Greta Garbo

I love to waltz with a man in a dark linen suit
All alone -- at a party with someone I knew
From a time gone by -- turned to stone
You could be Garbo or even Marlene
You could be Marilyn...
Or you could forget
-- "Garbo," written by Stevie Nicks (originally the B-side to "Stand Back," available on the boxed set Enchanted)




Greta Garbo was a film star who died in April of 1990, 48 years and five months after her last film (the flop Two Faced Women) was released. By then she had already been among the few stars of silent films to crossover and remain a star in the 'talkies.' Some might argue she never recovered from being labeled box-office poison in 1937.







"Don't make an issue of my womanhood. We're here to work, all of us. Let's not waste any time. Shall we go?" asks Garbo as Comrade Nina Ivanovna Yakushova as she makes her entrance in Ninotchka.



The 1939 comedic gem directed by Ernst Lubitsch was a blockbuster and saw Garbo nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category (her third nomination in the category, she lost all three times, in 1939 to Vivian Leigh for Gone With The Wind). The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Story and Best Screenplay. Melcior Lengyel would garner the Original Story nomination while Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Walter Reisch would receive the Screenplay nomination (all lost -- Best Picture and Screenplay to Gone With The Wind; Original Story to Lewis R. Foster for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington).



Billy Wilder would co-write many successful screenplays and move on to directing them (such as the classics Some Like It Hot and The Apartment). For 1999's Conversations With Wilder, director and writer Cameron Crowe (Jerry McGuire, Say Anything, Almost Famous, etc.) spoke with Wilder at length. Pages 110 through 111 find Crowe asking about Garbo and Ninotchka:



Billy Wilder: We were just writers -- that was at MGM -- [and] I was on the stage one day, and Garbo was playing a love scene. So she went up to somebody, an assistant, and she came out and started rehearsing the scene, but in between, they put up a blackboard right in front of me. She had eyes in the back of her head. She saw me there. "Throw that man out!" So they threw me out. And then I met her later at a party at Salka Viertel's, the grandma of the German circuit. She was here in twenties. I met her there and now knew Garbo a little. The one day years later I saw her running, exercising, up Rodeo Drive. Rodeo then had a track in the middle where you could run. So she was running up Rodeo and she was very sweaty, and I stopped her and said, "Hi, how are you? I'm Billy Wilder." And she said [imitates her smoky accent:] "Yes, I know you." "Would you like to have a martini, something to drink? I live right around the corner, Beverly Drive." She said. "Yes, I would like to." I lived right around the corner, so I took her home.

It was in the afternoon, and she collapsed in the chair and I said, "I will tell my wife, she is upstairs, to come and fix us a drink." And I said, "And come on down, guess who we have here." She says, "Who, Otto Preminger?" -- somebody like that. And I said, "No, Greta Garbo." And she said, "Oh, go on, go fuck yourself!" And I said, "No, honestly." So she came down and I introduced her, and Aud [Audrey Wilder] fixes a martini, really strong, bit and [Garbo] had that thing in one gulp, and then another one and another one. They drink them like beer, those Swedish -- martinis. She lived on Bedford Drive, the house of [Jean] Negulesco, North Beverly, across the street from the house of [MGM executive] Joe Cohen. And we started to talk about pictures and she said [does accent], "I would like to make a picture about a clown." I said, "Oh, that's fine." "I always am a clown, and I am wearing a mask, and I will not take the mask off. I will only be in the picture as a clown." She never made a picture again. She made one more picture after Ninotchka, and that was it. So she wanted to play the clown, and not show her face. A clown who grins all the time. I said, "That might be difficult."

She stayed on a while. Then she walked out. I wanted to drive her, but she said, "No no no no no no. I walk a little bit to cool off."



Cameron Crowe: Did you discuss Ninotchka?



Billy Wilder: I mentioned Ninotchka, but she did not want to talk about the old pictures. She just said, "I would like to make another picture." That's when my ears perked up. Then she said, "I play a clown. I always play a clown [in life]. I will always be a clown in the picture." I only saw her there that one time, running. And then I saw her arm in arm with Salka Viertel, going down a street in Klosters, Switzerland. She was always there. She was a great friend of Salka Viertel. So that was my only long encounter with Garbo, that was kind of a half hour. "I will play the clown."









