Veterans Day

Lest we forget, here, courtesy of The News Blog, is the list of US service people killed in Iraq so far this year. Behind every number is and was a human being. Let's not ever forget that.

2006 Verified Iraq War US Military Fatalities (as of November 7, 2006)
Name Age Rank Month/Day Year

1. Jason Lee Bishop 31 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jan 01 2006
2. Christopher J. Vanderhorn 37 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 01 2006
3. William F. Hecker III 37 Army Major Jan 05 2006
4. Jason Lopezreyes 29 Army Sergeant Jan 05 2006
5. Robbie M. Mariano 21 Army Private Jan 05 2006
6. Johnny J. Peralez Jr. 25 Army Sergeant Jan 05 2006
7. Christopher P. Petty 33 Army Captain Jan 05 2006
8. Ryan D. Walker 25 Army Specialist Jan 05 2006
9. Stephen J. White 39 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jan 05 2006
10. Michael E. McLaughlin 44 Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Jan 05 2006
11. Adam Leigh Cann 23 Marine Sergeant Jan 05 2006
12. Albert Pasquale Gettings 27 Marine Corporal Jan 05 2006
13. Ryan S. McCurdy 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 05 2006
14. Radhames Camilomatos 24 Army Sergeant Jan 07 2006
15. Joseph D. deMoors 36 Army 1st Lieutenant Jan 07 2006
16. Douglas A. LaBouff 36 Army Major Jan 07 2006
17. Michael R. Martinez 43 Army Major Jan 07 2006
18. Clinton R. Upchurch 31 Army Specialist Jan 07 2006
19. Jaime L. Campbell 25 Army National Guard 1st Lieutenant Jan 07 2006
20. Michael I. Edwards 26 Army National Guard Specialist Jan 07 2006
21. Jacob E. Melson 22 Army National Guard Specialist Jan 07 2006
22. Chester W. Troxel 45 Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jan 07 2006
23. Stuart M. Anderson 44 Army Reserve Major Jan 07 2006
24. Nathan R. Field 23 Army Reserve Sergeant Jan 07 2006
25. Robert T. Johnson 20 Army Reserve Specialist Jan 07 2006
26. Darren D. Braswell 36 Dept. of Defense Civilian Jan 07 2006
27. Kyle W. Brown 22 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
28. Jeriad P. Jacobs 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
29. Jason T. Little 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
30. Brett L. Lundstrom 22 Marine Corporal Jan 07 2006
31. Raul Mercado 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
32. Michael Joseph McMullen 25 Army National Guard Sergeant Jan 10 2006
33. Mitchell K. Carver Jr. 31 Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jan 13 2006
34. Kyle E. Jackson 28 Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jan 13 2006
35. Jonathan Kyle Price 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 13 2006
36. Michael Anthony Jordan 35 Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jan 13 2006
37. Justin J. Watts 20 Marine Corporal Jan 14 2006
38. Kasper Allen Dudkiewicz 22 Army Private 1st Class Jan 15 2006
39. Dustin L. Kendall 21 Army Specialist Jan 15 2006
40. Ruel M. Garcia 34 Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jan 16 2006
41. Rex C. Kenyon 34 Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jan 16 2006
42. Adam R. Shepherd 21 Army Private 1st Class Jan 17 2006
43. Dennis J. Flanagan 22 Army Sergeant Jan 20 2006
44. Matthew C. Frantz 23 Army Specialist Jan 20 2006
45. Rickey Scott 30 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 20 2006
46. Clifton J. Yazzie 23 Army Specialist Jan 20 2006
47. Carlos Arrelano Pandura 22 Marine Corporal Jan 20 2006
48. Brandon Christopher Dewey 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 20 2006
49. Brian McElroy 28 Air Force Staff Sergeant Jan 22 2006
50. Jason L. Norton 32 Air Force Technical Sergeant Jan 22 2006
51. Lance M. Chase 32 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 23 2006
52. Matthew D. Hunter 31 Army Sergeant Jan 23 2006
53. Peter D. Wagler 18 Army Private 1st Class Jan 23 2006
54. Lewis T. D. Calapini 21 Marine Private Jan 23 2006
55. Joshua A. Scott 24 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 23 2006
56. Sean H. Miles 28 Marine Sergeant Jan 24 2006
57. Jerry M. "Michael" Durbin Jr. 26 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 25 2006
58. Joshua Allen Johnson 24 Army National Guard Sergeant Jan 25 2006
59. Hugo R. Lopez Lopez 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 27 2006
60. David L. Herrera 26 Army Sergeant Jan 28 2006
61. Brian J. Schoff 22 Army Private 1st Class Jan 28 2006
62. Felipe C. Barbosa 21 Marine Corporal Jan 28 2006
63. Garrison C. Avery 23 Army 1st Lieutenant Feb 01 2006
64. Marlon A. Bustamante 25 Army Specialist Feb 01 2006
65. Anthony Chad Owens 21 Army Specialist Feb 01 2006
66. Caesar S. Viglienzone 21 Army Private 1st Class Feb 01 2006
67. Sean T. Cardelli 20 Marine Private 1st Class Feb 01 2006
68. Simon T. Cox Jr. 30 Army 1st Lieutenant Feb 02 2006
69. Walter B. Howard II 35 Army Specialist Feb 02 2006
70. Scott A. Messer 26 Army Private 1st Class Feb 02 2006
71. Lance S. Cornett 33 Army Sergeant 1st Class Feb 03 2006
72. Jesse M. Zamora 22 Army Specialist Feb 03 2006
73. Roberto L. Martinez Salazar 21 Army Specialist Feb 04 2006
74. Jeremiah J. Boehmer 22 Army Sergeant Feb 05 2006
75. William S. Hayes III 23 Army Specialist Feb 05 2006
76. Sergio A. Mercedes Saez 23 Army Specialist Feb 05 2006
77. Christopher R. Morningstar 27 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 05 2006
78. Patrick W. Herried 29 Army Specialist Feb 06 2006
79. Orville Gerena 21 Marine Corporal Feb 06 2006
80. David S. Parr 22 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 06 2006
81. Brandon S. Schuck 21 Marine Corporal Feb 06 2006
82. Jacob D. "Jake" Spann 21 Marine Private 1st Class Feb 06 2006
83. Allen D. Kokesh Jr. 21 Army National Guard Specialist Feb 07 2006
84. Steven L. Phillips 27 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 07 2006
85. Javier Chavez Jr. 19 Marine Private 1st Class Feb 09 2006
86. Ross A. Smith 21 Marine Corporal Feb 09 2006
87. Felipe J. Garcia Villareal 26 Army Specialist Feb 12 2006
88. Andrew J. Kemple 23 Army Corporal Feb 12 2006
89. Nicholas Wilson 25 Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Feb 12 2006
90. Matthew Ron Barnes 20 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 14 2006
91. Michael S. Probst 26 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 14 2006
92. Rusty L. Washam 21 Marine Corporal Feb 14 2006
93. Anthony R. Garcia 48 Army Captain Feb 17 2006
94. Amos C. Edwards Jr. 41 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Feb 17 2006
95. Charles E. Matheny IV 23 Army Sergeant Feb 18 2006
96. Matthew D. Conley 21 Marine Corporal Feb 18 2006
97. Jessie Davila 29 Army National Guard Sergeant Feb 20 2006
98. Daniel J. Kuhlmeier 30 Dept. of the Air Force Civilian Feb 20 2006
99. Jay T. Collado 31 Marine Staff Sergeant Feb 20 2006
100. Almar L. Fitzgerald 23 Marine 2nd Lieutenant Feb 21 2006
101. Gregson G. Gourley 38 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 22 2006
102. Curtis T. Howard II 32 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 22 2006
103. Rickey E. Jones 21 Army Sergeant Feb 22 2006
104. Christopher L. Marion 20 Army Private 1st Class Feb 22 2006
105. Gordon F. Misner II 23 Army Sergeant Feb 22 2006
106. Allan A. Morr 21 Army Private 1st Class Feb 22 2006
107. Thomas J. Wilwerth 21 Army Specialist Feb 22 2006
108. Dimitri Muscat 21 Army Sergeant Feb 24 2006
109. Joshua Francis Powers 21 Army Private Feb 24 2006
110. Benjamin C. Schuster 21 Army National Guard Private 1st Class Feb 25 2006
111. John Joshua Thornton 22 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 25 2006
112. Adam J. VanAlstine 21 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 25 2006
113. Clay P. Farr 21 Army Specialist Feb 26 2006
114. Joshua U. Humble 21 Army Specialist Feb 26 2006
115. Joshua M. Pearce 21 Army Specialist Feb 26 2006
116. Christopher J. Schornak 28 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 26 2006
117. Dwayne Peter R. Lewis 26 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 27 2006
118. Tina M. Priest 20 Army Private 1st Class Mar 01 2006
119. Christopher S. Merchant 32 Army National Guard Specialist Mar 01 2006
120. Joshua V. Youmans 26 Army National Guard Sergeant Mar 01 2006
121. Matthew A. Snyder 20 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 03 2006
122. Kevin P. Jessen 28 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 05 2006
123. Adam O. Zanutto 26 Marine Corporal Mar 06 2006
124. Ricky Salas Jr. 22 Army Private 1st Class Mar 07 2006
125. Justin R. Martone 31 Marine Gunnery Sergeant Mar 07 2006
126. John D. Fry 28 Marine Gunnery Sergeant Mar 08 2006
127. Bunny Long 22 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 10 2006
128. Amy A. Duerksen 19 Army Private 1st Class Mar 11 2006
129. Kristen K. Marino (Figueroa) 20 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 12 2006
130. Corey A. Dan 22 Army Sergeant Mar 13 2006
131. Bryan A. Lewis 32 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 13 2006
132. Marco A. Silva 27 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 13 2006
133. Angelo A. Zawaydeh 19 Army Private 1st Class Mar 15 2006
134. Carlos M. Gonzalez 22 Army Specialist Mar 16 2006
135. Amanda N. Pinson 21 Army Sergeant Mar 16 2006
136. Nyle Yates III 22 Army Corporal Mar 16 2006
137. Ricardo Barraza 24 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 18 2006
138. Dale G. Brehm 23 Army Sergeant Mar 18 2006
139. Antoine J. McKinzie 25 Army Specialist Mar 21 2006
140. Brock A. Beery 30 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Mar 23 2006
141. Randy D. McCaulley 44 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Mar 23 2006
142. Frederick A. Carlson 25 Army National Guard Specialist Mar 25 2006
143. Michael D. Rowe 23 Army Sergeant Mar 28 2006
144. Sean D. Tharp 21 Army Private 1st Class Mar 28 2006
145. Robert Hernandez 47 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Mar 28 2006
146. Walter M. Moss Jr. 37 Air Force Technical Sergeant Mar 30 2006
147. Joseph J. Duenas 23 Army Private 1st Class Mar 30 2006
148. Jacob Walter Beisel 21 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 31 2006
149. Darrell P. Clay 34 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 01 2006
150. Israel Devora Garcia 23 Army Sergeant Apr 01 2006
151. Michael L. Hartwick 37 Army Chief Warrant Officer (CW3) Apr 01 2006
152. Timothy J. Moshier 25 Army Captain Apr 01 2006
153. Jeremy W. Ehle 19 Army Private 1st Class Apr 02 2006
154. Andres Aguilar Jr. 21 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
155. David A. Bass 20 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
156. Patrick J. Gallagher 27 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
157. Kun Y. Kim 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
158. Eric A. McIntosh 29 Marine Staff Sergeant Apr 02 2006
159. Eric A. Palmisano 27 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
160. Scott J. Procopio 20 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
161. Felipe D. Sandoval-Flores 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
162. Brian R. St. Germain 22 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
163. Abraham G. Twitchell 28 Marine Staff Sergeant Apr 02 2006
164. Marcques J. Nettles 22 Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Apr 02 2006
165. Geovani Padilla Aleman 20 Navy Hospitalman Apr 02 2006
166. Ty J. Johnson 28 Army Specialist Apr 04 2006
167. Dustin J. Harris 21 Army Specialist Apr 06 2006
168. Daniel L. Sesker 22 Army National Guard Specialist Apr 06 2006
169. Chase A. Edwards 19 Marine Private 1st Class Apr 06 2006
170. Bryan N. Taylor 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 06 2006
171. Richard P. Waller 22 Marine Corporal Apr 07 2006
172. Shawn R. Creighton 21 Army Specialist Apr 08 2006
173. Jody W. Missildine 19 Army Private Apr 08 2006
174. Philip John Martini 24 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 08 2006
175. Juana NavarroArellano 24 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 08 2006
176. David S. Collins 24 Army Specialist Apr 09 2006
177. Joseph I. Love-Fowler 22 Army Private 1st Class Apr 09 2006
178. Gregory S. Rogers 42 Army Sergeant 1st Class Apr 09 2006
179. James W. "Will" Gardner 22 Army Specialist Apr 10 2006
180. Randall L. Lamberson 36 Army Sergeant 1st Class Apr 10 2006
181. Joseph A. Blanco 25 Army Corporal Apr 11 2006
182. James F. Costello III 27 Army Private 1st Class Apr 11 2006
183. Kenneth D. Hess 26 Army Specialist Apr 11
184. 2006
185. George R. Roehl Jr. 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 11 2006
186. Scott M. Bandhold 37 Army Specialist Apr 12 2006
187. Roland E. Calderon-Ascencio 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 12 2006
188. Marcus S. Glimpse 22 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 12 2006
189. Andrew K. Waits 23 Army Specialist Apr 13 2006
190. Salem Bachar 20 Marine Corporal Apr 13 2006
191. Stephen Joseph Perez 22 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 13 2006
192. Darin T. Settle 23 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 14 2006
193. Mark W. Melcher 34 Army National Guard Specialist Apr 15 2006
194. Derrick J. Cothran 21 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 15 2006
195. Pablo V. Mayorga 33 Marine Corporal Apr 15 2006
196. Justin D. Sims 22 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 15 2006
197. Ryan G. Winslow 19 Marine Private 1st Class Apr 15 2006
198. Clinton W. Cubert 38 Army National Guard Master Sergeant Apr 16 2006
199. Ian P. Weikel 31 Army Captain Apr 18 2006
200. Robert J. Settle 25 Army Private 1st Class Apr 19 2006
201. Patrick A. Tinnell 25 Army Private 1st Class Apr 19 2006
202. Jason C. Ramseyer 28 Marine Staff Sergeant Apr 20 2006
203. Jacob H. Allcott 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 22 2006
204. Michael E. Bouthot 19 Army Private Apr 22 2006
205. Kyle A. Colnot 23 Army Sergeant Apr 22 2006
206. Eric D. King 29 Army Specialist Apr 22 2006
207. Travis C. Zimmerman 19 Army Private Apr 22 2006
208. Eric R. Lueken 23 Marine Corporal Apr 22 2006
209. Jason B. Daniel 21 Army Corporal Apr 23 2006
210. Robert W. Ehney 26 Army Sergeant Apr 23 2006
211. Shawn Thomas Lasswell Jr. 21 Army Corporal Apr 23 2006
212. Metodio A. Bandonill 29 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 24 2006
