Celebrate!! - Cloture Stands Unaltered - Hurrah For The American Way!!

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They've come to their senses--mostly the Republicans, but also the Democrats and their need to concede some ground. And they did. I've been wondering what would happen if Republicans altered the cloture rule (limiting the abilty to filibuster). Would it lead to a revolt against the GOP?...landslide losses? The destruction of the Republican party? The destruction of the Democratic party (like we weren't making pretty good progress self-destructing on our own)?

It looks like two old warhorses, Senators Byrd and Warner put this deal together.

The Republicans know their turn in the cold is coming. They may be mean, but they're not stupid. I want them to have the filibuster; it's so sacred we even let Republicans use it!

Without this tool, The Senate would be no different than the factionalized, reactionary, pork-doling House of Representatives, running for office every eighteen months and raising money every day.

So the Senate remains the coolest political institutional around (not discounting many lapses and moments of insanity, particularly with the Republicans majority).

Here is part of a wire service article from today. Click on the title of this article to link to the full news story.

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a dramatic reach across party lines, Senate centrists sealed a compromise Monday night that cleared the way for confirmation of many of President Bush's stalled judicial nominees, left others in limbo and preserved venerable filibuster rules. "We have reached an agreement to try to avert a crisis in the United States Senate and pull the institution back from a precipice," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., adding the deal was based on "trust, respect and mutual desire to .... protect the rights of the minority.

"We have lifted ourselves above politics," agreed Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W. Va., "And we have signed this document....in the interest of freedom of speech, freedom of debate and freedom to dissent in the United States Senate.

Under the terms, Democrats agreed to allow final confirmation votes for Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor, appeals court nominees they have long blocked. There is "no commitment to vote for or against" the filibuster against two other conservatives named to the appeals court, Henry Saad and William Myers.

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Photograph: Jerry Melin At Mud Bay, Bainbridge Island, Washington

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This is one of my favorite Mel pictures. If you look close, you sense the many facets of Mel. . . .shards of something extra, something a little bent; a soul that ranged the darkness and the sublime. He always had something going--something else, something extra bubbling away just under the surface.

This is how Jerry might smile if he loved you.
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Dear Middle East: Let's Make A Deal!!!

SHUNEH, Jordan (AFP) - The Middle East is faced with the prospect of a serious water crisis that could lead to political tensions and hamper prosperity, experts told a session of a World Economic Forum. "We are not secure about water supplies. Supplies are simply not enough ... This is a scary issue," Hazem Nasser, former Jordanian water and irrigation minister told the session.
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Dear Middle East:

We can provide ALL the water you will ever need.

Send us a barrel of oil and we'll send you a barrel of water.

Sincerely yours,

Jack

Jack Brummet
Seattle, Wash., U.S.A.
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All This Is That Reanimates! Technical Glitches Fixed

After four days of problems, I figured out what I was doing wrong, and I can publish again. A side benefit: this page should also load about five times faster now.
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An Index To Jack's Heroes & Villains Paintings

Since I recently figured out how to index blog articles, I have been putting together indexes for some of the series I've created here. Here are links to all the Heroes & Villains paintings that I completed a couple months ago...