Wilder's being iced out on the set of Ninotchka was nothing new. Joan Crawford was a co-star of Garbo's in Grand Hotel and looked forward to meeting Garbo.









She showed up for rehearsals December 30, 1931 determined to make a grand entrance with her dog (Woggles) only to discover that Garbo did not rehearse with her cast mates (which included John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery and Jean Hersholt). Not only did Garbo not rehearse with the cast, the bulk of her scenes were filmed another soundstage which was closed to "visitors" (cast mates qualified as "visitors").







For the entrances and exists through the hotel lobby, the entire cast used the same soundstage; however, Garbo had dibs on the post-lunch period. The never-back-down Crawford feigned illness and had her scenes rescheduled from the morning in order to meet Garbo.







Crawford and Garbo 're-teamed' May 30, 1937. That's when they and others -- including Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Edward Arnold, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and Kay Francis -- starred in an Independent Theatre Owners print 'production' which opened, "The Following Stars are BOX OFFICE POISON". Crawford, Hepburn and Davis would go on to have long film careers refuting the poison label, many others would not.







In the film that returned to her to the list of moneymakers, Ninotchka, Garbo's is asked, "What kind of girl are you anyway?" She responds, "Just what you see: a tiny cog in the great wheel of evolution."





In 1954, Garbo would receive an Honorary Oscar. By that time, she'd been nominated three times . . . for four roles. Yes, you read that right. Along with Ninotchka, she was nominated for Camille (1937) and for the 1929/1930 Academy Awards (you read that right, held November 5, 1930) her single nomination was for two roles: "Anna Christie {"Anna Christie"}; and Romance {"Madame Rita Cavallini"}".







The first line Garbo spoke onscreen was, "Give me a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby" from the 1930 film Anna Christie. In the early eighties, Nancy Frangione would utter the line as Cecile DePoulignac on NBC's Another World. But Garbo's most quoted line is from Grand Hotel, "I want to be alone." From Saturday Night live skits to Lisle von Rhoman (Isabella Rossellini) in Death Becomes Her, it is the most quoted of all Garbo's lines. Some are done as homages, some as parodies. The most insulting imitation took place in April 1932 following a Grand Hotel preview held at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Garbo's contract with MGM had lapsed and they had threatened to drop the re-shoots Garbo had done and hand Grand Hotel over to Joan Crawford. As the animosity grew on both sides, MGM decided to the way to 'cap' the LA preview was to have 'Garbo' appear, introduced by Will Rogers. Beefy Wallace Beery stumbled down the aisle in a frizzy wig and dress while those assembled laughed and applauded. Reaching the stage, Beery declared, "I think I go home now."



Photos are by Arnold Genthe.








Another lady...another time...

Another heartbroken state of mind
Alone in her chambers...she dreams of her home
Outside...she's got a movie star view
Outcries...well where will the kings go...
Where will the kings go now?
She's got her eyes wide open...
And she's ready to stare you down
She says in words unspoken...she's from out of town
Well some cry...well I really don't dance down
Stormy weather...it cuts like a knife
-- "Greta," written by Stevie Nicks and Mike Campbell (available on Nicks' Street Angel).

Lt. Muthana Shaad's Gay Boy Chronicles

Last night I cornered a 'puppy' in Sadr City. It felt good to beat him. I did so repeatedly. He moaned. He cried. And still I continued.



He told me tales of being Nouri al-Maliki's rent boy and threatened me with punishment from Prime Minister al-Maliki himself. That only made me madder and made me beat him harder.



As I kicked him repeatedly, I realized that beating up gays was the best way for me not to feel so badly about being a 'puppy' myself.



While he lay bleeding and barely breathing, I went through his jacket for pocket change. Along with a few small bills, I found a postcard.







