Pentagon Ends "TALON" Program: So What?

Washington D.C.--I cannot imagine why Congress's approval ratings are at an historical-low, not-at-all. No, it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the majority spoke in November of 2006 that: they wanted the war ended, that they (we) wanted/want an end to the corruption in Congress and within the Bush administration (meaning an end to the Bush administration entirely), the pork, the run-away spending on illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an end to warrantless surveillance, and so much more. We didn't vote for this, we voted to end it, but Congress seems intent to self-destruct in every respect. In 2008, it's going to be time to begin obliging them.

But there are other ways: scandals like "Hookergate" can accelerate the demise of the majority of these crooks who currently occupy our government. 30-years-ago, a story like TALON or all the other warrantless surveillance programs under the umbrella-termed "war on terrorism" would have been sufficient in toppling any presidential administration. Because of this, it's time to start grooming those replacement candidates with no connection whatsoever to the political and economic establishment in America. We know who they are--our soldiers, our veterans of this unholy war in the Middle East. They are virtually unassailable, and attacks on their credibility as veterans can be turned-around on the pundits and political provocateurs who have used 9/11 for political capital for too-long.

Into this fray comes the announcement of the ending of the Pentagon's domestic surveillance program TALON ("Threat and Local Observation Notices") on September 16th of this year. The announcement has little significance. Congress just passed legislation that will allow the Bush administration to continue the same activities at the Justice Department under another name. This was done against the will of the public on almost every front, through the "Protect America Act of 2007"--and its supporters must be punished for it politically.

A Pentagon review found that it had included reports on peaceful protesters and anti-war demonstrations which should have been deleted. However, the report by the defence department's inspector general said the Pentagon had acted legally in collecting information on US citizens because the reports were gathered for law enforcement rather than intelligence purposes. Military and defence personnel will still report suspicious activities around military bases, but that information will go onto an FBI database, the Pentagon said. (BBC, 08.22.2007)

You read it right--they never deleted martials they promised to in 2005 when the program (created in 2002) was exposed in a Washington Post blog on December 14th of that year. What's sad is that the bill that could end American democracy doesn't even have a good name. It's dopey, but like the man said, the world will likely end with a whimper, not a bang (the same could be said for our political system and our liberties). The time to make the lives of incumbents a living hell has come, and we might even be forced to call early elections if events in the intervening-months force us to. These people must be confronted and made to explain their votes on such legislation, but within the law. Some have remarked that the GOP is praying for another attack like 9/11--I strongly disagree. It will have been the second time they failed to protect us, and nobody knows what the reaction from the public would be exactly.

Some would think (incorrectly) that TALON was ended thanks to public outrage (where was it?) and criticism. But that's not why, it just couldn't be justified anymore, and the Protect America Act of 2007 effectively renders it obsolete anyway. Congress actually gave the Bush administration wider domestic spying-powers than any other Executive, not even FDR under the genuine wartime conditions of WWII. Reuters had this to say this week:

Pentagon ditches controversial security database

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday it would close a controversial database tracking suspicious activity around U.S. military bases that critics complained had been used to spy on peaceful antiwar activists. Officials decided the TALON program would end on September 17 not in response to public criticism but because the amount and quality of information being gathered had declined, the Pentagon said. (Reuters, 08.22.2007)

Now, break-ins can be done legally by the White House, an administration that has shown nothing but contempt for the rule of law and the constitutional firewalls that have truly protected the rights of the public from their government--at least in-theory. Again, this is thanks to the Protect America Act. The closing of TALON can be viewed as a distraction, another psy-ops program. What all of this means is that programs like the FBI's COINTELPRO (1956-1972) have now become legal and above-ground. Would Nixon have wanted this? You bet, it was his dream.

By now, it should be obvious that the Bush administration couldn't have done it without the aiding-and-abetting of Democratic incumbents, and they all have to be raked over-the-coals for their votes giving the president the ability to invade Iraq those fateful last months in 2002. They all have a lot of explaining left to do, just not representatives like Sen. Patrick Leahy, Dennis Kucinich, and a few others. There are probably 30 politicians worth saving in Congress right now. If we do our jobs as citizens, only this tiny-minority of incumbents will be left in Congress by the Fall of 2010.

For impairing the 800 year tradition of habeas corpus, for allowing the president undue powers in a time that was never close to the danger after Pearl Harbor, and so much more, it's time to make the political process scream. It's time to demand answers from incumbents and candidates (often the same thing). TALON is just one more symptom of a sick political culture, an infected system. But we were reassured by the Pentagon's spokespeople in late-2005 that names were being purged after 90 days, shortly after its existence was broached by whistleblowers. The shadowy role of private contractors in these programs should be investigated--if not by the press, by Congress.

Last year, a Pentagon review found that as many as 260 reports in the database, known as Talon, were improperly collected or kept there. At the time, the Pentagon said that the database included about 13,000 entries, and that fewer than 2 percent either were wrongly added or were not purged later when they were determined not to have involved real threats. (The New York Times, 08.21.2007)

As previously written and reported widely, the Pentagon and the White House cannot be trusted with such matters. What's being misreported is that such surveillance is clearly illegal and unconstitutional, an obvious violation of the Fourth amendment, but legal interpretation these days has reached into realms of the fictive and outlandish. An interesting aspect to all of this that could be related to "Hookergate" is--again--the Ronald Roughead connection. Last year at least, he was known to be working for a government contractor who likely services the CIFA (Counter-Intelligence Field Activity) agency at the Pentagon that ran TALON. This corporation is known as SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation), and Roughead might be working at the Mitre corporation as well in similar capacities (see article below this one). It's possible that these institutions provided material support for these dubious programs under a cloak of high-level clearances and the abuse of legitimate secrecy policies.

The December 15th, 2005 Pentagon Statement on TALON: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2005/12/121505.html

Reuters "Politics Summary," 08.22.2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082200517_2.html

The BBC Today on TALON: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6958791.stm

The New York Times, 08.21.2007: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/washington/22terror.html?ref=us

Mitre.org (contractor) visits J-7

J-7--Maybe The Nation's Editor [Ed., 10.09.2008--Or whatever the fuck he is these days besides an apologist for the system.] (David Corn) will get back with me on Ronald Roughead when I've been run into a culvert or a ditch like Karen Silkwood--or when the war's over in the Middle East. The first-part of the last sentence was a joke. The not-so-funny thing is, I just want them to start investigating the leads that I've uncovered. That's it.

It's interesting--and perhaps telling--that established media aren't willing to investigate retired U.S. Army Colonel Ronald Roughead, onetime Defense attache, psy-ops chief in Iraq (for IMN, or the "Iraqi Media Network), brother to CNO Rear Admiral Gary Roughead, and God-knows-what else, but I'm unsuprised.

At least that's where things appear to be, they won't investigate. I've had two near-confirmations on the man behind 703-836-0522 from members of the media, and they're not doing anything about it. Prove me wrong, I would love to be incorrect in the impressions I'm getting here. Right, not news, move-along. It gives a very bad impression, and The Nation isn't alone in this by any means. The L.A. Times has been here. So has The Army Times. Then, there's Inside Edition...but is it really on them? ;0)

It seems nobody seriously wants to challenge unaccountable power or to really end this war in a timely manner--just a lot of ruminating and high-talk (most of it safe and self-serving). What if: America falls, and the same Nuremberg trial excuses get trotted-out ("I was only following orders/I needed a job.").

