Democracy is coming to the USA

As usual, Leonard Cohen says it best. Here is the 3.5 minute version:



If you're a Leonard Cohen fan, click here for the full 7-minutes ...

"It's coming from the sorrow in the street, the holy places where the races meet; from the homicidal bitchin' that goes down in every kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat. From the wells of disappointment where the women kneel to pray for the grace of God in the desert here and the desert far away: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

If you haven't already voted, stop everything else you're doing,

and GO VOTE NOW!

While you're at it, drag a few friends with you.

This day is what DEMOCRACY is all about, the peaceful transfer of power. This is what our ancestors fought and died for.

one more thing ... Joe the Lieberman ... updated

Click here for a pretty good voter guide for watching the election results, especially for those of us who will be watching from the far western states.

And can I just say one more thing?

If the Democrats manage to end up with 60 seats in the Senate, can we finally strip Joe the Lieberman of any committee chairs and other important positions he holds due to his pretense that he "caucuses with the Democrats"?

I am so sick of him being a replicant toady, smiling like the Cheshire Cat at McCain rallies. Bust him back down to the lowliest most unimportant committee position possible, like wiping the sweaty ass stains off the senate leather chairs!

*****

UPDATE! Reid meeting with Lieberman 11/6/08. Doesn't look good for Joe, boo hoo. Go away, Joe!

odds and ends

I've been so unproductive in blogging lately, I thought I'd share a few odds and ends of my week.

New Eyeglasses: For some time I've been trying to find new glasses that look decent on me and yet allow a large enough field of vision. Many lenses of the newer styles are smaller than my eyeballs! Kind of defeats the purpose, in my opinion. See photo above for my final choice. What do you think? They were my second choice. Here is the story of my first choice:

My husband was checking out the sunglasses while I was trying on eyeglass frames. One style in particular seemed perfect, so I put them on to check the look. I thought I looked great in them, so I called out to the husband to get his opinion. He turned around, took one look, screamed and ran out of the store! WHY, you may ask? Because they are the exact same glasses that Sarah Palin wears! I tried coaxing him back into the store by pointing out how perfect they were & how great they looked on me, but he wasn't going for it. What cinched the deal was when I noticed the Sarah-frames were $395 (vs $150 for the ones I finally purchased).

Early Voting: check! done and done! The poll workers said they've never seen anything like the turnout this year. I must admit I wasn't too reassured when I saw the DIEBOLD name stamped on the back of our voting machines, but there is a little roll of paper that runs alongside the screen which allows you to verify the paper trail is correct. I hope it isn't printed with disappearing ink.

Wal-Mart Women: this is a phrase I've been hearing this week. It has Karl Rove written all over it, doesn't it? Just remember the previous phrases of "soccer moms", "security moms", and "values voters" -- all used to justify why exit polling did not match election results for Bush. I have a feeling Tuesday is going to be an allnighter, possibly even an allweeker.

W: We finally went to see the movie, W. Now I remember why I hate going to movie theatres. If the endless commercials and previews weren't enough to keep me at home, the deafening sound system is. If this is what is being installed in expensive Home Theatre Rooms, I want no part of it. But we wanted to see W before this election, just to remind ourselves of what we are voting against. In that regard, the movie was a great success. Unfortunately it was not a great movie. However, it did capture the cockiness of W, the toadiness of Rove, the yes-womanliness of Condi and the shadowiness of Cheney pretty well. If you saw it, do you think Colin Powell ever really told Dick Cheney to fuck off? I hope he did, but I have my doubts. There's also a good scene with Tony Blair that shows him being double-team bullied into supporting our effort at Empire. I choked up over the footage of protestors around the world, because of course none of it ever made one bit of difference to the people pushing U.S. into Iraq. The callousness of these war thugs is astounding!

Democracy: Democracy cannot survive without an informed and motivated citizenry. The U.S. has a dismal record of voter turnout. Other democracies regularly see over 90% voter turnout. If you don't bother to vote, don't be surprised to find many more W's in our future -- a prospect that almost defeats the word "future".

Massive Voter Turnout: watching the scenes of long voter lines on TV fills me with a renewed sense of hope. One of the biggest crimes of the last 8-years has been to make people believe they have no power. That is a bogus argument designed to suppress the vote. We have ultimate power. We always have. It starts with voting, of course, but it does not end there, especially if we see another stolen election. We just have to decide to exercise our power.

We have the power -- People Have the Power (Patti Smith):


Click here for the complete lyrics. It's full of inspiring images, but I think my favorite line says "the armies ceased advancing". I saw Patti Smith some years ago at the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA. She became my hero when some young guys in the audience yelled at her between songs, "Just how old a woman are you?"... She responded, "Old enough to know better than to answer fools like you"! BTW, she is even more intense in person than on camera.

