August 31, 2004

I don't really know how this works, but if you go here, you get onto a page that keeps reloading and tying up the GOP's server. At least I think that's how it works. There's an explanation here.

I'm in. Join me. Spread the word. Take a seat. Virtually.

Courage under fire, that's what he has, and his current open letter to George Bush is a red flag that's needs to be waved in as public a way as possible. It Takes Real Courage to Desert Your Post and Then Attack a Wounded Vet. The truth hurts. But not as much as shrapnel.

Over at the War Prayer weblog, b!X dissects yestedays RNC, including:

In the midst of all of this, McCain also took a moment to take on Michael Moore, calling him "a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace" -- something Moore in fact did not do. Fair is fair, of course. No reason the GOP shouldn't get in some digs against Moore, and I noticed on OPB that after cutting to Cheney's smirking reaction to this, they cut to Moore himself, who is at the convention on behalf of USA Today, clearly enjoying the barb. In fact, when McCain decided that "this line was so good I'll use it again," Moore proceeded to applaud.

Which is the main problem. No terrorist attack against the United States has damaged our liberty, but our responses to such attacks most certainly have. On some levels we have, in fact, surrendered "the very essence of our culture."

And in the limited land of email, myrln vents his frustration:

Thanks to the Republicans for making clear with the Saturday Night Live takeoff to open their convention just how trivial and meaningless conventions are. And how much they respect the political process and the American people.

Thanks to both for illustrating that either they or I live in an alternative universe by their insistence that we can "live freely, travel freely" while you can't get on a plane without getting strip-searched or having our privacy invaded illegally or live without the govt. periodically fabricating possible terrorist attacks to keep Americans distracted from the real problem of an inept and dangerous administration or have a convention in NYC without a police force in the thousands surrounding central Manhattan and shutting down the same area. What in the name of Christ (or Allah or Buddha or whatever deity) is free about that? I've said it before and say it again: the greatest terrorists in the world are those currently in the White House.

Me? I'm not watching the convention. I have a weak stomach.

August 30, 2004

Hey P. Diddy -- you stole b!X's Vote or Die slogan, which b!X put out there, t-shirts and all, in 1999. And I like b!X's design better. If you're going to buy a Vote or Die shirt, buy b!X's!!!

My Dad has been dead for more than 20 years, now. But while he was alive, he was a dedicated Republican. But not the kind of Republicans that run our country now. Oh no. Were he alive today, he would be agreeing with what Garrison Keillor has written at Truthout, which begins:

Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned - and there was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans were giants compared to today's. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.

How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk? Keillor asks.

I think part of the answer is that too many Republicans like my Dad and Dwight Eisenhower are dead. And with them were buried the values and ideals of a Republican party that upheld the Constitution. And so, as Keillor goes on to describe:

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb and dangerous.

As my father got older, he got interested in the "Gray Panther" movement, got on the city's Housing Commissioner and worked for decent housing for low-income and senior residents. He frequently talked about the value of a "socialist democracy." My father was a Republican in his heyday. But he would be embarrassed to be one today. And I'm sure that he would not vote to continue into four more years of this tragic failure of American leadership.

It's not your father's Oldsmobile, and it's not my father's Republican Party.

Wherein he returns to the commentary scene of the most important election of his lifetime.

Who he? He's The One True b!X, who has set up a "One True b!X's War Prayer" weblog because, years ago, he was moved and inspired by Mark Twain's "War Prayer" and set up a site to publish a readable version of that document. And now, he says:

...as we enter the final two months of what is the most important election of my lifetime (in addition to entering the week of the Republican National Convention), it's time to take some of the energy I spend screaming at the television, ranting on the telephone, or posting comments on other people's sites and just say whatever I have to say right here.

He takes on the skewed local reporting of the anti-Bush demonstrations in NYC here.

There is sure to be more good ranting to come.

August 29, 2004

Over at Pressthink, Jan Rosen reports:
Bush will speak from a theatre in the round, addressing the nation by standing among citizens. It's a switch to a more vertical image of authority. CNN announced a similar move. They will speak from a diner. MSNBC will come to us from Herald Square. Why?

I'll tell you why. It's just more manipulation of the public with show rather than substance. I can't help thinking of the circus barker, out there working the crowd. Theater-in-the-round is tricky. It's a lot harder to pull off than the traditional "up there on the stage" approach. The GOP is using it as a metaphor, and it is a good metaphor for speaking "with" an audience instead of "to" it, of getting on the same level with the people you want to reach with your words. It can also distract from the words -- make the audience focus on show rather than substance. I have a feeling that not only is Bush going to affirm his lack of talents as a facile extemporaneous showman; he's going to wind up showing, from all sides this time, just how lacking in substantial truth his words really are.

