Joe Lieberman Sux

Another one from the trenches at YouTube.

oh, dearie me. What we gonna do when the kids get hold o' the Ministry O' Truth?

Lutrine Prestidigitation

Aww, how cute!

From YouTube, a time-out from our political dead-earnestness!

Doolittle Spending Priorities -- Trash the Other Guy

An article in today's Sacramento Bee says John Doolittle had to spend a million dollars to win his primary this year -- in a seat that has been one of the safest in the country for ages. While the article goes into the ongoing troubles of the scandaliferous Doolittle, one paragraph is interesting not for Doolittle muck but for Doolittle style.

A spokesman explains that the Doolittle campaign has spent that million bucks wisely and really on the general election:

"We have spent money all along to be successful in the general election, as well as the primary," Robinson said, citing as an example $5,438 paid to an Arizona company for opposition research on Brown, a retired Air Force officer and pilot.

We are not surprised when the Doolittle campaign brags about spending money to dig for dirt on its opponent. But it is truly creepy when you know the history of Charlie Brown, the retired Lt. Colonel running for the CA-04 seat.

Pombo Cancels Cacino Night

An alert from SherAn tells us Raw Story says Richard Pombo, "Mr. Anti-Environment," has canceled a planned Cacino Night fundraiser. Apparently, Pombo's ties to the Abramoff scandal made a "casino night" unpalatable to even Pombo's campaign.

Ha! (Said with intonation like Diane Keaton in "Sleeper")

So the "centrist" Democrats are crying because their funding is going dry!

Democracy Alliance also has left some Washington political activists concerned about what they perceive as a distinctly liberal tilt to the group's funding decisions. Some activists said they worry that the alliance's new clout may lead to groups with a more centrist ideology becoming starved for resources.

[above-linked WaPo article]

For so long now, progressives have been expected to stay in line with our votes and our money and shut up. After all, where else were we going to go? Well, we've found places to go with our money as well as our mouths. The progressive canditates we've longed for are reporting for the long slog.

To the centrists, I say: When you stand for nothing, don't cry when you find out no one stands with you for long.

Doolittle Votes AGAINST Voting Rights Act

Today the historic Voting Rights Act was reauthorized. John Doolittle, who represents us in congress, voted against it.

Do you understand what this means? John Doolittle represents me in congress. If you live in CA-04, he represents you. It means that we voted against the Voting Rights Act. That bastard.

Charlie Brown Challenges John Doolittle to Debates

From the Charlie Brown For Congress website:

July 10, 2006

The Honorable John T. Doolittle
John T. Doolittle for Congress
4120 Douglas Blvd., #306-283
Granite Bay, CA 95746

Fax To: (202) 225-5444; (916) 786-6364; (916) 200-0328

Dear Congressman Doolittle:

I am looking forward to competing with you for the honor of representing the people of California’s 4th District in Congress. The purpose of this letter is to challenge you to a series of debates in advance of the November 2006 election.

Elections aren’t just about issues—they’re also about leadership, people, and perhaps most importantly, choices. As a 26 year Air Force Officer, a father, and a taxpayer, I know these choices ultimately have profound consequences: lives, jobs, our nation’s security, our children’s future, and our quality of life hang in the balance.

That’s why we have a responsibility to provide voters with an unfiltered examination of the experience, values and vision we offer, and a clear choice with respect to the real life day to day challenges facing our district, our country, and our Congress. Instead of two partisans speaking at each-other through the press, we can meet as two Americans conducting a civil discourse about the best way to move our country forward.

In this vein, topics for our debates might include:

* Iraq
* The War on Terror
* Emerging Threats/North Korea and Iran
* Supporting our Military
* Homeland Security and Emergency Response
* Spending Priorities/Balancing the Budget
* The Economy/Tax Policy/Jobs/Trade
* Education/The Achievement Gap
* Gas prices and Energy Policy
* Healthcare/Access and Affordability
* Retirement Security
* Veterans Aftercare
* Ethics in Congress and Lobbying Reform
* Water Security and Flood Control
* Local Infrastructure
* The Environment, Land Use & Development
* Protecting Constitutional Liberties

During the past several weeks, my campaign has been contacted by numerous television and radio outlets across Northern California, expressing their desire to cover Doolittle-Brown debates. All we have to do is put together a schedule of times and locations, and work out the format for each forum. There are, as you know, many suitable hosts.

Given the broad geographic area covered by the 4th CD, and the diverse array of local concerns faced by its residents, I believe that fairness demands we give as many people the opportunity to witness/participate in the process as possible. I think this objective can be reached if we can agree to at least one forum in each of the following regions: El Dorado County, Western Placer County, Eastern Placer County (Tahoe Area), Nevada County, and a north county forum in Alturas, Susanville, Quincy, or Loyalton—(a minimum of 5 debates in total).

In accordance with the great traditions of our democracy, I would also request that at least one debate be conducted as a town hall meeting, so that the people of the 4th CD can openly ask questions of each candidate on the issues they consider most important. This seems only fair since it is “the people” for whom elected leaders bear the responsibility of service, and the obligation of direct dialogue.

My campaign staff stands ready to work with yours in executing this crucial component of the democratic election process. Please feel free to send your response by mail, or contact my Communications Director, Todd Stenhouse at (916) 397-1131 to begin working through the details.

I look forward to your prompt response and a vigorous campaign in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Lt. Col. Charles D. Brown, USAF Ret.
Democrat for Congress, California 4th District

Will Doolittle Stoop to Swiftboating Charlie Brown? No . . .

Because he won't have to bend over one degree. But doubt not, dear voter. Doolittle has never been known as a fair fighter. For a taste of what to expect, see this must-read article by Taylor Marsh on the trashing of John Murtha.

Down With Tyranny

I've added Howie Klein's Down With Tyranny to the blogroll. Go there now for more info re John Doolittle and his ways.

For Charlie Brown vs Against John Doolittle

Charlie Brown is simply a great candidate, and there are all kinds of reasons to vote for him. Come to the campaign grand opening in Roseville Monday and find out more!

But forget for a minute about why Brown is great. What I wonder is: How can someone want to vote for John Doolittle? As with Tom DeLay, what is the breaking point of embarrassment before a Republican says "no more!"? How far can the Republican Party ride on self-delusion?

Wiki Doolittle

UPDATE: from The Daily Muck
======================

Interestng excerpt from John Doolittle's Wikipedia page:

2004

In 2004, Doolittle's Democratic opponent raised only $2,300 and won only 35 percent of the vote. For that race, Doolittle took in more than $1 million in contributions. (Sacramento Bee, April 9, 2006)

What kind of politician needs more than a million dollars to beat a guy with around two grand? Where did all that money go? I'm just saying. The Wiki page has more interestng information.

John Doolittle is awful, and I'd vote against him no matter who was running. But the good news is, Charlie Brown is a cadidate I'm happy to vote for, no matter who might be running against him.

Charlie Brown for Congress

[cross-posted in a comment at DailyKos]
Last night I met Jan and Charlie Brown at a house party in Rocklin. (That's me on the right.) What great people.

But beyond being nice, patriotic, progressive Americans, the Brown campaign is for real. Last night, hearing Charlie talk and then answer questions, I changed. I changed from wishing he could win to believing he can win. He has a realistic plan to WIN, even in this district with greater Republican than Democratic registration.

Maybe it's the Air Force background and the discipline which comes from that. Maybe it's having such a supportive family. Maybe it's just who Charlie Brown is as a human being. Well, surely it's a combination of all these things that make it more than a wish that this guy can beat Doolittle. It's a real possibility.