Drill Here, Drill Now: In case you missed it, Prez Bush has started his end-of-term enviromental deregulation. 11 Million acres of federal land in Utah will be open for oil and gas drilling interests, as well as off-road vehicles, risking priceless artifacts and some of the most breathtaking open spaces in America if the Bureau of Land Management, guided by Dirk Kempthorne, the interior secretary, has their way. About 1 Million acres near the Grand Canyon will be open for new uranium mining, without any environmental review of potential damage to air and water. This same type of deregulation has to be going on in many other states, too.

Well, I'm sure there were many other odds and ends this week, but I'm also sure that these have been amply covered in the news and on the blogs. If I don't make it back before Tuesday, let me say once again, that in this election, any non-Obama vote is a vote for McCain. You don't need me to do the math for you. This is not just a hope-filled dream; it is the most important election in all my voting years. It took 40 long years to come back to the place we once were and recognize it for the first time (click here for link to T.S. Eliot). Sorry, I cannot be cynical when so much is at stake.

Sarah is a Secret Democrat!

Where can I buy one of these big red white & blue non-elephantine repuglican "FASHION NOES"! I lifted the following directly from Jason Linkins in Huffington Post today:

"OH NOES! Why on earth is Sarah Palin wearing a Democratic Party keffiyeh, festooned with donkeys and the word "Vote?" Why won't McCain question her on her ties to radical leftist accessories?
So, yeah. I'd say that this is money well spent by the RNC! In my imaginings, this scarf cost Palin $15,000, and all proceeds went directly to ACORN." DK says: and what's up with those earrings? Are they miniature versions of her trademark glasses? Some kind of special FastGasPass for filling up Todd's snowmachine at ExxonMobil Gas Stations? What?

Palin's personal shopping expenses, RNC list to date:
* Saks Fifth Avenue: $49,425.74
* Neiman Marcus: $75,062.63
* Macy's: $9,447.71
* Barneys New York: $789.72
* Bloomingdales: $5,102.71
* Hair and make-up products: $14,716.49

Sarah has spent more on 2-months worth of clothes & cosmetics than the assessed value of Joe the Phony Plumber's house ... more than the Avg Joe & his hard-working spouse TOGETHER earn in 2 YEARS (per their joint tax return) ... more than the price of FOUR brand-new PRIUS's ... more than the amount of federal income tax paid by GM, Ford, Chrysler combined (ok that last item was a cheapshot since most large U.S. corps pay little or NO fed income taxes)....

Oh, and she's gonna give the clothes to charity after the campaign? That's really rich. How many Size 3 homeless women have you seen?

Here is Jon Stewart's take on the Palin family of grifters:

Dude, where's my sign?

Everyone I talk to who has put out Obama yard signs has had them stolen. It usually happens late at night. I don't know if this a Freedom of Speech issue or plain old theft of private property issue, but if this is the master plan of the republicans, they really must be desperate.

I was talking to Jan at the Red Coyote Cafe last week. Her cafe enjoys an nice location on the main highway into Zion National Park. As I was complimenting her excellent taste in Obama signage, she sighed & told me how many times it has been stolen. Sometimes the sign-stealers are not content to just take the sign. Sometimes they use it to destroy her patio plants. She always replaces it and wonders what the sign-stealers are really trying to say. Are they saying she is not entitled to express her own political opinion on her own property? As she serves her tasty Breakfast Burritos, she wonders if perhaps one of the customers is enjoying her food by day and coming back to steal her signs at night. She worries that the sign stealers may turn violent, but that hasn't stopped her from putting out Obama signs.

After a woman in a nearby town had her Obama yard sign stolen a few times, she mounted one on a branch of a big tree in her front yard. A few days later, she found the tree branch laying on her lawn with a rope hanging from it ... no sign of the sign. Was this done by her neighbors, she wonders, or just some drive-by McManiac? She now takes her sign inside each night at dusk.

Apparently this is a national phenomenon.

In North Carolina a couple of stolen Obama posters were wrapped around a murdered baby bear which was left at the entrance of Western Carolina University.

In Sacramento CA a family had so many yard signs stolen, they put out a sign saying if you steal our sign we will donate money to the Obama campaign. It was stolen, so they now have put out 100 yard signs & donate a dollar every time one is stolen.

In Portland OR 16-yr old Preston Fosback has mounted a webcam to watch his Obama sign after having a few swiped. People all over the world are now monitoring his sign every night.

It's happening in Texas. "What are people thinking? Signs don't vote!" East Texans are attributing the theft to racism.

In Virgina a baptist minister found his 4x8-ft Obama yard sign replaced with a big Confederate Flag.

