Slacker Santa
I have been remiss in my daily chores. Some catching up to do.
From Santa-morphisis, Dec 25—Dec 31, 2001
Dec 25, 2001
I said I would write all day and I did not. How could I when . . . well, no excuses. Memorable pictures:
Joy’s great smile and loving words.
Anthony’s face, making visual music.
The normally grumpy people smiling.
The usually grumpy being OK.
The sometimes grumpy being a little grumpy, then smiling.
The always angelic at their angelic best.
The generous, the all so generous.
My feisty friend Scotty being his feisty, though merry, self.
It is evening. Santa has gone dormant. Only New Year's remains.
Dec 26, 2001
Mary and I have taken to sleeping in this week. Rousing slowly with coffee, books, and TV movies. It has been a long time since I stayed upstairs until after eleven in the morning.
Walked with Mom today. Visited with others at her place.
To The Tea House. Walked around the new square. Back home for reading. Tim O’Brien’s Tomcat in Love.
Candies and cordials with Joy, Pat, Raina, Jeffrey, and Robin. Then poker. Seven people playing poker. Maybe three actually know how. Dumped a bunch of change on the table and we all dug in.
Santa is melting away. All that is left is the beard, and . . . Remembering how kindness works. Just say kind things, do kind things. Redefine and refine love over a lifetime.
December 27, 28, & 29, 2001
Trimming my beard I asked my self, OK, who are you now? In some ways I still think I am Santa Clause but mostly I think I am not, at least until next year. People still call me Santa out there, on the golf course, at my Mother’s place.
Mary and I have enjoyed sleeping in. It is almost eleven and I am just getting to this. Finished Tomcat in Love, fourth novel by Tim O’Brien for me. A funny, funny book.
This is the year of September Eleventh. The economy is bad, worse than it has been in maybe a decade or more. People are losing sleep. People are depressed.
Dec 30, 2001
When did Santa Claus begin? When was he born? I think it was November tenth, after a few days of beard growth, whimsically seeing myself in a red suit, with fluted white French cuffs and some sort of fancy white lapels. I think I thought of doing this last year but did not do anything. Nobody writes anything in their mind, nobody designs anything in their mind, either. Sit down and draw. Or buy a pattern and see a tailor.
Dec 31, 2001
Significant beginnings to the past year: By January I was making monthly trips to Florida to help my sisters take care of Mom, working with Mary on ad projects, and playing a lot of golf the rest of the time. Now Mom is in assisted living, a mile or two from my house. My sisters visit regularly.
Went to Mom’s with Mary. As we walked Mom around the building, she slipped from my grip on her gait belt and fell half-way to the floor attempting to sit in her wheel chair. She assured me she was not hurt.
Came home to a nice family, kidding around, lots of that. Warmed it all up with a fire from wood I collected myself about a year ago at the golf course.
Look at Santa, driving the beverage cart with a wreath on front, across the golf course, selling soft drinks, beer, and snacks. Part of the landscape of Christmas, at least around here. There he goes at the big country club party. Taking pictures with everybody. There he goes to the day care centers, the old folks home, the mall with his son and friends, the UPS store, the company parties, the exercise group party. There he is sitting in his front yard waving at passersby. At the convenience store hugging everybody, including the man on the ladder changing a light bulb. Calling Mellow Mushroom for a pizza for Santa and picking it up. “I told you! I told you he would come! I knew it was Santa on the phone!”
There you have it; dancing with hundred-year-old women, ninety, eighty. And dancing with my mother down the hall with her walker and gait belt in place. And dancing and playing as if my heart has never been broken, like I don’t need the money, like nobody is watching. (The “like nobody is watching” part is hard to pull off when you’re in a Santa suit.)
Friday, December 24, 2004
A little Santa in us all
Santa-morphisis
From December 24, 2001
Yesterday, Mom comments: “Oh no, you’re not wearing that damn thing again, are you?”
Today when Santa walked into her room at Plantation South to pick her up for our annual party, Oh, no, not again. In the car: Why are you wearing that suit again.
What else would Santa wear on Christmas Eve? Besides, don’t forget, you’re my mother; you’re the one who got me into believing in Santa in the first place.
“You didn’t even notice my new hairdo,” she said. Oh yeah, it looks nice, Mom.
“When are you going to stop wearing that outfit?” It’s Christmas. Don’t you like me in my Santa suit?
“I just want to see you in normal clothes. You’re embarrassing me.”
Santa has baggage, a sack full of gifts. People shouldn’t take them elves so seriously. Santa has a mother and father, sisters and brothers, like anybody else.
From my friend, Mark:
Thanks to the Sicilian Santa for spreading Sopranos-like holiday good
cheer to all of us! Shane won't stop talking about Santa Claus and his
personalized visit to "Shane's house." In all seriousness, it meant so much to Lisa and me to get all you guys together and catch up with everyone. We need to do more of that going forward. Again, appreciate everyone's taking the time out during the holidays to get together with us -- it meant a lot.
--Mark
Dear Mark,
We're all Santa. Thanks for the kind note.
I played golf today, 24 holes, in the Santa rig; played pretty well. The suit made me swing within myself, I guess. Some creep hit into us on the 11th hole and I tossed his ball into the woods. Bad Santa.
Love, SC
Santa-morphisis
From December 24, 2001
Yesterday, Mom comments: “Oh no, you’re not wearing that damn thing again, are you?”
Today when Santa walked into her room at Plantation South to pick her up for our annual party, Oh, no, not again. In the car: Why are you wearing that suit again.
What else would Santa wear on Christmas Eve? Besides, don’t forget, you’re my mother; you’re the one who got me into believing in Santa in the first place.
“You didn’t even notice my new hairdo,” she said. Oh yeah, it looks nice, Mom.
“When are you going to stop wearing that outfit?” It’s Christmas. Don’t you like me in my Santa suit?
“I just want to see you in normal clothes. You’re embarrassing me.”
Santa has baggage, a sack full of gifts. People shouldn’t take them elves so seriously. Santa has a mother and father, sisters and brothers, like anybody else.
From my friend, Mark:
Thanks to the Sicilian Santa for spreading Sopranos-like holiday good
cheer to all of us! Shane won't stop talking about Santa Claus and his
personalized visit to "Shane's house." In all seriousness, it meant so much to Lisa and me to get all you guys together and catch up with everyone. We need to do more of that going forward. Again, appreciate everyone's taking the time out during the holidays to get together with us -- it meant a lot.
--Mark
Dear Mark,
We're all Santa. Thanks for the kind note.
I played golf today, 24 holes, in the Santa rig; played pretty well. The suit made me swing within myself, I guess. Some creep hit into us on the 11th hole and I tossed his ball into the woods. Bad Santa.
Love, SC
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Santa dancing
Santa-morphisis
From December 13, 2001
“Work like you don’t need the money, dance like nobody’s watching.” Somebody sent me that line, without credit.
Lilly turned 100 recently. She wore glasses like welders use when cutting metal with a blowtorch. Santa is at the Plantation South holiday party, dancing with Lilly. Walking with Lilly was dancing with Lilly. “I’m a hundred years old. It’s a miracle,” she laughed as we walked somewhere in the direction of her room “Oh, God bless you, thank you Santa.”
Dancing with Martha. What a fine dancer she is at, oh, eighty-something. I looked down, Martha’s face looking for me to lead her on, looking around the room at the faces of all those ladies, Mother included, all the faces of those on staff I’ve come to know. Santa was on staff today.
I lifted my head, watched the balloons dancing on the ceiling, the clouds dancing through the high windows. The sense of the heights of human spirit danced all around us. I looked across the room again, just to check. Sure enough only Martha and I are still dancing. The dancing of the others is all in their faces. Betty laughed. “You made Betty laugh. She’s never laughed,” somebody said.
Dancing with Winnie, ninety-something. “You know, Saturday nights I used to buck dance when I was a girl.” Exactly what is buck dancing, Winnie? is it like square dancing? “Why, yes! It is square dancing! You should have seen it. We would move my bed against the wall and make enough room for the boys to come in and we’d buck and dance. Oh My! You should have seen me then!” My head up, my smile pointing at two corners of the room. “And you know? some boy would always end up hiding under my bed until late at night!” Oh Winnie!
Mary and I carry sixty presents to sixty rooms. HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas! It’s Santa. May I come in? Sweet, old, tiny Eugenia one of my all-time favorites, was a concert pianist once. Well preserved for eighty or more, wanted to make sure she got her kiss from Santa and she got it.
In Lilly’s room. She sat in her special chair with the built-in table. Very fine old furniture in the room, old white oak with carved ornamentation on the dresser drawers, like garland.
“You have to see . . . where is it?” What, Lilly? “It was right there.” She pushes the table aside and slowly gets up. Walks over to the dresser. “It was right on here.” She goes to her walker. Oh, look, I say to Mary. There is a candy cane dressed like Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer attached to the front of her walker. We all began singing that song. “Yeah, that’s right,” Lilly said, then gave us a big knee-slapping laugh.
I wonder how Mom felt about having her own personal Santa among all of her newfound friends at Plantation South.
Lynnita is a great friend of ours. Santa didn’t make it to Lynnita’s Mother. She passed away before we could arrange the visit. Today is the wake. Tomorrow is the service at Flipper Temple, near the campus of Morris Brown University, Atlanta. Could I have been her personal Santa? What would she have asked for and could the gift be possible?
(Excerpts from my journal, Santa-morphisis, from the 2001 holiday season, all entries copyright Tom Todaro, 2004. Santa-morphisis is in the trademark process. So don't even think about it. Wink.)
Santa-morphisis
From December 13, 2001
“Work like you don’t need the money, dance like nobody’s watching.” Somebody sent me that line, without credit.
Lilly turned 100 recently. She wore glasses like welders use when cutting metal with a blowtorch. Santa is at the Plantation South holiday party, dancing with Lilly. Walking with Lilly was dancing with Lilly. “I’m a hundred years old. It’s a miracle,” she laughed as we walked somewhere in the direction of her room “Oh, God bless you, thank you Santa.”
Dancing with Martha. What a fine dancer she is at, oh, eighty-something. I looked down, Martha’s face looking for me to lead her on, looking around the room at the faces of all those ladies, Mother included, all the faces of those on staff I’ve come to know. Santa was on staff today.
I lifted my head, watched the balloons dancing on the ceiling, the clouds dancing through the high windows. The sense of the heights of human spirit danced all around us. I looked across the room again, just to check. Sure enough only Martha and I are still dancing. The dancing of the others is all in their faces. Betty laughed. “You made Betty laugh. She’s never laughed,” somebody said.
Dancing with Winnie, ninety-something. “You know, Saturday nights I used to buck dance when I was a girl.” Exactly what is buck dancing, Winnie? is it like square dancing? “Why, yes! It is square dancing! You should have seen it. We would move my bed against the wall and make enough room for the boys to come in and we’d buck and dance. Oh My! You should have seen me then!” My head up, my smile pointing at two corners of the room. “And you know? some boy would always end up hiding under my bed until late at night!” Oh Winnie!
Mary and I carry sixty presents to sixty rooms. HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas! It’s Santa. May I come in? Sweet, old, tiny Eugenia one of my all-time favorites, was a concert pianist once. Well preserved for eighty or more, wanted to make sure she got her kiss from Santa and she got it.
In Lilly’s room. She sat in her special chair with the built-in table. Very fine old furniture in the room, old white oak with carved ornamentation on the dresser drawers, like garland.
“You have to see . . . where is it?” What, Lilly? “It was right there.” She pushes the table aside and slowly gets up. Walks over to the dresser. “It was right on here.” She goes to her walker. Oh, look, I say to Mary. There is a candy cane dressed like Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer attached to the front of her walker. We all began singing that song. “Yeah, that’s right,” Lilly said, then gave us a big knee-slapping laugh.
I wonder how Mom felt about having her own personal Santa among all of her newfound friends at Plantation South.
Lynnita is a great friend of ours. Santa didn’t make it to Lynnita’s Mother. She passed away before we could arrange the visit. Today is the wake. Tomorrow is the service at Flipper Temple, near the campus of Morris Brown University, Atlanta. Could I have been her personal Santa? What would she have asked for and could the gift be possible?
(Excerpts from my journal, Santa-morphisis, from the 2001 holiday season, all entries copyright Tom Todaro, 2004. Santa-morphisis is in the trademark process. So don't even think about it. Wink.)
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Sheltering Arms
From Santa-morphisis, Christmas 2001
I read one of Joy’s student essays today about maturity. It must be the best of its kind.
This from a girl I coddled and nurtured and cared for and love so dearly. This from a girl I’ve known from her first cry, a face I will never forget. This from a girl whose father became a peculiar kind of Santa somewhere along the way, a girl just skeptical enough, maybe a bit more, with equal amounts of innocence, better equipped than most to use it all to it’s fullest.
Mrs. Claus and I picked up some treats at the drug store and were off to Sheltering Arms a non-profit organization providing daycare for fifty-six children of families with low incomes. I could see the kids in the window when we drove up. I could hear them yelling, Santa! Santa! My blood began pumping fast.
Inside, the assistant director gave me a bag for each class. First was a group of one-year-olds. Some were excited. Some were dumbfounded. Some were afraid. One little girl stayed near the far corner and didn’t move the whole time I was there.
From small voices I could determine that most of the girls wanted either Barbie Dolls or a baby dolls. And a car. Most of the boys wanted a motorbike and a car. And Power Rangers. Jamal had a yellow bubble in one nostril. He was dressed in a red sweatshirt and tiny jeans. I gave a little brown bag to each child. Two girls were named Sidney. The bags had little knit caps and knit mittens in them, white and lavender for the girls, black and brown for the boys.
Mrs. Claus led us all in a chorus of “Jingle Bells,” then “Here Comes Santa Claus," when we discovered we’d better stick with the songs to which we knew at least a majority of the words. Mrs. Claus was especially helpful with that.
We took pictures in large groups. And small groups. And with just one or two kids on my lap. A mother of one of the three-year-olds took most of the pictures.
One kid lifted my jacket and stuck his head under it. They asked me many questions, You the real Santa? Yes. Where are your reindeer? At the farm getting fed. The children were the stars of the show and I fell in love fifty-six times.
Miracle had pierced ears. She sat on the teacher’s knee. Quentin sat on the other knee. He had long curly black hair. They clung to their teacher all the while Santa talked with the other boys and girls; while the pictures were snapped, the wishes expressed, the songs sang.
Miracle finally sat on one of my knees. She wants a Barbie doll and a car. She has this down by now. What a cool name, I said, Miracle. She really is a miracle, somebody said, nobody told me why.
The twin girls with Downs Syndrome; so pretty. One wore a purple crushed velvet dress.
The little senses of self. The insecure, vying and jockeying for position with Santa. The ever so shy. McKenzie had to be brought to me and placed on my lap. While I began speaking with her, her teacher told her, It’s all right, holding one of McKenzie’s hands. I told her it would be OK and she let the hand slip. McKenzie gave me her Barbie and car wishes very quietly. She stayed on my lap while group pictures were taken. She asked for at least two hugs, maybe three, before I left the group to go on to the next.
Things I said were sometimes awkward to me. You will get lots of presents. And your parents have worked hard for your presents. One kid said, We don’t have any presents.
I went to Agnes Scott College to bring Joy home for the break, the third time Santa appeared there this season. I stayed by the dorm door and shuffled Joy’s luggage to the car. Joy and her roommate were mildly amused. (Daddy, why’d you have to wear that suit again?)
From Santa-morphisis, Christmas 2001
I read one of Joy’s student essays today about maturity. It must be the best of its kind.
This from a girl I coddled and nurtured and cared for and love so dearly. This from a girl I’ve known from her first cry, a face I will never forget. This from a girl whose father became a peculiar kind of Santa somewhere along the way, a girl just skeptical enough, maybe a bit more, with equal amounts of innocence, better equipped than most to use it all to it’s fullest.
Mrs. Claus and I picked up some treats at the drug store and were off to Sheltering Arms a non-profit organization providing daycare for fifty-six children of families with low incomes. I could see the kids in the window when we drove up. I could hear them yelling, Santa! Santa! My blood began pumping fast.
Inside, the assistant director gave me a bag for each class. First was a group of one-year-olds. Some were excited. Some were dumbfounded. Some were afraid. One little girl stayed near the far corner and didn’t move the whole time I was there.
From small voices I could determine that most of the girls wanted either Barbie Dolls or a baby dolls. And a car. Most of the boys wanted a motorbike and a car. And Power Rangers. Jamal had a yellow bubble in one nostril. He was dressed in a red sweatshirt and tiny jeans. I gave a little brown bag to each child. Two girls were named Sidney. The bags had little knit caps and knit mittens in them, white and lavender for the girls, black and brown for the boys.
