Let’s Redouble Our Efforts To Free Private Bradley Manning-President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning -Make Every Town Square In America (And The World) A Bradley Manning Square From Boston To Berkeley to Berlin-Join Us In Davis Square, Somerville –The Stand-Out Is Every Wednesday From 4:00-5:00 PM

 

Click on the headline to link to the "Private Bradley Manning Petition" website page.

Markin comment:

The Private Bradley Manning case is headed toward a mid- winter trial now scheduled for February 2013. The recent news on his case has centered on the many (since last April) pre-trial motions hearings including defense motions to dismiss for lack of speedy trial (Private Manning’s pre-trial confinement is now entering 900 plus days), dismissal as a matter of freedom of speech and alleged national security issues (issues for us to know what the hell the government is doing either in front of us, or behind our backs) and dismissal based on serious allegations of torturous behavior by the military authorities extending far up the chain of command while Private Manning was detained at the Quantico Marine brig for about a year ending in April 2011. The latest news from the November 2012 pre-trail sessions is the offer by the defense to plead guilty to lesser charges (wrongful, unauthorized use of the Internet, etc.) in orderto clear the deck and have the major (with a possibility of a life sentence) espionage /aiding the enemy issue solely before the court-martial judge (a single military judge, the one who has been hearing the pre-trial motions, not a lifer-stacked panel).    

Those of us who support his cause should thus redouble our efforts to secure Private Manning’s freedom. The status of the legal case may change a little over the next period if some form of negotiated plea on the lesser charges is worked out (although that is right now only in the preliminary stages and is far from etched in stone and we believe that he has committed no crime in need of punishment but rather has done humankind a great service by his alleged actions) however donations to the legal fund should still be sent and solicited. The petitioning to the Secretary of the Army for Private Manning release (see link above) should still be gathering signatures and the telephone/e-mail/letter campaign to the White House urging recently re-elected President Obama, who has the constitutional authority to do so, to pardon Private Manning now should continue.

Additionally, for the past several months there has been a weekly stand-out in Greater Boston across from the Davis Square Redline MBTA stop (renamed Bradley Manning Square for the stand-out’s duration) in Somerville on Friday afternoons but we have since July 4, 2012 changed the time and day to 4:00-5:00 PM on Wednesdays. This stand-out has, to say the least, been very sparsely attended. We need to build it up with more supporters present. Please join us when you can. Or better yet if you can’t join us start a Support Bradley Manning weekly stand-out in some location in your town whether it is in the Boston area, Berkeley or Berlin. And please sign the petition for his release either in person or through the "Bradley Manning Support Network". We have placed links to the "Manning Network” and "Pardon Private Manning Square" website below.

********
Bradley Manning Support Network-http://www.bradleymanning.org/

Manning Square website-http://freemanz.com/2012/01/20/somerville_paper_photo-bradmanningsquare/bradleymanningsquare-2011_01_13/

Private Manning Support Remarks Made By A Speaker At Smedley Butler Brigade Armistice Day (Veterans Day) Observance In Boston –November 11, 2012

Welcome one and all and I am glad you could be here for this important struggle. The Smedley Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and defense of, Private Bradley Manning and his fight for freedom from his jailers, the American military.

Now usually when I get before a mic or am on a march I am shouting to high heaven about some injustice. Recently I was called strident by someone and when it comes to the struggle against this country’s wars, the struggle for social and economic equality, and for freedom for our political prisoners I am indeed strident. But I am looking for something today something personally important to me, and so I will try to lower my temperature a bit- I want, like you, for recently re-elected President Obama to pardon Bradley Manning so I will be nice, or try to be.

Bradley Manning is in a sense the poster person for all of us who have struggled against the wars of the last decade. He stands charged with allegedly leaking information about American war crimes and other matters of public concern to Wikileaks. We, and we are not alone on this, do not see whistleblowing on such activities as a crime but as an elemental humanitarian act and public service. Private Manning has paid the price for his alleged acts with over 900 days of pre-trial confinement and is now facing life imprisonment for simple acts of humanity. For letting the American people know what they perhaps did not want to know but must know- when soldiers, American soldiers, go to war some awful things can happen and do. He has also suffered torture at the hands of the American government for his brave stand. We have become somewhat inured to foreign national being tortured by the American government at places like Guantanamo and other black hole locales. We have even become somewhat inured to American citizens being tortured and killed by the American government by drones and other methods. But we know, or should know, that when the American government stands accused of torturing an American soldier for not toeing the war line then we private citizens are in serious trouble.

Why does Private Manning need a pardon? Did he give away the order of battle or the table of organization for American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan? No. Did he give away the design for drones and such weapons? No. He allegedly simply blew the whistle on something that is a hard fact of war- war crimes by American soldiers through release of the Collateral Murder tape and what have become known as the Iraq and Afghan War logs. This is what the American government had tried with might and main to cover up. And what needed to be exposed. All talk of bringing democracy, or nation- building, or having a war to end all wars, and the million other lame excuses for war pale before the hard fact that in the heat of war the real strategy is to kill and burn and let god sort out the innocent from the guilty.

That is what Private Manning exposed. I, and I am sure many other veterans from previous wars who saw or knew of such things and did nothing about it, are glad that such things were exposed. If for no other reason Private First Class Bradley Manning deserves presidential pardon for his service. To insure that event we urge everybody to ramp up their efforts in behalf of Bradley by signing here or online at the Bradley Manning Support Network site the petition to the Secretary of the Army for his release and to call/e-mail or write a letter to the White House and demand that President Obama pardon Private Manning.

We have been holding weekly stand-outs in Davis Square in Somerville outside the MBTA Red Line stop Wednesdays from 4:00to 5:00 PM and urge you to join us. Or better yet start a Free Bradley Manning stand-out in your own town square. Thank you.

 

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin-Getting The Bad Guys 1950s Noir Style- Cornel Wilde’s “The Big Combo”

 Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the 1950s film noir The Big Combo.

