Undiplomatic Immunity
Did Al Gonzales say the president can authorize torture?
By Chris Suellentrop
Posted here on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005, at 7:51 PM PT

Answer the question, please

Remember what Dick Cheney said to Sen. Patrick Leahy this past June on the Senate floor? Think of Alberto Gonzales' testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Leahy is the ranking Democrat, as the Bush administration's logical follow-up: "And your mother."

By late afternoon, Leahy had become so frustrated with Gonzales' refusal to give clear answers to questions from him and other Democrats that he held aloft a bulky file that he said was filled with unanswered letters and queries addressed to Gonzales, President Bush's nominee for attorney general. "If he's confirmed, I'm sure he'll feel that he never has any duty to answer them," Leahy said. Leahy's file may have been bursting with questions, but for most of Thursday's nearly nine-hour hearing the committee's Democrats wanted an answer to just one question: Does Gonzales think the president has the power to authorize torture by immunizing American personnel from prosecution for it?

During the hearing, Leahy called this idea, which comes from the August 2002 document dubbed the "Bybee memo," "the commander-in-chief override." And by hearing's end it was clear that Gonzales believed in it. (Otherwise, why not simply answer, "No"?) Early in the day, Gonzales professed the requisite faith that America was "a nation of laws and not of men," but his opinion of the president's ability—however limited—to authorize individuals to engage in criminal acts suggests the opposite. This is a government of good men, Gonzales implicitly assured the senators, so there's no need to worry about legal hypotheticals like whether torture is always verboten. Don't worry, because we don't do it. It's a strange argument from a conservative: We're the government. Trust us.

Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter kicks off the questioning with a softball. "Do you approve of torture?" he asks, and Gonzales assures him, "Absolutely not." In fact, Abu Ghraib "sickened" him, Gonzales says, and if anything illegal went on at Guantanamo, well, he condemns that, too. But that's the crux of the entire debate: When it comes to torture, what's legal and what's illegal?

Specter realizes this and tells Gonzales, "As chairman, I think further amplification is necessary." But he's sure the rest of the committee will handle that, and they do. Leahy asks Gonzales if he agrees with the definition of torture—"For an act to violate the torture statute, it must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death"—devised by an August 2002 memo that was addressed to him. Gonzales says he doesn't remember. Leahy asks if he agrees today. No, Gonzales says.

Then comes the question of the day: "Now, as attorney general, would you believe the president has the authority to exercise a commander-in-chief override and immunize acts of torture?" Leahy asks. That's "a hypothetical that's never going to occur," Gonzales says, because we don't torture people. He continues, "This president has said we're not going to engage in torture under any circumstances, and therefore that portion of the opinion was unnecessary and was the reason that we asked that that portion be withdrawn." Translation: Yes, I think the president has the legal authority to immunize acts of torture, but he doesn't want to, so I'm not going to bother with defending the idea.

Pressed for an answer, Gonzales concedes, "I do believe there may come an occasion when the Congress might pass a statute that the president may view as unconstitutional," and therefore the president may ignore it. That's a general statement of principle, Leahy says, but I'm asking a specific question. Can the president immunize torture? Gonzales retreats to the that's-hypothetical-and-it's-not-gonna-happen defense. OK, Leahy says. What about leaders of other countries? Can they immunize torture? I'm not familiar with their laws, Gonzales replies.

Gonzales declares himself agnostic on an astonishing array of issues, including whether torture is a useful interrogation tactic. Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin notes that Ashcroft has said torture doesn't work. What does Gonzales think? "Sir, I don't have a way of reaching a conclusion on that. All I know is that the president has said we're not going to torture under any circumstances."

Sen. Lindsay Graham is the lone Republican to blast Gonzales. His boyish face comes paired with a kindergartner's hyperactivity, as he impatiently rocks his chair while waiting for his turn. During Gonzales' answers to others' questioning, Graham sometimes wears a look of confusion mingled with disgust. "I think we've dramatically undermined the war effort by getting on a slippery slope in terms of playing cute with the law," Graham, a reserve Air Force JAG officer, says. He adds later, "And I think you weaken yourself as a nation when you try to play cute and become more like your enemy instead of like who you want to be."

