Someone Else's Words

I'm lamenting my paucity of words tonight then I find these words from Kevin Hayden (via Jon Swift's Best Blog Posts of 2007 (Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves)), Kevin's post entitled "The unnecessary death of Nataline Sarkysian … or is it murder?" Yeah, she's the woman CIGNA Healthcare refused to pay for her (available) liver transplant saying the care plan chosen was "experimental".

The Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm” has evolved into “America can’t afford some of its lives.”

And I have questions that rise above the presidential campaign that goes to America’s clergy and the “values voters” who dominated the headlines a few short years ago: “You fought so hard for the continued life support of Terry Schiavo, so where your voices and energy for Nataline Sarkysian?

Are you telling us that Terry’s husband could not make decisions in Terry’s interest but some graysuit beancounter in the insurance racket gets to decide that Nataline Sarkysian must die???

Conservative republican right-wing evangelicals, I've but two words for your worthless selves - guess which? A god that calls you assholes "righteous" is a god I know to be the "other guy" thereby proving your "religion" is the same as what I just flushed an hour ago (minus the corn). Damn your worthless eyes.

What Good Is A Soapbox...

...if you do not use it? It's obvious to me why so many webblogs grow dark & dim over time, although there are many who can do a good job of stringing together words with proper punctuation, there are but a select few who can successfully do this over time. In some ways Digby over at Hullabaloo (see sidebar) is a hero to me, over the years I have never found a post of hers to be less than thought-provoking. (Not that my writing skills could ever approach hers, the main thing we seem to have in common is that we both write in the English language) There are of course others whose posts are more profound or more provocative but many of those people are writers in their daily lives and their blogging seems to be more an extension of their daily lives and not as much a labor of love as Digby's. Still, having been a longtime blog reader, when I decided to create this here joint, I resolved to fill it with a sufficient number of regular posts that would qualify it as a 'true' sixth-tier blog - don't mind being yet another "voice in the wilderness", feel very much like one of those already in my day-to-day...

Kind of a melancholy time at the manor these days. Found out my ex father-in-law died 24 November 2007 or thereabouts. I married his child in 1988 but eventually had to file for divorce in 1999 as my spouse's mental health issues had gotten to a point where they were not simply unmanageable; my efforts to help and assist this person to cope with their stuff were actually making things worse. After we divorced, their goddamned psychiatrist then and only then consented to the hospitalization that my now ex-spouse had required for years. It's been now, what, 8, almost 9 years? And over this time, I still send my ex- xmas & bday gifts as my ex- is on SSDI and the little help I have to offer is greatly appreciated. While we will never get back together, I have never stopped caring about this person either and never will, I guess. So it was kind of an expected shock that he finally died and I must say I've been having premonitions about this for most of this fall. He was 88 years of age and was married to his sweetie for 62 of 'em. Served in the Philippines during WWII, a seabee I believe, where he met his wife.

Have some good memories of him, some times we shared together. A funny one was him painting over tiny cigarette burns in the vinyl of the kitchen floor of the house I bought for his child and me back in 1992 - if you know where to look, you can still see his handiwork. My favourite? An afternoon we spent removing foliage from the bed outside of the front windows in order that flowers could be planted there instead., digging & tearing nasty scraggy bushes out of the ground, roots and all.

Dog bless you and keep you, H. Paul _

Back In The USSR USA

Good trip, but also good to be home with the kitties, missed those little guys a lot! Trip uneventful save entering the USA was no fun at all. Compared to entering the UK or the Netherlands, reentry here was a bear, even for those of us with nothing to declare - the lines were way too long and the immigration folks seemed hostile & somewhat suspicious. It's done, however, and I'm back...

The tabloids in London were horrid, for a week it was all about the 'teddy bear teacher' - what a sensationalized load of rubbish! That ate up 4-5 days worth of the news cycle then it was the 'mysterious canoe guy'. Again, what a bunch of excrement! Not a peep as to how many people were killed in Iraq or how many US soldiers died or injured, no, that stuff one had to dig for. The US media is pretty sorry these days but I feel for those in London as theirs is worse. Yipes.

