While the country yawns over the latest Wikileaks revelations, think on this:

Thanks for this from Prairie Weather today.

Let's toss that "impeach" word around again, only this time...

... let's talk about it in the context of the Supreme Court.  You can't impeach a Supreme Court justice because you disagree with his opinions.  But maybe you can if his private life gets just too, too tawdry and too political.

There's the tawdriness of the lies Clarence Thomas doubtless clung to during his harrowing confirmation hearings.  That nastiness has surfaced again and will -- plenty of us hope -- do him the damage he has deserves after decades in a position he lied to achieve.

But even that's cheap goods compared to the general tawdriness of the newer conservative justices on the Court, the damage they are doing to the Court and the nation.  As we acknowledged the other day, John Roberts is no prize.  But Thomas and Scalia (maybe some Americans are also waiting for the Alito shoe to drop) are using their position on the Court to play footsie with the conservative and libertarian movements and with the people who pour billions into influencing legislation. 

Even leaving aside Ginni Thomas's work (and outside interests), we are confronted once again with Antonin Scalia's and Clarence Thomas's playtime activities among the vote buyers.

A secretive network of Republican donors is heading to the Palm Springs area for a long weekend in January, but it will not be to relax after a hard-fought election — it will be to plan for the next one.

Koch Industries, the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes from the Cato Institute in Washington to the ballot initiative that would suspend California’s landmark law capping greenhouse gases, is planning a confidential meeting at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa to, as an invitation says, “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.”

The invitation, sent to potential new participants, offers a rare peek at the Koch network of the ultrawealthy and the politically well-connected, its far-reaching agenda to enlist ordinary Americans to its cause, and its desire for the utmost secrecy. ...

Yes, indeed.  Look at the guest list.

The participants included some of the nation’s wealthiest families and biggest names in finance: private equity and hedge fund executives like John Childs, Cliff Asness, Steve Schwarzman and Ken Griffin; Phil Anschutz, the entertainment and media mogul ranked by Forbes as the 34th-richest person in the country; Rich DeVos, the co-founder of Amway; Steve Bechtel of the giant construction firm; and Kenneth Langone of Home Depot.

The group also included longtime Republican donors and officials, including Foster Friess, Fred Malek and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

Participants listened to presentations from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as people who played leading roles in John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, like Nancy Pfotenhauer and Annie Dickerson, who also runs a foundation for Paul Singer, a hedge fund executive who like the Kochs is active in promoting libertarian causes.

To encourage new participants, Mr. Koch offers to waive the $1,500 registration fee. And he notes that previous guests have included Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, Gov. Haley Barbour and Gov. Bobby Jindal, Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, and Representatives Mike Pence, Tom Price and Paul D. Ryan.

Just like the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, the get-together reeks of partisanship, megabucks, and secrecy. Attending the State of the Union speech is optional for the justices;  responding to the Koch brothers' invitations is de rigeur.

Imagine what our courageous forebears -- who dreamed up America and brought it into being -- would think of what we've made of their gift!

Some Evidence....

This arrived in my inbox this morning from Digby, Howie, and John of Blue America.  Yes, it's an ad, but it's true:

A lot of people are trying to say that all politicians are the same, that your vote doesn't matter. Well, let's look at the evidence. In the last month, here are some headlines about politicians.

"Democrat Alan Grayson Calls for Foreclosure Moratorium"

"Democrat Ohio Secretary of State Attacks Foreclosure Fraud"

"President Obama Pocket Vetos Pro-Bank Bill That Would Increase Foreclosures"

"Democrat Harry Reid Calls for Foreclosure Moratorium"

"Democrat Nancy Pelosi Calls for Investigations of Foreclosure Fraud"

"Democrat Ohio Attorney General Attacks Foreclosure Fraud, Sues GMAC"

"Democrat Illinois Attorney General Asks for Foreclosure Halt in Illinois"

"Democrat Maxine Waters Calls for a Foreclosure Freeze"

"Democrats Alan Grayson, Barney Frank, and Corrine Brown Call for Fannie to Stop Working with Foreclosure 'Mills' Being Investigated for Fraud"

"Democrat Earl Blumenaur Asks for a Foreclosure Freeze in Oregon"

"Democrat Jeff Merkley Calls for a Special Investigator for Foreclosure Fraud"

" Democrats Luis Gutierrez and Dennis Moore Call for Investigations of Bailout Recipients Engaging in Foreclosure Fraud"

"Democrat Attorney General in California Asks for Foreclosure Halt"

"Democrat Attorney General in Massachusetts Asks for Foreclosure Halt"

Notice a pattern here? If not, let me give you another hint.

"Republican Richard Shelby Tries to Weaken Rules, Kicks Regulators"

And people wonder why banks and corporations are spending $5 billion on this election, nearly all of that for Republicans.

 For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would vote Republican.  The old, honorable Republican party--the one my father voted for--is dead.  

In Case You Didn't See This....

The following is a comment by a reader of Bob Herbert's column in today's NYT, "That Sinking Feeling."  Thanks to the comment's author for pointing out the obvious: we're acting like a bunch of sheep!

That Sinking Feeling…

James Madison long ago questioned if we were utterly without civic virtue? “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea.” If it is so, then we are truly wretched.

Former British Labour MP Tony Benn clearly elucidated how the majority of Americans, whose interests are so grossly being underserved, and because they have lost their political will, have forgotten what it means to have a truly representative government:

"Because people in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don't vote.... If the poor...in the United States turned out and voted for people who represented their interests it would be a democratic revolution. So they don't want it to happen. So keeping people hopeless and pessimistic.... See I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all, frighten people. And secondly, demoralize them. An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern, and I think there's an element in the thinking of some people- we don't want people to be educated, healthy and confident because they would get out of control. The top 1 percent of the world's population owns 80 percent of the world's wealth. It's incredible that people put up with it, but they're poor, they're demoralized, they're frightened and they think perhaps the safest thing to do is take orders and hope for the best."

“However the elections turn out, the Obama administration needs to begin focusing much more intently on the economic plight of ordinary Americans.” I wouldn’t count on that Mr. Herbert. They are complicit tools of the corporate oligarchy, the one percent, who now control this country.

What do you suppose it will be like when voters realize that, because defense and national security, as vital parts of our “debt-and-credit industrial complex,” are exempt from deficit budget issues, Social Security, Medicare, and other social protections are being tossed over the side, and they find themselves unable to stay above water, after the elections?

France’s transport ministry last week issued an advisory that a fuel shortage at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris required airlines to arrive with enough fuel to get home, as hundreds of thousands took part in another national protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's bill to raise the retirement age. This week the protests are escalating, adding to widespread travel disruption, alarm about petrol supplies and the closure of schools. One has to admire the French. Unlike us, they don’t let their economic and political masters run rough shod over them without a huge protest.

What is needed is what our political and economic masters fear the most, an educated, healthy, confident nation willing to initiate large and clamorous protests, like the French, willing to deny all support to these corporate toadies. If the majority of Americans simply acted out of self-interest and voted only for people who represented their interests, it would be a democratic revolution.

Are we so utterly without civic virtue? If so, then we are truly wretched.

Why Have We Forgotten?