He swore it was a movie star from the United States that Nouri al-Maliki was obsessed with. An actor named Ramon Navarro. Supposedly Navarro was gay and Prime Minister al-Maliki has all of his films and screens them regularly, especially Ben-Hur, when having 'Boy Parties.'



That only made me angrier.



I think it is because no one has ever asked me to work security for such a party, let alone invited me to be a guest at one.



I kicked the young man a few kicks harder and thought about how he was probably no more than seven years younger and no more than sixty pounds lighter.



A scary thought crossed my mind: Had I aged myself out of gay beauty?



Was I undesirable?



Yes, I was in the closet but I would like to think that if I weren't, other men would find me attractive and desirable.



Looking down, I saw the young man had passed out from the beating. Unzipping my pants, I quickly pulled out my engorged member and tugged repeatedly until it exploded on the face of the puppy.



[This is a regular series. "Lt. Muthana Shaad's Gay Boy Chronicles" ran previously.]

Yesterday's Morning Glory Naomi Klein

Poor Naomi Klein. Early in this decade she appeared to indicate that there was a post-mall life for the thousands of Tiffanys out there. Somewhere around the time she was forgetting her post-2004 election hectoring of the need for the peace movement not to confuse its goals with party politics by barnstorming the US to flog her now dead book (dead at the time of the softcover tour) while pimping Barack Obama at book stop after book stop, somewhere around the time she portrayed herself as a spolied rotten brat in an interview with Matthew Rothschild, somewhere around the time she refused to take accountability for her own actions, Little Nomi lost her way and it's starting to appear there's no way home for her. Nothing left except possibly a Robin Sparkles reunion tour.



That was very clear last week when she showed up with "Hopebroken and Hopesick" which, strangely, wasn't an autobiographical piece. However, she did feel the need to lecture everyone else while forgetting to join the ownership society by owning her own guilt. The piece ran at Information Clearing House which is always home to lively debates and we thought we'd share some of the comments on Little Nomi's article we found most interesting. But as you read them, grasp that Little Nomi's apparently determined to face the slow fade out insisting, "I am not afraid to be a morning glory. Why should I be afraid. I am not afraid."




Naomi Klein and the Nation magazine--yeah, keep calling yourselves "progressives" and maybe you'll fool some people into believing it's true. You're gonna wake up one day, real soon, and realize you're just a bunch of middle class scardy cats on the colaboratory side of the class war desperate to maintain the status quo. See how far your shallow political analysis gets you then.
not buying 04.17.09 - 1:31 pm #

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Peace Out
With Obama in office, liberals learn to love war

By Justin Raimondo

...The big truth is that the antiwar movement has largely collapsed in the face of Barack Obama’s victory: the massive antiwar marches that were a feature of the Bush years are a thing of the past. Those ostensibly antiwar organizations that did so much to agitate against the Iraq War have now fallen into line behind their commander in chief and are simply awaiting orders. ...

http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/.../peace- out.html
atheo Homepage 04.17.09 - 1:55 pm #

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not buying 04.17.09 - 1:31 pm

Nailed her agenda.
Anonymous 04.17.09 - 2:30 pm #

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See this:

//I was feeling really hopesick about the escalation in Afghanistan, but then I watched a YouTube video of Michelle in her organic garden and it felt like inauguration day all over again. //

All what Obama needs to do, if he wants to keep on killing people around the world, is to have the good folks watch his wife do some gardening.

.
0++0 04.17.09 - 2:35 pm #

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The evidence was there before the election, but our hope-fiend friends refused to see it. The One Party system in this country is entrenched, and only a true Socialist party, candidates and program can rescue it. The money elites will fight that like crazy, and the only question then is, will America's soldiers permit the election of people committed to change, or will they fire on the civilians demanding the change? Since mercenaries now outnumber the regular army in Iraq (like Imperial Rome!) I'm "hopeful" but not optimistic.
greybeard616 04.17.09 - 5:24 pm #

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Give me a effin break. Send this Pollyanna back to The Nation. Reminds me of why I canceled getting that left gatekeeper rag.

No it is not a good thing that Obama turned out to be a house slave for the oligarchs. Organize and vent -- accomplish nothing but feel better about it. That's The Nation spirit.