Mrs. Claus led us all in a chorus of “Jingle Bells,” then “Here Comes Santa Claus," when we discovered we’d better stick with the songs to which we knew at least a majority of the words. Mrs. Claus was especially helpful with that.
We took pictures in large groups. And small groups. And with just one or two kids on my lap. A mother of one of the three-year-olds took most of the pictures.
One kid lifted my jacket and stuck his head under it. They asked me many questions, You the real Santa? Yes. Where are your reindeer? At the farm getting fed. The children were the stars of the show and I fell in love fifty-six times.
Miracle had pierced ears. She sat on the teacher’s knee. Quentin sat on the other knee. He had long curly black hair. They clung to their teacher all the while Santa talked with the other boys and girls; while the pictures were snapped, the wishes expressed, the songs sang.
Miracle finally sat on one of my knees. She wants a Barbie doll and a car. She has this down by now. What a cool name, I said, Miracle. She really is a miracle, somebody said, nobody told me why.
The twin girls with Downs Syndrome; so pretty. One wore a purple crushed velvet dress.
The little senses of self. The insecure, vying and jockeying for position with Santa. The ever so shy. McKenzie had to be brought to me and placed on my lap. While I began speaking with her, her teacher told her, It’s all right, holding one of McKenzie’s hands. I told her it would be OK and she let the hand slip. McKenzie gave me her Barbie and car wishes very quietly. She stayed on my lap while group pictures were taken. She asked for at least two hugs, maybe three, before I left the group to go on to the next.
Things I said were sometimes awkward to me. You will get lots of presents. And your parents have worked hard for your presents. One kid said, We don’t have any presents.
I went to Agnes Scott College to bring Joy home for the break, the third time Santa appeared there this season. I stayed by the dorm door and shuffled Joy’s luggage to the car. Joy and her roommate were mildly amused. (Daddy, why’d you have to wear that suit again?)
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
From Santa-morphisis
I decided to become Santa Claus for Christmas 2001. I had a suit custom made from a pattern of deep-burgundy satin, Sherpa (looks like white fur), belt, faux-boot shoe covers.
Mary and I made many appearances at subsidized childcare centers, a folk art gallery, the golf course, my mother’s assisted living home, a few parties, and sometimes I just wore the suit to go shopping.
Anthony was eighteen. One day near Christmas, he and a few of his friends were hanging around the house. I suggested they take Santa to the mall. We had a few stops to make on the way, first the UPS store. Here’s that excerpt from my “Santa-morphisis Journal,” being the Santa.
The Elves were all over the place. Playing with the toy UPS trucks, messing with the mailing supplies, trying to climb into the big package slot.
When I got on line I was behind a yuppie woman and her little girl. Both were dressed in red. They guy behind me said, “I don’t know about your choice of red, Santa.” I turned around and said, Check your history of Santa couture, buddy, article in Sunday’s NYT.
Then the little girl started in on me.
“You’re not the real Santa.”
“Why, yes I am dear.”
“No you’re not.”
Yes I am.’
‘No you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
A lull.
“You’re not the real Santa.”
“Yes, I am honey.”
“The real Santa came to our clubhouse.”
“Your clubhouse?”
“No, you’re not the real Santa.”
“Yes I am.”
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
A lull
“You’re not the real Santa.”
“Yes I am.”
And this continued.
“Your name wouldn’t be Virginia,” I said.
“No.”
Her mother muttered something like, Santa wouldn’t say anything like that.
I didn’t think she could be Virginia. Virginia would have believed.
Off to Plantation South assisted living to deliver the Christmas gift for the staff from Mom. With the Elves in tow, sweeping the cookie basket as we pass through the ice cream parlor/beauty shop corridor. On to Mom’s room as I introduce my Elves and kiss Mom, hand her a card that came in my mail. Off to the Mall.
Ah, the possibilities. Waving, Ho-ing, hugging, posing for pictures with people randomly. Photo in front of Frederick’s of Hollywood. Santa at the mall. The Elves and I schemed and schemed. Hmmm . . . how about a picture of Santa with Santa? Over Japanese food the boys considered chipping in for the picture. They would never let us just shoot a snapshot. I was skittish about even going near the Santa picture set. I was afraid of being kicked out, or worse.
More pictures. Two female police officers and me. No they were not arresting me. Shot of us with three girls the Elves know from school. Shot of a high school theater diva, her boyfriend, and Santa.
Did get close enough to the Santa set to see the minimum was twenty bucks. The Elves passed on paying the tab for the picture, scooted off to work, shopping and hijinks.
Santa retired to the bar. Picture of Santa and bartender behind the bar. Played Trivial Pursuit with some patrons. Santa kicked butt.
All had a merry time.
Off to Sheltering Arms day care tomorrow.
(Photos available soon.)
The shortest day of the year
Winter in North Georgia is usually mild with abundant sunshine. The birdbath stayed frozen all day yesterday. Spent about an hour splitting firewood from a tree Anthony and I had to cut down last spring.
I decided to become Santa Claus for Christmas 2001. I had a suit custom made from a pattern of deep-burgundy satin, Sherpa (looks like white fur), belt, faux-boot shoe covers.
Mary and I made many appearances at subsidized childcare centers, a folk art gallery, the golf course, my mother’s assisted living home, a few parties, and sometimes I just wore the suit to go shopping.
Anthony was eighteen. One day near Christmas, he and a few of his friends were hanging around the house. I suggested they take Santa to the mall. We had a few stops to make on the way, first the UPS store. Here’s that excerpt from my “Santa-morphisis Journal,” being the Santa.
The Elves were all over the place. Playing with the toy UPS trucks, messing with the mailing supplies, trying to climb into the big package slot.
When I got on line I was behind a yuppie woman and her little girl. Both were dressed in red. They guy behind me said, “I don’t know about your choice of red, Santa.” I turned around and said, Check your history of Santa couture, buddy, article in Sunday’s NYT.
Then the little girl started in on me.
“You’re not the real Santa.”
“Why, yes I am dear.”
“No you’re not.”
Yes I am.’
‘No you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
A lull.
“You’re not the real Santa.”
“Yes, I am honey.”
“The real Santa came to our clubhouse.”
“Your clubhouse?”
“No, you’re not the real Santa.”
“Yes I am.”
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
A lull
“You’re not the real Santa.”
“Yes I am.”
And this continued.
“Your name wouldn’t be Virginia,” I said.
“No.”
Her mother muttered something like, Santa wouldn’t say anything like that.
I didn’t think she could be Virginia. Virginia would have believed.
Off to Plantation South assisted living to deliver the Christmas gift for the staff from Mom. With the Elves in tow, sweeping the cookie basket as we pass through the ice cream parlor/beauty shop corridor. On to Mom’s room as I introduce my Elves and kiss Mom, hand her a card that came in my mail. Off to the Mall.
Ah, the possibilities. Waving, Ho-ing, hugging, posing for pictures with people randomly. Photo in front of Frederick’s of Hollywood. Santa at the mall. The Elves and I schemed and schemed. Hmmm . . . how about a picture of Santa with Santa? Over Japanese food the boys considered chipping in for the picture. They would never let us just shoot a snapshot. I was skittish about even going near the Santa picture set. I was afraid of being kicked out, or worse.
More pictures. Two female police officers and me. No they were not arresting me. Shot of us with three girls the Elves know from school. Shot of a high school theater diva, her boyfriend, and Santa.
Did get close enough to the Santa set to see the minimum was twenty bucks. The Elves passed on paying the tab for the picture, scooted off to work, shopping and hijinks.
Santa retired to the bar. Picture of Santa and bartender behind the bar. Played Trivial Pursuit with some patrons. Santa kicked butt.
All had a merry time.
Off to Sheltering Arms day care tomorrow.
(Photos available soon.)
The shortest day of the year
Winter in North Georgia is usually mild with abundant sunshine. The birdbath stayed frozen all day yesterday. Spent about an hour splitting firewood from a tree Anthony and I had to cut down last spring.
Monday, December 20, 2004
W, Time’s Man of the Year
Good choice, Time, Inc. I think Richard Clarke would have been good, too, or Al Franken, maybe Osama bin Laden (was he considered again?); Thomas Friedman would have been an excellent consideration, maybe some of them leaders who are screwing up the party in Iraq, making a difference for years and years to come.
But since W changed the way we elect our leaders, through fantasy, I think he is the man, cowboy of the year maybe? Mini Me-man of the year with a side of Dick “go fuck yourself” Cheney?
“The first TIME poll since the election has his approval rating at 49%. Gallup has it at 53%, which doesn't sound bad unless you consider that it's the lowest December rating for a re-elected President in Gallup's history,” says Time Magazine.
There are, after all, the best of Time’s and worst of Time’s in this “person of the year business.”
Good choice, Time, Inc. I think Richard Clarke would have been good, too, or Al Franken, maybe Osama bin Laden (was he considered again?); Thomas Friedman would have been an excellent consideration, maybe some of them leaders who are screwing up the party in Iraq, making a difference for years and years to come.
But since W changed the way we elect our leaders, through fantasy, I think he is the man, cowboy of the year maybe? Mini Me-man of the year with a side of Dick “go fuck yourself” Cheney?
“The first TIME poll since the election has his approval rating at 49%. Gallup has it at 53%, which doesn't sound bad unless you consider that it's the lowest December rating for a re-elected President in Gallup's history,” says Time Magazine.
There are, after all, the best of Time’s and worst of Time’s in this “person of the year business.”
Sunday, December 19, 2004
The pharmaceutical industry "Florence
Nightingales" and how they screw us
“The more he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
--Nathaniel Hawthorne
There is much grumbling going on in the drug business and in the financial markets. These audacious scum formulators will be picking your pockets with renewed vigor after Celebrex and its financial following took a dive this week. They shouldn’t have much to worry about, having bought a huge insurance policy from Bush Unlimited and his cadre of “good guys around him.”
Pfizer is caught in bogus trials; the FDA is once again exposed as an accomplice to corporate crime in the ostensible mission of keeping the people safe and healthy. Celebrex can kill you? So what, that’s better than pulling it off the market and opening up litigation. Sell, sell, sell. Who cares? Bush Unlimited will soon strike down all lawsuits as “frivolous” (but you killed my daddy!). Heartbreaking, isn’t it?
Are these drug-industry quack scientists Christian values voters and Bush Unlimited contributors? Then how does that explain billions of dollars in hard-on ads aired in prime time? You know, the ads with necked women in bathtubs luring daddy over for quickie. Or couples at bars with voiceovers, When the urge may strike (should throw a condom rift into the copy here, don’t you think?) These guys took the cure and now they can get it up! What hogwash. Look at the models. They’re young and beautiful. They probably need saltpeter just to shoot the damn spots. They need “the cure” for limpdick about as much my son, and he’s twenty-one.
Now the $500 billion industry is crying in its formula because they aren’t coming out with new drugs (profits makers) so they’re trying to push existing drugs on doctors who wish they’d go away and on patients who don’t need them.
Keep counting the flatware, folks.
Brrrrrr!
The first arctic wave should be here by tonight. Temperatures in the teens with twenty to thirty mph winds = zero and below. The kids’ gas bill went from $45 to $145 in the past month. I was over there showing them ways to seal windows, cut the usage.
Nightingales" and how they screw us
“The more he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
--Nathaniel Hawthorne
There is much grumbling going on in the drug business and in the financial markets. These audacious scum formulators will be picking your pockets with renewed vigor after Celebrex and its financial following took a dive this week. They shouldn’t have much to worry about, having bought a huge insurance policy from Bush Unlimited and his cadre of “good guys around him.”
Pfizer is caught in bogus trials; the FDA is once again exposed as an accomplice to corporate crime in the ostensible mission of keeping the people safe and healthy. Celebrex can kill you? So what, that’s better than pulling it off the market and opening up litigation. Sell, sell, sell. Who cares? Bush Unlimited will soon strike down all lawsuits as “frivolous” (but you killed my daddy!). Heartbreaking, isn’t it?
Are these drug-industry quack scientists Christian values voters and Bush Unlimited contributors? Then how does that explain billions of dollars in hard-on ads aired in prime time? You know, the ads with necked women in bathtubs luring daddy over for quickie. Or couples at bars with voiceovers, When the urge may strike (should throw a condom rift into the copy here, don’t you think?) These guys took the cure and now they can get it up! What hogwash. Look at the models. They’re young and beautiful. They probably need saltpeter just to shoot the damn spots. They need “the cure” for limpdick about as much my son, and he’s twenty-one.
Now the $500 billion industry is crying in its formula because they aren’t coming out with new drugs (profits makers) so they’re trying to push existing drugs on doctors who wish they’d go away and on patients who don’t need them.
Keep counting the flatware, folks.
Brrrrrr!
The first arctic wave should be here by tonight. Temperatures in the teens with twenty to thirty mph winds = zero and below. The kids’ gas bill went from $45 to $145 in the past month. I was over there showing them ways to seal windows, cut the usage.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Friday, December 17, 2004
Presidential medal of freedom?
I think thousands of protesters with their hearts in the right place should get a piece of that. Maybe we should change it to, Presidential Medal of Fiefdom. Then all them toadies who got it would deserve the damn piece of shit
Surprise! The Republican sycophant to the drug business gets handed cushy pharmaceutical industry lobby job. He’s the new CEO and he’s not looking out for you. And you thought Bush and his congressional puppets were looking out for grandmother and her drug costs! No, the sad dude is not only a motherf*%#@* he’s a grandmotherf*&$#! Spineless source on CNN:
“The source said (Retiring U.S. Rep. Billy) Tauzin wants to be a "patient-advocate CEO."
I guess that’s why he advocated blue-sky pricing for drug companies while leading his committee. What does he care now? He beat cancer, has a lifetime six-figure salary from congress, and never has to pay a dime for his own medical care. We just sat down and took a preliminary look at our taxes/expenses and trust me, he’s one lucky-ass grandmotherf&%##*! You should see my mother’s health care costs. Her out-of-pocket for Plavix is over $100 a month and there is no generic for Plavix. With guys like this greasing congressional skids, Plavix will probably get a copyright to infinity! Not negotiable!
Now the Weather Channel
warns of Zero by Monday
With temperatures in the teens, and winds up to 30 mph, we’re looking at a wind chill factor of zero to five below by Monday! It gets colder in places I've lived but this is getting chilly. I used to marvel when I'd drive by the same bank in Exeter, NH, in July and see the temperature at a hundred and six or more, then drive by in January and look at way, way below zero.
I covered the Apple Pickers Union protester holed up on a communicaitons tower high above the salt marshes of Seabrook on a makeshift plywood platform in the dead of winter, 1975. He was against building a nuclear reactor on the site. I had to borrow a flare from an AP reporter to thaw the lock on my Volvo. Wonder why I locked my car out there in the middle of nowhere.
I think thousands of protesters with their hearts in the right place should get a piece of that. Maybe we should change it to, Presidential Medal of Fiefdom. Then all them toadies who got it would deserve the damn piece of shit
Surprise! The Republican sycophant to the drug business gets handed cushy pharmaceutical industry lobby job. He’s the new CEO and he’s not looking out for you. And you thought Bush and his congressional puppets were looking out for grandmother and her drug costs! No, the sad dude is not only a motherf*%#@* he’s a grandmotherf*&$#! Spineless source on CNN:
“The source said (Retiring U.S. Rep. Billy) Tauzin wants to be a "patient-advocate CEO."
I guess that’s why he advocated blue-sky pricing for drug companies while leading his committee. What does he care now? He beat cancer, has a lifetime six-figure salary from congress, and never has to pay a dime for his own medical care. We just sat down and took a preliminary look at our taxes/expenses and trust me, he’s one lucky-ass grandmotherf&%##*! You should see my mother’s health care costs. Her out-of-pocket for Plavix is over $100 a month and there is no generic for Plavix. With guys like this greasing congressional skids, Plavix will probably get a copyright to infinity! Not negotiable!
Now the Weather Channel
warns of Zero by Monday
With temperatures in the teens, and winds up to 30 mph, we’re looking at a wind chill factor of zero to five below by Monday! It gets colder in places I've lived but this is getting chilly. I used to marvel when I'd drive by the same bank in Exeter, NH, in July and see the temperature at a hundred and six or more, then drive by in January and look at way, way below zero.
I covered the Apple Pickers Union protester holed up on a communicaitons tower high above the salt marshes of Seabrook on a makeshift plywood platform in the dead of winter, 1975. He was against building a nuclear reactor on the site. I had to borrow a flare from an AP reporter to thaw the lock on my Volvo. Wonder why I locked my car out there in the middle of nowhere.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Today is Beethoven's Birthday
I dedicate Ode to Joy, to my daughter Joy and all the joy she is.
