The Court Jesters - Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth Abotion Ban

Looking beyond what you consider to be the morality of the question of abortion for a moment, since it is the white hot center that often burns the recognition of the fact of the matter at stake here is how we do law in this country, not "what's right", then what does today's Supreme Court decision upholding "partial birth abortion" (a bullshit propagandistic misnomer if there ever was one) say about the country we want to live in?

What does it say when what really what happened was Sandra Day O’Connor steps down from the court and the White House chooses/delivers two clearly anti-abortion judges to that court, a White House pushs a moralsided version of the question into the Supreme Court (and pushed is more than kind rendition of what happened), and then in their decision they more or less toss aside 30 years of legal precedent (not moral, legal). Is the argument Bader-Ginsburg is making “legitimate”? I think yes.

It's a sad sad day for LAW in this country. Not just women's rights. But this is keeping with a White House that tramples law, disregards it, makes up where and when need be, filter, choosing, ignoring, manipulating it. Secretizes it. Gonzales. Wolfowitz ( "Bush has full confidence in Wolfowitz") . Rumsfeld. Rove. Cheney. Libby. I mean crap... these are jsut what come to mind off the top of my head... Oh yeah, that whole "habeus corpus" thing too. Oh... and "rendition". I've not seen such a morally corrupt, yet more morally self-righteous clan of hooligans in my life.

And PLEASE, try to step away from a “knee-jerk reaction” of “It’s a woman’s right” or “Fetuses are people too” - these issues are embedded in this decision yes, but by having the lasers of our opposing and bifurcated ideas on the issue focused on annihilating one another it obscures the issue of how the code of law of precedent was supposed to shape their decision on this matter. This is White House bait and switch in classic style.

And it makes you want to crawl into the outwardly collected and almost debonair stylings of Robert's or Alito's perhaps less savvy self and ask "How the fuck did you reconcile this little "detail" about precedence in your decision making?". For the women in my world and the world in general (since the U.S. insists on foisting its morality through everything including foreign policy, health and development dollars through some idealistic moral morass of sexual politicking as "help") I wear black tomorrow. I mourn the loss of their rights. I mourn the loss of the publics' control of their courts.

Look far enough down their throats of those new justices and you'll see the hands of one man shoved so far up their political hemmoroidic assholes as they are used like puppets. And this one man only - speaking from his moral high horse - is not the moral savior of this country, nor is he being a representative of the people but rather being his own perceptions and righteous indignation in selfish action. This remember is the same person that applauds this decision remember but does nothing about the sanctity of life lost at Blacksburg, VA at Virginia Tech. What's wrong with this picture? Welcome to your puppet democracy. Pinnochio had more freedom....The Tin Man more heart, the lion more courage - and without a doubt the scarecrow, more brains.

In memoriam...

A Memorial Fund has been set up to benefit the 3 children of Antonio Gilmore, the slain manager of the Blockbuster store in Waverly. Donations, which are not tax deductable, will be accepted until October 22, 2006.

Checks should be made payable to the "Antonio Gilmore Memorial Fund" and drop it off at any local Provident Bank location. Or mail the check to:

Attn: Antonio Gilmore Memorial Fund
c/o Provident Bank
Govans Branch
5234 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21212

Walking 'The Wire' ? - Life is not Art - Life is Real

The Wire is "of course" or rather was, I just discovered today, it's now been canceled, HBO's critically acclaimed yet not well watched, television show about Baltimore's "gritty" urban life. From the Chicago Tribune they note:

• “The Wire” steers clear of preaching, but it’s impossible not to see the graft and wheeling and dealing that goes on in the higher echelons of Baltimore’s power structure without also seeing parallels in the petty larceny on the street corners and the theft and betrayals among the city’s drug dealers. What we see in “The Wire” is how all of these pieces of the city fit together -- and, in a way, depend on each other to survive.
• “Every dying institution, like a dying animal, seeks to protect itself,” says Ed Burns, a cop and schoolteacher turned “Wire” writer/producer in an interview on HBO’s Web site. “The schools and [the] police department [are] unresponsive, because it’s about keeping the world as is, so you’re on top of it.”
  