I gave a little more $$ to the campaign last night, and I volunteered to help however else I can. Today is the cut-off day for reporting, so if anybody wants to give $5, $10, whatever -- every dollar is a dollar that says Goodbye John Doolittle -- please click here and go for it!

When Reporters Don't Bother With the Research Thing

Thinking more about the "Seas of David,"



Do you think maybe the poor unfortunate was saying "Seeds of David"?

That would at least make some kind of sense, since the bible is loaded with obsessions on geneology -- the begats and the "branches of" and all.

A Post for Evil Parallel Universe

Herewith a list of Great Stories From Religious Traditions:


(my favorite) Taoism,from Chuang-tse: Butterfly

Ancient Tribal Hebrew Lore, revenge tale deluxe.

Found in Hebrew Bible, probably old Canaanite fertility poem.

Truly raunchy fertility poem, oops. I mean, the Sacred Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi

On love and progeny from the Mahabharata.


Christianity -- Jesus goes too far and regrets his frivolous use of power.

Hopi creation story.

African creation story.

Muslim Terrorist, Christian Cultist -- Whatever

So the Seas of David, those pathetically unintelligent-appearing fellows picked up in last night's "Miami Terror Bust" are not Muslim terrorists after all. They are, according to CNN, "deeply devout followers of the bible." They practice a "biblically based Christian philosophy."

Now, who knows whether these guys were plotting evil? We've all learned, I think, not to believe anything we're told by the MSM in the rush to a good story. But man, I watched the sad, sad interview on MSNBC last night with one of the David dudes and, once again, I was just embarrassed for my country. This young man could hardly utter a complete sentence, and the words that did come out were ofen untintelligible. So naive, so earnest, so uneducated -- so pleased to be a member of something bigger and better than himself, he seemed.

When will we learn? I think of this thread at FireDogLake and the French Revolution. Madame Defarge came from somewhere. These "terrorists/truthseekers/lost souls" come from the same place: despair, sclerotic class boundaries, the knowledge of being not valued by your country.

And another thing, "seas" of David doesn't sound right. Seas? Where does that come from? "Branch Davidians" made sense. David being a branch of Jesse and related to messianic prophecies and all. Seas? And what is it about David that spawns all these sects, anyway? You could do a dissertation on it.

Starting to ramble. Will stop now.

From the Sublime to the Pathetic

Wonkette -- not to be confused with Wankette -- posts another lovely, heartwarming tale about another lovely, heartwarming scion of the Bush Crime Family.

This reminds me of Jeb's son, George P. Bush who is no doubt being held back for future greatness. By "held back" I mean hidden from public view at this inconvenient moment when someone might ask "Why dear George Bush the next are you not in Iraq?"

Something Different -- Jesus Pictures

I was searching for Donner's Pieta which is at the Gurk Cathedral and figures one of my novels when I came upon this wonderful compilation of New Testament art.

Even to an atheist like me, it's such a treasure trove, I had to share it.

Look! Look! See Me, Mommy! Look!

I. Loathe. This. President.

And all who voted for him in 2004.

Why do they let him out? Especially early in the day before his mouth has warmed up? Watching Bush speak this morning, I'm not so much disgusted as mortified. This stupid, stupid person is our face to the world. Babbling, babbling. I always think of him as the Bill and Ted President, and today it just seems worse than usual.

He's like a toddler who's just done his doody: "I went to Iraq! Did you see me! I talked to the army guys! I told them they were good army guys! Did you see!!!

Competence

The Republican Party should be ashamed to show its face on the basis of its gross corruption alone, but the other, almost equally damning component of Republican Party rule has been its incompentence.

In these bleak years since 1994, I've assumed that the Democratic Party would at least have been able to get the work of governing done. I wonder now if I am wrong to assume this. This post from FireDogLake sent a little warning off in my brain:

On CA-50, Russert, quoting the Los Angeles Times, suggests the Bilbray victory shows Bush’s unpopularity alone won’t translate to Democratic gains in November. Kos points out that the Republicans threw $11 million into the race in a traditional Republican district, but also chastises the Dems for failing to follow the Republican lead and throw everything they had into the race.

If the Democratic Party can't get its act together to get all hands on deck for this one race which was not a primary, and was so crucial to a well-tempered zeitgeist, then why should I think they have any idea what they are doing at all?

Thank the gods for Kos and FiredDogLake and MyDD and all the others. The Democratic Party is like a sickly plant. Let's hope the watering of its netroots has not come too late.

Same Song Second Verse

I'm watching Kos and Armstrong (Crashing the Gate) on Tim Russert. It's early on, I'm hoping they say something zingy to Russert.

First point: The right wing echo chamber -- what have the Democrats got to counter this? Answer, nothing.

So Russert asks why. My answer: Democrats always expected the media to do their job.

Failure of Leadership -- Not

Noron is pounding on her "failure of leadership" bit to explain Haditha. Well, obviously there is some kind of failure of leadership whenever anything goes wrong in any tiered organization. But "failure of leadership" is too nice a phrase; it lets the "leader" down on a puffy cloud for a soft, soft landing.

It isn't failure of leadership that leads to horrors like Haditha. It's abuse of power. And when I talk about abuse of power in terms of this president and his cohort, I refer to their power over people, the human capital GWBush is willing to spend so freely.

I've thought for years that George W Bush is a sociopath, and my main two reasons for thinking this are 1) he seems to derive pleasure out of other people's pain, and 2) he doesn't seem to have any awareness of other human beings as having any other worthy purpose but to adore George W Bush.

One manifestation of this sociopathology is the way George W Bush treats people who "don't count." Working people? They don't need no stinking living wage or doctors. Democratic voters? Find a way to destroy their votes -- or at least switch their votes from the other guy to a Bush. Soldiers? Lemme play army -- I'll show my dad who's the best!

The Bushes and their courtiers see everyone else the way the pre-revolutionary French court saw everyone else -- perhaps as curiosities, but mostly as sources of revenue and cannon fodder.

The soldiers at Haditha were on their THIRD rotation in a horrific situation for which they were not trained. I don't know what they were or were not guilty of, but I do know this: the man who sent them there is guilty of more.

Deja vu All Over Again -- Again

From Bush's little foto-op with his cabinet this morning:

"And now it's gonna be up to the Iranians to make their decision. And if they choose not to verifiably suspend, we have laid the groundwork for an effective international response."

Doesn't this sound just like the way George W Bush declared war on Iraq? How much more destruction and death before this man is brought to justice?

Memorial Day

In the last several years, I've started to spend money politically. I changed my satellite company from DirecTV to DISH, I won't spend money at Walmart or Target or Walgreen's. I've been arguing against buying from China since before my son was born 23 years ago. I recently learned J. Jill buys clothes from the horrific Tom DeLay sweatshops in the Northern Marianas, and now I can't even walk into their store.

When the Dixie Chicks were trashed for exercising their free speech rights, I bought three of their CDs. Those CDs are still unopened, and my loss I know.

So when Neil Young brought out Living With War of course I bought that one too. And it has been sitting on my kitchen counter for a while. I've heard the Shock and Awe song on Air America several times; and the anger in the music and the lyrics is compatible with my own anger and disgust with the Bush crowd and every American who has ever voted for Bush without repentence.

This morning, after I put out my flag for Memorial Day and jumped into the car for the ride to Starbucks, I popped the Living With War CD into the player.

Omigod.

The title tune is nothing like I expected, and just reading the lyrics -- wonderful though they are -- is not enough. Opening with Young's fragile, weary-sounding statement --

I'm living with war everyday
I'm living with war in my heart everyday
I'm living with war right now

When he sings "living with war in my heart" it's not a proclamation but a diagnosis. This is our national disease: we are living with war in our hearts.