Who is O’Reilly’s daddy?
Bill, snorkleman, sponge meister, O’Reilly last night was spinning parents’ rights to listen in on their kids’s telephone conversations. Guess he’d give his old folks an earful, wouldn’t he.
“Dear, why is Billy talking with that girl about showers? What’s a luftaffa or whatever he’s talking about?”
“I think it’s some kind of washcloth, honey. Now get off the phone and stop eavesdropping on Billy boy.”
How old is that producer he paid the big bucks to shut up? Just a kid reporter, I think.
If you voted for Bush
you made a huge mistake
Let me know when you’ve heard enough. We can talk.
Looks like snow, Atlanta
Big storms out there, fronts and such. Weather Channel said North Georgia has better than 50 percent chance of snow showers Saturday. The temperature dropped below twenty again last night. I shut the fireplace down. When it gets this cold we loose more heat up the flue than we gain from burning wood. Fires are better on normal days, when it’s high thirties, forties.
I’m a Florida boy, born in PA, worked in NH for a couple of years. This is still fun, though, especially when you work at home. Had quite a blizzard our first year in the house, drifts of a couple of feet on April 1, 1993. Snow’s always fun in Hotlanta.
Crossfire’s hot topic yesterday
Cleveland Clinic wants to kick out McDonalds. They should kick them out, but come on now Begala and Carlson (Mr. Bow tie, and he’s thirty?) Jon Steward was right. What are these guys afraid of? Why don’t they talk about what really hurts? The media is hurting us; please stop. Stop being so stupid.
I dedicate Ode to Joy, to my daughter Joy and all the joy she is.
Who is O’Reilly’s daddy?
Bill, snorkleman, sponge meister, O’Reilly last night was spinning parents’ rights to listen in on their kids’s telephone conversations. Guess he’d give his old folks an earful, wouldn’t he.
“Dear, why is Billy talking with that girl about showers? What’s a luftaffa or whatever he’s talking about?”
“I think it’s some kind of washcloth, honey. Now get off the phone and stop eavesdropping on Billy boy.”
How old is that producer he paid the big bucks to shut up? Just a kid reporter, I think.
If you voted for Bush
you made a huge mistake
Let me know when you’ve heard enough. We can talk.
Looks like snow, Atlanta
Big storms out there, fronts and such. Weather Channel said North Georgia has better than 50 percent chance of snow showers Saturday. The temperature dropped below twenty again last night. I shut the fireplace down. When it gets this cold we loose more heat up the flue than we gain from burning wood. Fires are better on normal days, when it’s high thirties, forties.
I’m a Florida boy, born in PA, worked in NH for a couple of years. This is still fun, though, especially when you work at home. Had quite a blizzard our first year in the house, drifts of a couple of feet on April 1, 1993. Snow’s always fun in Hotlanta.
Crossfire’s hot topic yesterday
Cleveland Clinic wants to kick out McDonalds. They should kick them out, but come on now Begala and Carlson (Mr. Bow tie, and he’s thirty?) Jon Steward was right. What are these guys afraid of? Why don’t they talk about what really hurts? The media is hurting us; please stop. Stop being so stupid.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
All I see is a couple of cheese
sandwiches and a fish stick, maybe two.
Free expression can be costly. Some spineless Chelsea market manager had the gall to attack the hard work of many artists over this? The fascists lurk among us.
Zell sells out to Fox
The Atlanta Constitution reports today Zell Miller hired as Fox News’s newest shouter and blabbermouth.
The paper had some fun with it, teasing the story on page one with, “You were thinking maybe CBS would have picked him to succeed Dan Rather?” Then they buried it on D6.
Fox News programming v.p., Kevin Magee:
“He’s colorful. He’s an interesting guy. He’s good on TV . . .”
And he couldn’t get hired to teach at UGA, Young Harris College (in his hometown).
sandwiches and a fish stick, maybe two.
Free expression can be costly. Some spineless Chelsea market manager had the gall to attack the hard work of many artists over this? The fascists lurk among us.
Zell sells out to Fox
The Atlanta Constitution reports today Zell Miller hired as Fox News’s newest shouter and blabbermouth.
The paper had some fun with it, teasing the story on page one with, “You were thinking maybe CBS would have picked him to succeed Dan Rather?” Then they buried it on D6.
Fox News programming v.p., Kevin Magee:
“He’s colorful. He’s an interesting guy. He’s good on TV . . .”
And he couldn’t get hired to teach at UGA, Young Harris College (in his hometown).
Why is Rumsfeld on the run
if Bush is commander in chief?
All the dutiful snooooozzzzzz reporters are dutifully running the press releases: "Rumsfeld criticized." What is the commander in chief of? Rummy is becoming just another tracer bullet in a sad, dangerous American policy machine.
Come on "journalists," get off your fixation on Peterson murder stories (all day on the sentencing trial, CNN?) Get off your fat corporate asses and do some damn reporting! Even Larry King has become a pathetic part of all this.
This comes to me from Raina
and Mary, two of the best people I know
If each American who voted Democratic in 2004 spends $100 in 2005 on a Blue company instead of a Red company, we can move $5 Billion away from Red companies and add $5 Billion to the income of companies who donate to Democrats. To spend your money wisely this holiday season, check out these websites for info on good (and bad) businesses.
Burr. It's cold here on the toad farm
We're looking at 20 degrees by morning. Glad the days are sunny. High today was thirty-nine. Lots of firewood stacked and we're ready.
if Bush is commander in chief?
All the dutiful snooooozzzzzz reporters are dutifully running the press releases: "Rumsfeld criticized." What is the commander in chief of? Rummy is becoming just another tracer bullet in a sad, dangerous American policy machine.
Come on "journalists," get off your fixation on Peterson murder stories (all day on the sentencing trial, CNN?) Get off your fat corporate asses and do some damn reporting! Even Larry King has become a pathetic part of all this.
This comes to me from Raina
and Mary, two of the best people I know
If each American who voted Democratic in 2004 spends $100 in 2005 on a Blue company instead of a Red company, we can move $5 Billion away from Red companies and add $5 Billion to the income of companies who donate to Democrats. To spend your money wisely this holiday season, check out these websites for info on good (and bad) businesses.
Burr. It's cold here on the toad farm
We're looking at 20 degrees by morning. Glad the days are sunny. High today was thirty-nine. Lots of firewood stacked and we're ready.
Monday, December 13, 2004
Them Christians just
don’t know when to quit
My daughter has two bumper stickers on her ’89 Olds: “You can pray in my school if I can teach in your church.” And, “Somewhere in Texas there is a village missing an idiot.” She lives in Blue Atlanta and I live in the Red suburbs. We switched cars today so I could have some work done on her olds. Boy was I proud driving her bumper stickers around this red part of town.
I watched Hannity and colmes “interview” Pat Roberson as he preached his vision of how our government should be run and claimed there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that separates church and state.
The first step is complete, according to that whacko: GWB went un-re-defeated. But that’s not enough until Jesus Christ owns the Supreme Court.
I have tried so hard all of my life to open myself to religious belief, it hurts.
Now I am so at peace knowing that this Jesus Christ is not my answer. It only continues to hurt that they blur that Jesus with the Jesus people I love believe in.
The only way I can follow is to strip my lexicon of all this false language associated with these “values” people right down to the question of God. And God is a question, after all.
The so-called evangelists have driven a wedge into all people. Like the war in Iraq has created terrorism, this kind of Christianity is creating atheists.
Let’s give it up for John Dufresne
John’s book, The Lie That Tells A Truth, is a great pick of William Safire’s for gifts of books about language, in this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. John welcomes all into the wonderful world of storytelling in ways only a generous man such as he knows how.
It’s fitting that the book is recommended as a gift, as John is a most giving guy.
don’t know when to quit
My daughter has two bumper stickers on her ’89 Olds: “You can pray in my school if I can teach in your church.” And, “Somewhere in Texas there is a village missing an idiot.” She lives in Blue Atlanta and I live in the Red suburbs. We switched cars today so I could have some work done on her olds. Boy was I proud driving her bumper stickers around this red part of town.
I watched Hannity and colmes “interview” Pat Roberson as he preached his vision of how our government should be run and claimed there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that separates church and state.
The first step is complete, according to that whacko: GWB went un-re-defeated. But that’s not enough until Jesus Christ owns the Supreme Court.
I have tried so hard all of my life to open myself to religious belief, it hurts.
Now I am so at peace knowing that this Jesus Christ is not my answer. It only continues to hurt that they blur that Jesus with the Jesus people I love believe in.
The only way I can follow is to strip my lexicon of all this false language associated with these “values” people right down to the question of God. And God is a question, after all.
The so-called evangelists have driven a wedge into all people. Like the war in Iraq has created terrorism, this kind of Christianity is creating atheists.
Let’s give it up for John Dufresne
John’s book, The Lie That Tells A Truth, is a great pick of William Safire’s for gifts of books about language, in this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. John welcomes all into the wonderful world of storytelling in ways only a generous man such as he knows how.
It’s fitting that the book is recommended as a gift, as John is a most giving guy.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Today is Carol Todaro’s birthday
I guess I’ve known Carol Todaro about as long as anybody. She’s the youngest kid in our family.
Now there are many things I know about Carol. She is very thoughtful, gracious, sophisticated in her own cool trademark style. She likes a lot of the things I like, denim, black garments, white garments, scarves, Alice Munro (did you get your present yet?), Florida, walking, good, tasty, healthy food and wine. We have much in common, for sure. Yet we are entirely different people raised by the same two humans.
But then there are things you don’t know about Carol, can’t know, the unknowns you know and those you haven’t the ability to know. Here’s a little something about a poet who is far from our favorite. In fact we just wish he would go away now. I had read a little of Rumsfeld’s poetry but this is extensive. Thanks for sending it, Carol. Laughter is kind. (I guess one of many things our parents taught us, especially dear old Dad, rest his soul, is this: We don’t take shit from anybody. And we sure know how to laugh about it.)
If you ever have a chance to catch Carol’s art (and writing) you’re a lucky person. Carol’s work is unique. So is she.
Carol is my friend of many years. She’s my confidant, sometimes conscience, fellow family consigliore, but friend is the best word. I guess I’ve been some of those things to her from time to time. (I’ve also been her terrorist, but I was a kid and she was my little sister, OK?)
One huge Happy Birthday, Sister. Lot’s of love going out to you today.
Runaway,
Alice Munro’s short story collection in NYT Ten Best Books of 2004. To the moon, Alice! Maybe one of Jupiter's.
I guess I’ve known Carol Todaro about as long as anybody. She’s the youngest kid in our family.
Now there are many things I know about Carol. She is very thoughtful, gracious, sophisticated in her own cool trademark style. She likes a lot of the things I like, denim, black garments, white garments, scarves, Alice Munro (did you get your present yet?), Florida, walking, good, tasty, healthy food and wine. We have much in common, for sure. Yet we are entirely different people raised by the same two humans.
But then there are things you don’t know about Carol, can’t know, the unknowns you know and those you haven’t the ability to know. Here’s a little something about a poet who is far from our favorite. In fact we just wish he would go away now. I had read a little of Rumsfeld’s poetry but this is extensive. Thanks for sending it, Carol. Laughter is kind. (I guess one of many things our parents taught us, especially dear old Dad, rest his soul, is this: We don’t take shit from anybody. And we sure know how to laugh about it.)
If you ever have a chance to catch Carol’s art (and writing) you’re a lucky person. Carol’s work is unique. So is she.
Carol is my friend of many years. She’s my confidant, sometimes conscience, fellow family consigliore, but friend is the best word. I guess I’ve been some of those things to her from time to time. (I’ve also been her terrorist, but I was a kid and she was my little sister, OK?)
One huge Happy Birthday, Sister. Lot’s of love going out to you today.
Runaway,
Alice Munro’s short story collection in NYT Ten Best Books of 2004. To the moon, Alice! Maybe one of Jupiter's.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Can someone get this man a clue?
Rummy gets grilled in Kuwait by his own troops. Armor? Your truck will blow up anyway. More soldiers? Hell, that’s up to the officers in the field. Pay the troops on time? Huh?
From the Washington Post. Puts yesterday’s news in perspective. So does Jay Bookman in the AJC.
The one question that seemed to give Rumsfeld pause came from a lieutenant colonel who said that many of the soldiers in his unit are having trouble receiving all the pay due them, causing problems for their families back home who are being pestered by collection agencies.
"Can someone here get the details of the unit he's talking about?" Rumsfeld asked. "That's just not right.’”
Yer tellin’ me!
Carol Todaro’s six-foot book at Art Basal, Miami. Thanks to John Dufresne for posting it. Scroll down in his post for today, Dec. 9. Can’t figure out what went wrong with posting pictures here on Blogger.
Rummy gets grilled in Kuwait by his own troops. Armor? Your truck will blow up anyway. More soldiers? Hell, that’s up to the officers in the field. Pay the troops on time? Huh?
From the Washington Post. Puts yesterday’s news in perspective. So does Jay Bookman in the AJC.
The one question that seemed to give Rumsfeld pause came from a lieutenant colonel who said that many of the soldiers in his unit are having trouble receiving all the pay due them, causing problems for their families back home who are being pestered by collection agencies.
"Can someone here get the details of the unit he's talking about?" Rumsfeld asked. "That's just not right.’”
Yer tellin’ me!
Carol Todaro’s six-foot book at Art Basal, Miami. Thanks to John Dufresne for posting it. Scroll down in his post for today, Dec. 9. Can’t figure out what went wrong with posting pictures here on Blogger.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Air America “alive and well”
What looked like a one-trick pony with a limited agenda, and it was, has legs and is on the verge of covering half the nation.
Air America, featuring Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, who have renewed interest in staying aboard, now has advertising revenue “that makes it look like we are in the middle of year two,” said founder Jon Sinton of the eight-month-old network.
Sinton admits the mission was to defeat Bush in November but four more years with plenty to talk about will help Air America stay aloft.
Maybe Sinton should mix up the format with good music in some day parts; jazz, blues, the best of rock. Sinton lives in Atlanta, commutes to New York. The story is in today’s AJC.
What looked like a one-trick pony with a limited agenda, and it was, has legs and is on the verge of covering half the nation.
Air America, featuring Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, who have renewed interest in staying aboard, now has advertising revenue “that makes it look like we are in the middle of year two,” said founder Jon Sinton of the eight-month-old network.
Sinton admits the mission was to defeat Bush in November but four more years with plenty to talk about will help Air America stay aloft.
Maybe Sinton should mix up the format with good music in some day parts; jazz, blues, the best of rock. Sinton lives in Atlanta, commutes to New York. The story is in today’s AJC.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Neocon Social Insecurity
Paul Krugman stepped aside from writing an economics textbook to write today’s NYT column. This is how he wraps it up.
“For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it.”
Read the whole thing.
“For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it.”
Read the whole thing.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Cute little blog
I found a darling little blog today. Catchy little graphic film you might enjoy. Click here then click on ihaveanidea in the Dec. 3 post.
I found a darling little blog today. Catchy little graphic film you might enjoy. Click here then click on ihaveanidea in the Dec. 3 post.
Friday, December 03, 2004
Good budget, bad budget
When it comes to raising money and spending it, the federal government could take a page out of the Republican Party’s playbook. Wait a minute; the Republican Party is the federal government!
According to Associated Press, “President Bush and the Republican National Committee spent a combined $707 million this election cycle after a fundraising effort so prolific the president’s campaign still has millions left over.” Good budget.
Since taking office Bush and his band of drunken sailors in congress have taken trillions in surplus and, presto, plunged us into trillions in debt, putting us on the road to third-world economic status. Bad budget.
All those rich people kicked in all that money to elect and reelect their country-club buddy to “get government off their backs and out of their back pockets.” An ill-advised war rages on, good jobs go begging, clean air and water legislation goes woefully under-funded, the trade deficit deepens, dollar declines. Where’s that going to leave the rest of us? Our children and grandchildren?
How many days left until November 2, 2008? Somebody should come up with a Web-site counter for that.
When it comes to raising money and spending it, the federal government could take a page out of the Republican Party’s playbook. Wait a minute; the Republican Party is the federal government!
According to Associated Press, “President Bush and the Republican National Committee spent a combined $707 million this election cycle after a fundraising effort so prolific the president’s campaign still has millions left over.” Good budget.
Since taking office Bush and his band of drunken sailors in congress have taken trillions in surplus and, presto, plunged us into trillions in debt, putting us on the road to third-world economic status. Bad budget.
All those rich people kicked in all that money to elect and reelect their country-club buddy to “get government off their backs and out of their back pockets.” An ill-advised war rages on, good jobs go begging, clean air and water legislation goes woefully under-funded, the trade deficit deepens, dollar declines. Where’s that going to leave the rest of us? Our children and grandchildren?
