I grew up thinking that we are the good guys. The "Japs" and the "Krouts" were bad guys. Then came Viet Nam and the "Gooks" were the bad guys. They said so on TV. Their governments were terrible and their citizens lived in poverty and agony while a few, a hegemony lived lives of luxury and excess. America was the land of opportunity. Everyone had opportunity to arrive at that wonderful place, middle class America. What else could you want? I believed that we gave the most to people in need. (As a percentage of what we have, we are about 20th among the nations). I believed that our churches were ruled by Biblical principles. I thought God was on our side. All this stuff is sold to us on television, in the movies, and in print media.

In today's paper, none of the following items made the front page. The chief officer of the Justice system in America, the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, is being charged with perjury for lying before congress, to the judiciary committee no less. Two other officers of the government have contradicted his testimony now, the director of the FBI and the former acting Attorney General, bringing about the charges.

Second item: The Ex-District Attorney in Durham, N.C. Mike Nifong "acknowledged Thursday there is 'no credible evidence' that three Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago, offering for the first time a complete and unqualified apology." Will the boys ever recover? Not altogether, no. And what about the coach of that team. Did you remember that he was fired for letting his team members behave badly. The boys were told they could return to Duke (not likely). The coach was not rehired. What exactly is just about that?

Third item: All the way over on page C3 you find this story. "Judge: FBI framed 4 men in '65 murder" says the headline. "In a stinging rebuke of the FBI, a federal judge Thursday ordered the government to pay a record judgement of nearly $102 million because agents withheld evidence that would have kept four men from spending decades in prison for a mob murder they did not commit." Two of the men died in prison, the other two now in their 70's have sued the government and won. So part of that FBI chasing the mafia stuff that we see on TV is myth as well. Not only does the FBI not play fair, they may be the bad guys.

I recently got a letter from the IRS saying that I owed $5.83 in interest on my taxes because I didn't pay them on time. I called to ask about it, because I did pay them on time. I asked the agent, if I was late, wouldn't there be a penalty plus interest? She said yes. She couldn't explain why there was no penalty. She couldn't explain why the IRS held our check for a month before cashing it. She told me the cheapest resolution would be to pay the money. After an exasperating hour on the phone, I hung up and sent them a check. No one knows why, not me, not them. It is just because someone decided (perhaps a computer) that I should give them more. My complaint is infintessimally small, but the government is running amok. The enemy is not in Iraq. The enemy is us.

Karl Rove was subpoenaed. If it only said he was indicted.

Ferocious thunderstorm coming down on Peachtree City at the moment. Don't think I've heard such rain since living in this house.

The congress is pressing the preznit to begin withdrawing troops so what does he say yesterday? That we are going to send more troops. He thinks that he is going to get his way on everything forever, but I think he's now on a pretty short leash.

You have to love having Julio back on the Braves. He's 48 and going to be 49 in August and you know he is looking pretty good out there. I practically ran into him in the hallway outside the clubhouse a couple of years ago when we happened to be sitting with the Braves vp and left the game by going under the stands. I can tell you he is in shape.

Having a CAT scan on my sinuses on Friday. Going to Spartanburg to visit Yvonne and Fred on Saturday. Fun, fun.

Lots to do today. Going up to the mountains for Rachel's party. Coming back to the Harry Potter at the bookstore. The hard cores are getting in line at 4 this afternoon. I'll be in the back with Grant and other slackers. Sarah get's her masters degree tomorrow. Wooo hoooo! Sarah.

Taking Patches back to the farm to run and play with her mom and brother.

