Déjà vu all over again!
This Day In History | Cold War
August 31
1951 William O. Douglas calls for recognition of PRC
“Following a hiking and mountain climbing trip through Asia, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas issues a statement calling for the recognition of the communist People's Republic of China. His comments touched off an angry partisan debate in the U.S. Senate.”
Angry partisan debate in the Senate? I’m shocked! Not in our Senate! What’s interesting in this first paragraph is the type of political statement that a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court dared to make.
'Douglas spent much of the summer of 1951 hiking and mountain climbing around the borders of Russia and China. Upon his return, Douglas urged that the United States recognize communist China. America had not established diplomatic relations with the communist People's Republic of China since the establishment of that nation in 1949, following Mao Zedong's successful revolution. And by 1951, U.S. troops were battling Chinese military forces in the Korean War. Nevertheless, Douglas suggested that U.S. diplomatic recognition of China would be a "real political victory" for the West.'
Here’s where hindsight comes in handy. From this vantage point we can see that, despite much bellowing and ballyhooing from intolerant right wing assholes, our government had to come to grips with the reality of a China that was communist and would not go away; no matter how hard we tried to pretend that they didn’t exist. But it took two decades to happen. And, as it turned out, it took a major right wing asshole to be able to recognize reality without being hounded by rabid red baiters. Nixon must have recognized the wisdom in Douglas’ suggestion after he sat in the Oval Office for a few years. That was the rationale that Nixon used 21 years later. History has shown us that Douglas was right way back in ’51. But because of the right wing’s obsession with confrontation abroad and red baiting at home, the intervening decades were spent making things worse. Instead of driving a wedge between the 2 behemoths, the geniuses in John Foster Dulles’ State Department drove them together with their saber rattling and chest pounding.
'Recognition by America, he reasoned, would help split China from its dependence on the Soviet Union and perhaps stem the tide of communist expansion in the Far East. ‘Recognition,’ Douglas stated, ‘will require straightforward and courageous thinking by all Americans, but it is the only logical course.’
DISCLAIMER: The following contains offensively banal ideas expressed in extraordinarily stupid partisan manner...
'In the U.S. Senate, Herman Welker (R-Idaho) set off a furious exchange when he proposed that Douglas's comments be printed in the Congressional Record. He suggested that the justice was a ‘high Administration spokesman’ and that his statement indicated that the Democratic administration of President Harry S. Truman was considering recognition of China.'
Less than two years after Mao’s troops overthrew the previous dictators Truman would have been delinquent in his duties if he did not consider recognizing the geopolitical reality for what it was. To govern with partisan blinders limiting our options is to mismanage foreign policy. A good argument can be made for the proposition that the Soviet Empire would have collapsed much earlier if they had felt a need to defend their border with China as far back as 1951. Herman Welker is probably Satan’s bitch by now.
'Tom Connally (D-Texas)(Any relation to John Connally who was hit by the magic bullet that killed JFK?) rose to attack Welker's action as pure politics and a "purely personal attack" on President Truman. Connally then chided Douglas for his "fool statements." Douglas, he suggested, was not the secretary of state or president and should "stay home instead of roaming all around the world and Asia."'
This is two-fisted stupidity with Texas written all over it. Of course it was pure politics, that goes without saying. Sorry Senator Tom, you can’t have it both ways. It’s either purely political or a purely personal attack on Pres. Truman, it can’t be both. As for “fool statements,” “stay home instead of roaming all around the world and Asia” is the kind of jingoistic foolishness that Texans are famous for. Apparently ignorance of the world is a proud tradition in the Lone Star State. If the Senator were still alive I would feel obliged to inform him that Asia is part of the world; you see Asia when you see the world.
"Senator Everett M. Dirksen (R-Illinois) commented that Douglas's comments could not be ‘divorced from the party in power.’”
Statements made by the Chief Justice are automatically linked to the party in power? Is that because Douglas was appointed by FDR, or because Sen. Dirksen was too Republican to accept any strategy that didn’t benefit Republicans first and foremost? These were the same Republicans who were hatching a scheme that came to be known as their “Southern Strategy.” (RNC Chairman Mehlman recently apologized to the NAACP for his party’s use of that strategy to gain political advantage.)
"The firestorm set off by Douglas's comments showed that despite talk about a 'bipartisan.' Cold War foreign policy, party loyalties were a very important component of post-World War II debates on America's diplomacy. In 1951, Republicans were still blaming Democrat Harry S. Truman for having "lost" China to the communists in 1949. The Democrats had their turn, however, during the presidential campaign of 1960, when John F. Kennedy jabbed at the Republican administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower for 'losing' Cuba."
Tit for tat, tit for tat! The same kind of foolishness has been driving the two party system for far too long. Educated fools with more money than sense buy their way into office by pandering to our basest fears and prejudices. The truly insidious aspect of all the party bickering during the Cold War was the wasteful overspending on pie in the sky weapons systems. Each party threw more and more money at weapons manufacturers in their successful efforts to convince the gullible that nuclear weapons made us safe.
body politic suffered severe spasms
Sixteen years after Acheson’s speech, four election cycles – half of which were won by Republicans – the body politic suffered severe spasms. Democrat Kennedy won in ‘60, partly because of his Cold Warrior posture. He claimed that the Soviets had developed an advantage in the arms race that came to be known as a “missile gap.” Johnson, who served Kennedy’s last year, won reelection in ’64 in a weird kind of posthumous rally round the dead president phenomenon.
