The Davy Crockett Reincarnated Almanac 2001-2008

PREAMBLE

     Howdy.  I'm Cloyd Campfire.  And this is a tome o' mine, of literary mishap & political misfire, that was triggered by 9/11. The giant tragedy of September 11, 2001, "literally" gave birth to Davy Crockett Reincarnated.

     I needed a vehicle with which to respectfully expound on 9/11 and Davy popped up. Then he stuck around for a few more "editorials" in this little newsletter I was doing for an Albuquerque, New Mexico, homeless shelter in which yours truly was a moldering. Finally the reincarnation of Davy died ~ came back again as a child ~ and that was that. He was over.  I wasn't going to write "kid" stories. But in no time at all he was an old man again ~ due to President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech and its consequences. The major consequence was the invasion of Iraq, of which I, an American citizen, didn't approve.  Big deal ~ I, just another nobody, didn't approve. But now my little newsletter was independent and, lo and behold, Davy Crockett Reincarnated had to be reckoned with by whoever read him.  He became the editor of the Old Timer Chronicle, helped lose the presidential campaign for Senator Kerry, and as the American economy went south, Col. Crockett Reincarnated moved his newspaper office to Prescott, Arizona.  And somewhere around there in the formidable heart of McCain country, he likes to think that he helped win the presidential campaign for Senator Obama.

     Davy Crockett Reincarnated, ofcourse, is fiction.  Cloyd Campfire is my pen name.  As I, a political independent, whittled on this "Almanac," I carved into it various renderings to "clarify" the 2001-2008 era of President George W. Bush, America's dubious "war" president. So perhaps, just perhaps, this little volume will have some kind of historical significance ~ and can help a student with his/her term paper, or something, some day.

     This character o' mine, Davy Crockett Reincarnated, is based partly on the real Col. Crockett and partly on the character from the Almanacs that cropped up in the 1830s after the real man's death.  Other than that, the character in this present volume mostly represents the author's altar ego. I'm 58 years old now.  So is Davy Crockett Reincarnated.

     The real David Crockett, I believe, was a nice guy and an amazing shot with ye olde musket.  And he was a talented story teller.  He was elected to the U.S. Congress and, in 1836, died at the Alamo.  While in Washington D.C. he tried and tried to cut a deal for the squatters on federal land back in Tennessee, but failed. However, his son went to congress later, and got the squatters their land at 12 and a half cents an acre.

     The real Congressman David Crockett believed the Indians shouldn't be removed from their tribal lands.  He believed this, not because he loved the Indians, but because he figured the White squatters, like in Tennessee or Kentucky, were next to be removed if the Indians were forced to go. This is how it was explained to me.

     The real Col. David Crockett, in his autobiography, told about how he and other volunteers deserted General Andrew Jackson's army in the Creek Indian War in the earlier days.  There was a lull in the fighting.  Crockett and his friends wanted to go home and take care of their families that winter. Jackson wouldn't let them go. Crockett called the general's bluff and the volunteers left.  Some repute this particular incident to be a "lie."  But I don't think so. Much later, during the Vietnam War, I kind of did the same thing.

     God bless all ye feller Americans.

~ Yours truly ~

Cloyd Campfire

December 2008

fillupthevoidcloyd@yahoo.com

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The Bill of Rights

as embraced in the U.S. Constitution

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

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A Coming-Out Party

Seattle, 1999 

by Jeffry A. Frieden
from his book, Global Capitalism
(2006)

Delegates to the Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Oraganization (WTO) converged on Seattle, Washingtion, on November 29, 1999.

Diplomatically sensitive and technically complex issues filled the agenda: opening a new round of trade talks; reducing barriers to trade in farm goods and services; revising the WTO's definition of dumping; adding labor and evironmental standards to trade agreements. Prepared for difficult and acrimonious negotiations among trade delegations, the representatives of the United States, Europe, Japan, and the developing countries drifted into Seattle.