That's all well and fine. But I see relatively little criticism about how, perhaps, the show exploits reality, the lives of these people "depend(ing) on each other to survive". Isn't it odd, think for a moment, that a show that purports to show reality in all its hopelessness is considered an "art form". Well then holy shit! Don't I just have the National Gallery of Hopelessness on my fucking doorstep then don't I? I've been interested in The Wire for sometime. But I can't afford to watch it. And who of Baltimore's tens of thousands of others or poor can as well.

It's all very Baudrillardian on some level - Baltimore is shown as hyperreal. It's not enough for people to see shootings and murders, drug crime and beatings in some news clip, or more high brow perhaps in a documentary. No, instead we have to have it repackaged as drama with characters and plots that are based on reality sold back to us as really realistic. So how does that de-base the local riff-raff's lives then? Well it commodifies their experiences as objects to be refigured and sold back to the highest bidder . It makes their realities into fantasies by distancing the viewer from the object and instead exoticizing their richness of the show's characters.

To their credit the show has offered some integrated support of the Baltimore communities it supposedly is so wonderfully realistic in portraying (see some of their press releases here). But let's face it - like the cop characters in Simon's show, those that are so driven by 'reality' of their own desires that they simply stay the course, often discouraged, blind and bitter along the way - they're not doing all this just out of the goodness of their hearts. If it was a) they wouldn't adverstise their good works and would quietly claim it on a tax return, or, b) they would be giving all the receipts to of EVERYTHING to community development. No, this is BUSINESS, make no mistake about it. If you're unclear then try to travel through Baltimore while they film The Wire. You're treated as intruder, not resident. And part of Greenmount Ave. has been turned into a huge empty lot where they park their production equipment with signs everywhere screaming "PRIVATE PROPERTY" and "KEEP OUT". Of course maybe the lot is better than a burned out building but my point is that the city considers The Wire like a revenue stream - and I highly doubt that the monies from that lot are going into that community: Art imitates life in this case about the inability of the City to function and in the course of doing so perpetuates the issues it supposedly wants to eviscerate and change.

David Simon is also the producer of the acclaimed mini-series (is there another word?) of The Corner (2000, HBO) and noted for producing Baltimore's other crime drama Homicide (1993-1999, NBC) which people "remember (it) fondly". I was told by my partner that the producer ought be given more slack. I don't know. Mr. Simon, previously a writter for the Baltimore Sun has his own ideas about the visual and dramatic portrayal of these worlds and he and co-worker Pelecanos waxes nostalgic about their ability to capture a visual history of Baltimore that's disappearing, bemoaning the yuppification of neighborhoods. I'm sorry but those shitty neighborhoods are hardly something to be grieving. Now, what happens to those displaced by such events - for example when a movie production company squats on land that isn't theirs in the first place and leaves it empty when they're gone, those are issues, things to ruminate on. (Hear the interview with Simon and Pelacanos on NPR's Fresh Air here: "'The Wire's' David Simon and George Pelecanos")

The Chicago Tribune says in its review: "And once you’ve seen the season’s closing image, you won’t be able to stop thinking about what it all means." Ooooooo! Gee! What does it all mean!!!! Here, let me sum it up for viewers:

It means we live in a privileged fucking society that is more interested in watching the 'reality' of the miserable moments of others' live - as long as they're held away, at arms length, or 'TV's length' if you wil, and they're not expected to do anything about it then they can indulge in others' misery and then go to work and talk about how 'fascinating' the writing is, what 'interesting' plot twists in that last episode. Try asking the Blockbuster clerk who was shot dead last week a block from my house how much 'depth of character' his assasins had, or how 'bleakly listful' they portrayed their own horrific lives before blowing him away.

Maybe Simon and others were finally successful...maybe it was so real people finally felt nauseous watching people kill, maim, screw and fuck each other over - because they know that's what O'Malley, his police department, Erhlich and so many others are doing. Betcha they never watched much in Baltimore - all we had to do was look out our window to see the 'real deal' - and save ourselves at least 78.95 a month from Comcast. Yeah, there's enough slack in The Wire - enough to hang one's self with. Good riddance.