Lift every voice and sing, 'Til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on 'til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast'ning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, 'Til now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way; Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, True to our native land.
W.E.B. Du Bois from The Souls of Black Folk published in 1903.
An excerpt from "The Sorrow Songs"
Your country? How came it yours? Before the Pilgrims landed we were here. Here we have brought our three gifts and mingled them with yours: a gift of story and song—soft, stirring melody in an ill-harmonized and unmelodious land; the gift of sweat and brawn to beat back the wilderness, conquer the soil, and lay the foundations of this vast economic empire two hundred years earlier than your weak hands could have done it; the third, a gift of the Spirit.
Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation’s heart we have called all that was best to throttle and subdue all that was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice, have billowed over this people, and they have found peace only in the altars of the God of Right. Nor has our gift of the Spirit been merely passive.
Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to despise not Justice, Mercy, and Truth, lest the nation be smitten with a curse. Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood. Are not these gifts worth the giving? Is not this work and striving? Would America have been America without her Negro people?
Even so is the hope that sang in the songs of my fathers well sung. If somewhere in this whirl and chaos of things there dwells Eternal Good, pitiful yet masterful, then anon in His good time America shall rend the Veil and the prisoned shall go free. Free, free as the sunshine trickling down the morning into these high windows of mine, free as yonder fresh young voices welling up to me from the caverns of brick and mortar below—swelling with song, instinct with life, tremulous treble and darkening bass. My children, my little children, are singing to the sunshine. . .
ugh. that was the most ungracious speech yet. how about the party instead of your own ambition? how about criticizing mccain instead of made up math about your "18 million" votes? a person waking up from a year long coma watching that speech would assume she had won the nomination and was about to offer him the vp spot. boo!!
“There’s no doubt that Reggie is cooler than I am” - Barack Obama
okay, okay, so he's talking about a different reggie. but its still kinda cool. read this article from the nytimes. interesting stuff for us political junkies, the role of the candidate's "body man".
my life has been running crazy like crystal meth addict on a 100 mph treadmill. not a lot of time to post these days with work and the little person. but have to take time out to recognize one of the best weeks ever courtesy of "the internets".
first baseball. the baby bears aka the cubs are in first place with the best record in baseball. mad props. but the baseball play i'm still talking about with my co-workers is "manny being manny". i mean of course manny ramirez of the boston red sox. you will never see a play like this ever again.
the scene - camden yards in baltimore. the orioles kevin millar smacks are sure fire line drive over manny's head. he races it down to the warning track, and makes an incredible over the shoulder grab. his momentum allows him to him run up the outfield wall -- where he reaches up and high fives a red sox fan in the stands then turns around and fires a bullet to hit the cutoff man to double off aubrey huff on first base. unbelievable. i could watch this clip all day.
second clip. this week someone unearthed a clip of faux news blowhard bill o'reilly venting at a producer back on his inside edition days. hilarious. but even better are the remixes. this is my personal favorite. brilliant!
"you're like a baboon but less clever!"
but the clip that makes this the best week ever surprisingly comes from chris matthews and hardball. now i've long ago written off this show as part of the crossfire ilk that jon stewart accurately accused of "hurting america". but man on man, this just might make clip of the year.
the setup: george bush gives a speech to the israeli knesset which makes a thinly veiled comparison btw barack obama stated foreign policy, to talk to our enemies, and neville chamberlain's appeasement to adolf hitler. the president was rightly slammed for this allusion and comparison by joe biden, harry reid, nancy peolsi, and even hillary clinton.
enter right wing talk radio host kevin james -- a fool that doesn't know history but clearly has scanned the talking points sheet; i.e. keep repeating "appeasement = obama no matter what!!" with a simple question chris matthews exposes him and the rest of those ditto-head hacks for what they are: ignorant.
for those that haven't attended law school this is kinda what the socratic method looks like when a professor exposes one of your classmates that hasn't properly briefed a case.
"better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt"
the travesty that is our national media was on full display this week. when the highest levels of the administration have been involved in discussion about torture, when there is an ongoing war that is costing billions of dollars, a housing crisis, a credit crunch, inflation, high gas prices, and failing schools we're subjected to 90-minutes on flag lapel pins and "gotcha" associations with 60's radicals.
i've been saying over these last eight years, if you're not mad its because you're not paying attention with the state of journalism as it is its become harder to pay attention to any news that matters.
one of the most important principles that emerged from the prosecution of nazi war criminals at nuremberg was this one:
The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.
i.e. one can't claim "i was just following orders" and expect to be absolved of war crimes -- including torture. with that as a backdrop its a sad testament that the same nation that was among the lead in prosecuting those nazi war crimes and establishing those international law tenets has degenerated into justifying torture and abrogation of our basic civil liberties.
sadly a product of some of the finest educational institutions in america, harvard and yale law school respectively, john yoo, wrote a legal memo that was adopted and used by this administration as a justification for torture.
bush frequently says he's unconcerned with his low poll numbers and popularity proclaiming, "history will judge me". it will indeed judge you mr. bush.
years from now yoo's memo will be studied in law schools alongside plessy v. ferguson and korematsu v. united states, as one of the most unfortunate misappropriation of law and american principles in our nation's history. sigh. 291 days until our national nightmare is over. . .