Today's TruthOut has this by William Rivers Pitt:
Please read the whole article (click the link above)

After an era of Republican rule that saw vast economic collapse, the abrogation of basic rights, the trashing of Constitutional law, two decade-long wars that still have no end in sight, a catastrophic terrorist attack that could have been prevented, the virtual annihilation of a major American city that could have been prevented, and the theft and waste of trillions of dollars, every available poll appears to indicate that the American people have already forgotten all about it, and are perfectly ready to let the wolves back inside the fence.

 ....

Dear Elected Officials: Go to Hell

And while you're on the way, please DO NOT ask us for any further contributions to your election or re-election campaigns. Do not inundate us with phone calls, emails, and letters asking for money.

You could not find it in your hearts/minds/whatever to give a Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) to America's senior citizens and disabled persons for the past two years (since 2008), and now, buried in deep in the back pages of the newspapers yesterday was the news that you will not give them a COLA increase for the NEXT TWO YEARS--until 2012. 

Please....just go to hell.  Whether you are members of the Democratic party, the Republican party, the Green party, the Tea Party, or an "Independent" (Joe Lieberman, this especially means you); or whether you're a Senator, a member of the House of Representatives, or a senior member of the Administration (Yes, Barack, that means YOU--practically the first words out of your mouth after we busted our butts to get you elected were "No COLA increases for SS recipients until 2011"), we've had it.  You can watch your own ships sink without any help from us.

And btw, Barack, Nancy, John Kerry, Al Franken, et al., (I won't even mention the Repuglicans, since they'll kill it this time, too, just as they did the last one of these somebody proposed) I see you're going to "try" to get Congress to pass a bill to give us a "bonus" of $250 "soon" (i.e., after the November elections).  Be still my beating heart....or should I tell myself "Don't hold your breath"?  Just think!  A whole two hundred and fifty dollars!!!  It's too bad it's not 1959.  Back then, that was a whole month's salary (upon which I paid Social Security taxes).

The person in charge of Social Security COLA says prices haven't gone up enough to merit an increase for the country's senior citizens and disabled.  What planet does he live on?  Prices have been going up steadily ever since Barack got into office--but I guess he hasn't noticed.  Only the poor people notice when milk costs $4 for a half-gallon or a can of plain old beans costs a buck.

How's your brain holding up after the long weekend??

xkcd.com has a great MAP of online communities

If you don't know what webcomix are (is?)....xkcd.com is the place to go....

Use the zoom on your computer to read the tiny writing....so funny! 

Conversational Arts 101

Apparently, after nearly 50 years of being deaf, I've lost--or forgotten--the art of conversation. I'll be walking along with a friend, and she'll ask me, "Did you hear what I just said?" As we've been chatting, I'll have been keeping an eye on the path so as not to trip over the myriad cracks and uneven bricks sprinkled so generously throughout the fair City of Satan. And people who have known me for a while are well trained to think that if I am not looking right at them, I'm not hearing them. But I can hear pretty well now if I've got the implant's settings right, and I don't need to do that as much now. If they don't say something that I think requires a response (like ask a question), I don't feel the need to interrupt their narrative after every sentence. I dunno...jeez...sometimes I just like to listen to them talk. Dear Sally suggested, when I asked her about it this weekend, that I give some kind of audible clue back...like a grunt or something: "Uh huh, uh huh" (or, as they say it in Iowa, "MmMMH MmMMH"--faster and with the accent on the second syllable).

I'll try it. For years I've gotten my notions of conversation from books, and it's not the same as what people do when they actually TALK. It takes a long time to get the hang of acting like someone who can hear.

How to raise awareness of the coming perfect storm....

It's not exactly a secret any more, but Robert Reich nails it in this column in today's Huffington Post. We're heading for a perfect storm, and we need to DO SOMETHING. (Emphasis mine)

Right now we're headed for a perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top, a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy, and a public in the aftershock of the Great Recession becoming increasingly angry and cynical about government. The three are obviously related.

We must act. We need a movement to take back our democracy. (If tea partiers were true to their principles, they'd join it.) As Martin Luther King once said, the greatest tragedy is "not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

What can you do?

1. Read Justice Steven's dissent in the Citizens United case, so you're fully informed about the majority's pernicious illogic.

2. Use every opportunity to speak out against this decision, and embarrass and condemn the right-wing Justices who supported it.

3. In this and subsequent elections, back candidates for congress and president who vow to put Justices on the Court who will reverse it.

4. Demand that the IRS enforce the law and pull the plug on Karl Rove and other sham nonprofits.

5. If you have a Republican senator, insist that he or she support the Disclose Act. If they won't, campaign against them.

6. Support public financing of elections.

7. Join an organization like Common Cause, that's committed to doing all this and getting big money out of politics. (Personal note: I'm so outraged at what's happening that I just became chairman of Common Cause.)

8. Send this post to your friends (including any tea partiers you may know).

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

[XE here: for your convenience, if you want more information about Common Cause or how to join, Common Cause's weblink has a tab at the upper right "Join Common Cause."


Justice Stevens' Dissent, complete text

The Sky Is Falling!!

Ever feel like everything's gonna wind up in a heap?



God bless the Golden Girls! Only one left now....but how wonderful they were!!

Yes, you can save $$ and eat like rich folks....

One of my favorite blogs is The Foodinista. You can't help but realize, however, when you read it that each of Foodinista's posts is NOT a download from White Trash Cooking. For example, today's recipe is baked potato chips with horseradish sour cream dip for all those legal secretaries, UCLA adjuncts, and entertainment industry execs in her area to take to the office for lunch.

No matter. I am here to tell you that these fancy food blogs I visit so often give me wonderful ideas for cooking my own grub. TF uses bagged chips for her recipe, but she's in another SES altogether. In these parts, a bag of first-class baked potato chips costs about $3.99 (doesn't everything). So....cheaper to just buy the effing potatoes yourself and do your own cooking. Not every potato has to be boiled and mashed! So this time, I'll use the idea of slicing the potatoes really thin, oiling and seasoning the slices, spreading them one layer thick on a 9x13 baking sheet, and baking them in a fairly hot oven (375? 425?) for 20 mins/half an hour or so until they get golden/brownish. And then eating them with horseradish-sour cream dip. (Easy enough: Just add bottled horseradish sauce to sour cream. Foodinista has the recipe on her blog.)

Boy, that sounds soooo good!! And mildly healthy, too. I'll have to go out and get a few more potatoes at the farmers market in Rose Park tmw afternoon--if it's nice--otherwise, I'll go to Yes! Gourmet grocery. Maybe I'll try this with SWEET potatoes, too, but I dunno. I'm not a big fan of sweet potato fries. I like sweet potatoes baked and served with a nice big knob of butter on top!!

Thanks, Crabby!

TGB's Crabby Old Lady said it all for me recently. (And thanks to Cowtown Pattie for the nudge bringing it to our attention.)

Here's some highlights:

To...politicians and candidates who want to replace them: stop telling the country that rich people's tax cuts create jobs. It is a lie. They've had those tax cuts for eight years and look where it got us – millions of permanently lost jobs and 10 percent “official” unemployment that is actually much higher.

