A blood soaked Arthur IS RISING

Gonzo journalism and fiction is a tricky mix.... Welcome to my razor's edge.

HELLO THERE...

I am an elf in the attic making mind toys with sharp edges; an educated writer who gets good reviews, who you can read for free in the rough form of first drafts on the web, or purchase in a book form.
The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is intelligent non aggressiveness. This is called the mastery of men.

tao

Welcome to you, I am John Scott Ridgway, Novelist, Poet, Blogger, Radio and TV writer and actor... five books, also paint in oils and acrylics. I am poet warrior of sorts, a non violent radical, personally, though understanding of those who choose other paths IN THE EIGHTY PLUS COUNTRIES AT LAST COUNT THAT came in this blog ...

The predicted revolutions in the USA and around the would are going to


be violent in the next twenty years, is what the CIA says. I want them to stay peaceful, which is the only way to win this struggle between haves and have nots. They have more guns, we have more people,, and they include the mothers and sisters and brothers of the people they will ask to fight us.... I think they underestimate the police.

NEVER ACCEPT APPEASEMENT OVER JUSTICE. By any means necessary is the reality. . . the USA can be spared stupid wars, but other countries. . . need different solutions. . .

The number of Countries that have come in to have a look at this blog humbles me. Thank you very much.


NEVER UNDERESTIMATE HOW MUCH I DESPISE VIOLENCE

EXCEPT UNDER EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES BY

PROFESSIONALS, HOPEFULLY, like the police, military, etc...

understanding that violence is sometimes needed

does not mean I like anything about the sound

of fists hitting faces

Boxing is too much for me

make me feel like I am watching

dog fights with toothless pitbulls


"I am an artist first, and a politician second," as John Lennon said.

My intentions are to stop the violence from entering into

revolutionary wars

the CIA

predicts


will break out in the next twenty years all over the

world, including here...

But Ill tell ya,

if there is not some redistribution of

wealth here there and everywhere

WE WILL WITNESS THE HORROR

THE HORROR

OF WAR ON all OUR SHORES




My intentions is to keep these protests peaceful

so we can win

without bloodshed



Total War for Total Peace

Never incites violence

or destroys property

you should be able

to go to protests with strollers and babies

parents feeling as safe as the police


Now, poetry...


I am too far out into the battlefield to retreat. This CHARGE is win or die...




PROPHECIES OF ECSTASIES AND HORRORS


A blood soaked Arthur has risen



be aware

be very aware


total war
for total peace
is being fought
HERE

THERE will be many ways to die
and only one to live
give and give and give
until the worlds downtrodden and oppressed
can begin to forgive
before things get bloody and ruthless
My Peace sign shot full of holes
and my reason ignored
drowned out by the roar of machine guns

You cannot break the golden rule
all the time and not expect
consequences from nature
mankind


we will fight for our right to thrive as well
we do not accept your sentence
to poverty so you can earn more
by shipping the factory off to China
WE ACCEPT NO CHAINS...
BREAK THOSE WE HAVE
COME RUNNING FOR OUR OPPRESSORS
WHO THE HELL WOULDN'T???


nothing this mindgame in america can do to us
can destroy this thing inside that yearns for freedom
enough to die in the name of JUSTICE
generation after generation
from time
immemorial










No more hyper-reality FOR US. We have already spent too long in an oasis of belief where nothing is wrong, folks... Now, we must face this was all a mirage... and try like hell to get out of this desert... or resolve ourself to the fact that we will leave our children to starve in the barren sands.


There are better ways to defeat an enemy than an outright fight, especially if you are vastly outnumbered, like the Elite. MSM PSY-WAR allows them to control our actions through our thoughts, and basically stop our FORCE from activating. I am not saying we should fight just because we can win, I am just saying we should fight before we lose, if no other option is left us.... because a world is at stake.

  • You are a spark in dry timber, stopped from becoming a roaring flame
    only by -- YOUR OWN DISBELIEF IN YOUR POWER TO IGNITE...
    They SET UP LAWS THAT ALLOW THEM TO STEAL. MURDER. BRAINWASH THEIR CRITICS. We must begin to feel challenged now to stop them. Or WE WILL LOSE EVERYTHING. PERIOD. THE SKY, OTHER SPECIES, OUR WATER... OUR MINDS. No more hyper-reality for us... too long in that oasis where nothing is wrong folks... we must face this is all a mirage.
    • OUR LACK OF RESOLVE TO CHANGE OUR WORLD MUST PUZZLE THE GODS THEMSELVES.... how can we be this collectively dum? And if we are....then the brains will be looked to as potential saviors.... when all too often they are just psocyo-paths and stooges and scared folks under the gun who are ALLOWED to CON EVERYONE... FOR THE GOOD OF A




A cruel slap woke me to the PAIN
at the moment of birth;
My first cry was NO
buried in unintelligible screams.
I am a man now.
Now I catch your hand and break all the fingers.

the promise


You must be whoever the enemy fears the least
or fears the most.

No other position is saf
e

da general


Welcome to the spark that inflames TOTAL WAR FOR TOTAL PEACE.

I am too far out into the battlefield to retreat. This CHARGE is win or die...

THE ELVES ATTIC is stories, poetry, essay's, peculiar events in my life . . . oil painting, articles.


Your patience for bearing with me on my first drafts is a much appreciated kindness. Your worldwide interest is my muse . . .Lately I have been writing a book called Gangsta General x, about a revolutionary in the USA, who is fighting to keep the revolt peaceful as things spin out of control in the states after a famine gets the populace hungry enough to change their society once and for all....



HOW TO USE THIS BLOG: There is a black and white jukebox in the right column that you can shut off, or find songs on.... To listen to the COMEDY SKITS FROM THE SHOW PEACE AND PIPEDREAMS... turn off the black jukebox, and turn on the Green one. I play Moon Bong Haze and Jesus...

I have five majors, five books, two tv shows, a radio show, 76 countries at last count on this site alone, and over a million online readers to my credit. I can't thank any of you enough for all of your help and encouragement over the years; the favors and aide that has been offered me, the trust in my leadership... you are all SACRED TO ME ... even you folks I tend to hate.

TOTAL WAR FOR TOTAL PEACE -- Thank you especially. Your sacrifices live on. I salute you... and SWEAR ON THE GODS OF MY FATHERS THAT WE WILL TRIUMPH AND YOUR DEATHS WILL BE PAID FOR IN BLOOD AND TREASURE.

Thank you.



2008/12/31

the karma of tom cruise

I don't believe in the traditional form of Karma... of course, I have a weird view of something called social karma, which says that you can spread a certain type of behavior through other beings by acting a certain way; the basic, say hello to people and act pleasant and others will do the same.

In other words, a lot of the time, your social karma is what gets your ass kicked or kissed. This is too mystical to be taken too far. Just a sociological statement I felt that I had to make because the classic idea of Karma sickens me, blames people for shit that is not their fault.

Tom Cruise, who I surely do hope people will quit threatening, has been the target of my ire ever since I began to awaken to the problem of cults. . . but . . . it is his right to join a cult, and it is his right to go around and talk about it. It is our right to avoid his movies, and to speak truth to their lies. Anonymous has done a wonderful job of showing how to protest a social movement that the government cannot/or will not.

Now, Cruise is building a five million dollar bunker under one of his homes. What a waste of money. People really need to make clear that when they criticize someone, they are criticizing behavior, not condemning everything a person is. People have intrinsuc worth. Tom Cruise is not a child molester or a rapist or a murderer. These are the only people who the general debate grows around having killed. Everyone else deserves to live how they want. Even Tom Cruise.

I do hope that he will realize that all of the attention his cult is getting, actually means something. He is a victim of a cult, as well. L Ron Hubbard's corpse should be dug up and pissed on, but whoever is left of his dying delusion will just become more religious curios. Read about the early 1800's america's and all the different religious beliefs people were trying on and you will see that nothing has changed.

A true religion may arise from the ashes of the conservative christian movements and the crazy cults... That religion will not be started by a guy who took a lot of speed and thought he was satan. Read the Playboy interview with his son to find out the truth about this organization. He was there before and after the cult started, breaking away from his creepy father and his wealth source only his thirties (I think).

Tom, sorry they are on your ass... but you asked for this shit storm when you declared yourself a budding little god. You are the Golden Cow of fame and wealth, using your influence to fleece people of money with a mish-mash of mind control techniques. Inside your cocoon, you do not even realize that their are actual butterflies out here... You should seek your souls rest on better shores.

2008/12/25

SANTA SLAUGHTER IN LA

Santa attacked a group of revelers today with maltov cocktails and submachine guns. Neighbors interviewed on the news all agreed, "Those were some very bad kids."

2008/12/23

will Bush TRY TO pardon Cheney?

Will Bush Pardon Cheney? Will he? Should he? Why does Vice President Biden think that the war crimes of this administration must be investigated? And this is not politics, this is the law, as stated by the Geneva Convention (remember that document, don't hear too much about it these days... guess he's fallen on hard times, spends his days drunk on wine with a tattered sign he holds up down town saying 'Torture Must Be Stopped Now').


There is a myth, probably hollywood related, that anything can be tortured out of an enemy. Now the experts are coming over and saying that treating terrorists like people who have a mind that can be changed from their violent ways, much like a criminal who has been rehabilitated. This sounds fairly liberal coming from me, even though I am a liberal.

I do some mild consulting with the intelligence agencies. They watch my opinions and I occasionally see policy playing out that I originated. Sure am glad I studied Military Intelligence (which no, it is not an oxymoron most of the time). During the height of my powers with effecting the military, when my violent little site was read with the gallows humor that only soldiers and goths seem to have)... this is the only that scared them enough to reveal themselves to me with their heavy handed tactics.

I started out with a campaign for total war for total peace. Put a sign in my window a few years aago reading OBAMA FORGIVE OSSSAMA - SEND ALL THE WARRIORS HOME.

I am glad to see that Obama is going to make a major address in the Muslim world. We need to show the fanatics the spirit of the american people, our willingness to help when we can, and our great love of diversity (I speak more for the majority that the pockets of delusional realms of one or two haters), is real and acted upon. I learned a lot about people when I was driving cab -- the biggest one was that most people are great.

I knew when I started writing about wanting peace, that the process was more complex than just everyone packing up and going home. I wanted that more than anything, but I do not want our war to destroy Iraq. I did not want this war. Would have voted against it personally. Yet, bringing down Hussein is not such a bad thing, and giving a country in the middle east a shot at Democracy is a great thing. I really thought that George the first, should have used the first Gulf War to get rid of this nut. We created Saddam, in a lot of ways... in other ways, he was the creation of his paranoid psychosis and egomania. We ended up having to shoot down a dog that went rabid. This is a horrible thought that people seem to not want to face == our politicians and spies and corporations ways of dealing with the Middle East would NEVER HAVE BEEN ACCEPTIBLE to the the majority of the people in this country, so of course they made it TOP SECRET. Top Secret is almost a code in the Bush administration for, WE ARE DOING THE CRIMINAL THING NOW, SO TURN OFF THE PRESS OF DELUDE THEM.

We make the best of what we have. Bush lied us into that war, and then fought this war like a personal vendetta against anyone who threatened his authority in his 'time of war.'

