Mark Fiore - Ethics Liquidators' Congressional Sale-A-Bration!

The unfailingly fabulous Mark Fiore has a new dead-on-hilarious Flash animation out. Run, don't walk, to his site!

Animation here.

Marcy Winograd

I hate phones.

I hate selling.

I hate phone solicitation the most.

So what was I doing last night in a law office with a headset on, calling strangers till I got a migraine?

Volunteering for Marcy Winograd.

Marcy is challenging Rep. Jane Harman for California's 36th Congressional District seat in next weeks primary. Jane Harman is essentially a "Bush Democrat", voted for the war in Iraq, voted for the Patriot Act 3 times. Marcy Winograd is a true progressive Democrat, from the 'Democratic wing of the Democratic Party'. I'm glad to have a local candidate that I feel good about volunteering for. Here's what Marcy's about:

Domestic Policy Position Summary:

Winograd supports universal single-payer health care; substantial corporate incentives for alternative energy development (New Apollo Energy Act); media reform that favors local autonomy over corporate consolidation; a national voter-verified paper trail with standardized ballot audit protocols; and campaign finance reform such as the CA Clean Money campaign; as well as a new education initiative focused on bolstering early childhood education to close the achievement gap, improving teacher training and on-going professional development, and recreating schools as cross-community hubs rather than isolated silos.

Winograd also supports a woman's right to choose; legalization of gay marriage; workers' right to organize (bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act ); decriminalization of immigration; abolishment of the death penalty and censure and impeachment of Bush and Cheney for high crimes relating to the war in Iraq and for attacks on civil liberties, including illegal wiretapping (see http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/reasons.)

Foreign Policy Position Summary:

Marcy supports immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, cessation of air strikes over Iraq, an end to no-bid reconstruction contracts for war profiteers,no permanent US military bases in Iraq, war reparations so that Iraqis can reconstruct their own country, and diplomatic efforts to involve regional Arab stakeholders in fostering peace and unity in Iraq. Marcy calls for an end to Bush's first-strike pre-emptive nuclear war policy, secret detentions, suspension of due process and torture, and illegal wiretaps of Americans.

Winograd vigorously supports renewed Israeli/Arab peace talks aimed at establishing a Geneva Accord two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. In the face of the Bush administration's pre-emptive war policy, Winograd stresses the importance of opposing a military attack on Iran. For more on Iran, read: A Nuclear Iran Would Be Bad - A Forcibly Defanged Iran Would Be Worse.

Winograd believes the United States should join the International Criminal Court to underscore the importance of the rule of law to prosecute international terrorists before a world community -- and believes Congress should, as Congressman John Conyers suggests, pass a unified security budget that integrates and balances the importance of preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons with beefing up homeland security (ports, other transportation centers) and creating international goodwill through a renewed commitment to fight poverty, AIDS, and illiteracy both at home and abroad. Winograd also supports efforts by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to establish a Department of Peace. (See www.dopcampaign.org.)

As much as I hate phone solicitation, last night I spoke to one woman who had never heard of Marcy. After we talked, and I told her about Marcy's positions, she said, "I'm so glad you called! If I hadn't talked to you, I would have just voted for Jane Harman."

That one woman made the migraine worthwhile.

Here's Marcy's website.

And thanks to DivaJood for bringing her to my attention!

Hooterville Hellcats: Mission Accomplished!

The Hooterville Hellcats launched an assault upon Sherman Oaks today. Unfortunately, due to the danger and secrecy of their mission, and the fact that I can't find my digital camera, they could only be seen by camera-phone.

First, they secured their communications base.



Then, they captured the enemy's fueling station.



The Hooterville Hellcats proceeded to deploy all across Sherman Oaks, capturing bus stops, coffee shops, and even into the belly of the beast - the Galleria!

Major combat operations in Sherman Oaks have ended, but the War Against War continues for as long as necessary - six days, six weeks - I doubt six months...

Monkey Business

from Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions", published in 1973:

"[Kilgore Trout, the science fiction writer] wrote a story one time about an optimistic chimpanzee who became President of the United States. He called it 'Hail to the Chief.'

The chimpanzee wore a little blue blazer with brass buttons, and with the seal of the President of the United States sewed to the breast pocket....Everywhere he went, bands would play 'Hail to the Chief.' The chimpanzee loved it. He would bounce up and down."

Another golden nugget from The Smirking Chimp…

Kommandos Project

Kvatch over at Blognonymous has started a new blog to promote a protest that I just love. It's called the Kommandos Project. Target date is May 26th and 27th - Memorial Day weekend. As Kvatch says, "The notion is to place little green army men--you know the ones that you played with as a kid--with banners protesting the war anywhere...everywhere we can think of."

I think it's a fabulous idea - non-confrontive, thought-provoking, fun. Also, deadly serious. Wouldn't it be great to see these little guys popping up everywhere?

I'm going to e-mail my non-blogging friends, blogwhore where I can. I'm going to buy my supplies tomorrow - army guys are available at the 99¢ store or any toy store.

Check out the Kommandos Project - everyone is welcome to participate! Let's remember and respect our fallen soldiers by helping to bring some back home alive.

Fast-Track Flyboy: Kommander Kodpiece, the Kowboy Koward of Krawford

I found this nugget at The Smirking Chimp - one of my go-to-daily sites.

Editor's note: This is an e-mail message Michael Graham sent two days ago to a highly reputed investigative "blog" run by a progressive think tank. Mr. Graham was responding to blog entries concerning Bush's overuse of the National Guard.

Dear troublemakers,

I used to be a prize-winning reporter, so hear me out. Before that, I served in the real Air Force, as a commissioned officer in counterintelligence, at the same time George W. Bush was hiding out in the Texas Guard. At that time, the Guard did relatively little unless there was a hurricane or something. They certainly didn't have to worry about combat.

My theory is that Commander Codpiece -- insanely addicted to power -- is so hung up on the fact that he was a coward back then that he is compensating for it now by forcing today's Guard to be heroes. That way he can be one retroactively -- heroism by association. That may sound nutty, but the man is batshit nuts. And it is just a theory.

But here is something that is provable. No one in journalism has picked up one aspect of Bush's past: He never was properly trained to be a second lieutenant in the first place! I'm talking about before flight school, entrance to which requires an officer's commission.Those of us in the real Air Force got commissioned in one of three ways: The Air Force Academy, ROTC, or -- if already college graduates -- the Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. If you saw the film An Officer and a Gentleman, depicting the Navy's version, you have a rough idea of what that training was like. It was goddamned hard. But young Georgie didn't have to go through it. If you examine his records, you will find that he was given a direct commission as a second lieutenant after completing enlisted basic training and nothing more! Bang: He went directly from Airman Third Class, which is the rank of someone just out of basic, to a second lieutenant with a few typewriter keystrokes. Then he went to flight school. Read more…

Pride

I came home last night from a gig in Long Beach, where I played at a gay bar. This week is Pride Week in Long Beach. I've played many, many Pride festivals, and when I see so many wonderful people and beautiful families deprived of their basic civil rights by someone else's arbitrary 'religious' beliefs, I am always just outraged. I use 'religious' in quotes because this is not about religion at all, but the product of fear and prejudice. And straight people need to stand up and support their gay brothers and sisters. So many of the people I love in my life are gay, and to not stand with them seems a betrayal to me. It takes all of us to change the system. The courage and determination that my gay friends have in just living their lives openly is an inspiration to me.

Sexual orientation is not about sex - plenty of people can 'swing either way', but about love. Who you fall in love with. Who you want to spend your life with. Who you want to build a family with. And that's what 'family values' means to me. Imagine the twisted thinking that believes a child is better off shuttled through the nightmare that is foster care than given a permanent, loving home with a gay couple hungry for a child to share their love and build a family with. Children brought up loved are loving. That is what society needs more than anything else.

Gay pride, at the end of the day, is not so much about being proud of one's sexual orientation - after all, it's just how one was born - but about pride in being yourself; a pride that we as straight people take for granted. This most basic pride in oneself, the core, the cornerstone of your personality, is denied to 10% of God's children, for no other reason than someone else's fears and insecurities.

The 'Defense' Rests

I received my first marriage proposal at the age of eighteen. My fiancé, a year older than I, was a real catch. A Tom Hanks look-alike, he was tall and lanky, with curly brown hair and a sweet, slightly loopy smile. Kenny was smart, funny, athletic, a gifted actor and a talented saxophone player who helped me get a full-tuition music scholarship at the community college he attended a year ahead of me. His mom had been my first piano teacher, and we had been friends ever since I was in the eighth grade. We bonded in high school, both of us being theater geeks, band nerds - not terribly popular but cool with being 'on the fringe'. Music and drama helped us both to find our own place in the spinning vortex that is high school.