In my mind, it was Newt Gingrich back in the 90's who started the fight. He brought a brash spirit, an arrogance, a disregard for diplomacy and statesmanship, a disregard for truth. Political debate for the GOP came to mean that sound bytes would be generated by the party and repeated at every level. Gingrich held meetings to talk about the stategy. Rather than respond to the other side's point of view, the GOP decided to simply call any one asking a question ugly names (e.g. surrender monkeys, cut and run). They developed whole lists of slurs to be used against their enemies. The tactic worked. They surged to power, first in the congress and then in the executive branch, and then in the judicial branch. With the ruthless use of taxpayer's money they have sought to build a "permanent Republican majority". The problem is the GOP leadership are empty suits. They do not stand for moral uprightness which has been America's shining light, not in their personal lives, and certainly not in their politics. They do not stand for wisdom, or a sense of history. They have taken control of America and looted it as the Iraqis did their country when we blasted away their leadership. Americans can see that the GOP's actions have not matched their rhetoric. In fact, their actions are usually the opposite of their rhetoric, an Orwellian nightmare.

The evils of this current administration are so myriad and so constant (today's evil is . . .), that we have become enured to it. A revolution in government has occured, the constitution dissolved line by line, and yet people are not marching in the streets. Some changes are coming however, or people are going to start marching. And mark my words, in 2008 the GOP will suffer historic losses at the ballet box. Of course I am assuming that there will be elections in 2008 and I am not at all confident about that. Martial law is in their minds.

Here in Georgia the GOP has copied the process well. The same legislature that has a shortfall of 140M for healthcare for indigent children in Georgia, has a billion $ surplus it wants to return to property tax payers. Couple of odd things about that for you to consider. The money piled up as a windfall from Georgia's gas tax. The way it works in GA is that the higher the price of gas the higher the percentage of tax is charged. This has created the billion $ surplus, collected from everyone with a car. The legislature wants to return money to HOMEOWNERS, a decidedly different group, a more affluent group. The real crazzzzzy thing is, the state doesn't collect property taxes at all. They don't even know who pays the taxes or how much they pay. The counties do all that. The whole scam is another GOP rob from the poor give to the rich income redistribution idea. (Here's another: 58% of farm subsidies went to farmers with more than $250,000 in income. Did they really need subsidies?) Even though it is not very well thought out, the GOP majority is so large in GA, it may pass anyway. Children's healthcare? They better start pulling on their bootstraps. The preznit has shown the way on that at the national level.

I walk my dog each morning at about 7:15. We go two miles. It's not too warm then though I come back in the house sweating. It takes about 37 minutes to make the trip. I live in a beautiful community. They say that Georgia is in a drought, but homeowners have never had more beautiful yards than this season. Each yard is a flower garden. Each lawn is deep green and freshly mowed and edged. The homes themselves are works of art. Stonework and wrought iron, pavers and brass lanterns, oval windows and paladium windows, tudor, federalist, and Georgian. During a walk you get to think. Walking isn't so hard that you have to think about what you are doing, so you think about everything else. I think everyone should set aside some time to think everyday. It is cleansing. A bit like prayer I think. On a good walk you have time to argue with God, in the best tradition of Abraham (remember the conversation about Lot?).

I send my 34th and 35th students off to be music majors in a few days. Ellen was here last night for a lesson and we really enjoyed ourselves. She made a breakthrough in tone quality. Essentially she has learned the vocal technique that will carry her through a career in music. It was astonishing to hear her in the studio, her voice echoing throughout the house. She sounded professional. LSU has no idea what a wonderful singer she is going to be for them. It's clear she is the best I have ever taught. I have waited a long time to teach such a student.

Jay Bookman and I are usually on the same page. He says this in today's AJC.

"While the United States is now better prepared to detect and fend off attack, the intelligence community reports, al-Qaida has also been active. In fact, it has "protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability" to the degree that " the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment.""

"In other words, after all this war and death and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars, we are back to where we were six years ago. That is utterly unacceptable. In the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, the notion that Osama bin Laden would still be alive and free come 2007, still fully capable of inspiring if not leading attacks on this country, would not have seemed plausible. Yet that is exactly where we find oursleves. . . It is an indictment of America's political and military leadership, which has responded to a complex challenge with simplistic solutions that have relied too much on violence on too little on wisdom."