Homeland Security became the Big Brother we always feared; yes, we got the comforting arm on our shoulder, but we also got the watchful eye and the lawless lawman. Our use of torture can be understood in the context of stopping terrorists attacks. There are few sane folk who would choose the death of thousands over the mild torture of one individual. The problem is, we made these men guilty before a trial. This made us waste a lot of time, and destroy a lot of undeserving lives. When I read that a lot of these prisoners who were sold to the americans as terrorists, had actually just been rounded up and sold into what amounted to a horrifying form of slavery. In the middle east itself, they use the word Al Quida mostly as a slur for people who are sounding fanatical -- these are the people who everyone knows in their hearts are their brothers and sisters and mothers and uncles and grandparents, people caught in the cross-fire of international politics when they would just as soon be having tea.

I found when I started my peace campaign that the war became more complex the longer I looked at it; I was already haunted by the soldiers and their families, who were, like my mother once was, watching the news every night wondering if one of her three brothers had died that week.

At one point, we were fighting the war over in Iraq and I heard that snipers were hiding in civilian houses, and then bolting. I decided that the war needed to become ruthless to bring the peace I had learned would only come with an American and Sane Iraqi's generated win. Snipers were using civilian houses to shoot at Allied troops, then running out the back door and often the residentsknew exactly who these snipers were, though they denied this to Allied troops, believing that a death sentence awaited the collaborators. I was blood thirsty during this time, knew that I was now getting people killed, and the only way to deal with this was to take the side that winning was the only way to stop the war. . . well, if I learned anything in my studies of urban guerrilla warfare it is this -- war is a law unto itself. Late one night, as I spoke to the bugs in my apartment, I told them that they should be killing the families who harbor the snipers and send me a necklace of ears. On the news the next week, I heard the battle had taken a dramatic turn -- soldiers were acting on my suggestion (they are some of my biggest fans). . . they were killing the famailies who harbored the snipers. And I heard also... an ear was reportedly cut off a child in one house. My necklace, so to say. At the time, I smiled like a wolf and saluted their balls.

The Iraqi's started turning in all the snipers. And they talked about how they had a renewed respect for American Troops for showing the resolve to use the same bloody tactics the insurgents were subjecting them to. This was a matter of machismo, as sickening as this thought is. Yet, liberals have long made the mistake of merely turning up their nose at the human impulses that inspire action, when our enemies have fearlessly used anything to manipulate people to take their side in arguments. I say, exploit any weakness, use any weapon handy.

The next week I hear that the battle has taken a dramatic turn. Soldiers had taken my advice, and were killing the entire families found in the sniper dens. Civilians began turning in the snipers right and left, fearing the new found conviction of the Americans to winning the fight. There was talk that they respected us more after seeing we could fight with the same brutality they were bring to the war.

They started winning after that. Took back neighborhoods. Like I wrote once, WE KILL AND KILL AND KILL, UNTIL ALL NEIGHBORHOODS ARE SAFE FOR ALL CHILDREN. This is a sad reality in this world. I want this to be no longer needed anywhere. Look at the Israeli response to Hamas -- I am appalled at the way this war is using civilians; the terrorists who chose to hide themselves among innocents were acting out of severe desperation; their tactic worked for awhile, until they continued to lob bombs into civilian populations. Enough innocents have died over there on both sides. Any leaders who do not understand that Peace is the best negotiating position for getting the kind of international support they need, should be turned out of politics; simply getting the support of the arab community is not enough; the friends of Israel are too powerful; they need to get the kind of moral ground that is only available to the Ghandi's.



During that time, I was also trying to run a peace campaign here in the states that set as its major premise getting rid of the neo cons, where the last thing I wanted was violence. . . that I saw the semi-trucks my soldiers drove around the country trying to get messages on the news, read with sorrow of the wrestler and his family who killed themselves to make sure I knew how they were drugging me. Isolated, surrounded by the army that keeps this revolutionary at bay, the loose affiliation of cops and agencies that monitor a man who has proven able to start riots all over the world, if he is not careful.

With this and a lot more in mind that is too sensitive for me to write about yet, I can understand the urge to pardon Cheney and Bush. They committed what are surely crimes against the Geneva Convention. I recommend some myself, though for my reputations sake, let me add that I was given a combination of pills that made me close to mad by a doctor taking orders from the enemy makers.

They are to blame for my excesses. Came at me as an enemy, instead of a reasonable human being who wanted to be heard. there were fearing someone with a better idea, which is insane -- think how far science would have progressed with such stumbling block. . . or how far a student could get in university if they were afraid of learning better ways to view the world than they had yet encountered.

Later, I read an account of the war, and some of the after-effects of the bloody campaign I started, soldiers who were now there trying to make peace with the Iraqi's and turn the country over to them. One Sargent was interviewed who said that with stop gap, most of his men had gone mildly insane. They mutter to themselves, Get wasted every night. The entire squad had insane quirks. This is highly disturbing. These soldiers are not going to leave this war behind on the plane home. There are few mental spaces they can find sanctuary from the death all around them, and the reapers who loom over them on the quietest, most calm seeming dusty streets. SOMEONE IS TO BLAME!!! This is at least how we wish the world worked, as long as the person who is to blame is not us. I do not want stop gap. So what should the army do if they do not have enough soldiers? Say, oops, we don't have enough soldiers to fight, so we are going home? I have no idea how to curb this problem, but I think a Draft is about the only way to remedy the problem. I would hate to see this happen, because it will only encourage them... but if the choice is soldiers driven mad by being kept too long in a battle scenario, then ... ah, the complexities are smothering.

The surge worked in its way. We should not have had to have it. The Iraqi army should have been re-organized and the shites and sunnis encouraged to be professionals together, to get over their prejudices by the spirit de corp. 20/20 hindsite. What if they turned their weapons on their ancient enemies? The result might have been much the same as what we ended up with, an entire country fallen into gun fire, neighborhoods cut into mazes of security zones. Classes of people living abroad, others in make shift camps that are just better than the threat of death they face to return to their lands. Many of their houses are now occupied by armed combatants who need to be battled out... regular men just move one, wait for the law to come back into effect and give them some redress....

Now we have Afganistan. What are we to do with the Taliban. Are they an army recruiting to attack us, or a phenomena of the hatred recent american policies have stirred up in the middle east. Could we find peace with these people? Could we give up the oil in the middle east, and let them live as they will live. Such good will would allow enough westerners to operated in their lands to learn that we too are people of honor, who wish only the best for the earth.

I hope that the camps where we hold the captured Taliban in Afganistan are transparent. That the combatants are looked at as people who have been brainwashed, as well as conscripted against their will. Brainwashing is seldom talked about in the situation of war, though we all know that this is done. Brainwashing is a science, and a personality, of a certain proclivity can be convinced to become a suicide bomber, obviously (not to mention all the other tom foolery people talk themselves into, from religions to choking themselves to passing out during sex...). People tend to look at the phenemona as unproven, until they experiment with it a little bit, or like myself, experience it. I went through drink treatment a few times, and learned that the 30 day model is based on the fact that it takes 30 days to adequatly brain wash someone into a new set of virtues).

Is there anyone actually out seeking Ossama Bin Laden and asking him if he has an agenda that will allow for a peace? Are we morally able to swallow our pride and say that this one man's life is not worth fighting a war over. If he comes peacefully into the new world, let him be exhiled by some and worshiped by others, as long as he does not inspire violence.

I do not care for the tactics of urban guerrilla warefare, though I can see how certain situation would sway my belief. ANd I am talking extreme circumstances, like an invasion or personal protection of self or others. I think a better way to go about changing government is to insist that it is fair. For all people. Give folks a vote in what is done to them, in what they wish to pay for. Let them see the arguements of both sides, not just the rich and powerful and glib and celebrity.

Reverend Jackson is always saying something about how criminals get three squares in jail while school children get one meal. I am more sympathetic to prisoners than Rr. Jackson perhaps (who knows); I do not blame all of them of their crimes. Society placed a lot of them there simply for being poor abd black and searched for weed more often than white guys. Others never had a chance. How people get out of bed and go to work for forty years is a mystery to me, let alone had I come from a family of abusive drunks, or severe poverty combined with prejudice and expectations even more diminished than my own.

I think prison is souls killing. The law is not taught in Jail. The reverse is truth. I believe that they should be given housing where they can try to function from with supervision, therapy, and classes on ethics. Like Skinner's pigeons, they can be taught. No one wants to be in jail. Give them an alternative that is not fraught with fear of going back to jail (which is why a lot of people run and endanger everyone in the path of their suv as they run that red light).

We underfund these therapy oriented group homes because a lot of them simply do not work. I have seen one where the kids basically controlled the house. Gang bangers who were living in group homes in what might as well have been a ghetto peopled just with teenage boys and kids just out of college who had no idea who to deal with the intimidating nature of their charges.

THey talk of a WPA. This could put the kids to work, let thme see something built with their own hands, learn skills that will take them out into the american dream with a change of buying their forty acres and a few mules (maybe a pny or two).

I can see the infrastructure of american being rebuilt not by the usual mobsters and pay to play sorts who get that shit in Chicago and all over the world (look into Cleveland if you want to see how much better off we are here than there); but by people who the government hires purely for skills, and sets free to turn our national parks and roadways and trains into the future we dreamed of and now must create. We can green this world tremendously through this effort. COnsider it our war against the Greenhouse if done right.

Obama will have to be very careful how he hands out contracts. He must hire from the top down in my opinion, appointing someone and then letting them hire the out of work to fill positions. Benefits like college educations for their children, lengthy vacations, etc... Not to mention the work for all the poverty idled artists. Let us bloom this world.

Bush pardoning Cheney, or anyone for that matter who is not ridiculously entitled, will send the wrong signal to the world. For one, this will admit our guilt in a matter which most of the world is disgusted over. Two, the History that needs to be learned from in this manner will have no airing. In Military Intelligence you learn just how much intelligence drops into a file not to be opened for a hundred years, that is needed, right now, to correct a problem. Merely protecting the reputation, or freedom, or a few men who were once symbols of the mightiest nation in the world, is a futile effort. The truth is already known, just not quite believed by the mainstream.

Like I always write, take off the monsters masks, or send them off into the future to kill again.

I feel for anyone who has to make life and death decisions. I laid in bed mourning for a month after I realized my campaign had been used to take human lives, when I told them no human life was worth one fucking bus. I never claimed to be in control of everyone, and still don't know if they were right or not in their military assessment... all I know is the horrible awakening to the powers of the word, and how easily a poet can take a heart and a head and spin them into a hurricane.


The Time of transition has come. Obama. I hope he makes overtures in his first speach to sit down with any taliban leaders will speak to him. I pray he learns of their concerns, and sets his best people to deciphering the cultural manners where we mesh as one species. I also pray he addresses Pot as soon as possible, meeting with advocates, and putting togehter a bipartisan committee to study the societal costs of incarcerating people for this mild drug. The money saved and earned from taxes could make our schools the best in the world. Learning how to and how not to use drugs could make all the difference in a child's life.

The darker drugs would require government intervention to provide the addicts with means to live normal lives, such as methadone has done for many, though the German policy of supplying herion seems to elevate the life standard of the addicts and the communities better (and no, there has been no rise in addicts). Amsterdam is of coures the world model. Of late them have set aside certain neighborhoods for prostitution and pot clubs. This saves the cops time, and provides smokers with safe havens, where they do not have to get stoned on the way to the club.