Kenny was a college sophomore and I was a freshman when he proposed. We were both music majors, and both had jobs as well - I was playing keyboards in local bands at night, and he was the night manager of a convenience store. Unlike most of my other male friends, Kenny was already planning for a home and family. Hard-working and thrifty, he was putting away money for a down payment on a house. I adored him. We had so much in common - including the fact that we both liked guys.

Yep, Kenny was gay. It was not a 'lifestyle choice'; it was not a 'sexual preference', like 'preferring' tea to coffee. Believe me, Kenny did not just wake up one fine morning and say, "I think I'll alienate my family, exclude myself from the social mainstream, jeopardize my ability to choose where I live and what I do, and lay myself open to rejection, discrimination, violence, hate, and fear." Folks, I'm afraid he was born that way. Take it from someone who grew up with him.

As close as we were in high school, we never talked about it. He had a 'girlfriend', a sax player at another high school, and we both pretended that he was in love with her long enough for him to have a prom date. It wasn't until after I graduated in the late '70s and disco was king that Kenny opened up to me about being gay. He introduced me to the gay subculture in our town, and I went with him to the gay bars and the all-night discos. He would have crushes on guy after guy, always so sure that this one was 'the one', but somehow it never seemed to work out. Although finally free to 'be himself' with other people who felt the way he did, the long-term relationship and stability that he wanted so much was at odds with the hedonistic excesses of the era, and there was no social framework in place to support him.

This was where I came in. As we saw it, our getting married could solve a lot of difficulties (Your Honor, I plead the ignorance of eighteen). Kenny's mom knew me and liked me; she would be happy that I would give Kenny social validity; Kenny could have the home and family he wanted - well, at least the home and the appearance of a family. I could have my cake and eat it, too - a partner who would be there for me financially and emotionally without asking for sexual fidelity, who would give me a home and not care what time I came back to it!

Well, as it turned out, we didn't get married after all; there was that pesky detail of 'being in love' that we knew, as young and nutty as we were, was the real reason for getting married. As much as we loved each other as friends, there would never be a marriage in our hearts. We went our separate ways; I went on the road and he stayed in our home town, still working, still saving, still waiting and hoping for the dream to come true. We still kept in touch, and when I came home to visit my family, we'd get together and catch up on each others' lives. Kenny eventually got the home, but the life partner to share it with never came along.

After a few years, I moved to California and my visits were spaced farther and farther apart. Sometimes I saw him, sometimes I didn't, but there was always 'next time'. I got married (for real) and after the birth of my first child, I flew back home with my husband and new son, eager to introduce them to my family and friends. I couldn't catch up with Kenny; I left messages on his machine, but in the whirlwind of activity surrounding the new baby, I put Kenny on my 'next time' list.

Two weeks after I went back to California, my sister called me to tell me that Kenny had died of AIDS.

When I hear people talking about the "Defense of Marriage", it just makes me want to spit. I believe that if Kenny had been allowed to marry, if there had been a social structure in place at that time that encouraged and rewarded commitment in gay people as well as straight, that Kenny would most likely be alive today.

Just who are they 'defending' marriage from? Is there some straight woman that won't be able to find a mate because the gay boys 'got' all the men? The arguments that the staunch 'Knights of Matrimony' throw out don't hold water to me.

Jan LaRue, a member of the Concerned Women of America ('concerned' with getting all up in other peoples' private lives!) - a lawyer, for gosh sakes - talks about why gay marriage is so very wrong...

Granting a marriage license to homosexuals because they engage in sex is as illogical as granting a medical license to a barber because he wears a white coat or a law license to a salesman because he carries a briefcase. Real doctors, lawyers and the public would suffer as a result of licensing the unqualified and granting them rights, benefits and responsibilities as if they were qualified.

Qualified? Qualified?!?

Yes, I guess the lovely and talented Lyle Menendez is 'qualified' to get married. No doubt the devilishly handsome Scott Peterson, with his boyish charm, will be married before you know it, taking his pick of jailhouse proposals from the coterie of killer-hags that are inundating him with marriage offers. After all, he is single!

point: A child should have a mother and a father.

counterpoint: First off, I think it pretty much goes without saying that in today's society, reproduction is not the only reason to be married. I don't remember the 'Fertility Test' when my husband and I were applying for our marriage license. There are straight couples who (gasp!) choose not to have children! And how about the couples who just can't and decide to live with it? Should their licenses be revoked? What about parents who have lost a partner to divorce or death? Should their children be taken away from them?

Then, of course, what about the straight couples who have absolutely no business having children, and have them any old way? Abusive parents, neglectful parents, parents who, in their heart of hearts, don't want children but have them because of outside pressure? Am I to believe that a loving, committed gay couple would be worse for the emotional health of a kid than parents like these? Apparently so. That's right along with the "Murphy Brown" school of condemnation - those awful, selfish women who want a child so badly that they choose to have one without being married. Selfish? Most single (by choice or not) moms (and dads) I know have very little 'self' at all - they're too busy trying to raise their kids right in a two-income society. They're always at the bottom of the list. But I digress. Maybe we could force them to marry a gay man or woman. One of the opposite gender, naturally. Serve them all right.

No doubt about it, mothers and fathers are great. I am not suggesting that the mom-and-pop deal is just another family model choice. It's not. It is the dominant one, but just as no one in their right mind today would force a woman to stay with an abusive man 'for the sake of the children', the idea that any two heterosexuals (no matter how sick and dysfunctional) are better parent material than any two homosexuals (no matter how emotionally healthy and loving) is not an idea that I am prepared to accept. I am sure that there are bad gay parents out there. But I know there are bad straight parents, lots and lots of them, and no one is suggesting we abolish marriage for straight people because of that. I might even posit that, as a group, gay parents might have a higher percentage of good parenting because they often have to go to extraordinary lengths to have children, and in the face of strong opposition. It doesn't just 'happen', and I suspect the process would tend to weed out the less-motivated.

Gender role modeling? Maybe. But the overwhelming majority of gay people have (drum roll, please)… straight parents! What happened there with the 'gender modeling'? Good parents of any kind make sure their kids have positive models around them.

And then there's always the trump card - IMMORALITY! Who sez? God sez! Whose God? My God! Oh, my God. I'm not even going to bother to discuss the Bible quotes in Leviticus that are trotted out on a regular basis - smarter people than I have refuted the 'cherry-picking' of Levitical laws employed by those who feel that God Hates Fags. To these people, I say, "Fine. You're absolutely right. No one should force you to marry a gay person." Like any self-respecting queer would want to. Our country was founded by people who left their homeland and traveled thousands and thousands of miles to be free to worship as they pleased. And, yes, they were Christians. But the whole idea (and a radical one it was) was to build a country where everyone was free to worship as they pleased - not just Christian Puritans. Freedom of religion. Freedom NOT to worship if so inclined. Again, I'll leave the debating of the Constitution to my betters, but unless I'm way off the mark here, the United States of America is not a theocracy*. Isn't that exactly what we're trying to avoid setting up in that other place…what's it called again?…oh, yes - Iraq!

Well, folks, I'd better get out while the getting's good - I can see I'm heading into deep water here. But I'm still not convinced that there is any sort of justice in the fact that a mass murderer can marry and have children, if he or she chooses a partner of the opposite sex, but a law-abiding, upstanding member of society - if gay - cannot. To my mind, Your Honor, the 'Defense' doesn't have a leg to stand on.

(*note - I wrote this in 2004 - obviously that was a naïve and foolish statement.)

Hey, Senate Judiciary Committee…

Your personal belief system is not enough authority to deny someone else their civil rights under our Constitution.

I'm just sayin'.

Al-Icia or...Al-Qaeda?

President Bush, you got me fair and square.

For a long time, I had you all fooled.

I was sure I could get away with it. After all, who would suspect me, a middle-aged mother of 4 of Irish-English descent, of being part of a terrorist network? It was brilliant in its simplicity (or was it simple in its brilliancy?) I could call all my Al-Qaeda controllers from the comfort of my home phone, and no one would be the wiser! The airport surveillance, the border security - it meant nothing to me. While I may have appeared to be calling my friends and family, having phone sex, or ordering attractive, yet moderately-priced jewelry on QVC - I was really conversing with my fellow America-Hating Traitors! Plotting the overthrow of our American way of life, sabotaging Christianity, concocting secret plans to destroy all that is good and righteous. I was so close!

And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for that meddling President!

