Parsing Blame in the New Old Wild West....

I have doubts about America moving forward without investigating what happened during the past 8 years and addressing it strongly through the laws of the land. I've long thought Bush and Cheney should have been impeached; pretty much from the start, and at least by now that some special prosecutor should be looking at what happened. The toothlessness of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the rest of them, was and is maddening with that old line about moving forward and not dwelling in the past; we wouldn't want to appear like we're dwelling on...er...laws, the constitution, or anything like that....it seems like they all swing between feeling some helplessness about being able to actually get the support they need to investigate fully, and the old forget-the-past-and-move-on line. I guess that with the media the way it is, we always stand the chance of being looked at as dwelling on something that's over and done with; now what are we gonna do?

Well, get with the program or get outta the way; these days I'm all about the blame, the ounce of flesh and rehashing the past, who pays and who slips past, who ends up in jail, at the Hague, or crudely hung while dirty Americans in bars pump their fists in the air. This is about creating a record so that future generations, hell the generation growing up now, see that no one is above the law and that America doesn't operate this way. Blindly moving forward just to create space between us and the crimes serves no one in the long run. It does maintain the status quo, which is more comfortable for alot of people, but isn't that what got us into this in the first place? The questions once asked in high school and college level civics and government classes have all fallen by the wayside in an educational system that is barely able to teach the 3 R's, and without the knowledge of how things are supposed to work, people expect less from their elected officials. Punishing those who break the law is less about a pound of flesh and more about preventing a repeat by looking hard at who we've become and who we want to be; how far have we strayed from the founder's ideals of who we might become. You don't get to erase the past 8 years....ignoring the past is guaranteeing that we will repeat it.

The news of interrogation tapes from Guantanamo being destroyed during the Bush years is no real surprise to me, but news of existing evidence being destroyed by the last vestiges of the CIA is troubling, to say the least. More scary are the newly released Bush memos detailing that what was supposedly the insane ramblings of conspiracy theorists were not so far from the truth. If Bush and Co. had their way, America could easily have been turned into a police state in which the president could order a lockdown of all citizens at any time, and a suspension of our rights. This is dangerous stuff, and if they ever were trying to deny that innocent people were seized and renditioned to other countries, held and tortured, well, these memos are the groundwork by which all Americans could lose any semblance of due process or privacy. The government would only have to decide that the country was in some sort of danger. It could happen in committees where top officials hold up vials of white powders and show tubes and maps...oh, wait a minute, that already happened.

This material is a smoking gun, and its not like its the only smoking gun out there...the Bush administration boldly went about their business above the law because they really believed that they were above the law. The question is, can a country of laws continue on any reasonable path towards healing if we skip over these criminals and the evidence right in front of us? Shouldn't we at least be afforded a special prosecutor to just go over things a little?
The shredders are whirring somewhere in the bowels of the gulags where shit went down....what are we going to do about it? Why hasn't Obama put this all in a state of investigation, frozen so that no more evidence could be destroyed? Where are the special prosecutors?

I'm waiting to see what the Obama line on this is gonna be, and I'm not all so positive about it. And so far he seems to be distancing himself from what the law folks are doing, which is neither here nor there. He did make the memos public without much fanfare, and it seems like any real lawbreaking will be responded to with an actual investigation rather than a pardon, but, I'm not sold. As much as I like his populist way of coming to the American people and laying it out on the table that we have a choice of who we want to be. This is a choice that we have to make and stand behind before our doors are kicked in and our treaties are canceled at our leader's discretion.

I love to see Obama speak, and its refreshing not to have to spit at the TV or run to turn down the sound of the voice of that sneering madman, but I can already feel the malaise of the thousands of people out of work or working 3 jobs and barely making it, just coalescing. It seems like we're in good hands and we're all so busy, so why not just let them try to handle it as best they can?

Regardless of how selfish we want to be in keeping more money in our own accounts, it must be clear that what the Bushies had in the works was the actual dismantling of our system in the guise of a tax break or a stim check. I've lost all faith in any politician actually standing by an idea as big as prosecuting an ex-President and an ex-Vice-President, but in my hopes and dreams I envision a world where a leader is bold enough to just say fuck it and throw politics to the winds to do whats right. Those sorts of leaders usually go down in history, but they don't necessarily have long lived careers (or lives for that matter.) There is a tremendous fear in the government that if we start prosecuting wrong doers, we may be knocking on alot of doors; but isn't it time?

This past weekend I turned on Sunday's This Week with George Snuffleupagus, and saw that no less than Karl Rove was on the panel. There he was sitting at the round table, spouting his beliefs and ideas, as if hes not a criminal and as if George and every other idiot there hasn't been masquerading as a news person at one time or another, or at least as a public servant. How does it work that this guy gets his great American second act before he even responds to the subpoena? How can news people sit on a round table with him as if nothing is wrong? Who are they inviting next, Bernie Madoff?

Even Arianna could not believe her eyes, and thank god in a way, for the netroots and all of my politically astute friends out there, because when this whole thing began, back in the dark days of Bush's first term, I felt so crazy and lost and alone. But with the gelling of the force there, I knew that as much as I was shaking my head and saying no-no, so were thousands across the country opening their laptops to begin the day..."today I saw a living nightmare commenting on my president's bailout package, as if he has anything to say to us ever again!"
As Arianna said, this is no way to keep your viewers at a time when TV is on the way o-u-t.

Just because Rove has a certain amount of expertise in advertising and the old bait and switch, does not mean that he should be given a platform. He sat at the right hand of someone who may be one of the worst criminals in history. Why is he being elevated like this? I guess that its because the punditocracy seems to want to normalize him and therefore lessen their own guilt, as well as keep their bridges to the bad guys because it's likely they will be in power again at some point...I don't know anymore; none of it makes any sense.

So, he gets to sit there all nice and social and give commentary on Obama's strategies? There is something wrong with that picture and I'd prefer to not have him on the screen when I turn on the TV on a bleary Sunday morning. They've had their say and they actually lost big time on the merits of whats happened. So its safe to say that the old Rovian terrorizing of the masses, until they cant think straight or look at evidence, is over. I have no interest in his ideas...not at all.

Time Magazine isn't my favorite read. I tend to shy away from those weekly rags that encapsulate what they think you need to know of the news. They do, however, have something interesting online from time to time, and I caught something this week that I found so interesting that I had to...um...borrow a copy from the gym so I could read it in hard copy. Its the Faith Healing issue, and it has, by the way, a great little piece on how boomers are taking over FaceBook...kick ass!! (And if I hadn't un-friended my niece I would send that link to her, because she seems to think that the thing belongs to the college aged kids with no spending power....as if anyone has any anymore.) But, the piece that got me was about The 25 People to Blame for the Economic Mess We're In., and its lineup of the expected suspects, most of whom I won't go into here because you can follow the link over there if you're really interested in what Time thinks, (and I'm ultimately not).... its the attitude that gets me.