Naomi Klein, you're a stupid cow.
winston 04.17.09 - 6:51 pm #

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Naomi Klein was one of the biggest pushers of Obama- along with the neo con lite Nation. Yes- The Nation that
strongly requested cindy Sheehan NOT run against that consummate traitor Nancy Pelosi.

Yes- that Naomi Klein who said (along with Howard Zinn and many other Controlled Opposition figureheads-
"It doesnt matter who was behind 911."

Kick this garbage to the curb, and shun these efforts to revive the careers and credibility of sell outs. THESE same obstructors created our present mess and are part of the old Hegelian problem-reaction-solution.
Anonymous 04.17.09 - 7:14 pm #

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klein's disillusion, along with many other liberal Obama supporters, comes from not understanding who he is to begin with--a centrist democrat, now chairman of the board of a system where the two parties are the vehicle for corporate political and economic power in the U.uS. But given the choice, it was better that Obama got elected than McCain. His election was a repudiation of Bush, and has raised expectations which historically have been a necessary condition for building grass roots movements and struggles. As someone who became politically active after LBJ's election in 1964, it was these dynamics that radicalized a generation, during the reign of the "best & the brightest", and many came to understand the role of both the Republican and the Democratic party in serving U.S. imperialism. the task remains--to organize to challenge that power and build a strong enough movement to bring about fundamental change to this rotten system. And that means clearly understanding what we're up against, and it's not the "Jews"-- it's capitalism.
kbro Homepage 04.17.09 - 8:01 pm #

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"As someone who became politically active after LBJ's election in 1964, it was these dynamics that radicalized a generation, during the reign of the "best & the brightest", and many came to understand the role of both the Republican and the Democratic party in serving U.S. imperialism. the task remains--to organize to challenge that power and build a strong enough movement to bring about fundamental change to this rotten system." What a load of nonsense. No one thought LBJ was change. The Cult of Barack will just rewrite history to continue to deny that they have blood on their hands. The brave thing to do was to vote for Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader.
Criticism of The Nation is largely dead on and Naomi Klein schilled like crazy for Barack. She thought she could get away with it by doing it on her book tour (just out in softcover!) turning every event into a "Vote for Barack!" while pretending she wasn't involved. Thing is, she lives in Canada, she was born in Canada why doesn't she try fixing Canada? Where's her take down of neo con Stephen Harper?
She's nothing but a professional distraction.
Martha 04.17.09 - 8:18 pm #

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When are web sites gonna stop printing these buyer's remorse pieces?
Harvey Reading 04.17.09 - 8:45 pm #

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First, the anti-Semites who post here are scum. Down with Zionism! Long live the Palestinian people and their resistance!

Second, does Naomi Klein never tire of writing petty bourgeois drivel? For goodness sake, how do you say this, "If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding," with a straight face?

There's enough silliness in that one line to power Monty Python for a century. What is superfan culture? You say it brought Obama to power!

Sounds like you are calling for a fierce political movement to bring into being programs. Fierce political movements involve fundamental transformations of economic and political systems. If one of those should ever arise, you'll surely run and hide Ms. Klein.

And who is the "we" you keep referencing? Are you sitting on some massive underground insurgency ready to spring to life on your signal. You represent an impotent but self-important strata of cackling racist intellectuals. Please go read and give the writing a rest.
Malcolm Martin 04.17.09 - 9:35 pm #

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Ah shucks schmux but the Jolson grease paint is wearing off under the stage lights, the tux is fraying, the spats scuffed and even politically correct cheerleading Canadian Naomi is starting to grasp perhaps that Mr O Bama, the so-called African American ain't what he was cracked up to be in Variety.

Will the thinking despairing finally acknowledge that the system is rigged, that the entire 2 party same agenda shell game is an advertisng farce and like the happy meals sludge they are offered down at Burger Pig you don't decide what goes into the food trough no more than the masses could be trusted to decide who moves into the "White" house?

God forbid because pulling the plug on the Orwellian double-think chip built in at source in every ameriKan child would lead to permanet despair.

