Close Guantánamo!

On the sixth anniversary of the arrival of prisoners to Guantánamo Bay, the ACLU is sponsoring a protest against the U.S. use of torture.

Wear orange on Friday, January 11 and join the ACLU of Utah for a candlelight vigil from 5 to 6 pm at the Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City. We all need to raise our voices to end the shame of Guantánamo. Details below from the ACLU.


"We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture."
— George W. Bush

January 11, 2008, marks the six-year anniversary of the first arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. It is deplorable that this illegal detention center persists as a stain on our international reputation and an open assault on basic human rights.

On Friday, January 11, the ACLU of Utah is hosting a special “Close Guantánamo” Candlelight Vigil at the Federal Building (125 S. State St. in downtown Salt Lake City) from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

We are asking Utahns of conscience to display their outrage and sorrow over the torture and indefinite detention being carried out in our names by attending this vigil. We will be giving out "Close Guantánamo" T-shirts and armbands, providing candles, and distributing printed fact sheets you can share with your family, friends and colleagues.

If you are not able to attend, please participate in this critical action by wearing orange on January 11 to show your solidarity with the cause of "Closing Guantánamo!"

The ACLU of Utah, in recognition of this unfortunate anniversary, also will be hosting a screening of the ACLU-produced Freedom Files' "Freedom from Abuse of Power: Torture and Unlawful Imprisonment" on Wednesday, January 30, from 6:30 to 8:00 (location TBA). Dr. Tim Chambless, University of Utah professor of political science, will introduce and lead a discussion about the 30-minute film. Learn more about the ACLU's Freedom Files at www.aclu.tv/

For more information about the Candlelight Vigil, Film Screening and other ACLU of Utah events, please contact Anna Brower at abrower@acluutah.org.

www.aclu.org/closegitmo

Two Mikes

It is almost 1:00 pm and I am still in jammies. A lazy morning of watching snow fall and reading the weird news of the Salt Lake Tribune.

The most striking weirdness was the cover story in Parade Magazine. The cover features assassinated Pakistani leader, Benazir Bhutto, with an accompanying quote, "I Am What the Terrorists Most Fear." The interview from Pakistan by Gail Sheehy poses the question, "Is Benazir Bhutto America's best hope against al-Quaeda?"

The article, dated January 6, 2008, makes no mention of Bhutto's assassination more than a week ago.
Parade acknowledges that the issue went to press before Bhutto's death, but you'd think they'd print some kind of disclaimer. The photo on the left features Bhutto speaking to a crowd of supporters on Dec. 27, 2007. She was shot as she left the rally and immediately thereafter, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb that killed at least 20 others.

Other weird news includes the disclosure that Mikey-boy Leavitt, of the whirling-disease Leavitts beloved throughout Utah, held "Early Morning Seminary" meetings with his advisers during his tenure as governor. Now serving as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Leavitt had hoped to bar the transcripts of said meetings from public access. Happily, the Utah State Archives ruled that the transcripts will remain public.

What a counter-story to Mitt's Kennedy impersonation.


And finally, in a discussion close to my heart, the slimy maneuverings of another Utah son, Rep. Mike Morley, R-Spanish Fork, are affecting all kinds of people in Utah, including kids at the charter school, Dual Immersion Academy here in Glendale. For the past few months, students have been eating in a tent set up on the school's playground. Why? Because Slimy Mike's company, U.S. Charter Development, won't fix the academy's mold-making leaky roof. The company builds charter schools and is owned by Morley and two former State legislators, Jim Ferrin and Glenn Way.

Paul Rolly's article focuses on Slimy Mike's current bid (as owner of 5 construction companies) to revoke workers' comp benefits to people who are in this country illegally. This from a guy who employs mainly immigrant workers. What a perfect set-up for exploitation. Welcome to the Right-to-Work State.

Well, that's the news of two Mikes.

The sun seems to be coming through a grey sky, but more snow was promised. We're going to watch a scary movie and a western. Then tomorrow--back to school. Yikes.

The Fifth of January

"Ofrenda" by Karen Winters.

Campaign Rant

Hillary did NOT win Iowa! I have no love for Mrs. Clinton, but there's some twinge of regret I feel for her big loss. Her whole life she's worked for this race. Just a twinge, mind you. As a person (or at least, the persona he projects), I like Obama, but what's the difference, really, between Barack and Hillary? Yeah yeah--race. gender. experience. But what real alternatives to the status quo do either offer?

