Mother

Pearl Jam singing Mother on Jimmy Fallon. What could be better?

This is not the one I wanted to play, but youtube wouldn't give me the good link. The sound on this one isn't that good. But hey, it's Pearl Jam singing Mother.

Mother should I build a wall?

There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear, cont'd

So here we are, another week gone by. This weekend I have done nothing but sit on the couch. I have done laundry (clothes still in the dryer so it may not count as being completed.) and played on facebook and read a little bit on these wonderful tubes we have. I am enjoying today with the Panthers having a bye. It's a good Sunday. So let's recap the last few days, shall we?

So I'm on facebook and see this post.  And I realize, 2012 is either going to suck or it will be vindicating. If the GOP power grab for theocracy and plutocracy, these United States will be done. Only 230 some years....poof! in 30 short ones.
Then I see this quote

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations. -Thomas Jefferson, 1816

and it is really creepy to think that and then see that quote. Freaky I say.

Then there's Tom Brokaw. I know I'm in the minority but I have always been annoyed with him. And that voice? fuck, I cannot take that. I just realized that he was the first David Gregory, except better looking. (which really isn't a compliment) So it's always nice for me when someone smacks him down. It's a rare and beautiful sight. So please, enjoy these two wonderful posts. Here  and here. 
I need to add Charles Pierce to the side over there. Also too, if you're liberal, and let's face it, if you're here, you are. You should also check out politicsusa.com
I need to add them too.

Let's see what else have I been reading? I love Chez's Tebow take.
And the CBS article is pretty good too, though I don't agree with the way when everyone talks about him they have to say, "now he's a good kid and I like him" or some variation. Just because some idiot religious fanatic equates what you think of Tebow with what you think of their Jesus. Fuck that. I don't like any of them, Tebow or his fans.

To read the post this quote comes from, click here.

In a recent interview, a top Ohio Republican defended this in a curiously belligerent way, one that may reverberate in the race’s final days: He claimed lawmakers don’t need to take a pay cut in the spirit of shared sacrifice, because “I earn my pay,” adding: “Republicans earn their money.”

And if you're not reading Steve Benen daily, you are missing one of the best.

I found out that Stephen and Tabitha King never let me down.
I also learned, again, that international media is usually better than American corporate media. here we have The Guardian talking about ALEC. Have you heard about ALEC? Another one of those shadowy, right-wing organizations destroying our democracy. Only Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell have even mentioned them. Keith Olbermann might have, but since he went on his firebagger rant, I don't watch him anymore. That's not to say that when the Murdoch empire is burned to the ground by the arrogance and incompetence that is Murdoch, I will watch him again. No one enjoys taking down Murdoch than Keith. And me. :)
Also, if you don't read al-Jazeera English, you should. Nothing but actual journalism about world events. It's refreshing actually. For instance, did you know Pakistan arrested people for assassinating Bhutto? You didn't? Huh....that corporate media. Read it here.

If the state of the current crop of nutjobs who want to be president are bumming you out, you could do what Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson are doing, enjoying the performance art that is Herman Cain. Me? I've been freaking about it until I watched Rachel and Gene, then I saw this and it made it better.

So that's what's going on around here. I will leave you this week with one of my favorite things. I love the Hubble Telescope. It's some of the best money we've ever spent. Check out what's it's showing us.

So what's going on around you? Did you move your money yesterday? I didn't, I'm waiting until the beginning of the year. Lots of changes, hopefully, coming financially for me and I want to start the year off clean. Have you been to an Occupy event? I'd love to hear about your stories.

The Only Doctor for Me

I don't think I have mentioned it, but I love Doctor Who. Specifically, I love David Tennant as Doctor Who. Matt Smith just hasn't worked for me. Oh I still watch, it's a great show, but David Tennant is my favorite.
He also happens to be the best fan of The Proclaimers. They are all Scottish. You probably have heard the song, but you haven't seen this.

How freaking awesome is that? :) If you enjoyed this, you have to google David Tennant on The Graham Norton Show. All of his chats are great, both Graham and David, but the episode where Graham invited the Proclaimers and Tennant on the same show is a good one. And I'm too lazy to google it for you.

Enjoy!

No, No, No. Hell NO!

I watched this last night and couldn't agree more. Please share this everywhere.
Rachel Maddow rocks.

I realize this is not the most important thing in the world that guys like Paul Wolfowitz still writes articles about U.S. wars, but please, Jesus, can there be some accountability in American politics? Can there be a penalty for being wrong about the biggest things in the world to be wrong about? If you were an architect of the Iraq war, you don't ever get an opportunity to talk about what is a good idea when it comes to war ever again. Deal? Deal.
Dick Cheney, I don't want to hear from your anymore about wars. George W. Bush -- no. Donald Rumsfeld, not interested.
Condoleezza Rice, I'm sorry. I'm sure your new book is awesome. I would still like to interview you about it. But when it comes to being part of our collective conversation about war in this country, you had your chance -- blew it. No. Wrong. You are not going to be consulted on the next big idea since you got the last one so wrong.
Take up another hobby. Try to convince us to listen to your big ideas on some other subject. Take up macrame. Confess before the cleric of your choosing. Buy stock in little black combs and lick them and make a fortune.
But war advice, no. Seriously, "Foreign Policy" magazine, you went looking for a plan for Afghanistan and for that plan, you went looking to Paul Wolfowitz?
The answer is no, no, no. Ten years of hell, no. Not again.

Watch it here.

WTF? and Firebaggers and Teabaggers

I just posted and refreshed and looked at the labels. It really is no accident that the tags 'wtf?' and 'firebaggers and teabaggers' both have the same amount of posts.

Again, sad and not surprising.

There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.....

Since my last post, Occupy gatherings have garnered national and international media attention. For some silly reason, the corporate media can't seem to read the signs people are holding and can't figure out what we, the 99%, want.
Dahlia Lithwick wrote a good article on this very phenomenon. You can read it here.

Think, for just a moment, about the irony. We are the most media-saturated 24-hour-cable-soaked culture in the world, and yet around the country, on Facebook and at protests, people are holding up cardboard signs, the way protesters in ancient Sumeria might have done when demonstrating against a rise in the price of figs. And why is that? Because they very wisely don’t trust television cameras and microphones to get it right anymore. Because a media constructed around the illusion of false equivalencies, screaming pundits, and manufactured crises fails to capture who we are and what we value.

Matt Taibbi has a detailed, long but worth it article on the 'Texas Miracle' the corporate media thought (before he opened his mouth) would be the GOP 'saviour'. (And doesn't that beat everything? the baggers (fire and tea) like to think those who support our current President think of him as a 'saviour'....amazing projection skills.) Go read The Best Little Whore In Texas here.

Another bit of the glorious bagger legislating in my own little home state, there's this....the one bill where Governor Bev Purdue's veto didn't matter. The federal judiciary put a hold on the worst part of this entirely anti-woman legislation in their quest to live in my uterus. Shameful. It just amazes me that there are people out there who don't see the false claims during the health care debate about government getting in between you and your doctor, yet they want to make it legal to get between my doctor and my uterus. I swear, maybe there is something in the water, other than fluoridation. You can read about the NC legislation that gets all in my uterus without my consent here. And now that I feel oh so dirty, let's move on to more educational posts, shall we?

One of my Facebook friends writes for Mother Jones and The Washington Monthly. You can read his historical view of what the Founding Fathers would think about the Occupy movement here. And what is that you say? There is an inaccuracy? What?! Look in the comments and you will see what an actual journalist does when he realizes their is an inaccuracy. That's what you never see in corporate media.

My friend Chez had this quote from Jon Stewart about Pat Robertson calling out the field of GOP Presidential candidate. Seriously. Pat Robertson calling others too crazy....it really is a moment of surreal reality.

James Fallows thinks Herman Cain's new ad is the Best Ad Yet. Again, surreal reality.

How have we gotten to 2011? It really is amazing, scary, funny and lots of other adjectives I won't write. If you are the 1%, you aren't reading this so that makes you the 99%. Call your congresspeople, call your governors, call your friends and family....if you can, go to an Occupy event. You can find one where you are here.

So that's what I've been up to this week. The title of this post is an oldie but a goldie and seemingly more relevant than when it was released. How quaint the late 60's and early 70's seem today. So enjoy the video.....

Hello Again....