"who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes" -groucho marx
"what kind of president would say, 'hey, man, i can't go 'cause i might get shot so i'm going to send my wife and daughter...oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.'" - sinbad
a hilarious and excellent breakdown using stick figures of the whole subprime mess. you don't have to be an econ major to see how this debacle happened.
the bottom line: a flood of republican led deregulation led the nations largest investment banks to operate like a ponzi scheme.
as jon stewart has said in interviews, his main target is not republicans or democrats but rather the media that cover them -- and how they've been asleep at the wheel for roughly the last twenty years.
andrew sullivan - "It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history."
nytimes - "We can’t know how effective Mr. Obama’s words will be with those who will not draw the distinctions between faith and politics that he drew, or who will reject his frank talk about race. What is evident, though, is that he not only cleared the air over a particular controversy — he raised the discussion to a higher plane."
here is a link to waterboarding as defined in wikipedia
note the historical context of its use: the spanish inquisition, colonial punishment by the dutch east india company, world war ii by the gestapo, and the khmer rouge in cambodia.
this is the human rights company we now find ourselves in.
today the senate moved forward to confirm the michael mukasey as the attorney general -- despite the fact he chose not to define waterboarding as torture.
to do so would basically indict the administration responsible for his nomination of war crimes.
finally here to keep from crying about the collapse of human rights, civil rights, our adherence to the geneva convention,and the constitution of the united states, harry shearer's take:
so i went out on friday night to a work friend's costume party. good times, closed out the party and the after-party bar. i don't know, i'm not as young as i think i am, 'cause after 1:00 p.m., and two advil the next day i was still hurting.
the headache was not improved watching my alma mater from my couch. we looked like crap against purdue, four turnovers and we were still in it until the second half. oh well, we're still only one win away from being bowl eligible.
then sunday i had to turn off the thrashing of the redskins by the patriots. i'll just echo the words of my wife, "this patriot team is not as classy as in past years." and she's right, up 38-0 and you're still airing it out?! someone is going to get hurt and if it had happened in our game i wouldn't feel the least bit sorry for them. that said, next week's matchup WILL be THE game of the year. let's hope it lives up to the hype.
did some apartment shopping, ikea run for the bathroom, new picture frame, a new duvet cover and bedroom stuff from linens and things. as i recount that the home improvement stuff were among the weekend highlights. old school comes to mind:
Frank: I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. Student: A big day? Doing what? Frank: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.
that's me these days. "frank the tank" on one night, bob vila the next.
reading lots of stuff this week from politics to the funny. let's get right to it:
must read article by newsweek's fareed zakaria, on the growing hysteria over iran. from the article:
Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of Finland's and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on? read more
i've started reading the site cracked.com @ work -- let me warn you its a productivity killer, because there are a ton of articles that will suck you in. here are two that caught my eye today.
The final straw was Jaggers' unscheduled wake-up call to Watts during a band meeting in Amsterdam in October 1984. Richards and Jagger had gone out boozing, returning to Richard' room at five in the morning. Watts was fast asleep. Nevertheless, Jagger dialed his room, bawling "Is that my drummer? Why don't you get your arse down here?"
Watts reportedly got up, shaved, got dressed in a custom-made Savile Row suit, put on a crisply knotted tie and freshly shined shoes, came downstairs, and-in Richards' words-"dished him out a great fucking right hook." Jagger was knocked into a plate of smoked salmon, and Richards had to grab his leg to prevent him from sliding along the table, out the open window and into a canal 20 stories below. "Don't ever call me 'your drummer' again," Watts told Jagger. "You're my fucking singer."
do yourself a favor and read 'em all. and to further take up your afternoon, might i recommend cracked.com's list of "The 10 most Terrifyingly Inspirational '80s songs." nostalgia is hilarious. #7 on the list is pat benatar's "love is a battfield" (fyi i would have chosen "shadows of the night") cracked.com's take:
Love is a Battlefield" is an atmospheric pop song featuring lyrics comparing the intricacies of love to a battle. In case the subtleties of love and conflict might escape you. The video hammered the message home by manifesting these metaphors as a bunch of whores dance-fighting a Raul Julia look-alike while shaking their boobs in a menacing fashion.
