Blog For Arizona

Drinking Liberally 12/28

Happy New Year! (Well, almost...)

As 2007, the penultimate year of the Bush Debacle, creeps up on us, Liberals will be gathering at the Shanty on 4th Avenue this Thursday evening starting at 6pm to begin the process of drinking away the memories of Auld Lang Syne.

This week, in the tradition of Time Magazine, our special guest is... YOU! Isn't that clever? It's all of you! I don't know how to make a CRT into a mirror or I would insert one here. Really, you've made this a great year for Drinking Liberally. Tasha and I have had a great time, and we hope you have, too. Thanks to all of you for showing up and creating a new and fun community here in Tucson that we can all enjoy.

Next week, our first guest of the year will be Minority Leader of the Arizona House of Representatives Phil Lopes. Phil has been so supportive of Drinking Liberally we're going to consider him a honorary Co-Host. Phil will be with us to explain Democratic strategy and policy initiatives in the coming legislative session with our newly improved minority position.

We have great guests lined up for the rest of January as well, including Pima County Supervisor Chairman Richard Elias and Tucson city councilperson Karin Uhlich, so mark your calendars every Thursday at 6pm for Drinking Liberally.

Take a cup o' kindness dear!

The Nazi Philosopher at the root of GOP politics

Link: The Chronicle: 4/2/2004: A Fascist Philosopher Helps Us Understand Contemporary Politics.

An interesting look at Nazi intellectual Carl Schmitt's political philosophy and how it lives and breathes in today's movement Conservatism. At base, Schmitt saw politics as a no-holds-barred struggle to define who is a friend and who is an enemy - an art that contemporary Conservatives have mastered. Liberals don't see politics in this light, but in the traditional American vernacular of power balance and coalition building, which is both why Liberals seem to have no strategy to counter Conservative assaults, and why today's Conservatism may be a self-limiting political philosophy in the American context.

Subtopia: Orwellian Wormholes

Link: Subtopia: Orwellian Wormholes.

An interesting and comprehensive post on the tunnels beneath the Arizona border and what happens in them. A great read with lots of interesting links to other resources on the subject.

Drinking Liberally 12/21

It is once again time for liberals to gather in good cheer and fellowship at the Shanty on 4th Avenue starting at 6pm this Thursday.

This week our special guest really is May George. No mistake about it this time. May is a Fulbright scholar from Baghdad, Iraq. She has been here in the States since 2004, though her family still reside in Iraq. She'll be sharing her personal experiences of the war in Iraq, as well as those of her friends and family. May speaks Arabic, Aramaic, and English and is a Chaldean Catholic, not a Muslim. We can learn a lot from May, and hope you'll come down and give her a warm reception.

Speaking of warm, this week we are having a mulled wine tasting. So if you previously wrote to me to pledge a bottle of wine, please bring it this week. Probably it will be too cold for the patio this week so most likely we'll be inside. Also, please bring finger food that can easily be eaten without utensils.

Bush Admin Beats the Drums for Space Weapons

The lamest of lame duck Administrations continues to ratchet up fear and concern about unproven and non-specific threats to our space infrastructure in order to leave behind yet another expensive paranoiac turd hanging around America's neck: an arms race in space the is as useless as it is ruinously expensive. Please read my earlier post about this Administration's efforts to ignite a military space race: Newsvine - U.S. Warns of Threat to Satellites.

The Bush administration warned Wednesday against threats by terrorist groups and other nations against U.S. commercial and military satellites, and discounted the need for a treaty aimed at preventing an arms race in space.

Undersecretary of State Robert G. Joseph also reasserted U.S. policy that it has a right to use force against hostile nations or terror groups that might try to attack American satellites or ground installations that support space programs.

President Bush adopted a new U.S. space policy earlier this year.

"We reserve the right to defend ourselves against hostile attacks and interference with our space assets," Joseph said in prepared remarks to the George C. Marshall Institute.

Joseph, the senior arms control official at the State Department, said nations cannot all be counted on to use space purely for peaceful purposes.

"A number of countries are exploring and acquiring capabilities to counter, attack, and defeat U.S. space systems," Joseph said.

He also said terrorists "understand our vulnerabilities and have targeted our economy in the past, as they did on 9/11." He said terrorists and enemy states might view the U.S. space program as "a highly lucrative target," while sophisticated technologies could improve their ability to interfere with U.S. space systems and services.

Joseph did not identify terror groups or nations that might have such motives. An aide to Joseph, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said that information was classified.

"For our part, we must take all of these threats seriously because space capabilities are essential" to the U.S. economy and government, Joseph said. He said the U.S. is more reliant on space than any other country.

"No nation, no state-actor, should be under the illusion that the United States will tolerate a denial of our right to the use of space for peaceful purposes," he said.

Wade Boese, a spokesman for the private Arms Control Association, challenged the Administration's policy. He said rejecting additional international arms controls for space runs counter to U.S. security interests "because the United States has the most to lose from an unregulated space arena."