213. Aaron William Simons 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 24 2006
214. Raymond L. Henry 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 25 2006
215. Richard J. Herrema 27 Army Sergeant 1st Class Apr 25 2006
216. Michael L. Ford 19 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 26 2006
217. Bobby Mendez 38 Army 1st Sergeant Apr 27 2006
218. Mark A. Wall 27 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 27 2006
219. Matthew A. Webber 23 Army National Guard Sergeant Apr 27 2006
220. Jose Gomez 23 Army Sergeant Apr 28 2006
221. Bryant A. Herlem 37 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 28 2006
222. Edward G. Davis III 31 Marine Sergeant Apr 28 2006
223. Brandon M. Hardy 25 Marine Corporal Apr 28 2006
224. Lea R. Mills 21 Marine Sergeant Apr 28 2006
225. Steve M. Sakoda 29 Army Sergeant Apr 29 2006
226. Robbie Glen Light 21 Army Corporal May 01 2006
227. Robert L. Moscillo 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 01 2006
228. Christopher M. Eckhardt 19 Army Private 1st Class May 03 2006
229. Benjamin T. Zieske 20 Army Private 1st Class May 03 2006
230. Joseph E. Proctor 38 Army National Guard Sergeant May 03 2006
231. Brian S. Letendre 27 Marine Reserve Captain May 03 2006
232. Bryan L. Quinton 24 Army Specialist May 04 2006
233. Gavin B. Reinke 32 Army Staff Sergeant May 04 2006
234. Stephen R. Bixler 20 Marine Corporal May 04 2006
235. Elisha R. Parker 21 Marine Sergeant May 04 2006
236. Alva L. Gaylord 25 Army Private 1st Class May 05 2006
237. Carlos N. Saenz 46 Army 1st Sergeant May 05 2006
238. Teodoro Torres 29 Army Specialist May 05 2006
239. Nathan J. Vacho 29 Army Sergeant May 05 2006
240. Dale James Kelly Jr. 48 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant May 06 2006
241. David Michael Veverka 25 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant May 06 2006
242. Leon Deraps 19 Marine Lance Corporal May 06 2006
243. Matthew J. Fenton 24 Marine Sergeant May 06 2006
244. Cory L. Palmer 21 Marine Corporal May 06 2006
245. Emmanuel L. Legaspi 38 Army Staff Sergeant May 07 2006
246. Gregory A. Wagner 35 Army Staff Sergeant May 08 2006
247. Aaron P. Latimer 26 Army Specialist May 09 2006
248. Alessandro Carbonaro 28 Marine Sergeant May 10 2006
249. Armer N. Burkart 26 Army Specialist May 11 2006
250. Eric D. Clark 22 Army Private 1st Class May 11 2006
251. Stephen P. Snowberger III 18 Army Private 1st Class May 11 2006
252. Jason K. Burnett 20 Marine Lance Corporal May 11 2006
253. David J. GramesSanchez 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 11 2006
254. Michael L. Licalzi 24 Marine 2nd Lieutenant May 11 2006
255. Steve Vahaviolos 21 Marine Corporal May 11 2006
256. Brandon L. Teeters 21 Army Specialist May 12 2006
257. Adam C. Conboy 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 12 2006
258. Ron Gebur 23 Army National Guard Specialist May 13 2006
259. Richard Z. James 20 Marine Lance Corporal May 13 2006
260. John W. Engeman 45 Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 May 14 2006
261. Jamie D. Weeks 47 Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 May 14 2006
262. Robert H. West 37 Army Master Sergeant May 14 2006
263. Matthew W. Worrel 34 Army Major May 14 2006
264. Shane Mahaffee 36 Army Reserve Captain May 14 2006
265. Jose S. Marin-Dominguez Jr. 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 14 2006
266. Hatak Yuka Keyu M. Yearby 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 14 2006
267. Grant Allen Dampier 25 Army Private 1st Class May 15 2006
268. Marion Flint Jr. 29 Army Staff Sergeant May 15 2006
269. Santiago M. Halsel 32 Army Staff Sergeant May 16 2006
270. Lee Hamilton Deal 23 Navy Petty Officer Third Class May 17 2006
271. Lonnie Calvin Allen Jr. 26 Army Sergeant May 18 2006
272. Nicholas Cournoyer 25 Army Private 1st Class May 18 2006
273. Daniel E. Holland 43 Army Lieutenant Colonel May 18 2006
274. Robert Seidel III 23 Army 1st Lieutenant May 18 2006
275. William B. Fulks 23 Marine Corporal May 18 2006
276. Benito A. Ramirez 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 21 2006
277. David Christoff Jr. 25 Marine Sergeant May 22 2006
278. William J. Leusink 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 22 2006
279. Michael L. Hermanson 21 Army National Guard Specialist May 23 2006
280. Steven Freund 20 Marine Private 1st Class May 23 2006
281. Robert G. Posivio III 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 23 2006
282. Robert E. Blair 22 Army Specialist May 25 2006
283. Douglas A. DiCenzo 30 Army Captain May 25 2006
284. Caleb A. Lufkin 24 Army Private 1st Class May 25 2006
285. Adam Lucas 20 Marine Lance Corporal May 26 2006
286. J. Adan Garcia 20 Army Corporal May 27 2006
287. Richard A. Bennett 25 Marine Corporal May 27 2006
288. Nathanael J. Doring 31 Marine Captain May 27 2006
289. James A. Funkhouser 35 Army Captain May 29 2006
290. Jeremy M. Loveless 25 Army Corporal May 29 2006
291. Brock L. Bucklin 28 Army Specialist May 30 2006
292. Bobby R. West 23 Army Corporal May 30 2006
293. Alexander J. Kolasa 22 Army Corporal May 31 2006
294. Benjamin E. Mejia 25 Army Sergeant May 31 2006
295. Brett L. Tribble 20 Army Private 1st Class Jun 03 2006
296. Darren Harmon 44 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Jun 03 2006
297. Ryan J. Cummings 22 Marine Corporal Jun 03 2006
298. Michael D. Stover 43 Marine Major Jun 03 2006
299. Issac S. Lawson 35 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 05 2006
300. Jamie Jaenke 30 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Jun 05 2006
301. Gary Rovinski 44 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Jun 05 2006
302. Andy D. Anderson 24 Army Corporal Jun 06 2006
303. Daniel Gionet 23 Army Sergeant Jun 06 2006
304. Carlos E. Pernell 25 Army Sergeant Jun 06 2006
305. Ryan T. Sanders 27 Army 1st Lieutenant Jun 06 2006
306. Richard A. Blakley 34 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jun 06 2006
307. Mark T. Smykowski 23 Marine Sergeant Jun 06 2006
308. David N. Crombie 19 Army Private 1st Class Jun 07 2006
309. Scott M. Love 32 Army 1st Lieutenant Jun 07 2006
310. John Shaw Vaughan 23 Army 2nd Lieutenant Jun 07 2006
311. Clarence D. McSwain 31 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jun 08 2006
312. Luis D. Santos 20 Army Specialist Jun 08 2006
313. Daniel Crabtree 31 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Jun 08 2006
314. Ben Slaven 22 Army National Guard Private 1st Class Jun 09 2006
315. Jose M. Velez 35 Army Reserve Sergeant Jun 09 2006
316. Salvador Guerrero 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 09 2006
317. Brent Zoucha 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 09 2006
318. Zachary M. Alday 22 Navy Seaman Jun 09 2006
319. Michael A. Estrella 20 Marine Corporal Jun 14 2006
320. Jeremiah S. Santos 21 Army Specialist Jun 15 2006
321. David J. Babineau 25 Army Specialist Jun 16 2006
322. Kristian Menchaca 23 Army Private Jun 16 2006
323. Thomas Lowell Tucker 25 Army Private 1st Class Jun 16 2006
324. Brent W. Koch 22 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 16 2006
325. Robert L. Jones 22 Army Specialist Jun 17 2006
326. Reyes Ramirez 23 Army Sergeant Jun 17 2006
327. Christopher D. Leon 20 Marine Corporal Jun 20 2006
328. Brandon J Webb 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 20 2006
329. Christopher N. White 23 Marine Private 1st Class Jun 20 2006
330. Benjamin D. Williams 30 Marine Staff Sergeant Jun 20 2006
331. Jason J. Buzzard 31 Army Sergeant Jun 21 2006
332. Sirlou C. Cuaresma 21 Army Sergeant Jun 21 2006
333. Nicholas J. Whyte 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 21 2006
334. Riley E. Baker 22 Marine Corporal Jun 22 2006
335. Paul A. Beyer 21 Army Private 1st Class Jun 23 2006
336. Mario J. Bievre 34 Army Staff Sergeant Jun 23 2006
337. Ryan J. Buckley 21 Army Corporal Jun 23 2006
338. Devon J. Gibbons 19 Army Private 1st Class Jun 23 2006
339. Channing G. Singletary 30 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 23 2006
340. Benjamin J. Laymon 22 Army Sergeant Jun 24 2006
341. Justin Dean Norton 21 Army Sergeant Jun 24 2006
342. Virrueta A. Sanchez 33 Army Staff Sergeant Jun 24 2006
343. Paul N. King 23 Marine Reserve Corporal Jun 25 2006
344. Terry Lisk 26 Army Sergeant Jun 26 2006
345. Michael J. Potocki 21 Army Private 1st Class Jun 26 2006
346. Raymond J. Plouhar 30 Marine Staff Sergeant Jun 26 2006
347. Jeremy Jones 25 Army Corporal Jun 27 2006
348. Terry O.P. Wallace 33 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jun 27 2006
349. Jason W. Morrow 27 Marine Corporal Jun 27 2006
350. Rex A. Page 21 Marine Private 1st Class Jun 28 2006
351. Ryan. J. Clark 19 Army Corporal Jun 29 2006
352. Bryan C. Luckey 25 Army Sergeant Jun 29 2006
353. James P. Muldoon 23 Army Sergeant Jun 29 2006
354. Christopher D. Rose 21 Army Specialist Jun 29 2006
355. Kyle Miller 19 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 29 2006
356. Carl Jerome Ware Jr. 22 Air Force Airman 1st Class Jul 01 2006
357. Collin T. Mason 20 Army Private 1st Class Jul 02 2006
358. Justin Noyes 23 Marine Sergeant Jul 02 2006
359. Paul Pabla 23 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jul 03 2006
360. Omar Flores 27 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 08 2006
361. Troy Carlin Linden 22 Army Specialist Jul 08 2006
362. Joseph P. Micks 22 Army Specialist Jul 08 2006
363. Damien M. Montoya 21 Army Specialist Jul 09 2006
364. Duane J. Dreasky 31 Army National Guard Sergeant Jul 10 2006
365. Irving Hernandez Jr. 28 Army Sergeant Jul 12 2006
366. Jerry A. Tharp 44 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Jul 12 2006
367. Al'Kaila Floyd 23 Army Sergeant Jul 13 2006
368. Thomas B. Turner Jr. 31 Army Sergeant Jul 14 2006
369. Andres J. Contreras 23 Army Sergeant Jul 15 2006
370. Manuel J. Holguin 21 Army Specialist Jul 15 2006
371. Jason M. Evey 29
372. Army Staff Sergeant Jul 16 2006
373. Nathaniel S. Baughman 23 Army Corporal Jul 17 2006
374. Michael A Dickinson II 26 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 17 2006
375. Kenneth I. Pugh 39 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 17 2006
376. Scott R. Smith 34 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jul 17 2006
377. Mark Richard Vecchione 25 Army Sergeant Jul 18 2006
378. Geofrey R. Cayer 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 18 2006
379. Derek J. Plowman 20 Army National Guard Private 1st Class Jul 20 2006
380. Julian A. Ramon 22 Marine Corporal Jul 20 2006
381. Matthew P. Wallace 22 Army Corporal Jul 21 2006
382. Christopher T. Pate 29 Marine Captain Jul 21 2006
383. Adam J. Fargo 22 Army Corporal Jul 22 2006
384. Blake H. Russell 35 Army Captain Jul 22 2006
385. Christopher Swanson 25 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 22 2006
386. Dennis K. Samson Jr. 24 Army Specialist Jul 24 2006
387. Jason M. West 28 Army Captain Jul 24 2006
388. Stephen W. Castner 27 Army National Guard Specialist Jul 24 2006
389. Joseph A. Graves 21 Army Specialist Jul 25 2006
390. Edward A Koth 30 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jul 26 2006
391. James W. Higgins 22 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 27 2006
392. Adam R. Murray 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 27 2006
393. Timothy D. Roos 21 Marine Corporal Jul 27 2006
394. Enrique Henry Sanchez 21 Marine Private 1st Class Jul 27 2006
395. Phillip E. Baucus 28 Marine Corporal Jul 29 2006
396. Anthony E. Butterfield 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 29 2006
397. Jason Hanson 21 Marine Private 1st Class Jul 29 2006
398. Christian B. Williams 27 Marine Sergeant Jul 29 2006
399. Joshua Ford 20 Army National Guard Specialist Jul 31 2006
400. Hai Ming Hsia 37 Army Specialist Aug 01 2006
401. Dustin D. Laird 23 Army Sergeant Aug 02 2006
402. Ryan D. Jopek 20 Army National Guard Sergeant Aug 02 2006
403. Joseph A. Tomci 21 Marine Corporal Aug 02 2006
404. Marc A. Lee 28 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Aug 02 2006
405. Kurt Edward Dechen 24 Army Reserve Lance Corporal Aug 03 2006
406. George M. Ulloa Jr. 23 Marine Sergeant Aug 03 2006
407. Bradley H. Beste 22 Army Sergeant Aug 04 2006
408. Leroy Segura Jr. 23 Army Sergeant Aug 04 2006
409. Clint J. Storey 30 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 04 2006
410. Brian J. Kubik 20 Army Private 1st Class Aug 05 2006
411. Carlton A. Clark 22 Army Sergeant Aug 06 2006
412. Tracy L. Melvin 31 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 06 2006
413. Stephen A. Seale 25 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 06 2006
414. Jose Zamora 24 Army Specialist Aug 06 2006
415. Jeffery S. Brown 25 Army Sergeant Aug 09 2006
416. Aaron Jagger 43 Army 1st Sergeant Aug 09 2006
417. Steven P. Mennemeyer 26 Army Sergeant Aug 09 2006
418. Ignacio Ramirez 22 Army Specialist Aug 09 2006
419. Shane W. Woods 23 Army Specialist Aug 09 2006
420. Jeremy Z. Long 18 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 10 2006
421. Kenneth A. Jenkins 25 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 12 2006
422. Michael C. Lloyd 24 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 12 2006
423. Kevin L. Zeigler 31 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 12 2006
424. Jeffrey S. Loa 32 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 16 2006
425. Michael Dennis Glover 28 Army Reserve Lance Corporal Aug 16 2006
426. John James McKenna IV 30 Army Reserve Captain Aug 16 2006
427. John P. Phillips 29 Marine Sergeant Aug 16 2006
428. James J. Arellano 19 Army Private 1st Class Aug 17 2006
429. Ruben J. Villa Jr 36 Army Sergeant 1st Class Aug 18 2006
430. Marquees A. Quick 28 Army Sergeant Aug 19 2006
431. Gabriel G. DeRoo 23 Army Sergeant Aug 20 2006
432. Adam Anthony Galvez 21 Marine Corporal Aug 20 2006
433. Randy Lee Newman 21 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 20 2006
434. Chadwick Thomas Kenyon 20 Navy Hospitalman Aug 20 2006
435. Brad A. Clemmons 37 Air Force Master Sergeant Aug 21 2006
436. Paul J. Darga 34 Navy Chief Petty Officer Aug 22 2006
437. Thomas J. Barbieri 24 Army Specialist Aug 23 2006
438. James Daniel Hirlston 21 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 23 2006
