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Saturday, April 29, 2006

THOLOS OF ATHENA TURNS 3 YEARS OLD TODAY

This is the right occasion to say thank you to our readers. We thank those bloggers who link to us. And many times we have been encouraged by friends who have e-mailed us and left messages of hope and comfort in the comments' section.

Art is connected to our mission as well. As the poet, Emily Dickinson said, "Nature is a haunted house--but Art--is a house that tries to be haunted." Our house in the round, our place that tries to be haunted, the Temple where we sort through our visions and get down to work, is that which we call Tholos.

And you are always welcome here.

Part of our shared responsibility, here in America, is the present crisis of conscience; and we must not lend legitimacy to any public figure, regardless of party, who excuses illegal war, or likewise favors aggression, as a means of enriching a few, or who permits scapegoating, or maintains dark prisons outside of law. There have been enough abuses inflicted on our republic and its Bill of Rights, and these have to stop.

Sinclair Lewis warned us that if there were to be an American Fascism, it would come to us wrapped in the flag and holding a Bible. Over the past five years there has been a foretaste of this; and the deceivers continue to ply their trade in the Republican Congress and the Bush/Cheney White House. Extreme republicans have left no doubt that fundamentalist religion and the Party march in lockstep, and that above the country and its laws, the Party alone is supreme. That is an insult to the structure of government our Founders conceived on our behalf.

There is still an uncharted path ahead, and it winds its painful way through a danger zone of blood money, ballot tampering, racism, corruption, and a welter of fear,-- through warrantless--and ever more secretive, police powers. And the darkest corners are only just now being revealed. The warnings about the cult of the President have gone forth.

It is to be hoped, after we come through this crisis, that there will be no more wars of aggression waged in our name. It is to be hoped that we can break the nation's addiction to borrowed money, from the hands of foreign governments and bankers. It is hoped that we can break the stranglehold which insurance corporations hold over public healthcare. But the issue that stands above all others is the question of law. Will this awful, Republican-controled Congress, keep undercutting the Constitution? Will they, in effect, legalize lawlessness? --while trying at the same time--to limit the jurisdiction of the courts?

We must pull back from the brink, because if the nation crosses this threshold, there may be no going back. For the country as a whole, we must confess and not evade our failures. Each of us must look at civic responsibility in a new light. The wisest among us have said already, that we will be a long time cleaning up after President Bush.

Albert Camus wrote about civic faith, in 1957, after Soviet Russia put down the Hungarian Uprising:
"Our faith is that throughout the world, beside the impulse toward coercion and death that is darkening history, there is a growing impulse toward persuasion and life, a vast emancipatory movement called culture that is made up both of free creation and of free work."
In that spirit, you are welcomed back to Tholos, and we hope you will join us here often.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

NEIL YOUNG'S CD "LIVING WITH WAR" (A PREVIEW)

LET'S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT

"Let’s impeach the president for lying

And leading our country into war

Abusing all the power that we gave him

And shipping all our money out the door

He’s the man who hired all the criminals

The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors

And bend the facts to fit with their new stories

Of why we have to send our men to war

Let’s impeach the president for spying

On citizens inside their own homes

Breaking every law in the country

By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees

Would New Orleans have been safer that way

Sheltered by our government’s protection

Or was someone just not home that day?

Let’s impeach the president

For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected

Dividing our country into colors

And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he’s racking down on steroids

Since he sold his old baseball team

There’s lot of people looking at big trouble

But of course the president is clean

Thank God"


SOURCE: Roger Friedman, Fox News

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

OLD ROCKING CHAIR'S GOT ME

"Old rocking chair's got me, my cane by my side.
Fetch me that gin son, 'fore I tan your hide.
Can't get from this cabin, goin' nowhere.
Just set me here grabbin' at the flies round this rocking chair."

--song by Hoagy Carmichael

It's not really the way we picture George W. Bush in his retirement years. But as if a proof of the President's fondness for selling the implausible wrapped up in a sweet confection; he buttered up his resigning Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, in a saccharine ceremony on the White House lawn.

Bush was mentioning the prospect of Golden Years, which would include future reminiscences with Scotty in rocking chairs.