Read it all here.

It is clear the leadership must be changed and we can't wait another year and a half. And as for not changing horses in midstream, when your horse dies in midstream you must go on without him or die yourself.

Can anyone figure out why neither George Bush felt it was important to be at the funeral for former first lady, Lady Bird Johnson? Everyone was there except them and no mention has been made of their absense.

They have weapons of mass destruction. FALSE
They have an active nuclear weapons program. FALSE
I believe we'll be welcomed as liberators. FALSE
Mission Accomplished. FALSE
We do not torture. FALSE
Anyone in my administration involved with outing a CIA agent will be fired. FALSE
If we withdraw our troops now, it will cause a disaster in Iraq. (HMMMM)

On July 7 a truck bomb blew up in Iraq causing massive civilian casualties. By 3 p.m. the story covered the news channels. Well almost. On CNN an AP photo and the story "Truck bomber slaughters 117 at market". On the BBC "Iraq market truck bomb kills 105" and a photo taken seconds later of the same injured man. On Aljazeer? "'More than 150 dead' in Iraq blast" with a different photo of the scene. Fox news??? You guessed it -- Crop circles baffle Switzerland residents.

Who needs all that bad news anyway. We should all be contemplating what visitors from other planets are doing to our fields, shouldn't we?

You can compare the headlines everyday at http://thedailyheadlines.blogspot.com/
No this is not an original observation by me. Check it out.

91% of talk radio is conservative political talk.

Remember the movie "Working Girl?" The title character gets an idea for a business merger. She's heard that a big company is looking to acquire a television station or network of stations, but the price it too high. She gets the idea to sell them radio. That way the company can have a similar influence but at a much lower price. It works.

This idea has not been lost on American conservatives. They have pushed the congress to relax the monopoly rules on radio and been successful. One owner can now control an unbelieveable percentage of America's media. Conservative billionaires have collected radio networks like candy and now dominate "news/talk" stations which reach 50 million listeners a week. Lots of influence for fewer dollars. Don't think it is driven by capitalist supply and demand. It is driven by politics and power. The media is owned by the people they should be investigating. The Fox, owns the henhouse.

On another subject: I have not been to Nice with Ralph Fiennes.

Lots of little news items.

The house just up the street was struck by lightning and caught fire. They got the fire out quickly but there was considerable damage from the lightning bolt. It sort of cracked open the house at top and broke the roof apart.

The next day there was a wreck up by the school. Two twenty-somethings were racing, estimated 75 in a 35, when one lost control, skidded across the cart path and hit a rock wall, took out a stop sign (wooden post), flipped, bounced off the subdivision sign (large stucco) and came to rest back on the cart path. Luckily the culprits did not hit anyone on the cart path.

Today we went to see Harry Potter V. They crammed in as much they could, but there is really a lot in that book. As a result, Ron was relegated to a very small part. Delores Umbrage became the star. The part was played well, but who cares, because she is a nasty irritating character. The newspaper said Hermoine was "stilted" and that was total rubbish. Emma did just fine and I enjoyed her again. There was not enough about the kids studies, the importance of O.W.L.s and nothing about quidditch. Another hour would have helped them alot. There were probably 100 subtle changes that purists will lament, but the story was essentially told. Screenplays can't be 900 pages long so cuts must be made. The dementors were good. The Dursleys were good.

I'm singing tomorrow. We are billed as the three baritones. We have had fun rehearsing. The show sold out two weeks ago so we must be quite the local draw. Hopefully all will go well. I'm singing quite a bit of new music which can make one nervous.

Someone who says Cheny and Bush should resign besides me. Hear it on MSNBC with Keith Olberman

Is the United States military killing 300 Iraqis a day? If we are, why isn't it news? All indications are that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed, most by American military action. It continues today with 1000 U.S. patrols a day. A metallic sound behind a door is reason to kill everyone in a house. If 30 are killed and there are no insurgents found (women, children, and old men), it is a tragic mistake. If a possible insurgent is found (a fighting age man) then it is a justified attack. Read this scholars accounts.

