Blogging From the "K List"

I’ve been thinking lately about blogs and blogging and about the “A List” bloggers like Lance Mannion or James Wolcott, Blue Girl in a Red State or Shakespeares Sister — bloggers who command what can only be called a readership.

When A List bloggers blog, well, even small birds cry out from the larch tree.

Here at “Planet of the Blind” we like to think of ourselves as “K List” bloggers. This means that we’re read by a lively and spirited miscellany of folks who prefer that part of the alphabet that comes before the diminuendo known as “LMNOP”.

Our readership likes to be within hailing distance of the “ABC or D” Lists, while foraging for truffles in the wild violets of Provence. But of course I’m mis-stating the case since our readers are much more likely to eat truffles found only in the Basque regions.

Provence is of course an “A List” place.

What are the “K List” places you ask?

Continue reading “Blogging From the "K List"”

Send a Haiku Postcard to the President

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Blue Girl? When was the last time you wrote a Haiku? 

Lance?
Dave?
Wren?
Ruth?
Ira?
Andrea?

On the Split This Rock Poetry Festival web site you’ll find a link to Blog This Rock where we can all read read haiku written to "Dubya" by attendees of the 2008 AWP Conference in New York City.

Let President Bush know how you feel.  We’re all invited to do just that.  Send a "Haiku Postcard to the President!" c/o

Split This Rock Poetry Festival
The Institute for Policy Studies
1112 16th   Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036

Here’s mine:

I support our troops
but you can’t have my children.
Not for your mistakes.

~ Connie

The Fight to Come

New polls are out suggesting that if the presidential election were held today Hillary Clinton would be in a statistical dead heat with Senator John McCain; the same polls show Barack Obama would have a three or four point lead—which, in terms of the margin of error means he would be tied .

As a Democrat I’ve always argued to anyone who would listen that McCain is the most viable candidate in the GOP largely because by the time November rolls around it’s predictable that Americans will once again be confused about the war in Iraq and that other war in Afghanistan, and that other war shaping up in Iran.

I make no bones about my own views. I’m a participant in the loosely affiliated group called Poets AgainstPoets_against_the_war_2
the War which was co-founded by the poet Sam Hamill.

The Democratic House and Senate have shown those of us who are fiercely opposed to the deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq what we can pretty much expect from Democratic leadership. The party opposes the war but lacks all conviction when it comes to fashioning a credible pullout strategy.

I have always said to anyone who would listen that the GOP will make this autumn’s election about the war on terror and whoever its candidate is will mark the Democratic ticket as being cowardly in the face of terror. We’re already hearing what we can expect from McCain: any withdrawal from Iraq would constitute a victory for Osama bin Laden. In fact, Senator McCain will base his entire campaign on this idea. He will have to do this because he has no substantive plans to assist the middle class or repair the U.S. economy. You can bet that part of his campaign will be smoke and mirrors.

The problem for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is that they’re respective plans for getting U.S. troops out of Iraq are made from the same smoke and mirrors the McCain forces will use for the economy. In point of fact neither Hillary or Barack has any idea how to get troops out of the middle east.

In the meantime you can predict that events on the ground in that troubled and wide region will remain precarious.

And so, in turn, the Democratic ticket will look weak.

Which of these two leading Democratic candidates do you suppose will have the tougher position and the most seasoned advisors when it comes to fighting John McCain on the war on terror?

For my money the answer is clear: Hillary Clinton is the toughest candidate the Democrats can choose. In this matter Connie and I are putting our money behind Senator Clinton.

Hillary will have to fight on two fronts: she will have to assert that the Democrats are tough enough to fight terrorism when and where it counts while arguing that the ticket possesses the leadership and vision to map an effective military and diplomatic strategy.

Again, our money’s on Hillary in this critical fight.

S.K.

Don't Forget Your Prozac

Wednesday night’s episode of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” on NBC left me speechless. The plot was centered around the abuse of jailed prisoners by the correctional facility’s psychiatric personnel.

Vincent D’onofrio played the role of Robert Goran, a NYPD detective whose nephew has been incarcerated for being an unwitting dupe in a drug related incident. This character is depicted as having various psychiatric problems which are in turn poorly diagnosed by the jail psychiatrist. Then, in a plot twist that made my hair stand on end, the prison “shrink” takes a dislike to this kid and decides to restrain him to a cot and torture him by depriving him of food and water.

Vincent D’Onofrio’s character then goes undercover to see for himself what’s going on and predictably enough he’s also chained to a cot next to a radiator and subjected to lengthy torture.

As someone who reads widely on the state of people with disabilities I know that the largest psychiatric facility in the United Statesis the Los Angeles County jail.

IN an age of largely unsupervised “privatization” of jails and prisons it’s not unreasonable to imagine that last night’s episode of “Law and Order” may well be founded in genuine despair.

So this morning I have a “Law and Order” hangover. I guess I’ll take some Prozacand shovel my driveway. 

As I shovel I’ll think about the 40 million or so who are not in jail but who need proper medical care and can’t get it.

As Yakov Smirnoff used to say: “What a country!”

S.K.

Clean Water for the Children, Please.