One could begin to conclude that they're protecting Mr. Roughead from scrutiny, though I wouldn't say that about Mr. Corn. I like, and trust, The Nation. It's almost certain that while Ronald Roughead was calling the number of Pamela Martin & Associates, he held a high-level government security clearance. If this is so--and only those with the same or similar clearances can clarify it--he's been very-very naughty.

And look at who's visiting lately: Mitre corp., yet another communications/internet/systems research/data security contractor for the government, just like SAIC. My guess is that Mr. Roughead has ties (even if tangential) to both corporations, and might even work for both insititutions simultaneously. There are leads that appear pregnant with even more leads. It's all like having the question put to you by the Sphinx. A wrong answer could prove fatal.

What's also potentially troubling is that brother Gary could wield undue influence over the unnamed Naval officer in Palfrey's upcoming-trial as CNO of the entire U.S. Navy. It might be a conflict-of-interest, but that's probably why the prosecution "isn't interested in the clients." Somehow, some way, the unnamed Naval officer has retained her position in the Navy with that branch disregarding the fact that she was moonlighting for Palfrey (it's unknown if she was engaged in prostitution when she was--oops!--caught?). One would assume it would mean immediate dismissal...normally. It wouldn't surprise me if most of the people I've contacted in the media have found similar leads.

Some have confirmed that they have found what I have, but seem reluctant to follow them where they might end. I grant that they have limited resources and have to be cautious for dead-ends. Professionalism or careerism (or somewhere in-between?)? The banality of evil for our times? Work overload? Priorities? You tell me. It all reminds me of the jaded American history professor who told me that the very real conspiracy exposed by Marine Corps General Smedley Butler to overthrow FDR's administration by force "didn't amount to anything because it failed." Such "logic" transcends the cynical, and betrays the TALONS of power. Right, nothing here, move-along...

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Director David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" coming this Fall

The film concerns a Russian mafia lieutenant (Viggo Mortensen) in London who has to "take-care" of an immigrant midwife (Naomi Watts of "Mulholland Drive") who knows too many secrets about his boss, and their entire outfit. It's another crime thriller, and promises to be significantly more violent than the last collaboration between director David Cronenberg and actor Mortensen, "A History of Violence."

The actor lived in Russia for several-weeks to research his role, and boy, does he look the part. The great French actor Vincent Cassel ("Hate" & "Irreversible") will also be starring as the boss's out-of-control son, an antagonist that the Mortensen character will have to contend with.

This is going to be worth hitting the theaters for, a rarity these days. What's interesting to note is, while this was being filmed, the Litvinenko affair was beginning to unfold (and still is). Mr. Cronenberg also gave some comments to the London Free Press (an Ontario paper) this weekend about "Robocop" (1987), a film he didn't want to direct, though he enjoyed Paul Verhoven's take on the screenplay.

At one point, Cronenberg was also slated to direct "Total Recall," also picked-up by Verhoven. Strangely--like "Starship Troopers"--nobody seemed to understand that it was a satire of American culture and militarism at the time, oh well.

What's the terror alert over at Fox News?

Bizarrouniverse--If I was to guess, it would be "ELEVATED!! THE SKY IS FALLING, CHICKEN LITTLE!" Seriously, look at the bottom scroll, and it's ALWAYS elevated. Absurd.

KESSLER RULES AGAINST PALFREY ON SEVERAL MOTIONS, BUT FAVORS RELEASE OF SOME INFORMATION FROM PROSECUTION

Washington D.C.--Just two-days-ago, Judge Gladys Kessler ruled against Deborah Jeane Palfrey's several motions to dismiss racketeering charges (which would have cancelled any chance of a criminal trial) based-on government misconduct and the unconstitutional application of local prostitution laws, as well as a request of more "particulars" in the evidence the prosecution contends it has against her.

Also denied was the contention by the defendant that she was the victim of "selective prosecution"--Kessler stated in the ruling that the defendant "provided no evidence" to this claim. Meanwhile, literally hundreds of escort services operate unmolested in the D.C. area at the writing of this piece. Palfrey's civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley had this to say about the rulings:

The limited information that the Judge did order be turned over to Jeane reflects how un-level the playing field is that has been created by the DOJ-controlled Congress that passes any procedural rule DOJ suggests. Here, 11 months after seizing her property, Jeane has yet to receive the names of those who accuse her, let alone the sum and substance of their testimony. (correspondence with the author)

On the same day of the ruling, it appears that the DOJ leaked a tiny-morsel for an over-credulous press to seize-on (they did this in October and December of 2006 by providing http://www.thesmokinggun.com/ affidavits and other edited-samples of e-mail correspondence). This is standard procedure at DOJ, and especially at the FBI. It could very well be their fingerprints in the case, though it appears there is no participation by the Bureau (or that it's submerged).

The prosecution isn't telling anyone anything, not even the defendant. This should concern anyone who values our system of due process, and how it has eroded over time. Now, the appearance of guilt is enough, without the prosecution being required to provide adequate proof before a trial. The fact underscores the true relevance of the case: how awry the federal judicial process has gone in-favor of the government's prosecutorial powers (never mind the phone list).

The recent e-mail(s): somebody at the DOJ leaked these heavily-edited tidbits. What's interesting is that while Jeffrey A. Taylor (D.C.'s U.S. attorney, providing obstruction for contempt charges in another high-profile case) is invoking "secrecy rules" through spokespeople when queried about the identities of Palfrey's accusers, he also allowed the leaking of information meant to damage Palfrey's standing as a defendant. This is highly improper behavior by the prosecution in any case, but that's the climate within our federal justice system, courtesy of an impaired and compromised Congress. For those in the press who don't understand, the foundation of our legal system is "innocent until proven guilty."

Yet, WTOP appears to have taken-the-bait, just as The Smoking Gun did last year. Maybe they all want to believe so badly--a priori--that Ms. Palfrey is guilty, at least at TSG. This is the primary e-mail excerpt, and it echoes the vagueness of the ones published at The Smoking Gun last year: "Why did you do this to me? I never did anything to you." Did what? WTOP alleges it was sent to the former Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld legal secretary, "Jennifer." Another excerpt--again without much solid context--continues with, "It is plain 'foolish' to take a perfectly viable revenue stream (of any kind) and just throw it away, without solid justification." And...?

One might imagine that the prosecution isn't holding many cards--just women who want their liberty back in return for testimony against Ms. Palfrey. So far, that's the appearance from outside the prosecution's tent. They might consider that their cooperating witnesses could turn-on-them if the trial goes south. [Ed.-- Ms. Palfrey informs me that the statements made by "Jennifer's" attorney that his client never engaged in prostitution "...has created a legal opportunity for me to obtain heretofore unattainable information." Perhaps WTOP's Neal Augenstein isn't buying the prosecution's line after all, he and his editor published the comment, or we wouldn't even know about it!]

As we all know, you can get a lot out one-or-two-sentences with no context...unless one wants so badly to believe the worst. That's an a priori assumption, and it could be directed at the members of the federal grand jury, the people who will do the real deciding on this whole affair. But what's especially leading about the WTOP article is the headline: "E-Mails Expose Inner Workings of Palfrey's Escort Service." Do they? They're extremely vague and short-excerpts. The bulk of the article focuses on "Jennifer." Her attorney claims that she's not being pressured by the prosecution to testify, which could be true, but it appears she could be testifying against Palfrey.

If she's not being pressured as a "cooperating witness," it would likely make her one-of-the-few in this case. What should be reported is how little the government has to prove in virtually any case against an American citizen. Jennifer's motives? She could be angry she lost her job at Akin, Gump... , but it's doubtful a credulous press will be asking those questions. Even if they do, there's always an Editor over their shoulder, which we can assume is probably where the headline came from.

