Now Is Not The Time For Complacency

I have talked about this great site often. It is linked at the top of my side bar and I call it the best little polling place in the world. I look at it several times a day just to keep my spirits up. Todays piece is instructive for all of us feeling good about the race for the White House so far, but Barack Obama is not feeling so complacent. Do not forget "The Bradley Effect." Yes, maybe Obama has a "big" lead in your area, but if you don't vote, imagine how many of your fellow voters are doing the same thing. No, now is not the time for complacency.

How Racism Works

I received a lovely email from a dear friend of mine who lives in New York. She sent me this piece from a friend of hers, and without anyone's permission I post it here.

How Racism Works...

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating
class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do'
to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no
longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to
pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable
organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5?
What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the
election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes
positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities
in another when there is a color difference.

You are The Boss... which team would you hire?

With America facing historic debt, 2 wars, stumbling health care, a
weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, mortgage crises,
bank foreclosures, etc.

Educational Background--

Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States 0Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire?

(Oh, and by the way, what if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant
teenage daughter?)

The Great Schlep

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama

Colin Powell is the only cabinet official from the disastrously bad Bush II administration who survived with his reputation (mostly) in tact. It would have helped if he had spoken out about the BS he knew was happening in BusCheney world, but as a military man, it is not likely he would have done so while still serving in his role as Secretary of State. Once out of office he has kept mum about the shit he knew. Some would call that honorable. I'm inclined to call it cowardice, but that's how I roll. Powell is the Military man's Military man. Stoic is the word that probably best describes Powell's calm, patient, silent role since he left office. But for Colin Powell to endorse Barack Obama is stunning. It has removed from my mind any lingering taint from serving in BusCheney World, and it is a big back-handed slap to the face of John McCain. And any lingering distaste I had for Powell not resigning prior to delivering his famously bullshit speech at the United Nations has almost evaporated with his endorsement of Barack Obama for President.

A New Secret Club Is Brewing Up A Blog

Well, let the writing commence! Many of us are working on fiction or something resembling fiction. I once again propose that we start a writer's group. All you need is a work in progress. I have not cleared this with Dcup, but she was the one who designed the gorgeous secret blog called "Deadly Women Write". There are still stories there in progress, but now there are other stories needing a place to be worked on where ones fellow writers can make suggestions and actually be each others copy editors. It is incredibly helpful and has inspired a collection of Judith Blue stories from moi. Anyway, if you're interested and working on a short story or novel, let me know so we can get this going. So far, I'd say this blog will include Diva Jood who it's rumored is working on a story. Dcup has a couple up her sleeve. Randal has a novel brewing. Beach has several stories, so do I, maybe Naj and NJRR. If you want to be included in this new project leave a comment.

Elitism

My Dear Liquid Illusion, Thank You

I have been given two awards by the very lovely blogger known as Liquid Illusion. One is called the UBER AMAZING BLOG!!! Woo Woo! Darling, you are too sweet. I love you, too. And the other is the I Love Your Blog award . And I really really do.

And with all gifts they must be shared to be enjoyed. So to these five bloggers I bestow these awards on you:

Dcup, the one the only woman with a tinfoil bra and a picture to prove it.
Randal, because he's so sweet and snarky. Yummm.
Beach, who has the writer's soul. I dare you to start twittering.
Diva, because she is the Diva, and I want to be her Big Chief Justice.
Florence Joe, Oh Sorry, Freida Bee, because, well, you know. If you don't you should.

McCain and His Long Association with Unrepentant Terrorist G. Gordon Liddy

Leave it to the Huffington Post to cover the stories no one else is covering. My question is why aren't the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, or MSNBC covering this story?

Joe the Plumber Wasn't Vetted

Any high school student could have done the research on Joe the Plumber. But certainly any enterprising journalist can do that work without leaving bed. Joe is a figment of his own and John McCain's imaginations and now he is on the radar of a lot of people that might have been overlooking the trouble that Joe the Plumber is in. He owes back taxes. He doesn't have a license. He is a subcontractor??? Doesn't that require some kind of licensing? He doesn't make much more than $40,000. a year and his boss, the guy whose business Joe wants to buy, doesn't make $200,000. a year, making them both winners in the Obama tax plan.

This shows exactly why John McCain isn't fit to lead. He makes stupid decisions without more than the impulse of the momentary mood. Yeah, that sounds good lets go with that. Let's build the narrative of the last debate all about Joe the Plumber, that'll be a winner for me. I'll get him with that line, "And you said, we need to spread the wealth around." I hadn't heard Barack ever say that, but I'm thinking, "good idea, lets." I'm betting so is Joe the Plumber.

Old Apples

Coma of cold storage
Against the sweetening
Orchard--white petals
Wet, dirt, shoots, dingy bees--
Last years apples
Comestible (just)
Faded Ted Williamses
Kept crisp at thirty-two
Point nine degrees
Because we change
Always, restless wonders
Into the graspable
If superfluous item
To eat or to wear
Thus explaining
Among much else
Why the average vernal apple-eater
Is so quick to hate
A happy woman who likes to fuck.

---Beau Friedlander

Debate Notes

The Great White Hope is a grumpy old man, lurching and erratic. McCain blusters, sputters "Fanny Freddy Mac is the reason for this crises" That's right old man, blame the poor and minorities for all that ails the economy, you simple old fart.

"It's the American Dream to be rich?!?!"

"You want to spread the wealth around!" It's about time, I'd say--spread it around a little.

"JOE THE PLUMBER told me this story." Who the fuck is Joe the Plumber? How much does he make, HOW MUCH DOES HE PAY IN TAXES? what does he pay his workers, are they legal or illegal? Does Joe provide health insurance? How many employees does Joe the Plumber have?

Maybe great wealth is like organic fertilizer and needs to be spread around, just a thought.

"Nuclear Power plants, Nuclear power, Nuclear power, 45 Nuclear power plants!!!"

FORTY FIVE!!! Whoa old man, Not in my neighborhood! Does anybody remember THREE MILE ISLAND???? Do you want the nuclear waste buried in your back yard? I don't want it in mine. The French are trying to bury it in Utah and we don't want their waste, how about you?

"Drill, Drill, Drill off shore now!" And in the next breath he says he wants a "SPENDING FREEZE?" ARE YOU CRAZY?

I WILL...! I CAN FIX....! I HAVE THE EXPERIENCE...! I DISAGREED...! I, I, I, ME, ME, ME," I'm waiting for the chest thumping and the Tarzan jungle yell.

"JOHN LEWIS SAID MEAN, SCURRILOUS THINGS ABOUT ME AND MY GIRL! MAKE HIM TAKE IT BACK!"
Oh shut up. John Lewis said the tone of your rallies reminds him of the bad old days of race hatred.

IT'S NOT FAIR, HE'S GOT MORE MONEY THAT I DO TO RUN NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN ADS!
Oh shut up you old fart! You're starting to make me physically ill, I may puke soon.

"JOE THE PLUMBER, JOE THE PLUMBER, JOE THE PLUMBER!" Will Joe the Plumber please step forward?

"SARAH MY PARTNER, SARAH MY PARTNER, SARAH MY PARTNER!" Oh shut up, and get a room you two.

"DRILL OFF SHORE," "I AM A FREE TRADER!" "WE SHOULD BE HELPING COLUMBIA!!" HE HASN'T TRAVELED TO COLUMBIA" HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND! I UNDERSTAND!"

"Well John, I do understand... How about free trade with Peru, a country that treats their workers fairly?"

"WELL, WILLIAM AYERS! AYERS! AYERS.!

Here's where the evening got interesting. Obama runs through his "relationship with Ayres once again. Does anyone remember the Primary? It was investigated and vetted and explained into obsurdity, but Obama calmly lays it out again. The Annenbergs, who are REPUBLICANS!!! and most of the rest of the Board of Director's of the foundation are big name REPUBLICANS!!!
Then he sucker punches the old white man, and named his advisers and probably some of his cabinet--Buffet, Vogel, Biden, Leugar, General Jim Jones. Take that you stupid grumpy old man!

