Wouldn't You Like to Be a DFH, Too?

Here you go, Id, this one is for you!

Read more!

THIS I Can Relate To

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

Read more!

Action Alert

Sign, Call, Write.

Because Democratic Corporate Tools are more dangerous than Right Wing Corporate Tools.

Read more!

In Honor of Darwin-Day

The DeEvolution of Man and how it happened by KoRN.

h/t to Kiddo who emailed this to me.

Read more!

Please Don't Divorce My Friends

Watch. Read. Sign. Forward.

Bring a tissue and then funnel your outrage!

Read more!

To Hope or Not to Hope

The Progressive villagers are getting restless.

I get it. It is incredibly frustrating. I want Progressive Change and I want it now. (Stamps feet, grabs the gum and turns into a purple human blueberry…) Seriously. I am with all of you.

I, however, am not willing to throw in the towel [yet] and say that they are all the same. (All of these politicians. spppltt!)

The thing is, what makes these assholes “all the same,” is also what makes them different. Click ‘read more’ to see what I mean – or, just disagree with me based on the title…that works too.

These bastards, Left, Right and Center, all have one thing in common; they want to keep their jobs. They have also woken up to the fact that we the people are paying attention. And, we the people, can get mobilized and kick the bums out.

The last two elections are still fresh in their minds. The Right has watched their buddies be replaced by Democrats and the Democrats have watched – in awe – as the people got together and went to the polls. The Democrats also know (as do the Republicans) that the more people who vote, the more that Democrats get elected. This is just a simple, unarguable, fact, and it is also why the Pukes do everything that they can to suppress the vote.

Knowing this little tidbit, that the bastards all want to keep their jobs, is what makes them different. It is also what makes this particular period of time so amazing. What is so amazing right now, so fascinating, is that the GOP still thinks that their only problem was that they did not move far enough to the Right! This is excellent. Let them move farther…they are going to move so far to the Right that they will join the death-knell of the Wigs. Dumb asses.

While the Republican dumb asses move farther to the Right and continue to play their games, the Dems are being “cooperative” and “accommodating” and “bi-Partisan” and the public is eating that shit up. Seriously. The majority of the Country are not Partisans like we are…but they are starting to pay attention in ways that they never have before.

What Obama has done, not because he is so great or so cool or whatever, is that he has communicated in such a way that the people want to pay attention. This is not all Obama’s doing, we also have GW Bush to thank for this.
Bush fucked this country so hard and for so long that the people are all watching with keen interest; we have become a Nation of observers just like a rape victim watching the trial of her attacker – every word said, every piece of evidence presented, every witness who speaks – the people are watching and this bodes well for Democrats. The Democratic Ideas work; the Republican ideas are like being raped all over again. The people know this intuitively, even if they do not understand all of the intricacies of the plans.

Obama needs us in a way that no other President since FDR has needed the people. He needs a movement. No matter how many times that I say it, I do not feel that I can say it enough. He needs us to educate our neighbors. He needs us to call our Representatives and Senators. He needs us to write LTEs. Without us he will not be able to do this. He just won’t.

Here is a start:

Hold an economic recovery house party. Educate your friends and neighbors. Obama needs a movement and we need to give it to him. Real change will happen if the people demand it. These Representatives and Senators want to keep their jobs.

Tell your Senators to support the National Parks in the stimulus.

Call your Senators and support the stimulus package.

Demand accountability for the Bush Administration.

Stand with Al Gore and Repower America. Demand that your legislators support climate change legislation. I watched Vice President Gore’s testimony this weekend and it is terrifying. Why every single student in this Country - college and HS and Jr. High and elementary – are not required to watch this is beyond me.

Demand that family planning money be put back in the stimulus. It is so common friggin sense – offer people assistance with their health care costs and they will spend that money elsewhere in the economy. In addition, if you want to help people to be lifted out of poverty, help them to prevent pregnancies. Could people be any more stoopid?!

Remove Republican tax cuts from the stimulus; they do not do shit to help the economy. We need targeted cuts to the lower and middle income people. This petition and letter writing campaign calls for eliminating all of them, and I would honestly rather see all of them gone, than any corporate ones.

Hillary’s online community, No Limits. From what I can tell it is a forum dedicated to fixing this fucking Country.

Find your local District Attorney and ask them to file charges against Bush.

Vote on FDLs priorities.

Demand that Holder appoint a Special Prosecutor.

Hold a repower America house party this weekend.


