President Obama, Pardon Pvt. Manning

Because the public deserves the truth and whistle-blowers deserve protection.

We are military veterans, journalists, educators, homemakers, lawyers, students, and citizens.

We ask you to consider the facts and free US Army Pvt. Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning.

As an Intelligence Analyst stationed in Iraq, Pvt. Manning had access to some of America’s dirtiest secrets—crimes such as torture, illegal surveillance, and corruption—often committed in our name.

Manning acted on conscience alone, with selfless courage and conviction, and gave these secrets to us, the public.

“I believed that if the general public had access to the information contained within the[Iraq and Afghan War Logs] this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy,”

Manning explained to the military court. “I wanted the American public to know that not everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan were targets that needed to be neutralized, but rather people who were struggling to live in the pressure cooker environment of what we call asymmetric warfare.”

Journalists used these documents to uncover many startling truths. We learned:

•Donald Rumsfeld and General Petraeus helped support torture in Iraq.

•Deliberate civilian killings by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan went unpunished.

•Thousands of civilian casualties were never acknowledged publicly.

•Most Guantanamo detainees were innocent.

For service on behalf of an informed democracy, Manning was sentenced by military judge Colonel Denise Lind to a devastating 35 years in prison.

Government secrecy has grown exponentially during the past decade, but more secrecy does not make us safer when it fosters unaccountability.

Pvt. Manning was convicted of Espionage Act charges for providing WikiLeaks with this information, but the prosecutors noted that they would have done the same had the information been given to The New York Times. Prosecutors did not show that enemies used this information against the US, or that the releases resulted in any casualties.

Pvt. Manning has already been punished, even in violation of military law.

She has been:

•Held in confinement since May 29, 2010.

•Subjected to illegal punishment amounting to torture for nearly nine months at Quantico Marine Base, Virginia, in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Article 13—facts confirmed by both the United Nation’s lead investigator on torture and military judge Col. Lind.

•Denied a speedy trial in violation of UCMJ, Article 10, having been imprisoned for over three years before trial.

•Denied anything resembling a fair trial when prosecutors were allowed to change the charge sheet to match evidence presented, and enter new evidence, after closing arguments.

Pvt. Manning believed you, Mr. President, when you came into office promising the most transparent administration in history, and that you would protect whistle-blowers. We urge you to start upholding those promises, beginning with this American prisoner of conscience.

We urge you to grant Pvt. Manning’s petition for a Presidential Pardon.

FIRST& LAST NAME _____________________________________________________________

STREET ADDRESS _____________________________________________________________

CITY, STATE & ZIP _____________________________________________________________

EMAIL& PHONE _____________________________________________________________

Please return to: For more information: www.privatemanning.org

Private Manning Support Network, c/o Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610

Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.

Seven Ways To Support Freedom For Chelsea Manning- President Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning Now!

Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.

The Struggle Continues …

Seven Ways To Support Heroic Wikileaks Whistle-Blower Chelsea Manning

*Call (202) 685-2900- Major General Jeffery S. Buchanan is the Convening Authority for Private Manning’s court- martial, which means that he has the authority to decrease the sentence imposed no matter what the judge handed down. Ask General Buchanan to use his authority to reduce the draconian 35 year sentence handed down by Judge Lind.

Please help us reach all these important contacts: Adrienne Combs, Deputy Officer Public Affairs (202) 685-2900 adrienne.m.combs.civ@mail.mil

Col. Michelle Martin-Hing, Public Affairs Officer (202) 685-4899 michelle.l.martinhing.mil@mail.mil The Public Affairs Office fax #: 202-685-0706

Try e-mailing Maj. Gen. Buchanan at jeffrey.s.buchanan@us.army.mil

The Public Affairs Office is required to report up the chain of command the number of calls they receive on a particular issue, so please help us flood the office with support for our heroic whistleblower today!

*Sign the public petition to President Obama – Sign online or print and share PDF petition Please sign the petition on the reverse side of this letter, “President Obama, Pardon Pvt. Manning,” and make copies to share with friends and family!

You can also call (Comments”202-456-1111), write The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, e-mail-(http://www.whitehouse.gov’contact/submitquestions-and comments) to demand that President Obama use his constitutional power under Article II, Section II to pardon Private Manning now.

*Start a stand -out, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, in your town square to publicize the pardon and clemency campaigns. Contact the Private Manning SupportNetwork for help with materials and organizing tips http://www.bradleymanning.org/

*Contribute to the Private Manning Defense Fund- now that the trial has finished funds are urgently needed for pardon campaign and for future military and civilian court appeals. The hard fact of the American legal system, military of civilian, is the more funds available the better the defense, especially in political prisoner cases like Private Manning’s. The government had unlimited financial and personnel resources to prosecute Private Manning at trial. And used them as it will on any future legal proceedings. So help out with whatever you can spare. For link go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/

*Write letters of solidarity to Private Manning while she is serving her sentence. She wishes to be addressed as Chelsea and have feminine pronouns used when referring to her. Private Manning’s mailing address: Bradley E. Manning, 89289, 1300 N. Warehouse Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027-2304. You must use Bradley on the address envelope.

