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"A note to Pound in heaven: Only one mistake, Ezra! You should have talked to women"
--George Oppen, _Twenty Six Fragments_
Archives:
xoxo Hey, E-Mail Me! xoxo
ManY PoETiKaL HaTs LisT:
Holly's Pirate-girl Hat,
chrismurray in a straw hat,
Michael Helsem's Gray Wyvern NOLA Fedora.
Duchamp's Rrose Selavy's flirting hat.
Max Ernst's Hats of The Hat Makes the Man.
Jordan Davis' The Hat!
poetry. hks' smelly head baseball cap.
Samuel Beckett's Lucky's
Black bowler hat,
giving his oration
on what's questionable in mankind,
in *Waiting for 'God-ot'*.
my friend John Phillips's 1969
dove gray fedora w/ wild feather.
Bob Dylan's mystery lover's Panama Hat.
Bob Creeley's Black Mountain Felt Boater Hat.
Duke Ellington's Satin
Top Hat. Acorn Hats of Tree.
Freud's 1950 City Fedora.
Joseph Brodsky's Sailor Cap.
Harry K Stammer's Copper Hat
Hell. Lewis LaCook's bowler hat(s).
Tom Beckett's Bad Hair Day
Furry Pimp Hat. Daughter Holly's black beret.
harry k stammer's fez. Cat
in the Hat's Hat & best
hat, Googling Texfiles:
crocheted hat with flames.
Harry K Stammer's tinseled berets.
Tex's 10 gallon Gary Cooper felt Stetson cowboy hat.
Jordan Davis's fedora.
Dali's High-heel Shoe Hat. Harry K Stammer's en-blog LAPD Hat
& aluminum baseball cap. cap'n caps. NY-Yankees caps. the HKS-in-person-caps
are blue or green no logos nor captions.
Ma Skanky Possum 10's nighttime cap.
moose antler hat. propeller beenie hat.
doo rag. knit face mask hat. Bob Dylan's & photographer Laziz
Hamani's panama hats. Mark Weiss's Publisher's Hat.
Rebecca Loudon's Seattle-TX-Hats'n'boots.
Ever-Evolving Links:
Silliman's Links
Dominic Rivron
Unidentified
Br Tom @ One & Plainer
Dan Waber: ars poetica anthology
Dan Waber: altered books anthology
chris daniels: Notes to a Fellow Traveller
Chris Daniels: Toward an Anti-Capitalist Poetry
David Daniels: The Gates Of Paradise
subterranean poets: Beijing Poetry Group
Charles Alexander/Chax Press: Chaxblog
Headlines Poetry: the latest weblog entries
Henry Gould's AlephoeBooks
Julie Choffel's Understory
Tom Murphy's former one
Jean Vengua's New Okir
Roger Pao's Asian-American Poetry
Tom Lisk: Oilcloth and Linoleum
Kevin Doran
Reb Livingston's Cackling Jackal Blog
Janet Holmes: Humanophone
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Mark Young's gamma ways
Brian Campbell: Out of the Woodwork
Shanna's DIY Publishing Blog
Galatea Resurrects: a Poetry Review
Tom Beckett
John Sakkis: BOTH BOTH
New Francois Luong:Voices in Utter Dark, KaBlow!sm is...
Old Francois Luong: Voices in Utter Dark
Margin Walker: Andrew Lundwall
Free Space Comix: the latest BK Stefans blog
Adam Lockhart, Experimentalist Composer
Antic View: Alan Bramhall & Jeff Harrison
lookouchblog: Jessica Smith
MiPOradio
Web Log -- Charles Bernstein
Google Poem Generator: Leevi Lehto
Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Feral Scholar: Stan Goff
worderos: Tom Beckett
In Galatea's Purse
Japundit
Quiet Desperation: Jim Ryal
Luca Antara: Martin Edmond
Brief Epigrams: Ryan Alexander MacDonald
Radio My Vocabulary: 4 pm Sunday Poetry Streams
Mark Lamoreaux: [[[0{:}0]]]
Hot Whiskey Blog
louder
Nick Bruno: They Shoot Poets Don't They?
Joe Massey: Rooted Fool
Kate Greenstreet: every other day
heuriskein: Tom Orange
Chiaroscuro Metropoli: Tom Beckett
Behrle's latest spout!
Fluffy Dollars: Michelle Detorie
Jane Dark's Sugar High!
The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
(Charles) Olson Now: Michael Kellaher & Ammiel Alcalay
kari edwards' TranssubMUTATION
Notes on the Revival: Jeremy Hawkins
PurPur: Petrus Pokus
Snapper Missives: Scott Pierce
A Sad Day for Sad Birds II: Gina Meyers
Great Works: Peter Philpot
zafusy: experimental poetry journal
Writeboard: a collaborative writing tool
John Latta: Rue Hazard
KP Harris: Croissant Factory
Stephanie Young's New Site
Stephen Vincent's New Site
Portable Press@Yo~Yo Labs
Square America
Amy King's blog
Robert: Peyoetry Hut
Muisti Kirja: Karri Kokko
Karri Kokko's Blonde on Blonde
Yummeee Blog (recipes)
Nice Guy Syndrome: Tim Botta
Left Hook
Del Ray Cross: anachronizms
Juan Cole: Informed Comment
BuzzFlash - Daily Headlines, Breaking News, Links
Aaron McCollough
Chris Lott's Cosmopoetica
Chad Parenteau
Little Emerson
Fever, Light--by Sawako Nakayasu
Second Wish
Nomadics
Alison Croggon
Radical Druid
Ron is Ron: the Ron Silliman Cartoon by Jim Behrle
Dagzine: Positions, Poetics, Populations: Gary Norris
Shadows within Shadows: Tom Beckett
Self Similar Writing: Jukka Pekka Kervinen
The Little Workshop: Cassie Lewis
Sky Bright: Jay Rosevear
Poesy Galore: Emily Lloyd
Lisa Jarnot's Blog
Poetry Hut: Jilly Dybka (has moved here)
Pornfeld: Michael Hoerman
Seven Apples: Justin Ulmer
Hi Spirits: Andrew Burke
Bacon Bargain!: Joe Massey
Ivy is here: Ivy Alvarez
Whimsy Speaks: Jeff Bahr
Umbrella: Jeff Wietor
Chicanas! (Susana L. Gallardo)
Masters of Photography
Blog of Disquiet: Gary Norris' Teaching Blog
Suzanna Gig Jig
Bad with Titles: Jay Thomas
Spaceship Tumblers! Tony Tost
Desert City: Ken Rumble
E-Po
Zotz!
