Saturday, May 27, 2006

Brand New Memorial Day Weekend Show on Line

The Memorial Day Weekend Edition of my show is now on line and ready for your listening mispleasure. My special guest is Lee Harvey Oswald (really), plus lots of great music and surprises. Download the 30-min mp3 HERE.

Gen. Hayden Talks about the Fourth Amendment

Friday, May 26, 2006

Big Bus Trip of '68, Part 8

(To read previous chapters, go to The Old Blog Archive.)

Rev. Wright paused for a moment, then continued his sermon:

"Bob and Bill's mother came to see me early on a Saturday morning. She had just gotten off work at the Pancake House and was dead tired, but she made the trip to see me anyway. We went into my study and she began telling me all about Bob and Bill, told me all the things I just told you--and more. When she was finished, she said, ‘Rev. Wright, I’m at my wit’s end. I can’t do anything with those boys. They’re wild and out of control, and I’m afraid of what they might do next. They might get killed, or kill someone else, they're so wild.’

“Then she broke down crying. The poor old thing just sobbed and sobbed and cried her heart out, and begged me to help her. ‘Oh, Rev. Wright,’ she said, ‘you’ve got to help me. I’ve heard you’ve worked wonders with other teenagers. Maybe you can do something with Bob and Bill. Will you help me, please? Please talk to the boys. Please. You’re my only hope.’

“Well, I told her I’d give it a try.

“I went to their house that very afternoon and knocked on the door. She let me in and introduced me to Bob and Bill.

“They were watching television and drinking beer, and smoking. Their mother said to them, ‘Bob, Bill—I got someone here I want you to meet. This is Rev. Wright. He’s come to talk to you.’

“Bob--he was the oldest, about a year older than Bill--he looked at me with hate in his eyes and said, ‘Reverend, is it? Are you a preacher man?’

“I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And then he cursed me, and he cursed his mother for inviting me to the house. I won’t repeat the things he said, they were so wicked. And his brother, Bill, just sat there laughing.

“I said to Bob, I said, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself talking to your mother like that. You ought to be ashamed of yourself sitting around drinking beer and watching that Godless television set while she cleans up after you and feeds you and works two jobs trying to support you. And you--’ I said to Bill who was still laughing his fool head off ‘--you think this is funny, don't you? Well, I’ll tell you something even funnier. One of these nights you and your brother are gonna’ get drunk and go hot-rodding and you’re going to smash right into a truck. Yes, that'll be real funny. There you'll be laying in the torn-up wreckage with blood and pieces of flesh mixed up with the broken glass and twisted metal, and your guts oozing out. Yes, that’ll be real funny. And here’s something that’s gonna' be even funnier--the look on the undertaker’s face when he sees the mess laying on his embalming table. It'll be a closed-casket funeral for you. Yes, that'll be real funny. I’ll bet you’ll be laughing up a storm. And you’re gonna’ laugh even harder when you find yourself standing before God Almighty, naked and ashamed for all to see. Every sin, every foul-mouthed word that ever came out of your mouth, every drop of liquor you ever drank, every mean you thing you ever did, every act of Satanic wickedness you ever committed is gonna' be read back to you out of the Book of Life, and you will find yourself shut out of Heaven and cast into the deepest, darkest, hottest, snakiest pits of Hell to burn in a torment you cannot even imagine. That'll be real funny, won't it?’

“Well, that stopped his laughing. His mouth dropped open and he looked at me like he’d been slapped. But his brother, Bob, he was in a fury. His face was as red as a beet and he was shaking all over, he was so mad. I could tell that Bob was beyond hope, that he was so eaten up with the Devil it’d be a waste of time trying to talk to him. But Bill was different, I thought. Maybe he could still be saved.

“I looked Bill right in the eye and I said, ‘Boy, what I told you is not something that might happen. It is going to happen. As sure as you are sitting there and I am standing here, you will end up just like I said. You will end up a rotten, torn-up pile of meat laying in a grave somewhere while your soul burns in Hell forever.’

“Bill swallowed hard and his eyes began to water. And Bob said to him, ‘Bill, don’t you listen to that preacher man. He don’t know no nothing. I’m your brother, you listen to me.’

“Well, I kept on. I said to Bill, ‘Bill, if you want to die and go to Hell you listen to your brother, but if you want a chance--a chance to escape that horrible fate and live a good, happy life, and go to Heaven when you die and live in God's Glory forever and ever--then you listen to me. Jesus is offering you a way out of the horror. He's holding out His hand to you right now, trying to save you. All you got to do is take hold of His hand and let him save you, boy. Let him save you.’