SWASTIKAS were spray-painted on some Obama signs in Albuquerque NM ! (link includes video) ... what does this say about THE REAL AMERICA, the one humped by Sarah Palin ... does that place even exist anymore?

I don't normally put out political yard signs because I live on a dead-end street and my neighbors are beyond political redemption. However, I'm rethinking that position because I came home tonight to find this little message stuck in my front door:

"VOTE PALIN-McCAIN ... Palin will go to work cleaning up corruption in Washington DC just like she did in Alaska. Palin has a record of transparency. You can bet she will fight for drilling for oil ... immediately! ... She has a record in Alaska of fighting unreasonable environmentalists, like the polar bear claim. Thank you for your vote."

You notice, not a word about McCain, except to put his name 2nd? Wow, I knew Utahns weren't impressed with The Mav-prick, but did not realize they consider HIM the afterthought to the Republican ticket. And what to say about the brazen ignorance of Palin's attributes they so lovingly cited? Maybe it's time to finally put out my Obama sign and see how long before it is stolen!

coincidence?

M cCain - P alin

=

M P

=

M ilitary P olice !

coincidence, or crap?

WOW, is there ANYTHING this guy CAN'T do?

Ask any comedian, comedy is hard work. You need good material delivered with a deft touch and natural timing. Roasting is the hardest comedy of all. Great care is necessary to assure that you don't go into unfunny mean territory. Here is Obama doing an impressively funny roast speech tonight at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner (10.5 minutes):



Now here is McCain speaking at the same dinner (you know it won't be pretty ... in fact, it is practically a concession speech):

McStalker?

sorry, couldn't resist posting this shot.

last night's great debate moment!

I can't even begin to analyze this posture,

but McTongue sure does look hungry for Obama's ass.

too bad he got handed his own, instead.

* * * * * * * * * *

if you want some tax analysis, scroll down and

read why "Joe the Plumber is a Selfish Prick";

also tell me what you thought about "Intervention" (below) ...

Joe the Plumber is a Selfish Prick

Disclaimer: I don't know Joe the Plumber from Joe Blow, but after hearing about him and his tax problems throughout the debate last night, I have to say he is a selfish prick. Here's why:

He claims to be unable to buy a business he has been working for because Obama's tax plan would make it unfeasible. Apparently, the additional 3% tax increase Obama would impose on any of Joe's net business income over $250K per year will make it unprofitable for him to realize his dream of purchasing his own plumbing business.

Where to start? Let me address Joe directly ...

Joe, you do realize that in "purchasing" an existing business, as you are proposing to do, you must first come to terms with the seller on the selling price? If this additonal tax is going to cost you too much of your prospective net profit, you must realize it is also going to cost the seller more of his net profit if he does NOT sell the business. This is, therefore, a negotiable item that both you and the seller must take into consideration in agreeing on a purchase price. You are in the catbird seat here, Joe. If you can't handle this type of negotiation, perhaps you should not be in business for yourself in the first place.

You also realize that once you are a business owner, virtually every expense you incur in your business is tax deductible? It is only the NET business income that is taxable, and under Obama's tax plan, only the net income over $250K will face a tax increase. And just to be extra clear, it is not so much a tax increase as it is allowing the Bush Tax Cut for the Wealthy to sunset as it was intended to do in 2010 regardless of WHO is president. This means income tax rates will return to their pre-Bush level, back to the time when our government was not running such huge deficits because the income tax rates were high enough to cover our national expenses ... kind of like the way you would hope to run your own business, Joe.

Do you realize the "onerous" tax increase you are facing under Obama, the one that is precluding you from purchasing your dream business, is only $1500 for every $50K you net over $250K? Remember the $250K is NET, meaning you have already deducted every possible business expense from your gross revenue and still have over $250K left for yourself. And the Obama tax plan has incentives to help you realize immediate deductions for capital expenses, which will help you further reduce your net taxable business income.

You talked about Obama's tax increase being so high as to not allow you to employ "people". Since you said "people", I assume you are talking about at least 2 people, in addition to yourself. Having run a small business myself for 25-yrs, I know how much it costs to employ "people". It generally runs the employer about 1.5 times the actual salary of the employee. This includes paying the employer share of payroll taxes, state unemployment and workers compensation fund insurance, and any employee benefits you intend to offer such as health insurance and pension. The Obama tax plan has incentives in the form of a tax credit for each new employee you hire, which will help reduce your cost of each employee.

I've estimated that in order for any Obama Tax Plan increase to even begin to impact you, Joe, your prospective business would have to be generating gross sales revenue of around $2million/year. Using industry standard expense figures, your direct costs would be about 70%, or $1.4million, leaving $600K to cover 10% avg overhead expenses (=$200K) and 2 employees at $75K each (=$150K) ... which would leave you a net taxable business income of $250K.

