Buttermilk & Molasses

IN THE SEASON OF THE BEES

Link: The Washington Post

Terry M. Neal explains why the Republican Party should start worrying -- first Tom DeLay is indicted and steps down from his post as House Majority Leader. Coming soon: the conclusion of the Plame Affair, an SEC investigation into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and a criminal investigation into the Republican Party's favorite cash cow, Jack Abramoff. There are grim days ahead for the Party of Lincoln, made grimmer by President Bush's sinking polls, waning support for the war in Iraq, soaring gas prices, four states staggered by hurricanes and an economy quietly teetering.

Too bad the Democrats seem unable to seize the mantle of leadership.

PRIVATE ARMIES OF THE RICH

Link: The Nation

The Nation provides some perspective on the groups of well-armed, private security forces patrolling the streets of New Orleans.

When asked what authority they were operating under, one guy said,
"We're on contract with the Department of Homeland Security." Then,
pointing to one of his comrades, he said, "He was even deputized by the
governor of the state of Louisiana. We can make arrests and use lethal
force if we deem it necessary." The man then held up the gold Louisiana
law enforcement badge he wore around his neck. Blackwater spokesperson
Anne Duke also said the company has a letter from Louisiana officials
authorizing its forces to carry loaded weapons.

"This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government,"
says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
"These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in
Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and
possibly illegal."

Blackwater is not alone. As business leaders and government officials
talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most
culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like
DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an
Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are
fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government
projects and institutions. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the
number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from
185 to 235. Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others
have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who
brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and
his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal
contract to house FEMA workers.

THE ART OF WAR

Link: Boston Phoenix

When Boston native Steve Mumford stumbled into Iraq in April of 2003, paintbrushes in hand, he didn't realize he'd be there for 10 months. Or that he'd publish a book. But the watercolor artist did just that, and his collection of watercolors and ink drawings -- found in the recently published book, Baghdad Journal -- provides a new look at what already feels like an old war.

In the book, you talk about the connection you felt with Iraqi civilians. How so?

I would tell people in Arabic, " I am a painter. " And something that always tickled me was that people really liked that. Most Iraqis have some notion of what it is to be a painter, and they feel it’s a good thing. When I would start drawing, that would explain everything. It was clear I wasn’t from the CIA, that I wasn’t up to something nefarious. I think they just found it interesting to cluster around and watch me draw.

Were any of them offended? Doesn’t Islam prohibit the representation of the human form?

It depends. For example, Iran is an Islamic country, but there’s a huge film industry there. The Wahabbist tradition is one of the most staunch. But there are various Iraqi artists who will interpret it in different ways. Some will not do the figure at all. In fact, abstraction is the main form of fine art in Baghdad. Others will sculpt the human body, but leave the face out. I knew a guy who runs a gallery in Baghdad and he created a show on Abu Ghraib. He would do a nude, but then put the American-style hood over her head. There are all kinds of interesting aspects to this problem. Iraq, at least over the last 100 years, has tended to be a lot more secular than the states around it. They had a tradition of modernism in painting. And that could include, say, representational surrealism.

BAD PR MOVE

Link: Sheehan Arrested Outside White House.

Cindy Sheehan all but vanished in the onslaught of media coverage of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but her arrest today in front of the White House may do what her monthlong protest in Crawford, Texas, and a 100,000-plus person demonstration in Washington this past weekend failed to do -- put the war in Iraq back on the front page of the nation's newspapers.

Cindy Sheehan, the grieving California mother of a soldier slain in Iraq, was arrested today while protesting the Iraq war outside the White House.

Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey was killed last year, and several dozen other protesters staged a sit-in on the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue after marching along the pedestrian walkway, the Associated Press reported. Police warned them three times that they had to move along before making arrests, the news agency said.

"The whole world is watching," protesters chanted as Sheehan was led to a police vehicle ...

... Sheehan's arrest came after a massive antiwar demonstration Saturday in Washington which drew more than 100,000 people -- the largest such demonstration since the Iraq war began in spring 2003. A demonstration supporting the war drew roughly 500 people Sunday.

I guess Karl Rove was out of the office today. Poor Dan Bartlett's going to have one helluva fun press briefing tomorrow.

DO YOU COME FROM THE LAND OF TUNDRA?

Link: The Onion A.V. Club

Meanwhile back at the Onion's erstwhile A.V. Club, Josh Modell deconstructs a recent Sigur Ros concert. For those not in the know, Sigur Ros is a cacaphonic rock orchestra from Iceland, some low-key collision of the Cocteau Twins, Nordic creation myths and Radiohead with the sound-effects team from 2001: A Space Odyssey thrown in for good measure.