On BBC TV there was a deadpan report of what followed: George planned for the theatrical flourish of flying Scott Boy away in the Presidential Helicopter, while the cameras drank it all in. But the flying machine had a major malfunction, and could not take off. The President with that characteristic chuckle that makes his shoulders bob up and down, emerged minutes later, into the cruel light of day.

It was tempting to think of this spectacle, as having the impact of a metaphor, and somehow, being a kind of wink from the gods. Only a few moments earlier, they had been talking about rocking chairs.

It's hard being the mouthpiece for a lying and criminal government, unless like Goebbels, the megaphone of the Third Reich, the creature really has its heart in it. McClellan never had that kind of enthusiasm, and his coping skills included vegging out in front of the White House press corps. When the Press Secretary was in "The Zone" he could achieve what one flabbergasted critic called "negative information", the Zen-like ability to somehow subtract from a reporter's knowledge, rather than to give any information at all. But on most days Scott McClellan's interaction with the press corps was humdrum and tedious, falling back ad nauseum on stock phrases and evasion.

But the Press Secretary's job satisfaction began to sour fast after the 2004 election. All the vipers, which were in the mud of the Bush administration, began to hatch out. The lies, the venal crimes, the treason, the incompetence; it was a war of attrition that Scott was losing. And in the regular press briefings, McClellan's personal honor, trustworthiness, and truthfulness were under fire by increasingly frustrated and combative reporters.

The confrontational tone of these bouts began to tell on Scott McClellan. The fate of those in New Orleans during the Katrina disaster, and the complete breakdown of federal responsibility to respond to those in the path of the storm, was the beginning of a steep political decline; and it contributed the most to the end of the public's confidence in Bush and his spokesperson, "Scotty".

George Bush and Scott McClellan as octogenarians, with their snow-white hair and translucent skin, sitting side by side in rocking chairs, slapping their knees over the good times they've had in the 2000-oughts, is more than enough to make a person bust out laughing.
"But Mr. President,...I was wondering... do they have rocking chairs in federal prison?"

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

THE SMOKING GUN

A twelve-year-old photograph has turned up in the hands of the FBI that could prove that George W. Bush may have committed murder.

It is late August of 1994. In the photograph, the President, who was then a candidate for governor, is caught by surprise by the photographer in a motel room in Big Spring, Texas. He is pictured face-on, standing over the nude corpse of a young woman. In his hand, pointing down at his side, is a small caliber pistol. A slight trickle of smoke can be seen (under magnification) emanating from the barrel.

The woman has been positively identified as Vivien Menke, who was working as an aide in the Bush campaign for governor. Miss Menke, 23-years-old at the time, has been missing for twelve years.

The photograph, which first appeared in the February 21st, 2006 issue of The Guardian, and most recently seen in the London Times, was at first thought to be a hoax. But the man who took the photograph and released it to The Guardian, has come forward, and has turned the photo and the negative over to the FBI.

He has also tendered a mini-cassette tape containing a recording of the President confessing to the crime.

An FBI spokesperson has identified the man as Clu Dallas Hapgood, a 32-year-old Government Services Administration employee.

According to the FBI, both the photograph and the tape recording have been subjected to thorough analysis by experts within the department, and their authenticity has been confirmed.

Tholos has learned that Hapgood was a journalism student at Baylor University, who, on his own initiative, undertook to cover the candidate, George W. Bush, in his 1994 bid for governor. During a telephone conversation, Mr. Hapgood told Tholos that he was invited to travel with the press as Bush barnstormed across Texas.

He recalled the campaign made a stop for the night in the town of Big Spring, some two-hundred miles west of Fort Worth. There, the team secured a twenty-one room motel, The Four Horses, for the members of Bush's entourage.

Hapgood said he was elated when he learned that he had been placed in room number 7, which happened to be next to the room in which the Bushes, George and Laura, were ensconced, room number 8. “I was a member of the Young Republicans at Baylor,” Hapgood reminisced, “and I was a big fan of Mr. Bush's at the time. I just couldn't believe how lucky I was to be in the room next to George and Laura.”