DVD Review

The Big Combo, starring Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Allied Artists, 1955

Let’s say a clean cut, some would say righteous, detective (played by Cornel Wilde), a public employee detective working for cheap dough but with some kind of white knight thing about honest work, honest cop work, and getting rid of crumb bum criminals fouling up the city streets, not the usual private dick tilting at windmills for cheap dough and maybe a roll with some femme like Phillip Marlowe, who is not subject the vagaries of fearing for his pension or loss of revenue from his cut of the kickbacks that people most film noirs takes on the big city, hell maybe the Naked City, bad guys, the connected guys, the big combo guys, and gets much grief for his efforts. Let’s say the bad guys, the big city bad guys are now led by a guy name Brown (played by Richard Conte), although everybody knows, everybody who counts knows, that the bad guys, the street bad guys are not some waspy sounding named guys, but ethnic types, Kellys, Ricos, Slezaks, and the like, cheap street growing up types who, well, who scratched and clawed their ways to the top, who have certain habits, certain, well, unfriendly habits like torture, intimidations, and occasional murder in their resumes to keep the cops, the other low life, and the average citizen tied- up tied up bad. Let’s say that good cop and that bad guy wind up in a life and death struggle to see who, or what, is going to control the Naked City. Let’s say that a beautiful blonde (played by Jean Wallace), an upscale blonde, tired of well-mannered, predictable Mayfair swell guys, looked for some unnamed thrills, some bad guy kicks, although it is not always blondes looking for such thrills before returning to marry that next door neighbor stockbroker, entered into the picture and that the cop and the bad guy are both staking claims to this beauty. Let’s say that this bad guy is really bad, ready to move might and main to keep his place at the top of the heap, and not afraid to waste half the known world to keep his little secrets, including those previously mentioned little tricks that he has perfected. Let’s suppose that that ethereal blonde got fed-up with bad guys, with guys who aren’t afraid to slap her around a little just to keep her in line, and cried copper, or wanted to. Let’s suppose that the source of the bad guy’s secret turned up after some smooth good cop detective work. And let’s suppose the bad guy’s world kept getting smaller and smaller, small enough for even him to holler uncle. Then you would have a classic 1950s film noir like The Big Combo complete with suitable noir music, suitable gritty feel, and superb black and white still shots to remember this one. And that blonde, a blonde to disturb your dreams, walking back to Main Street, not alone.

Poet's Corner- On Armistice Day Weekend- From World War I- Wilfred Owen's Dulce Est Decorum Est

Poet's Corner- On Armistice Day Weekend- From World War I- Wilfred Owen's Dulce Est Decorum Est

WILFRED OWEN
Dulce et Decorum Est
best known poem of the First World War
(with notes)

DULCE ET DECORUM EST(1)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.

Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.(15)

Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Notes on Dulce et Decorum Est
1. DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country.

2. Flares - rockets which were sent up to burn with a brilliant glare to light up men and other targets in the area between the front lines (See illustration, page 118 of Out in the Dark.)

3. Distant rest - a camp away from the front line where exhausted soldiers might rest for a few days, or longer

4. Hoots - the noise made by the shells rushing through the air

5. Outstripped - outpaced, the soldiers have struggled beyond the reach of these shells which are now falling behind them as they struggle away from the scene of battle

6. Five-Nines - 5.9 calibre explosive shells

7. Gas! - poison gas. From the symptoms it would appear to be chlorine or phosgene gas. The filling of the lungs with fluid had the same effects as when a person drowned

8. Helmets - the early name for gas masks

9. Lime - a white chalky substance which can burn live tissue

10. Panes - the glass in the eyepieces of the gas masks

11. Guttering - Owen probably meant flickering out like a candle or gurgling like water draining down a gutter, referring to the sounds in the throat of the choking man, or it might be a sound partly like stuttering and partly like gurgling

12. Cud - normally the regurgitated grass that cows chew usually green and bubbling. Here a similar looking material was issuing from the soldier's mouth

13. High zest - idealistic enthusiasm, keenly believing in the rightness of the idea

14. ardent - keen

15. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - see note 1 above.

To see the source of Wilfred Owen's ideas about muddy conditions see his letter in Wilfred Owen's First Encounter with the Reality of War.

Private Manning Support Remarks Made By A Speaker At Smedley Butler Brigade Armistice Day (Veterans Day) Observance In Boston –November 11, 2012

 

Welcome one and all and I am glad you could be here for this important struggle. The Smedley Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and defense of, Private Bradley Manning and his fight for freedom from his jailers, the American military.

Now usually when I get before a mic or am on a march I am shouting to high heaven about some injustice. Recently I was called strident by someone and when it comes to the struggle against this country’s wars, the struggle for social and economic equality, and for freedom for our political prisoners I am indeed strident. But I am looking for something today something personally important to me, and so I will try to lower my temperature a bit- I want, like you, for recently re-elected President Obama to pardon Bradley Manning so I will be nice, or try to be.

Bradley Manning is in a sense the poster person for all of us who have struggled against the wars of the last decade. He stands charged with allegedly leaking information about American war crimes and other matters of public concern to Wikileaks. We, and we are not alone on this, do not see whistleblowing on such activities as a crime but as an elemental humanitarian act and public service. Private Manning has paid the price for his alleged acts with over 900 days of pre-trial confinement and is now facing life imprisonment for simple acts of humanity. For letting the American people know what they perhaps did not want to know but must know- when soldiers, American soldiers, go to war some awful things can happen and do. He has also suffered torture at the hands of the American government for his brave stand. We have become somewhat inured to foreign national being tortured by the American government at places like Guantanamo and other black hole locales. We have even become somewhat inured to American citizens being tortured and killed by the American government by drones and other methods. But we know, or should know, that when the American government stands accused of torturing an American soldier for not toeing the war line then we private citizens are in serious trouble.

Why does Private Manning need a pardon? Did he give away the order of battle or the table of organization for American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan? No. Did he give away the design for drones and such weapons? No. He allegedly simply blew the whistle on something that is a hard fact of war- war crimes by American soldiers through release of the Collateral Murder tape and what have become known as the Iraq and Afghan War logs. This is what the American government had tried with might and main to cover up. And what needed to be exposed. All talk of bringing democracy, or nation- building, or having a war to end all wars, and the million other lame excuses for war pale before the hard fact that in the heat of war the real strategy is to kill and burn and let god sort out the innocent from the guilty.

 

That is what Private Manning exposed. I, and I am sure many other veterans from previous wars who saw or knew of such things and did nothing about it, are glad that such things were exposed. If for no other reason Private First Class Bradley Manning deserves presidential pardon for his service. To insure that event we urge everybody to ramp up their efforts in behalf of Bradley by signing here or online at the Bradley Manning Support Network site the petition to the Secretary of the Army for his release and to call/e-mail or write a letter to the White House and demand that President Obama pardon Private Manning.

 

We have been holding weekly stand-outs in Davis Square in Somerville outside the MBTA Red Line stop Wednesdays from 4:00to 5:00 PM and urge you to join us. Or better yet start a Free Bradley Manning stand-out in your own town square. Thank you.

 

Flyer For The Smedley Butler Brigade- Veterans For Peace 2012 Veterans Day/Armistice Day Commemoration –Sunday November 12 in Boston At Noon

President Obama Pardon Private Bradley Manning Now!

 

Free The Alleged Wikileak Whistleblower Now!

 

 

 

Bradley Manning in his own words:

 

"God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms...

 

I want people to see the truth... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public."

*************

The Smedley Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and defense of, Private Bradley Manning and his fight for freedom from his jailers, the American military.