Optative Mood: Tim Morris
ecritures bleues: Laura Carter
The Ingredient: Alli Warren
Skanky Possum Pouch
Slight Publications
Jewishy-Irishy: Laurel Snyder
Sea-Camel: Alberto Romero Bermo
Growing Nations: Jordan Stempleman
Tom Raworth
Entropy and Me: Hal Johnson
Scott Pierce: Snapper's Junk
Chicano Poet: Reyes Cardenas
Semio-Karl M&M
Stephen Vincent
Hoa Nguyen/Teacher's & Writers
a New Word Placements
Narcissus Works: Anny Ballardini
Richard Lopez
Tributary: Allen Bramhall
The_Delay: Chris Vitiello
Jukka Pekka Kervinen: Nonlinear Poetry
Lanny Quarles: Phaneronoemikon
Clifford Duffy: Fictions of Deleuze & Guattari
DagZine
Carrboro Poetry Festival
Steve Evans: Third Factory
DEBORAH PATILLO
SKANKY POSSUM PRESS
Tim Peterson: Mappemunde
WOOD'S LOT
Geof Huth: DBQP
Ann Marie Eldon
Jim Behrle: The Jim Side
Ray Bianchi:Postmodern Collage Poetry
Never Mind the Beasts
Diaryo
New Broom
Flingdump Scattershot
Tony Tost: Unquiet Grave
Grapez
SB POET
Mark Young's Pelican Dreaming
|||AS/IS2|||
Li's A Private Studio
Anny Ballardini's Poet's Corner
Tom Beckett: Vanishing Points
Dumbfoundry
BadGurrrlNest
Jean Vengua's Okir
Hear-it dot org: info on hearing problems
Tim Yu's Tympan
James Yeager's Modern Lives
Tony Robinson: Geneva Convention
Daniel Nestor's Unpleasant Event
Ex-Lion Tamer
Carlos Arribas: Scriptorium
David Nemeth
Ela's Incertain Plume
Mairead Byrne's Heaven
Catherine Daly
Black Spring
Br.Tom's Finish Yr Phrase
Shin Yu Pai: makura-no-soshi
Harry K. Stammer: Downtown LA
Corina's Fledgling Wordsmith
Jilly Dybka's Poetry Hut
Ben Basan's Luminations
Katey: Chewing on Pencils
YaY!! Eileen Tabios: Chatelaine Poetics !
Jill Jones: Ruby Street
Geoffrey Gatza's BlazeVox
Bill Allegrezza's P-Ramblings
Gary Sullivan's Elsewhere
GoldenRuleJones
Poetry_Heat
Bookslut
Chickee's SuperDeluxeGoodPoems
As-Is !
John Latta's Hotel Point
Sawako Nakayasu's Ongoing Show
Shanna Compton's Brand New Insects
Crag Hill
kari edwards: transdada
Fluss
Michael Helsem's Gray Wyvern
Word Placement
Bogue's Blog
Jordan Davis: Equanimity
Robert Flach's Unadulterated Text
Michelle Bautista
Ironic Cinema
Mike Snider
Farewell Tonio!
In Through the Out Door
The Blonde Brunette
Awake at Dawn on Someone's Couch is Toast
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen:Non-Linear
Xpress(ed) !
Chris Lott's Ruminate
Venepoetics
Laura: Yellowslip
Stick Poet Super Hero
Mighty Jens!
Radio UTA: Toni's Thursday Poetry Show
Tim Morris: Lection
Gabe Gudding
Constant Critic
Sappho's Breathing
Waves of Reading
Jhananin's Insite
Fanaticus
AdvExpo
Stephen Vincent
Stephanie Young: New Well Nourished Moon
Kasey Silem Mohammad's Newest Limetree
Lanny Quarles: (solipsis)//:phaneronoemikon
States Writes
Rebecca's Pocket
Simulacro
Braincase Links
Sentence
Sor Juana
73 Urban Bus Journeys
Poeta Empirica
poetry for the people: canwehaveourballback?
Ernesto Priego's Never Neutral
Nick Piombino's Fait Accompli
Weekly Incite blogresearch
Jim Behrle's first monkey
Jim Behrle's Monkey's Gone to Heaven
David Kirschenbaum's Boog City
Not Nick Moudry
Laurable
David Hess Heathens in Heat
Jack Kimball's Pantaloons
Li Bloom's Abolone
Ron Silliman
Chris Sullivan's Bloggchaff
Chris Sullivan's Slight Publications
Chris Sullivan's Department of Culture
Kasey S. Mohammad's Old-New Limetree
Kasey's Old Limetree
James Meetze: Brutal Kittens
Cassie Lewis: The Jetty
Joseph Mosconi's Harlequin Knights
Nada Gordon's Ululate
ultimate: Stephanie Young's First Well Nourished Moon
Steve Evans: Third Factory
Noah Eli Gordon's Human Verb
Jean Vengua's Blue Kangaroo
Sawako Nakayasu: Texture Notes
Free Space Comix: BK Stefans
Crosfader
Malcolm Davidson's eeksy peeksy
Marsh Hawk Press group
Catherine Meng's Porthole Redux
Josh Corey's Cahiers de Corey
Very Nice! Shampoopoetry
UTA's Lit Mag: ZNine
Wild Honey Press
Jacket
JFK's Poetinresidence
Malcolm Davidson's Tram Spark poems
HYepez: RealiTi
HYpez: Mexperimental
Aimee Nez's Gila Monster
BestMaX: Jim Behrle's jismblog
Cori Copp's Littleshirleybean
Jordan Davis: Million Poems
Eileen Tabios: Corpsepoetics [see Chatelaine above]
YaY! Liz's Thirdwish
Ultra Linking
Henry Gould's HG Poetics
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Sunday, November 07, 2004
Everybody: Here Comes Lance Phillips!--
blog-interviewer-poet-delux: here, there, and interview/ee-everywhere! Great to see your site taking off, Ray: wonderful work taking care that poets and poetry are featured midst the regular flow.--
: )
cm
za-Zen, Y'all
chris at
1:48 AM
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Saturday, November 06, 2004
In Tribute to Arni Ibsen
For several days now I've been hoping for Icelandic poet Arni Ibsen that he will soon get well--he had suffered a brain hemorrage this past week, and has been unconscious since. Arni was kind enough to translate into Icelandic a group of snapshot poems from the poetryetc listserv last week. Mine is posted below on Oct 31 in Icelandic, and on Oct 29 in English, titled, "Eclipse" (scroll over to those dates for the poem and translation).