Heroes And Villains No. 50--> Vlad Dracolya a/k/a Vlad The Impaler & Jesus Christ
Heroes And Villains No. 49--> Mario Cuomo & Ann Coulter
Heroes And Villains No. 48--> General William Tecumseh Sherman & Louis Armstrong
Heroes And Villains No. 47--> Harriet Tubman & Marie Louise of Orléans
Heroes And Villains No. 46--> John Coltrane and Mao Zedong a/k/a The Chairman a/k/a Mao Tse Tung
Britney Spears Gives Michael Jackson advice to get his life back together -- get drunk and start a fight!!
Heroes And Villains No. 45--> Two Guys With Their Hand Wrapped Around Their Chin--> Senator Robert F. Kennedy & Rabbi Meir Kahane
Heroes And Villains No. 44--> Mohammed & John Wayne Gacy
Heroes And Villains No. 43--> Ron McKernan a/k/a Pigpen & Harry Robbins ("Bob" or "H.R.") Haldeman
Heroes And Villains No. 42--> Mickey Hart & Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Heroes And Villains No. 41--> Brent Mydland & Mohammed Reza Pahlavi a/k/a "The Shah Of Iran" Heroes And Villains No. 40--> Larry Rivers & Lucrezia Borgia (a/k/a The Duchess of Ferrara), Daughter of Heroes And Villains No. 20, Pope Alexander VI
Heroes And Villains No. 39--> William Shakespeare & Queen Ranavalona I Of Madagascar
Heroes And Villains No. 38--> Eleanor Roosevelt & Lee Harvey Oswald
Heroes And Villains No. 37--> Bob Weir & Albert Anastasia a/k/a "The Mad Hatter" and Co-director of Murder, Inc.
Heroes And Villains No. 36--> David Duke & Virginia Woolf
Heroes And Villains No. 35--> Doris Lessing & Typhoid Mary (a/k/a Mary Mallon)
Heroes And Villains No. 34--> Mata Hari & Dr. William Carlos Williams
Heroes And Villains No. 33--> Congresswoman Bella Abzug & Pope Urban VI
Heroes And Villains No. 32--> John Lennon & Carrie Nation
Heroes And Villains No. 31--> Morris Dees & Queen Mary I a/k/a Bloody Mary
Heroes And Villains No. 30--> Nina Simone & Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
Heroes And Villains No. 29--> Phyllis Schlafly & Peter Jackson
Heroes And Villains No. 28--> President George W. Bush & Andy Warhol
Heroes And Villains No. 27--> Edith Piaf & Hermann Goering
Heroes And Villains No. 26--> Two People born in 1893--> Anita Loos & Joachim von Ribbentrop
Heroes And Villains No. 25--> Congresswoman (and 1972 Presidential Candidate) Shirley Chisholm & Senator Joseph ("tailgunner Joe") McCarthy
Heroes And Villains No. 24--> Billie Holiday & J. Edgar Hoover
Heroes And Villains No. 22---> Elvis Costello & Billy The Kid (a/k/a Declan McManus & Wiliam H. Bonney)
Heroes And Villains No. 21--> Chrissie Hynde & Bruno Hauptmann
Heroes And Villains No. 20--> Two More Catholics--> Keelin Curran & Pope Alexander VI a/k/a Rodrigo Borgia a/k/a "The Bad Pope"
Heroes And Villains No. 19--> Two Americans Born in 1903--> Zora Neale Hurston & John Dillinger
heroes & Villains No. 18--> Joni Mitchell and Maier Suchowljansky (a/k/a Meyer Lansky)
Heroes And Villains No. 17--> Erzsebet Bathory, Countess Of Transylvania (And Vampire) & Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, a/k/a Mother

Heroes And Villains No. 16 --> Josef Stalin and Calamity Jane
Heroes And Villains No. 15---> Gertrude Stein And Richard M. Nixon
Heroes And Villains No. 14--> Joan d'Arc And Ivan The Terrible
Heroes And Villains No. 13--> Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar, a/k/a Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus) And Phil Lesh
Heroes And Villains No. 12 --> Maximilien Robespierre and Artemisia Gentileschi
Heroes And Villains No. 11--> Gaius (Caligula) And Rachel Carson
Heroes And Villains No. 10--> Ma Barker and Elizabeth Gaskell
Heroes And Villains No. 9-->Maria Mitchell And Idi Amin
Heroes And Villains No. 8--> Mother Jones and Heinrich Himmler
Heroes And Villains No. 7---> Two Bald Guys--> Hideki Tojo and John Glenn
Heroes And Villains No. 6--> Jerry Garcia and Tokyo Rose (aka Ikuko Toguri)
Heroes And Villains No. 5--> John Wilkes Booth and Emily Dickinson
Heroes And Villains No. 4-->Jeffrey Dahmer and Daniel Boone
Digital Painting --> Heroes And Villains No. 3--> Jack Kennedy and Torquemada, Or, Two Catholic Boys
Digital Painting --> Heroes And Villains No. 2--> Bishop Tutu and Il Duce (aka Benito Mussolini)
Digital Painting --> Heroes And Villains No. 1--> Adolph Hitler and Lyndon Johnson

President Bush Looking Into Saddam Hussein's Underwear

The latest Iraq controversy: pictures of Saddam Hussein in the hoosegow, in his underwear (good ole' American white briefs).