Or this...(Speaking of cable companies, how does YOUR elected rep stand on the bill to allow Comcast to buy MSNBC?? There's talk of Comcast cleaning house at MSNBC if our beloved gov't allows the deal--like, no more Rachel Maddow? Get on the horn and call your rep...tell her/him to say NO to this latest maneuver for media consolidation.)

To cable news media: stop filling 90 percent of your air time with fact-free talking heads flapping their gums in total ignorance of everything. Crabby Old Lady has never learned one useful thing from them. Pay some trained reporters, instead, to do some real journalism. A whole lot of them are out of work and they'll do the job for less money than your “star” bloviators.

And so it goes....Read Crabby's post in full. It's no fun to be crying "Doom!" all the time, but somebody's got to do it. Crabby does it better than most.

When will we learn?

If this doesn't bother you because you are not gay, think again



Martin Niemoller had it right:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

We can do THIS right now....

RealAge has a great video in Tips for the Day this a.m.: Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home!



Claude walks at home with this, I think--or something similar--in addition to her inimitable photographic prowls through her neighborhood in Paris.  I love walking in Paris...and I love walking little Fiona through my neighborhood.  But this seems like a good workout to do right here and right now.  I just need to get
up and stop lying here admiring Sansone's energy.  It's morning in Maryland...time to hit it!

Sunday Music: Tunde Jegede and Sona (Maya) Jobarteh

Video clip:  Tunde Jegede and Maya Jobarteh perform in Limerick, Ireland, in St. Mary's Cathedral.

Jegede is an internationally known multi-instrumentalist and composer who specializes in the West African harp-lute instrument called the kora.  Jobarteh is the first female kora player in her famous kora-playing West African family.  She began studying the kora at age 3 and gave her first performance at the London Jazz Cafe at age 4.  She also plays the cello, the piano, and the guitar.

Tonight I decided to find more songs to share.  I came upon this you-tube by accident, but I love their music. 

Hey! It's Saturday Night!!

Forget the bike riding....Here's the Queen of Ever:



She of course keeps that classy chassis on the Serial Skool Lunchbox Diet: Monday--a slice of bread; Tuesday, a slice of cheese; Wednesday, all the lettuce she wants; Thursday, ditto fresh tomato slices; Friday, another slice of bread; Saturday, an apple, and Sunday, a cookie & a glass of skim milk!

Fun, Sore Buns for Saturday...

If you can stand to ride your bike around DC in traffic for either 60 miles (the 50 States ride) or 15 miles (the 13 Colonies ride), haul yourself to Kaloramo Park tmw morning.  This good news is from Prince of Petworth's 5 PM Post today:

The 5pm Post – WABA 50 States and 13 Colonies Ride this Saturday

23 September 2010 5:00 PM | By Prince Of Petworth in Bike

Photo by PoPville flickr user JRoseC
“Saturday, September 25- The legendary 50 States and 13 Colonies Ride is back in 2010. Are you ready to try one of the hardest rides in DC? We provide the Start/Finish area and 3 pit stops fully stocked with water, food, and a bike mechanic.
The most unique and challenging bike ride in DC! This 60+ mile ride is for cyclists experienced and comfortable with riding through the city streets with traffic. The 50 States ride covers all 50 state streets in all 8 Wards in search of the District of Columbia’s statehood. Often been referred to as “brutal,” “insane,” and “engrossing.” You have not seen the city of Washington by bike until you have done the 50 States Ride.
*Cue sheets will be available the day of the ride. Because some of the cues may change last minute due to construction projects and road closures, WABA will not provide cue sheets in advance.

13 Colonies

Not quite as challenging as the 50 States Ride, but equally as enjoyable. Ride on all the streets named for every one of the 13 original colonies. This ride is a little under 15 miles and is also for cyclists who are comfortable with riding on city streets with traffic.
*Cue sheets will be available the day of the ride
Register Now>>
Continues after the jump.

Ride Check-In & Start:

Kalorama Park
1875 Columbia Road NW, WDC
8:00 am – Ride Check-In
8:30 am – 50 States Ride Begins
9:00 am – 13 Colonies Ride Begins

Getting There:

Kalorama Park is conveniently located to the Adams Morgan/Woodley Park Metro Station on the Red Line. If you are driving, limited street parking is available.

Lunch:

Those who choose the California Tortilla burrito lunch option will receive their food at the Capitol Hill Pit stop no earlier than 11:30AM.

Post-ride Happy Hour:

To celebrate your hard pedaling, come on over to The Grill from Ipanema for a post-ride happy  hour! Located right across the street from the finish area at Kalorama Park, there will be bike parking out front, a delicious brunch offered until 4pm and a full menu after that, and 1/2 price beers and $1 off drinks and appetizers for riders! Check out the brunch menu here>>

Thanks for your support of WABA and cycling in the DC area!”

Down the Rabbit Hole

When I was younger, hardly anyone I knew died.  All but one of my grandparents were dead long before my birth.  But people I knew died only once every two or three years if that often. As I got older, more of them moved away, especially to Florida and Arizona, and then died.  But lately, those who leave permanently are getting more numerous.  Every year at the Oscar ceremony, the Academy says goodbye to the actors and directors we've become not only familiar with but grown to love. And for every one of them who passes, there's more people I know personally.

I've been thinking of this more often now because of Martha.  Martha has been one of my best friends ever.  And she's leaving us.  Karen, one of her other friends, says, "I think I intuited this was happening to her maybe 4-5 years ago because of the nature of our calls, then their thinning out, then ceasing completely, and the cease of e-mails."  I know what she mean about Martha's "disappearance" oh so gradually. 

Martha as we knew her--with her vibrant, brilliant, beautiful, and mischievous spirit, the strong, creative teacher, artist, mother, and grandmother who loved to cook so much they tore out half their downstairs to create a huge kitchen with a professional range, who taught her beloved Ruby to play the recorder, the piano, and the violin--has left the stage. Still, she began with so much more than just about anyone else I know on the planet, so even her diminishing leaves her ahead of most of us. She informed me in a recent out-of-the-blue phone call that she has a full-time job, though unpaid, helping out where she lives--she has moved to a nursing home specializing in persons with brain injuries (including dementia and related ailments).  She's still reaching out to people, still teaching--calligraphy!--helping fill her fellow residents' days with accomplishment.  Still, we weep, even though she's not dead.  

My own much more unprepossessing life is going down the rabbit hole, too.  My days are very different now from what they were.  By choice.  I'm thinking more, rereading my beloved books more, remembering the past more even as I forget just about any odd piece of recent information on any given day. Swimming has become less of an athletic chore and more of the joyous splashing and paddling I did at Lake Sallie. Walking has become something I do to save money as well as my arteries.  It's all good.

In Case You're in the Neighborhood on Wednesday....

Prince of Petworth made this announcement on The 5 PM Post today:

“On Wednesday, September 22, from 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Sierra Club presents Ian Woodall, a world famous mountain climber, who will speak on his life changing climbs to the top of Mount Everest in his talk entitled “The Tao of Everest.” His presentation will be held at Harriet’s Restaurant, 436 11th Street NW (near Metro Center and Archives stas.).