"On the streets of Chicago, antiwar protesters massed in the downtown area, determined to force the Democrats to nominate McCarthy. Mayor Richard Daley responded by unleashing the Chicago police force. Thousands of policemen stormed into the crowd, swinging their clubs and firing tear gas. Stunned Americans watched on TV as the police battered and beat protesters, reporters, and anyone else in the way. The protesters began to chant, 'The whole world is watching. The whole world is watching.'"
(To say that political dissent was discouraged is to put it mildly. That’s why it is so important to continue to speak up and demand the truth from our elected officials. The seed that blossomed into the violence of that night was planted 16 years and 1 day earlier, during the elections of 1952, when Adlai Stevenson tried, in vain to warn America not to trust the scoundrels who use patriotism as a weapon to harm political opponents.)
"The world--and the American nation--was indeed watching that night. What they were witnessing was a serious fracture beginning to develop in America's previously solid Cold War consensus. For the first time, many Americans were demanding that their nation withdraw from part of its war against communism. North Vietnam, instead of being portrayed as the villain and pawn of its Soviet masters, was seen by some as a beleaguered nation fighting for independence and freedom against the vast war machine of the United States."
(There is some truth to that view. The Viet Minh had defeated the French Colonial forces in a long and bloody war that started shortly after the end of WWII and dragged on until 1954.
Then the CIA, at the behest of the Eisenhower White House, took over the effort to make the area safe for our multi-national corporations to exploit.)
"The convention events marked an important turning point: no longer would the government have unrestrained power to pursue its Cold War policies. When future international crises arose--in Central America, the Middle East, or Africa--the cry of "No more Vietnams" was a reminder that the government's Cold War rhetoric would be closely scrutinized and often criticized."
The free ride was starting to come to an end. Knee-jerk nationalism had given the military-industrial complex free reign for the better part of two decades and it seemed that our security was decreasing. At least that’s what the fear-mongers were saying everytime they asked Congress to fund a new weapons program. The impunity with which then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles ordered the overthrow of Latin American countries is part of the reason why Hugo Chavez has so much credibility when he berates American foreign policy.
It was the same Mr. Dulles who poisoned the atmosphere for any attempts that we may make to deter the spread of nuclear weapons. His over reliance on the threat of using our growing nuclear arsenal planted the seed of discontent in the minds of those who resented our bullying. That discontent eventually grew into the active pursuit of nuclear weaponry. As is becoming increasingly clear, those with Nukes feel more confident in standing up to our imperial forces.
“throughout the Eisenhower administration, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles urged the president to say that nuclear weapons were like any other weapon that could be used against enemies.”
Thirty seven years after the police rioted in Chicago there’s a new “ism” that the fear-mongers are using to consolidate their power. Terrorism is more useful because it’s vague; it’s a tactic, not a nation or group of people.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels"
Those who ignore history have doomed us to its repetition. Our Ignoramus In Chief is returning us to a political climate that Joe McCarthy would know and love. It was 53 years ago today that Adlai Stevenson delivered a speech that probably helped Ike win. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of the end of stark distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans learned that Red Baiting was useful in stirring the passions of the gullible masses. The formula is still at work. Fear-mongering worked in duping the masses into reelecting the Prevaricator-in-Chief.
"It reported a speech by Democratic nominee for president Governor Adlai E. Stevenson, in which he strongly criticized those who used "patriotism" as a weapon against their political opponents. In an obvious slap at the Senate Subcommittee and others, such as Senator Joseph McCarthy, Stevenson repeated the words of the writer Dr. Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." The governor claimed that it was "shocking" that good Americans, such as Acheson and former secretary of state General George C. Marshall, could be attacked on the grounds that they were unpatriotic."
Well said Dr. Johnson! Along the same vein, religiosity was the first refuge for scoundrels. I wish I had been there around the fire when the first fool came up with the idea of convincing people that voices inside his head were gods telling him what the group should do. That guy needed a dope slap and someone to tell him “Cut the shit, if an idea is worth following it should stand up to scrutiny. If you need a supernatural crutch to hold it up then it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.”
At which point the fool started blithering in tongues because he knew not of paper or writing.
OK Mr. Anonymous for Christ
First off, I gotta tell you that you lose credibility points when you distance yourself from your words and ideas.
Next I want to explain that I was unable to retrieve the deleted comment but Blogspot sent me an e-mail that contained you comment. You must have hit the paste button twice ‘cause the same message was on there back to back. What I’m going to do is paste and dissect your comment. I hope you don’t mind but I will answer your questions. (Note, your words are in purple, mine in green.)
Firstly I would like to apologize for my abrupt comment above...but in response to your returning comment I would like to say;
Apology accepted.
What is religion? Religion is to have faith or belief in a supernatural power. In this case relgion is a belief in God or a god since there are many religions.
According to the dictionary religion is:
1 a : the state of a religious
b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural
(2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith”
When I use the word I understand it to mean the following: 1b(1), 1b (2), 2 (except that I don’t understand religion to be a personal set – I call that personal ethics.), & 4
I believe that you have taken Matthew 6:15 out of context. The interpretation of these verses do not mean that Jesus frowned on those who went to the temple. When Jesus was just a mere twelve years old He Himself went to the temple and sat and listened, taught and shared the Word of God to His own elders, those of whom were priests and great teachers. (Luke 2:46)
Speaking of taking quotes out of context, every Jewish young man goes through the experience that you describe. Luke was a Greek so maybe he didn’t know that what he was describing was Jesus’ Bar Mitzvah, the ceremonial transition into adulthood that all Jewish adolescents go through. Maybe he figured that his audience needed the description because they were unfamiliar with Jewish traditions. My Jewish friends say that memorizing scriptures in Hebrew is a very stressful part of the tradition.