Since hearing of Arni's illness, poetry bloggers Jill Jones and Anny Ballardini have posted fine tributes, and I want to recognize them here, and to add to them my hopes and note that I have also lit a candle for Arni.
See Jill Jones' fine tribute to Arni on Ruby Street.
& see Anny Ballardini's tribute in the form of a translation into Italian of one of Arni's fine prose poems, at Narcissus Works.
Peace,
cm o~o/
chris at
1:26 PM
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--sweet gum, Sha_Tin, Tai Po Kau
from Poetry_Heat
.. the july heat
makes one
feel twice-born
the first time
threaded steel
the second, stones
blanched in sunlight
sweet fuckin' jesus
Buck says the fish
bite better
in the hours
surrounding sunset
when the sweet-gum
collects the amber light
as silence falls
from voices
clear and still
like watertop
july the lynching month
the heat against skin
turns ritual to history
little dixie emerges
from the sweet gum
and pines ... --Randy Prus, Songs of the South and Slightly West
* * *
Reading tonight in the Poetry_Heat series
at University of Texas, Arlington :
Randy Prus, Songs of the South and Slightly West (Skanky Possum)
Dale Smith, American Rambler (Thorpe Springs),
The Flood and the Garden (First Intensity), My Vote Counts (effing)
Hoa Nguyen, My Ancient See Through (subpress)
Mark Weiss, Field Notes (Junction Press), Figures (Chax Press),
Different Birds (Shearsman Press)
7:00 pm
Saturday, November 6
Rady Room, 6th floor, Nedderman Hall
University of Texas, Arlington
___This event is sponsored by the UTA Writing Center,
Chris Murray,* Director___
* email me if you'd like links to campus maps or directions to the Rady Room.
I hope to see you there!--cm
chris at
10:56 AM
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Friday, November 05, 2004
YaY!! Here it's already 'christmas' light time!
Kasey has an interesting proposal up at Limetree, to alter the direction of the usual profit boost to corporations by U.S. shopping during the 'christmas' seasonal activities. Basically, the season feeds corporatism by bolstering the economy anually. Corporate profit margins, that is, are greatly dependent on this shopping season.
I think Kasey and the commenters at Limetree are onto something. It would be a radical move to resist the usual business of mall shopping for gifts, regardless of religious affiliation and/or no religious affiliation, and to give thoughtfully hand made or individually conceptualized gifts. It's something I will say that I've done for some time, since as a single parent for many years, I grew to loathe this season when I never had enough to do the corporate shopping mall game anyway, even if I wanted to, but I've never been much for that anyway.
Well, I started to write a comment in the box there, but it got kind of long, so I decided to put it here. It has to do with my particular place right now, Arlington, Texas, which is pretty much one big suburb with a spectacular mall just down the street from where I live close to the university. Here's my response:
This is how it is here in Arlington, Texas--
there are all these paralyzing christmas lights
already up on the rooftops and gutters.
People were putting them up last weekend
just beneath Halloween or it might have been between
voting and eating and driving the eight lane.
Just down the street from my apartment is the Cooper Street
"Farmers Market" that has massive machine made corn marked
organic. This market also does a thriving business in holiday
lights. There is a big multicolored christmas light display.
Every year. It says: Jesus is the reason for the season.
I want to walk across the street and talk to the corn
about someone and received notions. That is the eight lane
with no sidewalk. The crossing guard is two doors
down with a beef and a six pack over no health care.
I just want to smile
and ask the lights
how to Have a Nice Day.
Thanks for the occasion to think this over in this particular way, Kasey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~chris murray~~~~~~~~~~~ o~o/ ~~~~~
chris at
1:22 PM
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Thursday, November 04, 2004
Patrick Herron, writing from North Carolina, Responds on Texfiles to Tuesday's *VoteScam=(2000)+ (4) :
American family man Patrick Herron took time out today from his work at Ibiblio, and as new Dad to Sophia (whose busy Mom is Janet--Hi, Janet!), so to write a call for continued action on the problem of Republican scamming of the general election vote: numerous regions across the U.S. are now under scrutiny for problems with unreliable ballots, unreliable computerized venues for voting. Generally there appears to be widespread lack of accountability in terms of systems for vote-counting.
Here is  Patrick Herron's informative call to action:
VoteScam 2004
With 40 million actual votes unverifiable due to electronic voting with
no paper trail, the 2004 presidential election is quite possibly a load
of bullshit. Yes, 40 million of the total votes were from e-vote
machines.
You can see the spread of electronic voting here:
US Electronic Voting, no source-save. And in my backyard of North Carolina:
North Carolina Electronic Voting, no source-save.
Sounds like a predictable response from me, I know. Slate has already
dismissed arguments like mine as "conspiracy-minded." You know me, I'm
so predictable. We *reasonable* people all know there's no such thing
as a conspiracy. Right? But bear with me. And ask yourself, am I
really being irrational? I fully realize I sound loony by merely
suggesting any wrongdoing. But is my skepticism truly groundless?
The results in Florida weren't close as we all know. That gap (52% to
47% in favor of Bush) we are told is supposed to suggest there was not a
sufficient amount of wrongdoing there to swing the election. I cannot
help but wonder, however, about the validity of those results when 50%
of votes passed through e-vote machines in that state. 50% of the
Florida vote is completely unverifiable and run completely by Republican
partisan interests who benefit from trade law protections. 50% of the
votes might as well be imaginary votes. Ohio had unverifiable e-voting
in a sufficient number of precincts representing a sufficient number of
votes to change the outcome. OK I'm speculating it seems, but do I
have any evidence to even make such a suggestion?