And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man
And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again
and when the night falls, I pray for peace
Try to remember peace

Is it mere nostalgia that makes me think this is brilliant? I do try to remember peace, but I suddenly wonder if it's in my experience to remember. Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Inflation, El Salvador, Grenada, Afghanistan, Gulf I, the War on Clinton, the 2000 election, Iraq, the "re-election" of George W Bush, Abu Gonzales and Fascism in America, the Cheney Coup.

try to remember peace

I join the multitudes
I raise my hand in peace
I never bow to the laws of the thought police

But I do bow to the laws of the thought police. Every day I try to live a normal life, pay my taxes, watch a favorite teevee show, scream at Chris Matthews, and go to bed without doing something about it, I bow to the thought police. Every day that George W Bush kills, he kills in my name.

I take a holy vow
To never to kill again
To never kill again

This is when I have to acknowledge I live in bondage. Slavery means living the will of another person. I can't take a holy vow to never kill again; George W Bush has usurped what the founding fathers called the will of the people. His will is our will, his will is my will. I am a slave to the Bush Administration which kills in my name, and I have no power.

I'm living with war in my heart
I'm living with war in my heart and my mind
I'm living with war right now

Don't take no tidal wave
Dont take no mass grave
Don't take no smokin' gun
To show how the west was won

But when the curtain falls,
I pray for peace
Try to remember peace

The song reminds me of a Lutheran hymn, sweet in its certainty that there is a god and a heaven. I'm guilty of the greatest sin: despair. I don't believe in the American People. I don't believe we will ever take the holy vow.

In the crowded streets In the big hotels
In the mosques and the doors of the old museum
I take a holy vow To never kill again
Try to remember peace

The rocket's red glare
Bombs bursting in air
Give proof through the night, That Our flag is still there
I'm living with war everyday
I'm living with war in my heart everyday
I'm living with war right now.

Ellen McCord

And now for something completely different!

Ellen McCord is an artist I know who now has a website. Her work is just fabulous -- take a look!

Jackie Speier for Governor

Okay, she's running for Lt. Governor. But one can dream . . .



I had just about decided to vote for John Garamendi for Lt. Governor just to piss off the insurance companies who are trying to blackmail him.

But I've been a fan of Jackie Speier's for over 20 years, so I decided to look again at her campaign. I've never lived in her district -- in fact I live in the foothills and she's in the Bay Area. But I've always been a political junkie, and I used to notice her name attached to what I call "good government" bills and campaigns.

She writes legislation that makes regular people's lives better. She's written (and got passed) financial privacy laws as well as medical records privacy laws (including one great bill vetoed by Governor Arnold, gah).

Here is a link to a campaign ad narrated by Peter Coyote where you will learn (if you don't already know) about her horrific experience in Guyana.

These are, according to her campaign website, her Top Ten Legislative Accomplishments.

This story from the SF Gate in 2003 gives a lot of Speier's background and I think explains why she identifies with regular people and genuinely believes in good government.

I think John Garamendi is a good guy. The choice here is an oddity in elections: not between the lesser of two evils, but the greater of two goods.

I'm just a citizen, not connected with any group, but this is my endorsement. Blogolodeon will vote for Jackie Speier for Lt. Governor.

It's Official

In case you missed it, the United States of America has officially become a police state.

I blogged about how something like this can happen here and here just after the election.

Will November be too late?

The only consolation I've come across lately has been this wonderful novel, just out, by Carolyn See. She describes the anxiety, anger -- even rage I feel toward this administration and how paranoid life in America is becoming. And yet, the novel did lead me back to another truth: there is still beauty in the world. If you like to read, you must read this book. If you are a writer, note her skill, her elegant clarity, her humor in spite of everything.

See? I started out feeling funky and ended up feeling quite okay. It's a good book, eh?

I Gotcher English Right Here

Does this mean we have to start saying nappies, bonnet, and brilliant instead of diapers, hood, and great?

I'm up with that -- I already say "lovely" all the time. But what are the replacements for:

San Francisco
bungalo
coup
motto
caravan
yogurt
goulash
tundra
Chautauqua
boomerang
chignon
freight
khaki
croissant
bete noir
aloha
mensch
Seattle
quid pro quo
sofa
zero
splice
skate
albatross (oh, I would hate to lose that lovely one)
mammoth
chintz
juggernaut
kismet
amuck
tea
skunk
taboo
tattoo
opera
terrorism
pyjamas

Can we no longer speak of the zeitgeist?

Must every El Camino Boulevard now be called The Highway Boulevard?

Small Moves, Ellie

Every Wednesday, a group of citizens gathers at the corner of Sunset and Park in Rocklin, Placer County, Ca -- congressional district of the infamous John Doolittle.




This is such a red county that I would not be surprised if Doolittle were returned to Congress in November, despite everything.

And yet, these people persist. It's easy to get caught up in some grand and great swell of discontent, to join with hundreds, even thousands of fellow travelers in saying No! to evil.

But I think these are the braver people. The ones who come out in small numbers on a hot, hot day in red, red south Placer County to endure slurs and cat-calls and disdain and hold a sign and a flag and stand opposed to insanity and corruption.

And you know something? In the short time I was there to take these pictures, a surprising number of people slowed down in their cars to express their support, surprise, and gratitude.

Why Al Gore 2008

We desperately need a boy scout.

His extensive history of good government politics.

His institutional memory: He remembers what the Executive Branch was like before it was corrupted.

He seems to have actually read and understood the Constitution.

He will keep the internet free.

He has the knowledge, history, and ability necessary to reestablish good relations with the rest of the world.

We need the anti hurricane and tornado machine.

Illegal Immigration Solved

Everyone knows how to solve the problem of illegal immigration.

[Disclaimer: I speak of ILLEGAL aliens here, not legal immigrants, and certainly not my fellow citizens. It is the use of illegal workers that I object to. It drives down wages for everyone and allows for abusive, exploitative conditions for the illegal workers.]

1) Fine employers $10,000 per illegal worker hired plus four times the local minimum wage for each hour worked by illegal worker.

2. Fine landlords $10,000 for every housing unit they rent to an illegal alien.

Treat the exploiters of the workers like the despicable slavers they are. But of course, as long as these subhuman slavers are contributing to campaign coffers, it's unlikely anything will be done about it.

And Bush's speech tonight is mere diversion from the NSA bombshell.

Proof They Are Addicted to the Kool-Aid?

The news is out this morning that the Bush Administration is using illegal wiretaps to spy on news organizations and both CNN and MSNBC are frothing at the mouth -- over a possible third Duke rapist.

Sad Brag

I called it last year -- and the latest revelation about warrantless data mining supports my supposition.

The quaintness of search warrants -- Maybe the Bushies don't care about getting warrants because they have never intended to use any of what they find out in a legal way, whether in prosecutions or not. They wouldn't want warrants, because they wouldn't want a record anywhere of what information they were/are mining. In other words, the whole program is about oppositional research. It's the Hans Gruber tactic. Make the good guys think you're after something completely unrelated, and rob the world blind under their noses.

The Emanuel/Dean Tent-stakes

The (liberal)Girl Next Door has a great post up about the right-left tension over the Democratic Party's tent-stakes.

Liberals haven’t moved, but the tent has and we’re tired of standing on the outside of the tent. And rather than join the Party in its current location, on the rocky slope to our right, we’re using our muscle to move the tent back to where it used to be, just a little to the left, in the nice green plain where we can put down roots and grow. It’s nicer over here, plus, it’s where most Americans are making their way.