Between 1996 and 2007, Ian conceived, planned and led five expeditions to Mount Everest, reaching the summit on two occasions but also experiencing the death of fellow climbers along the way. He explores what these experiences mean to him in a presentation he calls the Tao of Everest.”

 DC has lots of things like this, but they're too late at night for me.  I can check out Harriet's Restaurant, though.  Never heard of or saw that before!   And check the link to the Tao of Everest!

TGIF!! Obama appoints Warren!!!

 OK, This arrived in my inbox today:

Top Five Things You Should Know About Elizabeth Warren

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was her idea. Here's why she thinks this agency is so critical: "It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance your home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting your family out on the street."¹
2. The Republicans are so scared of her, they tried to pass a law blocking her from leading the agency. Republicans in Congress and the big Wall Street banks have always been against Warren leading the new consumer agency. Republicans even offered an amendment that was widely understood as designed to block Warren. That amendment failed.²
3. She is one of the most prominent, successful and fierce female lawyers in America. Coming from working-class roots, she graduated from high school as a debate star at 16. She finished law school when she was nine months pregnant. And she has repeatedly been named one of the fifty most influential female lawyers by the National Law Journal and was twice nominated as one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People (among other honors).³
4. She spoke truth to power about the failed foreclosure program. The Home Affordability Modification Program was supposed to save homeowners from losing their homes but has left many deeper in debt than they were before. Warren used her position on the Congressional Oversight panel to bring the voices of these disaffected homeowners right to the decision makers in the administration and demand accountability.⁴
5. She may have actual superpowers. She once calmed the entire crowd of an NBA game with her encyclopedic basketball knowledge. She explained the financial meltdown so clearly to Jon Stewart he said it made him "want to make out with" her.

Re: item #3, Warren is CLEARLY the anti-P----!  Warren was a debate star at 16, finished law school when she was 9 mos. pregnant. Take that, O ditz from Homer!

(if you click "This" in my first sentence, you'll get the references for all the footnotes and possibly a video of Jon Stewart interviewing Ms. Warren.)  I dunno...the networks have been slower than molasses in January for the past 3 or so days....

Have a swell weekend!

Happy Monday....the Gals in their 80s have it today!

Margaret & Helen have a great post on, ostensibly, the Q'uran burning guy, but more to the point, what it means if you vote Republican (sorry, dear sweet rellies. Just because we share phylogeny doesn't mean we share ontogeny).

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

A choice quote from this post:

...considering what they [Republicans] did when we gave them the keys to the car the last time, are you really ready to put them behind the wheel again so soon?  I’m just not sure there are that many more countries we can bomb, world religions we can vilify, and oil wells we can drill before the rest of the world calls us on our bullshit.

Here’s a thought.  If  Pastor Jones is so dead set on burning a book he should just wait until The George Bush Memoirs come out. 

Ah, Grandchildren....how they teach and teach us....

I'm borrowing my grandson Ian's FB post today.  He says:

"You can build the mosque, just not THERE." 

"You can sit on the bus, just
not THERE." 

"You can get married, just not to that person right THERE." 

"You can have a baby, just not There"

That's making it plain and easy for the Teabaggin' geniuses.....

 Thanks, Ian

Those Were The Days, Indeed

Darlene's post on Facebook this morning said "Frank Rich Says It All for Me." So I hopped to the NYT and read his column.  But whoa!  When I clicked the little FB symbol to post this on my FB page, I was greeted with the following request to allow the New York Times to:

Access my basic information Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I've shared with everyone. Send me email The New York Times may email me directly at XXXXXXX · Post to my Wall The New York Times may post status messages, notes, photos, and videos to my Wall Access posts in my News Feed Access my data any time The New York Times may access my data when I'm not using the application Access my friend lists Access my profile information Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes, About Me, Interests, Groups, Birthday, Education History and Work History Access my contact information Hometown, Current City and Website

FB wants me to give access to all of this PRIVATE information to the NYT in exchange for reprinting a column I like?   Um, no thanks!  


This is new.  I haven't got this particular page before when I linked to a NYT article on my FB page.  No more spontaneous attemps to promote Times columns (precious few, btw) that make sense to me.  Those days are over. 

How about some haunting music for the background?

"Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. We'd sing and dance forever and a day....lalalalalala......"  Mary Hopkins made this song popular in my relative youth, but before that it was a Russian folk song.  Remember?

Always worthwhile to stop by Echidne on Saturday night!!!

Here's her latest post, and a wonderful one it is!!  (If you're too tired to click the link, here it is in plain sight:

Ten Things Barack Obama Could Do To Save His Floundering Presidency [Anthony McCarthy] 

1. Fire Rahm Emanuel 2. Fire Tim Geithner 3. Fire Larry Summers 4. Fire Robert Gibbs 5. Fire David Axelrod 6. Appoint Elizabeth Warren, for crying out loud 7. Fire Alan Simpson 8. Give the House members something they can run on. 9. Stop giving your base the finger. We gave you a bigger mandate than any of your recent predecessors had. WE are the ones you owe, not the cast of clowns listed above. 10. Act like a president, for crying out loud. If you're just going to send out Gibbs to pretend you're powerless, If you're going to keep this up, step aside and let someone else try.  I second all of these motions!!!

70F and TGIF!

It's so not hot I can't sleep.  That may be the result of imbibing so much diet cola this aft, but it is pleasant in here for a change. Yes, we do have air conditioning, but this is good ol' Washing DC, which has been very hot for a while.

Here's a good one: Hungover Owls

Found it on Wrath of Dawn.

TGIF, folks!

Love Ya, Margaret & Helen!

If you haven't read Margaret & Helen's blog, you're in some kind of a cave.  Here's their post for today
about the past weekend's peckerwood picnic in DC. 

And whoa!  they seem to have got an accurate count for that, finally:  less than 100,000!  Here's my favorite part:

The greatest threat against America is not terrorism.  It’s not a mosque in Manhattan.  It’s not gay marriage.  It’s not healthcare reform.  And, believe it or not, it’s not even Beck or Palin.  The greatest threat against America are the tens of millions of Americans who won’t turn out to vote this November effectively giving power to 87,000 angry assholes.

Prayer in School

When I was in elementary school, I went to a public school for five years and a parochial school for three.  The reason given by my Roman Catholic parents for sending me to public school was that for the first two years, I was too small to walk a mile from my house to the parochial school. The parochial school had a bus, but if your house was less than a mile from school, you couldn't ride it.  Our house was half a block from the cutoff point. Thus. when I was a skinny five-year-old, I just beat the January cut-off, when you had to be six or start the next year, and started first grade at the public school, which was a block and a half away from our house. During the summer after second grade, when I was seven, I came down with polio and had to miss the first month or two of third grade.  The public school said I wouldn't have to repeat third grade, despite having missed a good chunk of it, so I went there for fourth grade, too.  In all that time, the parochial kept its ban on short-distance bus rides, and the weather in North Dakota did not warm up.

I'm saying all this because I think I can speak from experience about prayer in school.  My public school classmates--and neighbors--were mostly Lutherans of various stripes, some stricter than others, with Presbyterians and Methodists, at least some Plymouth Congregationalists, and one Jewish boy escaped from Germany tossed into the mix.  I can vouch for their collective piety, although it was not the same as my own.  Every morning in the public school we all stood up and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  Period.  No prayers.