I am still here, quiet but here. It really doesn't feel like it's been almost 2 months since I posted anything, but I've been told the internet doesn't lie. (kinda like all GOP presidential candidates)

Let's see what's been going on in VeraLand. I hate my job, I hate my finances. Nothing changed there. Football is back!! My team has actually won a game, which is big news. We have a QB that has more talent than Jake Delhomme had in his pinky. the dick. Peyton Manning is out for the season, hopefully only this season, I've been scared to hear about his neck injury. I love him so.

The GOP candidates and their debate audiences are proving that their base are all redneck hicks who can't stop living in the 30's. And they want the rest of us to join them. I say Fuck No. And my state, where I've lived for 30 years, is putting same sex marriage on the primary ballot. It's already illegal in NC to marry a same sex partner, they want to enshrine it in the NC constitution to prove we are just as backward and mean and stupid as the rest of the south. sigh.

I've become addicted to those missing object games on Facebook. I hate the new Facebook changes. I don't like that they want to tell me what they think I will think are Top Stories. Fuck em. But what am I going to do? Stop Facebook? Too addicted and that's where all my friends are.

There are finally protests against Wall Street going on. Please look up Occupy Wall Street on the web and Facebook. This is important, especially with the cops doing what they do best to protect the bankers against us lowly people.

My health issues have been resolved, I hope. My thyroid is fine but my serotonin (?) levels were out of whack so I got some new meds for that. Yay for getting old and needing chemicals, legal ones even....jeepers.

The best thing? Pink Floyd is everywhere this week with their new releases of the catalog. Loving that. Jimmy Fallon had a Pink Floyd week with Nick Mason, Roger Waters and some great bands covering Floyd tunes. I highly encourage you to look it up. I'm too lazy and football is getting ready to come on.

Anyway, that's where I've been. What's going on where you are?

Must Read

I haven't finished this post, yet. But it should be shared far and wide as well.

As Michael Lind has compelling argued, the Tea Party movement is the latest echo of the Southern Confederacy. In all, they are neo-Secessionists whose language of “States Rights’,” “nullification” and “Second Amendment remedies” hearkens back to that of the old Confederacy. Because the Tea Party are in fact neo-Confederates, the federal government is viewed with deep hostility, and they are heirs to a political tradition that views the preservation of Jim Crow segregation in the name of “States’ Rights” as more important than civil rights for black Americans.

Tea Party representatives such as Rand Paul have echoed this suspicion of the civil rights laws which brought down Jim Crow; the Tea Party faithful have made repeated efforts to (quite literally) white wash the U.S. history curricula of the Arizona and Texas school systems; and in their creative reimagining of the U.S. Constitution, the Tea Party GOP has conveniently removed all of the “bad parts” (i.e. references to slavery) as a function of a feigned and convenient “colorblindness” that actively avoids the full complexity of the country’s past and present.

In keeping with their oversimplification and flattening of history, even the Tea Party’s Revolutionary War era costumes and histrionic railings against a “tyrannical government” speak to an embrace of Lost Cause ideology. Not coincidentally, the Confederacy also embraced the same symbolism, and imagined themselves as the true heirs to the founding fathers, the real champions of the U.S. Constitution.

I gotta find a way to get this to Dennis G over at Balloon-Juice.......

Your voice still matters

There are a lot of petitions out there that, really, let's face it...nothing ever happens. There's uproar and shock, but nothing changes if the dems create the petition.
But there's actually one that I think deserves to be signed.
This link, will take you to Change.org. This petition is the brainchild of one of my favorite bloggers...you will find his site, The Political Animal at the side over there ---->
Anyway, he posted the other day about taking all the letters from repubs, asking for funding and approving them with their letters to him . :) Go read it here.
Now, that's just brilliant.
So sign this petition and share it everywhere. And be on the lookout for a march in DC and across the country in October. I will just happen to be in DC in October......I hope my path will cross with it. :)

Another Must Read.....and bonus! a rant

One of the pages I follow on Facebook posted this earlier and I must say, it blew me away. Remember a while back, when I said that I don't think the Civil War ended? What I didn't do was say it nearly as well as Charles P. Pierce does in this article. 

It really needs to be spread far and wide to every one who really wants to hold us together long enough to repair the damage and the wounds of the last 150 years....hell, from the pilgrims forward truth be told.

With our corporate media rushing to blame Islamic terrorists for the recent horrible events in Norway  when it turns out he is a blond, blue-eyed Nazi-type nationalist, makes me remember all the right wing nationalist attacks on American soil that no one talks about with any semblance of rationality. It's all about who wins and who loses the media day and the ratings and the whining from the very people who encourage and support these same ideas for political gain and power and wealth. Greed basically. All these christo-facists who will reap the rewards by the people too dumb or lazy or apathetic  to really pay attention that the 'religion' they all espouse is nothing but a facade to keep or gain power and money. And here they are ready to plunge the entire fucking world back into the worst depression any of us have ever seen, worse than the Great Depression of my grandparents era, by using peoples faith.
That worldwide depression led to the rise of Hitler, a world war and a cold war. World War II may have brought the United States out of depression, but what did we get for it? A literally divided world between free people and not free people. For 50 years we lived like this. Many innocents suffered in the undeclared wars of the 50's and 60's into the 70's. Korea, Vietnam, Hungary, Germany, Romania, Czechoslavakia, Iran, Iraq (funny, that) and another fun trip back in time in Afghanistan and on and on and on.....
Then the Cold War ended. (I have to say that as a military brat, the youngest of 4 girls, during the 60's and 70's that my sisters had no idea what the Cold War was....I was and still am, astounded by that. For those of you who share my sisters ignorance, go here.)  
So what happened after that? We turned on each other. Funny thing about us humans, we have to have an enemy. I don't know why, but I wish evolution would hurry up, we'll never get to the 24th Century that Gene Roddenberry envisioned and I want. Anywho, the entire era of the Cold War, it was politically advantageous for republicans to win elections by painting the democrats as weak on foreign policy. The reason they could safely have that ground was because they would actually cross the line and do things that democrats wouldn't. But on the other hand, the dems with the Gulf of Tonkin, some dems would and could. Which may be the genesis of the 'both sides do it' meme that is so familiar today. Then Nixon came along and did what he did and got away with it which enabled people like Donald Rumsfeld, Roger Ailes and Dick Cheney to do what brings us to the United States electing a black man for President. Can you imagine? It wasn't supposed to be like that at all....they have to have been so disappointed when that happened. But then, they got together at a Koch Brothers event in Palm Springs or somewhere equally posh and thought up the wonderful world we live in now. Just writing that feels like a conspiracy theory and maybe that's by design? Because there wouldn't be people out there who would deliberately want to destroy the entire nation and economy on purpose....right?
Well, I don't really think so.....I think their motives were, and are, greed and power and money. I don't think they realized the economic situation in the country....and really, how could they? They live in a world that knows no limits, none. They don't live in the world that the rest of us do. Where people like me have to budget the $20.00 co-pay to see the doctor. They don't worry about people out there who have to wonder, should I pay the electric bill or put gas in the car? They didn't know that was there when they started I don't think. Maybe they thought it was like 1992 and all we needed was a little political wrangling to get them more. I don't know. What I think is that they didn't realize the economic situation or, and this is the important part, the level of fear that they had been fomenting for years with faux news and rush and all the others....they had control before, why would this be any different?
So here we are, on the brink of default. Yay for us.

My question then is this, what do they do now? They have made compromise of any sort impossible with their behavior during President Obama's tenure. So what happens? They give? The President gives? I honestly cannot believe they have put him in this position. And it won't matter who will 'win' this battle. The politicians win. The corporate media wins. The losers? Me, you, the entire world that isn't in the top 2%. And the people who have brought us here? Only 27-33% of the Grand Old Party of the United States of America. The people who have been shunned, rightly, by civil society. The people on the fringe. This time though, the corporations had media holdings to bring the people too dumb, lazy or apathetic a story they could accept and make themselves feel better.
That doesn't seem like a fair deal. At all.

That's it. Rant over. But go read Charles P. Pierce's article which brought us all here. :) You can read it here.

Must Read

Amen Brother Steve, Amen......

The problem with the 112th isn’t a structural impediment; it’s the result of a radicalized Republican Party that has no use for compromise, evidence, or reason. We have a congressional GOP abandoning all institutional norms, pushing extremist policies, rejecting their own ideas if they enjoy Democratic support, and engaging in tactics that were once thought unthinkable from policymakers who put the nation’s needs first.

as usual, he nails it....read it here.