 

Private Manning is facing a February 2013 court-martial for allegedly simply blowing the whistle on something that is a hard fact of war- war crimes by American soldiers through release of the “Collateral Murder” tape and what have become known as the Iraq and Afghan War logs.

 

Private Manning has paid the price for his alleged acts with almost 900 days of pre-trial confinement, including allegations of torture during this period, and is now facing life imprisonment for simple acts of humanity. For letting the American people know what they perhaps did not want to know but must know- when soldiers, American soldiers, go to war some awful things can and do happen.

 

For more information about the Private Manning case and what you can do to help or to sign the online petition to the Secretary of the Army for his release contact:

 

Bradley Manning Support Network: http://www.bradleymanning.org/ or the Courage To Resist Website:http://www.couragetoresist.org/

 

Smedley Butler Brigade- Veterans for Peace Website: http://smedleyvfp.org/  - on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/smedleyvfp -on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SmedleyVFP#

 

 

Join The Smedley Butler Brigade-Veterans For Peace On Veterans/Armistice Day Sunday November 11th In Boston For An Anti-War March And Program

Let’s Redouble Our Efforts To Free Private Bradley Manning-President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning -Make Every Town Square In America (And The World) A Bradley Manning Square From Boston To Berkeley to Berlin-Join Us In Davis Square, Somerville –The Stand-Out Is Every Wednesday From 4:00-5:00 PM

 

 Click on the headline to link to the "Private Bradley Manning Petition" website page.

Markin comment:

The Private Bradley Manning case is headed toward a mid- winter trial now scheduled for February 2013. The recent news on his case has centered on the now many (since last April) pre-trial motions hearings including defense motions to dismiss for lack of speedy trial (Private Manning’s pre-trial confinement is now entering 900 plus days), dismissal as a matter of freedom of speech and alleged national security issues (issues for us to know what the hell the government is doing either in front of us, or behind our backs) and dismissal based on serious allegations of torturous behavior by the military authorities extending far up the chain of command while Private Manning was detained at the Quantico Marine brig for about a year ending in April 2011. The latest news from the November 2012 pre-trail sessions is the offer by the defense to plead guilty to lesser charges (wrongful use of Internet, etc.) and have the major (with a possibility of a life sentence) espionage /aiding the enemy charge dropped.    

Those of us who support his cause should thus redouble our efforts to secure Private Manning’s freedom. The status of the legal case may change a little over the next period if some form of negotiated plea is worked out (although that is right now only in the preliminary stages and is far from etched in stone and we believe that he has committed no crime in need of punishment but rather has done humankind a great service by his alleged actions) however donations to the legal fund should still be sent and solicited. The petitioning to the Secretary of the Army for Private Manning release (see link above) should still be gathering signatures and the telephone/e-mail/letter campaign to the White House urging recently re-elected President Obama, who has the constitutional authority to do so, to pardon Private Manning now should continue.

Additionally, for the past several months there has been a weekly stand-out in Greater Boston across from the Davis Square Redline MBTA stop (renamed Bradley Manning Square for the stand-out’s duration) in Somerville on Friday afternoons but we have since July 4, 2012 changed the time and day to 4:00-5:00 PM on Wednesdays. This stand-out has, to say the least, been very sparsely attended. We need to build it up with more supporters present. Please join us when you can. Or better yet if you can’t join us start a Support Bradley Manning weekly stand-out in some location in your town whether it is in the Boston area, Berkeley or Berlin. And please sign the petition for his release either in person or through the "Bradley Manning Support Network". We have placed links to the "Manning Network” and "Pardon Private Manning Square" website below.

********
Bradley Manning Support Network-http://www.bradleymanning.org/

Manning Square website-http://freemanz.com/2012/01/20/somerville_paper_photo-bradmanningsquare/bradleymanningsquare-2011_01_13/

Private Manning Support Remarks Made By A Speaker At Smedley Butler Brigade Armistice Day (Veterans Day) Observance In Boston –November 11, 2012

Welcome one and all and I am glad you could be here for this important struggle. The Smedley Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and defense of, Private Bradley Manning and his fight for freedom from his jailers, the American military.

Now usually when I get before a mic or am on a march I am shouting to high heaven about some injustice. Recently I was called strident by someone and when it comes to the struggle against this country’s wars, the struggle for social and economic equality, and for freedom for our political prisoners I am indeed strident. But I am looking for something today something personally important to me, and so I will try to lower my temperature a bit- I want, like you, for recently re-elected President Obama to pardon Bradley Manning so I will be nice, or try to be.

Bradley Manning is in a sense the poster person for all of us who have struggled against the wars of the last decade. He stands charged with allegedly leaking information about American war crimes and other matters of public concern to Wikileaks. We, and we are not alone on this, do not see whistleblowing on such activities as a crime but as an elemental humanitarian act and public service. Private Manning has paid the price for his alleged acts with over 900 days of pre-trial confinement and is now facing life imprisonment for simple acts of humanity. For letting the American people know what they perhaps did not want to know but must know- when soldiers, American soldiers, go to war some awful things can happen and do. He has also suffered torture at the hands of the American government for his brave stand. We have become somewhat inured to foreign national being tortured by the American government at places like Guantanamo and other black hole locales. We have even become somewhat inured to American citizens being tortured and killed by the American government by drones and other methods. But we know, or should know, that when the American government stands accused of torturing an American soldier for not toeing the war line then we private citizens are in serious trouble.

Why does Private Manning need a pardon? Did he give away the order of battle or the table of organization for American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan? No. Did he give away the design for drones and such weapons? No. He allegedly simply blew the whistle on something that is a hard fact of war- war crimes by American soldiers through release of the Collateral Murder tape and what have become known as the Iraq and Afghan War logs. This is what the American government had tried with might and main to cover up. And what needed to be exposed. All talk of bringing democracy, or nation- building, or having a war to end all wars, and the million other lame excuses for war pale before the hard fact that in the heat of war the real strategy is to kill and burn and let god sort out the innocent from the guilty.

That is what Private Manning exposed. I, and I am sure many other veterans from previous wars who saw or knew of such things and did nothing about it, are glad that such things were exposed. If for no other reason Private First Class Bradley Manning deserves presidential pardon for his service. To insure that event we urge everybody to ramp up their efforts in behalf of Bradley by signing here or online at the Bradley Manning Support Network site the petition to the Secretary of the Army for his release and to call/e-mail or write a letter to the White House and demand that President Obama pardon Private Manning.

We have been holding weekly stand-outs in Davis Square in Somerville outside the MBTA Red Line stop Wednesdays from 4:00to 5:00 PM and urge you to join us. Or better yet start a Free Bradley Manning stand-out in your own town square. Thank you.

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- The Blues Is…, Part II

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGIE28q3fEA

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Howlin’ Wolf performing Killing Floor.