I agree with the entire post. The "tent" could be pulled so far past the center and to the right that the party itself becomes no more meaningful than the Blue Team, and then we'd be like Republicans chanting my party right or wrong.

There is something I'm more afraid of than being pulled to the right, though, and that is being sucked up into corporatism. If there is anything that should be antithetical to everything the Democratic Party stands for, it is corporatism. By this, I mean fascism, but it isn't polite to use that word in a world where the GOP defines the language.

And by fascism, or corporatism, I mean the ism whereby the human being is expected to exist for the benefit of the corporate being, and the state's function is to police and enforce the terms and function of that relationship.

It is the corporatism that has crept into the warp and woof of the Democratic Party that scares me more than any rightward pull. Without the influence of corporatism, would the party have stood for -- no less championed -- the media consolidation made possible by the Communications Act signed by President Clinton? Walk away from corporatism, and Medicare for everyone becomes more possible to achieve. Turn from the corporations to the citizenry, and NAFTA, CAFTA, SHAFTA can be broken.

When we talk about right versus left, we slip onto the slope Karl Rove built.

The Democratic Party has a history of standing for the common, regular citizen, a tradition I once believed was inviolate. That's where I want my party tent pitched.

The "Raising Taxes" Charge

Okay, here is what Democrats can say when Republicans accuse them of raising taxes (after the Republicans have lowered them inappropriately):

Let's say your little children were used to going to bed at 7:00 in the evening and for some crazy reason everybody got it in their head they should stay up later. So they start going to bed at 10:00 at night. Pretty soon everyone is crabby, the kids aren't learning anything at school, and no one has a moment's peace. So the grownups set the bedtime back at 7. Everybody starts getting enough sleep again, and things work a lot better.

Republicans and taxes are like children and bedtime. They want what's fun for them, not necessarily what's good for them -- and what's good for the whole family.

When Democrats Ruled the Earth

It's kind of funny (except that it isn't) to see Republicans and media whores hyperventilating over the dire consequences to ensue if Democrats take over the House or Senate after November's election. I know what the Bushies are afraid of -- and it's not jail. It's losing out on all those future Halliburton and Carlyle Group government contracts. I don't understand the media types, though, unless it's just they've all realized they really do work for General Electric, not the public interest.

Anyway, pondering this great issue, my mind wandered over to the area of "What would it be like if the Democrats were in charge again?" Thinking of the DLC and pols like Joe Lieberman and Chuck Shumer, I couldn't imagine anything much different. So I slipped backward mentally to the past, to my childhood, an ancient time When Democrats Ruled the Earth. And I remembered:

On minimum wage, you could rent an apartment and go to a state college without going into debt.

A family could support themselves on one income.

Workers did not live in fear of their jobs being shipped overseas.

You could buy toys for children, confident of their safety. Food and drugs were less likely to kill you.

You didn't have to sit through as many minutes of commercials in your television-watching hour. You didn't have to sit through ANY erectile dysfunction commercials.

People who wanted the government in charge of women's bodies were considered crackpots.

People who wanted the church making political decisions were considered crackpots.

People who wanted schools to teach that God made the world in seven days were considered crackpots.

People who thought the government should be able to spy on citizens without a warrant were considered loony bird crackpots.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency was someone who cared about protecting the environment.

The president spoke intelligently and in complete sentences on a variety of subjects.

Americans who traveled abroad were not ashamed of their country's government.

American sports teams who traveled abroad were not afraid to put the Stars and Stripes on their vehicles.

Libraries were open seven days a week.

You could eat the fish you caught without getting sick.

Sheesh, I'm so depressed, I have to stop. I hope, with all my heart, there is a strong and unfaltering basis for the freaking out of the Republicans and their cheerleaders. Because, you know what? There are still real Democrats in the world. People like Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, Howard Dean. New candidates like Ned Lamont, Charlie Brown -- a whole crop of them who hold progressive, traditional Democratic ideas in their heads. There is a chance.

Will the sun come out in America in November?

Depends On What "We" means

 

Spotted at the corner of Sierra College Boulevard and Taylor Road in Loomis, Placer County, California. I don't know if it means anything, but Doolittle's campaign signs are usually closer in size to the one next to it. 

The Cluelessness of the Bright Young Things

I posted this in the comments section over at The Washington Monthly. I repost it here because I want to think about it some more.

Despite the fact that the economic impact of immigration is zero for most people and minimal even for high school dropouts?

Are you that detached from reality? Or does the "most people" in your world just not include working people? My parents raised four kids (with my mom working sporadically and part-time) on my dad's construction pay. Their best friends raised their four kids on the salaries of a grocery checker and a milk delivery man. No more. We out here in workingland never know if this afternoon we'll find out our jobs have gone to Vietnam or been turned into the kind of jobs Americans won't do (in other words, jobs that don't pay a living wage).

When I went to college I worked 40 hours a week in a restaurant bussing tables for minimum wage. I made about $4 a day in tips. My take-home pay was enough to live on -- and I didn't live with my parents. I shared a two-bedroom apartment with another girl in a decent part of town. Who could do that on the minimum wage today? My pay was 1.72 an hour and the cheeseburgers we served were 85 cents, and there were fries with that. An equivalent burger would be $8.50 today, but the minimum wage is not $17.20.

The wage situation for working people is becoming untenable. You've got outsourcing sucking the jobs out of the country, and you've got illegals dragging the wages down for the jobs that remain.

Employers love it. They're doing fine. But this paradigm will end, one way or another. I don't think it's going to end with the minimum wage raised to $17 an hour or the United Food and Commercial Workers established at WalMart, or the federal government decreeing that a federal contracts must be done with American unionized labor.

It's going to end with all the money sucked out of circulation, housing prices crashing, regular people running out of money with nowhere to turn (thanks to the new bankruptcy laws) and realizing just about all at once that there is no hope. There will be fear and loathing and despair -- and then there will be rage.

Hope After All

The death vs life without parole verdict has just come in re Zacarias Moussaoui, and I am relieved.

Sometime in the last couple of months, I had one of those click experiences where the conclusional matrix by which I understand reality shifted. I don't know what bit of minutia put me past the brink. Our president is a liar and a warmonger. Soldiers and civilians, young and old, more innocent than not, die every day. Democracy in America is dead; the corporations have replaced human beings as the active political movers. Our economy is on the verge of utter collapse. And on, and on. And so lately I've been dulled, felt separated from emotion. The unbearable heaviness of it all has destroyed my sense of citizenship in a wonderful country. That country doesn't exist anymore.

But today a jury refused to find for death to punish a man, perhaps a crazy man, for lies. That is what the prosecution wanted: a death sentence for lying. I am just relieved that a jury did not agree to it.

And because of that, I think maybe there is hope for us after all.

workslave interrupted

My life has changed.

For the past several years, I've done medical transcription work for a major hospital on the west coast. As time went by, I recruited more workers and ended up with a little business of sorts. I was making a decent amount of money at something enjoyable enough -- and I got a lot of emotional satisfaction from giving good-paying work to other people. I actually paid my people about 80 percent more than the industry standard.

Then the hospital we worked for, with hardly any warning, let us all go and brought in voice recognition machines. It's pretty depressing to lose your job to a machine, and I understand the Luddites in a whole new way.

I became one of the victims of our "booming" economy. I contributed to rising productivity by joining the hordes of workers who are doing so much more for so much less. My resentment was enhanced by my exhaustion. I went back to grocery shopping adding the bill in my head as I went along, careful not to go over my limit, an artifact of poverty George W and his ilk will never know or understand. I have been depressed and felt stuck. I didn't have a good solution or plan.