"Love is a Battlefield" quickly became the unofficial anthem for the unappreciated woman of the '80s. This was "cock rock" for the female set. On any given night in 1984, one could find a few women on a girl's night out, blockaded behind a wall of hair and empty bottles of Bartles & Jaymes, drunkenly belting out "We are strong!" while adjusting their fluorescent ankle-warmers.
or as my officemate patrick described it "those chicks danced that pimp right out of town!" tomorrow, more time killing articles to read at work.
in other political news, i just made my first (but probably not last) financial contribution to a political candidate.
some of you may have noticed my new endorsement tag on the right-hand link panel.
obama is the first guy i've ever been inspired to get behind and give up my hard earned cash for, i hope you feel the same and consider donating today to help him out in the 3rd quarter.
to the delight of comedians and late night talk show hosts everywhere ol' "wide stance" larry craig is sticking around. just an little bit of advice, larry, your "wife" might want to avoid making comments that trigger images of bathrooms, since that's where this whole trouble started:
Craig’s wife, Suzanne, told [Matt] Lauer that “I felt like the floor was falling out from under me” when Craig told her that the story was going to break. “And I felt like almost like I was going down a drain for a few moments.” she said.
the nobel prize, along with his oscar for inconvenient truth, and his emmy for "Current TV" makes this a pretty damn good year for the would-be-president.
next up a spoken word album based on the movie to garner a grammy and a one act play to get the tony award. eat your heart out babs!
its been 1 month + 11 days since my last post. or a la rent 1008 hours, 60,480 minutes, 3,628,800 seconds -- did ya miss me? no apologies, i just have to face it that my summers are waaay to busy to be blogging. i'm out there doing it people! -- not sitting inside typing on a computer. here now is a brief recap of things on my brain and going on in my brain these days -- just the highlights.
(1) first off hat tip to my coworker kate mckay who first turned me on to new zealand's fourth most popular folk band. i'm speaking of course of flight of the conchords. hat tip also to our man in in la who blogged about them earlier. better than tenacious d and even spinal tap because let's face it, making fun of hair metal is like shooting fish in a barrel. this is coming from somewhere a little more original. here's a good background article on HBO's newest hit show. my two personal faves:
business time:
bowie in space:
(2) the sports summer of our discontent. a gambling nba ref; the tour de france becomes the tour de steroids. and speaking of roids barry bonds breaks hank aaron's home run record or as the onion accurately described it: "destruction of national pastime given two-minute standing ovation. and finally a man with $130 million contract decides instead of the usual vices of wine, women, and song, he'd like to brutalize dogs. bad newz, i mean bad news all around this summer in the world of sports.
my take because you didn't ask. . .
for years folks have said the nba itself fixes games to get marquee matchups for higher tv ratings. every nba conspiracy theorist has gristle to chew on from now until the end of the time. oh and that talk about an nba team in vegas during this past year's all star game? just fuggehtaboutit.
tour de france/roids? we're americans so who gives a damn? but can you say preview to the '08 olympics in china. why not just have an all pharmaceutical games? let the best doctors/labs win!
moving on to steroids we do care about, of course i'm talking baseball and barry bonds. on the one hand let's first off state for the record that taking steroids will in no way help you hit a curve ball. if so bodybuilders would just dominate every sport -- they can't and they don't. secondly, barry's accomplishments before he took steroids we're worthy of the hall of fame. thirdly, who knows how many pitchers bonds faced that were on the juice too.
i considered those three things, but now the flip side. firstly, the people that say there is no proof that barry bonds ever took steroids are the same people that think oj simpson didn't kill two people, because he wasn't convicted by a jury. i can't argue with the facts but i can argue with the truth. they're both guilty as hell. (hey barry that's a good excuse. "at least i didn't kill anybody!")
in taking steroids bonds robbed the integrity of the game, because now we'll never know if he could have broken the record on his own amazing god-given ability by playing clean. bonds was averaging about 30-35 homers a year pre-steroid. he chose to take a short cut and jumped late in his career to an astounding 60+ homer years, right around the time every other slugger in recorded history at his age has hit fewer home runs. the fountain of youth has been discovered in the form of a syringe.
in addition to the jump in power came multiple injuries that directly correlate with steroid use. which is an even sadder ironic result of this phony boost in hitting power has actually cut short the length of career bonds could have had without steroids. like the record itself we'll never know. i do know -- and many others still feel -- that the true home run king is henry aaron. by his actions barry bonds like (the hitting king) pete rose before him has forfeited his right to be selected into the hall of fame. eventually like rose he belongs in on his records alone divorced from the man but not while he's alive.
and finally michael vick and the bad newz kennels. what more can be said that hasn't been said already? $130 million dollars and this is the best you can come up with mike? cue the gladiator scene, "are you not entertained?" my opinion mirrors that of msnbc's bryan burwell's article, on the larger issue of black athletes "keepin' it real". but to end this sports rant on a somewhat humorous note, i give you octogenarian bobby byrd on the senate floor. a dog lover, byrd gets a little emotional and although i agree in principle with him, i can't help but laugh everytime i see this video clip. (for you simpsons fans it's sort of like sideshow bob and the rakes. just when you think its over. whammo!)
barbaric!!!