The WTOP article from 08.16.2007: http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&pid=0&sid=1222089&page=2

Revised 08.19.2007

THE POE TOASTER IS NOT MARK FELT

Baltimore, Maryland--Does anyone really believe this man is the real "Poe toaster"? He might be, but the press is acting too credulous here. This writer grants that his age of 92 fits the timeline--the mysterious visitor to Poe's, Virginia Clemm's, and her mother's grave, reportedly began his cognac toasts to the dead on January 19th of 1949 (on the 100th anniversary of Poe's peculiar death).

This is interesting, since it signifies both Poe's birth and death. I have known of the Poe toaster since 1982, and the story has always been that an older, frail man began his vigils in 1949, but Sam Porpora--a "Poe historian"--is saying he began in 1967. Ostensibly, it was to save a nearby church by bringing in tourists, which sounds dodgy. Does this all sound familiar?

The claim is hard to verify, especially considering by most accounts the so-called “Poe Toaster” has been visiting the grave since 1949. Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, said it started in 1949, but he started watching for the mystery man in 1977. “I drove to the cemetery that morning, and lo and behold there were roses and liquor there. I just about collapsed. I couldn’t believe it was still going on,” he said. (The Examiner, 08.15.2007)

Do you think Mr. Porpora ever enjoyed telling his grandchildren there was no Santa? To be polite, it might be added here that old men sometimes claim to be something they are not as the years go by, particularly in taverns. But it all has an air of Mark Felt's self-outing as the legendary "Deep Throat" who informed Bob Woodward on the Watergate break-in at a parking garage.

As we know, Felt was no hero, but a man who had felt spurned by the appointment of Patrick Gray as director of the FBI after the timely death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972. Seeing the timeline better now?

At 92, you might feel that you never left your mark on the world.

Porpora's claim is very lofty and should be viewed with some suspicion, particularly the aspect where he claims to have begun the practice in 1967. This writer is unaware of any account of the Poe toaster where this year is given as the starting-date. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not, but not one article on this story appears to have any real foundation for the claim, just the man's word.

In recent years, a number of bumbling morons have tried to unmask the stranger, without any luck. Many have been chased out of the Westminster Burying Grounds. Good show. The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore contends that the Poe toaster pre-dates 1967:

Since 1949, on the night of the anniversary of Poe's birth, a mysterious stranger has entered this cemetery and left as tribute a partial bottle of cognac and three roses on Poe's grave. The identity of the stranger, referred to affectionately as the Poe Toaster, is unknown. The significance of cognac is uncertain as it does not feature in Poe's works as would, for example, amontillado. The presumption for the three roses is that it represents the three persons whose remains are beneath the monument: Poe, his mother-in-law (Maria Clemm) and his wife Virginia. Out of respect, no attempt is made to stop or hinder him. Several of the bottles of cognac from prior years are on display in the Baltimore Poe House and Museum. (http://www.eapoe.org/balt/poegrave.htm)

Why 1967? Because he is mistaken in his contention? Or is it that he is just someone else who began another passing of the torch that year? There could be a half-truth here--a mystery--that appropriately extends what is hidden here. Legends die hard. It is unlikely that Mr. Porpora's "confession" will end the Occult nature of this story, nor should it. Life should have some mysteries to it, and sometimes it is a necessary food for the human soul. We do not need to understand everything. The nature of things is to hide their nature.

If thine eye offends thee... : http://www.examiner.com/a-881772~Poe_historian__I_started__toasting__tradition.html

August 16th, 1977: The Day Elvis Died

South Bend, Indiana--It was a really hot day that day. We were all outside playing, dreading the return to school that month. The last year had been extremely violent, especially just walking to Edison grade school. The sky had a real amber-hue to it, and my brother and I were outside in our front-yard playing. I was nine, and he was seven.

We were cute kids, but our neighborhood was an unusually troubled one. Next-door, there lived a woman who was literally insane, a drug-addict (cocaine and pills), a child-abuser, an alcoholic, and she was fucking someone in the prosecutor's office, so when she threw a lawn boulder through one of our living-room windows, there was no recourse whatsoever.

The story of this woman will have to wait for another time, it's so baroque. On that same day in a part of London, the Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones was doing his guitar-parts for "Never Mind the Bollocks," when one of the engineers in the studio stopped-in and told him that Elvis had died (he didn't care). My mother saw Elvis at Notre Dame University's Joyce ACC, where Frank Zappa and everyone else played, on that last tour. She loved it.

Did I say it was hot that fateful day in August of 1977? It was, it really was. We'd already been to the Museum of Natural History in Chicago to see the full-on King Tut exhibit--a once in a lifetime affair--and Star Wars was coming. Punk was already here at CBGB's (good riddance!)and Max's Kansas City (wish it was still around and relevant), but hardly anyone knew what it was in Northern Indiana at that time, nor cared.

It was the salad days of the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Styx (yeccch!), Supertramp (double-yechhh!), Billy Joel, Alan Parsons Project, Steely Dan (back again, still good!), Carol King, Queen, Pink Floyd, James Taylor, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and even Frank Zappa...it was another time altogether from today, but familiar in some ways. Elvis just seemed out-of-place by 1977. It was actually hard to understand his place anymore, and I guess he felt the same. In retrospect, it was a decade literally teeming with cultural innovations, a flipside to today where there are virtually none.

It's funny, but most of the music my brother and I listened to as kids were my mom's old 45s. They were great, and in 1977, music was expensive and scarce compared to now. Obviously, there was no internet, no world wide web. People kinda still lived in a regional sense, in a kind of cultural isolation, and you might never even hear of a cultural movement until it had been over for at least seven years. We had time to let our imaginations run wild, we didn't have to be told what to see, hear, or even think. It was cool. In that sense, we lived in an Edenic paradise that children in the modern world may never experience again (unless order breaks-down as I expect it to, then it might), and our minds were allowed to roam free as a child's should--at least outside of school.

But what was so special about our experiences that day? The crazy, stupid rednecks who lived diagonally to our house at Whitehall Drive: They were the first to have a VCR, but needed to shave their knuckles so as not to alarm us city folks. The father had the personality of a potato chip and worked in a paint-factory. Both parents left guns lying around in their bedroom, including a .44 revolver, which was pointed at me by the son (the youngest). They all definitely looked like inbreeders and could barely talk, let alone read very well, and they worshiped Elvis as a god. I think they were from Kentucky, which was unsurprising, and had a kitsch museum that they called home.

The rednecks had entire photo albums the factory dog father had made, all from before Elvis went into the Army until the seventies. Some were faded-Polaroids, some were from negatives, but most were in color, and most were pretty impressive. I should say here that I love Elvis's earliest recordings with Sam Phillips and the Sun Records label, as well as his early-singles with RCA ("Hound Dog" is still one of the heaviest rock songs ever).

Hey, I even love "Suspicious Minds," a later single from the "fallow years." Never, ever, recite the lyrics to this song to a schizophrenic. Read the lyrics, and you'll know why. Oddly, they could easily describe the King's life at that time, as well as life in America in 1969-70. Or now.

What happened that day? We're sitting outside on the edge of our lawn, right up on the curb. Broken-glass is all over the street in-front our house from Coke (TM) bottles, because we used to break them all the time there. We also used to have water and snowball/iceball fights a lot, but that's for another time, heh-heh. What did we hear that day?

