Monday, May 22, 2006

It's a Monday

Monday, Monday . . . can't trust that day -- like the Mamas and the Papas sang. Memorial Day's coming up and Ma asked me what special thing I had planned. I go, I just want to sit around and listen to some tunes. Dad goes, "Ah, my son!" :D

When Elaine was a guest at Christmas, Dad loved it best because she loves music so much. It was his excuse to pull out every vinyl album he has -- even the ones they didn't listen to they'd end up discussing. I didn't realize it until Ma wrote about it at her site but I'm the first of the eight kids Dad's let mess with his vinyl. I'm second from the last of the litter and with my older brothers and sisters -- Dad always gave the oldest four a lecture and they passed it to the next two and may have passed it to the last two (me and my sister) but if they did, I didn't pay attention. I remember when I was 12, Dad got home from work and he walks in and I remember him just staring at me. It was a Pink Floyd record I was listening to and I hold up the cover and I go, "This is pretty cool." He sat right down on the floor with me and started explaining the whole record to me and telling me who played what.

C.I. gave me and Wally a ton of CDs and let us take all the cassettes when we were all together in California and I still haven't had time to listen to even like half of them. Dad's listened to them and keeps going, "Check out track __ on this one." :D

But there's always a lot to do. So Memorial Day, we'll have family and friends over and we'll all get in the living room in time for Democracy Now! because that's our holiday thing now -- and it can be your thing too. Seriously, watch it (or listen to it) with some friends and family and get the word out on the program. We've got five people who watch now regularly and who knows how many you could get? Plus, even the ones who only watch when they come over for the holiday know that the show's out there. So get the word out. Let's kick things off with Democracy Now!


Report: Iraq Is 'Disintegrating as Ethnic Cleansing Takes Hold'
British journalist Patrick Cockburn says Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale. On Sunday at least 24 people died including 13 at a Baghdad restaurant that was attacked by a suicide bomber.

The news just gets worse and worse but, like Wally pointed out in "THIS JUST IN! "FREEDOM IS MOVING!", Bully Boy keeps spewing nonsense. Bully Boy's going on and on about how democracy tip-toes around in baby steps. The occupation's now a three-year-old, shouldn't the terrible twos be over?

U.S.-Air Strike Kills 76 in Afghanistan; Up to 30 Civilians Killed
In Afghanistan, a U.S.-led air strike has killed at least 76 people. The BBC reports the dead included as many as 30 civilians including children. The bombing raid in Southern Afghanistan occurred shortly after midnight today. The U.S. military has denied reports of civilian casualties and claimed that all of the dead were members of the Taliban. The air strike occurred in a region which has recently seen some of the country’s fiercest fighting since the fall of the Taliban nearly five years ago.

Bully Boy's just made a mess of the whole world and that's really like what he's done his whole life. He's made a mess of Arbusto and Harken and waits around for one his father's friends to bail him out. There's no one to bail Bully Boy out this time. These are his mistakes and his tragedies and his crimes.

More on Bully Boy's mistakes, tragedies and crimes can be found in C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Chaos and violence continue -- despite the new cabinet.In fact, despite the new cabinet, Australia's ABC reports that new cabinet or not, John Howard, prime minister of Australia, "says the new Government in Baghdad will not affect any decision Australia will make about its troops and forces in Iraq." Australia's ABC also reports the Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister of Japan, is making noises about expanding the role of Japanese troops in Iraq. In what only the reality challegened could see as 'good news,' Tony Blair says that maybe, sort of, if everything's just right, British troops might, maybe, leave Iraq by the year 2010. As Blair was grand standing in Iraq, Canada's CBC notes that 108 British troops have died in Iraq. And on the new cabinet, Dan Murphy (Christian Science Monitor) notes "US Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad . . . exerted strong pressure on Nouri al-Maliki" which continues the "muscular" thread John F. Burns noted Sunday.
Far from the myth of democracy and self-rule, as Reuters reported Friday, Hussain al-Shahristani did become the oil minister. You'd think Operation Happy Talk would trumpet the news but they probably don't want to draw too much attention to al-Shahristani's exile period (including the cheerleading of war) or, for that matter, his new post. As the Guardian notes "Another new day in Iraq: Events are stubbornly refusing to conform to the sunny scenarios Bush and Blair are so desperate to paint."
In Baghdad, bombs continued to be a regular feature. Reuters notes a car bomb "in southeastern Baghdad" as well as one "in the capital's New Baghdad district." The Associated Press counts the toll from the two bombing as at least nine dead and at least thirteen wounded while estimating that, on Monday, before "parlimaent met for its first session" 17 Iraqis had died from either car bombs or shootings. Killed by gunfire, the Associated Press reports, was "the general director of the youth ministry." KUNA notes a roadside bomb which killed four Iraqi police officers.
Elsewhere.
In Samarra, the Associated Press reports that "a police colonel" was shot to death.Reuters notes three killed in Baquba. The Associated Press notes, also in Baquba, that "an employee of a cell phone company" was killed. In Jbela, Reuters notes a roadside bomb took the life of at least three and wounded at least six. And a the corpse of a police officer was found, the Associated Press notes, "in the Aziziya area, south of Baghdad." In Baghdad, CNN reports, nine corpses were found.

I came in late on WBAI's Wakeup Call this morning and don't know if Deepa Fernandes had the day off or was sick. But I didn't hear her. I thought I heard Bernard White but then someone mentioned him by name as I was coming into the room so I guess that wasn't him. They, two men, were talking to the guys who made the documentary Loose Change. I read about that at
Kat's site when she was writing about KPFA's Guns and Butter but even though that was like eleven days ago, I still hadn't had time to check it out. How interesting was it?

I was thinking, "If I call off from work, I can finish listening."

The guys who made the documentary don't accept the official 9/11 story and I think that's probably not a minority position. There are too many questions. Like why did John Ashcroft stop flying commercial jets in the summer of 2001 to name just one. Or like the failure to do what you would do at any crime scene. It was pretty riveting. I'd like to go to the archives and listen to the part I missed but I'm not sure I'll have time this week. There's a lot of stuff going on and I need to get the yard done since we'll be having friends and family over for Memorial Day. (If Dad reads this, no, you didn't ask me to do that. But Tony and I are going to try to knock it out on Friday so leave it alone and relax. We're knocking his folks' yard out on Thursday.) (And if Dad does read this, Dark Side of the Moon was the record of his I was listening to when I broke the kids-stay-away-from-my-record-collection rule. :D)

Check out Rebecca's "the ruth & elijah report," Ma's "Cole slaw in the Kitchen" (that really does taste good, I don't like cole slaw but I liked the one she made last), Betty's "The blonde brain of Thomas Friedman" and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Springsteen's Seeger Sessions." And be sure to check out Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's thoughts.

















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