Boese said he believes the administration wants to avoid negotiations in order to preserve the possibility of deploying space-based missile defense systems, such as interceptors.

Drinking Liberally 12/14

It's time once again for liberals to wander down to the old watering hole. You can see these wonders of nature this Thursday at the Shanty on 4th Avenue starting at 6pm. This once wary and skittish species have begun to throw off their camouflage and socialize openly with their own kind once again. They have even been spotted mixing unabashedly with elephants and (what would the mascot for independents be -- house cats?) other critters.

UPDATE: I'm an idiot. I screwed up the scheduling. May will be with us NEXT week, the 21st.

This Next week our special guest is May George. May is a Fulbright scholar from Baghdad, Iraq. She has been here since 2004, though her family still reside in Iraq. She'll be sharing her personal experiences of the war in Iraq, as well as those of her friends and family. May speaks Arabic, Aramaic, and English and is a Chaldean Catholic, not a Muslim. We can learn a lot from May, and hope you'll come down and give her a warm reception.

Next week, we do not yet have any special guest scheduled, but I can tell you that we are having a mulled wine tasting in celebration of the season. Ho Ho Ho. If you would like to kick in a bottle of red for the tasting, please contact me at TUCSON at DRINKINGLIBERALLY dot ORG.

Looking out to January, we have scheduled Pima County Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Elias to come down and speak with us on January 11th.

Drinking Liberally 12/7

Drinking Liberally will be happening this Thursday starting at 6pm at the Shanty on 4th Avenue at the underpass. This week we will either be on the patio or inside the bar, depending on whether it's just cold out or damn cold out. Dress warmly, but wear layers, is my advice.

As with last week, we are experimenting with potluck this week, so you are encouraged to bring finger foods which don't require any utensils to eat. Thanks to those members who stepped up and delivered mucho yummy comestibles last week.

This week, our special guest is Jeremy Palmer, a PhD candidate from the UA's Near Eastern Studies speakers' bureau. Jeremy is an Arabic language expert. Jeremy is going to share with us his experiences in the Middle East, especially Syria and Jordan.

Reading Liberally was postponed to December 13th for the DFA Tucson Iraq War forum, so you have an extra week to sink your teeth into Rifkin's 'One Percent Doctrine'. For details see my earlier post regarding the postponement.

Iraq War Forum Tonight

Link: Harper's Index for August 2006.

"Ratio of the estimated U.S. cost of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to the cost of the Iraq war so far: 1:1"

Don't forget. Tonight at 7pm is the DFA Tucson Iraq war forum at the Northwest Neighborhood Center. Be there.

Bolton Finished

Link: BBC NEWS | Americas | Controversial US envoy quits post.

I couldn't express what we all must be feeling any better (stick it up your joompa', indeed...):

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
coo coo coochoo

Mister City P'liceman sitting
Pretty little p'licemen in a row.
See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run.
I'm crying. I'm cry------------ing,
I'm crying. I'm cry------------ing.

Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye.
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,
Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your Knickers down.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
kookoo kachoo

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan
From standing in the English rain.
I am the eggmen, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
kookoo kachoo kookoo kachoo

Expert texpert choking smokers,
Don't you think the joker laughs at you? (ho ho ho, he, he he, ha, ha, ha)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snied.
I'm crying.

Semolina pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower.
Element'ry penguin singing Hari Krishna.
Man, you should have seen them Kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
kookoo kachoo kookoo kachoo kookoo kachoo kookoo kachoo kookoo kachoo

Juba juba juba, juba, juba, juba, juba, juba, juba juba.  Juba juba.....

'Everybody's got one'

'Oompa, oompa, stick it up your joompa'

 

Reading Liberally postponed until 12/13

This month only we are pushing back Reading Liberally from the first Wednesday of the month to the second Wednesday, Dec 13th. DFA Tucson is putting on a great forum on the Iraq war on the evening of the first Wednesday, Dec. 6th, and we don't want anyone to miss either event. In January, Reading Liberally will return to its regular schedule of the first Wednesday of the month.

We will be discussing Ron Suskind's book 'The One Percent Doctrine' on December 13th at 7pm. We will meet at the home of Drinking Liberally regulars Steve and Marianna. They live at 9940 E. Lucille Drive (map). They can be reached by phone at triple seven three-thousand if you have questions or get lost. You are encouraged to bring something in the way of a snack, dessert, or alcohol.

Finding the place isn't too hard, but Steve gives the following directions, "From Golf Links, go east past Harrison, turn right at next light (Bonanza) and go 3 blocks to Falcon Point Drive (the entrance of Falcon Point Subdivision) and make a left. It will be dark, so go slowly or you could miss it. When you turn into Falcon Point Subdivision, make an immediate left on Giovanna, go past mailbox and it turns into Lucille. Our house on the right corner as soon as you bend right. If you are coming from Houghton, go south to Golf Links, make right on Golf Links and then left on Bonanza."