As usual there were way too many stories back home (and quite a few writers far better than I to explain them) but there was one in particular that got my attention - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) did some digging into GW's use of executive orders and popped out a bombshell of a speech on December 7^th, unfortunately December 7^th was a Friday so of course his speech missed the media for the most part but Ms. Marcy (among others) nailed it pretty well - Sen. Whitehouse had a pretty good summary near the end with regards to GW's concept of what the law is and how it applies to GW as president of the United States of America:

In a nutshell, these three Bush administration legal propositions boil down to this:

1. “I don’t have to follow my own rules, and I don’t have to tell you when I’m breaking them.”

2. “I get to determine what my own powers are.”

3. “The Department of Justice doesn’t tell me what the law is, I tell the Department of Justice what the law is.

10 years ago the US was gripped with hundreds of special counsels investigating uncountable numbers of Clinton Chronicles Crimes including the 5^th or 6^th investigation of the Vince Foster suicide. Today we are investigating exactly 0.000% of GW's bushwa, can you believe it? And now we have GW & his bunch reinterpreting Marbury vs. Madison, a Supreme Court decision I thought was settled back in 1803. Assuming you know about GW's celebrated Unitary Executive philosophy, can anyone out there tell me it is any different from 1933's famous Führerprinzip? The claim to fame of the USA was always that we were a nation ruled by laws, not by men. What happened between 1945 and 2007, eh? Or more contentiously, who really won WWII or the Cold War?

Quiet Time Ahead

Not gonna' be much here the next three weeks or so, I'm off to Europe for a well-deserved vacation. Will post as access is available...

A Real Knee Slapper For Ya'

How's this for hilarity? GW gives a speech to the Federalist Society 15 November 2007, a speech in which he praises the three branches of government and their roles of checks & balances on each other and the how the President's oath of office commits him to do his best to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." followed by saying I take these words seriously. I believe these words mean what they say. What a laff riot!
Glenn Greenwald has some excellent commentary on this, far more nuanced then mine. All I have to say is remember the Cheney Energy Task Force of 2001? The records from that are still secret. Likewise, I think there are still a couple of requests for oval office documents from the congress that are still open, as well as 5 million or so missing emails. So much for them checks & balances, eh? And certainly a few more little items as well... Rachel Paulose anyone?
haw haw haw shudder

Who Ya' Gonna' Believe?

The current conservative republican president GW, or your own lyin' eyes? Found this story yesterday about FEMA vs. The New Orleans Aquarium that is almost too funny (and very sad/infuriating as well). This post almost wrote itself -

I'm sure you've heard the conservative republican mantra, "it's government that is the problem". Or maybe Reagan 's 'funny. ha ha' words of fear, "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you". (Personally, the words that scare me are "Hi, I'm from private industry with a fat, no-bid government and I'm here to help" - who are they here to help, eh?)

Due to the loss of electric power after hurricane Katrina, the employees of the New Orleans Aquarium returned to find their tanks holding thousands of dead fish. Tourism is a mainstay of New Orleans' economy and of course the aquarium wanted to be back up and running ASAP as they're apparently a big tourist draw. FEMA offered over $600,000 to replace their dead stock. There was a catch, of course: GW's FEMA is a stickler for red tape and endless bureaucratic delays. Before FEMA could issue the grant, the aquarium employees managed to restock their tanks and reopen the aquarium, mostly by going out personally and catching the various types of fish they would exhibit. Other aquariums helped out with donations as well. The aquarium then presented their total bill for the restocking, $99,766, to FEMA who then refused to reimburse. The reason they refused? FEMA said the replacement fish had to come from private vendors, apparently the staff catching their own fish was a big 'no-no'. The cost from the private vendors? $616,000. That means that GW's FEMA would only reimburse if the total amount included $516,234 of pork to the private contractors who, of course, do everything faster & cheaper. According to the article, the case has been appealed and may wind up in federal court.

