While the Paris group is remanding all decisions on a no flight zone to the United Nations in the future, Gheddafi threatened to ally with Al Quaeda and is busy bombing now more hospitals and murdering the rebels. Didn't the dictator say that it was the rebels who were doing Al Quaeda's interests in Libia?

50 lives are being sacrificed to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Technicians there, trying to prevent more damage, have already absorbed radiation that will lead to cancer. President Obama claims new U.S. investments in nuclear energy are secure, Sarcozy says investments in nuclear energy can't be immediately stopped and Italy says it's ready to reinvest in the field.

Bradley Manning has been kept in solitary for the past 7 months and now is held nude based on false suicide alert claims. One of the documents he allegedly leaked to Wikileaks was a video of an Apache helicopter murdering civilians and two Reuters journalists. He is being accused of having turned the documents over to "enemies of the state", a charge which results in execution.

Michael Moore warns about Michigan's Governor Snyder, who in just two months has:

'Gotten the House and Senate to pass bills giving him "Emergency Management" powers such as the ability to appoint a corporation or a CEO who could literally dissolve town governments or school boards, fire the elected officials, nullify any local law and run your local governmental entity.The company would then have the power to declare all collective bargaining null and void.

Proposed giving business a whopping 86% tax cut while raising personal taxes by 31%! And much of that tax he believes should be shouldered by-I kid you not-senior citizens and the poor! He says these two groups have not been "sharing the sacrifice"the rest of us have been burdened with. So his budget proposes a 1.8 billion tax CUT for business and a 1.75 tax INCREASE for the rest of us, most of it from the poor, seniors and working people- even though the top 1% in Michigan ALREADY pay a lower state tax rate than anyone else does!

Together with the legislature,introduced over 40 anti-labor bills in just the first two months of this session!'

How is it that now, when Italy is worried about clandestine immigration, and France is dillydallying, Hilary Clinton is saying that in Afghanistan the fundamentalists were from Cirenaica,and who would we help really? Cirenaica is the region of the revolters and on many interviews Libians have stated that there are no fundamentalists in Libia.

Would you have expected John Galliano and Julian Assange partners?

The first caught in drunken antisemitic slurs and a crush on Hitler, and, because of it, fired from Dior, the latter trying to create Jewish conspiracies because one of his Russian collaborators is a holocaust denier?

More cuts in the 5-year spending freeze plan by the Obama administration.

Here are some, as detailed in the New York Times:
"air-traffic control, national parks and cancer research"
"more than one billion from airport grants and nearly one billion from grabts to states for water treatment plants and similar projects. Public health and forestry programs would also be cut"

from "Obama's budget seeks deep cuts in domestic spending"

In order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 28% by 2020, the Obama administration thinks that clean energy means to build smaller transportable modular nuclear reactors for the use of utility companies.

Sarah Palin, aid for the poor and the battle against racial discrimination.

She tops herself, as usual, by criticizing President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislation, which includes Medicare, Medicaid, environmental laws, educational television,arts and humanities:

"Regan saw the dangers of LBJ's Great Society.He refused to sit down and be silent as our liberties were eroded by an out-of-control centralized government that overtaxed and overreached in utter disregard of constitutional limits"

However venomous this comment is, it disregards the fact that taxation was reduced, along with poverty: Americans living below the poverty line was reduced from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent, and of African Americans from 55 percent to 27 percent.

The current call on more civility in government by Republicans is being heeded. There is talk of ice-cream breaks, pauses in the agenda for telephone calls to mom, and to the moms of their democratic opponents, to exchange recipees and discuss the weather. Now Republicans can no longer aim paper airplanes at democrats in congress, or try to distract the same with pin up showgirl calendars, nor can they interfere with their travel by deflating tires or cancelling flights. There is talk of a memo reminding all Republicans to greet their fellow Democrats in elevators with a "how are you?" before launching into any recrimination and requesting them to donate to a local charity to feed the homeless. In case of a refusal,the memo provides the number for major newspapers and local and national media.

Pope John Paul, to be beatified on May 1, did pray for forgiveness for crimes against Jews, women, heretics and minorities, but not against the working class.

What was Sarah Palin thinking when she used crosshairs?

Birthright citizenship is a hot topic these days,especially for people like Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican from Pennsylvania wanting to bring an end to "the immigrant invasion". So far, they've gathered together to declare the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States at a loss for American citizenship, not establishing which citizenship they should acquire. Thus barring United States citizenship, all others are available by wish and volition: Principality of Monaco's, Lichtenstein's, Azerbajani,Ugandan, even, why not, Martian or Venusian since the decision,at the moment of birth, is obviously up for grabs. Astrological signs may play a part in the decision making process. In case the citizenship is determined by the parents', those from two different countries will have ambiguous choices made for them, again, as long as it isn't U.S.'

New decision: end of life care consultation with doctors for annual check-up won't be payable by Medicare any longer. It was seen as too controversial for Republicans.

End of life care, removed from the Health Care bill to pass it, is now making a reappearance in Medicare legislation starting January 1st when doctors can advise patients on how to end their life should they refuse treatment for heart attacks, cancer, and more. So a mastectomy to save your life could be refused for whatever reason,or restarting your heart after a heart attack using your grief over loss as an excuse to save money and do a patient's will, however upset by the decision making process, if so be the case.Delays in death cause tax payers money, and after all, due to its inevitability, why not give in at the first bout?