At Time they see fit to barely scratch the surface of the problem, and present it as a faux lineup, with heads crudely pasted on fake bodies or some such silly photoshop. There is Bush and a whole mess of movers and shakers that we may or may not know. And smack dab in the middle is YOU, the American Consumer; come on now, take your medicine! You got yourself into this and now that you cant get yourself out of it you're gonna complain and ask to be bailed out? Wait a minute!

I'm going to try to explain what I've had circling for days only to gel today in light of old Karl sitting there, and I'm gonna do it without slanting things towards my own socialist tendencies and without letting the American consumer off the hook:

Americans are bombarded with advertisements that imply that the American Dream is just a credit card away. We are offered cards upon checkout at every store from Target to Tiffany's, and promised 15% off our purchase that day if we sign up. Most of us have many of these cards, not realizing that they are mostly owned by a few big banks (aka Chase usually...Chase owns just about everything these days.) We've been fed a line and promised certain things that are explained in small print, too small to read, and we've signed up gladly because next week's paycheck will surely come and we'll surely pay that off. Of course the interest rate is 21% or more, and if we don't get the entire balance paid that month, or within the designated period, the 15% we saved is only an offset of that for the first month. Everything is like that these days; nothing is simple as things were even 20 years ago when I was putting things on layaway and not picking up the merchandise until I had paid it off!

The get-it-now, need-it-now culture has sprouted out of nowhere, but it couldn't have happened if the banking industry hadn't become more and more reliant on the consumer credit part of their business. It used to be hard to get a credit card, and then suddenly every kid was getting offers and you didn't have to have an income or a credit record. You can shake your finger at the people who signed up for mortgages they couldn't afford and didn't understand, and people who lost track of the money needed to support those plastic cards, but not without noting that deregulation has allowed for the biggest advertising schemes in history to dupe us all into believing that we could have it all! And more, that ALL was not good enough. If you had the house you needed the bigger house....if you had the bigger house you needed to win the lottery. The American Dream has become more, more, more; and I'm sorry, but that little secure job and comfy life on the cul-du-sac just wont cut it. That's because we are AMERICA!
Look comrade, at a point, you gotta decide whats the norm, and if what you aspire to, like the rest of us, is winning the lottery, well, chances are stronger that you'll get hit by lightening. So maybe its time to set out some basic norms, so that we aren't struggling to achieve what has been presented to us and what is unachievable.

All of American life has become predatory...how many of us can really make it on just our incomes without relying on credit from time to time, or all the time? Its not just that credit is an integral part of the capitalistic landscape, its that our culture has turned on itself and somehow we find ourselves in a situation where it matters little if the purchaser/borrower loses everything, so long as the predatory bank is bailed out.

Now, that predatory bank that I owe a certain amount to on a card has been sending out fliers. I often find some blowing down the street and they sit unread in garbage cans. Those fliers, it turns out, say that the cycle is being made smaller and the minimum payment is being raised. At that point, if like me, you have automatic payments set up from the bank and you're not checking all the time, you're screwed! The deal is this, you get called on the day you're late, and as you're saying that your payment isn't due till next week and rifling through the stack of bills, they offer you a deal to pay on the phone for a small fee of $14.95....then, since you're late, they charge $39 as a late fee. Oh, and that thing they used to do when you went over your limit where your card was denied? Most of 'em don't do that anymore; instead they allow you to go over your limit and then they charge you an overlimit fee!...oh, and by the way, in the other little flier with tiny letters that you may or may not have gotten in your junk mail there was mention of how they were lowering your limit....so chances are you don't know that a card that had $1000 on it actually now has half that! And one more thing, your card holder bank has just bought all the little banks and they now own all your store cards...and they've reported you to the credit bureau and in response to all of this your limits are raised, your minimum payment is raised, your credit is lowered and you cant get a consolidating loan to try to make sense of this because your score was lowered for any one of 3 or 4 reasons which range from just silly to insane! Welcome to my world!

Of course, the whole thing is stupid and we shoulda known, but how many of us are able to read the fine print legalese and fight the brainwashing....the brainwashing...yes, I said it! Besides that and more important is that many of us have been putting groceries and medical bills on these cards...forget about if there is an emergency and a huge hospital bill.
So, I take responsibility for my own credit, and Ive never paid late until they started to change the date regularly, but obviously Ive only paid a day or few late and I always paid much more than the minimum! Who stops them from from doing whatever they want? You know, you can refuse these changes but then they are gonna shut down all of your cards and call in the loans...and remember, they own all the little cards too! This is all AFTER we, the tax payers, bailed them out!...now they want more! You know what? why not let them fail to hell and see what happens?
Credit may be the cornerstone of business from the newspaper stand on the corner to the biggest banks, but there is no reason not to bail out the businesses that have a need to be guaranteed to their vendors or whatever. It sure would be cheaper, wouldn't it?

Meanwhile, back to my Sunday morning hate fest, and seething by now, Ive got to ask: Who is the king of brainwashing and deregulation? Karl Rove! The same Karl Rove who now gets to sit on a panel on Sunday morning and discuss Obama's bail-out stimulus plan! The same lying cheating neocon who so firmly believes in that odd somehow bigger "less government," privatization, and deregulation of everything, until the financial dealings of this country are more like the wild west than a civilized society. That's the same Rove who masterminded the terra threat and the go shopping to support your country lines. There has not been a time when Rove wasn't sitting at the right hand of the president, and therefore he doesn't deserve a place on the roundtable until hes cleared, even if its a kangaroo court set up just to smooth the transition. He has refused to answer a subpoena on many occasions, and now hes saying he will but there are always rules and things that cant be asked in the interest of national security. Well, I'm not feeling very secure, are you?

I'm also not so happy to note that he does not appear in Time's lineup of who to blame....how about looking at him as being criminally culpable in the government's disinformation campaign, causing the disassembly of how we had previously handled money in this country? Is it legal to lie and propagandize until there is little left of this house of cards? And is this someone who should be advising us on the quick progress of Obama, who is at least doing something; something that Rove didn't suggest that his buddies in the oval office do in the last few years.

This whole thing and who is to blame is really not so hard to figure out; just follow the money, pundit chairs and book deals. If the game was to loot the country and then hand the war and ruined economy over the the democrats, and then float that its Obama's problem and try to even tie it to Clinton, as if Bush had nothing to do with any of this, well then Rove is a fucking genius! The catch is that 80% of Americans believe that Obama inherited these problems from Bush, so its apparently gonna take a little more than what Rove has been trying to dish in the talking points, along with disgusting flunky "party leader" Limbaugh. So, maybe Americans are wising up and maybe, just maybe, we're sick to death of being lied to.