We're living in a demented Chocolate Factory without any chocolate....

A couple of weeks ago, I assured myself and others that even though the current republican party was insane they were not going to let the full faith and credit of the United States of America explode into default for the sheer and shameful politics of ideology. I thought they would listen to Wall Street. I am amazed they think the United States government would lie to the entire world about whether or not we would lose this only good spot in our current economic crises. We can now, at least, borrow money at insanely cheap interest to finance everything the previous administration and previous Congress' passed. Because that's all this is...we have the ability to raise our credit card limit. I understand the danger of that, lord knows, I would do it if I could get away with it. And here is what I don't think they understand about government. You can't run a government like a household no matter how many republicans tell you you can. You can't run a government like a business no matter how many republicans tell you you can.

That the current batch of nutjobs would be so totally convinced the Secretary of the Treasury would lie is not completely surprising. I understand why they would think that. They project everything they do, would do or have done onto the democrats....it's who they are. But to be so cynical and petty and partisan and ruin the credit of the US to "win" against a democrat in the White House, black, white or purple for that matter...is just beyond my comprehension.

They really are those 4 other kids in the Roald Dahl book and my favorite movie from childhood, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The United States is Charlie and the nutjobs are Veruca, Mike, Augustus and Violet. They are spoiled children riding a sugar high.

I am now very afraid that if the adults in the GOP don't just run a clean debt ceiling increase in both houses, we will invite catastrophe and god/fsm/thor knows what else.

I cannot believe that the media is still spinning this as a horse race. This is one of the fruits of Rupert Murdoch's gifts that keep on giving. If the media will not make them see what they are doing and keeping the 'both sides blame each other, oh the sameness of it' meme, we are doomed.

I don't want to be doomed. I want to shake people and ask them what they hell do they think they're doing? for fucking politics?!
This is what happens when kids are allowed at the adults table....

though, a silver lining,perhaps, may shine through this angry and destructive cloud....if the United States' defaults, every one's credit score is going to suck
and mine won't seem that bad:)

look what the cat dragged in.....

As usual, Matt Taibbi nails it....

Given the monstrous political influence of Murdoch and his companies – this idiotic game of chicken our government is now playing with America’s credit rating is one of countless policy disasters that I believe can be traced directly or indirectly to the insane propaganda that is a consistent by-product of Murdoch's nihilistic quest for profits – that would be a world-shaking development.

So let's review. Rupert Murdoch, CEO/LORD ALMIGHTY/Whatever....has reigned supreme on 3 continents for decades. News Corp has done this by debasing our societies to the lowest base form of humanity that we as humans can be. And as poorly as our education system has performed since the Reagan years, is it any wonder that the electorate don't care about anything but simple, bumper sticker politics? And I won't even go on a tangent about the Texas School Board text book guidelines for history books for all grade levels, full of magical thinking.....you can google it...

Moving back to Taibbi, he makes a point I have been saying for years.

Once the media business made the collective decision to always put money above editorial judgment, I think scandals like the News of the World affair became inevitable. Because once media companies abandoned the notion that their business was somehow different from other money-making businesses, that there were no longer places they wouldn’t go to generate product, it became inevitable that the corporate media game would become nothing more than an all-out, relentless quest for sensational, titillating material.

When the 3 major networks decided to make their News Division's 'profit' divisions, all bets were off. It had once been for the good of the country. To investigate and keep tabs on our government and our businesses. And how did that work out? It was a smashing success. Journalists were considered well for their tenacity in keeping politicians and corporations honest.

But then they had to have more money, because by this time, corporations owned the big 3. And corporations are greedy bastards.

Go read the whole Taibbi piece here....

true dat

"I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story, two equal and logical sides to an argument." - Edward R. Murrow

careless days.....

I'm here wasting the day away. It's what I do on Saturdays. There was a lot going on this week with the idiots still getting major media airtime with their stupidity on the debt ceiling....Murdoch and gang (I use this in the most criminal way) getting attention for their cynicism and illegal 'journalism'.....yet, on this day, I am watching Marley sleep beside me on the couch and I thought it would be a great time to post a new picture of her.

Yes, she is chunky, just like her mother. Abby was too....they are just so sweet and deserve those bones. Just ask my father...he'll tell you. His other bit of wisdom is that if the puppies can't eat what you're eating, you shouldn't eat it....if you can't share with them, what's the point?

We've finally gotten him to talk to the vet and she told him that the best way he could show he loves them is to not share people food with them....but there they are, Marley and Max (my parents lab/boxer mix), watching every move he makes while he's eating.....he has gotten better though. We are working on it. The vet says she's just 7 pounds overweight, so it's doable.

Anyway, happy Saturday and enjoy the weekend. And just FYI, you can thank unions for 'the weekend'....

And here's a picture of Max, Marley's partner in crime....

New Voter ID laws and me....

As a poll worker and listening to Keith talk about the new Voter ID laws in WI, I can say that most of the people who vote in my precinct hand over their licenses when they walk in. They have to sign a Voter form verifying their information, they take this paper (usually I'm the one they give it to) to get a ballot. (Ha! I am the Ballot Keeper - I like that!) Then they vote. I had to tell the other precinct workers that they can't ask for ID in NC. They were asking for it sometimes. They didn't know. I had to show them in our book. But that's just my precinct. It's a moderate, older neighborhood with new developments in the last years before the shit storm came, but still. Not rich, but steady. I just don't see it where I vote.
Having said that, I find these laws, all over, to be repugnant.
It is our 1 Constitutional duty. One.  It's the only thing the Constitution says we have to do. More people should do it, but they don't. And since I have worked at the polls, 2005 I think, I have seen the turnout go from very low levels (one municipal election we had 2 votes in addition to our 3 votes for a total of 5) to sky high in a matter of 2 years and the mood from 2006 to 2008 in my 60-40 republican precinct was incredible. Then 2010 happened and all I saw were repubs voting and very few dems. 2010 the repubs were more than happy to tell every one they were voting repub to 'get' Obama. or some such other version of 'hell yeah, I'm voting repub and I'm proud'. Anyway, I think next year, the people who voted in 2008 will be back. It will be too hard with another year of GOP controlling the House. They will have too. And I bet even some of those repubs who did show up but were quiet? They'll be there too, voting for the dems.

At least, a girl can hope that they cannot allow them to get away with this shit much longer than that. At some point, yourself and your family have to over come the ideology. Right?

Happy Independence Day

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

you can read the official transcript here.


I hope everybody has a wonderful day and remembers what the Founding Fathers really fought for and not the 'republican version' of them.

It's a disease.....

I titled this a disease because it is a virus that attacked us in the 80's and has now taken over. Politics has gone 'celeb-reality'. Our media have failed us by accepting and propagating this veneer. It's a disease because it can be cured. By us.

Mark Halperin is a dick. Not only a dick, but a stupid one who couldn't find his way out of a paper bag. Yet, he remains one of the far too many 'experts' who mislead and downright lie to us. For what? Money. Power. Greed. Call it what you like, I am going to call it a disease.

Greg Sargent nails it......

I care less about Halperin’s use of the word “dick” than I do about the argument he and Joe Scarborough were making — that Obama somehow stepped over some kind of line in aggressively calling out the GOP for refusing to allow any revenues in a debt ceiling deal. This notion that Obama’s tone was somehow over the top — when politics is supposed to be a rough clash of visions — is rooted in a deeply ingrained set of unwritten rules about what does and doesn’t constitute acceptable political discourse that really deserve more scrutiny. This set of rules has it that it should be treated as a matter of polite, legitimate disagreement when Michele Bachmann says deeply insane things about us not needing to raise the debt limit, but it should be seen as an enormously newsworthy gaffe when she commits a relatively minor error about regional trivia. This set of rules has it that it should be treated as a matter of polite, legitimate disagreement when Republicans continually claim that Dems cut $500 billion in Medicare in a way that will directly impact seniors, even though fact checkers have pronounced it misleading, but it should be seen as “demagoguery” when Dems argue that the Paul Ryan plan would end Medicare as we know it.

Go read it here.

What she said.....

This is a must read. I agree completely with Desert Crone. Please go read it here.

