There’s always something good to say about the Little Picture — toddler grandson using words like “amazing” and “pulchritudinous” in the correct context (love those Nick Jr. programs). My mom, for a few moments, forgettng who I am and then remembering that she forgot and laughing about it.
But the Big Picture continues to get more and more dismal. Others are chronicling in detail the insanity, the deceit, the immorality of the Bush administration, so I don’t have to try to do it here, except to link you to:
Molly Ivins, who carefully points out the outright lies the Bushies are spreading about the Iraq elections, the future of Social Security, the supposed increase in employment, and the health threat of perchlorate, a toxic rocket fuel ingredient, in the water etc. etc.
And she adds
Now, in addition to the regular misleading, fudging, distorting and phony statistics games, we’re getting actual covert propaganda, and dammittohell, they’re making us pay for it. A quarter of a million bucks to a right-wing commentator to talk up No Child Left Behind. Why? Distributing video “news” releases to television stations made and paid for by the government, but not identified as such. It’s not enough that Bush has the bulliest pulpit on earth, he has to sneak his message across with government propaganda? What the hell is this?
Then there’s Thom Hartmann’s historically accurate reminder that the Bushies effort to appoint Gonzales
is one of the more visible parts of a much larger campaign the Bush administration has embarked on to reverse not only 229 years of the American rule of law regarding the rights of average citizens, but nearly eight centuries of human rights that go back to an epic moment in 1215 on a meadow by the River Thames.
Proving the outright Bushy lies regarding the plan to privatize Social Security, Paul Krugman points out:
It’s the standard Bush administration tactic: invent a fake crisis to bully people into doing what you want. “For the first time in six decades,” the memo says, “the Social Security battle is one we can win.” One thing I haven’t seen pointed out, however, is the extent to which the White House expects the public and the media to believe two contradictory things.
The administration expects us to believe that drastic change is needed, and needed right away, because of the looming cost of paying for the baby boomers’ retirement.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn’t kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
Advocates of privatization almost always pretend that all we have to do is borrow a bit of money up front, and then the system will become self-sustaining. The Wehner memo talks of borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion “to cover transition costs.” Similar numbers have been widely reported in the news media.
But that’s just the borrowing over the next decade. Privatization would cost an additional $3 trillion in its second decade, $5 trillion in the decade after that and another $5 trillion in the decade after that. By the time privatization started to save money, if it ever did, the federal government would have run up around $15 trillion in extra debt.
Add to all of that the evidence coming out during the trials of the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. Stacking naked prisoners up like cheerleaders. Oh yeah! Great American sports tradition.
And, more car bombs as the people Bush tried to tell us he was liberating continue to let us know that they hate us more than they hated Saddam. Way to go, Georgie.
It would be great if I could retreat somewhere into the little picture and take refuge. But I can’t even do that. As I sat here writing this, my mom walked in three times to complain that her sixty-year old sewing machine still isn’t working, even though we had it repaired and tuned up last month. Three times I went over to her apartment and re-set what she set up incorrectly. It’s not the sixty-year old machine that’s not working. It’s her almost-89 year old brain. And it would make my life so much more simple if she would just admit it and not keep insisting it’s everyone’s fault but her own.
Hey, you offspring of mine. If I get like that, shoot me. Or, like the Eskimos supposedly used to do, leave me outside in the freezing cold and let me quiety slip into eternal and peacegiving hypothermic sleep.
Hmm. Any chance someone can lock Dumbya out of the White House during some upcoming blizzard?