And on the issue of Choice, John McCain makes light of the idea that the life of the woman is important, not that big a deal, unimportant???!!! Oh no he didn't!!! You old bastard, it should be the most important aspect of a woman's right to make her own decisions in consultation with her doctor regarding her reproductive decisions. Keep the government's prurient eyes off my friends daughter's uterus! No one is going to force any woman to get an abortion. If a woman chooses to lose her own life so that her baby can be born, that's her business. But if my friend's daughter chooses to be childless, and she gets pregnant no matter why or how, it's her legal right to terminate that pregnancy. It does not effect you. It isn't your business. No, you can't look at her most intimate parts like a horny gynecologist and declare that the life of the zygote is sacred, and the pregnant woman is merely its disposable house.

Can we just round up all the angry old white racist paternalistic bastards and send them to Colombia? It could be the new Florida.

Ghost gives me T.S. Eliot. Not With a Whimper But A Bang.

Ghost you are a lovely presence. Thank you for this: T.S. Eliot by Marlon Brando. It could also be Joe the Plumber. Am I the only one who sees the resemblance? Besides you Randal.

William Blake

After falling madly in love with TS Elliot, my second poetic infatuation was William Blake. The first of his poems I read was The Tyger, which found me in an adolescent search for God. I wrestled with Blake like the Angel of Death in my quest for God and never lost my love of Blake, but gave up on God long, long, long ago. Now The Tyger seems like a vaguely menacing nursery rhyme.

THE TYGER

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

By William Blake

The First Poem I Ever Fell In Love With

The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was written when T.S. Eliot was twenty two years old.

The Last of Autumn's Flowers

This is another of Melea's landscapes. Maybe better described as a detail in a larger landscape. Early Autumn in the foothills east of Salt Lake City.

The Grand Old Party is a Fraud

After eight years of the Bush administration, the Republican Party -- to put it bluntly -- is a mess and a fraud.

There is an intellectual case to be made for the economic philosophy that the party purports to represent. I disagree with it strongly, but I respect its integrity -- in a way that this administration and the Republican leadership in Congress clearly did not.

The Republican Party said it believed in free and unfettered competition, but it picked winners and losers through a system of crony capitalism. All it takes to make my point is a name: Jack Abramoff.

The Bush tax cuts, which heavily favored the wealthy, showed that the president and his allies in Congress didn't believe in progressive taxation. I think that's outrageous, but the administration goes further and actually seems to prefer a regressive tax scheme. That's the only explanation I can think of for why hedge fund managers making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay taxes at a lower rate than their chauffeurs.

This is a small excerpt from Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post today. Here's another:

Can any Republican candidate claim with a straight face to represent the party of small government? For that matter, can any Republican candidate plausibly explain what the party is supposed to stand for these days?

It's pathetic to hear right-wing talk radio blowhards try to associate Barack Obama with "radical" or "socialist" views when a Republican administration is tossing aside "Atlas Shrugged" and speed-reading "Das Kapital.

Thanks Eugene, I needed that.

More of the Delicious Economist Paul Krugman

My favorite economist, the hunky Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman takes on BillO on BillO's own turf.

Paul Krugman Wins Nobel Prize for Economics

The world's hunkiest Economist wins the Nobel Prize. I've become a Krugman fan this year watching him on my favorite prime time news shows: Hardball, Countdown, and now The Rachel Maddow Show. I was turned off by the economists of the past, namely Allen Greenspan and Paul Bernanke, big money morons in my estimation. Thanks a lot you titans of the past for the mess we find ourselves in. Make way for handsome Paul Krugman.

Yesterday It Was Fall, Today It Is Winter

I have been taking photographs of the slow changing of the season. It is, ideally, a slow process, allowing a late season of harvests in the garden, and time to rake the leaves as they fall. But in one day it has gone from the gradual to the immediate. For weeks we had temperatures over night in the low 50's then the high 40's and last night we were supposed to barely touch 32 but not long enough to do much damage. Snow was forecast for the higher elevations, but not so much for the valleys. Yesterday was chill enough that I wore a jacket when I was gathering the plums I could reach on the lowest hanging branches. I planned to visit my neighbor's garden today to pick green tomatoes, the last of the zucchini and peppers. I'm afraid there is nothing left after the freeze last night. It was a hard freeze last night with snow in the valley. More snow is forecast today. A colder night is forecast for tonight. The only season I hate here is winter. And it has arrived. I must do some things today. I must shut off outside water. I must get swamp-coolers covered and their openings into the houses insulated and sealed. None of this is work I want to do. All this is the work that must be done when winter is breathing down your neck. Winters are harsh in the Mountain West. With our winter beginning before leaves in the valley have changed color, trees will lose limbs because of the weight of snow on leaf laden branches. If it continues this cold and snows often enough it will be impossible to rake the leaves when they do fall.

This shocking change of season has me finally in the mood to read. And it is Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine that I am curling up with.

This is my Favorite So Far

My favorite Autumn Landscape
Melea with the great eye for design

Daily Tracking Poll

This is probably the only daily tracking poll on the election worth following. I keep reposting it, but now I'm asking you to post it on your sites. (Cincinnati? Randal?--you should be proud.)

This is posted daily and updated as events unfold. The first time I saw the guy whose site this is interviewed was about a week ago on Olbermann. Since then I've seen him on Rachel Maddow. Sorry I can't remember his name. He's young and very smart and laid back and wonky. There are at least two people posting and you can comment there. I just want you to watch this for your own sanity. It will reassure you. And we could all use a look at something that lets us feel better about our fellow citizens. We just might not be as stupid as they think.

It's called five thirty eight.

Autumn is Here Now

Another of Melea's landscapes.

Naomi Wolf

Listen and then pass it on. This is important. I first saw it yesterday at Liberality. Thanks for posting it Lib.

Give Me Liberty

Leave it to Letterman

Late Night puts together Debate recap:

Speaking of Blindness

New Polling sight:

It's called Iamblind.org For all you sports fans, check the win percentage.

Unknown Photographer Doles Them Out One By One

The first name of the twenty something photographer is Melea. Tantalizing isn't it? Her best work is the self-portrait. It is my favorite type of photography. It's the revelation of the artist that most interests me. Here is one of Melea's self portraits.

A Meme for Randal

For Randal, because he told me to.

Where do I buy my clothes?
At the closest thrift shop, which in my case is one run by the Mormon Church, called Deseret Industries. It's clean, well organized, the clothes at this particular DI are the discards of the affluent in Park City. So, I find nearly new designer clothes for a pittance. I bet it's going to get a whole lot busier and prices are about to go up. Why? Because they can, that's why? Sorry Dcup for stealing your line, but I did it. Why? Because I could, that's why. Why don't you copyright it for christ sake?

Where did my furniture come from?
So many places it would turn into a complicated map of acquisition and inheritance and living long enough to end up with it. I have a few very good pieces. Stickley actually. Bought at a garage sale ages ago, found painted blue, sadly. Then stripped and sanded and oiled and oiled and oiled again. Left with mommy who decided that meant they were hers. Mommy died. They're mine now. The big brass bed was mine when I was a teenager. Mommy kept it. It's mine now. Some pieces I am fond of, I found in thrift stores and impulsively purchased. But I was a runner from life. I have houses full of furniture I ran from along with the husbands I left. Never a backwards glance unless I wanted to set a short story there. Ancient history and fair game, considering. Now, I think my favorite chair is the red leather club chair my mother stole when my grandfather died. It came out of his office in the Judge Building on Exchange Place and Third South. It's from Dinwoody's. A very good local furniture store long gone.

Where do I live?
Salt Lake City. I wasn't born here. I always felt a bit like a refugee here. But here is where the family home is, and I am all that's left of the family. The home of my heart is at the top of West Camino Cielo overlooking Santa Barbara, the ocean, the Channel Islands, and so much more. It was the last place First Love/Last Love and I lived together.