So, who is to blame? it seems to me that every damned bit of this economic crisis can be traced back to that day that Reagan was standing at a podium saying that large corporations don't need the government to police them! They don't need regulation; they can regulate themselves, by god!!I remember staring in disbelief at the man basically carrying out what had been planned for a long time, and what was the beginning of the end of the American Dream.

Government involvement or disinvolvement in how money has been handled in this country brings me to a very interesting piece on 60 Minutes last Sunday night. It seems that one Harry Markopolos figured out that Bernie Madoff was a fraud and he told the SEC quite a few times over many years, and they didn't investigate properly. It was quite straight forward actually, and the hedge funds in Greenwich that were making money hand over fist by putting client's money into Madoff's fund, should have realized something was amiss. Its impossible for a fund to not ebb and flow with the market, and its impossible that no one noticed that something was wrong. What seems clear is that those who were able to pull a profit from Madoff, kept raking it in in an impossible scenario that was as intoxicating as it was a ticking time bomb. Any money person could see the few things that Markopolos found, and the SEC should have looked. Madoff's neice had married an ex SEC man, and he was heard to say that he had ties with the officials. There are huge conflicts of interest in every area of this, and beyond that Madoff is such a sociopath that he is unable to even feel the pain of the not so rich people who thought they were secure only to end up having to go and work menial jobs to live day to day, its clear that lax enforcement puts a big piece of the blame on the government that we fund to police these things.

New York Magazine has a great article on Madoff as The Monster Mensch, which is telling in its dissection of the making of someone so removed from what he has become, and one who clearly is a sociopath. But what interested me was the depiction of Madoff as an climber, an outsider, who upon achieving the dream and being in a position to hold court with some of the most influential people in the world of finance, still was the scrappy boy from the streets. He retained a sort of anger at the people for whom he had made fortunes, and felt "ennobled" that he had worked his way up and enabled these people to have such fine lives. Maybe the resentment was a necessary first step in the break from ethical reality, in that things would go south or had already gone south, and so a bit of anger and resentment made it all the easier to fabricate his detailed statements and lie so convincingly, while acting like he cared for his clients and employees so much. As an outsider, he created an exclusive club that people were so happy to be in that they didnt question. It reminds me of Stevie Rubell standing at the velvet ropes of Studio 54, a little balding guy who never really fit in, controlling who would get in and who wouldnt; always there was that underbelly of resentment for people not of whatever the code was for that night....the shoes wrong, the chains wrong, the party mix wrong....and regardless of the law breaking that went on inside, once you were in, you werent gonna rock the boat.

Madoff is in the lineup of Time's 25 people to blame for the financial crisis, you see, along with Chris Cox, who was the Chief of the SEC, and who didn't investigate the allegations of wrongdoing in the Madoff case. Even as Cox claims to have lacked the authority to do much, as if his hands were tied by deregulation, he still didn't stand up and blow the whistle....There were reports of wrongdoing all over the place, not just in Madoff's case, but the SEC lacked authority to investigate? It seems to me that a few people were blowing whistles and the masters of the universe who were running these supposed "regulatory" agencies lacked the balls rather than the authority. It seems that the concern over and over these days is in one's own career and future rather than ethics and logical decision making.

The money in many of these cases has disappeared, but yesterday the paper noted that Switzerland holds some 147,000 American accounts where money has been stashed tax free. Of those they will only divulge a few in current hearings amongst a particular 52,000. How can that be ethical? You know what? UBS is one of the biggest businesses in my town, having gotten huge tax breaks to build its headquarters here, and I dont see why they should be given such a huge footprint in the US if they are harboring the money of tax cheats and criminals. It has to do with Swiss law not allowing Swiss employees of the banks to implicate themselves in crimes, but shouldnt foreign companies operating in the US have to follow our laws and not be screwing us over offshore? I say shut them out of America until they pony up the names of all of the cheats. I think we might see many familiar names on those accounts, and we might recover some of the missing Madoff money as well. Oh, and those big financial operations that make Stamford the second largest trading floor in the country; operating on tax breaks meant to bring jobs to the area. Those operations are laying off thousands of people in little bursts. So, what are we getting and who is protecting our citizens?

This country is rife with really sick people. It seems that no sooner have the laws been softened than the movers and shakers begin some descent into a convenient madness that is really just a form of what happens when the Freudian id loses its social restraints. I have long marveled at the human brain's ability to twist situations to a point where it makes perfect sense to resent and blame the victim as you steal them blind. The unfettered id is not a good thing, but it is a pretty transparent thing, just like the accounts that cant possibly make the return they are making. It is the thing that we, as human animals, have been working against, towards a more ordered and kinder society. It is the animal urge to fight for resources as if they were limited in this forum where the people in question have more than any group could ever need. Either we just admit that we migrate and kill each other for resources, or we try to keep up this facade of the good churchgoing populace...the seedy underside is always there no matter what part of history you look at. The common thread is always that we strive to be better and to end violence and unfair tactics that leave part of the population out in the cold in a way that is well removed from the Darwinism of yesterday, before the decks were stacked against certain groups from the getgo.

And who are the leaders in the unfettered department; the inability to understand your effect on others, and to see how big of a footprint you have, or the air that you suck out of a room? The most ill of them all? Rush Limbaugh is claiming that prize proudly as he opens another button on his shirt because its s-e-x-y! In the following clip Janeane Garafalo and Keith Olbermann discuss the incredible pathos there, and what is great is that its just so clear that Limbaugh is a lonely, ugly, guy who is out of the loop, abhorrent, self loathing, and so even in the middle of adoring fans, he finds a way to hate, and a way to soak up the bucks; while also furthering the cause that allows him to profit off of the misfortune of our country. Rush just serves as an example of the the other half that I have struggled to understand for so many years.
Its the Rovian hook and lie, the hate in their eyes that gives permission to all of the writhing ids, barely held in check out there, to go for it. Its a devilish wink and nod that lets the underbelly of our society know that its OK to take what your instinct tells you are resources, and not to feel much empathy for anyone.
The fascinating thing is that with these Bush neocons, the KKK hood is off. They boldly display themsleves so that their employers will know where to send the checks. hate sells in this culture...and maybe it would be about time to ask ourselves why? Let them throw back the freedom of speech argument at us all they want. At some point we have to stop trying to be so politically correct and call a spade a spade.