And what did our White House Press Official say? His spokesman said: “He has been briefed and wants to get to the bottom of it.”

Yup. They said that.
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Warren Beatty: I Don't Want To Run For California Governor.

click to enlarge - Warren Beatty In Bulworth

Sat May 21, 6:47 PM ET BERKELEY, Calif. (Reuters)

[ If Warren were to run a campaign anything like Jay Bulworth's in the movie Bulworth, I'd fly down to help him.]

Actor Warren Beatty, who has been considered a potential candidate for California governor, said on Saturday he does not want to run in next year's election, even as he lashed out against incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Beatty, invited to speak to graduates of the University of California at Berkeley's public policy school, has never held public office, but he has been a trusty supporter of Democratic presidential candidates for decades. In recent months, the two movie stars have sparred in separate public appearances that hinted at a possible political showdown.
"I'm an opponent of (Schwarzenegger's) muscle-bound conservatism with longer experience in politics than he has," the star of the political satire "Bulworth" said at the commencement ceremony.

"And although I don't want to run for governor, I would do one hell of a lot better job than he's done," the 68-year-old actor said. "I could name you a lot of Democrats who would be so much better than I would, and maybe even a few Republicans."

No clear Democratic front-runner has emerged to challenge the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger in the November 2006 gubernatorial election. State Treasurer Phil Angelides has asked for his party's nomination, and producer Rob Reiner has received high marks in the polls.

In a fiery and overtly political speech, Beatty called for higher taxes on the rich, if only temporarily, to close the state's budget gap, as well as for public financing of elections.
He said Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder and star of "The Terminator" movies," was playing politics in a bid to prepare himself for a run for president.

"It's not fooling anybody to be running around raising money from Wall Street, K Street and rich Republicans all over the country," he said. "We are not the governor's dumbbells."

Before Schwarzenegger could throw his hat into the ring, Congress would have to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing a foreign-born American to run for president. Three-fourths of the states would also have to ratify the amendment.

Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, took a jab at Beatty's age. "I'm sure it's not personal," she said. "Warren's just mad because he's afraid they're cutting off his
Social Security."
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Continuing Technical Difficulties

All This Is That is experiencing problems creating new posts. We are working to resolve this. In the meantime, browse the archives. /jack
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Go Metric <-----> No Metric

Britain's leading supermarket chain, Tesco, last year announced that they would return to imperial weights and measures (pounds, pints, inches, ounces and feet). The reaction from the British public and press was overwhelmingly positive. A survey of Tesco customers revealed that about nine out of 10 people still used the old-fashioned measurements in their heads.

Tesco's decision follows numerous small grocery store owners who have become heroes by standing up to the European "food police" by defying the latest rules from Brussels, capital of the European Union. The metric system has been unpopular with the Brits for generations, but it has now become a symbol of the European Union's hegemony and what the Brits perceive as an effort to extinguish British culture. The anti-metric movement has some similarities to the anti-WTO movement.

The official name for the metric system is Systeme International d'Unites. The rabidly anti-French British don't much cotton to that name.

The metric system was originally concocted by French revolutionaries who wanted to impose "order." Napoleon's troops often imposed that order at bayonet-point.

The base-10 system, the metric system was allegedly more rational and therefore easier and more scientific. For instance the kilometer was defined -- by Napoleon's decree -- as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole on a line running through--natch!--Paris. Of course that measure is faulty too, because the frogs didn't realize the earth was slightly egg-shaped. Other metric measures are just as faulty, or just as arbitrary as our imperial system.

The meter is now defined as the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458-th of a second. That comes in handy when you're buying a length of rope!

Is that somehow less rational than our inch, which was defined in 1150 by King David I of Scotland as the width of a man's thumb at the base of the thumbnail? Edward I of England redefined the inch in the 13th century to equal three grains of dry and round barley laid end to end. A foot. . .we know where that came from. The mile comes from the Latin for a thousand steps, or, a thousand steps by feet now much smaller than feet are today...