August 28, 2004

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No Sweat Apparel:
http://www.nosweatshop.com

I just bought these

from them to publicize Code Pink and to add a little vibrant color to my life. Well, at least my feet.

she's losing. time. all the time. never knows. she just had it in her hand -- the pills, the bill, that pair of scissors, the pink comb. she leaves the bag of frozen pierogi on the counter, wonders what's dripping all over the floor. always turns on the wrong stove burner.

in the car on the way back from visiting her son -- my brother -- her talk gets smaller and smaller:
She: why do they build houses so close to the highway.
me: those houses were there before the road was put in, ma.
She: look at all those different kinds of cars on the road.
me: yup.
She: what are those yellow "P" letters on all those cars.
me: they're not '"P"s ma, they're magnetic yellow ribbons and they mean "support our troops."
She: that sign says it's 90 miles to Buffalo.
me: no, ma. It says that this is Interstate 90 and it leads to Buffalo.
She: look at all those trees. all different kinds of trees. who planted all those trees.
me: [silence]
She: people are using Polish words when they talk English. that man on the radio just said "Jak tam...."
me: i don't think so, ma. you must have heard it wrong.
She: there's nothing wrong with my hearing. you're all trying to make me believe that i'm crazy. i can hear just fine.
me: [silence}
She: look at those birds. you can learn a lot from birds.
me: yup.
She: when your father was alive.........

and as she loses herself in time, i succumb to the hum of the open road, wish for wings, for the blessings of solitude and silence.

August 27, 2004

From The Nation, through Common Dreams an editorial begins:

As Republicans gather in New York City, the Bush campaign will undergo a drastic makeover, camouflaging gutter tactics with a veneer of moderation calculated to help the President win another four-year term. But the hard truth of this campaign is that George W. Bush, while attempting to impose an extremist right-wing agenda on this country and the world, has compiled a record of staggering failure.

.. and ends

But this President does not admit error. When asked at a press conference whether he had ever made a mistake in office, he couldn't think of one.

If Bush wins in November, given this record of misfeasance, American democracy is in much greater trouble than even the most alienated citizens imagine. A President so out of step with the needs of the American people can only rule by sowing division and fear. Americans have one recourse: to ignore the costume ball in New York City and fire the worst President in modern history on November 2.

Take the time to read it all here.

why write, i ask myself, when there's so much else. moving and shaking and making sure she takes all of her medications. out in the park, two pairs of egrets, a lone white duck. cat litter to clean. who has enough time empty of necessity to follow the call of words. hurry up, please. it's time. i dream of good-byes. wait for rain. time. the toothy smile of a toddler who remembers.

August 18, 2004

Gone. That's where the time went.

Working on grant proposals (current free-lance gig).

Reading Alice Hoffman's Blackbird House. I want to write like that.

Also reading book of speeches by Howard Zinn: Artists in Times of War. sent to me by one of my sorority sisters. That reunion we had is paying off in all kinds of ways.

Had my annual physical today. In pretty good shape for an old broad -- except for the 15 pounds or so I wish were gone, gone, gone.

Leaving for my daughter's tomorrow to take them to get their first car. Will be listening to an audiotape of J.D. Robb's Rapture in Death to keep me awake on the drive across just about the whole state of Massachusetts.

Coming back Friday to take care of mom. Driving out again on Monday to help my daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and their two cats move closer to the rest of us.

Somewhere in there I've got a few more proposals to churn out.

I'm supposed to be retired. Yeah, right.

Going....going.....going.....

August 15, 2004

ONE THOUSAND REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR BUSH.

You don't have to buy the book to read the reasons. Just scroll down and take note of items like these, complete with links:

Attitude: The 'don't blame me' presidentTHE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.

Attitude: A Willful Ignorance
According to The New York Times, President Bush was genuinely surprised to learn from moderate Islamic leaders that they had become deeply distrustful of American intentions. The report on the "perception gap" suggests that the leader of the war on terror has no idea how badly that war -- which must, ultimately, be a war for hearts and minds -- is going. Mr. Bush's ignorance may reflect his lack of curiosity: "The best way to get the news," he says, "is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff." Two words: emperor, clothes. NY Times 2003-10-28 link

And there's more. More than a thousand more.