Dictionary defines the antonym of “hope” as “despair.” I agree, and I agree that one of the greatest contributors to despair is powerlessness. The more involved that I am, the less powerless that I feel. Call it delusional or airy fairy or naïve or whatever. Personally I don’t care, I only know that the alternative leads to days on the couch and inability to function and I can’t do that today. It is difficult enough to move as it is; I will not add the kind of pessimism that I am used to experiencing to it. I may get screwed in the end and highly disappointed, but at least I can say I tried to change it.

PS: I started this post a few days ago so I hope that all of the links still work. Here a couple of add-ons that I also felt were worth the time to share.

Obama’s op-ed selling the plan; well worth the read.

Olbermann’s special comment last night was excellent. He made a couple of verbal flubs so read the thing too. How I wish that I could say the same to Dick – to his face.

Cross-posted at PAS.

Read more!

66 Pages

Is there nothing sacred? Why is it, that I cannot send my kid to school with a peanut butter sandwich without worrying that it will kill him? What's worse, is that I have had to implore him to not purchase anything at school to eat because it might be tainted with salmonella. (What about the poor kids who depend on school lunches as their main meal?!)

The news last night warned that they are not sure that the salmonella was contained to only the institutional brand; I finally checked the FDA website this morning to see what brands actually contain (or might contain) the tainted peanut butter and was horrified to find that the warning applies to 66 pages (PDF) of products. Everything from granola bars, to candy, to pet food, to frozen dinners - including Trader Joe's brand, which is supposed to be a higher class product.

Sign here to demand that our food is safe. Sorry to say that there is a petition begging our government to ensure that children can safely eat peanut butter sandwiches.

Read more!

A Couple More Ways to Fight the Obstructionists

The only way, I believe, that we can fight the obstructionists is to call them on their bullshit. (BTW, I do not limit this to Republican hacks, if there are blue dogs who want to fight the stimulus package that we need or there are Democratic dumb assess who knew about the domestic spying or torture and rendition policies and did nothing – we need to hold them accountable too.) We need to let these assholes know that we are watching and that we are paying attention.

Yep, there is more.


We are not powerless and these are not people with power in high up places that are untouchable; not with the power of information. SoS posted a link to the criminal behavior of Jon Cornyn yesterday. We have the power to share this information with the sheeple – including their Republican constituents who are so frightened right now, that they too do not want obstructionists, and they do not want criminals in the Congress.

Especially not now; the sheeple are being shown what it is like to have someone of integrity and intelligence in the WH, they are seeing what public service is about. It is not supposed to be about power and enriching oneself – it is supposed to be about sacrifice. The dicks who treat it as their own personal ATM need to be sent home, hopefully in shackles. It is up to us to work towards that.

The Republicans are moving farther to the Right. There are very few moderate Republicans left. We need to elevate the moderates and tear down these extremists. I know that people think that a phone call to the office of a Senator or Congressperson does not make any difference - but it does.

The staffers in the office really do keep a log of calls from constituents and if there is a particular piece of legislation up for a vote or a person to be confirmed – the staffers keep a Yea and a Nay call log. The Right has their phone trees and their electronic calling machines and their Right Wing Radio and Faux News that encourages their sheeple to call in. We have the Internet.

We need to use the tools that we have and fight their crap. The Daily Show last night had a rundown of Faux News on the first day of the Obama Administration. The anti-Obama and anti-Democrat and anti-American people and and Anti-American-Values crap that was spewing from the montage was frightening. They are working hard to take him down and we need to take them down first. We are still at war and we are on the right side of history and the good side of the issues.

Here are a few petitions to fight the Republicans and to congratulate Obama:

Thank Obama for ordering Gitmo shut down.

Don’t block Obama’s Attorney General because you support torture. I really cannot believe that Cornyn is such a transparent dick.

Bail Out People thinks that the stimulus package is too conservative. I tend to agree on many points; however, I have not read the actual package so I am reserving judgment. I think that Obama is playing “good cop” with the Republicans, knowing full well that the House and the Senate are totally Dem controlled and the package will be far more Progressive than what Obama has to pretend to support.

Demand that immigrant children and pregnant women are not excluded from SCHIP.

If you can make it to Colorado next week, go to camp!

Right Wing Myths about the stimulus.

Read more!

Republican Obstructionism Day 2

It is back to CSPAN 24/7 - the Congress is really interesting right now - especially the lost little Republicans. It did not take long for these creeps to show their true colors. It makes no difference that they pretend to be supportive by prefacing their obstructionist bullshit with the line "We want Obama to succeed but..."

They are not fooling me and I doubt that they are fooling anyone else. Click “read more” to see what I mean.

Oy. Because the Senate is so collegial and has all of these entrenched rules which respect the minority Party – a Democratic Majority of 59 Senators is not enough to stop the Republicans from certain acts of obstructionism. We also have the benefit of Democratic Senators who still believe in tradition and “bi-partisanship.”