I taped the last hour of the People’s Choice awards because I wanted to see Michael Moore accept the best movie award for his Fareneheit 9/11. Actually, what I did was run the tape on reverse, so that I wouldn’t have to waste time watching any of the rest of it; I just stopped when I got to Martin Sheen and Moore.
But watching it all devolve, I also noticed that Mel Gibson got the award for best movie drama. It’s the fashion these days among both those who believe blindly and those who blind with belief to flaunt the flag of fundamentalism. So, for me, Gibson gets the Flimsy Fashion Award.
Moore, on the other hand, passionate and savvy at the same time, played the patriot that he is. So, for me, Moore gets the Passionate Patriot Award.
On Jay Leno the other night (you can watch the video clip here thanks to Norm Jensen), Moore talked about his current movie in progress — all about our screwed up health care system, especially our HMOs and the drug companies that just love the system the way it is.
Heh. You just have to watch the clip and listen to Moore talk about the drug companies already starting to have “Moore drills” — akin to fire drills — so that if anyone seems Moore approaching the premises, they can take the necessary precautions. I don’t know it that’s true, but it’s a great rumor to spread.

How did we find ourselves living in a bad novel? It was not ever thus. Hypocrites, cranks and scoundrels have always been with us, on both sides of the aisle. But 9/11 created an environment some liberals summarize with the acronym Iokiyar: it’s O.K. if you’re a Republican.
From Paul Krugman’s Op Ed piece, “Worse Than Fiction,” in which he explains:
The public became unwilling to believe bad things about those who claim to be defending the nation against terrorism. And the hypocrites, cranks and scoundrels of the right, empowered by the public’s credulity, have come out in unprecedented force.
Apologists for the administration would like us to forget all about the Kerik affair, but Bernard Kerik perfectly symbolizes the times we live in. Like Rudolph Giuliani and, yes, President Bush, he wasn’t a hero of 9/11, but he played one on TV. And like Mr. Giuliani, he was quick to cash in, literally, on his undeserved reputation.
Yesterday, author Gerald Pomper was interviewed on my local NPR station about his new book, Ordinary Heroes and American Democracy. Pomper’s definition of “hero” is an ordinary person doing his/her job extraordinarly well at a moment in history that positively affects that moment in history. He cites, for example, the firefighters at the 9/11 scene.
Krugman is right about the bad novel that America has become, and I agree with him that:
The principal objection to making Mr. Gonzales attorney general is that doing so will tell the world that America thinks it’s acceptable to torture people. But his confirmation will also be a statement about ethics
And on tv last night, a commerical for some violent interactive mercinary game shouts: Blow ’em up! Blow ’em up! Blow the crap out of ’em!
This is America today. But IOKIYAR

I remember once someone speculating that perhaps we are born with all the wisdom that it’s possible to have but we lose some with each passing day.
I think of this because my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson. Lex, often seems to “get it” right away.
For example, yesterday, as he and his mother were in their backyard,they saw a cardinal land on top of a bush right in front of them. They had a great view of the bird, and all of a sudden, it jerked its head in their direction. Speaking his mother’s thoughts, Lex burst into a grin and said, “It’s looking at you!” Then the bird flew away. So his mom explained that she thought he might be
afraid of them. To which Lex replied, “Cuz he doesn’t know you”.
All day long he as he walked around, Lex repeated: “The car-di-nal was looking at you!” And then he’d shake his head and put his hands out in a shrug, “but he didn’t know you.”
Lex calls dreaming “remembering.” So he’ll say, “Lex remember this book last night in sleeping.” I just think that’s so cool!