Christian religions are based on the all-men-are-born-bad model, which seems to allow for alot of straying and repenting, with forgiveness by the ultimate authority a given bonus, even for the worst crimes. Darwinists see the prehensile tail and layers of pre-reptilian brain telling the human man to survive and to excel, and whats so wrong with that? Its understandable and it allows for a certain acceptance of the crimes committed in the service of resources and land. Its a hard cruel world out there in the animal kingdom, and as much as you can dress up a chimp or the human race for that matter, eventually their instincts take over. Its very hard to tell a billionaire that he has enough money, because its not about money anymore; its about pounding your chest and peeing on the edges of your territory.

Fundamentalist religion seems to be about one angle or another that allows a group to be exclusive of those who might otherwise be welcomed as a brother; meantime denying the survival of the fittest and espousing the survival of the one that follows the convenient word....and of course if you stray there is the forgiveness as well....but the whole thing seems to end in a fiery pit anyway, with a heaven goal, so all bets are off. Strange that so many of the other 50% have embraced the fringe of the fundamentalist creed.

The deregulated government and waning culture seems to ultimately free the barely contained id usually contained by the weak vessels of theory proven wrong, to wreak havoc on those who might trust in the logical and empathetic order of things. You would thinkthat in absence of some superego, a social structure might come forward to keep this all in line so that no one gets hurt. Where is the superego or even a little regulation? When did it become OK and even just part of business to state that you screwed people over but it was lawful? If the conflict of interest is between the patient in the hospital and the shareholders....when does it stop? when you've denied care because your first responsibility is to the business dealings of the shareholders? The answer is that it doesn't stop, and it may signal the end of the cycle of pure unfettered capitalism...which might mean a sharp turn back with a new administration or possibly that a tipping point has been reached and the whole thing is gonna come crashing down.

We live in whats left of the shell of a country looking over the fallout of the last 8 years, while those who are not served whatsoever by espousing the neocon ideas of yesterday, continue on in what is the cognitive dissonance of the conscious colliding with whats gone on, or just plain old-fashioned denial. Its sick and it appears sick, even to regular old conservatives looking at what has become of their party. I dont want to play games anymore; I'm tired. There is no status quo in this ever changing landscape of the spotty history of our country. There is only us deciding who we want to be and shutting down the bad influences out there. Bad begets bad, and anger begets hate and blame.... Short of using our laws, damn the torpedos, we return to the gutter that we barely have emerged from.

Who's to blame? You tell me...


Time's 25 people to blame for the financial crisis Vote on their level of guilt



c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Our Futile Attempts at Some Semblence of Justice...And Trying Not to Forget What We Were Trying to Remember a Second Ago....

In the better late than never file of don't hold your breath wishes we got a lil' surprise today that likely won't add up to a hill of beans. The house Judiciary Committee finally filed criminal contempt of congress charges against White House Attorney,Harriet Miers, and Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolton for disregarding subpoenas issued to them regarding the firings of US Attorneys last year.
According to Brad Blog, this story broke today, and is hanging only on one last chance being offered to the White House to produce Miers and Bolton for testimony, before the motion goes before the entire House. And then according to Raw Story, the White House doesn't give a shit, as usual, calling a congressional criminal contempt charge a "futile filing that won't go anywhere." The pathetic thing is that they are probably right. If these charges had legs, the White House, such as it is, would pardon them or retroactively pass a law or whatever else they have in their bag o' tricks.

And that's the rub; the real contempt that the White House has for our system should be looked at closely. It is, as Sam Seder said on Sunday on his unequaled show, Seder on Sundays, a form of mental illness that has become common in the right wing of this thing.
I hate to go into Janeane Garafolo's cognitive dissonance theory, which I seem to find reason to return to all too often these days, but I guess I have to. In embracing the contempt that these people feel for the system and what they think is their God given right or due, they have confused the wrong and right of things, and in that confusion they end up embracing the dark side because thew reality of what they've done to our system and to the people who live by this system would be just too much for an ordinary mind to handle. When you embrace a failed idea that has hurt so many people, how can you live with yourself...and further, it takes a particularly strong person to face the truth and to accept their own flawed thinking in a circumstance. of the many words that I could think of to describe this bunch, strong is not one of them.

If a candidate purports to support the Constitution and laws of the United States while he is running for office, how can he turn 180 degrees over these long years and continue as if his administration is above the law...whatever laws are left...and change the entire tone of America's place in the international community. Isn't there some sorta recall for this? Don't we have some sorta recourse?

Oh yeah...impeachment....and I guess that's futile too, as is trying to prevent nominees for important posts with alot of power from taking offices where they might just continue the repugnant practices that the criminals who were previously in those offices practiced. Futile...


That's what Schumer tells us anyway. Its something about the devil you know. But before you know it, you've embraced that devil so hard that you lose any ability to tell right from wrong and you forget how things used to be.

We're fucked.



C/P on Brilliant at Breakfast

Having a Great Time, Wish You Were Here.....Big Brother, Janeane Garafolo, Fundamentalist Christians, and 24 Hours of Sheer Torture; But, I Digress...

Here I am...vacationland, USA, and any notable news that Ive been able to pick up here is pretty blunted in that I haven't had the time to look at the TV news with the sort of depth that usually allows me to digest it and spit it out as an integral part of my own life story...is that narcissistic?
So, heaven forbidding that I ever skip the daily grind of life with me, below what I could glean of the newz from the supermarket rack and the Boston paper, is my vacationland posting of current musings on the other side of summer...for anyone who reads that far...and here, for the rest of you, are the newsy things that have struck me in the past few days. Forget hurricanes and politics, lets talk TV!

Apparently, after a terrible last season, the suits at 24 have wised up and made a cast addition that makes sense on so many levels. Yes, the rumors are true, Janeane Garafolo has been tapped to be an agent investigating Jack Bauer's latest escapade. More interesting than the casting is that there is some talk about the ever reworking storyline and how the interaction between Janeane and, executive producer, Joel Surnow, will likely add a breash of fresh air to what has become the stagnant old Bushco torture-the-terrorists plotlines of late. Hopefully, Janeane's intelligence and liberal sensibility will be apparent, even subtly, in the writing, but I'd hope also to see some onscreen debate about the very real issues that are gripping the country right now.

