Painting: Five Presidents

click painting to enlarge

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Poem: The Variations

This is a repeat. . .The original poem is not showing up, and therefore here it is once again...

1.
I don't know which is better
The thing itself
Or the chicanes

Lacunae
Variations
Selections

Emendations
Redactions
Prevarications

Blurring and
Sharpening
That transmogrify the tale with time

2.
I don't know which is better
To see the baby emerge
Or to see who the baby becomes

3.
I don't know which is better
To ponder the variations
Or to not


4.
These rogue and rococo thoughts
Skitter sideways
Like a sideshuffling crab

Using evasive tactics
In case anyone locks on
And attempts to impose

A framework
Of coherence and congruence
On these fitfully nuanced palabra


5.
If you actually begin to understand
What I am writing
We have all missed the point

Sometimes I don't know
What it means
Until someone else tells me


6.
Sometimes I don't know
If it's better to pull your leg
Or my own


7.
I don't know which is better
The fog and the detours
Or the thing itself.
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copyright (c) 2005 by Jack Brummet. 11-13-2005 vancouver, british columbia

Alien Lore No. 44 - The Extraterrestrial Exposure Law

This doesn't fall into the lore category, but certainly applies to people subscribing to that lore.

In July 1969, the ET Exposure Law was enacted without public debate (well, except some muffled screaming from UFOlogists). The law prohibits anyone from making contact with a UFO or any alien. If a person breaks this law, he or she can be fined up to $5000 and be incarcerated for up to a year. A NASA administrator is empowered to determine, even without a hearing, if a person has been exposed and can have that individual quarantined under armed guard for an indeterminate period of time. That would mean, I take it, up to and including forever...

There was no appeal to this decision. No test case ever came up, of course--somehow we never bagged anyone chatting up an alien. The law was revoked in the early 1990s. What were they thinking in the first place?
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Mencken Scoffs At Poets

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

-H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

He flings serious mud for someone who seemed pretty miserable most of the time. We don't want to even go into the world of hurt Mencken was in. . .but he was a very funny man nonetheless.

What Was Jack Kennedy Saying To Lyndon Johnson?

What was happening here? I don't think I have ever seen a photo of President Jack Kennedy with that same look:::::::::::::concern and anguish, woe, or the benign public face of his rage at whatever LBJ was shouting. I think we all extrapolate JFK saying "Okay Lyndon," or "that's enough," or something along those lines. Of all the LBJ pictures I have seen over the years, this one remains a mystery.

Someone must know how this photo was taken, and the circumstances that caused Senator Kennedy to reach out to muzzle Senator Johnson. It feels like a campaign appearance (therefore it happened after the Demo convention in July). After taking office, LBJ was presumably more restrained. The picture was likely taken sometime between September 5th and November 9th, 1960, between Labor Day--the 'old school' day to launch campaigns--and Election Day.

If you know anything about this photograph, please write! I have done searches on different portals and engines, and quite a few of the serious reference to the photo lead back to
All This Is That, which has no information at all! I can find the picture in other places, but no one ever explains it.

/jack

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Betty Brummet Triumphs Over Lori Sotelo, The Republican Party, And Former Dogcatcher, Republican Chair Chris Vance!

Betty Brummet has won back (and, in fact, never lost because her November 8 ballot was counted), her right to vote in Washington State. The 82 year old grandmother and World War II veteran had her right to vote challenged in a misguided sweep by frenzied Republicans trying to narrow the gap. The G.O.P. focused on evening the score after their hapless gubernatorial candidate narrowly lost a recount in a hotly contested and litigated election.

On being challenged, Betty and her supporters swung into action, contacting newspapers, local politicians, the A.C.L.U., Democratic and Republican Party officials, as well as the King County Prosecutor's Office.

This weekend, Betty Brummet received a self-serving and officious letter from the Republican Party telling her that her right to vote had been "challenged in error."

The Republican efforts backfired. As one citizen put it on the Sound Politics web site, "The only thing Chris Vance and the Republican Party succeeded in doing this election was to use a mean-spirited last-minute voter registration trick which backfired horribly to mint thousands of new Democrats. " ___________________________________________________________

King County Republican Party


November 18, 2005

Betty Brummet
xxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Betty Brummet:

We have found that your voter registration address was challenged in error. It was never our intention to challenge your registration address [1], but it was, unfortunately, included on the forms delivered to King County Records and Elections on October 28, 2005. We have delivered a letter to Dean Logan today asking that your voter registration address be rescinded from our challenge.

It is the intention of the Voter Registration Integrity Project that all legal voters in King County be registered properly. Ensuring that only properly eligible and registered persons can vote is essential to prevent diluting the votes of all citizens. There are tens of thousands of duplicate registrations, illegal registrations and registrations of people who are either deceased or have moved. We trust our government to value the sanctity of our vote. When clean voter rolls and not a priority, our vote is not valued. Out intention is to hold our government accountable to its citizens.