With the acceptance that Prezident Jolson is a shallow, vain, chosen- racer coached shill, a last chance for the machine to weld the Bushian iron curtain into place, comes the inevitable conclusion that ameriKans must (literally) get up off their asses and go out and take back their streets and country like the French do for example.

In this perfect patriotic punk police state, a tall order indeed after the smugness turns to real terror and fear to see that the monster is not under the bed but in the Plantation House in Washington.

Change you can't hope for and hope that you can't trade for spare change.

Onward thru the meltdown with Cap'n what's his face at the helm and the izzy albatross losing feathers by the day.

And by the way "keep whining" about the chosen racers who brought this on, both on Wall St and ameriKa's murder "think tanks" that have long besieged the death bed of USer democracy.
Ramirez 04.18.09 - 2:01 am #

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It took Constitutional Scholar 'mr. Obama' less than three months to break at least as many National and International laws as the Bush-Regime managed to do during his 8 years of crime-waving. Naomi Klein, like most of the U.S. Intellectuals who play the MSM Intellectual-Idols-PR-Game, exposes a Martha-Steward-like flowery and honeybee grift-talent with her unbe-fucking-leavable naïve 'Hopebroken and Hopesick' article. First she writes 'Dissaster Capitalism' a book so full of 'political/corporate-intrinsic' corruptions, nepotisms, crimes and betrayals, the seven circles of hel from Dante are moderate compared with it, and now her high-hopes seem to be crushed because of her childlike naïvety and illusionary proven hindsight?

YOU'VE BECOME A LEXICON OF DISAPPOINTMENT INDEED, DEAR NAOMI KLEIN!

With this article you've authored yourself straight into in the 'Ophra-Winfrey we do(did)not see, we do(did)not hear, we do(did)not speak, elite-dumbass-class'.

UNBEFUCKINGLEAVABLE!

A SHITLOAD OF HOPE. 04.18.09 - 2:52 am #


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Many of my friends, even fairly well informed people, fell for Obama's charm and vague promises and collapsed in tears on election night, believing that we would now get "change" and now had reason to "hope." It is understandable to want a Daddy figure to come swooping in out of no where to rescue us, but unfortunately there was never any good reason to believe that Obama was that person.

One can settle into a movie theatre and be swept away to a land of make-believe: ancient Japan, 19th century Wyoming, or a gritty story of inner city Baltimore. We silently exult when the hero escapes the bad guy and weep when he dies at the end in his lover's arms. But we won't be shocked when we see him alive and well at the Oscars, for we know it was just theatre. We know that if we saw him dancing with joy or sneering with contempt on the silver screen, it wasn't that he was really feeling those emotions. He was acting.

Film makers use trained actors, costume designers, set designers, makeup and hair stylists, lighting designers, music composers, cinematographers and script writers to create a world that seems real, but is 100% a fantasy.

So why is it that people who well understand the power of theatre have such a hard time believing that political campaigns use the same techniques to convey a false sense of reality? Or a false expectation of "hope" and "change?"

http://www.sheilacasey.com/2009/04/obama-shows-his-true-colors.html- colors.html
Sheila Casey Homepage 04.18.09 - 7:41 am #

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Matthis Stands Tall April 21st

Matthis Chiroux will be speaking out and speaking up this Tuesday even as he faces a military body. This is "Resistance to an Abhorrent Occupation: Press Release of Matthis Chiroux" (World Can't Wait):