The following from here:
Dear Members of the U.S. Senate,
Welcome back! The 109th session of Congress has just begun. I’m watching you on C-SPAN right now and you all look so snap-happy and clean-faced. It’s like the first day of school all over again, isn’t it?
I have a favor to ask of you. Something isn’t right with the vote from Ohio. Seems a lot of people didn’t get to vote. And those who did, thousands of theirs weren’t counted.
Does that seem right to you? I’m just asking. Forget about partisan politics for a moment and ask yourself if there is a more basic right, in a democracy, than the right of the people to vote AND have ALL their votes counted.
Now, I know a lot of you wish this little problem of Ohio would just go away. And many of you who wish this are Democrats. You just want to move on (no pun intended!). I can’t say I blame you. It’s rough to lose two elections in a row when the first one you actually won and the second one you should have won. And it seems this time around, about 3 million more Americans preferred to continue the war in Iraq and give the rich more tax breaks than those who didn’t. No sense living in denial about that.
But something isn’t right in Ohio and more than a dozen members of the House of Representatives believe it is worth investigating.
So on Thursday at 1:00pm, Rep. John Conyers of Detroit will rise and object to the vote count in Ohio. According to the laws of this land, he will not be allowed to speak unless at least one of you — one member of the United States Senate — agrees to let him have the floor.
A very embarrassing moment during the last session of Congress occurred in the first week when none of you would allow the members of Congress who were black to have the floor to object to the Florida vote count. Remember that? You thought no one would ever notice, didn’t you? You certainly lucked out that night when the networks decided not to show how you shut down every single member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
No such luck this year. Everyone now knows about that moment of shame. Thank you? You’re welcome.
But this Thursday, at 1:00pm, you will have a chance to redeem yourself.
Congressman Conyers and a dozen other members of Congress have some serious questions about how the Republican secretary of state in Ohio (who was also the state’s co-chair of Bush’s reelection campaign) conducted the election on November 2. The list of possible offenses of how voters were denied access to the polls and how over a hundred thousand of their votes have yet to be counted is more than worthy of your consideration. It may not change the outcome, but you have a supreme responsibility to make sure that EVERY vote is counted. Who amongst you would disagree with that?
If you would like to read more about the specific charges, I ask that you read these two links: “Senators Should Object to Ohio Vote” —by Jesse Jackson and “Ten Preliminary Reasons Why the Bush Vote Does Not Compute, and Why Congress Must Investigate Rather Than Certify the Electoral College”. I am asking everyone on my mailing list to send you a letter joining me in this call to you to do your job and investigate what happened before you certify the vote.
It only takes one member of the House and one member of the Senate to stop the acceptance of the Electoral College vote and force a legitimate debate and investigation. Do you know why this provision is set in stone in our nation’s laws? I mean, why would we allow just two officials in a body of 535 members to throw a wrench into the works? The law exists because nothing is more sacred than the integrity of the ballot box and if there is ANY possibility of fraud or incompetence, then it MUST be addressed. Because if we don’t have the vote, what are we left with?
C’mon Senators! Especially you Democrats. Here is your one shining moment of courage. Will you allow the gavel to come down on our black members of Congress once again? Or will you stand up for their right to object?
We will all be watching.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
I reprinted Moore’s open letter in its entirely in case my readers are not on his email list or don’t check his website or (horrors!) don’t like him and won’t read anything he writes. As usual, though, he comes through, loud and clear.
UPDATE: Via Keith Olbermann’s weblog at MSNBC:
…it appeared all but certain in early evening Wednesday that House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio, when the votes are opened before a joint session of Congress…
and
The ad hoc group formed by Representative John Conyers of Michigan has also today published its staff report, concluding that before, during, and after the election in Ohio, many state laws may have been broken, in every area ranging from the allocation of voting machines, election day “anomalies,” and the recount. It recommended a formal Congressional inquiry, and additional legislation to reform voting laws.

Via Norm Jensen’s blog, a telling video clip.
Meanwhile, from ABC online:
The Bush administration is preparing plans for the possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the Government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts….
Don’t look at me. I didn’t vote for him.

So, I go to wake my mom up at 11 this morning, and I realize that her lips look like Goldie Hawn’s in “First Wives Club” — you know, too much collagen for the lips in question.
My mother has no other symptoms, just swollen lips. OK. An allergic reaction, I figure. But to what? We ate the same food yesterday. Unless she snacked on something. Or is it one of her medications? She’s on an antibiotic for an inflected and swollen gland on the side of her face. Or is it all part of the same syndrome? Or something else entirely, like a bug bite of some sort?
I give her two Benedryl, put her back in bed. Take her off all meds except for her heart. I’ll call her doctor tomorrow if she’s not better.
Is this the way it’s going to be from now on? Some kind of crisis at least once a week? Is this what the rest of the year will be like? Is this what the rest of her life will be like?
Happy New Year.