Now here is why I say you are selfish, Joe:

From your complaint, it's obvious that your prospective plumbing business must be grossing a lot more than $2million/yr, therefore netting you a lot more than $250K/yr. Well, Joe, I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you, but if you're netting more than $250K/yr, maybe you ought to be paying your employees more. Every dollar more you pay them reduces your net taxable income. Think about offering better benefits, like increased matching pension plans and family medical coverage. Whatever benefits you offer your employees will also be available to you, TAX-FREE (unless McCain gets elected because he will make some of those benefits taxable)! Or think about hiring additional employees, which would provide the jobs our country needs to help get our economy back on track. Think about new equipment purchases which will not only help your business to run more efficiently but also help the economy in general (remember every dollar you spend on these business items is a sales dollar to some other business). All these expense items will help you grow your business while reducing your net taxable business income, so you won't be stuck paying the IRS that extra 3% on net income over $250K/yr! While you're at it, get yourself a knowledgeable tax accountant (his fee will be another business expense to help reduce your net taxable income), because you obviously do not have the skills to do this yourself.

And if after all this, your business is still netting more than $250K/yr, then I say, congratulations, Joe! You are a successful business owner and should be proud to pay your fair share of taxes in order to keep the country that made your success possible sound. Now, if you don't care about contributing to keeping our economy sound, if all you care about is Joe, then I say you ARE a selfish prick and your business venture is probably doomed to failure, no matter WHO is president and no matter what their tax plan is.

***** UPDATE: In addition to everything else, Joe the Plumber was probably a republican plant! Read HelenWheels & follow her links today. Looks like "Joe" is related to Charlie Keating. McCain may regret making "Joe" the centerpiece of his debate points. Well as the Church Lady would say, how conveeeenyunt!

INTERVENTION?

Was anybody else as creeped out as I was by McCain's use of "INTERVENTION" in the following exchange during the debate last night:

**********
Bob Shieffer: ... Sen. McCain, your commercials have included words like "disrespectful," "dangerous," "dishonorable," "he lied." Your running mate said Obama "palled around with terrorists." Are each of you tonight willing to sit at this table and say to each other's face what your campaigns and the people in your campaigns have said about each other?

John McCain: Well, this has been a tough campaign. It's been a very tough campaign. And I know from my experience in many campaigns that, if Sen. Obama had asked -- responded to my urgent request to sit down, and do town hall meetings, and come before the American people, we could have done at least 10 of them by now. When Sen. Obama was first asked, he said, "Any place, any time," the way Barry Goldwater and Jack Kennedy agreed to do, before the intervention of the tragedy at Dallas. So I think the tone of this campaign could have been very different...

**********

It just seems so creepy for him to call JFK's assassination an "Intervention".

Maybe it's just me....but it sure seems like an odd word to use, especially since the question pertained to negative campaigning which we have seen has inspired some truly hateful audience responses that I won't repeat here.

And BTW, if we had had to endure 10 of those phony town halls as McCain was pushing, I think we'd all need an intervention by now.

McShingles, Gaslight, Hate, Hope (the antidote)

I. "McShingles" is what I am referring to my recent shingles outbreak as. At the current rate of inflammation progression, it looks like I will be under their spell until, ohhhh, November 4th. Really! When the election results are finally known, I will breathe a big sigh of relief and suddenly notice my McShingles are eradicated. Absolutely!

II. "Gaslight" is the name of a classic Victorian thriller play I attended last week. Written by Patrick Hamilton in 1938, set in London in the mid 1880's. The play takes the audience into a world of mystery, gaslight, secrets, hushed fears, deception, paranoia, and the stark edge of madness.

Note: Enigma's post about the Alaska Governor's Mansion and the comment thread about the mysterious Obama sign by HelenWheels and Hairball made the "gaslight" connection in my mind.

The term "gaslighting" entered the English language, coined directly from this play! It originally referred to a form of psychological abuse where there is a deliberate attempt to convince someone they are losing their grip on reality. Gradually, "gaslighting" has acquired the meaning of ruthlessly manipulating an individual, for nefarious reasons, into believing something other than the truth...

III. Which brings me to Sarah "Gaslight" Palin and her two-minute hate speeches wherein she "gaslights" her audience by invoking terror of the other, the unknown. John McShingles flings out "that one", then offers a few false-sounding reassurances when the pyschological melodrama becomes overwhelming. Meanwhile, Sarah Gaslight protects his back & keeps the audience dangerously stoked.

Her rallies remind me of the Two-Minute Hate speeches George Orwell wrote about in his novel, "1984". These were the canned broadcast speeches everyone was required to attend every day. Here is Orwell's description ... does any of it sound familiar? Warning: this way lies madness ...