Private Manning cannot receive stamps or money in any form. Photos must be on copy paper. Along with “contraband,” “inflammatory material” is not allowed. Six page maximum.

*Call: (913) 758-3600-Write to:Col. Sioban Ledwith, Commander U.S. Detention Barracks 1301 N Warehouse Rd
Ft. Leavenworth KS 66027-Tell them: “Transgender rights are human rights! Respect Private Manning’s identity by acknowledging the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ whenever possible, including in mail addressed to her, and by allowing her access to appropriate medical treatment for gender dysphoria, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT).” (for more details-http://markinbookreview.blogspot.com/2013/11/respecting-chelseas-identity-is-this.html#!/2013/11/respecting-chelseas-identity-is-this.html)

***From The Boston Private Manning Support Committee Archives (Fall 2013)-Smedley Butler Brigade, Chapter 9, Veterans For Peace-President Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning Now!

Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in her 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 Manning and her fight for freedom from her jailers, the American military.

Private Manning has paid the price for her acts with over three years of pre-trial confinement, including findings of torture during this period, and is now facing 35 years (essentially for her effective life) 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 President Obama for his release contact:

Private 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#

Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.

Send The Following Message (Or Write Your Own) To The President In Support Of A Pardon For Private Manning

To: President Barack Obama
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

The draconian 35 years sentence handed down by a military judge, Colonel Lind, on August 21, 2013 to Private Manning (Chelsea formerly known as Bradley) has outraged many citizens including me.
Under Article II, Section II of the U.S. Constitution the President of the United States had the authority to grant pardons to those who fall under federal jurisdiction.
Some of the reasons for my request include:

*that Private Manning was held for nearly a year in abusive solitary confinement at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, which the UN rapporteur in his findings has called “cruel, inhuman, and degrading”

*that the media had been continually blocked from transcripts and documents related to the trial and that it has only been through the efforts of Private Manning’s supporters that any transcripts exist.

*that under the UCMJ a soldier has the right to a speedy trial and that it was unconscionable and unconstitutional to wait 3 years before starting the court martial.

*that absolutely no one was harmed by the release of documents that exposed war crimes, unnecessary secrecy and disturbing foreign policy.

*that Private Manning is a hero who did the right thing when she revealed truth about wars that had been based on lies.

I urge you to use your authority under the Constitution to right the wrongs done to Private Manning – Enough is enough!

Signature ___________________________________________________________

Print Name __________________________________________________________

Address_____________________________________________________________

City / Town/State/Zip Code_________________________________________

Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.

No dejaremos a nuestros Sister Detrás presidente Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning ahora!

Discurso pronunciado en nombre del Chelsea Manning en los Smedley mayordomo Veteranos anuales Brigada de la Paz patrocinado por la paz en caso de Armisticio / Día de los Veteranos 11 de noviembre de 2013 a Fanueil Hall en Boston

No dejaremos a nuestros Sister Detrás presidente Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning ahora!

Los titulares del verano son ahora aún. El veredicto, la sentencia judicial si no el veredicto de la historia, en el caso de los Estados Unidos contra el soldado de primera clase Bradley Manning ha sido proclamado, culpable de 20 de los 22 cargos. La sentencia draconiana 35 años se ha impuesto por la cruel descaradamente progubernamental juez militar, el coronel Lind. Los expertos de los medios y comentaristas también han dado su opinión, principalmente, que la popa se había hecho justicia por la convicción, la convicción de acuerdo a su propio deseo de mantener las cosas en secreto para nosotros y no dejar que un soldado alistado humilde exponga su castillo de naipes. Algunos, como el avestruz New York Times, se resistió un poco a la sentencia excesiva y luego siguió su camino. Otros tenían una risita momentánea cuando Bradley se convirtió en Chelsea para expresar su verdadero género y entonces ellos también se fue. Todo ahora está tranquilo, el caso es noticia de ayer ya mucho tiempo fuera del interés de 24/7 ciclo. En sus ojos Chelsea Manning ha tenido sus quince minutos de fama y ahora se reduce a sólo un prisionero de guerra confinada a los cuarteles de máxima seguridad en las praderas de Kansas en Fort Leavenworth para hacer frente a un futuro incierto.