Gonzales senses that Graham has made a mistake and seizes on it. "We are nothing like our enemy, Senator," he protests. They behead people, like Danny Pearl and Nick Berg. Graham notes that this is a pretty low moral standard for America to aspire to. I agree that we're nothing like the enemy, he says. "But we're not like who we want to be and who we have been." (During Graham's second round of questioning, Gonzales tells him that government lawyers did the very best they could when they wrote the memo. "Well that's where you and I disagree," Graham retorts. "I think they did a lousy job.")

Later, it's Sen. Dick Durbin's turn to try to get Gonzales to elucidate his views on the separation of powers. Can the president immunize people from prosecution for torture? Gonzales restates that it's theoretically possible for Congress to pass an unconstitutional law that the president can justifiably ignore. "Has the president ever invoked that authority?" Durbin asks. No, Gonzales says. When Leahy's turn comes around again, the ranking Democrat complains, "You never answered my question." But Gonzales has answered. Leahy and the Democrats just don't like his answer.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican, comes to Gonzales' defense. President Clinton's solicitor general, Walter Dellinger, wrote in 1994 that the president can refuse to execute laws he considers unconstitutional, Cornyn notes. Sen. Russ Feingold dismisses this during his turn to speak. There's a difference between not enforcing a statute and authorizing people to break the law, he says. Look, Gonzales reiterates, that 2002 memo is no longer administration policy. And on top of that, we don't torture people. But, Feingold asks, does President Bush have the power to authorize violations of criminal law? Gonzales makes some noise about "a presumption of constitutionality" and his oath as attorney general to defend congressional statutes, then gives his real answer: I'd take it very seriously if I ever advised the president to do such a thing. "So the president's above the law?" Feingold asks. No, Gonzales says, but he can choose not to enforce unconstitutional laws. That's not what I'm asking, Feingold complains. We don't torture people, Gonzales says. Feingold gives up and pleads, Will you just let us know instead of waiting two years next time?

Durbin tries to get Gonzales to clarify. Can U.S. personnel, under any circumstances, engage in torture? Gonzales still can't muster a definitive "no." "I don't believe so, but I'd want to get back to you on that," he says. "There are a number of laws that prohibit that."

By day's end, Leahy's frustration drives him to a hilarious tangential inquiry as to how Gonzales vetted Bernie Kerik, President Bush's withdrawn nominee for secretary of homeland security. (Gonzales protests that Kerik wasn't nominated. "It was an announcement of an intent to nominate," he says.) Leahy wants to know whether Gonzales knew about Kerik's so-called "9/11 apartment," or his extramarital affair, or best of all, whether the nanny that he said he didn't pay Social Security taxes for even existed. No one knows her name or what country she comes from, Leahy says. "Do you know whether there ever was a nanny?" Gonzales answers by saying that Kerik is no longer under consideration. "Maybe there was such a nanny," Leahy muses. "I don't know."

Finally, Harold Hongju Koh, a Yale professor of international law (and dean of the Yale Law School), solves the riddle—about the "commander-in-chief override" not the mysterious nanny—by proposing a simple question for Gonzales. He tells the Judiciary Committee, "A simple question you could have asked today was, 'Is the anti-torture statute constitutional?" If Gonzales answers yes, then he does not believe the president can override the statute. Mystery solved. Only one problem with this professorial inquiry: By the time Koh testified, Gonzales was already gone.

Posting has been difficult. Work, holidays, still reeling from the election. But earlier I said that Fallujah would come to be a microcosm for this whole Iraqi fandango... so here's the breaking news from there. Let's see how my prediction is going so far...

Seems citizen processing centers designed to compile a database of Fallujan's identities through DNA testing and retina scans are being proposed. They would be set up on the outskirts of the city. Then badges that would display their home addresses would be worn at all times. Buses would ferry citizens into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned, and thier would be forced labor.