Life imitates Games.

Scooter Libby has been cool all this time because he had a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in his pocket. I'm disturbed that the media is not asking the questions "What does Libby have on this administration to force them keep him out of jail?" and "Why was the sentence commuted rather than giving Libby a pardon?" The answer to the first question is: Libby can tell us the whole story of falsifying intelligence to go to war in Iraq. The answer to the second is: by allowing him to continue to appeal, Libby cannot be subpoenaed to appear before congressional investigations. Were he pardoned, he could be summoned to testify to congressional hearings that begin next week.

As for being above the law, the administration doesn't believe that they are above the law. They have proved that they are above the law. The sequence is: you call our subordinates to testify. They obstruct justice. You charge them and convict them and we use our power to let them go immediately. The highest level of American government is totally corrupt and self serving. The level of corruption clearly surpasses the Nixon administration on this point. Nixon's cronies went to jail. The only question now is "are we going to let it pass?"

They will bomb Iran whenever they feel like it.

Brian Dickle, director of the Chicago Opera Theater wrote of Beverly Sills death today on his blog.

"The opera world mourns Beverly Sills who died yesterday. She was a unique personality and a singer and stage artist of remarkable skill and charisma who, I always thought, had the misfortune to be an exact contemporary of Joan Sutherland, without whom there would have been no dispute - she would have been the supreme bel canto singer of the century. Listening to her recordings now it is rather astonishing that this remarkable singing did not propel her to the highest levels worldwide though her appearances at the Scala, Covent Garden etc though infrequent were certainly highlights for Milan and London. But she was a woman of the broadest interests with a full family life, as well as this dedication to our world of opera that eventually took her to the pinnacles of the arts management world where she excelled no less than she had on the stage."

We are half way through the baseball season and my fantasy baseball team is in second place. I will admit we are struggling lately and I'm hanging on to pretty thin leads in several categories. As it worked out I have more offense than any other team and have several guys on the bench each night that other teams wish they had playing for them. But the pitchers are not doing as well as I expected. That is keeping us out of first and could drop us lower than second over time.

There is a lot of music. When you are going through literature to find magnificently beautiful things for your choirs, there is a lot to look at. I guess I have the same problem faced by English literature teachers--which books do you choose that represent the broad spectrums of the possiblities. Conductors should, rather must choose compelling things, life changing lyrics, unforgettable melodies, and moments of crashing climax and soothing balm. I find that it is difficult to sit at the piano and determine what music will sound like in the air. Voices often give a life to notation that is not reproduced any other way. I find that I'm a bad judge of printed music. I have a piece sitting in my stack, unused for years and then hear another conductor's presentation of it and say to myself. "Of course. I have to do that." Others are also afflicted with this disease. I have quite a few pieces in my repertoire that everyone should be singing that other conductors don't know at all. So I'm constantly selling the Brusa Missa pro defuntis, the Hanus Magnificat, and Psalm 23, by Imant Raminsh. Charles Davidson's songs I Never Saw Another Butterfly--shouldn't they be sung by all treble voices? The more I conduct these pieces the more I believe them brilliant works of art. There are others, but I'll not bore you.

Last week I worked with 28 young men at the GA ACDA conference. It was interesting to consider who they were. High school and college young men who wanted to take time out of the summer to sing some fine music together. You have to believe in those young men.

I am singing in a couple of weeks at a local cafe that features evening concerts with a couple of other howling baritones. It should be something else. It has sold out two weeks before the performance so I guess people are expecting something special. I am enjoying the rehearsals with these other operatic voices.

The preznit and vice preznit have sunk to new lows and that was difficult for them. They are clearly angry evil men at this point. I'm ready for impeachment trials. Can we wait another year and a half to be rid of them? I think not. Start with Cheny and maybe Bush will resign.