Stump Lane
in the dirt since history began

4.29.2007 — A news story sure to destroy reputations and careers. It’s already led to one resignation, and is predicted to spread shame across the landscape of Washington Power:

From her [Deborah Jeane Palfrey] California home, she e-mailed tips to the 132 women who worked across the Washington, D.C., area for the firm Pamela Martin & Associates. Her newsletters, now excerpted in court records, were a virtual how-to manual for avoiding all kinds of trouble in a business said to specialize in erotic fantasies. [Free Internet Press: Alleged Madam Abhors 'Injustice']

12.14.2005 — There was a news story with similar potential… If only We were human beings:

The addendum [to the Army field manual] provides dozens of examples and goes into exacting detail on what procedures may or may not be used, and in what circumstances. Army interrogators have never had a set of such specific guidelines that would help teach them how to walk right up to the line between legal and illegal interrogations. [New York Times: New Army Rules May Snarl Talks With McCain on Detainee Issue]

I just don’t fucking get it.

General Petraeus says we should keep surging:

The surge in Baghdad, which requires the addition of five combat brigades, all of which won’t arrive in Iraq until May or June, is still in its infancy, Petraeus said Thursday. While there has been an increase in some forms of violence, there are also signs of progress, he said, in a rare appearance before reporters in the Pentagon. But his message during the brief visit in Washington seemed to be that Americans – and, without saying it, Congress – need to give the effort more time.

“The situation is exceedingly complex and very tough,” he said. “Success will take continued commitment, perseverance, and sacrifice.” [Christian Science Monitor: Gen. Petraeus: Iraq strategy needs more time]

Ignoring the fact that “five combat brigades” is nearly 20,000 troops — the size of the surge that OFFAL sold us back in January — which would seem to indicate that the surge hasn’t even started yet…

Ignoring that, let’s take the argument at face value, and also note that the General is not the only one making this argument, while not requiring Your Montag to produce a bunch of citations proving so. The argument is presented thus:

The surge is working. Though we are facing resistance, progress is being made. We need to give the surge more time to be successful.

HMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Let us engage in a brief thought experiment. Let us replace a couple of words here and there:

The weapons inspections are working. Though we are facing resistance, progress is being made. We need to give the weapons inspections more time to be successful.

The arguments against giving the weapons inspections more time to be successful?

Then Secretary of State Colin Powell:

“The Iraq regime has responded to [Resolution] 1441 with empty claims, empty declarations and empty gestures,” Powell said. “It has not given the inspectors and the international community any concrete information in answer to a host of key questions.”

Powell also warned that the credibility of the Security Council could suffer as “Iraq’s defiance” continues to challenge the 15-member U.N. body.

He said that the issue was “not how much more time the inspectors need to search in the dark, it is how much more time Iraq should be given to turn on the lights and come clean. … Iraq’s time for choosing peaceful disarmament is coming to an end.” [PBS: U.N. INSPECTORS SAY QUESTIONS STILL REMAIN, CALL FOR MORE TIME IN IRAQ]

Can we not roughly make the same argument about the surge? Let’s keep in mind that even opponents of the surge must blame the Iraqis for their troubles. (Some things have not changed, you see.)

Reformulation of Powell from above [not an actual quote]:

The Iraqi people have responded to Our benevolent gift of Democracy with empty claims, empty declarations and empty gestures. They have not given the democratically elected Iraqi government and the coalition any concrete support in securing the country.

The credibility of the coalition could suffer as Iraq’s defiance continues to challenge Our continued exercise of naked power.

The issue is not how much more time the surge needs to establish a stable security situation, it is how much more time Iraq should be given to accept the gift of Freedom We have brought and accept the government We have helped them to establish. Iraq’s time for accepting democracy is coming to an end.

(Ok, so maybe that second paragraph is a bit too frank for the politicians… But anyway.)

Of course, the weapons inspections were doomed to fail because the weapons We told the inspectors to find, the weapons We said were there… WERE NOT.

I wish I thought that our Iraq adventure wasn’t also doomed to fail.

Look, the authors of this war fucked Iraq up big time. I can say this because I’m not running for office: Iraqi is worse off today than it was under Saddam Hussein. In terms of violent death, access to utilities, the ability to carry on normal everyday life… Yeah, yeah, Saddam was an evil tyrant. Good riddance. The war We brought them is also evil. I fear it is not even the lesser of the two evils.