Fallujah is an extremely complex situation. On the one hand, as I said before, keeping the peace in this city is going to be virtually impossible. A great deal of the citizenry are sympathetic to the insurgency, more so now than ever. However, the spiral of occupation has begun. You can not convince a people that you’re there to free them while you turn their city, roughly the size of Miami, into a prison camp.

Or maybe you can. The Chinese turned all of Tibet into a prison camp. Soon the old generation that feels oppressed and robbed of their culture will be dead. The youth feel like the glitter of modernist civilization is freedom. The Chinese will never loose Tibet now. The next generation has been thoroughly indoctrinated. So maybe if we just stick around as an occupying force for about, I don’t know, let's say 50 years, then rock n roll and blue jeans will have won the day.

On the other hand, the Dali Lama told his people not to fight. Many of the religious leaders in this situation have done just the opposite, and that could make all difference in the world.

For an in depth analysis of these current proposals, check out the following...

"The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised."


“The real crime here is not the requirement for Fallujans to wear ID badges or even to make the men work at reconstruction. The real crime is that poor planning and wishful thinking regarding the future of 25 million people has narrowed the universe of available options to a series of iron-fisted tactics that range from horrible to truly catastrophic.”

Here's something I ripped out of a Steven Grant online article. Grant is a consistently decent comic book writer who occasionally stumbles on greatness. As a cultural critic I've always thought he was dead on, however, and I completely vibe with his politics. Here he uses a quote from Warren Ellis, a consistently great comic book writer and wonderful cultural critic (when he's not obsessing on Japanese porn – which, actually, if I think about it, I suppose any modern cultural critic worth her/his salt is bound to do from time to time) to launch into an exploration of civilization's future, using the current comic book market as some sort of thematic pith and pivot. I include it here for two reasons. One, I thought my socio-anthrop-junkie friends might dig on it, and the odds of them reading comic book sites are a little thin. Two, a few of you have had to endure my rantings about what I've called "NuTribes"... a redefining of group-culture based not on geographic location and familial status but on aesthetic, political and social commonalities, which is exactly the same thing as Grant's "Virtual Nations" below. He expresses, quite wonderfully, something I've believed in for some time.

- Joshua Dysart

*

This week he [Warren Ellis] apparently stirred up a small hornet's nest by suggesting, following the breakdown made popular by the news during the recent Presidential election, that

"...original comics don't actually sell in the Red states of America – that the political borderlines there are also cultural borderlines. Just as there are isolated political Blue islands in Red America, there are also island comics stores, to be certain – but that the audiences for progressive comics are largely contained in the coasts and those few Blue states in the north. The broader sweep of Jesusland is a dead zone, to massively generalise."

He reported he'd already heard from one publisher who'd come to the same conclusion and was positioning their promotion appropriately.

I don't think this is anything new – I remember First Comics c. 1988 studied their sales to determine sales patterns and it turned out the two biggest islands of WHISPER fandom were the state of California and, for some reason, Atlanta GA; I know it was roughly the same for several First titles, but I don't remember any other specifics – but this whole Red America/Blue America meme (which is mostly nonsense but the press have to hang their hats on something) highlights something I've been thinking about for awhile: the constantly changing nature of our civilization. Let's quickly look at how things have changed so far: we started with, as far as anyone knows, acute tribalism. Your little group (usually called "The People," to differentiate them from all those other people who weren't "The People") were all you could trust to keep you alive. Somewhere along the line this evolved into small, relatively stable communities, which evolved into cities and city-states. Whatever the other effects of wars, once tribes got over wholesale slaughter of defeated enemies, wars tended to merge cultures; city-states aggregated into countries, and some of these evolved into empires, which generally further homogenized cultures. Empires collapsed of their own weight, as empires are wont to, and disintegrating empires broke into often feuding principalities, which, at least in Europe, eventually merged into nations. The last three or four hundred years have seen the rise of nations, and now may be seeing their decline as new structures slowly take their place. (Not that people who can't seem to learn from history don't keep trying to resurrect the idea of empire, but, as most European nations eventually learned, empires are often more trouble than they're worth.)