Then I went to the parochial school for fifth grade and enjoyed the long "short cuts" my beautiful classmate Judy and I devised--through alleys, over fences--twice a day (we walked home for lunch, too, unless it was more than -15F).  We arrived at school, shed our boots and jackets in the cloak room, then stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the Guardian Angel prayer: "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's Love entrusts me here. Ever this day, be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide."  Period.  Even in the religious parochial school, we had the bare minimum of civic and religious piety.  It's not as if we spent an hour in prayer or anything, and it's not as if we knelt down, bowed our heads, or sang hymns, either.  The Guardian Angel prayer, to us kids anyway, was more like a rabbit's foot--something to have with you just in case.

As far as behavior being different in the two places--one with added prayer, one without--I can say with great assurance that the place WITHOUT the prayer was somehow better: less nasty, more fun, more open to whatever it is that makes one's small life worth singing about--good teachers, sensible curriculum (in the parochial school, all of our academic grades--say, for five classes--were divided by SIX:  the sixth being attendance at daily mass and communion.  go figger.)  I dunno.  I just think that those people who pine for the good old days when our young minds and hearts were blessed by religion are chasing an effing MYTH.  The pubs were no better or worse than the Cat-lickers.  The kindest and best teachers I had were both Protestant and Catholic.  There was no preponderance of beatitude on either front. 


   

"Stand Up and Let Them Have It."

Dedicated to LRH in gratitude for her call to use the anger....

Cathy gave me a book several Christmases ago:  Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Poetry As Insurgent Art.  It's propped on the tray of my easel, which I keep in the bathroom for lack of any other space, and I read it from time to time.  Yesterday seemed a good time to re-read it.

There was lots of hatred in DC yesterday, lots of anger, but none of it was in the black people with whom I spoke.  They were friendly and loving as always, despite the fact that some of the streets were full of angry, angry white people who were pissed off about almost everything--the heat, the metro, the non-white people everywhere they looked.  The place was a mini-tinder box--people howled if the metro doors slammed shut on them [well, they do...this is not the NYC subway...only the uninitiated try to prevent DC metro doors from closing]; they got on the wrong train and shoved other passengers aside roughly to get off.

I've said since arriving here from the MidWest almost 20 years ago, that the best thing about Washington is not the beautiful architecture or gardens or museums or rich cultural offerings, but the black people.  Oh, sure...knuckleheads abound in all races, but the black people in DC have something special:  they love each other, and many of them share deep roots with our nation's capitol. Their grandfathers grew up on K Street in small frame houses now replaced by granite buildings housing big law and PR firms, or their grandmothers grew up just southeast of Union Station where the slave pens used to be. They have a special sense of family that is simply awesome to me, coming from people who came through Ellis Island and think nothing of putting huge distances between themselves and other family members.  My DC coworkers would come to work on Monday and laugh when describing their weekends: "I had 18 people sleeping in my apartment Friday and Saturday night.  It was my cousin's birthday, and everyone came here for his party."  One of my coworkers memorably bought herself a motor home and parked it in her driveway when her kids became teenagers; she moved into it and turned over the house to the children.  "They are loud and happy and drive me nuts," she said,  "and I need my peace."  Her bumper sticker says "Too Blessed To Be Stressed."

DC is the only place I've lived where--especially in the "bad areas" warned against by the teabaggers this past weekend--young and old get up and give their seat on the bus to a pregnant woman or young mother struggling with a baby in arms or a crippled guy or a woman laden with grocery bags or just an old(er) person.  These are sweet people, through and through.  One of the best things about being able to hear again is to hear the people chatting and laughing on the bus home from work on Friday night.  They all know each other in the "bad areas," (where I guess I live, too) and they love each other.

I'm afraid I don't love the Faux News stooges who headlined this past weekend's non-event at the Lincoln Memorial.  That bothers me.  I feel so angry with them that I entertain many ugly thoughts about them and what I hope will be their fate.  I haven't found a good use for my anger yet.  But I have discovered the smile.  So I smiled this past weekend at my fellow passengers on the metro.  Only the black ones smiled back.  They especially appreciated my Michelle Obama t-shirt "Yes, We Can!!"
I think that's what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was trying to tell us: Love is stronger than even death.

Ferlinghetti has some great lines in his book on poetry, and they fit the present situation in DC and the USA in general:

I am signaling you through the flames.

          The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for
poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works
capable of answering the challenge
of apocalyptic times, even if this
means sounding apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you
are Mark Twain, you are Emily
Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent
Millay, you are Neruda and Maya-
kovsky and Pasolini, you are an
American or non-American, you can
conquer the conquerors with words.
. . .
If you call yourself a poet, don't just
sit there. Poetry is not a sedentary
occupation, not a "take your seat"
practice.  Stand up and let them
have it.

DC Cake Trail

One of my favorite blogs is Scotland for the Senses, and today's post (well, I think it's today, but the author talks about going on hiatus, so maybe it was written earlier) is on her Edinburgh cake trail!  What a great idea!  Like most great ideas, they are somebody else's, but who cares?  I'm happy to reveal the sources of my genius so other can enjoy it, too.

It occurs to me that blogging about a DC cake trail would be something I could do--go somewhere and have a cup of tea and a piece of cake.  That's not too hard or expensive to do.  In fact, I already have a couple of entries on my DC cake trail--even though two of them are not in DC per se.  They're more in the greater DC metropolitan area. I'll make sure to take pictures after this first post, too.

#1 is the carrot cake at Joe Muggs's Coffee, which is inside Books-A-Million on Dupont Circle, where New Hampshire Ave heads off toward Maryland.  Really, there are a gazillion places to get carrot cake in DC, but this is really good!  It's moist and tender, and even the carrot bits are bright and fresh.  Also, there is just enough of their dreamy cream cheese frosting.  A+, Joe Muggs!! 

#2 is the Citrus Pound Cake at Mon Ami Gabi in Bethesda, 7239 Woodmont Ave.  (And yes, Cathy, there IS a Mon Ami Gabi in Las Vegas!!)  Because my faithful luncheon companion and I always share one dessert, I'm happy to say that this is one big slab of tender pound cake splashed with lemon curd, fresh fruits in a vanilla sage sauce, and plenty of whipped cream!  Verra good.  Leave room for dessert if you want this.  I'm not kidding.

#3 is the sweet potato cupcake at Delectable Cakery by the south side of the traffic circle on Rhode Island Avenue and 34th St. in Mt. Rainier, MD.  (Disclaimer: this happens to be right next to my landlady's frame shop, so I've had lots of them--still, their appeal never dies.)  It's a little sweetie darling of a cupcake. A great way to get your veggies, too.

 I spotted what looked like a great piece of cake in Georgetown's La Ruche this afternoon, too, although I eschewed dessert so I could get to the previews before "Eat, Pray, Love" started.  I'll go back and see if it's any good.  Nothing like proper research!!!

I have a dream--full version

Today, the (pick one) Teabaggers/pseudo patriots/whiners about government/the shockingly ignorant and disrespectful will be claiming to "restore honor" to (pick one) the National Mall/the Lincoln Memorial/white trash everywhere in this US of A.  This is shocking hubris from who else? Faux News and its house puppets.