(ST. LOUIS, MO) The U.S. Army will hear the case of Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, an Individual Ready Reservist who last summer publicly refused activation and deployment orders to Iraq, on April 21 at 1 Reserve Way in Overland, St. Louis, MO, at 9 a.m. Chiroux, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, refused to participate in what he described as "an illegal and immoral occupation" May 15th, 2008, in Washington D.C., after nine other veterans testified to Members of the U.S. Congress about atrocities they experienced during deployments to Iraq. Chiroux also vowed to remain public in the U.S. to defend himself from any charges brought against him by the military. (see matthisresists.us for a record of that speech and others by Chiroux)
"My resistance as a noncommissioned officer to this abhorrent occupation is just as legitimate now as it was last year," said Chiroux, adding, "Soldiers have a duty to adhere to the international laws of war described as supreme in Art. 6 Para. 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which we swear to abide by before the orders of any superior, including our former or current president."
Following Chiroux's refusal to deploy, the military did not contact him until after he and 10 other IVAW members marched on the final presidential debate Oct. 15, 2008, in Hempstead, N.Y. demanding to question then Senators Obama and McCain regarding their war policies and plans to care for returning veterans. After the veterans were brutalized and arrested by police, (one suffered a fractured skull and is currently suing the police for damages) the Army charged Chiroux with "misconduct" for refusing to deploy, announcing their intentions to discharge him from the reserves as a result.
"I go now to St. Louis to honor my promises and convictions," said Chiroux. "Obama or No-Bama, the military must cease prosecuting Soldiers of conscience, and we will demonstrate to them why."
Following the hearing, Chiroux and other IVAW members will testify about their military experiences which led them all to resist in different capacities the U.S.'s Overseas Contingency Operation (formerly the Global War on Terror).
For more information, see matthisresists.us and ivaw.org.


Iraq Veterans Against the War notes:

On Tuesday April 21st an Army administrative discharge board will hear the case of Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, an Individual Ready Reservist (IRR) who last summer publicly refused activation orders in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The board will convene at 9am at the Army Human Resources Command, 1 Reserve Way in Overland, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. IVAW members and supporters will rally outside the hearing starting at 8:30am.
Although Chiroux is voluntary attending this hearing, all other IRR members who have refused activation have not had any disciplinary actions taken against them by the military other then receiving a General or Other Than Honorable discharge from the IRR. This discharge has no effect on benefits like the GI Bill that IRR members earned through their service while on active duty. Service members who have questions about the IRR can click here or contact the GI Rights Hotline at 877-447-4487.

Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.



"NYT's propaganda push" -- most requested highlight and it's a different entry for a change but it is by C.I. In this Thursday morning entry, C.I. walks you through NYT's latest propaganda.



Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Brotherly Embarrassment" -- Isaiah covering the topic that was apparently an 'unmentionable' even in the laughable quarters of PUMA (they really need to give it up at this point, they're such a joke and this 'Let's be an advocay organization! Let's figure out what we want to advocate for!' bullshit is bullshit, they have become the biggest joke, every week they're attempting another makeover). Isaiah has the guts PUMA wishes they had.





"Kat's Korner: The LOtUSFLOW3R Blooms . . . and rocks" -- Kat's review of Prince's new album (only available at Target).





"Lemon Pepper Noodles in the Kitchen" -- Trina takes on the economy and more. (And Dona asked us to include this statement by her: "I lived on Ramen noodles when I was an undergradute. If I'd known this recipe -- I know it's obvious -- I would have lived on this. Try it, it's really good. If you're like me, you'll want to use linguine and lots of butter.")



"Tim Howe -- ugly name for ugly man" -- Betty writing about various things and, yes, community members, It is back. You guessed right. Which was the point of this post. We'll be bringing it into fiction over here and agree with Betty that it needs to be in our current serial -- where we take a real life homophobe with a badge and turn him into a closeted gay man -- but we didn't have the time to work him into this week's installment. He will be added shortly, trust us.





"April 21st, St Louis, Matthis needs your support" -- Betty on Matthis Chiroux.



"amy goodman pretends to write about pacifica," "Whora Flanders needs to shut her ass" "How I've grown to HATE Naomi Klein," "The world laughs at David Corn" and "Matthew Rothschild is an ass"-- Poor Amy Goodman she really thinks she's fooling anyone. Go hawk some more tickets to Barack's inaugural, Goody. Meanwhile Laura Flanders decided to flash her ugly insides. Spare us, Laura. And Kat explains how irritating Naomi Klein is (we have a funny feature this edition on Klein). Stan takes on whiny baby David Corn who suddenly wants everyone in a press behaving to behave themselves (surprising after all of his yelling during Hillary's press briefings) and Elaine explains how pathetic Matty Rothschild truly is. (He still won't defend Norman Finkelstein.)