The country has started to turn towards the realization that the big lie that this war is built on is not just hard luck on strangers far away or fodder for a People Magazine cover story, but is hitting home, if it hadn't already, in direct full fledged hardships on all of us.
The one reliable thing about most Americans these days is that they definitely will look out for number one, so you can be sure that as this thing starts to touch more and more people directly, the numbers abandoning ship from the promise of lotto winnings and big shiny prizes of tax cuts, will grow. Maybe its petty to not look up from your National Enquirer until gas goes above $3 a gallon, but hey, whatever works. Money talks, and in America, its a very fine line between selling your rights for the empty promises of the possibility that one day YOU TOO could own this timeshare-win the lotto-be a millionaire through the power of 10, and not being able to afford that gallon of milk or a doctor's appointment.
Its time for the producers of shows like 24 to follow suit in focusing more attention on the part of Jack Bauer that wrestles with what he has done in the name of his country...what people like him are doing in real life every day in OUR names. It's a worthwhile discussion to have with an audience , considering the resounding reconsideration of who we'd like to have a beer with, as opposed to who we want to plan our wars. The big issue for me also is the huge number of vets who are returning from a war based on a lie, and who will likely, in a reversal of the bold propaganda out there about the liberals, (really the majority of the country at this point,) being anti war and anti soldier, find a welcoming public and a less than welcoming government and a system that is not prepared for the numbers of them, nor the types of problems that they will have, from brain injury to PTSD. This government is not set up for the people, and unless there is a subsidiary of Halliburton that is outsourcing veteran's administration duties, we can be sure that there will be little governmental interest in what society will do with the people who have served our country so bravely. Planning is not a big strength with this crew. At the same time, we will hopefully be seeing a resurgence of patriotic feeling for that fabled New Deal of yesterday, and a renewed interest in how we take care of our own, and who we want to be as Americans. Hell, at that point its only a hop, skip, and a jump to ethics, philosophy, decision-making, and all that other trivia that we used to try to teach our youngsters.

So, any cultural icon like Bauer who might want to last in the coming climate, will want to take a look at whats happening out there in America. And who better to usher in this new era than our pal Janeane? Controversial? yes! Intelligent and neurotic? Yes! Missed horribly by her former listeners? Yes!
In bullshit news, via E! Online, is the silly tidbit thrown in that Janeane left AAR because of a "rift" with Sam Seder, which may or may not have played a part in things, in that they squabble like brother and sister...but it seems to me that she is doing plenty in her career, and from what I could tell at the time, AAR wasn't the happiest place to work, and she herself said that what was going on in the country was pretty devastating for her. In any case she had stopped taking a salary long before she left, and was already coming and going on the West Wing There are so many reasons that I oculd cite, with Danny Goldman's management being my favorite guess...but the one I would focus the least on is some huge rift with a guy who she regularly guests with. Sheesh! It is just downright belittling to thrown that crap at the end of an article as if to say that sure people hire her and shes great, but look at how petty we heard she was back then....who and what does that serve?

Another fantastic thing...and I don't say this lightly in public...is that this season of Big Brother is the best that Ive seen maybe ever! The wild card estranged father and daughter have turned into quite a story, and the fact that the guy is a wild, tattooed, bar manager, Dick, who is not only really smart, but also a good guy underneath it all, is compelling for me, and not only because I always cheer for the tattooed lunatic in any game!
I guess that what got me is that there is a black girl in the house who is a fundamentalist Christian, (yes I am going to parlay this into something political,) and seeing how she prays and talks to her Jesus, is as eye opening as Jesus Camp (which I watched the other night and highly recommend,) in that the weeping, eye rolling, craziness, and the need to "testify" and then feign rightous indignation when Dick questions her, and finally starts to snipe at her about her Jesus failing her. Just listening to her conversations with god, are enough to illustrate how any cult could get past the predicted dates of armegeddon again and again, and then happily drink the kool-aid when all else fails. "Oh my Jesus, I guess I am not meant to understand your ways...so I will have to just trust you my Jesus, that you have another plan for me, rather than to allow me to win this million dollars and become one of those people who are benefitted by President Bush's tax cuts...oh Jesus, I trust you so, I do, I do..." (cue the tears, clench the fists, shake violently, roll around...cut!...Print!...thats a wrap!)

The ongoing gameplay by Dick, which has allowed him during some of these weeks to really take the religious element down, has been worth the price of admission in itself. Its apparent to me that Dick is a liberal guy and also that he really doesn't care to tear anyone's god down...but why does this crazy girl need to vomit her belief all over everyone? That overly agressive proselytizing is taught at the Jesus Camp....where, before Haggart was shamed out of his pulpit and the camp itself was shut down, children were groomed to be soldiers who are willing to die for Jesus; broken down and built up, along with the obligatory pounding music and terrifying dance numbers.
You see, out there somewhere, everywhere, are christian conservatives who are looking to the radical Muslims and saying, (out loud,) that if they can groom an entire generation of western hating child soldiers in Madrasas, that we'd better get on the case. This is an arms race and the nuclear weapons are humans who are willing to die for a cause. It takes alot of brainwashing to accomplish that, and obviously, its being done. There is a reason that the Left Behind series of books is the biggest seller in America...and also why the Left Behind mission went to so much trouble to make a video game aimed at children, where you choose your weapon, ride next to Jesus, and smite all the sinners left behind after the rapture. This is sick!
Thanks to the producers of Big Brother for the interesting casting choices which have given us a chance to look into some very different worlds and maybe gain a little knowledge along the way.

And on to the good stuff...not!

Greetings from the the Cape of Cod, where I've been catching a few cool overcast days and trying to not spin too far back to my childhood of hot days in the back seat of the VW bug, lost on back roads, looking for Scargo Lake Potters (where I hope to never again go...and which Mom can't seem to shut up about today,)...and how differently every one of us perceives all thats happened and the lives we've led. And then there is also what we agree on, which usually involves politics and anti organized religion sentiment; social issues, which stand in for the ingrained pain of who was or is an active alcoholic, and how exactly things went back then, driving around in the second hand VW bug in the heat, my sister and I, and Mom in her world of endless beauty and possibility, which definitely has its moments in escapism, but is not where I'm able to go these days.
So, here I am in this incredible place, where the bay tide recedes out for what seems like a mile, leaving pools of hermit crabs and little quick darty fish, before it turns on a dime and roars back in by nightfall, making a deep water beach where you could be up to your neck in dark waters unexpectedly quickly, doubting the rip tide and hearing the Jaws music in the core of your primal brain ...such is the slope of the sad; unnoticeable during the day when the flats stretch out forever, then somehow, the curve of the earth becomes apparent in the power of the tide and you could slide right under for how steep it seems.
Anyway, of course, this is a week where my William is having a terrible time, and its exhausting for me...couldn't reach the Dr. because my cell phone lost power in the night and then I somehow slept late after a pretty sleepless night; apparently too late.
Ben does not love this place the way we do, but maybe you have to do this from the time you're a little kid to ingrain it properly, and also Will has not been easy to be with (to say the least)...and I know that Ben's experience with beaches involved some long ago seeing of his father in Haiti and hating the heat, humidity, and bugs. I realized a long time ago that Ben may just be a city guy, which will be really good for him if he can end up at a college like NYU, Colombia, or Yale. I tend to automatically write those off for Will because the setting is just wrong for the kind of person he is...too much hustle and bustle and noise. But anyway, everyone is sort of born into who the are, and then slowly confirms it by how well they weather their surroundings and what they are able to get used to.

