In Memoriam

My name is Jessie Cunningham and I am the mother of Aaron Hawkins. Mere words cannot begin to express our gratitude at the outpouring of love and support we have received from Aaron's Internet family. Your postings to his site and the many online memorials have been overwhelming. My hope is that Aaron knows how much he was loved and respected.

The blog will continue! We are working out the details, but rest assured it will be here.

We are planning a memorial service for Aaron at one of his favorite coffee houses, so check back for the details.

If you read Aaron often you know he had passionate opinions about many things, including politics. If you really want to honor him this year, please register and vote on November 2, 2004.

You can write me at Morning Praises to You at aol.com or keep sending messages to val at valsadie.com. This is Val, Aaron's sister. My family and I are still working out what we wanted to say and do on the site. But at this time, however briefly, I thought it was best to confirm that yes, Aaron did pass away. We found out for certain yesterday. Please write me at val at valsadie.com or valsadie at aol.com for information on the funeral arrangements. Sorry, all, Aaron's not back yet.

He did leave the following entry...

First, at Women and Children First:

Time: Monday, September 13, 2004 7:30 PM
Location: 5233 N. Clark
Title of Event: Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis II

Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis II
The follow-up to her dazzling 2003 debut Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's new installment of graphic-memoir follows her journey to high school in Vienna in 1984 and her return to her native Tehran four years later.

Who knows? Perhaps we won't have invaded Iran before the 13th. . .

Back to Val:
Aaron left more to the entry as to another upcoming event (as of September 3) but we're all still working on confirming that part of message. Aaron didn't leave a lot of details, but we're hoping to sort it all out in time.

Meanwhile, as I posted in a previous comments section, there was interesting news over the weekend:

Black history unearthed
Archeologists in Pike County, Ill., are exposing traces of the first town founded in the United States by an African-American
By James Janega
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published September 5, 2004

BARRY, Ill. -- The farm field grew corn and native grass for years, the sun-baked land hiding what remained of the first town a black man had founded in the United States.

More than a century after the 1836 town of New Philadelphia disappeared into the prairie, scholars digging here hope its broken pots, hand-forged nails and buried garbage will fill in details of life on the nation's old northwest frontier.

But historians also say the summer dig in western Illinois has unearthed significant gaps in what is known about black Americans from that time, as differing interpretations have been presented for why blacks and whites lived side-by-side here on the frontier.
Read on...

Also, check out the new Margaret Cho poster from the American Library Association (ALA) on her blog (see 9/2/2004), at http://margaretcho.net/blog. What people don't know is that they themselves can go ahead and buy the READ posters that you see in libraries directly from ALA. Margaret Cho's poster should be available in a matter of weeks at the ALA Online Store, at http://alastore.ala.org. Margaret is holding the forthcoming book, Almost Home, by Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three. Continue reading "From Val, Sister of Aaron - The Hiatus Continues"

Anyway, so. In The AIPAC kerfuffle, an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post, one reads:

We are told that the FBI has been investigating Franklin for a year, giving the impression of heft to the story. But as our news pages reveal today, the two AIPAC staffers who are the supposed conduits for Franklin's information have not even been interviewed by the FBI.

Of course, one can also read, in the Knight-Ridder article FBI espionage probe goes beyond Israeli allegations, sources say:

Two or three staff members of AIPAC have been interviewed in connection with the case.

Mind you, both statements might be true; the "two or three staff members" interviewed might not be "the two AIPAC staffers who are the supposed conduits for Franklin's information," after all.

Not that this nit-picking will make even the slightest amount of sense if you're not familiar with what's being termed Iran-Contra II?

On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI is investigating a suspected mole in the Department of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization, classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the investigation, according to U.S. government officials, is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

Which Washington Monthly piece is by Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen and the no-link-for-him editor in chief of the magazine, Paul Glastris.

The article itself is required reading if you'd like to follow this, but you maybe wanna avoid commentary on it. Unless you have a fairly high threshold for both anti-semitism and bogus charges of anti-semitism.

Also, there's quite a few people and organizations involved. Luckily, a helpful diagram is available at uggabugga, based on Juan Cole's take on all this.

I'd add my own take on all this, but, y'know, hiatus. Also, jury duty tomorrow. I mean, if Oprah can do it. . .

Continue reading "I'm a diplomat. I failed flight school."

By way of Thought Balloons, there was a review of Persepolis 2 (with excerpts/a slideshow in the sidebar) in the New York Times yesterday.

Also, yesterday was Tori Amos' birthday.

We now return to your regularly scheduled hiatus, already in progress.

From the Chicago Sun-Times, by way of Archpundit:

Another key GOP moderate, state party Chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka, an abortion rights advocate, appeared uncomfortable listening to Keyes rail against abortion, and she skipped out of a speech he made before the Republican State Central Committee that anointed him earlier this month.

After being cagey about whether she personally intends to vote for him, the state treasurer eventually told reporters in the face of repeated questioning that she was on board Keyes' campaign and would vote for him over Obama.

"I'm the party chairman. What do you think I'm going to do? Vote vegetarian or something?" she said."C'mon, get serious."

Link to Keyes 2004 site added out of spite.

And now I have to see who the vegetarians are running, since I wasn't aware they had a candidate. Or were a political party, for that matter. . .

More local Keyes coverage at Rick Klau's weblog (recently name-checked at Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo), as well as The So-Called "Austin Mayor" Blog and, or course, Archpundit.

Oh yeah:

Either Alan Keyes has lost his mind, or he’s getting back at The Man.

La Shawn has a few words about him, as well.

The Sun-Times article is about Keyes' appearances at the State Fair, providing a convenient excuse for an otherwise gratuitous Rasputina reference.

Speaking of whom, from the official mailing list:

Melora Solo Show in NYC

John Kerry Benefit
Thursday, August 26th.
Sine' in NYC
150 Attorney St. (between Houston & Syanton)
9 pm Melora on her lonesome

She will be scared, so please go!

Again, links added. For your ten bucks (cheap!), you can also enjoy the stylings of Tammy Faye Starlight, The Isotoners, Randi Russo, Botanica and Erika Simonian and the Go-Kartel.

And, you know, the warm glow of knowing you're helping get that fucking idiot out of the White House.

Here's what Botanica has to say on the subject:

Leave your cynicism at the door. Leave your idealism, too, if you have to. He's who we have, (assuming there's an election). Think about it: You'd actually let him into your apartment. And if you don't vote this time, you might not get another chance.

Oddly enough, "[h]e's who we have" seems to be the position of the non-crazy Illinois GOP members with regards to Keyes, bringing this nicely full circle.

Enthusiasm abounds.

np: League of the Brigands, from Randi Russo's IUMA page. What, you think I'd suggest going to see these people without giving 'em a listen myself?

. . . which was written by Will Shetterly, who also isn't updating very frequently but has much better reasons for doing so. The author, one-time Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, and never met him but he seems like a nice enough sort (and that'd be hyphenated if I wasn't worried it would [fail to] wrap horribly) was, in my opinion wrongly, taken to task for Naderite leanings over in this thread at Electrolite.

He also reprinted/posted his story The Princess Who Kicked Butt, which appeared in Cricket and is therefore automatically good, on his blog.

So there.