Chelsea Manning ahora también se enfrenta al duro destino que se da en casi todos los casos de presos políticos, haciendo difícil la espera para el proceso de apelación engorroso lento para trabajar su camino a través de los tribunales militares y civiles de apelación. Espera en el corto plazo para una posible reducción de la pena por el oficial de convocatoria de Manning de Private corte marcial que tiene la autoridad para hacerlo para el Distrito Militar de Washington, el general Buchanan con sede en Fort McNair. Y espera también, con franqueza, con la esperanza de desvanecimiento, de alguna manera corta hogar indulto presidencial a un presidente que injustamente interrumpió a sí mismo en el caso de sus comentarios desde el principio. Esa campaña perdón dio un giro serio para lo peor cuando el post-convicción de Amnistía Internacional / Private Manning Support Network Casa Blanca petición en línea fallaron, cayendo gravemente corto de conseguir las 100.000 firmas necesarias que habría obligado a la Administración Obama para abordar la cuestión planteado por la petición.

Chelsea también tiene que hacer frente a la caída real de que ya se ha producido en el apoyo público ferviente y la actividad en torno a su caso, ya que el veredicto y la sentencia se encuentran y el interés de los medios se ha cerrado en torno al caso. Habrá menos mítines públicos periódicos de todo el mundo, desde Afganistán a los Estados en su nombre, lo que refleja una difusión de foco ahora que los seguidores no están fijos en la presencia pública en el juicio. La larga lista de las celebridades y ciudadanos comunes que han contribuido con sus nombres, su tiempo, su dinero y sus energías tienen y se caerá en nombre de nuestros Wikileaks heroicas señales de alarma también. Incluso los partidarios fuertes y comprometidos que han liderado los esfuerzos Manning aquí en Boston han decidido llevar a cabo otras estrategias menos públicos para obtener la libertad de Chelsea. Eventos Para luchar la batalla por su libertad en otros frentes de la recaudación de fondos para ponerse en contacto con los funcionarios del gobierno que va a "engrasar el camino" al presidente que nos dé una audiencia sobre la solicitud de indulto.

Y este último punto es realmente el quid de la cuestión. La lucha continúa, continúa hasta que Chelsea es gratis. Ahí es donde los Veteranos por la Paz se presenta en las personas que han servido en las fuerzas armadas, que han conseguido "religión" en el lado derecho de los ángeles en las cuestiones de la guerra y la paz, y que se han destacado en la solidaridad y la defensa de Chelsea, Manning desde el inicio de su encarcelamiento. Todos nosotros, ya sea que sirvieron en las guerras o en "tiempos de paz", pasó por el rigor y la locura de la formación básica en venerables viejos sargentos nos golpearon en la cabeza con la idea de que tenía que cuidar de su compañero, que su supervivencia, y con esto querían decir en el fragor de la batalla, dependía de nosotros comprando en ese concepto.

Cualquier veterano puede contar muchas historias acerca de cómo al final su participación en el ejército se redujo a sólo incorporada idea de que cuando el acuerdo fue hecho y las cosas se calmaron. No decepcionar a sus amigos. No dejar a sus amigos atrás. Si la mayoría de los perforados, en los conceptos militares que aprendimos valen nada es difícil de juzgar, el miedo y la imprudencia de hecho, puede desempeñar un papel más importante. Sin embargo podemos tomar que "no salir de su amigo detrás" concepto y aplicarlo aquí. Sin embargo, podemos llegar a la prestación de apoyo a Manning Chelsea es con el entendimiento de que es nuestro amigo. No vamos a dejar a nuestra hermana atrás. Recuerde que. Recuerde que esto también presidente Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning ahora!

Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.

We Will Not Leave Our Sister Behind-President Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning Now!

Speech made on behalf of Chelsea Manning at the annual Smedley Butler Brigade Veterans for Peace- sponsored peace event on Armistice/Veterans Day, November 11, 2013 at Fanueil Hall in Boston

Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.

The headlines of the summer are now still. The verdict, the legal verdict if not the verdict of history, in the case of the United States vs. Private First Class Bradley Manning has been proclaimed, guilty on 20 of 22 counts. The draconian 35 year sentence has been imposed by the cruel pro-government military judge, Colonel Lind. The media pundits and commentators too have had their say, mainly that stern justice had been served by the conviction, a conviction in keeping with their own desire to keep things secret from us and not let some lowly enlisted soldier expose their house of cards. Some, like the ostrich-like New York Times, balked a little at the excessive sentence and then moved on. Others had a momentary titter when Bradley turned into Chelsea to express her real gender and then they too moved on. All is now quiet, the case is yesterday’s news now long outside the 24/7 cycle interest. In their eyes Chelsea Manning has had her fifteen minutes of fame and now she is reduced to just another military prisoner confined to the maximum security barracks out in the prairies of Kansas at Fort Leavenworth to face an uncertain future.