Hapgood relates that around seven o'clock that night, he walked to a nearby Dairy Queen, where he purchased a double cheeseburger and a chocolate malt. As he was walking back, he noticed a young woman entering Mr. Bush's room. He recognized her as Vivien Menke, one of Bush's aides.

“I didn't think much of it,” Hapgood said. “I just figured she had some business to conduct with the candidate. He was always dictating letters to her, sending her on errands and what-not. He kept her real busy.” The journalism student then proceeded to his room.

Hapgood said he had just finished his burger when he distinctly heard a gunshot. “I jumped up. For some reason—I don't know why—I grabbed my camera and hurried next door. What ran through my mind was that somebody—maybe Miss Menke—was trying to assassinate Mr. Bush.”

With that, Hapgood said he just “blundered into the murder scene.” What he saw next was, in his words, “the most shocking thing I've ever seen. I saw Miss Menke lying on the floor next to the bed,” Hapgood relates, “naked as the day she was born, and Mr. Bush standing over her, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts with pink elephants on them.” Hapgood said Bush was also wearing his cowboy boots, and as the candidate nervously paced around the room, there was a “jingling” sound. “That's when I looked down and noticed he was wearing spurs.” He also observed that the bed covers were “in a state of disrepair.” Laura Bush was not present in the room.

Hapgood said he reacted automatically and snapped the incriminating photo. Then he remembered the mini cassette recorder. He casually slipped his hand in his pocket and switched it on. Meanwhile, Bush appeared in a state of shock. “I don't think he knew I took his picture,” Hapgood declared. He then remembers asking the candidate what happened.

“He didn't seem to hear me at first.” But after a moment, Bush said, “That woman seduced me. God told me she had the devil in her, so I shot her.”

Bush asked him to close the door. The young journalist complied. “What was I gonna do? He had a gun in his hand,” Hapgood explained.

Apparently, no one else heard the shot. No other members of the press came running. Hapgood remembers asking Bush if he knew where his wife was. “He had a blank look on his face. Then, he said, 'Ah, she's at some goddamn poetry reading at the Public Library.' Then, he called her by a term that I can't repeat,” Hapgood mumbled.

Bush asked him to kneel with him and pray for the salvation of the dead girl. “I was a born-again Christian,” Hapgood stated. “Mr. Bush said he had spoken to God and that he was trying to fulfill God's mission on earth.” So after covering Miss Menke with a bedsheet, Hapgood said he kneeled with the candidate and they prayed for Vivien's soul.

Asked what it was like kneeling with Bush in a strange motel room in Big Spring, Texas, with a dead girl on the floor, Hapgood replied, “Well, it was kind of surreal.” He was with the candidate for about half an hour, during which time, Bush said that if he ever encountered any more evil persons, that he would probably do to them what he did to Vivien.

“He asked me what I thought about that,” Hapgood said, “and I says, 'well, sir, if you're sure that's what God wants.' And he says, 'You're damn right I'm sure. God whispers to me in my ear, and sometimes He calls me up on my cellphone and tells me what He wants.' Then, he looks at me and says, 'Are you an evil person, Clu?' And I says, 'Well, I sure hope not, sir.' And he says, 'For your sake, Clu, I hope you're right.'”

Soon afterward, Hapgood took his leave, promising the candidate that he would not mention what he had seen. To this day, he says he does not know what became of Miss Menke. Five days after that fateful night, someone on the Bush team filed a missing person's report with the Austin Police Department. Thus far, the body of Vivien Menke has not been found.

However, the Austin police were able to locate Miss Menke's mother, and, using Hapgood's photograph, she has positively identified her long missing daughter.

Hapgood said he could not explain why it took him so long to come forward. “I guess I just wanted so much to believe in Mr. Bush as God's man,” he said. “But my conscience kept eating at me all these years, so I finally had to come out with it.” He paused for a moment, seemingly choked up. “She was such a beautiful girl, Miss Menke. It's terrible what he did to her. I still can't believe it. But I know it's true, 'cause I was there and saw it with my own eyes.”

He said he had kept the negative of the photograph and the mini-cassette tape in a cigar box with some buttons and other mementos from the '94 campaign. “I guess I always knew I would come forward some day,” Hapgood said, quietly.