Favorite book? Favorite Movie? That's impossible. If I were the mother of thousands of children and you asked me my favorite would you really expect an answer. Each book, if loved, is mine--it exists for me in a visceral way forever but because it moves me this way, doesn't mean the next much loved book won't do the same in a whole different way. It too is mine now. The same thing with movies. I am too old to cull through my memory of my lifetime of movie going to say "This one." The most recent one is one of the best. That's Blindness, based on a Nobel Prize winning book by Jose Saramago.

Favorite piece of music? Are you fucking kidding me? Do not mess with me. Narrow it down a little will you? Pick a fucking century, decade, genre, some damn thing. Please! But do not fuck with me. I'll hurt you.

I had to come back and insert this. I forgot. I'm old. Favorite TV Series. This is so easy. Deadwood is my all time favorite TV series ever, ever! I watched it so often on ON DEMAND I was able to recite dialogue along with the characters. What character am I? I'm Al Swearengen. And yes, I use that many expletives in my moment by moment commentary on the life around me, or lack of it, the noise or lack of it.

I tag:
Nan from All the Good Names Are Taken
Linda at Vulture Peak Muse
Tengrain, of Mock, Paper, Scissors. Yes YOU. OH YES I DID! Take That! Why? Because inquiring minds want to know.
The Cunning Runt at Little Bang Theory, because I love the name The Cunning Runt. Say it fast three times and it becomes The Running Cunt. And it's such a lovely change of pace once you get there.
And Dusty at It's My Right To Be Left Of Center because she probably needs a little change of pace.
And for good measure I add Beach the man behind the Life and Times of a Carolina Parrothead

Let the linking begin.

A Great Young Photographer

She wishes to remain anonymous. I'll give her that. I've asked to post her recent photographs, but she is shy. This is the one I'm currently using as a screen saver. It was taken in the valleys in the foothills east of the Salt Lake. This is mid-autumn northern Utah, in one leaf. Click photo to enlarge. It's worth it.

Blindness

I took a day off today and Nick and I went to see Blindness. I bought a copy of Blindness when it was first out in Hardback. It's a first addition. Those were the days. It won the Pulitzer for Literature. And a well deserved Pulitzer it was. It's a great book. I go to movies made from great books with trepidation and am usually disappointed by the film versions of great literature. I would not go to Atonement because I so loved Ian McEwan's book and knew that the casting was all wrong for starters, and the ads were horrible. Big Hollywood productions of well written books are almost universally badly done. The film, Blindness, however, is perfection.

I will only go to midweek matinees because I don't like people all that much and they especially annoy me at movie theaters. For probably ten years I wouldn't enter a theater. There were fine films made, but I had to wait to see them until I could rent them. But in Nick I have the perfect movie date. We seem to have the same taste in movies and like the private screening aspect of a 1:00pm movie at an art house theater on a Wednesday We go a little early and sit in the empty theater and talk. When the movie starts we don't talk at all, ever. Ever ever. That would ruin it for me. There is no audience noise to distract from the experience. No noisy popcorn eating, no candy wrappers, no soda sucking through a straw to make me want to kill my fellow man.

I'm not a movie reviewer. I won't pretend to try to give you that here. But it's a film about the catastrophic effects of a mass epidemic of blindness that manifests without warning and results in visual white-out. Sudden and blindingly white, easily spread, creating panic instantly. I know this film was not in black and white, but like the characters in the film, I see it now in my minds eye as shockingly white and terrifyingly dark. I came out of the theater with the sense that I was living in an alternate reality the way the European films of the 1950's and '60's made me feel. It is the feeling of having experienced something profound.

Two Out of Three?

Let's hold the election now.

I'm trying to stay awake long enough to see Jon Stewart and Colbert.

Movie matinee tomorrow. Blindness. We'll talk later.

Koch Industries

The biggest privately held business in the United States is up to some pretty shady stuff. It would be smart to get to know as much about the Koch family as possible. They are the movers behind the scenes, with no oversight, no limits, nothing but greed and dirty fingers in every pie. They are the manipulators of the conservative movement. And they won't relinquish control of the government without some very messy dirty tricks. Know your enemy. It's very good advise. Otherwise your enemy will roll right over you. The Koch family holds most of the cards in the deck that is the Republican family poker party. We need to learn the rules of their game, so we can play it better, with actual rules we all understand.

A friend of mine sent this link to me. please read this piece. Your future may depend on it.

Koch Industries:
I know it's a lot of information, but it's a hell of a story. Stay with it, print it, pass it on, but read it. What you don't understand can kill you.

Thank you Rolling Stone

John Sidney McCain

I hinted about this several days ago, but now Diva Jood has posted the link and I have stolen it just so I could read it at my leisure.

Nancy "McCain Shill" Pfotenhauer

Nancy Pfotenhauer is a McCain shill, who is, in her smart sophisticated way, the flip side of Palin. Nancy Pfotenhauer is a younger version of Cindy with a good education and frightening connections, namely Koch Industries. This is another link I stole from Dr. Zaius. Thanks Dr. Zaius for your linky greatness. You are a friend of the lazy blogger.

The Real McCain

Please link and pass it on. This is what you need to share with the people in your family, or your friends, or the people you work with who disagree with you because of the McMaverick's mythology.

I Heard About It First On Twitter

Get your Rolling Stone Video here! New Rolling Stone!

John McCain's greatest hits of bad behavior, lies, misrepresentation, and snarling meanness. Oh sure you guessed he was a nasty prick, but now there is well researched proof and a video interview of the Rolling Stone editor telling the high points on John's low points. If you don't see it here, get your Rolling Stone Magazine where high quality magazines are sold. This one will be a collector's item.

A Woman's Voice

I first heard this song done by Judy Collins, then later I heard Joni Micthell sing it. Now that I've discovered the YouTube, yes, you heard me I discovered the YouTube, I've listened to so many incarnations of the song I have finally settled on this later Joni Mitchell. I had this CD at one time, sadly it's gone, but who the hell needs anything like a CD anymore? We have the YouTube.

The art on the cover is a self portrait. She's a damn fine painter as well. Here you have the art of an older woman. There is no video, just look once and then listen.

Joni Mitchell sings Both Sides Now

My Books and the Places I Read Them

My Library

My books are roughly separated into fiction and nonfiction (all initially alphabetized by author's last name) with some sub-categories. I try to keep poetry, languages, philosophy, linguistics, reference books and others I can't quite categorize together, but as I read or research (ha!) or search for a favorite and pull it from the shelf, I don't always replace it. Like a teenager at the public library, I do not leave the shelves as I found them.

This is the music I listened to while putting these photos together to show you my personal library and the places in my house where I read. So, as you look at my books, can you listen to Joni Mitchell perform, All I Want?

I would so like to see your personal libraries, hear how you organize your books, where you read them, and whether you're a good library patron in your own library. Don't make me turn this into a meme. Because I will!

Guess Who's Leaving Pennsylvania?

From the Huffington Post:

Twitter is turning out to be a good place for hot tips on breaking news.

ABC News Exposes Palin Lie

One of my new twitter friends linked this story from The Daily Kos.

Thanks jpat1eco whoever you are. I'd link you man, but... No blog to link.

Helpful Hints for Voters

Register to Vote, Volunteer for your Candidate, offer to give rides to those in your neighborhood who need help registering and voting, volunteer to be a monitor at your poling place, and try to counter disinformation with truth whenever possible. Talk to neighbors, friends, and family about your reasons for voting for Obama, your reason for not supporting McCain. A fight with family members is common enough about small potatoes, but this fight is not small potatoes, it's about whether or not there will be any potatoes at all.

A little help for new voters or voters volunteering to help other's find their poling places:

And if that's not enough...

McPalin Plans To Play Down and Dirty

We knew they would. With nothing positive to offer, with a bankrupt country after the first eight years of Busheney, and John's nose all up in Bush's ass for all those years, the Republican's have no game plan, except the Rove model of slander and lies and voter suppression. One of the news alerts I get every morning is the Washington Post, mostly because Eugene Robinson works there. But I did find this interesting and instructive. I hope the Obama Campaign has a strategy for dealing with the slime machine, because it about to start pumping a daily fog of slimy stuff.