“Right then, a tear began to run down Bill’s face, which caused Bob to make fun of him. ‘Look at you,’ he said, ‘crying like a little girl. I told you not to listen to that preacher man. Look what he’s done to you, he’s turned you into a sissy-pants.’

“Well, I wheeled around and I said to Bob, I said, ‘Boy, what you do to your own soul is one thing, but you got no right to drag your little brother into the pits of Hell with you!’

“And he cursed me again, and said, ‘I don’t believe in Hell! And I don’t believe in Heaven neither, nor God, nor none of that. I believe in living it up and having fun and doing what I want. And no preacher man is gonna’ stop me.’

“And I said to him, ‘Son, you may not believe in God, but God believes in you. And if you don’t believe in Hell, I bet you’ll believe in it quick enough when you end up there.’

“‘I ain’t listening to any more of this,’ he said, and he jumped up and grabbed his car keys. ‘Come on, Bill, let’s get out of here.’

“Bill stood up and followed his brother to the door. And I said to him, ‘Son, don’t you walk out that door. If you do, you are walking straight into Damnation.’

“That caused him to stop. Then his mother spoke up. She was crying, she said, ‘Bill, don’t go. Stay here and let Rev. Wright save you.’

"'That's right, son,' I said. 'Stay here and be saved. Take the salvation that Jesus is holding out to you.'

"But Bob said, ‘Come on, Bill. Don’t listen to that preacher man. He’s old and crazy. He’s never had fun in his life, so he doesn’t want anybody else to have fun either.’

"Bill started towards the door. I spoke up. I said, ‘Bill, your brother is possessed by the Devil. Every word he’s saying is the Devil's words. Don’t listen to him. As you value your mortal soul, don't listen to him.’

"Bill stopped again, wavering. Then Bob said, ‘Bill, don’t listen to that old fool. You come with me. We can have fun tonight. I know some girls we can take out to the lake. You don’t want to miss out on that, do you, Bill?’

“And when Bob said that, Bill grinned. And followed his brother out the door.

“Well, their mother was bawling like a baby. I patted her on the shoulder and said, ‘I did my best. Maybe there’s still hope. I’ll come back tomorrow and talk to them some more. It might be possible to save them--or, if not Bob, at least Bill. I think Bill will listen, especially if I can talk to him without Bob in the room.’

"'I don't think that will be possible,' she said. 'Those boys have always been inseparable. There's nothing that can keep them apart.'

“I left and went home.

"Late that night, around two in the morning, the phone rang and woke me up. It was that poor woman and she was crying so hard I couldn’t understand what she was trying to tell me. Finally, someone took the phone away from her and another voice came on the line. It was the police chief. He said, ‘Rev. Wright, there’s been a terrible accident. Bill is dead, and Bob isn’t expected to live through the night …’

to be continued

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Poodle Samizdat



Yesterday I received a visit from my good friend Ethan Persoff who gave me a sneak preview of a new short film which he and Scott Marshall have produced.

Ethan and Scott (both of whom, incidentally, contributed to The Bush Junta, the book I co-edited with Gary Groth for Fantagraphics a couple of years ago), spent about two years working on this film. Remarkably, this work was accomplished via email.

The film itself is even more remarkable. It stars such notables as Condoleeza Rice, George W. Bush, Sen. Bill Frist, Sen. Rick Santorum, Karl Rove, Bob's Big Boy, Ann Coulter, Ronald Reagan, Geraldo Rivera, Nancy, Sluggo, John Negroponte, Jim Dobson, Dick Cheney, Bozo the Clown, Dennis Hastert, Jeff Gannon Guckert, Douglas Jay Feith, Donald Rumsfeld, Antonio Gonzalez, and Uncle Sam, and it is--well, it is indescribable. The above trailer can only give you a taste of what's in store. Anyway, trust me, this is a Must-See.

And you can see it by following the link below. By the way, this is Not-Safe-for-Work. In fact, it may not be safe anywhere--all the more reason to see it ...

POODLE SAMIZDAT


Updated Article on Yogurt Shop Murders

I have finished updating my article on the Yogurt Shop Murders. It contains the affidavits of Roy and Charlene Rose, friends of Robert Springsteen, who who describe how Roy Rose was coerced by the Austin Police into implicating his friend ...

The Yogurt Shop Murders (Updated), by Mack White

Statements by family members of Springsteen, as well as other supporting documents and links, will be added to this article very soon ...

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Court Overturns Conviction in Yogurt Shop Murders


Today I was very happy to hear that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction of Robert Springsteen who in 2001 was found guilty and sentenced to death in one of the most shocking murder cases in Austin's history: the Yogurt Shop Murders. (LINK)

If you do not live in Austin, this may be the first time you have heard of this case. And you may wonder why I would be happy to hear that one of the men convicted for this crime may go free. And you may wonder, too, why this murder case should be of interest to anyone outside Texas.

