A-Changin' Times (ACT)
Born in the aftermath of 9/11, ACT has become as political as the times.
Now a blog for alternative news, views and rants offered with a twist, a song and a smile. Fair and balanced.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize [sic] with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
 — Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan Copyright 1963
(1991 Special Rider)

"A-Changin' Times: taking the best from the past to make the most of the present and to create a better future."

"What marching through the streets was to the Sixties, walking through the halls of Congress is now."

 — Marianne Williamson

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Blog entries follow, most recent entries at the top

Friday, February 13, 2004

	:: Nora		2/13/2004 12:41:00 PM

WORDS AND WORKS — Poetry, Prose, Letters, Essays, Quotes and Quips

''A tit is just a tit''

By Emily Reinhardt
YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist (United States)

(YellowTimes.org) - Last Sunday, between commercials selling erection-enhancing medication, beer, horse farts and other glories of capitalism, a tit was shown. Between Vaseline-smeared, sparkling cheerleaders, orgies of celebrity and a game brutally violent, sadomasochistic and testosterone-laden, a bare black breast managed to sneak out from a bustier. And it is the scandal of January.

"Indecent!" The moral tongues wag. "Shocking!" Grandmothers across America cry. "Classless, crass and deplorable!" The head of the FCC, Michael Powell, declares. The perps, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, CBS, Viacom, MTV and the NFL, all stand to be fined millions of dollars for a nipple. And no doubt America's children will be scarred for, oh, about five minutes over this.

Powell has said there will be an investigation. Nobody is investigating Cheney's energy meetings. We can't get a hearing on whether Bush lied to us about the war. There's going to be an investigation on WMDs and intelligence, but it sounds lukewarm at best. Global warming, corporate shanghais, illegal detainees, abuses of power. let's just ignore all those. What we really need is an investigation into Janet Jackson's breast.

The JJT (Janet Jackson's Tit) investigation, promising to cost our tax dollars, is actually an open and shut case. I've seen the videotape. Timberlake's hand goes to the clothed offender. He cups, he holds and then he rips. And very quickly, she covers. No fourth shot from the grassy knoll. No cake baked in the shape of a key.

The best thing about the many, many, many replays of this tender, American boob on TV is that the song they were singing is muted. If it weren't, I'm sure many, including myself, would call for a WAMTS investigation (Why American Music Today Sucks.)

As stated above, the half-time snafu is being replayed, to the delight of grandmothers everywhere, at least five times every ten seconds. I've seen more of Janet Jackson's mammary than I have of my own in the past few days, proof of the pudding that America isn't actually offended. It is mock offended. It's faking. It's lying.

How can we be offended by a private part of which half our population has not one, but two? Have we not all seen a breast? A nipple? As a culture, we've been inching closer and closer to this moment of boob liberation ever since we made men citizens. And didn't the boys really get what they wanted this Superbowl? Not only well-padded men throwing a pig's skin around and thrashing each other, not only the golden nectar bottled in Milwaukee, but, finally, titties. One tittie. For all of two seconds.

The cheerleaders, a vacuous bunch to be sure, can show it all the way to the panties. Who cares if you don't see their nipples; the effect is still the same. If the "offense" of the breast is sexual, the cheerleaders are much more offensive than Miss Jackson. Her breast was not a turn-on. If it was a clothing malfunction, I'm sure many "shocked" women, deep in their hearts, can understand. We've all dived into the deep end of the pool, came up, and found one hanging out of the suit. Feel sorry for Janet: most of us don't have that moment in front of hundreds of millions of people.

Miss Jackson is "nasty" but no one says a word about Timberlake. Remember, Jackson didn't expose herself by herself; she had an accomplice. It was Timberlake who actually did the dirty deed of showing Janet's goods to the world. Timberlake has had a stellar career of tasteless escapades, from being a part of that late nineties abomination, boy-bands, to being the ex of a certain pop tart who usually makes her elders like Jackson look demure. Timberlake, Spears and that Christina woman are the most sexual Mousketeers to come out of Minnie's who-ha. Walt is turning over in his cryogenic chamber.

This little white boy exposed a member of one of the most powerful and bizarre African-American entertainment dynasties. To speak of the racial aspect of Boobgate is more taboo than to speak of the sexual, but it is a pathetic irony that the interracial duet ended with a long-standing tradition of American racial relations: a black woman being molested by a white man. Strom Thurmond and Thomas Jefferson are giving thumbs-up from their graves.

