One of the desperation points in the Vietnam War came on 29 April 1970 when President Richard Nixon sent some 50,000 U.S. troops across the border from Vietnam to invade Cambodia. The announcement of the move set off protests that closed universities here and culminated in the killing of four people at Kent State University.

Now, the New York Times reports, another American president is wrestling with another border in another war:

One of Mr. Bush’s most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it.

Increasingly, officials say, Syria is to the Iraq war what Cambodia was in the Vietnam War: a sanctuary for fighters, money and supplies to flow over the border and, ultimately, a place for a shadow struggle.

Yet another corner to be turned. All these corners are starting to remind me of the path followed in the classic drunkard’s walk simulation.

My Soundtrack: Dark Therapy by Echobelly on WOXY.

My Soundtrack: Uno by Muse on WOXY.

Back in March I was in Louisville, Kentucky and I had my Thomas Merton moment. Now I (and you, if you’re so inclined) have the opportunity to experience another of those moments thanks to a note from Sherry Chandler about the 2006 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Contest. The deadline is 31 December 2005.

According to the rules:

What is poetry of the sacred? Poetry that expresses, directly or indirectly, a sense of the holy or that, by its mode of expression, evokes the sacred. The tone may be religious, prophetic, or contemplative. First Prize, $500; Three Honorable Mention Prizes, $50 each.

Winning Poems will be published in The Merton Seasonal, a publication of scholarly articles about noted spiritual leader Thomas Merton and will be posted on the Merton Foundation web site. Only one unpublished poem — no more than 100 lines — typewritten in English may be submitted.

Here is last year’s winner, as well as the honorable mentions.

Having read Wendel Berry’s How To Be A Poet, I’m inspired to give it a go. We’ll see.

My Soundtrack: Faking The Books by Lali Puna on WOXY.

More than 15 years ago a policy paper titled: The Politics Of Evasion by Bill Gaston and Elaine Kamarck made the rounds of wonks. The claim was that after Carter, Mondale and Dukakis had gone done in flames, Democrats were too far to the left to win dog catcher. People took notice and we got the minority presidency of Bill Clinton.

Gaston and Kamarck are back with The Politics Of Polarizatin, and according to The New Republic Online the situation is even worse than it was in 1989. Writes Noam Scheiber in Bargain Hunting:

Galston and Kamarck’s basic idea is that each party has become much more ideologically homogenous over the last few election cycles, with conservatives voting overwhelmingly Republican and liberals overwhelmingly Democratic.

To offset this structural disadvantage in national races, Democrats must capture a much higher proportion of moderate voters than they have in the past–upward of 60 percent. That means they need to be much more concerned with capturing the political center than Republicans need to be and that Democrats can’t win by embracing the views of their staunchest supporters.

Reading this I swear either Galston and Kamarck are channeling Tim Russo or vice versa:

Rather than pick a fight with liberals, today the only viable option may be compromise. Not the weak-kneed, difference-splitting that liberals are always deriding. But the kind of ideological grand bargain that lets each faction win outright on certain issues of importance.

We’re not just talking about calling for a larger military, but something dramatic to signify the shift — like a plan to strike an Iranian or North Korean nuclear facility if need be.

As I’m sure Tim will point out. Paul Hackett’s dog won’t hunt in that environment.

My Soundtrack: The Official Ironmen Rally Song by Guided By Voices on WOXY.

That is always the question isn’t it? In the school yard, is someone your friend because you let them ride your new bike or share your candy? Or is someone your friend because the two of you took care of each other and came out OK after you faced some bully? As Garrison Keillor illustrates, Tom Delay is figuring that out.

But politics is treacherous. Those Republicans who kiss your ring at prayer breakfasts and wave the flies away from your plate — if they should sense that you are a wounded elephant, they will throw you out the window without blinking. Count on it, Mr. Leader.

Behind those bland faces are neural synapses making intricate calculations. Don’t worry about the Democrats, they are harmless, shaking their pointy heads and waving their small, plump hands. It’s your friends who will do you in. Look at Julius Caesar. Look at Richard Nixon.

President George Bush and the religious wrong are also getting a lesson in loyalty via the internal debate over United States Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Any time we envision a monolithic anything we comitt an error. Congress does not consist of Democrats and Republicans. It is made up of 100 Senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives. These 535 people gather and separate as their individual perceptions of their needs change.

How they define their needs and how that definition excludes the needs of others is the core of politics.

Et tu Brutus?

My Soundtrack: Gong by Sigur Ros on WOXY.