But that wily, foresighted President saw right through it. I had the gullible, lily-livered liberals completely snowed, but not The Decider! Nossir! That bold, brave man knew all along what I was up to. While the namby-pamby, gutless moonbats wrung their dainty hands and whimpered about 'civil liberties', the Fourth Amendment, and so on, the President crisply decided to 'cut the Gordian knot', so to speak, and, brushing away pesky laws and inconvenient restraints like so many cobwebs, delivered a crushing blow to me and my 199,999,999 co-conspirators. The "United States of Allah"? Not on his watch!

Fortunately, Halliburton is busily constructing 'detention centers' to hold us all!

Those guys think of everything.

We're Paying To Be Spied Upon!

One thing that I don't hear talked about a lot is the fact that the telcos did not give our records to the government; they sold them to the government. Note that the companies were not required to turn over the records to the NSA. If they had been required to cooperate by law, then Qwest would not have had the option not to cooperate.

The companies that did cooperate - AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon - are reported to be operating 'under contract' with the NSA. 'Under contract' means for a consideration. So, it is not unreasonable to infer that there is not a sufficient legal basis to require the phone records to be turned over to the NSA.

And, since the NSA, a government agency, has bought our records, whose money do you think they used to purchase these records? That's right, Einstein. Yours and mine.

Our tax dollars at work.

That should make us all sleep a little better, shouldn't it?

Again With the Fitzmas

...And what do I want 'neath my own Fitzmas tree?

A Scooter, a Rover, maybe a Cheney!

Whole poem here...

Democrats - Keep Silent?

I've been hearing a lot of noise lately about how the Democrats should not even whisper 'impeachment' or even 'investigation' if they want to get the House back in November.

This sounds like something that the Republicans cooked up.

Hmmm.

WTF?

Nancy Pelosi, promising she would not seek to impeach?

Democrats have to stand up. Are we really supposed to believe that the only chance we have of getting a seat at the table is if we promise to be silent? I'm sure the Republicans would like us to believe that.

"War On Terror"™? Shut Up, Already!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There Is No Such Thing As The "War On Terror"™!

Yet, every time I have the misfortune to accidentally overhear some foul, shrill right-wing blowhard, they're shrieking about the "War On Terror"™ as if it actually existed! As if 'terror' were something that could be bombed or blown up into submission and surrender. As if it had some leader that could be captured and paraded before the public. As if it's something that we can stop if we kill enough people and take over enough countries.

I'm not saying there's no such thing as terrorism. Obviously, there is. And, obviously, it is a problem. Not the only problem, or the biggest problem that Americans face, but you'd never know that by the doom-cryers and fear-mongers. However, there is a difference between a problem and a war. War has a very specific meaning. In legal terms, it refers to "conflicts arising between the armed forces of two or more nations and the methods employed to guard and protect such nations, under the authority of their respective governments." In fact, what was popularly known as the Korean War was deliberately called a 'police action' because it didn't meet the legal standard for war.

Now, does 'terror' belong to a specific country or countries? No. Does 'terror' have a government? No. Does 'terror' have a leader who can speak for it? No. There is no legal qualification for war whatsoever, yet our civil liberties are being incinerated and the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being annihilated, and the bogus "War On Terror" is used as an excuse every time.

And the best thing about a nonexistent war? There is no end! You can use it forever! The amorphous 'enemies' are everywhere, and everyone! After all, 200 million Americans are probably terrorist accomplices,if not actual terrorists themselves, because the Fourth Amenment says (emphasis mine):

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

So, obviously, there must be probable cause for 200 million Americans to have their phone records sold to the NSA without their knowledge or consent, or our law-abiding government would not be doing it, right? Although no actual Al-Qaeda has been brought to justice, except for some hapless, pathetic patsies, and they don't seem to be able to find Osama Bin Laden with all the awesome resources that they've usurped, surely the rest of us 200 million Americans must be on the horn to these guys all the time - "Hey, Khalid, if you're stopping by the house tonight to plan some terrorist attacks, could you pick up a six-pack on your way? Thanks, buddy!"

What do you think - some guy is going to come out waving a white flag and say, "I'm the King of All Terrorists, and on behalf of all the terrorists in the world, I surrender to you, President Bush! Please don't unleash any more American might upon us! We are helpless against your superior strength and moral righteousness. You've beaten us fair and square, President Bush, and I promise you, no terrorist will ever interfere with your oil interests again, O mighty Caliph of Carnage! We bow to your awesome American power!"

All you hear, every time they take something from us, is "We're at war!"

Using that as an excuse to break every law on the books, and rape the public.

The only war around here is the war on Americans, perpetrated by the criminals occupying the White House.

I say it's time to fight back.

Hey kissfan - I was close!

Bush approval drops to 29% , according to that hotbed of liberal journalism, Wall Street Journal Online! Kissfan thought it wouldn't be till the end of May. I predicted May 15. But Bush beat both of us!

A List of Info Blogs I Like

My good friend Ed asked about My Left Wing, which I hurriedly abbreviated as MLW. So I thought I'd make up a list of the liberal news and info blogs I check daily:

Daily Kos
The Smirking Chimp
Media Matters
Raw Story
BuzzFlash
Democrats.com
Think Progress
The Huffington Post
Firedoglake
Crooks and Liars

This is by no means all the good daily info blogs, and I'm sure there are a ton I didn't mention, but this is what I start with in the morning.

My R.S. Pic

I was looking particularly hag-a-licious that day. I don't usually get dolled up for a session, and I had no idea what kind of session it was before I got there. I certainly was not expecting to be photographed. It just goes to show, I suppose.

Ahhhh...Back Online!

It's a little embarrassing how discombobulated and cut-off I feel when my internets are down. Dragging my laptop into $tarbuck$ just to get online is really, really sad. But it's also a sign of how little real information I can get anywhere else. The newspaper will tell me nothing that will enlighten me. The TV will tell me nothing I believe. And I miss my blog friends and my go-to information sites - Raw Story, Buzzflash, HuffPo, MLW, Kos, etc., and my streaming Air America.

And my e-mail, of course...

Much better now.

My (Tiny) Pic in Rolling Stone!

Rolling Stone put out its 1000th issue last Friday, and my little bitty picture is in it! On the Rock n Roll page (I think it's 41 but I'm not sure) there is a picture of Neil Young with the choir. You can see me over Neil's left shoulder - about the 2nd person to the right (right looking at the picture, left of Neil).

Internets Down Again (waah)

Yesterday I went to a lovely birthday party for Maryscott O'Connor. proprieter-in-chief of the most excellent My Left Wing. I must say it was a pleasure to hang out with smart, informed, thoughtful people who you don't need to censor your conversation around! It's the first time I've been to a party full of strangers where I immediately felt comfortable and at home. I had to laugh, because in addition to the regular party fare - burgers, drinks, snacks - there were also several laptops in attendance! Only at a blogger's party...

Anyhow, I am distressed to report that, once again, my internets are down. I think there's a broken wire on my line outside, and I have to wait till Wednesday for a repair person to come out. The guy on the phone was from No. California and said they can get someone out the same day, but SoCal - not so much. So I am making my daily excursion to the $tarbucks to get a little overpriced WiFi.

Oh well...

Rock'n'Roll Comic from Joel Orff

Wow! You know you've had your fifteen minutes when...someone you don't know makes up a comic with you in it! Joel Orff is a cartoonist whose work appears in a free alternative weekly in Minneapolis called Pulse of the Twin Cities. He wrote me yesterday to send me this really cool comic. He also has a website with an archive of his strip Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll. I checked out his archives and they are very cool. This is a great read for any rock aficionados.

Corruption

There's been a lot of talk lately about corruption, as in the "Culture of Corruption". Right now, it's mostly Republicans referred to, and that, of course, is because Republicans occupy virtually all the seats of power. As Lord Acton famously observed, 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. The corruption we see is a natural consequence of the appalling lack of checks and balances in our government. One of the platforms of the 'Republican Revolution' in 1994, led by Newt Gingrich, was to get rid of the corruption of the Democrats, who were in power at the time. What is happening now, though, simply boggles the mind. Since all the power is concentrated, not just in one party, but in collusion with the business interests that own said party, that not since the bad old days of Tammany Hall have we seen such naked greed, outright thievery and shameless venality. The reason you're not seeing Democrats involved in this is that Democrats have nothing to sell. No access, no influence. The K Street Project® is a perfect example - Tom DeLay and company required the lobbyists with whom the House did business to be Republican. Democrats couldn't get into the circles of corruption if they tried. Who wants to bribe someone who can't do anything for you?

But another use of the word 'corruption' is the decay and stink of something dead and rotten. This also applies here. What we are witnessing is the decomposition of our constitution, our freedom, our integrity and good name as a nation, the values we used to take for granted - all dead and stinking. And the Bush Crime Family is gorging itself on the putrid flesh.

The stench makes me want to throw up.