August 13, 2004

I wear red on Fridays.

Today is Friday the 13th, I and several of my women friends will be wearing red as we meet meet for dinner (even though going out to dinner on Friday the 13th is supposed to be bad luck).

But we do not have Paraskevidekatriaphobia (an irrational fear of Friday the 13th). What we have is Georgedubyabushyphobia (a rational fear that Dumbya will get re-elected).

We'll go out to dinner and wear red and talk politics and I'll do a little ritual involving giving each of us a red dragon.

And then I'll share the following information about Friday the 13th, snipped and re-arranged from here.

Some say Friday's bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Adam bit, as we all learned in Sunday School, and they were both ejected from Paradise. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday; and, of course, Friday was the day of the week on which Christ was crucified. It is therefore a day of penance for Christians.

Various legends developed in that vein, but one is of particular interest: As the story goes, the witches of the north used to observe their sabbath by gathering in a cemetery in the dark of the moon. On one such occasion the Friday goddess, Freya herself, came down from her sanctuary in the mountaintops and appeared before the group, who numbered only 12 at the time, and gave them one of her cats, after which the witches' coven — and, by tradition, every properly-formed coven since — comprised exactly 13.

The hell with the Red Hat Society. We'll be the Red Dragon Ladies -- you know, those women your mother warned you about.

August 12, 2004

So, I'm still working on displaying my freeform crochet blob. I'm calling it Big Hand for Big Mama, since it kind of looks like a big hand. A big healing hand.

I added three (yes, it has to be three) protection amulets that I had lying around: one of a pair of hanging disk earrings with images of spirals and waves; an Asian charm that I bought when visiting b!X years and years ago in Portland; and a Norse Bind Rune-protection charm.

I don't like the way it hangs from a point (although it does sort of look like a witch's hat). I have to figure out another way. Maybe shorten the beaded wire from which it hangs and suspend it from two or three hooks. Process. That's the fun of it. Although I hung it on the door to my apartment, just because it's so totally different from the wreaths, craft-decorated straw hats, and other such stuff that the elderly women in this building seem to like to decorate their front doors. So, it's also fun reinforcing my status here as a bit of the odd ball.

Read the Part 1 of a truth-searching perspective here on "How Far Will Bush Go," which includes the following:

What really drives him? Oil? Power? A simplistic, overly militarized view of how to fight ideologically driven terrorists? Revenge for Saddam's contract on the elder Bush? A son's desire to finish what his father failed to complete? Or, heaven forbid, the voice of "a higher father?"

Watching Mr. Bush, I fear the reverse. With his certainty that some divine power guides him, he becomes free to do what he will, much as do radical Islamic terrorists. They - and he - become Supermen, above any moral law that most of us would recognize. Anthropologists tell us that men create gods in their own image. In that sense, the president's "higher father" looks sadly like a moral midget.

Love it!

And especially this.

The whole site is a big, Bushy hoot.

Check out the videotaped statements of a range of American citizens who once supported George Bush but now feel "betrayed" and "appalled." Many of them are Republicans. None of them are going to vote for him this time.

Well, I just got paid for some of my free-lance writing work, so I bought a couple of these.

...in November, when some 10,000 union members and retirees demonstrated at a free trade summit in Miami. They were met by 2,500 cops brandishing new crowd-control weaponry, paid for in part by a little-noticed $8.5m appropriation tacked onto the Iraqi reconstruction bill. Videos taken at the scene show nonviolent protesters being beaten with wooden clubs, shocked with Taser guns, shot in the back with rubber bullets and pepper-sprayed in the face.

The above from a The Guardian's report of the planned NYC lockdown during the Republican National Convention.

And this also:

There's a showdown coming to Manhattan. Backed by the most intense security the city has ever seen, the Republicans are about to turn the blue-state bastion of New York City into the backdrop for George Bush's coronation. The RNC chose New York because it was the site of the September 11 terror attacks, which to Bush's opponents and even some ordinary New Yorkers seems a brazen provocation.

The police have infiltrated the protesters, but the protesters have infiltrated the convention; according to anti-RNC organisers, they have at least two moles working undercover with volunteers the city has recruited to help makes things run smoothly at Madison Square Garden.