If you're not inclined to add to the crowd count, you can stay home and honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke it on this day many years ago, by listening to his speech.

XE thanks Charles Blow in today's NY Times for this great idea.  Blow writes,

I’ve come to the conclusion that anger is the wrong reaction to Beck’s rally in Washington. Anger provides too low a return on investment. It consumes a tremendous amount of energy, but yields little progress. Instead, we should each take this opportunity to listen to the “I Have a Dream” speech once more, paying particular attention to how the echoes of yesterday’s struggles reverberate in our present struggles, and to recommit ourselves to the nobility of righteous pursuits.

We should use Glenn’s nightmare to reconnect with Martin’s dream.

[If the above link doesn't work, here's the video:

 

TGIF

Got the latest update on Best in Blogs from SixApart this ayem.   And while snooping around, I found this gem on Foodinista (one of the top 10 food blogs of the Best in Blogs):

http://thefoodinista.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/preschool-packed-lunch-week-in-review

This may be too late for you, or maybe you have found it....but these are the BEST preschool lunches
I've ever seen!!  in fact, I think this would make fabulous DIET lunches for fat old folks like me!! 

TGIF!!

We don't want THESE Leaves of Grass!!

This past weekend, I got this email from a fellow Mt. Rainier resident in the town website:

[On Sunday] I will be up at Little Paint Branch Park to work on clearing a patch of two aggressive invasive plants that are threatening the wonderful native woodlands plants that live there, and I'm inviting people to join me. The two plants (wavyleaf basketgrass and Japanese stilt grass) are very easy to remove, and it only takes a few minutes to learn to identify them.

I googled around and found this about wavyleaf basketgrass in the blog Invasive Notes

An invasive species is spreading from the Baltimore area of Maryland south to Washington and west to the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Like a fire in the forest, wavyleaf basketgrass (Oplismenus hirtellus subsp. undulatifolius (Ard.) U. Scholz, Phanerog. Monogr.) [1] is spreading rapidly and replacing the natural diversity with its mono-culture habit of eco-system and eco-service destruction. This grass, which remains taxonomically confused and, therefore, not precisely identified or categorized, is spreading in public parks and on private lands in the Baltimore Washington Metropolitan area.

The other invasive species, Japanese Stilt Grass, is featured here.

Japanese stilt grass is currently established in 16 eastern states, from New York to Florida. It occurs on stream banks, river bluffs, floodplains, emergent and forested wetlands, moist woodlands, early successional fields, uplands, thickets, roadside ditches, gas and power-line corridors, lawns and gardens. Japanese stilt grass threatens native understory vegetation in full sun to deep shade. Stilt grass readily invades disturbed shaded areas, like floodplains that are prone to natural scouring, and areas subject to mowing, tilling and other soil-disturbing activities including white-tailed deer traffic. It spreads opportunistically following disturbance to form dense patches, displacing native wetland and forest vegetation as the patch expands. Japanese stilt grass appears to be associated with moist, acidic to neutral soils that are high in nitrogen.

 I took these two photos of stilt grass; the bottom photo shows the shiny midrib on its leaf.

 The leaf of stilt grass has a distinguishing shiny midrib so you can tell it from other plants.  It looks sort of like very delicate bamboo. They're easy to pull up, and we want to get them now before they start flowering and producing seeds next month.  (One of the distinguishing characteristics of stilt grass is that it is very easy to pull up.  If you have to tug or feel a wiry stem, it may not be stilt grass.)

Alas, I didn't take any photos of the wavyleaf basketgrass.  (You can see these in the link to Invasive Notes above.) The leaves, as described, are, well, way...kind of rumpled and thicker than the stilt grass and also a bit hairy or fuzzy on the top.  Some of that has started the flowering/seed process already.  I found almost a dozen plants with seeds on them, and they require careful handling so as not to knock off the seeds.  We put them in bags, but I don't know what our leader/guide will do with them.  All the plants with seeds were growing under fallen branches resting about 6-8" above the ground.  The basketgrass also sends out shoots from nodules along the stems, so it does produce a mat fast. The long shoots make it harder to pull up, too.
 
Even though my college degree is in biology, it was all human biology or microbiology--no plants.  So I'm enjoying this tremendously.  I think I may have found a good volunteer niche. 

We were going to go yesterday (Sunday) but got rained out.  Today was dry, sunny, and cooler...perfect for pulling weeds in the forest.

Happy 90th Birthday, Dear Lida!!!

Lida Moser and her family know how to throw a swell party!  Lida joyfully greeted her many guests for her 90th birthday fete this afternoon.  Lida's birthday was really this past Tuesday, but as she said, "Nobody can come to a party in the middle of the week," so we all gathered today instead.  Lida's cousin Stephanie set it all up at Lida's favorite Greek restaurant, and it was a blast.

There's nobody at all like Lida: acclaimed photographer, artist, and writer; warm, affectionate, loyal friend; generous companion; lover of all that's beautiful and good. Lida says she loves being old. She says this stage of her life has been wonderful and full of grace.  It hasn't been easy, but she's fought off illness and injury with her characteristic vigor and persistence.  

Happy birthday, Lida!  I'm so lucky to be your friend. 

Three steps backward--and another step back, too.

1.  I am flummoxed by my cell phone camera.  Or is it the PC?  the Mac?  I can't download the photos any more.  I used to be able to email them from the camera to my laptop, but in their efforts to improve my life, HP and/or Mac have removed a step from the process--the one that puts the URL of the photo in the email and thus allows me to move it to my desktop, drop it into iPhoto and fiddle with it, and then move it back to the desktop whence I can attach it to my blog or an email.  Hmph.  It still arrives in my email, but when I go to download it, I get this program that won't let me have my way with my own photo.

2.  One of my back teeth fell apart!  Too much brushing and flossing, I say.  For years, the only thing holding my teeth together has been the plaque!

3.  I firmly believe I had the right to vote for President Obama, but after his flipflop on the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which is not exactly an accurate description), I'm not so sure about the wisdom of doing that.

4. My ongoing fitness program goes on--or sometimes--away.  Today I got to the swimming pool and was too tired to go down, get into my suit, take the shower, etc., then go find giant-size flippers and a bouyancy belt, and swim.  So I just sat in a nice comfy chair in the lobby, read my new book while a bunch of exuberant, post-swim 4-year-olds pounded on the windows overlooking the pool, and fell asleep.  Bliss.  I so needed that nap.  







 

Happy Ramadan from Guess Who?

Digby has a great post on Hullaballoo today, and here it is:

Commemorating Sanity

by digby

It's great to see President Obama stand up for religious tolerance at a time like this:

According to the teachings of Islam, Ramadan commemorates the revelation of God's word in the Holy Koran to the prophet Mohammad. The word has become the foundation for one of the world's great religions.

During Ramadan, we are reminded of Islam's long and distinguished history. Throughout the centuries, the Islamic world has been home to great centers of learning and culture. People of all faiths have benefited from the achievements of Muslims in fields from philosophy and poetry to mathematics and medicine.

This reminds us that one of the great strengths of our nation is its religious diversity. Americans practice many different faiths. But we all share a belief in the right to worship freely. We reject bigotry in all its forms.