We have to get new blood, new life, into our political system, and we have to do it now, unless we want to live inside the gangrenous filth of a country that has had the life and health sucked out of it by those jackals who have torn it to bits in their feeding frenzy. Our system is poisoned and dying from the head down. If the corruption is to be stopped, we must amputate.

Religious? Right?

I Can Do Whatever I Want - I'm the Unitary Executive!

Paul Craig Roberts has written another excellent article:

The Bush administration has done more damage to Americans and more harm to America's reputation than any other administration in history. Yet, a majority of Republicans still support Bush. This tells much about blind party loyalty.By encouraging the move offshore of American jobs and manufacturing, Bush has run up tremendous trade deficits that have undermined the world's confidence in the dollar as the reserve currency. Recently, both Chinese and Russian government officials warned of the dollar's shaky status. The fall in confidence in the dollar is evidenced by the sharp run-up in the price of gold. In January 2001 the price of gold was about $240 per ounce. Today the price is $660 per ounce.The price of gasoline has risen from around $1.30 per gallon to over $3.00 per gallon. Obviously, Bush's war in the Middle East did not ensure the oil supply.

Read the whole article here:

"Runaway Bride"? How about "Runaway President"? Running away with our privacy, our safety, our money, our liberty. This "Unitary Executive" stuff - he's dead serious about it. The Boston Globe reports that

"Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution."

Scot Lehigh, a Globe columnist, says in another article:

"Bush's position reduces to this: The president needn't execute the laws as they are written and passed, but rather, has the right to implement -- or ignore -- them as he sees fit. (Were it not for our pesky written Constitution, perhaps George II could take his cue from Charles I, dismiss Congress, and rule -- ah, govern -- without any legislative interference whatsoever.)

Even members of the president's own party have balked at that claim."

John Dean and Jennifer Van Bergen also have some interesting things to say about signing statements and the concept of the "Unitary Executive".

Says Dean:

Bush has quietly been using these statements to bolster presidential powers. It is a calculated, systematic scheme that has gone largely unnoticed (even though these statements are published in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents) until recently, when President Bush's used a signing statement to attempt to nullify the recent, controversial McCain amendment regarding torture, which drew some media attention.

Pumping Up the Bush Presidency With Signing Statements

Generally, Bush's signing statements tend to be brief and very broad, and they seldom cite the authority on which the president is relying for his reading of the law. None has yet been tested in court. But they do appear to be bulking up the powers of the presidency. Here are a few examples:

Suppose a new law requires the President to act in a certain manner - for instance, to report to Congress on how he is dealing with terrorism. Bush's signing statement will flat out reject the law, and state that he will construe the law "in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties."

The upshot? It is as if no law had been passed on the matter at all.

Or suppose a new law suggests even the slightest intrusion into the President's undefined "prerogative powers" under Article II of the Constitution, relating to national security, intelligence gathering, or law enforcement. Bush's signing statement will claim that notwithstanding the clear intent of Congress, which has used mandatory language, the provision will be considered as "advisory."

The upshot? It is as if Congress had acted as a mere advisor, with no more formal power than, say, Karl Rove - not as a coordinate and coequal branch of government, which in fact it is.

Says Van Bergen:

When President Bush signed the new law, sponsored by Senator McCain, restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees, he also issued a Presidential signing statement. That statement asserted that his power as Commander-in-Chief gives him the authority to bypass the very law he had just signed.

This news came fast on the heels of Bush's shocking admission that, since 2002, he has repeatedly authorized the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant, in flagrant violation of applicable federal law.

And before that, Bush declared he had the unilateral authority to ignore the Geneva Conventions and to indefinitely detain without due process both immigrants and citizens as enemy combatants.

All these declarations echo the refrain Bush has been asserting from the outset of his presidency. That refrain is simple: Presidential power must be unilateral, and unchecked.

But the most recent and blatant presidential intrusions on the law and Constitution supply the verse to that refrain. They not only claim unilateral executive power, but also supply the train of the President's thinking, the texture of his motivations, and the root of his intentions.

They make clear, for instance, that the phrase "unitary executive" is a code word for a doctrine that favors nearly unlimited executive power. Bush has used the doctrine in his signing statements to quietly expand presidential authority.

So, folks - it's time to pay attention to this. Understand - he has yet to use a veto. But at the same time, he's using the signing statement as a line-item veto (which current legal understanding calls unconstitutional) He considers Congress just a pesky bunch of busybodies and spoilsports, and he's using whatever means he can find to ignore and nullify it. This is what he's doing while he's got everyone het up about immigration and gas prices.

(Of course, how would these people promoting this nonsense feel about giving away all that power if Hillary Clinton were President?)

Rising To The Bait

I don't know about you, but I have a feeling we're being led down the primrose path with this 'illegal immigration' hooey. Not that it's not an issue, but it's an issue that has remained pretty much the same for a long time. Why the sudden furor? Why, right this minute, is it being whipped up into a foamy, froth-flecked frenzy?

Could it be that we are being distracted by the shiny mirrored ball so we won't notice we're being two-stepped right smack into another war? With the stunning success of the Iraq invasion, why not? We're on a roll here. And, like the obedient consumers of info-tainment that we are, we're righteously arguing one side or the other, getting all emotional and worked up while the real serious problem - the only real serious problem worth getting your panties into a twist about - is another pre-emptive, illegal, immoral, expensive and ultimately unwinnable 'war'. Good God - we can't afford the one we've got now! And to take it to Iran will just seal our doom and unite the Muslim world against us (like they are so loving us now!). World War III will shortly follow. Notice the similarities between the run-up to Iraq and this. Pretending to use 'diplomacy' while in reality rebuffing the efforts made to communicate and negotiate, while in reality already deciding upon war.

This has to be stopped now. Forget about the phony demagogue hot-button issues that the government wants you to get concerned about. Don't "Watch the Birdie". Don't buy the sleazy sleight-of-hand ("Nothin' up my sleeve!"). Don't let them take us to nuclear war. Nothing else matters.

Nothing else matters.

Nothing else matters.

A Day Without A Musician

While I'm recycling things I've previously written, now seems as good a time as any to post this, as we're seeing the power and influence that music has in the world...

"Why don't you get a real job?"

If you are a musician, you have heard these words a million times. They are spoken sometimes in anger, sometimes in pity, sometimes in frustration. Why anyone with a brain in their head would choose to fritter their life away honestly puzzles many people.

Read the rest here:

If You Want To Know

what the atmosphere of the choir session with Neil Young was like, listen to the end of "Let's Impeach The President". Hear the cheers and applause? Multiply by ten.

Welcome DivaJood to the Blogosphere

My good friend DivaJood has recently become a blogger and is new to all this. But, to quote her last comment,

"Where I live, most of the people I know are either supporters of Bush, or so apathetic they don't care. I've felt silenced, isolated, and defeated at times. And now, through music and blogging, I feel hope.
Go figure."

To me, that's what blogging at its best is all about. That's what it did for me.

If you have a moment, please stop by at Journeys With Jood and say 'hi' to Jood - she's a great gal.

In Honor of Rover - Night Before Fitzmas, Again

'Twas the Night before Fitzmas, and through Hootervill-age,
A hope was held out for an end to the pillage.
An end to the theft of American dollars,
An end to the demonization of scholars.

The people of Hooterville wished and they prayed
For justice and peace to be no more DeLayed.
They longed for the day that their country would be
No longer a captive of venality.

For many a year now, the Hooterville people
Have cried, "What's the matter with all of you sheeple?
How can you just sit there and let this go on?"
But, sadly, their outrage was met by a yawn.

And those who were stealing from those who have least,
Rampaging like some kind of greed-maddened beast,
Were holding us up, shouting, "This is a heist!
So put up your hands in the name of our Christ!"

Then, what to our wondering eyes should appear
But a man speaking words that we so longed to hear:
"It's time for the Piper at last to be paid"
And Hooterville happily hip-hip-hoorayed.

Indictments all round for the scum who would claim
That they'd never known Wilson or Valerie Plame
And all along, vengeance had been the sole reason
To 'out' our own agent, and so commit treason.

For war must be waged, and their coffers be filled -
Who cares about mothers whose sons have been killed?
Who cares for the dying, the crying, the hurtin' -
Just look at those profits for ol' Halliburton!

It's time for the hammer of justice to fall;
Time we put a stop to it once and for all.
A stop to corruption, and cronies, and lies.
Let's stop before one more American dies.

And what do I want 'neath my own Fitzmas tree?
A Scooter, a Rover, maybe a Cheney!

This Just In - Rush To Judgment!

