"I'm not sure there's anything these guys wouldn't do to stay in power."
Dr. David Ray Griffin said that on today's Guns and Butter. Let me do the set up. Bonnie Faulkner is the host. Guns and Butter airs each Wednesday at one o'clock pm (Pacific) on KPFA.
This was part two of Dr. Griffin's March 30th speech and he also took questions at the end. He examined the claims of the 9-11 commission and turned them upside down. He addressed the collapse of the towers and what Cheney could have or could not have done on 9-11. What was authorized and when? He really takes apart the 9-11 commission report. He also notes that the commissioners don't appear to have done work but instead to have farmed it out to staff. I made a note on that, so let me dig it out from my purse.
"What do you see Bush doing in October '06?" is one of the questions. I wrote that down. I've also got written down that there's a Guns and Butter benefit on May 2nd at seven pm. It's a showing of the film Loose Change. Where? Somewhere in Oakland but I obviously thought I'd remember where and didn't write it down. I'll find out the location and note it the next time I blog here. I'm thinking it was at the Grand Lake Theater. But I'll check that out.
Mike may try to grab time to blog tomorrow. He's thinking maybe in the early morning hours. It's going to be sad to see everyone go. I was sad just taking Elaine to the airport Sunday. It's really been a wonderful week. Betty's kids are so smart and so much fun. Everything that's new to her daughter is "wonderful." "That's wonderful" she'll say holding something. It's a new word she picked up a few weeks back, Betty said.
Her eyes will go wide when she sees something new and she'll look at you with a hint-hint-hint. When you hand it to her, she'll just study it for the longest and then say, "That's wonderful."
She's so cute doing that. And she loves perfume. Betty warned me not to put on any around her unless I wanted to give her a dab or a spray. She always wants it on her left wrist and she'll bring it up to her nose and do this long sniff. Then look at you smiling and say, "That's wonderful."
The boys are great too but she's the youngest and everything is new to her. It must have rained repeatedly but everytime she'd smile and pronounce it wonderful. She also wants to introduce herself and shake hands everytime she meets someone which Betty says is something her grandfather (Betty's father) taught her. She'll give her name and extend her hand while saying, "And how are you?"
Betty said she's been on her best behavior and not to be fooled into thinking she's always a little angel but that's all I saw this week. Mike and Wally would both ask her after naps, "How was your nap?" "It was wonderful, thank you."
Betty's boys like Jess and Cedric best. They think they are jungle jims, the way they climb on them. Betty warned Cedric the first time he tossed her youngest son in the air that he'd regret it and I keep waiting for Jess or Cedric to say "Oh, my back!" but they've had a blast with the boys. Meanwhile, Mike's been the designated piggy-back giver. They'll take one from Wally or anyone who offers but their preferred choice is Mike because he's so tall. The other thing the boys have enjoyed is playing with Maria's kids.
In a little while, we're going to watch The Take. Mike hadn't seen it and he wasn't the only one.
If you haven't seen The Take, it's a documentary that Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis made about life in Argentina after the economic collapse, when workers began rejecting the neoliberalism that had driven the economy into the ground and taking control of their own lives.
I may end up crashing here because, if you can't tell by the way I leap from topic to topic tonight, I'm really tired. June Pointer died Tuesday and Rebecca's "june pointer 1953-2006" is a pretty good look at the Pointer Sisters career.
My favorite comment this week was yesterday when Jim was talking about how tired he was, not complaining, just talking about it, and Dona said, "Now do you get why it's too much to expect marathon sessions every Sunday?" I'm sure come this weekend, Jim will be urging us all to put in more hours but right now, at least, I think he gets that by the time the edition starts, C.I. has put in a full day and then some. By the way, I loved what C.I. dictated re: John Kerry today.
The biggest shock? To my system anyway, that everyone expects to eat by 5:30. I know it's 8:30 for most of them but I'm not used to eating that early. (8:30 if they were back east.)
I just think it's been really great for us to all get together, even for the ones that were only here over the weekend.
C.I. has the new issue of Ms. in here so let me flip through that and find something because I really feel like anyone trying to read this is going to give up because I'm so tired. Okay, in the letters, there's a comment about moving Ms., when you find it in the stores, to the front. Great idea. But don't go to a bookstore or Tower with C.I. You have to redo the whole magazine rack. Yes, Ms. goes to the front, but The New Republican goes to the back, under other magazines, The Progressive, The Nation come to the front and you're not done yet. By the time you're done, the magazine rack looks completely different. (Better in my opinion.) The first time that happened, or the first time I was along for it, we were about to check out and C.I. says "Just a second" and I'm thinking "Oh, we're going to look at magazines." No, we were going to rearrange them.
I'm flipping through the magazine and there's a really nice two page spread on Coretta Scott King entitled "A Revolutionary Woman." I'm going to offer the concluding paragraph:
When the grand narrative of American feminism is rewritten, it will be a more extraordinary "herstory" when the pantheon of women warriors is expanded. Coretta Scott King will join her fallen African American sisters -- Anna Julia Cooper, Ida Wells-Barnett, Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Audre Lorde, June Jordan -- whose collective battles against multiple forms of oppression have been as inspirational, as compelling and as transgressive as those of the more celebrated icons of the women's movement. When we retell the story of radical African American activism in the 20th century, we can finally embrace Coretta Scott King as the truly revolutionary figure she was.
That was written by Beverly Guy-Sheftall, by the way. There's also an article on Ani DiFranco purchasing a church that was about to be torn down in her hometown of Buffalo. She's going to move her offices into the second floor and hold poetry and concerts in the auditorium -- yes, that includes her own performances so let's hope that means she's mended since she had to cancel her concert. I'm so used to seeing her in dreads, I kept passing this article. It's noted on the cover but I kept flipping through trying to find it.
Mike just ran in to say he had just blogged and that it's time for the movie so I'll stop.