How many days left until November 2, 2008? Somebody should come up with a Web-site counter for that.
Monday, November 29, 2004
If you’ve got ‘em, smoke ‘em
I wish I could have voted for Dennis Kocinich, but by the time his name turned up in my red state he was lost in foundering Democratic Party thought. He voted against preemptive war. I was pushing for him to gain ground from Iowa onward. I had my arguments with fellow Move On members in his favor until the end of the primaries. I thought the stakes were too high not to follow the leader.
Kocinich is a vegan, a pacifist, and proposed a department of peace in his platform. We should have gone all the way in supporting a candidate who opposed the war in Iraq from the outset, who promised to end the occupation.
Now we’re left with the Marlboro man, courtesy of his commercial photographer:
Naomi Klein in The Nation, the mission statement of which is:
The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.
-- from The Nation's founding prospectus, 1865
Maybe we’ll learn from all this.
I wish I could have voted for Dennis Kocinich, but by the time his name turned up in my red state he was lost in foundering Democratic Party thought. He voted against preemptive war. I was pushing for him to gain ground from Iowa onward. I had my arguments with fellow Move On members in his favor until the end of the primaries. I thought the stakes were too high not to follow the leader.
Kocinich is a vegan, a pacifist, and proposed a department of peace in his platform. We should have gone all the way in supporting a candidate who opposed the war in Iraq from the outset, who promised to end the occupation.
Now we’re left with the Marlboro man, courtesy of his commercial photographer:
Naomi Klein in The Nation, the mission statement of which is:
The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.
-- from The Nation's founding prospectus, 1865
Maybe we’ll learn from all this.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
It's William Blake's birthday,
a Sunday this year.
The Garden of Love
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I had never seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of the Chapel were shut,
And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore;
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.
--William Blake
Though it was chilly, windy, and cloudy, Mary and I spent the day planting ornamental purple and white cabbage, blue violets around our front yard yesterday. We haven't decorated outside of the house in many a Christmas. The new color will do. We should be enjoying it all well into March.
Good souls in the house with us made a great Thanksgiving: Joy, Pat, Anthony, Eileen, Joanne, Ellen.
a Sunday this year.
The Garden of Love
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I had never seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of the Chapel were shut,
And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore;
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.
--William Blake
Though it was chilly, windy, and cloudy, Mary and I spent the day planting ornamental purple and white cabbage, blue violets around our front yard yesterday. We haven't decorated outside of the house in many a Christmas. The new color will do. We should be enjoying it all well into March.
Good souls in the house with us made a great Thanksgiving: Joy, Pat, Anthony, Eileen, Joanne, Ellen.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
More to be thankful for
We need more to be thankful for than the food on our table, the clothes on our backs, the job to go to Monday.
We’d like our democracy back. We’d like sanity back in public policy.
I'm thankful for the wisdom of our founding fathers in writing a beautiful constitution. We want it back, we want it adhered to, we want a nation under rule of law.
We're thankful for two beautiful children finding their way in the world. But we need more children like them with real values, not trumped up falsehoods their moron, Fox News enthusiast parents lay on them.
Our bellies are full but our spirits are drained. Fifty million of us versus Fifty-three million morons. We won't go away. Truth, as The Bible says, will set us free. As soon as we get out from under the mess the morons have us in.
As a footnote, I did not intend to post today; meant to keep politics at arms length. But when I looked at my blog I saw a blank. By posting I found it alive and well.
We’d like our democracy back. We’d like sanity back in public policy.
I'm thankful for the wisdom of our founding fathers in writing a beautiful constitution. We want it back, we want it adhered to, we want a nation under rule of law.
We're thankful for two beautiful children finding their way in the world. But we need more children like them with real values, not trumped up falsehoods their moron, Fox News enthusiast parents lay on them.
Our bellies are full but our spirits are drained. Fifty million of us versus Fifty-three million morons. We won't go away. Truth, as The Bible says, will set us free. As soon as we get out from under the mess the morons have us in.
As a footnote, I did not intend to post today; meant to keep politics at arms length. But when I looked at my blog I saw a blank. By posting I found it alive and well.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Showing, telling from Iraq
The failures of the Bush Administration in Iraq must be numbing many Americans into turning away, kind of like the mainstream media is doing. I guess the media don’t wish to be judged as portraying only what is going wrong.
By the way, what is going right? Sometimes it’s the reporting itself. Two journalists, one embedded with the Marines recently in Fallujah reveals a microcosm with his camera; the other, on his own in early May 2003, provides an interesting macrocosm of the reasons for our woes.
Embedded:
NBC reporter Kevin Sites writes an open letter to the Marines with which he was moving when he videotaped the shooting of an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque. First published on his personal blog.
"He's f------ faking he's dead -- he's faking he's f------ dead."
”Through my viewfinder I can see him raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.
"However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons.
"Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.
"’Well he's dead now,’" says another Marine in the background.
”I am still rolling. I feel the deep pit of my stomach. The Marine then abruptly turns away and strides away, right past the fifth wounded insurgent lying next to a column. He is very much alive and peering from his blanket. He is moving, even trying to talk. But for some reason, it seems he did not pose the same apparent "danger" as the other man -- though he may have been more capable of hiding a weapon or explosive beneath his blanket.”
Not embedded:
Richard Leiby, for Salon.com, writes about what went wrong, from his un-embedded “mission-accomplished” days reporting for The Washington Post.
“What happened? Even now, (Lt. Gen. Jay) Garner (U.S. administrator in Iraq before Bremmer), doesn't seem entirely sure, or won't say. He says he was never told why he fell from favor. ‘A lot of stuff in that Pentagon operation is clandestine," he said, referring to the machinations of the civilian leadership that prosecuted the war. 'And the vice president's office is a shadowy organization.’"
By the way, what is going right? Sometimes it’s the reporting itself. Two journalists, one embedded with the Marines recently in Fallujah reveals a microcosm with his camera; the other, on his own in early May 2003, provides an interesting macrocosm of the reasons for our woes.
Embedded:
NBC reporter Kevin Sites writes an open letter to the Marines with which he was moving when he videotaped the shooting of an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque. First published on his personal blog.
"He's f------ faking he's dead -- he's faking he's f------ dead."
”Through my viewfinder I can see him raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.
"However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons.
"Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.
"’Well he's dead now,’" says another Marine in the background.
”I am still rolling. I feel the deep pit of my stomach. The Marine then abruptly turns away and strides away, right past the fifth wounded insurgent lying next to a column. He is very much alive and peering from his blanket. He is moving, even trying to talk. But for some reason, it seems he did not pose the same apparent "danger" as the other man -- though he may have been more capable of hiding a weapon or explosive beneath his blanket.”
Not embedded:
Richard Leiby, for Salon.com, writes about what went wrong, from his un-embedded “mission-accomplished” days reporting for The Washington Post.
“What happened? Even now, (Lt. Gen. Jay) Garner (U.S. administrator in Iraq before Bremmer), doesn't seem entirely sure, or won't say. He says he was never told why he fell from favor. ‘A lot of stuff in that Pentagon operation is clandestine," he said, referring to the machinations of the civilian leadership that prosecuted the war. 'And the vice president's office is a shadowy organization.’"
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Liberal secularist elected president
As of tonight’s meeting of the Abbotts Pointe Homeowners Association, yours truly is now president of that august body. My first move is to correct the spelling of “Pointe.”
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Grown professional men beating up on each other, Hunters in deadly battle, play Oswald over and over again, crush your business competitor
I used to be the second biggest NBA/Atlanta Hawks fan in town. Then the crybabies came and I quit. I’ve never seen more violence in sports than in Friday’s Pistons/Pacers game. Not even in the one boxing match I’ve attended. Glad I didn’t catch the game; saw the replays ad nauseam in latest news cycle.
Here are more reflections of American Culture I picked up in a brief morning scan of the news.
Blood sport gone bad:
Had to go to Australia to find a report about hunters in Wisconsin battling over a shooting position (tree stand); five dead, three wounded.
Blood on or off option:
Rush over to their Web site (you won’t find a link here) and buy your copy of “JFK Reloaded.” Relive the assassination through the sites of Lee Harvey Oswald in commemoration of that fateful November day.
The Scottish game maker, with “nothing but respect for Kennedy and for history,” is compassionate enough to provide a “blood option” so you can turn the gore on or off according to your stomach.
Blood or money?
Avarice, one of them Christian values 51% voted for? You must catch the new Monopoly Tycoon.
“Plan, invest, build, demolish, and bankrupt your opponents in a beautiful, real time, 3-D environment . . .”
“It’s all about money ? (sic) and making more of it than your opponents.”
Once they figure out the meaning of the word “avarice,” and it’s definitely an “anti-value,” it might be too late.
Here are more reflections of American Culture I picked up in a brief morning scan of the news.
Blood sport gone bad:
Had to go to Australia to find a report about hunters in Wisconsin battling over a shooting position (tree stand); five dead, three wounded.
Blood on or off option:
Rush over to their Web site (you won’t find a link here) and buy your copy of “JFK Reloaded.” Relive the assassination through the sites of Lee Harvey Oswald in commemoration of that fateful November day.
The Scottish game maker, with “nothing but respect for Kennedy and for history,” is compassionate enough to provide a “blood option” so you can turn the gore on or off according to your stomach.
Blood or money?
Avarice, one of them Christian values 51% voted for? You must catch the new Monopoly Tycoon.
“Plan, invest, build, demolish, and bankrupt your opponents in a beautiful, real time, 3-D environment . . .”
“It’s all about money ? (sic) and making more of it than your opponents.”
Once they figure out the meaning of the word “avarice,” and it’s definitely an “anti-value,” it might be too late.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
The last of the “good people around him”
What is in store for the Iraqi people, American service personnel, us, now that perhaps one of the best “people” around GWB, maybe the last voice of reason, has left the administration?
The national security advisor, maybe one of those who failed us the most, is promoted to Collin Powell’s job. Collin Powell’s failure was to acquiesce to an insane ideology when he should have learned his lesson better the first time, in Vietnam. He should have stuck to his guns. He should have resigned in protest two years ago.
The Bush ideology only ever had one objective: To ensure the wealthy tied to guns and oil would profit for many years to come unhindered by the pesky justice of paying for it in taxes.
I thought this bad craziness would be over by now. I am tired. I can’t even read The Bible. Maybe I’ll read the U.S. Constitution again.
Mark Danner writes a thoughtful, reflective, and incisive piece about all this in Today’s NYT.
The national security advisor, maybe one of those who failed us the most, is promoted to Collin Powell’s job. Collin Powell’s failure was to acquiesce to an insane ideology when he should have learned his lesson better the first time, in Vietnam. He should have stuck to his guns. He should have resigned in protest two years ago.
The Bush ideology only ever had one objective: To ensure the wealthy tied to guns and oil would profit for many years to come unhindered by the pesky justice of paying for it in taxes.
I thought this bad craziness would be over by now. I am tired. I can’t even read The Bible. Maybe I’ll read the U.S. Constitution again.
Mark Danner writes a thoughtful, reflective, and incisive piece about all this in Today’s NYT.
Friday, November 19, 2004
Those zany kids around him
Well, all you folks who voted for “the good people around him,” now that these nice boys have an actual track record running foreign policy, justice, education, commerce--left anything out?--GWB is replacing them. With their peers of the past four years! (Please pardon the gratuitous sloganeering.) With the same track record! He’s putting the kids in charge! (I wonder how George liked “Risky Business.”) I wonder if there will be more “smooch appointees.” What’s up with the kiss on the lips for Margaret Spellings? All you educators out there know where you can place your next buss. Lookin’ more and more like George II’s harem . . . Anyway, Bob Herbert puts it much better:
“I look at the catastrophe in Iraq, the fiscal debacle here at home, the extent to which loyalty trumps competence at the highest levels of government, the absence of a coherent vision of the future for the U.S. and the world, and I wonder, with a sense of deep sadness, where the adults have gone.”
I hope most are home, telling their kids the truth. Afraid we’re in this for the long haul.
So I decided to spend an hour out back taking pictures of titmice. I used the motor drive. But I can’t show you the pictures until I get the picture posting resolved. Until then, you can look at a picture and information about the titmouse.
My backyard is usually frequented by bluebirds, cardinals, brown thrashers, woodpeckers (even the huge pileated kind), sometimes a hawk or two, a falcon for a brief spell . . . purple martins . . . flocks of geese and ducks . . . buzzards, just about any bird you’d think of flying through these parts.
Today I saw one blue jay and that was it. Hundreds of titmice flittering all over the yard. They’re very jittery and fly in a quick elevate/descend patterns. Difficult to photograph, hard to anticipate their moves.
What’s up with them new CNN commercials? Is it the point that their news is produced by airheads? No pun intended.
“I look at the catastrophe in Iraq, the fiscal debacle here at home, the extent to which loyalty trumps competence at the highest levels of government, the absence of a coherent vision of the future for the U.S. and the world, and I wonder, with a sense of deep sadness, where the adults have gone.”
I hope most are home, telling their kids the truth. Afraid we’re in this for the long haul.
So I decided to spend an hour out back taking pictures of titmice. I used the motor drive. But I can’t show you the pictures until I get the picture posting resolved. Until then, you can look at a picture and information about the titmouse.
My backyard is usually frequented by bluebirds, cardinals, brown thrashers, woodpeckers (even the huge pileated kind), sometimes a hawk or two, a falcon for a brief spell . . . purple martins . . . flocks of geese and ducks . . . buzzards, just about any bird you’d think of flying through these parts.
Today I saw one blue jay and that was it. Hundreds of titmice flittering all over the yard. They’re very jittery and fly in a quick elevate/descend patterns. Difficult to photograph, hard to anticipate their moves.
What’s up with them new CNN commercials? Is it the point that their news is produced by airheads? No pun intended.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Joy’s Ride
Funny that Joy bought a 1989 Oldsmobile driven by a nun. Funnier that it was once stolen, taken for a joy ride, and has minor dents as a result. Funniest thing is Mary and I financed it.
Joy stopped by after picking up the car, brought us a bottle of Fat Bastard. She called the navy-blue 4-door sedan “my car” many times. The Olds is her first car. She lived in New York with cousin Jenny for a while after graduation .
"I could prove God statistically."
--George Gallup (today is his birthday, Writer's Almanac)
Joy stopped by after picking up the car, brought us a bottle of Fat Bastard. She called the navy-blue 4-door sedan “my car” many times. The Olds is her first car. She lived in New York with cousin Jenny for a while after graduation .
"I could prove God statistically."
--George Gallup (today is his birthday, Writer's Almanac)
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
A Bad Air Day
Besides learning that his is The Greatest Show On Earth, greater even than Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, things I was informed of listening to Rush Limbaugh the other day.
*Bong Water Beer, from a microbrewery (name escapes me).
*Woman fined $40 for miscues and getting the words wrong while singing the Mexican National Anthem (I think at a sporting event).
*Fox TV’s new show, “Cold Turkey,” follows the miseries of people quitting smoking; win a million dollars!
It’s been almost never since I last listened to “Rushbo” (yes, his ditto-headed listeners call him that), and it will be at least that long until I do again. Scary that so many stupid people listen to the whole thing every day. The show is nothing but twisted, propaganda-laden air pollution.
I was going to offer a few examples but why bother. The whole show is a bad example.
*Bong Water Beer, from a microbrewery (name escapes me).
*Woman fined $40 for miscues and getting the words wrong while singing the Mexican National Anthem (I think at a sporting event).
*Fox TV’s new show, “Cold Turkey,” follows the miseries of people quitting smoking; win a million dollars!
It’s been almost never since I last listened to “Rushbo” (yes, his ditto-headed listeners call him that), and it will be at least that long until I do again. Scary that so many stupid people listen to the whole thing every day. The show is nothing but twisted, propaganda-laden air pollution.
I was going to offer a few examples but why bother. The whole show is a bad example.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Backyard art
I finished “American Flag Television,” painted a couple of large-scale versions on brown packing paper. Blogger won’t let me post pictures right now or I’d show you the flags; or maybe it’s the “Hello” picture software. With a name like “Hello,” it better be good. Talking with JB about my own Web site.
My sister Judy tells me the song, Autumn Leaves, which closes the movie, is from:
“Eddy Duchin Story???? What did I win???
Big hugs,'
Judy”
My sister Judy tells me the song, Autumn Leaves, which closes the movie, is from:
“Eddy Duchin Story???? What did I win???
Big hugs,'
Judy”
Monday, November 15, 2004
The right to set land mines
I’ve been thinking about Amendment II of the U.S. Constitution lately.