In the last fifty years or so, we've seen the rise of multinational corporations, increasingly promoting their own values, interests and "laws" in contravention of national interests, and a few of them having greater GNPs than most countries, and many have greater influence than many countries. These multinationals, not without some justification, have given rise to many conspiracy theories and paranoid fiction, and, certainly, they've generated considerable change in the way the world is run. But they're still slaves to laws of economic interest, if not necessarily laws of any one nation. Even if they only serve their own bottom lines, that's at least something we can be relatively sure of.

We now seem to have gotten to the point where we're no longer clear on what constitutes a nation. If "Red America" and "Blue America" are indicators, it's not "national boundaries"; we don't even know where ours are. It's hard to even be sure if there are any unifying principles to America anymore. Then you've got groups like al-Qaeda, who are spoken of as if they're nations unto themselves. Obviously, like the 32 pg. comic book, the concept of "nation" isn't going away anytime soon, but, like the 32 pg. comic book, that doesn't mean it isn't already obsolete. The Internet has generated a curious flux; more than ever, regardless of where you live, the Internet has made it much easier to be part of "virtual nations" that may or may not correspond to the nation you physically live in. This isn't so much a disintegration of the social fabric as a reweaving and realignment of it.

So that's the crux of the theory that's slowly forming in my head, partly because I know people in Italy, Scotland, Australia, Hong Kong, Argentina, Canada, the USA, Singapore and dozens of other countries are reading this right now: we are on the verge of physical nations being next to meaningless while "virtual nations" rise. What kinds of political structures would surface in a world where citizenship is determined by choice rather than accident of birth? What kind of world could something like this make?

- Steven Grant

Well, my new comic book “Captain Gravity & the Power of the Vril” (which I actually wrote over three years ago) comes out on December 1st (so does Swamp Thing #10!), and it looks like it might be one of the most favorably reviewed of my career to date. Which is funny, since it’s the one that all my friends seem the least impressed with. But that’s because they just want to see demons fucking or some other sick shit and the minute I get a little innocent and pulpy they all tune out.


Anyway, here are three reviews…

link

link

link


And here’s an interview with the legendary artists Sal Valluto and Bob Almond, the visulists behind the book.

"House Republicans on Wednesday changed a party rule so DeLay, R-Texas, could remain as leader if indicted in a Texas campaign finance investigation that he calls political."

Link.

“The Marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy, but the enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He lives in Fallujah and we're going to destroy him."
– Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl

The American casualties are not as bad as were predicted but they’ve still hit 200 as of Nov. 11. There’s no official data on civilians. I can’t seem to find anything on the Iraqi soldiers (typical), and the Fallujah refugees are being called a humanitarian crises situation by the Red Cross.

So is this what Gen. George Casey meant when he said, “things are going well in Fallujah”? No wonder Bush is so deeply in denial about his little war. Casey also told bush they were “making very good progress” securing Iraq.

It is obvious that the good general is on crack, since the insurgency seems to have used the diversion in Fallujah to flash-attack across Iraq, making November one of Iraq’s bloodiest months.

Everybody knew that insurgent leaders Omar Hadid and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, along with Jordanian terrorist boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had moved on from Fallujah. But they had to move in. Had to take action. Couldn't just sit on thier hands.

These insurgent leaders are several steps ahead of us and we keep swelling their ranks (or at least increasing sympathy for their cause) by putting civilians under fire or sending them into the desert with no water (Nice choice they’ve got… desert with no water, stay in town while it becomes a battle zone. That’s the way to win hearts and minds!)

