Side Note

As you might have guessed with the rising volume of postings, my DSL is working (and topping the bandwidth test speed charts - apparently the cows and sows who neighbor me aren't using a lot of bandwidth).

Bad Gets Worse

From Reuters (and filed in the Empires Crumble department):

Police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500 people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a stranglehold on independent media.

Pakistan and Osama Bin Forgotten Laden

See my post here for why I think we should be paying very close attention to the Pakistan mess and the possible "resurgency" of the Bushies' favorite bogeyman, Osama.

Also Belated... to MissM(agnificent)

a belated Happy Birthday to you!

You can read MissM at her blog.

Why I Worry About Florida Installment #2617

So what kind of fuckup do you need to be to go into a church and abuse a corpse in a coffin?

I mean, besides the kind that elects a Ros-Letinen, a Diaz-Ballert, a Mel Martinez, or a Katherine Harris to office. ::cough::

Jim Hogue's "The Ballad of Ladder 5" And The "9-11 Truth Movement"

I know many - and it's not just Dems - remain with serious questions about the events of September 11th. While I'm not trying to stir up a brew here on a Sunday, I did want to point to a bit of political poetry offered up by a Vermont local actor/activist Jim Hogue about 9-11 you can find here.

You can listen to Hogue's often politically-centric program, The House on Pooh Corner, streaming live at WGDR online every Monday from 8:30-10 AM ET.

Rice/Other Bushies Subpoenaed to Testify

Secrets passed to pro-Israel lobbyists? Hmmm.

Our media pays little attention to this, but you can bet it's getting noticed elsewhere.

A Little Late Halloweening

.... more earthly matters kept me busy on Halloween itself but let me offer this from the page of a local - and phenomenal musician who happens to be a descendant of the Countess Bathory herself that suggests that a woman, at least as much as the Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler, was the basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Note, however, that the 600+ dead from the Countess pales mightily compared to Bush's Iraq and Afghanistan adventure. ::choke::

Pakistan Under Emergency Rule - Uh Oh!

If you haven't had the news on, that "pal" of ours, Musharraf of Pakistan, has a mess on his hands... and this time, it's not directly George Bush. The road to the country's Supreme Court is closed and all hell is breaking loose there with a huge honking state of emergency declared.

This has everything to do with the Supremes there set to rule on whether Musharraf can declare himself the winner in the election a few weeks ago which many said was rigged in his favor (sound familiar... Bush 2000? Diebold making Pak voting machines, perhaps?).

Coalition of the willing, indeed.

Repugnicants Love Torture - So Long As It's Done To Others

Much of the time, it's easy to believe you've heard it all, that nothing else can shock you.
But listening to MSNBC later Monday night, in a discussion of AG Nominee Mukasey, the way he's hedging on whether something like waterboarding is torture or not (gee, what is it if not torture?), and how this is making "a sure-fire nomination" into a testy affair, my "delicate sensibilities" were once again tested.

The offender in this case in Michael Reagan, the adopted son of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, a right-wing talk show host who has always played very desperately into the extreme right fold because he knows he possesses neither the brain power nor the pizzazz to be anyone in his own right. Reagan, making fun of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a GOPeer himself - for having the nerve to question the Bushies' insistence that God WANTS America to torture anyone Muslim (or Dem or Progressive), uttered something like, "heck, the only thing we can be sure of is now we'd like to see Lindsey Graham waterboarded."

Nice. Really nice.

Michael Reagan has always sickened me. But this is a new low, even for him. That anyone in this country is even advocating torture - let alone making it sound like something fun to do to those who disagree with them - tells us a lot about the very wrong direction in which this country has been taken.

Terrorists on 9-11 didn't destroy our way of life - our leaders did it, and any of us who stood up and declared they could take away any rights or liberties or human rights protections from us just to keep us safe destroyed our way of life.

Why, oh why, do the extreme righters - and surprise others like Alan Dershowitz - hate America so much?

Putting A Face On The American Home Foreclosure Crisis

As some of you kindly noticed, I've been absent a great deal lately (although I believe the situation is now corrected... especially once my DSL begins to work). Although I really hate airing dirty laundry in public, I feel obligated to tell you a bit of why I've been missing, since it ties directly into a very serious situation here in America: a record of primary home foreclosures that now EXCEEDS that of the Great Depression that began in 1929.