“A Well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Too many commas if you ask me, but it was ratified along with the first ten Amendments (Bill of Rights) effective December 15, 1791.
Well, a well-regulated militia from many sates is deployed all over Iraq right now. I believe we call them Reserves and National Guard. They are well prepared and certainly well regulated by The Pentagon and The U.S. Department of Defense. I don’t believe they supplied their own guns and ammunition. Flak jackets, maybe.
Does this mean the Fourth Amendment empowers us, the people, to arm our properties with roof-mounted Kalashnikovs? Why not RPG’s and IRD’s? Land mines, anyone? Where do we stop?
Deer hunting? OK. Personal protection for those authorized to carry pistols? Sure. But after two-hundred-and-thirteen years of technological advancement in weaponry, we just might reevaluate what the amendment means today.
Let’s face it, fundamentalists are lunatics and they are among us.
Tomorrow I begin memorizing The Bible. Commentary to follow.
Joanne makes a perfect chili.
“A Well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Too many commas if you ask me, but it was ratified along with the first ten Amendments (Bill of Rights) effective December 15, 1791.
Well, a well-regulated militia from many sates is deployed all over Iraq right now. I believe we call them Reserves and National Guard. They are well prepared and certainly well regulated by The Pentagon and The U.S. Department of Defense. I don’t believe they supplied their own guns and ammunition. Flak jackets, maybe.
Does this mean the Fourth Amendment empowers us, the people, to arm our properties with roof-mounted Kalashnikovs? Why not RPG’s and IRD’s? Land mines, anyone? Where do we stop?
Deer hunting? OK. Personal protection for those authorized to carry pistols? Sure. But after two-hundred-and-thirteen years of technological advancement in weaponry, we just might reevaluate what the amendment means today.
Let’s face it, fundamentalists are lunatics and they are among us.
Tomorrow I begin memorizing The Bible. Commentary to follow.
Joanne makes a perfect chili.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
The Mulligan Amendment
I propose Amendment XXVIII to the United States Constitution:
“Voters shall be allowed one mulligan* per presidential election. On December 2 of the election year, citizens who see fit to change their votes, or had their votes unjustly rejected, may go to the polls to cast an amended ballot for a presidential candidate.”
This may take a while but who knows, it could happen. Amendment XXVII was proposed September 25, 1789 and ratified 203 years later, on May 7, 1992.
*In the game of golf, a mulligan is one extra tee shot per round not tallied against the score.
Along with Ellen, Mary and I are going to Joanne’s for chili this evening.
A few gloomy days have broken into a sunny, crisp fall morning here on the farm. Yellow leaves, mostly oak, poplar, and maple, are blowing and swirling outside my window.
“Autumn Leaves” is one of my favorite tunes. Can anybody name the movie?
“Voters shall be allowed one mulligan* per presidential election. On December 2 of the election year, citizens who see fit to change their votes, or had their votes unjustly rejected, may go to the polls to cast an amended ballot for a presidential candidate.”
This may take a while but who knows, it could happen. Amendment XXVII was proposed September 25, 1789 and ratified 203 years later, on May 7, 1992.
*In the game of golf, a mulligan is one extra tee shot per round not tallied against the score.
Along with Ellen, Mary and I are going to Joanne’s for chili this evening.
A few gloomy days have broken into a sunny, crisp fall morning here on the farm. Yellow leaves, mostly oak, poplar, and maple, are blowing and swirling outside my window.
“Autumn Leaves” is one of my favorite tunes. Can anybody name the movie?
Saturday, November 13, 2004
What I’m reading
Funny what a political experience like this will make you do. I’m reading the United States Constitution, been through it once so far this week and I’ll read it several more times by next week. I’ll commit it to memory. It is a religious experience, I’m telling you.
Blue states, red states, free states, slave states. Thanks to Jeffrey Stettner of our “progressive fifteen.”
Regressive reports from Georgia:
Two examples I hereby offer as proof, one from my home state, that evolution, survival of the fittest, and natural selection to support the advancement of the species must be a waning theory lacking supporting evidence.
1.) Bush reelected on his sorry-ass record.
2.) Linda (Republican) Schrenko “Prosecutors say former School Superintendent (LS) and associates employed South African and family bank accounts, envelopes full of cash and more than a hundred $590 checks in a scheme to steal more than $500,000 in federal education funds.” From Fridays Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
Safer under Bush? Goss
doesn’t “do personnel”
Top CIA officers are jumping ship under Porter J. Goss, the nonpartisan former Florida Republican congressional representative GWB appointed as top dog.
“When senior managers have gone to Goss to complain about his staff actions, one CIA officer said, Goss has told them: ‘Talk to my chief of staff. I don't do personnel.’”
My understanding is the CIA is all personnel. In that case what exactly does Goss do? Full story in today’s Washington Post.
Blue states, red states, free states, slave states. Thanks to Jeffrey Stettner of our “progressive fifteen.”
Regressive reports from Georgia:
Two examples I hereby offer as proof, one from my home state, that evolution, survival of the fittest, and natural selection to support the advancement of the species must be a waning theory lacking supporting evidence.
1.) Bush reelected on his sorry-ass record.
2.) Linda (Republican) Schrenko “Prosecutors say former School Superintendent (LS) and associates employed South African and family bank accounts, envelopes full of cash and more than a hundred $590 checks in a scheme to steal more than $500,000 in federal education funds.” From Fridays Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
Safer under Bush? Goss
doesn’t “do personnel”
Top CIA officers are jumping ship under Porter J. Goss, the nonpartisan former Florida Republican congressional representative GWB appointed as top dog.
“When senior managers have gone to Goss to complain about his staff actions, one CIA officer said, Goss has told them: ‘Talk to my chief of staff. I don't do personnel.’”
My understanding is the CIA is all personnel. In that case what exactly does Goss do? Full story in today’s Washington Post.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Tell me if you’ve heard this one
A new shopping center sprouted up on our corner. I’ve had my hair cut there a few times by a girl named Soo. The last time I was in I thought it odd that Soo would offer to squeeze a pimple or two next to one of my temples. I told her it was OK, but no thanks.
She does a great job of cutting my hair, massaging my shoulders, and massaging my head during the shampoo. The shampoo comes after the haircut.
Today she told me I had a blackhead near one of my temples and she should squeeze it or I’d get more. Ewwww, but I told her to go ahead.
Soo is Korean so I figure it’s a cultural difference that I would think it a bit weird. She held the removed item up in front of my eyes, See? Has anybody out there had this experience at a barber?
Stop. Let’s move on now
My friend Raina called yesterday to ask If I had read the November 15th New Yorker. Since mail wasn’t delivered yesterday I had not. She told me I should read Talk of the Town as soon as my copy arrived. Today I did.
Although the balance of power is precariously out of whack in Washington, a mandate from we the people is hardly the reality. “ . . . the number of voters who cast their ballots for Republican Senate candidates was 37.9 million, while 41.3 million voted for Democrats.” And this: “The system of checks and balances has broken down, but the country remains divided—right down the nonexistent, powerless middle. –Hendrik Herzberg”
Cities attacked by Al Qaeda:
New York, voted three to one for Kerry
Washington D.C., voted nine to one for Kerry
Keep your mighty pens poised, folks. The votes should be counted. Congress should investigate. And we should stop the teeth gnashing and move on to the next hard work. We work hard. It is hard work. We're working hard . . .
Big government Democrats? According to William F. Buckley, of all conservatives, also in this week’s The New Yorker: “Government is now 20.9 percent of G.D.P., and that’s bad stuff.” He’s then quoted as saying, Drink to that! In today’s parlance I’d say, Pray on that!
She does a great job of cutting my hair, massaging my shoulders, and massaging my head during the shampoo. The shampoo comes after the haircut.
Today she told me I had a blackhead near one of my temples and she should squeeze it or I’d get more. Ewwww, but I told her to go ahead.
Soo is Korean so I figure it’s a cultural difference that I would think it a bit weird. She held the removed item up in front of my eyes, See? Has anybody out there had this experience at a barber?
Stop. Let’s move on now
My friend Raina called yesterday to ask If I had read the November 15th New Yorker. Since mail wasn’t delivered yesterday I had not. She told me I should read Talk of the Town as soon as my copy arrived. Today I did.
Although the balance of power is precariously out of whack in Washington, a mandate from we the people is hardly the reality. “ . . . the number of voters who cast their ballots for Republican Senate candidates was 37.9 million, while 41.3 million voted for Democrats.” And this: “The system of checks and balances has broken down, but the country remains divided—right down the nonexistent, powerless middle. –Hendrik Herzberg”
Cities attacked by Al Qaeda:
New York, voted three to one for Kerry
Washington D.C., voted nine to one for Kerry
Keep your mighty pens poised, folks. The votes should be counted. Congress should investigate. And we should stop the teeth gnashing and move on to the next hard work. We work hard. It is hard work. We're working hard . . .
Big government Democrats? According to William F. Buckley, of all conservatives, also in this week’s The New Yorker: “Government is now 20.9 percent of G.D.P., and that’s bad stuff.” He’s then quoted as saying, Drink to that! In today’s parlance I’d say, Pray on that!
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Veterans Day parade of crosses
In my north Georgia town, city workers line Main Street with crosses and flags every Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Each cross carries the name of a dead veteran along with the war in which he or she served.
My sister Judy, visiting around Memorial Day, remarked: "Boy, there must have been a lot of accidents on this road."
After Main Street was full of mini memorials, the city started using the primary east/west highway through town. I've seen a few "Persian Gulf War" markers but no "Operation Iraqi Freedoms," yet. Makes me wonder how many dead veterans Bush's failed imperialistic policies have made so far today. And it makes me realize how the attack on Falluja failed to contain the opposition because of the administration's selfish plan to hold off until after the election. The fighters, the cowardly neck choppers, and their leaders escaped to fight another day, yesterday and today in fact.
What a mess. Draft young Republicans first.
Thomas Friedman provides six questions that must be answered before we " . . . believe any happy talk coming from the Bush team on Iraq."
My sister Judy, visiting around Memorial Day, remarked: "Boy, there must have been a lot of accidents on this road."
After Main Street was full of mini memorials, the city started using the primary east/west highway through town. I've seen a few "Persian Gulf War" markers but no "Operation Iraqi Freedoms," yet. Makes me wonder how many dead veterans Bush's failed imperialistic policies have made so far today. And it makes me realize how the attack on Falluja failed to contain the opposition because of the administration's selfish plan to hold off until after the election. The fighters, the cowardly neck choppers, and their leaders escaped to fight another day, yesterday and today in fact.
What a mess. Draft young Republicans first.
Thomas Friedman provides six questions that must be answered before we " . . . believe any happy talk coming from the Bush team on Iraq."
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Anthony wings it again
When Anthony arrived at Tuesday Group he learned he was cast for last night’s show. Improvisational comedy gives little lead-time. He called but I was already in my pajamas. I’ll have the motor running at seven o’clock Tuesday evenings from now on.
Novak outs Plame; Miller, Cooper face jail?
This is as true as it is Orwellian:
The White House gives Bob Novak the name of Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a clandestine CIA operative. The White House source, “a senior administration official,” tells Novak he should probably stay mum. He probably forgot. He does appear a little senile on “CrossssssFierrrrr,” so he blabbed Ms. Plame’s name all over his column. God bless his scooping little heart.
You may recall this all occurred after Mr. Wilson was sent to Nigeria to bring back evidence of Sadam Hussein fishing for yellow-cake uranium. Problem was, no evidence. When the former ambassador wrote about his experience, including White House pressure to find evidence, Karl Ro . . . well somebody on staff wanted revenge.
El Presidente ‘lil Generalissimo Bush promised a “complete investigation” in July 2003. That must have been when he was busy missing all those military funerals and not visiting Walter Reed.
Now Judith Miller (The New York Times) and Matthew Cooper (Time) face jail for refusing to reveal sources. Problem is they didn’t out Plame, Novak did.
“As for Mr. Novak, he is in no apparent jeopardy, for reasons that remain unclear,” writes Nicholas Kristof in today’s Times.
The administration’s favorite ass-kisser takes a pass—Outrageous!
Novak outs Plame; Miller, Cooper face jail?
This is as true as it is Orwellian:
The White House gives Bob Novak the name of Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a clandestine CIA operative. The White House source, “a senior administration official,” tells Novak he should probably stay mum. He probably forgot. He does appear a little senile on “CrossssssFierrrrr,” so he blabbed Ms. Plame’s name all over his column. God bless his scooping little heart.
You may recall this all occurred after Mr. Wilson was sent to Nigeria to bring back evidence of Sadam Hussein fishing for yellow-cake uranium. Problem was, no evidence. When the former ambassador wrote about his experience, including White House pressure to find evidence, Karl Ro . . . well somebody on staff wanted revenge.
El Presidente ‘lil Generalissimo Bush promised a “complete investigation” in July 2003. That must have been when he was busy missing all those military funerals and not visiting Walter Reed.
Now Judith Miller (The New York Times) and Matthew Cooper (Time) face jail for refusing to reveal sources. Problem is they didn’t out Plame, Novak did.
“As for Mr. Novak, he is in no apparent jeopardy, for reasons that remain unclear,” writes Nicholas Kristof in today’s Times.
The administration’s favorite ass-kisser takes a pass—Outrageous!
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
You gotta know when to hold’em, know when to loosen up a little
Last night Joy, Pat, and I went to a fundraiser for Anthony’s Whole World Theater, Texas hold’em at Prince of Wales Pub on Piedmont Park. We didn’t win tattoos, hot-air balloon ride, Hawks tickets, house cleaning. All we won was a little fun.
I expected it to be like the Bravo Channel game, with actors and comedians cutting up, cracking jokes. But I must admit I had to step in and loosen everybody up. I wore a Mayan god around my neck, a trinket I bought for Anthony in Cancun several years back. Told the table it was the “penis god of good luck.” I don’t remember what god it really is but it was worth some yuks.
Glad I went and I’ll be back for the final game next Monday night.
As I was driving up to the house at noontime today, my neighbor was driving away. He waved, turned his SUV around, and came back as I was unlocking the front door to my house.
“Are you selling your car?” No, I said. “Well I thought it had some ‘for sale’ signs on it. I’m looking for a car for my son.”
“You must mean the ‘Give Bush the Boot’ signs.”
“Yeah, I guess that was it.”
I stroke my goatee.
I’m with John Dufresne. Chip away at it. We have two years, a political eternity, to win back some congressional seats. Pull no punches. We are who we are.
This is a country based on a wonderful Constitution, rule of law. Let’s go get ‘em.
Has anybody taken notice of the presidential seal evident on the sidewall at Bush’s latest press conference? When our “political-capital” laden president is photographed or televised in profile, the golden seal looks like a halo around his hollow head. Eerily Christ-like. I’ve never noticed a press-conference set like that in many administrations of my lifetime.
Bob Novak on today’s Crossfire rhetorically asking, now that GWB has such a great mandate, if democrats will find it in their hearts to offer “unconditional support of the war and our troops.” What does he think we are? puppies?
I expected it to be like the Bravo Channel game, with actors and comedians cutting up, cracking jokes. But I must admit I had to step in and loosen everybody up. I wore a Mayan god around my neck, a trinket I bought for Anthony in Cancun several years back. Told the table it was the “penis god of good luck.” I don’t remember what god it really is but it was worth some yuks.
Glad I went and I’ll be back for the final game next Monday night.
As I was driving up to the house at noontime today, my neighbor was driving away. He waved, turned his SUV around, and came back as I was unlocking the front door to my house.
“Are you selling your car?” No, I said. “Well I thought it had some ‘for sale’ signs on it. I’m looking for a car for my son.”
“You must mean the ‘Give Bush the Boot’ signs.”
“Yeah, I guess that was it.”
I stroke my goatee.
I’m with John Dufresne. Chip away at it. We have two years, a political eternity, to win back some congressional seats. Pull no punches. We are who we are.
This is a country based on a wonderful Constitution, rule of law. Let’s go get ‘em.
Has anybody taken notice of the presidential seal evident on the sidewall at Bush’s latest press conference? When our “political-capital” laden president is photographed or televised in profile, the golden seal looks like a halo around his hollow head. Eerily Christ-like. I’ve never noticed a press-conference set like that in many administrations of my lifetime.
Bob Novak on today’s Crossfire rhetorically asking, now that GWB has such a great mandate, if democrats will find it in their hearts to offer “unconditional support of the war and our troops.” What does he think we are? puppies?
Monday, November 08, 2004
Republican attack dog; a fable?
Elly is mostly black with a little scattered white, looks like a graying old lady around her head and in other spots. She comes from an old cotton-mill workers’ neighborhood, an urban collection of shotgun houses slightly east of downtown Atlanta. I joke that she is black-and-white trash from Cabbage Town, what that now-gentrified area has always been called.
