London’s Pride parade was led off Saturday by the Metropolitan Police’s Commander Brian Paddick, the highest ranking gay officer in a major force. Behind him were <a href=“”http://www.365gay.com/NewsContent/072703londonPride.htm">85 other LGBT officers</a>.

Via Eschaton I see there is a Washington Post article that says we are now taking hostages in Iraq as part of our “tactics”. I think the headline is a bit weak given the item about taking families of Iraqi officials hostage that’s buried deep in the article.

U.S. Adopts Aggressive Tactics on Iraqi Fighters

Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: “If you want your family released, turn yourself in.” Such tactics are justified, he said, because, “It’s an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info.” They would have been released in due course, he added later.

The tactic worked. On Friday, Hogg said, the lieutenant general appeared at the front gate of the U.S. base and surrendered.

Yesterday we went to Williamsburg to see a couple of galleries, but we spent most of the time at the Chunkathalon, organized by C.H.U.N.K 666. Don’t miss the photos from the 2002 one.

I’ll talk about the gallery stuff first. Jack the Pelican has a group show called New Lawn that was my favorite show I’ve seen there since the opening solo show of Jesse Bercowitz. The best items in the show: the two videos by Susan Ingraham titled “Iguana” and “GOescarGO”, both with awesome costume and makeup design by the artist and soundtracks inspired by/lifted from French new-wave films.

The other item of note is the Innerviews project by Karen Schoellkopf in the group show at Momenta.

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Back to the Chunkathalon — an event best described as Knightriders meets that short-lived TV show “Double Rush”, plus a bit of Society for Creative Anachronism. I have to say though, that the SCA people at my university where never in this kind of shape. My full gallery of photos is here.

James spent more time on his write-up, photos, and captions, so go check out his entry.

Also, see Tom Moody’s report. We finally met each other after he recognized me in the crowd. I was even wearing sunglasses at the time.

The Master of Ceremonies, who started out in a wrestling mask, was dressed very glam. I have one more (adult) story about something I overheard a young man named Zach tell his friends. Those who don’t wish to read it should stop reading NOW.

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Zach seemed to be from the West Coast group of bikers — Portland/Seattle. He was telling a story about the competition between the bike messengers and the car drivers at one of the companies where he worked, which would occasionally evolve into actual brawls. One of the “humiliations” of a car messenger he bragged about was teabagging someone, plus some “serious cock and mouth action”.

The Art Newspaper has an amusing interview with Dearraindrop from the night of their opening at John Connelly Presents.

LowerManhattan.info, better known as a place to follow the latest WTC developments, profiles Jen Miller, aka the Reverend Jen, in its latest “Citizen Spotlight”.

I first saw the Greg Palast article a few weeks, ago, but after seeing Michael Tomasky refer to Cynthia McKinney as “a discredited anti-Semite”, I just can’t stay silent.

A strong black woman who dares question the Bush regime or any of its financial supporters can’t survive our political system.

Before anyone starts posting “she is an anti-semite!” comments on my weblog, I will warn you that any post that says that without any links to a reputable news source for backup will be deleted.

Some selections from Palast’s article:

…

And why is McKinney dangerous/loony/disgusting? According to NPR, “McKinney implied that the [Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and deliberately held back the information.”

The New York Times’ Lynette Clemetson revealed her comments went even further over the edge: “Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war.”

That’s loony, all right. As an editor of the highly respected Atlanta Journal Constitution told NPR, McKinney’s “practically accused the President of murder!”

Problem is, McKinney never said it.

That’s right. The “quote” from McKinney is a complete fabrication. A whopper, a fabulous fib, a fake, a flim-flam. Just freakin’ made up.

…

The McKinney “quote” was, indeed, all over the place: in the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and needless to say, all the other metropolitan dailies – everywhere but in Congresswoman McKinney’s mouth.

Nor was it in the Congressional Record, nor in any recorded talk, nor on her Website, nor in any of her radio talks. Here’s the Congresswoman’s statement from the record:

“George Bush had no prior knowledge of the plan to attack the World Trade Center on September 11.”

Oh.

And I should say former Congresswoman McKinney.

She was beaten in the August 2002 Democratic primary. More precisely, she was beaten to death, politically, by the fabricated quote.

…

Months before the 2000 presidential elections, the offices of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 90,000 citizens from the voter rolls because they were convicted felons . . . and felons can’t vote in Florida. There was one problem: 97 percent of those on the list were, in fact, innocent.

They weren’t felons, but they were guilty . . . of not being white. Over half the list contained names of non-whites. I’m not guessing: I have the list from out of the computers of Katherine Harris’ office – and the “scrubbed” voter’s race is listed with each name.

…

At BBC Television, we had Florida’s computer files and documents, marked “confidential” – stone-cold evidence showing how the vote fix was deliberately crafted by Republican officials. Not a single major U.S. paper asked for the documents – not from the state of Florida nor from the BBC. Only one U.S. Congressperson asked for the evidence and made it public: Cynthia McKinney of Atlanta.

That was her mistake.

The company that came up with the faux felon list that determined the presidency: a Republican-tied database company named “ChoicePoint,” one of the richest, most powerful companies in Atlanta.

…

After George Bush Senior left the White House, he became an advisor and lobbyist for a Canadian gold-mining company, Barrick Gold. Hey, a guy’s got to work. But there were a couple of questions about Barrick, to say the least. For example, was Barrick’s Congo gold mine funding both sides of a civil war and perpetuating that bloody conflict? Only one Congressperson demanded hearings on the matter.

You’ve guessed: Cynthia McKinney.

That was covered in the . . . well, it wasn’t covered at all in the U.S. press.

McKinney contacted me at the BBC. She asked if I’d heard of Barrick. Indeed, I had. Top human rights investigators had evidence that a mine that Barrick bought in 1999 had, in clearing their Tanzanian properties three years earlier, bulldozed mine shafts . . . burying about 50 miners alive.

I certainly knew Barrick: They’d sued the Guardian for daring to run a story I’d written about the allegations of the killings. Barrick never sued an American paper for daring to run the story, because no American paper dared.

The primary source for my story, an internationally famous lawyer named Tundu Lissu, was charged by the Tanzanian police with sedition, and arrested, for calling for an investigation. McKinney has been trying to save his life with an international campaign aimed at Barrick.

That was another of her mistakes.

There is plenty more — go read it. Among the items he talks about are the fact that McKinney that we should investigate why the FBI and CIA were told to back off from investigating connections between the Saudi government and Al Quaeda. Also worth a read is his weblog — he talks about this article in the July 21, 2003 post.

Some Greens are asking her to run as the party’s candidate for President. That’s why it’s necessary for the political establishment, including Tomasky, to destroy her.

What is she up to these days? She’s earning her doctorate at Princeton School of Diplomacy.

Francis Holstrom

Francis Holstrom

Anna Jednoducha

We saw these three works, and much more, at the “Unframed” opening last night at Lehmann Maupin. I met Francis at the opening, and she told me the eagle is based on the one on the back of a quarter, “enhanced” a bit.

I’m very, very mad at myself for not getting there right at 6 to get an Orly Cogan work. As it was a benefit for ACRIA, the works are all being sold for $150! See James for the details on the show and some photos of Orly’s work.

Crain’s reports that the number of restaurant industry jobs has risen since the smoking ban went into effect.

Go check out Dexter Buell’s new web site. We have several video and photographic works of his.

Go! They’re doing the Simon Keenlyside/Twyla Tharp Winterreise again this year at Lincoln Center — July 29th, July 31st, and August 2nd, 2003 at 8:00pm — details.