The first piece of evidence is prior probability. We know that there
have been massive problems with the machines. We have a paper trail of
documented problems. Those problems have been demonstrated over and
over and over again, but the courts won't have any of it. The prior
probability shows a fix is likely.
For example, we saw massive problems and wrongdoings by the Bushies in
Florida in 2000, and that wrongdoing ultimately decided the election.
Another example--the Republican candidate for Georgia's governorship won
the 2002 election when polls indicated that his Democratic opponent was
likely to beat him by a margin of 9 to 11 points. In the same year, a
Republican candidate for Senator defeated his Democratic opponent, even
though the Dem was expected to win by a 2 to 5 point margin. The
combination of these two results are, statistically speaking,
astronomically unlikely. In 2002, Georgia became the first state in the
U.S. to use computerized touch-screen voting machines in all of its
election districts. Georgia's votes were not counted by state election
officials but were instead counted by employees of the corporation that
manufactured and programmed the computerized voting machines. Those
machines produced no paper voting records or any other means to verify
the vote. What happened in Georgia was not unique to the 2002
elections. Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, and New Hampshire also
experienced unusual last-minute swings in some of their election
districts, but only in the ones that used electronic voting machines.
Interestingly, those sudden and unexpected swings only occurred in hotly
contested districts, and in each case, the underdog who won was a
Republican.
Sequoia Voting Systems software was discovered by hackers and found to
be full of vulnerabilities. Those of you who are savvy enough can have
a look at the code here:
http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~tarantul/WinEDS200.zip
The second piece of evidence is the combination of bias & motive. CEOs,
founders and owners of Diebold and ES&S are either big shot Republican
fundraisers (Diebold) or Republican Senators who have already won
suspect elections from their very own machines (Sen. Chuck Hagel,
R-Nebraska). In August, 2003, Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell wrote a letter
to Ohio Republicans in which he said he was "committed to helping Ohio
to deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." He wrote
this letter at the very time Diebold was bidding for a contract to sell
its voting machines to the state of Ohio. What’s more, even after
O'Dell's letter was exposed to the public, Ohio's Secretary of State,
Ken Blackwell--who happens to be a Republican & who also attempted to
deny delivery of provisional ballots across Ohio--had the audacity to
put Diebold on Ohio's list of preferred voting machine vendors.
Diebold's machines were used in Ohio's presidential election Tuesday.
Chuck Hagel, the head of ES&S, sold his company's voting machines to the
state of Nebraska. Shortly after that he became Nebraska's first
Republican Senator in 24 years. Eighty percent of Hagel's votes were
counted by ES&S employees in complete corporate secrecy. ES&S machines
were used for Dade, Martin, Lake, Sumter, Pasco, Collier, Nassau,
Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Broward counties (Sequoia machines were
used in Indian River, Pinellas, Hillsborough, in Palm Beach County).
Here's a bit of a run-down on Diebold, Sequoia, and ES&S:
The Diebold Board of Directors
W.R. Timken, Jr., Timken Company, Ohio layoffs, 2004 Bush Ranger, Bush
appointee to the Securities Investor Protection Corp.
Walden O'Dell, Bush Pioneer in 2000 and 2004 who promised to deliver the
election in 2003
Henry Wallace, Ford Motor Company--Ford is a heavy contributor to Bush
campaign; bush Interior Secretary Gale Norton fmr Ford board member)
John Lauer, Oglebay Norton--mining company; need I say more? Oh, right,
Laurer also was responsible for an Enron-like scam that sunk the company
and looted the investments of its shareholders; see
http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2004-09-22/news/feature.html
Phillip Lassiter, Ambac--he recently appointed to Ambac board a Laura
Unger, formerly appointed by Bush to serve as Acting Chairman of the SEC
Richard Crandall, Aspen Partners--one of the managers of the hedge fund
is a William Ware Bush, relation to the president unknown
Louis Bockius, Bocko Corp.--Ohio layoff lover
Christopher Connor, Sherwin-Williams--a company that has regularly
fought environmental regulations against the use of lead
(Diebold Documents here:
http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html)
Sequoia Voting Systems
subsidiary of De La Rue, acquired 2002; De La Rue won the contract to
print Iraq's new Saddam Hussein-free banknotes. It's estimated this
print job brought in about $20 million for Sequoia's parent company.
On ES&S, I borrow from "Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast
Right-Wing Conspiracy," an article by Bob Fitrakis of Columbus Ohio's
The Free Press:
"In the early 1980s, brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich founded ES&S’s
originator, Data Mark. The brothers Urosevich obtained financing from
the far-Right Ahmanson family in 1984, which purchased a 68% ownership
stake, according to the Omaha World Herald. After brothers William and
Robert Ahmanson infused Data Mark with new capital, the name was changed
to American Information Systems (AIS). California newspapers have long
documented the Ahmanson family’s ties to right-wing evangelical
Christian and Republican circles.
"According to Group Watch, in the 1980s Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. was a
member of the highly secretive far-Right Council for National Policy, an
organization that included Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Major
General John K. Singlaub and other Iran-Contra scandal notables, as well
as former Klan members like Richard Shoff. Ahmanson, heir to a savings
and loan fortune, is little reported on in the mainstream U.S. press.
But, English papers like The Independent are a bit more forthcoming on
Ahmanson’s politics.
"Ahmanson is also a chief contributor to the Chalcedon Institute that
supports the Christian reconstruction movement. The movement’s
philosophy advocates, among other things, "mandating the death penalty
for homosexuals and drunkards."
"The Ahmanson family sold their shares in American Information Systems
to the McCarthy Group and the World Herald Company, Inc. Republican
Senator Chuck Hagel disclosed in public documents that he was the
Chairman of American Information Systems and claimed between a $1 to 5
million investment in the McCarthy Group. In 1997, American Information
Systems purchased Business Records Corp. (BRC), formerly Texas-based
election company Cronus Industries, to become ES&S. One of the BRC
owners was Carolyn Hunt of the right-wing Hunt oil family, which
supplied much of the original money for the Council on National Policy.