439. Jeremy E. King 23 Army Sergeant Aug 24 2006
440. William E. Thorne 26 Army Private 1st Class Aug 24 2006
441. Gordon George Solomon 35 Marine Staff Sergeant Aug 24 2006
442. Dwayne E. Williams 28 Marine Staff Sergeant Aug 24 2006
443. Jordan C. Pierson 21 Marine Corporal Aug 25 2006
444. Edgardo Zayas 29 Army Specialist Aug 26 2006
445. David G. Weimortz 28 Marine Corporal Aug 26 2006
446. David J. Almazan 27 Army Sergeant Aug 27 2006
447. Kenneth Cross 21 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
448. Dan Dolan 19 Army Private 1st Class Aug 27 2006
449. Seth A. Hildreth 26 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
450. Moises Jazmine 25 Army Sergeant Aug 27 2006
451. Joshua D. Jones 24 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
452. Qixing Lee 20 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
453. Shaun A. Novak 21 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
454. Tristan Smith 23 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
455. Darry Benson 46 Army National Guard Sergeant Aug 27 2006
456. Jeffrey J. Hansen 31 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Aug 27 2006
457. Donald E. Champlin 28 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 27 2006
458. Matthew E. Schneider 23 Army Specialist Aug 28 2006
459. Shannon L. Squires 25 Army Corporal Aug 28 2006
460. Matthew J. Vosbein 30 Army Sergeant Aug 29 2006
461. Christopher Tyler Warndorf 21 Marine Corporal Aug 29 2006
462. Joshua R. Hanson 27 Army National Guard Sergeant Aug 30 2006
463. Colin Joseph Wolfe 18 Marine Private 1st Class Aug 30 2006
464. Michael L. Deason 28 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 31 2006
465. Angel D. Mercado-Velazquez 24 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 01 2006
466. Cliff Golla 21 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 01 2006
467. Eugene Alex 32 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 02 2006
468. Edwin Anthony Andino Jr. 23 Army Private 1st Class Sep 03 2006
469. Justin W. Dreese 21 Army Private 1st Class Sep 03 2006
470. Richard J. Henkes II 32 Army Sergeant 1st Class Sep 03 2006
471. Nicholas A. Madaras 19 Army Private 1st Class Sep 03 2006
472. Jason L. Merrill 22 Army Sergeant Sep 03 2006
473. Ralph N. Porras 36 Army Sergeant Sep 03 2006
474. Shane P. Harris 23 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 03 2006
475. Philip A. Johnson 19 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 03 2006
476. Ryan Edwin Miller 21 Marine Private Sep 03 2006
477. Hannah L. Gunterman 20 Army Private 1st Class Sep 04 2006
478. Marshall A. Gutierrez 41 Army Lieutenant Colonel Sep 04 2006
479. Germaine L. Debro 33 Army National Guard Sergeant Sep 04 2006
480. Jared M. Shoemaker 29 Marine Reserve Corporal Sep 04 2006
481. Eric P. Valdepenas 21 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Sep 04 2006
482. Christopher Walsh 30 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Sep 04 2006
483. John A. Carroll 26 Army Sergeant Sep 06 2006
484. Jeremy R. Shank 18 Army Private 1st Class Sep 06 2006
485. Luis A. Montes 22 Army Sergeant Sep 07 2006
486. David J. Ramsey 27 Army Specialist Sep 07 2006
487. Vincent M. Frassetto 21 Marine Private 1st Class Sep 07 2006
488. David W. Gordon 23 Army Sergeant Sep 08 2006
489. Anthony P. Seig 19 Army Private 1st Class Sep 09 2006
490. Johnathan Benson 21 Marine Corporal Sep 09 2006
491. Alexander Jordan 31 Army Specialist Sep 10 2006
492. Harley D. Andrews 22 Army Specialist Sep 11 2006
493. Emily J.T. Perez 23 Army 2nd Lieutenant Sep 12 2006
494. Matthew C. Mattingly 30 Army Captain Sep 13 2006
495. Jeffrey Shaffer 21 Army Private 1st Class Sep 13 2006
496. Marcus A. Cain 20 Army Corporal Sep 14 2006
497. Jennifer M. Hartman 21 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
498. Russell M. Makowski 23 Army Specialist Sep 14 2006
499. Aaron A. Smith 31 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
500. David Thomas Weir 23 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
501. Clint E. Williams 24 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
502. Ryan A. Miller 19 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 14 2006
503. Cesar A. Granados 21 Army Corporal Sep 15 2006
504. David Sean Roddy 32 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Sep 16 2006
505. David J. Davis 32 Army Sergeant Sep 17 2006
506. Adam L. Knox 21 Army Reserve Sergeant Sep 17 2006
507. James R. Worster 24 Army Sergeant Sep 18 2006
508. Robert Thomas Callahan 22 Army Specialist Sep 19 2006
509. Ashley L. Henderson Huff 23 Army 1st Lieutenant Sep 19 2006
510. Jared J. Raymond 20 Army Specialist Sep 19 2006
511. Eric Kavanagh 20 Army Private Sep 20 2006
512. Charles Jason Jones 29 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Sep 20 2006
513. Robb Gordon Needham 51 Army Reserve Master Sergeant Sep 20 2006
514. Yull Estrada Rodriguez 21 Marine Corporal Sep 20 2006
515. Christopher Michael Zimmerman 28 Marine Sergeant Sep 20 2006
516. Allan R. Bevington 22 Army Sergeant Sep 21 2006
517. IV Kenneth E Kincaid 25 Army Private 1st Class Sep 23
518. III Velton Locklear 29 Army Sergeant Sep 23
519. Windell J. Simmons 20 Army Specialist Sep 23 2006
520. Carlos Dominguez 57 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Sep 23 2006
521. Howard S. March Jr. 20 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 24 2006
522. Rene Martinez 20 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 24 2006
523. Casey L. Mellen 21 Army Corporal Sep 25 2006
524. Jose A. Lanzarin 28 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 26 2006
525. Henry Paul 24 Army Private 1st Class Sep 26 2006
526. Edward C. Reynolds Jr. 27 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 26 2006
527. Christopher T. Riviere 21 Marine Private 1st Class Sep 26 2006
528. James N. Lyons 28 Army 1st Lieutenant Sep 27 2006
529. James Chamroeun 20 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 28 2006
530. Christopher T. Blaney 19 Army Private 1st Class Sep 29 2006
531. Michael A. Monsoor 25 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Sep 29 2006
532. Luis E. Tejeda 20 Army Corporal Sep 30 2006
533. Robert Weber 22 Army Specialist Sep 30 2006
534. Scott E. Nisely 48 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Sep 30 2006
535. Kampha B. Sourivong 20 Army National Guard Specialist Sep 30 2006
536. Chase A. Haag 22 Army Corporal Oct 01 2006
537. Mario Nelson 26 Army Sergeant Oct 01 2006
538. Denise A. Lannaman 46 Army National Guard Sergeant Oct 01 2006
539. Justin D. Peterson 32 Marine Captain Oct 01 2006
540. Christopher B. Cosgrove III 23 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 01 2006
541. Aaron L. Seal 23 Marine Reserve Corporal Oct 01 2006
542. Raymond S. Armijo 22 Army Specialist Oct 02 2006
543. James D. Ellis 25 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 02 2006
544. Satieon V. Greenlee 24 Army Private 1st Class Oct 02 2006
545. Justin R. Jarrett 21 Army Specialist Oct 02 2006
546. Joe A. Narvaez 25 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 02 2006
547. Michael K. Oremus 21 Army Private 1st Class Oct 02 2006
548. Joseph W. Perry 23 Army Sergeant Oct 02 2006
549. Kristofer C. Walker 20 Army Specialist Oct 02 2006
550. Daniel Isshak 25 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 03 2006
551. Jonathan Rojas 27 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 03 2006
552. Dean Bright 32 Army Private 1st Class Oct 04 2006
553. Timothy Burke 24 Army Specialist Oct 04 2006
554. Christopher O. Moudry 31 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 04 2006
555. George R. Obourn Jr. 20 Army Specialist Oct 04 2006
556. Edward M. Garvin 19 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 04 2006
557. Benjamin S. Rosales 20 Marine Corporal Oct 04 2006
558. Nicholas A. Arvanitis 22 Army Corporal Oct 06 2006
559. John Edward Hale
560. 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 06 2006
561. Bradford H. Payne 24 Marine Corporal Oct 06 2006
562. Brandon S. Asbury 21 Army Sergeant Oct 07 2006
563. Carl W. Johnson II 21 Army Corporal Oct 07 2006
564. Lawrence Parrish 36 Army National Guard Sergeant Oct 07 2006
565. John Edward Wood 37 Army National Guard Specialist Oct 07 2006
566. Shane R. Austin 19 Army Private 1st Class Oct 08 2006
567. Timothy Fulkerson 20 Army Specialist Oct 08 2006
568. Stephen F. Johnson 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 08 2006
569. Derek W. Jones 21 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 08 2006
570. Jeremy Scott Sandvick Monroe 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 08 2006
571. Robert M. Secher 33 Marine Captain Oct 08 2006
572. Phillip B. Williams 21 Army Private 1st Class Oct 09 2006
573. Julian M. Arechaga 23 Marine Sergeant Oct 09 2006
574. Jon Eric Bowman 21 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 09 2006
575. Shelby J. Feniello 25 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 09 2006
576. Shane T. Adcock 27 Army Captain Oct 11 2006
577. Nicholas R. Sowinski 25 Army Sergeant Oct 11 2006
578. Justin T. Walsh 24 Marine Sergeant Oct 11 2006
579. Gene A. Hawkins 24 Army Sergeant Oct 12 2006
580. Johnny K. Craver 37 Army Lieutenant Oct 13 2006
581. Thomas J. Hewett 22 Army Private 1st Class Oct 13 2006
582. Kenny F. Stanton Jr. 20 Army Private 1st Class Oct 13 2006
583. Leebenard E. Chavis 21 Air Force Airman 1st Class Oct 14 2006
584. Joseph M. Kane 35 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 14 2006
585. Charles M. King 48 Army 1st Sergeant Oct 14 2006
586. Timothy J. Lauer 25 Army Specialist Oct 14 2006
587. Keith J. Moore 28 Army Private 1st Class Oct 14 2006
588. Jonathan J. Simpson 25 Marine Sergeant Oct 14 2006
589. Jr. Lester Domenico Baroncini 33 Army Sergeant Oct 15
590. Stephen Bicknell 19 Army Private 1st Class Oct 15 2006
591. Joshua Deese 25 Army 1st Lieutenant Oct 15 2006
592. Jonathan E. Lootens 25 Army Sergeant Oct 15 2006
593. Mark C. Paine 32 Army Captain Oct 15 2006
594. Brock A. Babb 40 Marine Reserve Sergeant Oct 15 2006
595. Joshua M. Hines 26 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 15 2006
596. Russell G. Culbertson III 22 Army Corporal Oct 17 2006
597. Joseph C. Dumas Jr. 25 Army Specialist Oct 17 2006
598. Nathan J. Frigo 23 Army Petty Officer 1st Class Oct 17 2006
599. Ryan E. Haupt 24 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 17 2006
600. Christopher E. Loudon 23 Army 2nd Lieutenant Oct 17 2006
601. Garth D. Sizemore 31 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 17 2006
602. Norman R. Taylor III 21 Army Sergeant Oct 17 2006
603. David M. Unger 21 Army Corporal Oct 17 2006
604. Daniel W. Winegeart 23 Army Specialist Oct 17 2006
605. Ronald L. Paulsen 53 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Oct 17 2006
606. Joshua L. Booth 23 Marine 2nd Lieutenant Oct 17 2006
607. Patrick O. Barlow 42 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 18 2006
608. Jesus M. Montalvo 46 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 18 2006
609. Jose R. Perez 21 Army Not reported yet Oct 18 2006
610. Daniel A. Brozovich 42 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Oct 18 2006
611. Edwardo Lopez Jr. 21 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 19 2006
612. Kevin M. Witte 27 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 20 2006
613. Tony L. Knier 31 Army Sergeant 1st Class Oct 21 2006
614. Clifford R. Collinsworth 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
615. Nathan R. Elrod 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
616. Eric W. Herzberg 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
617. Nicholas J. Manoukian 22 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
618. Joshua C. Watkins 25 Marine Corporal Oct 21 2006
619. Nathaniel A. Aguirre 21 Army Specialist Oct 22 2006
620. Matthew W. Creed 23 Army Specialist Oct 22 2006
621. Willsun M. Mock 23 Army Sergeant Oct 22 2006
622. Nicholas K. Rogers 27 Army Specialist Oct 22 2006
623. David G. Taylor 37 Army Major Oct 22 2006
624. Amos C. R Bock 24 Army 1st Lieutenant Oct 23 2006
625. Carl A. Eason 29 Army Specialist Oct 23 2006
626. Richard A. Buerstetta 20 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 23 2006
627. Tyler R. Overstreet 22 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 23 2006
628. Charles O. Sare 23 Navy Hospital Corpsman Oct 23 2006
629. Donald S. Brown 19 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 25 2006
630. Daniel B. Chaires 20 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 25 2006
631. Thomas M. Gilbert 24 Marine Sergeant Oct 25 2006
632. Jonathan B. Thornsberry 22 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 25 2006
633. Charles V. Komppa 35 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Oct 25 2006
634. Ricky L. McGinnis 42 Army 1st Sergeant Oct 26 2006
635. Luke J. Zimmerman 24 Marine Sergeant Oct 27 2006
636. Troy D. Nealey 24 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 29 2006
637. Kenneth E. Bostic 21 Army Sergeant Oct 30 2006
638. Kraig D. Foyteck 26 Army Sergeant Oct 30 2006
639. Michael T. Seeley 27 Army Sergeant Oct 30 2006
640. Michael R. Weidemann 23 Army Sergeant Oct 31 2006
641. Jason Franco 18 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 31 2006
642. Gary A. Koehler 21 Marine Corporal Nov 01 2006
643. Minhee Kim 20 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Nov 01 2006
644. Michael P. Bridges 23 Army Private Nov 02 2006
645. Paul J. Finken 40 Army Lieutenant Colonel Nov 02 2006
646. Joseph A. Gage 28 Army Staff Sergeant Nov 02 2006
647. Eric J. Kruger 40 Army Lieutenant Colonel Nov 02 2006
648. James Brown 20 Marine Lance Corporal Nov 02 2006
649. Jason D. Whitehouse 27 Marine Staff Sergeant Nov 02 2006
650. Luke B. Holler 21 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Nov 02 2006
651. Michael H. Lasky 22 Marine Reserve Corporal Nov 02 2006
652. James L. Bridges 22 Army Specialist Nov 04 2006
653. Jose A. Galvan 22 Marine Corporal Nov 04 2006
654. Douglas C. Desjardins 24 Marine Specialist Nov 05 2006
655. Miles P. Henderson, 24, Army Chief Warrant Officer, Nov 06, 2006
656. John R. Priestner, 42, Army Chief Warrant Officer, Nov 06, 2006
657. Ryan T. McCaughn, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 07, 2006