The horrible thing about the "Two Minutes Hate" was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.

The Hate rose to its climax. The face of Goldstein (DK note: Goldstein was "that one", "the other") ... changed into ... the figure of a Eurasian soldier who seemed to be advancing, huge and terrible, his sub-machine-gun roaring, and seeming to spring out of the surface of the screen, so that some of the people in the front row actually flinched backward in their seats. But in the same moment, drawing a deep sigh of relief from everybody, the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother ... full of power and mysterious calm, and so vast that it almost filled up the screen.

Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being spoken. Then the face of Big Brother faded away again and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals:

WAR IS PEACE - FREEDOM IS SLAVERY - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

But the face of Big Brother seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen, as though the impact that it had on everyone's eyeballs was too vivid to wear off immediately ... At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmic chant of 'B-B! .... B-B! .... B-B!'—over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first 'B' and the second—a heavy mumurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of which one seemed to hear the stamps of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms. For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise.

IV. Well so, we have come to the end of the "Hate" portion of this post. Many others have written how dangerous this type of mindless crowd can become. I would like to think part of this is the result of an extraordinarily long campaign season. I would like to think thoughtful people recoil from this this type of manipulation.

But never fear, there is hope. Hope is the antidote! Here is the legendary Sam Cooke singing "A Change is Gonna Come" written during the civil rights movement of the 1960's ... you know how this will end .... (a 3-minute history of civil rights, with hopeful ending):



There have been many covers of this song, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin & Tina Turner come to mind, even Bob Dylan (which is appropriate since Sam always credited Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" with inspiring him to write this):

"There were times when I thought I couldn't last for long,
But now I think I'm able to carry on.
It's been a long, been a long time coming,
But I know a change is gonna come ... oh yes it will"

FINAL "DEBATE" TONIGHT!!! 9PM EDT, 6PM PDT

On the McCover of the Rolling Stone

MAKE-BELIEVE MAVERICK

"We got all the friends
that money can buy
So we never have to be alone
And we keep gettin' richer
but we can't get our picture
On the cover of the Rolling Stone"

Well now they've really gone and done it, putting McCain on the Oct 16th cover of Rolling Stone! But in this case, the cover is followed by a very good article. If you thought you knew most of McCain's history, you might be surprised. Click here to read online, Make Believe Maverick: a closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty. Or do like me and print it out to read at your leisure. It's 10-pages long, but every page is worth the reading time.

If I felt better (more about that below), I'd post some snips here. But look, if you want to read it, you will ... and if you don't, you won't. I can only say the more I learn about McCain, the more I realize the man is an unworthy flat-ass crazy lying corrupt warhawk and actually has the potential to be worse than Baby Bush (something I did not think possible)!

And now for my own cry-baby story: (warning, this may be TMI for the some) ... I want to apologize to my blog friends for my blog absence. I'm currently in the middle of a protracted Shingles outbreak, my 3rd this year. I wish I was still as ignorant about Shingles as I was a year ago. Ahhh, those were the days!

It turns out the Shingles virus is the chicken pox virus you probably contracted as a child. It's so vicious that even after recovering from the chicken pox, the virus never goes away. It lays dormant in your spinal fluid, for decades usually, just waiting for an opportunity to come raging back out & wreck havoc with your body.

They say Shingles is "stress-related". Gee, ya think? All I know is this particular outbreak coincides with the U.S. financial meltdown. Watching this economic train wreck has been particularly excruciating. Each piece of scary news pings my painful shingles-invaded nerves.

Just today, seeing first Ben Bernanke and then George W Bush on cable news trying to reassure us did not "talk me down" (as Rachel Maddow would say). Does Bernanke think a calm voice makes scary news more palatable? And GWB ... jeez, he starts out sounding like a bored child and ends up yelling at the audience questioners about needing a loan to buy a desk!

One shingles effect has been to sap all my energy and make computer-time all but impossible. So, that's my excuse for not blogging. As I begin to regain my strength (soon I hope), I will be trying to catch up more on the blogs. I really look forward to reading some of your posts & thoughts. I've missed you all very much!

In the meantime, I will be laying on my side (the only comfortable position) to watch tonight's debate ... and wondering why Senator McDeregulation was not mentioned by either Bernanke or Bush today in their long list of scurrilous reasons why we are in this mess.

Something is happening, McJones

Dedicated to John McSenile's presidential debate debut tonight ...