Bell is beige, and weighs at least twice as much as Elly. Just the sight of Bell riles Elly. Seeing Elly enrages Bell.
As entertainment guy at our annual neighborhood fall festival Saturday, I was sitting on a chair in the middle of a cul-de-sac in front of the house where Bell lives. I was painting figures on the faces and wrists of children. My friend Ellen and her dog were minding Elly while I worked. Ellen walked the two dogs on their leashes into the cul-de-sac.
Bell, free to roam among the festival goers, lunged into the crowd and quickly dispatched Elly to the blacktop, Elly’s neck firmly in Bell’s jaws. We quickly broke up the fracas and Elly is no worse for wear.
I’ve since learned Bell has a history of charging and attempting to attack other dogs.
Bell’s owner supports Bush. I, well you know who I don’t support. People murmured about why Bell might do such a thing. I mumbled something about Elly’s liberal roots.
Nominated to Home Owners Association board
Before the fall festivities got underway, we held a brief meeting to appoint a new board. Volunteers, myself included, raised hands to serve. After the meeting the talk turned to electing me president. I immediately remarked, At least one liberal is going to be president in America next year.
Therefore, have faith—err, be encouraged—we’ve already begun to turn this thing around.
The New York Times's Bob Herbert today:
“I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion.
“This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.”
The 2004 presidential election by IQ: http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm://
Thanks to John Dufresne for the link, which is being circulated widely, published by The Economist. Be sure to read John's blog today, especially the midday edition. "We can do this." We must do this.
Bell is beige, and weighs at least twice as much as Elly. Just the sight of Bell riles Elly. Seeing Elly enrages Bell.
As entertainment guy at our annual neighborhood fall festival Saturday, I was sitting on a chair in the middle of a cul-de-sac in front of the house where Bell lives. I was painting figures on the faces and wrists of children. My friend Ellen and her dog were minding Elly while I worked. Ellen walked the two dogs on their leashes into the cul-de-sac.
Bell, free to roam among the festival goers, lunged into the crowd and quickly dispatched Elly to the blacktop, Elly’s neck firmly in Bell’s jaws. We quickly broke up the fracas and Elly is no worse for wear.
I’ve since learned Bell has a history of charging and attempting to attack other dogs.
Bell’s owner supports Bush. I, well you know who I don’t support. People murmured about why Bell might do such a thing. I mumbled something about Elly’s liberal roots.
Nominated to Home Owners Association board
Before the fall festivities got underway, we held a brief meeting to appoint a new board. Volunteers, myself included, raised hands to serve. After the meeting the talk turned to electing me president. I immediately remarked, At least one liberal is going to be president in America next year.
Therefore, have faith—err, be encouraged—we’ve already begun to turn this thing around.
The New York Times's Bob Herbert today:
“I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion.
“This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.”
The 2004 presidential election by IQ: http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm://
Thanks to John Dufresne for the link, which is being circulated widely, published by The Economist. Be sure to read John's blog today, especially the midday edition. "We can do this." We must do this.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Mourning in America
All my friends are depressed. We can’t believe what happened. When GWB (it hurts to write out the full name, hurts even more to use variations of the cute-fawning moniker based on the middle initial) took the 2000 election most of us were incredulous. Many feel it was an unjust presidency anointed by the republican-appointed Supreme Court. We thought we’d have to endure an uneventful, mostly static four years. Events of 9/11/01 changed more than we bargained for. A man named Karl Rove came out of the Oval Office woodwork. Everything Rove did had one driving ambition, the reelection of his boss.
While the neocons were fueling a decade-old white paper on global domination and empire building with their “political capital,” Rove was “energizing the base.” The energizer bunny kept going, and going, and going . . .
All the rules were changed.
We are mourning in America, for now. Then we’ll learn the new rules and again work for a better, a truer, democracy.
Until then, I wanted to share some advice for today from Garrison Keillor. Thanks to Tom Lewis for passing this along. In its entirety.
How to Break the Political Fever
By GARRISON KEILLOR
A true believer offers advice for life after Nov. 2-especially if your man loses.
Politics doesn't come naturally to me. I don't have the old savoir faire. I have a chilly demeanor and a long, sad face that comes from growing up among good people who told me I was going straight to hell. I'm not a salesman - cheerful certainty makes me uneasy.
Nonetheless, last winter, moved by a sense that the beloved country is in peril, I put aside other projects, wrote a political book, knocked on doors and handed out literature (now I know how Jehovah's Witnesses feel), donated a bucket of money and stood up and made stump speeches about the disastrous regime in power, its moral bankruptcy and arrogance. Now, on election eve, I face up to the fact that one man will lose and limp away to join the ranks of noble losers (Eugene V. Debs, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern) while the other one grins and waves and elementary schools are named after him.
So what happens next? The winners smirk and gloat, of course, but what do the losers do?
1) Join the winning party
2) Curse the darkness
3) Move to Vancouver
4) Take up the sins of the flesh, all of them, not leaving out a single one
5) Brood, connive, conspire
A year of passion has come to a boil. Every morning my emailbox is full of forwarded political diatribes and manifestos. I order a sign, 4ft. by 6 ft.--I am actually going to stand by the side of the road and hold it, that's how nuts I am. I take my face to a suburb where Democrats are a sort of alien life-form, and I stand on a bench on a deck in the dark and talk to 80 people shivering in the cold like boat refugees, and I excoriate and extol and exhort in uplifting cadences about this evil war, the miserable economy that is bringing back the 60-hr. work week and the folks who don't mind this war so long as their kids don't have to fight it. Afterward we hobnob in the kitchen and enjoy a little solidarity around coffee and fudge bars, but as I drive home, the car wants to head west out across the prairie, toward the wilderness, away from newspapers and TV and politics, to a cabin, a lake, a boat, a bed, a fire, a book, where I could get this noise out of my head. There are little towns out there where a person could walk around and get leaf smoke up the nostrils and that could pretty well clear the head.
Some in my family are exchanging fiery e-mails, with hard, jagged sentences IN ALL-CAPITAL LETTERS SO THE POINT IS NOT MISSED, and Scripture is quoted and also Mark Twain, the elitist liberal baby killers vs. the Brownshirt storm troopers NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE and what will come of all this on Nov. 3? Some will pick up the morning paper and save it for a souvenir, and the others will wrap up the garbage in it.
What will reconcile us is what has always restored our sanity, and that is the plain pleasures of the physical world, our common love of coffee, the world of apples, the movements of birds, the lives of dogs, the touch of skin. Music. Dancing to music. Shooting baskets. Shooting conservatively, scoring liberally. Lacing up our skates, gliding through the dusk. Having worked ourselves into a fever over the future of Western civilization, we will now begin enjoying our oatmeal again, with raisins, chopped apricots and honey from bees that grazed in meadows of clover. The beauty of engagement is disengagement. You simply put on your jacket and walk out the door and find good health. There is no fever that a 10-mile hike can'tcure.
Twenty years ago, I gave up TV, and now I am going to take a sabbatical from the news and live in the immediate world. The neighbors are expecting a baby girl. My daughter is taking up the cello. My mother is game for more Scrabble. There is wood to be cut in the family woodlot. I've been a prisoner of the New York Times and have read enough for a while and want to get loose. Next week I'm out of here. And maybe the President is too. Crawford, Texas, is a fine place. A man could never weary of the wonders to be found there.
While the neocons were fueling a decade-old white paper on global domination and empire building with their “political capital,” Rove was “energizing the base.” The energizer bunny kept going, and going, and going . . .
All the rules were changed.
We are mourning in America, for now. Then we’ll learn the new rules and again work for a better, a truer, democracy.
Until then, I wanted to share some advice for today from Garrison Keillor. Thanks to Tom Lewis for passing this along. In its entirety.
How to Break the Political Fever
By GARRISON KEILLOR
A true believer offers advice for life after Nov. 2-especially if your man loses.
Politics doesn't come naturally to me. I don't have the old savoir faire. I have a chilly demeanor and a long, sad face that comes from growing up among good people who told me I was going straight to hell. I'm not a salesman - cheerful certainty makes me uneasy.
Nonetheless, last winter, moved by a sense that the beloved country is in peril, I put aside other projects, wrote a political book, knocked on doors and handed out literature (now I know how Jehovah's Witnesses feel), donated a bucket of money and stood up and made stump speeches about the disastrous regime in power, its moral bankruptcy and arrogance. Now, on election eve, I face up to the fact that one man will lose and limp away to join the ranks of noble losers (Eugene V. Debs, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern) while the other one grins and waves and elementary schools are named after him.
So what happens next? The winners smirk and gloat, of course, but what do the losers do?
1) Join the winning party
2) Curse the darkness
3) Move to Vancouver
4) Take up the sins of the flesh, all of them, not leaving out a single one
5) Brood, connive, conspire
A year of passion has come to a boil. Every morning my emailbox is full of forwarded political diatribes and manifestos. I order a sign, 4ft. by 6 ft.--I am actually going to stand by the side of the road and hold it, that's how nuts I am. I take my face to a suburb where Democrats are a sort of alien life-form, and I stand on a bench on a deck in the dark and talk to 80 people shivering in the cold like boat refugees, and I excoriate and extol and exhort in uplifting cadences about this evil war, the miserable economy that is bringing back the 60-hr. work week and the folks who don't mind this war so long as their kids don't have to fight it. Afterward we hobnob in the kitchen and enjoy a little solidarity around coffee and fudge bars, but as I drive home, the car wants to head west out across the prairie, toward the wilderness, away from newspapers and TV and politics, to a cabin, a lake, a boat, a bed, a fire, a book, where I could get this noise out of my head. There are little towns out there where a person could walk around and get leaf smoke up the nostrils and that could pretty well clear the head.
Some in my family are exchanging fiery e-mails, with hard, jagged sentences IN ALL-CAPITAL LETTERS SO THE POINT IS NOT MISSED, and Scripture is quoted and also Mark Twain, the elitist liberal baby killers vs. the Brownshirt storm troopers NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE and what will come of all this on Nov. 3? Some will pick up the morning paper and save it for a souvenir, and the others will wrap up the garbage in it.
What will reconcile us is what has always restored our sanity, and that is the plain pleasures of the physical world, our common love of coffee, the world of apples, the movements of birds, the lives of dogs, the touch of skin. Music. Dancing to music. Shooting baskets. Shooting conservatively, scoring liberally. Lacing up our skates, gliding through the dusk. Having worked ourselves into a fever over the future of Western civilization, we will now begin enjoying our oatmeal again, with raisins, chopped apricots and honey from bees that grazed in meadows of clover. The beauty of engagement is disengagement. You simply put on your jacket and walk out the door and find good health. There is no fever that a 10-mile hike can'tcure.
Twenty years ago, I gave up TV, and now I am going to take a sabbatical from the news and live in the immediate world. The neighbors are expecting a baby girl. My daughter is taking up the cello. My mother is game for more Scrabble. There is wood to be cut in the family woodlot. I've been a prisoner of the New York Times and have read enough for a while and want to get loose. Next week I'm out of here. And maybe the President is too. Crawford, Texas, is a fine place. A man could never weary of the wonders to be found there.
Friday, November 05, 2004
“Peace Begins”
So-called conservatives were writing today some 4,023 of 4,088 counties went for Bush. Now that’s funny because I didn’t have to reread the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution to recall that it begins with, We the people, not “we the counties.” And since the Electoral College is our system, he won, we lost, by some 100,000 votes cast on Diebold machines in Ohio. As I recall, the chairman of Diebold promised Ohio to Bush many months ago.
Some 50 million and more Americans voted to end this horrible Bush-Administration nightmare. Around three million more of the apparently uninformed voted for Bush (they must be watching Fox News and nothing else).
Nothing changed. But I’m convinced it is those who are apathetic to how government does business who are hurting all of us, putting us in great peril. Yes, we are a divided nation and it’s more than rich versus poor. I am convinced now; there is no question that the division is one of intelligence. It is the wise, the educated by choice, versus stupid fools.
I’ve been running on quarter-speed this week, taking stock of myself, soul searching and working on self-improvement.
It must have been incredible naiveté taking hold of my senses. I really believed our hard work and dedication could make a change in a government that lies to send our young people to die in a war for oil and empire, global dominance fueled by hubris. An administration that spends like drunken sailors on war and sends the bill to our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren . . . causes joblessness, reduced wages, wipes out health care for five million people, deletes decades of environmental protection . . . should surely have to pay on Election Day.
I remembered a little Internet presentation circulated in the prewar days. It was worth revisiting. Peace Begins.
http://www.attractinggenuinelove.com/peace1.html
I begin . . .
Some 50 million and more Americans voted to end this horrible Bush-Administration nightmare. Around three million more of the apparently uninformed voted for Bush (they must be watching Fox News and nothing else).
Nothing changed. But I’m convinced it is those who are apathetic to how government does business who are hurting all of us, putting us in great peril. Yes, we are a divided nation and it’s more than rich versus poor. I am convinced now; there is no question that the division is one of intelligence. It is the wise, the educated by choice, versus stupid fools.
I’ve been running on quarter-speed this week, taking stock of myself, soul searching and working on self-improvement.
It must have been incredible naiveté taking hold of my senses. I really believed our hard work and dedication could make a change in a government that lies to send our young people to die in a war for oil and empire, global dominance fueled by hubris. An administration that spends like drunken sailors on war and sends the bill to our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren . . . causes joblessness, reduced wages, wipes out health care for five million people, deletes decades of environmental protection . . . should surely have to pay on Election Day.
I remembered a little Internet presentation circulated in the prewar days. It was worth revisiting. Peace Begins.
http://www.attractinggenuinelove.com/peace1.html
I begin . . .
Thursday, November 04, 2004
We too have a mandate
Many voters will go back to their home fires, confident they have done their jobs for the next four years. Fewer will come back out in two years for the mid-terms. For some of us this is just the beginning of a long, hard road of responsibility. Our mandate comes from an apparently inchoate but promising movement of American patriots resisting the big corporate-media-government-religion merger in progress to hijack democracy for the rich, taking the middle class and poor, yes even “evangelical” voters, for fools.
Don’t count on the media to be on the watch to safeguard us. Be responsible, be wary, crank up the pressure of accountability.
From John Dufresne’s heads up, in his Nov 3 blog:
“Tom (not me) sends this along, suggests listening out of ear shot of the kids. Jon Stewart on the media.”
http://home.cfl.rr.com/jdha/stuff/ecmcotw/JonStewart_WTFH.mp3
As Americans, as Jews, Christians, agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, Native Americans, free-people-all, our work is cut out for us. The U.S. Constitution and true democracy are on the table and the doctors (quacks) are in.
It won’t be enough to let our one-party government lie. We can’t afford to watch them trip and fell us into more “disastrous success,” wait four years for the duped to come around. We have to help our country all we can and help it now.
More clever . . .
Maureen Dowd
“The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.
“W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.
“Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues."
“The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a ‘broad, nationwide victory’?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04wills.html?th
. . . and smarter than me.
Garry Wills
“The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04wills.html?th
New York attacked again
Thanks to Jon Jaspan.
Makes you want to move to an “island off the coast of Europe,” New York City.
Three of four New York City voters cast ballots for Sen. John Kerry. They seem to know who attacked them on 9/11/04. And they seem to know how Karl GWB Rove hijacked over 3,000 of their dead for a movement intent on turning America into the kingdom of their god, the almighty dollar.
“Some New Yorkers, like Meredith Hackett, a 25-year-old barmaid in Brooklyn, said they didn't even know any people who had voted for President Bush. (In both Manhattan and the Bronx, Mr. Bush received 16.7 percent of the vote.) Others spoke of a feeling of isolation from their fellow Americans, a sense that perhaps Middle America doesn't care as much about New York and its animating concerns as it seemed to in the weeks immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center.”
Read what the people on the streets where this nightmare started have to say:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/nyregion/04york.html?pagewanted=1
Don’t count on the media to be on the watch to safeguard us. Be responsible, be wary, crank up the pressure of accountability.
From John Dufresne’s heads up, in his Nov 3 blog:
“Tom (not me) sends this along, suggests listening out of ear shot of the kids. Jon Stewart on the media.”
http://home.cfl.rr.com/jdha/stuff/ecmcotw/JonStewart_WTFH.mp3
As Americans, as Jews, Christians, agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, Native Americans, free-people-all, our work is cut out for us. The U.S. Constitution and true democracy are on the table and the doctors (quacks) are in.
It won’t be enough to let our one-party government lie. We can’t afford to watch them trip and fell us into more “disastrous success,” wait four years for the duped to come around. We have to help our country all we can and help it now.
More clever . . .
Maureen Dowd
“The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.
“W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.
“Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues."
