E-Yeah!!! Take that Denver Donkeys!!! We win 25-24!! Thanks Jerry Porter for catching those 3 touchdown passes!! Thanks Ronald Curry for making that circus one-handed touchdown catch!! Thanks Kerry Collins for the great game!! Thank you Langston Walker for blocking that kick!! I had forgotten how good it feels to win!!
Monthly Archive for November, 2004
Today marks the anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, a true social revolution which toppled the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz and welcomed social, political, and economic reform for all the Mexican people. Led by the Caudillo from the South, Emiliano Zapata, and the Centaur of the North, Francisco Villa, and influenced by the ideology of Ricardo Flores Magon, the Mexican people took back what was rightfully theirs: their patria.
Books Read in the Latter Part of 2004:
Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada. Cien Sonetos de Amor by Pablo Neruda
Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda
Contra Bush by Carlos Fuentes
A New Time for Mexico by Carlos Fuentes
Cronica de Una Muerte Anunciada by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
El Amor en los Tiempos de Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Books Currently Reading:
Race Matters by Cornel West
Man and His Symbols by Carl G. Jung
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Huey P. Newton Reader by Huey P. Newton
Books I hope to Complete before the End of the Year:
Del Amor Y Otros Demonios by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges
Confieso Que He Vivido by Pablo Neruda
Democracy Matters by Cornel West
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
The Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engel
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
The Souls of Black Folk by D.E.B DuBois
What was Ron Artest doing jumping into the crowd? Is this idiot really that stupid? Did he expect the fans to sit there idle while one of their own got a beat-down? I hear the talking heads on ESPN placing most of the blame on the fans but what about the professional athletes? Are they not able to control themselves in these situations? Fine, a fan threw his drink (in a cup) at Artest. Is that reason enough for this moron to jump into the crowd? I think not! Suspend that dumb bastard. I think that everyone should be held accountable but more so the players since they should be able to restrain themselves. Suspend Artest and ban the stupid fans that ran on to the court. It is absurd that these players would jump into a crowd of fans without consideration for young children or older adults. An older lady was trampled on, and on her back for crying out loud! This is supposed to be basketball! What is it with this trend of violence and sports? I refused to watch the World Series because of the death of Victoria Snelgrove. You know what? Fuck the Redsox, fuck the overzealous police and fuck the fans that were responsible for Victoria’s death. This is supposed to be a sporting event not time for rioting. If the Boston Redsox really cared for this girl they would have refused to participate in the World Series. It is as simple as that. But I digress…I am this close to refusing to watch another NBA game for the rest of the season. Tonight’s events have really made me think twice of investing any time in watching this league of overpaid, obnoxious “professional athletes.”
This article borders on the absurd. The family of a CIA operative that was killed during the botched Bay of Pigs invasion sued the country of Cuba who they “hold responsible” for the death of their relative. Once again, the operative was attempting to invade a sovereign country and was killed in the process and now his family wants indemnity in the form of frozen Cuban assets? Maybe the family should sue the U.S. government for allowing such action to even take place. This is like a criminal robbing a bank, getting shot in the process and then his family suing over his death. Why is it that Cuba is such a threat to the U.S? Does the U.S. want a “democratic” Cuba or do they want it to return to a pre-revolution Cuba where U.S. interests reigned in what was a poverty stricken country that was ruled over by a very wealthy Cuban elite? Will the yanqui’s ever let Latin America be?
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead
Masters of War, by Bob Dylan
I used to figure California should have its own macho motto like the one Texans love so much: “Don’t Mess With Texas.”
Then I looked it up, and do you know what that bring-it-on mantra is really about? Littering. “Don’t Mess With Texas” is a make-nice 1985 campaign slogan to persuade Texans to stop littering. In 1985, you could legally go careening down a Lone Star State highway with a tall-boy in one hand and a shotgun in the other, but if you tossed the empty beer can or the 12-gauge shell casings out the window you’d get busted by the tidy police. I’m trembling in my Tony Lamas, y’all.Mindful of that, we really don’t need no stinkin’ motto, unless we want to rework the Dust Bowl slogan “California or Bust” into “California or Else.” Because that’s where matters stand now: There’s California, and there’s everyplace else.
A few weeks ago, I argued in print for restoring the California Republic in the event of a victory by President Bush. As a solo act, California is the world’s fifth- or sixth-largest economy. We kept our assault weapons ban when the feds let theirs expire. We support medicinal marijuana while the feds still classify weed right up there with heroin and crack. The American president wants the Constitution to ban gay wedlock once and for all; the California governor says he doesn’t care “one way or the other” whether homosexuals get married.
To all of you, and especially those who already applied to me for Cabinet positions in the new California Republic, I must break this news: Erwin Chemerinsky, the former USC constitutional scholar who is now residing in a secure, undisclosed red state, informed me that there is simply no constitutional mechanism for California to secede. I suppose we could arrange a no-fault divorce, but think of the custody battles: They’d get the creationism museum in Santee, we’d keep Yosemite. From there it would get nasty.
So, I concluded, we don’t need no stinkin’ secession either. It’s virtually a done deal already.
We are an island in all but fact, and as far as 16th century Spain was concerned, we were an island in fact. “The Adventures of Esplandian” described “an island called California,” a land of cliffs and mountains populated by women and ruled by a black Amazon queen whose air force of golden griffins - like the winged monkeys of Oz - attacked hapless men.