Lastly, Obama is going to be a war president. I would love to be an isolationist, hold up in the last gorgeous spot on the world and just let the world go to hell. If he is to establish that America has the same power to influence the world as China, Islam, and Russia, we have two options: work with these superpowers to stop wars, no matter who is supporting which movement (often we cannot move on a set of insurgents if they are tied to some bigger power that has an aggression pact). There are other countries who barely have a government, and no one is going to give a shit if we go in and try to help the people establish and working society.

The Marshall Plan for the entire world. FUnded not by the states these days, but by the entire world. By an attitude of all youthful












Democrats.com, the Aggressive Progressives - 500,000 strong and growing!

Will Bush Pardon Cheney on Christmas Eve?

On Christmas Eve 1992, defeated President George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, Elliott Abrams, Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, and Robert McFarlane for their Iran-Contra crimes. Not one served a single day in jail; Weinberger was about to go on trial and would have tied Bush himself to the scandal.

Will George W. Bush follow his father's precedent and pardon Dick Cheney and his other criminal co-conspirators this Wednesday on Christmas Eve?

Last week, Cheney was all over TV setting the stage for pardons. He admitted he personally approved torture, but insisted it destroyed Al Qaeda and saved American lives.

According to a powerful article by David Rose in Vanity Fair, the Bush-Cheney torture regime accomplished exactly the opposite. The torture photos from Abu Ghraib helped Al Qaeda's recruitment soar. U.S. officers in Iraq say torture-inspired attacks on U.S. soldiers were the #1 and #2 cause of soldiers' deaths. CIA analysts say the "intelligence" produced by torture was worthless.

On November 20, Rep. Jerrold Nadler introduced H.Res. 1531 to urge Bush not to pardon his criminal co-conspirators. Nadler's bill has 9 co-sponsors but we need every Representative (and Senator) to speak out against corrupt self-pardons.

If you haven't signed our petition to Congress, please join over 48,000 who have:
http://democrats.com/nadler-pardons

Discuss this here:
http://www.democrats.com/will-bush-pardon-cheney-on-christmas-eve
_______________________

Urge Eric Holder to Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes

Last week three important Democrats - Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Sen. Carl Levin, and VP-elect Joe Biden - independently urged the Attorney General to investigate Dick Cheney's torture confession. A growing chorus of newspapers (NY Times) and legal scholars (John Dean, Glenn Greenwald) agrees.

Prosecution of those responsible for torture is not optional - it is required by our obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

So we've joined forces with buhdydharma and the Docudharma community to petition Obama's AG nominee, Eric Holder, to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

Holder replied after receiving a few hundred emails: "Enough folks. I hear you." That's a start, but we've asked for a formal statement. And we're collecting additional signatures to deliver when Holder goes before the Senate for confirmation hearings in January.

Please sign and spread the word!
http://democrats.com/special-prosecutor-for-bush-war-crimes

#####

Forward this message to everyone you know!

To subscribe, create a free Democrats.com account here:
http://www.democrats.com/user/register

To unsubscribe from Democrats.com Activist Alerts, click here:
http://archive.democrats.com/unsub.cfm?email=johnnyapain@gmail.com&fieldname=L16

2008/12/14

war... what is it good for? Well....

Afganistan is not Vietnam. I was and am against the vietnam war. I honor the soldiers who served their country despite their doubts, but I despise Nixon and that vile demon Kissinger (mr. power is an aphrodisiac), who went to war with a nation that 1) had never lost a war 2) wanted to be a democracy, and we ignored their overtures, forcing them to go to the Soviet's for support. A total fuck up. General Ridgway told them it would take ten bloody years to take the country, and the Government threw him out of the army. Afghanistan, however, is not Vietnam. They are terrorists bands who come from all across the middle east to fight some mythic america that they have in their head.

If we turn our heads away from this threat, they will sooner or later grow efficient enough to attack americans on our soil.. oh, oops, I guess they already did that on September 11th.

I am not a war monger, but I do believe that every human being has a an ethical desire to help the poor and downtrodden. This is a difficult urge within us, and some people do their best to turn it off... but sociobiological imperatives are there. One is altruism. Read EO Wilson's On Human Nature to open your eyes on such matters.

No one likes war. So anti-war protesters feel like they are morally right. If we could stop war today, we would. However, this requires our enemies to do so as well. From what I can see, that is not happening. As the world becomes more mobile, and the techniques for urban guerrilla warfare increasingly sophisticated, the US has no logical choice -- we either fight them in Afghanistan, or wait until they come to our soil and fight them here.

These are shit heads who think that anyone who is not Muslim is worthy of being killed... and of course Muslims who disagree with them are in the same boat. As much as I respect the Muslim religion, which is a much as any religion (except possibly buddhism, which has helped me more than any religion, and their pacifistic themes may one day sweep the world into nirvana, for all I know, and so personally I like them best... which is odd for a guy who has had all these visions and shit... as I describe in my blog waking up Jesus. None of my visions said that any one religion was right. I saw God, and I saw myself spewing lightening and fire. But, when someone else declares themselves dedicated to destroy the American lifestyle, I want them destroyed.

Saudi Arabia is having success taking hard core terrorists and using therapy to straighten out their heads. This is great, and a better alternative than killing someone... so we should offer them all free therapy and a cushy bed in an institution for a couple years. In fact, sending in therapists to talk to terrorists about their motivations, and trying to help them to see that killing people is not going to get them snything more than a bullet made int he usa, they probably will come around.

wherever there is an enemy to freedom, we should be fighting, or at least backing someone local in their fight.

Were I a billionaire, I would hire a private army to take down Mugabe today, and I would be all over Afghanistan killing the shit out of the terrorists. I would be kind as hell to the prisoners we caught, even though I know if they caught us, they would drag our corpse around the internet.

I drove cab in rough cities, in tough neighborhoods, and i know that some people are too fucking crazy to deal with in any way except violence. I hate that this is true.
However, it is true,

I want us out of Iran, when the people there will be safe from radicals... the same with Afghanistan. I hurt inside whenever I see how many have died in these conflicts... but I would go if I could. This is not a good war... there are none. But we have to fight fire with fire, and if they are trying to burn us down....

sorry I have to feel this way. I wish I could be a peace nik. Maybe in the next war I will be. Not this one.

2008/11/29

the faulted one crips on....

I am so sick of the Waking Up Jesus blog and book. Writing in the voice a deity, requires me to rationalize all of my behavior into some symbolic show... a performance. I am very good at taking someting that has happened and giving it a context, though this a trick that requires running fast and loose with the truth.

These religious people who instill in themselves and others absolute convictions are completly beyond me. I guess this is good, because you have to question everything in this forest of lies and half truths and spin doctors and all the petty agendas of all the not so petty people. I wanted that book to tell too many stories at once.

I wanted to talk about the debacle my life in the arts has been; simply trying to stay true to doing art for the sake of art, and not money, might seem simple to some but it becomes increasingly complex on an empty stomach. I guess never having had to really make a living at the arts has helped. Not that I make a living. I make about a half a living. What can you do? I think I will always be the brokest person I know on some levels. I am gambling on a game that does not always pay off... and by my own rules.

I am not trying to reinvent the wheel anymore. I drive effortlessly on the wheels that I have.

I tried to write comedy the other day just to see what would happen, and came up with probably what will be the last ever bogging bush. Who knows? I am so ready to get back to writing about issues more abstract and universal than local political issues; ready to be the one who sets a few thoughts rolling in the minds of people who can use them better than I ever have.

I knoq rhw pettiness of people. THey will like you and turn on you on a dime. Usually, without even bothering to make sure that their assumptions about you are correct. Especially in the city, where there is always some person to hang out with, should one choose. I never do, for reasons harder to explain than that I am a loner, because in most ways I am not, I just like to be able to think about whatever I want, and this is difficult when trying to hold up a conversation.

The comedy story brought me no mirth at all while I was writing it. That was weird. Happens.

I did not meet my deadline for having the new editions of the books up, but I did make great strides toward at least having them done for CHristmas. I had slapped together the blogged writing from waking up jesus and the elves attic, telling an almost insiders tale, and then had to go back and make sure that people who were not as famaliar with the tale realized where I was coming from. Telling a story in poetry in what is more a mental landscape than a physical one, is difficult. There is not one to move through space when one is trying to capture a dramatic, possibly fradulent, spiritual experience of the most violent sort.

I am back to feeling like the topic is too diseased to talk much about. I will always criticize the excesses of religion, and the hypocrisy and their use by political forces, yet I understand better now why people believe the crazy shit that they do.

Writers like me are to blame, some. I mean, I deal with the issue of violence and anger and being a primal beast in jeans and tennis shoes trying to pretend otherwise, ny writing violent comedy. People think I am a serial killer. I write about spiritual matters, people think I want to start a cult. I write about a revolution of values, people I think I want them to start shooting at each other... I write that I want peace, and people are ready to abondan the Iraqi people to what would have probably been a dire fate... I say you really do need war sometimes, and you think I want armies raging about the globe making everyone share my values (or yourse, more likely).

There is almost no winning without being able to fully explain what seems too obvious to even write.... part of the reason so much of my comedy is self-effacing is because I know the trap of taking my one little life too damn seriously. I still get my leg caught in this bear trap daily, but I at least notice it is the trap that is doing it, not god or some chemical in my head or another person or poverty or whatever. There is always someone worse off... and all that.

I have spent about all of the mental energy that I can on trying to decipher my present circumstances with the government, and indeed my public... I have to just move on with my life as if nothing happened. This is pretty serious to the people who are still involved in my monitoring, and to address you spies directly, let me just say that I have no further political plans what-so-ever. I want to support my issues, write my comedy, give readings, sell my books and go on with my life.

If you consider my damn books so dangerous, then you should allow me to talk to people so I can quell that nonsense. I do not want people using my words for their nefarious myths anymore. Unless the entire world is ready to believe in some figure like Jesus, he can only in the end be divisive in my work. I would rather seek some kind os consensus. They matter much more to me than the differences. At the same time, there is no removing my hatred for in-justics, etc... or my view that no one is to blame for this shit.

Since childhood, I have always thought that most criminals had a reason to be criminals. Bad breaks, genes, genies... whatever. A very psychological view of the matter. Now I am prone to add a lot of economics and lack of education to the equation. Mostly though, people just need a few more good options. If there is a golden ring, most will reach for it.

This is why I keep coming back to the idea of forgiving everyone, even though I can't seem to achieve this in my gut, it fits my head most of the time. Sure, I have thoughts otherwise, the same petty impulses for vengence that are natural, but I would rather just move on... hope the path is easier on up ahead.

Oh, well... this has just been a ramble about my interior monolouge for the last few weeks. Sorry to bore ya.

2008/11/28

Another One Of Those F*king drunken calls from president w.

Bush called me in the middle of the night. Around three am. He was out of weed and had flown air force one in to mooch some weed off of me. This is why everyone around here calls him Bogging Bush (secretly we mean that he stole those elections, but there is no bringing this up to him with his penchant for having his 'posse' beat people to, like he loves to say, 'pissin and twitchin'.