I dont know what draws me to the cool overcast days, except for the summers of my childhood which were spent on the shoulders of the season up here, when the prices drop and the tourists beat a path back to their regular lives; I see them now, tired moms with double jogger strollers and a straggling bunch of kids pushing heavy loads of beach necessities after a long day at the public beach with all the little kids...doing the summer thing with other moms and their kids, pushing that load back to the little houses up the street that are better for younger kids because one has to go much further to get in trouble on the shore. We get a place that is on the actual beach. I cant remember a time when we didnt, even when I was a little kid... I guess you takes your chances....but I feel for those tired moms of multiple toddlers who all might go and drown themselves out of curiosity, and the crushing responsibility that they share in small groups of sunburned women and their sandy kids....walking tired up the road.
Its been a long summer that has flown by so fast...and besides the issues of they day, impeachment possibilities, Big Brother, and the great fun of the Yearly Kos, I feel like I've been running ragged, and like I have to simplify if Im going to make it through this year in one piece.
So I am resting finally on day 3 of my "vacation"....as I wait for the Dr's call and contemplate the real possibility of having to bring William home tonight or tomorrow if things don't get better.
And meantime a chicken hatched...yes, don't ask...I am travelling with chicken eggs in a traveling incubator...what else would anyone expect of me? How else would I, could I plan things?

The great thing is that this location is perfect and the people who own it allowed me to bring my bird, Kitty the Jardine...which I extrapolated to be permission to being Vince, the new Indian Ringneck Parakeet...and then of course, I have the chicken eggs in the incubator which are either all gonna hatch in the next 2 days or...they smell for a reason. Its not a rotten smell, but a barnyard smell...so Im hoping to get at least a few live hatches. If not, I have 5 more chicks coming next week, so Pearl doesnt have to live alone.
















I finally downloaded my pictures from Kos onto this laptop, and there at the beginning were pics of some of the chicks that were tragically lost while I was galavanting 'round Chicagoland...and they were really beauties...I must say that even though they were only chickens and all that, I'm so very sorry for the timing that made me have to leave them when I did...
But hell, they could have been scrambled eggs or fryers...when you do this egg and chick shopping thing you realize that people are buying 20+ fryer/BBQ packs of chicks to raise for meat. So, my little paradise is worth a shot for any old egg even if it sometimes turns out badly.

Back at the homestead, look what Rosie laid....
What to do, what to do?...

Marc Maron, Janeane Garafolo, and Henry Rollins Rock NYC.....

Last night Will and I went down to NYC to see Janeane Garafolo, Marc Maron, and Henry Rollins perform at the Gramercy Theater (where they will be performing till this Sunday.)
We met up with Jill and the dashing and famous (in some quarters) Mr. Brilliant, and had a lovely time, laughing and nodding and feeling validated in that someone gets it...with Jill laughing so hard at some points that she made a little high pitched squeak, and Mr B with his head in his hands...sometimes the community reaction is as good as the funny itself.
First Janeane literally rolled and crawled onto the stage after entering from the back of the theater like a mini prizefighter, looking very pale and thin and in her ever present suede-ite fake fur trimmed coat, that all the girls had in high school at one point ...and she said something about using it to hide her upper arms, which seems sorta sad to me...and coming from someone who already had her chin lipoed, well, if you're wearing a coat all the time maybe its time for that long overdue consult....or did the chin hurt too much? Her hair is in a long black mat-ish punk do, and though she goes on abotu her weight, she seems on the thin side in jeans and a T-shirt, as far as I could tell with the coat on for the whole set.
Anyway, I really like Janeane, and on alot of levels she reminds me of myself and how I think...a little too much maybe...and at an earlier age and totally different stage, like, before all these years of therapy twice a week, (and, of course with the love of a good psychopharmacologist...as Bush would say, "practicing his love....")
The thing that got me originally on her radio show, was probably the thing that pissed most people off about her; it's is her innate understanding of psychology, power, and the blindness of people to the obvious sickness all around us ...she is also angry and isolated and searching....
and brilliant, and thinks so clearly about so many things, even though she rambles quite a bit.
She reminds me of one of those tough Bohemian Brooklyn Girls...um...me....who is really sensitive and hurt but puts on a pretty good show of the toughness....
Anyway, I love her commentary and I was happy to hear her...I only got up to get a drink when she started in on the Rome thing, which I had heard already and might have gotten more into if I actually watched Rome. For some reason I can't get into it...and then I realize that maybe I can get the DVD set later or something...
Anyway, I know that feeling of always being stuck on 13th St and University ...as if the Iguana was still up there looking down towards the Forbes Museum and all the little eggs it held...and being in the place where the eye makeup is never right...except that now I smear it on in the car and text and drive, while I run around, and somewhere in there I just stopped...I dunno...maybe its getting more firmly into your 40's and feeling more like this is it, so live it....
Janeane is a much braver and stronger person than I am in so many ways, and she is one of my heros as someone who spearheaded the antiwar movement in the very beginning and had to endure threats and abuse from everyone from the disgusting sneering talking heads on TV to the likes of the South Park guys (though that was a pretty faboo movie besides the part where Janeane gets blown up.)
The really funny and touching thing is that through the angst and anger, emerges this girl who pulls out a puppy book and comes to the edge of the stage to show pictures of puppies...
I have 5 dogs and birds and 2 snakes and a hedgehog and a puffer fish and a blue lobster...and a wild basement snake who is long as me...and I also have puppy picture books...and naked baby bird pictures too....The cute and the funny collide at tragedy and dismay sometimes....Janeane gets that.