Not only does science know why the tsunami happened, it can give precious hours of warning. If a small fraction of the tax breaks handed out to churches, mosques and synagogues had been diverted into an early warning system, tens of thousands of people, now dead, would have been moved to safety.
Let’s get up off our knees, stop cringing before bogeymen and virtual fathers, face reality, and help science to do something constructive about human suffering.
The above from The Guardian via Norm Jensen’s One Good Move.
Also, via Jensen: William Pitt has started his own weblog at Truthout.
AND
an interesting discussion on “God is an Asshole.”

According to a piece by columnist Matt Miller, not knowing, and not denying that they don’t know, is what drives poets. Not knowing and denying that they don’t know is what drives politicians and ideologues.
Miller quotes poet and Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska:
Szymborska’s response to the ideologues is that “knowledge that doesn’t lead to new questions quickly dies out.” In her wonderful phrase, “it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.” And, as history has shown, from the Crusades to the Holocaust, such dogmatism can pose a lethal threat to society.
“This is why,” Szymborska says, “I value that little phrase ‘I don’t know’ so highly. It’s small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include spaces within us as well as the outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.”
If Isaac Newton, Marie Curie or countless others had not constantly said to themselves, “I don’t know,” Szymborska argues, most of what we consider progress would have eluded us. For example, what if, instead of being inspired to think about gravity, an unquestioning Isaac Newton simply gobbled up his fallen apples?
Thus Szymborska insists, in words that have wider application, that “poets, if they’re genuine, must … keep repeating ‘I don’t know.’ Each poem marks an answer to this statement, but as soon as the final period hits the page, the poet begins to hesitate, starts to realize that this particular answer was pure makeshift, absolutely inadequate. So poets keep on trying, and sooner or later the consecutive results of their self-dissatisfaction are clipped together” as their legacy.
Substitute the words “policymaker” for “poet” and “policy” for “poem” and the political lesson is clear. In solving human problems – the purpose, after all, of politics – unmerited certainty is the road to ruin. It doesn’t take a genius to see that our problems are complex. Yet when it comes to stimulating the economy or planning for the day after in Iraq, how often have you heard a politician admit, “I just don’t know”? Our leaders pretend they have “answers” because they think we expect them to act that way. Often we do…… Maybe if our leaders became a little more like poets we’d all muddle forward better together.
I liked my life better when I had the space and time to do, according to Szymborska (as reported by Miller), what poets do:
“Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down several lines, only to cross out one of them 15 minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens”.
“Their work,” she writes, “becomes one continuous adventure … A swarm of new questions emerge from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous ‘I don’t know.'”
As a caregiver, there are so many, many things I have to know, have to make decisions about, keep track of. I don’t have the “disposable” time to not know, to embark on the poet’s great adventure.
Today begins a new year, but today is like yesterday, for me, confined by tediuim and details and interruptions. I have made some resolutions, though.
I’m going to spend one day a week throwing things away, cleaning out those parts of my life that I can clean out. The clutter of things that I really don’t know if I’ll ever need again. If I don’t know, I’ll let it go.
I’m going to stop snacking at night. Oprah said that’s the key to losing weight. But that’s not the reason. Getting the nightime acid reflux under control, that’s the reason. Losing weight will be a bonus.
I will continue to stand against dogmatism, which is easy in the “big picture” but a lot harder in the “little picture” because my mother, who some friends of mine once titled “The Pope of Yonkers,” is dogmatic about just about everthing.
Even if I’m not writing poetry, I will read more of it. I will make Szymborska’s words my mantra:
I don’t know. I don’t know why. I don’t know if. I don’t know who. I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.