This Friday at 9pm, you can catch Emmanuel Jal in concert at the National Geographic Courtyard at part of the All Roads Film Festival. From Sudan (and now living in Kenya), Jal’s 2005 album “Ceasefire” is the sort of record that I’m always looking for – hiphop expanding its horizons. It’s not pure hiphop, but a melding of local music, jazz, and rap, all fused through an easy blend of English, Dinka, Arabic, and Nuer (his first language). Some of the best tracks remind me of the early colaborations between Guru and MC Solaar. You can judge for yourself – National Geographic’s site provides previews of all the tracks from Ceasefire. Gua and Elengwen are the standout tracks, for me.  And the background to his music? He was a Sudanese People’s Liberation Army solider at age 7. Check him out, tickets are free.
Category: DC
The tax code is so complicated that the Republicans can’t even figure out how many pages it runs. But it has something to do with the Bible.
I’m not sure how DC Mayor Tony Williams will be viewed by history, but those in the here and now can’t deny that the man has a sense of humor – how many big city mayors do you know that’ll do a cannonball into a pool to open the city pools? Eight years in a row, no less!
This isn’t the whole story, not by a long shot.
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41 times.
And I bet you don’t even know what I’m talking about.
But if I mentioned the word “niggardly”, you probably would.
Oh, the outrage.
It’s enough to make a man . . .develop some prejudices.
Update: I was going to flesh out my notes, then I read last year’s notes. How sad.
~
State of the Union-
Poor Robert Rubin. Can you imagine how bad he wants to get out of
there?
How can the Republicans not clap at the “State of our Union is
strong”? That’s a Democratic issue or something?
Aging of America . . .hey, I’m all for octagenarian euthanasia-
oldest first- make way for Strom, ‘kay?
Social Security. Yawn. What?! Remove earning limits on SS
recipients?
Guaranteeing the soundness of Medicare? Lord, y’all are so screwed if
even just those eligible right now take advantage of it.
Affordable prescription drugs? Do you have any idea how many of these
folks retire from Congress to pimp for pharmaceutical companies? Where would
they find the money to provide retirement paths if this happened?
Universal Savings Accounts? I’ll keep it under my mattress, thank
you.
Tax credit of a thousand to deal with aging? How nice, that’ll pay
for a 1/2 a month of care.
(Baby boomers- if these folks try to claim the same amounts of
benefits seniors do now . . .)
I’ll have to give credit on the HOPE Tax credit (which still ain’t a
GA Hope Scholarship, but . . . )
Oh, who cares about being connected to the internet when the teacher
can’t spell, herself?
Ending social promotion. Umm, there’s no explicit policy in place .
. . whaddya gonna do?
(Triples funding for summer school and after school . . . very good
idea)
(Year round schools would be a better step . . .)
(Umm, how much of this gonna happen? I mean, for all the local
hollerin’ bout it, the federal government doesn’t have much pull . . .)
Issuing report cards on every school . . .umm, I hear a commission
opening. Quick, someone order the cherry desks. (Where are the local
newspapers?)
Raise the minimum wage . . shouldn’t that just be a recording by
this point?
Equal pay for equal work? What an impossible albatross . . .
Protecting the privacy of medical records. I like the idea, but why
does that make me nervous?
The Justice Department is gonna take the tobacco companies to court
. . . hee hee ha ha hoo hoo . .
Income gap= skills gap. No shit. But that you for pointing that out.
In fact, forget college financial aid- open up some real trade schools. Who
the needs English Lit when you’re still working slinging boxes at a
warehouse?
Cutting the welfare rolls nearly in half. Traitorous bastard. Wait
for this rubberband to snap.
Dick Armey. Please add him (again) to the list of people I’d love to
smack.
“Bring it back to the farm . . . crop insurance and income
assistance” . . . oh my ()*@#@ god . . if I was ever for just leaving it to
the free market . . .
Y2K. Solving the Y2K problem? Social security checks on time . . .
(Work with us . . . so, we’re gonna pass a bill banning the advancement of
time . . . )
The rest of the world is in recession . . .um, yeah. This is a
really really weird thing. While the rest of the world is going to hell in a
handbasket, we’re paying 200 for shares of Yahoo.
Trade has divided Americans for too long? Lord, thank you. Will you
please help explain this issue? I mean, let the shit jobs get exported . .
