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Friday, Sept. 9, 2005

I'VE JUST FINISHED A SESSION with a client, my last for the day, and last for the week, after a rather intense week of writing. We ended on a note of "What's going to happen with America?"

I opened my mouth and talked. "I think that the United States is heading into a Get Real moment to dwarf any other," I said to her. And went on. The subject was her writing project; my sense, pouring in intuitively, was that those with the least sense of creativity, or of community, or social conscience, would be spurred to action by the events of the past few weeks. The existing pattern of things has been disrupted sufficiently, and we have been awakened from the trance of consensus reality, such that more people than usual will feel safe taking an unusual chance -- any chance at all -- to do something different, think something different, feel something different.

Any chance at all to be real.

Last night I received links to a now-infamous video of Dick Cheney clip giving a press conference in Gulfport, Mississippi, which I unsuccessfully tried to link to today. You may need to cut and paste this link into your browser window in order for it to work. Also, traffic to these servers may be high -- so you'll need to be patient and await your turn for a stream, or log in super early in the morning. But I trust you'll get through.

I would not call this episode the height of activism, but it is certainly honest, and funny, and a harmless enough moment of reality -- broadcast live on CNN. It is an unscripted moment; a glimpse behind the veil; and good, solid evidence of why the audiences at presidential events are hand-picked and people are plucked out of the audience of a presidential debate for having the wrong bumper sticker on their car.

Notice Mr. Vice President's reaction. Watch his face closely.

Here are the links.

http://hiro-tan.org/~ekoontz/cheney.wmv

http://streaming-west.americanprogress.org/cheney.mov

I'll catch you later in the weekend. Also, a new essay called The Anti-9/11 has been written and posted to subscribers. We're working on a page now for our general audience. Please stay tuned.

Rock on --

    e