Sadly, We are responsible for the current evil in Iraq. It will be a shame if we cannot fix it. I don’t know how. I don’t even know enough about military strategery or geopolitikery to say the surge is the wrong thing to do. But to me, the surge seems like more of the same fucked up shit we’ve been doing so far which sure as fuck ain’t working.

Fucking authors of this war.

PS: Here is an editorial from the San Francisco Gate that says some related stuff: Bush should stop shouting

It’s time for semi-random Friday music.

This is the post for which Your Montag traverses the myspace music scene, following the trail of comments from one page to the next and picking out the song I like best from each artist. Links take you to the artist’s cumbersome myspace music page.

[Scroll a little.]

1. Am I Here — The Secret Meeting — This band is a collaboration between Dean Garcia (Curve) and kaRIN & Statik (Collide.) Sounds quite like Curve.
2. Halo — Collide — Since I don’t know from Collide, after the first selection, this seemed the only logical next stop. They do a neat little White Rabbit cover, too.
3. Work Work — BORS23 (Germany) — This song was quite entertaining. It sounds, however, just like the rest of the offered selections. Drive Power sounds a little different… at first glance.
4. little BOOST — Widow People’s Pub (Germany) — Ahhh. Moving away from the industrial stuff now. Good hard-drivin’ rock here. But their logo makes me nervous: slightly Nazi Eagle-ish. Which makes me think I should have listened to the lyrics. I hope they didn’t indoctrinate me while I wasn’t paying attention.
5. Ready steady go — The Purple Pixels (Spain) — Sounds like a cool band to have play your house party.
6. saeta tormentosa — Aquiles del Campo (Spain) — The myspace description says “Jazz / Flamenco / Fusion.” The selections other than the one I picked sound more traditional and nothing like this one. I likes untraditional.
7. summerlove — Nahisha — Breathy soul singing, with traces of hip hop.
8. How do like it — Delroi (United Kingdom) — Funky beat and lyrics that mention ‘The Mothership’ in the first line. Fantastic! The live recordings are of low quality, but sound like there’s some magic there. Again, entirely different from the chosen track.
9. I don’t want to play — Dubious (United Kingdom ) — [Pictured]

Top four, in case your pressed for time: 4, 1, 2 and 6.

Well, two weeks ago it was ‘electro’. This time I was worried about getting into an ‘industrial’ rut, (tough I wound up disappointed when I didn’t,) and was preemptively sensing your boredom, Dear Reader. But the worrying was unwarranted, as this time we got a pretty eclectic range. Next week I’ll try to get into a guitar-driven rock groove. Or maybe something like what we used to call ‘college rock’ back in the day.

Also, I’m game for suggested ‘starting points.’ If you know of, (or are,) a myspace music artist, and you want the exposure (to literally hundreds of readers!) that a D-list blog can bring, then leave a comment here or light up my email…

[Cross posted from I Miss Fafblog, Spot! because we need content over here, too.]

Former Vice President Al Gore has been busy! He’s been out doing publicity promoting his next big project: Climate Change, in follow-up to his Oscar winning film warning about the coming problems of… climate change. He also has a book on US politics due out in May. That’s not all! Mr. Gore also can’t help being very busy enjoying far greater popularity than he did back in the year 2000, public opinion polls indicate.

Surely, a man so busy must be up to something…

His denials of interest in the presidency have been couched in terms of “no plans” or “no intention” — politically ambiguous language that does not rule out a run.

!!!

Acting decisively on these so-called “denials of interest” and seizing upon this “ambiguity,” friends and former advisers are forming a rapid response election team… just in case.

“He hasn’t asked them to do this, but nor has he told them not to.”

Says one person who at one time worked for Gore, “The question is: where have all the Kerry people gone? The answer for most of them is nowhere. Now ask yourself why.”

Hmmmmm.

As a non Vermonter, my exposure to him had been limited; but as far as I can tell, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is bad-ass.

The Persistence of Relativity

Your Montag isn’t all that fond of the ritualistic singing of the national anthem before sporting events, but I’m considering tuning in early to tonight’s Red Sox — Yankees game to see this:

As a tribute to new Red Sox pitching ace Daisuke Matsuzaka, compatriot and Berklee College of Music professor Tiger Okoshi has arranged a version of the national anthem that melds jazz trumpet stylings with traditional Japanese taiko drumming.

The Needham resident will lead a special ensemble of Berklee musicians and local drummers as they perform the arrangement at Fenway Park before tomorrow night’s [now: tonight's] game against the Yankees. [The Boston Globe: Oh, say can you cheer to a different drummer?]