Ballad of a Thin Man by Bob Dylan (6-minutes) ... not a visual vid, so you can listen, read lyrics & marvel at Dylan's descriptions at the same time (have to keep it simple for McCrusty):


You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard but you don't understand
Just what you'll say when you get home,
Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
You raise up your head and you ask, "Is this where it is?"
And somebody points to you and says, "It's his"
And you say, "What's mine?" & somebody else says, "Where what is?"
And you say, "Oh my God am I here all alone?"
But something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

You hand in your ticket and you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel to be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible!" as he hands you a bone --
And something is happening here but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

You have many contacts among the lumberjacks
To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect, anyway they already expect
you to just give a check to tax-deductible charity organizations

You've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read, it's well known ...
But something is happening here and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you and then he kneels
He crosses himself and then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice he asks you how it feels
And he says, "Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan"
And you know something is happening but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Now you see this one-eyed midget shouting the word "NOW"
And you say, "For what reason?" And he says, "How?"
& you say, "What does this mean?" & he screams back, "You're a cow;
Give me some milk or else go home!"
And you know something's happening but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Well, you walk into the room like a camel and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law against you comin' around --
You should be made to wear earphones !
Because something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Diamonds and Dogs

After watching "Split: A Divided America" on IFC today, I guess I'm just in this kind of mood.

Conservative Christian Right Wing Republican Straight White American Male (animated, about 3-minutes):


While I love the animated version, a purist who might more enjoy Todd Snider talking & performing this song live can click here. This version is about 5-minutes cuz of all that trash talk about Garth Brooks. The song was included in Todd's "East Nashville Skyline" album. Note to self: add this to the musical meme I'm working on for Diva and Utah Savage.

Vermont, last bastion of democracy

Damn! I wish I lived in Vermont so I could vote for an Attorney General who would prosecute GWB for murder. AG Candidate Charlotte Dennett would also appoint Vincent Bugliosi as special prosecutor. It just gets better and better.

Link to brief summary.

The Vermont state senate voted to impeach Bush & Cheney in 2007. Various Vermont cities have also voted to impeach. No wonder Vermont remains the only state Bush has never visited during his presidency.

As if Senator Bernie Sanders wasn't enough reason to wish to live in Vermont ... a Canadian border state, beautiful scenery, productive farmland, maple syrup ... now if only we could find a way to remove winter snow!

(panorama pic -- click to enlarge)
**********

"All in the McFamily" and "McKeating Five" posts are directly below ...

All in the McFamily!

Remember Archie Bunker? The archetypal racist bigot conservative war-supporting nixon enabler? I believe John McCain is channeling Archie Bunker. How else to explain these coincidences from Archie's famous TV series, "All in the Family"?





BOY, THE WAY GLENN MILLER PLAYED.

SONGS THAT MADE THE HIT PARADE.





GUYS LIKE US, WE HAD IT MADE.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS.









AND YOU KNEW WHO YOU WERE THEN.

GIRLS WERE GIRLS...









AND MEN WERE MEN!











MISTER, WE COULD USE A MAN LIKE HERBERT HOOVER AGAIN!








DIDN'T NEED NO WELFARE STATE.



{note: click this and the following pics to enlarge. they were taken on our recent vacation in the great depression room of an old mining museum}






EVERYBODY PULLED THEIR WEIGHT.











GEE, OUR OLD LaSALLE RAN GREAT.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

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Click here to see Archie explain why the energy crisis of the 1970's was all the democrat's fault. This was around the time President Carter told us to turn down the winter heat and put on sweaters. Carter urged us to seek alternative forms of energy, offering rebate programs for solar/wind/etc in an effort to wean us off the oil teat. But you know, he was just some loony dem gov from georgia, soon to be replaced by reaganvoodooeconomics, bushvoodooeconomics, bushvoodoowar and some clintoncentrism (go along to get along) somewhere in the midst of all that voodoo. Seems much of Archie's fuzzy logic is alive and well in the McSenile/Failin campaign today!

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ps, Carroll O'Connor played the Archie character so well that not many people realized he was true blue liberal in real life. Kind of like what Steven Colbert does today.

pps, DivaJood and Utah Savage have challenged me in a musical meme (25 songs I would put on my IPod if I had one). Still working on that. Border Explorer sent a Brillante award my way. Still working on that one, too, along with worrying about WaMu (see post below).