A miracle happened.

I was offered a new job, entirely different than what I have been doing, yet perfect to exploit my skills and talents (and education). And it pays enough to pay my bills. It's like a gift from the gods, and I am still amazed.

For the next year, I will be editing several projects for a professional writer. I've begun the first, a novel, and I am in heaven. I'm actually very good at it (at least I believe so).

I'm so happy. I don't even feel like I'm working -- isn't one of the signposts of "right work" that it's work you would do for free if you didn't have to earn a living? This is how it is. I love editing. I love working with words and ideas. I am so happy.

And this is the big change, the miracle in my life. It was, for me, a risk to say yes to this; I have always had a mental block against living where I loved. I would hear my mother's voice: Who do you think you are? and back away like a frightened cat.

So I have had two miracles: the offer, and that I said yes. My life has changed. I am learning to say yes to the miracle. Will I make this interruption a permanent departure?

drive-by post

or something. I'm so tired, but that's another story. Big changes coming, news to follow.

But for now, I'm adding this site to my blogroll. I cannot visit this page and not laugh out loud.

More Nothings For Wendy

The desire for the luxury of nothing made me think of Keats' negative capability --

when man is
capable of being
in uncertainties,
mysteries, doubts, without
any irritable reaching after fact & reason

Happy Birthday, Dear Wendy!!

Happy Birthday Libby!!

Today is Elisabeth Gruner's Birthday!

The Girls

They call the boys "the guys" and they call the girls "the girls" and I love it. I love these girls, flying, grinning, slouching toward heaven with so much girljoy it could break a curmudgeon's sclerotic and precious harsh-on. They take us back to when the future was so far away and the smorgasbord of everything lay at our ignorant and moving feet.

Lie Hard

Is it finally, brutally, disgustingly obvious? Cheney, Grover Norquist, Tom DeLay, John Doolittle, Richard Perle, et bleeping al are the Hans Grubers of our current political clime. They talk neophilosophy, but they're really only in it for the money.

Intelligent Design approach to bird flu

Could somebody tell our fearless leader we don't really have to spent all those billions fighting bird flu?

The way I understand it, scientists are saying bird flu is so virulent because it is a strain of flu that has evolved so recently human beings don't have any resistance to it yet.

But there is a significant percentage of the American People who don't believe in evolution. Therefore, they are probably not concerned about the effects of avian flu. Heck, they will probably spurn any newly developed vaccines against the disease, since taking them would put the lie to their stated rejection of evolution. We really only need enough vaccine for the people who accept the scientific theory of evolution. The ID people can use the same flu vaccines that have always been available. What a great opportunity for them to demonstrate their faith.

Elections Have Consequences

I remember John McCain, shortly after Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court, putting on his half-serious, near-smirk look and saying "Elections have consequences." This was his justification for the nomination of a man to our highest court who is obviously utterly unacceptable to half the people in the United States.

The remark is the answer of a brute, a bully party getting its way.

Now, looking at the devastation in New Orleans, the chaos caused not so much by the hurricane as by Bush Administration policies and actions, I hope the Democrats will be clear about this above all:

Yes, elections have consequences.

The Shame

When will the nightmare be over? When will that childman no longer occupy the White House? When will we collectively give our political heirarchy a bath?

James Wolcott reminds us yet again why we are ashamed of our country these days.

President Baby

I blame the London blasts on George W. Bush.

President Clinton treated Al Qaida as a police matter, a position so glibly derided by the neocons and their sheep. We know of some of the successes Clinton had -- the millenium plot the most spectacular. And always against the ridicule of the whacked right, being accused of wagging the dog.

Bush came in with his arrogant, stone-walling, stubborn "my way" approach, took his eyes off Al Qaida in favor of his own preciouis prize: Saddam Hussein. He squandered our country's reputation, our fortune, our precious soldiers' lives to get Saddam Hussein and let Osama bin Laden go.

George W. Bush got what he wanted, the rest of the world be damned. You have to look no further than his life story to understand it was bound to happen. The man seems to be a sociopath. He most certainly is as dangerous, with the power of the US Presidency, as Al Qaida -- if you count lives lost as the result of one or the other's actions.

Starve the Beast

A couple of months ago, I switched my satellite service from Directv to DISH. Directv -- owned by Rupert Murdoch and contributor to Republican causes -- will not get another dime of my money, anyway.

Tonight I switched my prescriptions away from Walgreens to a local pharmacist who does not let her pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions if they have "moral objections" to them.

I am one person. I will not kill the beast, but neither will I feed it.

The Republican Party is not the party for you -- and neither is the Democratic party.

A lot of people talk about the mystery of evangelicals running with the Republican Party when that party works against working-class economic interests. But I think in their best evangelical interests, religious right activists should leave the Republican Party. In the spirit of David Brooks giving advice to the Democrats, this is One Liberal's Advice to the true believers of the religious right:

There are two "religous right" subgroups, of course. One group is of the true believers who sincerely believe their vision of God (and often Jesus) is the One Truth, like it says in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Koran. These people believe with the certainty of a cult in God's Law, the Day of Judgment, the End of Times, the Rapture, the Oneness and Allness of He-whose-name-cannot-be-spoken. What they know in religious terms is as real as gravity. There is no room for another interpretation (Satan calling) or incredulity (infidel alert). The other group is of astroturf believers. Believers in name only (BINOs) whose purpose is to channel the energies (action) and resources (money) of the sincere believers in whatever direction decreed by the BINO's masters.

Now comes the Democratic Party, which says: This is all very good, but people are entitled to religious freedom and we respect all points of view here.

Now comes the Republican Party, which says: Yes! You are the good people; the others are evil. We are on your side! Heck, we even believe what you believe. Come with us!

I wonder if, and soon, sincere true believers of the working class are going to realize that the Republican Party is not the party for them -- and neither is the Democratic Party. It is time to re-think: Is a political party the same thing as a club, a church, a civic do-gooder organization? What does any political party have the power to achieve in the United States?

The simple answer is: A political party in the United States has the potential power to change the law within the confines of the Constitution and even, at the extreme, to change the Constitution itself.

This seems like (and is) a big thing. Laws and arbiters of the law affect people's lives. Having Janice Rogers Brown judge your case makes it less likely you will obtain relief from injuries caused to you or your loved ones by a Corporation. Social Security "reform" means it is certain you will recieve less money when you start collecting benefits.

But there are some things the law cannot do, and these are the things sincere true believers (not BINOs) seem to be most interested in. The law cannot make people have no abortions. The law cannot make children trust bad parents. The law cannot make people stay in horrific marriages. The law cannot make people not be homosexual.

The law cannot make everyone else pretend to be like you, or at least shut up.

The world is a scary place, and everything is changing, and no one knows what is going to happen. The Republican Party is growing the fear, feasting on the fear. The Republican Party, in the hands of its present leaders, cannot help you.

When you join one political party (any political party) as a monolith and start shouting evil! to the others, you do not advance your cause. People with multiculteral minds cannot see you for your goodness while you are calling them evil, and face it: The multiculturals are multiplying; they are taking over the world, even if you cannot see this in your self-contained world.

Time to reevaluate your program. What do you want? To be a tool of a political party which will not achieve your aims for you because it cannot in a nontheocratic, free country? Wouldn't you have a better chance of getting what you really want by breaking free of political party -- especially since the people you seem so desperate to change do not belong to the party you have chosen?

Jesus meant a thing or two when he said "render unto Caeser." I believe, as so many early Christian teachers did, that staying out of politics was one.

