Federal Bureau of Intimidation

(title brazenly stolen from an amazing article by Howard Zinn, which can be found here)

"Civil rights advocates, relying largely on anecdotal evidence, have complained for months that federal officials have surreptitiously sought to suppress the First Amendment rights of antiwar demonstrators... The F.B.I. memorandum, however, appears to offer the first corroboration of a coordinated, nationwide effort to collect intelligence regarding demonstrations." [New York Times link; free registration required]

Looks like we're in for a return to the bad old days of COINTELPRO.

And interestingly enough, I can supply some of that aforementioned "anecdotal evidence" myself (nothing affecting me directly, just some stuff I've seen happen with a friend). But not here. Hell, after re-reading that COINTELPRO shit even writing this much makes me think that John "Let The Eagle Soar" Ashcroft is gonna show up on my doorstep, all sweaty and stuff.

(If you have read that last article from The Guardian, you've learned that Ashcroft allegedly believes that calico cats are signs of the devil. Here's how America's calicos feel about that)

A Trip to the Anti-FTAA Convergence Space in Miami

The FTAA conference (held just south of me, in Miami) is over. In what many anti-globalization advocates are seeing as a partial victory, a sort of "FTAA-Lite" ended up being agreed upon by potential member nations. It's not a wonderful agreement, but many of the more offensive provisions are now missing; unfortunately, an attempt by Venezuela to infuse some human rights protections to the agreement was shot down. It would still seem that human rights are bad for business.

The protests got a little violent- thanks to the police. Undercover police agitators apparently engaged in mock entanglements with the police, giving them the necessary excuse to beat, taser, shoot with rubber bullets, pepper-spray and arrest protesters at will.

I didn't participate in the demonstrations; I've been taking too many sick/personal days lately, and couldn't afford to miss any more work. I really wanted to get involved, though, and have felt a calling to go down there and see what was happening for myself. So when my friend Sheryl (a lawyer who is volunteering as a legal observer to help protect demonstrators) asked me if I wanted to go down to the convergence space, I felt I had to go.

It was beautiful. You've no doubt heard about these "anarchists" who want to destroy property and promote violence... suffice it to say that it's all bullshit.

I think what struck me the most was the contrast between the protesters and the architects of global trade. The latter are working in secrecy, in an undemocratic fashion, formulating trade agreements that will have power over hundreds of millions of lives without giving the people any latitude over how those agreements will be implemented. As for the police enforcing the lockdown of downtown Miami, many demonstrators felt bad about the hate and fear on their faces as they attacked the people who were peacefully assembling.

The protestors at the convergence center, on the other hand, were genuinely warm and open. They worked by consensus whenever decisions that involved everyone had to be made (in stark contrast to the faceless designers of the FTAA agreement). And there were some brilliant people there... Sheryl and I ended up giving a ride to a couple of seventeen-year-old girls who were incredibly well-informed. I got involved in a long conversation about literature with one of them, and as we talked about Camus, DeLillo and the Beats I couldn't believe that this amazing girl wasn't even old enough to legally buy cigarettes (if you ever happen to read this, L., I hope you are well and safe).

This experience left me feeling good about this whole movement. We've all heard the Biblical quote "By their fruits shall you know them." The fruits of the FTAA will be wealth for a few and increased poverty for many, the continued (and accelerated) destruction of our living space, the disenfranchisement of people who have no venue to speak truth to power. On the other hand the fruits of the anti-globalization movement, should its goals be reached, will be economic and social justice, a sustainable world, true democracy, and the dropping of the bullshit attitude that we as Americans are somehow more entitled to the good things that life has to offer than a maquiladora worker in Tijuana or a farmer in Chiapas.

I'm really glad I went.

An arrest warrant is issued for Michael Jackson. As if you haven't heard this on the news already.

Jackson's spokesman Stuart Backerman has stated "Michael would never harm a child in any way. These scurrilous and totally unfounded allegations will be proven false in a courtroom."

Michael Jackson's spokesman. Now there's a job for an optimist.

I fully expect the next statement to read, "For the record, Michael would like to state that Billie Jean is not now, and never has been, his lover. She is just a misguided girl who says he is the one, and is unjustly taking advantage of Michael's considerable wealth and celebrity by filing this suit.

"And despite the district attorney's outrageous allegations, the kid is not his son."

I have been so preoccupied with Julie's health and my job(s) that I, uh, completely forgot about grad school applications. Oops.

I'm really, really bummed. I planned on applying to the Eastman School of Music, and I think I had a real shot at getting into their master's progam in choral conducting. But they need all materials by December 1st, and I wasn't anticipating the stress I would be under in mid-October (I was planning on doing all of this stuff at the end of that month). There's no way I'm going to be able to get all of my recommendation letters and supplementary materials in by that time. My audition tape is done, fortunately, and it's good. But even if I overnighted the recommendation letter forms to all of my references, paid the money to have said letters overnighted back to me, and finished the voluminous application, I'd still probably miss the deadline. After all I still have a full-time job, work three nights a week besides, have family coming into town over Thanksgiving (which is really frigging awesome- none of my friends or family in Cali have been able to visit me in Florida until now), and am trying to chill with Julie as much as possible.