I realize that the Gospels are the arguments that are used to prove that Jesus was supernatural but it takes more than a Bar Mitzvah to turn a man into a god.
Matthew 6:15 does mean that Christians should keep their religion to themselves. Quite the contrary, it is saying that we should not go out into the world proud, thinking that we are better than others and boasting of our faith. But instead it calls us to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19 and 20)
You must have meant that Matthew 6:15 does not mean what I said it means. By the way, I said nothing about keeping religion to themselves. What I was trying to say is that Jesus was disdainful of institutionalized religion. You don’t need a priest or a church to pray. If Jesus meant to say what you’re saying why didn’t he say so? Did Matthew misquote him? Was Jesus so inept at speaking that when he meant to say we should go out it somehow came out sounding like going inside a room and closing the door? Be careful brother anonymous, it sounds like you’re trying to tell me that you know better than Jesus how we should handle our spiritual lives. Just ‘cause you say it’s so doesn’t make it so.
Correct me if I’m wrong about this but the way I learned it in school the Puritans (who were Christians) left England because of religious persecutions. Last I heard, the Anglican Church is a Christian religion and they controlled religious life in England during those times. Their cruel persecution drove the Pilgrims to set out for a new land where they could be the persecutors. Do the so-called witch hunts in Salem tell you anything about Christian intolerance of other religions?
Surely you haven’t forgotten the bloody religious strife that raged in Ireland for the better part of the second half of the last millenium. I’m trying to say this respectfully but you’re either trying to mislead me or else you’re woefully uninformed about the history of Christianity.
Christ is calling us to go out into the world and tell others about Him...not keep it is the quiet of or rooms.
True Jesus lost His tmper in the temple. It says in Mark 11:15 that "He cast out those who were moneychangers and selling goods." and that He would no longer allow goods to be carried throughout the temple. In verse 17 He says, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations...but you have made it a robbers den." - Again this scripture about the temple has been taken out of context. It has nothing to do with Jesus "frowning" upon going to the temple or any house of the one true God to worship.
When you refer to your god as “the one true god” you’re doing what you say, in this very comment, that we shouldn’t do “proud, thinking that we are better than others and boasting of our faith.” You’re right about one thing, “frowned on” is too weak a euphemism for the way JC behaved in the Temple. He exploded in righteous indignation at the hypocrisy and the corruption of the religious establishment. The other thing is that if God is truly omnipresent where is the need to go to a so-called house of God. The other invention that the religious bureaucracy has imposed upon the faithful is the whole tithing thing. That’s why they want you in their building, so they can separate you from your money.
Now what you said about bureaucrats who degenerated a spiritual movement into the kind of religiosity that led to the inquisitions and the many bloody battles between Catholics and Protestants. Has also been slightly misrepresented. When you say that the Holy Wars brought on by Christians that was to protect thier faith, the living Word of God. When you talk of the ostensibly to bring the infidels to Christ... that was the Pope who coveted the 'amount' of Islamic people and other such things. The persecutions and threats that you talk about to force people to believe in catholocism was wrong and i totally agree with you on that. (Huh?) But when you imply that it was the Christians who did that to people who already had their own beliefs, I cannot agree with you. There has been no time recorded in history that people of the Christian faith have others to believe and practice a certain faith.
That last sentence lost you a boatload of credibility points. Check out the reign of Henry VIII in England, and his son, Edward VI. You either ignore or don’t know about the way Christianity (this was just before the Protestant reformation so it was really just one Christian church, falling apart from it’s own corruption.) conquered the Incas. Lies were used in the furtherance of insatiable lust for gold and silver. It’s a truly dark and reprehensible chapter in the history of the heavily religious Christian Europeans. Remember this was at the same time as the Inquisitions; all of Christendom was soaked in blood. See this account of the 30 Years War.
It has been the Christians who have been persecuted, and still are persecuted.
Yeah and it’s still Christian on Christian in a number of places, i.e. Ireland and Latin America. The Protestants hate the Catholics who, in turn, hate the Evangelicals and they all are contemptuous of the LDS.
Please, expound on what you mean when you say, "Critical thinking is anathema to religious faith.
I may have used the wrong word for what I wanted to say. It would have been more precise to say that critical thinking is antithetical to religious faith. Faith and analysis are polar opposites. Faith means believing, critical thinking means analyzing. My religious friends have little patience when I start questioning dogma. “Some things you just have to take on faith" is a favorite refrain But we both know that’s bullshit, don’t we?
Late pope's 'martyrdom' may signal sainthood shortcut
"VATICAN CITY (AP) — The editor of the Vatican newspaper said Thursday that Pope John Paul II was a "martyr" even though he survived a 1981 assassination attempt — the latest official comment suggesting a speedy path to sainthood for the late pontiff."
What's the rush? Why is he worthy of being canonized?