Our favorite drug-addled gasbag, Rush Limbaugh is almost as photogenic as Tommi, but his smile looks a little tentative - not bold and devil-may-care like our Sugar Land Sugar Daddy.

Rush skeeves out of it, though, with the same attorney who defended William Kennedy Smith.

Got Neil's Link On Randi Rhodes Site

Just called the Randi Rhodes Show - she was talking about Neil Young's album, but didn't seem to be aware that you can hear it now. Called the show, and they put it on their front page!

Neil Young's "Living With War" Here Today!

Click album cover to hear the full record of Neil Young's "Living With War"

Welcome, Tony Snow!

A marriage made in heaven. "Fair and balanced®™©" Fox News 'reporter' is the new White House Press Secretary. His journalistic credentials are impressive, including the venerable Washington Times.

Sean Hannity must be somewhere, crying hot tears of frustration.

Scientifically Righteous!

Earl Bockenfeld has the truth at last. It's Christian! It's science! Mysteries explained here. Leave that heretical monkey stuff behind, and get with the Good Book - the New Christian Science Textbook, that is!

Where's the Patriotism, Corporations?

As the oil prices go through the stratosphere, perhaps we would do well to hearken back to yesteryear - those golden days of the "Greatest Generation". World War II.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we ask a good deal, not of just our citizens, but our corporations?

In fact, business itself was supportive of price controls during wartime. War profiteering was simply not to be done - to be even thought of was dangerous and unpatriotic for business in those times, endangering their relationships with their customers. We are constantly told that normal liberties need to be curtailed during wartime. How about the liberty to take financial advantage of death and destruction? That is not only morally grotesque, but how far removed is that from encouraging continued death and destruction for continued larger-than-normal profits?

War profiteering was thought of as treasonous during World War II. Now, it's applauded as the triumph of the free market and the American Way.

I'm From The South So I Can Say This...

The thirty things you'll never hear a redneck say ...

30. Oh I just couldn't, she's only sixteen.

29. I'll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.

28. Duct tape won't fix that.

27. Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken.

26. We don't keep firearms in this house.

25. You can't feed that to the dog.

24. No kids in the back of the pickup, it's just not safe.

23. Wrestling is fake.

22. We're vegetarians.

21. Do you think my gut is too big?

20. I'll have grapefruit and grapes instead of biscuits and gravy.

19. Honey, we don't need another dog.

18. Who gives a crap who won the Civil War?

17. Give me the small bag of pork rinds.

16. Too many deer heads detract from the decor.

15. I just couldn't find a thing at Wal-Mart today.

14. Trim the fat off that steak.

13. Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.

12. The tires on that truck are too big.

11. I've got it all on the C: DRIVE.

10. Unsweetened tea tastes better.

9. My fiancé, Bobbie Jo, is registered at Tiffany's.

8. I've got two cases of Zima for the Super Bowl

7. Checkmate.

6. She's too young to be wearing a bikini.

5. Hey, here's an episode of "Hee Haw" that we haven't seen.

4. I don't have a favorite college team.

3. You Guys.

2. Those shorts ought to be a little longer, Betty Mae.

AND THE #1 THING THAT YOU WILL NEVER HEAR A SOUTHERN MAN SAY:

1. Nope, no more for me. I'm driving!

(this from my buddy Danny McBride)

New Mark Bryan Dick Pic!

Mark Bryan has a new painting. Harsh? Goodness gracious, yes. Not as harsh as the reality.

Check out his work at Art of Mark Bryan.

Tagged By Yoga - Chilling Out With A Meme

Yoga Korunta suggests that I lighten up for a minute and do his meme - 6 random facts about myself.

Okay...

1. I have played a piano that Beethoven has played in Japan.

2. I have been a fire eater in the circus.

3. I was too ADD to go to college.

4. I don't have a middle name.

5. I played alto sax in the very first Tampa Bay Buccaneers marching band.

6. I almost ran over Count Basie in a Denny's parking lot.

Happy, Yoga?

To My Blog Friends - Asking For Blog Help Promoting "Living With War"

Hi Friends -

By now, you've heard plenty about the new Neil Young record. I'm trying to do what I can to get this out to a wide audience, and I've been in touch with folks from Reprise, who played the record last night for a group of people interested in getting this message out. What Neil wants to do is go through the Internet and the blogosphere. So if the idea of a record like this appeals to you and you'd like to be a part of it, you can.

Neil has a new blog, LivingWithWar.blogspot.com, as well as his official website, NeilYoung.com (Neil's Garage). The exciting news is that he's going to make the songs available for streaming (free!) on April 28th. Excerpts from my review are now on the LivingWith War blog.

What you can do, if you're interested, is - post about it; link to it; blogwhore it; send it on to friends in high places. Talk to people you know who don't blog; send them emails. Let me know where you're posting and I'll link to you here as well. If you'd care to recommend my diaries on Kos (I'm QueenIdella there) or My Left Wing (just plain old 'Alicia') that would help too.

Thanks!

Update - the review is posted front page on My Left Wing - thanks, eugene!

Is The Wave Of The Future An Old Hand From The Past? Neil Young Shows How It's Done - My Review of "Living With War"

Music today is at a crossroads.

With the digitization of music, the paradigm has changed completely. The old business model of selling a hard copy of music one piece at a time is no longer viable, and the struggle to find a suitable replacement has rocked the music business to its foundations. Do you hang on grimly to the old way, suing anyone who downloads your product and keep trying to shore up the crumbling structure? Do you jump on the digital bandwagon and embrace the downloading process, thereby creating a new relationship with the modern music consumer, but not seeing an immediate financial reward by doing so? Do you attempt a mixture of the two? How is the artist to be compensated in this new world? Or the writer, the producer? How do you manage royalties? And what about distribution if the method of distributing music has changed? Who is entitled to a piece of the music pie, anyway, and what percentage? If your role in the music production and distribution process has become obsolete, what do you do about it? And what is the purpose of commercial music in today's corporate-controlled climate?

These may not seem like questions to be addressed by an album review, but they lead into what Neil Young, a 40-year veteran of the music business, is doing with his new album "Living With War".

Neil Young is an artist who has always gone his own way. He filters his life journey through his music, and he constantly challenges the prevailing paradigm, whether it be political, cultural, or personal. For this he is both revered and reviled. His life and his art are one and the same in a way that very few artists can claim.

With his newest record, "Living With War", Neil Young shows the kids how it's done.

This album was recorded so quickly that even his record company was unaware of its existence. Young calls it 'metal folk protest', which is as good a way as any to describe it. Consisting of a 'power trio' (Young on Old Black, Rick Rosas on bass and Chad Cromwell on drums), Tommy Brea on trumpet, and a hundred-piece choir, the music is carefully constructed to serve the message. The 10-song record is meant to be heard from beginning to end in sequence. The driving, distorted guitar, bass and drums lay down a solid bed from which to launch the rocket-propelled vocals. The trumpet solos accentuate the military aspect of the songs. This is martial music, make no mistake - a war against war.

The choir was put together by the legendary Rosemary Butler, arguably the most famous backup singer in music history (and a formidable lead singer and producer in her own right), having sung with the likes of Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and Bonnie Raitt, to name only a few. In a day she managed to round up 100 of LA's most respected session singers and assemble them the next morning at Capitol Records. I was fortunate enough to be included in that august company, and as we milled around the studio, greeting old friends and getting coffeed up in preparation for what looked like a long day ahead (we were booked from 10 in the morning till 10 at night), we had no idea what was in store for us. But as we sorted ourselves into sections ("Where are the altos? Are you going to sing soprano? Do we have enough baritones?"), the words to the first song, "After the Garden", flashed up on the video projection screen ("Don't need no shadow man - running the government - don't need no stinking war") and it instantly became more than just another session. We gasped as we realized that this was a protest record, and not just an ordinary one (if there is such a thing), but one that had the potential to galvanize the nation and give voice to those who have not been listened to in the 21st century.

The choice of a hundred voices for this record, like the use of a trumpet, had a symbolic purpose. According to the LA Times, Young said he enlisted that many back-up singers because he liked the metaphorical weight of having "100 voices from 100 lands." He could have easily hired 10 singers and had them double themselves ten times, but that was not what this record is about. To that same purpose, it was recorded on analog tape, not ProTools, so that we had to wait for the tape to rewind after each take, something that most of us had not done for a long time. Our mission? To sing along with Neil's pre-recorded vocal as closely as we could. There were no 'overdubs', no 'fixing it in the mix' - we had to do it until it was right.

But, as I listened to it last night at Reprise Records in preparation for this review, it was worth it. The effect was so emotionally compelling - Neil's distinctive, plain-spoken voice, echoed by a multitude, was like a beacon from a lighthouse in a storm. There is nothing ambiguous or generalized or euphemistic about this record. It names names. It points fingers. Most of the people in the room listening with me had not heard the record before, and I watched their faces as the impact of the lyrics sunk in. No one was unmoved.