Anyways, he was all liquored up. They broke the door down, came in and did a fucking sweep with m16's and shit. He knows I have no weapons and has been bumming weed off of me forever (as a liberal green, I am an odd choice, but he just happened to be in Chicago one time and hopped in my cab, with three guys with guns, and ordered me to score him some weed. He tried to pretend he was not the president, but we were followed by four suv's and I know what he looks like. Whatever. He told me his name was Jorge (the Spanish pronunciation of George), and thought it was such a good joke to pronounce the sound 'whore hey' that he did so, over and over, always chuckling afterwards... the secret service agents chuckled at first, then stopped as he went on... until he got all pissed and ordered them to laugh when he told the joke. He was serious, too. Said something about the 'little nukie' he was keeping in his briefcase and how God told him to come to Heaven anytime he wanted, and he was just waiting for an excuse.

I sort of overheard this and all this other stuff... turns out, the real reason we went into Iraq is because Saddam once stole one of Bush's mistresses, who happened to have been a llama specially trained in the sexual art's by some obscure monastery in India that has been around for thousands and thousands of years, though no one talks about it because all these rich guys are into it and they don't want anyone to know... but if you know the right code to get into their 'llama lover' sites, which Bush got drunk and gave me, you are either going to puke or find yourself down at zoo everyday, watching and lusting, watching and lusting... until you are caught for the second time masturbating... I'm just saying, this could happen. Well, that is enough about llama love.

All I had was some shag weed around so Bush had his secret service guys beat the shit out of my kitten, Dash. I thought this was a little harsh, of course, and told him as much. He was just drunk enough to get all blubbery about it, and next thing I knew he was flying in some vet/ for the cat.. then he got to thinking about all the cats dying down at the pound, and next thing I fucking know he has the place broken into by these guys in black helicopters... he lets all the cats free, then gets it in his head that the dogs should be free too... of course he let loose all these mean ass pitbulls and shit that immediately started killing all the cats. Then one of the dogs went for one of the guys in black and they all started shooting the dogs... then, for some reason, they started shooting the cats, too. I was screaming at them to stop and shit. Typical Bogging Bush shit.

Then he got the munchies, right in the middle of this bedlam, and pats his stomach and says, "Okay, got to get some vittles ... that weed made me need... tacos, and burgers, man. Shit, let's take over a McDonald's and cook weird shit ... like Big Mac's with Quarter ponders on em. Fuck, yeah."

I had been through this before, watching them scare the hell out of some high school kids, usually Bush had at least one beaten to, quote, "Make sure you kids know that you better fucking not even think about spitting on my presidential food." Bush had a thing about finding spit in his food, because he was such an asshole and he had never cooked his own food in his entire life and people were always, indeed, spitting on it.

He forced me to come. Then he starts showing me this notebook where he is working on 'a plan to stay presidenting.' I told him that I thought eight years was the limit?
"Yea," he told me,"It is for them pussies. I ain't moving. I like the place. Someone else can do the paperwork, hell... but I have grown fond of that house, and what the hell... I got me a private army all set up to sweep into Washington and pull a coup and shit. I make myself King, see, then they can have their little president, but I will be over him. And King is for life, man... I read that in a Time magazine. For life. I deserve it, man. I got the experience, I'm still young enough to chase interns... heee, heeee, heee...Mostly though, the dog likes the place. And I got my coloring room all set up how I like it, man... how the hell can they even ask me to move? They asking you to move because they got a new president? No. It ain't fucking fair That's why I'll get Blackwater to even things out. We're just taking out the congress and the senate, replacing them with the women from the View. That way, things will be fair and all. I'll be King, and them women can tell me what to do. That way, there's a mistake, I blame it on them. I got this all figured out, man. I can't believe that fucker Clinton didn't try this... oh, yea, he thought he could turn the president thing into a rock star thing, and catch up on all the tail he missed when he in the White House trying to keep it out of... well, he just put it in their mouths. I guess the cigar got a little bit... hee, hee, hee. I love that Monica Lewinsky. I did her and her mom and their maid."
"At gunpoint?"
"No woman has a headache at gunpoint, boy. I told you that before. Nah, I didn't do that. The wife... she'd cut one of my balls off, for sure. I can't keep secrets, not the way I drink. That's why she almost left me back when I was fooling around. I'd be bragging on snagging some poontang and then realize, shit, this is my wife... I shouldn't be doing this. But you know me, that never stopped me from doing anything. Yea, fooling around... hell, at my age, I prefer coloring. Or coke and Viagra and llamas. You ain't gonna see no llama getting interviewed on hard copy."
"No. Has anyone ever tried to write about the whole llama thing?"
"Oh, the Masons have an underground, nuke proof vault filled with millions of books on llama love. Anybody who is anyone gets the llama daily. You're a peasant, so you are let in on shit like that. Like time travel and aliens and crap. You just don't get to know, because we happen to like it that way. Always got something on you. You poor people might be smart, or good at... fixing ... oh, I don't know... fixin ... stuff, yea, stuff... but you would be killed, flat out disappear, along with your 100 closest relatives and friends, at least, if you were to even whisper about this conversation in your sleep. Everything is bugged, and especially you, because if you got kind bud, I am flying in for a few bongs ... can't smoke the stuff at the White House. Mom caught me. Shit, I told her it was tobacco, but she knew better. Spanked me for the first time in months, man, and no matter how old you are, that shit hurts. She puts on her leathers and gets out her whips man. I hate it.... shit, the welts."

"Fuck you smoked all my weed, Bogger."
I should not have said this. He made some hand motion to the secret service guys and they just tossed my ass out of the limo. I forget that he considers peasants without weed worthless weight.

Man, I sure hope they find some way to get him out of the white house without killing his dog. Maybe he wasn't serious?


Just as I was finishing this, he called me and said to forget everything he said last night, that being at the White House having people 'up in his business' all the time was too much, and he was leaving. "Man, I decided, last night, to just take over Mexico. I can smoke all the fucking weed I want down there, man. Buy the local law first, then just take over the country. They love me down there. Love me everywhere, they tell me. Cheney was just saying I am the most loved president in the world. Man, it's good to be the most blessed man on the planet. And that's from Pat Robertson, so you know it's true. You score anymore weed yet?"
"No."

"Don't be calling me like this without weed, man."

2008/11/23

the books....

I have mostly been working on waking up jesus. I was going to leave the more revolutionary poetry out, for another project, then decided that since they were all bound together in a way, that I needed to add them to the manuscript. Damn, these books are getting too big...

2008/11/14

me, myself, and my thighs

Ugh... I realized something today -- if you become the least bit of a public figure, even to the point of just blogging and writing my little books and the radio show... you are going to have critics.

As a critic of some things myself, I can see how easy it is to criticize. Especially if you take people's words out of context, etc...

I hate to hear or see myself perform, though in certain moods I like to read my writing. So, I am never going to read criticisms of my work unless they are from trusted friends, or critics who I can genuinely respect. If Don Delillo ever comes out and says I should have done this or that, You can bet I will be taking notes and mulling over his every word.

I am way too sensitive. I hate that I am like this. I would rather be just some guy who writes than a famous person, barring the financial benefits, which anyone in their right mind would prefer to my near poverty. I have been recognized a few times in public, and I find it kind of creepy. I mean, people have no idea who I am from reading my work. You think you do, though... I make the same mistake with other writers.

I have been writing mostly in the waking up jesus blog, but I am getting sick of it. The whole Jesus thing is annoying in a way. I had to write something about the mystical experiences that I had, but the poetry on the topic has kind of went from inspiring to bitching. I guess the tale has run its course. My little bible is done.

I am anxious to shed the entire religious persona, and go back to my usual agnostic view.... though I believe in god, I am no closer to knowing how to worship than I was when I was an atheist. Odd, this world of ours. Odd...

2008/11/13

In his 1776 revolutionary pamphlet, Common Sense, Thomas Paine famously declared that "so far as we approve of monarchy, the law is King." But the Robert Litts and Cass Sunsteins and David Broders have radically re-written that principle so that, now, "trans-partisan harmony is King," which means, in turn, that the President -- whose crimes should no longer be prosecuted due to fear of sowing "divisiveness" -- resides above the rule of law, and thus possesses one of the defining traits of a King.


From Salon, Greewald's article Post Partisan Harmony Vs. The Rule OF Law. Here is another article from Salon that deserves a larger audience, and needs to be discussed earnestly. Should Obama prosecute the Bushe administration for their lawlessness? In the article, he writes that Bush's first Executive Order, was to stop documents that Republican's were requesting to go after Clinton. As I have made clear for years, I do not think that going after Bush will do any good while he is in office, and to go after him afterwards is to ignore the thousands of others who went along with him, propped up his doctrines... They say Bush is going to put in a blanket amnesty for everyone involved in torture.

How do I feel about all of this? Well, the presidency is sacred, but only when it is following the law. As the above Paine quote clearly shows, Law is above man. No man is above the law. God may set all this straight in the here-after, but here and now...

I used to have such hatred for the Bush's. I don't hate them anymore. I hate some of their behavior, but that's it. In fact, I am not angry with anyone today, for some odd reason.... still, if we do not open this sad little can of worms, we will once more be leaving the masks on a monster. No president should be above the law, and especially when it comes to harrassing their own citizens... meaning, peace activists like myself... though what they did to me, was nothing compared to what others have reported to me. Do I think Bush should go to jail for this? I am always more of the 'confess it all' and get immunity. Hiding all of your misdeeds, and not getting prosecuted, that is the problem.

We must take power back into the hands of the people now. There is no time for another Oil Company loving president; there is also no time to get the laws straightened out, because soon we will all be watched all the time. The day is coming when privacy is gone. I see the technology, and have been investigated enough to realize how clever and a-moral the powers that be are. Those in power should live as an embodiment of the law.... yet, the machaveillian mindset continues, where in he wrote that it does not matter what a prince does, though it does matter what people think they do.

We have prosecuted soldiers for being on the lowest spot on the totem pole of torture, for being the ones who were ordered to act in ways that will haunt some of them for the rest of their lives, while those behind these actions go back to their rich little lives. Ain't that america?

2008/11/09

Toss Lieberman to the dogs;... like he did us.

Lieberman is one of those traitors we all see. The opportunists. He is a democat from a liberal state, yet he is known to be very republican in his thinking. He would have licked anyone's balls to get a little more power. Look at that fuck. Now, if he had been given more power, which is what a republican president would have done, he would have turned all the more from his constituents. McCain wanted him as his running mate...



I hear Reid supports him, and I believe Reid is the real thing, as I do about Pelosi, I have seen them both fighting to keep the country from being totally destroyed by the Bush Doctrine, and all those who try to blame the economy and shit on the do nothing congress should thank god they were do nothing, or more properly, objecting to Bush's policies, or they would have privatized social security... right before the economic collapse.

I think there should be a move to get him as marginalized as possible in government. He simply cannot be trusted to do anything the majority of his constituents want. He is even now meeting with the Republicans to see how he can help them fight Obama and the changes that this country needs. Show him for what he is -- a liar. I mean, who isn't a liar... but I can tell you this, few people run as one party, then start going with the other party in the ways that matter. This is called being a traitor where I come from.

Lieberman wants to be a republican. Let him go back and run as a republican and lose in the liberal state he is from. Period. Put a bunch of money into showing how the time of the Democrat is now, and that he has proved nothing but a shiftless, amoral, power seeker.

