High Across The Prairie

Steve Otto's latest novel takes an honest look at 1970's Kansas.
Memoirs Of A Drugged-up, Sex-crazed Yippie ---Tales from the 70's Counterculture: Drugs, Sex, Politics and Rock and Roll.

By Steve Otto
Authorhouse Press/2005

Reviewed by Tim Pouncey

Kansas in the late 1970's was so different from today; the Sunflower State might as well have been located in Holland. Remember what it was like to share drugs with close friends and complete strangers? Remember when casual sex was so casual you didn't even know your partners name? Remember when the political climate of Kansas came down squarely on the side of tolerance?Remember when your personal philosophy of life was defined by rock lyrics and not a mission statement?
You don't?
Well, Steve Otto does. In his latest semi-fictional novel, Memoirs Of A Drugged-Up, Sex Crazed Yippie (Authorhouse Press/2005), Otto excavates 1970's counterculture like an archeologist loving dusting off a Mastodon tusk. In a brisk 349 pages, Otto gives us a lucid look at a Kansas few people remember --- or can't remember due to a plentiful supply of "controlled substances" that were constantly and cheaply available. Characters romp through Wichita, Lawrence and even Sedalia Missouri when a cheap thrill was worth what you paid for it and pleasure was just the flipside of danger.
But to dismiss this book as just another nostalgic stoner reminiscing about the last days of the counter-culture would be a major mistake. Although there is a certain "back-in-the-day" wistfulness about the time before political correctness was a mantra, Otto tempers his dreamy history lesson with brutal honesty.
The narrator of the story --- a composite of just about every old druggie you ever met --- may graphically describe the bliss of mainlining MDA, he also reminds us that brief moment of pleasure most often occurred in a squalid apartment at broken kitchen table next to sink full of dirty dishes.
Like all good storytellers, Otto takes the reader places they've never been before. Like William Burroughs and Charles Bukowsky, Otto sometimes takes you to places you've never really wanted to visit. Yet, Otto makes it worth the trip by including generous portions of political discourse, Cyrenaic philosophy, post-adolescent lust and near-suicidal thrill seeking to keep the narrative moving along like a junkie careening through a police roadblock.
Otto's work is always provocative and this book will undoubtedly draw the wrath of both solid conservatives and neo-feminists. Otto's characters never mask their contempt for the right-wing agenda and Otto's narrator never hides his obsession with female anatomy. However, criticizing Memoirs because it baits conservatives and objectifies women is missing the point. Filtering 1970's Kansas counterculture through the sensibilities of a naive middle-class, catholic school educated, twenty-something is no easy trick but Otto mostly pulls it off. He has a good ear for times-past and tries --- often successfully --- to make his prose read like it would have been written by someone experiencing these situations 30 years ago. Trying to be simultaneously innovative, entertaining and honest is a juggling act on a unicycle, but Otto is generally at his best when everything's up-in-the-air and he's peddling frantically. When the narrator's budding Marxist politics and his discussions with Iranian nationalists clash with his dawning awareness that Kansas politics has taken a sharp turn to the right, Otto makes it work.
Is Otto's look into the rear-view mirror a true reflection on the 70's, or do the objects simply appear bigger than they were? Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Memoirs resonates with characters buckling under the weight of the America Dream with redemption harder to find than next snort of Cocaine.

The following book stores also have Memoirs:
Amazon.com,
Powell's books,
Abe Books,
Amazon.co.uk,
Amazon.de(GER),
AllDirect.com,
SuperBookDeals,
A1Books,
Books A Million,
Alibris,
Country Book Shop,UK,
Biblio,
Blackwell.co.uk,
Buy.com,
BiggerBooks,
eCampus,
Direct from the publisher.

“God Bless You Cindy Sheehan” - another song

There’s another song about Cindy Sheehan and this time it’s making the top country hits. The song is “God Bless You Cindy Sheehan,” by Les Visible. To here it, go to this site and click on it.

