Not all the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are pleased with the way that body is dealing with the Myanmar’s generals, but for now it is the only regional organization that is able to address questions of democracy at the highest levels of government. And now the United States will have a direct voice in those discussions.

From The Irrawaddy:

The US government has named a top diplomat who is familiar with Burma as its first envoy to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Scot Marciel, currently deputy assistant secretary to the East Asia and Pacific Bureau, said on Wednesday one of his first tasks will be to work with ASEAN to establish a more effective Burma policy, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

“One of my highest priorities, if confirmed, will be to work with ASEAN and its member nations-to convince Burma”s rulers to end their brutal repression and begin a genuine dialogue leading to a democratic transition,” Marciel said. Continue Reading »

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog brain bump I present: From My Dad.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Hypergraphia in temporal lobe epilepsy and is interictal, i.e. it occurs between seizures. p. 17

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain. by Alice W. Flaherty.

The following is by Charles Bukowski and appears on page 430 of The R. Crumb Handbook. The passage is taken from Bukowski’s Hollywood.

I cracked a beer and turned on the TV. There was a fight on ESPN. They were really slugging it out. The fighters were better conditioned now than in my youth. I marveled at the energy they could expend and still keep going and going. The months of roadwork and gymwork that fighters had to endure seemed intolerable. And then, those last tow or three intense days before a big fight. Condition was the key.

Talent and guts were a must but without condition they were negated. I liked to watch the fights. Somehow it reminded me of writing. You needed the same thing, talent, guts and condition. Only the condition was mental, spiritual. You were never a writer. You had to become a writer each time you sat down at the machine.

What was hard sometimes was finding that chair and sitting in it. Sometimes you couldn’t sit in it. Like everybody else in the world, for you, things got in the way: small troubles, big troubles, continuous slammings and bangings. You had to be in condition to endure what was trying to kill you.

That was the message I got from watching the fights, or watching the horses run, or the way the jocks kept overcoming bad luck, spills on the track and personal little horrors off the track. I wrote about life, haha. But what really astonished me was the immense courage of some of hate people living that life. That kept me going.

To all my fellow writers: how do you condition?

With only 29 days remaining before the promised 10 May constitutional referendum in Myanmar, worries about not will happen on voting day, but rather what will happen on the day after are increasing. Only a blatantly stolen election could result in a majority vote in favor of the election.

From AFP:

Military-ruled Myanmar is gripped by a climate of fear ahead of a May 10 constitutional referendum, according to three Buddhist monks who led a failed revolt against the junta and other activists.

“People are threatened, (some) brutally beaten by unknown assailants,” said U Kovida, who was in the forefront of last September”s “saffron revolution” that was brutally suppressed by the military.

“The closer the May referendum is, the more scared and concerned the people are about their safety and security,” said Kovida, who fled to neighbouring Thailand and was recently accepted as refugee in the United States together with his two compatriots. Continue Reading »

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Tide To Go.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog brain bump I present: From My Dad.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

My postpartum mood disorder, which had several manic as well as the more typical depressed features, came after I had given birth prematurely to twin boys who died. They were so small – one grasped my finger before he died, and his hand hardly fit around it. For ten days I was filled with sorrow. Then suddenly, as if someone had thrown a switch, I was wildly agitated, full of ideas, all of them pressing to be written down. The world was flooded with meaning. I believed I had unique access to the secrets of the Kingdom of Sorrow, about which I had an obligation to enlighten my – very tolerant – friends and colleagues through essays and letters. [This is what happened to Anne Rice when she wrote Interview With A Vampire. JH] p. 11

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain. by Alice W. Flaherty.

With only a month to go to the constitutional referendum, the ruling generals of Myanmar are gathering their forces and preparing again to nullify a potential democratic election if the results are not what they want. By pointing its fingers to dissidents and foreign agents, the generals hope they can cover their butts.

From AFP:

Myanmar’s military government Thursday warned foreign embassies not to support Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party, as the nation gears up for a referendum on a constitution opposed by her supporters.

The warning carried in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper came the morning after the regime announced that the referendum would be held on May 10.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party is urging voters to reject the constitution, saying it will not bring democracy to the country which has been ruled by the military since 1962.

“Certain foreign powers, with the intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar, are now … aiding and abetting some local political parties to destabilise the country,” the paper said. Continue Reading »

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is An Ode to the Inexpensive Bean

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog ahhhh I present: From My Dad.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“It seemed to me that I had undertaken too lofty a theme for my powers, so much so that I was afraid to enter upon it; and I so remained for several days desiring to write and afraid to begin,” Dante on the writing of his Inferno. p. 8

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain. by Alice W. Flaherty.

Only days after green-bound leaked copies of the proposed constitution of Myanmar (which included a nasty typo) began circulating in Yangon and other cities in Myanmar, the generals have made copies available for purchase for 1,000 kyat or about $1.50 US.

From BBC News:

Burma’s military rulers have published their proposed new constitution, which critics say will cement their grip on power and weaken the opposition.

The 194-page document has gone on sale at government bookshops at a cost of 1,000 kyat ($1; 50p) a copy.

The junta says it will put the document to a national referendum on 10 May.

The charter was drafted by the generals without input from the pro-democracy opposition, and bans opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding office.

On Wednesday the junta announced it would seek approval for the document in a national poll on 10 May, and that 50% of voters need to approve the constitution for it to become law.

The junta has also pledged to hold multi-party elections by 2010.

But the Irrawaddy website, which is critical of the junta, says the new rules enshrine the military’s dominance of the political system.

Even if there are elections, the site says 56 military officers are guaranteed places in the 224-member lower house of parliament.

And 110 seats out of 440 in the upper house are reserved for the military.

A clause which bars anyone who has been married to a foreign national from holding political office is also drawing criticism.

Ms Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader, was married to a British academic and is therefore disqualified.

Her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in the country’s last elections in 1990 – though the military never allowed them to form a government.

The NLD has mounted a campaign to persuade Burmese to vote “no” to the constitution in the forthcoming referendum.

And then what?

As part of running Cleveland’s Socrates Café, I get email from participants on different, mostly political, topics of the day. Yesterday I received a copy of an appeal from Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine (second cousin to that other DeWine) for money to — put down your cup of coffee — to keep Democrats from taking control and and spending tax dollars irresponsibly.

DeWine must be either a glassy-eyed drone or a comedian worthy of Comedy Central.

Here’s what he said:

As you finish filling out your 1040 this year, keep in mind there”s one thing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama agree on: you don”t spend enough in taxes.

Both Democrats have proposed eliminating the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 to help pay for their massive government spending programs totaling nearly $1 TRILLION.

The cost to you: Nearly $3,000 annually for the average Ohio family of four! That”s about double the average tax burden now after standard deductions.

So how can you keep your taxes from doubling? Join 88 in 08 to help John McCain and other Republicans win Ohio this November and make the tax cuts permanent. Continue Reading »

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Review: You”re Broke Because You Want To Be.