On abortion: You cannot ban choice. Women have and always will chose abortion when they feel it is necessary. The only thing you can affect through law is whether they will be more likely to die or become sterile in their attempts.

On parental notification: Some children will always be afraid of their parents, with reason. Some children will be raped and impregnated by a parent, uncle, favored family friend. The only thing you can achieve through parental notification laws is compounding the spiritual and physical angiush a poor child in such a situation suffers. Did Jesus command you to add to the suffering of others?

On homosexuals: Homosexuals exist. Law will never change that. What you achieve through anti-homosexual law is societal unrest, injustice, and human sorrow. Jesus didn't talk about homosexuals, but he did talk about Samaritans and lepers, the "undesireables" of his day. He broke bread with them. He never said to persecute them.

To get your message out in a way that the people you are "talking about" might become the people you are "talking to," you must break away from political party and start speaking as a religious voice in the great tradition of American religious freedom. There may be less obvious power in it. It may be less grandiose and ego-flattering. But you will have a better chance of achieving results.

Choice in all things cultural is the only way. Real belief does not come from force but from education, enlightment, conversion. How will you reach across the divide with the ugly thing the Republican Party has become standing in the way?

Joining the Democratic Party is not the answer, either. Join parties and vote for candidates who will enact laws that make your and all American lives better where law is able to do so. Render unto God what is God's.

You must become apolitical in your evangelicalism, throw down the swords, pick up the ploughshares and till in the soil of the human condition.

Ayatollahs, Enablers, and Goons -- Oh, My!

Watching the John Bolton nomination debate on C-SPAN 2, it struck me: The Republican Party's turn to the Dark Side is complete. Every Republican can now be sorted into one of three categories: ayatollah, enabler, or goon.

John Bolton, obviously, is a goon. Tom DeLay is a goon.

Frist is an ayatollah -- too much of a wimp to be considered a goon.

The enablers fall into two subgroups, benign enablers and malignant enablers. Olympia Snowe, who once I admired, is a benign enabler; Ann Coulter is of the malignant persuasion.

It could become a parlor game, sorting these sorry excuses for American citizens . . .

In Some Dark Corners,The Enlightment Did Not Take

God Hates Lightning Rods

Christians used to believe that thunder storms and lightning bolts were directed by God to "discipline his servants and teach us important lessons," or they were directed by Satan ("the Prince of the Power of the Air") and his demons, or they were called forth by "witches" to "try and destroy God's holy sanctuaries and ministers. . . "

God Hates Vaccines:

In the US, for instance, religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favour vaccinating their daughters. "Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV," says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council. . .

Reverse Robin Hoods Redux

More steal from the poor and soon-to-be poor, give to the rich from the fascist Bush Administration:

From today's Talking Points Memo:

Is anyone listening to this?

In remarks yesterday before the Bond Market Association -- one of the hardest partying groups on the street -- Treasury Secretary John Snow explicitly linked the administration's efforts to cut the deficit to the push to partially phase-out Social Security. The logic of that statement points to only one conclusion: the deficits the administration has run up with upper-income tax cuts will be reduced by benefit cuts in Social Security.

It's not about strengthening Social Security; it's about cleaning up the mess created by the president's tax cuts.
-- Josh Marshall
(April 21, 2005 -- 12:11 PM EDT // link // print)

I Want Out

I want to move to Vermont and get out of the United States of Amalgamation. I want to live in the country I grew up in, where the libraries were open every day in every town, where no name-brand food was sold in any school cafeteria, where any good student in any school could plan on going to a good college. Where the ground was solid and the leaders tried to hide their marginal corruption. Where the unions were powerful and Republicans were weak.

Where a beast like Ann Coulter would not in a million years be considered for the cover of Time Magazine.

It was flagellation, I know

There is something very medieval about the Terri-orists, chanting, praying, emoting in the grotesque carnival they have made of her prolonged agony.

...the penitents went about, coming first out of Germany. They were men who did public penance and scourged themselves with whips of hard knotted leather with little iron spikes. Some made themselves bleed very badly between the shoulder blades and some foolish women had cloths ready to catch the blood and smear it on their eyes, saying it was miraculous blood. While they were doing penance, they sang very mournful songs about nativity and the passion of Our Lord. The object of this penance was to put a stop to the mortality, for in that time . . . at least a third of all the people in the world died.

Historian Jean Froissart, history of the Hundred Years' War

Where is the Christianity in all this melodrama? Wouldn't Jesus have contempt for these idiots?

This idolization of the body is the antithesis of Christianity. It disturbs me in all these "right to life" passion plays. Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life" -- this fixation on the human body, whether in the form of the unborn or the brain dead, is not Christian.

Maybe this is what is meant by the "antichrist", this twisting and inversion and perversion of everything Jesus was about.

Arnold + steroids

I didn't vote for the govanata. I voted against the recall.

But when Arnold came into office, I gave him the benefit of his press and thought, okay, he is an athlete, he knows about goals and the steps to get from here to there, and discipline. I thought that would make him a decent leader.

But we know now that was all lies, image. He used steriods to get that body, those "accomplishments". Which is fine, I guess. But it shows a willingness to cheat, to take shortcuts.

And he is doing that now with this reapportionment scheme, designed to take power away from his political enemies and give it to his political friends -- the steroidization of the ballot:

Are you a Repulican who can't get elected in California? Don't worry. Governer Ahnold is going to pump (clap) you up.

Sanctimony Schmanctimony

Michael Marone makes this pithy statement (among others) about some mythical progressive type he has in his brain. These are people he loathes not for their money, nor their leisure, but for their belief that one purpose of government is to provide for the common welfare:

Aware that they have done nothing to earn their money, they feel a certain sense of guilt.

Which in my brain calls up something I have long thought about certain people, wealthy, connected, likely never in this world to feel lack, who believe that government should leave all of us to fend for ourselves:

Unaware that they have done nothing to earn their money, they feel a certain sense of entitlement.

Arianna Wisdom

I've been busy cleaning my garage and simply have neglected posting here.

In the interim till next time, I give you this from Arianna Huffington, which should not be necessary in a country with a decent public education system.

Media Artifact

In the coverage of Dean taking the DNC helm, hardly a story is filed without reference to The Scream. These references make me scream.

There never was a Dean Scream. It didn't happen.

Not in real life, anyway.

Everybody knows the scream was a glitch, an event that happened on television and nowhere else. It did not happen in the room where Howard Dean gave his speech while hundreds tried to hear him. Everyone knows that the din of the crowd drowned out the sound coming out of Howard Dean's body. But the unidirectional microphone picked up Howard and excluded everthing else.

It happened on television, but not in real life. It was a media artifact, obscuring the truth, much like patient motion artifact obscures the data in an MRI test, making it impossible to know what is truly going on in the body.

The media artifact was a better story (so what if it wasn't true) so it got told. Decisions were made on the basis of it being true.

How many media artifacts obscure our body politic these days? How many decisions are being made on the basis of artifact rather than fact? How long can the body of democracy stand it?

The Iconography Has The Power!

oh, yeah. 

credits

what he/she said

well put

Something Wicked This Way Comes

I didn't really watch The Game, the Annual American Holy Moment. I like the commercials, though I expected drivel this year in the wake of the Gestapoization of Things.

Drivel, yes. But don't forget the drek.

I'm sure many will rave about the commercial with the very-good-looking actors playing soldiers coming home, and all the thank you, thank you, thank yous, dissolving with feel-good smarm into the Anheuser-Busch logo.

I was caught up in the emotion of it -- till I saw that corporate logo. It made me think: The country, The United States of America, is gone; the Corporation survives.