They played for almost two perfectly paced hours, building delicate moments up and then avalanching down on them. The band didn't say a word, either: Jonsi Birgisson just let that creepy, engrossing, beautiful wail act as the emotional cue... And he occasionally bowed his guitar into oblivion. At one point--I think it was during "Hafsol," but I could be way off--a guy in the front row who looked dressed for the office, mid-30s, balding, stood up from his chair because he just couldn't not let it out any more.

During the final pre-encore song ("Smaskifa" -- I know this only because the band's publicist sent me a set list), the giant screen behind the band showed silhouettes of birds on a wire; they flew on and off during the song, which ended with everyone leaving the stage except for the drummer, who quietly played a keyboard bit as the birds flew off. It was the perfect ending, and I hoped they'd leave it at that. I was happy they didn't. Instead, they brought out the slow-building "Popplaglid" (a.k.a. the final untitled song from the album with no title, a.k.a. ( )), slowly lowering the screen in front of them and disappearing into a cathartic, intense exhale. I've never seen and heard anything quite like it.

SEPTEMBER 25 HARVEST

Link: SPROUT: Richmond's Organic CSA Group

Our farmers had a stand-in this morning, so our pick-up was a quick, drive-by affair.  We've wandered into some unfamiliar territory -- a small basket of purple okra. Nikole has scarfed it down at Comfort, and my dad used to grow it in North Carolina, but neither one of us has actually brought it into our own kitchen. So, here we go.

In addition to the okra, we netted four eggplant, a few pints of tomtatoes and small peppers and some green beans. The last six weeks of drought are wreaking havoc on our weekly bounty, so we stocked up on expensive organic produce at Ellwood Thompson's Natural Market -- corn, garlic, cukes.

Dinner tonight was a wheat-and-flax pasta tossed with sauteed hot red pepper, sweet orange pepper, corn, garlic, brocolli, and asparagus. A splash of pecorino romano, some red wine.

INHERIT THE WIND

Link: Fiscal Policy: Why 'Stupid' Fits.

Finally, someone calls a spade a spade. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne took his ink pen out yesterday and began scribbling down words for his latest commentary. The word stupid kept emerging. As in: "The exchange showed how fundamentally stupid our budget policies have been over the past five years -- and, yes, I'll defend that strong word."

What recent months have demonstrated, Dionne suggests, is that the Republican Party is committed to one thing: tax cuts for the wealthy. If cutting taxes requires cutting programs, so be it. If cutting taxes requires a skyrocketing deficit, no matter.

But our current budget policies are built not on honest coherence but on incoherence or, even worse, a dishonest coherence. The president and members of Congress always insist that they are fiscal conservatives who believe in balanced budgets. Yet their actions bear no relationship to their words, and labels such as "conservative" have no connection to their policies. Our federal purse strings are in the hands of fiscal radicals.

I'd have much more respect for these guys if they just came out and said: "Look, we love deficit spending. That's why we waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cut taxes at the same time. It's why we'll talk about offsets for Katrina and Rita but never enact them, except maybe a few cuts in programs for the poor. All we really care about are passing tax cuts -- and popular spending programs that get us reelected so we can enact more tax cuts."

Not very politic, I'll grant you, but honest. Vice President Cheney came as close as anyone to this form of honesty when he spoke in support of the tax cuts on dividends shortly after the 2002 elections. His words, alas, came at a closed meeting. According to Ron Suskind's book "The Price of Loyalty," Cheney referred to the former president in insisting to his administration colleagues that "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" and that Republicans owed themselves more tax cuts. "We won the midterms," Cheney said. "This is our due."

All hail the former Halliburton CEO for being candid enough to put the accent on power and privilege, not on policy and those oh-so-boring fiscal concerns. I guess balanced budgets aren't for "big-picture guys."

ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?

Link: TimesDispatch

Next Wednesday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch takes a step toward becoming a credible community newspaper (bear in mind, the TD has miles to go before it sleeps on this particular journey). On the evening of September 28, the TD opens its conference room doors to the public for the first of its "Public Square" meetings:

... the Times-Dispatch will host the first in a continuing series of public discussions on issues facing the Richmond community.

Called Public Squares, after open meetings in town and city squares during the Republic's early years, they will offer conversation, discussion, civil discourse. They will not be lectures, nor will they promote particular solutions. Rather, they will foster public engagement for a more informed citizenry.

The first will be held in the newspaper's large conference room ... The topic for discussion: The Performing Arts Center.

Outside of the fact that Richmond might be the only place where the editorial board of the local newspaper uses "the Republic" as a synonym for the country, the nation or the United States, this should be an interesting experiment for a paper whose primary contribution to the community in recent years has been its generous gifting program to local recycling. I hope to be in attendance and will report on the community furor over the proposed Performing Arts Center.

