Rod Amis - Unbound

NEW ORLEANS - 28 August, 2003: Some weeks are difficult to put into capsules. This is one of them. The week started out with my former employer, Steve from Belfast, offering me a new construction job. Demolition and renovation. The timing was perfect. The following day, Leszek Michaelwicz, a Loyal Reader from Poland, took me out to lunch and contributed to the Legal Defense Fund. A small bit of wonder really, something most writers dream about, as he complimented me as one of his favorite American columnists because I manage to "think like a European." (I reminded him that an American reader had castigated me for that very trait on our VOX POPULI page.) Yesterday, I did the photo shoot for the pictures to accompany the article the local Gambit weekly is doing about my case.

You would think, love, that these many good things would make me happy. If you do, you don't know me well enough yet. On Monday night I couldn't sleep at all. My Malady came on strong, stronger than in a number of years, and I was gripped by anxiety about all the people I owe money, my court case, what I would do for a "real" job. I had a premonition that my legal wrangle would not end today, as I'd prayed it would, but would drag on for at least another month.

When I went to the motion hearing today, the arresting officer and I were both called to the stand to testify. Some people think I acquitted myself far better than he did - maybe because I was the one of the two of us who was telling the truth. The story he told the court was so fantastic that I was squirming in my seat while he testified. It was a near-total fabrication told with brio. When our attorneys pressed him on details of his testimony, he became combative. It bothered him that they would ask questions like how much the quantity of cocaine my roommate had on him would cost on the street, why I had so little money in my possession and why I had no drugs in my possession. When I was called to testify, I simply told the straightforward truth. I was going to a party. We had decided to buy some beer, the cost of which we would split. The store didn't sell me beer, so I gave my roomie his money back. Then I was arrested. End of story. As I recounted the story the new Assistant District Attorney assigned to our case squirmed in her seat.

The judge was troubled enough by the basic premises of our motions - that there was no probable cause for us to be searched, that the evidence against my roomie should be therefore suppressed - that she said she would not rule on our motions until (get this!) 11 September. I was disappointed that things must continue, of course. I thought it ironic that the decision about my freedom or trial should take place on September 11th. Both attorneys say that the fact the judge wants to consult case law is a good thing for us. I certainly hope so.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see what the Gambit has to say about my case. I'll give you a link after they update their Web site on Tuesday.

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30 August, 2003: BACK TO THE "MONKEY SHIT", meaning that I'm once again working construction. It's another house renovation this time, though we're in the demolition stage at the moment. I get to spend wonderful hours tearing down walls and hauling fiberglass insulation, broken sheetrock and splintered wood out of the place. It's dusty, dirty work in the summer heat. The dirtier because the house we're working on has fire damage.

I didn't realize when we started this job that Labor Day Weekend was coming up. Sadly, that means I lose days of work to a holiday I could care less about. ("How many holidays do you care about, Rod?")

I thought I had another pick-up job for this morning with one of my co-workers this morning. He told me to meet him "for seven" down in front of my apartment. I realized as I was getting dressed that his being a native New Orleanian probably meant that he might manage to show up by 8:00 a.m. I dutifully went downstairs at the appointed hour nonetheless, smoked a cigarette and waited. I waited for half an hour and then asked myself why I'm so anal about time. I came back up to be with you. I'll figure I'll go back down around eight and see if he manages to show at all ...

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Click here to read about our Publisher's false arrest. Organizations and individuals in New Orleans are organizing to help Rod fight his unjust arrest and charges. You can help, too. For information on how you can help our publisher meet his legal defense costs, send an e-mail with the SUBJECT LINE "FOR JUSTCE" by following this link. THE HONORABLE CONTRIBUTORS: (List Updated Each Publication Date) SCOTT SALIN, New Orleans, LA, USA-$200 MICHELLE and the Drag Queens of MAMA'S BLUES Revue, New Orleans, LA, USA And the many, many un-named guests who contributed to the proceeds.-$395 SEAN CUSHMAN, New Orleans, LA, USA-$25 "DAVE", New Orleans, LA, USA-Living Quarters STEVE VIVIAN New York, NY, USA-$60 PETE SHORTELL, New Orleans, LA, USA-Cocktails MARY MC GINN, New Orleans, LA, USA - $100 DR. IAN CRYSTAL New Orleans, LA, USA - $40 And (far too many) cocktails TERRY LEE TERRIAN Sebastopol, CA, USA - $100 LIONEL ROLFE Los Angeles, CA, USA - $40 MY PLATONIC LOVER (City and State Withheld) - $100 LESZEK MICHAELWICZ POLAND - $40