CD Review

Chess Blues Guitar: The Chess 50^th Anniversary Edition: Two Decades Of Killer Fretwork, 1949-1969, various artists, 2 CD set, Chess Records, 1998

The blues ain’t nothing, nothing at all but a good woman on your mind, all curves and cuddles, all be my daddy, daddy, build for comfort not for speed just like your daddy, your real daddy, not your long gone daddy just now serving a stretch, a nickel’s worth for armed robbery up in Joliet for some Southside heist that went sour, hell, you told long gone daddy that guns didn’t make the play any better but long gone was just a little too long gone on that twinkle dust and so when Danville Slim called the shots, long gone was long gone, told you about when you were knee high and needing instruction about who, and who not, to mess with when you got your wanting habits on. (Stay away from big women, like the song, the blue blue blue song says, don’t forget, they will wear you out, ditto, long thin gals with wanderlust eyes, and twinkle dust noses, itching, checking out every daddy, every daddy that came by her eyes, flashing five dollars bills and another twinkle line, ditto, god’s girls, Sunday morning moaners, smelling of gin, washtub gin, and juke joint slashes, some mean mama cut her up when she wrong- eyed mean mama’s daddy, now Sunday looking for, can you believe it, forgiveness, and trick, getting it, stick with curves and cuddles, an easy rider, she’ll treat you right and no heavy overhead, and no damn where have you been daddy questions.

She, Miss Lucy she, all cuddles and curves she, an easy rider, yah, a sweet and low easy rider, to make a man, well, to make a man, so far away, so far from uptown downtown Chi town, far down in sweaty delta Mississippi, maybe still in Clarksville like you left her that night, that moonless 1942 night, when you had to break-out from delta sweats, from working sunup to blasted sundown for no pay, for chits, Christ what are you supposed to do with company chits when you had your Miss Lucy wanting habits on, needed, no craved, some of Sonny Boy’s honey liquor, from the Mister on his ten thousand acre cotton boll plantation (selling every last boll too, good or bad, to the U.S. Army, for, for what else, uniforms), and strips from the Captain, for, for sassing, and grab that bus, that underground bus, out on Highway 61, and head, yah, head north following the north star, following the migrant trail up-river. Maybe a quick stop at Memphis to see if any of the guys, B.B. (no, not the one you are thinking of), the Slim, Delta Dark, Bobby Be-Bop, Big Joe, Muddy (yes, that Muddy slumming down river and on the low from some Chi town wench whose man was looking, knife looking for the guy who messed with his baby and left her blue, real blue. True Muddy story.) and if not straight to Chi town and work, work in the hog butcher to the world, work in the Casey steel driving hammering foundry to the world , work in the grain elevator to the world, work in the farm machinery equipment factory to the world , good, steady, sweaty work, five day work and done, five day work, maybe overtime, glad-handed overtime on Saturday, and done, no Captain’s strips, except maybe some rough Irish cop night stick but, mainly, just hell work, and then off to bumbling squalid three decker hovel, overcrowded, over-priced, under heated, damn, nothing but a cold water flat with about six different nationalities chattering on the fetid Maxwell connected streets.

Home, home long enough to turn overalls, sweated blue overalls, into Saturday be-bop blues master, all silk shirt, about five colors, blue blue, green green sun yellow, deep magenta, some violent purple, all fancy dance pants, all slick city boy now shoes (against that po’ boy Clarksville no shoe night to make daddy, real daddy cry, and mama too), topped by a soft felt hat, de riguer for Saturday prances. For a while singing and playing, he, mainly playing that on fire(electric) guitar first learned from daddy, real daddy, down the delta when he was from hunger and he and daddy Saturday juked for whiskey drinks (for daddy) and sodas and ribs for him, for nickels and dimes with his long gone daddy (gone daddy previously mentioned tired of nickels and thus plugging an ironic nickel’s worth) out behind Maxwell Street(only the prime guys, the guys Chess, or Ace, Or Decca, or, some race label were interested in, for a while, got to play the big street, the big attention, the big sweep, everybody else behind for nickels and maybe an off-hand stray piece, a joy girl they called them, hell he called them when he had his wanting habits on, not all black or mixed either, a few white joys looking for negro kicks, looking for kicks before Forest Lawn stockbrokers, or futures traders make their claims, looking over the new boys in order to say that they had that, had that before they headed out to Maxwell Street glare or sweet home, yah, sweet home Joliet. And Miss Lucy waited, waited down in some lonesome Clarksville crossroad, dust rolling in, sun beginning to rest, watching the daily underground bus heading north, north to her Johnny Blaze, Johnny quick on that amped-up guitar and the stuff of dreams.

The blues ain’t nothing, nothing at all but a bad woman on your mind, a woman walking in your place of work, your stage, your Carousel Club, you just trying to get that damn guitar weapon, baby, mama, sugar, main squeeze, in tune, the one just off of Maxwell Street, mecca, with her walking daddy, eyeing you that first minute, big blond blue eyes, and even walking daddy can feel the heat coming off her, animal heat mixed up with some Fifth Avenue perfume bought by the ounce , feel that he was going to spend the night on a knife’s edge. The Carousel Club got a mix, got a mix on Friday nights when the be-bop crazy white girls, not all big blond blue eyes but also mixed, decided that be-bop jazz, their natural stomping grounds, over at places like the Kit Kat Club was just too tame for their flaming 1950s appetites and so they went slumming, slumming with a walking daddy, a black as night walking daddy, make no mistake in tow just in case, in case knives came into play.

She had her fix on him, her and that damn perfume that he could smell across the room, that and that animal thing that some woman have, have too damn much of like his daddy, his real daddy, told him to watch out for back when he was knee-high and working the jukes for cakes and candies (and daddy for Sonny Boy’s honey liquor). Just what he needed, needed now that he had worked his way up from cheap street playing for nickels and dimes (and, okay, an off-hand piece once the joy girls, some of them white like this girl, looking for negro kicks, badass negro kicks and then back to wherever white town, heard him roar up to heaven on that fret board) to backing up Big Slim, yah, that Big Slim who just signed with Chess and was getting ready to bring the blues back to its proper place now that it looked like that damn rock and roll, that damn Elvis took all the out of any other kind of music had run its course.

Then it started, she sent a drink his way, a compliment to his superb playing on Look Yonder Wall according to Millie th e waitress, then another, ditto on The Sky Is Crying, walking daddy was not pleased and she looked like she was getting just drunk enough to make her move (hell, he had seen that enough, and not just with these easy white girls). No sale tonight girlie that bad ass negro really does look bad ass, bad ass like long gone daddy whom he started on these mean streets with and still finishing up his nickel at Joliet. She makes her way to the stage as the first set ends. Pleasant, hell they are all pleasant, in htta polite way they have been brought up in for about four or five generations, but still with that come hither perfume and that damn hungry look. No sale, no sale girlie, not with bad ass looking daggers in his eyes. And that night there wasn’t. Next Friday night she came in alone, came in and sat right in front of him. Didn’t say a word at intermission, just sent over a drink for a superb rendition of Mean Mistreatin’Mama , and left it at that.