Afghanistan – the other “Frat-boy” Bush war

I have recently heard a number of people say:
“I favored the invasion of Afghanistan, but I oppose the invasion of Iraq.” Now would be a good time to review what is actually happening in Afghanistan and I would encourage people to reconsider whether that was a good move.
As Michael Moore pointed out in Fahrenheit 9/11, President George Bush was more interested in “nation building” (a euphemism for empire building) that capturing Osama bin Laden and the other Al Qaeda leaders. Had Bush attacked the headquarters of Al Qaeda, he may have captured important leaders and dealt the organization a sever blow. But instead, we have a smaller version of Iraq going on today in Afghanistan.
Just last week, four US soldiers were killed and three injured by enemy attacks, (Night Ridder Newspapers, Aug. 22, 2005). There was also a bombing at the US Embassy. Attacks are now escalating in that country. While Iraq continues to dwarf the casualty numbers of Afghanistan, we can’t ignore the 231 US soldiers killed there and 693 seriously injured. And that’s not counting the 8,587 Afghan troops who have died since the war began.
According to the US Department of State:

“Despite this progress, security remained a concern; the Taliban, al-Qaida, and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) continued to target the Coalition, noncombatant reconstruction civilians, and the Afghan Government. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced its intention to expand its operations outside of Kabul.”

All this despite the fact that the US has held special assault operations on these groups and those efforts have largely failed.
On top of all that, the Communist Party (Maoist) of Afghanistan has announced plans for a “people's war” based on what they have seen taking place in Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). They haven’t announced launching such a war yet, but if they do, They can learn tactical strategies from the Islamic Fundamentalists. This will also mean that US troops will be spread out even thinner, trying to fight both the fundamentalist right and leftist insurgency at the same time.
IT IS TIME TO GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!
IF BUSH FORGETS, LET’S REMIND HIM!

Eric Folkerth Sings about Cindy Sheehan

Here is a new song, inspired by Camp Casey and Cindy Sheehan, by Eric Folkerth, Prairie Chapel Road.
Download it here.
Stream it here .
You can also view this video: low quality version and high quality version.

India bans political parties and arrest activists

THE BAN ON DEMOCRATIC AND POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS in ANDHRA and the ARREST OF VARVARA RAO CONDEMNED!

THE Reddy Government of Andhra Pradesh has banned CPI (Maoist) along with many democratic and revolutionary organizations and started a crackdown on the cadres and leaders of the revolutionary democratic movement. Condemning the arrest of Varvara Rao, the revolutionary poet, the Revolutionary Democratic Front of India (RDF) has strongly criticized the state and central governments for reverting to unbridled and naked terror tactics to scuttle the ongoing revolutionary struggles of the oppressed and exploited vast masses of the country. The ban which was imposed on 17th August, 2005 has come after the failure of the state to cow down the revolutionary movement and leadership through talks. The talks between the revolutionary communists and the state had broken down in January 2005 because the state was not ready to genuinely look into the massive problems of the people and unwilling to take any steps to ameliorate them. Instead, it sought to destroy the revolutionary movement by making it to throw down arms and become part of the same oppressive system which had forced it to take up arms against it.

The RDF states that it is a desperate act on the part of the Andhra government after it failed to achieve its immoral objective through talks. The renewed fascist onslaught on the revolutionary and democratic movement will not be able to stop the march of revolutionary forces towards liberation from oppression, exploitation and state violence which is being perpetrated with all the despicable undemocratic and autocratic means. The ban only further exposes the truth that the state of India is undemocratic and anti-people in essence and is a servile agent of the imperialists as it looks after the interests of the imperialist masters and their MNCs and TNCs.
The state of Andhra, whether under the Telgu Desam or Congress Party has been ruthlessly unleashing oppression against the revolutionary and democratic movement. Two and a half decades of naked terror have been unable to break the resolve of the movement and the movement again will prove its mettle against the current onslaught.
The RDF calls on the revolutionary, democratic and progressive forces and the toiling masses of the country to take up the challenge thrown by the government and launch a wide reaching protest movement against the draconian act of ban. The RDF declares it to be a criminal act of the state not only against the banned organisations which include CPI (Maoist), Radical Youth League, Radical Students Union, Raitu Coolie Sangham, Singareni Karmika Samakhya, Viplava Karmika Samakhya, All India Revolutionary Students Federation, and Revolutionary Writers Association but on all the toiling and justice loving people of the country. It demands immediate and unconditional revocation of the ban orders on the CPI (Maoist) and all other mass revolutionary organisations. It also demands the unconditional and immediate release of Varvara Rao, the well known poet. It calls on the people to assert their democratic right to protest and the right of the conscience to support the revolution and revolutionary organisations of the people.