Has Berklee College of Music professor Tiger Okoshi seen the rodeo scene from Borat, I wonder.

BORAT: I will now sing Kazakhstan national anthem to the tune of United States national anthem.

[MAYHEM ensues as anger spreads throughout the crowd, a horse is spooked and throws its rider.]

Here is a second installment of Your Montag’s new awesome way to do semi-random Friday music.

You’ve heard of ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’? Well this is like ‘Nine Degrees of Musical Bacon.’ Your Montag traverses the myspace music scene, following the trail of comments from one page to the next and picking out the song I like best from each artist. Links take you into the seedy world of the artist’s myspace music page.

This week, we examine the local music scene. (Local to Maine and New England.)

1. Crow in the Garden — Cursillistas — Ethereal? Haunting? Nah, fuck it: indescribable.
2. Poor Boy — Dominic and The Lucid — Pretty straight forward alternative rock, possibly a “jam band.”
3. Ampersand — Bass Box — Sounds like one of them artsy European movie soundtracks… with human beatbox. [Pictured.]
4. Tigris and Euphrates — Dylan — Crisp instrumental guitar work. The other selections have other stuff going on too, though.
5. Fragments (Check out Showdown as well.) — SayLove — Hip Hop. She’s got a killer show on WMPG (Double Degree Program) Mondays 3-5pm, too.
6. Against the War — Kristina Kentigian aka K Soul — Hip Hop/R&B… and I’m feelin’ the message of dissent.
7. The Bunnyman — Moshe — DJ/producer of progressive hip hop.
8. Decay — Hiss & Chambers — Alternative rock with an 80′s aesthetic. (Stuff I like.)
9. The Colour of Women — Cambiata — They combined “rock, indie, and hardcore/metal music,” and ended up sounding like they wouldn’t be out of place on a commercial modern rock station.

No legitimate reviews or ratings, but if you’re pressed for time, I suggest checking out #s 5, 1, 8 and 6.

We survived the storm. Though, many places don’t have power yet. Last evening there were 123,000 customers without electricity. There are a lot of roads closed due to flooding, and there is more flooding expected today at high tide. The wind has thankfully died down.

The national guard is out in force directing traffic at the closed roads and intersections with powerless traffic signals. The humvees they travel in are used to block off the closed roads. I remember the humvees being forest green when I was a kid. They are now painted desert tan in kind of a weird contrast to the evergreens, and the rest of the natural backdrop here as it struggles despite this spring’s weather to turn green again.

Here is a picture of a large fallen portion of a tree, (a near miss!), on the Montag homestead:

It fell in about the only direction it could without hitting anything.

It seems that many people are struggling with flooding basements, and will be dealing with roof repairs over the coming days. Having been through a few hurricanes down south, while the winds weren’t as strong here, locally, the aftermath looks pretty much the same.

Making it especially hard to take, is that this week is school April vacation: the week that has always been remembered by me as the first time each year that fully warm— no jacket required, go outside and get some sun —weather starts. Not this year. We might see the sun and sixty degree temps by this weekend, though.

To mention it just one more time, BioDiversity Research Institute’s live eagle webcam is incredibly riveting. Watch the real-world drama of nature this evening as two parental bald eagles fight to protect their young during what is expected to be high winds, heavy precipitation and flooding in the form of a serious April Nor’easter*.

Click the link and then press “watch live” for streaming video (of amazing quality,) with sound. These eagles are somewhere in Hancock County Maine, and you can read all about them on the blog where you can read about these animals, and about (ahem) fund raising efforts for the project.

Go watch the eagles. It is truly fascinating to see. Thrill as the mother eagle calls for her mate to come so she can go get her eats on. Watch as they feed their young ones. Become enthralled as you imagine the meaning of their calls and personify their conversation. They’re like a regular Lucy and Ricky.

The weather alarmists are predicting widespread power outages. If that happens, Your Montag may be absent temporarily. If so, I’ll see you on the flip side.

Books That Change Me #3

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

I couldn’t bring myself to do this Thursday when I heard of his death. I don’t recall the first Vonnegut book I read, (Breakfast of Champions, maybe,) but I read several in a very short span one summer. The first one was the real life-changer. This is the one that was handy for scanning just now. No matter, they are all fantastic. He had a great wit that really spoke to me. I loved that guy.

I’m no good at eulogizing. The Rude Pundit does a fine job of it, though; and Democracy Now! has heartbreaking audio of Vonnegut reading Mark Twain.

Farewell, sir.