We were supposed to “go metric” in the 1970s, but it never happened. As a schoolkid in the sixties, it was certainly drilled into our heads. They were preparing us for the Big Changeover that never happened. I can think metric pretty well, but I've always had trouble with metric temperatures (weather and oven). Certainly if you buy wine or distilled spirits in this country, you are familiar with the basics of fluid measurement. And even most other liquids are cross-labeled. But isn't wine just about the only area where we actually have gone metric? It looks like this may take another couple hundred years.
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Please Stand By...All This Is That Continues To Experience "Technical Difficulties"

All This Is That continues to experience technical difficulties. . .most articles and postings are not being accepted by Blogger. I am trying to work this out with the folks at Blogger. Until this is resolved, things may remain a little spotty here.

Poem: The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand

"The Gideons! Just who in the f**k are The Gideons?!" - Bill Hicks

With great expectations
The Bible was placed,
Courtesy of The Gideon Society,
In this scarred nightstand
Fifteen years ago.

It tells you where to turn
If you're lonely, hungry, desperate, alone
Or if you want to walk to the window
And keep on walking.

It gives instruction to the infidel and the murderous,
But they never tell you what to do if things are copacetic,
Or if you think a bad day is far better than no day at all.

Frayed, tear-stained, underlined, and mostly forgotten,
But used beyond The Society's wildest dreams.

I did, it says in I Samuel, but taste a little honey,
And, lo, I must die.

It was left for me to get through a night like this,
And get through the night I did, in style, with the likes of
Jezebel, Mary Magdalene, Jonah in the belly of the beast,
Saul, Lazarus, Sodom and Gomorrah, Begetting, Smiting,
The Good Samaritan, Cain and Abel, The Prodigal Son,
The Cock Crowing Three Times, Judas, The Burning Bush,
The Fishes and the Loaves, The Burning Bush,
The Parting of the Waters, Jesus Walking on Water,
Noah and his menagerie, foot washing, Gethsemane,
King Herod, Caesar, King David and Goliath, and Samson,
With a dark and angry Yaweh smouldering in the background
And salvation as the overarching theme.
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Seven Year Art Project, No.12 (the final example)

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ok. Enough. I won't publish images of the other 138 canvases I did in this art project.

It's on to more poems and more stories. I am going to continue the My Worst Jobs series shortly, with Working At The Fish, and My Year As An Orderly In The Dementia Ward.
have also been kicking around a new series of digital art--it have been thinking about famous murderers, Woman Who Changes The World, and maybe one on artists.

I am in Los Angeles at E3 right now. . .I just escaped. . .we are staying at a hotel in West Hollywood and going with my company tonight to see the final Star Wars movie. The show today was the usual assault on the senses.

More later...I find it difficult to use Keelin's laptop. . .mainly the built in mouse...I've never been able to master those.

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Painting: Invasion

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This is Value Village oil painting I made over. I kept the trees and added some trees. I retained the mountain and the bubbling brook. I painted out the clouds. The Greys, Nordics, and Zeta Reticulons come from various sources. The grey head I have been working on for years, and it is finally just about where I want it. The various saucers and conveyances are collaged in from MUFON and other web sites. This is probably my favorite makeover painting next to the one of Elizabeth Taylor (to appear in the future).

Seven Year Art Project, No. 11

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Newsweek Apologizes For The Fictional Koran Flushing Incident

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.

Newsweek's editor, Mark Whitaker, apologized on Sunday and said the magazine inaccurately reported that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.

Reaction from The White House: "It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. " Take that with a grain of salt, friends, coming from a White House that still refuses to retract the Weapons Of Mass Destruction story they cooked up to invade Iraq.

The Newsweek report sparked violent protests across the Muslim world -- from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan, Indonesia and Gaza. The Koran flushing has also been condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.

I realize The Koran is sacrosanct, but, hey, that seems like pretty small potatoes compared to some of the other stuff that happened in Guantanamo or that prison in Iraq. I guess I'd flush The Koran (or the American Flag, or the Bible, or Talmud, or the Upanishads) down the toilet if I thought it would save some lives. But this didn't seem to work out so well.
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