Khagen Das
President (RDF)

Issued by: Dr. Darshan Pal
Vice President (RDF), Street No.8, Punia Colony, Sangrur, Punjab.Mb. 9417055994

Large number of Wichitans turn out for the Cindy Sheehan vigil

Here in Wichita, Kansas, at least 90 people showed up to support the candle-light vigil, at the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas, for Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star mother staying at Camp Casey, Crawford, Texas, demanding to see the president.
People lined the streets, some with candles, some with posters, others with flags. One mother brought a picture of her son who was sent to Iraq yesterday.
Some of the posters said “Let the Iraqis patrol Iraq.” Others just said to get out.
There was a unity to the purpose of the crowd, not only in support of Cindy Sheehan, but that the war had to come to an end and the US had to leave.
One woman talked of being at the site at Crawford and some people, present, talked of making a trip there to support her.

Peace and Social Justice Center was responding to a nation-wide vigil, at 7:30 pm, all across this country.
“People will be standing in the spirit of peace with Cindy Sheehan, in candle light vigils. She is waiting in Texas with many supporters and other parents who lost their children in service to this country. Waiting for President Bush to meet with her.”

-Posted by Ilyana, August 17, 2005, at Choice Changes.
A speech by Cindy Sheehan can be found at AlterNet.
Or at this video

Folk music from Nepal

Tired of the same old rock and rap? Try the sounds of Folk music from Nepal. Just click on the song title and it will play, if you have a sound system in your computer.

The Music and the sounds of the Revolutionary Artists and the masses from Nepali battlefield:

This part is from The second presentation of Samana Pariwar, the central cultural team of Akhil Nepal Janasanskritik Sangh (all Nepal People's cultural association) "Jaljala".

1. Jaljala Dekhera timilai....
2. Hera Baini Shoshakale Paryo apthyaro....
3. Hamro cheli Birano Gaonma, samjhera Aamalai ....
4. Desh badalnalai gaunbata shaharbat..
5. Gaitibelcha uchaslera, Paharalai chhicholera....
6. Mahakaliko yadi maya cha bhane...
7. Sayapatri phula phulda... Mero maiti samjhinchha..
8. Hamro Rolpama.., policeharu pasera
9. Sarangi retera gaudai hideko
10. Aamako chhati gidhaharule luchhirahechhan

War on Drugs or War on People?: A Resource Book for the Debate

By Steve Otto
Ide House (February 1, 1996)

Still relevant – still available – a valuable tool

Book Description:
A chilling book, Otto exposes government corruption in their war on drugs: from the idiocy of outrageous prison terms for small amounts of pot, to minimal time for selling or possessing crack. Otto argues that the war on drugs is more of a war on people in an effort to stifle dissent and control personal actions in a draconian state, as seen in his confrontation with major politicians who accept kickbacks from drug overlords.

Review:
A reader from Amazon.com:
This information-packed book deals with an issue not taken seriously often enough. Read it with an open mind and a desire for knowledge. You just may be surprised by some things.

This book is available at:
Fetch Books,
Amazon.com,
Amazon.co.uk

Candy Krueger -- Wichita Kansas lost an important political activist

I often saw Candy Krueger at the many peace rallies I went to. She always had a sign and always had a good cheerful attitude. She was a dedicated activist and went to the Washington March for Women's Rights, April 25, 2004. With our black on pink T-shirts featuring the slogan "We Won't Go Back" emblazed over a crescent moon featuring a nude goddess silhouette holding the female symbol, 10 members of Wichita's organization ZAP took part in what was called by the organizers of the march and The Washington Post, ‘the largest march for women's rights in history’. The organizers estimated the crowd to be about 1.15 million and the Post estimated more than 500,000. This was clearly a historical event for those of us who went -- and a moment in time not to be forgotten, that we shared with Candy.
Candy, who died of a heart attack last Thursday, was quite a proud feminist and defender of women’s rights. These days there seem to be so few of us here in Wichita. Krueger participated many pro-choice and peace protests and had spent years doing clinic defense and helped us fight the local Religious Right. Her efforts will be missed and not easily forgotten. It is a sad day for our small community.
- Cam and Steve

NO’Reilly, No thanks – Cindy Sheehan

The BRAD BLOG has learned that Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star Mother who has insisted on seeing President George Bush, has refused to do an interview tonight on Fox's O'Reilley Factor. On a conference call with bloggers this afternoon, Sheehan responded to a question from
CrooksandLiars...
Crooks and Liars: I posted the video of O'Reilly and Malkin attacking you. Are you going on his show?Cindy Sheehan: No. I don't like it when people lie about me. He attacks me personally about it. He asked me to go on show. My first reaction is that I'll go on if he publicly apologizes for lying about me. But my second reaction is I won't go on at all because his show is an obscenity.
Our true mission is bringing attention to the occupation of Iraq and bringing our troops home. The Bush Administration doesn't have the support of the majority of America. We do.