[snip]

Plans to oppose the convention are multiplying, suffusing activists with a giddy, growing tension. Marches and rallies, legal and illegal, are being planned for every day that the Republicans are in New York. There will be street theatre, including a Roman-style vomitorium in the East Village a few days before the convention starts, meant to signify Republican gluttony. Cheri Honkala, an organiser from Philadelphia, is mobilising homeless people, public housing tenants and others for a big, illegal "poor peoples' march" on August 30. Activists are holding weekend workshops where direct-action novices practice street blocking, and DIY medics learn to treat victims of pepper spray and police violence.

No one knows where it's all going - whether it will look like Chicago '68 or Seattle '99 or something altogether new. But activists see the coming conflict as history-making. "I want to see something so gigantic that it can't be misinterpreted," says Jason Flores-Williams, a political writer at High Times Magazine, who's been playing a dual role as a journalist covering the movement and an organiser shaping it. An intense man in his 30s with a shaved head and silver earring, Flores-Williams recently published the High Times Activist Guide to the Republican National Convention, which is part primer and part call to arms.

No, it's not going to be "here we go again." This is going to be a "once in a lifetime."

A friend of mine, a politically liberal single mother who often works two jobs, has a (now) young adult offspring who is learning disabled. My friend recently recounted a discussion with her politically conservative brother, who was ranting about how we don't take enough responsibility for our lives and expect the government to take care of us. Ultimately, my friend's response to her brother was --"are you going to take care of my daughter when I die?" Right now, she lives in a group home, works as a bagger in a supermarket, and gets SSI. The young woman is doing what she's able to do, but she wouldn't surivive without help from the government.

While conservatives argue against government support, they sure don't seem to have any problem with government interference. What this conservative administration seems to have done is turned inside out the "social contract" that our constitutional republic is supposesd to protect.

I found this very informative essay about this "social contract," that begins with

Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the U.S. Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic. Since then, the design has often been imitated, but important principles have often been ignored in those imitations, with the result that their governments fall short of being true republics or truly constitutional. Although these principles are discussed in civics books, the treatment of them there is often less than satisfactory. This essay will attempt to remedy some of the deficiencies of those treatments.

Such pooled powers are generally exercised by delegating them to some members of the society to act as agents for the members of the society as a whole, and to do so within a framework of structure and procedures that is a government. No such government may exercise any powers not thus delegated to it, or do so in a way that is not consistent with established structures or procedures defined by a basic law which is called the constitution.

and then, later, this:

In his treatment of the subject, Locke tended to emphasize those violations of the social contract that are so serious that the social contract is entirely broken and the parties enter a state of war in which anything is permitted, including killing the violator. Today we would tend to place violations on a scale of seriousness, only the most extreme of which would permit killing. Some would even go so far as to exclude killing for any transgression, no matter how serious, but that extreme view is both unacceptable to most normal persons and subversive of the social contract itself, which ultimately depends not on mutual understanding and good will, but on a balanced distribution of physical power and the willingness to use it. Sustaining the social contract therefore depends in large part on so ordering the constitution and laws as to avoid unbalanced or excessive concentrations of power, whether in the public or the private sector.

I know very little about the intricacies of Constitutional law. However, what I do know of successful "social contracts," whether on a family level, a neighborhood level, a community level, or a governmental level, those that work best include an understanding that those individuals who are not able to take care of themselves are taken care of by some agreement and contribution (according to ability) of the whole. To me, that kind of "my brother's keeper" is the foundation of the Christianity that Bush so vehemently espouses. Yet, in action, he and his administration have managed to turn the essence of Christianity inside out as well.

How did so many patriotic "Americans" move so far to the right of that social contract cornerstone that they openly oppose the responsibilities of that contract to collectively help those who cannot help themselves?

Didn't Christ say "as ye do unto the least of my brethren, ye do unto me?" I'm not a Christian, but Bush maintains he is. C'mon George and all you Christian conservatives, WWJD?

August 11, 2004

On April 25, 1953, the science journal Nature announced that James Watson and Francis Crick had discovered the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule that is fundamental to life. But absent from most accounts of their Nobel Prize-winning work is the contribution made by a scientist -- molecular biologist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin -- who would never know that Watson and Crick had seen a key piece of her data without her permission and that it would lead them to the double helix.

Fifty years later, "Secret of Photo 51" unravels the mystery behind the discovery of the double helix and investigates the seminal role that Rosalind Franklin and her remarkable X-ray photograph played in one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science

The above from the program description of NOVA'S The Secret of Photo 51.

We all know that history is the story of what happened told by the people in power. That fact was the impetus back in the 70s for "herstory" in contrast to "history." But power, being what it is, put enough bad spin on that idea to set it back to where it still is today -- excect when a non-mainstream public media outlet like PBS opens our eyes to the true stories.

