Nov. 21, 2004 | SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- President Bush tried to mend relations in Latin America with fresh promises of immigration reform Sunday while a new security spat surfaced with Chile after an embarrassing fracas in which Bush intervened.
What was supposed to have been an elaborate state dinner with 200 people Sunday was downgraded to an official working dinner, reportedly because Chilean President Ricardo Lagos balked at Secret Service demands for guests to walk through metal detectors. The guest list for the working dinner was pared down to the leaders, their wives and top aides.
On Saturday night, Bush waded into a scuffle that erupted when Chilean authorities blocked the president's Secret Service agents from accompanying him into a dinner. As tempers flared and a shoving match ensued, Bush pushed into the commotion, grabbed his lead agent, Nick Trotta, and pulled him inside.
The incident, shown repeatedly on television worldwide, was an unlikely episode in an otherwise staid gathering of 21 Pacific Rim leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. In a moment of levity, the leaders posed in colorful, hand-woven ponchos -- following the summit tradition of wearing native garb of the host country.
I've needed to e-mail my host family for awhile, but now I'm sort of ashamed to.
lunes, noviembre 22, 2004
viernes, noviembre 19, 2004
miércoles, noviembre 17, 2004
lunes, noviembre 15, 2004
The Life and Times of Big Baby Jesus
Today, on Russell "Rusty" Jones's birthday, we must sadly mourn his sudden and unexpected death last week from what appears to be heart failure. Rather than focus on his myriad gunshots/arrests/gonorrheaoutbreaks/paroles/incarcarations/baby'smommas/bulletproofvests, etc. I think the thing that stands out most in my mind was that amazing article in The Source about him in prison, which I can't find anywhere on the internet. I'm guessing it ran in 2002, before The Trials & Tribulations of Russell Jones came out, a sad commentary on a sadder man, where the writer described Ol' Dirty in a state of physical and mental decay, on suicide watch, toothless and muttering, not even knowing what material would be on The Trials & Tribulations (which was universally panned.) But I can't find it, so this, my second favorite news item, will have to do:
Ol' Dirty Bastard Saves Child
Ol' Dirty's second most noble deed came shortly after that one, at the 1998 Grammys, where he interrupted Shawn Colvin's speech to bum rush the stage and give his opinion on the fact that Puffy had just won album of the year. His speech echoed the sentiments of many:
"Please calm down. I went and bought me an outfit today that cost me a lot of money, because I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win. I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best. I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all, peace."
Sorry if you already read this on Arkansas Rockers. I can't imagine there's much overlap in readership. Two people max. is my estimate. I've been wanting to write an extensive summary of life in Little Rock, which I feel like I've barely posted about at all, but it gets muddled in my head and, like any outsider perspective, could potentially be seen by natives as a massive display of ignorance, a tourist's view. I'm a bit sensitive about that. I was thinking I could make a link to the 4-page thread on ArkansasRockers.com's message board about The Localist/Vinos conspiracy, and provide an appendix with necessary vocab words and personalities like "The Localist," "The Mansion," "T.J. Deeter," "Vinos," "Davey, " etc. but I can't imagine anybody up in the Northeast would actually go through the trouble. If one were so inclined to undertake such an anthropological study, out of sheer voyeuristic obsession with what we can all agree upon is my thrilling existence, where even such mundane facts as where one might eat pizza in Little Rock, Arkansas are small cultural gems of higher knowledge, than they should just call me and we'll work something out.
Ol' Dirty Bastard Saves Child
Ol' Dirty's second most noble deed came shortly after that one, at the 1998 Grammys, where he interrupted Shawn Colvin's speech to bum rush the stage and give his opinion on the fact that Puffy had just won album of the year. His speech echoed the sentiments of many:
"Please calm down. I went and bought me an outfit today that cost me a lot of money, because I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win. I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best. I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all, peace."