The Corporation thanks the soldiers for their sacrifice.

et et redux

I was right as usual. We are headed back to the days of pre-revolutionary France. Are there no honorable Republicans left in congress to stand up to the new Mussolini? Because the Dems are reduced (by the American People, rabble that they have become) to whimper and discomfort signifying less than nothing.

Ex Post Epiphany

A thought is bubbling in my brain and pushing on my fingers. What follows may be crap. I may be on a Bushian yellow brick road, I admit, but this just hit me:

The pro choice position is the only successful strategy available to the anti-abortion crowd.

What is the real objective for anti-abortion loonies?

Wait. That is just the attitude that stops dialogue in its tracks, huh?

What is the real objective of anti-abortion people? I used to think they didn't want women to have abortions, and I still think the majority of them believe that's their main goal. I also think a lot of careers have been made in the Anti-Abortion Complex (much like the Military Industrial Complex, etc). The institutionalization of protest makes it hard for some folks to go home when the game is over. What would some people do with themselves if they had to live a normal life?

But let's step aside from the loonies and the hatemongers. I want to speak to the rational anti-abortion person who sincerely wants to stop abortions out of some supposedly altruistic mindset. (full disclosure: I believe in abortion on demand, that a woman should not have to be pregnant under any circumstances if she simply does not want to be.)

In that event, pro-choice is the only anti-abortion position that works.

Women have had, do have, and will always have abortions -- because they really don't for some reason want to be pregnant . It doesn't matter if god will hate them, it doesn't matter if you will hate them. It doesn't matter. They will have an abortion. Or they will hide the pregnancy and become actual instead of theoretical murderers as they visit the Dumpster after delivery.

This last paragraph is a statement of fact, the same as "rain falls from the sky to the ground" or "Tuesday comes after Monday."

Women will have abortions.

Women will have abortions no matter what.

No matter what god thinks.
No matter what the law is.

No matter what the law is.

Women choose, whether "choice" is legal or not. Women choose.

You must stop fighting the fact that women choose. Too much energy and resources are used up in that fight, and what do you get from it? Smug mouthpieces guarding cushy talk-talk jobs is only a piece of it.

Embrace the choice! If you really care about what you say you care about, don't work for laws that say rain will fall up and Tuesday will come before Monday. Work for laws that support motherhood. Make the world a better place for mothers.

Make the world a place where pregnant women choose to become mothers.

It might be harder work. But you know what? It might not be.

Pro-Choice is the only Pro-Life philosophy that works.

Putting the Jesus back in Xian

I'm telling ya, those jokers over at UCC are liable to reclaim my wandering apostate soul (by their actions, too).

Dirty Old Lady Alert

A few laugh-out-louds and a payoff for the dirty old lady in me at Gracie.

Things That Make You Go :Snark:

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it to be true.

I of the poor white trash childhood who spent my summers in libraries and my allowance on books, who read Faulkner too early and L'Engle too late, who was told by my husband that he had "married down" --

I knew all along there were "lots of us stone folk everywhere" as the stone man said in The Point.

And I will read until I die though I'll never be as educated as the next fellow.

tee hee

Which is better, the covers or the comments?

Wounds Heel

Editor & Publisher online indeed.

He added: "I'm wounded now, but, guess what, wounds heel."

Boxer's Rebellion

Sorry for the bad pun.

I've been too depressed about the election to post in a while. But I want to record here some thoughts about today's events, I fear for future reference as things become even worse.

I have never been prouder to be a Californian. Barbara Boxer's act today, to join in with the House members in protest of the tainted Ohio electoral votes was not meaningless, despite
Tim Grieve's conclusions over at Salon.

The Democrats in Congress are, yes, powerless these days. Listen to the derision in the laughter of the "get over it" crowd.

Things are bleak, and the road ahead looks full of woe. The forces for virtue recede, and the righteous seem to have lost their way. Hope is alive only in those who rise to speak Truth to Power, the last, bright weapon Brain has against Brawn.

It is when the voices for the powerless are all, at last, silent that meaninglessness comes.

Brava, The Honorable Senator Barbara Boxer.

Rudy Rudy Rudy, this deep in Bush's doody

I am so glad to know that I am not the only one who cannot stand Rudy Giuliani.

And Another Thing

John Kerry doesn't seem to be the kind of man (I use the term purposively) to bear grudges or to indulge in smug personal comparison as a balm to setback.

But I am, (not the man part) and so in that spirit I offer this observation:

George W. Bush may have once again pulled the presidency of the United States of America out of his hat after running against a man better than him in every way, but he will always be rich white trash -- as you can see by how his daughters turned out.

More From The Writing God

"As for George W. Bush and his neoconservative helpers, they will go down in history as the grave diggers of the American empire."

And Now For Something Completely Different

For all writers, editors, book-creating people everywhere, a fun new blog to read. I love the tagline: Max Perkins, he dead. So what next?

The Onion Changes Focus.

The nation's leading source of social and political commentary based on farce has now apparently opted for irony.

Real Reporter Alive and Working in this Country Alert!

Keith Olberman, we salute you.

Another (not so blatant) Reflection on the Stupidity Theme

History has been supplanted by an imaginary past -- and no less by a bloodthirsty imaginary future.

Fear! Loathing! -- All Is Explained

I adore Simon Schama. I even own his BBC series on the History of England. In fact, there is a disc in there (or two) about the religious wars of the Charleses and the Jameses and the odd commoner, over more than a century rallying the masses to kill for God.

So are the Democrats the Catholics and the Republicans the Protestants in this meme?

{edit} oh foo I said "meme" -- forgive me . . .

Stupidity Alert

Dear insulted fundamentalist:

Why descendants of the Enlightenment think you are stupid.

The Illogical Logic of Nah-Nah-Nah

Of course, some people voted for Bush for rational reasons. Haliburton executives, lobbyists, people who don't want to lose their cushy jobs at the White House. But what about regular people, non-connected, not powerful people, people who aren't going to get anything but the shaft from this Administration?

Why did you do it? the whole rational world asks, not really expecting an answer. How can disaster answer peace? Does a swarm of pirhana explain itself to anything in its way?

So far, the take seems to be:

"We did it because we are sick and tired of being called stupid, of being laughed at by the Democrats and the elite media and having our faith belittled."

Well, let me say this about that 'faith': I fart in its general direction.

So many Democrats are heading for the covers, bleating "we must make nice with the Religious Right."

Crap!

To someone who disagreed with Bush on Iraq, is terrified of what the deficit will do to interest rates, does not want our country addicted to oil and yet voted for Bush because he/she is tired of being called stupid -- do you think your vote will change that?

You only showed the world that you are powerful. You confirmed that you are stupid.

To be fair, you may only be duped. The end result of watching too much Fox television and listening to a cultish perversion of Christianity that leads down a dark and hateful road. You say you are the one with moral values, and again confirm you are either stupid or a dupe.

When the national treasure has been plundered, and countless more die in Iraq and GOD knows where else, when Social Security has been turned over to Morgan Stanley, when Labor is gone, and slave wages are the norm -- then will you stupid dupes, clinging to your SuperJesus, wake up?

sent by a friend; I don't know the source, other than on a cosmic level

How the Nazis Did It

I stopped at my favorite coffee store, Boulevard Coffee, in the funky part of Carmichael. It’s a place that was established in the late 70s, was very hippy-ish, whole-foods-ish, wheat-flour-ish. Now they sell Droll Designs and $15 hazelnut-flavored honey and are the only place I can find my favorite coffee beans (Tanzania peaberry). I go there on the way home from the chiro, and I went there today.