The moral? When someone who asks for your vote insists that government is always the problem and never the solution, believe them, they are a self-fulfilling prophecy, elect them at your peril.

Who/what is the US government again, exactly? I refer you to a quaint piece of parchment, allegedly revered by 'patriotic' Americans, a something called the Declaration of Independence. I believe the first three words of that 'quaint document' are "We, the people". There's your government, folks. I also remember another quote along the lines of "a republic, if you can keep it".

Be Still, My Heart

Maybe there's some good news today, maybe... It looks as if the Senate Judiciary Committee today reported out a version of the FISA bill that does not, repeat, does not offer retroactive immunity for illegal spying of Americans. Think Progress has a good summary.

The legislators at the time of the Sen. Frank Church Committee who were shocked by the revelations of the spying that had occurred against American citizens (COINTELPRO anyone?) were the legislators who wrote the original FISA act. They put criminal sanctions in the bill as they did not trust the government, the criminal sanctions were a means to punish the individuals who actually did the spying and of course the corporations that aided & abetted such spying. Spying on Americans seems ridiculously easy,

The judges modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications that were approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation. (Seattlepi.com)

yet the bushies seemed stymied by the need for "useless things" like 'probable cause'. Remember the TIA program? The bushies were determined to get it, by hook or by crook. This of course was the "by crook" method, retroactive immunity for every information supplier that provided unrestricted access. Hear about the Qwest communications insider trading case against CEO Joseph P. Nacchio? He was ultimately convicted of 19 counts of insider trading and was sentenced to six years in prison, yet what he did was pretty much the same as every other Telco 'big cheese' did during the late 90's - early oughts. Why was he alone convicted? His company, Qwest, was the only one to not go along with the bushies' request for illegal access to their networks.

But I'm saying only that this retroactive immunity-free FISA bill version might be good news, not that it is good news. That's because Reid, Pelosi, and all those bush dog dems are still all out there and have proven time & again this last year that they are not to be trusted not to cave when we need them most. I won't be surprised in the slightest should tomorrow's news reveal yet again that the democratic leaders have allowed the retroactive immunity FISA bill version to pass into law and be handed to GW. Please support Sen. Christopher Dodd, he has pledged to both put a hold on a bad version and to filibuster. With luck another 40 dems will be brave enough to stand with him.

Driver's Licenses For Illegals

Ok, maybe one story I can say something concerning. What the !@## does 77% of americans against giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants really mean? I do not understand their problem, do they expect state DMV's to function as Immigration Enforcement? My reasoning is simple, they are here and given the state of mass transit in most US cities, they are gonna drive as - they have to, it's the only way to get around most places. So issue them driver's licenses so they can:
1 - buy liability insurance
2 - register their vehicles
3 - inspect their vehicles.
What in the !@## do 77% of americans not understand regarding this? Immigration enforcement in this country is totally schizophrenic, I refuse to have an opinion until corporate america comes to a resolution with xenophobic america. The fact of the matter is that someone, probably an illegal, hit my truck last year and tried to run but I could still drive so he did not get far. Phony name, no D/L, and of course, no insurance. Fortunately my GEICO uninsured motorist insurance paid off and my truck was fixed. But the guy should have had insurance and his insurance should have paid the claim, not mine. Or is xenophobia more important then fiscal responsibility? D/L or not, registered or not, inspected or not, insured or not, They Will Drive, they HAVE to, as do we all...

Still Too Many Stories!

I cannot begin to adequately address them, save to say the constitutional republic I grew up in is stone cold dead and I'm not sure the defibrillator will bring it back as brain death may have occurred. Go read these folks, they are far more eloquent then I -
firedoglake, digby @ Hullabaloo, Orcinus

& bookmark 'em as well...

Too Many Stories...

... and not nearly enough time to do any of them justice, especially if you're an 8th or 9th tier blog writer with just enough time & energy for a post this PM. But not that it matters -heh - I'm only writing for me.

