Exit 290

The memorial flowers
flipped upside down
scattered on the graveled edges
of the freeway
where spirit left body and earth
in fire and flame
leaving ash
and disintegrating flowers
in its wake

...wake...

"What's grandpa doing?"
I ask my father
5 years of age
sitting on his shoulders
staring into the casket
at the man who was my hero.

"He's sleeping,"
my dad tearfully explains to me.

"Well, wake him up.
I want to play."

"Wake up grandpa!
I want to play!"


"Remember always, mighty king,
that gods decreed the fates of all
many years ago. They alone are let
to be eternal, while we frail humans die
as you yourself must someday do.
What is best for us to do
is now to sing and dance.
Relish warm food and cool drinks.
Cherish children to whom your love gives life.
Bathe easily in sweet, refreshing waters.
Play joyfully with your chosen wife."
"It is the will of the gods for you to smile
on simple pleasure in the leisure time of your short days."

From the epic poem, "Gilgamesh," Tablet 10, column 3, spoken by Siduri, the tavern keeper, to Gilgamesh in his journey to the underworld to try to overcome death in his grief for the death of his best friend, Enkidu.

If the economy is improving...

...why is the pentagon doing economic warfare exercises?

The article, "Pentagon Preps for Economic Warfare," by Eamon Javers for Yahoo's Politico, starts:

The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.

The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game. Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data, according to the accounts of three participants.

“It felt a little bit like Dr. Strangelove,” one person who was at the previously undisclosed exercise told POLITICO.

For anyone who knows anything about war games, these things are not done if there is something serious behind the idea. For example:

From 1987 until prior to Iraq's August 2, 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Norman Schwarzkopf enacted 7 military exercises for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, 4 of which included an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

So, if the economy is on the up and up and only getting better, why is the pentagon performing these types of war games?

A Root of Racism

Shusli has been letting me in on a rather heated discussion about race and land on a forum in which she is a participant. There are a few folks who take the stand of your regular institutional racist. That stand is usually, "What about me [the white American male]?" This is an argument that comes in many forms in discussions about race and is designed to step away from any true discussion on such using alleged superior intellect of alleged civilized society. It is manipulated, twisted, and folded into whatever form best suits the situation for any person wishing not to truly discuss race and racism. (It might make them feel uncomfortable, not that those who experience racism would feel uncomfortable being of lesser value than...well...you know). The ideas that come forward in such discussions like not wanting to deal with reparations to blacks nor the fact that the U.S. is all stolen land from the Indians, is meted with intellecutual discussions legitimizing these events. This goes from left to right. Not all folks of white decent believe in the same manner as those who enjoy perpetuating such arguments. Many white folks are rather persistent in acquiring justice for Blacks and Indians, etc. However, in discussions of race, there are always those folks, usually white males, who want to bring the discussion back to them. It was best displayed in a Ward Churchill lecture at Reed College, a school I informed my daughter she will NOT be going to even if she gets a full scholarship. Ward brought up the fact that legally some 60% of the land in the U.S. belongs to the indigenous. A young white male student stood up and upon explaining his fears of deportation and other such bullshit just came out and stated plainly and openly..."WHAT ABOUT ME?" Not what about my family, friends, and all other such folks, just "WHAT ABOUT ME?" Here I will tell all you white folk and others who believe is such BS this...What about us? This young fella was dealing with his fantasy of not wanting to be treated like his folk treated us and why he has such enormous privilege that he does not want to lose (Reed is not a cheap school).

That said, I am reading a Pulitzer Prize winning book called "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum. I guess I'm reading it because of the yet unused U.S. Gulag system set up by King Dick and co-King George and definitely not discarded by the Obama administration. Because of the discussion Shusli has been having on the forum of which she is a participant, I read her this quote from the book:

"In 1912, a best-selling German book, German Thought in the World, claimed that

nothing can convince reasonable people that the preservation of a tribe of South African kaffirs is more important for the future of humanity than the expansion of the great European nations and the white race in gerneral...it is only when the indigenous people have learned to produce something of value in the service of the superior race...that they can be said to have a moral right to exist."
(from "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum, pg. xxxv of the introduction)

Sound familiar? Sound like America? Sounds like America to me? It is institutional in America. It is a basis of the framework of the founding fathers and deeply ingrained in those who benefit most from the privileges they have in this alleged nation. It also sounds like Austrailia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, and pretty much all colonized nations. The indigenous are not important to the framework of the white society unless they can produce something useful to the white society. The "extermination" (using the words of American founding father Thomas Jefferson, beloved American alleged hero) of the indigenous races of folks in America is just a natural extension of the master race, white.