I am one of 1.6 million home mostly middle class home owners whose home was foreclosed upon. Obviously, my financial problems were a big part of it; like many, my principal income post September 11th nose-dived and (also a sad norm with foreclosures and bankruptcies) a catastrophic illness in 2003 left me unable to work the 20 hours a day, 7 days a week I had for many years. By 2005, every effort I engaged in to secure my home went boom.

Though financial advisors always say to contact your mortgage company, lay out the case, and work with them to find a solution, my mortgage holder - the largest in the U.S. - never returned my calls. In fact, in the 7 years I had a mortgage with them, I never managed to speak to one single human being. When I tried to sell the home (tough in a bad market), the mortgage holder fought that, too, going to court to prevent me from doing so.

Sadly, my case is becoming the norm. Millions and millions of homes have been taken back since Bush took office (the "ownership" society he talked about really only meant the banks owning us), and though 1.6 million have been lost this year alone, some figures cite that at least 20 million other home owners are in serious danger of bankruptcy/foreclosure in the next year. Millions more are at risk of losing homes within the next two years. (More than half of all bankruptcies in the U.S. have as their initial factor medical bills - but, of course, universal health care isn't needed by anyone except Congress for themselves. ::cough::choke::

This crisis does NOT just affect the home owners. Mortgage companies have no reason these days to work with home owners because the federal government gives them a wonderful out: all the laws are written to their favor AND the Federal National Mortage Association (aka Fannie Mae) comes in and buys these foreclosed homes with our tax dollars to save the mortgage holders. Since homes aren't selling, this is only going to worsen... and get much worse if we continue to have someone like Bush (aka Giuliani, Thompson, etc.) in the White House and running Congress.

Massachusetts is talking about trying to intercede to provide some kind of bridge between distressed home owners and their mortgage holders to try to help people stay in their homes and save tax dollars being lost to "help" mortgage companies when it's American families who need the assistance.

I'm not asking for sympathy here, but to help put a face on this crisis. So many of my friends have been totally perplexed how someone like me, hardworking and frugal, could be caught. The answer is, this can happen to anyone. And does.

Crawling In The Fast Lane!

Who knew that when I recently moved deeper into the high rural hills of Vermont - and happened to get a roving bear as a neighbor - that I would happen to land in one of the few areas in the deep woods that offers DSL service. Even got it installed on Thursday.

Now only if it worked!

Sadly, I think it's a TCP issue, messed up beyond recognition and, so far, resistant to removal/reinstallation. But to know that 1.5 mbps is sitting on my desktop just beyond the reach of my system is only incredibly frustrating.

More irritating is that the only place the catten (a three month old kitten who appeared less than 24 hours after I moved in whom the dog adopted immediately, hereafter known as Jerry Che Garcia because, like his namesake, he doesn't do well in rehab EITHER) will sleep is at my temporary desk setup. My rump is a ruin of scars from his trying to convince me to get out of ::cough:: his seat.

However, Karlo will be pleased to learn that Jerry does not blog. In fact, Jerry refuses to do anything but beg for food, make the dog (Ben) cry, and fight for my seat.

My only other complaint is that I missed both a Gogol Bordello (gypsy punk) concert at my old alma mater Vermont College and a Ladysmith Black Mambasa performance at the Barre Opera House earlier this month. However, I intend to LIVE more of my life in this incarnation of me, so next time there's a concert I want to attend, I am there!

Just Who Is The Terrorist?

Since last week's vote on Capitol Hill pronouncing Iran's military as a terrorist organization (trust me, I have no love lost for most of the last however many leaders of Iran but, as the Christian Science Monitor opined shortly after September 11th, 2001, "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter") adding more and more drums toward the steady Bush-Cheney beat toward a full blown war with THAT country as well, I can just about imagine how well it would play if other countries labeled Bush and "our" Pentagon as terrorist organizations.