"We must not be afraid to make an example of Fallujah. … We need to demonstrate that the United States military cannot be deterred or defeated. If that means widespread destruction, we must accept the price. … Even if Fallujah has to go the way of Carthage, reduced to shards, the price will be worth it."
– Neocon former military officer Ralph Peters, "And Now, Fallujah," the New York Post

Are you kidding me? These people are simple-minded baboons who read history out of context and glorify the immediate thrill of war without understanding its unavoidable repercussions. Other than the Bush administration feeding the war industry of which he’s a virtual apparatus, what could possibly be the victory here? Well, we find the neo-con answer at the PNAC website (which I visit often – know your enemy) they, of course, claim Fallujah as a major victory. Here’s their flawed reasoning…

“Barely has Fallujah been retaken from the hands of the Sunni insurgents and Islamist terrorists by American and Iraqi forces than the majority of print and electronic media has "clucked" at that success. To them, it seems no victory is ever a real victory. But let's be clear, Fallujah was a real victory. The military killed large numbers of the enemy, deprived the anti-democratic forces in Iraq of a safe haven and did so with fewer casualties (including civilian) than anyone expected. They also put an end to the view - widely shared in Iraq and the Arab world - that U.S. forces did not have the stomach to undertake the toughest of military operations.”

Yeah well, remember… these are the architects of this war talking. These are the men who said we’d be greeted with flowers and candy. I think that, once again, the Bush administration and his neo-con PNAC buddies have over-simplified the situation. I fear that keeping the peace in Fallujah will be a far harder task than taking control of the city. If this happens Fallujah will become a microcosm of the entire Iraq endeavor and a symbol of the unchecked and unrepentant hubris of its planners.

The Iraqi insurgents are fighting a “shoot and scoot” war, their leaders will not stay and be attacked. They will let the US and Iraqi forces win the battles while they continue to mount a growing, successful, guerilla campaign. This is something the warmongers at PNAC simply don’t have the mind power to grasp. Hence the mass exodus</a> of security officials and others from this administration's 2nd term.

Way to go PNAC! A round of applause for all the old white men and their war games!

Other links of interest…

Pictures from the conflict that have not been shown in the US media

History of Fallujah

Complete listing and breakdown of coalition casualties in Iraq

More data on casualties and streaming web cams of various parts of Iraq

From www.theidiotmagazine.com

If Bush wins on November 2nd…



November 3rd – With the American people united behind him, Bush initiates Phase Five: Big Red. Native Americans are herded into “Freedom Villages,” where Personal PowerTM author Tony Robbins teaches them how to embrace the miracle of change.



November 5th – I move to Canada.



November 8th – Garth Brooks crowned Poet Laureate in a private White House ceremony involving a quarter kilo of cocaine and a cardboard hat from Burger King.



November 14th – France moves to Canada.



November 20th – Bush repeals the constitutional requirement that the President of the United States be a natural-born citizen, thus paving the way for a Schwarzenegger candidacy in 2008. On a planet several light years away, monkeys prepare for war.



November 25th – Thanksgiving Day. In the “Freedom Villages,” they feast on pure grain alcohol and children.



November 30th – US Fish and Wildlife Service adds the “Jew” to the growing list of endangered species.



If Kerry wins on November 2nd…



November 3rd – Karl Rove lashes out at Dick Cheney, blaming the loss of the election on Cheney’s “dyke daughter.” Rove is mortally wounded in the ensuing knife fight.



November 5th – I move to Canada.



November 8th – Former President Bill Clinton unexpectedly pulls up in front of the White House in a U-Haul, demands keys to the house and urinates on a Secret Service agent. He is arrested and charged with public intoxication and indecent exposure.



November 14th – Florida and Texas secede from the Union. The nation’s average SAT scores improve dramatically.



November 20th – Kerry tells the people of Iraq that he was “just kidding” about pulling American troops out of their country. Bombs the shit out of them for three weeks straight.



November 25th – Thanksgiving Day. Fires finally subside in Boston as drunken Red Sox fans pass out from an excess of turkey, ending the month-long “Season of Fear” in New England. The Boston Globe announces the final death toll at “a buttload.”



