Who is to be detained?
Look out — here comes Halliburton again! With its own personal sugar daddy occupying the vice president’s chair, this giant government contractor keeps getting multibillion-dollar no-bid contracts from the Bush-Cheney regime, despite having been found guilty of shoddy work, massive cost overruns, and fraudulent billings. Its latest windfall, however, should be worrisome not merely to…
State’s right
Let’s see how newly appointed White House press secretary Tony Snow spins this. On April 20, state Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough, a Democrat from Maywood, filed House Joint Resolution 125, which asks the Legislature to begin impeachment procedures against President George W. Bush for violating his oath of office. This week, Paul Koretz, a member…
American life in poetry
Writing and reading poetry, we are invited to join with others in celebrating life — even the ordinary, daily pleasures. Here Seattle poet and physician Peter Pereira offers a simple meal. A Pot of Red Lentils simmers on the kitchen stove. All afternoon dense kernels surrender to the fertile juices, their tender bellies swelling with…
Head start
Today’s column is dedicated to my copy editor and my mom. My mom, see, skims everything I write, trolling for clues that might explain why the heck I turned out this way. The copy editor has no choice; it’s her job to peruse every syllable published in the newspaper. As for the rest of you,…
Vinyl Static
Shows-a-Go-Go! Before Law and Order: SVU slapped a badge on Ice-T’s chest, the rapper had Tipper Gore hyperventilating. An original of gang-sta rap and former member of heavy-metal outfit Body Count, Ice-T penned such anti-establishment rhymes as “New Jack Hustler” while attracting the attention of the second lady’s pet censorship project, Parents Music Resource Center.…
CAP CITY
LOVE, PEACE, OUR SOULS Rallying around the flag isn’t just for hawks. On Saturday, April 29, supporters of withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq will hold a rally and vigil, noon-1 p.m., at the corner of Sixth and Monroe streets, outside the Paul Findley Federal Building. Bob Wesley, former Sangamon County Democratic chairman and a…
Internal affairs
The embarrassing results of a computer search and a round of depositions examining the private lives of two top Springfield police officials are the final disclosures in the discovery process in a pair of race-discrimination lawsuits filed by black officers against the city of Springfield. Over the protests of both sides, the lawsuit filed in…
Funny business in Mason City
“You’d think we’re in the middle of nowhere, but actually we’re in the middle of everywhere,” says Chris Speyrer, proprietor of Mason City Limits, a three-week-old comedy club in downtown Mason City. He’s got a good point. Mason City lies about halfway between Peoria and Springfield on Route 29, a north-south highway, and halfway between…
Why Ryan should rot
I’m from Kankakee. That accident of birth automatically put me on George Ryan’s A-list. Everybody from Kankakee was given special treatment. Ryan treated me differently than he did many other reporters. But being from Kankakee also had its downside. Kankakeeans were supposed to be “on the team,” and I clearly wasn’t. Ryan thought I should…
Letters to the editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. REMEMBERING A GENTLE MAN Fletcher Farrar wrote the most delightfully nostalgic column in awhile [“Corruption comes…
The Hype
Bean Counting Last July, U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean was one of 15 Democrats who voted in favor of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. After CAFTA passed by two votes, some labor unions, who fought the bill’s passage and played a key role in Bean’s ouster of 17-term Republican Phil Crane in 2004, vowed to yank…
Jacqueline Jackson
radiopoem #3 when the signal begins to falter letting in a burst of some oily evangelist or some screeching singer do you ever pull your car onto the shoulder in order to hear the end of dvorák’s serenade in e major or the response to a trenchant question from fresh air do you ever reverse…
Can you spell i-l-l-o-g-i-c-a-l?
If the title Akeelah and the Bee conjures up images of a fairy tale or fable, you aren’t far off mark, but this bee doesn’t fly. Akeelah (Keke Palmer) is an intelligent 11-year-old who struggles through life in South Los Angeles. Her world is idealized, and her greatest peril is a cliché-ridden screenplay. Akeelah’s one claim…
Words to remember
We all remember George W’s fleeting moment of glory three years ago when he strutted aboard that aircraft carrier under a banner that shouted, “Mission Accomplished.” Well, three years, $300 billion, and nearly 2,400 American deaths later, Bush’s “mission” is a quagmire, with no end in sight. But he was not the only one gloating…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: It seems like the Amazon rainforest is not in the news nearly as much as it used to be. Have the environmental problems there been resolved? — Justin Tucker, Oakland, Calif. Just because the Amazon is not in the headlines today as much as when the media first covered its widespread destruction…
Ill will
Ten inches of snow blanketed the ground. The temperature was 6 degrees below zero. Schools were closed that Monday in January 1999 as the entire state recovered from an epic blizzard that had claimed at least a dozen lives over the weekend, most as a result of heart attacks suffered while people shoveled snow.It was…
Case of the missing heart
Much has been made of Neko Case’s peerless pipes, and rightly so. Her voice, a resonant contralto, is as loud as a marching band, as bright as church bells, as delicate as peony petals. If it were a color, it would be maroon. It’s even more spectacular than her abundant auburn hair, which cascades down…