SENATE COMMITTEE FORMED

A bipartisan Senate committee is being assembled to look into the implications of this startling turn of events, to be chaired by Joseph Biden, Democrat from Delaware. Other senators known to be taking part at this time are Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin, and Maine Democrat, John Kerry. On the Republican side, thus far, Arizona Senator John McCain has been named to serve, along with Charles Hagel of Nebraska and Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Appearing outside his D.C. office on Thursday, Biden told the press, “Well, clearly, this has been a stunning revelation to the country. No one was prepared for this.” Asked what he thought would be the proper course of action, given the possibility that the President may be proved to be a murderer, Biden responded that it was “too early to tell. But, “ he said, “those of us on the committee, and certainly all the members of Congress will be looking at this very closely in the days and weeks to come, and we will be responding appropriately.”

Senator Kerry, para-sailing off the Maine coast, spoke by phone, calling the allegations “shocking and profound.” Pressed further, he said it sounded to him like an “open and shut case,” calling the evidence “unmistakable.”

“We have the President,” he said, “we have the gun in his hand—a smoking gun, mind you. And we have the corpse—the murder victim—right there in the picture. You can see her clearly. You can see the bullet wound, the blood on the floor. We have the man who took the picture. And we have the President—on tape—actually confessing to the crime, and saying he would do it again. Now, that's what we have, and, by golly, that's a lot.”

Asked what he thought should be done, Kerry responded in this way: “Well, clearly, something's gotta be done, and we're gonna have to do it. I'm afraid it won't be very pleasant—for any of us. But this is a historic moment. And we just have to take a real stand, here. For the sake of the law, you know. For the rule of law, that is. I mean, gosh-darn it, this is just too much.”

Meanwhile, Orrin Hatch, stopped as he emerged with his wife from evening vespers at the Church Of The True Believer in D.C., said, “Well, it just looks like another example of liberals trying to make political hay out of something that happened long ago. Can't people be allowed to make mistakes and move on with their lives? Surely, there's a statute of limitations on things like this. Besides, I believe the President has greater powers under the Constitution.”

When it was pointed out that Bush was not the President at the time of the incident, Hatch replied, “Yes, but he was a future president and future presidents ought to be given greater latitude. So long as they stay within the law, of course.”

When it was pointed out that murder is usually considered to be outside the rule of law, Hatch shrugged and replied, “Well, we're in a state of war. And anyway, that girl was a harlot. When you compare his life, the life of a living president, to hers, and you look at what he's achieved up to this point, well, there's just no comparison.”

When it was pointed out that Miss Menke has been dead for twelve years, and therefore unable to achieve much with her life, Hatch muttered something about “bleeding heart liberals,” and stalked away.

Senator Feingold, pausing on the Capitol steps on his way to a vote, said he was indeed shocked at the recent turn of events, but said he would reserve further comments for a scheduled interview on Sunday's Meet The Press. He added that he was attempting to hammer out a last-minute bill censuring the President, but thus far was only able to get about three Democrats to sign on, and no Republicans.

Meanwhile, earlier today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that he would be calling for the arrest of Clu Dallas Hapgood for leaking the photograph to the British press.

We attempted to contact Hapgood again to get his response to the Attorney General's announcement, but he could not be reached and, as of this writing, has not returned our calls. It is believed that Hapgood may have disappeared.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

copeland morris NUKED WHILE U WAIT

"In the Beginning,...
Darkness was upon the face of the Deep",
God answered the question of which came first,
The chainsaw or the brush.

The meanest buzz in a generation
Was you, George, the Great Saw in motion,
An omen just like smoke when you whacked it,
A simple bough in your throbbing hands
In the treacherous, dark, damned brush.
Nixon never knew from the thicket, that Quaker boy,
Cocaine from the skidmarks your nostrils left,
The dust on a damsel's breast.

Tragic praise made you stronger,
Like a boy who has come home at last with guile,
Pretending to be the prodigal son,
Whose father rips after him with a pitchfork,
Across the pasture, deep into the brambles.
Ah, those were the formative years!

To make insanity seem painless,
You smiled with some effort.
Vice President "Shooter" Cheney and you
Were the other Rumsfeld, in the law firm
Of Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld, from that time
Forward, the Ober
Kinder-Slapping Fuhrer,

Who laid plans to nuke Iran.

