Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin

irony, as only DC can fry it up

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Monica Goodling, a Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday. “The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real,” said the lawyer, John Dowd.

How do you know when your Government has reached the nadir of corruption, when they’ve absolutely hit rock bottom? When the Justice Department starts copping the 5th, that’s how. I sincerely hope they’ve done the worst they can do. I don’t mean to hope that we’ve seen the worst of it exposed to the bland light of public scrutiny, but we can hope they’re done doin’ it, right?

She works at the Justice Department, dear reader. The Justice Depatment.

on the immoral debate

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“Congress is debating timetables for withdrawal from Iraq. In response to the Bush Administration’s ‘surge’ of troops, and the Republicans’ refusal to limit our occupation, the Democrats are behaving with their customary timidity, proposing withdrawal, but only after a year, or eighteen months. And it seems they expect the anti-war movement to support them…. Ironically, and shockingly, the same bill appropriates $124 billion in more funds to carry the war. It’s as if, before the Civil War, abolitionists agreed to postpone the emancipation of the slaves for a year, or two years, or five years, and coupled this with an appropriation of funds to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.”

Howard Zinn

what a shock

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I just finished my workout, made a cup of joe, and turned on the news. CNN, Faux and MSNBC are simultaneously reporting that Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental drug overdose. What an appalling surprise. Who would have thought that?

If you are a regular reader of this little cyber-pamphlet, you know how I feel about this Smith thing. Her death is a bad thing for her family. It’s not irrelevant that she’s dead, but a lot of people are dead. Her death is no more or less relevant to society at large than anyone else’s. It’s not news. Her drug problem is troubling and sad, but millions of people are hooked on drugs. It’s not news. The questionable parentage of her daughter is a little ugly and too bad for the kid, but countless lives start out in difficult circumstances. Not news.

The real story behind the trainwreck life and death of Smith is the way the media have exploited it, using it as a diversion from real issues of economics, politics, the welfare of the planet, and global morality. CNN has become ANS – All Anna Nicole, All the Time. I’ve mostly stopped watching it. (Larry King simply needs to retire; he has no more place on TV than I do.) MSNBC is a little better; I like Olbermann. Faux isn’t worth mentioning, but I did.

When they cover this tripe, they do not broadcast in the public interest. Carrying round-the-clock coverage of tawdry, tabloid concerns is not the basis for an FCC license to act as a news venue.

For cryin’ out loud, let’s move on. She’s as dead as she’s ever going to get.

draggin’ up

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Cashin’ in my chips on another amazingly furtive flicker of a day. Where did it go?

I spent a big chunk of it with Happy. She hung out with me while I waxed my pickup. I told her I was going to wax Tasha’s camper too, and she looked at me like I was stupid, but she didn’t say anything. Turns out TurtleWax doesn’t work too good on painted Fiberglass. Who knew? They oughta teach this stuff in school, ’cause I had a helluva time getting it off. Had to use detergent.

My Dad uses the term draggin’ up sometimes, when he’s ready to knock off for the day. He has a lot of projects for a retired guy. Right now, he’s got the backyard deck partly dismantled. Termites.

My uncle used the term to inform an employer in the oil fields of southeastern Alaska that he was finished with that job for good, and heading south. That was back in the early 1970s I think. I remember he sent me a letter from Juneau. He repeated it, “I’m draggin’ up,” to a helicopter pilot, who replied that he’d already made the last flight to town for the day, and my uncle would have to wait overnight. My uncle explained that the pilot could either take him to town or step down from the chopper and take his ass-whoopin there and then.

The pilot chose wisely. And hey, when you’re possibles are packed, they’re packed.

sink or swim

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There has never been a tougher time to be a debut novelist – only a tiny fraction receive six-figure advances, and most manuscripts end up in the shredder. So, what makes or breaks the first-timers? Kate Kellaway reports and talks to five who made it into print.

The Guardian, Books

in the forbidden zone

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WASHINGTON – As the Iraq war enters a fifth year, the conflict that President Bush’s aides once said would all but pay for itself with oil revenues is fueling the highest level of defense spending since World War II.

Even with past spending adjusted upward for inflation, the $630 billion provided for the military this year exceeds the highest annual amounts during the Reagan-era defense buildup, the Vietnam War and the Korean War.

Do you ever daydream about what we might have done with all those resources, all that dough? I do. I sit here quaffing a mug of Folgers and think Damn, maybe we could’ve found a meaningful treatment for Type 1 Diabetes or Multiple Sclerosis. I wonder if maybe all those billions – almost half a trillion dollars so far, in Iraq alone – could have been spent to enhance the education of American children. Maybe some could’ve been invested in business to build ourselves a place in the new global marketplace growing around us.

I have to admit I think it’s just too late. We elected a myopic miserable failure of a man, then we did it again. And he has done nothing short of digging the grave of the American Dream.

I remember as a kid going to the movies with my Dad and seeing Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and I’ll never forget the scenes near the end of the movie, with the mutants worshiping the ICBM beneath the ruins of a cathedral. Back in 1970, everyone thought that if the world ended it would be with a bang. Now, if you listen carefully, you can hear America whimpering. We are on the verge of losing our place as a Superpower, because other countries are using their resources to build while we pump our life blood into absurd war. We’re becoming a consumer nation, borrowing money to buy the things from others that we used to make here. That is not the basis of an economy.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
— Wordsworth

George W. Bush should be impeached, not just because he lied to drag us into war, got many of our people killed, is incompetent to finish the job, and has ruined our place and reputation in the world for nothing. He should go because – to appropriate Biblical allegory – he is the servant entrusted with a vineyard, and the vines are dead and have borne no fruit. And worse, he has done nothing for us but to perpetuate the worst that’s in us; he has done nothing to lift us up or make the world a better place. Here is the truth of the Bush legacy, as was written on the Apes’ sacred scrolls in the movie 37 years ago:

Beware the beast, man, for he is the Devil’s pawn. Alone among God’s primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him! Send him to his jungle home. For he is the harbinger of death.

bleak house

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from today’s e-mails:

We’re suffering through a horrible and prolonged war; we’ve neglected critically important domestic issues (education, health care, jobs) for eight years; we’re screwing up the environment at warp speed and are about to have our global economic lunch eaten by China and India.

I guess that about sums it up, huh? But that doesn’t mean I’m going to join something just because they pay Mother Jones to get an e-mail past my spam filter. No time, no time. It came from here, in case you’re interested.