When we began the session, Neil was in the control booth with his hat pulled down over his eyes, but as the enthusiasm of the choir became apparent, he came out into the big room with us - smiling, walking around, occasionally directing us himself, singing along. On top of a giant boom mike, he had draped a military jacket and camo hat. The choir was like a Maserati - powerful and responsive, giving whatever is asked for instantly. The hardest part was holding back, especially the gospel contingent, but in the end, we did what we came to do - serve the message.

Neil Young was hoping that the younger generation of musicians was going to pick up the torch of the 60's protest tradition. Thirty-six years ago he recorded 'Ohio' about the Kent State killings, and he wrote 'Southern Man' in response to racism. He has never hesitated to address the causes he feels strongly about, but after 35 years, he and many other people of the Woodstock generation figured that today's musicians in their 20s would be the ones to stand up and speak truth to power. Many of them have, individually, but as a movement it hasn't happened. And throughout his career, the records he has made and the positions he has taken stubbornly refuse to be categorized. He wrote 'Ohio', but he also wrote 'Let's Roll' after the 9/11 attacks to commemorate Flight 93, caught up, as was the rest of the country, in the fervor to avenge those innocent lives, and deal with those who perpetrated the attacks. This categorized him in many people's minds as a right-wing Republican, especially since he endorsed Ronald Reagan during the 80s.

But Neil Young merely calls it like he sees it, and is not beholden to any party or ideology. He has seen the country hijacked by criminals and is not afraid to come out and say it. In this, he is echoing what the people he meets say to him all over the country. He addresses our concerns - the fear of what will happen if we descend into total war; the love and loss of our children, both the ones we send to war and the ones who stay behind; the rampant corporatism and the mindless commercialism which lets it pillage unchecked; the longing for a real leader; the need for the unheard voices to be heard; the deep love for our country, for our freedom, and the sadness which comes from the harm being done to it in the name of military/industrial domination. One could call it "The Neos And The Damage Done".

So, here he is.

This record is both a throwback and the future. Young is going to make the songs available to listen to for free. Reuters reports that "starting April 28, fans can log onto Young's Web site, www.neilyoung.com, and listen to the 10-track collection in its entirety, free of charge, said Bill Bentley, a spokesman for Warner Music Group's Reprise Records." And Neil Young has both feet planted firmly in the future, bypassing the slower (and more expensive) traditional forms of promotion and going directly to the Internet to reach his audience. The message he has is so urgent that there is not a moment to waste, and the immediacy of the Internet is the perfect conduit. He has also started a blog, livingwithwar.blogspot.com, to keep his fans up to date in real time. This is the direction that music should be going in, I think - where the artist and the fan can be closer to one another, and actually co-create, in a way, for this record came about as a response to the conversations that Young has had with all kinds of Americans.

Music is in the middle of some serious growing pains right now, but as you will see with "Living With War", growing pains mean strength and maturity. We have a chance to come out of this stronger, better and more true, and Neil Young, music icon from the 60's, is leading the way.

Scotty, No-o-o-oooo!

It is with great sadness and despair that I must announce the resignation of my favorite spokes-puppet and master tap-dancer, the lovely and talented Scott McClellan. He, like so many others, needs to 'spend more time with his family'. He will be sorely missed, and never forgotten. Scotty, no one can take your place in my heart...

A Review of "Living With War" By DownWithTyranny

Well, now that it has been confirmed by Neil Young himself that there is indeed a Neil Young anti-war record on the horizon, Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny and the Huffington Post (as well as an occasional denizen of Hooterville), who is the former president of Reprise records and who knows of what he speaks, has posted an excellent review of "Living With War" on both his blog and the Huffington Post. Anyone interested in a comprehensive heads' up on this record should check him out right away.

Interviewed For The London Independent

This morning I was interviewed by phone in reference to an article in The Independent of London by Andrew Buncombe. It should be out tomorrow. I have no idea how much, if anything, I said will be used in the article, but it should be interesting.

Update - I stand corrected - it's out now.

This Week In Review - What I Learned From Neil Young

I have to say that I never expected my post about my Neil Young session to cause the flap that it did. or reach such a wide audience. The idea that I would ever be quoted in NewsMax is astonishing to me.

I started this blog mostly as an outlet for my frustration with the current Administration and a chance to learn to express myself in writing, not as a challenge to those who don't think as I do. Along the way I have made many friends from all over the world. I don't spend a lot of time trying to promote it, because that was not particularly my goal. I enjoy having a blog of the size that I can get to know each poster that stops by.

That changed, if only temporarily, when I wrote about my recording session with Neil Young. Make no mistake; I do not know him other that having spent one day on his beautiful record, and having one very brief conversation with him, along with 99 other singers. But, through his music, he has expressed his viewpoint throughout his life, and pissed off both the right and left at times. No one can 'claim him for their own' politically. I have a deep respect for that. For good or bad, he says his say. In fact, during the session there was a question of pitch on a particular note he sang, which the choir was being asked to sing in unison with. When asked what note he sang, he said, "I don't remember; but, whatever it was, I stand by it!" Everyone laughed, but there was a point there that I would do well to pay attention to.

I am not a confrontational or argumentative person by nature. I've seen the blogs that have 'flame wars' going on, and people insulting each other back and forth, but that was not my intent for this blog. My view is, if you don't like my point of view, pass on by. That's what I do. The reason for that is that it doesn't change anyone's mind.

I draw a distinction between the people I am furious at (this Administration) and the people who visit this blog. My writing and graphics on the subjects I feel strongly about can be pretty harsh, and some people are offended by it. My response to opinions I don't care for is to ignore them. And I've asked for courtesy in person-to-person discourse here. But Opus, who told me to 'thicken my skin or close my comments', has a point.

The reality is, that if I have a point of view that I believe in, I need to be able to withstand the 'slings and arrows', so to speak. What kind of activist do I expect to be if I can't deal with legitimate challenges, or accept the fact that by speaking out I will be a target for haters?

If I want to stand for something, I need to stand by something.

And I want to stand for peace.

So, thank you, Neil Young.

Used Wars- Part 2

Wrong Turn?

Perhaps some of you more recent posters may have taken a wrong turn and ended up here. Perhaps you have not noticed that this is not a blog where we attack and insult the individuals who read and write here. I understand that many of you are not regular readers of Last Left Turn Before Hooterville. You may be here due to the mention of Neil Young, who some of you were happy to accuse me of 'betraying' or lying about (while lying to Capitol Records yourself) without the least knowledge of what you were talking about. Or maybe you were trolling for people with opposite views to trash.

However you ended up here, I think you may be in the wrong place. You are more than welcome to disagree with me. You are not welcome to insult me. There are some blogs where this is par for the course and a way to increase readership, but this is not one of them. You may want to think about taking your rapier wit and incisive analysis elsewhere if you cannot find your way to common courtesy. I have had right-wing readers here occasionally who have been able to express their views and disagreements in a way which encourages me to have a real dialogue, and I appreciate them.

This is an opinion blog. I don't go to other people's blogs and attack them personally if I don't agree with them. I have better things to do with my time. All I ask for here at my blog home is common decency. Would you enjoy a stranger coming into your home and strewing trash and filth all over your living room? I always appreciate my new visitors, and my views may not be your cup of tea, but insulting me or my readers is not the way to get me to change my views. In the future, you may want to take a detour around Hooterville.

And, if you've stumbled upon us for another reason and would like to visit - welcome to you!

Illegal Immigration. You Know You Want It.

You want it. You know you want it. You want it bad.

You know what I'm talking about.

That's right. I'm talking about illegal immigration.

Not even immigration in general, but illegal immigration.

Agribusiness in particular, construction, meatpacking, landscaping, restaurant work, sweatshops - all these businesses rely on illegal immigration to stay fat and happy. Why illegals? Why not hire citizens?

It's no secret that the minimum wage is not a living wage. You can work full-time - forty hours a week - and not make enough money to survive. Survive - not prosper; survive. Unless by 'survive' you mean living 12 to a room in a dirty, crime-ridden, dangerous neighborhood. Or some kind of 'company' shack. So when illegals work, they are not "taking work away from Americans". ("Hey, Pedro - I could have had that shack!")

What it is, essentially, is indentured servitude not much above slavery. One difference, of course, is that a slave-owner is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of his property. The employer of illegals has no such obligation or expense. Just picture it - all the benefits of slavery, and none of the responsibilities! These employers offer no medical, no pension, no benefits of any kind. And, these are jobs much more grueling and physically demanding than jobs that do pay benefits. Then, of course, you can complain loudly when illegals use public services.