Yesterday's Democracy Now confirms my suspicions about both of them, as well as the frontrunning Republicans. Amy interviewed Allan Nairn, an independent journalist ("News & Comment" http://newsc.blogspot.com), and Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, a freelance journalist whose article, "War Whisperers" appeared in the American Conservative, in a discussion about the leading candidates' advisers and their participation in atrocities around the world.

If you continue to think, 13+ months after November, 2006, that the Democrats offer ANY hope of change, here's further evidence to the contrary. Barack Obama's top advisor? Zbigniew Brzezinski. Remember him? Among many other accomplishments, Brzezinski created, proudly, the Afghan jihadi movement, which created Osama Bin Laden. According to Nairn, Brzeznski was asked by an interviewer,

“Well, don’t you think this might have had some bad consequences?” And Brzezinski replied, “Absolutely not. It was definitely worth it, because we were going after the Soviets. We were getting the Soviets.” Another top Obama person—

AMY GOODMAN: I think his comment actually was, “What’s a few riled-up Muslims?” And this, that whole idea of blowback, the idea of arming, financing, training the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, including Osama bin Laden, and then when they’re done with the Soviets, they set their sights, well, on the United States.

ALLAN NAIRN: Right. And later, during Bill Clinton’s administration, during the Bosnia killing, the US actually flew some of the Afghan Mujahideen, the early al-Qaeda people—the US actually arranged for them to be flown from there to Bosnia to fight on the Muslim/NATO side.

Obama's other key advisers include Anthony Lake, General Merrill McPeak, Dennis Ross, and Sarah Sewall. Anthony Lake orchestrated the US invasion of Haiti during the Clinton administration. Nairn says that

...they brought back Aristide essentially in political chains, pledged to support a World Bank/IMF overhaul of the economy, which resulted in an increase in malnutrition deaths among Haitians and set the stage for the current ongoing political disaster in Haiti.

General McPeak was behind the massacre in Dili, East Timor in 1991 (which Nairn and Amy Goodman survived). Obama adviser Dennis Ross served both Bushes and Clinton as an adviser on Israel and Palestine. Ross advocated the subordination of the Palestinians' internationally-recognized legal rights to the "needs of the Israeli government." According to Nairn, Ross led the attack on Carter's endorsement of Bishop Desmond Tutu's comparison of Israel's position in the occupied territories to aparthied. Finally, Sarah Sewall is the author of the General Petraeus’s Marine Corps/Army counterinsurgency handbook, which Nairn claims is "now being used worldwide by US troops in various killing operations."

So much for Obama. Of course, you know Clinton is being advised by Madeleine Albright and Wesley Clark, among other "throwbacks" (Vlahos).

Even Edwards, whom I was glad to see come in second in Iowa, apparently has some sketchy affiliations with defense lobbyists.

Why do we keep pinning our hopes on presidential elections? Why do we keep thinking those with power will cede any of it to justice? I never thought I'd look back on the 2000 elections with nostalgia, but wouldn't it be nice to hear some dissenting voices once in a while? Sure, Dennis Kucinich keeps talking, and I truly appreciate his heart, but where are the gadflies? Where's Ralph? I'm not interested in Ralph running again, but I sure would like to hear him talk more often. You know, about corporate power and civic duty. Democracy.

I'd like to hear the so-called analysts talk about something other than how much money the candidates raise. The other night on Jim Lehrer, an interviewer asked a talking head about whether the candidates were addressing issues, "issues in the classical sense" (emphasis mine). The head responded that issues provided "the lay of the land" but had not been "central" to most campaigns. What the hell does that mean?

One more day into 2008, blue sky in Salt Lake City and a storm on the way.

Enjoy.

Sweeney Todd Ramble

Speaking of blood (as I was yesterday describing my mother's wedding outfit), we saw "Sweeney Todd" last Sunday. J & J told me about a review that described the opening scene as raining blood on London. Well...splattering maybe. Thick, viscous, bright red splatters that looked like paint. And just a few splatters. All the blood in the movie (and yes, there was plenty of it) looked cartoonish (as did Sacha Baron Cohen's tube-sock bulge and side curls).

