Friday, January 5, 2007

Hang On To Saddam 2

The New York Times reports today, Friday, January 5, 2007, page A6, that, while the President has not seen it, the video of Saddam's hanging upset lawmakers in Washington. What surprise! The Iraqi government promptly hangs the dictator in an undignified, rushed and violent manner. The question really should not be the hanging but the surprise here. What should we have expected out of Iraq. I wonder what Iraqis think. Their government protested that nothing was amiss; maybe they really think so, after all, Saddam's government apparently acted the very same way.
The hanging should demonstrate to lawmakers that there is no precipice to withdraw from: Iraq fell long ago. The chaos only threatens to worsen and more US military will serve no useful purpose.


Already Washington spins the midterm elections. The message could not be clearer: Withdraw now. Lawmakers from both partys now see ethics, or taxes, or "change" as the message. What more must we do?



End the war now!

Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats

The 2006 release Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats (Released 21 August) shows continuing maturity to John Darnielle’s production values, without conceding any ground in either in his songwriting or production ethic. From the beginning, the Mountain Goats have captured the intensity of Darnielle’s lyrical vision by utilizing very low-tech productions. The music traveled by cassette tape from a cassette recorder Darnielle used at his work as a psychiatric nurse. For percussion he used the background hiss of late-night television. John toured with a bass player, first Rachel Ware and then Peter Hughes, including California and Chicago, where he later moved. He released an EP, Nine Black Poppies, in (emperor jones records, p.o. box 49771, Austin TX 78765).

In The Sunset Tree, the previous release, Darnielle explored his own emotional state, creating songs largely based on his relationship with an abusive and alcoholic step-father. Get lonely while equally and as intensely personal, delves , more deeply into emotional state, hopefully not Darnielle’s own, but based on his experiences as a psychiatric nurse. The opening track gives us the first person account of a schizophrenic, wandering out of his home to start his day:

I leave the house as soon as it gets light outside
like a prisoner breaking out of jail.
and I steal down to business 15-501
like I had a bounty hunter on my tail

…I laugh to myself and look up at the skies
and then I think I hear angels in my ears
like marbles being thrown against a mirror…

The hearing voices operates not as metaphor but as description. The Durham 15-501, currently under construction, marks a “superstreet” in Darnielle’s current home town.

The catchiest tune on the CD might be Woke Up New. I caught my 12-year-old daughter working the song out on the piano, singing the catch

and I sang oh
what do I do?
what do I do?
what do I do?
what do I do without you?

The song, like much of Darnielle’s writing, tells of recent romantic loss. Another break-up song comes in the title track Get Lonely a truly, hauntingly beautiful song, both tune and lyric.

The Mountain Goats opened their recent world tour here in Minneapolis, at the Triple Rock on September 14th. I had an extra ticket to the show. When I got to the Triple Rock, on the campus at the University of Minnesota, the line already stretched down the block. There is no question that I was by far the oldest person there. I would guess the crowd averaged about 22, and every one of them sat on the sidewalk reading a book-if only I had a camera! The reading no doubt demonstrates the literacy of both the band and the fans. Darnielle peppers his songs with classical illusions, and I mean classical in the Roman/Greek sense, not classic rock.

The Mountain Goats’ played Get lonely straight through at the Triple Rock show. (Joanna Newsom tried the same thing with Ys down the street at The 400 on December 8, a tough venue for a harp player.) Darnielle could barely contain his excitement during the show, flailing away at his guitar as he tried to remember the lyrics. The crowd sang along to most of the songs, except for a remarkable take on the outstanding Cobra Tattoo, during which you could hear a pin drop. Darnielle did not disappoint ardent fans. For the mosh pit, they played both Cubs in Five and See America Right

Get Lonely ranks the top of essential listening for the releases for 2006.



September 14 - Minneapolis, MN, Triple Rock Social Club

http://www.mountain-goats.com/ (band website)
http://www.themountaingoats.net/ (fan site with discography, lyrics, and tabs)
http://www.islandgardensong.com/home/mg/live/ (fan site with concert recordings for download)
http://www.alibris.com/wish/list.cfm?action=list&S=R&email=editor%40lastplanetojakarta.com&Go.x=16&Go.y=10 (John’s wish list)
http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/index.php (John’s web log)
http://3bos.com/ (3 Beads of Sweat, Mountain Goats news, and Cd’s)
http://www.fivetools.com/ (Peter’s erratic web log)
http://www.archive.org/index.php (Internet Archive with fan recordings for download)
http://sixeyes.blogspot.com/2006/09/mountain-goats-john-darnielle.html (A Blogspot interview)

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Republicans On The Out

I laughed out loud. Listening to the radio this afternoon, NPR reported that the Republicans were upset. Apparently, the Democratic leadership did not involve them in planning for the upcoming session.

I am sure they were, like Captain Renault, in Casablanca, “I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! ..."

I see the freeze out as perfectly consistent with the first item on the Democrat’s ‘six point plan” (although the title referred to 2006):

Honest Leadership & Open Government

We will end the Republican culture of corruption and restore a government as good as the people it serves, starting with real ethics reform. http://www.democrats.org/agenda.html

I seem to remember the Democrats complaining that the Republicans froze them out. Not to long ago the big Washington news focused on Democrats having to watch out for the “nuclear option” in filibustering judicial nominations because they were so wholly without power.

Congressional power flows to the majority power. Work gets done in the standing and special committees, which operate at the mercy of the chair, positions filled by the majority leader. The Senate and House have “rules and precedents” under which they operate. This is why the President’s immediate reaction to the mid-term election results required him to start crowing about “bi-partisanship.” He wanted the Republicans in.

So now we get t hypocrisy. Is either party clean? Did not the Dems howl at the heavy handed way the Republican leadership bused the system? Long open-vote periods. Closed door meetings. Refusal to docket minority bills. That was what the whole tone of Washington that Bush ran on in the first place. And rove has become master at his attack. Rove made divisiveness into a consummate art politic.

Also the Dams have such fertile ground. It seems a long time since we have heard from some of these committees. There has just been no oversight. The Dems could spend both years catching up. They have expressed some desire to just let the last six years pass. Maybe they intend to let history be the judge of Bus record.

I think I is important to drag these yahoos in, sit them, down, put them under oath, and find out what happened. The influence of money, stupidity, and putridity must be exposed.

How can we enact laws about warrantees seizure of phone records without exposing what has been done? How could Qwest be the only corporation that even asked to see a warrant, or eve a letter from the Attorney general. How could all this money, literally bales of cash be lost in Iraq. America deserves to know.

We may not get any their legislation accomplished. But America can live with that. What we really need to know, s just what fools they thought we were, how much damage has been done, and who needs to finally be made to stand up and admit accountability. It has been a long time coming.

To hell with bi-partisanship.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Minnesota Agenda 2007

Minnesota State Government agenda items:


1. Transportation Policy

Transit

Sprawl

Jobs

Business/Manufacturing

Accelerate Light Rail development

2. Green Energy

Research

Power Production

Climate Change- non-carbon sources

Energy efficiency

District heating/cooling

3. Education

University

High school

Address standardized testing, sports, arts and music

4. Single Payer Health Care

U Care Minnesota

5. Criminal Justice

Funding

Sentencing guidelines

Prison reform

6. Waste Management

Composting

Recycling

e-waste

7. Local government financing

Internet access

8. Election Laws

How we count the votes “It’s not who votes that counts-it’s who counts the votes.” (attributed, probably erroneously-to Joseph Stalin)