This is what we heard: wailing and screeching--much like that of Muslim or Sicilian women at a funeral--that began emanating from the redneck house. It was really loud, then--all of a sudden, the fat brunette daughter came running-out screaming, and so did the other kids. I never saw the parents' reactions to the death of Elvis, but there wasn't much activity over there for awhile, it was really quiet. I assumed they were all in-mourning. We laughed really hard at the kids as they came outside squealing, it was pretty funny and ridiculous. Again, keep-in-mind that we loved Elvis too.

The reactions were similar throughout the USA that week, it was bizarre, and thus, the Cult of the Dead Elvis was born. Ever since then, I have wished they would all shut-up. For that reason alone, I wish he was alive, and his death at 42 was certainly untimely. If you want a real headstone for rock's demise, one could argue it was the day Elvis died, with some minor-footnotes of relevance afterward.

As a genuine cultural movement, created and played-by ordinary people for other ordinary people, rock has been dead in America ever since. The pockets are all that have ever mattered, not the mainstream. Rock was barely alive then. I miss Elvis. I wish he hadn't died in the state that he was in (Tennessee). "Train arrived, sixteen coaches long, ...Well, that long black train take my baby and gone." My baby's gone. The real Elvis is the lonely Elvis, the ponderous young man who yearned for a better life. How many whites listened to "Worried Man Blues"--the genesis of "Mystery Train"--in those days? It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.

I wish he'd made more of the 68' comeback, fired "the Memphis Mafia," Colonel Parker (really Mephistopheles to Elvis's Faust), and the idiot doctor who was prescribing him those pills that killed him. But that's not how things worked-out, and it's sad. What's sadder is that Elvis proved the American Dream is a lie, that fame is a hell of being constantly bothered, ripped-off, and misunderstood, and that all those rednecks are dreaming of something that never existed for more than a few-years.

Rockabilly rode a wave of Cold War fears, angst, and sexual-repression. It made a struggling redneck trucker a star, and it also ruined his life. On that hot August day--30-years-ago--we had a good laugh at the expense of the neighborhood rednecks--we loved Elvis too, but they made it into something more than it all was: a religion, and that's what it soon became, and what the Cult of the Dead Elvis still is today. Rock is a pathetic outgrowth of the American Dream, and it's a lie. Elvis, RIP (if you can).

At least my brother and I had a good laugh that day. We wouldn't be laughing the next year--in November--when Jonestown hit.

A Spirited Conversation with author William Keisling Part II of II

"It is impossible that any deed could have been wrought with a more thorough deliberation. For weeks, for months, I pondered upon the means of the murder. I rejected a thousand schemes, because their accomplishment involved a chance of detection. At length, in reading some French memoirs, I found an account of a nearly fatal illness that occurred to Madame Pilau, through the agency of a candle accidentally poisoned: The idea struck my fancy at once. I knew my victim's habit of reading in bed. I knew, too, that his apartment was narrow and ill-ventilated. But I need not vex you with impertinent details. I need not describe the easy artifices by which I substituted, in his bedroom candle-stand, a wax-light of my own making, for the one which I there found. The next morning he was discovered dead in his bed, and the coroner's verdict was, 'Death by the visitation of God.'" --Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Imp of the Perverse,' 1845.

 

The murder of Jonathan P. Luna is a sprawling case involving municipal, federal, and organized crime entities. It also reaches into the politics of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and without Bill Keisling's book, "The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna," we wouldn't know many of the problems with the government's story. Like the night ride of Paul Revere, Jonathan P. Luna is still warning us of the approaching threat...from his grave. We only need listen to hear his warning. He might be telling us where Special Agent Steven Skinner was that night.

Like the horror of a tale by Edgar Allan Poe, the murder was committed with extreme malice and some forethought. Whoever murdered assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Luna in the first-days of December back in 2003 is still free, running around. A vicious murderer is free. Perhaps they're still murdering others out there as I write this, roaming the streets of Baltimore, and the mafia environs of Pennsylvania. In our second installment of this conversation, Mr. Keisling and I hit on a number of interesting themes related to the murder of Luna, as well as its cultural context.

One needn't wonder why modern horror arose in America when considering such crimes as the immolation of the Dawson family in Baltimore, or the discovery of the mutilated-corpse of Jonathan Luna, face down in a Pennsylvania stream, states-away from his office and home. Central to all of this is the trial of Walter Poindexter and Deon Smith, proprietors of Stash House records, and known heroin dealers. It was known during the trial of the two (on completely unrelated drug charges) by the U.S. attorney's office under Thomas DiBiagio, that Poindexter had likely murdered one Alvin Jones.

Special Agent Steve Skinner surely knew this was a fact, as the crime was drug-related, and required prosecution under federal law. This was Luna's stance, and no deals of immunity or skirting the crime in the trial were acceptable to the assistant U.S. attorney. Where was the "Safe Streets Task Force" when the Dawsons were calling 911? Watching Stash House's Poindexter and Smith, and chasing their informant Warren Grace around. Why weren't the Dawsons' 36 calls forwarded to the federal task force? There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding all of these events in Baltimore during the period surrounding the murders in Baltimore and Pennsylvania.

Matt Janovic: Does anybody know what the whereabouts of Special Agent Steve Skinner were on the night [and morning] of Luna's murder?

Bill Keisling: I think that's an important question. ...With a murder, you want to know [where everybody was]. Usually, a murder is a very simple crime with people right there, having committed it. You know, for example, a shooting at a Burger King or a dry cleaner's--you want to know who was there, what was everybody's alibi is, and so that's we have to do that with this case. ...

Matt Janovic: So this hasn't been adequately addressed by any investigation?

Bill Keisling: No, and what I'm trying to do is point people's attention to that very question. The family and the public needs to know where everybody was, and it's just unacceptable not to tell us. You know, again, if this was your family member you'd have a right to know where everybody was. ...You know what? We're going to find it out.

Matt Janovic: So, we don't even know where [informant] Warren Grace was that night, do we?

Bill Keisling: Well, a read of the records says that he was being ferried back-and-forth by agent Skinner and [Baltimore PD] Detective Tom Moody of the quote, unquote "Safe Streets Task Force"[to a Philadelphia jail]. And attorney Ravenell--one of the defense attorneys [for Smith & Poindexter]--wanted Skinner and Moody (this is the last day of Luna's life) to be removed from that duty. They wanted U.S. Marshals to be doing it. Where Grace was being kept was the Philadelphia Detention Center, away from Baltimore while he testified. And the presumption is that they were taking him back-and-forth to Philadelphia before-and-after the trial--that is when they weren't taking him for conjugal visits, and God knows what else...to Disneyland to do heroin... So, here you have Luna driving halfway to Philadelphia that night. Draw your own conclusions.

Matt Janovic: I noticed that, that in the [official] timeline his car avoids Philadelphia at some point.

Bill Keisling: It's like it's driving around Philadelphia--somebody doesn't want to be seen. ...Again, draw your own conclusion.

Matt Janovic: One of the things that I found very interesting in your book was that Special Agent Skinner seemed to know quite a bit about Luna's being in trouble, or subdued, on the day of his no-show at the Poindexter/Smith trial...

Bill Keisling: ...And that's a very important point. In the very last chapter of the book, called "No Man, No Problem," the court records of that are the most remarkable things I have ever read. It's [also] one of the best things I've ever written. There are a couple things: here they're saying that Luna didn't want to do this case. He says the plea deal is unlawful"because Poindexter has committed this drug-related murder [of Alvin Jones]. He says it's unlawful--repeatedly. [laughs] There are all-kinds of meetings and everything else.