""Adelaide Crapsey," "egalia's a tennessee bimbo zombie," "On The Snake," "Sylvia Plath," "Jane Cooper," "Martha Collins," "Ogden Nash, Larry Jones" and "Philip Dacey" -- Poetry night Tuesday.



"Movie night" and "Avoid The Soloist, see State of Play" -- Stan offers Movie night (review of The Conversation) and also movie tips (we agree with his choice of what to see).



"Barack's latest disgrace," "Ray McGovern," "Ray McGovern," "It's called 'justice,' Barack," and "Barack needs a Constitutional tutor" & "THIS JUST IN! HE DOESN'T KNOW JUSTICE!" -- Mike, Marcia, Ruth, Kat, Cedric and Wally comment on and react to the news that Barack won't prosecute those who illegally engaged in torture.



"egalia's a tennessee bimbo zombie," "Covering up for sexaul assailants" and "THIS JUST IN! WHAT AN IDIOT!" -- Rebecca, Cedric and Wally take on the idiot at Tennessee Guerilla Women who, blinded with love for Barack, wanted to state that reporting on sexual predators was "National Enquirer" and "tabloid" topics. Keep pretending you're a feminist, Princess, keep pretending.



"Jared Polis" -- Marcia on US House Rep Jared Polis.



"Poor New York Timid" -- Once a week, Isaiah postings an old cartoon at his new site. He's on the Downing Street Memos series from June 2005 and that really brings back memories. Including just how many comics Isaiah must have done. Seriously, we didn't realize that he'd done so many but he's easily got over 200 and maybe over 300. He always makes it seem so easy but we all know it's hard work and that along with these comics from The Common Ills, he also now does comics for all the community newsletters.





"Isaiah, World Can't Wait" -- Mike explains last week's edition and more.



"The gangsters get back together" & "THIS JUST IN! POND SCUM 11!" -- back story on this? Cedric and Wally got a phone report from a neighbor. The photos ran in Friday's gina & krista round-robin. Look for more "At home with Bully Boy" features. We have the best DFW community members! (Hey, everyone loves Bully Boy's new home, right?)

Truest statement of the week

Well I appreciate what you said about -- by way of people that truly oppose the war as opposed to Kool-Aid drinkers who drank the Obama Kool-Aid and are still on their various stages of hangover at this point, realizing that he really didn't mean to change anything. But there are still those of us out here who truly believe in non-interventionism, who truly believe in respecting the people of the rest of the world and that our foreign policy should only represent the truly benevolent will of the American people and not the interest of the American empire or the military-industrial-complex. The thing about this trip though that Obama just made to Iraq is what's so interesting is how much it stands in stark contrast to his trip of last July when he was still at least broadly seen as an anti-war candidate. Now, I mean, I read the fine print from the beginning. And really didn't believe him when he said "I would like to end the war" because I read the fine print. And the fine print said twelve months, forty to sixty-thousand troops and, you know, an increased reliance on private contractors. So I knew he wasn't about ending the war from the beginning but at least when he was able to fool enough people into believing that that's what he wanted to do, when he went to Iraq as a senator, and as an anti-war candidate, he didn't need anymore security than the troops on the ground or the generals at least, generals on the ground, as they're called, who really run our foreign policy. But now, as president, when people know what he really stands for and what he's actually planning on doing there, he's got to go in in secret and with super intense security. Now I understand there's some increased security necessary when you're the president as opposed to a candidate but by stark contrast, Ahmadinejad walks around the streets of Iraq like it's cool because they respect him there. They're not going to respect the next imperialist American president no matter what his skin color is.



-- Adam Kokesh on KPFA's Flashpoints April 7, 2009.

