memorial day

Linette and I spent the past few days working on the house and getting ready for the new windows to be installed Among other things, that meant cleaning up the dark little hole I call my office Here, for those of you who are interested in such things, are a few photos. The first few show a room that we stripped down to the plaster and then painted the color of a blood oranges pulp. (The intermediate color shown in the series is the primer.) The last photo is one I just snapped of my office. My hope is that it explains, at least to some degree, why it is that I havent answered that last letter that you sent

Oh, and theres also a shot in there of Linette and me with Natalie Schulhofer. Natalie bought her first issue of Crimewave about seven years ago in Atlanta, when she was just a kid, and shes been writing to us ever since. This Friday, we finally got to meet face to face. I was nervous and stupid, as I always am when I’m forced to meet new people, but things got progressively better. By the end of the night, I was not only no longer afraid that she was going to kill us, but I was hoping that shed move to Ypsilanti, open a bakery, and help us raise our child. (Natalie wants to pay back her student loans from Columbia by learning how to bake bread in a wood-fired oven.)

And here, because I dont know where else to put them, are a few quotes from Al Gore.

George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world.

He promised to “restore honor and integrity to the White House.” Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon.

Honor? He decided not to honor the Geneva Convention. Just as he would not honor the United Nations, international treaties, the opinions of our allies, the role of Congress and the courts, or what Jefferson described as “a decent respect for the opinion of mankind.” He did not honor the advice, experience and judgment of our military leaders in designing his invasion of Iraq. And now he will not honor our fallen dead by attending any funerals or even by permitting photos of their flag-draped coffins.

One of the clearest indications of the impending loss of intimacy with one’s soul is the failure to recognize the existence of a soul in those over whom power is exercised, especially if the helpless come to be treated as animals, and degraded. We also know – and not just from De Sade and Freud – the psychological proximity between sexual depravity and other people’s pain. It has been especially shocking and awful to see these paired evils perpetrated so crudely and cruelly in the name of America.

The abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration’s march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th

In hopes of balancing things out a bit, here are a few quick links to stories about the Bush administration. The first is a story from the Washington Post about the groundbreaking nature of Bushs reelection campaign Apparently hes making history for running one of the most inaccurate and misleading campaigns in the history of our great country. Heres a quote:

It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.

Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry “has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all” and said the senator from Massachusetts “promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office.”

On Tuesday, President Bush’s campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists.

The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents.

On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001.

The charges were all tough, serious — and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.

This next article is about Bushs Vice-President, Dick Cheney. Apparently, Time magazine has evidence that Cheney, contrary to what he has said before on the record, personally approved sweetheart deals for his friends at Halliburton.

OK, lets end on a good note The veterans of World War II finally have their memorial in DC I only wish that my grandfathers were still around to see it.

Good night and happy Memorial Day.