After writing this, I came across an srticle in Salon, which spells out all of Lieberman's lies, half-truths, and betrayels. I can see why Obama does not want to start a war with someone who, Takes it both ways... though you can bet, he prefers to just lay back and get those big juicy republican dicks slamming into his asshole (in fact, I have heard that he has had additional assholes added to various parts of his body so he can serve more republicans at once...

I am not going to go over the entire list of problems I have with this man. I would rather someone was a republican, which is understandable in this world where so many so called experts and news shows are involved in a dark propoganda ploy to convince the middle class that their enemies are their freinds. There is nothing stupider than a person who makes under a quarter million a year voting republican. This is kind of like a slave defending their master.

I know OBAMA wants to stop the red and blue divide. Me too. As a painter, I know that these two colors blend into purple, and this is part of why I pulled the King shit out of my closet and started harping on it for awhile, even though I grew up hating the idea of kings... and still do. No one person should be in charge of a town, let alone a country. No one ideology should try to shove their agenda down the throats of the whole of america, either... though it has been done. And at this point, the mental landmines left over from the years of neo-cons waging war with the facts to hide their true motives (pump up the oil companies, bring on armeggedon, etc... it is very difficult to tell what is going on in the shadows, but you can bet their are agendas out there that would make a good person vomit, which is why they hide everything...

I think we can all work together, but the differences are stark. One group of folk in this country, who are empowered by money their families lent them, want to keep their large stores of wealth, and the starving masses be damned. The other is just out there trying to get by, barely able to keep up with the major issues in this world, let alone the smaller ones... as chomsky said, sort of, by the time a working person gets home for the night, they are just too damned tired to waste all of their mental energy on politics.

I know the feeling well. I do not want to think in bINARY terms -- the old world as two sides, one good and one evil, is a bunch of crap, of course. Yet, this is how our consciousness organizes new information. A lot of the philosophy of language that I studied was about how to make a mind see more sides than just the two presented to them. Like the scam of democrats and republicans. By keeping the focus on these two, and pretending like 'liberals' are dangerous radicals, we stop the GREEN party from taking root in this country. IF people just understood how much a three party system would open up this society and give voice to the disenfranchised, they might just vote for them. As it is, there is a myth that any party that is outside of the main two are dangerous, either right wing or left wing nuts. A typical american way of looking at the world, that has been drummed into our mind like a soundbite that is repeated until the majority believes it to be the truth.

Right now is not the time for Obama to go out and try to make friends. He has enough freinds without stooping to the level of his ideological enemies. I am not saying that he should be vindicative, but welcoming a traitor back into the fold, a man who even his own constituency does not want (he had to pander to the neocons to get re-elected).

Now I hear this rumour that Lieberman may get to head the Homeland Security Committee. I am so far out of the political loop, in most respects, that you name a politician and I probably know nothing about them. Like I have said for awhile, I felt so alienated by the Reagan years, and truth be told, even the Clinton years... that I just quit bothering to watch politics. Now that I am again, to some extent, I can see that they are all bathing in the cesspool. I hope that Obama is different. We all do. We will see.

He should show us liberals, who gave a lot of effort to get him elected, that he understands there is a legitimate arguement to liberalism that is quite different from socialism .

Now, Lieberman, who supported the president who is bugging over a million of their own citizens, is going to be influential to homeland security? I swear, if Obama turns out to just be another face of the same old beast, I will leave this country, go somewhere like Venezuela, or Cuba. I would love to help a socialist country take off, inspire the people to nationalize the oil and certain key industries, to fund social programs. This is about when America pulls a coup. Like in Chili. Still, I see the brains in this.

I understand, however, that I am in the states, and too few people feel like me to ever get anything like this done. Fine. I do not want to force my beliefs on other people. I am so used to being the odd man out on my opinions, that I am surprised when anyone likes my stuff. Period.

I was going to add the article from salon, here... but instead came across this, Bayh, (whose father I once literally kicked in the but when I was five). He lays out a good arguement about Lieberman. In fact, he pretty much makes sense to me. So, I am adding this element to this piece to show how complex and amoral and pragmatic even the best of politico's can be (and I like BAYH a lot, as I liked his father). So, in this case, no matter how odious Lieberman seems to me, Bayh makes clear that the reasons they are keeping him are complex). Oh, well... Like I always tell people, listen to what others say, then do what you think is right. And if you are proven wrong by a better arguement, then do not feel ashamed to change your mind. The mark of a good mind is being able to adjust to new information. sO, I am probably wrong to think it is good politics to throw this guy out, but I don't care about that shit. I think revenge is one of the most basic rights of a human being.

Why do we put people in prison? Not to save society, but to punish, take revenge. Nietsche laid all of this out in On Human Nature. A book that kept me awake for three days. Lieberman will probably get away with all of his shit, because he has placed himself in a position where he could make trouble of he is attacked. Oh, well... even more than revenge, I believe in redemption. So, let Joe redeem himself, if he can or will. I have been mistaken for a republican again and again, because I support the soldiers, and understand the hellish thought that war is a law unto itself... so who knows, let me be wrong... let all of my criticism be proven wrong. I would love that.


MADDOW: You have been outspoken of Senator Lieberman keeping his role as chair of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Why do you think he's the best Democrat for that job at this point?

BAYH: I don't think this is about Joe Lieberman, Rachel. I think this is about maximizing our chances of making the changes that we need in America, maximizing the chances that President-elect Obama will meet those expectations you referred to by addressing the challenges that we face that you also reported on just a few moments ago. And let me explain to you what I mean. If this was just about Joe Lieberman and the things he said in the campaign, well, I'd say we'll let it go. I mean, if people want to settle scores, fine. I mean, he's a big guy, he can live with the consequences of his actions.

But one of two things will be likely to happen if we were to kick him out of his chairmanship. No. 1, he might very well decide to just resign from the Senate. You know, he probably would not want to be a person without a home, wandering the hallways without any influence of any kind. And Connecticut has a Republican governor, who would appoint a pure Republican to that seat, who would vote against the wishes of the president-elect and the Democratic caucus, you know, the vast, vast majority of the time. That's No. 1.

No. 2, Lieberman, Joe Lieberman might decide to stay and be embittered. And what would happen there would be from time to time, we have close votes. You've been reporting on the Alaska race and the Minnesota race and the Georgia race. We could be at 58, 59, maybe even 60 votes. Every two or three or four months, there's going to be a critically important vote, very close, every vote will count. And it might come down to one vote.

Now, if Senator Lieberman has a strong view, he'll vote his conscience, but if he's conflicted, frankly, you know, doesn't really know what to do, and we've exacted revenge on him, I suspect we could probably expect the same in return. That's really not where we want to go. Let's see if we can move this in a better direction.

And the final thing I'd say is, if he does retain his chairmanship, we still exert oversight over him and control over him. He doesn't have the ability to just do whatever he wants. The caucus still has the right to remove him from that position at any time if he starts going off on some kind of tangent.

So I simply think it maximizes the chances of getting progressive policies a better outcome if we have a Joe Lieberman, who is a little reticent, who apologizes for the things that he said that were way over the line, and instead is trying to do the right thing, instead of an embittered Joe Lieberman or a Republican replacement who will not be with us any of the time.

2008/11/02

chocolate news dis's the House Of Pain...

David Allen Grier is funny. Smart. Whatever. His show is among the best I have seen. As I watched the other night, he did a thing on WIGGERS. And among the list of wiggers, he put The House Of PAin. At first, when I started my little campaign for peace -- true, world wide peace -- I did not expect anyone to really notice. When they did, I was immediatly slapped into some kind of bubble, where intelligence barely gets to me. I have little idea, to this day, about all of the events that took place as a result of my writing. I tried to document some of that in my book/blog Waking Up Jesus. Certainly, if you read that book, you should understand that I really went through all of that. Some group of people were behind messing with me. They believed that I was much more aware of what was going on around me than I was. Since no one came up to me with the truth, I began to feel like the entire world was my enemy. I knew otherwise from the tv shows, or at least that seemed to be the case...

Anyways, what I am getting at is that I studied under a professor who was big on Black Issues, then I drove cab for ten years in the most segregated city in the country, and experienced racism as much as a white person does, which is very, very little. This madee me aware of the problems in this sphere.

I hate any injustice. In the states, obviously, the native americans, and the blacks, hispanics, etc.... are among sub-cultures (some at least) that are being oppressed by the police, jailed way too often, and a myriad of other facts.

Of course, when I started writing for this campaign, I was having seizures and spending weeks at a time in the hospital, and my back mysteriously got so bad that my medication no longer worked. I also was somehow poisened, to the point that I was puking for a week. All sorts of odd events started when the radio show and my peace campaign converged.

I had no idea at that point that I was under suspicion of being a dangerous radical. I suppose if you read my writing wrong, you would find a lot of shit in there to make you think I am mad. Well, I prefer to keep the madness in the writing, not my life. i WRITE ABOUT HORRIFIC murders and such in a comedic manner, to deal with the issues. I am sad as hell at any murder, for everyone involved. I used to always wonder how to even get people to read issue oriented stories. I decided that the writing just had to very, very good. Then, later, I realized that I could talk about anything if it was in the context of humor. When people are laughing, they can deal with the horror of the subject matter.

As far as how this made me 'acting' like I was black, I do not know. I do care about perceptions, however. And I have a lot in my life to make clear to people at this point, because I performed for an audience that took me way too seriously for a prisoner, underestimating that everything I said was touched by the horrible anger of having my life become a bizarro realm.

For one, I am against injustice. I am color blind, and not. I expect everyone to be civil, and when they are not, that is their problem, not mine. I don't make any preconceptions, other than expecting civility. This is why I always say hello to anyone when I am walking my dog, or puttering about my neighborhood by the beach. This is not a packed neighborhood You come across someone, usually there is only you two on an empty residential street. I don't try to do this downtown, obviously.

All of this add's up to, I do not know what was done by The House Of Pain. For me, the house of pain was the outgrowth of being someone who is in chronic pain. Some people thought I wanted them to emulate me. That was not my purpose. I am uncomfortable with that thought. I wanted people to just say Hello to each other, and finally, start taking all the problems in this world seriously, instead of continuing down our blind path where even such horrendous difficulties like the green house effect were being ignored to placate the oil companies. In this process, the name Thomas Paine become associated with my campaign, and of course I encouraged that because he was a truly wise man, who died in drunken poverty after being one of the men who wrote the words that inspired the american revolution, because he did not want any slavery in the States. His writing about common sense was one of the first times that I noticed during my campaign that a tv show was responding to my blog, when Book Tv came on with a guy reading common sense, and I wrote in my blog, I do not believe in common sense. THe guy looked at a screen, where he could see my words, and said, Well, this is not very encouraging." I wrote back, "Convince me." He went on to read this passage in the guise of THomas Paine... when he was done, I wrote, "I am convinced. THis is a show that should run forever."

This was all taken wrong. But, you know, if Thomas Paine is a wigger because his heart was broken was his visions were used to enslave others... but he wasn't. He was a man like me, who knew deep and true that enslaving anyone was wrong. Period.

I understand white kids who emulate their favorite stars, or hang out with black people all the time who speak in Black English, and become ensconced in the culture. Why wouldn't they? When whites act black, people make fun of them. Yet, when Blacks act like whites, they get promoted. This is an interesting point. Even blacks make fun of people who choose their culture over their own. This is kind of sad.