"In 1996, Hagel became the first elected Republican Nebraska senator in
24 years when he did surprisingly well in an election where the votes
were verified by the company he served as chairman and maintained a
financial investment. In both the 1996 and 2002 elections, Hagel’s ES&S
counted an estimated 80% of his winning votes. Due to the contracting
out of services, confidentiality agreements between the State of
Nebraska and the company kept this matter out of the public eye. Hagel’s
first election victory was described as a "stunning upset" by one
Nebraska newspaper.
"Hagel’s official biography states, "Prior to his election to the U.S.
Senate, Hagel worked in the private sector as the President of McCarthy
and Company, an investment banking firm based in Omaha, Nebraska and
served as Chairman of the Board of American Information Systems." During
the first Bush presidency, Hagel served as Deputy Director and Chief
Operating Officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations
(G-7 Summit).
"Bob Urosevich was the Programmer and CEO at AIS, before being replaced
by Hagel. Bob now heads Diebold Election Systems and his brother Todd is
a top executive at ES&S. Bob created Diebold’s original electronic
voting machine software. Thus, the brothers Urosevich, originally funded
by the far Right, figure in the counting of approximately 80% of
electronic voting in the United States.
"Like Ohio, the State of Maryland was disturbed by the potential for
massive electronic voter fraud. The voters of that state were reassured
when the state hired SAIC to monitor Diebold’s system. SAIC’s former CEO
is Admiral Bill Owens. Owens served as a military aide to both Vice
President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, who
now works with George H.W. Bush at the controversial Carlyle Group.
Robert Gates, former CIA Director and close friend of the Bush family,
also served on the SAIC Board."
(http://snipurl.com/aequ)
The third piece of evidence: the exit poll results in Florida. The
biggest problem is precision--something that cannot be verified. We can
only look to exit polls to see if the election outcome was at least
remotely reasonable. In Ohio the exit polls were not inconsistent with
the final tally. However in Florida the outcome was HIGHLY unlikely
given their exit polls (+/- 4 SEM, which means the actual vote given the
exit polls had a likelihood of 0.0000634%, which is pretty damn close to
zero; for statisticians, it IS zero) . (See
http://synapse.princeton.edu/~sam/poll-discrepancy-z-scores.jpg for an
illustration of the statistic in comparison to other states; if you're
wondering about Missouri, read the following analysis from the Missouri
Bar: http://www.mobar.org/journal/2001/novdec/jarrett.htm) We cannot
audit the Florida votes themselves, but another exit poll could be
conducted.
Without a paper trail, a recount cannot be conducted. If official
Florida results showed a close race, a recount would have been a legal
nightmare that would have eclipsed what happened in 2000. The margin
in Florida was too great for a recount. Was this a matter of
convenience?
*The bigger the lie, the more people believe.*
The fourth piece of evidence: the demographics of increased voter
turnout. Typically in a presidential election, lefty voters show a
greater increase in turnout than Republican voters. It's as if, in this
election, the majority of anti-Bush newly-turned-out voters across the
nation voted for Bush. Hmm. This is a piece of evidence, admittedly,
that has yet to materialize. The massive increase in voter
registrations since 2000 were primarily Democrat, but Rove & Co. built
an impressive 72-hour get-out-the-Bush-vote grassroots campaign,
designed to contact all unlikely Republican voters three times in 72
hours, one interpersonal. In the coming says we should be able to get
the statistics, however, and know whether there is something here in the
increased turnout.
Finally, there is no evidence to the contrary, that electronic voting
was not biased. There is no way that contrary evidence can be
demonstrated. In fact, it's illegal to demonstrate such validity.
40 million electronic votes. Poof. Just like that. Out comes a
president.
Let's face it. Many of us suspect the Republicans have formed a
kleptocracy. We see again and again that they lie and deceive 24-7 in
order to steal more. We can see they are looting the wealthiest nation
in history if we only look. Ask yourself: given the slightest of
evidence, do you put an election heist past them? When Bush says things
like, “I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can’t explain
it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to
happen . . . I know it won’t be easy on me or my family, but God wants
me to do it.” This election was in the bag for Kerry with a major
*under*estimation of turnout. And when we see pictures and eyewitness
accounts like this one in Ohio (http://tinyurl.com/3t3cr) you just have
to wonder....
Coups typically use the power of the existing government for its own
takeover. As renowned economist, historian, and leading military
strategy consultant Edward Luttwak remarks in his book _Coup d'état: A
practical handbook_, a book translated into 14 languages: "A coup
consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the
state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its
control of the remainder." Use of military or other organized force is
not the defining feature of a coup d'état. Any seizure of the state
apparatus by extra-legal tactics may be considered a coup, according to
Luttwak.
Ultimately few in the government are fighting for your right to vote.
Edwards reportedly encouraged Kerry to continue to count in Ohio, but
Kerry opted for "unity." We can be sure Bush will not go centrist on
us. Meanwhile, the media proliferate their claims that e-voting was a
success--because, they say, no widespread problems were reported.
Without a trail, what's there to report?
We on the left, we were gutless Tuesday night when things looked bad.
Many of us stopped watching and gave up hope well before Ohio was
settled. We threw up our hands, citing that America is on the whole
homophobic, misogynist, stupid. Many of us are now wringing our hands,
citing secession or leaving the country altogether. A lot of Americans
may be stupid, homophobic, and misogynist, to be sure, but the election
in no way proves that is the case with the majority.
40 million votes.
Vaporware.
Alas, there is absolutely nothing we can do to change this election.
Nothing. We can't go back and count those votes--they are not there to
be counted. Gone. Our legislature has failed to protect us, because we
have failed to insist on it.
So we can't do much now. It's too late. But what can we do about the
next election? Based on this election, we can anticipate that the fight
to force states to make sure a paper trail is created from electronic
voting machines will fade. But that fight must continue.
I will fully admit the entirety of my argument could be wrong. Unlike
electronic votes my argument is verifiable. Don't some of these
questions and issues make you wonder, not just a little bit? We don't
have the 40 million votes needed to ultimately substantiate or reject my
argument. That *should* make you very nervous, very concerned. If
you're a freedom-loving American.
Be rest assured, no one can be sure that Bush has the mandate of the
masses. The sound of confidence in such a claim is nothing but noise.
Fear not.