Tonight I'd like to point you to a story that hasn't drawn very much MSM attention at all, one that nonetheless I think is quite important. There is a certain Mr. Mark Klein, a currently retired San Francisco-based technician for AT&T, who revealed a couple of years ago the existence of a secret surveillance room at the SF telephone exchange run by the NSA. Tonight he is Washington D.C. to lobby against granting retroactive legal immunity to the telcos. The equipment in and cabling to, essentially a fiber-optic line splitter, is sufficient for the NSA to have snooped on every single packet of data that passed through that telephone exchange - email, web browsing, voice, fax, basically whatever came through that cable the NSA has. Furthermore the location of the exchange makes it optimal for collecting domestic traffic, not the foreign communications traffic Bushco claims to have been monitoring, He or at least his information is behind or involved in one of the suits against AT&T that Bushco wishes to have thrown out with the retroactive immunity in the latest FISA bill. Think about it, the reason the telco liability was in the original FISA bill was that those who drafted it did not trust the government, they instead insisted the telcos (and others) be held personally liable for damages as a check against a dishonest NSA/CIA/FBI/DOJ. TPM Muckraker has a good summary along with a number of good links, if you're interested, it's a good place to start.

Remember, this sort of installation gives the NSA access to everything, and yes, I do mean access to every single data packet on that cable. Most of us are familiar with the Orwellian aspects of this in terms of Big Brother and political spying. There are other ramifications, however, ones that don't seem to get much discussion, ramifications such as the commercial one. Say your company does IT services and you are bidding for a contract with a potential major customer. Given the absolute politicization of the US Government at this time, the fact that "pay for play" is how things work these days, what's to stop some federal official from contacting a high-level officer of your company, informing them of what the government knows about your company's bid, and mentioning that your competitor has been making greater donations to the RNC then your company has and that for the right price, the official might be willing to share details of your competitor's bid with you or at the very least, offering not to share your bid details with your competitor? "Oh and by the way, these discussions are both deniable and state secrets meaning say anything of this to the media and you will be convicted of treason or disappeared". Think I'm just being paranoid?

If you are not outraged it means you have not been paying attention.

Dianne Feinstein May Be A Democrat...

but democrat Dianne Feinstein is no liberal, no how, least of all a progressive - Madame Senator, your extensive support of bushie nominees and proposals all these last seven only prove to illustrate that 1) you need a new career, one not involving representing Democrats or the Democratic Party Platform & 2) you need a serious primary challenge next time you're up. Jello Biafra back in the Dead Kennedy's day (1986?) summed you up nicely

BTW, the first ten seconds have all one will need, rest is just gravy...

Q - What Is A State Secret in 2007?

A - factual statements that would embarrass the Bushies. Case in point: a certain Abdallah Higazy, the man coerced into "confessing" his "role" in 9/11 after a commercial flight-band transceiver was allegedly found in his NY hotel room. Days later, an airline pilot shows up at the same hotel and asks for his radio back. Oops. After 34 days and many threats later, now Higazi is innocent & free to go. Upset for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the FBI threatening to turn over his family in Egypt where they would have been tortured unless Higazi confessed, he proceeded to sue the hotel and the FBI agent for coercing his confession.

Fast forward to now - recently, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mr.Higazy could proceed with his lawsuit. A blogger named Howard Bashman posted the ruling on his website How Appealing, Within hours he is ordered by the clerk of the Second Circuit to take down his link as the original posting contained "state secrets". Later the Second Circuit issues a redacted version of the opinion. Blogger Valtin at Daily Kos has done a really great job at creating a post that has many valuable links to all the facts, if you are interested in this you really need to read the post and follow the links. All I will do is provide a summary of the "state secret" that was redacted -

Higazy alleges that during the polygraph, Templeton told him that he should cooperate, [begin unredacted portion] and explained that if Higazy did not cooperate, the FBI would make his brother "live in scrutiny" and would "make sure that Egyptian security gives [his] family hell." Templeton later admitted that he knew how the Egyptian security forces operated: "that they had a security service, that their laws are different than ours, that they are probably allowed to do things in that country where they don’t advise people of their rights, they don’t – yeah, probably about torture, sure."

