System Of A Down singer heads to Congress
Serj Tankian tries to push Armenian Genocide Resolution to vote

System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian took part in a rally earlier this week to convince Congress to bring an Armenian Genocide Resolution to a vote.

The frontman joined members of the Armenian National Committee of America, the Armenian Youth Federation and his own Axis Of Justice organisation outside Congressman Dennis Hastert's office in Batavia, Illinois on Tuesday (September 27).

Tankian then read a heartfelt letter which was delivered to Hastert's office in support of the pending legislation, which would officially recognise Turkey's alleged slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923.

According, to MTV News, the singer took part in the rally after promising his 97-year-old grandfather he would do his best to convince Hastert to bring the Armenian Genocide Resolution to vote.

The resolution passed the bipartisan International Relations Committee and now Hastert can either bring it to the House Of Representatives for a vote or let it expire.

Tankian said: "It's all in his hands, he's the man. The thing is that a similar resolution was going around in 2000 as well and he was the speaker of the House then, but at the time (President Bill) Clinton had written a letter asking him not to bring it up to vote, citing concerns that had to do with Turkey. In 2004 he also had the opportunity to bring another resolution to vote on ... and that didn't happen either."

He added: "I'm sure that there's a lot of lobbying going on from the Bush administration, from the military-industrial complex that sells a lot of weapons to Turkey, and a whole host of corporate lobbyist firms that don't want this thing to pass, but the truth has to come out, and more so in a democracy than anywhere else. So we're fighting the good fight."

Hastert has not yet commented on the issue.

taken from NME

via Mikey

"The most important thing I have done is to fight against forgetting and to keep remembrance alive."

-Simon Wiesenthal
December 31, 1908 - September 20, 2005

Two things I wanted to share

The first is this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4748063.stm

The second is my friend Yasemen Hussein's work which leaves me speechless. Keep in mind when you view it how much that would weigh. It's beautiful and I'd say that even if I didn't love Yasemen.

This is from an interview with Ian Mackaye from Fugazi and The Evens that I found in Salon. I can gush about so many things that I admire in him but he is very much akin to how my aunt described the buddha when I was a kid, "He is a mirror." In Ian's case, I hesitate in saying this lest he sound otherworldly. What makes him such a standout figure to me is that he is human. And he holds up the mirror just by being himself. Simple. He does what he does. I find that when I hear him speak I think about that. It's different than when hear his music, when I listen to Fugazi or The Evens. Then I listen. To that. Does that make sense? It's a form of respect. I've been thinking a lot about him recently. I listened to an old Radio Zero show where Rick and Rose had him on the phone.

A lot of people are stunned that you personally answer all your mail and e-mail. This is an interview for a bigger-name magazine, yet we waited in line with all the fanzines. Is there any practical advantage to doing it this way?

There's no advantage. We just answer our mail. People write and we respond. It's a drag sometimes, mostly when I realize somebody's written to me about a report that was due three months ago -- I hate when that happens.

I do get overwhelmed. But when it's time for me to go see my mom and play cards, people are just going to have to wait. For me, an opportunity to sit down and talk to someone is always going to take precedence. That's what I'm doing this for. So if somebody comes in and they need to talk, then everybody else is going to have to wait. But on the other hand, we do answer all our mail. It was no formula; it just seemed to me in the very beginning that if somebody wrote to us, it would be nice to write them back. We're a little bit like the Luddite people -- we just do what we do. We're not thinking about how other people do stuff, and we don't really care how other people do stuff. This is just how we set things up and it seems to have done OK.

Do you get a lot of students contacting you for reports?

Occasionally. I'm usually happy to do it, especially for high school kids, because when I was in high school, I was notoriously bad about doing homework. I didn't do it, and any books that were assigned I never read. I had to do a book report for an English class on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I just didn't really get around to thinking about it. I couldn't sum up my feelings about the book. I did read the book, or parts of it. I ended up calling Ken Kesey because I was in a pickle and needed to get this report done. So I just called up Oregon information and asked for Ken Kesey and they gave me a number, which I couldn't believe. I called and he was not home, but his wife was, and she was so nice to me. She talked to me about some of the ideas he had, and I wrote it up and I got an A. I was pretty psyched about it, but mostly I was touched by the fact that this person would take time out to speak to me. So I just feel like I'm returning the favor.

I find that Scorpios have very little if not any patience for me.

I wanted to shout out a very happy birthday to Arturo Valle, dj vj extraordinaire, my former musical partner in crime, the kindest man on earth and force behind Panic Films.

Es el fin que viajamos a pero en el fin es el viaje que es importante. Feliz cumpleanos, mi amigo.

I revisited this poem I wrote when I was in chemotherapy and shared it with my friend.

Like a candle

I have this quiet inside me that nests in between

my muscles and metastasizes – finding every corner,

ligament, merry go round joint and blows it out

like a candle

I collapse, flutter like a broken bird on the ground

I cannot see your tiny hands that can hold my life

still – better than a bookmark. The days tiptoe past

me not looking

pulling their hoodies tighter, averting their eyes – maybe

they are afraid to become involved. Maybe it will

violate the rules of time. I flutter on the ground

trying to re-imagine

you after birth. Before I only had sparks from your mother

Now I must sew eyes and mouth and hair into a postcard

that I can carry with me when the quiet moves to the lowest

levels of cells

This is the gift of cancer: A shy lover who comes into your house

whose memories become shared. Who, after years of living

together, has the ability to watch you on the ground with an

eye of disinterest.

You know, many people profess love to each other. They promise it like they can deliver it, like working hard at a job. They can prove it. But you can never prove it. And trying to misses the point.

When you can finally see the inside of your partner, the one that they hide away and see how it contrasts or in some cases complements the outside, then, no, you aren't in love. You are awake.

And then you have at least a chance. Maybe then it's like walking on pebbles in the ocean or watching a bug peak it's head out of a small break in the wall, maybe even like breaking a finger. Maybe all. Maybe not.

"The responsibility of government for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact the prime object for which governments come into existence."

-Winston Churchill via Chris Olbermann

___________________________


I don't understand. I simply don't. No comprehension. I am crying everyday. I can't help it. Goddamnit, I am crying here at work now. Why?? Can someone explain this? But enough. This isn't about me. I will take a step away from what every damn political figure has been doing and stop talking in the I. Just look. Look and listen. Enough said.

You know who you are. You work for US.

Enough. I am sounding like an angry child. You know what you can do and where to do it. Sissy and I are collecting physical things at work like toothpaste, clothes, diapers, etc. We'll be heading down Thursday to drop it all off. If you have anything, let me know.

Olbermann

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9220209/


Donaldson said it better and with far more restraint and tact than I have.