Bristol Palin bought a foreclosed house in Maricopa, Arizona, adding to the damage done in the area by the new immigration and knife carrying laws. She's up in arms ready to go on threatened or endangered shooting expeditions of bald eagle, ocelot and jaguar, like her mother. The five bedroom house will host parties for possees of anti-immigration personnel from the border at various times, with her mother, when visiting, poised as bartender throwing out everyone who doubts her as a possible winner of a White House run. Bristol will also encourage everyone to overeat to do her mother a favor and make the distinction between the latter and Michelle Obama as clear as possible.

Laura Castro is a writer and teacher in New York City. This poem was read at the Italian American Writers Association evening at Cornelia Street Café on December 11.

Dream, Leaning on its Elbow

What thoughts are these?
Haven't I been here before?
How can this be that I'm
reborn and reborn and reborn?

What, now a daffodil? And next
A bird? A small bright stone?
And all this in one lifetime?
I was a blade of grass once.

No, I have not seen this room before-
It's different; though I recognize the song.
How many rooms have I inhabited,
fresh painted in the colors of the dream?

I walked in the stillness of the desert,
no birds, no blades of grass,
and came to be content-had
quite forgotten what might come to pass.

Then out of stillness, the dream,
leaning on its elbow,
contemplating the leap into-
What? I only start to know!

Dare I jump feet first as if brand new
-Will I ever be the same?-
Into those spaces between the notes
On a scale I never heard, yet know like my own name?

GIL FAGIANI

is a poet and a social worker who hosts the Italian American Writers Association's monthly meetings at Cornelia Street café in New York City. His work is collected in many anthologies and he is the author of seven books, including his most recent, A blanquito in el barrio. Here are two from that collection.

LA CAPITANA

Seventy-three year old
Iris Espinosa,
La Capitana for a local
antipovery agency,
receives official notice.
Her petitions appealing
the cutoff of funds for children's
summer street program
have been denied.

Forget summer sprinklers
and closed-off streets.
Forget sixty-dollar stipends
for teenage counselors.
Forget spiced ham sandwiches
for children's lunches.
Forget trips to Central Park
and Randall's Island.

The day after a crowd of junkies
stomp to death a drug dealer
on East 104th Street,
steamed up moms
and laid-off fathers
scream at kids:
"Keep away from yerba smoke
in hallways and courtyards!
Watch out for tecatos
in basements and rooftops!"

Along with ex-counselors,
La Capitana waits till
temperature hits 95 degrees.
Demands transportation money
from Gordo's Candy Store,
Bebo's Barber Shop,
packs Victor, Macho,
Little Johnny, Nyrma, Alicia,
Chucho and any other kid
she can get her hands on
into the Six train.

Getting off at City Hall
La Capitana buys
todos los muchachos
frankfurters with mustard,
onion, sauerkraut
and buys todas las muchachas
triple scoops of vanilla ice cream
capped with chocolate syrup,
nuts and sprinkles.
" Vámonos!Adelante!"
La Capitana hollers.
"Hasta la victoria!"
her troops reply.

On Chambers Street
the East Harlemites
charge into the elevators
of a gray granite building,
race past security guards,
scurrying secretaries,
mob executive office
maple and chrome shiny.
La Capitana bangs a desk
like she's playing the bongos
while white suited men
pull on their ties
and stare at boys' franks dripping
on polished tables
girls' cones dripping on plush rugs.
"104th Street presente!
Los ninos want their money!"


LITANY OF SAN VITO
To Congressman Vito Marcantonio (1901-1954)

San Vito of East Harlem Pray for us
San Vito bread of the poor Pray for us
San Vito crucified by Wall Street Pray for us
San Vito martyr of McCarthyism Pray for us

From the jail cell walls San Vito deliver us
From the backyard crap game San Vito deliver us
From the loan shark's vig San Vito deliver us
From the drunken stupor San Vito deliver us
From TB and asthma San Vito protect us
From the social worker's visit San Vito protect us
From immigration raids San Vito protect us
From the landlord's greed San Vito protect us

North Korea and Iran are bickering over who has the most extravagant nuclear capabilities. Both are irritated with the United States but are still importing goods to set the example. Their arsenal buildup includes a pair of jeans, a copy of National Enquirer, and a box of Cheerios for North Korea; Cover Girl lip stain, a pack of Charmin, and a box of Kleenex for Iran. The treasure trove for North Korea was said to have been provided by illegal sources in South Korea,regardless of bombings, along with the occasional barbeque, while Israel was said to import the latter.Due to his bouts with holocaust denial Ahmadinejad is said to consider the name of the country a metaphor.Recently two nuclear scientists from both North Korea and Iran met to boast about nuclear capability and ended up bitch-slapping each other over who owned the better uranium enrichment facility.

Not happy with extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy via Bill Clinton's intervention at a White House conference, in which he admits that even he did use the cuts for a purpose, social security funds were cut a 2% and a Virginia court is debating if the United States should consider Assange a spy according to a law from 1917, instead of understanding wikileaks' release of information as a new Watergate.
Even the New York Times failed in intent by not releasing a piece on nuclear weapons and inimical gesturings between the US and Iran, published by The Guardian, and aquiescing not to publish any more wikileaks news in the future.

Again, no need for satire here, it's just the news.