Do not play the blood quantum bullshit game with me either. That is a colonizers definition of Indian. It was done that way in order to further destroy our nations here in what is currently known as the United States. The Nazi's defined "Jew" by their blood quantum, an idea, oddly enough, gained from the U.S. (as well as birth prevention programs of the Jews were gleaned from the sterilization programs of Indians in the U.S.). I am not Indian by your definition. My wife, Shusli, is not an Indian by your definition. We are Indian...PERIOD! This is our land...PERIOD! Our land is currently occupied by a brutal force which gained its power through a bloody and horrific genocide that continues to this day with a kinder and gentler hand.

If you wish to discuss these things on this post, don't come here with your "What about me?" bullshit. Let's have an honest discussion of race and racism. Don't give me your superiority light bullshit of "race is a construct of the mind and thus those of lesser races...er...I mean non-white races are really oppressing themselves..." Doesn't work here. Take that discussion to the blacks incarcerated in prisons, the Indians incarcerated on the reservations, into the self-segregated neighborhoods throughout all major cities in America.

Whaddya say? Wanna have a real discussion on race and racism?

Robber Baron, Ken Lewis

I would like to add to the post on Dade Cariaga's Blog of the video of Ann Minch deciding to no longer pay her credit card bill as a form of protest because of the increased interest rate imposed by Bank of America. Ann mentions the CEO of Bank of America, Ken Lewis (she actually calls him Ken Ley by mistake).

Here is a photo of Ken Lewis, the thieving bastard himself. After participating in making bad banking decisions, he was rewarded for his bad behavior by receiving part of the $700,000,000,000 banking bailout in the form of our tax dollars. Now, not only does he ravage us lesser folks (referred to as "beasts" by founding father James Madison and many others of our wealthy white elite alleged founders) by charging folks exorbitant overdraft fees, but they have also increased the interest rates on credit cards (and no doubt, in other arenas as I'm sure there is a pattern to this). So, not only is Ken Lewis participating in robbing the government that ALLEGES to represent us of OUR HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS, they are also getting what they can right out of our pockets, as it were.

So, here is a picture of one of the handful of brutal criminals, CEO of Bank of America, Ken Lewis. See how happy he is? It is because he doesn't have to pay overdraft charges or increased interest rates, he gets that money that he stole from us stuffed into his salary, bonus package, and no doubt his golden parachute. Heck! I'd be pretty damned happy if I could get away with such mass robbery and have GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR IT! For some reason, his smile makes me appreciate bank robbers all that much more.

Bonnie and Clyde were robbing banks back in the day when banks were doing the same thing, robbing the people in order to help pay for their bad banking decisions, complete with government support back then as well. But the ROBBER BARONS, like Ken Lewis here, are praised and supported as good businessmen and will never...NEVER...see a day behind bars or the gallows like they should.

Heck! I'd be smiling too if I could get away with such crimes. Heck, I'd be laughing all the way to the bank.

What? Are You Nuts?

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," by Ken Kesey, is a book about a bunch of nuts in the good old days of the state system for the allegedly insane.

It is written from the perspective of Chief Bromden, and has rather excellent views of insanity and how it was treated back in the good ole days.

Throw in a lusty and loud raucous fella, Randle Patrick McMurphy, and oddly, the system, which kept people in horrifically long, suddenly has shortened time served for being not as nuts as the system made them think they were.

McMurphy seems to be a metaphor for the trickster. Here comes the trickster playing his tricks, having a good time, and reawakening the people to what they actually are, only to be bitten back by his tricks in the end, but not until he reaches the end, which seems to be, in this story, a reawakening of the people who are in distress. It's a trickster story!

Now I'm off to read, "Gulag," by Anne Applebaum, which won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a history of, have you guessed? That's right! The Gulag system in the U.S.S.R. I also plan on reading Alexander Schotzenytsn's (sp?) "Gulag Archipelago" sometime in the months or years to come.