Right-wing media and blogs have put considerable effort into swift-boating Cindy Sheehan over the last few days. Check out what ThinkProgress has to say about O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin's attempt to smear Sheehan. Atrios comments on Drudge's baseless attack.

From the Brad Blog.

My comments:
Who can blame her? O'REILLY is an obnoxious jerk who is not going to give her the time to really respond to his wild and groundless accusations. After all, he does run the show and only the slickest liberals can break even with him.

The US government is a rotting corpse… We don’t need it!

Communism is a belief and an ideology. The idea that it depended on a country for it to exist was an invention of the capitalist pundits and politicians. We were supposed to believe that the Soviet Union WAS Communism and yet most Marxists rejected that model. Only other Marxists were aware of this, due to the great power of the U.S. capitalist press. If the Vatican is nuked and the Pope and his groupies die, does the Catholic Church die out completely? Or would its believers try and rebuild the church? It is their belief, not the buildings and hierarchy (some exceptions of course) that most true Catholics have put their faith in.

Marxism has produced some great contradictions. There was Pol Pot and Salvador Allende – Joseph Stalin and the Sandinistas. As with Christianity there are those who use it peacefully and some who use it as a cover for fascism. Capitalist society is a lot like standing in a knee deep pile of manure and being told to thank the manure providers because in some other place the manure is chest high. What I really want is not to stand in manure at all. It stinks. I don’t need statistics to tell me that a rotting animal corps, in my front yard, is the most efficient system I can hope for. If there is a rotting animal corps on my front yard I want it gone, regardless of the consequences.

So excuse me if I put my faith in some type of Marxism over the rotting smell of our capitalist country, that not only waists our resources, (including human) but keeps us in a constant state of war. Right now we are building an empire in the Middle East so that we can control the resources of that region and help us deal with the Peak Oil crisis. Right before he started the war Bush said of Saddam Hussein:

"He is a danger not only to countries in the region but, as I explained last night, because of his al Qaeda connections, because of his history, he is a danger to Americans," Bush said, referring to Tuesday's State of the Union address. "And we're going to deal with him. We're going to deal with him before it's too late."

So just as with Vietnam, the war was started on a lie and we keep using that phony slogan that we are “fighting for our freedom.” What freedom? Freedom to do what? To drive our oversized pickup trucks and SUVs?

The new bankruptcy law is an example of the pure corruption of our congress.
After an eight-year multimillion dollar lobbying effort by financial-industry giants, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed their heinous "Debt Slavery" Bankruptcy Bill (S. 256/H.R. 685) by a lopsided 302-126 vote.Members of the House briefly debated this important matter before they voted.However, the speeches on both sides tended to be surprisingly simplistic, given the complexity of the bankruptcy bill, largely because the Republican majority leadership chose to display their contempt for democratic processes by:
disallowing votes on the 35 amendments the Democrats had proposed;
ordering the House Rules Committee to allocate only one hour -- far too little time -- for substantive debate on this complicated 500-page bill; and
ordering the House moderator to rudely interrupt every Democratic speaker when they lined up one-by-one to register their objections to the bill in brief biting statements.
The consumers (most people) were sacrificed on the capitalist alter in order to please the highest corporate bidders. Many Democrats actually voted for the bill – so much for our working class friends.

The democracy we are supposed to have has resulted in a near one-party state that already controls and soon will control every branch of the government and seems to dominate the news media. Many foreigners who come here tell us “we know you have an independent press, but it sounds like a government owned press.”

Marx said the socialist revolution would come to the most advanced country and yet it has developed in the poorest countries. That has lead to obvious problems. We searched for models and ideas from people who had few resources of their own to carry out such development. Now we must face reality. We are in the belly of the beast and that is where our next socialist revolution should be. The real model must be our own. We can learn from others and take inspiration from others, but they can’t do this for us. No other country has the resources to build a new society except us. And a new society is the only way out of the mess we are in. We can’t vote out the slime. It has to be kicked out. We can do better and we should.
ONE WAY OR ANOTHER WE MUST REBEL!