After work she was waiting for him out in back, he nodded at her, she pointed at her car, a late model, and they were off. They didn’t surface again for a week. The blues is…

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Text version of invitation:

HUCTW staff members are essential contributors to Harvard’s greatness. We deserve a contract that allows us to stay ahead of inflation, make progress in our lives, and sustain Harvard’s middle class.

On Thursday, November 15th, STAND UP with co-workers and supporters for a fair union contract. Ideas, music, and solidarity in the Yard -- all Harvard friends and supporters are welcome!

Please take the time to be there on this critically important day.

EVENT DETAILS:
Date: Thursday, November 15, 2012
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Place: Harvard Yard (in Cambridge)

Homemade posters are encouraged! Or print out one from our website:

http://www.huctw.org/negotiations/rallyforafaircontract.html

Thank you,

HUCTW

............................

Friends,

The CSA Union confederation (which represents more than 50 million workers through 53 federations in 23 countries in Latin America) will organize solidarity actions, rallies and events across the continent on November 14th in solidarity with the general strikes in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy (half day) on the same day. Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de las Américas (CSA) will organize the protests in solidarity with the European workers against austerity and anti-worker measures.

In New York, as we continue the relief efforts for our brothers and sisters in the areas worst-hit by hurricane Sandy, (its solidarity-not charity!) we have to raise our voices about the continuing plunder of our city by Wall Street and its politicians who care nothing about workers and the poor. We all continue to face the hurricane of capitalism's austerity with massive cuts in spending for healthcare, jobs and education planned by Obama and Congress in the near future, as we are asked to pay the cost of Wall Street's bailout. Where are the billions to help us? Wall Street and big business received trillions of aid when they collapsed?

We should join our voices in protest against austerity and budget cuts, against racism and fascism and to demand immediate action for those suffering from the storm and its aftermath. We need to demand immediate federal relief, taxes on the rich, worker's rights to join a union, a living minimum wage, an end to the attacks on public education, massive public investment in green technology and the city's crumbling infrastructure!

This goes hand in hand with the international solidarity with the workers and people of Greece and Europe, and across who are also fighting back. This shows the importance of organizing for our event on Nov 14 and bringing together all those who are fighting against the corporate dictatorship of Wall Street and to organize further actions.

Please take a moment to call your friends and post widely the information that we have on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/288108221308341/?ref=ts&fref=ts

Join us on Nov. 14th, starting at 2PM with press conference, picketing and speakout betwen 3 and 4PM and a rally at 5PM at Dug Hammarskjold Plaza at the United Nations!

Alan Akrivos

Aristeri Kinisi NY (Greek American Left Movement)

Notes from the courtroom: Bradley Manning’s motions hearing at Ft. Meade, 11/8/12

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Col. Carl Coffman, former Special Court Martial Convening Authority in Bradley’s trial, answered questions from the defense and prosecution about his role in delaying Bradley Manning’s pretrial confinement, which has exceeded 900 days. (Read notes from Day 1 here.)
By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. November 8, 2012.

Col. Carl Coffman, former Special Court Martial Convening Authority.

Col. Carl Coffman had a lot of explaining to do today – about 6 hours worth. That’s how long the former Special Court Martial Convening Authority answered questions on the stand, in the second and final day of this week’s motions hearing for PFC Bradley Manning at Ft. Meade, MD.
Both the government and defense called Coffman to testify for the defense’s motion to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial, because Coffman signed off to approve all but one of the government’s requests to delay Bradley’s pretrial proceedings (according to the defense, paralegal Monica Carlile signed one of the delays). The defense accuses the prosecution of requesting delays that could have been avoided, it accuses various government agencies (Original Classification Authorities, or OCAs) who took months to complete classification reviews, and it accuses Coffman of both granting needless delays and unjustifiably excluding them from the speedy trial clock.
The prosecution’s Captain White questioned Coffman first for several hours, reviewing each of the government’s eight delay requests spanning August 2010, when Coffman joined the case, and December 2011, when Bradley’s pretrial proceedings finally began.
The prosecution and Coffman worked together so frequently during 2011 that Coffman referred to “my trial counsel” and to Capt. Ashden Fein by his first name during his testimony. In its questioning, the government had Coffman go through each delay request process to try to stress to the court that it frequently updated Coffman on the OCAs’ progress, it couldn’t have done anything to expedite the OCAs’ extremely long review process, and the classification reviews were necessary to conduct Bradley’s Article 32 pretrial hearing.
The defense has long objected to each of these contentions, and elicited testimony from Coffman revealing that the former Convening Authority actually knew very little about the classification review progress, instead “trusting,” in his words, that “trial counsel and the OCAs were doing their jobs.”
The government’s questioning of Coffman was very methodical, and rather long and dry. Eight times before Manning’s first court session, the prosecution requested a delay, citing the OCAs’ still-unfinished classification reviews. The defense objected to each request, arguing that Bradley’s speedy trial rights were being violated, and that the parties could proceed without waiting for the classification reviews. Coffman testified that he took the defense’s objections into consideration, but he didn’t deny a single government request for delay.
But defense questioning revealed even more about the process: we learned that the prosecution wrote all of its own delay approval memos, on which Coffman simply signed his name, after only 10-15 minutes of discussion with the government.
The problem seems to boil down to this: Coffman “trusted” the OCAs to complete their classification reviews expediently, and he “trusted” the prosecution to provide accurate updates about the reviews that in his mind necessitated delays. But the prosecution didn’t give specific progress updates – for example, that half of the documents were completed, or that they needed a certain number of days to finish – instead, the lawyers would merely tell Coffman that the OCAs were continuing to work and needed more time. (Coffman revealed that despite providing him with verbal or informal updates about the classification process, the prosecution missed its deadline to update him in writing on multiple occasions.) Coffman testified that he made no effort to contact or hurry the OCAs himself, saying that because OCAs are “senior officials,” he expected them to do their jobs without needing to be reminded to quicken their work. He couldn’t explain further why he never inquired about how many OCAs there were, how many documents they needed to review, or how much more time they needed.
How long could this have gone on? If the OCAs were still completing those reviews today, would Bradley still be awaiting arraignment? Coffman said he had no deadline in mind: the only time frame he considered problematic was the potential event that the pre-arraignment period continued until the summer of 2012, when Coffman was expecting to change positions, and didn’t know how to proceed in that event.
But even further questioning challenged the idea that Coffman had to wait for the classification reviews at all. In each objection, the defense proffered that instead of waiting on OCAs to complete reviews, the prosecution could have provided summaries or substitutes of the classified material. Coffman rejected this idea repeatedly, saying he needed the reviews to proceed, despite the defense’s multiple demands for a speedy trial.
Coffman also talked about Op Plan Bravo, the plan to prepare Ft. Meade’s logistics and security for PFC Manning’s trial, given the expected media attention and classification information to be discussed. The plan took 30 days, but Coffman didn’t order it until November 16, 2011, so Ft. Meade was ready by the December 16 hearing. But this plan didn’t depend on any classification reviews, and Coffman acknowledged it could have been executed months or a year prior. This is important because the defense requested the Article 32 hearing start on December 12, and Coffman rejected that date because Op Plan Bravo was still in effect. That’s four more days of senseless delays, four more days of Bradley’s already grueling pretrial confinement, and four more days that should count against the government on the speedy trial clock.
When asked flat out by the defense whether he ever considered denying the prosecution’s delay request, Coffman said no. When asked if he ever considered granting the delays but not excluding them from the speedy trial clock, Coffman said no. Despite his stated concern for Bradley Manning’s constitutional right to a speedy trial, Coffman decided that trusting government officials to act expediently was sufficient due diligence on his part.
Judge Lind asked Coffman, who joined the case August 3, 2010, between the first set of charges against Manning on July 5, 2010, and the second set on March 1, 2011, if the newly discovered information and charges played any part in the delay. Coffman seemed to know nothing about how that new information was discovered and how it led to new charges. He said he only conferred with the prosecution for status updates.
She also asked when Army CID completed its investigation, because the CID’s completion of a review was another, though comparatively minor, basis for delay. Coffman answered that he wasn’t sure exactly, but that he could provide a date. This ruffled the prosecution’s feathers. Government lawyer Ashden Fein got up quickly to re-direct questioning to Coffman. He asked if Coffman was aware that Army CID was “still investigating this crime,” and Coffman said, “No.” Fein asked if Coffman was aware that WikiLeaks was “still releasing classified information,” and Coffman wasn’t sure. (A federal judge also said this week that the investigation is still ongoing.)
Perhaps because this was a speedy trial hearing, this session was the first in recent months that didn’t delay the court calendar to come: all dates currently scheduled remain intact, so we’ll return for the Article 13 litigation and continuation of this motion at Ft. Meade November 27 through December 2.