I HAVE TO HAND TO ECONOMIST PAUL KRUGMAN. He has been as steadfast as Yours Unruly in holding His Fraudulency's regime's feet to fire for their deceptions and prevarications. In his New York Times op-ed piece of 26 August, Krugman shares with us the fact that the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report revealing that, under pressure from the Bush junta, the EPA misled New Yorkers about the serious environmental health risks to which they were exposed after the 11 September, 2001, attack. More evidence of a consistent pattern of lying to the American people by the Bush crowd.

I suggest that you read the entire article, but here's a snippet:

"... According to a recent report in Salon, businesses that did environmental assessments of their own premises found alarming levels not just of dioxins but also of asbestos and other dangerous pollutants. So the most shocking revelation from the new report is that under White House direction, the E.P.A. suppressed warnings about indoor pollution. Scattered evidence suggests that as a result, hundreds of cleaning workers and thousands of residents may be suffering chronic health problems.

"Why was crucial information withheld from the public? The report mentions "the desire to reopen Wall Street and national security concerns." Maybe -- though the national security benefits of failing to remove toxic dust escape me. I suspect that there was another reason: budget politics."

Krugman's article goes on to explain how certain conservative Republicans, despite the fact that His Fraudulency promised billions in aid to New York City, actively worked to make it difficult for that aid to make it to New York. Worse yet, of the funds earmarked for "first defenders" like police and fireman, New York has actually been allocated very little.

Call me cynical, but I'm not surprised one bit by this news. This administration has taken lying, as it has bankruptcies during a 12-month period, to new and staggering heights. Almost gives one vertigo.

Let's move on.

A Loyal Reader down in Austin, Texas sent me the following e-mail:

" Haven't seen much press about this. You'd think that Bush signing an executive order putting American oil companies beyond the reach of the law when it comes to exploits involving Iraqi oil would garner a little more attention.

"Executive Order 13303 decrees that 'any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void', with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein."

"In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil, it will be immune from legal proceedings in the US. Anything that could go, and elsewhere has gone, awry with U.S. corporate oil operations will be immune to judgment: a massive tanker accident; an explosion at an oil refinery; the employment of slave labor to build a pipeline; murder of locals by corporate security; the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The President, with a stroke of the pen, signed away the rights of Saddam's victims, creditors and of the next true Iraqi government to be compensated through legal action. Bush's order unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations.

Oily Immunity"

I recommend you read the article if you want to keep up to speed on Bushenanigans.

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"YOU'RE TOO HARD ON THE PRESIDENT, ROD!" some people have claimed.

Well, I suggest that you scroll back a few years and see what I had to say about the policies of "Dollar Bill"(as we called him here) Clinton. I don't think I've been any more critical of Mr. Bush than I was of President Clinton. In fact, I think I've been a lot kinder to His Fraudulency than that obsessed witch-hunter Kenneth Starr was to President Clinton. I've not dug under every bush to find wrongdoing. Nor have I have made some of the scurrilous accusations against Bush that were rife from Republicans of the Scaife school against the former President.

In the case of this regime, one doesn't have to dig - the smoking guns are in plain sight, the lies are blatant and bald-faced.

Meanwhile, as even the Mouthpiece Media has had to admit this past week, more American youngsters have died in Iraq since "major hostilities" were declared, Top Gun style, to be over by His Fraudulency than during the entire "real" second Gulf War. The death toll continues to rise every single day. And, make no mistake about it, this autumn Mr. Bush will be on the stump asking the American people to cough up another $80 - $120 billion (USD) to maintain the occupation of Iraq. You read it here first.