Let us chisel your brow upside-down. Bubba Bush;
Mount Rushmore demands a sign, Bubba Bush,
For this world that must wear a shroud,

Monday, April 10, 2006

GOT THE BLOG BLUES--WHAT'S THE POINT?

Yep, I suppose we're among the more irrelevant blogs out here in the blog universe. We're not just into providing more news for all you bleary-eyed news junkies or putting yet another spin on the probability that G.W. will be bombing the shit out of Iran by this summer; or how the neocons seem to be turning our country into their own personal cess pool. My friend Cope and I spend a lot of time being depressed over what's going on, so a lot of our talk--often into the dank, dismal night--is about somehow trying to cheer each other up.

And now and then, the results can end up here. Hell, sometimes it seems like humor's all we've got. Yeah, we still put in our share of serious stuff, blood squeezed from turnips, and what have you, but hey, humor and satire is as American as apple pie, ain't it? And let's face it. It's all serious.

If there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: the neocons can't stand to be trifled with. If anything, the more worked up they see everybody getting, the more we churn the sulphurous caldron of tirades against them, the better they like it. They get off on it, man. After all, being bullies, it's where they live. Masters of the school yard brawl.

But laugh at them. Scorn them. Point at them while you're doing it and slap your knee. They shrivel up like bruised daisies.

THEN THERE'S THE DEMOCRATS

Ah, the DO-NOTHINGS. Man, there's a whole 'nother kettle of odorous fish. What on earth can be done about 'em? Nothing. Nothing. . .but stand by and watch them lose the next election. Forget about 'em. They're done. They're stone deaf. They can't hear the country telling them to impeach these dipshits, they can't even hear us imploring them to pretty please get us the hell out of this stinking war. They're not hearing anything we have to say. They're not real.

Who do they listen to? EXXON. WALMART. In that order.

WHO WOULDN'T SIGN FEINGOLD'S MOTION TO CENSURE BUSH?
(Just to name a few):

Barak Obama
John Kerry
Hillary Clinton
Charles Schumer
Chris Dodd
Edward Kennedy
Mary Landrieu
Patty Murray
Dianne Feinstein
Harry Reid
Joseph Biden
Patrick Leahy
Robert Byrd

WHO WOULD SIGN IT?
(Just three):

Russ Feingold
Tom Harkin
Barbara Boxer

And th-th-th-that's allllllll, folks!


Saturday, April 08, 2006

BIGOTRY IS THE GLUE

The cultivation of meanness has become the Republican Party's specialty. Time honored human rights organizations are loosely referred to as "enemies of America", by the President, at the moment when they criticize our treatment of captives taken in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republican politicians and tacticians are also working to demonize Mexicans who have no legal status in this country, but who nonetheless have been working here, paying taxes and contributing to local economies for years now. The coordination of mean-spirited messages, the incitement to despise immigrants, the proposed exclusion of some from our circle of humanity, lets Americans know just what it means to be a good Republican, by embracing the brutality. And bigotry is the glue which holds the new political coalition together.

Bigotry is key to Republican power. Republicans propose to deport Mexicans in their millions, which will necessitate the construction of temporary holding facilities, or concentration camps. House Republicans have passed legislation which makes illegal immigration a felony, and which would make it a felony for Americans to help immigrants who may not have legal status. Republicans snarl at the idea of amnesty for illegals whose American-born children are in high school now. Republicans believe that we shouldn't care that Mexicans stoop to pick our fruits and vegetables, clean our lavatories, wait our tables, build our houses, bathe our elderly and keep watch of our children. Republicans could care less. They are as callous with respect to tearing Mexican families apart, as Nineteenth Century American slaveholders were, separating families on the auction block.

And let's not overlook the fact that the Republican power elite has given the green light to the Capitol Police to harass a black Congresswoman, in the Capitol Building. This could not happen and would not happen, if the slavish Republican House wasn't emboldened to make an example of her "uppityness", especially after she made a point of citing President Bush's security lapses as being in part responsible for the 9/11 attack. The Republicans never neglect a vulnerable political target. Rep. McKinney has been repeatedly harassed; police at the Capitol are claiming again and again that they stopped her because they did not recognize her. The Capitol Police are competent enough to clear familiar Congressional aides, as well as Representatives, passing through without ID, but not McKinney.