(3) politics. albert gonzales is lying -- must be a day ending in "y". iraq goes on and on and on. think progress does an excellent job breaking down the evolving definition of our goals and mission there. and karl rove leaves behind a lame duck president with the lowest popularity ratings in history. although he's not leaving the way i envisioned:
we can only hope indictments will follow him back home to texas.
that's it for the big ol' update for now. more to come on the personal stuff going as the big ol' long overdue summer update continues.
so paris hilton has to do her time but scooter libby walks? what a sad day for the country. just some quick thoughts to respond to right-wing talking points i'm seeing in the blogosphere:
"there was no underlying crime" - yes richard armitage was the leaker, but that does not change the fact that a jury concluded that libbby lied under oath and obstructed justice. if there was no underlying crime charged its because his lies and obstructions protected the perpetrator of the underlying crime, i.e. his boss dick cheney.
"this is all political" - bush political appointee, then attorney general, john ashcroft recuses himself from the case. bush political appointee, james comey names bush political appointee and career prosecutor patrick fitzgerald to take charge of the case. the trial is before bush political appointee, judge reggie walton. (a judge republicans love, because he is "tough on crime") a three judge panel refuses to let libby stay out of jail while appealing his sentence. the judges on the panel include a reagan appointee, David Sentelle, a bush sr. appointee, karen henderson, and one clinton appointee, david tate. not sure of the political affiliations of the jury -- but then we're not really supposed to ask that question in voir dire. to review: prosecutor = republican. judge = republican. appeals panel = 2/3s republican. where is the partisan witch hunt?
"but clinton, mark rich pardon, blah blah" - be sure to mention to those sean hannity and limbaugh folks that the lawyer that advocated giving mark rich a pardon was none other than scooter libby. there's definitely hypocrisy enough to go around in washington.
and finally just a note that prosecutor pat fiitzgerald has spent $1.4 million in his probe over the past three years whereas kenneth starr's investigations of whitewater and lewinsky cost $71.5 million and took eight years.
the blogosphere has started comparisons btw the blonde heiress and dick cheney's henchman. the public outrage over the albeit brief leniency to hilton, should let those favoring the same for scooter know -- the natives are restless and looking for the heads of the powerful.
final tidbit to the scooter case to which i must give a hat tip to wonkette. the judge on the libby case is one, reggie walton, and within 72 hours of his verdict on sentencing wlaton has received amicus briefs on scooters behalf from robert bork and 12 other distinguished law professors. judge walton had this response:
It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected schools are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the Court on behalf of a criminal defendant.
The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse.
The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it.
you may have to be lawyer to appreciate the previous paragraphs -- but that my friends is a legal version of "you got served!"
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has sought out former Secretary of State Colin Powell for advice on foreign policy matters.
While Powell served in the administrations of two Republican presidents, he said Sunday it was too early in the. . .read article
"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [9/11 ], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country." -- Arkansas Republican Party chairman Dennis Milligan [from this article]
more attacks like 9/11 = americans will appreciate bush. the image at the top of this post? just a little something called the recichstag fire.
the beltway is all a tizzy because former tenn senator fred thompson is looking to throw his hat in the ring for the republican nomination. i think the republican excitement really only speaks to the weakness of the existing field; moreover it means if newt wants to get in he'd better move now. throw in chuck hagel and you got 13 guys running for this job on the g.op. side. that's a lot of noise to digest over the next year.
but back to thompson, who i like as an actor on law & order: how is he any different from the current occupant of 1600 other than the fact he can communicate in complete sentences?
also is there anyone else out there that sees the irony in the party of "family values" on the one hand condemning "hollywood values" while oft turning to the same for its candidates? (ahnold, eastwood, reagan) also par for the course as a republican "family values" proponent, fred is on to wifey #2.
salon's glenn greenwald, who is now established as my MUST read blogger-of-the-day, sums it up better than i ever could.
UPDATE -more on thompson from thismodernworld.com -and a comic from tom tomorrow along the same line
not to sully this vegas trip friday, but dick cheney of "the last throes of insurgency" and "iraq is a great success" is on his way to topping his own illogical chutzpah. ol' dick had this to say today: “If you’re going to advocate a course of action that basically is withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, then you don’t get to just do the fun part of that, that says, ‘We’ll, we’re going to get out,’ and appeal to your constituents on that basis,” Cheney said.
which BEGS the response:
if you're going to advocate a course of action that basically called for preemptive war then you don't get to just do the fun part of that either dick. you know like landing on an aircraft carrier and declaring mission accomplished! un-freaking-believable.
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