Yet, still Olbermann and other critics frequently go to great lengths to give President Obama advice on how to do this or that. The fact that Obama is a pragmatist and a Constitutional scholar with a brilliant mind leads me to believe that his positions on issues are not based on his religious beliefs or political scheming but the most pragmatic, quickest way to do the right thing for people of the United States. Thus, he has used and is using his executive powers to make it easier for unions to organize, to implement parts of the DREAM Act, and to obtain civil rights for LGBT’s. If Congress won’t get the job done, then Obama looks for other avenues.

Bravo Desert Crone! Bravo.

So go read it and share it.

Hey Hey Hey

If you're as old, or older than me you will remember Dwayne from What's Happening. I loved Dwayne.

Anywho.....growing up, I always felt older than I was. That changed at 35. At 35 I finally felt that I was in the right body and the right mind. It was pretty cool. Well, tomorrow I will be 44 and I have to say I am surprised. It feels odd to me. I haven't been bothered by any birthdays, but this one is freaking me out. I think I will stay at 43.
It's not that it feels old....I am happy to be my age and I don't mind getting older. We all live and grow old, everything on this pale blue dot. It's the way it's supposed to be. It's that feeling I had before 35 coming back, except in the opposite direction. I don't like that. My life has been so topsy-turvy the last 3 years and I hope this is the year I get back to that even keel. Hell, maybe that's all it is. I'm not too bright sometimes, I miss the most obvious things sometimes....I really am blond. I'm not a natural blond, but in every wonderful dumb blond joke way, I am. I like that about me, but it makes me slow sometimes....
So Happy weird Birthday to me and here's hoping for this year to be better than the last few.....

So what's going on out there that I should be posting? I have gotten into a funk with that as well....there's so much going on. Michelle Bachmann? Same sex marriage in New York...by a GOP controlled legislature? What the fuck is in the water? I am dumbfounded and scared and hopeful and confused by how we get through the next year. Endless political campaigns are hurting this democracy and the media does nothing that it should...and we're back to being jaded again....

a leave of absence?

whoa...I didn't realize it has been almost 2 months since my last post. where does the time go?
when I started this I knew there would be times when I didn't post but I didn't think it would be this long. I don't know what to say....apparently, if the stats are correct, there are actually people coming to my little house of useless knowledge. thank you for that, though I am a little unsure as to why. must be my wittiness. :)  yeah, I didn't think so either.
there have been a lot of things going on around this little corner of the world. In April I was diagnosed with my first case of skin cancer. the 'good' kind, if there is such a thing. it was just below my eyebrow. that freaked me out. I don't know why though. if you knew me personally you wouldn't be surprised. I'm not really white, I'm sorta purplish/pink with a lot of freckles thrown in. I have only been tan once in my life and I got that very lovely tan at the expense of not being able to move for 3 solid days while wearing only my bathing suit. I had my 2nd sun poisoning that time. oh the good ole days when you're a young lady in the 80's and the 'in' thing is being tan, if you were a white girl like me. oh how stupid we are as kids. anyway, that's why it shouldn't have been a surprise that I had some version of skin cancer. I always burn, I am a red head, my father has had skin cancer so many times I can't count them and I am fair skinned. these my friends, are 4 out of the 5 items that answer the question, how high is your risk of skin cancer?

so that's where I have been. I had it removed a couple of weeks ago and did NOT get a very cool scar like I asked the doctor for, but it is all gone, so there's that.

another reason I haven't been here is that there is also something wrong with my thyroid....what you ask? I don't know. I haven't had the courage to make an appointment with my doctor to find out. I have been feeling a bit depressed about how this shitty life has been going, I just don't have the courage, nor the money, to find out why. it could be something as easy as adjusting my meds or not....I just can't handle it.

and then there is the world we live in. half-wit, half-term former governors making traitors out of our revolutionary heroes and a 13 year old Congressmen from New York thinking he can send crotch shots to women he isn't married to and current Supreme Court Justices not understanding the law and violating,  what should be clear to everyone, ethics of some sort.

I watch Rachel Maddow and then clean the house a bit until Stewart and Colbert come on, go to sleep, wake up, go to a job I really could care less about and back home to do it all over again....that's what's been going on in Vera Lynn's world. maybe the summer will bring better things.

one bright spot? my birthday is at the end of the month and I have 2 wonderful friends coming to see me. I need that.

so what have you guys been doing?

2012 will be memorable

I think I have posted that I think the end of the Civil War is coming, but I also think it will be a strong pivot in our history. And with that, there will be some very enjoyable moments I think. :)  One of the ways I think it will be enjoyable is the complete and utter destruction of one of the major political parties of my lifetime.
They are going to implode. And as long as no one gets hurt, I am going to enjoy the hell out of it. They have been on a road to destruction for the last 40 years. They have sacrificed all their interest in this country for power and greed. Greed has indeed, been good for them. They have told half-truths and whole truths and have happily taken this country for a ride. And since they destroyed the banking system by repealing the Glass-Steagall Act.
And ever since have done nothing except lower the regulations on the banking industry. And they learned nothing after the bottom fell out. And they were the strongest supporters of no strings attached to the bailouts of the financial wiz-kids that got us into the mess.(And I'm not even going to talk about the constitutional violations and the torture and the lying us into war.)
Now they are coming right out and saying they want to destroy Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And then give another 10% tax break for the wealthiest 2%. Another one. On top of the one the President was blackmailed into agreeing in December.
So, yeah, I'm going to enjoy watching them capitulate to the racists in their heart and soul and try to win the Presidency or feeling the wrath of the extremists and disavowing The Crazy. Something I hadn't realized until today is that their propaganda media arm, faux, can't stop indulging the them. Adam Serwer  did think of it though, much to my delight. :)

This is a problem of Republicans’ own creation, and it’s one that illustrates what is likely to be one of the more odder elements of the 2012 presidential race — the distinction between what helps the GOP win elections, and what helps Fox get ratings.

rant

I just posted this over at BobCesca,com and thought I should put it here. It is in response to a discussion about John Boehner and his job as Speaker and the upcoming fights on the budget and the raising of the debt ceiling. 

nope....what'll happen is what's happened for the last 30 years. the establishment repubs and their constituents, the corporation, will keep the debt limit ceiling from being stalled. They will do that because as we all know, all their money is overseas and they won't let anything happen that could further damage the worldwide economy.
The problem is going to be over Ryan's budget. Then Boehner will have to have dems help and if that happens, then he will be in a heap of shit so deep. I don't know if you can remove a Speaker before the session is over, someone smarter may know (and please share). but if he has to capitulate to the dems to avoid a shutdown, he's going to have to go talk to some dems. and after that, who knows.....but if they can't remove him, they can make his term miserable. preferably just his...I don't want to pay for his 20 year power indulgence. He gets that hangover. They'll play the same culture war issues and get shot down every time. it's been this way for 30 years...it's getting old and tired, sure...but they are good at it.
but what's changed are contradictory...the media has become corporate owned and operated with no regard for their prestigious position in out democracy and we can no longer count on them to do their civic duties. the other thing that's changed is that we are in the worst economic times since the 1930's and there are too many people out there who are just now waking up and realizing we don't have the status quo anymore, we did get change, just not the change we thought. I voted for President Obama and will do everything I can to see that he is re-elected by a much bigger landslide than the last one. no matter who they put up. because our fourth estate hasn't been doing their jobs for decades now, it's up to us. It's up to the American people to stand up and call liars liars and stupid people who can seem to only pay attention to 30 second soundbites our neighbors. because that's who they are. they are our families (mine anyway) and show them what is actually going on. we are on the verge, possibly, of losing our very way of life. I never thought that would ever happen. I never thought that we would be so stupid to believe and be distracted by shiny objects that we would let out troops languish in shoddy equipment over politics. I never thought of even asking the question, it seemed so remote.
But this coming election is where you sit down with the young people and make sure they know that because they didn't vote this round, we have to fight this battle again....and the stakes are higher. We have to take our country back from the corporations that have bought their way into our government and gotten themselves rewarded by taking all the money and not sharing it.....I want their citizenship taken away. If they want to show their patriotism, then prove it. take one for the team and smile about it. I want dems and repubs alike to do the same. I'm not doing the equivalency thing, of course the right is much better at mind fucking people than we are. But we are better at being the real Americans they so often mock while pretending to give a fuck about any of it. I'm a dem because for the majority of them, they act like elected leaders should. they don't act like it's junior high all over again.
wow, went on a little rant didn't I? I'm sure I left more stuff out, but that's enough for now. Thank you for your time. :)

must reads

This isn’t government we’re watching; this is junior high.