Higazy later said, "I knew that I couldn’t prove my innocence, and I knew that my family was in danger." He explained that "[t]he only thing that went through my head was oh, my God, I am screwed and my family’s in danger. If I say this device is mine, I’m screwed and my family is going to be safe. If I say this device is not mine, I’m screwed and my family’s in danger. And Agent Templeton made it quite clear that cooperate had to mean saying something else other than this device is not mine".

If you're interested, you really need to check out the links above. We live in scary times these days, a constitution and bill of rights that are literally just "pieces of parchment". I thought conservative republicans always respected "rule of law" and other quaint notions. Again - oops

The Weirdest Mainstream LP Ever

After decades of listening (sans headphones until recently, alas), I think this title is deserved for the Grateful Dead's second record, Anthem of the Sun. Look for the words "Tear down the Fillmore, Gas the Avalon" in the song "Alligator" just after "hung up waitin for a windy day" (the Dead and others were promoting their own Carousel Ballroom at the time). Marvel at the inserted stuff. An amazing, ground-breaking record. only nobody at the time seems to have recognized the need for headphones, at least at the time,,,


update 11/04/7 - My first exposure to this music decades ago was on the WB lp WS-1749 RE, yellow background on cover. Good record but nothing eponymous or particularly distinguished. (thick air indeed) The next time I bought it was as WB cd 2-1749, again w/yellow background on cover. Sounded about the same as the lp although by this time I finally heard it on headphones and had seen the "making of" video, Anthem To Beauty. A bit more intriguing but still, nothing too out of the ordinary. The next time I bought it was as Rhino cd 73943, purchased primarily for the bonus tracks. (damn completists!) but also noticed that this time the cover had a dark purple background. Hmmm, I had also heard Garcia had remixed the album in '72 to make it "more normal" or something, plus occasionally had seen an lp version with that dark purple background as well. This version was a revelation! Swirling early Dead jamming resolving to drones or other strangeness that belonged more to a musique concrète performance then that of the Dead. Live pieces wildly speeding up, meshing and fusing with other live pieces. And last weekend, finally got to listen to the original W7A lp, WS-1749, the one with the dark purple background cover - Almost the same as the Rhino cd but again, a little bit different, looks like it's time for the headphones with the turntable once again.

So what's so different about a remix? Once again, Anthem of the Sun doesn't disappoint, unlike the "typical process of mixing an album in those days, Dan Healy, Jerry Garcia, and Phil Lesh mixed parts of this record as a live performance in and of itself, mixing together simultaneously live recordings from various venues with studio material, all the source tapes synced and running at once! Little wonder there are no "out takes" of this material as such, only the individual source tapes from whence this album was created.

Next on my list is the original mix of Aoxomoxoa...

update II 11/14/07 With a liitle creative Google searching, managed to find mp3s of a "needle drop" Aoxomoxoa original mix from the pre-1972 lp and yes, I found to be as relevatory as the original Anthem of the Sun. Pity those in charge (Garcia, Lesh) saw fit to redo the record but then again, it's their music and whatever version(s) out there should be the version(s) they wish to make available. What's Become of The Baby on the remixed lp is a muddy, boring, unlistenable mess (which I usually skip) while the original version has all sorts of sound effects in the quiet portions, maybe not true to the song per se but making the whole piece a very unusual psychedelic artifact. IMHO the song itself is pretty weak, I'm not aware that they ever played it live and for myself, the original version is great. Likewise, I really enjoyed the extra production on Dupree's Diamond Blues and on Doin' That Rag. The five-part harmony at the end was sorely missed.