Certainly, I think that even within our own nation, there is widespread concensus that Bush-Cheney and all their evil elves have functioned as not just enemies of "the state" we hold dear (as in free speech, democracy, their war on the middle/working class, non-stop lies to engage in more dirty tricks and torture and war, to name a scant few. Yet can you imagine the outrage and the "right"eously angry shaking jowls of the likes of a Fred Thompson, a Trent Lott, and a Dick Cheney if another country labeled them as terrorists?

The longer we allow this evil empire to continue making misery and mayhem wherever it goes (some of which "grow" right here at home), the more we in effect empower our terrorists to wreak havoc on others. Nor am I sure that it is in anyway prudent to allow Bush and Cheney to sit there, orchestrating global oppression for the 450-460 days left to run of their term.

In other words, there is really not much we can - or even should - do about Iran and its military. Yet, here at home, we have a huge obligation to stop this continuing seven year nightmare and eliminate our own homegrown terrorists like Dubya, The Dick, the Blackwater honchos. Time we acted, too.

Bush: "To Prove I'm Relevant, I'm Ready To Let Your Sick Kids Suffer!"

Just when you thought it couldn't get anymore bizarre and bastardly at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue....

That Bush thinks he's relevant must be of great comfort to parents of sick kids this president BOASTS he wants kept from any kind of meaningful health care coverage. For a man who proves day in and day out (those few days Dubya bothers to pretend to work, that is), his comment today he is PROUD to veto the Dem-pushed provisions for government-aided health care for children (Ricky Shambles posted powerfully about it here (aka Schipstorm) at All Things Democrat earlier this week) to prove his relevancy as a president reaches a whole new subterranean L-O-W.

I overheard a woman today, a woman I have heard defend Bush right and left (and man, is he ever to the right), an ardent conservative Republican who does not believe in social programs to help anyone who makes less than 100K, completely lose it upon learning of the president's latest lunacy. "How does taking away basic health care from poor kids make him a better president?" she demanded in complete consternation as she literally threw up her hands.

Even this loyal GOPer seemed to see through the ridiculous fog of lies the Bush-buttkissers put up about how rich adults were using the kids' health care and how those from families earning $85K or more were "swindling" the system when people who cannot afford rent and food should pony up $400-800 a month in health premiums. Anyone with half a brain (OK, Bush doesn't qualify even by that lesser standard) has been appalled at the tighty righties' miserable position on this.

If the latest Bushism sounds even worse than the classic Ebenezer Scrooge bit from Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" who, when asked to help the poor at the holiday season, inquires of the do-gooders if the debtors' prisons still operate since his taxes support those institutions, you aren't far from the mark.

Writes Dan Froomkin of The Washington Post on this matter:

Asked how he found himself vetoing a children's health insurance bill that had passed Congress with bipartisan support, Bush insisted that using a veto is "one way to ensure I am relevant."

When a reporter followed up and asked Bush if he felt he was losing leverage and relevance, Bush replied: "I've never felt more engaged and more capable of getting the American people to realize there's a lot of unfinished business."

Which, let's be blunt, is hard to believe.

For seven years now, everything that has come out of Bush & Cheney's mouth has been hard to believe. No, correction: impossible to believe. Nice that they'll take a stand on the fallen bodies of sick kids, eh?

Gives a whole 'nother sick meaning to No Child Left Behind.

Too Bad The Bushes Didn't Use Contraceptives...

Also posted elsewhere and proof that most of the worst assholes in the world are on Dubya's speed dial:

How many ways has the Bush Administration done its utmost to destroy the hearts and minds and soul of Americans (not to mention the devastation they've wrought in the rest of the world)? Even the world's finest supercomputers can't count that high.

The latest - and sadly, not the worst - is this from Think Progress on how Bush's new "family planning" appointee, Susan Orr, refers to simple contraceptives as an evil element in the "culture of death" promoted by progressive minds. [Too effing bad that Babs and Papa Bush didn't use some contraceptives along the way; would have saved countless lives, jobs, hearts, minds, etc.]

This is yet another cesspool of depravity dug by a group who imposes their twisted brand of morality on the rest of us while they seem to engage in nothing but perverted, sick, definitely-not-Bible-sanctioned acts, usually in and around their second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth marriage themselves. Their sense of family values always extend both to their multiple sexual partners AND their multiple spouses. All while they claim that allowing same sex marriage will destroy the heterosexual unions they can't seem to keep from killing all by themselves.