The two really important things that happen on that day while Luna's laying face-dead in the stream: they're [federal attorneys and the FBI] up in his office trying to get that plea deal pasted together--so that's called a crime scene, they're violating the crime scene. This would be akin to if you or I and people we knew were in an office and one of their people goes missing. They would know, if they're up in the office, fooling around with those records, that they're going to be in trouble. Well, I think the Justice Department is in trouble, they violated that crime scene, and they're pretending not to know what a crime scene is. First point.

The second point is: as you point out, they're mysteriously telling the judge, "Oh, we're concerned about Luna," while they're up in his office doing this stuff. So, on the one-hand, they're pretending not to know that it's a crime scene, while on the other hand they're running around saying, "Oh, we've got to look for him, we're worried about him," when, as you know, the day before, Luna was late. I made the point that he could have been out skylarking, getting a cup of coffee. They're acting in a very strange way.

Matt Janovic: Has Skinner ever explained his behavior and this air of foreknowledge?

Bill Keisling: No, and we need to have congressional and public hearings about that.

Matt Janovic: One person who seemed to be prominent in the book [Midnight Ride] was the court stenographer. He seemed to be more concerned about the facts surrounding Luna's murder than the FBI.

Bill Keisling: Well, he liked Luna! That's the whole point: that everybody liked Luna, except these goons in the FBI. Who then put out this crap--these blatant falsehoods--to destroy his character [after his murder]. In New York City, we just had two policemen murdered in the line of duty, and you don't hear--I don't know of any other case where you have someone in law enforcement go down, and you have people putting-out what a bad guy he was....except in Luna's case.

Matt Janovic: ...Do you think that a part of Baltimore's problems emanate from organized crime domains in Pennsylvania?

Bill Keisling: Oh certainly. Historically, Baltimore was always a pick-up area between New York, Jersey, Philadelphia, and Pa. mobsters. They always have their own home grown stuff, but it was always fought over. One of the things that's documented in the book is where there's Justice Department figures that there are 50-60 thousand heroin addicts within Baltimore, and another 50-60 thousand addicts in the outlying areas. So, you have around 120,000 heroin addicts, and you do the math...that's a billion dollar industry [per-year].

Matt Janovic: It's massive.

Bill Keisling: It's massive, and obviously it's [the] mob, and obviously for it to continue, it's police corruption.

Matt Janovic: Yeah, it couldn't continue any other way.

Bill Keisling: Again, look at the Warren Grace case. You have an informant dealing heroin, and they know it. They catch him with heroin the same day the Dawson house [burned-down].

Matt Janovic: Do you think that that they [the Baltimore FBI and U.S. attorneys office] were concerned about that serendipitous moment?

Bill Keisling: I think it's what I say in the book--normally, this stuff goes on all the time. The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post are in the tank, nobody cares, so they figure, "Who's going to give-a-hang?" And what happened when the Dawson house burned down is that suddenly a lot of people cared. Luna was left holding the bag, and he couldn't have liked it. He grew up in that sort of an environment, he wanted to help people like that, and instead he sees that he works with people who are dealing heroin that are protecting perpetrators.

Matt Janovic: I can't imagine he would have done nothing about it.

Bill Keisling: I can imagine that there could be U.S. attorneys and assistants who don't care about that sort of thing. But it seems from Luna's victimology, that he would be the one who would be most likely to care about that sort of thing.

Matt Janovic: Right, he had direct experience with it [drug-related crime] in his childhood [in the Bronx].

Bill Keisling: Yeah, and I find it impossible to believe that Jonathan wouldn't care about that. And again, in the book, his friend Dan Rivera says [paraphrase], "Did you stop to think that all the loopy-things he's doing during the trial were intentionally to get the judge to order an investigation of Skinner?" ...

Matt Janovic: During your investigations, were you ever threatened?

Bill Keisling: Ohhhhh, just by family members who wanted me to do other things! ...My mentality has always been that, I 'd really rather write novels and that I'll probably get back to it. I just think that there's a role in society for writers to write about these things, and we have to do it. I've always been afraid of what happens when people don't do this. ...

Matt Janovic: Why do you think the FBI wanted to take-down Stash House records so badly, and allow an informant like Warren Grace to run around terrorizing his neighbors and deal drugs?

Bill Keisling: Well, the book gets into that. The court reporter makes the point that, here they have 100 hours of [surveillance] tape--this isn't 'Gone With the Wind.' ...You need 40 seconds of tape to have somebody taking the drugs and exchanging money for it, case closed. ...Here's what the public should understand: at the very time that the Dawsons were trying to get help (before they burned alive with their kids), the FBI's Safe Streets Task Force was trying to take over a rap music studio. That's what they were busy doing--dealing heroin and trying to take over a rap music studio...

Matt Janovic: But couldn't that have been [U.S. attorney Thomas] Dibiagio's fault?

Bill Keisling: Although he's in-charge, if you get into the history of the FBI, these guys pretty much do what they want. Relations [between the Baltimore U.S. attorneys' office and] with the Bureau weren't all that good. The point is, when the Dawson's home burned down, you have this guy who did it--Darrell Brooks--[and] you have DiBiagio coming-out saying this drug punk's going to be put away forever, but he doesn't mention the drug punks he's responsible for. I think they thought Smith and Poindexter would flip, that the FBI would be controlling Stash House records, and I think it was almost cynical and funny to them that you would have all these young rappers coming in and rapping their crimes into the FBI's microphone.

Matt Janovic: So, would they have just kept running it [Stash House records] as a business, as a front for years and years?

Bill Keisling: That's a good question, and I think the record shows that that's what happens.

Matt Janovic: ...I suppose this is getting into really arcane federal statutues, but what if they ran-a-profit?

Bill Keisling: [agreeing] What if they put-out good records? [laughter all-around]

Matt Janovic: What if they had a hit?

Bill Keisling: [laughing] I don't know Matt! [a hilarious conversation on "mother-approved" pornography ensues, as well as the bizarreness of what government-approved rap might be] ...the whole thing was incompetent: Skinner, Moody, the Safe Streets Task Force, the death of the Dawsons was an atrocity--the public should understand that family burned to death because these guys were dealing heroin, they didn't want to answer the phone, and they were trying to take over a rap music studio. What was going on, and what wasn't going-on?

Matt Janovic: One gets the feeling when reading 'The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna," that either not much has changed since Edgar Allan Poe lived there [Baltimore], or that things have come full-circle. Which do think might be the case?

Bill Keisling: Oh, I kinda like your idea that not much has changed. In the Poe case, actually he was found dying just a few-blocks away from that federal courthouse. Now the best guess is that he was a victim of a practice called "cooping" where you would take unsuspecting people and give them liquor and put different clothes on them and march them around to the polling places. The polling place bar where he was found outside of, a week-or-so before (he couldn't have known), but it was charged that that practice was going on there. It was a sheriff's election. I think Edgar Allan Poe might be the most important writer America has produced.

Matt Janovic: Absolutely. I have to ask a question [relating to the case of] Ms. Palfrey. It's interesting that in both cases--that of [former Baltimore Police Commissioner] Ed Norris and Ms. Palfrey, that you have involvement of the IRS, harrassment of said defendent's families, use of "cooperating witnesses" (or "confidential informants")--but in Palfrey's case, FBI investigators are curiously absent. Why do you think that is?

Bill Keisling: I'm sure they're busy doing other things, huh? What I say in [Midnight Ride] is that you don't often see the FBI's fingerprints, they're more like little traces. You know what I mean?

Matt Janovic: Their role can sometimes be submerged.

Bill Keisling: Right. You can see little traces of it, almost like Luna's EZ pass. You see these little clues, and I think that's the way they like it.