From the Washington Post:

Okay, I Lied, So Sue Me.

Have another look at Sarah Palin. For all you (white men who are the only demographic that gave her a boost in the polls) take a look at Sarah at home, in the air, in the woods. So how do you like your UBERMILF NOW MOFO'S!

Thanks Linda, I needed that link!

On Stepping In It

I know of no other blogger whose writing is as counter productive as mine. I have never seen another blogger have to back track and retract her previous posts with the frequency that I do. Maybe it's time to shut the fuck up. Maybe it's time to take a break and read for a while. When you start congratulating yourself on your writing, it's time to quit writing. I'm sloppy in the extreme. Ignorant. Woefully under educated. Out of my league. Thoughtless, careless of other's contributions and feelings. And I can't seem to read when I write. It's as if there is a switch that's thrown when I shift from one medium to another that turns off every other creative function.

Shorter days sometimes trip the switch that is at the heart of a mood disorder. Today I feel prickly, pissed off, alienated, and mired in self loathing. I need to go out to the grocery store and I am dreading it. I have to work to assemble a disguise, so that my feelings won't show. I need to look normal. I need to make sure I am invisible. The barometer is shifting as a storm moves in. Maybe it's weather related. I have tools sitting on a table outside that haven't been used in a month. It's time to stop everything unrelated to some practical, necessary task. I need to make a list and make sure that somewhere on the list is read the book Nick gave me for my birthday. But mostly I need to shut the fuck up.

On Writing

Writing is my real love. I am a fast first draft writer. I'm usually happy with my first drafts, but when you write fast, you write sloppy. Down and dirty is what it is. It's raw and immediate. I sometimes drift from past to present in the space of a paragraph. I begin with memory and become snared in the story so that what I'm writing about the past becomes the present. But as fast as I write, I edit slowly, over and over, looking for these tense shifts, and again getting caught up in the immediacy of the story. Sometimes I am working on character's names, and all I'm looking for is a name here and there. Oh, I might catch something in one of these searches, but mostly not. So for thirty years I have been working on the novel, Maggy. Most of the poems I've posted here, were written in one flash of feeling or insight. But I have poems I've been working on for years. I may write them in a moment of inspiration, but I tinker endlessly. The short story is a new form for me. Again, these stories are all relatively new. The first story I wrote is the one called, Still Life. I wrote this story in the evening after the police left. It was a way to cope with my feelings after a burglary in my home. It's the only story I've been working for years. I'm satisfied that it's finished, but I bet a careful reading by any one of you might turn up a typo or punctuation problem. I'm too close to it, too familiar with it now to notice those mistakes. All the rest of the stories are very new, written in that fast all at one sitting pace, except the most recent, which is a work in progress.

Having a blog is a distraction from that kind of writing. Here I can write fast and let it fly. I may go over something a time or two, but mostly I write fast and post. I have a few readers of the fiction who have left comments here and there, but mostly these are brief comments. The one time I asked for editorial help I got it in spades on the story, The End Of Love. I asked my regular blog commenters to comment on that particular story, and to feel free to make editorial suggestions. It was like having a real writing group again. I've missed having the feedback you get from being in a writing group. I had 24 comments and they were all helpful. I made many changes, large and small. I think every change made the story stronger, tighter, and scrubbed it of spelling errors. I'm very grateful for that help.

Yesterday I got an email from a blogger who has never commented anywhere on my site, but who I have seen on other sites leave nice, interesting, intelligent comments. One of the things I noticed first was his avatar--his is a water color self-portrait. Diva and he and I are the only three I've seen. So to find an email from Steve Emery in my inbox was a big surprise. But what he says left me sobbing with gratitude. Kindness and generosity sometimes do that to me. It's never expected. I should work on my expectations.

Thank you Steve for your comment. I treasure it. It's both helpful and an encouragement to believe that I just might be on to something here. What follows is Steve Emery's comment.


Thanks for your comment on Vulture Peak Muse. It's interesting to me how the comments of other bloggers gradually accumulate in my mind until they form some tantalizing half picture. Then I have to go look for the rest, or at least as much as they reveal.

Your work is all compelling, and a bit frightening. Some passages ring with something like wry laughter (Lucy and the UPS man) and some drip with beauty (the description of the Willamina woods) - but others are so casually brutal, or so grindingly cruel. I can't help but understand and hate Maggy, and feel trapped between the two feelings. And the sharp edges and regret in some of the poems... "I spent my life retreating from desire."

Several times, lately, I've had the mental equivalent of stumbling on the scene of a crime - reading in several different blogs of the cruelty of men (and women) to women of extraordinary appearance. I have encountered almost no violence in my life since grade school bullying, and I am shocked by it in almost any form. I am deeply dismayed that people are repeatedly hurt for any reason, and the idea that one might be beautiful enough to continue attracting painful attention sounds like a nightmare. I would not have thought it common or likely but for stories I keep finding lately. Yours (fact or fiction or a combination - I don't know) and Liberality's, most recently.

Blogging opens up all sorts of places for everyone to view. I wonder if we are doing something truly new in this, or if it's just a new medium for some old business that found other expression in other ages, like diaries. I believe there is "nothing new under the sun," where humanity is concerned. Technology is just new varnish - the furniture is all the same.

But I doubt it was this easy to see and find so many people's stories, and to experience so many different people's pains and joys.

Thank you, again, for your kind words about my art. I admire the power of yours - though it leaves me a bit shaken.

Steve

Pass it on

From Diva to Dcup to me to everyone. Don't Vote

Pass it on.

Declare Yourself

Declaration of Independence.

Stewart on McCain and Congress

My week night guilty pleasure is my obsession for Jon Stewart. I watch in real time and reruns. Here is a recent favorite of mine, Stewart Takes on MCain, Congress,and Wall Street.

Cindy's Secret Advice To Sarah

Good Advise

Take A Look At This!

From Nothing is off the Table:

The end of Free-Market Fundamentalism

American News Project

This is another post I have stolen. I found it while visiting Vigilante at The Vigil. It was in his comments thread that I read this post imbedded in a comment left by Nothing Is Off The Table. It's a must watch bit of video.

Flagellation

Oh dear, I'm must punish myself again. Impulsiveness is a problem, and should be curbed. I'd don't want to be seen or thought of as the John McCain of bloggers. I'd like to be smarter than John, which isn't saying much. Talk about lowering the bar. Maybe it's my age and underlying mental illness, but I just blurt out the damnedest things sometime.

Of all the weapons in my arsenal, I am probably best with a gun. Yes Sarah, I can shoot a gun quite well, and I'm accurate. But a gun isn't a weapon to punish yourself with, it's a way to end it all, and I'm too interested in the outcome of the presidential campaigns, for that. I can fence. I still have my custom made foil, and I sharpen the edges of the blade, hoping to wear away the bead of steel at the tip so it could really be used as a weapon of self-defense. But it would be damn hard to do more than scratch and scrape my legs and feet since I am too close to myself to do much harm. I have my strait edge razor, but I don't really want to bleed out, that's not the point of self-punishment. The point of self-punishment is to hurt yourself, not kill yourself.
Jesus everyone knows that.

When I was a kid we had every kind of weapon to play with. Guns, knives, and whips, mainly. If I had looked a bit I probably could have found the poisons. I had no use for poisons. Or at least not the imagination. However, I did love the guns, knives and whips. It never occurred to me to use the guns, knives or whips on myself. And in mastering the use of these weapons, I didn't really think of them as weapons to use on a person, especially not on my person. But along with the target practice of shooting cans and bottles, I threw a switchblade at trees, loving the thunk sound and the quivering of the handle when the point was firmly sunk in the bark. I'm not proud of hurting trees, but I didn't really think of trees as having feelings back then.