And over the past eight years, my administration has been proud to work closely with Muslim Americans to promote justice and tolerance of all faiths.

Oh sorry. That was President Bush, well known left wing terrorist sympathizer.

Here's Obama:

Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," Obama said.

"This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable."

Considering that the majority of Republicans ignorantly believe he is a Muslim (and a large number of others are fine with tossing the First Amendment if it makes someone -- of the right persuasion --- uncomfortable) I think that's pretty bold and I'm glad to see him unequivocally stake out the sane, rational position, regardless of the polls. But it's a sad comment on this country that two years after Bush spoke those words and almost nine years after 9/11 that the president reaffirming religious tolerance is suddenly considered controversial.

Again, I ask, why now? I realize that there was always a fair amount of Muslim hatred going on after 9/11, but shrieking harpies like Pamela Gellar were in the margins and nobody felt comfortable saying that mainstream American Muslims should be shunned. Perhaps it's a coincidence, but the only thing that's happened between then and now is the election of Barack Obama, who millions of morons believe is the (secret) first Muslim president, apparently bent on turning the US into Saudi Arabia.

What the hell is happening to this place?

\

Oh, the Places You'll Go....!!!

Xtreme English welcomes The Skoog Farm Journal and its companion blog, Art Walks on Water to its pages--i.e., to the list of "Blogs I Love" on the right-hand side of home page.

These two blogs astonish me with their beauty and warmth--if it's not photographs or splendid writing and art, it's Skoog Farm Radio!

Lori Skoog, their creator, is a retired art teacher who lives with her husband and a bunch of critters on a horse and organic garlic farm (that's what it says) in western New York. 

Welcome, Lori...and thanks for sharing your riches with us.

Thoughts in the Jurassic Age.....

I've been reading Eat, Pray, Love for the past week.  It's been out for a while--five years--and Cathy lent it to me at least four years ago. She was full of enthusiasm for all sorts of things after reading it--going to an ashram, travelling to Italy--but for some strange reason, I couldn't get past the first few pages.

Last week, don't ask me why, I was looking for something to read, pulled it off the shelf, and haven't been able to put it down.  Ordinarily I'm a very fast reader--it's nothing for me to read a whole book in one day.  I don't want to go fast on this one, though.  I want to savor it and think about it and marvel at the effect her spirituality has had on her. 

I mean, spirituality! Spirituality, I'm afraid, has completely eluded me.  Starting when I was about 14 or so, I gradually became very pious (after a childhood of low-grade naughtiness, which included raiding my older brothers' supply of cigars and sharing them with my friend Joanie. I was maybe 10, and she was 8).  I started reading Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ and going to Mass every day. Then, at the age of 17, instead of going to medical school (which I'd wanted to do even before piety laid me low), I entered the convent. I lasted there for five years until I decided one day, while reading the Summa Theologica, that I did not HAVE to become a nun to save my soul. Whew.

Last night I wanted to see what Elizabeth Gilbert looked like, so I googled her website and found not only her picture, but this video recording of the talk she gave at TED last year. 

Gilbert's spirituality and how it relates to her writing is powerful stuff for me. I meditated and practiced Yoga and went to daily Mass for years, but it all came to a screeching halt when I moved to DC almost 20 years ago.  Don't ask me why.  Now I'm in the Jurassics (the 70s), and I feel as spiritual as my favorite shoes.

Still, this book, and this very young woman (good god, she's only about 40!), fascinate me. Perhaps we really do revert to our childhood when we hit the high numbers.  Is spirituality possible?  It's always bothered me that I don't feel spiritual at all. Oprah harps on spirituality all the time, and I like Oprah--she's given up the fight with her weight.  It's highly recommended for one's personal growth (gack....I can hardly write those words).

Things to do this week....UPDATE

Ole Phat Stu asked me to prioritize this list--ha.  He must have some punch line in store, so here's the status of the items.  It's not exactly the priority, but it's the order in which they've been accomplished fully, partially--or not. 
 
1. Unsubscribe from bastard Target's mailing list                      1

2. Buy a loaf of Italian rosemary bread from
         farmer's market                                                              2     

3. Cook the two remaining turkey burgers and one NY strip
         steak so they don't spoil                                                  3         

4. Mark up client review checklist to divide chores into 
          Client's&Mentor's and mine                                      ?

5. Clean the top of the stove and the area around the 
          toaster & coffee maker                                             4

6. Get serious about finding my next place to live                       ?

7. Read editor's comments on 2nd draft                                    ?       
8.Download and print BIG copy of Rook photo and
           frame it for my wall. (Spectacular picture.)                      ?

9. Clean off top of desk (easier said than done....
           pile is nearly a foot deep all over).                                   ?
10.Vacuum entire carpet in room.                                              ?          
11. Check on progress of PC repairs over at Geek Squad. 
          (Thank God Mac always works.)                                     5
12. Zzzzzz....boring, huh?

Thoughts for the day....

(Tonight's post is by AnonymousNFS)

 
We drop to 12th in rate of college grads. We close school in Hawaii on  
Fridays. In California, state workers stay home. In DC, metro  
escalators lie broken and dormant, while people climb down the stairs  
and ride in 30-year-old cars that are no longer safe. Around the  
country, teachers, firefighters, nurses and others worry about keeping  
their jobs.
 
The reason, they tell us, is money. There isn’t enough of it.
 
At the same time, a tiny few of the super rich pledge to give away  
half of their money, at least when they die. Perhaps it is in  
anticipation of this private dole that the Republicans fight to keep  
the Bush tax cuts for the super wealthy?
 
Does no one else think this is nuts?
 
We should not just restore the pre-Bush tax rates; we should restore  
taxes to the rates of the 1960s. We should open our schools, pay our  
cops, help our young people graduate, and stop an insanity that--in a  
land where free once meant equal--borders on criminal.

Streets of DC cluttered with politicians!

Crossing the street by Starbucks, who do you suppose I ran into this afternoon just before the deluge hit?  Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. They were out flacking for the Washington Nationals baseball game.  Who wouldn't want to spend a baseball game talking with these two guys??  Only problem is, the game is in *gack* Arizona today.  Maybe Abe and Teddy are staying away cuz of the immigration flap down there, but they still want to show their support for the Nats!!  Go, Nats!  Beat the crap outta Arizona!!!

Friday Visitor

My dear good friend, AnonymousNFS, graciously zapped by this evening with a letter that she sent to several news organizations:

This exclusive focus on race in the Shirley Sherrod story
exemplifies what we really can't talk about in America--which is
class. Shirley Sherrod said her realization in helping the
individual of another race was that the battle in this country is
between the "haves and have nots." How true. Except that it isn't a
battle. It is a massacre. Recent moves by a cowardly Congress that
can't even require transparency in television advertising, show
that the top 2 percent of America's wealthiest have effectively
destroyed any pretext of equality in this country that once prided
itself on a vibrant, innovative, enterprising middle class.

Well, say goodbye to all that. We can't even cover the Sherrod
story honestly, preferring to wallow again in the pain and self-
righteousness of our twisted heritage of white oppression.