The Tribal Law and Order Act

Does anyone know what this bill is about (s. 797)? I never trust the U.S. government in ANY of its dealings with Native Americans, and again, it is an INVASION of sovereignty. To me, this is an addition to the conquest of Indians. If it looks all sweet and official and helpful, once it is implemented, it won't be, I'm sure. I could be wrong, but everything in my body and soul says NEVER trust the federal government in ANY dealings with Natives. How are they gonna fund such a thing with the federal, state, and tribal budgets being in the current shape they are.

BANK ROBBERY!

WE'RE BEING ROBBED BY THE BANKS! As if a $700,000,000,000 unaccounted for bailout wasn't enough, the banks are robbing the poor left and right. Read the article.

Overdraft charges! And they do some nifty tricks in order to make sure you overdraw EVEN IF YOU HAVE DEPOSITED MONEY! And the tellers are trained not to give an inch because BILLIONAIRES NEED THAT MONEY! You don't need it. What the fuck are you gonna do with it? Eat? Pay rent? Fuck you! Those billionaire and millionaire bankers need to maintain those spendy apartments for their mistresses and keep up the taxes and such on their numerous properties.

Remember 9-11

It has been 360 years since the genocidal Oliver Cromwell set his troops upon the folk of Drogheda in Ireland, slaughtering every man, woman, child, elder, and every bit of livestock. He was slaughtering them for jolly old england. Let us never forget.

Green Grasshopper in a Rose

Questions

I guess now would be a good time to ask ourselves some questions.

Recently a young man, a marine, was killed in Afghanistan and a photograph was taken of him shortly before he died. The family didn't want it used, but the media showed it anyway, a desire to show the disgustingness of war. Our children dying. Other peoples children dying. Now we should ask ourselves some questions as it has come out that many heads in the military are questioning the motive of the increase of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. There are no clear goals, as they put it.

What is the war in Afghanistan about?

Many here in the states say it is for "freedom," but I don't feel more free. The economy is tanking. I just heard a story on Democracy Now of how a young woman was killed by her insurance company when they denied her transplant, then rescinded in time for her to die on her 17th birthday. Homelessness and unemployment are on the rise. The list goes on and on, so I can't really believe that the military is fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq for our "freedom." Just because we aren't quite slaves doesn't mean we are free.

No doubt that young man was brave, Loved, and vital to his family and community. Robert Gates had this to say about it:

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, condemned the decision by the news agency Associated Press to publish. "I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard's death has caused his family. Why your organisation would purposefully defy the family's wishes, knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish, is beyond me.

"Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling."

Ok, good question Mr. Gates. Here's some for you. Why did you send these folks son over to Afghanistan? What is the U.S. military there for? What are they trying to accomplish? What kind of compassion do you feel for folks when you send their children to die in a war that there is no clear reason why we are fighting it?

Afghanistan, like Iraq used to be, was rather progressive. In the '70's women were even wearing mini-skirts. Then the U.S., with the help of Zbignew Brzinski lead Russia to a prolonged war with Afghanistan which eventually led to Russia's economic collapse. The U.S., through the CIA helped finance the Mujahadeen, who became the Taliban and Al-Queda. Even helped train them. Ronald Reagan even called these folks the U.S. now calls enemies the equivalent of the founding fathers of this nation.

Prior to 9-11, as it were, Colin Powell made the joke we are running out of enemies.

9-11 happens with a lot of unanswered questions around that, and now Colin Powell has found lotsa enemies.

King Cheney and co-King Bush, Oil folks, decide to go to war with Al-Queda, and might as well bomb the folks of Afghanistan along with them, or instead of then. Soft targets are easier kills, as Reagan demonstrated in Central America in the '80's. Oddly, folks want to build a pipeline from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan through Afghanistan. Could this be why the U.S. is slaughtering the children of others by putting the children of its citizens lives on the line?

War is not pretty. There is nothing romantic about it. There is nothing adventuresome unless you are not taking up arms like Gates, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Bush, Cheney, etc., but profiting heavily from it.

The Oregonian had a headline the other day that with so many businesses heading downward, the only upward business turns out to be arms. Could this be why the U.S. is sending folks off to kill and be killed or otherwise damaged in Afghanistan and Iraq? What hell...HELL...has the U.S. put the people of these nations through with such genocidal business practices?