It’s unclear where the adults are, but they don’t seem to be in Washington. Beyond the malice of the threat to shut down the federal government, averted only at the last minute on Friday night, it’s painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have proved to be.

 What does all this mean? That we’re governed by self-absorbed, reckless children. Further evidence comes from a new study showing that American senators devote 27 percent of their press releases to “partisan taunts” rather than substance. “Partisan taunting seems to play a central role in the behavior of many senators,” declared the study, by Justin Grimmer of Stanford and Gary King of Harvard.

 Read it here.

Get Out The Vote

If you give a damn about who we are as a country, Get Out The Vote!! Get involved, walk your neighborhoods and talk to people. Let them know what's going on. Make them realize they have the power to keep us in a democracy and not turn us into a plutocracy or worse, a theocracy. seriously people...our entire way of life is being torn down and stepped on....look anywhere where republicans are in power and you will see they don't give a damn about you or your family....not one bit. It's early in the season, I know...but this is the culture we live in. And tell your media outlets and sources that they need to do their job.  I will leave you with John Cole's words.....

And btw, we’ve talked about the Ryan plan to gut medicare and medicaid and give the proceeds to the rich while feeding the warpig, and it is important to recognize this is not some one-off. This is what they want. They are also coming for your pension, they are after your social security, they want to destroy your union so you can not organize against them, they will go after your minimum wage next, they want to get rid of the EPA so their donors can pollute your water, air, land, and food and not have to worry about being punished, they want to deregulate Wall Street more so they can screw you again and not face any consequences, they want to tell you what you can do with your body, and they are spending lots of time and money making it harder and harder for you to vote. The Ryan plan isn’t an isolated incident, it was just shots fired on another front. If you are disheartened by the budget deal the other night, which is one small skirmish in a big war, you probably should just give up and go buy yourself a ton of lube.

read the whole post here.

Class War, been a long time coming....

there is a class war in this country....don't let anyone tell you otherwise. it used to be it was kept in check, but apparently no more....thank you people who don't think your vote counts.....
and in honor of this, I give you the timeless words and music that expresses it on the level of the everyday person....you know, the ones who don't vote.
assholes

We're not with him....no....

Eight Republican state senators have issued a rare public rebuke of Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), writing an op-ed expressing "discomfort and dismay" with some of his recent comments directed at labor backers.

Even the repubs are distancing themselves from the freaks who got elected.....do you still think your vote doesn't count?
Read the whole post here.

must reads

He sums things up nicely.
Thank the stars in the heavens for John Cole.

April 3, 1968

Us and Them

why am I here?

I have asked myself, several times, why I have a blog. Part of it is because Facebook gave me the ability to share with people the things I believe and feel are just and true and funny and share who I am through posting youtube videos of my favorite music. And I like that. As for this blog, it's the invisibility. I like that I can do all the things I can do on Facebook, but here...only a few people know who I am. I like the invisibility.  I like that you are reading this all over the world....or you can from all over the world. And you have no clue who I am other than what I post here. I really like that. Because I think people are the same all over the world...unless you're rich....then I got nothing for you. I've never known what that feels like. :)
As I've mentioned before, I don't have a lot of close friends. I like it that way. I have always felt apart, separate from most people, and more often than not, from my family. So this is where I'm most comfortable.


So I'm over at Balloon-Juice and reading this and it occurs to me that this is one of the reasons I want to keep writing here as well. I want to record what happens before the Civil War finally ends...hopefully with the ballot box, but more likely with bullets.

I am a student of history, American history. I have a degree from a state university in history. I am getting old and have forgotten most of what I learned in school....for you kids out there, let this be a lesson, get a job in the field of study you choose. If I had done that, I'd be a better person I think. Then again, that would mean being a bureaucrat (public employee) or a college professor (perhaps a public employee, but certainly a liberal elite). I did want to be a bureaucrat in the State Department. So I would be demonized by one of the major parties in this country...I already am, so I'm good.
Anyway, I digress.....
I never, ever, ever would have thought that one of the political parties in our two party system would lose their minds completely. I knew that during the Civil War, that we lost our minds. But, I thought that the people who still felt the way the southerners who declared their independence felt were so few that I didn't need to worry about them doing anything stupid. Even after Reagan....then shrub came along and took all of the worst of Reagan and ran with it. I find it amazing that this country put republicans back into power after they had totally torched everything they could think of after only 2 years. It boggles the mind.

I said up the post that I wanted to record what happens before the Civil War ends. No, it isn't a typo. I don't think we have finished the Civil War. I think we have just been in a very long pause. I think, after living in the south for more than 30 years, that there are too many people who are the stupid and ignorant who have never forgotten. They don't only live here though, they are everywhere in this country. And now, they have a major, international media organization and our SCOTUS has made it possible for corporations to be persons...as in We The People persons. What the Fuck????
For the majority of people, those who get their news from corporate media on the networks and who don't pay attention to politics until a presidential election, it may seem that things are all of a sudden crashing down. They heard the repubs talk about jobs and instead they have seen the repubs do all the culture war items on their agenda...along with others they never would have told us about before the November 2010 elections. Just take a gander at this Google page.
I am writing here because this has to be documented. I know there are a lot of other blogs that are, and have been, doing this much better and I read them everyday. I just feel like I need this place to get out even those things that I feel are more intimate, more personal for Facebook. And the beauty part of this is that only a few people who know me in real life ever come here and mostly its people that wouldn't know me if I passed them on the street. I like that.
It's also narcisstic I think too...but we all have a 'dark side'....ying and yang and all that.

quote

The precise, numerical answer to the question "How stupid do you have to be to belong to a Party where Newt is 'The Brain Guy'?" remains unknown. - Driftglass

must reads

Wake up America. You are under attack. Stop kidding yourself. We are at war. In fact, we have been fighting this Civil War for a generation, since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981. Recently Buffett renewed the battle cry: The “rich class” is winning this war. Except most Americans still don’t realize they’re losing, don’t see the prize at stake.

read it here

Hell Yeah!

If Democrats can flip the State Senate, it will be big. Even gaining a seat or two will be big. The nation is watching. I think you’re gonna find, when all this shit is over and done, I think you’re gonna find yourself one smilin’ motherfucker.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has enough signatures to recall one of the repubs.....and I hope he's correct.

read about it here

New Left Hipster?

I took this quiz.

This is my result.

You are a New Left Hipster, also known as a MoveOn.org liberal, a Netroots activist, or a Daily Show fanatic. You believe that if we really want to defend American values, conservative hatriots must be exposed and mocked for every fanatical, puritanical, paranoid, fact-allergic, reality-challenged, obstructionist ideal for which they stand.

I don't know if that's good or not. If memory serves, it's not good to be a 'hipster'.....times like this I need my niece to tell me. I will say that on most questions I wanted an 'all of the above' option.

Otherwise, it is pretty much accurate. I don't tolerate stupid when it's me or others...especially others. (I live me and have to forgive my own stupidity)
I find it surreal that the only news shows I watch, other than Rachel Maddow, are on Comedy Central, another landmark on this road to hell we have been on for 30 years.

the wonders of the universe

It's that time again...since this has been a really weird week for me, I like that I can start up my computer and be comforted by the fact of our pale blue dot is a wonder. I love that universes and galaxies are still being formed out there and for the first time we can see it happening. How freaking cool is that?

So let's go see what's out there.....take it away Sir Redshirt......

favorite quotes and lyrics

My niece asked me to choose my favorite Green Day quote. I asked if she wanted quotes from the band members or lyrics. She said I was free to choose. I'm good with lyrics, but not actual quotes....but I just found one. I am listening to a preview of Awesome As Fuck here.  While listening, I'm looking through my favorite Green Day site and I found this one quote I like a lot.

"And for our fans, they're just crazy people anyway. I always look at people in a Green Day shirt, and I think, 'What's wrong with that person? What kind of hang-ups does that person have?' Obviously, it's not just the catchy songs, it goes deeper than that." - Billie Joe

I will be thinking on Green Day lyrics, but it got me thinking of all the other lyrics that I really like from other artists. That is my job today. That and calling Directv to change my programming. That is my Sunday without football and a brand new war. yay. 

If you want, you can list your own Green Day lyrics or any other lyrics that strike your fancy in the comments.

America or Amerika?

