PROCÈS-VERBAL

Josh Rogin reports on a letter being circulated for signatures authored by Elliott Abrams, Robert Kagan and William Kristol:

“We thank you for your leadership as Congress exercises its Constitutional responsibilities on the issue of America’s military actions in Libya. We are gravely concerned, however, by news reports that Congress may consider reducing or cutting funding for U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military operations against the oppressive regime of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. Such a decision would be an abdication of our responsibilities as an ally and as the leader of the Western alliance,” the letter reads. “It would result in the perpetuation in power of a ruthless dictator who has ordered terrorist attacks on the United States in the past, has pursued nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and who can be expected to return to these activities should he survive. To cut off funding for current efforts would, in short, be profoundly contrary to American interests.”

One can only wonder what US armament manufacturers have been whispering in that trio’s ear.

James Richard Verone woke up June 9 with a sense of anticipation.

He took a shower.

Ironed his shirt.

Hailed a cab.

Then robbed a bank.

He wasn’t especially nervous. If anything, Verone said he was excited to finally execute his plan to gain access to free medical care.

“I prepared myself for this,” Verone said from behind a thick glass window in the Gaston County Jail Thursday morning.

Verone spoke calmly about the road that led him to a jail cell he shares with a young man arrested for stealing computers.

The 59-year-old man apologized for squinting. He hadn’t gotten his eyeglasses returned to him since being arrested a week ago.

He smiled from the other side of the glass, sometimes gesturing with his hands. A plastic, red bracelet with his mug shot clung to his left wrist.

Until last week Verone had never been in trouble with the law.

Now he hopes to be booked as a felon and held in prison where he can be treated for several physical afflictions.

Source: Bank robber planned crime and punishment – Gaston Gazette.

Read more. Verone didn’t just choose this out of thin air, he gave legitimate means his best shot.

“Before getting in your car, ask yourself if getting to your destination is worth risking your life.”

In case you’re wondering, that’s the entire continental United States under those storm clouds.

After cleaning off yesterday’s 5 inches of snow last night, which was light and fluffy, we’ve got 6 inches today of wet and heavy. Thank god I shoveled off my roof, and the storm is just beginning.

* * *

Cyclone Yasi

bears down on northeastern Australia with winds up to 186 MPH. It just made landfall a little while ago.

The surface temperature of the Pacific Ocean in that region is 1.2ºC above normal. Just one degree and some change.

* * *

Tahrir Square Burns . . .

Finally, in Egypt, things have gotten out of hand. What Egyptian news outlets (and they are all official outlets) characterize as “pro-stability” demonstrators, have been organized and armed with Molotov Cocktails are trying to force their way into Tahrir Square. Stones are being thrown, Army vehicles are trying to keep the two groups apart, but they’re the target of the Molotov’s.

Pro-Mubarak supporters are riding into town on horses and camels. Al-Jazeera reports that 100 people are injured. News crews are being attacked for the first time. This has gotten ugly. Anderson Cooper reports that Molotov Cocktails have climbed onto rooftops and are throwing Molotov Cocktails into the anti-regime crowd. CNN video shows multiple fires burning. Cooper says that other than trying to position some trucks between the groups, Fire hoses are being sprayed into one crowd or another.

Cut the military aid to Egypt now. Send them a big message.

UPDATE: One can hear what I think is gunfire on CNN.

UPDATE: Cooper reports that medical facilities have been set up—which only pro-Mubarak forces have access to.

UPDATE: I’ve seen this pointed out only once before, and never stated quite this way: The hallmark of the developed nation is the peaceful transfer of power to the domestic political opposition. This isn’t seen in the Middle East, except for Israel. Neither has this been seen in either China or Russia.

That’s the prize, right there.

UPDATE: What can President Obama say? How harsh can he be and what can he say about consequences? Not much. Not unless he is willing to field a sizable military force to seize and hold the Suez Canal. The bottom line is that consequences can work both ways.

Just because I need a short time out from politics.

Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, from Turandot. Undoubtedly a great piece of music (better if you don’t know the story or what the words mean in my opinion). A great piece of music, but there’s the question: Is it the last piece of truly, over-the-top great music in the western tradition? Puccini died in 1924, before Turandot was finished, and the opera was finished by Franco Alfano. Arturo Toscanini premiered the finished opera at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on April 25, 1926.

I asked a degreed choir master this question a few months ago, and he still hasn’t gotten back to me. Feel free to comment.

In the meantime, enjoy Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti’s performance conducted by Zubin Mehta at Dodger stadium in 1994. I’m familiar with solo performances by all three (I like Domingo’s best, but Pavarotti’s voice is always pure pleasure to hear) and feel that together, these three managed perform with greater power and pathos than in any other rendition I’ve ever heard. With full orchestra and chorus, the Three Tenors and Pucinni’s Nessun Dorma:

Just because that was so much fun, and because I love a great drinking song, I thought I’d toss in another. The performance is of Verdi’s “Brindisi” from La Traviata featuring Netrebko, Villazon and again, Placido Domingo. This one is pure joy:

Seriously, though, if anyone can think of a great piece of music composed after Nessun Dorma, please share.

Peace.

My first morning in Europe.

There aren’t any words to describe the feeling of having stepped into a myth, yet here I stood, and I took this picture to document the moment.

This is the Charles Bridge, in Prague, Czech Republic, the last week of the warm, foggy November of 2003. I’d just landed the night before, never been to Europe, to be met by Ari who was kind enough to buy me dinner at the Square Restaurant in Malastranske namesti, in what had been a kavarna (coffeehouse) where Brod and Kafka used to hang out. “Welcome to Prague.” After an exhausting flight, with a huge layover and delay at Heathrow (which was worse on the return), I was too strung out to appreciate yet where I’d landed that evening. (Thanks, Ari. Our first face-to-face and you helped me get my feet on the ground that night.) Social demands and fatigue obscured any sense of place or occasion, so my personal epiphany waited until the next morning – alone and outside before breakfast – before coffee!

I stepped out of the tiny hotel on Kampa Island, U Zlatych Nuzek (I wouldn’t consider staying anywhere else, now). A small cobblestoned plaza. Thirty meters to a double-stairway of stone onto this 650 year old wonder of a bridge with its life sized statutes of knights, bishops, saints and matyrs, as well as real Czech people walking through their city to schools and jobs. . . .

I snapped just the one picture you see, just because I knew I needed to have the keepsake; then paused to savor the moment.

Thirty-plus years it took me to get there. . . . So it wasn’t London, Paris or Rome – great cities of immense fame and history . . . .

Who cares?

There were people I knew and wanted to meet here in Prague. And there’s history enough as well. Behind me as I snapped this picture, is Hrad Prahy – the castle – from whose window imperial emmisaries had been tossed, in 1618, in a dispute of religious bigotry masking the usual grab for power and for supremacy, and specifically about the destruction of Protestant churches. This was the second defenestration of Prague, and why is it important? It sparked the Thirty Year’s War – quite likely third only to the Black Death and the Second World War in the utter devasation wreaked on Europe. (Legend has it the the Imperial messengers survived, having landed on a dung hill.) Beneath another window in this city, on March 10, 1948, is where Jan Masaryk was found dead. “Suicide,” concluded the investigators. “Murdered by the communists,” says popular belief. If you’re wondering, the first defenestration of Prague happened in 1419, and precipitated the Hussite Wars.

Beware of windows and angry Czechs. . . .