The IRA disbands

The Irish Republican Army is now defunct. The war was supposed to be over for some time. This should not surprise anyone. The IRA and Sinn Fèin have promised they would deactivate the IRA in the past. But skeptics and right-wing politicians kept on harping about revenge on the IRA.
Some politicians even tried to blame the recent London bombings on IRA factions. But Prime Minister Tony Blair has recently endorsed this action, so those who hoped to keep the violence going and use it as an excuse to hold back the Republican cause are now doomed to failure. There is now no reason for Sinn Fèin to be excluded from future talks on Northern Ireland.
IRA Statement:
(View the video) .
"The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. This will take effect from 4pm this afternoon.
All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms.
All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.
The IRA leadership has also authorised our representative to engage with the IICD to complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible. We have invited two independent witnesses, from the Protestant and Catholic churches, to testify to this.
The Army Council took these decisions following an unprecedented internal discussion and consultation process with IRA units and Volunteers.
We appreciate the honest and forthright way in which the consultation process was carried out and the depth and content of the submissions. We are proud of the comradely way in which this truly historic discussion was conducted.The outcome of our consultations show very strong support among IRA Volunteers for the Sinn Féin peace strategy. There is also widespread concern about the failure of the two governments and the unionists to fully engage in the peace process. This has created real difficulties. The overwhelming majority of people in Ireland fully support this process. They and friends of Irish unity throughout the world want to see the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Notwithstanding these difficulties our decisions have been taken to advance our republican and democratic objectives, including our goal of a united Ireland. We believe there is now an alternative way to achieve this and to end British rule in our country.
It is the responsibility of all Volunteers to show leadership, determination and courage. We are very mindful of the sacrifices of our patriot dead, those who went to jail, Volunteers, their families and the wider republican base. We reiterate our view that the armed struggle was entirely legitimate.
We are conscious that many people suffered in the conflict. There is a compelling imperative on all sides to build a just and lasting peace.
The issue of the defence of nationalist and republican communities has been raised with us. There is a responsibility on society to ensure that there is no re-occurrence of the pogroms of 1969 and the early 1970s. There is also a universal responsibility to tackle sectarianism in all its forms.
The IRA is fully committed to the goals of Irish unity and independence and to building the Republic outlined in the 1916 Proclamation.
We call for maximum unity and effort by Irish republicans everywhere. We are confident that by working together Irish republicans can achieve our objectives. Every Volunteer is aware of the import of the decisions we have taken and all Óglaigh are compelled to fully comply with these orders.There is now an unprecedented opportunity to utilise the considerable energy and goodwill which there is for the peace process. This comprehensive series of unparalleled initiatives is our contribution to this and to the continued endeavours to bring about independence and unity for the people of Ireland."
Copyright 2005 Sinn Fein

Bush supports mixing science and fairy tales

If the debate in Kansas over evolution weren’t bad enough, now our ignorant president has jumped in. He now believes intelligent design should be taught along side evolution.
“I think part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” President George Bush was quoted by The Wichita Eagle, August 2, 2005.
That’s great for politics or philosophy and even science. The problem is that intelligent design (ID) is not science at all. There is plenty to debate about evolution - - except that there are NO OTHER SCIENTIFIC explanations for the process of life surviving and evolving over millions of years.
ID completely rejects evolution and states that “somebody” (God or someone like him) designed the universe since it is way to complex to evolve out of chemicals. That just isn’t science. Once the ID people get past their clever arguments against evolution, they talk of a God who creates the entire universe during a six day magic show, only 6,000 years ago. This is a scientific impossibility that ignores carbon dating, fossil records and just about everything else involved in science.
It’s not surprising that a president, who has blundered the economy, miss-managed a war we never needed and won an election without being able to make a single intelligent statement during a debate, would say this. He needs support from somebody, why not the religious fundamentalist fanatics.
He is one, if not THE, dumbest president in the history of this country. The only thing he was known for doing as Texas governor was executing people and at the rate he was going, he probably took some innocent lives. He used oil money for a huge campaign chest and his daddy’s name to get elected. During the Vietnam War, he smoked pot, snorted cocaine and drank heavy with his frat buddies while poor people went to fight in the war.
And he can still pass himself off as a “patriot” during an election. So he now sends our sons and daughters to their deaths, while all of his family is safe and secure..
ID is for the unintelligent, uninformed and religiously stubborn. No wonder Bush now sucks up to them. We don’t have all the facts on Evolution, but there ARE no other scientific competing schools of thought.