by Don Hynes
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| Vantage Point | Culture and Politics by Don Hynes |
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"No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing, knowing it to be wrong.
He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and when he sees it is not so,
the prejudice will be gone." - Tom Paine
February 05, 2006 The easiest jobs to obtain as a teenager in the small town I lived in outside New York City were bussing tables and caddying. Clearing debris at the local Italian restaurant was like a real job and required effort. Caddying was like preparing for the military – hours of boredom interspersed with mindless repetitive tasks. The caddy shack was a place of learning where I discovered two things: the pitfalls of gambling and how to size up an opponent. Gambling was not something I ever acclimated to, being too frightened of losing the money I had earned all week in the trust of a lackluster pony or the luck of a poker draw, but I learned enough by losing to stay away. Sizing up an opponent was part of the gambling instruction, particularly when the betting involved sports, more specifically, when my own money was on my performance. The master of this technology was Nick Bruno. Nick was a thirty something character who carried the sports page of the Daily News stuffed in his back pocket. He wasn’t a confirmed alcoholic like most of the older men, who carried nicknames like Hiram Walker, Trigger or Mouse, and although he lived at the track most evenings he wasn’t yet migrating with the horses to Florida each winter like most of the professional caddies. Nick was in the process of becoming a lifer and though his profession was related to golf, he had about as much skill in the game as a door post. But Monday after Monday, on what was euphemistically termed “caddy day” or in reality maintenance day at the course, when we’d all hack around for 36 holes, betting whatever money we had by the hole or as dark approached on every shot, Nick would challenge and strip far better golfers of their weekend wages. Nick’s strategy was simple. He’d play opponents of any skill, using only a three wood, seven iron and putter, as long as the opponent would give him a stroke a hole handicap and start play at ten dollars a hole with all bets doubling on the back nine and no limit on par threes. Nick had the cash in his pocket to cover any action and deliberately increased the ante until the inevitable occurred: his opponent choked on his own fear and started driving balls into the brush, the water hazards, or anywhere but the nearby green which Nick would always reach in his highly conservative bogey or double bogey approach, then putt with his characteristically nonchalant confidence. The higher the bet the more confident Nick appeared and the more chaos he created in his opponent. It was a simple approach and he rarely lost. One of Nick’s talents was sizing up the opponent, in the pre-match negotiation, over the hand he was holding in six card rummy, or in the racing sheet which he read like a fundamentalist bible. I make my living in the construction industry and have for over thirty five years, and I still bring the Bruno Rules to mind when interviewing a contractor. One, does the man I’m facing have the body language of a winner, or is his gaze wandering, darting everywhere but on me, mouth steady or twitching, in other words, is he comfortable and assured in himself? Two, does his spoken language give the sense that he’s adept at what he’s getting ready to attempt or is he a poser? And three, does he have the essential chutzpah to take on the risk that is inherent in any contract, in other words, genuinely confident, or is he just another character who wants in on the action but will fold under pressure? All this brings me to the recent presidential State of the Union Address. I suffered through the entire speech, being a patriot at heart, and was duly angry at most of the nonsense spouted, from the non-existent energy policies of the oil lobby funded Bush presidency, to his statements about a coming victory in Iraq, a charnel house of his making. But what disturbed me most was how tapped out (to use another term from the caddies lexicon) this man is, how poverty stricken in personal substance and integrity, eyes darting, smirking at the shallow humor intended to please his cronies, pretending strength when in fact his post 04 election brag about spending his political capital had in fact occurred, and broke, his only strategy doubling up his bad bets. Then there was the Congress and press fawning over the speech, exuding a belief that this man should be taken seriously, that he was a real leader of some sort and that there was meaning to what he had read. Bush would never get past the Bruno screen, but then Nick was only a professional caddy, an apparent loser with none of the cachet of these supposedly successful times of American empire and preeminence. I believe the truth in the SOTU was in its subtext, in the hollowed out and oil addicted empire that Bush in his singular moment of unintended honesty referred to and for which the Republican half of the audience had the audacity to rise and applaud. The clothes have no emperor, and although our self absorbed narcissistic culture hasn’t grasped this awareness, the other major powers in the world arena certainly have. China, as the second largest foreign investor in U.S. debt (Treasury securities), has a substantial influence in America’s assets, including its military. All the bluffing and blowhard statements around Iran come down to the simple fact that Iran is where China gets a large proportion of the fuel it needs for its industry and why will it stand by and let the U.S., its debtor state, attack its source of oil and gas? This same comparison can be drawn for India, Europe and Russia who are all deeply invested in Iran and won’t allow the insanity of the Iraq invasion to be repeated. Even Israel, blinded in one eye by its cyclopean attention on terror and revenge, will have pause before attacking a strategic reserve for much of the industrialized world and opening the gates to a fundamentalist response that could only be described for Israel and unfortunately most of the mid-east as hell. My faith is on the change brewing in America despite the current state of affairs. Nelson Mandela was seen by the apartheid government of South Africa as a criminal and a “thug,” condemned to spend his life in prison, but who's 1990 release spelled the end of oppressive government in South Africa and a period of ongoing truth and reconciliation that could be awaiting the United States. Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl may be a sign of hope, but a better indicator is the man who embodies the long term intolerance and oppression of our native peoples, Leonard Peltier, serving two terms for a murder which the suppressed FBI evidentiary history cannot validate. Perhaps Peltier will one day be released from his personal hell in Leavenworth Penitentiary, a scapegoat for the collective guilt of our American genocide, and usher in a day when the boy emperors will be ushered out of controlling our national fate, and our nation into a process of awareness, healing and renewed vision, which will mark the next phase in the destiny of this great country. As Thomas Jefferson wrote 208 years ago after passage of the notorious Sedition Act: "A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." Environment & Energy Britain Screaming Bloody Murder over Climate Change, American Media Yawns by Michael Ruppert http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/020106_britain_bloody.shtml Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0129-01.htm Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012801021.html Niger Delta: U.S. May Delay Troops Deployment Pentagon sources confirmed that officials are reviewing an agreement with Nigeria that would have marines protect oil facilities because of the growing battle between Nigerian armed forces and insurgents. http://www.independentng.com/news/nnjan190602.htm Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html New Orleans Twisters Add Insult to New Orleans' Injury http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1572653 Oxfam Report: Weathering the Storm - Lessons in Risk Reduction from Cuba http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7111.html/?searchterm=Cuba New Orleans Mayor Says God Mad at U.S. "Surely He doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretences.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1688856,00.html Washington Scandals Clint Curtis, Tom Feeney, YEI Enterprises & Florida Vote Rigging Scandal http://www.bradblog.com/ClintCurtisSummary.htm Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/nyregion/03suit.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Key White House records in Plame probe disappear http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8096.shtml BYU professor's group accuses U.S. officials of lying about 9/11 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635179751,00.html “Bush's Warrantless Spying” by former Federal Prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=50038 MHSA and the Sago Mine Disaster http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1333967 Foxes Propose Henhouse Reform http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053 Iraq Congressman Murtha’s Letter to the President following the SOTU “Iraq has diverted our attention away from the fight against global terrorism.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/02/01/murthas-letter-to-the-pr_n_14939.html "Plan B and four nightmares in Iraq" by Sami Moubayed “At present, there are four candidates for the job of prime minister: current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Da'wa Party, current Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi from the SCIRI, Nadim al-Jabiri of the al-Fadila al-Islamiyya Party and Hussein Shahristani of the UIA. All of them are the product of Islamic parties. All of them are frowned on by Washington. The last thing the Americans wanted to install in Iraq, after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, was a group of men who believe in political Islam and are backed by the clerics of Tehran.” http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB04Ak01.html Iraq Sunni bloc threatens revolt http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4671718.stm Gareth Porter on Standing Up an Army Bent on Revenge http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=53095 Male relatives were terror suspects, released Iraqi woman prisoner says http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13730703.htm U.S. forces close road, forcing Iraqi drivers onto a killing field http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/NEWS/601190362/1002/NEWS01 “A view from the front lines in Iraq” by Joe Galloway http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/galloway/13710301.htm A New Kind of Care in a New Era of (Traumatic) Casualties http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/news2/nytimes5.htm Cost of War: The Words of U.S. Army Specialist Douglas Barber http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002297.htm Spc. Doug Barber: PTSD - A Soldier's Personal War! http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0601/S00079.htm Official US agency paints dire picture of "out of control" Iraq http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1688730,00.html Iraqi Civil War? Some Experts Say It's Arrived http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011606_world_stories.shtml#3 “A Tribute to Iraqi Ingenuity” by Riverbend Success of Iraqi led reconstruction after Gulf War 1 and current US failure. http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#113754150457330274 International “No Partner - As Always; the Hamas Government and Israeli Right Wing" by M.J. Rosenberg "It is instructive to read today’s column by Charles Krauthammer, always ready to fight to the last Israeli from the comfort of his home in Maryland. He writes that the “current nostalgia for Fatah moderation is absurd.” Hamas is no different than Abbas or Arafat or any Palestinian leader he has ever heard about. For Krauthammer, the period in the late 90’s when Israeli-Fatah security cooperation reduced Israeli victims of terror to seven over three years, was no different than the subsequent three years when, after negotiations collapsed, a thousand Israelis (and 3000 Palestinians) were killed. So, “cut off Palestine,” he says. The war that results will not be his problem." http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15 U.S.: Secretary Of State Outlines Overhaul of Diplomatic Corps WASHINGTON, 19 January 2006 -- Addressing an audience at Georgetown University in Washington, Rice laid out a three-prong plan for making the U.S. diplomatic corps more responsive to what she said was their new mission: "transformational diplomacy." This kind of diplomacy, according to Rice, "not only reports about how the world is but seeks to change the world itself." http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012306_world_stories.shtml#0 Bolivia's new leader attends indigenous cleansing ritual http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13681217.htm “Paul Bonicelli & USAID: The rest of the story” by Bill Berkowitz The ongoing confusion of U.S. foreign policy and private faith. http://www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=102 National Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Temporary Immigration Detention Centers http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/040206halliburton.htm Weapons of Mass Deception: Media Manipulates Minds http://www.oilempire.us/media.html $14 million in federal faith-based money goes to Pat Robertson http://www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=108 Study Finds That Racial Bias Plays Into Bush's Appeal http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/006707.php Photo of President Bush with MLK backdrop http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/01/gwbmlk_day.htm I will make bold proposals in my State of the Union address http://dearleadersdailythought.blogspot.com/2006/01/i-will-make-bold-proposals-in-my-state.html#links The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html Dow loss worst since March '03 213-point slide blamed on disappointing earnings reports, rise in oil. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0601210061jan21,1,3545512.story?coll=chi-business-hed Essays The Forgotten Wounded of Iraq: http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/forgotten_wounded_20060117/ “St. Joan of Arc” by Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy http://centerforchristiannonviolence.org/listings_new.php#Anchor-Joan-49575 “President Jonah” by Gore Vidal http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20060124_president_jonah/ "Washington's Worst- James Carville and Paul Begala never go beyond the Beltway" by Charles Pierce http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10923 “Why neocons can't stop landslide of 'Brokeback Mountain'” by Mark Morford http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/20/DDGJIGPDKE1.DTL *** |
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