Meanwhile the super rich nod thoughtfully, buy another home or
another wardrobe or two, and allow their kids to pursue again some
courses in graduate education--or party in the local bar--and get
richer.

Or, as they say in that song, "The rich get richer and the poor get children....
Ain't we got fun?" Not much!

Still, today was a gorgeous day, especially in the morning until Mother Nature remembered it was supposed to be HOT and kicked up the thermostat. And Chelsea gets married tomorrow, thanks be. May all go very well with everything.

Prom songs

Which one of these songs do you think would be the last song played on prom night, 1954?   My daughter just put a song on Facebook that recalls to her the "slow, smoochy last song played at the prom."  Well, these are slow--and I'm not sure they're zackly smoochy--but they were popular in 1954, when Shanley High School had its jr-sr. prom.  I like them all, and I remember dancing to them--just not at the prom, per se.  You pick...or if you remember a totally different song, and you're of a certain age, let me know what it was.  (Also, remember that Doris Day's song would have been played on a record--without the costumes...)

Thoughts on a Saturday Night without Effective Air Conditioning.....

Xtreme English is feeling a bit cranky tonight.  Even though the AC has been on all day, set responsibly at 78, it's around 90 in my room cuz it's so hot outside no AC can keep up with it.  Needless to say, I'm not complaining about the heat per se.  I've said many times that I'd rather be hot than cold any day.  Still true.  If you grew up where I did and in the era I did, you'd know what "cold" means.  Cold is not 40F.  It's -40F.
But I digress.  I'm cranky cuz I'm sweaty and because some loud and pushy residents of this country seem to be set on driving us all off a cliff.

I just read this on Prairie Weather (not exactly weather-related, but prairie weather is especially harsh).

Here's the last paragraph:

Now an angry group of Americans wants to be freer still—free from government agencies that protect their health, wealth, and well-being; free from problems and policies too difficult to understand; free from parties and coalitions; free from experts who think they know better than they do; free from politicians who don’t talk or look like they do (and Barack Obama certainly doesn’t). They want to say what they have to say without fear of contradiction, and then hear someone on television tell them they’re right. They don’t want the rule of the people, though that’s what they say. They want to be people without rules—and, who knows, they may succeed. This is America, where wishes come true. And where no one remembers the adage “Beware what you wish for.”...Excerpts from Mark Lilla, "The Tea Party Jacobins," NYRB

 G'night, y'alls....Remember: "The family that sweats together frets together"--that's not exactly it, but you know....Have a nice evening....

Just in case the WAPO editors don't read this, here it is again: UPDATE

After seeing the WaPo's first page this a.m. (in the actual, grubby newspaper) and feeling incensed at this print headline--"New front in racism battle: USDA official's words provide fodder to those who call Obama biased"--my dear good friend Anonymous-NFS sent the following letter to the WaPo editors:

"New Front in Racism Battle?' If I hadn't had the misfortune of watching some TV last night, I'd believe your front page story. But I was stuck with TV. And it showed Ms. Sherrod's entire speech which shows the Post--as well as the NAACP and most of America--continue to be snookered by our vitrolic Right wing, which continues to dominate our discourse with lies and hate. You owe your readers an apology.

 So when I went to look for the article in the ONLINE WaPo just now (hours later),  I found the article, all right, but it now has a new headline: "Firing of USDA official Shirley Sherrod now under review"

Don'tcha just grit your teeth over this kind of b.s.?  How long are we going to suffer the slings & arrows of the Right wing?

UPDATE:  This is my comment to Rachel Maddow on Huffington Post this evening:

Rachel, the WaPo is in there pitching along with Fox. This morning they tried to pitch the story as "providing fodder for those who call Obama biased." Now that the whole story has come out, and Vilsack has apologized to Ms. Sherrod and offered her another job with the Dept of Ag., WaPo is saying "how the White House veered off message." Anything to dump on Obama. The whole thing is disgusting. 

Barney Frank and Ron Paul on Cutting Military Spending??

NPR's OnPointRadio carried this wonderful show with Barney Frank and Ron Paul today. 

My favorite of the comments is from someone named Mark.  He says this:

We liked him. We just wouldn’t listen to him:

“We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military/industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

-Pres. Eisenhower, 1961.

Thanks, NPR, Barney, Ron, and Mark.  (Ike, too, if you're listening.....)

Pardon my French.....

I just read Paul Krugman's 4th of July column about the blankety-blank Senate going home for an undeserved, uncalled-for vacation over July 4 without extending unemployment benefits to our friends, relatives, and neighbors who have been unemployed for months in this *@!! idiot-generated Depression. 

I'm trying to think of how I can express my OUTRAGE over these motherblankers and still have this post pass muster with the language nannies.  As Krugman says, the members of the Senate have flown home (at our expense, natch--or maybe, fearing criticism for throwing our money around, they've presciently paid for it themselves this time out of their supergenerous salaries--but these also are at our expense) to go glad-handing at 4th of July picnics and parades among their constituents--many of whom seem as clueless and heartness and lost in space as their elected representatives.

Nobody, including our beloved administration, seems to have the cojones (alert--foreign language, possibly illegal alien vocabulary) to stand up and do the correct, compassionate, SENSIBLE thing and EXTEND THE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS INDEFINITELY UNTIL THE CONGRESS CAN GET THEIR CRIPE TOGETHER AND CREATE JOBS THAT WILL SUPPORT FAMILIES AND GET US ALL BACK ON OUR FEET AGAIN!!!!  Can't we start making sneakers and t-shirts and bicycles HERE IN THE USA again?  Don't we have any empty factory buildings (or whole cities--Detroit??) waiting? Can't we trash-can that stupid war and put Blackwater and Cheney's little fiefdom, Halliburton, OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF SUCKING AWAY OUR NATIONAL TREASURE????

Alas, I fear the blanket-blank, good-for-nothing, pigs-at-the-trough who call themselves U.S. Senators, Republican or Democrat, will do nothing. What more can we expect?  As I said, please pardon my French.

Sleeping Bees!

Found this wonderful blog --homeofthebudds--on my travels this a.m.  The post is "do bees sleep?"  Check out the amazing pictures.  One of the local blog readers said the bees are not asleep, they're drunk.  I dunno anything at all about bees sleeping out of the hive at night, but I really love this.  The local blogger who posted this on our town website said she finds sleeping bees in her flowers every morning!

Cities and states can't control handguns??

The SCOTUS live in wonderland, protected on all sides everywhere.  Let them move to a rough DC (and now, Chicago) neighborhood and ride the bus to work without their chauffeurs and bodyguards and retainers. Let 'em get held up at gunpoint a few times as they walk to the corner grocery. Let 'em wake up! If they're so concerned about the Constitution, how about working on separation of church and state?  


I pray that none of the poor suckers who think owning a handgun will protect themselves or their loved ones never shoot a loved one--or themselves--by accident.  The only reason to buy or own a gun like that is to kill someone.  I doubt if you're that nervous. I doubt if you really want to kill someone, so don't get a handgun.  Don't allow one in your house.  Don't hang around with people who need a handgun to feel brave.

Do yourself a favor....

read THIS!!

Gail Collins hit one out of the park today, and the comments, minus the usual nastiness from the right wingers, are wonderful.  What a great read to get us on our way today.....