“The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a ‘broad, nationwide victory’?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04wills.html?th
. . . and smarter than me.
Garry Wills
“The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04wills.html?th
New York attacked again
Thanks to Jon Jaspan.
Makes you want to move to an “island off the coast of Europe,” New York City.
Three of four New York City voters cast ballots for Sen. John Kerry. They seem to know who attacked them on 9/11/04. And they seem to know how Karl GWB Rove hijacked over 3,000 of their dead for a movement intent on turning America into the kingdom of their god, the almighty dollar.
“Some New Yorkers, like Meredith Hackett, a 25-year-old barmaid in Brooklyn, said they didn't even know any people who had voted for President Bush. (In both Manhattan and the Bronx, Mr. Bush received 16.7 percent of the vote.) Others spoke of a feeling of isolation from their fellow Americans, a sense that perhaps Middle America doesn't care as much about New York and its animating concerns as it seemed to in the weeks immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center.”
Read what the people on the streets where this nightmare started have to say:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/nyregion/04york.html?pagewanted=1
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Now what?
Nov 3
The neocons and the Christian right have the White House, U.S. Congress, and soon the Supreme Court. I’ve given up on the media, the selfish kissers of corporate ass. They have the power. Let’s see what they can all do now to make a better country, a better world.
By my estimation we wil be the safest, most moral country with plenty of jobs and great medicine for all.
We had a thunderstorm and the power went out around nine p.m., fell asleep listening to NPR after uneventful early returns. Joy called around midnight, woke me up because she was worried about me. “We lost, Daddy.” I told her I'd be OK. Power was back after three hours and I watched the slow march to counting electoral votes, holding out hope for Ohio, watching upper Midwest states and Nevada. Quite a nightmarish experience.
The neocons and the Christian right have the White House, U.S. Congress, and soon the Supreme Court. I’ve given up on the media, the selfish kissers of corporate ass. They have the power. Let’s see what they can all do now to make a better country, a better world.
By my estimation we wil be the safest, most moral country with plenty of jobs and great medicine for all.
We had a thunderstorm and the power went out around nine p.m., fell asleep listening to NPR after uneventful early returns. Joy called around midnight, woke me up because she was worried about me. “We lost, Daddy.” I told her I'd be OK. Power was back after three hours and I watched the slow march to counting electoral votes, holding out hope for Ohio, watching upper Midwest states and Nevada. Quite a nightmarish experience.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
We did our work
Eighty calls made to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida tonight.
Since the “lead up to war,” we have been engaged.
We want a peacetime president who knows our hearts.
We will defeat a phony wartime president.
I am weary from a long fight, but I am strong in my conviction to defeat Karl Rove and his puppet named George W. Bush. And to put down in the name of America his neoconservatives as they attempt to hijack democracy and hold it hostage to solidify a twisted and deranged movement, a movement decorated with the jewelry of a fabricated new-right republican party intent on awarding itself with the riches of the liberty our founding fathers so diligently created and intended to preserve for the people.
The “good-people-around-him” presidency must now end. We the people get it. We now know that the wolves at our necks are the wolves of evil—the evil that would pray on Sunday, sneak up on us on Monday, and rape us on Friday.
The Bush conspiracy is now well documented. There is not much more to add to the equation because those of us who know what has been going on behind our apathetic backs is revealed as the real spine of evil. And it is the false projection of a twisted backbone of American democracy created by these guys: George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld (and his little mean squirmy staff), ole “Fuck Yourself” Cheney himself, you know who you are.
Peace in great measures to my sisters, my brothers in thought, in heart, who work so hard, who contribute so effortlessly by the actions of their minds.
Eighty calls made to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida tonight.
Since the “lead up to war,” we have been engaged.
We want a peacetime president who knows our hearts.
We will defeat a phony wartime president.
I am weary from a long fight, but I am strong in my conviction to defeat Karl Rove and his puppet named George W. Bush. And to put down in the name of America his neoconservatives as they attempt to hijack democracy and hold it hostage to solidify a twisted and deranged movement, a movement decorated with the jewelry of a fabricated new-right republican party intent on awarding itself with the riches of the liberty our founding fathers so diligently created and intended to preserve for the people.
The “good-people-around-him” presidency must now end. We the people get it. We now know that the wolves at our necks are the wolves of evil—the evil that would pray on Sunday, sneak up on us on Monday, and rape us on Friday.
The Bush conspiracy is now well documented. There is not much more to add to the equation because those of us who know what has been going on behind our apathetic backs is revealed as the real spine of evil. And it is the false projection of a twisted backbone of American democracy created by these guys: George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld (and his little mean squirmy staff), ole “Fuck Yourself” Cheney himself, you know who you are.
Peace in great measures to my sisters, my brothers in thought, in heart, who work so hard, who contribute so effortlessly by the actions of their minds.
Monday, November 01, 2004
Our poll shows Bush defeat, Run for the finish line, folks!
You the people finish this story.
The Redskins lost today, that means Kerry wins. And although The Weekly Reader has never been wrong and shows Bush winning in its poll, a much larger audience, Nickelodeon's 400,000 kid viewers, has Kerry at 56 percent. Neither has ever been wrong but I'd put my nickel on the bigger audience.
Vote. I’ve heard so many excuses. I don’t have time to vote. I haven’t decided yet (it’s the day before the election! Where have you been?) My vote doesn’t count—well that argument doesn’t count. We are in corporate America, if that’s the analogy that works for you. You are a shareholder. It’s your money. Vote!
I have two kids, one is 21 and the other is 23. Based on my knowledge of my two kids and the character of their friends, based on my experience in the trenches with kids like them, I know there is an active movement of new voters that will make the difference in this benchmark year.
I have faith in democracy. Much of that faith emanates from this: The current generation has seen the result of our apathy. They are the change and they are strong. Not only will they carry the day Tuesday, they won’t forget and they will get into the habit of keeping up with what’s going on, the habit of “getting it.”
Then there is the silent majority (thanks, Nixon) but this time they are silent for change and they will show up Tuesday and kick our puppet president out!
From The Washington Post:
“Finally, there is another oddity in some polling this year. In many national polls, Kerry runs better in a subsample of voters in battleground states than he does overall, suggesting that the electorate that has been bombarded by television ads and courted with numerous visits by the candidates may see Bush and Kerry differently than do other voters.
“Matthew Dowd, senior strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign, disagrees, saying his analysis shows that the battleground states generally track national polls. Kerry strategists believe that battleground voters view Bush more negatively than the overall electorate and that that gives Kerry an important advantage.
“Ultimately, the election will test the president's strategy of creating a new GOP electorate and Rove's bet that the key to victory is an energized GOP base. But Democratic pollster Peter Hart, noting the enthusiasm among Democrats, said Rove's calculations may not be taking into consideration an outpouring of anti-Bush votes. "Karl Rove may be energizing too small a percentage" of the electorate.
“As the campaigns gear up their final get-out-the-vote operations, they know that is something that can be answered only on Election Day.”
The whole article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56830-2004Oct23.html
If you want to help, click on this: http://www.campaignwindow.com/gfdgotv/
The Redskins lost today, that means Kerry wins. And although The Weekly Reader has never been wrong and shows Bush winning in its poll, a much larger audience, Nickelodeon's 400,000 kid viewers, has Kerry at 56 percent. Neither has ever been wrong but I'd put my nickel on the bigger audience.
Vote. I’ve heard so many excuses. I don’t have time to vote. I haven’t decided yet (it’s the day before the election! Where have you been?) My vote doesn’t count—well that argument doesn’t count. We are in corporate America, if that’s the analogy that works for you. You are a shareholder. It’s your money. Vote!
I have two kids, one is 21 and the other is 23. Based on my knowledge of my two kids and the character of their friends, based on my experience in the trenches with kids like them, I know there is an active movement of new voters that will make the difference in this benchmark year.
I have faith in democracy. Much of that faith emanates from this: The current generation has seen the result of our apathy. They are the change and they are strong. Not only will they carry the day Tuesday, they won’t forget and they will get into the habit of keeping up with what’s going on, the habit of “getting it.”
Then there is the silent majority (thanks, Nixon) but this time they are silent for change and they will show up Tuesday and kick our puppet president out!
From The Washington Post:
“Finally, there is another oddity in some polling this year. In many national polls, Kerry runs better in a subsample of voters in battleground states than he does overall, suggesting that the electorate that has been bombarded by television ads and courted with numerous visits by the candidates may see Bush and Kerry differently than do other voters.
“Matthew Dowd, senior strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign, disagrees, saying his analysis shows that the battleground states generally track national polls. Kerry strategists believe that battleground voters view Bush more negatively than the overall electorate and that that gives Kerry an important advantage.
“Ultimately, the election will test the president's strategy of creating a new GOP electorate and Rove's bet that the key to victory is an energized GOP base. But Democratic pollster Peter Hart, noting the enthusiasm among Democrats, said Rove's calculations may not be taking into consideration an outpouring of anti-Bush votes. "Karl Rove may be energizing too small a percentage" of the electorate.
“As the campaigns gear up their final get-out-the-vote operations, they know that is something that can be answered only on Election Day.”
The whole article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56830-2004Oct23.html
If you want to help, click on this: http://www.campaignwindow.com/gfdgotv/
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Friedman breaks NYT editorial board rules for columnists, endorses somebody
(Hint, it’s not W-ya!)
“Yes, next Tuesday, vote for the real political heir to George H. W. Bush. I'm sure you know who that is.” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/opinion/31friedman.html?oref=login
Get out the vote, avoid traffic, wear pajamas
There’s still time to make a difference. Make calls from home.
http://www.votercall.org/gotv/ True Majority is cool. Ben might even buy an ice cream cone if you meet him someday. It took me thirty seconds to sign up.
It’s the economy, baby
“Abortions declined in the U.S. in the Clinton years; the abortion rate dropped by 22 percent in the 1990's. But while data are incomplete, abortions appear to have increased sharply since Mr. Bush took office. Glen H. Stassen, a Christian pro-life theologian, estimates that 52,000 more abortions occurred in 2002 than would have been expected based on the previous trend. Professor Stassen attributes the rise in abortions in part to the troubled economy and concerns among pregnant women that they cannot afford to have babies.”
This and more reasons to kick out Bush The Faker; read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/opinion/30kristof.html?th
BellSouth fleecing FEMA and you
The Urban Farm Report has learned from a source inside BellSouth that the telecommunications giant has ordered 12-hour, 7-day weeks for many of its repair workers in Florida through November. The move, according to our source, is to ensure all Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hurricane recovery money awarded to the phone company is spent.
Yet the actual work needed was apparently overestimated and has been finished for several weeks now. Most of my source’s time is spent sitting in an air-conditioned truck with the engine running, listening to conservative talk radio. Base pay is some $26 per hour, putting overtime at nearly $40.
When I was in Orlando walking the neighborhoods, I noticed myriad roofs covered with blue FEMA tarpaulins. The roofing companies should get some of that federal money wasted by Ma Bell and pass it on to homeowners. What would you rather have, a phone with a repairperson wasting time in her truck or your roof replaced?
Jeb Bush is the governor; George Bush was down there showing so much concern. Seems "conservatives" would have been a bit more involved with how the money is being spent. Unless, of course, BellSouth campaign contributions had something to do with it.
“Yes, next Tuesday, vote for the real political heir to George H. W. Bush. I'm sure you know who that is.” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/opinion/31friedman.html?oref=login
Get out the vote, avoid traffic, wear pajamas
There’s still time to make a difference. Make calls from home.
http://www.votercall.org/gotv/ True Majority is cool. Ben might even buy an ice cream cone if you meet him someday. It took me thirty seconds to sign up.
It’s the economy, baby
“Abortions declined in the U.S. in the Clinton years; the abortion rate dropped by 22 percent in the 1990's. But while data are incomplete, abortions appear to have increased sharply since Mr. Bush took office. Glen H. Stassen, a Christian pro-life theologian, estimates that 52,000 more abortions occurred in 2002 than would have been expected based on the previous trend. Professor Stassen attributes the rise in abortions in part to the troubled economy and concerns among pregnant women that they cannot afford to have babies.”
This and more reasons to kick out Bush The Faker; read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/opinion/30kristof.html?th
BellSouth fleecing FEMA and you
The Urban Farm Report has learned from a source inside BellSouth that the telecommunications giant has ordered 12-hour, 7-day weeks for many of its repair workers in Florida through November. The move, according to our source, is to ensure all Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hurricane recovery money awarded to the phone company is spent.
Yet the actual work needed was apparently overestimated and has been finished for several weeks now. Most of my source’s time is spent sitting in an air-conditioned truck with the engine running, listening to conservative talk radio. Base pay is some $26 per hour, putting overtime at nearly $40.
When I was in Orlando walking the neighborhoods, I noticed myriad roofs covered with blue FEMA tarpaulins. The roofing companies should get some of that federal money wasted by Ma Bell and pass it on to homeowners. What would you rather have, a phone with a repairperson wasting time in her truck or your roof replaced?
Jeb Bush is the governor; George Bush was down there showing so much concern. Seems "conservatives" would have been a bit more involved with how the money is being spent. Unless, of course, BellSouth campaign contributions had something to do with it.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Bush is scary, vote for Kerry
Oct 30
A lady on the bus back from Florida said her daughter made a sign that said that.
We categorically, unabashedly, wholeheartedly, fervently, earnestly, resolutely, eagerly, ardently, energetically, and spiritedly endorse John Kerry for president, John Edwards for vice president. (Our thanks to J.I. Rodale’s “The Synonym Finder.”)
Bush has lived up to his promise to run America like a business. In fact, he’s been turning it into a business for the past four years. America, Inc. keeps hammering away at a resistant Iraqi population, determined to annex and franchise the second largest oil deposit in the world. Net profit? How about a negative number of $200 billion. The shareholders should be aghast.
For the first eight months of their coup, Bush and his “good people around him” walked around the White House with their hands in their pockets, jingling their change. Domestic policy? It’s around here somewhere. No, not under here, no, not there. We’ll find one soon.
The only Bush domestic policy was to shift the tax burden to the middle class and break the entire United States budget.
Then on 11 September 2004, New York, the Pentagon, and an airliner over Pennsylvania were attacked by Saudi Arabian terrorists working out of Afghanistan. Bush had something to do. As radical as I am, I was with Bush and our government on that one.
But akin to FDR attacking Mexico for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bush would listen to nothing but a case for regime change and takeover of Iraq. And he gave the wealthy and corporations the biggest government gifts of all time.
Workers were cut adrift from their jobs with no concrete hope for a future. Health care went down the toilet. Weekend warriors were sent on long weekends to hell, sometimes a year or more.
W-Ya! got the big job by the skin of his teeth in an election handed to him by a Supreme Court stacked with one conservative too many. After 091101 he had a chance to step up to bat and meet a great challenge. He let those good-people-around-him dust off a tired old neocon white paper and take over our democracy in the name of experimentation on behalf of a handful of unelected “geniuses” allied with the Christian Coalition.
Bush’s Trojan Horse has attempted to deceive all of us, especially true religious and spiritual citizens around the world. The horse is lame now, the obfuscation exposed. Time to put it down.
A lady on the bus back from Florida said her daughter made a sign that said that.
We categorically, unabashedly, wholeheartedly, fervently, earnestly, resolutely, eagerly, ardently, energetically, and spiritedly endorse John Kerry for president, John Edwards for vice president. (Our thanks to J.I. Rodale’s “The Synonym Finder.”)
Bush has lived up to his promise to run America like a business. In fact, he’s been turning it into a business for the past four years. America, Inc. keeps hammering away at a resistant Iraqi population, determined to annex and franchise the second largest oil deposit in the world. Net profit? How about a negative number of $200 billion. The shareholders should be aghast.
For the first eight months of their coup, Bush and his “good people around him” walked around the White House with their hands in their pockets, jingling their change. Domestic policy? It’s around here somewhere. No, not under here, no, not there. We’ll find one soon.
The only Bush domestic policy was to shift the tax burden to the middle class and break the entire United States budget.
Then on 11 September 2004, New York, the Pentagon, and an airliner over Pennsylvania were attacked by Saudi Arabian terrorists working out of Afghanistan. Bush had something to do. As radical as I am, I was with Bush and our government on that one.
But akin to FDR attacking Mexico for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bush would listen to nothing but a case for regime change and takeover of Iraq. And he gave the wealthy and corporations the biggest government gifts of all time.
Workers were cut adrift from their jobs with no concrete hope for a future. Health care went down the toilet. Weekend warriors were sent on long weekends to hell, sometimes a year or more.