(Waving to Larry Craig, "Morals czar" Bill Bennett, Ken ("My closet is very large yet I prove that being gay doesn't always mean being merry") Mehlman, et al.)

Dick Cheney, Enemy of the State (And The World)

As I posted elsewhere...

I strongly (as in STRONGLY) encourage you to find your local listing for this week's PBS Frontline for a startling, scary profile of Vice DickPresident Dick Cheney's 30+ year war to take away civil liberties at the same astonishing pace as he wants to turn the American presidency and any notion of democracy into a game only Cheney and his pals can play.

I was riveted and sickened all at once; those who maintain BIG questions about the Bush Administration's possible complicity in September 11th will find new fodder with the revelations from Cheney's own hench cretins that as buildings still burned that day, The Dick was calling in his people to stage a coup against American democracy and the U.S. Constitution while giving the president more powers than our founding fathers EVER wanted to allow.

This material, fully documented, FAR EXCEEDS the imagination of George Orwell's 1984 and the machinations of Machiavelli. And yet, with all of that, what REALLY amazed me was that the dimbulb former Attorney General (although a dimbulb HAS to burn brighter than also former AG Alberto Gonzales) John Ashcroft ACTUALLY stood up for us when Cheney demanded the feds launch the most massive domestic spying and data mining operation against the American people in U.S. history.

Gee, What Would Jesus Say About Ann Coulter?

Well, I suspect even Christ would spit on her, as well He should.

Just when you think Annthrax can't top herself at diving any deeper into the ugly sluggy muck of existence, the woman who WISHES she were human now tells Jews to "get perfected" and to do this, they just need to "convert to Christianity already!"

Too bad Ann can't convert to Christianity. Or at least, become human. Growing a conscience, however, will never happen for this nasty purveyor of hatespeak and total intolerance.

The only possible "good" to come from this is that it exposes the "Christian neoconservative" and nutcase quotient's big mission: befriend Israel "only" to get us to the Rapture and then kill any Jew who won't convert to Christianity.

As a Christian, I am beyond appalled. My God, and my Christ, tell me to respect everyone in the way they wish to worship (and not worship, as they see fit). Unfortunately, in today's "fundamentalist" movement, they pretend their own vile message is that of God/the messiah. Beware those false profitsprophets, folks.

Draft Gore!: Will The Nobel Prize for Peace Be The Latest To Name Al Gore Winner?

In the "here's a vote Bush & Cheney, Florida and Ohio can't (literally!) steal from a Democrat!" department.

Also noted at All Things Democrat (by the resident grump - me):

Wish Al Gore the best tomorrow when the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded.

In a year when Bill Clinton’s Veep brought home awards at Cannes, from the Academy AND Emmy awards mostly for his work on educating America and the world about global warming, I would love the tighty righties to have reason to deal with another “Inconvenient Truth” on Friday if the man many want to run for Democratic candidacy for president in 2008 wins. Nods to the folks at DraftGore, too.

[Now if only we could get Henry Kissinger’s peace prize recalled!]

Nods, too, to Doris Lessing, who at 88 today became the oldest person (let alone woman) to win the Nobel prize in literature. Lessing’s work is considered - uh… can you say seminal work when it comes to feminism? - important stuff in understanding women and women’s power.

The Dumb(er) Bush Twin, Jenna: "Why Fight In Iraq When I Can Get Married In The White House!"

This one just makes me so ill...

Your kids can fight and die in Iraq but Jenna's just too busy having a good time spending some of the money the Bush-Cheney war of empire is netting the dumbest man ever to breathe White House air.

As I noted at All Things Democrat, Jenna's top 5 reasons for not fighting her dumb daddy's Iraq quagmire of a war must include:

a) not enough drugs and alcohol in Iraq
b) few nightclubs that allow women
c) will ruin her manicure
d) “What’s eye-rock? Cos if it’s hip clothing, I already own it!”
e) “Cos I’m a Bush, silly. We just suck the blood out of everything, not serve!”

Rumors of My Death Are

... well, not entirely accurate.

By the end of the week (telecom permitting), I should be back blogging with a few tales to tell and quite a bit the wiser to match the scars I've gained.