Notes from the courtroom: Bradley Manning’s motions hearing at Ft. Meade, 11/7/12

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The government deposed two witnesses today to try to explain why it delayed Bradley Manning’s trial beyond what the military law allows. Bradley entered a plea offering that deals with lesser-included offenses, and chooses to be tried before a military judge alone. This means there will not be a jury (of military officers and high ranking NCO’s).
By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. November 7, 2012.
Hurricane Sandy delivered the first delay in Bradley Manning’s two-and-a-half-year trial that didn’t come at the unconstitutional whim of the United States government. The storm left the Ft. Meade military base largely unscathed, and Bradley’s trial proceeded today.
The defense has moved to dismiss with prejudice the 22 charges against the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower for lack of a speedy trial, and today the prosecution deposed two witnesses to attempt to justify keeping the young Army private in pretrial confinement for 900 days without bringing him to trial.

Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, at right, as I.O. of Bradley’s pretrial hearing in December 2011. (Sketch by William J. Hennessy Jr.)

Witness 1: Lt. Col. Paul Almanza
First the government called Lt. Col. Paul Almanza to the stand telephonically. Almanza was the Investigating Officer at Bradley’s initial Article 32 pretrial hearing in December 2011. Almanza excluded the government’s delays last December and in January of this year from the speedy trial clock, and today he was asked to explain why.
Last year, the government emailed Almanza, requesting that he authorize a trial delay from December 22, 2011, to January 3, 2012, and that he exclude that delay from the trial clock. Almanza granted that request and excluded it without asking for the defense’s position on the matter.
Almanza said he excluded three days (December 24-26) for Christmas, a federal holiday, two days for New Years Day, also a federal holiday, and four days in between, though he did review evidence on a Secret-clearance laptop at the Military District of Washington on December 23. He excluded the weekend of January 7 and 8, saying he took his son to a swim meet in Pennsylvania.
Almanza sent out memos on January 4 and 11 regarding delays, but in neither did he mention that he had concurrent civilian work with the Department of Justice. Asked why he didn’t mention it, Almanza said that he should have, that omitting it was an oversight. He also said he could’ve requested leave from his civilian work, but neglected to do so. Almanza testified that had he not allowed these delays, he could’ve completed the work that he submitted on January 11 by December 29.
He also said that at last December’s hearing, he would’ve accepted witness testimony regarding the classification of documents if substituted for classification reviews. This method would have obviated the long wait for Original Classification Authorities to submit their reviews.
Witness 2: Bert Haggett
After lunch, the government called Bert Haggett to testify. Haggett promulgates information security policy throughout the Army, and has reviewed documents in Bradley’s case to determine to whom they should be referred for a classification review. Unfortunately, most of Haggett’s responses to many of the defense’s initial questions were, “I don’t recall.” That was the answer he gave to, “When were you first contacted?”, “Did you sign a referral?”, “Did the referral include a deadline?” and “How long did the Original Classification Authority take?”
Haggett suggested that it was possible, or not necessarily unreasonable, for a complex classification review process to take more than a full year. However, he said it only took him 4 days to examine 900 documents and determine to which ‘equity holder’ within the government to send them.
Upon cross-examination and Judge Lind’s questioning, and after the prosecution handed him court documents recounting past proceedings, Haggett began to reveal more about his role, the government’s inexpedience, and the review process. Though he couldn’t remember the date exactly, he agreed that it was likely he was first contacted in April 2011 – more than nine months after Bradley’s arrest. Haggett couldn’t explain why it took the government so long to contact him, but he said that during 2010, “When the WikiLeaks issue occurred, I lived and breathed it.”
Haggett didn’t know too much about the status of documents relating to Bradley Manning’s case after he recommended they be sent to various OCAs, but he spoke more generally about the classification and review process in his experience. He said it was rare that he would review information and decide to declassify it. He also said that he didn’t know if trial counsel (the prosecution) had included deadlines in their requests for classification review.
Bradley’s plea offering
The other main issue of the day was Bradley’s potential plea offering. As lawyer David Coombs has posted to his blog,

“PFC Manning has offered to plead guilty to various offenses through a process known as “pleading by exceptions and substitutions.” To clarify, PFC Manning is not pleading guilty to the specifications as charged by the Government. Rather, PFC Manning is attempting to accept responsibility for offenses that are encapsulated within, or are a subset of, the charged offenses. The Court will consider whether this is a permissible plea.
PFC Manning is not submitting a plea as part of an agreement or deal with the Government. Further, the Government does not need to agree to PFC Manning’s plea; the Court simply has to determine that the plea is legally permissible. If the Court allows PFC Manning to plead guilty by exceptions and substitutions, the Government may still elect to prove up the charged offenses. Pleading by exceptions and substitutions, in other words, does not change the offenses with which PFC Manning has been charged and for which he is scheduled to stand trial.”