I felt even bluer – I had just found out that my chiropractor voted for Bush.

I ordered my coffee beans and looked at the Droll and overheard this snippet of a conversation:

One woman: Everyone who has come in here has been so cranky this morning.

Another woman: They must be Democrats.

It sent a current of cold rage running through my being, the way she said “Democrats” with such dismissive contempt.

And I thought, that is the answer to the question I have heard off and on through my life: “How could the Nazis gain power in Germany?”

Because that woman said “They must be Democrats” the way the Nazis, and the people who joined/tolerated them, used to say “They must be Jews.”

How to reason with a mindset like that?

There is no reasoning. There is only fighting and winning or losing and what follows.

Evil is truly afoot in the land, and the ones who are “power-up” think I am anathema.

The Crusades; une foi, un roi, un loi; St. Bartholomew's Day 1572; Cromwell; Salem; theocrats never die; and more are born every day . People can be dumb quite easily. We thought the dark ages were behind us; but like weeds, ignorance threatens constantly.

We Lay Down and Wept

The America of my childhood is gone
A death, after a long, cruel wasting disease.

I am older today
Than yesterday

And I will not be in Jersusalem next year
or the next

I am like the woman wailing
for a lost love called my demon lover
and who I know in my memory
as Tamuz, Dumuzi,
Zion.

They Can Kill Us

But we will not commit suicide.

Count the votes. My god, do we even have to say it?

No surrender.
No surrender.
No surrender.

With the House, the Senate, and no need to be re-elected, what do you think the Bushies will do to our country, our world?

omigawd icantstandit

I feel like throwing up, I'm so nervous about tomorrow's election.

The Bushies have simply got to go.

(PS: I send out to the universe a quiet, heartfelt "thank you" to Craig Crawford of the Congressional Quarterly for his comment yesterday on one of the gabfests about the "gift" spin on the OBL tape. He was obviously disgusted with such a mindset, and it was just nice to see that disgust among the delicate sensibilities of the others.)

And Nothing to get Hung About

"let me take you down, Strawberry Fields, where nothing is real . . ."


So OBL's tape is a little gift to the Bush Campaign.

A little gift to the prez
this revenant that keeps on giving
the wizard of 9/11 become George W's
Partner in terror.

Dumuzi to his Gilgamesh

And we, the hapless people, resign our virgins to their flame.

The Bruce, The Spirit of America, The Quarterback, the Endgame, ah FOUR MORE DAYS!

Big, Left, Outside in an inspiring, heart-lifting, goomba-go screed that gave me chills, man:

Democracy will be reborn on Tuesday… Or it will die.
That is all.

(My son reminds me that there are other democracies in the world than this one. Point taken.)

Perlustration and its Branch Vessels

Midlife Mama says it better than I can.

Heavy sigh, I so relate to this post . . .

If You Meet The Dr. Hunter S. Thompson On the Road, Do You Kill Him?

So what have I become, a pandector, a perlustrationist?

That is why George W. Bush is President of the United States, and Al Gore is not. Bush simply wanted it more, and he was willing to demolish anything that got in his way, including the U.S. Supreme Court. It is not by accident that the Bush White House (read: Dick Cheney & Halliburton Inc.) controls all three branches of our federal government today. They are powerful thugs who would far rather die than lose the election in November.

Of All the Lines I've Loved Before . . .

Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae is one of the most wonderfully written books I have read. Her sentences (sheesh, now I am self-conscious and will write drivel this whole post) are Fizzies of intelligence. And James Wolcott's site is my current fascinating new thing in Writers' Houses of the Holy.

But it is a line like this

To the Freudian psyche, hunger is the opposite of love, or something like that.

that reminds me just how great Cintra Wilson is. And besides, Christian Bale has been turning me into a dirty old lady lately. (Read the article, and you'll know.)

L'il Devil

A seeming aside from politics:

A certain person ,would like to keep her blog semi-private, and so no links will appear in this post. But, big-mouthed-frog that I am, I must comment because I must on her first post.

a doxy may be a floosie-type female
but when I read the word
doxy
after reading the word
Wormwood

And thinking of Wormwood as a permutation of Satan

My brain, in its sorting function, leapt from doxy to doxology

and I think of doxology as a sort of spiritual proclamation

And so my response to Wormwood's Doxy was

How Fun! a devil's advocate, an open mind, explorer, seeker!

Wormwood's Doxy.

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

AP Wire 10/22/2004 Two Arrested for Hurling Pies at Columnist

The god of writing says it better than I could. He says everything better than I could.

I do like the notion of the Great White Beastie being attacked by Al Pieda.

Mea Grossa

I realize the language I used in the previous post is harsh. I could modify it, but my outrage is not modified, nor mollified; and though I am embarrassed to have been tacky, I let the language stand.

Makes You Want to Pull Their Ears and Send Them Into a Corner Till They Fully Comprehend the Entirety of Their Foolishness

(Except for Ginsberg, for Whom There is Not Even a Scintilla of Hope)

So I am watching my Daily Dose and Chris Matthews starts chortling with Ben Ginsberg over what a GAFFE! Teresa HeinzKerry made by suggesting that Laura Bush's life experience as the consort of the Bad Prince of the Bush Dynasty might be not as "big" as the experience of a woman who has also had a job in her adult life in addition to doing all the stay-at-home female-type crap.

Ooh-hoo! Did Teresa ever put her foot in it this time! Hee! Isn't it funny she dared say a woman with a job has more experience in life than a woman who has never had a job!!

Fuck them. Fuck them hard and with a splintery stick goddammit don't they know how hard it is for us women out here in the world with our jobs (without which we would be bag ladies).

Damn straight we women with jobs have a "bigger" experience than the Laura Bushes of this world and how dare Matthews and Ginsberg find it so cute and funny.

And fuck Andrea Mrs. Greenspan Mitchell for not putting them in their place.

Fuck them all.

Looking Glass Based Thinking

Who would have thought, not too long ago, that the Republican President of the United States, running for election, would be personally and politically aligned with the fascist leader of the ex Soviet Union?

Pre Magna Carta Thinking

There comes a time when the jaw has dropped so low there is nowhere further for it to go.

One of the latest Bushie -- I'm going to quit saying "Republican" now; this is beyond political party. This crowd in the WH has subverted and usurped the Republican party. These people are closer to neo-religio-corporate fascists than anything the traditional Grand Old Party would recognize.

One of the latest Bushie talk points is to accuse John Kerry of pre 9/11 thinking -- as if this is a bad thing! If we succomb to post 9/11 thinking, don't the terrorists win?

But read this NYT article (it's long, but we're Democrats; we are not reading wusses). The Bushies have perverted thinking itself. Thinking is no longer required; hell, to them it is suspect.

The Emperor Has No Bowtie

If you were there, then you know.

In that 30 minutes, Jon Stewart showed why he is the only Real Man in political comment today.

It was beautiful.

It was exciting.

Will Jon Stewart still be living next week?

Style Points to the Death

GWB refuses to answer questions about the incompetence of his drive into Iraq. Substitutes swagger, smirk, and lecture.

Republican lackeys applaud his bravado! -- and make clear that Georgie's style points are more important than our soldiers' (never mind Iraqi civillians') lives.

Incredible.

How About a Nice Crap Sandwich?

I have noticed a pervasive Republican "legislative" technique:

Give a bill a lovely name i.e. Clear Skies, No Child Left Behind and fill it up with what you really want. Then ridicule Democrats for objecting to it.

Like making someone a vinegar sandwich on their favorite bread, then deriding them for refusing to eat it.