Chelsea Manning now also faces the hard fate that occurs in almost all political prisoner cases; doing the hard time while waiting for the slow cumbersome appeals process to work its way through the military and civilian courts of appeal. Waits in the near term for a possible reduction in sentence by the convening officer of Private Manning’s court-martial who has the authority to do so for the Washington Military District, General Buchanan based at Fort McNair. And waits too, candidly, with fading hopes, for some short way home presidential pardon from a President who wrongfully interjected himself into the case with his comments early on. That pardon campaign took a serious turn for the worst when the post-conviction Amnesty International/ Private Manning Support Network White House on-line petition failed, falling seriously short of getting the required 100,000 signatures that would have forced the Obama Administration to address the question posed by the petition.

Chelsea must also face the very real falloff that has already occurred in the fervent public support and activity around her case now that the verdict and sentence are in and the media interest has shut down around the case. There will be fewer periodic public rallies around the world from Afghanistan to the States on her behalf, reflecting a diffusion of focus now that supporters are not riveted to the public presence at trial. The long list of those celebrities and average citizens who have contributed their names, their time, their money and their energies have and will fall off on behalf of our heroic Wikileaks whistle-blower as well. Even strong and committed supporters who have led the Manning efforts here in the Boston have decided to pursue other less public strategies to gain Chelsea’s freedom. To fight that battle for her freedom on other fronts from fund-raising events to contacting any governmental officials who will “grease the way” to the President to give us a hearing on the pardon application.

And that last point is really the crux of the matter. The struggle continues, continues until Chelsea is free. That is where Veterans for Peace comes in, people who have served in the military, who have gotten “religion” on the right side of the angels on the questions of war and peace and who have stood in solidarity with, and defense of, Chelsea Manning since the beginning of her incarceration. All of us, whether we served in wars or in “peace-time,” went through the rigors and madness of basic training where hoary old drill sergeants beat us over the head with the notion that you had to take care of your buddy, that your survival, and by this they meant in the heat of battle, depended on us buying into that concept.

Any veteran can tell you many stories about how in the end their involvement with the military came down to just that embedded idea when the deal went done and the dust settled. Not letting down your buddies. Not leaving your buddies behind. Whether most of those drilled-in military concepts we learned are worth anything is hard to judge, fear and recklessness may in fact play a larger role. Nevertheless we can take that "not leaving your buddy behind" concept and apply it here. However we may end up providing support to Chelsea Manning it is with the understanding that she is our buddy. We will not leave our sister behind. Remember that. Remember this as well- President Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning Now!

***On The 100th Anniversary Of The...,Uh, Mallomar-Happy Birthday, Baby

1913

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Normally when this writer celebrates, or takes note of , some important occasion it is political, like the anniversaries of the Paris Commune or the Russian Revolution, personal like the birth or death dates of important historical or literary figures like Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin, John Milton, Tennessee Williams, Hank Williams and the like, or decisively historically eventful like the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Vietnam War but today I honor, if that is the right word, uh, the centennial of the birth of the Mallomar, an edible culinary item (I have capitalized here not to offend any devotees in case it should be).

Like I say I would not normally take note of such an occasion but I was peacefully driving on my way home this Sunday morning with the radio tuned to National Public Radio (NPR) as background when one of their commentators told one and all who listen on a raw Sunday morning more than one would ever need to know about this subject. And I would have normally just let that go but listen up as I go through my torturous rationale for placing this observance in this space:

One of the purposes of the sketches on this blog is to occasionally comment on a wide variety of social and cultural trends and traditions. Usually that is stuff like various musical genre and trends, the traumas of high school existence, circa 1960 (and now too perhaps) and growing up absurd, quirky film noir films, and growing up poor in this country, circa anytime. But I am no snob, not at all and as I found out this morning this Mallomar delight is something of a cult classic. The reporter noted some very strange behavior by the true aficionados of this snack, endless hoarding in secret places, not sharing with friend or foe, stealing from kindred, including mothers from their babes, all the pathologies associated with cult behavior and thus worthy of investigation here.

And so I do so take note of this anniversary. I also note that I have never, consciously, eaten a Mallomar although I have eaten one of its second cousins, the Moon Pie. And so this space continues to bring the public all the information fit to print. Enough said.