We are still the United States of America, right? We are still a representative democracy with the power to the people, right?
Wrong. All you have to do is look to Michigan. The new governor is well on his way to creating his own little state bought and paid for by your tax dollars and given to corporations.
I am posting this post in full .

The phrase "company town" is loosely applied to any locale dominated by a single employer. But real company towns – the kind built, managed, and subject to the paternalistic control of private enterprise – have been an important part of American economic history. From Gary, IN (U.S. Steel) to Pullman, IL (now part of Chicago) to Hershey, PA to Alcoa, TN to the hundreds of textile mill towns of the South and coal mining towns throughout Appalachia, municipalities founded without incorporation or elected government are more numerous than many Americans realize. To live in these places meant to depend entirely on the munificence of one's corporate nobleman for the services one usually gets from local government. It usually meant getting paid in company scrip usable that limited one's economic transactions to company-owned banks, stores, and so on. Some company towns, notably Hershey, PA, were considered relatively swell places to live. Most, as in the case of Appalachian coal company towns, were efficient means of brutal exploitation and debt peonage.
Michigan's widely reported 'Financial Martial Law' bill, soon to be signed into law by teabagging mannequin Rick Snyder, is portrayed by leftists as another salvo in the ongoing Republican war against teachers and public sector unions. I find that conclusion overly linear and too simplistic. This legislation – which allows the Governor to declare financial emergencies and appoint individuals or corporations to serve as city managers with the power to dissolve local elected councils and nullify employment contracts for public servants – is the first step in an effort to do away with municipal and local government altogether in favor of quite literally having private enterprises replacing government and contracting out its functions to the lowest bidder. How beautiful it will be: Wackenhut cops and local jails, Waste Management goons collecting trash, utilities sold off to Aqua America and Exelon, tax assessments mailed to homeowners from a financial services boiler room in Bangalore, and municipal employees of all types fired and replaced by temps from Manpower, Inc.
Gives a new and literal meaning to the phrase "company town," doesn't it? And the kicker is that the Governor is empowered to pay the new city managers any amount he sees fit before turning over total control so that they may further profit from a variety of harebrained privatization schemes.
This legislation speaks to the ideas that have kept right-wingers' hearts aflutter since the early Reagan years. It's not removing government from the private sector; it's replacing government with the private sector. For-profit education corporations running the schools. Private military/security outfits as cops. Subscription-only fire protection and ambulance service. City property auctioned off to developers (with zoning laws created ad hoc by unelected city managers; sure, you can bury nuclear waste here!) No pesky citizens, city councils, or local laws to get in the way. Corporate owner-governments that can charge you whatever they're bold enough to charge for services and utilities. And there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it. Your government will be a board of directors in some office park in Arlington, VA.
What a beautiful vision. It's like watching the Koch brothers masturbate.

And you don't think your vote counts? Oh, it's just the midterms, there aren't any reasons to vote unless there is a presidential election......

That kind of thinking really pisses me off. If it was only you, the ones that don't do your civic duty, I would be fine with you being an idiot and not voting. But it isn't just you. Teabaggers want the fascist state they think President Obama is implementing. They think it's a great idea....and THEY VOTE! The people who didn't vote because it didn't seem important or the parties are the same or I'm going to show Obama!.....you did this. YOU. So get your ass in gear and volunteer or give money if you can....get involved. State and municipal elections matter more to your every day life than what happens in Congress.

The founding fathers created this government for the people, by the people. Guess what? YOU ARE THE PEOPLE!

...the world is spinning round and round, out of control.....again.....

One day us humans may figure out how to live with each other, but until then.....more war! not that I don't think Libya needed to be dealt with long before now, I do think it is the Arab League's business. They should be taking the lead, with the US only in a support role.

And since we now have a President who is not a 'cowboy' (god help us, we barely survived), I don't expect anyone in the Obama administration to do this. But just in case, since it seemed to be so well liked by the public the last time. Here is a BBC article telling us who the major players are in Libya. So, before you see the playing cards, you already know who they are....just consider this a little useful knowledge.

I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue......

You ever wake up and all of a sudden you feel like your place in the world isn't where you thought it was? Maybe you even feel that you don't belong anywhere? I woke up like that today.

2009 and 2010 have been the worst years of my forty something years. I had hope that 2011 would be better, but I woke up this morning and realized it isn't.

2011 is sucking just like the last 2. I don't usually feel sorry for myself. I hate it as a matter of fact. Today, there just doesn't seem a way out of this funk.

Growing up, I never felt like I was in the right body. I always felt older than I was. Until I turned 35. 35 was the age I always felt growing up. It was a bitch at 13, I can tell you. Maybe that's just what being a 13 year old girl is like, I don't know. I thought when 35 felt right, that life would just go swimmingly. Ha! I never thought I would ever use that word "swimmingly"....anyhoo, it went all right for a while and then the calendar turned over to 2009.

I have never been a person who suffers from depression. Low self confidence, low self esteem, yes, but not depression. Today, all I have been able to think is maybe I do now. I have no idea. All I know is that today, I really don't give a damn. I feel like every one out there, friends included, don't really give a damn and why would they? I don't have an answer to that today. I really don't like this feeling at all.

How much fun am I today? None. I can usually talk myself out of the negative thoughts and the negative soundtrack that usually runs through my head. I can't today. I think the last 2 years are finally catching up with me. It sort of feels like I have been wandering through a fog all that time. Over that time, I thought, I should feel worse about this, but I didn't. I floated through. I don't like thinking that, it seems hollow and empty and I don't think I am that. Maybe I've just been paying too much attention to the bullshit that passes for our current society. I don't know. And today, I don't really care.

Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and wonder what the fuck I was thinking today. I hope so, but I will be preparing for the day to be just like this one. woohoo.

and the beat goes on....

I should have The Plum Line  on the side.....

Gitmo isn't open because the administration doesn't want to close it, although its efforts in this area are ripe for criticism. It's still open because Republicans in Congress successfully frightened Democrats in Congress out of giving the administration the necessary funds to close it when they had control of Congress. In the process, they've managed to obscure the original reason detainees were brought to Gitmo -- to keep them away from the scrutiny of the federal courts. Once the Supreme Court held that federal courts had jurisdiction and even habeas rights, the facility was useless for that purpose. Republicans are determined to keep it open not because we can't safely imprison terrorists in the U.S., but because they feel its ongoing presence vindicates Bush in the eyes of history.

sad, sad state of affairs....

My thoughts exactly......

He doesn't have to because we now live in a country where there is no penalty whatsoever for Conservatives who are grotesquely and serially wrong about matters of life and death. And so well-paid buffoons like Brooks have no incentive to learn the lessons of Iraq that other, less-privileged citizens have paid for with their lives. Instead, he and his ilk are left with their lives, fortunes and positions of power in American politics and media blissfully untouched, free to whitewash their failures over and over again, unmolested by the inconvenient realities of the pain and ruin they left in their wake.

read it here

if you think about it rationally, you know they are out there.....somewhere

the truth is out there.....

there are so many universes out there...it's more likely than not.

adding:

with all those universes out there....you really think we are the only ones?

I don't get it, it's my uterus...

I have the privilege to be reminded that this is someone’s life, not the New York Times Most Emailed Article. And it is an honor to be reminded. It makes me work harder. Being an abortion provider has meant that I drive home from work knowing I did something, actually everything in my power, to support people who needed it. It’s a privilege and it’s fucking awesome.

read the whole thing here

must read....

I can't remember the last time the political discourse made this little sense. We have Americans demanding action on job creation; we have congressional Republicans deliberately trying to make unemployment worse; and we have a media that prefers to pretend that the deficit matters more than the economy.

Can I get an amen? Go read the whole thing here.

must read....