November 30th – The U.S. imposes massive tariffs on Mexican imports. Domestic salsa sales decline and Heinz stock goes through the roof. Ken Starr crawls out of his coffin.



If Nader wins on November 2nd…



November 3rd – Noam Chomsky and I are joined in marriage in a mass ceremony performed on the White House lawn by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who presides over the event shirtless and in chaps.



November 5th – Taft-Hartley Act repealed. The first of the mole people surface near a Starbucks on West 23rd Street in New York City and demand a living wage from the coffee giant.



November 8th – Atlantis rises off the coast of Florida. Miami restaurant owners complain as elderly Florida residents flock to the Atlanteans’ reasonably-priced all-you-can-eat buffet-style dinner establishments.



November 14th – The Rapture begins. A few hundred million Americans disappointed by the discovery that Allah is, in fact, the one true god.

link

Looks like Senator Arlen Specter (R- PA) is being tapped to take control of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This could be a good thing (or at least as good as it’s going to get right now).

Specter has a 42 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, which is exactly HALF the average for Republican senators. He’s not conservative enough for them. How did he get this rating?

· Specter helped the *Democrats* to "bork" Judge Robert Bork;
· He helped kill President Reagan's nomination of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship;
· He was the *first* Republican to cross the aisle to vote for Clinton's Tax increase
· He sponsored the "Freedom of Choice Act" which would have *forced* religious hospitals to perform abortions;
· He sponsored as many *Democrats* for federal judgeships as Republicans;
· He voted to drastically *reduce* President Bush's tax cut;
· And, he was the *only* GOP Senator to vote against President Bush's educational voucher initiative in the Washington, D.C. school district.

On November 3, 2004 -- ONE DAY after the election -- Specter told reporters, when asked if he would support President Bush's judicial nominees, "That obviously depends upon the president's judicial nominees."

On November 4, those remarks were widely reported in the news media as a "warning" to the White House. "The Republican expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year bluntly warned newly re-elected President Bush on Wednesday against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or are otherwise too conservative to win confirmation."

With as many as three Supreme Court justices rumored to be eyeing retirement, Specter would have broad authority to reshape the nation's highest court. He would have wide latitude to schedule hearings, call for votes and make the process as easy or as hard as he wants.

This is all good news! A sensible Republican could help us and centralize the process of picking future judges. Which would be far more representative of this countries views than extreme right-wingers.

However, Senator Specter does not have a lock on the job.

If another Republican member of the committee decides to challenge Specter and gains the support of a majority of Republican members of the committee, then the decision would go before the entire Republican conference, which is the caucus of all of the Republican senators who will serve in the new Congress that convenes in January. In that case, the 55 Republican senators would decide who will be chairman by a secret ballot.

Thus, ultimately, every Republican senator can have a voice on who holds the powerful gavel at the Judiciary Committee.

Already Newsmax.com and right wing organizations like National Right to Life are blast-faxing and mobilizing to oppose Specter's entitlement to this position and get a more dividing partisan voice on the chair.

We have got to let ALL 55 Republican Senators know that good citizens are in favor of Specter assuming his rightful role as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Republican Conference will vote by secret ballot in January on a Committee Chairman.
Tell everyone you know! The battle for the future of a balanced, sane and representative Supreme Court starts now!

- joshua dysart
TEX!

"Blackwill's departure was first reported Saturday in The Washington Post. It was the second report in two days of a ranking official's decision to leave the Bush administration's national security establishment."

Robert Blackwill, top Bush adviser on Iraq, to resign

Have I mentioned before that we're fucked?

But Greg Palast says Kerry actually won.

Arkansas Woman Killed in
Mistaken Rapture
by Elroy Willis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARKANSAS CITY (EAP) -- A Little Rock woman was killed yesterday after leaping through her moving car's sunroof during an incident best described as a "mistaken rapture" by dozens of eye-witnesses.