.if we can provide bridging trading . . . no one is this country should have
to be fighting to protect the right to shovel pig shit. Ugly, but
important, argument.
(Janet Reno and her one blue dress)
(Oooh, Japan bashing may be back in style . . )
Ahhh . . . banning child labor … how . .. brave!
(Hey, nearly an hour in before the first drink . . )
Did he say lasting peace in the middle east? Was that a straight
face?
Nuclear treaties . . hmm, sounds faintly familiar . . . .
Iraq. Get over it.
(Oh my god who picked Capt. Taliferro for the family gallery?)
Time to reverse the decline in Defense Spending in 1985? 85!!?? (you
sorry hypocritical bastard)
Pay our Dues to the UN (you keep teasin’ me, baby . . .)
“Stability can’t be bought at the expense of liberty”? Oh lord, if
we could apply that here . . .
100K more community police officers? Did you increase the internal
affairs budget, too?
Brady Bill has stopped 250K felons from buying guns? What bullshit .
. .
50K more police . . . can we make sure they aren’t all
knuckledraggers?
Digital mugshots. Ooh, how technically advanced.
If you stay on drugs, you stay behind bars. Wow, more bravery.
Extend ban on gun purchases to minors. Umm, so I beat the hell out
of someone when I was 13, and I lose a Constitutional right as an adult?
Leaving this land an even better land for our descendants than it was
for us . . (what I’d love to hear next is “so I’m outlawing suburbia”)
A one billion dollar livability agenda? Okaaayyyy
(Umm, did I tell y’all about TEA-21? Transportation Equity Act for
the 21st Century . . good stuff)
AmeriCorps!!!!! Warms my black little heart.
Rosa Parks. Excuse me while I get goosebumps of pride.
And Barney Frank, as much as a wacko as he is, is the man.
Immigration. Lord, I really wish this would be national issue, and
not just one left to the border states. Either shut the doors and focus on
urselves or stop setting up recent immigrants for failure.
Honoring Hillary. Whatever you think about them, that’s a hell of a
story if ever there was one . . .
Nationally recognized millennium community- preserve part of the
past- embalm Strom now!
A more perfect union. I really wonder . . .
He . . or She . . (I’m thinking Hillary . . )
~
Republican Response . . .
Proposing a 10% cut in taxes. Yawn.
Spending the surplus for social security doesn’t work? How in the
fuck is that spending?
“I’m a single mom.” I’ll vote for a Republican when they sit someone
up there who says “I’m a single transvestite (preop) father”.
Give working Americans a choice to invest funds in private accounts
. . . umm, yeah. Didn’t I just hear that?
I married my high school sweetheart, a cheerleader, . . I was a
football player . . (I’m choking on laughter)
“I had to ask someone what GOP stood for after I was elected”. (I’d
like a grand jury please . . .)
“Preserve the notion that true liberty and freedom come from God,
and that the way we act toward God depends on that . . ” (Happy Ramadan).
Oh my god, we’re calling for Star Wars all over again.
Partial Birth Abortion . . what, no graphics?
“At the heart of free enterprise, is an education” . . .(well, that
explains why we didn’t clap at any of the propose education initiatives,
eh?)
Oh, sure, lets scrap the IRS code. Of course, you know that all of
the code is that complicated to provide easy ways out for all poor people
and their accountants to get out of, right?
Invoking Dr. King. That takes balls on his part . . . uh huh.
“The word congress, is made of two latin words, which mean . .
.”(Did Farrakhan write this?)
The body is strong . . . the heart needs attention . .
Invoking Vince Gill for national guidance.
BLACKS AND WHITES? (let’s not get started)
~
“It was a boffo performance . . .” (Bill Kristol)
And really, what was I thinking? Traveling the weekend before Christmas? And those poor huddled hungry masses I was just talking about with such concern? Fuck ’em- let ’em take Greyhound.
Things don’t start too well when M. rolls over and mumbles,”Mark, what time do we need to get up? It’s 6:22″
Grogging to reality, “Umm, well, my plane leaves at 7:00”.
You can imagine what followed.
And not surprisingly, I made it to the gate with time to spare (I treat any time between me getting there and the doors closing as time to spare, thank you). Unfortunately, Delta had failed to consult me about today’s travel schedule, and cancelled the flight. Joy.