W-Ya! got the big job by the skin of his teeth in an election handed to him by a Supreme Court stacked with one conservative too many. After 091101 he had a chance to step up to bat and meet a great challenge. He let those good-people-around-him dust off a tired old neocon white paper and take over our democracy in the name of experimentation on behalf of a handful of unelected “geniuses” allied with the Christian Coalition.
Bush’s Trojan Horse has attempted to deceive all of us, especially true religious and spiritual citizens around the world. The horse is lame now, the obfuscation exposed. Time to put it down.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Our business school president and his sad, sad term paper
Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq TomPaine.com
by Greg Palast Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration’s grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it.
---
In February 2003, a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a 101-page document came my way from somewhere within the U.S. State Department. Titled pleasantly, "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth," it was part of a larger under-wraps program called "The Iraq Strategy."
The Economy Plan goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before: the complete rewrite, it says, of a conquered state's "policies, laws and regulations." Here's what you'll find in the Plan: A highly detailed program, begun years before the tanks rolled, for imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and bridges—in fact, "ALL state enterprises"—to foreign operators. There's more in the Plan, part of which became public when the State Department hired consulting firm to track the progress of the Iraq makeover. Example: This is likely history's first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation's copyright laws.
And when it comes to oil, the Plan leaves nothing to chance—or to the Iraqis. Beginning on page 73, the secret drafters emphasized that Iraq would have to "privatize" (i.e., sell off) its "oil and supporting industries." The Plan makes it clear that—even if we didn't go in for the oil—we certainly won't leave without it.
If the Economy Plan reads like a Christmas wishlist drafted by U.S. corporate lobbyists, that's because it was.
From slashing taxes to wiping away Iraq's tariffs (taxes on imports of U.S. and other foreign goods), the package carries the unmistakable fingerprints of the small, soft hands of Grover Norquist.
Norquist is the capo di capi of the lobbyist army of the right. In Washington every Wednesday, he hosts a pow-wow of big business political operatives and right-wing muscle groups—including the Christian Coalition and National Rifle Association—where Norquist quarterbacks their media and legislative offensive for the week.
Once registered as a lobbyist for Microsoft and American Express, Norquist today directs Americans for Tax Reform, a kind of trade union for billionaires unnamed, pushing a regressive "flat tax" scheme.
Acting on a tip, I dropped by the super-lobbyist's L-Street office. Below a huge framed poster of his idol ("NIXON— NOW MORE THAN EVER"), Norquist could not wait to boast of moving freely at the Treasury, Defense and State Departments, and, in the White House, shaping the post-conquest economic plans—from taxes to tariffs to the "intellectual property rights" that I pointed to in the Plan.
Norquist wasn't the only corporate front man getting a piece of the Iraq cash cow. Norquist suggested the change in copyright laws after seeking the guidance of the Recording Industry Association of America.
And then there's the oil. Iraq-born Falah Aljibury was in on the drafting of administration blueprints for the post-Saddam Iraq. According to Aljibury, the administration began coveting its Mideast neighbor's oil within weeks of the Bush-Cheney inauguration, when the White House convened a closed committee under the direction of the State Department's Pam Wainwright. The group included banking and chemical industry men, and the range of topics over what to do with a post-conquest Iraq was wide. In short order, said Aljibury, "It became an oil group."
This was not surprising as the membership list had a strong smell of petroleum. Besides Aljibury, an oil industry consultant, the secret team included executives from Royal-Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco. These and other oil industry bigs would, in 2003, direct the drafting of a 300-page addendum to the Economy Plan solely about Iraq's oil assets. The oil section of the Plan, obtained after a year of wrestling with the administration over the Freedom of Information Act, calls for Iraqis to sell off to "IOCs" (international oil companies) the nation's "downstream" assets—that is, the refineries, pipelines and ports that, unless under armed occupation, a Mideast nation would be loathe to give up.
---The General Versus Annex D---
One thing stood in the way of rewriting Iraq's laws and selling off Iraq's assets: the Iraqis. An insider working on the plans put it coldly: "They have [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul] Wolfowitz coming out saying it's going to be a democratic country … but we're going to do something that 99 percent of the people of Iraq wouldn't vote for."
In this looming battle between what Iraqis wanted and what the Bush administration planned for them, the Iraqis had an unexpected ally, Gen. Jay Garner, the man appointed by our president just before the invasion as a kind of temporary Pasha to run the soon-to-be conquered nation.
Garner's an old Iraq hand who performed the benevolent autocratic function in the Kurdish zone after the first Gulf War. But in March 2003, the general made his big career mistake. In Kuwait City, fresh off the plane from the United States, he promised Iraqis they would have free and fair elections as soon as Saddam was toppled, preferably within 90 days.
Garner's 90-days-to-democracy pledge ran into a hard object: The Economy Plan's 'Annex D.' Disposing of a nation's oil industry—let alone redrafting trade and tax laws—can't be done in a weekend, nor in 90 days. Annex D lays out a strict 360-day schedule for the free-market makeover of Iraq. And there's the rub: It was simply inconceivable that any popularly elected government would let America write its laws and auction off the nation's crown jewel, its petroleum industry.
Elections would have to wait. As lobbyist Norquist explained when I asked him about the Annex D timetable, "The right to trade, property rights, these things are not to be determined by some democratic election." Our troops would simply have to stay in Mesopotamia a bit longer.
---New World Orders 12, 37, 81 and 83---
Gen. Garner resisted—which was one of the reasons for his swift sacking by Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld on the very night he arrived in Baghdad last April. Rummy had a perfect replacement ready to wing it in Iraq to replace the recalcitrant general. Paul Bremer may not have had Garner's experience on the ground in Iraq, but no one would question the qualifications of a man who served as managing director of Kissinger Associates.
Pausing only to install himself in Saddam's old palace—and adding an extra ring of barbed wire—"Jerry" Bremer cancelled Garner's scheduled meeting of Iraq's tribal leaders called to plan national elections. Instead, Bremer appointed the entire government himself. National elections, Bremer pronounced, would have to wait until 2005. The extended occupation would require our forces to linger.
The delay would, incidentally, provide time needed to lock in the laws, regulations and irreversible sales of assets in accordance with the Economy Plan.
On that, Bremer wasted no time. Altogether, the leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority issued exactly 100 orders that remade Iraq in the image of the Economy Plan. In May, for example, Bremer—only a month from escaping out Baghdad's back door—took time from fighting the burgeoning insurrection to sign orders 81—"Patents,"and 83, "Copyrights." Here, Grover Norquist's hard work paid off. Fifty years of royalties would now be conferred on music recording. And 20 years on Windows code.
Order number 37, "Tax Strategy for 2003," was Norquist's dream come true: taxes capped at 15 percent on corporate and individual income (as suggested in the Economy Plan, page 8). The U.S. Congress had rejected a similar flat-tax plan for America, but in Iraq, with an electorate of one—Jerry Bremer—the public's will was not an issue.
Not everyone felt the pain of this reckless rush to a free market. Order 12, "Trade Liberalization," permitted the tax- and tariff-free import of foreign products. One big winner was Cargill, the world's largest grain merchant, which flooded Iraq with hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat. For Iraqi farmers, already wounded by sanctions and war, this was devastating. They could not compete with the U.S. and Australian surplusses dumped on them. But the import plan carried out the letter of the Economy Plan.
This trade windfall for the West was enforced by the occupation's agriculture chief, Dan Amstutz, himself an import from the United States. Prior to George Bush taking office, Amstutz chaired a company funded by Cargill.
There's no sense cutting taxes on big business, ordering 20 years of copyright payments for Bill Gates' operating system or killing off protections for Iraqi farmers if some out-of-control Iraqi government is going to take it away after an election. The shadow governors of Iraq back in Washington thought of that, too. Bremer fled, but he's left behind him nearly 200 American "experts," assigned to baby-sit each new Iraqi minister—functionaries also approved by the U.S. State Department.
---The Price---
The free market paradise in Iraq is not free.
After General Garner was deposed, I met with him in Washington. He had little regard for the Economy Plan handed to him three months before the tanks rolled. He especially feared its designs on Iraq's oil assets and the delay in handing Iraq back to Iraqis. "That's one fight you don't want to take on," he told me.
But we have. After a month in Saddam's palace, Bremer cancelled municipal elections, including the crucial vote about to take place in Najaf. Denied the ballot, Najaf's Shi'ites voted with bullets. This April, insurgent leader Moqtada Al Sadr's militia killed 21 U.S. soldiers and, for a month, seized the holy city.
"They shouldn't have to follow our plan," the general said. "It's their country, their oil." Maybe, but not according to the Plan. And until it does become their country, the 82nd Airborne will have to remain to keep it from them.
For the interview with Jay Garner and more details of The Plan, see "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," out this month on DVD. Watch a segment: http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
by Greg Palast Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration’s grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it.
---
In February 2003, a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a 101-page document came my way from somewhere within the U.S. State Department. Titled pleasantly, "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth," it was part of a larger under-wraps program called "The Iraq Strategy."
The Economy Plan goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before: the complete rewrite, it says, of a conquered state's "policies, laws and regulations." Here's what you'll find in the Plan: A highly detailed program, begun years before the tanks rolled, for imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and bridges—in fact, "ALL state enterprises"—to foreign operators. There's more in the Plan, part of which became public when the State Department hired consulting firm to track the progress of the Iraq makeover. Example: This is likely history's first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation's copyright laws.
And when it comes to oil, the Plan leaves nothing to chance—or to the Iraqis. Beginning on page 73, the secret drafters emphasized that Iraq would have to "privatize" (i.e., sell off) its "oil and supporting industries." The Plan makes it clear that—even if we didn't go in for the oil—we certainly won't leave without it.
If the Economy Plan reads like a Christmas wishlist drafted by U.S. corporate lobbyists, that's because it was.
From slashing taxes to wiping away Iraq's tariffs (taxes on imports of U.S. and other foreign goods), the package carries the unmistakable fingerprints of the small, soft hands of Grover Norquist.
Norquist is the capo di capi of the lobbyist army of the right. In Washington every Wednesday, he hosts a pow-wow of big business political operatives and right-wing muscle groups—including the Christian Coalition and National Rifle Association—where Norquist quarterbacks their media and legislative offensive for the week.
Once registered as a lobbyist for Microsoft and American Express, Norquist today directs Americans for Tax Reform, a kind of trade union for billionaires unnamed, pushing a regressive "flat tax" scheme.
Acting on a tip, I dropped by the super-lobbyist's L-Street office. Below a huge framed poster of his idol ("NIXON— NOW MORE THAN EVER"), Norquist could not wait to boast of moving freely at the Treasury, Defense and State Departments, and, in the White House, shaping the post-conquest economic plans—from taxes to tariffs to the "intellectual property rights" that I pointed to in the Plan.
Norquist wasn't the only corporate front man getting a piece of the Iraq cash cow. Norquist suggested the change in copyright laws after seeking the guidance of the Recording Industry Association of America.
And then there's the oil. Iraq-born Falah Aljibury was in on the drafting of administration blueprints for the post-Saddam Iraq. According to Aljibury, the administration began coveting its Mideast neighbor's oil within weeks of the Bush-Cheney inauguration, when the White House convened a closed committee under the direction of the State Department's Pam Wainwright. The group included banking and chemical industry men, and the range of topics over what to do with a post-conquest Iraq was wide. In short order, said Aljibury, "It became an oil group."
This was not surprising as the membership list had a strong smell of petroleum. Besides Aljibury, an oil industry consultant, the secret team included executives from Royal-Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco. These and other oil industry bigs would, in 2003, direct the drafting of a 300-page addendum to the Economy Plan solely about Iraq's oil assets. The oil section of the Plan, obtained after a year of wrestling with the administration over the Freedom of Information Act, calls for Iraqis to sell off to "IOCs" (international oil companies) the nation's "downstream" assets—that is, the refineries, pipelines and ports that, unless under armed occupation, a Mideast nation would be loathe to give up.
---The General Versus Annex D---
One thing stood in the way of rewriting Iraq's laws and selling off Iraq's assets: the Iraqis. An insider working on the plans put it coldly: "They have [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul] Wolfowitz coming out saying it's going to be a democratic country … but we're going to do something that 99 percent of the people of Iraq wouldn't vote for."
In this looming battle between what Iraqis wanted and what the Bush administration planned for them, the Iraqis had an unexpected ally, Gen. Jay Garner, the man appointed by our president just before the invasion as a kind of temporary Pasha to run the soon-to-be conquered nation.
Garner's an old Iraq hand who performed the benevolent autocratic function in the Kurdish zone after the first Gulf War. But in March 2003, the general made his big career mistake. In Kuwait City, fresh off the plane from the United States, he promised Iraqis they would have free and fair elections as soon as Saddam was toppled, preferably within 90 days.
Garner's 90-days-to-democracy pledge ran into a hard object: The Economy Plan's 'Annex D.' Disposing of a nation's oil industry—let alone redrafting trade and tax laws—can't be done in a weekend, nor in 90 days. Annex D lays out a strict 360-day schedule for the free-market makeover of Iraq. And there's the rub: It was simply inconceivable that any popularly elected government would let America write its laws and auction off the nation's crown jewel, its petroleum industry.
Elections would have to wait. As lobbyist Norquist explained when I asked him about the Annex D timetable, "The right to trade, property rights, these things are not to be determined by some democratic election." Our troops would simply have to stay in Mesopotamia a bit longer.
---New World Orders 12, 37, 81 and 83---
Gen. Garner resisted—which was one of the reasons for his swift sacking by Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld on the very night he arrived in Baghdad last April. Rummy had a perfect replacement ready to wing it in Iraq to replace the recalcitrant general. Paul Bremer may not have had Garner's experience on the ground in Iraq, but no one would question the qualifications of a man who served as managing director of Kissinger Associates.
Pausing only to install himself in Saddam's old palace—and adding an extra ring of barbed wire—"Jerry" Bremer cancelled Garner's scheduled meeting of Iraq's tribal leaders called to plan national elections. Instead, Bremer appointed the entire government himself. National elections, Bremer pronounced, would have to wait until 2005. The extended occupation would require our forces to linger.
The delay would, incidentally, provide time needed to lock in the laws, regulations and irreversible sales of assets in accordance with the Economy Plan.
On that, Bremer wasted no time. Altogether, the leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority issued exactly 100 orders that remade Iraq in the image of the Economy Plan. In May, for example, Bremer—only a month from escaping out Baghdad's back door—took time from fighting the burgeoning insurrection to sign orders 81—"Patents,"and 83, "Copyrights." Here, Grover Norquist's hard work paid off. Fifty years of royalties would now be conferred on music recording. And 20 years on Windows code.
Order number 37, "Tax Strategy for 2003," was Norquist's dream come true: taxes capped at 15 percent on corporate and individual income (as suggested in the Economy Plan, page 8). The U.S. Congress had rejected a similar flat-tax plan for America, but in Iraq, with an electorate of one—Jerry Bremer—the public's will was not an issue.
Not everyone felt the pain of this reckless rush to a free market. Order 12, "Trade Liberalization," permitted the tax- and tariff-free import of foreign products. One big winner was Cargill, the world's largest grain merchant, which flooded Iraq with hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat. For Iraqi farmers, already wounded by sanctions and war, this was devastating. They could not compete with the U.S. and Australian surplusses dumped on them. But the import plan carried out the letter of the Economy Plan.
This trade windfall for the West was enforced by the occupation's agriculture chief, Dan Amstutz, himself an import from the United States. Prior to George Bush taking office, Amstutz chaired a company funded by Cargill.
There's no sense cutting taxes on big business, ordering 20 years of copyright payments for Bill Gates' operating system or killing off protections for Iraqi farmers if some out-of-control Iraqi government is going to take it away after an election. The shadow governors of Iraq back in Washington thought of that, too. Bremer fled, but he's left behind him nearly 200 American "experts," assigned to baby-sit each new Iraqi minister—functionaries also approved by the U.S. State Department.
---The Price---
The free market paradise in Iraq is not free.
After General Garner was deposed, I met with him in Washington. He had little regard for the Economy Plan handed to him three months before the tanks rolled. He especially feared its designs on Iraq's oil assets and the delay in handing Iraq back to Iraqis. "That's one fight you don't want to take on," he told me.
But we have. After a month in Saddam's palace, Bremer cancelled municipal elections, including the crucial vote about to take place in Najaf. Denied the ballot, Najaf's Shi'ites voted with bullets. This April, insurgent leader Moqtada Al Sadr's militia killed 21 U.S. soldiers and, for a month, seized the holy city.
"They shouldn't have to follow our plan," the general said. "It's their country, their oil." Maybe, but not according to the Plan. And until it does become their country, the 82nd Airborne will have to remain to keep it from them.
For the interview with Jay Garner and more details of The Plan, see "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," out this month on DVD. Watch a segment: http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
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