Okay, I didn't watch all slicings of throats. The "arterial spray", as my sister told me it was described on NPR, was hideous even in its exaggeration. I am not a fan of gore. But again, it was cartoonish gore in a musical about a demon barber, after all. The movie was a beautifully acted and surprisingly tragic interpretation of Sondheim's over-the-top, Tony-award winning 1979 production (which I loved, at least on vinyl & video). The only thing missing was the title song.

Helena Bonham Carter was especially touching as the devious, kind Mrs. Lovett. Her portrayal is more heartwrenching than Angela Lansbury's blowsy 1979 Mrs. Lovett (whom I adored). Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett, who resembles the Corpse Bride she played in Burton's 2005 animated film, is certainly blowsy, but she is tender in a way that also recalls her corpse bride. Her adoration of "Mr. T" reminded me of her Ophelia. Neither she nor Johnny Depp can sing like Angela Lansbury or Len Cariou, but they both made the roles their own.

What can anyone say about Mr. Depp? The man is a pleasure to watch, unquestionably. But what impresses me is that despite his rockgod image, he is not Johnny Depp as "Sweeney Todd" or "Jack Sparrow" or "Edward Scissorhands". It's like he channels each character. He articulates Jack Sparrow with a psychological complexity that creates Jack Sparrow (a fairly two-dimensional role) as a cinematic figure, a narrative icon. Can you imagine the "Pirates" series being as successful without Depp's Sparrow?

Luckily, in "Sweeney Todd", Mr. Depp's co-actors are equally brilliant. Alan Rickman, as ever, seethes with evil as the vain Judge Turpin. My introduction to Mr. Rickman was in the 1990 film, "Truly, Madly, Deeply" where his character was anything but evil. As Snape, he manages, through the character's apparent evil, to project a wounded morality. Not so Judge Turpin, who is disgusting from his first appearance. However, as the judge encounters Sweeney Todd for the last time, Rickman somehow elicits sympathy, singing to his death. My favorite interpretation was Timothy Spall's oddly foppish Beadle Bamford.

Several of the supporting roles were played by young unknowns who were pretty fine singers. Sprite-faced Jayne Wisener played Johanna. Jamie Campbell Bower played Anthony Hope, which was a bit weird because his sailor was prettier than Johanna. Most impressive was Toby, played by the large-voiced and tiny-bodied Ed Sanders.

Part of Mrs. Lovett's charm is her affection for Toby, who like the Beggar Woman, is one of the story's moral compasses. Yet her real affection is for Mr. T, which is perhaps the reason for her particular (and troubling) demise. When Sweeney Todd discovers Mrs. Lovett's crimes, her consequences were the most disturbing of Mr. Todd's retributions. I secretly wished she could achieve her "By the Sea" fantasy with Mr. T and Toby. Clearly, that wasn't going to happen, and it is to Mr. Burton's credit that his "Sweeney Todd" rejects all sentimentality. None of the characters in this production are redeemed, not even Johanna and Anthony. He disrupts any possibility of a happy ending.

Mrs. Lovett's and Sacha Baron Cohen's Perrelli's are the two longest death scenes in the film. Interestingly, Baron Cohen's Perrelli, despite the impressive bulge*, is a very feminized character. Just saying, on our little and big screens, the iconic image these days is the feminized corpse and/or the slow transformation of femme into corpse. I would like to think that Tim Burton, in Sweeney Todd (as in the Corpse Bride), manipulates and somehow subverts that image. But I'm not sure. Anyway, it is the best movie I've seen in the theater since "No Country for Old Men" (the only two movies I've seen in the past three months).

Now that I think of it, both films left a similar residue. Kinda viscous and red.

*Because of? I understand that Baron Cohen chose the look and that no pictures of his character were released before the film.

44 Years

Today is my parents' 44th wedding anniversary. They were married in Salt Lake's City & County Building, pictured here. My mother wore a blood-red skirt suit and matching pillbox hat. Happiest of Anniversaries to you, my dear Mom & Dad.

Personal Best News of 2007

6. Steve invited me to teach a nonfiction class this summer in Sušice, Czech Republic, and the Writing Program approved it.
5. Ralph Becker is Salt Lake City's new mayor.
4. We have two incomes again.
3. My son enjoys science labs and writing papers for his geography class.
2. My brother and Summer got married.
1. My mother's neck healed.