So, if the wiggers out there choose the black culture, I think blacks should be pleased that they have had an influence on the over all conversation about what a human being is going to be. And don't kid yourself, that world wide one culture will happen... if we do not blow ourselves up.

I wanted to make sure that by the end of my campaign, blacks, gays, hispanics, native americans, muslims, womyn, etc... got a seat at the round table where they were spoke of as equals. We throw all of the problems into the middle of the table, then take them and fix them as our own. If every nation did this, we could all a long way toward spreading good will for all cultures across this world.

Get the arabs and the jews to put all of their problems on the table, and make the arabs solve the jews problems, and visa-versa. Now, that would be interesting.


Anyways, thank you for mentioning the House Of Pain, Mr. Grier. All I ever hear about the events now, is the occasional jab at me. I am not sure why this is?

Like I have said before, I do not know that much about what my words inspired. This was a serious mistake on the part of homeland security or whoever the hell it was that decided I was a dangerous radical. If I had been told the depth of this shit, I could have actually been a force of good for all. I tried to just get everyone to forgive each other, and go on from there. I was criticized for this. Called a chicken on Family Guy. Then I wrote something about attacking, taking no prisoners...

And since I was cut off, and out of the loop, I had no idea what people were doing with my words... so I just continued the act, trying to make sure that all I knew was passed on. I am passionate about getting across the ideas of certain great thinkers. I am not one. I am smart enough to recognize the few who truly are. I should say educated... it has nothing to do with how smart you are, it has to do with how ignorant you are.

I have spent weeks depressed, just laying in bed going over the events of the last 22 months, hating all of mankind in a way for treating me like this. I have always been a serious person with a streak of absurdity. The comic side of me is buried away now. I can bring it out, always could on the radio show, and it will be back one day... until this election is over, I am stuck thinking about it too much.
How anyone could think I would want any of this... I do not want to inspire people to go to war, though I do not want people to passively stand by while predators have their ways with others. And I do not see the same boundaries of our country that others do. I still believe in the possibly assinine thought of manifest destiny. Why not? We should be inspiring, reaching out to the downtrodden; the us is filled with people who will race to help others. We have just needed the means. And while the neo cons went about their little campaigns and ignored most of the people in the country, there was little means.

The country may change a lot with an Obama Presidency. More white kids than ever will be showing up with all the right hand shakes at snoop dogg concerts... why not? Let those who love your culture revel in it. People do this naturally, by the way.... pick up southern accents and mannerisms, or new york, or the bronx.... just happens naturally.

I do not act black. I act like an indiana boy, a scholar and a gentleman is a phrase that was applied to me a lot. Most people just think I am a mellow guy who occasionally will not shut up. When I grow long hair, I get a whole other reaction from people. I get a little prejudice. Nothing like a black man gets in Chicago. Just more than I usually get. People then think I am a hippie.


People will always label one another, and our culture is the result of bits of other cultures that have somehow survived into the twenty first century. It would be a shame if black culture were to be subsumed as the world comes together on the interent. I do not see this happening.

I suppose with my comments about whites... people thought I was a race traitor or something. No, I was just making jokes, trying to even the score just a little bit. Make the racist scared if I had to. My favorite people I have met in this life have mostly been catholics, jews, and blacks. Growing up, I knew people of all walks of life, except blacks and jews. I had never met any. When I did, after being raised by a union president mother in a very progressive mind set, I was prepared for freindship, and that is what I got.

Oh, well. I am not pissed over this. It just puzzles me. Makes me wonder if I am hated or what out there. It sure would be nice to know who is on my side, and who is against me. I wonder now if they are going to make sure I never gain popularity? I do not care. I will write no matter what.



Is Nietsche is a nazi because his sister promoted him as one, and hid the writing that would have proven otherwise... b

2008/10/17

the bravest folk in the world; the greatest journalism you will read this year...

the bravest folk in the world; the greatest journalism you will read this year...
I took this blog post from an excellent site, which has independent chinese bloggers writing. You will be so blown away by what these guys went through to get these stories -- they were beaten, and still refused to leave a secret prison where petitioners were being kept. They kept going back until they got her out. If this story does not inspire you to hit the streets and take some of the wealth back from the elite, as well as our shrinking human rights, then you are an enemy to my way of thinking (passively letting the black helicopters take your neighbors away is the american way... look at how we ignored what the Nazi's were doing to the jews... and remember they were being persecuted here quite a bit as well at the time; our high moral stance about helping the Jews is deserved, but came way too late.

I was encouraged to hear Obama say that he at least wants to send some troops into Darfur, even if we stretched too thin by the Iraq war.






China: Co-operation 2.0 on Beijing’s Black Jails
A small portrait of the translator
Friday, October 17th, 2008 @ 10:38 UTC
by Meng Zhang
Photos
This is a Photos post

Countries:
China
Topics:
Freedom of Speech, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Media
Languages:
Chinese, English

Full Category List

* China
* Chinese
* East Asia
* English
* Feature
* Freedom of Speech
* Governance
* Human Rights
* Law
* Media
* Photos
* Weblog
* press

Excerpt
In cooperation with citizen reporter Zhou Shuguang (Zola) and other two journalists Chen Er (Doubleaf) and Guo Jiannong, Xu Zhiyong, who firstly blogged Beijing’s black jails in the end of September, went to visit one of the unlawful prisons again on Monday, attacked by a group of thugs who were allegedly hired by the authorities.
Post-Thumbnail
http://globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/black_jail.jpg
copy this link
[see all categories]

With the abolition of custody and repatriation (C&R) system in 2003, it seems the Chinese petitioners no longer have to worry about being detained as illegal residents when they leave for a strange city to petition a higher governmental institution. However, according to blogger Xu Zhiyong, a young professor of law and strong advocate for human rights, those supplicants are actually still being intercepted by the local officials from the way to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, the Supreme People’s Court or other departments, and forcedly taken to some makeshift house of detention, being lock up without any legal process. As the places which confined the petitioners are always hidden among the ordinary buildings, people call them “Black Jails”.

In cooperation with citizen reporter Zhou Shuguang (Zola) and other two journalists Chen Er (Doubleaf) and Guo Jiannong, Xu Zhiyong, who firstly blogged Beijing’s black jails in the end of September, went to visit one of the unlawful prisons again on Monday, attacked by a group of thugs who were allegedly hired by the authorities.

Xu introduced the background of the operation in his blog:

昨天接到一个短信,“我是河南马喜荣现在关在北京市虎坊路青年宾馆后院黑监狱里你能解救这里的二十多个人吗紧急求救”。我因为当时在上课,这两天又特别忙,就答应今天去。上午十一点多最后一次发短信确认她还在里面,决定下午四点过去。

和周曙光约好,四点在青年宾馆见面,他还约了另外两个媒体的朋友。四点一刻,我们三个来到黑监狱门口,周曙光在远处拍摄。马喜荣来到窗口要求出来,看守不让出,一边和当地驻京办联系。我们在窗外和她聊天,她说是走在王府井大街上被警察盘问,查出了上访材料被带到派出所,然后被关押到这里。越来越多的上访者聚集到窗前,这时马喜荣被看守推到里面,听到她对看守大声说,我是一个合法公民,你是什么身份,凭什么阻拦我在这里?
……

Yesterday I received an SMS, “This is Henan’s Ma Xirong, being confined with more than twenty people in the black jail behind the Youth Hotel on the Beijing Hufang road. Can you save us? Emergency!”. Because I was at class and tied up with my work at that moment, I promised to go there today. After the last SMS contact at about 11:00 am, making sure Ma was still there, I decided to start off at 4:00 pm.
.
I arranged with Zhou Shuguang and his two journalist friends to meet at the Youth Hotel. Three of us reached the door of black jail at 4:15 pm, leaving Zhou to shoot videos from a safe distance. Ma Xirong came to the window and asked to let her out, but the guard rejected her request while calling the Beijing Office of Henan Province. So she talked with us through the window, saying that she was questioned by the police while walking in Wangfujing Street. After finding her petition materials, the police arrested her and then locked her up in this place. When more and more petitioners assembled at the window, Ma Xirong was forced into the inner room by the guard and I could still hear she shouted, “I am a citizen. Who are you to stop me here?”


Doubleaf, a well-known blogger in China, from his unique angle promptly blogged the situation at that time :

许志永和郭建龙在黑监狱门口

Xu Zhiyong and Guo Jianlong at the gate of black jail

黑监狱所在巷子

The alley where the black jail is located

……
黑监狱实际上是一所名叫“温馨青年宾馆”的旅社,在天坛西面、陶然亭附近太平街一条很逼仄的巷子内,往来的人很少,只能容一辆车经过的地上积了许多落叶。从外面看,这座破旧的建筑和黑监狱没什么关系,但这里却关押了20多名被非法拘禁的访民,都是河南人。这座宾馆实际也是河南信访办租来,专门关押访民的地方。

到了黑监狱门口后,郭建龙和许志永二人负责与里面沟通,我在边上察看动静。经过一番口舌后,我们想要的人终于出来,与我们隔着一扇防盗门进行了简短的对话。我们今天要的人是一名五十多岁的妇女,据说还没有来得及上访就被关了进来。

后来,又有一位自称是家属、实际是截访人员的男子来到黑监狱门口敲门,但由于我们在的缘故,里面的人并没有立即给他开门。我们又与此人聊了一会,得知了一些情况。

该男子等了20多分钟才进去,我们后来又与要找的人进行了简单的对话,我不停听到她说“不就是说几句话嘛”,可以推断当时里面的人极力阻止我们的对话。

在此过程中,巷子的拐弯处、以及另外一头有3、4个彪形大汉远远张望,许志永说这就是黑监狱的打手。其中一名打手还抱着孩子经过。听zuola说,该打手称要“抱着孩子过来踹他们几脚”。然后,我们又与一名隔窗的女访民说了几句话,她自称是“自愿”到这里的。

就这样过了一个多小时,大概5点20左右,一辆牌号为京MG8490的面包车开进巷子,下来3、4个大汉,骂骂咧咧的揪住郭建龙问是干嘛的。郭说接人,一名大汉很不耐烦的说“接谁接谁”。没几句话之后,几名大汉开始动手打人,我们赶紧叫几十米外的zuola跑。这时,开始监视我们的打手也陆续过来了,一共在6、7人左右。开始在巷子另外一头监视我们的操北京口音的胖子打许志永最狠,一边打还一边骂脏话,说“你丫不是律师嘛”。也许是因为刚来的时候主要是郭建龙和许志永与他们沟通、我基本不说话的缘故,他们没有打我,而我也有点吓蒙了,既没有逃跑,也没有动手反击,做了可耻的看客,连暴喝一声“住手”的勇气也没有。

这帮打手边打边骂,还很嚣张的说,边上就是派出所,去报警啊。大约打了5分钟后,他们终于住手了,但我们并没有离开。这个时候,一名打手指着我说,他也是一起的。但是边上的几位打手并没有动手打我。