********

Thanks to The Huffington Post for this culinary trip down memory lane-

Happy 100 Year Anniversary, Mallomars! (PHOTOS)

The Huffington Post | By Rachel Tepper Posted: 11/13/2013 9:22 am EST

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Nabisco

245

35

3

41

8

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Desserts, Mallomars, Mallomars 100 Years, Mallomars Birthday, Mallomars History, Mallomars Through The Years, Taste News

Mallomars, those wonderful chocolate-covered graham cracker and marshmallow treats, celebrate a serious milestone this season. On Nov. 13, the Nabisco cookie turns 100 years old.
In honor of the event, a little Mallomars history. Mallomars were first invented following the success of another Nabisco cookie, Marshmallow Crème, which were sold in large square tin containers at the turn of the 20th century. Consumers loved the cookie, but wanted to buy them in retail-sized packages. Thus, the creation of Mallomars, which were first sold to a grocer in Hoboken, N.J. on Nov. 13, 1913.
Historically, Mallomars have only been available from September through March because the thin chocolate coating has a tendency to melt during hot summer months. Today the tradition sticks, despite advances in refrigeration. The product's limited availability, however, has turned it into something of a cult favorite. But good news: This year's Mallomar season is already underway. (It kicked off Sept. 9.)
Before you run off to the store, take a look below at Mallomars through the years.

• 1930s
  Nabisco
• 1940s
  Nabisco
• 1950s
  Nabisco
• 1960s
  Nabisco
• 1980s
  Nabisco
• 1990s
  Nabisco
• 2000s
  Nabisco
• 2013 Anniversary Celebration
  

***Out In The Menacing 1950s Be-Bop Night- John Cassavetes’s “Crime In The Street”-Take Two

 

 

DVD Review

Crime In The Streets, starring John Cassavetes, James Whitmore, Sal Mineo, 1956

You know sometimes a still-life picture, let’s say Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks with all the lonely customers beating out their own time, prancing through the existential night, waiting for daylight, or for something to break, or a song, let’s say Jerry Lee Lewis’ High School Confidential that “spoke” to our youthful teenage angst and alienations and our desire to jail-break out of the staid 1950s, or a film, let’s say some of the more engrossing parts of Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean exulting the confusions of his age, can tell us more about a particular cultural moment or phenomena than one hundred academic tomes going on and on. At some level the film Crime In The Streets speaks to that gradient of the 1950s where those on the edge of American society, the fellahin, the losers, came under a cinematic microscope and told the world, the world of the golden age American night, that not all boats were rising, not by a long shot.         

With that thought in mind  for those who are too young to remember or those who are older  who have “forgotten” there was a menace, a serious menace, in American society in the 1950s that threatened the whole way of life and concerned young and old, rich and poor, no question. People seized up at the very mention of the idea and went screaming into some dreaded night at the thought. A few reached for their guns, others cowered in their backyard air raid shelters, or some other hidden place, hoping for the thing to pass. The “red scare” you say with all those secret agents, maybe your mommie, maybe she was a commie, turn her in, fast before those guys black grab you, you  of all people because you did not do your duty,  maybe others in high places and low, working 24/7/365 for “Uncle Joe” and his red commie empire?

Well, maybe but that is not the right answer here. Let’s try this -the gut-wrenching fear of every kid (and adult who worried about their kids), who had to hide under his or her desk in some weak-kneed and empty-headed attempt to fend off some coming atomic bomb blast?  Although that meant almost every kid, every kid except the class wise guy who used the opportunity to show his bravado by not hiding under that desk that is not the right answer. Close, but no cigar. No, the thing that drove terror into the hearts of every self-respecting and well-meaning citizen, and even those who were not, those who were doing their own nefarious actions, doing an occasional midnight crawl, was the invasion of … the juvenile delinquent (JD).

Yes, JDs, usually shiftless young men, teenagers really, from the lower depths, corner boys, you saw them, you know you did. Saw them and walked to the other side of the street, head down hoping against hope that you were not the next target, that you would make it home for supper in one piece and with your dough intact. Saw them, white tee-shirt, jeans, complete with chain hanging out of the back pocket, held up by wide balck belts ready to serve rumble duty if necessary, engineer boots the order of the day, cigarette, unfiltered,  perched at the corner of the mouth, hanging around Harry’s Pool Hall, Ma’s Variety Store, or Doc’s Drugstore, hanging of the red brick wall, posed one foot against the wall, defying gravity and anybody to try to take that foot off that wall. Yeah, I thought you would remember. And their hanger-on, frankly, slutty girlfriends  with tight blouses and skirts, boffed hair, heavy mascara, chewing gun, Wrigley’s, hands on swaying hips that you might have minute sweaty dreamed about when you had your own girl troubles (although the girlfriends were not as feared, not nearly as feared for obviously 1950s male-dominated society reasons).

If you came from low-rent, dead-end, dredges public housing, “the projects,” of unblessed memory, as I did, or from the urban slums as portrayed in the film under review, a classic of this mid-1950s genre then the social snubs still smart. The ways this was done from the upper crust, hell, even the rising golden age of America middle classes who were closing their own humble beginnings doors behind them, consciously if amateurishly could constitute its own sketch here, as the immoral, illegal, and threatening male teenager with time on his hands, a chip on his shoulder and no dough and no way to make dough was a lot more pressing that some hyped-up red scare or silly atomic bomb explosion.