Judge Lind said that Manning’s plea offering deals with Specification 1 of Charge 2 (an 18 US 793(e) offense), and to Clauses 1 and 2 of the Article 134 offense. (Read Manning’s charge sheet here.)
David Coombs also explained today that, “PFC Manning has also provided notice of his forum selection. He has elected to be tried by Military Judge alone.” This means that Judge Lind alone will decide both guilt and possible punishment at court martial. There will not be a military jury, comprised of officers and senior NCO’s, involved.
Starting at 8:00 AM ET tomorrow, the government will depose Col. Carl Coffman, who will finally be forced to explain why he signed off on enough government delays to push Bradley’s arraignment back 635 days.

• Judge orders Auburn to allow anti-war vets group to march in parade

Posted by Mike Carter

A federal judge has ordered the City of Auburn to allow an anti-war veterans group to march in Saturday’s annual Veterans Day Parade, ruling the city has violated one of the very rights it celebrates veterans for defending – the right to free speech.
U.S. District Chief Judge Marsha Pechman this morning issued a temporary restraining order preventing the city from barring Veterans for Peace (VFP) from marching in the parade, purported to be the largest Veterans Day parade west of the Mississippi. In doing so, Pechman said the city was “wrong” in its efforts to craft rules to exclude the VFP from the celebration.
Pechman, who ruled from the bench after arguments, said it appeared “some vague group” within the city had decided that the VFP’s anti-war message was “offensive.” But protecting unpopular speech “is what the First Amendment is all about,” Pechman said.
The city’s attorney, Daniel Heid, had argued that the city was thanking veterans for their contributions and for “defending freedoms around the world,” and that the VFP’s anti-war message, peace flags and reminders of the human and financial tolls of conflict were antithetical to that message.
Pechman, however, quickly pointed out that among those freedoms was the right to free speech. She said rules promulgated by the city in the past year to try to refine that message so the city could control parade participants — particularly Veterans for Peace — were “very broad” and didn’t accomplish what the city intended.
Pechman said it would be a stretch to somehow arrive at the conclusion that the VFP’s message that “peace is a good thing” is somehow dishonoring veterans. She ordered the city to ensure that the group’s placement in the parade is “in keeping” with its members’ status as veterans.
Mayor Peter B. Lewis, a Vietnam veteran, wrote in a sworn declaration that he “knew the pain felt by military personnel returning home from Vietnam to see their efforts criticized,” and said he suspects that at least some of the problems vets faced afterwards were due to the “negative reception they received upon their return.” The city goal, he said, has been to make sure that never happens again, and “recognize the tremendous effort, courage and commitment demonstrated by those who have served …”
Lewis declined to comment after Pechman’s decision. He said the parade would go on as planned Saturday.
VFP filed a lawsuit against parade organizers on Monday after the group was banned from the parade. VFP was joined in the lawsuit by American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, and sought a court order to force the city to allow the group to march in the parade.

Quick Film Noir Clips –Raymond Chandler’s "The Big Sleep"-Humphrey Bogart’s Film Version.

The Big Sleep, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, based on Raymond Chander's novel, Warner Brothers, 1946

A private detective, a private dick, gumshoe, shamus, call them what you will has to be tough, tough as nails, in this wicked old world unless he, or she, wants to end up face down in a muddy back street down Sonora way, or something like that. No, not some peeping tom who hardly works up a sweat peeking through keyholes for kicks in some low- rent alimony case and gets twenty-five a day plus expenses (must be for the camera film) and works out of some seedy downtown office building with the pimps, failed dentists, and repo men as co-tenants. And not some strictly muscle, some ex-contender, who took more falls that rounds, an ex- contender with cauliflower for ears, and most definitely not some ex-cop thrown off the force for being just a little too corrupt shaking down Aunt Millie for coffee and cakes and she turned out to be connected, or for forgetting protocol and not kicking back to the captain his fair share. No, more a guy like this guy Marlowe, Philip Marlowe, who used work the coast, the left coast if anybody is asking. A guy with some brains, a guy who could figure the angles quick, and a guy who was not afraid to take a punch or slug in the chest for the good of the cause. A guy who was not afraid to tilt at windmills once in a while, okay.

Like this last caper of his, a classic one of the guys at Jimmy’s Grille was talking about. Seems this old ship wreck of guy, some old oil boomer who made his dough, build himself a castle, and wasn’t afraid to spent it, out on the coast, the left coast, okay, was looking for an old drinking companion, a guy Marlowe knew, knew by reputation, was a straight guy, a guy who all of a sudden went missing. Reason: unknown. Whereabouts: unknown. Leads: none. Yes, a Marlowe job. Add in this cute little fact the old goat has a couple of, well, lively, daughters and young (which shows he knew how to spend his time well after he hit pay dirt) who liked, as lively and young daughters with time on their hands will, to hang around with tough guys, and in tough joints, well maybe not so tough but expensive. So Marlowe, and it doesn’t take a detective, private at twenty-five a day and expenses or public at whatever the traffic will bear to figure that, at best had his hands full.

Hands full when baby sister liked to get high, high as kite, didn’t mind a guy or seven making an easy pass at her, and liked the wheel at a tough guy’s little club. Trouble was she didn’t want to pay the tariff so said tough guy tries the old squeeze play. And runs smack into Marlowe. The older, kind of wild in her own way, sister (hell, she married the old man’s drinking companion on a whim), a looker too, if more discreet than younger sis doesn’t seem to concerned that her hubby has vanished. So this whole thing stinks of frame-up, blackmail, and too many loose ends, way too many. But Marlowe liked the old geezer and so, yes, he will tilt at those windmills, take a few punches on the face, drink a lonely scotch or two, drink a friendly scotch or two, and find the old man’s buddy, or find out what happened to him. Yes, Marlowe had to be tough, tough as nails, on this one, especially when tough guys tried that old end around move, and younger sister really did need to be house trained.

From Democracy Now On- Bradley Manning And A Plea Bargain

http://www.nationofchange.org/bradley-manning-offers-plead-guilty-wikileaks-charges-if-gov-t-drops-espionage-enemy-case-1352392850

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin-The Premature Nazi-Hunter-Dick Powell’s “Cornered” -A Film Review

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Dick Powell’s film noir Cornered.