So I'm confining the search to Florida universities. I have an audition for the program at the University of South Florida a week from tomorrow, and am also going to submit applications to the University of Florida and the University of Miami. All three schools have excellent conducting programs, so it will be alright.

Kurt Vonnegut's latest column is now up at inthesetimes.com.

Best line: "You and the police are entitled to know, since I am going to spend the night near you, that I am both a Humanist and a Luddite. I may hold a Black Mass in the parking garage of the Best Western Hotel, if I can find a neo-conservative baby to sacrifice."

And he re-uses a line that initially appeared in Timequake (I think): "If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts."

Man, Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and Timequake should be required reading for everyone.

Miami Book Fair

The Miami Book Fair is an annual event sponsored by Miami-Dade College. The highlight (for bibliophiles such as myself, at least) is the street fair, a glorious mess sprawling over four streets over the course of a weekend in downtown Miami.

I mostly went to see Howard Zinn speak. Zinn is professor emeritus of history at Boston University, a radical historian, and author of many wonderful books (the best known of which is A People's History of the United States. Read it, if you haven't already; it will beat your ass with a wooden spoon). I then hung around the fair and spent some cash.

n.b.: all photos were taken with a crappy instant camera.


Professor Zinn's talk was wonderful. He is engaging and witty, and really knows his facts. Having someone like this speaking truth to power really gives me hope (perhaps misguided) that we're not all screwed.


Howard Zinn with some random, scruffy guy at the autograph table. (done in grayscale because I looked blotchier then a plague victim)


It wouldn't be Miami without some random protester outside any given event. I think he's telling Bush to crack down on Fidel, but I'm not sure.

My union has reached a tentative agreement in its contract talks with the school board, after being at an impasse for several months. Negotiations were probably helped by the revelation that MDCPS was hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in the budget.

My pay only increases by $500 or so under this contract... but it looks like our insurance costs aren't going to be overly horrible (the plan the school board wanted to stick us with was vile). This is good, I think- I need to read a little more about the insurance proposal.

Blogger Is Completely And Totally Rad

For about a month or so I've wanted to upgrade to "Blog*Spot Plus," mostly for easy image posting. The "upgrade" links weren't working, and I fired off an email to Blogger support essentially saying "Please let me give you my money!"

So they hooked me up with a free Blog*Spot Plus account.

That is beyond awesome. I'm not certain why they did so; possibly a combination of the fact that I've obsessively used Blogger for over a year-and-a-half, my active attempts to upgrade, and the "whininess" (unrelated to Blogger) in recent posts. Whatever the reason, I'm totally grateful.

What this means for "the bone:"

1. That Google ad formerly found at the top of the page is gone. And not a moment too soon; Google analyzes your page and determines what ads to place based on the (contextless) text. Because I bitch and moan about Republicans, many of the recent ads have been for things like the Republican National Committee. This would lead the casual visitor to my blog to conclude that I endorse these people and their foolishness. Which, I must state for the record, I do not.

2. Pictures. Tone graciously offered to host images for me on the server that he's using, but since Blog*Spot Plus includes image hosting that won't be necessary. Thanks anyway, Tone... much appreciated! Now I can post, for instance, the pics of me and Howard Zinn from the Miami Book Fair last weekend (more on that later). It also gives me a reason to try and find an inexpensive digital camera.

3. I now can see who (kind of) is visiting my blog, and where they have been referred from. Since this information will no doubt confirm that only a handful of people actually read this rag, this will result in my deflated ego, which is good for the important character trait "humility."

4. My brand loyalty to Blogger has been cemented. They are rockin' like Dokken.

Mates of Angst

I drove for an hour to get to West Palm for the Mates of State show. Upon arriving, I found that:

a) they were already playing when I got there;

b) the show was sold out anyway.

So I fumed non-stop during the hour-long trip home.

The way my life has been going lately, I shouldn't have been surprised. Julie's health is significantly worse (email for details, if you care), I'm up to my ass in grad-school application/audition preparation, my teaching schedule at Stadium Elementary keeps changing even though we're in the tenth week of school, I have chronic laryngitis, and I'm broke as hell.

If God exists, all available evidence suggests that He (or She) hates my silly ass.

I took Julie's car to work today. The advantage of driving her car is the CD player inside (my combined anniversary/graduation present to her last May). I was so much happier this morning than usual... probably because I didn't spend the whole drive listening to the news. Instead, I had Mates of State cranked, getting myself psyched for their show in West Palm Beach tonight.

Obligatory political link, from The Center For Responsive Politics: An update on the fundraising efforts of Bush and the myriad Democratic candidates. Very, very interesting. I'm appalled that Lyndon fucking LaRouche (a complete wackaloon) has rasied more money to date then Kucinich, Moseley Brown and Sharpton (the only Dems I could give a shit about at this stage) combined. What bullshit.

The Presidentor

Senator Orrin Hatch (who is apparently a close friend of Der Terminfuerher) has introduced a bill which would amend the Constitution so that foreign-born citizens can run for President.

Sure, I'm concerned about the potential election of "President Schwarzenegger..." but the prospect of President Rupert Murdoch (a native Australian) scares the hell out of me.

About that CBSNews.com link... they announce their affiliation with The Weekly Standard and The New Republic, and then disingenuously state that the latter rag leans to the "left." Bullshit. Andrew Sullivan is a columnist there, for cryin' out loud.