Thirteen other people were injured after a twenty-car pile-up resulted from people trying to avoid hitting the woman, who was apparently convinced that the rapture was occurring when she saw twelve people floating up into the air, and then passed a man on the side of the road who she believed was Jesus.

"She started screaming `He's back! He's back!' and climbed out through the sunroof and jumped off the roof of the car," said Everet Williams, husband of 28-year-old Georgann Williams who was pronounced dead at the scene.

"I was slowing down but she wouldn't wait till I stopped," Williams said. She thought the rapture was happening and was convinced that Jesus was gonna lift her up into the sky," he went on to say.

"This is the strangest thing I've seen since I've been on the force," said Paul Madison, first officer on the scene.

Madison questioned the man who looked like Jesus and discovered that he was on his way to a toga costume party, when the tarp covering the bed of his pickup truck came loose and released twelve blow-up sex dolls filled with helium, which then floated up into the sky.

Ernie Jenkins, 32, of Fort Smith, who's been told by several of his friends that he looks like Jesus, pulled over and lifted his arms into the air in frustration and said "Come back," just as the Williams' car passed him, and Mrs. Williams was sure that it was Jesus lifting people up into heaven as they drove by him.

"I think my wife loved Jesus more than she loved me," the widower said when asked why his wife would do such a thing.

When asked for comments about the twelve sex dolls, Jenkins replied "This is all just too weird for me. I never expected anything like this to happen."
------------------------------------------------

Perhaps the next four years is all about culling the herd. And here I thought it was going to be a filo-virus!


--------------------------

Follow up, seems this is bullshit, a friend has set me straight. I went to urbanlegends.com and found this...

"More proof that Internet satire can backfire on the satirist. This piece was authored by Elroy Willis, whose intent, he swears, was purely humorous. He published it on his tongue-in-cheek Religion in the News Web page on August 2, 2001. It's now circulating far and wide, without a byline, by forwarded email.

Willis told me he purposely attributed the story to the nonexistent "EAP" news service so as not to deceive anyone, but as you can see in the above variant, at least one anonymous email forwarder has changed it to read "AP" (Associated Press) to lend it an air of authenticity. Judging from the quizzical mail I've received so far, some people truly aren't sure whether to believe it or not.

For future reference, most theologians are rather firmly convinced that when Jesus finally does return he's not likely to be driving a pickup truck."

I guess I was a little too eager to mock the southern holy post-election. blah.

Strap youselves in...

The next four years are gonna be ugly.

link.

All right. This link is up and working thanks to my freind Neil. I think it's pretty telling, although by now you might have seen it.

hmmm... well...

Rough week.

But then, even if we had won, our task would not have been done. This was an important battle for the Left, but this was not the war. Obviously we still have lessons to learn. We are on the rise, and another four years can only make us stronger. We'll survive one more "term-oil".

Here's a note from a softer world.

Signing off from the blue state with 55 electorial votes, and pondering the tyranny of the majority now more than ever.

Here it is! The people most responsible for subverting Democracy tom.

TEX! Interview.

She had toyed with the notion of planetary influences on their lives. Every now and again she had bought some new-age astrological pocket book. In these books she’d look up his sign and hers under the compatibility section. It’s been a while since she's done that. He can’t remember what those books said about the two of them. But the notion of an expressive Venus painting embedded compositions across the fabric of their relationship is oddly satisfying to him right now. The possibility that their history is somehow mirrored abstractly in the celestial drifts above his head as he trolls languidly down meat market Main Street (which he hates) at midnight on a ghost-town Sunday looking for something nonmaterial yet intelligible, makes the moment somehow less hollow. The eternal flame of melancholy animates lazy swaying streetlights and the occasional half-clad beauty blowing by on her way to the next drink special. Nothing else - but this supposed interconnection of all things - connotes love for him out here tonight. Carnality is hinted, fertility suggested… but not love.