Now let's move on to the whips. Why did we have whips? I have no idea. I never saw a whip used on anyone, except in the Westerns my dad and I went to on winter afternoons after school. But I did still want to master the use of the whip, even if, in my young life there was little likelihood I would be asked to keep the cattle moving on a long winter round-up. But just in case, I thought it would be good to be able, on a long cattle drive to send the long tail of the bullwhip to crack just above their heads. So I practiced, and got pretty good. The arm action that worked best for me was to give my arm almost the same motion as throwing a rock or a baseball. It was an overhand or sidewise action with a snap of the wrist that seemed to travel down the length of the braided whip and end in a loud crack sound, like a small boom. A crack a boom a snap. And you can't use a bullwhip on yourself--it's too long. What you need for flagellation is a cat-o-nine-tails or a quirt. Now I have used a quirt. And any Ag store worth it's name would have a nice selection of quirts, mainly used in horse training, dog training, and the like--moving livestock is its intended use. I was a horse rider from my earliest memory and some farmers insist that knowing how to use a quirt is as necessary to riding as spurs. I don't agree about either the quirt or the spurs, (I've used both) but as a kid, what did I know? I just wanted to ride. So I used the damn quirt, mostly held in the right hand, the hand not holding the reigns, and I wore the damn spurs, but never used them the way intended. I thought they were cruel and I was a better rider than that. But my impulsiveness as a woman who blurts out whatever is in her mind, often at inappropriate moments, and often in writing is making me want to punish myself. Maybe I need to make a trip to the Ag store and get me a quirt to remind myself that there will be consequences for future screamed on the page brain farts. Cause who needs to read that. It's just embarrassing.

I know writers who crumple the page and throw it away or delete it. I've done that. But sometimes I like to look back at how damn dumb I have been. It's instructive to have your humiliation out there. Reminds you what you don't want to do in the future. And in the end allows me to forego the trip to the Ag store.

Tengrain, Tengrain, Come Out Wherever You are.

I have been following Tengrain's funny, smart comments all around the blogosphere. Town sounds better. But hell, let's be honest, I troll the ether looking for Tengrain. I have blog rolled Tengrain, but just when I think I am there, no luck. What the hell? So, please, please won't someone please drop Tengrain's http:// thingy in my lap again? I bet UC's got it. I find Tengrain at Johnstown, but when I try to follow him/her home(I'm not fussy) it turns out to be a snipe hunt. Once I actually located Tengrain. I had the best laugh of the previous week or so. I read post after post and split a gut. I'm worried laughter is a little like the orgasm, always too rare, but never a bad thing. But that the use it or lose it adage applies. Tengrain left me a sweet, sly little comment today, but left it unlinked, so I could not follow Tengrain home. WTF? Why so mysterious? Maybe we're soul mates. Come on...

PS, I found Tengrain, obviously. But Tengrain has no use for me. I'm going to take to my bed now in abject embarrassment. Oh, I know I could delete this post, but I think the occasional humiliation is cleansing for the soul. Like a little flagellation.

Yes, Liquid, Ms Illusion?

A cryptic message from the Liquid One.

By the Circuitous Route of Dr. Zias to CrooksandLiars and Now Stolen By Me. So Sue Me

The Pelosi speech that made Republicans vote to defeat a bailout called for by their President and Minority Leadership, the Chairman of the Treasury, and other luminaries in the wold of economics. Inflammatory if you know she's right. To the rest of us it just sounds like the truth

A Little Health Update

I have been thoroughly examined, prodded and poked, and though I have several heart related issues, I am not in urgent need of any surgeries or more testing. My sleep apnea situation if marginal, not acute. The hole in the heart could be repaired, but research shows that it's a less than fifty percent success rate. It's something to be watched, checked now and then, but not absolutely necessary that it be repaired. My heart rhythm problem has, for the most part, been controlled with drugs, so why risk surgery when medication can control the problem of atrial fibrillation. So I will stay on the blood thinner and other heart related medications. I notice no particularly noxious side-effects (other than the bruising). And I am relieved that I don't have to go spend a night in the sleep clinic or wear a martian mask to sleep. So, all is well enough, and I have had a pretty thorough going over.

I seem to be back to "normal" as far as my bipolar disorder is concerned. Nicely balanced. Not too happy, not too sad. And all this expensive work-up may save me from serious problems down the road. I will continue to bruise, but I have never heard of death by bruising.

Why am I telling you all of this when the sky is falling? Because I am relieved to have all the questions settled for now. No more worry. Time to concentrate on the important stuff. Like THE SKY IS FALLING!

Song as Metaphor

I keep hearing this song in my head as I watch the stock market plunge.

Mr. President, Have Pity On The Working Man.

The Shock Doctrine

The Stationagent has posted this piece on John Amato's interview of Naomi Klein. It is the best and most in depth interview I've seen with her on her book, The Shock Doctrine. It's almost an hour long interview. But it is so compelling you will not be able to turn away. Please listen carefully, and pass it on. You will never be able to say you didn't know the dangers of unfettered, unregulated capitalism again. I'm a big a fan of the two Naomis--Klein and Wolf.

Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine

Just Because I Watched Chris Rock's New Show Tonight

I was trying to find a clip of Chris Rock's interview on on Bill Maher last night. I missed the show watching crappy post debate "news" coverage. When I realized what I'd missed I was pissed. I've been trying to get it on On Demand today, but they won't let us see it until tomorrow. Somehow Dcup has a clip from the show. After I watched her clip on New Rules which is hilarious, I started looking at the Chris Rock segment from Dcup's clip. How did you get that? Anyway I went to the You Tube to find me some. But no, not for me. What I did stumble across was this bit from a Late Night segment. I had to be fairly recently, since Bill Clinton was on first and was talking about John McCain, patriot, and that other guy.

Thanks Again Ghost

Another gift from Ghost Dansing.

Rachel Maddow on the Economic Meltdown

Rachel Maddow is a favorite of a lot of us female bloggers. Several of us have expressed having a girl-crush on her. Here is the new star of MSNBC with my favorite comedian/social satirist, Bill Maher.

Phillip, This One's for You

Bill Maher on Palin.

Naomi Wolf on Larry King

Naomi World in an appearance on Larry King talks about Sarah Palin.

Abraham J Simpson for President

I have been having a conversation with a dear friend who is worried that McCain won. He is sure that the Headline on USA Today and Newsweek will give McCain a resounding win. He thinks John looked wise and strong. His is worried that McCain looked disdainful of Obama and that the sound bite for the debate will be John's line about Barack's inexperience and naiveté.

I think he may be right about USA Today, but who reads USA Today as a serious news source? If that is your main news source, you probably think Obama is a smarty-pants at best and uppity at worst and never would have voted for him anyway. If USA Today is a newsmag you read on your way to a plane, you are probably reading it like I read People in my dentist's office--because it's what's there. But given a choice, I would rather read The Nation, or Vanity Fair. There is a portion of the population that will not vote for Barack Obama. Period. No way. No matter what. But I do not believe at this particular point in our history that it is a majority. I think Republicans are not impressed with McCain's performance of the past several weeks. We are getting peeks at his Veep, and she scares and repulses most of us. Oh, I know there are men and women all over this land who want someone to win who is as ill informed and ignorant as they. I know plenty of these people. I had an unfortunate conversation with one of them today, at the pharmacy. She is old, she is white, she is Mormon, and I would bet money she thinks she is better than Barack because she is white. Just that. Anyone who thinks racism is dead is full of shit. It was not very long ago that "people of color" were not allowed to hold "the priesthood" (low level hierarchical male authority) in the Mormon church. It was beginning to be an embarrassment internationally, since The Church, as it is known in Utah, sends missionaries all over the world. It proselytizes ferociously. And if you come from a country in Africa, Utah is one of the very few states that will take all applicants for immigration. It took a "revelation from God" to change The Church's policy on black men holding the priesthood in Mormonism. Mormons love Sarah Palin. She sounds exactly like a Mormon woman. Mormons like and are comfortable with white male authority. Mormons like their patriarchs--old white men who talk in platitudes. John and Sarah are the perfect Mormon couple.