And as the plot line unfolds here in the small back streets world those great world-shaking problems don’t even enter the horizon. Life close to the bone, angst-filled and alienation-flooded just swamped all other worldly considerations. Especially for wayward kids. This film opens with a classic “rumble,” over turf naturally, between two rival street gangs. After that “audience fright” as a way to get the juices flowing the rest of the film is a study in whatever sociological notions were floating at the time to identify, descript, and put a Band-Aid on the JD problem.

Frank, sensitive but totally alienated Frank (played by a very young John Cassavetes), is trying to find his place in his small world of the slums but people won’t let him alone. Especially one old goat of a man (a bowler, an avid bowler, no less so you know his is nothing but a bad hombre to mess with), who snitches to the coppers on one of Frank’s boys, and is set up to take the fall- the deep-end  fall so Frankie can feel better about himself. Aided by two fellow gang members he decides to alleviate his bad feelings by a small off-hand murder of this guy, this bad hombre bowler, right in the neighborhood. One of Frank’s confederates turns out to be Baby (played by Sal Mineo made famous as a JD movie character in Rebel Without A Cause) and another played by Mark Rydell who seems to be a pyscho (or at least seriously anti-social).

Enter one settlement house social worker (this was the uptown swells’, 1950s version, notion of how to get these JDs back into society and away from dangerous weapons) played by James Whitmore who keeps prodding on Frankie’s conscious and his “inner” suburban youth. Naturally since a central motif of all crime noirs, JDs or hardened criminals, is that crime doesn’t pay old Frankie is made in his own way and in his own time to see the light. And to take responsibility for his actions. I think based on this plot I would have preferred to be just another punk JD down in “the projects” than go that route. But nobody asked me. So there.

***As The 50th Anniversary Of The JFK Assassination Approaches-On Coming Of Political Age-Norman Mailer's "The Presidential Papers"

COMMENTARY/BOOK REVIEW

THE PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS, NORMAN MAILER, VIKING, 1963

At one time, as with Ernest Hemingway, I tried to get my hands on everything that Norman Mailer wrote. In his prime he held out promise to match Hemingway as the preeminent male American prose writer of the 20th century. Mailer certainly has the ambition, ego and skill to do so. Although he wrote several good novels, like The Deer Park, in his time I believe that his journalistic work, as he himself might partially admit, especially his political, social and philosophical musings are what will insure his place in the literary pantheon. With that in mind I recently re-read his work on the 1960 political campaign-the one that pitted John F. Kennedy against Richard M. Nixon- that is the center of the book under review. There are other essays in this work, some of merely passing topical value, but what remains of interest today is a very perceptive analysis of the forces at work in that pivotal election. Theodore White won his spurs breaking down the mechanics of the campaign and made a niche for himself with The Making of a President, 1960. Mailer in a few pithy articles gave the overview of the personalities and the stakes involved for the America of that time.

Needless to say the Kennedy victory of that year has interest today mainly for the forces that it unleashed in the base of society, especially, but not exclusively, among the youth. His rather conventional bourgeois Cold War foreign policy and haphazard domestic politics never transcended those of the New and Fair Deals of Roosevelt and Truman but his style, his youth and his élan seemingly gave the go ahead to all sorts of projects in order to ‘‘seek a newer world”. And we took him up on this. This writer counted himself among those youth who saw the potential to change the world. We also knew that if the main villain of the age , one Richard Milhous Nixon, had been successful in 1960 as he graphically demonstrated when he later became president we would not be seeing any new world but the same old, same old.

I have been, by hook or by crook, interested in politics from an early age. Names like the Rosenbergs, Joseph McCarthy, Khrushchev and organizations like Americans for Democratic Action and the like were familiar to me if not fully understood then. I came of political age with the 1960 presidential campaign. Mailer addresses the malaise of American political life during the stodgy Eisenhower years that created the opening for change-and Kennedy and his superb organization happily rushed in. These chances, as a cursory perusal of the last 40 odd years of bourgeois presidential politics makes painfully clear, do not come often. The funny thing is that during most of 1960 I was actually ‘Madly for Adlai’, that is I preferred Adlai Stevenson the twice defeated previous Democratic candidate, but when the deal went down at the advanced age of 14 I walked door to door talking up Kennedy. Of course, in Massachusetts that was not a big deal but I still recall today that I had a very strong sense I did not want to be left out of the new age ‘aborning’. That, my friends, in a small way is the start of that slippery road to the ‘lesser evil’ practice that dominates American politics and a habit that took me a fairly long time to break.

Mailer has some very cutting, but true, remarks about the kind of people who populate the political milieu down at the base of bourgeois politics, those who make it to the political conventions. Except that today they are better dressed and more media savvy nothing has changed. Why? Bourgeois politics, not being based on any fidelity to program except as a throwaway, is all about winning (and fighting to keep on winning). This does not bring out the better angels of our nature. For those old enough to remember that little spark of youth that urged us on to seek that newer world and for those too young to have acquired knowledge of anything but the myth Mailer’s little book makes for interesting and well-written reading.