Rutgers Defeats Louisville to Go 9-0 + Homolatte

Scarlet Knights Chop Way to Top
I'm not a Rutgers alumnus, but I do live in New Jersey (and Illinois, but that's for another day) and over the last few years, I've followed the school's football team. Its history is distinguished; Rutgers has been playing collegiate football for 137 years, including the first known intercollegiate game, against fellow New Jersey university Princeton, back in 1869. Nevertheless Rutgers achieved national notoriety for its 25-game losing streak a few years ago. In general, since it joined the Big East football conference in 1991, Rutgers teams have compiled middling or losing losing records, and hadn't gone to a bowl game since 1978. That is, until last year, when Rutgers compiled a 7-5 record, its best in years, making it eligible to face Arizona State University (its 1978 opponent as well) in the Insight Bowl, which it lost 45-40. Rutgers lost, but the long-beleaguered state university of New Jersey's football program was definitely on the upswing. Yet I doubt anyone--anyone--thought things would be swinging like this: Rutgers, one of only six undefeated teams in the nation, is now 9-0, having triumphed over 3rd-ranked powerhouse University of Louisville, and not only is going to a bowl game, but conceivably could play for the national championship if it wins its next few games. This was probably the biggest game, after that initial one back in the 19th century, in the program's history. I caught the tail end of the game, played in New Brunswick amidst a sea of excited scarlet-clad fans, and found myself cheering as a Louisville player's penalty invalidated a missed Rutgers field goal, allowing the host team another chance, which it seized, to win 28-25. It was incredible, in the true sense of that word. What happens now? Rutgers still faces tests against Cincinnati and 10th-ranked West Virginia, but no matter what happens, this will still be one of the greatest Rutgers season in decades--perhaps in a century.

Homolatte Reading Series
Tuesday night I read in the Homolatte reading series, which musician Scott Free founded a few years back and curates. The reading took place at a cute bar-restaurant I've never been to and didn't even know existed, Big Chicks/Tweet, at 5024 N Sheridan Road, not far past the turnoff onto Lake Shore Drive. I'd originally intended to read new fiction, but when I saw that both Scott, who started off the set with a couple of mood-setting original songs, and my fellow reader, musician Monica del Castillo (at left, my cellphone photo) had guitars, I realized plan A wasn't going to work. I very well could have tossed bricks rather than read fiction, even humorous prose. So I read the handful of poems I'd had the foresight to bring with me, and then ceded the stage to Monica, who sang a number of beautiful, stirring songs, including a moving rendition of the Mexican folk song "La Llorona," which is about a weeping woman who just happens to be Death itself (or a harbinger of it). I first heard the song in Frida, though I liked Monica's version more. Some of the lines:

Ay de mi llorona, llorona, llorona de negros ojos;
Ya con esta se despide, llorona, tu negrito soñador.

Todos me dicen el negro, llorona, negro pero cariñoso;
Yo soy como el chile verde, llorona, picante pero sabroso.