The Republicans are increasingly injudicious and unkind. And there is nothing to represent any good they have done for the country. What have they really provided to "promote the general welfare" since Bush and his subservient Congress have held power? They have offered only divisiveness and bombast. Invading and occupying a country, and precipitating a civil war there, and then leaving the whole disgusting mess for future presidents to sort out; that is simply too much reality to bear. A nation simply has to become addicted to one form of bigotry or another, the nation needs periodic distraction. On seeing the huddled blacks in the abandoned, flooded city of New Orleans, Reverend Jesse Jackson said "It looks like a slave ship". The Republicans have left out the most prominent family value, which is kindness, because bigotry kills kindness.

"Kindness", Mark Twain said, "is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see".

Friday, April 07, 2006

HONOR AMONG THIEVES

As Libby like a canary sings
It seems his love for George
Ain't worth a penny.
We're not sure what it means,
Unless--could it be the real power
Lies with Rove and Cheney?

Sunday, April 02, 2006

A NEW MOTTO FOR THE DEMS

This just in. The D.C. Democrats have a new motto. This is the new motto: “Suck up and sell out.”

The old motto was, “America can do better.” Asked why the motto was changed, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, said, “Well, we thought we could do better.”

In an interview on the Dave Letterman show, Hillary Clinton, smiling rather coquettishly at Dave, said, “Well, we thought we could do better than 'America can do better.'”

Senator Joe Lieberman, reached by telephone at his lakeside villa in Connecticut, said, “I just thought we could do lots better than the old motto—I forget what it was now. You see, that was the problem. Nobody knew what the Sam-hell the old motto was. Oh—I just thought of it. 'We can do better,' I think that's what it was. But nobody knew what the hell that meant. I mean—better than what? It's like telling your kid just picked up for possession of illegal substances, 'You can do better, son.' Or telling your sixteen year old daughter who's just asked your permission for an abortion, 'You can do better, sweetheart.' It just sounded a little—I don't know—condescending, I guess. We needed something catchier, something with a little more flash and dash.”

The change in the Democrat's motto comes amid vague apprehensions that the party may not be taken quite as seriously as in the past, as an alternative to the Republican Party by most Americans.

Numerous polls appear to confirm this sense of malaise, revealing sharply declining numbers in the approval ratings of Americans for the Democratic Party. And a recent Zogby poll actually set off a wave of mild concern among a small group of Democratic Senators that included Hillary Clinton, as they sat down to dine in a posh D.C. eatery with lobbyists from Walmart. The poll, which indicated that a majority (54%) of Americans favor impeaching George W. Bush, also revealed that an astonishing 79% of Americans actually did not know that there was another party in existence (other than Republicans) and that it is commonly known as the Democratic Party, or just, “the Democrats.”

The new motto, “Suck up and sell out,” appears to be an attempt to put a new face on the party. Responding to questions on Sunday's Face The Nation, Senator Biden called it “a new motto for a new party.”

At least one Democratic strategist who asked that his name not be mentioned, said he thought the new motto might be a response to the Republican slogan--”Willing to be degraded”--leaked to the press last month, and currently enjoying rather wide popularity and support. Tholos has learned that that slogan was the brain-child of Republican Senator John McCain, of Arizona. McCain, who tops the list of people who have been degraded by their own party, said, “It just came to me in the middle of the night. I wanted to get it out there before Rove thought of it.”

Saturday, April 01, 2006

GENERAL CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS IS A CANNIBAL

"Up until now, I have resisted all urges to assume the mantle of generalship and to describe how I personally would have waged a campaign to liberate Iraq"..."but...I shall go on keeping score about this until the last phony pacifist has been strangled with the entrails of the last suicide-murderer."...

"Then I propose to eat these last two actors, after they have been properly cooked and served with a fine Bernaise sauce and a good bottle of Chianti."






April Fool

copeland morris ENTWINED SONNET

Her shaded eyes, her necklace black velvet, onyx. Anguish she spoke; and he carried on, obsessed As only a young man could. An odd harm...