Janeane was followed by sweetie Marc Maron, and I guess its silly of me to actually act like I can give any sort of review because his commentary has been the soundtrack of my life for too long.... except for the guy stuff that I don't get, like the porno obsession. But thats OK...just natural I suppose...who knows? I've only ever seen one porno and I found it to be sort of mean. The guy kept saying that he had picked the wrong one...like, it shoulda been more romantic with less slapping and screeching or something. But really, why watch it if you could be doing it, (minus the slapping and ho/bitch talk,) and who would ever do it with those people and in those situations?...But I don't judge...I just report. What I can say is that I was worried abotu the girl and I still sometimes look back and worry about her...so why add to my worries. Im too empathetic to not wonder who they are and what the story really is with them.
Marc was hilarious and great, and hes got a bunch of new material...and some of those old chestnuts, that even William knows by heart, are always morphing a little depending on where hes been and what hes seen.
Weighed down by a huge Carnegie deli sandwich which he didn't want to go to waste in his frugal lodgings at the Y (...due to some Orbitz deal that didn't mention the lack of a private bathroom! ...and a hallmate named the "Captain," who may have been more bit than reality, but who cares?,) Marc is back on the meat diet and ...ugh, buddy, how could you eat all of that? Those sandwiches are for, like, 4 people! I always try to go for the noodle soup there...its light and its good. There is something about that meat though....
He weighed in on everything from Imus to the cats to his family. There was a little something for everyone...and even in this bigger venue, he was able to lean in and hold the place in his hand as if talking to a bunch of friends....and yeah, hes funny as shit.
The little tidbit that I have for you all is a little known trivia fact that no one would ever've known, except for my brilliant boy's strange hobbies: Maron is/was an origami folder! Of course, Will, who is 13 and acts it, had to roll his eyes at the simplicity of the models mentioned and any mention of CUTTING...but yes, Maron did origami as a young man. He made a camel with a rider once even! (Will calls that "easy!"...I call it brilliant!)
In the car Will said that he was so upset that the one time that he didn't have a pocket full of cool models, he really wanted some handy to show Marc....thus canceling out the eye rolling, because he was really impressed under that veneer of cooler than you horrible OLD people!!...almost as old as my mom...yech!!
As far as the radio goes, well, anyone who knows me, knows that as much as I miss Maron on the air, I was relieved that he moved away from those people. Show biz is a bad enough deal without keeping going back toward the same dysfunctional shit and expecting a different outcome. I have continued to worry about the rest of the crew there too, especially Sammy...and look what happened! I am happy that Marc is out of there...and I'm glad that he is happy and at home with his Mishna. How much can one guy give up for a insecure situation in which you are guaranteed to be screwed in one way or another?
There are always other irons in the fire in this business, especially when one is as talented as Marc is, and I think that we will be seeing alot more of him on TV, in movies, in print....and hopefully on the radio.
Its just that the cause of liberal talk and what was being built there, has been disassembled in favor of a business model that...and this founding group has really given alot towards spreading the truth in an atmospheres that previously was almost total lies and silence, and encouraging people to get off their asses and work, vote, run for office, blog, write, and scream their heads off. That is no small accomplishment and they can all be proud, regardless of what happens next.


Its funny that Im not really all that familiar with Henry Rollins, because it seems like everyone that I know and like, knows him and likes him. He went on last and then he went on and on....As Marc said, when I told him that I wasnt familiar with Henry, "Well, you got alot of him tonight!"
Which, I should say, was great, if a little draining, because the guy has some kinda wild energy and a great and positive outlook on the really hard and bad things that go on all the time. He reminds me of a big kid who is just so full of ideas and interest in the world...and yet he is a 47 year old ex rocker, has a TV show, and does the commentary thing with CDs and other merchandise tie-ins. He was on a phone booth billboard as I was driving out of the city, and I was marveling that even the IFC seems to actually promote their shows. I havent seen that alot lately on what might be considered to be an obscure or art channel and show.
I suppose I also was not into his band at the time, whenever that was, and I just missed a whole swath of cultural development. I'm supposeing that it was part of my country rockin, Montana years and into my Maine to CT raising this kid alone time....? Was I listening to Sesame Street Sings and watching the OJ trial?
Well, anyway, Henry has been travelling all over and most recently has been to Iran, where he stealthily snuck in undercover and met with alot of interesting people. This is the first stop on his Axis of Evil tour, as hes committed to go and meet with the real people that live in these countries. He is a good person to do this sort of thing, but he seems to fancy himself as a sorta 007-ish spy, and has managed to duck what seems to be real danger of getting picked up by the police for being an outspoken activist type of person and an American.
His telling of his experiences from his bold and loud love of New York City and his wonder at how it all works so well and fits together (tape and spit and gum, Henry...take it from one who knows...) and his bizarre rock tales ...but mainly his political views that make you want to get out of your chair and DO something...are all really moving, and sweet and funny...but also I found his bit to be very draining....sometimes I wondered where Henry was in there...but I got the feelign that in his life he is a pretty intense and passionate person.
I dont imagine him laying around doing nothing very much...tho I could be wrong.
The great thing about Henry Rollins that struck me from whne Janeane brought it up to when he started going on about the reemergence of dinosaurs, is his love of reptiles.
I so wanted to tell him abotu the basement snake and about Leon and Snow who eat the frozen mice that I have been picturing here...and about the huge abscess in basement snakes head last year and hwo the vet said that ti was brain cancer and that he would surely die...only to find out fromt he wildlife vet that ti was an abscess from a rat bite and that after surgery and a week in the hospital he could go back free in the basement!
Reptiles are very close to birds...and reptile folks often naturally move in the bird direction....as I have...and scientists have just proven a link between birds and dinosaurs via DNA (which I coulda told them just from common sense...but anyway.)
Thats what I wanted to tell Henry...
But after the show I was tired and just wanted to talk to Marc, introduce Will, and head home....
Maybe Ill get the basement snake link to him.

It was a great show and a better end to a very crazy busy week....a sad time because AAR is basically over for me unless they make a quick turnaround...I know that alot of people out there feel the same way....and a busy time with taxes, war, the news, and family drama here that just goes on and on....

Watching the nest box and more on the rest to come....
I highly recommend this show...if any of these folks come to your town, check em out....I hope to see more of them all soon...
And as Jill said, besides the obvious need for Marc to be back on the radio (Janeane wanted to stop because the whole thing was becomming too much for her,) is that someone should give Rollins a radio show. He might be too much of a live wire and too quick on the trigger...but he sure would be great!
...maybe XM/Sirius

Social Discourse: Imus Fired; So Long Sammy; Lionel Who? Marc Maron, Janeane Garafolo and Henry Rollins Appear at the Gramercy Theater.Email-gate!!

Now that the world is safe from Don Imus and we've at long last got a 99.99% certainty that Larry Birkhead is Danilynne Smith Stern Birkhead's real daddy, I suppose that we can move on to the last day of Sam Seder's fabulous show which is dying even as thousands scream for its reprieve.... and then what to do with the driving round time until he is back on Sundays to add another 2 hours (minus commercials, of course) to my podcast lineup that includes Ring of Fire and Diggnation, along with assorted NY Times audio op-eds....? What to do?

Imus:
I've long felt like Imus' voice was one of negativity in a sea of disgusting white guy sewage brought to us by the major networks...but I dont discount the good work that Imus has done and continues to do for kids, and that he did swing with the changing tide when it became popular to talk about what dangerous asses Bush and co. were/are. But, I never saw much depth there, and it infuriated me how he cozied up to Joe Lieberman with no real idea of what old Joe was doing to our system...same thing with Santorum and a host of others. The old boy network seems to need one or two talking points to keep them happy and endorsing eachother, leaving the rest of us sputtering, but, but, but....