Si porque te quiero quieres, llorona, quieres que te quiera más;
Si ya te he dado la vida, llorona, que más quieres? quieres más?

Dos besos llevo en el alma, llorona, que no se apartan de mi;
el último de mi madre, llorona, y el primero que te di.

Ay de mi llorona, llorona, llorona busca un porrillo;
Y el que no sabe de amores llorona, no sabe lo que es martirio.

No sé que tienen las flores, llorona, las flores del camposanto;
que cuando las mece el viento, llorona, parece que están llorando.

I could have listened to her all night!

Ed Bradley RIP + Poem: Alain Mabanckou

Ed Bradley Passes
I imagine that like many people, I have a low opinion of television journalists and newscasters these days, which extends to the mainstream media in general. I didn't always feel this way, but the last decade has gradually burned off whatever residue of trust and faith I had in this increasingly corporatized and commodified, entertainment-focused, ethically challenged branch of professional journalism. Ed Bradley, however, was one of the journalists I continued to respect. From his years as one of CBS's few African-American reporters to his long stint with 60 Minutes, which began in 1981, he impressed me as a fair, thoughtful, ethically grounded journalist and reporter--a journalist and reporter who took the possibilities of his profession seriously. He cared about what he did and it showed, as he received 19 Emmys during his nearly 40 year career. He regularly and actively contributed a distinctive viewpoint to the venerable news program, not solely based on his race and experiences, but inflected by them, that otherwise would have been missing. I also should add that I admired his style and presence, how he came to embody the epitome of a TV news correspondent without sacrificing or blunting his Blackness--his performance and embodiment of a certain kind of Black American-ness, which included doses of swagger, cool, braininess, rigor, delicacy, humor and wit, motherwit. Sometimes he would ask a question that startled the person being intreviewed and investigated, and then he might crack that gap-toothed grin, in effect tossing in a kind of flavor you wouldn't get from any other journalist. This flavor enriched his TV work and made it special, setting a standard for other African-American journalists who followed.

At some point this spring or summer I'd said to C. that I noticed that Bradley was doing more and more profiles on 60 Minutes and fewer of the sorts of investigative reports of prior years. While it was also clear to me that he was ill in recently aired shows, I had no idea of the extent of his health problems. According to NPR, he died of leukemia. He was 65 years old.

Poem: Alain Mabanckou
I haven't posted a translated poem in a while, so here's a new one. It's a poem by Alain Mabanckou, whom I briefly wrote about on Monday. It's from his book of poems L'usure des lendemains (The Next Days' Wear and Tear, éditions nouvelles de sud, 1995). Most of the book's poems are written in sequences, but "Lettre au soleil" is a freestanding one that caught my eye. (I am placing the French original below the English.) One aspect of the poem that doesn't really come through is Mabanckou's use of "tu," the second person singular pronoun (or tutoyer, to use the 'tu' form), which is fairly common in everyday popular speech and online, but which would be somewhat impudent and rude to strangers as well as to someone of a higher status, politically, economically, etc. I still believe students are taught, as I was, to use the "vous" form, which is both the plural and the formal, when addressing someone you do not know. Here the "tu" connotes both familiarity, which would be tinged with impudence, as well as (hyperbolic) disdain and condescension.

LETTER TO THE SUN

Sun
Here is my registered letter
with accusations of deception

I summon you right here and now
to honor the tribute of light
you owe to the lump of Earth
which capers around you

Your revolutionary course
the spheroid halo of your kisses
don't impress me
I will await you at the bend
between the Aurora's timidity
and the Blue Sky's confusion
My rage will be at its noon,
tattooed with an unfading rancor
I will go if it's necessary
to expose you in the stellar dust
and the vagabond immensity of the Galaxy
I will then lodge a complaint alongside the Eclipse
to ridicule you at full zenith
before humanity which reveres your virtues….

Copyright © Alain Mabanckou, 1995, 2006. All rights reserved.

LETTRE AU SOLEIL

Soleil
Voici ma lettre recommandée
avec accusé de déception

Je te somme ici et maintenant
d'honorer le tribut de lumière
que tu dois à la motte de Terre
qui cabriole autour de toi

Ta course révolutionnaire
et le halo sphéroîdal de tes embrasures
ne m'impressionnent plus
Je t'attendrai au tournant
entre la timidité de l'Aurore
et la confusion de l'Azur
Ma rage sera à son midi,
tatouée d'une rancoeur immarcescible
J'irai s'il le faut
te dénicher dans la poussière stellaire
et l'immensité vagabonde de la Galaxie
Je porterai alors plainte auprès de l'Eclipse
pour te ridiculiser en plein zénith
devant l'humanité qui révère tes vertus...

Copyright © Alain Mabanckou, 1995, 2006, éditions nouvelles du sud. All rights reserved.

Celebration Day

Give yourselves a hand or three. A hearty hug. An extra flute of champagne. A big tip. A week at the beach. Because you did it. You did it, you did the do!


(NY Times/Chip Somedevilla/Getty Images)

You went out and voted and helped to clean house. You ensured that at least 29 Democrats replaced Republicans to flip the House of Representatives, and your votes shifted six seats from several of the Senate's most notorious right-wing racists and homophobes to Democrats, so that they now control the Congress's upper house as well. You also ensured that Democratic candidates, some of them true progressives, now control the majority of governorships, and dominate in statehouse legislatures.

You did this, American people, despite the government and media disinformation and misinformation bombardment, the months and weeks and days of harassment and intimidation, the balloting chicanery, the disparity in financial support from big business and the megarich, and even the wrongheadedness of members of the Democratic Party itself, the Republite DLC wing and some of the party's powerbrokers.

You have placed in office progressive legislators like new Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, and Jon Tester, and new Congresspeople Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Jim Yarmuth, Jerry McNerney, Tim Walz, and many others.

You did this, and you've left the pundits, the prognosticators, and most of all the President and his party dazed and confused. His thuggish politics of fear, deception and demonization finally lost. Not even Diebold machines could rescue him. He stammered and stuttered today like someone who was punch drunk--as he probably was. He even sent one of his most inept and arrogant captains, Donald "Back Off" Rumsfeld, packing (only to replace him with a retread from his father's era, but that's another story).


(Doug Miller/New York Times)

Cutting away dead and rotting flesh is, as I learned years ago from Michael Harper, called "debridement." You wielded the laser, and the result is enough to give all of us some measure of hope.

***

Unfortunately, anti-gay marriage bans passed in 8 states, although in 5 the opposition exceeded 40%. That is a very good sign for the future. Arizona, however, rejected an anti-civil union bill. It's increasingly clear that as the new generation of voters, many of whom do not possess the homophobia and heterosexism of their elders, mature, they will continue to reject anti-gay measures, but for now, the Republicans will continue to use them, along with racist and class-based appeals, whether they work or not.

In Michigan, despite opposition even from the entire Democratic leadership and high-level Republicans like losing gubernatorial candidate and Amway founder Dick DeVos, voters passed an anti-affirmative action ban by a margin of about 58%-42%. The deeply deceitful proposal, spearheaded by racial basketcase Ward Connnerly, mirrors ones in California and Washington State. It's a terrible stain on an otherwise very good day, but I think that down the road it may be possible to overturn it as well. The immediate effects for the University of Michigan, however, may be as dire as they were in other places such bans came into effect.

In South Dakota, voters rejected the extreme anti-abortion bill that the legislature passed and governor signed. Female voters' ballots were decisive. I doubt this will stop some states like Mississippi that have been fiending to pass anti-abortion laws, but with a Democratic Senate Judiciary committee controlled by Vermont's Pat Leahy, there's no way that another Alito or Roberts will skate onto any of the nation's courts. No. Way. It's been interesting to see ultraconservatives lament this loss of power; Pat Buchanan was just the latest to bemoan it tonight on Scarborough Country. Oh well....

***

What we began to challenge head on yesterday 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter described in his award lecture last year:

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory [ambiguity] since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

Having torn down at least part of the tapestry, let's make sure that we feed no longer.

***

And speaking of Pinter's speech, one of its points of incandescence is his discussion of the US's involvement in Nicaragua under Ronald Reagan, which came to be known, as a result of the Congressional investigations and special prosecution, as the Iran-Contra Affair. Here is Pinter, in clarifying prose, on that whole sordid, horrid, criminal escapade:

The tragedy of Nicaragua was a highly significant case. I choose to offer it here as a potent example of America's view of its role in the world, both then and now.

I was present at a meeting at the US embassy in London in the late 1980s.

The United States Congress was about to decide whether to give more money to the Contras in their campaign against the state of Nicaragua. I was a member of a delegation speaking on behalf of Nicaragua but the most important member of this delegation was a Father John Metcalf. The leader of the US body was Raymond Seitz (then number two to the ambassador, later ambassador himself). Father Metcalf said: 'Sir, I am in charge of a parish in the north of Nicaragua. My parishioners built a school, a health centre, a cultural centre. We have lived in peace. A few months ago a Contra force attacked the parish. They destroyed everything: the school, the health centre, the cultural centre. They raped nurses and teachers, slaughtered doctors, in the most brutal manner. They behaved like savages. Please demand that the US government withdraw its support from this shocking terrorist activity.'

Raymond Seitz had a very good reputation as a rational, responsible and highly sophisticated man. He was greatly respected in diplomatic circles. He listened, paused and then spoke with some gravity. 'Father,' he said, 'let me tell you something. In war, innocent people always suffer.' There was a frozen silence. We stared at him. He did not flinch.

Innocent people, indeed, always suffer.

Finally somebody said: 'But in this case "innocent people" were the victims of a gruesome atrocity subsidised by your government, one among many. If Congress allows the Contras more money further atrocities of this kind will take place. Is this not the case? Is your government not therefore guilty of supporting acts of murder and destruction upon the citizens of a sovereign state?'

Seitz was imperturbable. 'I don't agree that the facts as presented support your assertions,' he said.

As we were leaving the Embassy a US aide told me that he enjoyed my plays. I did not reply.

I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement: 'The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.'

The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.

The Sandinistas weren't perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilised. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated.

The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.

I spoke earlier about 'a tapestry of lies' which surrounds us. President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a 'totalitarian dungeon'. This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality. No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua. There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary. The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala. The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.

Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died. Why were they killed? They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved. That belief immediately qualified them as communists. They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.

The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government. It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free health and free education were over. Big business returned with a vengeance. 'Democracy' had prevailed.

But democracy has truly prevailed. Daniel Ortega, the candidate of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), was elected on Sunday as Nicaragua's new president. Despite the ministrations of the Bush administration, despite convicted felon Oliver North's campaigning with former Contra leaders, despite facing a wealthy, conservative opponent, Ortega prevailed, with strong support from the country's working-class and poor populace. He has promised to work with Washington, as well as Latin America's main leftist leaders, but openly rejected the US Republicans who'd been condemning his possible win. He will face a possible conservative plurality in Nicaragua's Congress, though his own party has retained nearly as many seats, and a coalition is possible.

Election Day

Election Day
Now, in many districts around the country, there have been few problems reported. I hope you've already voted or are planning to do so. Turnout supposedly is exceeding expectations in Connecticut and Virginia. At the same time, however, things are going badly in a number of precincts. California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana are registering some of the highest complaints about voting problems. According to the Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Huffingtonpost.com, and AmericaBlog, here are some of the problems being identified so far:

• In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where Cleveland's located, numerous machines were not working.
• Right-wing Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt even had trouble voting in her district.
• It was so bad in Columbus, Ohio, that the number of complaints crashed the phone system.
• In South Carolina, the Republican governor was turned away from the polls for not having proper ID.
• In Denver, a pollworker allegedly assaulted and drove a voter out of the building.
• Also in Denver, there have been extensive reports of computerized machines not working so election officials are asking to have the polls open for two more hours.
• This also has happened in Delaware.
• There have been problems in Pennslyvania (though my friend Byron says he was able to vote without a problem in Philadelphia).
• Machines have screwed up in Indiana and Florida (big surprise!) as well.
• According to ABC News, the FBI is probing voter intimidation in Virginia.
• George Allen's campaign is allegedly linked to calls threatening voters with arrest if they show up to the polls.
  