August 09, 2004

Ron Reagan, Jr. in Esquire.

[snip]

Politicians will stretch the truth. They'll exaggerate their accomplishments, paper over their gaffes. Spin has long been the lingua franca of the political realm. But George W. Bush and his administration have taken "normal" mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. On top of the usual massaging of public perception, they traffic in big lies, indulge in any number of symptomatic small lies, and, ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on.

[snip]

If you are dead center on the earning scale in real-world twenty-first-century America, you make a bit less than $32,000 a year, and $32,000 is not a sum that Mr. Bush has ever associated with getting by in his world. Bush, who has always managed to fail upwards in his various careers, has never had a job the way you have a job—where not showing up one morning gets you fired, costing you your health benefits. He may find it difficult to relate personally to any of the nearly two million citizens who've lost their jobs under his administration, the first administration since Herbert Hoover's to post a net loss of jobs. Mr. Bush has never had to worry that he couldn't afford the best available health care for his children. For him, forty-three million people without health insurance may be no more than a politically inconvenient abstraction. When Mr. Bush talks about the economy, he is not talking about your economy. His economy is filled with pals called Kenny-boy who fly around in their own airplanes. In Bush's economy, his world, friends relocate offshore to avoid paying taxes. Taxes are for chumps like you. You are not a friend. You're the help. When the party Mr. Bush is hosting in his world ends, you'll be left picking shrimp toast out of the carpet.

[snip]

Scenario typical of the 2000 campaign: While debating Al Gore, Bush tells two obvious—if not exactly earth-shattering—lies and is not challenged. First, he claims to have supported a patient's bill of rights while governor of Texas. This is untrue. He, in fact, vigorously resisted such a measure, only reluctantly bowing to political reality and allowing it to become law without his signature. Second, he announces that Gore has outspent him during the campaign. The opposite is true: Bush has outspent Gore. These misstatements are briefly acknowledged in major press outlets, which then quickly return to the more germane issues of Gore's pancake makeup and whether a certain feminist author has counseled him to be more of an "alpha male."

It's a very long, very detailed, very articulate, and very persuasive piece. Read it all.

The Boston Herald is reporting that Kerry and Edwards are supporting neighborhood watches for terrorists.

Well, somewhere between leaving everything to government and resorting to vigilantism, it seems to me, can be an intelligent approach to keeping an eye on our kids and our neighborhoods. We watch out for child molesters, con artists, pickpockets, and burglars -- anyone who behaves in such a way as to make us think they might do harm to someone. So why not keep an eye out for anyone acting suspiciously doing stuff that terrorists might do? Now, there's the rub. What exactly might a terrorist in our neighborhood do to cause us to become suspicious? I mean, a child molester might be noticed constantly hanging around a playground. Con artists call up and try to get old people to invest their savings. We keep our money in places where pickpockets can't get to it. And we lock our doors and windows and put in alarms to deter burglars and keep an eye out for anyojne looking as though they're trying to jimmy our neighbor's window. But what is it we're supposed to watch out for in terms of terrorists in our neighborhoods? That's not a rhetorical question.

"As the twig is bent, so grows the tree," they say.

Amazing what gets unearthed when you're cleaning out old folders. I found this photo of a much younger b!X marching in Washington on the way to the Pentagon to protest the bad things the CIA was helping to happen in Guatemala.

August 07, 2004

Even though I'm around to do things for my mother evey day, I try to limit those things to the necessary ones so that I have some time for myself. But I'm dedicating today to doing something she wants to do. Make pierogi (Polish dumplings). Now, given her arthitis and other aches and pains, she should not be standing over a table rolling out dough. But that's what she likes to do. That's what she knows how to do. That's the only thing she does in her long life that I think she ever feels that she enjoys contributing. Whether or not anyone has asked her to contribute that or even cares if she does is irrelevant to her. This attitude has been a hallmark of her life. It has nothing to do with her age.

Only she can't follow recipes anymore. So, all morning long I'm stewing the kapusta (saurkraut) for some of them and grating and mixing the farmer cheese concoction for the rest.

Then I go across the hall to her apartment and measure and combine all of the ingredients for the dough -- which becomes an argument because she's looking at the recipe for the cheese instead of the dough and keeps telling me I'm doing it wrong. I get the dough mixed. Now my back hurts and I'm really feeling testy.

And the damned things are fattening anyway and, while they are a nice thowback to my childhood feasts, I really don't care if I ever eat them again. I'm losing patience, and my mother senses it.