Don Sn-Foil Chapeau

I thought in 2007 we would see the promised flying cars, not a twenty-three year late imposition of George Orwell's 1984 (it's supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual, assholes). Nonetheless, here we are and here things be. It's really tough to look at the presidential candidates and make any kind of choice (although 1- I sent Dodd $25 for standing up to GW and the retroactive telco immunity & 2- Ghouliani is Bush-Cheney on steroids) as for the first time in my 51, I do not think there will an election in 2008, certainly not one that is either free or fair. (And writing this feels shocking in its own rite)

What I see today is Cheney ordering a nuclear attack on Iran late September-early October 2008, and unfortunately, enough young eager (stupid) evangelicals in high enough positions in the USAF to pull it off. Why do I say this?
1-"you do not introduce new product in August"
2-remember the Branch Davidian and Somalia "gifts" Bush I left for Mr. Clinton? (Bill is, to this day, still blamed for the Ruby Ridge incident that happened summer of 1992 under Bush I)
3-What better way to terrify the electorate into either electing Ghouliani or canceling the election entirely?

Please, I really hope that I am wrong, would love to be eating crow next fall. But do any of you non-existant hordes out there really think that I am wrong? And even if I am wrong, any doubt that the Iraq war will serve as the Timothy McVeigh finishing school for domestic terrorists? Heard anything about the gang graffiti that has appeared in Iraqi streets, the white supremacists and militia types that have entered our military for training purposes? The future is a scary place these days...

A Loss

Condolences to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge for the loss pf his partner Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge 9 October of this year. Genesis P-Orridge is a central figure in several bands I have listened to over the years, Throbbing Gristle & Psychic TV/PTV3. Not so much for the quality of their music per se as what they create is for the most part harsh & grating (especially Throbbing Gristle) but he/they have a fierce anti-corporate DIY philosophy I greatly respect and a stubborn determination to do things their way. Plus much of the Psychic TV material is surprisingly accessible, I highly recommend Godstar & Roman P. in any of their various permutations as a good entry point.

Genesis & Lady Jaye were involved in an androgyne project, one that would erase the distinctions between masculine & feminine and to instead create an other - not exactly my cuppa tea but something I find interesting, there's entirely too much macho bs in this world and I think we'd all be far better off without it. Follow the links for more info.

Why I Am Here

I've been reading "the blogs" for quite a few years now and a wild hair bit my butt on the drive home today: although I feel I have nothing to say that is not said better by others elsewhere, I guess I have a need to prove that supposition true and will prove it by showing the lameness of whatever I might have to say or, of course, the lack of lameness thereof - hah!. I will grant you, my non-existent reader, one bone I find the bane of blogger existence - I have a day job and will not use this blog to solicit funds. Dammit. So I will share my comments on my day-to- day and here is an easy one - go read what digby said today (Glen Beck Is Going To Hell), she's way better then I can ever be...

The First Post

My personal understanding of the term dysthymia as it relates to me is that I do not like the ways things are, realize that I am unable to change things to the way I wish they could be and am unwilling to accept things the way they are. Maybe you could call it just having a bad attitude, I certainly heard that enough times while growing up... I was diagnosed with cognitive dysthymia, complete with the inevitable Zoloft script some years back and discovered that their anti-depressant was only good for 1) sexual dysfunction & 2) splitting headaches as the dose was changed. Phooey! So much for better living through chemistry, at least that way.

So I just press on living day to day with a little forethought as to the future and what I can do today to ensure that what I do today doesn't make tomorrow any worse, at least the parts of tomorrow that I have any control over. In my struggles with the day-to-day I have learned that there are things I do have control over and use that power when I can. For example, I used to have a very abusive engineering job, one that almost killed me - I walked away and am still here. Similarly I was once married to a person with schizophrenia whose problems were more than I could deal with - I am no longer married to that person. The word, I guess, is survival and I am, I guess, a survivor, but why I survive I do not know, I guess, it seems to be the only door that is open. So I just survive. And most importantly, why? It is the only thing I know to do. Any other alternative involves too much effort or too much pain, plus there's an elephant in the room I'm not willing to discuss at present, that we can save for later. Enjoy the concept, you've got something to look forward to...