[Yes, I did say “benefit” because I believe that it is. As much as I cannot stand these rabid Right-Wing hacks, the last thing that I want is for the Dems to behave like they did. And, as much as I (so far) like a lot of what Obama is doing and I really like his style, I do not want a Democratic Congress that rolls over to him like the Republicans did with Bush. I do not think acting like them benefits anyone.]

This is one of the types of things that I was referring to when it comes to policing the Congress (and the Administration.) The Congress is a co-equal branch of the government and because they have been so impotent, and because the friggin’ Bush Administration ran right over the Congress, they are now (suddenly) flexing their muscles to show the Obama Administration that the Congress has equal power. I am actually happy about this. Regardless of Dem control in both Houses and the Presidency I still want the Congress to show that they are back and to remove the precedent set by Bush. I want them to restore the co-equal status.

As a result of this equalization, the Congress is acting a little tougher than they would in normal circumstances. In normal circumstances they might just take the President’s Package and run with it, but they are not. In addition, the Democratic Congress’s stimulus package is better than Obama’s - in that it does not rely so much on the Republican religion of tax cuts.

With the [too long] preface over, the preface explaining a little bit of the power-play dynamics occurring, let’s get back to the gist of this post: The Goddamned Right Wing Republican Hacks Are Using Every Tool in the Rule Book to Obstruct Cabinet Appointees and the Stimulus Plan. Jerks.

The Republican Party is going through some pretty intense adjustments. They have no idea who they are or what they stand for and they are acting like Tourettes Victims; they just stand there obstructing shouting out epithets like “Ronald Reagan,” “Tax Cuts,” “forced lending to the poor!”

They really are pitiful when we see them for what they are. Their entire philosophy of existence has been proven a failure and they still do not want to change. Like an alcoholic sleeping in a ditch, they still think that all will be well if they can just get their next drink. Unfortunately, their disgusting behavior affects far more people than just them; we all suffer for their philosophy and we are the ones paying for their decisions. That is why it is still easy to hate them – rather than pity their useless souls.

Not only are they trying to block Obama’s Appointees to the Cabinet, they are also using every procedural tool that they have to try to stop the new stimulus package. What makes this worse is that they are using their “constituents” for cover. They preface every one of their whiny proclamations with “our phones are ringing off the hook with our constituents calling because they are concerned about…” Fill in the “about” with whatever policy or appointment that they are trying to block.

This is where we come in. We need to contact our Senators and our House Member and tell them what we want. The Pukes say that their people are calling them, we need to make damned sure that our people are actually calling them. Enough of this crap. We need to show these dicks for the obstructionist hacks that they are. We need to make sure that their constituents know exactly what it is that they are doing.

Progressive Future has a petition up telling the Republicans to stand down. I am sure that more petitions are coming and I will make them available as I come across them and time permits. We are a bit more tenacious than they are and we are on the correct side of history. Enough of their crap; the world has suffered enough.

Read more!

This Land is Your Land

Coming home after a long and dreary day, I was listening to the pre-inauguration activities on the radio. Then the announcer said that Pete Seeger, yes, The Pete Seeger, was going to sing next. My mind went back immediately to the days I lived in San Francisco and all those Little Boxes, you know, the green ones, and the pink ones, and the blue ones, and the yellow ones. Those were the days that I believed in America and that I could change the world, as most of us did believe back in the 60s.

Then Seeger began singing with that old familiar one of a kind voice:

"This land is your land, this land is my land

From California, to the New York Island

From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me."

I started to bawl. It was a release for the years of sadness I have felt, for the anger like I have never known before, for disappointment, discouragement, and loss of faith in this Country, this Government and it's people.

On Tuesday, this Country begins anew with the leadership of President Obama, and once again hope returns for those of us who have doubted this land was our land.

UPDATE (by Anjha): I looked for the video this morning and then ran out of time. Voila! Came home and there it was in my inbox via Truthout. Cool.

Read more!

Peace, Love and Understanding Part 2

Dammit. I am so blown away by the kindness of the people in this country. Last week I put up a post about the Obama organization, USA Service.org. I talked about all of the events on the website and all of the millions of people who have signed up to attend those events. I talked about the feel good, warm fuzzies that viewing all of that left me with.

There's more.

Yes, there are more warm fuzzies. Kiddo and I noticed that the event that we signed up for had more people signed up than were necessary. We signed up to help serve lunch at Tent City. Tent City is a homeless encampment in our county; there are actually many of them. It is good that they are available for the people who live on the streets to gather together and look out for each other (there is safety in numbers) but it sucks that they are needed at all. I think that they should be called "Bush-Villes" - regardless of what you call them, homeless people live there.