OK. Now I'm back in my apartment. What's left is to sautee the onions while she rolls out, cuts, fills the dough, boils the pierogi and puts them in the freezer. She'll be exhausted by the end of the day, but she believes she's making them for me, even though I have told her that I don't care if I ever have any or not.

I want to sit and write. I want to rock and look out the window. I want to drive over to Old Navy and look for a replacement for the favorite orange shirt that my grandson has outgrown. I want to have a cup of tea and watch the rerun of Andromeda. I think I can manage that last one before I have to start making supper.

"This is the last time I'm going to make these for you," my mother tells me.

I sure hope so.

August 06, 2004

I pray that everyone reads this before they cast their vote in November.

(Just a couple of snippets from the mouth of a respected economist to your eyes.)

If we weren’t America, those budget deficits would already have led to a financial crisis. But, you know, the markets say: Well, it’s America. They’ll get their act together. And so we, the people, are still lending money. If we weren’t the world loan superpower, the ongoing disaster in Iraq would have been catastrophic already. The army is coming apart at the seams -- but slowly. This group of people have had the good luck, or maybe the bad luck in the longer run, to seize control of an institution that is capable of taking a lot of punishment before it really disintegrates.

If you think about how far down we’ve come in this short time, it’s actually pretty amazing. But I don’t know what happens if they manage to hold on, one way or another, in November. So far, every real-world thing they turned their hands to, every real-world issue, as opposed to politics, has turned to crud. Afghanistan’s a mess. Iraq’s a mess. The economy’s a mess. The budget’s a mess. Homeland Security is a mess. Four more years of this, and I don’t know. It’s going to be a pretty grim prospect.

and

But the economy has gone from wild to “eh.”After one quarter of high growth, summer of last year, it settled down to an ordinary pace, and then to actually less than ordinary lately. It was only 2% in the second quarter. And job growth is barely ahead of population growth. But their plan now is to just keep on saying how wonderful the economy is, and to keep people confused through November.

To quote Bushie Chief Strategist, Karl Rove, if you say a lie five times, it becomes the truth.

August 05, 2004

When I had lunch with my friend the amazing quilter last week, she showed me some of her new work. She's not reallyquilting any more; she's doing a combination of quilting and applique, using fabric the way a painter uses paint. And it's her choices of fabrics that makes her pieces remarkable. She's working on a series of exotic birds, having just finished a series of zebras. I was particularly struck by a zebra wall hanging that was not a solid compilation of fabrics and images but rather pieces with empty space between them, hung from a dowel, balanced, somehow, on strings of beads.

So, I decided to take a blob of free-form crocheting that I had made a while ago and hadn't figured out what to do with it -- and I copied my quilter friend's idea.

I'm still playing with the idea of sewing beads in strategic places on the blob, but I've affirmed something about myself that I've always known and somehow keep trying to change. You would think that, by now, I'd have accepted the fact that I don't like to pre-plan too much, especially when it comes to making things -- clothes, recipes, interior design... I have more fun when it sort of flows organically, one thing building upon another toward a surprise ending. Sometimes I end up with something so unappealing that I wind up throwing it away. But that doesn't matter if the process was fun. And usually what I wind up with is something I'll play with until it becomes something interesting enough to wear or eat or live beside.

I guess that's why the idea of free-form crochet appeals to me. Not only can I have fun playing with textures and colors, but I don't know what it's going to be until it finally is.

Watching one of the Bush twins stick her tongue out at the tv camera on Entertainment Tonight yesterday, I couldn't help compare the Bush family with the Kerry family in terms of intelligence, maturity, social conscience, articulateness, poise, etc. etc. etc.

(Interesting that Mrs. Bush was on tv news trying to do some damage control, making excuses for her silly party-girl daughter. Somewhere I read tht the Bush twins caused some delays at the Albany airport as they were being hurried away from some hard partying they were doing in upstate New York so that they could get to NYC for some photo ops with their sweet mom.)

From where I sit, the Kerry's beat the Bushes, hands down (and tongues in and fluent).

UPDATE:
While the little Bush sticks her tongue, out, the big Shrub puts his foot in his mouth:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we," Bush said.

He tends to be brutally honest when he's trying not to lie.

And if you don't believe that he really said it, listen to an audio recording here, compliments of Joi Ito via Jeaneane Sessum.

Bruce Springsteen might not be superman, but he's coming close these days.