Can you tell me, Mr. Gates, why you sent this young man to his death? It certainly wasn't freedom? We can see that by just looking around us. We all know there is a lot of money to be made in killing the folks of other nations. Is that why you sent this young man off to be killed? Is that why you sent off all the others to kill and be killed? Are our soldiers still raping their female comrades? Are their female comrades still occasionally dying from dehydration by not drinking water in the evenings not wanting to go to the latrine during the night for fear of getting raped? What about Forward Base Falcon? I believe 10-10 will be the 3rd anniversary. I'll have to check my math.

"Land O Racism" Revisited

These are photos from a post I wrote on August 15, 2007 called "Land O Racism." It wasn't until about May of this year that I have started moderating comments and just a few days ago I received a comment on this particular post. This, I've discovered, happens fairly frequently, and I often have to research my own blog to find where the discussions are happening. Since I posted the comment and looked for the post it was attached to, I found a few other interesting comments. Since I wasn't moderating at the time, I had no idea these discussions were going on. If you wish to read all the comments, click on the link then click onto the comments at the bottom of the link.

The first one here is extremely sexist and racist and, of course, posted with a false name because few who spew this type of shit RARELY are brave folk:

Female Indianas were submissive in that period, their culture, not ours. Plus they did not have chairs in the plains so standing or kneeling is kind of common. Plus it makes it easier to get the land and lake in the frame. Get it. Land 0 Lakes?
If you hadn't cropped the picture you would notice that she is on elevated ground. Showing respect maybe?

Don't try to find racism or you create it.

Looking
Just Looking | 01.17.09 - 3:11 pm | #

The second is from a fella who claims that the model for the picture was his great grandmother who is Cherokee and thus I am full of shit when I say such stereotyping images are racist:

The lady on the Land o' Lakes logo is my great grandmother. Before you start throwing around incorrect statements, you should get your facts straight. First of all, she is Tsalagi, or "Cherokee", not plains. Second of all, she's a full blood Native American, not mixed. She was asked to model for Land o' Lakes because she was a very beautiful lady. I have the photos of her in her dress during the Land o Lakes photo shoot to prove it. Stop trying to create racist gossip, you clearly have no idea what your're talking about.
Nick | 04.13.09 - 10:47 am | #

This was my comment on the above comments:

Like your post, Nick. It is nice to know this is your grandmother and thank you for the history. It is still racist. Did the Tsalagi, Cherokee, truly dress in this manner traditionally? Are they really from the Minnesota region, or am I mistaken in thinking that it is Georgia or Florida that is the actual Land O Lakes area of the U.S.? Just because the model is Indian doesn't mean it is not racist. I'm sure the model for the "Redskins" logo was Indian. However, your grandmother is rather pale for a full-blood.

Female Indians were submissive?!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Eugene | Homepage | 09.07.09 - 5:52 am | #


Hattie McDaniel, the first African American Woman to receive an Academy Award, was constantly stereotyped as a maid. I don't judge her for this. As she put it one time when her community would complain about the racism involved in such stereotyping of black women she stated something like; better to be paid $500 a week portraying a maid that $5 a week actually being one. However, the manner in which she was portrayed on the movie and television screen were indeed stereotypical and racist. Just like an Indian woman from a Southeast tribe is used to portray an Indian woman from a great lakes tribe and is wearing a dress which is an attempt to look like a plains tribe. I mean, like the old saying goes, "We all look alike." One Indian is JUST like another. Thus, it is not racist when Umpqua uses a plains Indian head for their product when we Umpquas are from the coast and its river and wore different headresses altogether. But, since it is a plains Indian, and no doubt, modeled after a "real" Indian, it is thus not racist. I mean, who in their RIGHT MIND would use modern portrayals of Indians to sell products. I mean the racist Black Sambos and Frito Bandito were removed because they were racist. No doubt, they were modeled after people of those actual races. But, just like usual, it is OK to do this to Indians, and many Indians will approve of it. This is not unusual either. It is still racist. It is still sexist. It is still bullshit and dehumanizing.

Cuckoo?

K...Ken? K...Kesey? JacK...Ken...? NiKolsen...K...? PatricK...K...? Stewart...Samson?...