But how about Social Security? Most illegals are required to show some kind of ID, always forged, to get a job. This is so that the employer can 'get off the hook' (wink, wink). And when you show a Social Security card, Social Security is withheld from your paycheck.

According to an article in the New York Times in April of 2005 by Eduardo Porter,

It is impossible to know exactly how many illegal immigrant workers pay taxes. But according to specialists, most of them do. Since 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act set penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, most such workers have been forced to buy fake ID's to get a job.

Currently available for about $150 on street corners in just about any immigrant neighborhood in California, a typical fake ID package includes a green card and a Social Security card. It provides cover for employers, who, if asked, can plausibly assert that they believe all their workers are legal. It also means that workers must be paid by the book - with payroll tax deductions.

IRCA, as the immigration act is known, did little to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants or to discourage them from working. But for Social Security's finances, it was a great piece of legislation.

Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.

The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.

In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.

In 2002 alone, the last year with figures released by the Social Security Administration, nine million W-2's with incorrect Social Security numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 percent of total reported wages.

Social Security officials do not know what fraction of the suspense file corresponds to the earnings of illegal immigrants. But they suspect that the portion is significant.
"Our assumption is that about three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants pay payroll taxes," said Stephen C. Goss, Social Security's chief actuary, using the agency's term for illegal immigration.

Other researchers say illegal immigrants are the main contributors to the suspense file. "Illegal immigrants account for the vast majority of the suspense file," said Nick Theodore, the director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Especially its growth over the 1990's, as more and more undocumented immigrants entered the work force."

Using data from the Census Bureau's current population survey, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, an advocacy group in Washington that favors more limits on immigration, estimated that 3.8 million households headed by illegal immigrants generated $6.4 billion in Social Security taxes in 2002.

But the people whose paychecks this money is deducted from will never see it. No security for them. And with the Resident with his panties in a bunch about Social Security going broke, imagine how more broke it would be without the tax money brought in by illegals?

If you are illegal, there are no protections for you. No workplace standards have to be enforced. You have to be silent about any mistreatment or injury, or you're in danger of being turned in. So why bother with expensive, restrictive safety standards when you have a 'captive audience'?

So what do we do?

How about a Living Wage plan? In the short run, prices of certain items would go up. But I think it would be worth it.

How about really cracking down on the employers who hire illegals, starting with the CEOs? No more wink-wink, slap-on-the-wrist stuff.

How about rethinking NAFTA and CAFTA and BAFTA and HAFTA? Let's find a way to boost the economy south of the border as well as north. An interesting article in the Washington Post estimates that, with a $20 billion-a-year investment in Mexico's infrastructure and economy, within 10 years Mexicans would be well-off enough to...stay home! And it would be an investment, not a giveaway. The rewards would come to us in the form of less illegals and a better trade partner and useful ally. Compare that with the near-half-trillion we're spending on the present war in Iraq., and it's a bargain. Instead of 'racing to the bottom' in terms of wages, we could really have a 'rising tide that lifts all boats'.

Let's get some kind of decent health care for all. I know that the idea of 'universal health care' sends conservatives into paroxysms, but I think it really is the only way to go. I don't think that businesses should have to be in the job of providing it. Years ago, when people worked at one job for an entire career, it made more sense, but now with people changing jobs so often, it's not fair to either the employer or the employee. Free up the businesses - take that burden off of them. With this patchwork of managed care, HMOs, PPOs and the like, all the things they worry about with universal health care are already here. No doctor choice? We don't have that now! Waste? Bureaucracy? Fully one-third of employees in the medical field are paper-pushers, trying to manage the mish-mash of thousands of conflicting insurance plans. In fact, the only people who have really great government health insurance are the people who want to make sure the rest of us don't get it!

But don't let the rhetoric and chest-thumping fool you. "Beer Guts Across America" notwithstanding, if actually confronted with losing those valuable serfs - I mean illegals - the people who profit from them will fight you tooth and nail. The last thing they want to do is have to hire citizens, with rights and all that expensive, inconvenient stuff.

You just watch if you think I'm kidding.

Dear World:

Dear World:

We just want to let you know - America is NOT George Bush and his posse of outlaws! America does not hate you. We don't want to kill your sons and daughters. We don't want to kill our sons and daughters either. We are terrified that The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight is going to start World War III.

Maybe we haven't been perfect, but we want to get along with our neighbors. We don't believe in pre-emptive war, or shoving 'democracy' down anyone else's throat at the point of a gun. This crazy son-of-a-bitch does not represent the way the most of us feel. We are horrified. It feels as if we're passengers in a car driven by a drunken 9-year-old the wrong way down a one-way street.

We're afraid that this thug is going to destroy any chance for relationships with countries that were either our friends or at least countries that we could get along with. Every single day it gets crazier and crazier, and we can't seem to find a way to stop him yet.

But we're trying.

Most Americans - real Americans - see themselves as citizens of the world, not only our own country, and do not believe that total military domination is the only way to keep Americans safe. Believe it or not, the Christian religion is supposed to be one of peace and love for one's neighbors, or at least that's what Jesus said. I know that's not what Pat Robertson says, but he represents Christians the way George Bush represents Americans.

We don't want this war or any other war. We hope we can find a way to stop this madman and the greedy, lawless criminals that prop him up before he starts something that no one can stop.

So, dear World, please know that we're trying hard to avert more disaster, and that what you're seeing from Bush and Co is not the American way. We don't want to lose the soul of America and what it stands for.

sincerely,

the USA

No Time Like The Present!

Finally, something about which Bush and I agree! All that exercise ought to be good for something...

Folk Wisdom

Just Switch The Final Consonant

Here we go again. According to Seymour Hersh, the Kowboy Koward of Krawford is getting' ready to saddle up and ride into Iran with six-guns a-blazin'. Yee haw.

Why? See if any of this sounds remotely familiar...

According to this article (emphasis mine),

There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change. Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has challenged the reality of the Holocaust and said that Israel must be “wiped off the map.” Bush and others in the White House view him as a potential Adolf Hitler, a former senior intelligence official said.

It also states that

“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”

And...

In recent weeks, the President has quietly initiated a series of talks on plans for Iran with a few key senators and members of Congress, including at least one Democrat. A senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, who did not take part in the meetings but has discussed their content with his colleagues, told me that there had been “no formal briefings,” because “they’re reluctant to brief the minority. They’re doing the Senate, somewhat selectively.”

The House member said that no one in the meetings “is really objecting” to the talk of war. “The people they’re briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?” (Iran is building facilities underground.) “There’s no pressure from Congress” not to take military action, the House member added. “The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it.” Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, “The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision.”

My husband says, "Don't worry - thay can't possibly do that."

I myself do not have that confidence. This ain't our first rodeo, cowpokes. The evidence is to the contrary. They already have, and they're champing at the bit to do it again.

Tommi Is Persecuted For Righteousness' Sake - Sister Nancy Beth Eczema Understands

The Martyrdom of Tommi continues...check out Sister Nancy Beth Eczema's touching tribute.
(thanks to Blue Gal for finding that!)

I Am The Luckiest Girl In The World!

Yesterday, I had the most incredible musical experience of my life.

Have you, like me, been recalling the great protest songs of the sixties, and wondered where the new protest songs are?

Yesterday, I found out.

On Wednesday, I was at work when I got a call for a Neil Young session the next day. Needless to say, I was excited about it - Neil Young is one of my musical heroes. When my husband and I got to Capitol, we found 98 other singers, a collection of L.A.'s finest. All I knew was that we were singing on a new Neil Young record, but when the lyrics we were supposed to sing flashed on the giant screen, a roar went up from the choir. I'm not going to give the whole thing away, but the first line of one of the songs was "Let's impeach the President for lyin'!" Turns out the whole thing is a classic beautiful protest record. The session was like being at a 12-hour peace rally. Every time new lyrics would come up on the screen, there were cheers, tears and applause. It was a spiritual experience. I can't believe my good fortune at being a part of this.

It was also recorded on analog in the A room at Capitol Records, which they're talking about selling and turning into condos. No ProTools, no 'flying in', no Auto-Tune. Just real singing, and real songs, from a real artist. And to hire a hundred live singers? Incredible.

I got a chance to talk with Neil for a minute, and I told him that every word of every song expressed what I've been screaming about since 2000. I've never been at a recording session that was more like being at church. Heck, I've never been to a church that was more like a church than that session. We stood up for 12 hours (except for lunch and dinner) and I got a massive headache by the end, but I didn't care. It was worth the price of admission. We finished the session by singing an a capella version of "America the Beautiful" and there was not a dry eye in the house.