The most casual participant in the political process knows exactly what they will get when they vote for and elect Tea Party types and the more extreme right Republicans in general. No, he never came out and said "Hey, I'm gonna ream you public employees so hard you won't walk right for years!" on the campaign trail. He might even have said a lot of sweet sounding things to the contrary. Only a voter lying to himself or completely ignorant of politics, however, would actually believe it. It's time to stop being angry with Scott Walker, which makes no more sense than being angry at a dog for barking and chasing cars. Instead, our anger is more fairly directed at the swing voters who decide American elections – the kind of mushy, ill-informed "independent" who would vote for him and then be shocked to learn how extreme his brand of governance is. People like Walker will continue to get elected so long as there are voters who are willfully ignorant of what candidates really stand for or so easily duped that a few sound bites can overwhelm all available evidence that the Governor-to-be supports an agenda of the kind of corporate cronyism and pathological hatred of government that defines people of his ideological stripes.

via Gin and Tacos

must read....

via Balloon Juice

I have never wavered from my view, expressed among other places in Blindside in 1995, that thanks to the almost incredible, if unnoticed, speed with which Japan has been building its lead in advanced manufacturing, the United States has been losing economic position faster than any Big Power since the implosion of the Ottoman empire a century ago. Nothing indeed has shaken my conviction that already by 2000, the United States had become an economic Potemkin village — a largely hollowed-out hulk whose eroding competitiveness was overlooked at the time merely because so many commentators, not least the ten highly influential observers on this invitation list, were busy proclaiming the myth of Japan’s economic oblivion.

Why Stephen Colbert Rules the Universe

Because everyone should see this at least once.....

life.....birthdays....family

My family got together for my mother's 79th birthday today. She enjoyed having all of her children and some of the grandkids around....and the cake. After the cake and ice cream, I took my niece (a very good artist) and her boyfriend to see the coolest picture that hangs in the local hospital. It was drawn by a 12th grader using white charcoal. I never remember to get a picture of it...old age sucks. Anyway, we found a really cool used CD and record store. We walked in and I heard this..... how freaking cool is that?! I know! I haven't heard Kix since, I couldn't even tell you when. I have the album on cassette and no cassette player. It's one of those you don't remember or can't find on CD to replace the collection. And when I log into itunes, I am usually looking for something specific and never browse. They also have a record store poster for American Idiot that will be mine next payday. :)

Mom has been home from the hospital for a week and seems to be getting stronger every day. It's much nicer with her at home. Thank you to everyone for the well wishes and good thoughts. Since she is home and we are getting back in the groove of normalcy, I should be back in blogging mode soon. I never realized how tiring it is when you have someone you love in the hospital. All the worry and driving....anyway, I'm glad it's done and my mother is on the mend.

this life like dream ain't for me

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. Unless your proposal includes a substantial increase in taxes and a substantial amount of cuts to the military budget as well as ending the farm subsidies and giveaways to big oil and big energy and big business, you can kindly just shut up about the deficit and the debt. Additionally, any cuts to entitlements need to include cuts to the CURRENT recipients, not grandfathering the boomers and then wondering why the cuts never materialize in the future.
If you aren’t going to do those things, just shut up. You aren’t serious.

John Cole

quotes....

via Steve Benen

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) of Alabama was asked on CNN this morning whether he considers that "a good start." He replied:

"No, it's not. This is a ten-year budget. It sets the president's plans and what the country should do for the next 10 years.... $1 trillion reduction is insignificant and does not get us off the right course."

I assume he meant to say "wrong course," but misspoke. Fine.
But literally two minutes later, in exact the same interview, Sessions reflected on House Republicans' proposed cuts.

"[E]ven the $100 billion House proposal in reducing spending will amount to $1 trillion. And that's a step. I mean, because, you carry it out for ten years and you save $1 trillion in that fashion."

Remember, Jeff Sessions is the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, so presumably he has some familiarity with these issues.


so yay for the American people.

quotes....

The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.
— Aldous Huxley

fuck. my. life.

today is one of those days when I just want to tell everyone to fuck off. and what good is having a blog if I can't do that? I did that once as my facebook status and some weenie (a friend of a friend) comes onto my wall and tells me I shouldn't use that kind of language. And since I didn't tell her then, fuck off. It's my goddamn wall and if I want to say fuck off to everybody, then I goddamn will. so to cheer me up I am posting this video....if you ever have one of these days, maybe it will help you too. and because there aren't any good versions of this live on youtube, you get the one with the words.....

"So I opened my door to my enemies and I ask could we wipe the slate clean? But they tell me to please go and fuck myself. You know you just can't win."

the people you meet online.....

In real life, I don't have a lot of friends. I have always kept a small circle of people whom I trust and tell my secrets to, it's the cancer in me I guess. It always amazes me when I look at my facebook friends list and see the friends I have made online. Sure, I have caught up with the obligatory high school and Page School friends, but there are those people whom I met during the 2008 election that mean the most to me.
During that election season I perused many sites to find out the latest news and info and in doing so found some of the many people, whom I have not met in real life, who have become my bestest friends. I have always been shy until I know someone, very quiet and reserved but still full of smart ass retorts. (I get that from my daddy and have a hard time holding that in). One of the places I frequented was Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome Blog. It's not called that anymore, Bob removed the "Goddamn" and I always still feel a pang of hurt when I go to his site and realize it's gone. Anyway, that's where I found people who were like me. They believed in the things I believe in. And the best part? They do snark very well. I wish I could do snark the way they do. It all seems so easy for them. Me? I never think of something snarky until 3 hours later.....such is my life. Anyhoo, they are all very smart and know policy and history and can snark....who wouldn't love friends like that?
There was a group of us at Cesca's who found a common thread and became friends. Hell, I only got on facebook because they had made up a Cesca group and I wanted in. For me, they were the 'cool' kids and damn if I wasn't going to be one too. I don't know what I bring to the table with them, except my smart ass ability (which sometimes doesn't travel well through the vacuum tubes), but they accepted me and have become some of the best people I have ever 'known' in my life.
There are a couple of others that I didn't meet through Cesca and one of those people inspired me to finally write up a blog. "That One" is Redshirt. I haven't been posting so much because my mother has been in the hospital for a while and I have been freaking out and feeling weird feelings and then Egypt distracted me for a while, but I just noticed that Redshirt had written is 1000th post. Congrats dude! While I was over there I noticed he has added my little blog of ramblings and disjointed thoughts on his blogroll. I can't tell you how wonderful and scared that makes me. I love Redshirt, if you couldn't tell, and I admire his blogging ability and all the snark and Star Wars and Star Trek you could ever want. And I don't know anyone else, other than me if I would've thought about it, who would post a pic from one of my favorite all time movies ever - Dogma. Buddy Jesus, Hell yeah!

So to all my friends I have met online, thank you. You have been there through the worst 2 years of my life and have comforted me and made me laugh. I hope I can give you just a fraction of the joy you bring me everyday. To those few from my real life who know me as Vera Lynn, thank you for keeping my secret and continuing to be my friend. And to Redshirt, thank you. Thank you for inspiring me to come out of my shell and spew forth my weird thoughts.

And seriously, I love George Carlin and Dogma and all, but a tat of it? Hell no.

wait....what?!

I really don't understand the faux news nutjob view of what happened in Egypt. How do supposed strong, real Murkens don't see what they are saying about liberty? I don't think they realize that what they think is 'freedom and liberty' really isn't. They have always said it should happen in the Middle East and it does and what do they do? Run like little girls saying you can't give people democracy and freedom...exactly what they want to do to this country. Maybe there is something to the flouride in the water conspiracy.....maybe it leaves some of us to be susceptible to seriously crazy things. It is breath-taking.

a wise woman once said....

I find it interesting when some Americans want this to be a country known as a particular religion nation, yet they don't want other countries to be a particular religion nation when they don't like that other religion. Hence, the point Freethinkers have been making since day one in America: nations do better when they don't try to govern from a religious agenda -- no matter what the religion.

There was a very good and just reason the founding fathers had the freedom of religion in the very First Bill in the Bill of Rights. They knew what would happen....I don't know if we are lazy or stupid, but why don't we know this? 

the very wise woman is jhw22, you can find her at Broadway Carl's.....here.

 

A Great Day for Freedom

For the people in Egypt and everyone around the world yearning to be free. And to all of us who remember what true freedom is. Not the 30 second soundbite or catch phrase Frank Luntz creates, but true freedom to pursue happiness.

And who better to put it into words and music than David Gilmour. Have I mentioned I love David Gilmour? I love him. I can't express in words what his guitar sounds like to my soul, I can only say that it does. More than anyone or anything else, the way he makes the piece of wood and string sing to soul is simply spiritual.
So please enjoy A Great Day for Freedom......

h/t to my wonderful friend cminri for reminding me.

some thoughts on Egypt.....