Will he be the patron saint of pederasty? Clearly he did nothing to try to stop the rampant child abuse within the Catholic Church. Globetrotting while his priests pleasured themselves with boy toys, his "Holiness" should be condemned for ignoring the needs of the neediests in his zeal to see that the Roman Catholic Church continue to veer toward capitalism and away from the communalism of the Christic lifestyle.
It's true that near the end of his life he did give some lip service to the need for moderating greed and throttling rampant capitalism. But it was way too little way too late. JP II's unholy alliance with Ronald Reagan served to undermine the authority of the elected government in Nicaragua. When he wagged his finger at Daniel Ortega and chastised the priests who were engaged in the effort to improve the lives of the poor he helped to undermine the Sandinista government. Those who had been exploited by the rampant corruption of the country's ruling class were abandoned by the church.
Tacho Somoza was "our son of a bitch" as FDR is reported to have said it. He understood that government's role is to funnel money to the "have mores." That's the way we do things in America. That's the kind of world we want.
Then these crazy Sandinistas come along and the wacko Jesuits tried to foist that liberation theology on the destitute masses. JP II would have no part of that. The church belongs on the side of the have mores - somebody has to underwrite the papal globetrotting, and it certainly won't be the poor.
religion is at the root of all evil in the world today
So, like I was saying, religion is at the root of all evil in the world today. Pat Robertson, a “televangelist” whose immense popularity has helped him to accumulate huge worldly wealth, is advocating the assassination of the Venezuelan president. The old hypocrite makes his religiosity the driving force in his twisted, hateful life.
I Googled Pat Robertson and among the million plus hits was the following page from the CBN website:
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050531a.asp
Hugo Chavez vs. America
By Dale Hurd
CBN News Sr. Reporter
That was the “byline” above the article on the page. I wrapped quotation marks around the word because the article seemed more like political rhetoric than journalism. Just a small percentage of the blatant violations of journalistic ethics will be listed below.
“many think he is going to make trouble for the United States”
The operative word here is think; and just who are these many?
“Chavez believes he is in a fight with the devil. But the devil that Chavez fights does not reside in Hell. Chavez believes that the devil resides in Washington.”
Just how did Mr. Dale Hurd acquire access to these facts? One has to assume that Hugo Chavez granted him an interview; only he is able to tell us what Hugo Chavez believes. Would you believe it if I reported that Dale Hurd believes that Pat Robertson is a lying cocksucker?
“and now a new Cuban-Venezuelan alliance, bankrolled by oil profits, threatens to create a block of anti-American states across Latin America”
The fact that the U.S. maintains an embargo against Cuba while practicing preferential trading practices with China Has no bearing on how the U.S. is perceived in South and Central America? We’re the biggest bully on the block and we’re the victims of communist cliques? Such tripe would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that these fear mongers have hordes of the nation’s most gullible under their control.
“and now some fear that a new Cuban-Venezuelan alliance has a plan to create a new block of Leftist-run, anti-American states across Central and South America.”
What other countries, beside Cuba and Venezuela, will make up this alliance? What Central American countries have had their sovereignty insulted and abused by Washington’s “gunship diplomacy?” And yet another vague allusion to nameless others whose fears are reported as if they were more than paranoid delusions designed to promote fear. The merchants of religiosity thrive on fear and the hatred it engenders.
“Meanwhile, Chavez laughs all the way to the bank. He sits atop one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Venezuela owns CITGO. And as America's fourth largest oil supplier, he believes he has the U.S. by the throat. And he just might.”
You mean there’s oil involved? Oh my god! Now, is that coincidence or intelligent design? It seems to me that the fact that most of the world’s oil is under countries that hold some rancor towards us would give the religious right cause to question the validity of Intelligent Design.
"’This is a country where anyone who dares to think and speak differently from the government,” said Machado, “is seen as an enemy.’"
And that would never happen here in Amerikkka! From Dick Nixon through the Reagan-Bush continuum, Republicans have consistently tried to equate dissension with treason. And Pat Robertson AKA the devil’s advocate, has been in the forefront of those who are quick to question the patriotism and the morality of those who disagree with him.
Unable to resist the urge to give the author of that garbage a piece of my mind I sent him the following note:
Judging from the byline, your diatribe is supposed to pass for journalism in much the same way that the hateful Mr. Robertson passes for a Christian. His words can only have been inspired by Satan. I did not realize that "Thou shall not kill." was followed by "unless it furthers your political ambition and your greed."
Watering a Bush!
The Prez is so used to the media's unquestioning acceptance of his most outlandish statements that he feels free to say whatever he wants without having to prove its veracity.
“Thank God for religion!”
Meanwhile, the masters of war are saying “Thank God for religion!” Religion is one of the crucial ingredients in the volatile mix of passions that drives the jihadists to share their deaths with others; the family that slays together dies together.
The biggest lie that Bush has told:
The President repeatedly stresses that Americans are safer because we are fighting the terrorists “over there” so we don’t have to fight them here. That may have been true of our invasion of Afghanistan. But the overthrow of the Taliban should have been followed with skillful diplomacy and a more enlightened foreign policy. Iraq was and continues to be a distraction from our fight against multi-national jihadists. The very presence of an occupation force is the cause of the radicalization of many Muslim youths who are at the point when they are trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Filled with the passions of youth and frustrated by the restrictions of an ultra conservative religion they explode in what they see as righteous indignation and take sacred vows to drive the infidels out of the Nation of Islam. It may be true that they hold our licentiousness in contempt but not enough to make them want to blow themselves to smithereens in order to take us with them. Hatred alone will not provoke self-destruction. The biggest lie that Bush has told is his repeated assertion that the evil doers hate us because of our freedom, that liberty drives them to choose death.