He has two alternative choices that might (though, I doubt it) lower the sticker price on this deal:

1. Turn over some authority - and therefore cost responsibility - to the United Nations. That would go against the stance this administration has taken since its incumbency. I don't see the war party in this regime acquiescing to that kind of development. It goes against their entire imperial bent.
2. Bring in other countries, on a piecemeal basis to assist in securing and bringing order to Iraq under U.S. authority. That would appease the war party, but I don't see other countries wanting to take on our costs without accruing some benefits of their own. Do you?

So the United States is backed into a fiscal corner because of lack of plans for the peace in Iraq. Where should the buck stop on this one? You tell me.

Better yet, tell the Americans who are out of work today and will be tomorrow.

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ONE LAST POLITICAL NOTE, my dear, and then we'll ascend to realms where we are both more comfortable. The focus here last week was on the political circus in California and I believe that we made it clear where our sympathies lie on the cover of the last edition. This week, we'll look (askance) at Presidential politics, since Labor Day in the preceding year is considered by political junkies to be the beginning of the race. As this untypically early Labor Day approaches there are two developments that amuse:

1. Howard Dean has gained an amazing amount of momentum. It would seem that he's destined, minus a major misstep, to do well in both Iowa and New Hampshire. He actually might succeed in pulling the Democratic party a bit further to the Left.

   His liability, from where this interlocutor sits, is that the general electorate won't buy what Democratic primary voters often want.

2. John Kerry, my personal candidate of choice, will make the "official" announcement of his candidacy - as if he hasn't obviously been in the race for the past year - on Tuesday.

   It would be less than honest not to call this one for what it is: a stunt. It's a tactic to staunch momentum lost to Dean on the left and to act as a barricade against the possible entrance of former General Wesley Clark on the right into this already crowded field. Clark's entry, if it does happen and it appears that it will, takes away the military experience cred' that is at the core of Kerry's challenge.

I have little to say about the other seven potential candidates because I believe they'll quickly fade into the status of also-rans. But I've been wrong before.

Let's put it another way: five of those seven could drop out of the race tomorrow and nothing would be lost from the dialogue within the Democratic party, money would be freed up for the strongest candidates and the field of candidates would still be more crowded than it logically should. One can only hope that the front-loaded primary schedule will make the winnowing as rapid as possible.

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AS EXPECTED, NOT A SINGLE COMMENT came in from any of you about the redesign (finally) of the HOT LINKS page. I rest my case.

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1 September, 2003: TO MY SURPRISE, the print edition of the Gambit came out yesterday. It was odd to read "my" story in that journal, in that I'm so used to being the reporter rather than the subject of a story. No journalist I know ever expects to be the subject of the story. It takes one into the realm of the surreal. The upshot is that I guess I have entered further into the legends of the French Quarter. I am walking with other ghosts of New Orleans...

My pal Scott joked, after seeing the article and accompanying photograph, that I look like Huey Newton in the photo. He says I should have brought along the rifle to drive the message home. We both laughed. Other friends, like Matt, commented that I look particularly lean and muscular in the photo.

Well, I am lean. It comes from lots of days of not eating and lots of days of worry and anxiety. As mentioned before, I'm wasting away - or getting hardened, depending on your perspective. God's anvil.

Because my co-workers didn't want to work this holiday weekend, I have spent what little I made last week already. Broke again. Meanwhile, I need to go somewhere and launch this effort for your delectation. It's the coffee shop or Molly's at the Market, depending on which I decide will be most hospitable to a destitute Internet junkie today. Perhaps, the kindness of strangers will obtain again today. New Orleans is made for me and Blanche DuBois, no?

Things I Need This Week

1. To make rent.

2. Mo' Money.

3. To get off this legal merry-go-round.

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Thanks for coming back this week.

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod

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ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

Last year he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. (Think: The Boy.) Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. Our Resident Philosopher is back to working construction again for a boss he likes. It's tough on an old man, but bills need to get paid. In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. This town is eroding his normal sense of driven purpose. He wants to live somewhere civilized when he grows up. Wish him Luck.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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