***As The 50th Anniversary Of The JFK Assassination Approaches-November 22, 1963-Frankie’s Cry Of The Banshee-For The Class Of 1964 Everywhere

Frankie Riley comment:

Well you, the North Adamsville High School Class of 1964, knew this was coming at some point. That date, November 22, 1963, is etched, one way or another, is the minds of the generation of ’68 forever. Some events form the signposts for every generation. For our parents, the Class of 1964 parents, it was starving or semi-starving, hitting the western roads or just marking time through the Great Depression and slogging, gun in hand, through World War II, or waiting anxiously at home, waiting for the other shoe to drop. For today's kids it is the dastardly heinous criminal acts around 9/11 and the permanent "war against terrorism" that seems to color every political move made these days. For us it was the Cold War “red menace” Soviet Union space race throw-up satellite Sputnik and, in the end, the political horrors emanating from the Irish tragic Kennedy assassination. The cry of the banshee out in the wilds, on the wild oceans, and careening the wild winds.

Usually, when discussing these milestone events the question asked centers on where you were or what you were doing on that fateful day. I do not need to ask that question here. I know where you were, at least most of you. Unless you were sick, legitimately or otherwise, playing hooky, legitimately or otherwise, or on a field trip, legitimately or otherwise, you were sitting in some dank classroom as the old craggy-faced, rum-besotten (as least we all suspected that and which was later confirmed when he was arrested for drunk driving about seven times), headmaster, one Mr. Donald O’Toole, came over the P.A. system to announce the news of the shooting of President Kennedy. What I would find interesting is not what your current take is on that event, whether you were a Kennedy partisan or not, but how you reacted at the time. Here is the story of my reaction:

In the fall of 1960, for most of us our first year at North, a new wind was blowing over the political landscape in America with the Kennedy nomination and later his election victory over Richard Nixon. If you want the feel of that same wind pay attention to the breezes that I sense coming from today's youth, a little anyway if they can stop that eternal, infernal texting and look up for a minute. Maybe that wind grabbed you in 1960. It did me. Although some people that I have met and worked with over the years swear that I was born a “political junkie” the truth is that 1960 marked my political coming of age.

One of my forms of 'fun' as a kid was to write little 'essays' on political questions. You know, like-Should Red China (remember that term) be admitted into the United Nations? Or, are computers going to replace workers and create high unemployment? (I swear that I wrote stuff like that. I do not have that good an imagination to make this up. It also might explain one part of a very troubled childhood.)

In any case, I kept these little 'pearls of wisdom' in a little notebook. Within a couple of days after the Kennedy assassination I threw them all away, swearing off politics forever. Well, I did not hold to that promise. I have also moved away from that youthful admiration for JFK (although I will always hold a little spot open for brother Robert-oh, what might have been.) but I can still hear the clang as I threw those papers in the trash barrel.
*******
So naturally if Frank Riley has anything to say on any subject, from dung beetles to one-worldism, just like in the old North Adamsville Salducci’s Pizza Parlor nights, one Peter Paul Markin has to put his face into the conversation. Here, as usual, is his lame take on the Kennedy days from a sketch he wrote in 2010. In other words he refuses to give us any new stuff but, christ, just the same old, same old. Here it is if you can stand it:

“Peter Paul Markin, Class of 1964:

A while back [October, 2010] I mentioned, in a sketch that amounted to a nostalgic 1960s Boston kid time trip down political memory lane, the following that links in with this entry posted under the sign of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kennedy’s presidential election victory election over one Richard Milhous Nixon, the arch-political villain of the age:

“During the course of the afternoon that event [the Massachusetts governor’s race where President Obama was to speak at a rally in behalf of Deval Patrick’s reelection at the Hines Center in Boston], and the particular locale where it was staged, brought back a flood of memories of my first serious organized political actions in 1960 when, as a lad of fourteen, I set out to “save the world.” And my soul, or so I thought at the time, as well. That was the campaign of one of our own, Jack Kennedy, as he ran for president against the nefarious sitting Vice President, one Richard Milhous Nixon. In the course of that long ago campaign he gave one of his most stirring speeches not far from where I stood on this Saturday.

Although gathering troops (read: high school and college students) for that long ago speech was not my first public political action of that year, a small SANE-sponsored demonstration against nuclear proliferation further up the same street was but I did not help to organize that one, the Kennedy campaign was the first one that hinted that I might, against all good sense, become a serious political junkie. Yah, I know, every mother warns their sons (then and now) and daughters (now) against such foolhardiness but what can you do. And, mercifully, I am still at it. And have wound up on the right side of the angels, to boot.