整个过程中,许志永和郭建龙没有进行任何的还手。

坚持了一会,大约17:45左右,我们要找的人终于在她家乡信访办官员的陪同下出来了。我赶紧和许志永、郭建龙一起往外走。在走到巷子拐弯处的时候,另外一名打人最狠的打手又冲出来,叫嚷着要开车把许志永撞死。许志永站在路中没动,我于是赶紧拉起他说人已经救出来了,我们快走吧。许志永对这帮打手说:我们还会再来的。
……


The black jail is actually a hostel named “Cozy Youth Hotel”, west to the Temple of Heaven, in a small alley on Taiping Street near Taoranting Park, where very few people pass by. The path fully covered by fallen leaves is so narrow that only one car can fit in. Looked from the outside, this dilapidated building has nothing to relate to the black jails, although more than 20 petitioners, all from Henan, are illegally imprisoned here. In fact, the hostel is rented by the Office for Letters and Calls of Henan Province, used especially to lock up the petitioners.
.
At the door of black jail, Guo Jianlong and Xu Zhiyong were responsible for communicating to the people inside while I was watching the outside circumstances. After a lengthy dispute, the person we wanted to meet finally came out, briefly talking with us behind a closed security door. The one we tried to save was a woman in her fifties, who was allegedly detained before getting a chance to petition.
.
Subsequently, an interception officer who pretended as a petitioner’s relative came to knock at the black jail’s door, but the guard inside didn’t let him in immediately because of our visit. We talked with him for a while, learning some information.
.
The man didn’t get in until 20 minutes later. Then we again had a short conversation with the person we wanted. I heard she was incessantly saying, “We are just talking”, which was assumed that someone inside was attempting to stop our dialog.
.
In the meantime, 3 or 4 strappers stared at us from the corner and the other side of the alley. Xu Zhiyong indicated they were the black jail’s thugs, one of which even passed us with a kid in his arms. According to Zola, that man had planned “holding the kid to kick them”. After that, we had a word with another female petitioner who professed to come here of “her own volition” through the window.
.
About one hour later, nearly 5:20 pm, a mini-bus with the license of “京 MG8490” drove into the alley, from which got off 3 or 4 big men. They abusively seized Guo Jianlong, asking why he was there. “To receive someone,” Guo replied. “Whom?! Whom?!” one of them impatiently shouted. Without surplus words, the big men started hitting us. We hastened to ask Zola staying tens of meters out run away. At the time, the thugs who watched us from the beginning came up one by one, about 6 or 7 in all. A fat guy of Beijing accent beat Xu Zhiyong the most brutally, while swearing, “You are the f*** lawyer, right?!” Maybe because it’s mainly Guo Jianlong and Xu Zhiyong that negotiated with them just now and I almost kept silent, they didn’t punch me. Even though, I was still a little scared. Without running off or fighting back, I acted as a shameful onlooker. I even got no courage to yell “stoppage”.
.
“Go to the police station. It’s very close,” those thugs provocatively said, while hitting and cursing. About 5 minutes later, they stopped, but we didn’t leave. “He is one of them,” one of the thugs pointed at me, though no one lifted hands against my face.
.
During the entire process, Xu Zhiyong and Guo Jianlong didn’t strike back in any way.
.
Around 17:45, the woman we expected finally came out of the jail, accompanied with the officer from the Office for Letters and Calls of her hometown. So Xu Yongzhi, Guo Jianlong and I quickly moved out of the alley. As we arrived at the corner, another brutal thug rushed into the way, threatening to bump Xu to death by car. Since Xu continued standing on the way, I hurried to draw him aside, saying, “The person has been saved. Let’s get out of here.” Xu Zhiyong then said to the thugs: “We will be back. “


Zola gave an outline of the whole thing and had more materials in his blog:

……
10月13号,我中午在twitter上发消息,找人一起去看黑监狱,doubleaf正好休假,21世纪经济报道的郭建龙正好也有空,于是约了四点在青年宾馆见面。见面后分工是,我在路口把风并记录,他们三个人去门口要人。

我于是在下图的B点的北京市六十二中学的门口远远地看着A点,他们三个人在A点交涉要人。


At noon of October 13,I published information in twitter, seeking for people who wanted to go to the black jail together. Doubleaf was on vacation and Guo Jianlong working at the Economy Report of 21 Century was also free, so we decided to meet before Youth Hotel at 4:00 pm. The plan was I watched and recorded at the intersection while the other three men went to the door to ask for the petitioner.
.
The following map shows our positions that I watch A where the other three men negotiate with the guards to ask for the petitioner from B where the gate of Beijing No. 62 High School is located.

从http://log.zuo.la/ 可以看到我的零碎记录,我们约是四点半开始,五点半结束。一个小时里,黑监狱的看守没有采取行动,到五点二十左右,京M G8790 的小面包车进来,下来四五个人,开始打人。打人的录音在这里,是郭建龙和许志永以挨打为代价换来的现场录音。欢迎下载收听.
……

You may check my short records from http://log.zuo.la/. We started at about 4:00 pm and finished at 5:30 pm. During the one-hour operation, the guards of the black jail didn’t take action until about 5:20 pm. Four or three men jumped out of a mini-bus with a number of “京MG8790”, and began to attack us. Here is the audio record which is at the great expense of Guo Jianlong and Xu Zhiyong. Welcome to download.


下图是当时打人的情况,我只拍到几秒种,隔得太远,不清晰。

The following shot was taken when the conflict occurred. I only got a video for seconds in the distance, so it’s not clear enough.

下图是刚到黑监狱的时候,郭建龙和陈二在打电话,许志永在敲门要人。

The following picture was taken as we just reached the black jail. Guo Jianlong and Chen Er are talking on cell phones while Xu Zhiyong is knocking at the door.

<

blockquote>我自拍,我的西面是六十二中学的校门,北面是许志永他们在要人,东面是青年宾馆的侧门,有几个打手在那里,我身后是南面,也有两个人站在那里,身份不明。
This is my self-shot. To my west is the gate of No. 62 High School, the north is Xu Zhiyong group, the east is the side door of the Youth Hotel, where several thugs are gathered, and to my south also stands two men, who are unidentified.

下图是朝东面拍的,三个男人里有一个是抱了小孩的,三个男人是打手,骑单车买来啤酒,喝酒后打人的那个没拍到,那个人是最凶的,还掐许志永的脖子,把许志永的衬衫钮扣都揪掉一个。

The following picture was taken from the east. The three men are thugs, one of which holds a kid. I didn’t catch the most brutal men who rode bike to buy bears and then got drunk. He ripped off a button from Xu Yongzhi’s shirt while throttled Xu’s neck.

下图的黑荚克曾对棕荚克说:“过去,踹上两脚”

In the following picture, the black jacket says to the brown jacket, “Go and kick their ass.”

下面是10月5号去黑监狱的照片,从这次打人来看,后面的京M G8790 是黑监狱的车.

The following picture was taken during the visit to black jail on October 5. According to the conflict this time, the car of “京 MG8970” behind must belong to the black jail.

Besides the four men’s admirable courage and omni-directional blogging afterwards, another stunning knockout of the black jail operation is Doubleaf and Zola’s live report on the event by Twitter, which, as Isaac Mao commented, “has showed the social media’s potential routes of transmission and power.”
Posted by Meng Zhang
Print Version Print Version

Share This Share this article
Share this article with social bookmarking

* del.icio.us
* Digg
* Facebook
* StumbleUpon
* Google Bookmarks
* Technorati
* reddit

email Send this by E-mail
E-mail It

* Recipient's Address:
* Your Name:
* Your Address:
*

No Responses to
“China: Co-operation 2.0 on Beijing’s Black Jails”

1.
October 17th, 2008 at 17:58 pm
John Scott Ridgway:

Your comment is awaiting moderation: Please be patient, we moderate all comments by hand, so it may take some time.
1

I am honored to contact such courageous souls. You are very inspiriting. To be actually attacked by thugs, and continue your journalistic work makes me proud to be alive. Your inspiration is sorely needed here in the States, where our government’s passively ignoring the needs of the poor and disenfranchised and the veterans, while catering to the greed of the top few percent who hold 90 percent of The United States wealth, has driven us to the brink of falling apart. Americans have for way too long looked to China as an enemy, rather than an inspiration. I find much of your government to be the most logical form of government, and with youth like you I am sure your problems with human rights will be worked out.

If I can ever be assistance to any of you, I am a blogger, novelist, tv writer and a film-maker, as well as a radio show host… and a military intelligence major from a famous military family; the history of my families heriocs are recorded back to the early three hundreds… I am sure that one day, your ancestors, will look on all of you with the same pride I do my own; this is one writer who will never forget the lesson of this entry.

I am placing it on my well read blogs, along with an address to this site.

Thank you again; God bless.

John Scott Ridgway

johnnyapain@gmail

We live in the proud traditions of our forefathers, yet must bring the new knowledge of the sciences to the ruling classes, whereever they are.

2008/10/16

general ridgway kept us out of nam for ten years... before they ousted him

Chief of Staff

In May 1952, Ridgway replaced General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR). However, he upset other European military leaders by surrounding himself with American staff, and eventually returned to the U.S., where he replaced General Collins as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. After Eisenhower was elected President, he asked Ridgway for his assessment of US military involvement in Vietnam in conjunction with the French. In response, Ridgway prepared a comprehensive outline of the massive commitment that would be necessary for success, which dissuaded the President from intervening. However, the relationship between the two men, which had been so good during World War II, was sorely tested as a result of Ridgway's assessment because Eisenhower very much supported American intervention in Vietnam. Following that episode, Ridgway retired from the US Army in 1955, succeeded in the Chief of Staff post by his one time 82nd Airborne Division Chief of Staff Maxwell D. Taylor. In the opinion of a number of military historians, Ridgway's stand as Chief of Staff delayed US intervention in Vietnam for around ten years.[citation needed]
we're going to the velvet room tnight, in china town, to film my freind sarah belly dancing. We need the footage for the belly dancing around chicago video. It is always a joy to see her dance.

The debate... now I am just ready to see if Obama will give us more of the same, or if he really is about something new. I believe in him, and being from Chicago and knowing the streets he worked to save for all those years, I apreciate that he is a fighter.

McCain has become a traitor to himself. I have great respect for some of the things he has done in his life, mainly choosing not to go home from hotel hanoia, but that is not qualification to be a president. In fact, military men should not be the president. Seperate branches. And we all know, except when it comes to voting to fund veteren's hospitals, that McCain looks at himself as a soldier. The neo cons obviously bought him out.

Oh, well... the world is about to end anywys.

2008/10/13

TOMMY SMOTHERS is dangerously IGNORANT

i AM STILL PISSED about that crackle headed idiot calling people who think they can war their war to peace ignorant. Of course he was talking to me. He needs to read a little history. i LOVE BEING CALLED AN IDIOT BY PEOPLE WHO I COULD ARGUE OUT OF EXISTENCE IN A HALF AN HOUR. I Went to college for at least ten years longer than he did(AT LEAST), and studied under people in the real world, didn't sit around listening to a bunch of stoned synchophents lapping sweat off my balls and calling me a legend because the gov knocked off my show.

He was funny once. Then a genocide came along and mocked his hippie rhetoric. Boo him at all costs, and squirt him with red kool aide so he can feel a little of the metaphorical blood those peaceniks are spilling in Darfur, afganistan and pakistan as we speak. You kill the terrorists, save the peaceful. He needs to read his history, because Peace is only bought with war. If he can show me one place where the opposite happened, I will let him lick my feet (after I walk in some dog shit... he likes that taste of shit in his mouth so well, obviously).

