686

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

E G A B7
E G A B7

E A D E
Now when the rumor comes to your town,
It grows and grows.
Where it started; no one knows.

Some of your neighbors --
Will invite it right in,

Maybe it's a lie --
Even if it's a sin,

They'll repeat the rumor again.

Close your eyes, hang down your head
Until the fog blows away, let it roll away. . . .

Big men, little men
Turned into dust,
Maybe it was all in fun, they didn't mean to ruin no one.
Could there be someone?
-- someone here among this crowd? --
Who's been accused,
had his name so misused
And his privacy refused?

Close your eyes, hang your head
Until the fog blows away, let it roll away . . .

The Band, Stage Fright, "The Rumor"

C-Span Horror Show

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

-- Publius (James Madison), Friday, February 1, 1788.

Jump/Cut

"It's not a secret. I care a lot about the spread of freedom and democracy," Wolfowitz said. -- 27th and 28th sentence, Wolfowitz Picked for World Bank , Washington Post, March 17 ("President Bush said yesterday that he has chosen Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a key architect of the Iraq war, as the U.S. nominee to head the World Bank.")

In Egypt, he alleges, he was hung by his arms from hooks, shocked, nearly drowned and brutally beaten. -- 38th sentence, CIA's Assurances On Transferred Suspects Doubted , Washington Post, March 17 ("The system the CIA relies on to ensure that the suspected terrorists it transfers to other countries will not be tortured has been ineffective and virtually impossible to monitor, according to current and former intelligence officers and lawyers, as well as counterterrorism officials who have participated in or reviewed the practice.")

Orwell #4

When we got into London we had eight hours to kill before the lodging-houses opened. It is curious how one does not notice things. I had been in London innumerable times, and yet till that day I had never noticed one of the worst things about London -- the fact that it costs money even to sit down. . . . By four we had stood five hours, and our feet seemed red-hot from the hardness of the stones.

-- Down and Out in Paris and London

Blue State Decadence

I saw with alarm this morning that a new series of Vermont-produced (Fmr Gov. Howard Dean; Rep. Bernie Sanders) Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors are being rolled out in the supermarkets of California (Sen. Barbara Boxer; fmr Rep. Ron Dellums; fmr Gub. candidate Upton Sinclair). Some of the more suspicious flavors include:

Dave Matthews Band's Magic Brownies: Vanilla Ice Cream with Fudge Brownies and Raspberry Swirls

The Gobfather: Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Almonds & a Nougat Swirl

Fossil Fuel: Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookie Pieces, Fudge Dinosaurs & a Fudge Swirl (note clear bias toward evolutionary "science" here)

Have taken home pints of each to investigate further.

46th and 1st

"Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor.
I'll piss on em."
That's what the Statue of Bigotry says.
"Your poor huddled masses, let's club em to death"--
And get it over with.
And just dump em on the Boulevard.

Outside it's a bright night.
There's an opera at Lincoln Center.
Movie stars arrive by limousine.
The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of Manhattan,
But the lights are out on the mean streets.

A small kid stands by the Lincoln Tunnel
He's selling plastic roses for a buck.
The traffic's backed up to 39th Street
The TV whores are calling the cops out for a suck.

And back at the Wilshire, Pedro sits there dreaming,
He's found a book on magic in a garbage can.
He looks at the pictures and stares at the cracked ceiling
"At the count of 3" he says, "I hope I can disappear."

And fly fly away . . .

-- Lou Reed, "Dirty Boulevard"