• Conservative pundit Laura Ingraham (800-876-4123) is urging voters to flood and harass the Democratic voter complaint line.
• Vandals damaged the offices of Democratic candidate Jay Fawcett (Colorado), and he received his third death threat, via email, last night.
• In Maryland, the Republicans recruited homeless people from Philadelphia, bussed them down, and then had them hand out spurious voting guides listing the Republican governor, Bob Ehrlich, and US Senate candidate, Michael Steele, as Democrats.
• In Missouri, in Webster Groves (the suburban St. Louis town where I grew up), at least one touch screen machine is recording votes for Democrat Claire McCaskill as votes for Republican Jim Talent.
• Missouri's chief election official, Democratic Robin Carnahan, was asked 3 times to show a photo ID even though the Missouri Supreme Court had overturned a law making this necessary.
  
• In Arizona, a poll watcher from the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund is reporting that Latino voters are being monitored by at least one person carrying a firearm.
• In one Utah district, there are more people registered to vote than the number of total residents.
  
• In Connecticut, Ned Lamont's campaign is charging that out of state operatives, accompanied by a Fox News crew, planted Joe Lieberman signs outside a polling station.

And these are only some of the problems that have been noted so far.

From the Election Protection site - Voting Report (as of 3:00 pm CST)
Legend: Red=250> reported problems or incidents
Blue= 51-250 reports
Green=10-50 reports
Yellow=1-10 reports

Let's also keep in mind that these problems are occurring in a country whose federal officials have had the gall to criticize the voting in Venezuela, in Nicaragua, in Haiti, and elsewhere. Don't forget this map the next time you hear one of them utter the word "democracy."

BTW, horrible old hanky head, self-hating ______ Ward Connerly has accepted Ku Klux Klan support for his anti-affirmative action ballot measure in Michigan. Yep, that's right. He's got the KKK on his side, and, yes, he's glad about it. To quote from Dave Neiwert's site:

Ward Connerly, the California man leading a ballot measure to end most affirmative action in Michigan, accepts Ku Klux Klan support for his position in a video clip posted this week on the Internet.

Connerly on Friday defended his remark in a statement, saying he accepts support for banning affirmative action wherever he finds it.

He said he does not support hateful activities.

His precise words, defending the Klan support:

"If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them. Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied instead of hate."

The last polls, in California, Oregon and Washington State, close at 11 pm EST tonight. Let's stay tuned!

UPDATES:

The Democrats have retaken the US House of Representatives by ousting Republicans across the country, from New England to Ohio to the Golden State. Democratic challengers, ranging from the very conservative to very liberal and progressive, defeated a number of scandal-plagued or moderate Republicans, and appear to have gained between 20-30 seats. They only needed 15 to regain control. (Also fascinating, not one Democratic Congressperson has lost so far.) Come January, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has been repeatedly and regular demonized by Republicans and their mainstream media puppets, will the first female Speaker of the House in US history! Among other Democratic victors are the first Muslim to hold office in US history, an African American from Minnesota; a Democratic mathematician in California; and a former alternative news weekly founder and publisher in Tennessee.

The Democrats are on the cusp of retaking the US Senate. Democratic challengers have ousted Republican incumbents in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Missouri (!!!), and are leading in Virginia (by about 12,000 votes) and Montana (by about 9,000 votes). Harold Ford Jr., the right-wing Democrat, lost to Republican Bob Corker. Had he won, he would have been the first Black Democrat ever and the first Black person since Reconstruction from a former Confederate State. Corker and the Republicans resorted to the usual tactic of race-baiting, and unfortunately it appeared to work. If the Democrats retain Virginia and Montana, they will hold the Senate outright, 51-48, with two members of their caucus being independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Bush-loving Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. If the Democrats can hold on, this will be a dramatic turn of events, as a completely Democratic Congress, as opposed to just a Democratic House, will force the recalcitrant president to either change his policies or wield his veto pen; in either case, as the subpoenas start arriving at the White House, he'll have to listen and respond.

Democrats have also won a majority of the state governorships, which will be crucial in redistricting battles down the road. Deval Patrick is now the first African-American governor in Massachusetts history, and the second ever in the US. Democrats also have won governorships back from Republicans in New York (where Eliot Spitzer made history by winning a stunning 70% of the vote), Ohio, Maryland, Colorado, and Arkansas. Some of these Democratic winners, such as Spitzer, Patrick, and Strickland of Ohio, are much more progressive than their predecessors, so it'll be fascinating to see if what sorts of reforms are implemented.

Mabanckou Wins Book Prize + Upcoming Events + VOTE

Alain Mabanckou Wins Prix Renaudot
The Congolese writer Alain Mabanckou has just received yet another of France's top literary prizes, the 2006 Prix Renaudot, for his novel Mémoires de porc-épic (Porcupine's Memoirs, Edition du Seuil). Mabanckou was born in 1966 and grew up in Pointe Noire, Congo Brazzaville, and later studied law in Paris. He's the author of six novels and five books of poems and currently is a visiting assistant professor of Francophone and comparative literature at the University of California-Los Angeles. He previously taught at the University of Michigan and will hold a humanities fellowship next year at Princeton. I haven't read this book (I've been meaning to check his African Psycho (which is set to appear in English translation in early 2007) out of the library), but according to the reviews, this newest work is an antic tale that draws upon a particular legend stating that every human has a correlate elsewhere in the animal kingdom. For the protagonist, Kibandi, his animal counterpart is a strangely powerful, murderous porcupine. The rollicking tale draws upon traditions of African storytelling while also further confirming Mabanckou's gifts as a writer and novelist. His widely praised previous novel, Verre Cassé (Broken Glass, Editions du Seuil, 2005), a marvelous written, highly ironic narrative of a bizarre Congolese bar, Crédite a voyagé, received a raft of prizes, including the Prix des Cinq continents de la Francophonie, the Prix Ouest-France/Etonnants Voyageurs and the Prix RFO du livre.

Upcoming Events
Lots of great info comes over the bandwidth, so here are few for this upcoming week, in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles:

ADODI CHICAGO SPONSORS LGBT FILMS AT CHICAGO LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
Chicago
November 8

On Wednesday November 8, 2006 Adodi Chicago will sponsor a showing of short films by LBGT people of color themed "Passionate Resistance".
Location: Film Row Cinema (at Columbia College)
1104 South Wabash Ave
Start Time: 6:30pm
For more information please visit the film festival
website at www.reelingfilmfestival.org.

MENDI + KEITH @ CAL STATE LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles
November 9
Nobadikes

FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE WOMEN POETS @ POETS HOUSE
New York City
November 15 to November 17, 2006
Festival of Contemporary Japanese Women Poets

Five poets at the forefront of Japanese poetry (Ryoko Sekiguchi, Takako Arai, Kiriu
Minashita, Kyong-Mi Park, and Sawako Nakayasu) join American poets Cole Swensen
and Rosa Alcalá for a though-provoking array of readings and talks.

Wednesday, November 15, 7:00PM @ Poets House, 72 Spring Street
Cross Currents and Innovation in Japanese Poetry Today
a panel discussion with Takako Arai, Kiriu Minashita, Sawako Nakayasu, Kyong-Mi Park, & Ryoko Sekiguchi

Thursday, November 16, 7:00PM @ Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery
Book Release Party for four from japan: contemporary poetry by women*
with readings by Takako Arai, Kiriu Minashita, Kyong-Mi Park, and Ryoko Sekiguchi

Friday, November 17, 7:00PM @ Poets House, 72 Spring Street
Blurring the Boundaries: A Conversation on the Art of Poetry and Translation
with Rosa Alcalá, Ryoko Sekiguchi, & Cole Swensen

For more information, visit www.poetshouse.org or www.protopage.com/belladonnaevents.

These events are cosponsored by Poets House, Belladonna*, Bowery Poetry Club, and Litmus Press.

SECOND SUN @ NAIVETE STUDIOS
Chicago
Brett Neiman
November 12, 2006

This email puts you officially on notice! This Sunday, November 12th will mark the next 2nd Sun Salon. October's Salon was wonderful, well attended and a great time. Naïveté Artist Co-Op's first artist-in- residence, Niz, presented in October. Visit her site: www.nizgraphics.com for photos of her work.

This month's presenter is the multi-talented BRETT NEIMAN. We are proud to host him and his work, so please come out to bear witness and dialogue with Mr. Neiman.

2nd Sun Salon @ Naïveté Artist Co-Op
4863 N. Ravenswood Ave
Chicago, IL
773-784-2989
Doors open at 3pm and close at 7pm
Presentation at 4:30pm

MYOPIC BOOKS REAdING SERIES
Chicago
Roberto Harrison & Duriel Harris
November 12, 7 pm
Myopic Books, 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave, Wicker Park, Chicago

MOVING ARCHIPELAGO: A CENTURY OF WRITING FILIPINO AMERICA
New York City
November 9-16

Thursday, Nov. 9
Featuring: Luis Cabalquinto, Leslieann Hobayan, Joseph O. Legaspi, Ricco V. Siasoco, Dionisio Velasco and R.A. Villanueva
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia St., NYC
212-989-9319
$6 (includes 1 house drink)
*****
Moving Archipelago: A Century Of Writing Filipino America
at the historic Woolworth Building
Date: Friday and Saturday, November 10-11, 2006
Location: Reception and conference at New York University, SCPS Conference Center, 2nd Floor, Woolworth Building, 15 Barclay Street, New York, NY 10038

Readings and discussion by Luis H. Francia, Sabina Murray, Eugene Gloria, Bino A. Realuyo, Eileen Tabios, Brian Ascalon Roley, Nerissa S. Balce, Nick Carbo, Luisa A. Igloria, Lara Stapleton, Sarah Gambito, Rick Barot and others!

Join A/P/A Institute at New York University in collaboration with Kundiman and the Centennial Planning Committee, on Friday night for an evening of readings and celebration of 100 years of Filipino immigration to the U.S.

Kick-off Reception Friday, Nov. 10th, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Panel Discussions Saturday, Nov. 11th, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, reception follows with readings

The kick-off reception on Friday and series of panels on Saturday will feature readings from some of the major Filipino writers across the U.S. and from New York City to exchange stories, discuss ideas, and explore the varied meanings of literary texts. Just as importantly, the distinguished gathering will celebrate what has preceded us and the rich but ambivalent promise of what lies ahead.

RSVP by Tuesday, November 7 for the reception and conference separately to apa.rsvp@nyu.edu or by phone 212-992-9653. For more information, visit www.apa.nyu.edu
Schedule of panels:
November 10th Readings & Reception: 7-9pm
Brian Ascalon Roley, Peter Bacho, Rick Barot, Nick Carbo, Fidelito Cortes, Luisa A. Igloria, Lara Stapleton & Luis H. Francia

November 11th Panels: 10:00am-5pm
10:00am, Panel 1: Where Have We Been?
Luis H. Francia, moderator; Nerissa S. Balce, Peter Bacho, Luisa A. Igloria, Lara Stapleton

11:30am, Panel 2: From Manong to Hip-Hop: Immigrant Stories
Bino A. Realuyo, moderator; Sarah Gambito, Leslieann Hobayan, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Oscar Penaranda

2:00pm, Panel 3: Rendering the Invisible Visible
Joseph O. Legaspi, moderator; Rick Barot, Eugene Gloria, Elda Rotor, and Eileen R. Tabios

3:30pm, Panel 4: Where Are We Going?
Allan Isaac, moderator; Nick Carbo, Andrew Hsiao, Sabina Murray, R.A.Villanueva

5:00pm, Reception and Closing Reading to follow panels until 7:30pm
Readings by: Eugene Gloria, Sabina Murray, Oscar Penaranda, Bino A. Realuyo, Ninotchka Rosca, Gina Apostol & Eileen Tabios

Co-sponsored by The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, and NYU History Department.

Supported by the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Asia Society and NYU International Filipino Association.