2008/08/08

how to find out if the cia is spying on you... get your records from them.

How to file a Privacy Act Request
The Essential Elements of a Request Letter
Specify in writing that you wish a copy of records indexed to your name.
Write the Information and Privacy Coordinator, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C. 20505.
Transmission via facsimile is also acceptable. The facsimile number is (703)613-3007
Provide your full name and address.
Provide your date and place of birth.
Provide your citizenship status.
Notarize your letter or sign it under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1746 to ensure that records concerning you are only released to you, or, if requesting through an attorney, an original notarized statement or statement signed under penalty of perjury (pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1746) authorizing us to release information to your attorney.
Sample Privacy Act Request Letter
Date
Information and Privacy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505


Dear Coordinator:

Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. subsection 552 and the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. section 552a, please furnish me with copies of all records (the Agency does not require you to specify the record system) about me indexed to my name.

To help identify information about me in your record systems, I am providing the following required information:

Full name, current address, date and place of birth, citizenship status.

Optional: Please explain contact, if any, with the Agency or any other information that would help us distinguish between you and other individuals with the same or similar names.

If you deny all or any part of this request, please cite each specific exemption that forms the basis of your refusal to release the information and notify me of appeal procedures available under the law.

Optional: If you have any questions about handling this request, you may telephone me at (home phone) or at my (office phone).

Sincerely,

Name

Statement swearing under threat of perjury that above information is true or have the letter notarized.

2008/07/29

A LIFE AFFIRMING EXPERIENCE... FOR ONCE.

Johnny Pain here with a unexpectantly kittenish service for a seriall killer.... who I explain for those who don't know me, Know I majored in military intelligenfce, met a lot of spies, and some hated me and some liked me. i ONLY kill for liberal causes. Well, that and shit like people who crowd me on the sidewalk, where if my girlfriend and witnesses are no where to be seen... I like to cut their tendons.

Anyways, I promised you a story... this one is weird because I actually saved a life... and no, of course not, I am not speaking of you vile humans (there are too many of you, by your own accessments, and to a hunter like me that means cull the tribe...

2008/07/26

below is an article on cops driving with a black head on their attenna

this is from the'fictional' blog of Jesus Christ. I have been convinced by the pope the president and others that this is true. Maybe they are playing me because I am very influential writer... which would be easy, with my military background, I know they can insert personalities in peoples minds, which react only to them. They use this for assasines and others who they want to forget their mission.

So, I am either Jesus Christ, or they fucking brain washed me when I started and athiestic campaign for peace. I suddenly had a weird seizure, and my girlfriend was told I was sleeping for 30 hours and there was no point in coming in. Yea, right. I forgot who I was. A personality of the Christ began rising in me.... the miracloe is a little harder to explain, let alone the dreams of God's face, and white lightening and fire flowing from my chest and back. There is much,much more.. phone tapped, filmed in my house, even on the toilet. A lot of people were privy to this. Are you one? Then why do you not come help me get the fuck out of this prison of Chicago, where they have assigned me freinds and a lover.

You can read all about it in http://wakingupjesus.blogspot.com

among the occurances: they got tv personalties to talk to me about running a revolution... I do not know if everyone noticed or not. I assume they did. They referred to my campaign as Political Theatre in the Senate, until they saw me pulling off miracles.






Saturday, July 26, 2008
the police in new york are driving around with the head of a dead black person



below is an article on cops driving with a black head on their attenna




THIS SHIT HAS TO STOP. THEY ARE STOPPING OUR Y0UNG AND MAKING THEM FEAR THE POLICE. this is no way to support crime eradication. THE COPS MUST BE FIRED. PERIOD. OR.... YOU GOING TO BE WONDERING WHY SOMEONE IS KILLING ALL THE COPS IN HARLEM. WE ARE GOING TO START KILLING THEM IF THEY LEAVE US NO CHOICE. PASS THE WORD. By the way, this is a work that says it is fiction, and most people think Jesus is fiction, so it stands... I will be writing out hit lists and shit. I do not want anyone dead, just attacked with words... but if they use those black heads, like they did in the slavery days, when they hung slaves heads on sticks... for bullshit.





below is an article on cops driving with a black head on their attenna



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26harlem.html?ex=1374724800&en=76c875238ea1356a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink




You are welcome to spread my poems by whatever means... they are yours... unless you make some money off of me and then I would like some.
Posted by scott ridgway at 6:42 PM 0 comments

2008/07/08

good news, elfshits (as I used to call my readers)


MY BOOKS ARE NOW GOING TO BE ON AMAZON.COM... YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GOINTO BOOKSTORES AND ASK FOR THEM.

Yes, no more is my shameful writing just available to a few connesiurs of this bizarre, gonzo writer on Chicago's north side.

I have been off line going over the books, and adding some things the publisher required, like a title page. I had been starting with dedications, but I guess you need a title page. It is kind of a big deal. The place where I have them, LULU, offers these services like five hundred bucks, but they liked my work, or thought I had potential or something, and wanted to sign me on, make them my official publishers. It is good to be noticed, and given this opportunity to finally get my books out all over this here world.

WE ARE GOING TO FUCKING CHANGE THIS WORLD, FOLKS. WEED IS GOING TO BE LEGALIZED AND THE JAILS WILL BE EMPTIED OF THE POT HEADS... THE DAY I QUIT SMOKING WEED IS THE DAY THEY CLOSE THE LAST FUCKING BAR. UNTIL THAT HAPPENS, I WILL TAKE MY DRUG OF CHOICE AS A RIGHT, NOT AS A FUCKING CRIME.

I got so pissed when I heard the pope was making drug use a sin because it adds to the criminal elements power. I have to give it to the vatican, they were diplomatic, and their proposal has a ring of sanity to the unsuspecting. The truth is, making weed a sin will drive people from that church, into mine. So, screw them.

I have been off line, like I said. I thought the part was going to cost me alot, and it turned out to be a ten dollar thing they had on the corner. I am so happy to be connected again.

A lot has been happening. Mostly inside of me, where I have been in Jesus mode, finishing up that book, trying to give more context to the poetry. I ended up thinking that there is an entirely other book to be written about what I went through. I went back and forth on which events I was going to write about. Unfortunatly, I know a lot of Top Secret Shit now, and this is stuff they do not want you to know, and shit that might cause a witch hunt among people who were just doing their best in the worst of circumstances.

I have never had a year like the last couple, with all the attention to my blog because of the revolutionary poems, and all the people who are convinced that I am an angel or Jesus or a wizard or the anti christ or a unicorn or buddha or the god of mars or whatever... I have become a bit of underground sensation gone global.

What you read here is perused by the biggest stars in Hollywood, as well as spies who would like to find a smoking gun in my hand -- I have never even owned a gun, or involved myself in a radical organization, or plotted against the government. I did get attacked by them, and they drugged me and caused my back pain to increase. This all sounds paranoid and whatever... but, I am enmeshed in the Intelligence world now. I have made it clear that I will work for none of them, and all of them. I am not against spies, per se. That would be stupid. I am also not against monitoring terrorists, but when they have almost a million peace activists under survaillance in this country, something is wrong.

Our country now allows phone taps. Your phone and blog are probably monitered for key words.

People wonder why I misspell a lot? You misspell the hot button words, and they will not come up on the NSA searches. Make sense?

It is too late for me to ever be off their radar. I have also put myself in some physical danger with this writing. People take me wrong. I can be pretty harsh, and that is never going to go away.

I have been working with a camera man to shoot some footage. I will at least be putting up some poetry videos next week, if nothing else, and a teaser for the upcoming Belly Dancing Around Chicago.... You will get to see me with much shorter hair. When I was in jail, I got it all buzzed off, around the eighth of october, it was a tangled up mess. The jail combs broke in my hair. They did not medicate me for my chronic pain for the first seven days, so I was taking abunch of showers everyday, like ten, to get a little relief from the agony... the constant wet hair was annoying as hell. I just had them nub my head. M loved the look. It made me feel mean... well, the hair and jail. I came out of jail thinking There is no way in hell I will go through that again, no matter who has to fucking die. I have somewhat mellowed on this approach, but I the way they treated me in jail was criminal. People were in real distress in amedical ward where you got your pills only after seven days. People needed things like catheters (he had a bullet in his back and needed it to empty his bladder). He was in the bunk above me and I felt so fucking sorry for him. A good guy.

Anyways... I am just kind of blathering today. I am sorry if any of you think I am full of shit. You really need to wake up to how fascist this country has become. I have experienced their ways now, know how they attack. Luckily, with the radio show and the thousands, millions who know of me, they would have more trouble than they want if they try to take me on.

I mean this... if they come for me, I expect you to tear some shit up.


Just kidding. I can take whatever they do to me. As a writer and a thinker and a very street wise mother fo, I have always found I can befriend about anyone. Brains means a lot in prison. I mean, I ended up hanging out with these big time gang bangers because almost no one in there could spell, and most had limited vocabularies. The one guy was a champion, talked a lot about playing some big mobster all the time when he was locked up before. The Mobster used to bring them all sausage samwiches every friday, and all the cons loved him. They would cheer when he won, and get alll pissed when my buddy beat him.

I could not write or really settle down without something to cut down my pain, but once I was medicated almost properly, I realized that jail for me would mean a lot of books, and painting, and teaching.

I do not want to ever be locked up again though. Chicago has me locked up in a kindly sort of way.

We went to Navy Pier downtown this week, saw cirque de shang hai, and they were wonderful. The pier juts off downtown chicago, and has a huge ferris wheel. The stage is under a permanent white tarp, and birds were flying through while the acrobats were performing. Amazing what the human body can do. The women were so amazingly edible in their tights. I wanted to take like ten of the into the bedroom, you know...

Acrobats always turn me on. I mean, you can't help but picture them nude... or at least I do. Of course, I do that with everyone... so if I am ever meet you, look at you and projectile vomit... you will know it is time to quit kidding yourself about your appearance and get backto the fucking gym.

Speaking of appearance, the beaches are loaded with Bikini's this time of year. It is like heaven down there. I know a lot of the people who are there. Like the kite man, who I am going to make a little movie about, and all the dog walkers, of course... such a friendly neiborhood, really. I say hello to everyone, usually. OCciasionally, like today, I wear my dark shades and head phones. Head phones allow you to seem preoccupied. I have more fun though when I say hello to everyone.

I have a few new poems to put up, and that is what I meant to add, but here I am, after not getting to write on anyting except the books for the last few weeks, it is nice just to write one of those everywhere blog entries...

I usually end up erasing these kind of entries... or when I abonden one blog, I leave them behind. Oh, well.

Big Love to all of you. Pray for peace. Fight for justice.

one of my very sorry little attempts to show my oil paintings, pets, girl...

a new mural in rodgers park... and picking up poo and sniffing pee

m and i take a trip down to the bean sculpture... here in Chicago...

Click on the side of the videos and it should take you to utube, where you can view the entire video.

Ruby dog fights the mighty dash... click on video to watch at utube

Thank YOU for over a half million hits at my various sites ... new counter.

one war

The collected john scott ridgway

The collected john scott ridgway
a demented little entry into philosophy, humour and redemption.,

the elves attic

AddThis Feed Button