Lessons from Slick Willie

When I was a young and sassy (read: embryonic) high school student in 1992, I was a staunch Conservative. Well. As staunch as one can be at age 15.

Back then, there was no way I could have appreciated the video I'm posting here. All I'm saying is, Barack Obama better pay attention.

Perhaps Bill Clinton turned into a Democratic party hack, but at this point in his career, he was an idealogue who knew how to relate closely to people one-on-one. (Sometimes a little TOO closely.) When the debates start up, this is what people will remember.



Damn.

DEMOCRATS

Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are standing outside your little Unity Party and barking up a storm about how you are divided.

Wait, let's rephrase.

The Republican primary losers--one of whom is a pro-life Conservative from the bluest state on the planet and one of whom is the guy whose cops assaulted Abner Louima--are pretending like the GOP actually likes John McCain. And they are calling YOU divided.

If you don't address these nitwits like TODAY, I am going to punch Howard Dean square in the face and vote for my neighbor's dog for President. At least he knows how to make noise.

Laughing on the outside: Why you won't be submitting to Cider Press Review

Some turf wars are not worth fighting.

Read this, small press owners, and beware. Writers don't have to take your shit.

http://staceylynnbrown.blogspot.com/2008/07/less-than-auspicious-debut.html

Word up, Stacey. I don't even know you, but that shit is gangster.

EDIT: DIZZAM. The shite-storm is in full effect. Every poet blogger I know is up in arms. (Rightfully so.)

Might I suggest:

--To the editor(s) of Cider Press Review: Your press is about to die a very inglorious death unless you make this right...AND FAST.

--To the outraged: Channel some of that rage where it belongs: Write to the editor. editor@ciderpressreview.com.

Congratuletas to Paul Martínez Pompa...

...for winning the 2008 Andres Montoya Prize for his forthcoming first collection, Men Watching Men.

I loved Paul's work in the chapbook Pepper Spray, which he read from at Acentos a while back. Hope some of those poems made it into the book. Plus, he showed up at Betts' and my reading last time we were in Chicago. Very knowledgable, very personable guy. And a good poet, by jove! Nice to see both people in one package.

Bueno, don't take my word for it. Tell em, Martín!


"This is one tough, smart poet. The poems of Paul Martínez Pompa are gritty and visceral, but never cross the line into sensationalism. They are poems that vividly evoke the urban world, especially Chicago, without ever lapsing into urban cliché. They are poems that seek justice for the Latino community without ever resorting to the overheated language that all too often consigns poetry of social conscience to oblivion.

Martínez Pompa is a poet of the image, a poet of strong diction, a poet of meticulous craft. He puts that craft at the service of los olvidados, the forgotten ones, from the usual suspects brutalized by police to factory workers poisoned by their environment, from the victim of a homophobic beating in the boys’ bathroom to the body of Juan Doe at the Cook County Coroner’s Office. Yet this poet’s keen eye, sense of humor and gift for irony help these poems to rise above the wreckage of their circumstances. Nowhere else will you find a poem celebrating a Mexican grandmother’s phone call to the local Pizza Hut.

Martínez Pompa’s observation of a garbage truck may remind us of Williams and his poem about a fire engine; his compassion for the damned may bring Whitman or Hughes to mind. Paul Martínez Pompa, however, is very much his own man and his own poet, independent and honest. His is a unique voice, speaking the truth with clarity. Welcome."

--Martín Espada

*****************************************
And now, YOUR MOMENT OF SNARK:

Hey! A first book prize! Novel concept.