Speaking of the Jackson clan, maybe it was out of family loyalty that Janet pulled this stunt. It removed her brother's woes from the front page, at least for a nanosecond. But Michael Jackson should be getting more attention that one meandering breast. Indeed, if he showed more interest in breasts, perhaps he wouldn't have the problems he is facing.

But whatever the reason, purpose or plan of the incident, it's still not shocking. I'm far more shocked by Michael Powell's father (that would be Colin) and his cronies than I am about a lost breast and its lost owner. America, of course, is a confused Puritan nation when it comes to sexuality, as many have pointed out. It has its priorities for what it finds shocking confused, too. We should pay attention to the real shocks in our culture: war, economic hardship, disunity and the boobs who have lead us to it.

[Emily Reinhardt lives in New York City.]

Emily Reinhardt encourages your comments: groucho800@yahoo.com

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	:: DUG853		2/13/2004 02:28:00 AM

BUSH A NO-SHOW AT ALABAMA BASE, SAYS MEMPHIAN

FedEx Pilot Bob Mintz, backed up by a Carolina colleague, recalls no Dubya at Dannelly AFB in 1972.

Jackson Baker | 2/12/2004
Copyright 2004 The Memphis Flyer

MEMPHIS – Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George W. Bush allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to expect him and were on the lookout for him.

He never showed, however; of that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.

The issue of Bush's presence in 1972 at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Alabama – or the lack of it – has become an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Recalls Memphian Mintz, now 63: "I remember that I heard someone was coming to drill with us from Texas.

And it was implied that it was somebody with political influence.

I was a young bachelor then. I was looking for somebody to prowl around with."

But, says Mintz, that "somebody" -- better known to the world now as the president of the United States -- never showed up at Dannelly in 1972.

Nor in 1973, nor at any time that Mintz, a FedEx pilot now and an Eastern Airlines pilot then, when he was a reserve first lieutenant at Dannelly, can remember.

"And I was looking for him," repeated Mintz, who said that he assumed that Bush "changed his mind and went somewhere else" to do his substitute drill.

It was not "somewhere else," however, but the 187th Air National Guard Tactical squadron at Dannelly to which the young Texas flyer had requested transfer from his regular Texas unit – the reason being Bush's wish to work in Alabama on the ultimately unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of family friend Winton "Red" Blount.

It is the 187th, Mintz's unit, which was cited, during the 2000 presidential campaign, as the place where Bush completed his military obligation.

And it is the 187th that the White House continues to contend that Bush belonged to – as recently as this week, when presidential spokesman Scott McClellan released payroll records and, later, evidence suggesting that Bush's dental records might be on file at Dannelly.

"There's no way we wouldn't have noticed a strange rooster in the henhouse, especially since we were looking for him," insists Mintz,

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Thursday, February 12, 2004

	:: DUG853		2/12/2004 06:34:00 PM

Clampdown on Dissenters?

—By Erica Wetter, Utne.com

February 12, 2004 Issue

John Ashcroft's Justice Department is moving against two activist organizations -- the National Lawyers Guild and Greenpeace.

Though Justice is claiming the investigations are of limited scope -- one focused on an act of trespassing, the other on an obscure bit of nautical law -- a press release and an article recently posted on CommonDreams.org claim that they exceed the government's authority and could have a chilling effect on legal, peaceful protest.

Take the case of the National Lawyers Guild -- a group of activists who "provide legal support to progressive demonstrations."

Last November, the chapter of the group at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, sponsored an anti-war conference.

The next day, a protest was staged at an Iowa National Guard base, where 12 protestors were arrested.

Fast forward to last Wednesday, February 4, 2004, when the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force issued a subpoena requiring Drake University to surrender all records relating to the conference, including records of attendees.

While the government claims that the investigation is narrowly focused on a single act of trespassing at the Guard base, the Lawyers' Guild is up in arms over the scope and chilling effect of the subpoena.

"The law is clear that the use of the grand jury to investigate protected political activities or to intimidate protestors exceeds its authority," said Guild

President Michael Avery, as quoted in the press release. "The government has no business investigating legal conferences held in academic institutions."

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	:: Nora		2/12/2004 06:06:00 PM

Get away from it all - go camping

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Wednesday, February 11, 2004

	:: DUG853		2/11/2004 11:27:00 AM

Congressman asks for probe of flights of bin Laden kin

By Klaus Marre

California Democrat Henry Waxman is calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to reveal who cleared members of Osama bin Laden's family and other Saudi citizens to leave the country immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Citing press accounts and congressional testimony on the issue, Waxman says the public "needs reassurance" that the Bush administration conducted an "appropriate investigation" of the Saudis that were allowed to leave.

"If such investigation did not occur, the public deserves to know why," Waxman said.

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