The WTO delegates were totally unprepared for what met them as they arrived in Seattle that rainy Monday. Tens of thousands of antiglobalization activists were already in the coastal city. On the eve of the opening ceremonies, thousands of protesters encircled the site of a delegates' reception, then moved on to a mass meeting nearby. At the harbor, protesters organized a Seattle Tea Party reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Under the slogan "No Globalization without Representation," they dumped offending goods into the water: Chinese steel, symbolizing unfair trade practices; beef treated with hormones and shrimp caught in nets that endangered sea turtles, representing environmentally suspect goods whose trade the WTO would not allow nations to restrict.

The next morning the protests shifted into high gear. Demonstrators blocked intersections leading to the downtown area where opening ceremonies were planned. As police tried to disperse the protesters, trade unionists began meeting at Memorial Stadium about a mile away. "The WTO," James Hoffa, president of the teamsters union, told twenty thousand trade unionists, "is a mistake... Worker rights [sic] has to become a part of the agenda for every one of these meetings." American labor leaders accused the WTO of ignoring labor rights by not allowing restrictions on the trade of goods made in sweatshops or with child labor. "The rules of this new global economy," charged the head of the country's garment and textile workers' union, "have been rigged against workers, and we're not going to play by them anymore." John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, America's labor federation, concluded: "Until the WTO addresses these issues, we should not and must not permit our country to participate in a new round of trade negotiations." Hoffa told the crowd: "We are walking into the pages of history. We will have a place at the table of the WTO, or we will shut it down." The trade unionists hit the streets and headed for the downtown site of the ministerial meeting's opening ceremonies.

Tens of thousands of other demonstrators also headed toward the city center. While the demonstrations swelled, small groups of anarchists bent on violent protest raced through the streets. The police attempted in vain to control the crowds, and within a couple of hours tear gas pervated the meeting areas.

By the middle of the afternoon the center of Seattle was a chaotic mass of demonstrators, police, tear gas, delegates, and vandals. Concerned about security, the Secret Service would not let the leaders of the American delegation leave their hotels. Only a handful of official delegates made it to the Paramount Theater for the opening ceremonies, which the organizers reluctantly canceled. The city's mayor declared a 7:00 P.M. to 7:30 A.M. curfew in the area surrounding the meeting sites and called out the National Guard, while police used tear gas, concussion grenades, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to clear out demonstrators.

Wednesday morning, December 1, the WTO ministerial meeting finally got under way. The meeting was a failure on its own terms; the delegations could not agree on any important issue. But around the world headlines focused on the protests rather than on the trade talks that the demonstrations had delayed. As he headed toward the meeting, U.S. President Bill Clinton called the peaceful protests "healthy," citing them in support of his argument for a more socially conscious approach to the link among trade, labor rights, and the environment. "Trade is now no longer the province of CEOs, organized interest groups that deal with the economy and political leaders," said Clinton. "This whole process is being democratized, and we're going to have to build a new consensus that goes down deeper into every society about what kind of trade policy we want."

The Battle of Seattle represented a general challenge to the world economic order. International institutions that had long labored in obscurity were now a lightning rod for those wary of global integration. One of the coalitions leading the protest explicitly stated why the WTO deserved such an assault: "The central idea of the WTO is that free trade ~ actually the values and interests of global corporations ~ should supersede all other values. Any obstacles to global trade are viewed with suspicion. In practice, these 'obstacles' are the laws of nation-states that protect the environment, small businesses, human rights, consumers, labor as well as national sovereignty and democracy. The WTO views these as possible impediments to 'free trade,' and they become subject to challenge within closed WTO tribunals... Offending countries must conform with WTO rules, or face harsh sanctions."

Very public challenges to global capitalism emerged in the last years of the century. In protests from Seattle to Praque, Washington, and Genoa, millions of activist targeted the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, the Group of Seven industrial countries, and other international economic organizations at the types of meetings that had previously attracted no attention. As the WTO's ministerial meeting and the Seattle protests wound down, antiglobalization author and activist Naomi Klein wrote that they reflected a "face-off... between two radically different visions of globalization. One has had a monopoly for the last 10 years. The other just had its coming-out party."

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it takes balls to have

DINNER WITH NANCY

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