So don’t give up on America. Protect your right to vote. Bush might be
marching freedom out the door, but you can stop him. You can fight for
election paper trails, and fight for validation of electronic voting
regardless of the margin of outcome between candidates. You can start
by fighting for H.R.2239 and S.1980, stalled bills which would amend the
Help America Vote Act of 2002 by requiring a voter-verified permanent
record or hardcopy of all electronic votes. You can also educate
yourself about the problems of electronic voting and educate others.
You can support a movement to impeach Bush for his and his croneys' acts
of sedition: http://www.votetoimpeach.org/. Or if you've the stomach
for it, you can also practice civil disobedience: find those electronic
machines, drag 'em out, pull 'em apart, and find out how they work.
Patrick
.. . . . . . .
Patrick Herron
patrick@proximate.org
Author of _The American Godwar Complex_ (BlazeVOX, 2004), now available @ http://proximate.org/tagc
Patrick's bio
Patrick's work
Close Quarterly
Carrboro Poetry Fest
************copyright of Patrick Herron******************
o~o/
--cm
chris at
11:21 PM
|
& from Joe Ahearn, Dallas poet and editor-publisher of VEER and Rancho Loco Press, two matters:
first, a very fine 'little election poem' shared on email (Joe, Hi--looking forward to seeing you at the Poetry_Heat reading Saturday!) :
Garrotter
After the election of 2 November 2004
Almost the garrotters haven’t killed the true heart’s convict-ship. Almost
they haven’t killed the the dread-dead robbery, the injured man and his
left-dropping strife.
Hauled at each end, knot by slid knot, these are the garrotter’s hours of
planting. For on the cobbles, where we walk most carefully the darknesses
homeward, a simple lunging Method often leads to audacious success.
Among us, always among us, one fetches the cab, and another a doctor, but
alone among us the garrotter studies his ways.
What’s left is to throat this hideous desperate throat that no one has
thieved.
Once we loved to be sloughed by garrotters. But this is a time to make
due, and cherish.
* * *
and then, two poems from Joe's recent book, Five Fictions: a e i o u (Austin, SRLR Press, 2003) :
The Difference
1
Inside, I am brimming
with the velvet of bees,
so I walk, to the mountains.
Late in the day,
I bend to snap loose a stalk of lupine,
and suddenly I feel it, the difference.
I make a little joke to myself:
Oh, so the bees are falling into your mouth,
but I straighten quickly and spit.
Something is really wrong.
I spit and walk on,
walking faster.
2.
This is childhood:
You look out at the mountains
and you say wow! mountains!
you look at the ground and say
wow! flowers! rocks!
Then again:
I remember that my belly was full,
full of the legs and wings of bees,
and I never went to the mountains.
No: the bees are a lie.
I'm terribly frightened and I
don't know why.
(46)
* * *
Gods
All bad things come to the children.
Even God, the worst of our dreams,
who rattles like a spider through the hedges.
The dark mother drives away.
She is whispering of alleyways.
She leaves them at the schoolyard's edge.
Up the block, the Grandfather
sits at the south edge of a brown couch,
drinking. The children sob toward him.
I think that God will eat them.
Even now, he scrapes and creaks
his wild way through the branches,
hungry for the terrible wild blood of children.
The old man, roused to simple endlessness,
rises drunkenly, weaves his sloppy way
to bed. He will never hear
the screams of the children, or how that God,
chewing fiercely with black teeth,
struggles at his kitchen door.
(51)
~~~~~~~~~~copyright of Joe Ahearn~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o~o/
keep on, Y'all...
--cm
chris at
2:43 PM
|
Steve Vincent's got several new poems up on his blog--check them out... He also sent this post-election poem out (included in his blog poems):
Walking Theory # 85
Let the trees & shrubs absorb the shock
Not one lover or friend deserves this:
'The Election'
Climb the highest hill, indeed
Or descend into the lowest valley
Is one ready to resist Repression?
It's no longer 'If' but 'When'
"And the rockets gave way," etc.
Welcome to the big "A", America
Welcome to the big "R"
There will be little precedence
for this "Salvation"
Is one ready to organize (again)?
The inevitable pronounces itself
Breathe, she says, breathe
Find the internal 'humm'
Find it, breathe it
Let's go - only as one can - from there.
~~~~~~~copyright of Stephen Vincent~~~~~~~~~~ o~o/~~~
chris at
2:11 PM
|
*Poetry_Heat Roundtable: Small Press/Independent Publishing*
___Friday, November 5___
featuring:
___Hoa Nguyen and Dale Smith___
Skanky Possum Press (Austin),
publishers of Skanky Possum Journal
& work from Kent Johnson, Randy Prus,
Tom Clark and Anne Waldman,
Kristen Prevallet, Sotere Torregian
___Mark Weiss___
Junction Press (San Diego and NYC)
publishing work from Stephen Vincent, Rochelle Owen,
Armand Schwerner, Susie Mee, Mervyn Taylor,
Richard Elman
___3:00 pm, at The Writing Center, 412 Central Library__
* * University of Texas at Arlington * *
* Hope to see you there! *
___This event is sponsored by the UTA Writing Center in conjunction with the Poetry_Heat Reading Series, under direction of Chris Murray___
chris at
1:59 PM
|
Linh Dinh sends this link to a clip on BushUncensored Ack!--bushbags--Ack!
And Joe Ahearn sends this observation, after fighting with the doldrums brought on by the election, which I found something of a counterbalance to the effects of the election: the bushbags will have to face their own "lame-duckness."--Yeah!--I only wish it could be tomorrow instead of 4 years from now.
chris at
10:01 AM
|
Reading this weekend in the Poetry_Heat series
at University of Texas, Arlington :
Randy Prus, Dale Smith, Hoa Nguyen, Mark Weiss
7:00 pm
Saturday, November 6
Rady Room, 6th floor, Nedderman Hall
University of Texas, Arlington
email me if you'd like links to campus maps or directions to the Rady Room.
I hope to see you there!
chris at
1:44 AM
|
Here's something to think about regarding the bushbag situation today. Found via post at PoetryEtc, by Alison Croggon.
chris at
1:15 AM
|
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
from David C. Whiteman, student in English 4330, my course at UTA, the sestina he wrote for class assignment.