If I do nothing else for the rest of my life, I can say I was on that record. Whether it sells or not, it's the truth, and I got to be a part of that. What an honor; what a privilege.

Neil said it should be out in 6 to 8 weeks. I hope all of you get a chance to hear it.

Update: Attention to the disgruntled - I will be removing rude or insulting posts.

Really, I Can't Add Anything...

Chris Matthews. Tom DeLay. Total piggery.

MATTHEWS: Hey thank you for calling me. It was a good thing for me, mostly.

DELAY: Oh really.

MATTHEWS: Oh of course it was. We got on the air as fast as we could....

[...]

MATTHEWS: Shannon [DeLay aide] told me, she called me, she said 'don't worry -- he's not calling in to complain'...

MATTHEWS: Have you seen this new focus group stuff on the candidates?

DELAY: No I haven't

MATTHEWS: It's great stuff. I'll send it to you -- it's great -- yeah it's great stuff. Hillary, John Kerry. All these guys, all these democrats, and how they do. And, uh, Frank Luntz did it...

DELAY: who I like

CM: ...and Hillary did not do well. Kerry did well.

DELAY: You're kidding.

MATTHEWS: I am NOT kidding. They didn't like Edwards -- they thought he was a rich lawyer, pretending to care about poor people...

DELAY: Too slick. Too slick.

MATTHEWS: ...and Hillary was a know-it-all.

DELAY: Nothing worse than a woman know-it-all

[...]

MATTHEWS: Thanks. I owe you one. I owe you two -- today and last night.

DELAY: No you don't.

MATTHEWS: No, I do.

DELAY: I appreciate it.

Don't you love the liberal media?

Katherine Harris - In The 'Sunset' Of Her Political Career?

I'm just sayin'...

You Gotta Love Tampa!

My first morning back in Tampa, I pick up the Trib to check out the local news. An interesting article catches my eye. It seems that a Tampa man asked some police officers who were checking out a local burglary to 'test his crack pipe' to make sure he was being sold real crack. And, always happy to help out a citizen in distress, they did.

TAMPA - One minute a pair of Tampa police officers were trying to catch a couple of loose dogs Tuesday morning, the next they were fielding a unique request from a man.

Would they test his crack pipe to make sure he was getting the real thing? According to an arrest affidavit, Phillip Williams wasn't convinced he was being sold actual crack cocaine. So about 11:15 a.m., he approached Officers Wayne Easley and Gary Filippone to verify he was getting real drugs.

He was.

The officers tested the pipe, which, sure enough, had cocaine residue. Williams, who is listed on jail records as a security worker at MacDill Air Force Base, was arrested.

Easley and Filippone were investigating a burglary at 1304 E. 15th Ave. They had arrested someone and were trying to corral the dogs when Williams walked up, crack pipe in hand, the affidavit states.

He showed them a yellow house where he said people were doing drugs, and he kept asking the officers to test his glass pipe. He told them he didn't think he was getting real crack, according to the affidavit.

When Williams grabbed Easley's police vest, the officers put him in handcuffs. Then they obliged his request. The pipe was booked into evidence. Williams was taken to Orient Road Jail, where he was charged with possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

Go Tampa!

Chit-Chattin' In The Chemo Room - Part 2

Well, here I am back in Tampa. I'm enjoying the peace and glad to be hanging out with my dad. We went back to the chemo infusion center yesterday to start his new round of chemo - fortunately, they have some great new medicines that make chemo much less debilitating than it used to be, and while it's certainly no picnic, he's doing all right.

So we're sitting in the chemo room watching TV, reading the paper or whatever. The "Tony Danza Show" was about to commence when we were suddenly interrupted by a 'special news event'. Yes, it was the Chimperor himself, in fine form, just gibbering away. With a noticeably petulant whine, he kept insisting that all was well. I sat there, slack-jawed with astonishment as lie after lie squirted from his pie-hole. Since I was among strangers, I couldn't very well scream at the TV, but it took all my social conditioning (which isn't too damn much) to keep silent, limiting myself to eye rolls, heavy sighs and grimaces. There was a glimmer of sunshine when Helen Thomas opened up a can of whoop-ass on him, but he just flat-out could not answer her. Bet that's the last time he calls on her!

He basically told us that, as long as he's Resident, we'll be in Iraq. That's the way he likes it. He's been treating this country like his personal toilet bowl, dumping on us constantly, and forgetting (or refusing) to flush. Then, when he's finished playing G.I. Joes, he'll walk away and leave the backed-up, overflowing toilet for the next guy to clean up.

Bush seems to have another softball pitcher - Carl somebody. Carl Gannon, I think. Whoever he is, he was sounding extremely Guckerty. I had to leave the room once he began sucking up to the Resident. My self-control only goes so far. Normally I don't watch Bush on TV for that very reason, but I was in a semi-public place with no control over the set.

At long last, he quit babbling. I never thought I would say this, but I was actually glad to see "The Price Is Right" come on afterward. The relative dignity and maturity of the show helped my blood pressure ease off a couple of notches. Imagine being happy to see that crusty old letch Bob Barker. A thousand years old, and orange as an orangutan from all that pancake they slather on him (or is it embalming fluid?), but at least he can string a sentence together.

One thing you can say about Bush - he makes daytime television look good.

Lassitude

I'm tired.

Still recuperating from the blitzkreig that was my January and February, I find that, once I stopped moving at the speed of light, it's very difficult to resume any kind of motion at all.

I can do what I have to do - take care of the kids, teach my classes, go to my gigs, pay the bills that keep things turned on. Anything else seems beyond me at this point. Friday being my day off from school, I said to myself. "Once I get the kids off to school, I can get some stuff done! I can work on my blog, update my band's website, put the old food in the refrigerator up for adoption, organize my bedroom, do laundry, finally go to Weight Watchers like I promised my doctor" - on and on I went. Then, I laid back down in my bed and went to sleep. It seems all I can do right now without being forced is read, sleep and eat.

I spent a few days last week at the mall while I waited for the newly-consolidated AT&T/SBC/Yahoo/Pacbell merger-monopoly to be good and ready to give me back my DSL. The mall has wireless access for $3 a day, as opposed to $tarbucks' $10. It's only when I go to the mall that I'm confronted with the reality of my weight - when I walk past all the shops with their cute clothes and realize that I can fit into none of them - that they are completely off-limits to me. Most of the time I'm too busy to actively worry about my weight. But at the mall I feel cut off from the mainstream. Not that there isn't anything that will fit - there's a perfectly lovely Lane Bryant at the far end of the mall. But, no matter what I put on, I will still look exactly like what I am - an overweight, middle-aged matron. I am not inclined to spend any kind of money on that, and Lane Bryant is not cheap.

I have never learned to dress cute big. I see all kinds of really attractive big girls who have it all together - the hair, the makeup, the clothes. Not me. Before I had kids, I loved clothes. Not expensive clothes, but fun clothes - I could indulge myself in the stuff I wore on stage, and dress as eclectically as I liked. Between thrift shops, vintage shops, and sales, I had a pretty nice wardrobe. But that sort of thing looks ridiculous on me at my weight now. My present goal is merely coverage. I am the most comfortable in a long black burqa-like shift dress that I made to wear in Bali when we played at the Hard Rock Hotel there and they asked us to wear all black. I feel as if my presence onstage is a liability to my band - even though I sing and play fine, part of the job description is appearance, and that's just a fact. The up side of it is that I am judged on what I do, and if I'm complimented on that, it's real. I don't have to wonder if it's bulls*** because they like my looks. In fact, that is one of the overall pluses to being out of the loop appearance-wise. It makes you invisible to the bulls***ers, and since I'm very happily married and not flirtatious by nature, I'm not looking for that kind of attention.

Still, the health issue is starting to bug me. I'm very strong from having carried heavy keyboards and amplifiers since I was 15, but now I'm at the age where things are starting to hurt, and since it is seldom that I am availed of a roadie, lugging my gear around is getting harder. My doctors are wanting me to get rid of the weight, and I know I'd feel so much better if I did (not to mention how much fun it would be to wear the clothes that i've still kept in the hopes of one day fitting into them again). But right now, my lassitude and lethargy are keeping me from doing anything so strenuous as attending to my health. I'll be going back to Florida to hang out with my dad in a couple of days - being worried about him isn't helping my overall state of mind either. Maybe a change of scenery can jog something loose and get me moving again. I'm at least writing something today, which is an improvement over the last few weeks. I will attempt to get back into commentary soon if I can get any two brain cells to rub together again.

But for now, I think I'll take another nap, just because I can.

Apologies

My Internet has been down for some time - when it's back up I will resume ranting. As it is, I am ranting to myself.

Rant rant rant.