I stayed up late to watch him on Nightline with Ted Koppel, who threw some very tough and legitimate questions at The Boss -- who answered with obvious thoughtfulness and intelligence.

Springsteen's Op Ed piece in the NY Times today is even more eloquent. It begins with this:

A nation's artists and musicians have a particular place in its social and political life. Over the years I've tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I've tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.

Through my work, I've always tried to ask hard questions. Why is it that the wealthiest nation in the world finds it so hard to keep its promise and faith with its weakest citizens? Why do we continue to find it so difficult to see beyond the veil of race? How do we conduct ourselves during difficult times without killing the things we hold dear? Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?

The rest is just as good.

Springsteen said something to Koppel that he doesn't say in the Times, in response to a question about the ethics of artists using their influence in the political arena. His answer not only affirmed that artists are intelligent enough to have informed opinions about politics and government, he also reminded Koppel that lobbyists try to influence politics and government all of the time. When Koppel countered with the fact that lobbyists use their influence so that the companies they represent can sell more "widgets," so is a "personal thing," The Boss had the best answer of all. He said that it it's even more personal for him because he's concerned about the country that his kids are growing up in. It's very personal for him.

As it is for all of us.

Bruce Springsteen, American champion of Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

Rock on.

And Vote For Change

August 04, 2004

....PC [Portland Communque]overcomes the banality of the personal weblog with insightful original reporting and gives otherwise impenetrable news a human spin. Commenting on all the events we don't have time to attend and posting with the regularity of a Metamucil dealer, b!X is clearly Portland's new Blog Baron.

So say the staff of the Willamette Week out there in Portland, Oregon. And the newspaper's readers concur, naming his the "best local weblog."

Read about the whole Metamucil metaphor here.

OK. So, where is that rich patron who will keep his PC from going the way of Jack Bog's gone blog???

I'm passing this along from non-blogger myrln, who always gets it right.

Okay, when there's a terror threat in Saudi Arabia, or Israel, or elsewhere in the world, what does the US do? It tells Americans to leave. When Cheney goes to Washington, he goes to his "undisclosed" location.

And yesterday, a United Airlines plane from Boston to Washington had to divert to Albany. Why? To pick up the Bush twins who'd been partying upstate. Word is the 120 passengers were pissed at the diversion. But who cares? Hmmm...120 terrorists on one plane?

August 03, 2004

That gapingvoid guy who draws cartoons on the backs of business cards offers some pretty down-to-earth tips on how to be creative. He also sells "blogcards." Cool.

Yesterday, when I was out walking in the park, a couple approached from the opposite direction, and I noticed that the young woman had some sort of a pouch that was strapped to her front. At first I thought that she was carrying a backpack backwards. She was holding it so gently, however, that I decided that it must be a very small baby. As I passed them I looked over at the pack and realized that, inside, was a small, live colorful bird -- bigger than a parakeet and smaller than a parrot. Live and learn.

That's the three major networks in their coverage of Kerry.

Dumbing Him Down
The networks condense John Kerry's foreign-policy speech to 45 words (or less), and the public doesn't know what he stands for. Imagine that. Read the intelligent piece by Todd Gitlin at the American Perspective.

From the end of Gitlin's story:

Take the gigantic question of foreign policy. George W. Bush’s White House, Kerry said in Seattle on May 27, has “looked to force before exhausting diplomacy; they bullied when they should have persuaded. They've gone it alone when they should have assembled a whole team. They have hoped for the best when they should have prepared for the worst. They've made America less safe than we should be in a dangerous world. In short, they have undermined the legacy of generations of American leadership, and that is what we must restore, and that is what I will restore.

Kerry went on in this vein for 3,500 words. And the night of this speech, how many did America’s still dominant news channels convey? ABC: 28 words. NBC: 42 words. CBS: 43 words.

And then there are the impressions that Dumbya, himself, leaves in the wordy worlds of the few more discerning TV network employees:

"President Bush says he has just one question for the American voters, 'Is the rich person you're working for better off now than they were four years ago?'"-- Jay Leno

"Kerry is well on his way to reaching his magic number of 2,162. That's the total number of delegates he needs to win the Democratic nomination. See, for President Bush it's different. His magic numbers only 5. That's the number of Supreme Court judges needed to win." -- Jay Leno

"There was a scare in Washington when a man climbed over the White House wall and was arrested. This marks the first time a person has gotten into The
White House unlawfully since President Bush." -- David Letterman