Media Sponsorship by Asiance Magazine. Beer provided by Carlsberg. Food sponsors Cendrillon and Elvie's.
*****
Thursday, November 16th, 7pm
Featuring Gina Apostol, Sarah Gambito, Lisa Ascalon, Marlon Unas Esguerra & Tai Yo. Hosted by Luis H. Francia

Asian American Writers Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, 10th Floor
btwn Broadway & 5th Avenue
$5 suggested donation

VOTE VOTE VOTE
Despite the numerous attempts at voter suppression
the robo calls in nearly twenty states
the misleading and deceptive flyers the liars who claim
without breaking a smile that the election has moved
a day forward or better yet postponed
despite the avalanche of corrosive rhetoric
the racist ads ("call me") the subterranean codes
despite the easy hackability of the Accu Cards
the yellow buttons on the Sequoia machines
which if switched to manual would allow any voter
or political operative 1,000,000 votes
despite the legions of GOP lawyers
the challenges the demands to brandish picture IDs
despite the cynicism of knowing the elections could be
and probably would be stolen again with any less
vigilance than voting advocates are displaying these days
please vote do vote go vote you should vote
it's your government don't forget yes you own it
please vote please vote PLEASE VOTE

Quilombo Country

Quilombo Country
Last week, as I was dropping a movie off at the university library's media center to be digitized for an online class screening, I glanced up at the wall of new and current DVDs on display, and saw one I hadn't noticed or heard of before: Quilombo Country. (You can see a trailer here.) I assumed from its box that it was either a feature or documentary about the settlements, or quilombos, across northeastern and other parts of Brazil that escaped slaves, or maroons, along with renegade Portuguese, Native Americans, and mixed race people, established beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the most famous being Palmares* (1600-1694), led by Ganga Zumbi and Zumbi, west of the city of Recife. (In Spanish-speaking countries, such settlements are also known as palenques.) That was enough to make me want to check it out, but what also intrigued me most was that rapper and activist Chuck D. of Public Enemy was its narrator.

Leonard Abrams directs the engaging film, which focuses not on the widely known quilombos (from the Kimbundu [a language native to Angola] word kilombo) or macombos of northeastern Brazil (Bahia, Pernambuco, Alagoas, etc.), such as Palmares; Carlos Diegues's fine 1984 feature film Quilombo compellingly treated this particular history. Nor does it examine analogous settlements in the Southeast region (Rio, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo), which are the main venues for many of the best-known recent films set in Brazil (City of God, Madame Satã, Central Station, etc.). Instead, it looks at the ones that exist in the North Amazon region, in the states of Maranhão, and Pará, at whose capital, Belém [or Bethlehem], the mouth of the Amazon River meets the Caribbean Sea. Quilombo Country looks specifically at quilombos in Maranhão's Itapicuru-Mirim area, on giant Marajó Island at the mouth of the Amazon in Pará, and in the Trombetas region in the Amazon River basin. (The photo above, from the Quilombo Country website, shows a father and child eating manioc doughnuts in Trombetas.) As it explores each site, the film succeeds in showing how the communities have survived more than a century of economic, political, social and cultural struggle against an array of forces, beginning with the Dutch and Portuguese governments, and then with the Brazilian state and powerful regional landowners, and more recently with globalization and global capitalism with a Brazilian face. In some cases, the quilombos arose out of estates that were abandoned after the collapse of the sugar economy, in the late 18th century (this was one of the factors that led to the transfer of the national capital from Salvador da Bahia to Rio de Janeiro in 1764), yet eventually the land, though occupied and settled, became the target of land grabs for industrial or governmental uses, requiring the quilombolos (residents) to wage battle directly, sometimes by collective force, and in the courts, to retain theirs. In 1988, Brazil's post-dictatorship constitution granted ownership of the land to the residents, but the film shows how racism, indifference and structural social inequalities, in the form of incomplete schools, infrastructure projects that have bisected some of the quilombos, and industrial encroachment, continue to ensure that the quilombolos' lives aren't easy.

Although the ancestral history of the quilombolos is mixed, the African roots, at least in the setttlements Abrams profiles, predominate. This is clear in many aspects of the quilombolos' material and spiritual culture on display. In addition to the practice of Macumba and the various Carnival-style celebrations, musical forms, dances and performances, and various other kinds of retentions, in the forms of aesthetic artificacts and social practices, are central elements of the quilombolos' lives. The film also shows how strong the sense of racial pride, as Brazilians of African descent--as negros--is among the residents. (As I watched the film I also thought about a fascinating book, Blackness Without Ethnicity, by Livio Sansone, that I've been reading, which problematizes some of the understandings and uses of Blackness in certain regions of Brazil.) In the Trombetas quilombo, several of the residents describe the intense racism they faced as soon as they stepped outside the settlement. One of the terms of opprobrium was, get this, "macaca" (meaning "monkey" in Portuguese). In the Marajó quilombo, which also had a strong Native American influence, one of the men also described how he maintained traditions deriving from this heritage, including tying a ceremonial belt and sacred inscriptions that illuminate the multilayered worldview. As the residents show the abiding sense of racial and cultural pride and community in their settlements, some also make it clear that they fear losing it, along with the means to sustain themselves economically, when they leave the quilombo and go to the city. Some of the former quilombolos describe how alienated they are from their rural roots and way of life, and one young woman notes that, among her other indispensible accoutrements of modernity and urbanity, she simply could not live without her TV. The film also shows an elder lamenting the threat played by globalized Black popular culture, here in the form of reggae, which is especially popular among the young (as rock, hip hop, soul, R&B, house, and other global music forms are in other parts of Brazil).

The film emphasizes that despite the society's racism, hostility and indifference, the quilombolos' pride and joy in their history and survival is profound. In fact, Quilombo Country repeatedly underlines how independence and sovereignty, in the face of constant duress, demanded that the quilombolos develop a range of skills, from farming and hunting to construction and river navigation that the descendents have retained. The film shows a rich and vibrant material and spiritual culture. As I noted above, some of these traditions derived from the African, and especially West (Yoruba-Fon, etc.) and Southwest African (Angolan-Congolese) sociocultural traditions, yet some also developed out of contact with the Portuguese and indigenous peoples in Brazil itself. The quilombos' religious-spiritual, aesthetic and sociocultural traditions, which are thoroughly intertwined, especially interested me. Macumba, which I noted above, has survived and provides another source of sustenance for people in many of the quilombos, as have a number of popular folkloric festivals and celebrations, like the Tambor de Crioula (which a sprightly older woman dances as if she were moving on air); the Santa Filomena; and the Bumba Meu Boi, a lively Carnivalesque (and carnivalesque) performance and ritual celebration that combines African, European and Native American elements around a various legends involving a slave and a bull, since ranching was not uncommon in upper Pará. Abrams doesn't delve too deeply into Macumba, but I detected some of the complexity around issues of gender and performance in the scenes that dealt with it.

One of my few criticisms of the film is its aesthetic roughness; it's shot in digital video, and the editing is okay, but it at times it almost feels cobbled together. Chuck D's voiceover provides a great deal of background information whether you're familiar with Brazil or not--and though I am, I did learn a number of new things about these regions I knew little about--but I was curious to know more about his involvement, though, and Abrams's as well; did he accompany Abrams on the trip, who was present for the filming, and so on. On the website there's a downloadable ethnographic report on three quilombos in Maranhão, and reading them made me wish that Abrams had included a personal interview or discussion of how he came to the project on the DVD. Unfortunately, there are no DVD extras on the film or anything else for that matter, like a menu. The DVD I got from the media center starts up immediately after being popped in the DVD player or computer, so beyond fast-forwarding or rewinding, you cannot really control it at all (and our DVD player in Jersey City sent it into continuous loops). I'm not sure if this was the result of the production company or what but it could use a little bit of technical fine-tuning. Overall, I recommend it for anyone with an interest in this area of Brazilian, African Diasporic and South American histories and cultures.
___
*According to City Brazil, you can visit União dos Palmares, which is in Alagoas State, south of Pernambuco and north of Bahia, and see the Parque Nacional do Zumbi, which occupies the area where Palmares and its satellite towns were situated.

Mose Tolliver RIP

"Black Bird," c. 1988 paint on wood 16" x 20.5," by Mose Tolliver

"Ala. folk artist Mose Tolliver dies," Yahoo! News
Mose Tolliver, NY Times obituary


(David Bundy/Montgomery Advertiser, via Associated Press)
Mose Toliver with one of his paintings, in 2005

Adrienne Rich: An Appreciation

A few weeks ago, poet Adrienne Rich spent several days at the university as a distinguished visiting professor. With one of my colleagues, Robyn Schiff, I had the opportunity to introduce an informal conversation between her and undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. Most were affiliated with the American Studies or undergraduate creative writing programs. For fans of Rich's work and in poetry in general, here are my introductory remarks (which are somewhat rough, as I haven't re-edited them):

"'I know you are reading this poem': Appreciating Adrienne Rich"

I first read one of Adrienne Rich's poems when I was in junior high school. I remember the book; it was Perrine's Sound and Sense. And I remember the poem: "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers." This poem, from her very first, highly praised collection, A Change of World (1951), as my teacher guided us through it and I read it then, was about the possibilities of the lyric, about poetic form and forms, about taking the personal life and transforming it into poetry. It explored the process of animating the inanimate, which is to say, the eponymous tigers who live, like the panthers in Blake and Rilke that we were also encountering in that class, in the young speaker's needlepoint. Rich's lyric gifts in this volume, evident so early on and great enough to earn her the Yale Series of Younger Poet's prize, continue through her work today. But something else about this graceful, sad poem that I could not articulate then touched me deeply, and several years later, when I came across her National Book Award-winning collection Diving into the Wreck (1971), and began reading the poems in it, specifically works like "In the Prison Yard," whose subject is the Attica uprising and its brutal suppression by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, in which the voice opens with the statement that "underneath my lids another eye has opened" and ends with "This eye / is not for weeping / its vision / must be unblurred // though tears are on my face / its intent is clarity / it must forget / nothing," or the title poem, with its unforgettable, mutable mythopoetics that conclude in the following stanza:

We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear…

I realized the deeper changes that she was ringing even in those early poems. Specifically, I recognized how clearly she was contrasting, in the perfectly pitched meter of poetry of its day, the vibrancy and fearlessness of an inanimate life and the pain and repression of an animate one—Aunt Jennifer's, how the social and political commitment was already there, though in a different mode, in that early verse that Auden, the judge of the Yale prize, condescendingly described as "neatly and modestly dressed." Yet he also stated that those early poems "do not tell fibs," and he was right. Rich's critique in this poem or her first two books was not yet the poetry "for the relief of the body / and the reconstruction of the mind," as she described it in "Planetarium," but it also wasn't quiescent or acquiescent either. As I began to read more of her books over the years, to search them out, I found myself galvanized by her witnessing, which is to say, not only a keeping of that eye open that forgot nothing, a recording with the subaqueous camera, with the pen or keyboard, but also by her engagement and commitment—in and through her art, with life, with lives, hers and ours, with the difficult problems of our society that in fact our official public and even our private discourses often wanted and wants to ignore or paper over, except when it can't, which is to say at moments of social, political, economic, and cultural crisis. Adrienne Rich's engagement and commitment, over a lifetime of remarkable books, a continuous process and act of cultural production, crystallized for me in so many poems I have committed, as the poet Michael Harper urges that we do, to mind (if not memory yet).

To give just a few examples, I'll cite the first of her astonishing "21 Love Poems," from the 1978 collection The Dream of a Common Language, slivers of which I have recited to my students in more than one class. The poem is brief so I'll quote it here:

Wherever in this city, screens flicker
with pornography, with science-fiction vampires,
victimized hirelings bending to the lash,
we also have to walk . . . if simply as we walk
through the rainsoaked garbage, the tabloid cruelties
of our own neighborhoods.
We need to grasp our lives inseparable
from those rancid dreams, that blurt of metal, those disgraces,
and the red begonia perilously flashing
from a tenement sill six stories high,
or the long-legged young girls playing ball
in the junior highschool playground.
No one has imagined us. We want to live like trees,
sycamores blazing through the sulfuric air,
dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding,
our animal passion rooted in the city."

"No one has imagined us"; here, it was the two women courageous and visionary enough to want to live and love as fully as they might, daring and joyous to love each other, directly, openly, "like trees...blazing...still exuberantly budding...rooted in the city"—but for so many of us how true this line was and is in many different ways. No one has imagined us. This moral and ethical courage and clarity, of imagining, of seeing, of writing, of acting—of confronting the world, in and through her art, and art it is, of opening up herself, her vision, to a larger and larger world, to its oppositions with the aim, imperfect but constant, of finding a common language or languages, of bridging but not eliding the fragmentary, fractious and incommensurate, not just encompassing it but opening the space of her life and art to it, in all its ugliness and beauty, cruelty and kindness, indefensibility and utter need to be defended, not in a pietics but a poetics, a true making and thinking and seeing, is one of Adrienne Rich's greatest gifts to the world. This production of a critically engaged discourse, an art, that dares to and regularly enters those ruptures, those interstices, those blank and forgotten spaces, of history and society, written "from the marrow of our bones," as she has so beautifully put it in one of her poems, that gathers them into poetry, that refuses to envision a world that could not be better, that will not and cannot be better, which is to say, that can be, is what her poetry, as she in her life, embodies.