John McKeating Five

Joseph Romm has an article in Huffington Post today about why The Keating Five Story must be told. Here are some excerpts, starting with a few minutes of an interview with David Sirota on The Rachel Maddow show yesterday:

Partial Transcript:

SIROTA: [McCain is] an ideological conservative who is against regulation. So for him to now run out there and say that he's suddenly the guy who's going to regulate the economy and regulate Wall Street is beyond absurd. And I think we have to look at his history. Let's remember that McCain's formative economic experience was in the last crisis, the S&L crisis where he was one of the Keating Five. In that scandal he was somebody who used his Senate position to effectively intervene and press regulators to not get involved and regulate that scandal.
MADDOW: Well, is there a risk as this economic debacle that we are involved in right now starts to resemble the S&L scandal that the Keating Five issue is actually going to be on the table? Obama and Biden have stayed away from it thus far. Some outside groups have touched on it in a very minor way but I think 99 out of a 100 Americans would have no idea what the Keating Five was or what John McCain's role was in it.
SIROTA: ... I think older Americans might remember the S&L scandal. I think explaining that McCain was involved in that scandal, used his office in that scandal again to press regulators to get out of that scandal, to not essentially regulate the financial industry. It's completely relevant. It's completely important because it's the last example that we have, it's actually the only example that we have, of what John McCain would do with a public office with a crisis like this.

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OK, for those of you who are not "older Americans", here's a wiki-link to the Keating Five story. Keating was the chair of Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California, and he "ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln." Lincoln had become "burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986, its investment practices were being investigated and audited" by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) over whether it had violated rules limiting certain kinds of risky, direct investments. "Lincoln directed FDIC-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures. By the end of 1986, the FHLBB found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million."

The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences. In 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found that McCain had exercised "poor judgment" for meeting with federal regulators on Keating's behalf. Others members of the Keating Five were found to have acted improperly. Many independent observers thought all five got off lightly, especially McCain, who had far closer ties to Keating than the others:

McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators.... Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

McCain acted unethically back then and he is acting unethically today with his dishonest and dishonorable campaign. McCain sided with his fat cat contributors back then, and he's doing it again today. McCain's incredibly close ties with Keating foreshadow his incredibly close ties with lobbyists today, especially with the oil industry, whose polluting policies McCain flip-flopped to embrace this year and whose lobbyists McCain now has running his campaign.

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A personal note: As Washington Mutual goes on the auction block today, I'd like to tie that back to the Keating Five S&L scandal, if as an "older american" I can remember the sequence. In 1987, I funded a small IRA account with Citicorp. As the S&L scandals grew, many S&L's (not just Lincoln) failed. Many others were merged with larger banks, just as is happening today. These failures were so numerous that for years there was a special line on federal tax returns allowing deductions for depositor savings you might have lost during the S&L shake-out.

During that time, Citicorp was chopped up and some of its depositor money, including my small IRA account, was absorbed by Great Western Savings. As the S&L debacle wore on, Great Western ended up being gobbled up by Washington Mutual. Right from the start, I never cared for WaMu, mainly because all their local branches were so sleezy. But you know how it goes. An individual pension account can sit there for years. You don't really have any contact with it until you start withdrawing from it. And since moving a pension account is not that simple, I didn't see any real reason to mess with it.

So here I am today, looking at my Washington Mutual account and wondering if it will make it through yet another merger or if this time I will get stung. I think it'll be fine because it doesn't exceed FDIC limits, and at this point the FDIC reserves are still adequate. But I'm very worried what will happen when the FDIC reserves are simply gone. It won't take too many more bank failures for that to happen. $50Billion is chump-change these days.

And I don't think simply printing more treasury securities is going to fool anybody either. It will add to our already scary inflation. People needed a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread in Germany in the 1930's. And we all know where that led.

Who are the Lehman Brothers Top Shareholders?

Today Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail, not bailed out like BearStearns or FreddieMac or FannieMae. Why? The fact that it is the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date (see list below) cannot be the whole story. After all, we are often told that huge corporations, like GM, are too big to be allowed to fail.

So here is a thought I'm tossing out for consideration: Perhaps Lehman Brothers was not bailed out because of who their major investors were (or weren't). In BearStearns case, the Carlyle Group was involved (through Carlyle Capital). Carlyle is closely tied to the Bush family and Saudi royals. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I can't find any google route into Lehman Brothers List of Top Shareholders to verify or debunk who their major investors are. Maybe they are people or firms without clout in our neocon world. Maybe they are competitors with Bush-Saudi interests for oil domination. Maybe maybe maybe the "Line in the Sand" (today's official talking point) is really just Bushit.

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List of biggest U.S. corporate bankruptcies:

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Chapter 11 filing is by far the largest corporate bankruptcy case in the U.S., measured by total assets before the filing. Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday after falling under the weight of $60 billion in soured real estate holdings. Its filing listed $639 billion in assets as of May 31.The list includes the date of the company’s bankruptcy filing and its assets at the time of filing...

1. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Sept. 15, 2008, $639 billion
2. Worldcom Inc., July 21, 2002, $103.91 billion
3. Enron Corp., Dec. 2, 2001, $63.39 billion
4. Conseco Inc., Dec. 18, 2002, $61.39 billion
5. Texaco Inc., April 12, 1987, $35.89 billion
6. Financial Corp. of America, Sept. 9, 1988, $33.86 billion
7. Refco Inc., Oct. 17, 2005, $33.33 billion
8. Global Crossing Ltd., Jan. 28, 2002, $30.19 billion
9. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., April 6, 2001, $29.77 billion
10. UAL Corp., Dec. 9, 2002, $25.2 billion
11. Delta Air Lines Inc., Sept. 14, 2005, $21.8 billion
12. Adelphia Communications, June 25, 2002, $21.5 billion
13. Mcorp, March 31, 1989, $20.23 billion
14. Mirant Corp., July 14, 2003, $19.42 billion
15. Delphi Corp., Oct. 8, 2005, $16.59 billion

Source: The Associated Press
Updated: 2:54 p.m. ET Sept. 15, 2008© 2008 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/

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Did you notice something funny about that list? All but 3 of the 15 largest US corporate bankruptcies in history took place during the GWBush Administration! The 3 outliers took place during the waning days of Reagan and beginning of GHWBush. Those Repubs sure know how to bring down the house!

But don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Lehman Brothers didn't deserve to fail. I'm just questioning why them and why not BearStearns? I'd be willing to hazard a guess that none of the largest shareholders of Lehman Brothers is named Bush or Cheney or Carlyle. Please correct me if you have shareholder info.

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Now here's another thought: the BofA spokesman interviewed on Bloomberg today predicted that by this time next year, the number of surviving US banks will be 50% of the current apprx 9,000 US banks. He should know. His company has been in the bank gobbling business for years. Last year BofA acquired MBNA (another Bush-Carlyle investment). Today they acquired Merrill Lynch. Both BofA and Barclay's Bank passed on Lehman Brothers.

There is a very important reason you should be watching which banks are gobbling up the banks you do business with. That reason is FDIC-insurance limits. Your money is only insured up to the FDIC limit for each banking institution (link to FDIC limits). You may find yourself unintentionally exceeding those limits if a few of your banks are merged into one mega bank in the coming financial shake-out.

Well, that's my financial tip of the day, inspired by comments at Enigma's "Black Monday" post. Soon we will see the predictably weak Fed response of lowering interest rates which will further erode the US Dollar (not to mention further impoverishing those living on fixed incomes). It seems to be all they can think of to do!

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UPDATE 9/16/08: LindsayLobe found the VIP shareholder info ... read his & my response in the comment thread ... I think we are onto something about why one investment firm was bailed out, but not the other. Thanks, Lindsay!

No escaping politics, even on vacation

I'm still on vacation, but can't resist a little Sarah in the Night ...

Sarah Palin in 4-minutes (sub-title: are you f**king kiddin' me?) ...
(apologies ... had to post that vid as a link instead of embed ... is anyone else having trouble embedding vids about Sarah? Blogger just would NOT let me embed this vid ... maybe because it uses the vajayjay word) ...

Why is it when you are camping in some very remote areas, the only TV channel you can reliably receive is FOX? Still, it wasn't a total bust because on some morning nitwit FOX show, I did get to see Ed Harris (hawking his new movie "Appaloosa", a western with Jeremy Irons and Viggo Mortensen!), respond when questioned about what we could expect from a Sarah Palin Veepiency:

"It is my fervent wish that she will become a fascinating footnote in the anals of moosehunting."

Tell me that's not poetic (and, I hope, prophetic)!


And today, reading online news (thanks to some kindly friendly wired friends), I can't pass up posting a link to the ABC Exclusive Interview with Sarahpoo -- wherein she shows her energy chops over possible oil wars with Russia and/or Iran -- oh how I wish this were all some joke. If you missed her Thursday interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, he stuck it out for more with Sarah to be aired Friday on "Good Morning America" and "World News" and on "20/20". You gotta give it to Charlie -- the man has more staying power than most.

Since I'm pretty sure FOX won't be showing these interviews, the balance of our camping trip is probably safe.

See 'ya in a few more days!

Blooming Fools

Late Summer Flowers:

Purple Sage in my front yard.

They bloom after heavy monsoons.

Last summer they bloomed 3 times. This year, twice.

Blooming Sage always attract tons of bees. You can hear them buzzing from across the yard.


I tried to get a close up of them, but the wiley bees were hiding way down in the blooms.
I think you can see one in the center left area if you look closely. Click pic to enlarge.

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The D.K. Family is leaving for a little camping trip now. Be back in a couple weeks. I'll miss you all.

Please work on Sarahpoo's departure while we're gone.

She is Dick Cheney's inner queen in high heels.

Here's some Frank Zappa for trippy clues:

Sorry this is so disjointed. It's late and I'm tired and we have a lot of driving to do today. It'll be nice to escape the heat.