So, we decided that it might be good if we gathered items together to leave with them that will last a lot longer than the lunch that we have volunteered to help to serve.

We typed up the following and gave it to the people in our cul-de-sac.

*********

Thank You In Advance

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the National Day of Service we are going to tent city in xxxxx on Monday, January 19, 2009 to help to pass out food to the homeless. There are numerous volunteers for this event already so Kiddo and I thought that it might make more sense to use our time gathering up items to leave with the people at tent city; things that they will need long after the lunch is over.

Please donate any of the following (and anything else that you can think of that would come in useful for people trying to live in a tent during a long, cold winter.):

• Coats/Sweatshirts/Warm Sweaters
• Blankets
• Shoes
• Sleeping bags
• Baby Items/Diapers
• Tarps
• Toiletries
• Books
• Non-perishable food items
• Socks
• Flashlights & Batteries


If you have any items that you are able to donate, please gather them together and give us a call. (We are just now digging in our closets. We know that money is tight for everyone; used items are gladly and gratefully accepted.) We will pop over and pick them up. Thank you so much.

Husband, Anjha and Kiddo xxx-xxx-xxxx

To find out more about service events in our area go to www.USAService.org

********

We handed it out to the 8 homes in our cul-de-sac and by 11 AM this morning, my car was full of boxes of items. This is so unbelievable. Seriously. I am blown away by the kindness and generosity of the people in our neighborhood, county and this country.

And honestly, I am not really doing a damn thing but passing information along to people, making a couple of phone calls and dropping off the stuff. Even I can handle this kind of involvement.

I hope that this does keep going. That people continue to participate and that Obama uses the bully pulpit that he has to continue to guide people into service and to paying attention to what is going on in their communities. This is truly a bottom up movement. And it is about friggin' time.

Read more!

Hello, Hello, Hello

Is There Anybody Out There?!

I get it, everyone is busy and sick and completely bored by the blogosphere. The fight was won. Bushco and his criminal crew are gone in just a few short days. We are on to a new chapter in this country...a blissful new chapter of Peace and Love. [Pay no attention to the multiple wars and the economy in the crapper.]

There is nothing left to fight for. Right?

Wrong.

Dammit. We have more work to do than we did when we were fighting the criminality of the Bush Administration and the corrupt Republican Congress over these last 8 long fucking years.

Obama needs a movement.

And, the thing is, Obama recognizes this. Obama knows that he will not be able to implement any significant change unless the people are louder than the lobbyists. It is not enough to police the Democratic Congress and then bitch about it when they do wrong. This will not get us anywhere except for providing us a place to come and bitch and agree with each other. This is not what we need.

This is what Change.gov is all about. It is also why Obama continues to send us a zillion emails. It is not about fundraising right now...we won. There will not be an election for President for four years. All of this communication with us is not for show - it is because Obama needs a movement. Without us screaming louder than the frickin' lobbyists the change will not happen.

There is also Change.org which is a division of Democrats.com. This is the people's side of the Change movement. (Don't go to change.com unless you want to jack-off; change.com is the underwear manufacturer.)

The bottom line, even though we are tired and we are bored, we have work to do. I warned about the let-down and people seemed to agree with me that it would happen. I thought that it would have happened earlier and been over by now...but, I am thinking, the Holidays might have postponed it and might have added to it (family really is a pain in the ass.)

Consider this the pep-talk. (I can only give them, I have a hard time actually following them up with action - so I expect you all, my friends, to call me on it when I start whining...) We have work to do people. Our blog should be more active than it was while fighting the GOP. There are hearings to watch and policing of the Congress to do. Phone calls to make and letters to write. Volunteering to participate in. Movements to initiate. Media to watchdog.

Just nod if you can hear me - Is there anyone at home?

Read more!

What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

Every so often there is an occurrence that reminds me that there is more good in this world than bad. Something happens that offers hope and helps me to feel like I really do live in a world community of people who want nothing more than Peace and Joy and Love - and Understanding.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes so much easier to find what is wrong in this world; to see the natural disasters and - worse - the man-made ones. It is easy to see only pain and destruction...but every so often there comes that moment that brings tears to my eyes and reminds me that we really are a Loving people; despite the endless crap, People Really are Good.

I had such a moment this morning.

I received "Obama's Call to Service" invitation. When I punched in my zip code to search for events in my area, I thought to myself, "what if no one signed up?"

Instead this is what popped up. Look at all of these events and read their descriptions. Feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, cleaning up parks...it is endless.