DVD Review

Cornered, starring Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Luther Adler, RKO Radio Pictures, 1945

Say a guy, maybe a guy who was a “premature” anti-fascist and fought in Spain in the 1930s, maybe not, but who did his bit, did his soldier bit, against the Nazi hordes trying to run over Europe, took a couple of hits for his efforts, one his own when his plane fell down over France, the other when his wartime bride, a French Resistance fighter, was executed by some bloody Nazi collaborator, a Vichy snitch felt he had to do something, something to get even after the war would that be alright? Everybody would say sure, hey, a guy is supposed to do something when his wife is murdered right. And so he does, not out of some big political motive to rid the world of Nazi scum, not to get even for the million crummy things that happened in Europe (and elsewhere) during those dark night World War II times but to even up the score on his wife. Even if they had only been married twenty days, she had crooked teeth and was too thin. The Nazis and their collaborators weren’t worried about short married lives, worried about fixing a resistance fighter’s crooked teeth or her weight problems, no way, just are you with us or them. And with them meant you were on short rations and short lives. But still a score needed to be settled and our soldier boy (Dick Powell) was just the boy to square things up in his own way.

But the trail was cold, the snitch dead, or supposed to be, and the prospects of getting from England to immediate post-war France to pick up the trail before it got colder through official channels was unlikely. So our intrepid soldier improvised, worked his way around channels (literally and figuratively) just because, well, because he has a hunch, a hunch is all, that things didn’t stack up. And they didn’t. They didn’t stack up in France where the snitch covered his tracks with a too pat staged death paper trail, they didn’t stack up in Switzerland where the snitch’s widow was allegedly “grieving” (and getting hubby’s insurance dough), and they didn’t stack up in Buenos Aires where she had flown the coop and where ex-Nazis, their collaborators, their wives, lovers, acolytes and their just defeated idea were entirely welcome.

Our boy will get many frequent flyer miles before he is through but he winds up in sunny, decayed, decadent Argentina as he circles in for the kill. And he does after plenty of misdirection (provided in part by Walter Slezak), plenty of tough talk, and plenty of dead ends. He finds his man (played by Luther Adler), and gets religion too, religion that these guys, these Nazi guys and their dreams didn’t stop in Europe in 1945. He signs up for the big tour, the big fight on a different front all over again. Welcome aboard, brother. Oh yah, beware, be very beware of guys out to avenge the death of dames with crooked teeth and who are too skinny but willing to fight the monsters of the planet such men, such average men, are dangerous .

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- The Blues Is…, Part I

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Howlin’Wolf performing Killing Floor.

CD Review

Cannon’s Jug Stompers: The Complete Works, The Cannon Jug Stompers, Yazoo Records, 1989

The blues is, praise be… He had just barely gotten done with his work for the day, his sun up to sun down work helping Brother Barnes shoe the horses, on Mister’s cotton boll massive ten thousand acre delta plantation, than his father took him aside and asked, really ordered, him to wash up and get ready to go over to Lancer Lane. The words Lancer Lane made him jump for joy inside, for this Saturday night he would finally, finally, get to play his new guitar, well no really new for that instrument had been passed down to his father from who knows when, maybe back to pharaoh times when those old pyramid slaves needed something to take their minds off their back-breaking work on their relax minute, in front of a real crowd at the Lancer Lane juke joint and not just before his father, his siblings, and a few stray cats at Mister’s company store.

No, he was stepping up in the world, the world that mattered, the world of those rough-hewed, hard drinking daddies (and their clinking women, praise be) that populated the juke house on Saturday night (and paid penance, serious penance at nearby Lancer Lane Lord’s Work Baptist on Sunday morning, many times sliding directly from one site to the other, smoothly if stinking a little of sweat and hard, hard Sonny Boy’s golden liquor), who would decide whether he had the stuff his father thought he had. And decide it in the only way such things were decided, by throwing dollars, real dollars, at him if he was good and broken whisky bottles (or, if tight for dough and so bought their whisky by the jar, jars) if he panned. He had asked his father repeatedly since he had turned sixteen to let him accompany him on his journeys to Lancer Lane (as performer and as, ah, imbiber), but his father maybe knowing the wisdom of sheltering the boy from those whisky bottles and jars if things didn’t work out just like his father, bless him, before him had held off until he was sure, or fairly sure of the night’s outcome. What sonny boy did not know was that father had relented as much because he was in need of an extra pair of hands in case Big Nig Fingers showed up that night as that he was ready. The nature of the dispute between Big Nig Fingers and his father was simply enough explained, a woman, rather Sonny Boy’s woman, Lucille, and her roving eyes, roving eyes that landed, allegedly landed, on his father.

A few hours later, washed up, dressed up in a clean work shirt and pants he

and his father having walked the two dusty miles from Mister’s plantation arrived at the juke house, really nothing but a cabin, a log cabin, belonging to Sonny Boy Jackson who used the place as a front for his golden liquor sales as well. (Yes, that Sonny Boy before he went to Clarksville and began the road to some local fame as the best harmonica in 1920s delta Mississippi, even getting a record contract from Bee Records when he was “discovered” by one of the agents that they had sent out scouring the country for talent for their race record division.) Now, like most cabins, there was no electricity, hell, nobody practically except Mister (and the Captain, that deduction crazy Captain) had electricity, or a reason to use it just a few chairs, tables, a counter to belly up to for whiskey jar orders (bottles were sold out back away from prying eyes), and for the occasion Sonny Boy had a small stage jerry-rigged so the entertainment would not get pushed around too much when things got rowdy, as they always did, later in the evening.

That night he had a surprise coming, or rather two. His father, taking no chances, had arranged to have a few members of the Andersonville Sheiks from up the road, who would later in the decade, some of them anyway, go on to form the Huntsville Sheiks and also get that coveted record contract from Bee Records, to back his son up. So he was going to have a real ensemble, a jug player, a harp player (harmonica, okay) and a washboard man, his father to play banjo (if he was sober enough, and while that was in question most of the night he held up, held up well enough to slide over to Lord’s Work Baptist for the eight o’clock service even if stinking of sweat and liquor). Papa had done right by him, Big Nig Fingers and his Lucille (to his father ‘s dismay) had decided to take a night off so he would need no cut knife help, and he blasted the place with his strange riffs, riffs going back to some homeland Africa time. Proof: twenty seven dollars as his share of the house.

Oh, the second surprise. Miss Lucy, Miss Lucy Barnes, Miss Lucy Barnes, a sweet sixteen going on thirty, a dark skinned beauty, all cuddles and curves, the daughter his boss, the plantation blacksmith, had taken notice of him and kept sending small jars of Sonny Boy’s golden liquor his way which just made him play more madly, hell, let’s call it by its right name, he played the devil’s work like he was the devil himself. They too were seen sneaking into that eight o’clock service at Lord’s Work’s Baptist a little sweaty and stinking of liquor, just in case you wanted to know.