By the 20th century, we were a figurative “island on the land,” splendidly isolated by imagination and geography. And geologically, if you believe disaster movies, one good shaker and California could snap off the continent like a saltine cracker.
Economically, we’ve struck out on our own too. Led by California, almost every one of the blue states is a federal tax-donor state. We send more tax money to Washington than Washington sends back to us, meaning the blue states are subsidizing the very red states - those capitals of rugged individualism like Alaska and North Dakota - that seem to loathe us.
Clearly, California, as the premier blue state, supposed bastion of liberalism, can pay more federal taxes because it is more prosperous. Why? Why does the Almighty allow this? Why do millions of us flourish - people that a right-wing ad reviled as “latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving… body-piercing, Hollywood-loving” Californians.
For one, Californians believe in gravity, not to mention stem cell research. We don’t stick science and innovation in the back seat while religion drives the car. For two, in a nation founded on taking risks, California still fervently practices what the rest of the country preaches. It welcomes the new and different. Wherever you are from, you too can grow up to become a Californian. And for three, your private life is private.
Once, I wrote about the leader of a California atheist group. A few weeks later came a letter from an Oklahoma woman. She had read my column. She and her husband were atheists too, but they didn’t know any atheists in Oklahoma because they were afraid to talk about it, so could I put her in touch with this group? And did I think they’d send their literature in an unmarked envelope so the mailman wouldn’t find out? I ask you, would any Californian you know give a rat’s rump whether the mailman knew?
As I was writing this - amazing but true - I heard from state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer’s office about what’s called Project California. Short of snipping California’s star out of the field of 50, his project is about taking the tiller of the state’s future. We must, Lockyer says, “start thinking like a nation.”
I’m with you, Bill. Just so long as that nation isn’t, oh, France; our countrymen already think we’re outre enough.
Written by Patt Morrison
read / Los Angeles Times & Alternet
Written on October 26, 2004 by Gustavo Rojo (not published yet)
War is an evil that has to be done away with. Some readers of The Recorder claim that during the Vietnam conflict, protestors of the war spat on the veterans when there is in reality not one documented case of this ever occurring. I cannot help feel that a small minority of Vietnam veterans (SwiftVet veterans for example) are apologists for the many atrocities that occurred in the Vietnam conflict. Did the events that transpired at places like My Lai not take place? Were innocent Vietnamese men, women and children not massacred? Unfortunately the answer to those questions we know. My Lai is a result of the evils of war. In the Iraqi conflict we already have to deal with the sickening human rights violations that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison. If we really want to support our troops the best way to do that, is to bring them home by demanding that our government end this conflict. Why should young Americans die for a conflict that is based on lies? Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? Where is the connection to the events of September 11? The residents of Porterville have a reminder of the ills of war at the Veterans park memorial. Porterville had the highest number of deaths per capita of any city in the United States during the Vietnam conflict, six times the national average. It is sad that our current administration does not use more tact in deciding when armed conflicts are truly necessary. It is more disturbing when Porterville residents advocate war with jingoist perspectives. Instead of propagating violence and war we should be fighting for peace. How can a truly democratic country disregard the voices of millions of Americans that are in opposition to this conflict? It is unfortunate that this administration finds nothing wrong with exchanging blood for oil (or corporate profits). More than 1,000 American soldiers have come home in coffins, and thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians have perished in this conflict, while corporations such as Halliburton are profiting with the war machine. In the end why does it matter to them? Poor people fight the wars while the elite benefit.
Published on November 19, 2004
The Porterville Recorder is refusing to publish my letters to the editor so here are some arguments against a letter that seems to be from a militia member which was published in the Porterville Recorder. Tulare county has a bunch of signs posted around the various cities with the the statment “Get us out of the UN.” After going to their website it is obvious that they are crazy and relatives of Timothy McVeigh. The truth is that our central valley is already contaminated with enough environmental pollutants like smog and pesticides and insecticides and who knows what else, and we surely don’t need these asinine signs polluting the side of the road. I am sick and tired of those signs plastered around the valley. It makes us seem as though we are all a bunch of right-wing fanatics. The United Nations has never told the U.S. what to do. Not in Iraq. When the World Court found the U.S. guilty of terrorism in Nicaragua (planting bombs in a shipping harbor), nothing happened. The U.S. simply stated that the World Court had no jurisdiction over them. These right wing fanatics are pushing an unfounded propaganda. Don’t they realize that it is the U.S. that pushes its weight around with the U.N. such as in the current Iraq conflict.
The writer wrote the following and below each passage is my response.
We need them here. Europe and other countries don’t need them, but the main reason I believe the troops should be brought home is because of the United Nations International Criminal Court.
You think that American military presence in Europe is at the request of the Europeans? That is like saying that Cuba enjoys having a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay. The military is there for strategic purposes.
We are losing our sovereignty piece by piece. The August edition of Middle American News cited a news story in the New York Times, to wit: ‘The United States bowed Wednesday to broad opposition on the Security Council and announced it was dropping its effort to gain immunity for its troops from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
How ridiculous is that. Should American troops be held at a different standards than other war criminals. If they commit atrocities should they have immunity. That makes no sense.
So let’s bring our troops home - we’ve lost enough good Americans in foreign countries.
I agree, the U.S. government should stop interfering in the affairs of other countries (This year alone: Haiti, Iraq, and Venezuela). The writer makes it seem like it is foreign countries which request U.S. assistance.