Matt Janovic: What do you think is the significance of this new development with Luna's father contacting the Lancaster [Pennsylvania] county coroner?

Bill Keisling: Well I think his father has the right to that, and what happened here was this gadfly went and filed on his own behalf saying he was representing the friends and family, and it gave the courts the excuse to shut everybody out. But that said, I interviewed the undertaker, and I know what the wounds were, and they're pretty horrific. I think that there's disinformation that they put out--suicide, bogus information about Luna's alleged personal life...you put out stuff like that to distract people from what they should be looking at; and what we should be looking at is the Safe Streets Task Force, Skinner and Moody, their handling of Warren Grace, the deaths of the Dawsons--I think that's where we need to be turning our attention.

Now, where it really ties-in with Palfrey is, that in Pennsylvania, in a murder case, you don't release the autopsy report because you want to have information there that only the perpetrator would know about. So, it's a tool for law enforcement to keep certain cards close to the vest, so that you can identify the true perpetrator who would have information about this. That said, what's in-common between this case and Palfrey's is, the Justice Department isn't acting in good faith--as we saw with Vitter and Tobias--they're actually concealing law-breaking with their actions, and that's unacceptable. ...The public can take the truth, the public is smart [enough]. 

Part I:

http://chickasawpicklesmell.blogspot.com/2007/07/spirited-conversation-with-author_30.html

End of Part II

Statement of intellectual ownership: All content in this interview (and all content on this site produced by the Editor), and its subsequent part are the intellectual property of Matt Janovic, sole proprietor of this website. Quotations of more than four lines requires written permission from the author.

A contention I still assert is true...

I haven't smoked since college (and Toronto), but: Nobody ever got laid at a party by whipping out a bag of pot in a room full of women. Never. Not ever. It wasn't over the pot if someone did. Never. Ever. Not. Perhaps women sometimes use cocaine as an anti-depressant because they have a different body chemistry than men do, or perhaps they're attracted to using it for the same reasons that "every girl loves a badass," I dunno. I don't care.

I followed Jack Herer for a week in 1990, and I never saw it. I never saw it in college. I never saw it, Sam I am, not even on-the-lam. But my contention is largely true. There it is. Always never (never always). None. Never. Ever. Not.

Superb Jeane Palfrey intervew at Radical Vixen's site!

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My Dream Job: Pulling a Rickshaw

The thing is, don't they have motors now? That really ruins it for me, honestly (I don't know how to be anything else). What better example of human absurdity does one need than this job? It would be like pulling a full-sized crucifix around so people can be reminded of their indifference.

Naw, people adapt to inhumanity, it's well-known.

And I'll tell you, it would be pretty exotic here in Michiana--you'd need that motor for the winters. But wouldn't it be romantic to pull a real rickshaw, not one of those "auto rickshaws" in Asia? "Auto rickshaw"?! That's not a real rickshaw, there's no element of human suffering to it, creepin' Christ. Maybe I could get tips too, and I don't mean about the stock market or gardening. You never know, someone might give me a ball of rice too, they're easier to chew with just a few blackened-teeth (I'm thinking ahead here).

Yes, NYC and London have the auto and peddled rickshaws (sundry "pedicabs") now, but that's just not brutal and ugly enough. If we're going to have so much economic inequality again, why hide it? I want to pull the John Jacob Astors of today, the Rockefellers, and other modern Mandarins. I want that bamboo hat, the black pajamas, the sandals without socks, and the blackened-teeth. I want it all. Most sources say the rickshaw was invented in the USA anyway, later adopted by Asia and other regions of the globe. But give me a rickshaw, put me in Shanghai, and you tell me that's not exotic.

An American pulling Asian elites; I'd have that goddamn retirement money in just a few years, by gum.

It wouldn't be a problem to smile pulling one of these things, knowing America has made a bold, new step towards honesty, and they'd have to bring them here. The only step left nowadays is having some rich person riding piggyback on your shoulders (coming soon!). You can hide our homeless, but you cannot hide the rickshaw pulling human horsey. Occasionally, I get invited by a reader to come live in their nation. "Do they have rickshaws?" I often ask myself.

I mean, they don't offer me any lodging or jobs, so a rickshaw life for me it is. I can already feel those contractions leaving my speech and writing. Rickshaw-rickshaw-rickshaw! Rudyard Kipling--that scion of British imperial literature--wrote of rickshaws in one of his earliest stories, 'The Phantom Rickshaw' in 1885, around the time Twain was seeing the publication of 'Huck Finn' and three years before Jack the Ripper saved the poor of Whitechapel from further neglect. Ah, the good old days when the poor knew their place.

Toronto (http://www.rickshawservices.com/Franchises.html) even has them, I found out to my dismay. I would have ridden (or pulled) one when I was there last July. Surely the Philippines, China, and Japan still have them, but I'd wager that they're motorized, damned-and-blast! Even Ireland has them. White man's burden, I tell ya,' white man's burden. Since America's slipping into being a second and third world nation, we may as well accept the return of all things rickshaw.

I'm feeling the spirit of Criswell in me right now: human-powered rickshaws in Moscow, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Beijing, Seattle, London, Paris, Detroit, Kuwait City, Riyadh, and places like Warsaw, Poland. But India's (keep delivering the laughs) not ashamed. They still have rickshaws everywhere in Calcutta, you betcha! You just gotta love those human caste systems, crushing the little guys for no logical reason whatsoever.

The number three: that's odd...just not as odd as us primates. I'll learn Chinese just to be able to pull one, you watch.

Bobby Flaying-of-the-flesh (fiction?)

TV--He is--after-all--THE heterosexual-chef. He'll tell you so. The TV chef...does anyone really use those recipes? Be honest. They look good, but then you have to actually make them.

This modern life makes my head hurt. Mystery still surrounds Flay's connection to the legendary 'Patterson-Gimlin film' of 1967. Does yeti and bigfoot taste gamey and dry? What would one use for gravy? Would it be cannibalism to eat another primate (nobody asked you, vegans)?

Where was Flay when the Patterson-Gimlin film taken? Can he give me the recipe to his fish tacos? Did his wife marry him for the cooking? And when is that El Chupacabra recipe coming--hungry Puerto Ricans and Mexicans want to know! And how on God's gray earth does one marinate Cthuloid-tentacles?

I want to know, and surely many readers do too. And those alien cadavers--they're everywhere, and need to be eaten. How does one prepare them: broasting, roasting, boiling? I mean, mutilated cattle...we know this one.

Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938 Volume One DVD set review

Throw-out those public domain sets and DVDs, they're now obsolete! For those who never had the chance to see the original Fleischer cartoons during their 1970s syndication, these will be a real eye-popping experience. Forget Disney, and you can even forget some of Warner's Looney Tunes animated shorts. As great as they are, this the pinnacle of American animation, its golden age. Quality and pride were the Fleischer's method. Needless-to-say, it--and Superman--bankrupted Max and David Fleischer, and the evolution of animation in this country would never reach such heights again, except for a few rare examples. Animation director John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy) makes a fine point in one of his commentaries: if only we could have this side of America back, that dogged commitment to quality and innovation. Keep the racism and the labor violence, the lynch mobs, and the rest, just bring-back what was good. Bring-back the pride in one's work.

This set is an animation connoisseur's dream, an apotheosis: 60 of the original Fleischer Popeye cartoons in sequential-order, and lovingly restored from what have to be materials that are very close to the original 35mm nitrate film-negatives. If you want a yardstick for how good they look, you could compare the restorations to that of the F.W. Murnau foundation's work on Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), or even Warner's stellar restoration of Citizen Kane (1941), or any number of editions of classics by the Criterion collection. All-stops were pulled in this set, and in-addition to the original 60 franchise cartoons, there are a whopping 15 additional Bray/Fleischer cartoons dating-back to 1915! There are even "Koko the Clown" and Mutt & Jeff" shorts here, it's almost completist in its scope.