I was half listening to a gentleman on Anderson Cooper who said the most amazing thing regarding the protests going on in Egypt right now. He said that Egypt gave us Mohamed Atta  and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He said the Mubarak Administration and the torture of his rule is partially responsible for 9/11. And he's correct. I hadn't thought about it before, I had only thought of Saudi Arabia and the way they play both sides for fun or profit. If anyone knows who the guy on Anderson Cooper is, please post in the comments. I am too tired to google it and I've already turned the channel.

So if someone asks you why we, as Americans, should care and support the protesters...there's a pretty damn good reason right there.

in honor of our 40th President.....

The wonderful entire post is here.

But there are so many good parts that I am just going to post it in its entirety. And Bonus! you don't have to click. (but you should...see what's up over there, he is way more interesting and much more colorful.)

I give you how the Reagan years and how they actually were. (for those of you who didn't live through it, you need to know because the corporate and right wing media outlets and propaganda machines don't want you to know. You really should google some papers during those years.)

6/06/2004

Dead President:
This is not going to be one of the many "let’s-be-kind-to-the-dead-Alzheimer’s-ridden-wrinkled-guy" panegyrics the "liberal" media has been trotting out for the last day and a half. This is not an attempt to find a silver lining in the ruination, the waste lain by the presidency of Reagan. We will not be saying that "Reagan loved dogs." No, this is nothing like that. This is going to be a "rip that saggy-necked cocksucker out of his coffin and skullfuck him until his eyes roll out into the street" kind of thing.

Ronald Reagan was the worst kind of evil, the kind that wears the mask of goodness and morality. He was like the affable grandfather who loved molesting his grandkids. Oh, how Grandpa smiled when he fondled us. Damn, how we didn't mind the finger-fuckings, how we didn’t care how many psychic scars Grandpa left us with as long as Grandpa smiled at us, said he loved us, and gave us candy to keep us quiet. But, Jesus Christ, how we must live with those barely repressed wounds, the damage that afflicts every step we take.

This country, this world will never get over the destruction wrought by this man. Practically every awful thing going on in this country can be traced, in one way or another, to Reagan. Soldiers are dying in Iraq right now because of this man, because of his insane support for dictators, for turning a blind eye to genocide and madness. A decade behind in AIDS research? The power of the religious right in making public policy? The war on feminism? We're just scratchin' the surface of the repeated rapings of this country by Reagan's re-defining conservatism to the right, which dragged the rest of the nation, the rest of the political spectrum with it. He made liberal a dirty word. He opened the regulatory books for industries to rewrite them in their image. He presided over the other greatest intelligence failure, when we "missed" the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union. And we're not even talkin' yet about Iran-Contra, the second part of the Republican trifecta of massive abuse of power (Watergate being first, and the Iraq war being third). Reagan was a goddamned cancer, but he could sell it, like an old time preacher, with a twinkle in his eye and a promise of greater days tomorrow; he was like a suave Greek pimp who will sell you a syphilitic Turkish whore - sure, you'll get your rocks off, but, oh, how you'll pay, motherfucker, oh, how you'll pay.

Let’s focus in on one thing: poverty. Reagan shifted the conversation on poverty, as he did with so many things, away from economics and the vicissitudes of capitalism and towards a 19th century notion of morality. The poor were, in Reagan’s view, more easily tempted into immorality. They were "welfare queens" who exploited the good-heartedness of the government and the populace in general. Indeed, the whole debate about welfare never escaped from Reagan's enormous racist lie of the welfare queen because it was a story that comforted so many middle class white people, allowed them to abandon any pretense of wanting to correct past wrongs.

Let's narrow even further, to one bill. In his first budget, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, Reagan stripped away the ability of the working poor to transition off welfare, taking 100% of their income out of their welfare payments. Previously, the standard had been the 30 and a third rule – subtract the first $30 and 1/3 of income in order to wean the working poor off the government teat. The OBRA cut food stamps, Medicaid, and child care. It reduced or eliminated spending on prenatal, maternal, and child health care, school lunch programs, and day care, as well as eliminating Aid to Families with Dependent Children for some families. Sixty percent of cuts in federal entitlements were on programs to poor: AFDC was cut by $1 billion, Medicaid by $500 million, and food stamps by $700 million, erasing 875,000 people from the food stamp program. Because of these cuts, a working poor family of three had less income than one who stayed on AFDC. Much of this was directed at women, where Reagan sought to roll back the feminist movement through governmental tough love. "There you go, bitches, wallow in the filth of my philosophy," he was saying.

Here’s the evil part: this was done to offset huge tax cuts. Here’s the extra evil part: the tough love didn’t work. More people ended up on welfare (not cruelly disappeared from the welfare rolls as under Clinton’s welfare "reform"). The cuts for fiscal 1982, which totaled $35.2 billion, also affected disability benefits, subsidized housing, unemployment insurance, student loans, Pell grants, impacted areas aid, medical education, sewer grants, postal subsidies, trade adjustment assistance, small business loans, mass transit systems, highway funds, and more. Much of the spending was shifted to the states, as if that was somehow a greater good. The end result was to put a stake in the heart of the War on Poverty, effectively negating the role of the poor in national politics, who couldn't mobilize if they had to work two or three jobs in order to put food on the table, shifting so much of the social concerns of the government to the middle class. Welfare rolls grew while unemployment fell. And the seeds of the distance between rich and poor were sowed, and their vines bear fruit each year after.

Remember: this is one bill. One action. At the beginning of his presidency. With nearly eight years to go. Eight years where he smiled at us, regaling us with "common people" stories that comforted us amid the inferno.

Did he know what he was doing? Was Reagan a puppet? Of course he was, and by the end of his presidency, when he had descended into Woodrow Wilson-like levels of uselessness, he was merely a wax dummy. But if one surrounds oneself with cruel and evil people, if one listens to their counsel and signs off on their ideology, then, puppet or not, one is part and parcel of the evil that they do. He dumbed down the Presidency by making his ignorance into an asset; without him, there would be no George W. Bush for we could not begin to think that so slouching a human would be the person we say represents us all. Reagan made us think that this is what the presidency is: a summation of men (and women) and their ideology, not a man unto himself.

The final fuckin' joke is that because Reagan got to disappear into the clouds of his diseased brain, functioning only as a conveyer between tubes that fed him and tubes that removed his piss (with the shit-ridden diaper thrown in for good effect), he never had to see what he had done. He never got to look down from that shining city on a hill, the bullshit chimera of a nation that would never exist, and see the shards of the shattered country he left behind.

Or maybe, gasping his last, the Alzheimer's clouds parted and Reagan had a moment of clarity, a moment when he at last grasped the enormity of his blithe cruelty; maybe he understood the stunning, horrible, Christ-forsaken abandonment of the poor, the weak, the beaten down, the tossing aside of every "ideal" of uplifting the people in his maniacal pursuits of putting down the lid on the piss-stained toilet of Soviet communism and of tearing the condom off the cock of capitalism so that it infects us all with "free trade." When Lee Atwater, mentor to Karl Rove and one of the gurus of Reagan and then Bush I's campaigns, was dying of brain cancer, he had such an epiphany about the world he helped to create. He called the umitigated greed of the Reagan/Bush era a "spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul." Would that we all get such Kurtzian moments of realizing the horror.

Reagan's dead. Fuck him. Fuck Nancy. Fuck the 1980s. Fuck all the tributes that are going on for the next week while his putrid corpse criss-crosses the nation he helped desiccate. Christ, put that fucker in a hole and let's get on with it, with the neverending work of righting the legion of wrongs he did to us all, a legacy rife with its Rumsfelds, Cheneys, and Bushes.

And when Reagan’s finally quivering in the cold, cold ground, waiting for demons to tear his soul into bite-sized pieces so he can feel thousands of hells at once, the Rude Pundit will dance, dance, dance, grotesquely, madly, on the still shifting dirt of his grave.

The Rude Pundit

Everything we are facing today, who we are as a people come from St Ronnie. The worst thing? Allowing the wall of separation between the government and religion to become blurred. It allowed the self righteous,the theocratic, and I don't want to be mean, and the fanatical to the point of madness that I don't understand which makes me fear for our way of life. The one true fear this country should be concentrating on and trying to fix is being perpetuated by one party in our two party system. They think murdering Doctors who perform abortion, in any and all cases, is what god wants. How do we deal with such fanaticism? And where did this start? It started with Nixon's paranoia and then St Ronnie just knew he could sell it to the American people. And he did. whatever force there is out there, fate...destiny.....god....the randomness of the universe.....please let us find a way off this path before we all go off a cliff.