All the early polls seem to give Obama a win. But still Chris Matthews and my friend think the Strongman who never looks at his opponent wins. I think Obama missed many opportunities to point out McCain's recent erratic behavior and his past involvement in a very serious banking meltdown. We need to be reminded over and over about The Keating Five. It was our last big financial meltdown of a scandalous nature, and McCain was at the center of it. Barack missed the opportunity to piss McCain off, and let us all watch the meltdown. I am looking forward to that event. McCain keeps reminding us that he is not "Miss Congeniality." Well, he certainly showed that side of his personality. He was hunched over, snarling, nasty. His unwillingness to look at Obama makes him seem surly and thuggish. That will have it's appeal to a lot of folks. But would those people vote for Barack under any circumstance? If you like bullies, vote for McCain. If you like hotheads, vote for McCain. If you like scare tactics and bluster, McCain's your guy.

Jim Lehrer tried to structure this debate so that the opponents could address and question each other. Twice he asked that they do so. Barack was courteous enough to comply with his host moderator's request. McCain did not look at Obama once. To me, this made McCain seem surly, snarling, rude, dismissive. I want less bombast and incivility. I have just lived through the Bush years. I have never known a time of less civility in civic life unless it was the Nixon years, but history will certainly look more favorably on Nixon than Bush. It already does.

McCain is a war monger--bellicose and blustering. He wants us to be afraid, be very, very afraid. It is a dangerous world. "And I can win. I know how to do that. Aarrrrggg." Oh yeah old man? When? Where? What war? What serious world leader addresses the public and jokes about bombing another nation, while knowingly being filmed. I do remember St. Reagan making such a remark about The Soviet Union when he thought his mic was cold. The mic was open and it was very embarrassing. McCain's "bomb Iran" gaff, the infamous "Barbara Ann" imitation was loathsome and bears reviewing. This man is not Presidential material.

In the next Presidential debate, I want to see Obama throw a rhetorical punch that really lands, staggers the old man, and smile while he's throwing it.

But I'm giddy in anticipation of the next debate. Oddly it was Olbermann's interview with Joe Biden that was the best TV of the evening.

Rant On Oh Late One

Letterman gets his rant on when McCain folds.

Remember the Keating Five!!!

I'm in the tank for Rachel Maddow and this really made her especially special for me.

Anyone notice how old McCain looked back then in the olden days? Just saying. I think John's had some work done, if you know what I mean. I bet Cindy flew him to Brazil to see her plastic surgeon.

Boom! Down Goes WaMu!

We finally get to see the dreaded bugaboo of the Republicans--The Domino Theory. Only they more than likely never thought of it in just this way. Well here's your laissez faire capitalism, your free market, and your deregulation gets you jack. And down goes WaMu to be plucked from the trading floor a worthless husk, a name only, one of many dominos.

Washington Mutual to Sell Deposits to JPMorgan
SEPTEMBER 25, 2008, 7:11 PM
Link to This
E-mail This
TOPICSMergers & Acquisitions INDUSTRIESFinancial Services

The federal government has arranged for Washington Mutual to sell its
deposits and some branches to JPMorgan Chase, people briefed on the
matter said Thursday night.

The deal does not include any branches in New York City.

Washington Mutual has seen its stock slide nearly 88 percent this year.

The firm recently hired Goldman Sachs to solicit potential buyers, and
the list has included the likes of Citigroup, Wells Fargo, HSBC and
Banco Santander.

While Washington Mutual argued that it has adequate capital, it has
suffered debilitating downgrades of its credit rating over the past
two weeks, endangering its financial health.

The talks have continued amid heightened concern about all financial
companies and an intense political battle over creation of a giant
bailout fund on Capitol Hill. Washington Mutual plunged into the
subprime mortgage and credit card business over the last few years,
and has been ravaged by the worsening housing crisis. Analysts suggest
that it could rack up losses totaling $30 billion or more.

Washingon Mutual had struggled to find a partner earlier this year
willing to inject fresh funds in its ailing business. This spring, it
balked at an offer from JPMorgan Chase to buy the entire company.
Instead, TPG, the big private equity firm, led a group of investors
that made a $5 billion capital injection in April.

–Andrew Ross Sorkin, Eric Dash and Michael J. de la Merced

Palin On Palin

Wolf Hunting Vice Presidential Nominee

Music as Tension Reliever

And now, once again, from the Leningrad Cowboys, via a hot steal from Unconventional Conventionist the other day when I was trolling for things to lug home to my place, we now bring you, Smoke on the Water. I chose this song because so much smoke is getting blown up our collective asses by John (I'm not ready to debate) McCain, and George (I was never ready to lead) Bush. And in contrast to all this smoke blowing we have the calm, cool, elegant Barack (I am ready to lead and debate and look good doing it all) Obama.

Bush Plan To Bail Out Wall Street

Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke want the largest financial bailout in our nation's history with no oversight and no accountability. I have watched the Banking Committee hearings on CSpan today with growing fear and agitation. There were moments of reason and sanity, mainly from Dodd, Hagel, Schumer and Tester. Newcomer John Tester was a star in insisting that there be a benefit to the homeowner whose house has lost it's value through now fault of his own, the farmer, the main street small business owner, the small town rural citizens who have played by the rules and worked hard all their lives--they should not be forgotten as the stake holders in this debacle. I am paraphrasing, but Tester and the others expressed incredulity that we, the innocent victims of misleading sales pitches for refinancing our homes and small businesses are now being asked to pay for Wall Street's excesses and Bush administration's determined lack of regulation and oversight. Paulson and Bernanke are giving us five to ten days to fork over our futures and any hope we ever had for a better life for our children, without rules in place and no idea what we're buying, and whether we will ever see a return on our investment in Wall Street's glutonous, greedy, frenzy of bloated bonuses and Golden Parachutes--which sounds every bit as obscene as it, in fact, is. Just for starters they want a trillion dollars of our hard earned. And we get nothing in return, and if they run off to Argentina with the loot, too bad, sucker!

Seize These Bastard's Assets

From the New York Times:
This link gives you all the CEO's of the entities we have bailed out so far, and the amount of their bonuses and golden parachutes. If you or I had a business and ran it badly, would we get bailed out? I want someone to explain to me why these bastards are rewarded for their failures. Not just failures, but failures that are putting our entire economy at risk, our future as a nation at risk. If you know the answer to this question, please tell me.

Not So Funny Money

Cash For Trash is the title of the op-ed piece written by Paul Krugman today in the New York Times. It speaks for itself.

Krugman was on Keith Olbermann tonight trying to explain why giving anyone in the Bush administration total control over roughly a trillion dollars in tax payer money, borrowed from China and other big stakes holders in our adventure in Iraq with no oversight and no recourse to remedy if it's merely stolen, lets say, for instance, is a really, really, colossally bad idea. Henry Paulson has come up with a three page plan outlining how we the people don't need to know how this trillion is going to actually be spent to prop up a bunch of crooks and liars in the failed financial industry. And oh, don't worry, trust us, we know what we're doing, so there can be no legal remedy if we fuck you over once again. Why not? We have fallen for the neocons fucktardary before. Maybe we really are that dumb.

I sure as hell hope our elected Representatives are not that damn dumb, but I've been wrong again and again betting on the Democrats in Congress to block this kind of crap. Please Congress, do not screw us once again. We are sore and tired, and about to lose our homes, our savings, our jobs, our retirement and health care.

"... a significant problem that will affect the average citizen ..." WTF?

How much would universal health care cost? I dunno, but 700 billion might be a good start. Now, I know there are other variables involved, it's not just an item on display at the supermarket of things, but ....