People are searching for direction on what they can do to help. People want to give. Even during this time when so many are suffering and so many do not know where their next rent check or mortgage payment or meal will come from, they are still ready to jump up and give of themselves.

Damn, I love it when my eyes are filled with these kinds of tears...

Find events here.

Read more!

Truthout Web-A-Thon

I am a fan of Truthout. I think that independent journalists and websites like Truthout are one of the reasons that we were able to win the 2006 midterms and the 2008 Elections.

For the past several weeks I have been receiving fairly desperate emails asking for donations. Apparently Truthout is in really dire straights and at risk of having to lay people off.

They are a non-profit 501 C3 organization, which means that every penny donated is tax deductible.

If you have a couple of extra bucks, please donate. And, for the cash poor among us, please help to spread the word.

Email from Truthout, below the fold.

Monday 12 January 2009

Like all other organizations, we are challenged by the current economic disaster. We are fighting to save jobs and maintain services. Some readers will have cash to spare, others will not. We understand. If you do have some funding you can contribute, we think this project is worth it. Thank you in advance.

Just click this link for our electronic donation options:
Donate

You can also donate by check, made payable to:
Truthout
P.O. Box 231278
Encinitas, CA 92023

Or donate by phone:
213.489.1971

*REMEMBER: You can select a monthly plan to provide us with automatic, recurring support. Please sign up for whatever you can afford.

Truthout is a 501(c)(3), non-profit, independent news source, so your contributions are completely tax deductible.

LOW INCOME READERS: Don't send cash. Just help us by spreading the word!

If you are an active donor, THANK YOU!

Truthout is free to all. Donations are strictly voluntary. If you stop receiving our newsletters, notify messenger@truthout.org at once.

Thanks again!

Marc Ash, Executive Director -
t r u t h o u t
director@truthout.org

Read more!

Things that Make Me Smile

h/t to Tree Hugger, who sent me the link to the "Seven Darn Cute Baby Animal Photos."

Consider this an Open Thread.

Read more!

Additional To Do (Damn, Being a Citizen Requires a Lot of Work!)

In my email inbox today is a note from Congressman Robert Wexler. [I love Bob Wexler. He rocks.]

Anyway, the email lets us know that he supports Nadler's legislation, H.RES.1531, which calls for no "pre-emptive" pardons and demands that Bush Administration officials be held accountable for their crimes.

Currently there are 8 co-sponsors:
Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] - 12/10/2008
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] - 12/10/2008
Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] - 12/9/2008
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] - 12/9/2008
Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] - 12/9/2008
Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. [NY-14] - 12/9/2008
Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] - 12/9/2008
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] - 12/9/2008
Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19] - 12/10/2008

You know what to do.

See the entire email below the fold.

Dear Anjha,

There is much to celebrate, as there is only 33 days until George W. Bush leaves the White House. In addition, Congressman Nadler, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, recently introduced a resolution expressing staunch opposition to any potential preemptive pardons of members of his Administration and the need for an Independent commission or select committee to "investigate, and, where appropriate, prosecute illegal acts by senior officials of the administration of President George W. Bush."

I fully support this resolution and I have signed on as a co-sponsor.

The issue of preemptive and/or blanket pardons has been a subject of much debate and frustration. There is great concern that Bush will abuse his pardon power and further cover up wrongdoing by his Administration.

However, as citizens, we have a responsibility to reject any abuse of the presidential pardon power to shield or manipulate investigations.

Regardless of the legality of potential pardons, there needs to be a full accounting of this Administration's abuses. No doubt many of the players in the Administration will seek future positions or public office. The public deserves a full accounting of what they have done, and the law, in my opinion, requires it.

Many felt that President-elect Obama's victory might free members of Congress to move forward with Impeachment Hearings. However, the weeks since the election have been largely consumed with trying to formulate a balanced and thoughtful response to the economic crisis, which, no doubt, is affecting many of you.

The struggles of the American auto industry, and the ongoing banking and credit crisis, skyrocketing unemployment, and our exploding budget deficit have taken center stage.

Some of our most critical issues - universal healthcare, Medicare and social security funding, alternative energy investment, and education improvements are all threatened by this crisis. Although I am committed as ever to holding this Administration accountable, we are facing a historic crisis in this nation that Congress and President-elect Obama must work together to solve.

Obama's victory gives us a window to accomplish vital tasks that will have very direct impact on you and your family.

I thoroughly believe that President-elect Obama will return us to a government that respects the rights of its citizens and the rule of law. I look forward to working closely with his Administration to not only repair the damage, but bring forth a renewed sense that government is, in fact, responsible and answerable to the people.

With great respect and admiration,

Robert Wexler

Read more!