CLINTON, REDUX

Link: Washington Post

Former President Bill Clinton might be elbowing his way toward a new top slot -- Secretary-General of the United Nations. New York Senator Hillary Clinton might be aiming for the old top slot -- President of the United States. America's power couple continue to look to the future.

Fortunately, they've learned to talk less. Tina Brown, chatterbox of the rich, has the dish:

The big surprise of Bill Clinton's Global Initiative conference at the Sheraton Hotel in New York last week was how strangely calming it was. You would expect to emerge begging for mercy from a three-day talkathon on the world's most intractable problems emceed by history's most garrulous president -- especially if you were a survivor of one of his book tour gigs.

To be sure, Clinton, the big intellectual showoff, had never been less than brilliant on his feet, but he never knew when to stop. And all that promiscuous lateral thinking ended up sucking the air out of the room. We got so tired of his lack of discipline that by 2000 we thought we were ready for a presidency that operated by assertion. Five years later we see what that's brought.

Maybe it's the effect of his brush with death. He's pared himself down to the essentials, symbolized by the slimmed physique and the paternal reading glasses. His style was always inclusive even when he was on the attack. But now you feel he's shed the psychic baggage of the impeachment years and with it the toxic rock and roll of his constantly roiling reputation.

The new, honed Clinton on the rostrum made sure that any earnest hand-wringing grappled with the raw brutality of irreconcilables. He even saw to it that the panels he moderated actually ran on time.

Every session began with a stroll to the podium to announce a big-bucks pledge for some imaginative initiative ($1.25 billion by the conference's close).

"Now here's something else in my hot little hand," the former prez would say, dangling his glasses, with his best "doggone" smile. "My old friend Carlos Slim Helu here has just said he's willing to develop a cell phone network for Gaza and link it to Jordan's network! Why, thanks, Carlos. Come up here and be recognized." A big hand for Carlos, who turns out to be the richest man in Latin America.

This wasn't just the usual FOBs from Park Avenue and Hollywood (though there were plenty of those cruising around). With so many world policy chiefs present -- Tony Blair, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Condi Rice, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, even Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, for heaven's sake -- the conference was a tour d'horizon of Clinton's life, and head, since the White House. (So that's what he's been doing on all those far-flung speaking gigs -- scarfing down public policy from the global minibar.) No one has figured out before how to leverage a post-presidency like this. Jimmy Carter's version has been about the power of example. Clinton's is about the power of power. He's been everywhere, met everyone (my favorite Clintonian aside: "As someone who went to Nigeria to plead for the life of a woman condemned under sharia law, I thank you for doing this."). Now he's putting that Rolodex to work for something bigger than the next campaign.

Welcome to Planet Clinton, an interconnected world that's a solar system and a wormhole away from Bush country.

MADE FOR MARCHING

Link: Washington Post

The marchers are coming! The marchers are coming!

This weekend, thousands of protestors will hit the streets of Washington -- protesting the war in Iraq and fighting for attention against Hurricane Rita.

The Post's soft analysis of what passes for a peace movement raises the most important question: Is something happening here? The answer: Hard to say.

The polls will tell you that an increasing majority of Americans are frustrated by the war in Iraq, believe it was a mistake, wonder how we're going to exit what increasingly feels like a quagmire, or a stalemate. And the stream of average Americans -- as opposed to the mohawked punk-rockers of the Reagan Era disarmament movement or the anarco-goth crowd that converged at global economic conferences -- who have flocked to Crawford, Texas, and appear to be heading to D.C. seems different somehow. More solid.

But how solid is it, really? And does it have the answers America is looking for?

... the peace movement's claims to rising momentum are more tenuous. Since a majority first called Iraq a mistake more than a year ago, the number has fluctuated rather than increased steadily. Polls in the last week have suggested an uptick.

Hurricane Katrina and now Rita may be sucking publicity from peace. On the other hand, the movement has struck a chord with some people by using Katrina to further question Bush's competence and priorities.

If this weekend's demonstrations do draw 100,000, they will rival a prewar peace march in Washington that police suggested involved more than 100,000 and was considered the largest antiwar rally since Vietnam. Organizers claimed 500,000 attended that march.

So if you want to learn about the movement, you need to track the characters back up the solitary trails of tears that brought them here. The journeys involve the main questions facing the peace movement:

If the troops come home now, won't there be even more chaos and deaths of innocents in Iraq?

How can you support the troops and not the war?

If we don't fight the Enemy in Iraq, will we someday fight him here?

Isn't it a good thing that Saddam Hussein is toppled and facing trial?

If we "cut and run" and do not "stay the course," will the fallen have died in vain?