So, knowing that my three day foul mood streak was still, well, streaking, I’ve decided to save the stress of multiple attempts throughout the morning to get on the plane, and just leave on an open flight later in the day.
Brilliant strategist that I am, I failed to remember that about 15 minutes after the impeachment vote (that’s how long it take to get from the floor of the House to National Airport Terminal C), the place will be filled with staffers getting the fuck out of Dodge. And really, I don’t want to be around these people anyway.
Unless I could get a seat next to Bob Barr. I’d really really really like that.
~
7:31pm
Sitting in Hartsfield Concourse E for the millionth time, and not being able to help feeling that it’s gonna be the last time in a while. It always seems as if you wait too long to appreciate what you have, even when you know you’re going to lose it.
The flight from DC to here was fine, thought it started a bit later in the day than I would have liked. I ended up sitting next to a kid who’d gotten a new Lego set, special for the trip. I was almost jealous. Normally, I do everything I can to avoid children on planes, but this one seemed well behaved. That’s a rarity, and even more so in first class.
He kept to himself, and I split my time between replying to email and stealing glances at the progress of his Lego project. We both put our things up when the meal came, some chicken breast and couscous/vegetable platter. It wasn’t immediately apparent that it was a chicken breast and vegetable platter, and I found no small amount of humor in noticing that the
kid looked at me to figure out how to eat it.
~
On arrival, we had a gate change that put me within a 3 minute walk from the jetway to the curb where I usually meet my sister. The more you travel, the more tiny little things like that matter. A. was at the curb in short order, and we headed off to grab a late lunch in Fayetteville.
That left a couple of hours to take in the aftermath of the impeachment hearings. Somewhere over Lake Alatoona, Georgia, the President of the United States had been impeached. I’m glad I wasn’t in front of a television when that happened. I’ve actually shifted in my opinion on the proper outcome, but it hasn’t lessened the visceral anger I’ve felt over the past week.
~
Looking at it sitting on the runway, it seems a smallish plane to be flying over the Atlantic in. I miss the old 747-200’s, with 10 seat wide rows and a second floor for the first class (which I’d only ever glimpsed via a 2am covert operation on a flight over to Frankfurt in 1985). But these are wide and comfortable, and my usual habit of placing a standing request for a full Tanqueray & tonic glass ensures a quick slip into sleep. I usually wake up as we approach the Irish coast, and always wish I’d thought to wear something less prone to wrinkling.
It seems my father is already there, and is going to pick me up in a car. No small luxury, as that means I can skip the 32,000 foot change from slacks and a linen shirt to jeans and a pullover. Manchester to Nottingham is a beautiful drive, and I hope the day is worthy of a few snapshots.
Then – having left home, and stopped by home along the way – I’ll be home.
I’m so disgusted. Like everyone else, I read (most of) this Starr Report today. Umm, let’s see, it has now been shown that Clinton was mackin’ in the Oval Office, that he has incredibly poor judgement with respect to women, and that he isn’t as smooth as he/everyone thinks he is. For this, no doubt, he deserves to be beaten soundly with a wet noodle.
But maybe that’d end up in the report, too.
Do we *really* want to tear our country apart for this? Do we?! Yes, it’s reprehensible. Yes, it’s something to look on the man with disgust about. But did it surprise anyone? Certainly not. So when folks (especially former supporters) are throwing out terms like resign and impeachment right and left, pointing towards Clinton’s lack of moral
character and wrongdoing, I’m even more disgusted with them than him.
Why? Well, it all seemed okay when it wasn’t up there in the limelight. Don’t ask, don’t tell. It’s like rats from a sinking ship.
Oh shit, I don’t know _what_ I think. I’m just as disgusted with myself. Why? I don’t *care* that he might have lied under oath- I still want him to remain as President. How fucked up is that? Somehow, in my head, I’d much
rather see him remain in office, albeit weakened (tho’ that’s debateable), than wreck foundations of our government even more than they already have been.
And don’t give me that “but is this the kind of example we want to set for our kids?” shit. If that reasoning actually amounted to jack, Dan Burton wouldn’t be in office, 95% of the televangelists would be flipping burgers, and Clinton never would have been elected.
But Starr . . . . . that little bastard. Spend 4 fucking years, three jillion dollars, and all he can give us is a Harlequin romance novel!?! Give *me* 40 million and I promise you a better story than this.