She has met somebody, two dates in, not too deep. But he could hear the potential for depth in her excited voice while she talked to the new guy on the phone (he noticed that she scrambled to answer it… an act in sharp contrast to the past, when she had always let the machine get it). Why does it hurt? He’s the one that’s been pushing her away all this time. He’s the one that wants her to be happy. Fact is, they haven’t had sex in a year… a year? Something like that. Still, he has much too lose.

They knew this would happen. Their surrogate relationship was bound to fall apart under the weight of her need for more cohesive particles, a more intimate orbit. So he left tonight, even though she said he could stay over, crash in her bed next to her. He left. Doing what perhaps he should have done all along, escaping connectivity in a desperate need to overshoot the emotional complexity of it all. In time, she will want to see and do things with someone other than him, maybe not this new guy, but someone. She will have to want that, because she loves easily, and he does not.

So he walks quiet streets, looking for god in a moment, lightening in a bottle, emotional revolution in a tall glass of toxin. Fire swelters beneath the insect needs of humanity. Loss echoes through it all like the white noise of the big bang astronomers hear under the blanket of their observations. This is no haphazard dance the planets have written for him, no soft lens magic… this is high conjuring, vulnerability in a witch’s cauldron. He will give himself space. He will not dump his bullshit on top of her. He will not compromise the narrative anymore than he already has with his flights of selfish fancy and dada-ist notions of plot.

Back at home he sees that in his email inbox are messages from her, sent last week. One telling him that a band they both dig, a band her brother turned them on to, is playing at a venue they’ve enjoyed in the past together. Slightly lower is an email about a Chinese dance troop she wants to go see for her birthday, which is roughly six months away. And at that moment the sadness is greater then this story can convey. Because he knows she needs to do these things with someone else. Someone who defines love the same way she does.

Perhaps a better version of the story is written in the harmonious grooves of the heavens, waiting to be read by soccer moms the way Venice Beach Psychics read tealeaves. But this is his version, and it’s late, and he’s tired of people and yet deeply lonely all at the same time.

But then what the fuck else would you expect from a Gemini.

Amazing internet comic about Bukake!

Looking for a little truth behind the harsh words in the VP debate?

Tex was at a house party this weekend and contributed, proudly, to the raising of $4,000 for Kerry. Being with like-minded people, I came to realize that the first debate has altered gravity on the left. We’re all floating, with Cheshire grins, through a lighter world. It was a good day. I was hung over for most of it.

Julie and I watched a beautiful, brutal spider feed on a silken packet at the eye of its web. There was Laurel Canyon birdsong whistling from the thick oak trees around the lawn, punctuating guest-speaker speeches. There were beautiful people who had been god-slapped more times then they deserved. There was truth everywhere. Wonderful.

We sold "TEX!", like I said. Mike, the publisher (who wasn’t in attendance), told us to give Kerry a dollar of every sale. Myself, the writer, wanted to give the Senator two. Brad, the artist, said fuck it, "He did good on the debate, give it all to the guy". The writer promptly agreed. The publisher agreed after the fact.

That evening I came home and sat in my reading chair. I tried to imagine what a slow sad Brazilian Bosa Nova (cello, violins, stand up base, piano, all weaving languidly up river) with the lyrics sung in German would sound like. Later, I struggled through some boundaries, remembered the canyon spider, and the proud but squat and solitude clouds sailing the Caribbean Sea sky.

If Bush is elected he’s going to fuck our courts.

Bosa Nova and Spiders. Hearts to dance and hearts to damn. I opened up my third eye and started breathing more deeply. I left all the shit behind. I started to lose thought… but just briefly. Briefly. It wasn’t long before I tripped on a banana peel idea and lost my Zen. My living room came crashing back in. That’s been happening a lot lately. Meditation has been difficult with all the pre-election conflict in the air. Suddenly I found myself wishing my fingers weren’t so clumsy. Don’t ask.

Next, I stood in the center of the living room naked and listened to the silence. Then I played my djembe and defied the silence. Then I went underwater fishing and experienced great fear in the depths. Then I created a code. A dream. A moris kiss.

We’re going to win this election.