By sending an army of crusaders into the heart of Islam Bush has aided and abetted the phenomenal growth of Muslim fundamentalism. The environment that the idle youth find themselves in is not exactly pregnant with possibilities. Few jobs and fewer educational opportunities provide the type of environment in which radicalism thrives. The measure of their desperation is their willingness to strap on the martyr’s vest or detonate an explosives laden vehicle while driving it. Put yourself in their shoes:
You’re 18 years old, can’t get laid, can’t get a job or the education to be able to get a job. You live in a 3rd world hell hole that’s governed by a corrupt oligarchy that gives decadence a sense of inadequacy. The heat is so intense that you feel like you live in a convection oven. Martyrdom starts sounding appealing when life on earth starts feeling like hell. Let’s see, 72 virgins waiting in Paradise and all you have to do is die while waging holy war, hmmm...
The Night I Met Bob Dylan
The night I met Bob Dylan was one of those typically perfect autumn nights in Tucson. The sky was clear and the air was cool at the community center as evening settled into what was left of Tucson’s downtown barrio. Vinny had guaranteed that we would be able to get in to see the show for free. A friend of his was working as a stagehand and was supposed to get us in through the back door.
The anticipation had been building all afternoon as Vinny repeatedly brought the topic up every time he bummed a cigarette from me. Vinny was a typical Tucsonan – an expatriate from back east. In his case the Bronx was the point of origin. Vinny the Mooch, as I sometimes called him, was a semi-permanent fixture at the Café. His morning rounds started early, shortly after opening time. He worked his way around to all the tables, exchanging shuck and jive as he bummed cigarettes from all the different sets of regulars. His one eyebrow was frequently mentioned during the verbal jousts that earned him his smokes. “My mama warned me not to trust a man with one eyebrow,” I heard a young fox say shortly after Vinny sat at the table where she and the other dancers were sipping cappuccinos and smoking cigarettes. In those long gone days the law books were somewhat thinner and freedom less restricted. Big Brother had not yet outlawed smoking in public places.
By the time Vinny finished his rounds and hit me up for the morning’s last cigarette, the lunch crowd had started to arrive and Larry and I girded ourselves for the full tilt boogie that kept us hopping for two or three hours. A small “hole in the wall” the Café Olé was popular with the downtown office workers and lawyers who were fascinated by the bohemian flavor that wafted like ethereal smoke around the staff and the regular clientele. With the be-bop providing the soundtrack, the boss and I swung through the orders, slapping the mustard or mayo on the bread to the crash of cymbals on the downbeat.
“Corned beef on rye with what kind of cheese? No toms! No toms! No toms!” I half sung to myself trying to remember the special request…
“Dig the drums! Danny Richmond was a madman!” The boss enthused as he hit the stainless steel lid with his fork on the same downbeat that found me slapping mayo on the next sandwich,
“Turkey on wow with provolone, mayo on meat, mustard on cheese. Some people are really specific about how they want their sandwiches put together, huh, boss?”
“Dig!” was all he said.
That one word said all he needed to say.
A jazz maniac, the boss loved to blast jazz in the kitchen at all times. It was the jazz that drove the choreography that was our lunch time boogie. Bud Powell, Bird, Monk, Ella, and Mingus; all the greats! But, most of all, there was Coltrane. Trane! Transcendence as a saxual experience! With McCoy Tyner’s piano twinkling and riffing around the surging of Trane’s alto sax, the notes fluttered and soared up in the high end of the spectrum then suddenly swooped down in vertigo inducing drops that often left me breathless. Elvin Jones pounding out the beat, incessantly pounding out the beat that held the whole thing together.
Then, like clockwork, Vinny returned half an hour before closing time to pick up any mistakes that we might have made during the lunch rush. The wrong kind of cheese on the pastrami on rye, or maybe I blew it with the dressing on a salad…
“That was supposed to be ranch dressing, not bleu cheese!”
The boss, had a heart of gold and saved those mistakes to feed the entourage of starving painters, musicians and ne’er-do-wells that drifted into the Café at closing time. Though the admission was never officially collected, many people brought joints to share after the squares had left and the “closed” sign had been hung on the door. Despite (perhaps because of) the fact that Nixon had declared war on drugs back in ’72 - when he needed a distraction from the unfolding Watergate mess - reefer was plentiful and cheap. The trend toward decriminalization was still strong.
At the Café Olé herb was a sacrament that we shared after we broke our daily bread with those who depended on our mistakes to supplement their caloric intake. Conversation was the main medium with which we drew out our personal cosmologies. Ideas bouncing back and forth like the riffs in the ever-present bebop blasting from the kitchen.
Crack was still nothing more than what dawn did every morning and, since Somoza was still in power in Nicaragua, the Republicans and the CIA had not yet found a reason for facilitating the importation of coke to help arm our mercenaries in Central America. LSD, courtesy of the CIA, was still plentiful among Dead Heads and other freaks, as we were about to enter the last decade of the cold war. Though we didn’t know it yet, we were preparing to start the last psychic roller coaster ride under Mutual Assured Destruction.