I read this curious quote from dickface, er ... bushfuck, er ... well you know who, over at Democracy Now and I thought WTF?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, this is a big price tag, because it’s a big problem. I told our people I don’t want to be timid in the face of a significant problem that will affect the average citizen. You know, some say, well, this is—we could contain this to just the financial community. In my judgment, based upon the advice of a lot of people who know how markets work, this wasn’t going to be contained to just the financial community. This problem could—would spread to the average citizen. You know, you hear them talk about Wall Street and Main Street, well, this is Wall Street plus Main Street, and I’m worried about Main Street.

Like lack of health care doesn't affect the average citizen on Main Street. What an asshole. I was convinced long ago that the man is really just too stupid to know that he's completely full of shit. Two weeks ago everybody in this administration would have laughed at the idea of coming up with 700 billion dollars to do anything. This is why I don't like following politics. The lies and hypocrisy are so thick it defies logic and boggles the mind. And it's all done with a straight face.

Thanks Unconventional Conventionist for Giving Me Something Worth Stealing Once Again

This may be the best new band I've ever seen or heard. I love the hair, the chicks, the old boys in their Communist Uniforms, the songs they cover. But most of all they did it my way.

Women Against Sarah Palin

Please read the words of the women who have contributed to this blog. I too am a woman against Sarah Palin. I am a woman against John McCain. I am a woman against deregulation of our financial institutions. I am a woman against the War In Iraq. Please add you voice to this blog. It is simply called Women Against Sarah Palin. I have been a fiminist all my adult life. I support women where ever I can, but I will not support a woman who is a proponent of the failed strategies and policies of the eight long years of the Bush Administration. It has been the worst goverment in my life time. I am sixty four. We have to go back to Herbert Hoover to find another governing style that has been as disastrous for our country.

The Ageless Hippie Chick Is Putting Her Money Where Her Mouth Is

Linda Sama, our friend and soul sister, is going to Iowa to volunteer for the Obama Campaign. Which means she will be shutting down her blog until after the election. I applaud this activism and wish we were all going to Iowa to help. I am going to volunteer at the Obama HQ in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake might very well vote for Obama. But it's the rest of this state that will go with the war mongering, privatizing, break the government so we can dispense with it crowd. Sadly, Utah is the reddest of the red states. Thanks to the far right's neanderthal "family values," that want to take away women's rights to choose. Mormon's want to teach creationism in the biology classes, and give vouchers to "alternative" schooling, (i.e. home schooling, and religious educational institutions). Besides that, Mormons do what "The Church" tells them to, like a lot of other states where there is one strong paternalistic religion that dominates. I guess it is a bit redundant to use the word "paternalistic" in reference to organized religions.

We will miss you while you're gone Linda. But I know you will make a difference. If I lived in your neck of the woods, I might very well join you. If it turns out Colorado or Nevada are going to be very close, I may go do what you are doing in Iowa.

So, to all of you passionately committed liberal bloggers out there, if you can't volunteer somewhere, or make calls on your cell phone to help get out the vote in a state that's going to be close, please, please donate ten or twenty or thirty dollars to the Obama Campaign. I have been doing that since Barack beat Hillary in the North Carolina Primary. Every month when I see what I have left from my Social Security check (which feeds me and pays my utilities) I send that amount to Barack. Please join me. Every dollar helps.

And to you my dear friend and soul sister, Linda Sama, The Ageless Hippy Chick, Brava! for having the courage of your convictions. I know that your energy and passion will make a difference. Thank you.

We Privatize Wealth and Socialize Debt

Chris Dodd said this on Hard Ball this afternoon. Under the republican leadership in the first six years of the Bush administration "We have privatized wealth and socialized debt." Wall Street titans who have lobbied hard and heavy for deregulation have become the Robber Barons of the Bush years. They have hijacked the economy and reaped the rewards. Now they have raped our financial institutions and repossessed our homes. And they all get bonuses and the golden parachute bail-out at our expense. It will be our great great grandchildren who will pay for the war in Iraq and now the mess that is the economy. Thanks John McCain. Thanks little George, and you too, Dick Cheney. Thanks also to the dearly departed Saint Reagan, and George the first (who at least had the good sense to put the coastal waters off limits for oil drilling, and not try to occupy Iraq after the first Gulf War). And I'm not forgetting you Bubba, you too had your part. And thanks to you, The Hammer, indicted money laundering, gerrymandering bastard, Tom Delay, and to all you other money grubbing thugs and liars without a shred of decency, voting to privatize everything you could get your hands on, while cutting medicaid and medicare benefits. And all the while you lower taxes on the uber-rich, you want to tax insurance benefits for working class Americans??!!! How can you sleep at night? You want to invest my social security in the what!!?? Not so fast. I have been paying close attention all these years. How dumb do you think we are??!!!

You call health care for everyone "Socialized Medicine." But an unregulated "free" market economy that fails colossally? It gets a bail-out on my dime, and all the generations to come will be paying for the Iraq war and your greed long into the future. Your bank accounts should be frozen, your assets seized, and you should be tried and convicted for crimes against America.

This Little Piggy Is Broken

I've hurt myself. Last weekend I worked in the garden getting ready for the city's scheduled Neighborhood Clean-up. I capitalize this because it's a big deal to have the city come pick up all the crap you need to get rid of. There is a cottage industry in trading junk and selling this cleaned-up, rehabbed junk to the trendy little used furniture stores scattered around the city. Folks in pick-up trucks cruise the area scheduled for junk removal looking for anything old and/or maybe broken that can be fixed and used or sold or traded. I suspect this cruising for cast-off crap will intensify as the economy gets worse. I'm thinking anyone with a car that gets parked on the street without a lock on the gas-cap will soon be finding the tank emptied over night.

Anyway, while working to get all the tree limbs and big trimmings, the digging up of unwanted volunteer trees, then dragging them to the curb, I acquired some gnarly bruises and a couple of puncture wounds which now have turned almost black.

Then there was the pot luck party that was a send off of one of the sons of the Ventura family who lived next door to me when I was a kid. Those boys used to spy on me when I was in nude sunbathing mode (I think I was sixteen). I was enough older than they were, that in their minds it was Maggy they now think they were spying on. (oh how I ramble on). Anyway, this now middle aged man is getting ready to move to Barcelona, where his lovely wife and three dogs and two cats now await. It was a fairly large neighborhood party. And for the first time in a long time I have nice though used duds that fit to wear to a party. So dressed in my new nice casual, I take my freshly baked peach cobbler and off I go.

It was lovely, but sometime in the evening I got a small cut that bled like crazy--it's the coumadin, so I was bleeding on my nice new clothes. I decided to quietly leave, walk across the street to find a bandage.

I keep bandages, hydrogen Peroxide, and other first aid remedies under the bathroom sink. So while squatting on the balls of my feet, rummaging through the mess that is that compartment looking for a bandage, when the rug I was standing on slipped out from under my feet and down I went, hard on the tailbone and lower back. But the worst of it was what happened to my arm. The back of my upper arm came down hard on the toilet seat. Really hard. That didn't break my arm, but I do now look like I have an abusive husband.

Then, the next evening I was typing away here at my desk, when the phone started ringing. It was in the evening, in the late part of the news hours. No one calls me them. I'm on the "Do Not Call List. I capitalize that because I think it's supposed to mean something. The base of my phone is a short roll away when I am sitting on my typing chair. If the phone isn't in its cradle, it's on my bed. I turned and hurried to try to locate the phone in the mess that is my bed. And in so hurrying, broke the little toe on my left foot. It is the third time since early spring that I have broken this particular toe, but it is the worst, most painful break so far, and I am on Coumadin, and the bruise and swelling, not to mention the pain, is heinous.

NY Times/CBS Polling

Times/CBS News poll suggested that Ms. Palin’s selection has, to date, helped Mr. McCain only among Republican base voters; there was no evidence of significantly increased support for him among women in general. White women were evenly divided between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama; before the conventions, Mr. McCain led Mr. Obama among white women, 44 percent to 37 percent.

By contrast, at this point in the 2004 campaign, President Bush was leading Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic challenger, by 56 percent to 37 percent among white women.