How To Be A Poet
by
Wendell Berry

…Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places…

I think a life dedicated to restoring the sacred to the descrated would be a good one.

My Soundtrack: Assessment by The Beta Band on WOXY.

Do you agree with this statement: If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him. If you answered yes, then you are in the company of half of Americans according to a poll conducted by Ipsos Pubic Affairs.

According to The After Downing Street Coalition:

By a margin of 50 percent to 44 percent, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October 6-9.

The meme is gaining traction. OK. Maybe one tap and twirl.

My Soundtrack: Reaching Out by Mark Engel on WOXY.

Robert Greenwald’s, Wal Mart — The High Cost Of Low Price will be showing at 7 p.m. on Sunday, 13 November at the Workman’s Circle: 1980 South Green Road in South Euclid. Admission is free. Click through to reserve a seat.

Remember the band that caused the panic in the air last year? When we foster a culture of fear among our fellow citizens they start acting more like timid rabbits and less like Americans. Every new threat is seen as an open door for grabbing power. People need to get a grip. Liberty is precious, and expensive.

From The Progressive: Selina Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights, she says. One student had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb”s down sign with his own hand next to the President”s picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster.

According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent.

An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service.

From Wal Mart Watch: What issues will you fight for?

I”m standing up for American entrepreneurs and my hometown businesses. I pledge to support local businesses and my local government”s efforts to curb Wal-Mart”s predatory growth.

The folks at Wal Mart Watch have declared the week of 13 November to be Higher Expectations Week: A National Week Of Action. This will also be the week that Robert Greenwald releases his film: Wal Mart, The High Cost Of Low Price.

The week arises, in part, from Wal Mart’s demonstration of what it is capable of in its response to Hurrican Katrina. In an email, Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, wrote:

Have you seen Wal-Mart’s new TV commercials? They feature real Wal-Mart employees talking with great pride about Wal-Mart’s massive response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Now that we’ve seen Wal-Mart’s power and potential, it’s time to hold them accountable.

I certainly hope that this doesn’t backfire. When I was in high school I operated under the rule: never do anything once that you didn’t want to keep doing for the rest of your life. So I coasted along on a B- average because that required no effort on my part. My last semester I scored all A’s, just to prove that yes, I knew I could do it.

I doubt that Scott would be so petty as to withhold his company’s largesse in the future, but in the coporate world you can never be sure how a corporation will react.

This bit of Wal Mart humor comes from my dad.

This is an actual job application that a 75-year-old senior citizen submitted to Wal-Mart in Arkansas. They hired him because he was so funny. You gotta love it.

Do you certify that the above is true and complete to the best of your knowledge?: Oh yes, absolutely.

I wouldn’t bet a wooden nickle on the authenticity of this, of course, but it’s still funny.

My Soundtrack: Like Eating Glass by Bloc Party on WOXY.

I was bored in junior high and high school. Cutting classes wasn’t an option so I read paperbacks. As an educator I am aware of the need to not be boring, but frankly, it’s tough. When I have a class of 12 students, it’s hard to not be boring to someone. I can’t begin to imagine the challenge that full-time teachers like MaryBeth Matthews face:

The following year he began cutting early morning and late afternoon classes. His excuse? He was bored. He would finish his assignments, and fall asleep while the teacher worked with the rest of the class. He figured he could do all the work for a week in one class period. Why should he sit through five? When I checked with his teachers they all agreed. He did ‘A’ work but was failing due to attendance.

[snip…]

I couldn’t help but feel bad. We failed again. One more young Clevelander without a high school diploma. We had failed to give this young man an education. We couldn’t keep his attention. The professional educators, with our degrees in human behavior and psychology, couldn’t educate a good, bright, talented kid.

He wasn’t a behavior problem, he didn’t need special education, he didn’t attract attention, and he fell through the cracks. We have thousands of these young adults in Cleveland. Each one of them represents almost a quarter of a million dollars of lost income over the next forty years.

Are their students like Ryan who might benefit from having access to an alternative learning environment like a writers’ room where they could explore outside the box?

My Soundtrack: Lazy Lover by Brazilian Girls on WOXY.

One of my daily blog stops is Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish. But this morning when I checked in I was greeted by the above screen. Sullivan has been hacked and some little twit is doing a Snoopy happy dance to celebrate their .15 seconds of fame. I’m so impressed.

My Soundtrack: Devil by Stereophonics onWOXY.

More than two years after invading Iraq, the United States has still not restored basic services — principally water and electricty — to their pre-invasion levels. Iraqi, even in Baghdad, cannot be sure when they will have power or clean water on any particular day despite the expenditure of billions of dollars on reconstruction. But inside the Green Zone, it’s different.