Sorry if you already read this on Arkansas Rockers. I can't imagine there's much overlap in readership. Two people max. is my estimate. I've been wanting to write an extensive summary of life in Little Rock, which I feel like I've barely posted about at all, but it gets muddled in my head and, like any outsider perspective, could potentially be seen by natives as a massive display of ignorance, a tourist's view. I'm a bit sensitive about that. I was thinking I could make a link to the 4-page thread on ArkansasRockers.com's message board about The Localist/Vinos conspiracy, and provide an appendix with necessary vocab words and personalities like "The Localist," "The Mansion," "T.J. Deeter," "Vinos," "Davey, " etc. but I can't imagine anybody up in the Northeast would actually go through the trouble. If one were so inclined to undertake such an anthropological study, out of sheer voyeuristic obsession with what we can all agree upon is my thrilling existence, where even such mundane facts as where one might eat pizza in Little Rock, Arkansas are small cultural gems of higher knowledge, than they should just call me and we'll work something out.
jueves, noviembre 11, 2004
It doesn't get any scarier than this...
Congratulatory letter to President George W. Bush from Dr. Bob Jones III:
November 3, 2004
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!
In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.
More of the same.
November 3, 2004
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!
In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.
More of the same.
miércoles, noviembre 10, 2004
Today
The morning was punctuated by three events ocurring between stepping out of my car and arriving at my building:
1. Domestic dispute, where the following was overheard: "Wull Hunny, thar's a reason yew bin married three times."
2. This misplaced campaign of righteousness on a bumper sticker: "No to Mike, yes to Roy: Save Disney."
3. A dead blackbird.
1. Domestic dispute, where the following was overheard: "Wull Hunny, thar's a reason yew bin married three times."
2. This misplaced campaign of righteousness on a bumper sticker: "No to Mike, yes to Roy: Save Disney."
3. A dead blackbird.
lunes, noviembre 08, 2004
I saw The Motorcycle Diaries the other day and liked it quite a bit. It made me rather nostalgic—while in Chile they pass through Temuco, Valparaíso (where I was an exchange student for a year), the Atacama and Chuquicamata, all places I have rather intense emotional memories of.
In other news, I just realized our cat has a Friendster page. She has six testimonials. It's weird to Friendster your cat.
In other news, I just realized our cat has a Friendster page. She has six testimonials. It's weird to Friendster your cat.
miércoles, noviembre 03, 2004
Obligatory Thoughts on the Re-election of GWB
"Having restored decency to the White House, President Bush now has a mandate to affect policy that will promote a more decent society, through both politics and law. His supporters want that, and have given him a mandate in their popular and electoral votes to see to it. Now is the time to begin our long, national cultural renewal ('The Great Relearning,' as novelist Tom Wolfe calls it) — no less in legislation than in federal court appointments. It is, after all, the main reason George W. Bush was reelected."
Thus writes Bill Bennett his doughy face alight in flabby celebration, presiding over a tea party of assholes at The National Review.
Here in Arkansas it was a morning of rain and hangovers, and as Kerry conceded the vote, the final death knell for pluralism in Washington D.C. for a good while, I happened to be fact checking an article on John C. Calhoun. Generally credited with spawning the Civil War, he was advocate number one for secession, putting forth nullification as a Constitutionally-granted State right. I had to wonder what would happen, for a minute, if the entire block of the North seceded this morning. Ideologically, on the Internet at least, it does not seem implausible.
"Despite living here all my life," laments Nathalie, "I'm not familiar with America." Wonkette offers us Harper's guide to expatriation. Over and over we hear of this great cultural divide between the South/Midwest and the Northeast. I feel the need, in the middle of all this, to reflect on the part of the country I just moved to. Since my parents left Minneapolis for Georgia two and a half years ago, I no longer have a home town. I have voted in four different districts since the last presidential election and I have completely lost touch with the people I grew up with. But after four years in Rhode Island it never felt like any sort of home. I love New York but I spent the majority of time there in total solitude and although anti-depressants made this experience much more pleasant than the same experience in Rhode Island, it was still never home.