If so, then I invite you to read the following article which I wrote in 2000. It is based on a series of interviews I had with Erik Moebius, a former Assistant Attorney General of the State of Texas, who discovered a far-reaching plot behind the Yogurt Shop case.

The article was on my website until 2003 when I revamped the site. Since then, I have been revising the article with the intention of posting a more comprehensive version. In the meantime, the article took on a life of its own on the Internet and has been posted widely; the link below is on the Totse.com site. This will suffice until I am able to post the revised version:

The Yogurt Shop Murders, by Mack White

By the way, the above image is a photo of the "interrogation" of Michael Scott, another man who was convicted in the case. You'll note that the homicide detective is pointing a gun at Scott's head just prior to his "confession." This is the confession upon which the convictions of both Scott and Springsteen are based; this is why Springsteen's conviction was just overturned. And that's not all--but I don't have to tell it all here. I already told it in the article above. Check it out ...

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

In Memoriam

Chicago Tribune: Skolnick rode his rusting, squeaky wheelchair as if he were a brave knight on a fine steed, finding and avenging wrongdoing at the highest levels of government, jousting with the mighty on behalf of the weak ...

Sherman Skolnick, Activist and Political Gadfly, Dies at 75

Sherman Skolnick Passes -- Interview by Kenn Thomas

Broke-Bat Mountain

Widening the Definition of WMDs

Some jackass delivers a sack of marijuana muffins to a party. Fourteen people get sick. And the Joint Terrorism Task Force is brought in to investigate. ( See WFAA-TV report.)

So is marijuana a WMD now? Are we going to cry “terrorism” every time someone poisons a bunch of people by putting some harmful substance into their food, their drink, their—

Wait a minute. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Only let’s not waste time going after small-timers like the jackass who delivered the marijuana muffins. No, let’s put the Joint Terrorism Task Force to work going after the CEOs of companies that are poisoning far greater numbers of people with aspartame, fluoride, and about 500,000 or so other substances that fit the definition of WMDs much better than marijuana muffins. Let’s round up those jackasses and get them off the streets …

Monday, May 22, 2006

Art



It's been looking kind of sparse here. I think I'll dress up the place and make it feel more like home by posting a favorite work of art.

May 21 Edition of My Show

During the website weirdness that overtook us here at the Elfis Network over the past few days, I was unable to upload the new, May 12 edition of my show. That is, I would upload the file, and it would be there for a while, then it would suddenly vanish. Well, now that the server problems seem to have cleared up, the show should be accessible. You can the download the 29-minute mp3 HERE. Hope you enjoy it ...

Gonzalez Says Press Not Free in Matters of National Security

In other words, we must give up the freedom of the press in order to preserve the freedom of government criminals to run amok, illegally surveilling and harassing people, setting up secret prison camps, torturing children, and in general making the world a more dangerous, miserable place. That's what passes for national security these days ... LINK

The Big Blog Change

Sometimes it takes me a while to make a needed change. I get complacent, stuck-in-a-rut, don't want to take the time to learn something new, don't see why a thing needs fixing if it ain't broke, or if it does need fixing I figure it ain't so broke it can't wait another day, or two, or more.

But then, suddenly, one day something will jolt me out of my rut and I'm off like a rocket. No one can slow me down. Nothing will do but I make the change and make it quick. I don't have time to to shop around, carefully weigh options, shop around some more, weigh a few more options. That feels like indecision, something I hate.

It's also delay of gratification. When I get excited about a change, I want it right now, not later. Delay of gratification is for mature adults, not me.

Well, that's what happened with this blog change. For some time I've known there are many advantages to a real blog (permalinks, RSS feeds, etc.), and that the manual method I'd been using was clunky to say the least. But I kept putting off the change, kept lumbering along in my rut--then BAM--my site went down for a few days, I couldn't update it, therefore found myself with time on my hands to make the change. And when that happened, complacency was shouldered out of the way by impetuousness.

It was impetuousness that caused me to immediately run with Radio Userland yesterday, before I discovered it would not work for me. Then I did some research (quickly, of course) and that's how I landed here at Blogger, which is simple (and quick) to use, just the way I like it.

At some point, more change will be necessary. I'd like to customize the appearance, for instance. Also, I'll have to figure out a way to integrate the blog with my main site. But that can wait a day or two, or more. For now it will suffice to have a link at the top of my website (which is now functioning normally, by the way) pointing to this blog. And, of course, you can now get my blog by subscription ...