The funny thing about those triggered remembrances is that as far removed from bourgeois politics as I have been for about the last forty years I noticed many young politicos doing their youthful thing just as I did back then; passing out leaflets, holding banners, rousing the crowd, making extemporaneous little soapbox speeches, arguing with an occasional right- wing Tea Party advocate, and making themselves hoarse in the process. In short, exhibiting all the skills (except the techno-savvy computer indoor stuff you do these days before such rallies) of a street organizer from any age, including communist street organizers. Now if those young organizers only had the extra-parliamentary left-wing politics to merge with those organizational skills. In short, come over to the side of the angels.

But that is where we come back to old Jack Kennedy and that 1960 campaign. Who would have thought that a kid, me, who started out walking door to door stuffing Jack Kennedy literature in every available door in 1960 but who turned off that road long ago would be saying thanks, Jack. Thanks for teaching me those political skills.”

And not just that thanks for heralding the break-out, or at least the attempted break-out of my 1960s generation from the Eisenhower-Nixon cold war death trap. See, at the time of the great attempted break-out from the confines of bourgeois society and the tracked career path all kinds of people seemed like they could be allies, and Jack Kennedy seemed a kindred spirit. I will not even mention Bobby, that one still brings a little tear to my eye. But enough of nostalgia we still have to fight to seek that newer world, to hear that high white note before everything comes crashing down on us.”
*******
And here is more from Mr. Markin under cover of a book review from 2007. This guy is too much, way too much-Frank Riley.

On Coming Of Political Age-Norman Mailer's "The Presidential Papers"

Commentary/Book Review

The Presidential Papers, Norman Mailer, Viking, 1963

At one time, as with Ernest Hemingway, I tried to get my hands on everything that Norman Mailer wrote. In his prime he held out promise to match Hemingway as the preeminent male American prose writer of the 20th century. Mailer certainly has the ambition, ego and skill to do so. Although he wrote several good novels, like The Deer Park, in his time I believe that his journalistic work, as he himself might partially admit, especially his political, social and philosophical musings are what will insure his place in the literary pantheon. With that in mind I recently re-read his work on the 1960 political campaign-the one that pitted John F. Kennedy against Richard M. Nixon- that is the center of the book under review. There are other essays in this work, some of merely passing topical value, but what remains of interest today is a very perceptive analysis of the forces at work in that pivotal election. Theodore White won his spurs breaking down the mechanics of the campaign and made a niche for himself with The Making of a President, 1960. Mailer in a few pithy articles gave the overview of the personalities and the stakes involved for the America of that time.

Needless to say the Kennedy victory of that year has interest today mainly for the forces that it unleashed in the base of society, especially, but not exclusively, among the youth. His rather conventional bourgeois Cold War foreign policy and haphazard domestic politics never transcended those of the New and Fair Deals of Roosevelt and Truman but his style, his youth and his élan seemingly gave the go ahead to all sorts of projects in order to ‘‘seek a newer world.” And we took him up on this. This writer counted himself among those youth who saw the potential to change the world. We also knew that if the main villain of the age , one Richard Milhous Nixon, had been successful in 1960 as he graphically demonstrated when he later became president we would not be seeing any new world but the same old, same old.

I have been, by hook or by crook, interested in politics from an early age. Names like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Joseph McCarthy, Khrushchev and organizations like Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the like were familiar to me if not fully understood then. I came of political age with the 1960 presidential campaign. Mailer addresses the malaise of American political life during the stodgy Eisenhower years that created the opening for change-and Kennedy and his superb organization happily rushed in. These chances, as a cursory perusal of the last 40 odd years of bourgeois presidential politics makes painfully clear, do not come often. The funny thing is that during most of 1960 I was actually ‘Madly for Adlai’, that is I preferred Adlai Stevenson the twice- defeated previous Democratic candidate, but when the deal went down at the advanced age of 14 I walked door to door talking up Kennedy. Of course, in Massachusetts that was not a big deal but I still recall today that I had a very strong sense I did not want to be left out of the new age ‘aborning.’ That, my friends, in a small way is the start of that slippery road to the ‘lesser evil’ practice that dominates American politics and a habit that took me a fairly long time to break.

Mailer has some very cutting, but true, remarks about the kind of people who populate the political milieu down at the base of bourgeois politics, those who make it to the political conventions. Except that today they are better dressed and more media savvy nothing has changed. Why? Bourgeois politics, not being based on any fidelity to program except as a throwaway, is all about winning (and fighting to keep on winning). This does not bring out the "better angels of our nature." For those old enough to remember that little spark of youth that urged us on to seek that "newer world" and for those too young to have acquired knowledge of anything but the myth Mailer’s little book makes for interesting and well-written reading.