Kurdish Surge Calamity in Irbil

It was pretty apparent following Bush's Jan. 10 speech that this particular White House gang didn't have the slightest clue on how to "turn the war around," seeing as how no one in the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis had a clue on the history of the Mesopotamia region to begin with. The raid on the Iranian consulate in Irbil, carried out simultaneously with the president's speech, proved this. For those of you who are not Kurd-aware, the northern sector of Iraq has functioned as a de facto independent Kurdish republic since mid-way through the Clinton era, and the Kurds have always been our close allies during and after the attack on Saddam. (Of course, the Turkish government worries they will declare an independent state that will rile up Kurds living in Turkey -- who are brutally repressed there -- but that's another story.) The problem for Bush is that the Kurds also have traditionally been close to Iran. U.S. forces invaded the Iranian consulate in Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan on Jan. 11 (local time) and took six Iranians hostage. This not only enflamed the international community as much as our Monday bombing of Somalia, it also upset our Kurdish allies because they were not consulted. While few online news sources reported the aftermath, NPR's Morning Edition reported that Kurdish troops (our good buddies and allies until today) held U.S. troops under arms this morning and refused to let them go until Army Black Hawk helicopters came to rescue them. And this is the "good diplomacy" our surging troops will be practicing. Former NSA Director William Odom is right, this surge mission in Iraq will only serve to further fuck things up. We are alienating all our friends and heaping disaster on disaster. OUT NOW!

P.S. Raw Story carried this analysis and CNN YouTube clip, featuring John Pike of globalsecurity.org, predicting that the attack on the Iranian consulate was a deliberate U.S. provocation to force Iran into war. Chilling story, chilling video.

Fascists, Dogmatists, or Just Bigmouths?

Rick Perlstein reviewed Chris Hedges' new book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America in the Jan. 7 NY Times Book Review, and concluded that while Hedges may have some good points, he is a neophyte at studying the religious right, and concludes wrongly that evangelicals are more likely to turn to violence than they were in the past. Now, I loved Hedges' book War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, and I hate to pick on him when some conservative Americans take pleasure in not just chiding him, but physically beating him.

Nevertheless, without reading Hedges' book, I think Perlstein has a point here. There are many authors, from the ones cited by Perlstein to the long-time students of the right like Chip Berlet, who have studied famous evangelicals like James Dobson and their less-famous bretheren for years. They have carefully observed when such groups choose violence, and when they merely talk a good game. People ask me if I ever feel threatened, living in an evangelical town like Colorado Springs. I tell them that the only evangelicals that talked violence tended to be anti-tax militants that clung to the Amendment 2 crowd in 1992, and they are long gone. There is plenty to criticize in Dominionist philosophy, and a lot of warning signals to send. But the left uses the word fascism too much, and Perlstein is right in suggesting Hedges may be too quick to assume evangelicals are ready to enforce right-thinking with violence.

Pynchon AtD Wiki

Finally finished Neal Stephenson's stunning Baroque Cycle trilogy, and it's on to Pynchon's Against the Day. I already disagree with the negative NY Times book review cited earlier in this blog. The book starts with a very funny, adolescent, Jules Verne style look at dirigibles at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, then moves on to violent labor unrest in Colorado, and a Tesla study of polar electromagnetic fields that is as scary and unsettling as anything in Gravity's Rainbow. You won't go far in this book without a guide, and an AtD Wiki already has been created!

What is startling, and may not have been intentional beyond mutual admiration, is how much Stephenson's trilogy serves as a bridge between Mason and Dixon and AtD. Many of Pynchon's works refer to the unifying power of "shit, money, and The Word," which is not explicitly referenced in Stephenson, but serves as a backdrop in all three books. In the end of the trilogy, Sir Isaac Newton, who has been trying to finish a "System of the World" based on calculus and capitalism, must resort to alchemy and the "Philosophick Mercury" to save his life. In AtD, Merle and Webb engage in a discussion of quicksilver, the Philosopher's Stone, and the anti-Stone (like the stone removed from Daniel Waterhouse?), which could have been lifted and condensed directly from Stephenson. Anyway, those who do not find the new Pynchon in the same league as Gravity's Rainbow haven't been paying attention.

Xiu Xiu in Disguise, with Glasses

Something about this cryptic indie-moper column in Pitchfork is incredibly funny, though I'm still not sure about the point regarding enforced poverty the writer is trying to make. Maybe it has something to do with Joni Mitchell's "Boho Dance." In any event, the references to Xiu Xiu, Guided by Voices, Walkmen, Minutemen, and Adbusters magazine are priceless.

Frigid Vigil

2007 begins with the 3000th US death in Iraq. We held a cold candlelight vigil in Acacia Park. These numbers may look small beside the tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, but it's still a grim statistic, made grimmer in my case by a December death that broke my heart.

The Mainstreaming of "Little Miss Sunshine"

Plenty of oddball readers have seen or heard about the Dayton/Faris independent small-budget film, Little Miss Sunshine, which Fox Searchlight decided to distribute. Alan Arkin's role as the foul-mouthed drug-poppin' grandpa took it far from family fare, but DeVotchKa's musical score gave it a special boost for Colorado natives.

I had heard it was doing better than might be expected in DVD release, but it still took me by surprise to see Wal-Mart and Sam's Club offering a Special Sunshine Package, pairing the movie DVD with a DeVotchKa soundtrack. Every so often, the popular culture latches on to something from the wasteland that almost makes us believe in brains among the masses again.

War from Space

Eric Herter directed a wonderful one-hour video from the World Peace Forum. (Disclaimer - I'm giving a presentation about midway through this thing.) Thanks to YouTube for being willing to host an hour-long show, far longer than the typical clip.)