Clearly, there are so many of us who never utter the kind of words that Imus said, but we all have them in the layers of brain formed as we grow ...its maybe just a matter of the tone and delivery...and I dont know if its fair to say, as Sam Seder did yesterday, that this is probably how all those old guys talk to eachother off the air....and at first I didn't really think that its fair to completely cut Imus down and take his career away for just saying more of the same...or to make him the fall guy for Rush, O'Reilly, Stern, and other shock jock liars out there who probably do less for children and the environment than Imus does. He is also a small "L" liberal who sometimes finds his center....and is probably less putrid than alot of other crap out there.
So, why is he the one taking the fall?

You could easily comb through the transcripts of even, say, the Lionel show on WOR, and find where he called Rachel Maddow a thick necked dyke, or...well, I don't think I have to get started on the Limbaugh/Fox/Coulter/Malkin statements that have gotten by with hardly a peep from anyone....even as protestors are carted off to jail for wearing the wrong T-shirt outside of the White House, or not walking fast enough past while protesting. But now that its done, maybe its worthwhile to say that language of that sort is not acceptable in any company. Its not acceptable from black person to black person, from Rapper to Ho, in any sort of a joke, or even in the living room while drunk with close friends....Ive thrown people out of my house for saying the N-word...in Montana where it was, at the time, a normal part of shooting the shit...
I see how hurt inner city kids are...how easily they can go either way...how hard they work to get anywhere (much less to Rutgers) and as much as I dont knwo the backgrounds of the women that he was talking about, I can see that this kind of statement by the man on the man's network, hurts these kids...the girls especially.

The use of the "Ho" image is not only racist but its sexist...coming from a bunch of pasty white guys it is just disgusting, considering that it might be the rappers who fancy themselves the pimps, but its the pasty white guys who really are secretly (or not so secretly) interested in how much of the "ho" folklore is true...And Imus' crew is pretty disgusting, taunting the fat guy for being fat, wearing the fedex envelope to be the pope and the old, old, old Brian Wilson/Bill Clinton "comedy"...going on into the endless commercial for the cleaning products which may be a service to children and the world, but just become tiring....
But what makes this THE worst thing ever...? What spin of the wheel of fortune chose Imus over Limbaugh? From now on, every time I hear any sort of trash talk I'm gonna call networks and sponsors. I guess that got Spocko in alot of trouble, but I think that if Imus is gonna be held accountable for this statement that Malkin etc... should also answer to the powers that be and the sponsors.

I just think that it would have been a better outcome if they let Imus come back and make his show different. Instead, its swept away after a day or two of NOT focusing on the bombing in the green zone of Baghdad and the emails and Gonzo....
And, lets not even hope that they will tap Sam Seder and/or Marc Maron as a fillin, which would be the smart thing to do...no, they will have alot of David Gregory and then some plastic talking head on MSNBC, and who knows who else on CBS....
I dont care...I usually dont look at MSNBC till after 9AM because Imus is there, so I wont miss much. I also think that Imus will be picked up pretty quickly by satellite or whatever, just like everyone else is. It just feels to me like a certain amount of discourse or maybe possible discourse has been shut down.
Speaking of which:


What I will really miss from my day to day life is Sam Seder, Joe Conazin, Christy Harvey, Marc Maron (even just on Fridays,) Atrios, Marcos, and whoever else I'm forgetting. I always miss Dan Pashman (the show-killer,) Brendan PW McDonald and am happy to see them pop up here and there, though I wish it was on shows that I can stand ...and I will now also miss Lauren and Joel....But what is wrong here is that the loss that we are seeing unfold on Air America is one of the loss of the hope and possibility, and that edgy, intelligent and thoughtful commentary that seemed too good to be true...and was....
Why was the urgent and necessary life of this network entrusted to these jokers? Who made the decision to sell this thing to them rather than the French's or the Drobnys? Who lives in who's pocket in the NYC court system?...and who does it serve that AAR be dumbed down?
Its not about profit or corporate feasibility...or even being able to answer to stockholders....no, its about direction and message. Who is served by this "new" (aka meet the new boss same as the old boss) direction?
Message to Danny Goldberg: So, how did that 'advice from Imus' thing work out for you?...happy now?...are we having fun yet?
Message to the Green twins: See above and learn from the past. Can't wait till Lionel lets loose with one of his zingers on your air...I hope your FCC fines are at least as much, of not more than the monies owed to all talent and crew that got screwed in your deal....oh well....

Tomorrow is visiting day at Will's school. I love Will and I love his school, but I did my time in school. The fact that Fridays are usually half days there, and each class is only 20 minutes long, doesn't make it any easier for me to get up, get out with him on time, and run from class to class while trying to read my Treo (as I spent my childhood reading the NY Post during class before it was a conservative rag,) and balance a coffee. Like Will, I was a smarter student than I was a good student....I did great and knew all the answers in a second, but resented the hell out of being there at all. I still hate school...grade, middle, high, and freshman year of college. But apparently, this is what we do at this particular school....and then we will come home and get ready and head down to NYC to see Marc Maron, Janeane Garafolo, and Henry Rollins at the Gramercy theater.

I'm so sad this week due to a myriad of things and I'm feeling overwhelmed with it all...capped off by a good flooding rain that has left the basement wet and the clocks all screwed up.
Im hustling to get my taxes done so my saint of a tax guy doesn't hate me too much...and I still cant get into the nest box to see if my hen has laid her eggs yet.
I'm happy to report though that I got a great but old book on conure breeding, and this hen, Rosie, is doing everything exactly by the book. I just need something to look forward to; something bright and new....11 days till my birthday and I want a little something....

My new focus is going to be on the Bush Administration's growing email-gate, which is shaping up to be quite fantastic with the Bushies having separate laptops for their separate emails that were run through the RNC server, so that they wouldn't be traceable.
So here is the fun part: first of all, the act of setting up separate laptops and using a different server ( a stupidly obvious server,) they were planning to do wrong...Is that malice aforethought??
Secondly, and here is where I do my happy dance, because they are not part of the presidential papers (which is against the law in itself if it is work product of this administration,) it is not going to fall under privilege!!!
Lets watch this, along with the Gonzo death watch which we will have to take over till Sammy resurfaces with his way-too-short Sunday show.

I will report on the Maron et al show...maybe even direct from the venue depending on how friendly it all is and how much fun I'm having....
I have a new sub-notebook which is just smokin' and I outfitted it with a Verizon wireless high speed card, so I can conceivably do anything online anywhere that I have a Verizon signal (which lets out my HOME, but oh well....)

See ya round Don...See ya soon Sammy...See ya tomorrow Marc....Jill and Mr Brill too!!
See ya sooner Accountant (who has not enough time to read blogs right now anyway!!!)