"Pres Bush said he was 'troubled' by gay people getting married in anFrancisco. He said on important issues like this the people should make the decision, not judges. Unless of course we're choosing a president, then he prefers judges." -- Jay Leno

"On 'Meet the Press' yesterday President Bush was asked what he would do if he lost the election and Bush said, 'PhD, you mean like last time?'" -- Jay Leno

"This week, both John Kerry and Wesley Clark are making campaign appearance with the guys who saved their lives in Vietnam. Meanwhile, President Bush is campaigning with a guy that once took a math test for him." -- Conan O'Brien

"President Bush released his new $2.4 trillion federal budget. It has two parts: smoke and mirrors." --Jay Leno

"Bush admitted that his pre-war intelligence wasn't what it should have been. We knew that when we elected him!" -- Jay Leno

"As you know President Bush gave his State of the Union Address, interrupted 70 times by applause and 45 times by really big words." -- Jay Leno

"President Bush said that American workers will need new skills to get the
new jobs in the 21st century. Some of the skills they're going to need are Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, because that's where the jobs went." -- Jay
Leno

"Dick Cheney finally responded today to demands that he reveal the details of the Enron meetings. This is what he said. 'He met with unnamed people, from
unspecified companies, for an indeterminate amount of time, at an undisclosed location.' Thank God he cleared that up." -- Jay Leno

"Plans are being discussed as to who will replace Dick Cheney if he has to resign for health reasons. It's not easy for President Bush. He can't just name a replacement. He would first have to be confirmed by the oil, gas and power companies." -- Jay Leno

"The new Prime Minister of Spain has called the war in Iraq a disaster, and plans to bring his troops home as soon as possible. In fact, President Bush is so upset at Spain that he is now threatening to close down the border between Spain and the US." -- Jay Leno

I know, I know. Not all of the stuff those funny guys say is true. Well, not literally true, perhaps. But certainly true in the spirit of our pathetic president.

The following is from an Open Letter to Thomas Kean, Chairman Of The 9/11 Commission from FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and make public on Scoop and Truthout.

Snipped from the first paragraph:
Unfortunately, I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed, and which as a witness to the commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations. Considering what is at stake, our national security, we are entitled to demand answers to unanswered questions, and to ask for clarification of issues that were ignored and/or omitted from the report. I, Sibel Edmonds, a concerned American Citizen, a former FBI translator, a whistleblower, a witness for a United States Congressional investigation, a witness and a plaintiff for the Department of Justice Inspector General investigation, and a witness for your own 9/11 Commission investigation, request your answers to, and your public acknowledgement of, the following questions and issues:

And finally, the loud whistle of a last paragraph:
In order to cure a problem, one must have an accurate diagnosis. In order to correctly diagnose a problem, one must consider and take into account all visible symptoms. Your Commission's investigations, hearings, and report have chosen not to consider many visible symptoms. I am emphasizing 'visible', because these symptoms have been long recognized by experts from the intelligence community and have been written about in the press. I am emphasizing 'visible' because the few specific symptoms I provided you with in this letter have been confirmed and publicly acknowledged. During its many hearings your commission chose not to ask the questions necessary to unveil the true symptoms of our failed intelligence system. Your Commission intentionally bypassed these severe symptoms, and chose not to include them in its five hundred and sixty seven-page report. Now, without a complete list of our failures pre 9/11, without a comprehensive examination of true symptoms that exist in our intelligence system, without assigning any accountability what so ever, and therefore, without a sound and reliable diagnosis, your commission is attempting to divert attention from the real problems, and to prescribe a cure through hasty and costly measures. It is like attempting to put a gold-lined expensive porcelain cap over a deeply decayed tooth with a rotten root, without first treating the root, and without first cleaning/shaving the infected tooth.

OK, everybody. Wet your whistles and blow before we become a truly toothless nation.

August 02, 2004

The article by Karen Trimbath of Women E-News for which I was interviewed a while ago is now out there, complete with a photo of me. It's a good photo. Of course. It's two years old and now my hair is a little longer and my face is a little fuller. I gave her a couple of photos to choose from and she chose that one. Fine by me.

I think the things that Blog Sisters Jeneane and Shelley say in the article are a lot more astute than what I say. But that's OK. We provide a good cross-section of approaches to how intelligent women approach blogging. (Yes, of course I consider myself intelligentj!)

Those involved in e-commerce and marketing write a lot about "branding." I consciously "branded" myself online as the Crone. And I guess it's paying off. After all, while my blogging is a self-satisfying activity, like most other bloggers, I also hope I have readers.