Mutual Assured Destruction! Those three words described the defense doctrine that guided the nation during the waning decades of the cold war. The meaning seems fairly self-evident; if a nuclear exchange were to start we would launch all our nuclear warheads at the Soviets and blow them to smithereens. The time lag between launch and strike provided an opportunity to respond with an all out attack. Tens of thousands of lethal missiles were aimed at every major (and some not so major) city in the Soviet Union. The Soviets knew that we would carry through on our promise to blast them back to the Stone Age. And we knew that they could do the same to us. Between them and us, we could destroy the planet, not just once or twice but four score and seven times, or more.
So, in the midst of all this MADness Dylan turned to Jesus and released an album full of songs about his conversion. I was slow to buy the record – I had not yet converted to audiocassettes at that time – but I had heard a number of the songs. I had made it a point to keep an open mind when I first listened to the songs; even though a number of the reports that I had heard were derisive of the mere idea of religiosity.
The concert was part of the tour that heralded the release of Dylan’s Slow Train Coming album. Many debates around the closing time round tables had pondered the meaning of Bobby Zimmerman’s turn to Jesus. Even though “Jews for Jesus” was not a foreign concept, Dylan was hipdom personified and fundamental Christianity was not hip. On that there was general agreement.
The boss once put it this way: “Those people actually believe that there are demons from hell walking on the streets of Tucson as we speak!” Larry’s delivery and the reefer we were smoking induced a round of laughter before I was able to put in the distinction that was becoming increasingly clear to me. There is less difference between night and day than there is between religiosity and spirituality.
If patriotism is a scoundrel’s last refuge, religion is the first. Though the concept seems like an oxymoron, “Holy Wars” have been waged since before the dawn of history. More blood has been shed for the sake of religion than love has been made in the name of god. People who stand to profit from the chaos, instability and fear that religious hatred foments have coopted the yearning to taste the divine. The love of money has replaced that yearning. How can it be that the teachings of the man who warned us about the camel and the eye of a needle have been corrupted to the point that televangelists have successfully taught their followers to count their blessings in dollars and cents?
I tried to understand Dylan’s conversion as a metaphor that reflected the spiritual evolution of humanity’s collective consciousness. “He’s searching for truth,” I said. “Anybody who is honestly seeking enlightenment has to go through all the different pit stops, dead ends and mind boggling mazes that the spiritual quest takes you through. Pantheism, spiritualism, monotheism, capitalism, all the world’s great religions have attempted to put a middleman between humans and the divine. ” “He’ll grow through it,” I assured my tablemates at the Café Olé, adding that Dylan’s songs have always been replete with religious symbolism. “God said to Abraham Kill me a son…” I quoted from the Highway 61 album. “I just hope that he gets into the real teachings of Jesus without getting distracted by all the moralistic fundamentalism that bogs down most religious thinking.” But I had much to do before my workday was over. So I gave Vinny one last cigarette and told him to meet me at the bar a couple of hours before the show then I went in the kitchen and finished my cleanup chores to the sounds of Coltrane riffing on My Favorite Things.
Happy hour found Vinny and me at the Cushing Street Bar for spirits and libations, then we smoked one of the joints that I’d brought along as we ambled toward the back door of the concert hall. Three cups of rosé wine with the Cushing St. regulars, topped off with some fine red bud helped to turn the vast expanse of parking lots between the bar and the theater into a living canvas of shadows and light. Palm trees danced with their shadows on the blacktop parking lot, silhouetted by the sky’s brilliant reds and pensive purples. The rhythms of the city provided the soundtrack as sirens screamed above the bass line that the traffic laid down.
Many years ago Mexican families sat on their porches on streets that used to crisscross the ground we walked on. Sonoran señoritas walked those streets before they became part of the USA. The people of the pueblo made the music in those days. But then the Gadsden deal made those our streets and eventually urban renewal bulldozed them to make room for our post-modern arenas. Instead of local musicians sending their music freely into the night, the night’s music was boxed into a building for a price too dear for most of the pueblo’s people.
A huge black man, arms folded across his chest, stood in the doorway at the rear of the theater, blocking most of the artificial light that rushed out to fill the void of the deepening twilight. I stood behind Vinny and let him do the talking since it was his alleged friend who was supposed to let us in; besides, the brother didn’t look too friendly. “Nobody here by that name,” was all he said after Vinny asked for his friend by name and description. “Since he’s not here,” I interjected in one last futile try, “why don’t you be a good guy and let us in? We’ll be unobtrusive.” The brother was like one of those palace guards in London; he didn’t move a muscle.
Since we didn’t have a contingency plan we had to think fast because we had a good buzz going and did not want to be denied. Circumambulating the concert hall Vinny’s face was twitching thoughtfully as he scanned the bank of glass doors on our left. A sudden sound turned both of our heads. Someone was leaving the theater. We didn’t know or care why. We both broke for the open door, driven by one thought; “gotta get in!” That door put us in the middle of the corridor that flanked the north side of the auditorium. Quick scans in either direction showed two ushers in red jackets patrolling the perimeter. Both were walking toward opposite ends of the corridor, with their backs to us. So we dashed across to the interior doors that led into the auditorium and were shocked to see that there were red jacketed ushers, armed with flashlights, in there too. A couple of them turned to look at us as we opened the door and stepped inside.
Standing there, looking for empty seats I saw another red jacket come in from the corridor and start to point at us. “We’ve been made,” Vinny muttered just before he ducked into a Groucho strut and scooted into the nearest row of seats. I saw no point in continuing what could turn into a Keystone Cops kind of farce so I just stood there and waited for the red coats to come get me.