People tend to forget that Popeye was introduced through a Betty Boop short, included here as the very first cartoon from 1933. Plots? What, are you kiddin'? Popeye and Bluto beat each other senseless over Olive Oyl, again-and-again-and-again! From this, you can tell these cartoons are not for children--at least not highly-impressionable ones. Let's be honest: if your kids are acting-out violence they see on television, you have a much bigger problem on-your-hands. Your kid might be nuts. Teenagers might be able to watch this, maybe, but not children ages 3-13, but that's your call, not anyone else's. It's pretty hilarious to look back and think that I used to watch these almost every day of my childhood, heh-heh. Also, one has to keep-in-mind that there are definite examples of overt racism in most of these cartoons--Warners wisely released these uncut, pointing-out in a pre-menu page that it would be wrong to deny these attitudes existed and were prevalent in the culture when they were made.

It's an idiotic conceit to want to remove these things--like the black-faced minstrel jokes, Native American gags, etc.--because it's just running-away from them. It's indirectly akin to holocaust denial, thank you. It's also known as censorship, and Warners decided not to make the same mistake they did on some the Looney Tunes boxes. A lot of fans were incensed by the editing and omission of certain cartoons in the Warners canon. But enough of our red-haired step-children here on the left, the Stalinists.

The spinach: what you get here are as many original Popeye cartoons as you can handle. You're going to be stunned at how lousy American animation is today, and how poorer nations like Canada, Russia, and even the Czech Republic, can do better than us today. Ponder the reasons. We can be proud of what the Fleischers have left us, but we should aspire to these heights again. We can do it, the talent is here, but the funding is not. These four discs have hours of features--documentaries, commentaries from historians and contemporary animators, and even archival recordings from the original animators of these shorts. Watching these today, one can see how real imagination applied to this medium looks, they are jaw-dropping. From the composition, to the motion, to the execution of the characters within their three-dimensional environments...was there ever a greater example of what could be done creatively in animation?

Also included are the technicolor (TM) 20-minute shorts, “Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor” (1936), and “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves” (1937). Both feature three-dimensional little sets, and presaged Disney's full-length animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) by several months. It was the Fleischer studios that did the story first, as a short. As far as this writer can tell, the only other animated feature approaching full-length before the Fleischer two-reelers was Lotte Reiniger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926), but it wasn't done with conventional cell-animation. Reiniger utilized hand-cut silhouette figures and backgrounds. Now, if Warners can get us Betty Boop and all the rest of the Fleischer canon in this kind of a presentation, and soon.

KARL ROVE ANNOUNCES HIS DECISION TO RESIGN

Washington D.C.--You can still be subpoenaed. Your kid is at college. You can still be pardoned, but the president had better save it for last.

You're a traitor, guilty of more crimes than Aaron Burr, or even Benedict Arnold--at least there was a smidgen of validity to their motives. We all know you're going to be running the RNC's campaign strategy for the 2008 elections. This is why we must watch your every move making your life extremely transparent.

The threat of prison will always be over your shoulder, it's coming...or is it? You'll never know, will you? Not until Federal Marshals come for you. Then, it'll be too late. It's funny how you Republicans use the same lame excuse when it's obvious you're about to be felled: "I need to spend time with my family."

Sure. You've been so attentive already. At least Joseph Goebbels had the common courtesy to kill himself.

My Name is Not Merv Griffin (Merv Griffin, Dead at 82)

tv-He hadn't been doing much as an entertainer for many years, but he was producing some really bad tv shows! Merv was OK, though, really. He's partly-responsible for the funniest moment in any motion picture, anywhere. The movie? Why, Steve Martin's and Carl Reiner's "The Man With Two Brains" (1983) of course. It was Merv's shining moment, his eden, forget Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy.

Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr: You. You're the elevator killer. Merv Griffin.

Merv Griffin: Yeah.

Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr: Why?

Merv Griffin: I don't know. I've always just loved to kill. I really enjoyed it. But then I got famous, and - it's just too hard for me. And so many witnesses. I mean, *everybody* recognized me. I couldn't even lurk anymore. I'd hear, "Who's that lurking over there? Isn't that Merv Griffin?" So I came to Europe to kill. And it's really worked out very well for me. (imdb.com)

I love that movie, it was one of the last films that Steve Martin was truly hilarious in. After that, he decided not to do too much comedy, I don't know why. His greatest work will always be his collaborations on film with Carl Reiner, especially "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982), the movie my mother walked-out on. But putting Merv Griffin in there for no logical reason was inspired genius, like having Regis Philbin doing the same scene and dialog. What Makes Merv so cool is that he got it, and agreed to do it. Kathleen Turner also deserves a lot of credit for getting it too, she proved a beautiful woman can be funny again.

Merv began his showbiz career as a singer for swing bands during WWII, he was just 19 when he began. He's one of the few real "rags-to-riches" stories (rare, because that's not how life works for the rest of us). He even had a #1 song with his faux cockney rendition of "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts." He interviewed everybody on the tv shows he hosted: John Lennon (while still a Beatle), Martin Luther King Jr., Bertrand Russell, Richard Pryor, Orson Welles, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford--nearly everyone who was someone. His real name was not George, but he was unimaginably rich. Besides being rich, he was even featured in a Captain America "What If?" comic where the Captain (sans Tennielle) is cryogenically freezed and thawed-out during the 1990s. Hopefully, he left his wealth--even a smidgen--to L.A.'s homeless, but I doubt it. How did he die? He was 82. After that age, your toenails hurt. Welcome to America, where you either make nothing or too-much. Then, the people who make too-much tell us how wonderful it is here, hahahahahah. He was a great tv host, but should he have had more money than God?

Merv: http://www.merv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=19

Michael Alig's mom is in my area and zip code (last I knew!)

Michiana--I keep threatening to do this, but it might have to come-to-pass: an interview with Michael Alig. Michael's mother--Elke Blair--lives just miles from our home here. In watching the documentary, "Party Monster," I was stunned at how similar our experiences living around here were.

I'm not gay, but it makes me shudder to think of the abuse that Michael had inflicted upon himself by others in the area. It makes for a better understanding of why he did what he did. Living here, I am completely unsurprised that Michael's life ended-up the way it did, and look at the entire story as a tragedy. You couldn't find an uglier place for real outsiders than this region.

It could have worked-out differently, though I have to wonder if he would have had the drive to accomplish what he did with the club kids without the rage that began here in the South Bend/Mishawaka area.

Being a kid around here in the 1970s-80s was a extremely violent time for a lot of us. It was another era entirely, and if you didn't fit-in you were a target. There was no escape from this existentialist hell, and like today, adults were unwilling to take any responsibility for this atmosphere. Many of them actively encouraged the hunting-down of the "others" who were "different." The violence was rife, ubiquitous, and everywhere as a daily-occurrence.

What constituted that difference usually didn't matter. I can recall a memory from those times of watching in horror as a well-known family of young malcontents literally enslaved neighborhood children into building a kid's "fort" for them through violence and intimidation. The examples are numerous and similar. It was like a war zone.
There is a theme of revenge, or a desire for it, in Alig's life that must surely spring from this context. Who were his predators during his childhood, the individuals who victimized Michael Alig? "Party Monster" outs a local preacher, but also hints at homophobic tormenting and bullying by other children in this area (as well as general climate of violent bullying). This should be examined more thoroughly.