We value the right of every eligible person to vote and have no intention to undermine that right in any way. Please accept my apology for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sincerely,

Lori Sotelo, Sr. Vice Chair
King County Republican Central Committee


[1] All This Is That Editor's Note: In fact, Ms. Sotelo wrote under oath on the affidavit that accompanied the challenge to Betty's voter registration that Sotelo "has personal knowledge" that Betty did not in fact reside in the house where she has lived the last 52 years.

South Dakotan Charged With Having Sex With Dummy

The victim, or did she
entice him into the
lascivious act?


A Sioux Falls man was charged yesterday with indecent exposure after he was caught trying to have sex with a female mannequin on display at an arts centre.

Security guards found Michael Plentyhorse, 18, sprawled with the dummy on the floor of the Washington Pavillion with his trousers and pants down.

Police spokesman Loren McManus said: "There was inappropriate activity between him and the mannequin. " "That's the only way I know how to put it."

Security at the Pavillion say they've noticed the same mannequin undressed on several occasions. Drugs or alcohol do not seem to have been involved, and there seems to have been no consent given by the dummy.

If you want to visit him, drop him a line, or even send him a blow up doll:

Michael James Plentyhorse
708 N. Dakota Ave.
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-2417
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Keep Washington State Blue -- Vote Democratic

Buy one of their posters here...or just make a donation toward next November's crucial mid-term elections.
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President Bush Has An Unintentionally Comic Moment In Beijing

President Bush performed a comedy routine yesterday. At a briefing in China, The President ducked a question and attempted to leave the news conference. However, he bumped into a set of locked doors.

After the day's meetings with President Hu Jintao, POTUS met a small group of U.S. reporters and and talked about religious freedom, Iraq and the Chinese currency.

One reporter asked: "...you seemed a little off your game, you seemed to hurry through your statement. There was a lack of enthusiasm. Was something bothering you?"

"Have you ever heard of jet lag?" Bush responded. "Well, good. That answers your question."

President Bush then went over a list of positive developments from his meetings.

When the reporter asked for "a very quick follow-up," Bush cut him off by thanking the press corps and telling the reporter "No you may not," as he strode toward a set of double doors leading out of the room.

The doors were locked. "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work," Bush quipped. An aide pointed him toward the correct door. You can watch a video of the episode too.
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A.E. Housman And The Poetry Of The Glum

A.E. Housman (1859-1936) perfected the art of the glum. In this compact poem, he actually lifted his head above the darkness for a moment (while never forgetting it was right over his shoulder). He also pulled off some interesting tricks with the meter of the poem. It goes bang! with this fantastic rhythm. Other than this, I've read little Housman, aside from the obligatory poems in college poetry classes. This one is sweet. I'm a sucker for the well-wrought short form.



The thoughts of others were light and fleeting,
of lovers meeting, of luck or fame.
Mine were of trouble, and mine were steady
so I was ready when trouble came.

- AE Housman, 1859-1936
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CIA Torture Techniques

According to ABC news, "harsh interrogation techniques authorized by top officials of the CIA have led to questionable confessions and the death of a detainee since the techniques were first authorized in mid-March 2002." This torture appears to be occurring in the black ops camps described yesterday by former CIA Director, Admiral Stansfield Turner.

The CIA sources described a list of six "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" instituted in mid-March 2002 and used, they said, on a dozen top al Qaeda targets incarcerated in isolation at secret locations on military bases in regions from Asia to Eastern Europe. According to the sources, only a handful of CIA interrogators are trained and authorized to use the techniques:

1. The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of the prisoner and shakes him.

2. Attention Slap: An open-handed slap aimed at causing pain and triggering fear. [the bitch slap is a technique frequently used by pimps against their employees.]

3. The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed slap to the stomach. The aim is to cause pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.

4. Long Time Standing: This technique is described as among the most effective. Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation are effective in yielding confessions.

5. The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees. Throughout the time in the cell the prisoner is doused with cold water.

6. Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.

There is something about this list that makes one wonder where are the next six techniques--the really grisly ones. None of the six recommended techniques include the sort of sexual humiliation and naked pigpiles we saw conducted by army amateurs at the Iraq Prisoner of War camps, Abu Ghraib and Bucca.
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Sixty Years Ago Today, The Nuremberg Trials Began

Sixty years ago today, 24 Nazi officials went on trial for their lives in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II. An international tribunal from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and England conducted the trial.



It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to crimes of war, to crimes against humanity. Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the 216 court sessions.

On October 1946, 12 Nazi leaders were sentenced to death. Three were acquitted, and seven received prison terms. Goering, who was called the "leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews," cheated the hangman by taking his own life the night before his scheduled execution. Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia, although he was actually most likely dead by then.

Trials of less well-known war criminals continued into the 1950s. 5,025 other defendants were convicted, 806 were executed.

Nuremberg has always been a litmus test of my resolve against capital punishment. I may not believe in an eye for an eye, but the people put to death here come pretty close to making a compelling case. . .
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