While I was going over the local newspapers this morning, I read a shocking headline: A 23-floor, 5-star hotel to be built inside the Green Zone. I read the whole article and I wished I did not. The article says “The Minister of reconstruction announced the approval of the Prime minister to build a 5-star hotel inside the Green Zone.” Also, the article said the government is committed to rebuild the country to stop the deprivation that was done under the former regime.

Didn”t he think of the jobless people who are supposed to build their country outside the Green Zone instead of building a fancy hotel for westerners only inside it? Didn’t he think that this will hurt the feeling of the Iraqi people when they see they will be deprived from something built by their own money? I just want to understand, why doesn’t he think of all of that?

And New Versailles continues to rise.

My Soundtrack: Precious Games by Stellastar* on WOXY.

How about a nominal-fee Writer’s Colony in some of that vacant office space? Tim Russo suggested something similar a couple of months ago to bloggers and it was favorably discussed. New York has a tradition of such spaces. And they’re so popular that one has a two-and-a-half-year waiting list. From the Sunday New York Times:

Hominess is part of the appeal at Paragraph; writers, after all, notoriously crave nurturing. But those who use this space have a practical reason to show up as well: to overcome the temptation to procrastinate, and to get down to the hard work of writing.

When you write at home, there’s a lot of distraction, Ms. Parisi said. You want to go clean out the fridge, or tweeze your eyebrows. But when you go to a space to write, that’s what you do.

Paragraph opened Sept. 12 in a three-story building on West 14th Street near Union Square…

Writers (that includes bloggers, of course) could pay a nominal fee. If writer’s are paying $100/month in Manhattan, then $20 or $25/month in Cleveland would make sense. Put them in vacant office space and give them surplus office furniture from the City.

The space would need wifi, but not much else. I also like the idea of mixing the space with artists. What might Buzz Gallery have been like if there had been a dozen or so writers in there banging away at their keyboards while buyers absorbed the art?

Just an idea.

My Soundtrack: Gabrielle by Ween on WOXY.

The duty of the Senate is to advise and consent on all appointments made by the President of the United States. I expect the upcoming hearing on Supreme Court Justice nominee Harriet Miers to be interesting as the Neo/Theocons attempt to double-clutch without spewing their brains out their ears.

Here’s a bit from the Federalists Papers that I think the Senators should have before them as they consider Miers’ credentials and abilities. (Thanks to Andrew Sullivan):

To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity.

He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.

FEDERALIST No. 76
The Appointing Power of the Executive
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, 1 April 1788.

My Soundtrack: Different Names For The Same Thing by Death Cab For Cuties on WOXY.

If you wanted to enlist into the service, the Air Force used to be the safest place to go. While the men and women in fighter and bomber aircraft certainly are at risk in combat, the vast majority of Air Force personnel are far, far behind the lines, living in some of the best military housing available. But the war in Iraq is changing all that.

According to this morning’s Los Angeles Times:

Straining to find ground troops to maintain its force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has begun deploying thousands of Air Force personnel to combat zones in new jobs as interrogators, prison sentries and gunners on supply trucks.

The Air Force years ago banked its future on state-of-the-art fighter jets and billion-dollar satellites. Yet the service that has long avoided being pulled into ground operations is now finding that its people – rather than its weapons – are what the Pentagon needs most as it wages a prolonged war against a low-tech, insurgent enemy.

This reminds me of a scene towards the end of the John Wayne classic, The Horse Soldiers.

Wayne leads a cavalry unit deep into the Confederate South during the War of Northern Aggression. Unable to muster Confederate troops to stop the Union soldiers, a local officer enlists the aid of boys from The Jefferson Military Academy led by The Reverend, played by Basil Ruysdael, who looks like he probably fought in the War of 1812.

Putting airmen behind .50 cal machine guns on convoy duty is not the same thing, I know, but the parallel still works. We do not have enough troops to fight the war we’re in. And idiots are actually contemplating an invasion of Iran?

My Soundtrack: You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinand on WOXY.

On The Death Of A Colleague
by
Stephen Dunn

…It was a student’s turn to speak, a sophomore,
one of her actors.
She was a drunk, he said, often came to class
reeking.
Sometimes he couldn’t look at her, the blotches,
the awful puffiness.
And yet she was a great teacher,
he loved her,
but thought someone should say
what everyone knew
because she didn’t die by accident…

My Soundtrack: Sunday After You by Kenna on WOXY.