Maybe the benevolence in the air was contagious. Maybe the ushers wanted to avoid the extra work that incident reports entailed. Maybe they just didn’t give a shit. Whatever the case, the result was that they merely escorted us outside and told us never to be seen trying to sneak in again.
After these failed attempts to get into the show we saw a small crowd gathered around a man at the foot of a tall palm tree up ahead. The lamppost beyond the small group silhouetted the gathering in the cooling desert twilight. As we drew nearer I noticed that the profile of the man around whom the handful had gathered was the famous profile from the poster that came with Dylan’s first greatest hits album, without the colors.
As I recognized the icon that I greatly admire, I impulsively rushed toward Bob as my mouth slipped into automatic pilot and I heard myself saying:
“Bob, Bob you gotta help us! We’re trying to get in the show but the Nazis in the red jackets won’t let us in.” He turned around and smiled and asked me what I was talking about. I explained that we couldn’t afford to buy tickets for the show and Vinny’s friend had failed us. I offered him a joint of some high quality herb that I pulled out of my shirt pocket…”If you still do that,” I added when I remembered his recent conversion. He assured me that he didn’t and, with a laugh told me that he would leave a ticket at the box office for me and asked me my name.
“Eddie,” I said offering my hand.
“How ‘bout me?” Vinny asked as Bobby shook my hand.
“OK,” he smiled, “Two tickets at the box office for Eddie.”
Just then a redheaded stranger rushed up and said that he wanted a ticket too. “OK, OK,” Bobby laughed benevolently, “that’ll be four tickets for Eddie. Just give me a few minutes to call the box office after I go in before you go claim them.”
After we all thanked him profusely we had a short conversation during which he said that he was spending a lot of time on a farm when he wasn’t on tour. But then he had to go get ready for the show. It is impossible to describe the excitement of that moment.
One with no money got four for the show!
Wearing a huge smile, the red headed stranger introduced himself, saying, “Eddie, I’m Dave.” Vinny responded by introducing himself to Dave. And then there were three of us.
“Let’s go smoke this joint to celebrate.” I said starting to move toward the eastern edge of the Community Center. “I’m with you.” They both chimed in, falling in beside me.
I stopped at the edge of the parking area and sat on a concrete bench to light up the fat joint that I had made extra hefty for the evening’s festivities. Dave sat on my right and Vinny squatted in front of me as we ceremoniously passed the herb in communion with the creator of the universe. Marveling in the aura of the recent events we soon found that conversation did not do the moment justice. Soon we were singing a tune from the Grateful Dead’s then recently released Shakedown Street album. “I need a miracle everyday, I need a miracle everyday!” Mostly we just sang the chorus but as I was singing some of the lyrics that I remembered…
‘…It takes dynamite to get me off
Too much of everything is just enough…’
Vinny froze as he was handing me the joint. His eyes were fixed on a spot above my head. I turned to see what had freaked him out. The man! A TPD officer was standing directly behind me, arms folded across his chest in a way that was supposed to show authority and power.
“Oh, hi officer,” I smiled up at him, innocently, as I held the roach out for him. “Do you believe in miracles?” I inquired.
I have no idea what thoughts went through his mind. He just stood there for a few seconds, smiled and said, “Get out of here.” I ate the roach as we hurried for the box office.
The lines at the box office were still long as we boisterously joined the people who were milling about in anxious expectation. Dylan hadn’t been in Tucson since the Street Legal tour. Even though many saw his turn to Jesus as totally unhip it was still Dylan – the master - who had come to town to play his music for us. Opinions bounced around like beach balls over the queues. I was struck by the vehemence with which some people criticized the conversion. Others expressed nothing but love for Dylan and humanity in general.
Eventually I found myself in front of the ticket agent and took delight in saying, “I was just talking to Bobby and he said he would leave some tickets here for me.” I noticed heads around me turning in my direction as the pretty lady behind the counter asked me my name while she grabbed the clipboard with the “comp” list. Turning to smile at Vinny, I noticed the quizzical looks on some of the faces around us.
“Yes, here it is. Four tickets for Eddie,” said the lady after a few seconds, “here you go. Enjoy the show!”
And that we did. But first there was an extra ticket to deal with. Looking around, I turned away from the lines where people were waiting to buy tickets and called out, “I’ve got an extra ticket here! Anybody want a ticket?”
Not much time passed before a small, wiry man stepped up to me and claimed the ticket. His face looked familiar as he stood there in the lamplight and introduced himself. He mentioned that he saw me regularly at the Café Olé. Then he told me that he had witnessed my meeting with Dylan, earlier in the evening, ending with “You must be living right.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Novak Blows a Gasket!
Below is the written record of one of the best moments on live TV. As an added bonus, evil incarnate has been suspended indefinitely by CNN! I didn’t think anybody could enjoy the moment more than I could, then I saw Jon Stewart’s reaction on the Daily Show.
“HENRY: And the "Strategy Session" continues on INSIDE POLITICS. Still here: James Carville and Robert Novak.
Katherine Harris made a name for her self during the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential race. She was then Florida's secretary of state. She went on to the House of Representatives.
Now she wants to move over to the United States Senate. Today she got the news that the speaker of the Florida House won't challenge her for the Republican nomination. In the meantime, Harris is blaming unnamed newspapers for tarnishing her image by doctoring her makeup with Photoshop. -- that computer program. Bob Novak, have you been investigating this make-up story?