"In those years," she begins a 1991 poem of the same name, "people will say, we lost track of the meaning of we, of you, we found ourselves reduced to I," and she goes on to describe the excuses we make, she has made—because she doesn't let herself off the hook—for our flight, which is a recourse, into the "personal," the "only life / we could bear witness to," yet she goes on to note that nevertheless, "the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged / into our personal weather" wounding us all the same as we stood on the shore, dazed, "saying I"—yet Adrienne Rich's poems return us again and again to the meanings of "we," to its potentialities, its power. What does it mean to envision and write into the world a "we" that we continually fail to grasp, to assume, to enact? She has done so again and again, and I'll end with the ending of another poem, from her collection An Atlas of the Difficult World, whose title, I think, shows us in as clear a way possible the work, the poetic labor, which is a labor of courage, of love, of fearlessness, that she's been engaged in for more than half a century: it's from the "Dedications" section of the title poem, and as the little section I'll quote makes clear, it reaches out to that "we" that we often fail or refuse or fear to see, to imagine, that "we" whose names do not appear in the book, except as she opens up the space of this poem, its address, here they, here we, are:

I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language
guessing at some words while others keep you reading
I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn
              between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse.
I know you are reading this poem because there is nothing else
              left to read
there where you have landed, stripped as you are.

Día de los Muertos

On this All Souls Day/Day of the Dead/el Día de los Muertos, I thought I'd post a poem by the late Octavio Paz, one of Mexico's and the world's greatest poets of all time, which speaks to the precious passage--of time, between moments, between worlds.

Between Going and Staying

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.
All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can't be touched.
Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.
Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.
The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.
I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.
The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause

Copyright © Octavio Paz, 2006.

Si Simmons RIP
On this All Souls Day, many respectful departures to Si Simmons, the oldest and longest-lived former member of the Negro Leagues, who made it to 111 years and died the other day. Without his sacrifice and those of so many others, a good portion of today's players, including stars like Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Ryan Howard, and Dontrelle Willis, to name just a few, might not be where they are.

Novel Days and So Much Else

National Novel-Writing Month
It's November 1, which means this is the first day of National Novel-Writing Month. It's also the first day of several other specialized months I don't recall, and to tell the truth, the idea that someone could write a novel in a month is a bit preposterous, unless you clarify that the aesthetic standard is not the best novels ever written or even the vast tide of mediocres churned out but the lowest common denominator, which very well could be penned in one month. That is to say, the novel need not be 1) complete, 2) more than a first draft, 3) very good, 4) good, 5) even mediocre, and 6) a novel. I keep reading "50,000" words or "175" pages bandied about as if the length of a work of prose fiction alone determines the genre, but it might be fair to say that at 50,000 words you no longer have even a long, long short story ("The Dead") or a novella ("Seize the Day"), even if what results isn't really, well, a novel. I guess someone'll have to think up a name based solely on length.

William Faulkner did supposedly write The Sound and the Fury, one of the greatest novels in the English language, in a very short time, but it took more than 4 weeks, I believe (16 might be more like it); Barbara Cartland, on the other hand, wrote countless novels (perhaps the number exceeds several hundred) very quickly, even breaking a record by writing 24 in one year, and they did bring many people (I think the number is 1 billion) great pleasure, but as for their quality.... Speed, it strikes me, is a necessity with this project, as is a preexistinng idea; most decent novelists have tended to let the ideas for their books steep for at least a good moment, and of course anyone familiar with most novels since the days of Miguel de Cervantes, François Rabelais, or, moving forward a bit, to England's Samuel Richardson, is aware that they often change in revision, sometimes radically--and sometimes over many, many revisions. My former student Francisco Mejia is a verrrrrry fast writer. He works at almost Joyce Carol Oatesian speed. But I think a month may be even too swift for him....

At any rate, the idea is an interesting and provocative one. At the university we ask our upper-level undergraduates to write a novella in about 5 months (1/2 the winter quarter and all of the spring one), which leads to great anxiety, many lost nights for the professor and students, and some wonderful pieces by the end of the year (or at least good starts), and certainly it's possible to write a novel in less time than it took James Joyce with Ulysses (yet again another of the greatest novels in the English language, requiring 17 years, which show in every line), but...one month! Well--let's say a first draft or much of a draft. That I can see. Maybe I'll try it. If anyone is game, keep J's Theater posted. And get cracking!

PS: Maybe a quick, painless November-written novel to go along with the right Jimmy Choo shoes, closet full of spring 2007 Prada suits, new Mercedes SUV, and McMansion in that gated community in the ex-ex-urbs! The commodity society wins out every time!

Wole Soyinka Speaks on Othello's Dominion, the Immigrant's Domain
When I was in college, I went through a mild literary obsession with Wole Soyinka (at left, tonight, cellphone pic). I'd happened upon Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (which many universities and even high schools now teach, though I wasn't so fortunate to get that kind of institutionalized introduction), and the poetry of Christopher Okigbo (who died in the Biafran War and whose poetry seemed so elusive and exquisite and hopeful and tragic that I wanted to mimic it), and that jumpstarted an interest in anything written by anyone from Nigeria. In those pre-Google days, I went and searched the library shelves and card catalogues, and one of the first names that popped up was Wole Soyinka. I am trying to remember what of his I read first; I think it was the poems in A Shuttle in the Crypt, because I concretely recall thinking about them (elusive and exquisite and not very hopeful but not tragic either) when he was named the 1986 Nobel Laureate. He had written them during his imprisonment during the Biafran War, and yet again, I wanted to mimic them but realized fairly quickly that I lacked not only his linguistic gifts but the context in which they were written. After he received the Nobel Prize, many of his books went into print, and I ended up reading most of the poetry I could get my hands on, his novel The Interpreters, and many of his nonfiction books, like the memoir Aké and his study of African mythology and its relation to African societies. I didn't read any of his plays until sometime later (the mid 1990s), but the spell cast by those poems (which interestingly enough my former classmate and old friend Ngozi Ola's work was deeply in dialogue with) has never fully subsided. I had the opportunity to use some of his theorizations of myth in the first literature class I taught, and I periodically dip into his poetry for inspiration and to remind myself of what I have considered to be a standard.

As part of this fall's One Book One University program, which is focusing on Shakespeare's Othello, Soyinka gave a talk on "Othello's Dominion, the Immigrant's Domain," this evening. I got to speak with him briefly before his peroration, which drew a line from Othello's strange status in Venice through to the United States's protestations of its dis-ease in the world and its ongoing cry of why does the rest of the world dislike us so, touching upon a range of issues, including his own immigration in the 1950s to Britain to study at Oxford and his status as one of the "Princes of Exotica," which changed several years later as waves ("boatloads") of Caribbean immigrants arrived to work in the United Kingdom's factories and rebuild its economy. I saw him calling into question the simple reading of Othello as an assimilationist who ends up being duped; he wanted to show how cut off, isolated, family-less and denatured, defamiliarized, that is, Othello was, and how the violence he enacted were not crimes as we know them, but operating in contexts that are unknown to us today and yet, as in the case of honor crimes across the globe, and the radical alienation of the self resulting in murder and suicide, horrifyingly comprehensible. At least that's what I think I heard, but my immediate thought at the end was that the talk was inspired and enlightening, and that I wanted to read it slowly to grasp all that was in it. Part of the time I was marveling at his sheer performance of the self--his white picked-out afro and goattee, his trim profile, his immaculate buba, his rich, resonant voice. Given the technical glitches preceding the event, I doubt that it was captured on tape and I didn't bring my trusty DAT recorder, but perhaps someone else did record it, and they'll put this and the other Othello events, including a discussion of Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North, featuring three colleagues, Nasrin Qader, Christine Froula and Evan Mwangi, that I introduced the other night, in book or audio form.

Kerry's Gaffe, 5 Questions for the Iraq-mire Gang
The media is in a state of total testeria about John Kerry's gaffe (at least so say the blogs), but then again, he was the (lackluster) Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, he always knows how to put his patrician foot in his platinum shovel-shaped mouth, and the Republican echo-braying machine has gotten whipped up into yet another lather of sanctimony, so of course the mainstream media follow along like the dazed sheeple they are. But here are five questions I'd like one of these media bobbleheads to ask Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, or any of their surrogates leading up to the elections next Tuesday. All five are very simple, and let's see if we get a straight answer, outrage, sanctimony, people whipped up into a Hitl...you get my drift.

1. When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki ordered the US military to end its blockade of Baghdad's Sadr City, George W. Bush's compliance effectively broke longstanding military tradition and stopped the search for the Iraqi-American soldier who reportedly was abducted from the home of his bride just a week ago. Why did George Bush bow to the Iraqi Prime Minister's demands and effectively allow him to order the US military around? What is he doing about the fate of the missing/abducted US soldier, and why did he take actions that appear to have abandoned the soldier and possibly further endangered his life? Who controls the US military in Iraq, George Bush and his generals, or the Iranian-linked, Moqtada Al-Sadr controlled Iraqi Prime Minister?
2. What exactly happened on October 11, 2006 at US Falcon Base, which Iraqi militias hit, and which proceeded to blow up all night long a few weeks ago? Initially we were told that it wasn't an insurgent attack, then it was later confirmed to be one. Were any of the 500-5,000 US troops based there injured, and if so, how many? Were any killed, and if so, how many? Why has there been a mainstream media blackout since October 12, and why aren't we getting anything more than vague assurances from the US military?
3. Why does the US Air Force need an emergency $50 billion to "bring dead and wounded soldiers" back from Iraq and Afghanistan? $50 billion is exactly half its annual budget. Exactly how many "dead and wounded soldiers" are there, really? Didn't the Congress just appropriate an extra $18 billion to the military back in the late summer, so what exactly is going on over there? What are we not being told about where this money is going?
4. Iraq is moving closer to being partitioned, which could spark even worse sectarian and tribal battles, as well as expand the theater of this disastrous war to surrounding states like Syria, Iran (which is already involved, as it has close ties to the Maliki government and SCIRI ruling parliamentary party), Turkey (which is basically involved, and has allegedly massed troops at the border of Iraqi Kurdistan), Saudi Arabia (which is strongly urging that there be no abrupt withdrawal for fear of partitioning and widespread violence), Kuwait, and Jordan (to which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have already fled). What concrete steps is the US government taking to prevent the geonational and political disintegration of Iraq, and what plan do the Bush administration and the US military have in the event that the calls for regional sovereignty take hold and the country does de facto break up into discrete states?
5. House Republican leader John Boehner (R-OH), who is also involved in the ongoing Foley-Kolbe-Page-gate scandal, made statements today suggesting that it was the troops on the ground, and not Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his strategists, as well as the Bush White House and its administrative proxies in Iraq, who are responsible for the missteps, bumbling, and disasters that have taken place in Iraq, pushing it, as military strategists have noted, towards "chaos." Will you demand an apology from Boehner for insulting the brave women and men of the US military, and also demand that any other Republicans who insult the dignity and fortitude of the troops either apologize or resign their positions?

Clifford Geertz RIP
Clifford Geertz, one of the most important, legendary figures in the field of anthropology, and a central giant in 20th century social sciences, the humanities and American intellectual life, just passed away, at 80. Here's the obituary from the Institute for Advanced Studies, in Princeton, New Jersey, where'd he conducted research (they don't exactly "teach" there) for many years.

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome Affecting Abandoned New Orleans Teens
I have many thoughts on Adam Nossiter's New York Times story on some of the struggling teenagers of New Orleans, many of whom are raising themselves, but rather than take a week to comment, I'll post the link and welcome any responses.

Damian Maurice (Saunders) Exhibit in DC
Recently I received a flyer for painter Damian Maurice Saunders' new show, which is going up soon in Washington, DC. If you're in town, it looks like it'll be a show to catch.