Will the real Kennewick Man please stand up?

THAT'S IT!

I'VE DISCOVERED THE MISSING LINK!

Jack Nicholson is THE MISSING LINK! He has TOO much hair to be white, and thus, is Indian whose ancestors were orignally Indian from Europe where white folk slaughtered them and stole their land!

Can someone help me write a mutli-million dollar grant for my study? Even if I'm wrong, my theory is absolutely true!

Toothsome Grin

KBOO!
Totally Toothsome Radio

Portland is a Real Toothsome Town 1

Portland is a Real Toothsome Town 2

Think You're So Big?
You Can Push That Stone
But Can You Pull This Tooth?

On the Grid

Photos

Sunflowers on a Cloudy Day 1

Sunflowers on a Cloudy Day 2

Our Newest Roommate

WE'VE WON!

Eli and I ate one of these peppers already.
HOT LITTLE THINGS!

"Uhhhh, can I get off at the next stop?"
"Sorry, mister, with cutbacks from the recession and all...
this is as far as we can take ya."

Pushers and Stoners

I SPOKE TOO SOON!

Having just got off the phone with Dean Lookinghawk, I discovered that Russell had to postpone until the 9-10 show as he will be on the road. If things work out and we have the Christopher Cornstalk folks on as well, I believe it will be an absolutely excellent show. My blood is starting to boil already.

So, it will be Martin Prechtel live and in the studio on Thursday 9-3, because his plane will show up on time. IT WILL SHOW UP ON TIME! (I hope that isn't just wishful thinking).

Otherwise, it will be the FCC and Supreme Court are Liars exercises.

Martin Prechtel and Ruseel Means

Since no one will argue with me about how the great science god has proven Kennewick Man to be white, excuse me, a white-lie; Since no one is explaining to me how their experiments went saying the word "fuck" to their children to prove the Supreme Court and FCC to be liars (maybe they are afraid the word may actually kill their children, or give them brain cancer), we shall move on.

[note: Speaking of how great children are treated in this country by the government which is so concerned about their welfare that they have made it law that the FCC can bring down community radio stations if they utter the word "fuck" or even insinuate it's existence (I am not kidding, I've had the FCC training at KBOO), I found this article from Common Dreams, "U.S Fairs Poorly in Child Welfare Survey." It turns out the U.S. spends $140,000 per child for education, etc. My question are: Where does that money go? How much goes to private corporations? How much to corruption? How much to bureaucratic red tape? What are the rules on spending this money? Sure, the U.S. spends that much per child, but I seriously doubt that even 50% goes to the child's actual welfare. I'd like to see an analysis of the books on this number. Not that anyone would actually do anything about it, but I'm sure it would be rather interesting considering how the U.S. ranks amongst the lowest of the "31 industrialized nations" in child welfare.]

On Thursday, September 3rd, KBOO's "Mitakuye Oyasin" will be interviewing Martin Prechtel and Russell Means.

Martin Prechtel will be live and in the studio. He is a Mayan medicine man who survived Reagan's holocaust against the Guatemalan's and other Central American nations back in the '80's. He is the author of many books including "Secrets of the Talking Jaguar," and more recently, "Stealing Benefacio's Rose." Plus he is an all round awesome fella.

Russell Means, if you don't know, and please don't tell me you don't know, is a long time activist and actor of the Lakota nation. He is an AIMster from back in the day, involved in Wounded Knee II and the first Indian takeover of Alcatraz. He also authored the book "Where White Men Fear To Tread." We will be interviewing Russell on the phone.

So tune on, Thursday, September 3rd, from 6-7pm PST and listen to our interviews and try some of the new "Prove the FCC and Supreme Court Liars Exercises."

We'll be speaking at you then!

"Mitakuye Oyasin" is a collective of alleged Native types who get together once a week and bend and twist your ears until you pay attention. We are currently: Dean Lookinghawk, Louis Sowa, and Eugene Johnson. We are always actively recruiting with very little success. However, Dean may have a few regular phone guests lined up.

Next week, on the 10th of September, thanks to the work of Dean Lookinghawk, we may be interviewing a few folks from the Christopher Cornstalk issue, I believe a family member and the person who started the website to end the professionals racist website against this man who has passed on.