So culturally, even though it's only been two months, Arkansas is my home. With the exception of Atlanta, where my parents live, I love the little I have seen of the South, I love the people here. Speaking in generalities I relate to them more than I do Northeasterners and life has just come a little bit easier since I moved here. But it makes me really fucking upset that 75% of the voters in Arkansas wanted to ban gay marriage and I may not celebrate Christmas this year in order to protest religious fundamentalist fascist ideologue assholes, even if they are in the vast majority.
HOWEVER, Kerry only lost by some 11 percentage points. We re-elected a Democratic Senator and Congressman. Maybe if a few people in the more liberal states would lose their snooty opinion, because it is snooty my friends, and maybe if they realized how much money they could save by living in, say, Oxford, Mississippi, than in New York, New York and how, particularly if you are a writer, artist-type, you can get a lot more work done and feel much better about yourself than you would surrounded by all the other douchebags trying to do the same thing in Williamsburg, maybe then we could make a political difference.
My friends. We have lost the election. We cannot lose again. The next democratic candidate will be John Edwards, and he'll be a Southerner. Will you let this dumpling of the Carolinas down again? Would you suffer his twinkly smile to falter? In the next four years we need to alter the landscape of the country:
Don't secede, don't expatriate... CARPETBAG IN 2008!
Thus writes Bill Bennett his doughy face alight in flabby celebration, presiding over a tea party of assholes at The National Review.
Here in Arkansas it was a morning of rain and hangovers, and as Kerry conceded the vote, the final death knell for pluralism in Washington D.C. for a good while, I happened to be fact checking an article on John C. Calhoun. Generally credited with spawning the Civil War, he was advocate number one for secession, putting forth nullification as a Constitutionally-granted State right. I had to wonder what would happen, for a minute, if the entire block of the North seceded this morning. Ideologically, on the Internet at least, it does not seem implausible.
"Despite living here all my life," laments Nathalie, "I'm not familiar with America." Wonkette offers us Harper's guide to expatriation. Over and over we hear of this great cultural divide between the South/Midwest and the Northeast. I feel the need, in the middle of all this, to reflect on the part of the country I just moved to. Since my parents left Minneapolis for Georgia two and a half years ago, I no longer have a home town. I have voted in four different districts since the last presidential election and I have completely lost touch with the people I grew up with. But after four years in Rhode Island it never felt like any sort of home. I love New York but I spent the majority of time there in total solitude and although anti-depressants made this experience much more pleasant than the same experience in Rhode Island, it was still never home.
So culturally, even though it's only been two months, Arkansas is my home. With the exception of Atlanta, where my parents live, I love the little I have seen of the South, I love the people here. Speaking in generalities I relate to them more than I do Northeasterners and life has just come a little bit easier since I moved here. But it makes me really fucking upset that 75% of the voters in Arkansas wanted to ban gay marriage and I may not celebrate Christmas this year in order to protest religious fundamentalist fascist ideologue assholes, even if they are in the vast majority.
HOWEVER, Kerry only lost by some 11 percentage points. We re-elected a Democratic Senator and Congressman. Maybe if a few people in the more liberal states would lose their snooty opinion, because it is snooty my friends, and maybe if they realized how much money they could save by living in, say, Oxford, Mississippi, than in New York, New York and how, particularly if you are a writer, artist-type, you can get a lot more work done and feel much better about yourself than you would surrounded by all the other douchebags trying to do the same thing in Williamsburg, maybe then we could make a political difference.
My friends. We have lost the election. We cannot lose again. The next democratic candidate will be John Edwards, and he'll be a Southerner. Will you let this dumpling of the Carolinas down again? Would you suffer his twinkly smile to falter? In the next four years we need to alter the landscape of the country:
Don't secede, don't expatriate... CARPETBAG IN 2008!
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)