We have a couple of friends, Andrea and Zac, and we’d love to tell you
what they’re up to.  OK, as of our last count we have more than a
couple of friends, but for now we’re focusing on these two.

Zac and Andrea
are currently training to run the 2008 Los Angeles Marathon scheduled
for March 2.  And if that is not ambitious enough, they’re doing it to
raise funds for Global Water in honor of Andrea’s father, who passed away last summer.

"Andrea’s father, Pasquale Scarpino, a microbiologist and university
professor who dedicated his work to water disinfection and
clarification projects around the world, died this summer. So we’ve
decided to dedicate our marathon bid to him by raising money for an
organization called Global Water"

We – Steve and I, although Steve doesn’t know it yet – have just done
our part and written a check, check #1004, made out to "Global Water
Water Supply Fund" and as soon as the blizzard outside our door clears,
at least enough for us to find our way to the mailbox, we’re going to
mail it to them.  Yes we are.  If Andrea and Zac are going to run 26
miles for this cause, the least we can do is walk to the mailbox.  In
our snowshoes. 

I know, I’ll ask Steve to do it.  Hey, I wrote the
check!

And because we believe in Andrea and Zac as much as we believe in clean
drinking water for children around the world, we’re writing to you.  Do
you believe in clean drinking water for children?  Then, no doubt, you
will want to help too. 

"Depending on how much money we raise, Global Water will
choose a Guatemalan school to fund, and send us pictures of the
facilities that we help to build. We will not only be helping students
gain access to clean and hygienic water, but will also be helping to
ensure their continued educations. A full 80% of the diseases that kill
children worldwide are caused by drinking contaminated water, and
children sick with water-borne diseases aren’t able to stay in school
as long as children with access to clean water." 

You do believe in clean drinking water for children, don’t you?  And your check number is….?

~ Connie

P.S.  If you knew Andrea and Zac, you’d believe in them too.  You can contact them through their link above.  We hope you do.  With your check number, of course.

Into the Unknown

If you are a writer chances are good that the most frequent question you are asked (other than “How do you make a living?”) is: “What do you do about writer’s block?”

I don’t have an answer for this because frankly I’ve never had the experience. This admission doesn’t make me better than those who do suffer from WB and I freely admit to having lots of faults both literary and beyond. (I can’t spell; I have vicious table manners…)   

But confronted by a blank page or an empty screen I leap into the unknown like the guy who dives into strange bodies of water even though he doesn’t know how deep they are.

James Wright once said something to the effect that you have to be willing to be a bit of a dummy to be a poet.

I should say here just in case any attorneys are reading this that I do not advocate or recommend diving into unknown bodies of water without first checking to see how deep they are.  Any inference that a person should risk a C-4 fracture by jumping off a cliff is subject to seven kinds of ambiguity and is consequently subordinated to the vagaries of college English departments. May the gods be gentle with you.

I went to Paris this morning. The streets were still wet.
A very old priest was walking along the liminal sidewalk with a pet goose by his side.
The goose was looking straight ahead and the old judge was looking at the ground.
Ah, I thought. Justice may be blind but it’s also a forethoughtful gander.
I was there for only a moment.
Now I’m back in Iowa where the snow is covering my whole town.

S.K.

Which Scrooge Will Be Left Standing?

As America looks to the election results on “Super Tuesday” I hope the voters comprehend the implications of George W. Bush’s latest budget.  President Bush has called for deep cuts in Medicaid and Medicare: cuts that, if adopted will be devastating to the elderly and the poor: just the folks who are already struggling with the cost of health care.


Bush’s budget is heartless and the President is playing politics with the health of people with disabilities, single moms, children in poverty, and the old.


The drama in Washington will now be about whether the House and Senate can “do something”.

I said this budget plan is heartless but that’s really not fair to the rest of the heartless people. Even the amateur Scrooges of America understand that rising poverty and infant mortality aren’t in the best interests of the nation.


Apparently only George W. Bush is still saying: “Are there no prisons, are there no work houses?”


S.K.

Celebrity Endorsement

News Flash: Poet and essayist Stephen Kuusisto has been endorsed this morning by Mr. Green Jeans, the longtime straight man to Captain Kangaroo.

Mr. Jeans, who is deceased, but who remains remarkably spry, says by way of the Ouija Board that Kuusisto, who is unknown outside a narrow range of mostly well meaning literary readers, “has the good sense to smile in public, even when there’s excrement  on his shoes.”

Kuusisto, who was on a book tour to Begonia, Idaho, said by means of a ham radio that he was flattered to be backed by any of the Kangaroo cast, but he’s a little worried that Mr. Moose hasn’t endorsed the endorsement from Mr. Green Jeans and added: “It’s clear that there are divisions among dead Kangaroo-istas about the virtues of continuing to grin when you have dung on your loafers. This is a divisive issue among dead children’s television stars.”

The coveted endorsement of an American writer by Captain Kangaroo has not been forthcoming.

“He’s of two minds about poop,” Kuusisto said. “He knows it’s a real issue, but he’s afraid to acknowledge it because he might then be confused with Soupy Sales.”

Captain Kangaroo cannot be reached via Ouija Board.

S.K.