February 2008 Archives

I've been thinking a lot about creative practices that actually move beyond critique and push against specific American policy. I'm not sure if these films do, in and of themselves, but they certainly document a time of direct action, and the frightful reprisals that befell those who attempted to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Ann Hornaday's story in the Washington Post provides a good historical lead up to Brett Morgan's new film by pointing out how much it owes to Haskel Wexler's 1969 directorial debut Medium Cool. The quote in this blog's title is from her article. Here's the original trailer. Check it out!
By the way, according to this interview with Brett in IndeWIRE, Spielberg will make the next, more "mature", incarnation of this continually-reworked story. Is this like our generation's version of an "oral tradition"--retelling this event through film? Anyway, I think it's a legend worth hearing, thinking  and talking about right now as the convention season is upon us.
Check out these clips at NPR to get a feel of the new Morgan Film. And for more, I found these excellent photos from the protest along with some writing by Jo Freeman at her website.

Bob Dylan's Elvis period--an unchanging command for feather-lickin'-good state terrorism!
Oh, this kind of writing is really great!
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1440&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=135

http://desperationexhibition.blogspot.com/
The Audacity of Desperation: a call for work
Deadline March 10, 2008
Exhibition dates: April 4- May 11 at the Indy Media Center in Urbana, Il.
and in Los Angeles Fall 2008 at Sea and Space
Organized by Sarah Ross and Jessica Lawless

The Audacity of Desperation is an art exhibition, political action, and on-going dialogue. We are currently seeking distributable artworks addressing the topic of "desperation." In November 2008 something is going to change. The worst president ever will finally be voted out of the Whitehouse. But, as the infamous writing on the wall reads, IF VOTING CHANGED ANYTHING THEY'D MAKE IT ILLEGAL. Works should exist in multiples with the intention to be freely distributed to audiences. Media can include, but is not at all limited to: posters, stickers, stencils, zines, stamps- ink and postage - buttons, CD's/DVD's, postcards, t-shirts and manifestos.

Please send submissions, questions or inquires to: desperationexhibition@gmail.com
We prefer digital submissions. The file size does not need to reflect your final piece.
For more information: http://desperationexhibition.blogspot.com/

If it is not possible to send a digital reproduction, send your submission to:
Desperation submission
C/o jessica lawless
7523 1/2 Lexington Ave.
West Hollywood, CA 90046

http://www.happybirthdaypeace.com/1194959839.cms

The disarmament symbol



The history of the disarmament symbol has been subject to much speculation over the years. It was actually designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional artist and graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He presented his early designs to the Peace News office in North London and, significantly, to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of the groups that helped to set up the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The symbol was first seen in public during the 1958 Aldermaston march and from that moment onwards became identified with CND and its objective of nuclear disarmament.

Ironically the symbol itself is a mix of the military semaphore signals N -- representing nuclear -- and D -- representing disarmament (semaphore alphabet). However, Holtom, a conscientious objector during the Second World War, subverted this use of semaphores by placing the D over the N, the "upside down logo" signifying his anti-military principles. In a more personal account of his design, Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of Peace News, saying,

'I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it.'

Although there remain alternative stories explaining the logo, the letters and interviews of Gerald Holtom clearly demonstrate the roots of his idea.

If oil is what the US seeks, and a prone and suffering Iraq keeps us from acquiring it, it seems that the age old practice of waterboarding is a perfect metaphor for the US's otherwise inscrutable policy of endless, bloody gamesmanship in Iraq.

The practice of waterboarding, historically inflicted by thugs like Spanish Inquisitors, Dutch Colonialists, the Gestapo and the French during the Algerian War, involves immobilization, like being strapped to a board, and swaddling of the face through which water is poured. A skilled torturer keeps a victim on the verge of death by drowning and often accompanies this by beating the victim's bloated body and stomach for additional effect. Mishaps were frequent during the Algerian War according French Journalist Henri Alleg. He writes about his torture, recalling:

Water flowed everywhere: in my mouth, in my nose, all over my face. But for a while I could still breathe in some small gulps of air. I tried, by contracting my throat, to take in as little water as possible and to resist suffocation by keeping air in my lungs for as long as I could. But I couldn't hold on for more than a few moments. I had the impression of drowning, and a terrible agony, that of death itself, took possession of me. In spite of myself, all the muscles of my body struggled uselessly to save me from suffocation. In spite of myself, the fingers of both my hands shook uncontrollably.

Consider, then, Vice President Dick Cheney's answer to WDAY's Scott Hennen's question about waterboarding. Dick said, "...that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided us with enormously valuable information about how many there are, about how they plan, what their training processes are and so forth, we've learned a lot. We need to be able to continue that."
The process of holding a body prostrate, in pain with the psychological fear of death at any moment, as we can see, is a method embraced by the US officials like Dick Cheney. Why then should we believe that they would treat a political body that they wish to control any different? Internally, Iraq struggles with conflicting needs, the way a waterboard victim's body is ravaged by the need to expel water while at the same time take in air. As long as the US remains in Iraq, it controls factors influencing that society's levels of permanent devastation, desperation and suffering. Meanwhile, the US makes repeated attempts to wrestle control of the Iraq's resources. Iraqis are not relinquishing, and as a result they endure prolonged suffering and irreparable damage.

When will our leaders end these abominable exercises?
Each day is another too long.
The doublespeak is deafening.
We struggle to hear our own minds!
Liberate our consciences: Open the doors of Guantanamo, undo extraordinary renditions, close WHINSEC, and give Iraq back, so we can help Iraqis reclaim it as their own!

(images: Vann Nath , Painting of waterboarding at Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Prison; Françoic Chifflart, "The Concsience")

Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia has further debased himself in an interview with BBC.

Arguing that while torture as a punishment of a crime is unconstitutional, torture might be OK if the government thinks there may be a crime in the future.

I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that this guy will stretch any argument to suit his purposes.
 



US judge steps in to torture row
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7239748.stm

As further proof that the "War on Terror" is the biggest lie ever, is the Pentagon's insistence on "Full Spectrum Dominance." While the rest of the world wants to ban weapons in space, the US government wants to maintain its lethal options to fight against, I guess, Al-Qaeda astronauts.

UN Weighs a Ban on Weapons in Space, but US Still Objects
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021308P.shtml

U.S. Air Force Chief Unveils Plans for Next 20 Years
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3369521&C=america

Sadly, it is the rainbow, a symbol of God's promise not to kill us all, that is the first casualty of the United States Strategic Command. I would like to propose an alternative to the funding and energy that goes into  USSTRATCOM, repurposing the rainbow's power into a safer, gayer America:

I was watching this movie about samurais who were werewolves too.
When I thought of the year 1962.
That was one year before JFK was assassinated. Hashassinated.
Five years before Sol Lewitt stated:

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. - Sol Lewitt "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", Artforum, June 1967.

Then I thought, one can never brand an artwork "conceptual" unless one is certain that the artwork was made entirely by anyone but the artist who "conceptualized" it.

Peace Out,

Chazmatazz., MD.

"One of the most telling signs of the political naiveté of liberals and the Left in the United States has been their steadfast faith in much of the worldview that blankets the imperial state they call home.  Nowhere has this critical failure been more evident than in their acceptance of the premise that there really is something called a 'war on terror' or 'terrorism'--however poorly managed its critics make it out to be--and that righting the course of this war ought to be this country's (and the world's) top foreign policy priority."

Don't believe the hype!

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7859

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