Mark your calendars for the arrival of artist, cartoonist and leader of the San Francisco hip-hop group the Marginal Prophets Keef (Keith) Knight in Cleveland. Keef is touring the Mid-West and will be at the Cleveland Institute of Art on Friday, 21 October. The time will be posted later. Watch this space and your local coffee houses for updates.

The tour is to promote his latest K Chronicles collection — The Passion Of The Keef — as well as the much-awaited Beginner’s Guide To Community-Based Art. Both books recently sold out and are now in their second printings.

My Soundtrack: Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros on WOXY.

From this morning’s New York Times.

My Soundtrack: All My Life by DJ Harry onWOXY.

Political events of late have not, shall we say, been the best for members of the Grand Old Party. There’s the war thing, the hurricane thing, the money laundering thing, the Terry Schiavo thing, the Valerie Plame thing, the in-the-toilet approval rating thing. So many things that budding politicians are thinking twice about jumping into the fray.

From this morning’s Washington Post:

Republican politicians in multiple states have recently decided not to run for Senate next year, stirring anxiety among Washington operatives about the effectiveness of the party’s recruiting efforts and whether this signals a broader decline in GOP congressional prospects.

Prominent Republicans have passed up races in North Dakota and West Virginia, both GOP-leaning states with potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Earlier, Republican recruiters on Capitol Hill and at the White House failed to lure their first choices to run in Florida, Michigan and Vermont.

Remember how President George Bush put crony and sycophant Karl Rove in charge of the post Hurricane Katrina operations? Well, it looks like Rove may be slacking on that job.

Last month, White House political strategist Karl Rove flew to Bismarck to implore the North Dakota’s popular Republican governor, John Hoeven, to challenge Sen. Kent Conrad (D). Rove could argue with some compelling numbers: Bush won 63 percent of the state’s presidential votes last year, and Hoeven trounced his Democratic opponents in 2000 and 2004. But the governor said no thanks, and Republicans concede they have no strong second choice.

Republican, pollster Tony Fabrizio, said a recruiting chill was inevitable. Candidates aren’t stupid, he said. They see the political landscape. You are asking them to make a huge personal sacrifice. It’s a lot easier to make that sacrifice if you think there’s a rainbow at the end.

Yep, it’s all about the gold.

My Soundtrack: Don’t Touch That by The Wedding Present on WOXY.

In checking my stats yesterday I found a few new blogs that had been kind enough to link to me — thank you again people — and one of them led me to Podiobooks. What is a Podiobook? It’s a term coined by Evo Terra to describe serialized audio books which are made available in podcast format. More ePublishing. Cool. I got to get an iPod.

Life has been too hectic this past week and I missed this when it broke on Wednesday, but Terry at I See Invisible People has brought me up to speed. Indiana State Senator Patricia Miller (R-Indianapolis) actually tried to get a bill passed making it illegal for unmarried women to get pregnant by any means other than sexual intercourse.

According to Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:

A proposed bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child has been dropped by its legislative sponsor.

State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday about her decision to drop the proposal.

The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission, she said.

Yah think?

You can read the entire text of the bill (PDF), but here is a choice passage:

Sec. 5. (a) A petition to establish parentage may be filed by an intended parent. (b) The intended parents must be married to each other, and both spouses must be parties to the action to establish parentage. (c) An unmarried person may not be an intended parent.

Sec. 7. (a) A petition to establish parentage must be made under oath and specify the following: (1) The: (A) name, age, and place of residence of each petitioner; and (B) place and date of marriage of the petitioners. (2) The name and place or residence, if known, of the donor or donors. (3) The name and address of the agency that performed the assessment under section 12 of this chapter. (4) The name and address of the physician who performed the medical procedure that resulted in the pregnancy of the child who is subject to the parentage action. (5) The type of assisted reproduction procedure that was used. (6) Whether a petitioner has been convicted of: (A) a felony; or (B) a misdemeanor relating to the health and safety of children; and, if so, the date and description of the conviction. (7) Additional information consistent with the purpose and provisions of this chapter that is considered relevant to the proceedings.

The No. 1 problem the world has is People. There are too many of us. But the problem will never be solved through government intervention. We only have to look to the disastrous consequences of China’s attempt to regulate births.

The only sane way to control population growth and stem the tide of unplanned and unwanted children is through education. No other factor has proven to be more effective in achieving that result that the increase in the level of education of women. The higher the level of education, the lower the number of children. It really is that simple.

My Soundtrack: Here Is No Why by Smashing Pumpkins on WOXY.