BUSHIDO * (also see the second note @ ** below--cm)
A samurai is dedicated to duty and loyalty, Chu
He must have heroic courage, Gi
He must respect honesty and justice, Makoto
He must always use polite courtesy, Rei
He must have compassion, Jin
Above all, he must have his honor, Meiyo
A true Samurai has only one judge of honor and that is himself, Meiyo
He is mindful of his duties and serves his master loyally, Chu
Through intense training, the Samurai becomes quick and strong, Jin
Rise above those who are afraid to act, Gi
Samurai have no reason to be cruel, Rei
When a Samurai has said he will perform an action, it will be so, Makoto
Nothing will stop him from completing his task, Makoto
The decisions he makes are a reflection of who he truly is, Meiyo
Samurai do not need to prove their strength, Rei
He is responsible for the consequences of his actions, Chu
Hiding like a turtle in a shell is not living at all, Gi
He is not like other men, Jin
He possesses a power that must be used for the good of all, Jin
A Samurai does not have to give his word, Makoto
He must have always have heroic courage even if it is risky or dangerous, Gi
You cannot hide from yourself, Meiyo
A Samurai is immensely loyal to those in his care, Chu
A Samurai is courteous even to his enemies, Rei
Without this outward show of respect we are nothing more than animals, Rei
He helps his fellow man at every opportunity, Jin
To those he is responsible for, he remains fiercely true, Chu
A Samurai does not have to promise, Makoto
His true strength becomes apparent during difficult times, Meiyo
It is living life fully, completely, wonderfully, Gi
Heroic Courage is not blind. It is intelligent and strong, Gi
A Samurai is respected for his strength in battle, Rei
He is also respected in his dealings with other men, Chu
Speaking and doing are the same action, Makoto
If a Samurai has no honor, he has nothing, Meiyo
If an opportunity does not arise, he goes out of his way to find one, Jin
Believe in justice not from other people but from yourself, Jin
Be honest in your dealings with all people, Makoto
For the true Samurai there are no shades of gray; only right and wrong, Chu
*Bushido- The way of the warrior, the code of conduct for Japanese Samurai.
** My clarification on this term: although a sound/eye correlation may seem to exist between this term and the bushbag who just stole the general election, as used here on texfiles, the term in no way implies anything related to that thief and his governor-brother, or any of the rest of their relations. --cm-- o~o/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~copyright of David C. Whiteman~~~~~ o~o/ ~~~
chris at
2:18 PM
|
from Hoa Nguyen's Your Ancient See Through (subpress, 2002) :
Dark
then owl
yellow-eyed black pupil
this is a body going numb from will
meeting the outside world forehead
where the feathers were she blinks Athene
how your wisdom darkens makes
trouble for me to see in the eye's center
grapple after life's cog---anima---
special where rain is caught
on the tongue now my left hand is
numb where the knowledge knife is gifted
and owl nimble-necked blinks at me certain
~~~~~~~~~~~copyright of Hoa Nguyen~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o~o/~~~~
chris at
1:37 PM
|
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
 via Jenelle Rose, TG politics .com
No matter what this one election brings--
& anything brings--we
know we
will
go on
out
& keep
on
sayin'
love
what we say...
cuz we love
from here?--hugs
comin' yer way--
xoxoxokeepin'allbest
on!
chris at
11:35 PM
|
Voting Day?--oh, hey: kari's got it goin' on! Check this out... Yeah, Keep On...
chris at
11:12 PM
|
from Dale Smith's recent chapbook, My Vote Counts(effing press, 2004) [Dale, keep on!]
My vote's for the turkey buzzard
eating some dead thing on the
road. My vote's for black holes.
Open sky. Green field with
goats. My vote's for Oklahoma
and knowing there's a John Doe
II somewhere. For a pillar of
smoke on an ordinary afternoon.
For staying home or going out.
Finding my place and no place.
Arcadia and Spectacle. This
world, not the next. For "the
name, insofar as it names a thing,
is nothing but the thing insofar as
it is named by the name."
~~~~~~~~~~~copyright of Dale Smith~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o~o/
chris at
8:59 PM
|
 Linh Dinh, "Bush's Hand"
chris at
2:25 PM
|
More Voting News from Linh Dinh (YaY!!) :
Another Special Texfiles Report on Opinions that are Upsetting the Republicans (oh, no, we wouldn't want that!)
Linh (Hey--you rock!) was up early today reading responses to his recent voting season effort, his campaign of emailing his opinions, in the form of the above cartoon that he had made, to Republicans across the U.S. In that act, I see some residual hope of educating as many Republicans as possible about exactly how misleading the bushbags are, even if it seems too late and a lost cause since they do not seem at all receptive. In fact, they are threatening, as the comment from Dean Cannon, Florida Republican, shows.
Today, experimental writer Linh Dinh sent me a copy of the following response he got from a Republican politician in central Florida--you know, that place (in my view) with twisted stuff going on, twisted state government, twisted voting ballots, even so twisted as to bar some folks (particularly African American or Hispanic folks) from the polls in the last presidential election. Of course, none of that ever had a thing to do with the fact that the governor of Florida is and was bushbag’s brother. No. The Florida Republicans are definitely on the side of... what?--or even who?
And, in truth, this always need be said about Florida: thank goodness everyone does not think like a lock-step Republican.
But here is what Linh, telling it like it is, found out:
* * *
Dear Chris,
We already know that Republicans are belligerent
bullies but check out this email I just got... [see below]
Linh
“you are commiting an offence by sending unsolicited email
with information gathered from a proxy website. If this
warning is not heeded and I receive further email from you or
anyone one else with a similar IP, I will take further
action. guaranteed.” –Dean Cannon, Republican Candidate for Florida State House of Representatives
* * *
This sounds scary-twisted to me.
The scary dude's website is Dean Cannon
And his email is
dean@square1productions.net
We might all need to send him a nice note.
My one nice question for Dean Cannon, who is obviously a very smart man--he's a lawyer and former president of the student body at his alma mater, University of Florida--is, .
How is it that on your website, Dean, at this particularly linked page, you ask visitors to solicit other people's political support via uninvited or "unsolicited email with information gathered from a proxy website" but you threaten legal action against someone sending you what is basically the same thing. Can this possibly have anything to do with the fact that a political opinion that differs from yours was expressed via an "unsolicted email with information gathered from a proxy website"? I wouldn't want to think so, not in a democracy, and especially not during a general election, where expression of differing opinions is not only a right, but an expectation and a lively part of civic participation. Or did that point not make it into your law textbooks over there?