What Michael did was wicked, evil, and wrong by any standard, but I don't think the surface was remotely scratched by documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. They should have gotten more of a feel for where Alig grew-up. It's probably the shortest-part of "Party Monster-The Shockumentary" (1998). Watching it on its original broadcast, I nearly fell off of my couch! I never saw it coming. But how does one summarize a life?

That's not entirely their fault, it's a tall order. James St. James has done a good job in these areas, and I agree that the filmmakers were probably a little too enamored with their subject, being too seduced by the glitz and glamor they were party to. It's not unlikely that Michael Alig became his oppressors in some way through dehumanization and constant humiliation. We should find-out who these people were, because they could be doing things that are far-and-away worse than what Alig did, even today. I believe the preacher is deceased, but what of Alig's peers from those early-years before his move to NYC?

Who are they? What are they doing today?

For myself, the club kids were something you saw on Springer, Sally Jesse Raphael, or Geraldo. They were a visually interesting and bizarre part of an ugly and boring decade. I liked them in their Kabuki-style poses, though I would learn later that much of it was copped from UK designer Leigh Bowrey. But there was also something very intriguing about their androgyny and free-spiritedness, it was interesting and appeared very fresh. The ladies attached to the scene were pretty hot. It all looked very sexy and subversive.

Hilariously, I once received a Richie Rich single in the mail for a little zine' I was doing during that period--there was no context for it at all! Frankly, the single was hilariously bad dance techno with helium-vocals. The Club Kids weren't exactly talented, they just became very famous overnight. What's amazing is how long it all lasted. Where it all went wrong was that many of the participants couldn't face that these scenes only last a for a time, and then they're gone. Normally, they don't last more than a couple years, which is what made this countercultural scene so unique. But holding-on to something that must inevitably end is when the demons arise from their hiding-places.

Add tons of hard drugs, and stir! There are so many rumors and allegations surrounding this story, and while I would trust James St. James over Michael Alig in most areas, it would be healthy for Michael to finally finish that autobiography ("Aligula"), and in a shorter form than he's been promising (a staggering 5,000 pages). It should be clear and manageable for readers, and direct. My hope is that he finds someone to help him edit it into something readable and accessible (paging Michael!).

Some very bizarre rumors and allegations surround the murder of Angel Melendez, and the government's investigative role in Gatien's clubs doesn't add any clarity. One is that Alig and his roommate "Freez" cannibalized Angel's body. This sounds very hard to believe. What's certain is that Gatien's clubs were teeming with law enforcement who were incognito.

If the Feds knew the answer to this question, they certainly were keeping it secret, as it appeared they intended to use Alig as a Prosecution Witness against Peter Gatien. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office surely knew also, but they have a long history of hiding from the public information about crimes involving the Occult. Further investigation proved that Michael Alig and Freeze were involved with the Occult; Michael being a ‘dabbler’ whereas Freeze was heavily involved. (Americanmafia.com, 'The Agony Of Ecstasy: The Fall Of Sammy Gravano And Peter Gatien, James Ridgway de Szigethy. September 2002)

Peter Gatien's story is also basically untold, and by all appearances, he was probably railroaded by the federal government in all of this. Consider that for a long-time, they didn't even care about Angel Melendez's murder, and that they just wanted to take down Mr. Gatien and the Limelight club, the Palladium, Club USA, and other venues he owned during the 1980s-90s. Gatien is now living in Toronto (2008).

Law enforcement even ignored an early confession of Alig to Melendez's murder and allowed him to roam free for weeks. Sound familiar? But what Gatien and Limelight, and his other clubs, can be seen as are victims of former NYC Rudolph Giuliani's campaign to "clean-up" the city (for organized crime?). The murder probably was--and is--unimportant to law enforcement at all levels. None of this is in-defense of Michael Alig. Four-years-ago this 21st of August, Peter Gatien was deported to his native Canada. He currently resides in Toronto, sans his distinctive eye-patch.

Again, there could also be a much larger and untold story in this area known as Michiana regarding Alig's background. Remember that Michael grew-up around Penn High School (a place swarming with rednecks), the very same stomping-ground as that of "Heathers" (1989, written just a couple years after Alig left for NYC) scribe Dan Waters. Watch that film, and you'll see that the connections to Alig's life are there.

My own experiences in the educational system around here echo the movie in many respects (no, not literally in what Christian Slater's character does to his tormentors), so I know that Michael's environment was almost identical to my own, and that of many others.

Waters was an astute social observer: he really nailed the rage and anger experienced by outsiders around here. It's all about the pecking-order. Such are the roots of Columbine, and all the other tragedies, the elephant in the room that everyone's afraid to acknowledge. Part of the reason is that many parents and other "trusted" authority-figures would be going to jail for life.

That elephant is how horrible we all allow others to treat one another, and the price of tolerating the pathological bully, the pederast, and the child abuser. That price is too high for our society. How many murders were there in the Haight Ashbury district after the Summer of love? A lot. It would dwarf the body count of the club kids, and handily, yet that's not the picture we usually get of that scene.

The whole thing about these scenes is that it's an ongoing tragedy about young people wanting to have acceptance and to escape from the alienation of the modern world by creating their own space. They just wanted to create another life, a better life, and as wrongheaded as many of them were, it's not an evil motive at all. As these ersatz Edens crash, the hard drugs strat playing a role. But someone had to provide the drugs, and that brought in the criminal-elements and the cops.

Alig was one of the "two Michaels" hired by Gatien in the late-1980s to promote the Limelight, the other being Michael Caruso. Caruso became a DEA informant after being popped sometime during the early-1990s.

A May 2000 Village Voice article offers some clarification of his role in the club kids scene:

Two years ago, as he sat on the witness stand at Limelight owner Peter Gatien's drug-conspiracy trial bawling his eyes out in a badly fitting blue suit, Michael Caruso's life seemed effectively over. The big-time promoter—the man who first brought techno music to Manhattan and turned Staten Island on to Ecstasy—confessed to a string of brutal crimes: bank robbery, home invasions, extortion schemes, kidnapping attempts, wholesale drug trafficking, and more. These should have put him behind bars for 20 years. But in exchange for leniency, he became the centerpiece of the government's case against Gatien [Ed.-Instead of Michael Alig?], betraying a man who he'd told associates was closer to him than his own father. Caruso's testimony about the inner workings of the Limelight's drug network, which he himself created, not only provided a glimpse of the seamy underbelly of club culture—the violent demimonde of dope peddlers, gangsters, professional party-goers, and police informers hidden behind the superficial veil of fun and fabulousness—but helped put behind bars many of his former colleagues. (Village Voice, 'Wu-Tang Clan are Sumthing ta Fuck Wit,' Frank Owen. May 24-30, 2000)

Well-intentioned Edens fall. This shouldn't be an unfamiliar theme to anyone. One can hardly blame James St. James in his wish to move-on from this whole affair. It's a sad story filled with animosity, subterfuge, and several unexplained deaths and a few explained murders. Utopian experiments rarely end well, and we should be examining why this is so. The seeds-of-destruction are usually already in-place, often coming from that "outside world" the participants are desperately trying to escape.

Watch Heathers again sometime, and consider what you have read here. Add informant programs and other elements of criminality added to-the-mix (not DJ Keoki's!), and it only gets uglier. It didn't have to end the way it did, but it did. What can I say? It looked like so much fun, and it could have been so good. It could have been so very good.

Lightly Revised and Corrected, 09.12.2008