Birthday Greetings and Restless Farewells

Today is Bob Dylan’s 65th birthday, and as good a reason as any to hoist one for the “Master of the Motherfucking Universal Truth.”

Unfortunately, it is also a day of very mixed emotions as it marks the end of I See Hawks in L.A.’s "Acoustic Wednesdays" residency at Cole’s in downtown Los Angeles. These shows began with a one-time booking in February, 2003 and their unique brand of Subterranean Urban Bluegrass (with a borderline eco-radical edge) quickly became a Wednesday staple. In the past couple of months, the shows have moved to Fridays, but the Hawks are returning this evening for the last send off before hitting the road in support of their phenomenal new CD, "California Country."

Dylan’s one-time fiddler, Freddy Koella, is also slated to perform, but this is not the only Dylan/Cole's/Hawks connection. While living in Los Angeles during the late 30’s, Woody Guthrie (according to “Bound For Glory”) frequented saloons in the skid row area, performing inside them when he could get in and busking outside when he couldn’t. While I’ve never found specific reference to Cole’s, it is extremely likely that Woody once played in the same room where the Hawks will play tonight.

It was hoped that the Hawks could continue their residency through to the 100th anniversary of Cole’s in 2008, but the business has been sold and (from word of mouth) the new management apparently plans to appeal to the new urban chic that is expected to fill the newly refurbished lofts in the area. I can't imagine the funky/bohemian/hippie/barefoot crowd being afforded the welcoming atmosphere that exists now.

In addition to my birthday wishes to Bob, I also want to extend thanks and everlasting gratitude to the Hawks and all the other musicians who have performed at Cole's and brought their magic to this very special place. Thanks to Ali Mazarei, the world's greatest bartender, for bringing us together and to Ali's "backups," Kristen, Laura (you won't be forgotten), Adam and Eric. And finally, thanks to all the friends I’ve made at Cole’s. You have made the past three years extremely special and absolutely unforgettable. Over those many sultry and muggy evenings in the music room, we learned that we were all "raised by hippies" in one way or another and found comfort in the belief that "everytime a glass breaks, an angel gets it's wings."

No a Pascua Lama

Earlier this morning, I received the following e-mail petition from a friend and sadly, a Google search revealed the claims about this project to be accurate.

You can go to the official petition site by clicking here.

Subject: Care for the earth

If you care about our earth, judge for yourself if you want to take action.

In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers.

Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it.

Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area.

Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.

The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.

The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior. (now, there's a surprise !)

The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006.

The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution.

If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the two rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process.

Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.

The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior.

Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice.

The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here.

You'd think the religious right would be relieved about this!

Today's laugh of the day comes from IMdB News:

McKellen Courts Controversy

English actor Ian McKellen is bemused by the controversy over The Da Vinci Code novel and movie, insisting Christians should be happy with the theory that Jesus Christ married and produced a bloodline. The gay star, who plays Sir Leigh Teabing in the Ron Howard movie, supports the fictional plot that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, because it would prove the prophet wasn't a homosexual. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Wednesday, McKellen said, "When I read the book I believed it entirely. I thought that Leigh Teabing argued his case very convincingly indeed, and clever Dan Brown for twisting my mind in the right direction. And when I put the book down, I thought what a load of... and that's still going on in my mind. I'm very happy to believe that Jesus was married. And I know the Catholic church has problems with gay people and so this would be absolute proof that Jesus was not gay."

The story continues......

From an e-mail sent today by Truthout to its subscribers:

How Accurate Was the 'Rove Indicted' Story?

On Saturday afternoon, we ran a breaking story titled, "Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators." We assumed that we were well ahead of the mainstream media and that we would be subsequently questioned. Right on both counts.

What everyone is asking right now is how accurate is the story? Has Rove in fact been indicted? The story is accurate, and Karl Rove's attorneys have been served with an indictment.

In short, we had two sources close to the Fitzgerald investigation who were explicit about the information that we published, and a former high-ranking state department official who reported communication with a source who had "direct knowledge" of the meeting at Patton Boggs. In both instances, substantial detail was provided and matched.

We had confirmation. We ran the story.

The Latest Example of the Formerly Free Press

I was just reading an article which appeared in today's Washington Post about the firing of Mary McCarthy and stopped dead when I came to the following statement:

She was a contributor in 2004 to the presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), and a former colleague of two Clinton aides - Richard A. Clarke and Rand Beers - who had publicly assailed what they considered President Bush's misguided focus on Iraq.

While her political contributions may or may not be germane to this story, they are nonetheless public information and the claim here is accurate, though incomplete. (According to OpenSecrets, in addition to her March 2004 donation of $2,000 to John Kerry, she also donated $5,000 in October of 2004 to the Democratic Party of Ohio).

What is also incomplete and particularly reprehensible is that, in the attempt to paint McCarthy as a dangerous, disgruntled employee, the Post completely neglected to point out that Clarke and Beers were not only "Clinton aides," but that each man has a resume which includes both National Security and/or State Department service for President Reagan, and both Presidents Bush, in addition to Clinton.

And this is the same Washington Post that is so often derided by the right and held up as a prime example of the “Liberal media.”

Somewhere in Hell, John Mitchell must be laughing his ass off.

Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators

Kudos to truthout for living up to it's name and getting the word out on this story.

Even though truthout went on the record with this story yesterday, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, and most of the sites that I list on the right side of this blog have (as of this writing) failed to make any mention of it. (To their credit however, Truthdig did report the truthout story.)

So again, congratulations to truthout and Truthdig. To the others, make a note to remind yourselves that the news is a 24/7 business!

Update - May 14, 2006
A search on "Rove" in Google News shows that while a few other outlets (including Bob Cesca on the Huffington Post) are reporting on this, all seem carry a direct reference to the Truthout/Jason Leopold report.

Surely, by this time, the Truthout story is in and of itself worthy of consideration as "news." Are all other papers and news services so fearful of the Administration's wrath that they are not even running a report, or are they just sorely pissed that a non-corporate, online news outlet grabbed what will probably be one of the scoops of the year?

Novogenarians say the darndest things!

On a day when the blogosphere is awash with speculation that the Porter Goss resignation might be connected with the Watergate Hooker (yes, Watergate AND Hookers, oh my!) scandal, this has got to be the line of the day:

A colleague of mine just told me that a couple of days ago he was visiting his mother in a retirement home. They were sitting in the TV room and Bill Clinton was being interviewed on CNN.

An elderly woman sitting near them sighed, then turned to my colleague and said: “You know, they’re still giving him trouble over that blowjob!”