Truest statement of the week II

Who's fighting to bring about justice for the perhaps one million innocent Iraqi men, women, and children and babies in their graves? Actually, I shouldn't say I'm going to bring about justice for them, or try to, because I was unable to establish jurisdiction to go after Bush for the deaths of the Iraqi citizens. I did establish jurisdiction to go after him for the deaths of the 4,200 American soldiers. In any event, it would be a symbolic effort to bring about justice for the million people in their graves. Let's say that number's high. In my book I say over 100,000. Certainly there's over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, children and babies who died as a result of Bush's war. Some numbers put it in excess of one million, and we know there's 4,200 American soldiers. Who's fighting to bring about justice for those in their graves, decomposing in their cold graves right now as I'm talking to you, Michael? Who's doing that out there?



-- Vincent Bugliosi, author most recently of The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, to Michael Collins in "Murder Trumps Torture Says Bugliosi" (Dissident Voice).

Truest statement of the week III

Wally: Well the silence goes beyond the press and it also includes our own State Dept which has never condemened the murders. It didn't condemn under the homophobe Colin Powell, it didn't condemn then under Condi Rice and it's not condemning them under Hillary Clinton. Now I happen to like Hillary and, as most people reading this will know, from something like January through the primary in Puerto Rico, I was on the road campaigning for her. I ended up taking off the semester to do that. I believed in her campaign that much. She's being silent. Now I could be an Obot and say, "She needs more time to speak! She needs to get comfortable!" I could offer a million excuses but the reality is she has not spoken out against it and that's not right, and there's no excuse for it, and I'm embarrassed and ashamed for Hillary. And I'll tell you one more thing, I'd be talking about that like her if she was president. Because I don't believe in hero worship. Unlike the Cult of St. Barack, I don't offer excuses. And I believe Hillary would make a great president. But I believe that because I think she's smart. So when someone that smart and that wise doesn't speak out against the murders, it is appalling and I will call out. I will repeat, Hillary Clinton, I am ashamed and embarrassed by your silence. I am fully aware that there are issues that are policy and that come above Hillary. That would include the Israel situtation, for example. There she's merely executing policy. However, in terms of this issue, in terms of condemning any murders in any country -- I'm talking warfare, supposed or otherwise -- she has the power, due to the office she holds, to issue a state condemning the murders. She hasn't done it. I'm appalled. Shame on you, Hillary, you know better. And Kat I knew Betty's topic, Rebecca, which is why we were holding off on talking.

Kat: Right. And it is an important topic but just to back up a second, I agree with Wally and if Hillary had gotten the nomination, she would be president, we all know that, we all know she got more votes than Barack in the primaries and we all know she would have done better than he did in the general. But if she was president, we wouldn't be playing fan club to Hillary. We'd be doing what Wally just did right now. And Wally gave his all to getting the word out on Hillary. He dropped out of college because he took some weeks off and ended up deciding that it was more important that he campaign for her. The original plan was just to campaign for her for a few weeks, he ended up dropping out to campaign for her. And he still believes she would make a wonderful president but that didn't prevent him from calling her out on her silence and doing so strongly. And if she were president and going back on her word to withdraw one brigade a month from Iraq, we'd all be calling her out. The Obots aren't politically educated or smart. They needed a crush, an empty vessel upon which they could impose their dreams of love and romance. It and they are disgusting. Now in terms of the LGBT community in Iraq, I don't want to hear any garbage about Muslim religion or any of that other s**t. We don't use "Muslim religion" or "Muslim culture" to hide behind murdering Jews or Christians. Murder's wrong. That's not open to debate. That the US has installed a regime in Iraq which thinks it's okay to murder gays and lesbians -- and even if the government is not executing them, they are turning a blind eye to their murders -- explains how sick and perverted this illegal war really was. And to be clear "Muslim religion" or "Muslim culture," gays and lesbians still were in Iraq. They are Iraqis. And they had acceptance before the illegal war. They are a part of Muslim culture whether fundamentalists want to accept it or not. And they are a part of Iraq and they should have been protected.

Wally and Kat from the roundtable Friday night ["Roundtable on Iraq," "Roundtabling Iraq," "the roundtable," "Iraq," "Iraq in the Kitchen," "Roundtable on Iraq," "Talking Iraq," "Iraq," "Talking Iraq roundtable" and "Iraq roundtable"].