Among other groups, Mr. Obama had a slight edge among independents, and a 16-percentage-point lead among voters ages 18 to 44. Mr. McCain was leading by 17 points among white men and by the same margin among voters 65 and over. Before the convention, voters 65 and older were closely divided. In the latest poll, middle-age voters, 45 to 64, were almost evenly divided between the two.

The latest Times/CBS News nationwide telephone poll was taken Friday through Tuesday with 1,133 adults, including 1,004 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all respondents and for registered voters.

The poll was taken during a period of extraordinary turmoil on Wall Street. By overwhelming numbers, Americans said the economy was the top issue affecting their vote decision, and they continued to express deep pessimism about the nation’s economic future. They continued to express greater confidence in Mr. Obama’s ability to manage the economy, even as Mr. McCain has aggressively sought to raise doubts about it.

This poll found evidence of concern about Ms. Palin’s qualifications to be president, particularly compared with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. Obama’s running mate. More than 6 in 10 said they would be concerned if Mr. McCain could not finish his term and Ms. Palin had to take over. In contrast, two-thirds of voters surveyed said Mr. Biden would be qualified to take over for Mr. Obama, a figure that cut across party lines.

And 75 percent said they thought Mr. McCain had picked Ms. Palin more to help him win the election than because he thought that she was well qualified to be president; by contrast, 31 percent said they thought that Mr. Obama had picked Mr. Biden more to help him win the election, while 57 percent said it was because he thought Mr. Biden was well qualified for the job.

This poll was taken right after Ms. Palin sat down for a series of high-profile interviews with Charles Gibson on ABC News.

Over the last two weeks, Mr. McCain has increasingly tried to distance himself from his party and President Bush, running as an outsider against Washington. The poll suggested the urgency of Mr. McCain’s task: The percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is conducting his job, 68 percent, was as high as it has been for any sitting president in the history of New York Times polling. And 81 percent said the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Watching the News

I have taken a couple of hours dancing to Diva and Randal's tunes. It was swell. Then I tuned my attention back to the news. And what is the first thing out of my mouth? At the top of my lungs, I shout, "You Lying Sack of Shit!"

I don't even know who the hack is that elicited this response from me--just some shill for McCain. Just some dude in a dark suit.

Diva & Madame NJNRR Have Tagged Me For Tunes

One thing you can be sure of is that this meme will be coming to a blog near you. I have to do something first, but believe me I'm looking forward to composing this particular meme thingy. If you want to start bitching at the man responsible for it, see Randal. But here is a small taste for you Randal you bastard, and you Diva, my darling friend and you, resourceful expat you, Madame NJNRR

Amy Lavere, Killing Him
Diana Krall, The Look of Love
Bill Evans Trio, Emily
Nina Simone, Ne Me Quitte Pas
Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
Miles Davis, So What
Keith Jarrett Trio, My Funny Valentine
Herbie Hancock, Cantelope Island
Tom Waits, Temptation
Madeleine Payroux and K.D.Lang, River
John Coltrane Quintet & Eric Dolphy, Impressions
Randy Newman, You Can Leave Your Hat On
Diana Krall, Let's Fall In Love
Bill Evans Trio, Elsa
Etta James, At Last
The bonus with At Last is the lovely visage of Audrey Hepburn in the video
Bill Evans, My Foolish Heart
Amy Lavere, Pointless Drinking
Fiona Apple, Criminal

So I didn't do 25, so what (which happens to be one of my tunes). At least I linked mine.

Now the fun part--spreading this musical virus.

I Tag:
Enigma4ever
DK Read
Ghost Dansing
Okjimm
E, the StarSpangledHaggis

Doctor Doctor

I have hurt myself. It was accidental. That's not the reason for todays doctors visit. But maybe he'll feel sorry for me and prescribe something for my aches and pains. Bruised all over, but that's mostly because I'm taking blood thinners.

More later. Then I'll tell you why I haven't been visiting lately.

New Deal or Great Depression?

Which would you rather have? F.D.R. has always been a hero of mine. My mother was a child of The Great Depression. I heard her tales of poverty. And I lived with the neurosis this deep, frightening poverty carved into her psyche. She never threw away anything. She saved tin foil, rubber bands, twist ties, old clothes, plastic bags, and on and on. Occasionally there would be an intervention, but into the sorting for the trash can, she would burst into tears and say, "You don't know what it was like. You didn't live through it." And she was right. I was not old enough to really understand what it was like, but I do remember the rationing after the end of WWII. And in every way those two experiences defined my mother's behavior for the rest of her life. It made her deeply stingy, even with her love. And unless you weren't a student of history, or had a parent or grandparent who lived through both those events tell you about it, you need to read something like this. It's fundamental. And it's not just the economy, stupid.

This is one of the saddest songs I ever heard. Thanks for reminding me, Ghost.

And this is my favorite performance of it.

Holy Crap!!!

It was during the Clinton years that I did well enough to invest in the stock market. Within the first year of the Bush administration I lost 1/3 of my investment. I pulled my remaining money out of the market and put it in savings. Seven years later I have no savings and am struggling month to month to pay the utilities and feed myself. Every year since '06, I've been having to make payments on my property taxes instead of paying them all at once. Insurance for my home and car are automatically deducted from my checking account, but I've been thinking I won't be able to keep paying auto insurance for long. I'm your average older American. I've lived through good times and bad. But I've never seen anything like this. And I'm scared.

Merrill Lynch goes belly up? Lehman Brothers files for chapter 11? And John McCain says, "The fundamentals of the economy are sound?" Holy crap!!! And still the polls say the race is tightening? Holy crap!!!

Gardening

This photo is the spring garden.

I have planted, over the years, Iris, Tulips, Larkspur, and a number of flowering perennial plants whose names I forgot long ago. Now in early Autumn, the vines are full of berries, as is the Mulberry. Here and there are old clumps of mint in various flavors, most have bolted. Soon, the color will be extravagantly red.

I wish I were more the May Sarton type who used her garden well. The Iris beds bordering the front walk have become an embarrassment--too crowed. They have started to invade the little patch of lawn. If I were the May Sarton type I would dig them up every fall and spread those tubers around. Then I would have glorious bursts of fragrant, deep purple, tall, velvety Iris germanica throughout. But no, I'm not that type of gardener. Same with the Tulips in their many varieties and colors. I have some very fancy tulips. But my reason for planting so many bulbs and tubers was to eventually have the busts of seasonal color without the back breaking work.

Another type of gardener I'd like to become again, is a gardener like Colette's mother. If memory serves me well, the book or story I read long ago is called "Sido" or "Sidonie." I ran across it in an English translation in a small bookstore in Milan. It was early winter 1965. That was also when I read Henry Miller and Anais Nin too. But Sido was my favorite literary gardener, and I think I'm rather more her type. Never wanting to leave home, and claiming it's the needs of my garden that keep me here. Even so, Sido was certainly more attentive to the actual needs of her garden. (It was also the only non-fiction written by Colette I ever ran across. But with a writer like Colette, I'm rather sure most of her fiction is written from memory.)

I read when I'm depressed. I tackle reading as if it were a full time job. I have been known to read two or three novels in a day. Mind you, that's full time reading. Now I need that focus to lavish on my garden. I'll be sore from actually doing any physical labor. It will be good for me.

Another Day, Another Doctor

Today's visit with a doctor was the clotting factor check and the summing up of news so far. Wednesday next week I see the heart rhythm specialist about my fibrillating heart. We shall see. To ablate or not to ablate. That's the next question.

When I got home from today's long wait in another doctor's office, there was a message from yesterday's cardiologist informing me that I have to go to the sleep clinic and pick up my apnea checking equipment Monday afternoon. My dog Cyrus has an appointment with our house-call veterinarian for a refill on Cyrus's Rimadyl and a nail clipping. I'll have to try to reschedule one of our appointments.

I finished off the day with a shopping spree at my favorite thrift shop. And from the looks of my new winter wardrobe I'm going to be better dressed this year. These are the clothes of a woman who has a life. Who knew. I might start wearing lipstick and mascara again.