Hey, Y'all: I'm with Linh Dinh: the quote above from Republican Dean Cannon of Florida shows an insideous kind of "belligerent bullying." The rhetoric is that of a bully in a bullying state government's rhetoric in a bullying national party's rhetoric--that of Republicans, a party that has done nothing to be proud of in this country for the last twenty years.
Oh, hey, since we're being all legal 'n shit, did I forget to add this caveat: "In my opinion."-- which is to say, everything here on this site is filtered through my opinion, and that is in part what is at stake here in this election--having a voice and a legal right to say and to influence government when it has gone so terribly wrong, as it has with this past four-year bushbag 'regime'.
--cm--
o~o/
chris at
1:14 PM
|
from Susan Briante, a Voting Day Address :
Susan (Hi!--so good to hear from you) emailed me today with this lovely note: Thinking of you on election day, in poetry,
in solidarity... scb,
and the following powerful prose poem for voters to meditate on:
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
High above 38th Street, city workers on cherry-picker
trucks unwind cables thick as a man’s arm. They uproot
telephone poles. Steel columns, twice as tall as
treetops, bank over our heads like a stormfront.
Grackles percolate through live oaks.
What gears maneuver above us shielded by billboards
and cloud?
In vacated spaces, the mind counts ceiling tiles,
makes its own partitions. My brother takes
measurements of unoccupied buildings. Once, in a
third-floor silence, he found dozens of dead pigeons
fallen on gray carpeting. They had slipped in through
a hole in the roof. For days, they must have flown
panicked through corridors and stairwells, under slack
wires and cold fluorescent lighting. Regardless of
where they lay, maggots eventually spindled inside
them.
Mr. President, I want you to understand this is not a
parable. In interminable expanses, God is a barbed
wire fence. Here in Texas, storms blow in from the
west, plump with lightening and loosed leaves, tugging
at raincoats, ripping dust from roads. Kudzu vines
darken on the hillside; blue-jays tear an afternoon to
rags.
But, Sir, no matter what promise of voltage hangs
overhead, a storm is a hand brushed over velvet:
fields of emerald grass return to gold, a kind of
wealth too large for a pocket or windshield.
Tonight, all of the utility lines above 38th street
glisten like bronze threads hemming in strip malls and
practice fields, like vapor trails soaring over
intersections. And pigeons swerve from north to east
subtly stained by a light that resembles an emergency
exit’s red glow.
~~~~~~~~~prose poem copyright of Susan Briante~~~~~~~~ o~o/~~
Susan, many thanks.
ZaZen, Y'all!
chris at
11:56 AM
|
Monday, November 01, 2004
 Check it Out: the new journal, Inquistions.
chris at
11:52 PM
|
** Announcing a New Journal! David Nemeth's Inquisitions**
Hey, Y'all, what better day to announce a journal of this title than voting day?--David Nemeth's the editor/publisher of a new print journal, Inquisitions. It's major concern is with poetry, and Inquistions is now calling for submissions!
Here's the info:
inquisition:
Inquisition as the act of inquiring, an investigation, the process of inquiry.
"In 1925 Borges stated that his title aimed to dissociate "inquisition" once and for all from monks' cowls and the smoke of damnation. After an inquisitorial pursuit of his own work, the effort continues."—-James E. Irby, Introduction to Jorge Luis Borges' Other Inquisitions, Austin, Texas: The University of Texas Press, 1964, 1993.
*
submission guidelines:
inquisitions is a poetry journal specializing in experimental/avant work by textual and visual poets. Poets can send in 3 to 10 poems. Essays on poetics are appreciated. Textual work accepted in most any format (txt, doc, email body, etc.). Simultaneous or previously published work is not accepted. All submissions should be addressed to inquisitions@gmail.com. Please include INQUISITIONS SUBMISSION in the subject line.
*
visual poetry note:
Visual poetry should be submitted in jpg format. Visual poems larger than 11.5 cm by 17 cm (approx 4.5" by 6.7") will be resized for printing. The magazine will be published in black and white.
*
translation poetry note:
Translations are encouraged though original should be included for publication. Translators should also provide proof of translator's rights.
*
copyright:
All rights revert back to author after publication.
*
editor:
David Nemeth
editorial advisory board:
Nick Piombino, Chris Murray, Geof Huth, Tom Beckett and Anny Ballardini
*
Let's see some koooool stuff, eh?
chris at
11:06 PM
|
A Whole New Kind of Cereal in Tomorrow's Box!
Looking forward to voting tomorrow--looking forward to the moment of finally getting the Bushbags outta here. Or I guess that should be 'outta office' not outta here, since they will literally have to end up permanently back here in Texas, I suppose--eep! That tells me it's time to high-tail it outta this place: it was hard enough to tolerate the Bushbags in Washington, but there was little choice in that once the Supreme Court took over the decision-making of the last election: we couldn't exactly leave the country. But if the Bushbags are coming back here to do who knows what in the immediate vicinity (another Enron?--more Halliburton?--some new manifestation of greed-centered draining of people and resources?) just down the road a piece, well, it's time to exercise my other choice: to leave a place where that varmint might be in charge of anything more than finding his very own toy terrrrorrriste in his cereal box each morning.
chris at
10:59 PM
|
coming up soon this evening: more work from Texfiles Poet of the Week, Anna Eyre
chris at
9:36 PM
|
from Dale Smith's "My Vote Counts," chapbook recently out from (effing press, 2004)
I want my vote to count so I will
kill a great blue heron. I will kill
a whooping crane. They eat from
wasted coastal waters anyway.
Since I want it to count like a
liberal yuppie soccer mom like
a Wal-Mart wage earner like a
repressed middle-class neocon
like the fat-ass gun lobby or
the fat-ass anti-gun lobby like
earnest administrators like
peacenik greennik geoglommers
and holy bible gang-bangers like
a corporate chorus oozing oily
orisons I will take a day off work
stay home drink a cold one watch
leaves in the gutter watch for the
pink light of dusk look for that
heron that whooping crane.
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