NOVAK: No, but I've had the same experience that she did. A lot of my trouble in the world is that they've doctored my make-up and colorized me in a lot of newspapers on my picture. So, I sympathize with her.”
Oozing sarcasm, the evil one refers to the Satanic horns and tail that people can’t resist drawing on his likeness everywhere it appears.
“HENRY: This is breaking news. I've haven't heard this.
CARVILLE: Breaking news. Who did it? What paper?
NOVAK: Well, I don't. I can't tell you.”
Apparently, there’s very little he can say these days, other than nastiness.
“CARVILLE: Yes. You know the two happiest people in America today about this decision, is Bill Nelson and Jay Leno. I mean --
HENRY: Bill Nelson the Democratic Senator.
CARVILLE: The Democratic Senator and Jay Leno. That -- I mean, they're going to go nuts over this. They're messing with my make-up, but you really don't know who it is. I mean, let's say this: She's going to be good for the humor circuit. She's going to be good for the speech circuit and she's good for a lot. And I think that Nelson -- I think, it's probably no secret that the White House wanted the speaker to run and I suspect that the Nelson people are, you know, feeling pretty good here today.”
Carville was probably right about that, but then he had to go get the douchebag all hot and bothered. Novak blew his top and wound up drawing all the attention to himself.
“NOVAK: A couple of points here: The first place, don't be too sure she's going to lose. All the establishment's against her and I've seen these Republican -- anti-establishment candidates who do pretty well. Ronald Reagan, I guarantee you that the establishment wasn't for him. We just elected a senator from Oklahoma, Senator Tom Coburn, everybody in the establishment was against him. She might get elected -- So, wait. Just let me finish what I'm going to say, James. Please, I know you hate to hear me, but you have...
CARVILLE: He's got to show these right wingers that he's got backbone. Show them you're tough.
NOVAK: Well, I think that's bullshit. And I hate that.” At this point he turns to Henry and says, “Just let it go.”
(Novak leaves set.) (after ripping off his microphone) HENRY: OK. James, (pause) what do you think though, (pause) seriously about this Senate race, (pause) James, that the (pause) -- that basically the Katherine Harris and Bill Nelson, if they do square off, what do you think (pause) -- what will that mean for Bill Nelson? He's considered an endangered incumbent.”
The camera angle was from behind him and slightly to the left so Henry’s face was not visible, too bad! His dismay and discomfort were clearly evident though, as evidenced by the many pauses.
Rovak Conspiracy
The Shit Gets DeeperWell, well, how deep is the well? It seems that the Rove/Novak (Rovak) combo have been collaborating for years...Rove Fired for Leak in '92
“Just a quick entry as I haven't seen this covered. Rove was fired from the Bush-Quayle campaign for leaking to Novak.
"Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 re-election campaign of Bush Sr. for allegedly leaking a negative story about Bush loyalist/fundraiser Robert Mosbacher to Novak. Novak's piece described a meeting organized by then-Senator Phil Gramm at which Mosbacher was relieved of his duties as state campaign manager because "the president's re-election effort in Texas has been a bust." Rove was fired after Mosbacher fingered him as Novak's source."
Story here:”
“Karl Rove and Novak: They've Talked Before
Rove fired from Bush Sr.’s '92 campaign over leak to Novak. Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 re-election campaign of Bush Sr. for allegedly leaking a negative story about Bush loyalist/fundraiser Robert Mosbacher to Novak. Novak's piece described a meeting organized by then-Senator Phil Gramm at which Mosbacher was relieved of his duties as state campaign manager because "the president's re-election effort in Texas has been a bust." Rove was fired after Mosbacher fingered him as Novak's source.
Rove was the ‘only one with a motive to leak’: Mosbacher says: ‘I said Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go.’ The motive in question? Mosbacher had given Rove only a quarter of the $1 million spent on direct mail contracts for the 92 campaign; Rove, who in 1988 had the entire direct mail contract, therefore had an axe to grind with Mosbacher. Novak's column stated: ‘Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher.’
Mosbacher still says Rove did it: Although Novak and Rove continue to deny Rove was the source of the leak, Mosbacher recently stated ‘I still believe he did it.’
(Sources: ‘Karl and Bob: a leaky history,’ Houston Chronicle, Nov. 7, 2003,
‘Genius,’ Texas Monthly, March 2003, p. 82;
‘Why Are These Men Laughing,’ Esquire, January 2003)”
Mike Royko
While perusing CNNSI.com I came across a quote from the late, great Mike Royko today:
"Hating the Yankees is as American as pizza pie, unwed mothers, and cheating on your income tax." I miss Royko, he made the Reagan Years bearable. There are other good quotes in that article, a few from the "old professor," Casey Stengel.
Oil up the ass!
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died so the oil market reacts by hiking the price of crude oil to over $62 per barrel. Did the king excrete crude (oil that is) from his Royal Rectum? Heaven help us if the Crown Prince should get genital warts! For years we’ve heard that the Saudis have “oil up the ass,” but I didn’t want to take it literally.
Will there really be less petroleum available due to his death? More likely is the ugly truth that the hogs that run the oil industry actively look for excuses to raise prices. Theirs is a culture of greed; the culture in which Gee Dubya Bush was weaned. The members of that culture have shown through their behavior that their culture is decidedly anti Christ-like in principle. Our president's affinity to that culture shows the hypocrisy that he revels in.
