NEW YEAR THOUGHTS

99% Choir visits Bank of America

It's a ............

The oldest son & his wife are expecting.. our first grandchild! He wanted to know the gender, but the wife did not, so the compromise was, she would tell him on Christmas. She had her fun stringing it out in a few different gift boxes & finally gave him the envelope that said..

The baby is due in April... tax day in fact- but we all know babies are born when they are darned good & ready & not a moment sooner!
The daughter-in-law, Jessica, aka the Mom-to-be had some rough times with severe morning sickness, but that has subsided, and she is feeling better. It has been many many years since I have perused the baby aisles, but it is fun to go there & see all the cool and tiny things they have for babies.
Although twins run strongly in her family, they were happy & relieved to know it is a singular baby, not twins. Whew!

Looking forward to meeting the little darlin'

Winter memories

As a kid, one of my favorite things to do in the winter was to wait until everyone went to bed, turn off the lights,  sit on the covered radiator in the front room & look out the windows at the falling snow silhouetted by the streetlights. It was the perfect juxtaposition-- watching the cold winter scene in living motion while being warm & cozy indoors. Something mesmerizing about watching falling snow. It could be a gentle sprinkling, or  big flakes coming down sideways in a strong gusting wind. Just so enjoyable to watch. Somehow I was the designated snow shoveler, and it was all manual labor. Only one neighbor down the street had a mechanical snow blower, and he was nice enough to zip down the block of the main sidewalks. I did not mind the task of snow shoveling-- it gave me an excuse to get out of the house in the white stuff.  Being out in the snow sometimes felt like you were inside a snow globe, with the flurries swirling all around you.  My Mom used to implore me to "bundle up" because it was cold out there, but hefting shovels full of wet & heavy snow is downright aerobic & I could work up a sweat in no time. Bundling up made no sense.

Of course it is always different from a kids perspective. My focus was on the hope of a no school snow day. Growing up in Chicago, they did not declare snow days unless it was a serious storm-- many FEET of snow & drifting. But those were the glory days of winter. We would bring out the old classic Radio flyer sled & take turns pulling each other around in the snow. If you ever rode one of those sleds, you know the steering mechanism was junk. If you really were heading towards crashing into something, your best bet was to bail & throw yourself off the sled. We lived in the flatlands though, and nothing in the way of hills was available, except on those rare occasions, when there was so much snow it formed it's own "hills".  One year was a kid's dream come true- the Blizzard of 1967.

The Chicago Tribune reported:
"At 5:02 a.m. on this date, it began to snow. Nothing remarkable about that. It was January in Chicago, and, besides, 4 inches of snow had been predicted. But it kept snowing, all through this miserable Thursday and into early Friday morning, until it finally stopped at 10:10 a.m. By the end, 23 inches covered Chicago and the suburbs, the largest single snowfall in the city's history.

Still, it was great to be a child during the Blizzard of '67. There were mountains of snow to play in, and plenty of time to play in them: Schools were closed for several days."

That year I remember we were thrilled to have so much snow AND school shut down. I recall being outside basking in the glory of the Blizzard, and my parents said they would need to borrow the sled. 

No way to drive a car & plows were not able to keep up, so they would need to walk a mile to the grocery store & haul groceries home via sled! Who knew the radio flyer sled would become a lifeline of sorts?

Another winter joy was the park district- when they knew a freeze was expected, they would flood the baseball field w water and create a rough hewn ice staking rink.  Wow! Playing crack the whip- that is creating a chain of ice skaters holding hands, building up collective speed & being on the end of the chain was waay fun. If you are not familiar, this is a demo:

Found this gallery of photos of the blizzard.
Footnote: All that snow was a blast as a kid, but when you are an adult & required to function- ie work & drive, not so much fun. I now live in the Pacific NW, where winter generally comes in the form of Raindrops. No shoveling required!

Happy Holidays to all. Hope to relax, drink some hot cider, spend quality time with your people.

Twas the night before Christmas

Carlin on Advertising

* I apologize for the use of the "N" word in this rant.
Carlin was making a point-- All (white) MEN are created equal- to the exclusion
of people of color, Native Americans & Women.
Clearly Carlin embraced sarcasm as his art form.

Slightly Irreverent

I don't know about you, but I'm struggling with the holiday season this year.
Monty Python's Eric Idle sums up the BS parts of  X mas. Oh! Here's a
Gingerbread Crack House to go along with the song:

Newt GinGRINCH

War is over

The Iraq war has been declared officially over- except for the remaining 4000 troops they hope/intend to remove by the end of the year.

MSNBC reports:
"Almost 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in the war that began with a "Shock and Awe" (Shockingly awful?) campaign of missiles pounding Baghdad and descended into sectarian strife and a surge in U.S. troop numbers.

U.S. soldiers lowered the flag of American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-colored sleeve in a brief outdoor ceremony, symbolically ending the most unpopular U.S. military venture since the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 70s.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani were invited to the ceremony but did not attend.

Bombings are still common. Experts are also concerned about the Iraqi security force's ability to defend the nation against foreign threats.  

After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead, 32,000 wounded and more than $800 billion, U.S. officials prepared Thursday to formally shut down the war in Iraq — a conflict that

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said "it was worth the price in blood and money, as it set Iraq on a path to democracy.

Panetta has echoed President Barack Obama's promise that the U.S. plans to keep a robust diplomatic presence in Iraq, foster a deep and lasting relationship with the nation and maintain a strong military force in the region."

Well which one is it? Because the war is either over, or we maintain a strong military force in the region-
you cant really have both. The fact that the President & Prime Minister of Iraq did not attend the close of war ceremony, makes you wonder- were they not feeling celebratory, or did they think it was unsafe?

Democracy at gunpoint, was never going to work, I have stated all along. At some point, the alleged success of this war was the use of the surge of troops. Flood a region with more troops than citizens & achieve order. The declaration of success was premature. If you can only stabilize a place by vastly outnumbering the population with troops, then success can only be gauged when the troops are gone.

Already, the experts are saying they fear the forced stability will crumble.

One more question, if the war is over, than we should no longer be holding prisoners in Guantanamo, right?


The very first executive order President Obama signed, was to shut down Gitmo prison within the year. That was 2008. 

I'm not ready to celebrate until Gitmo prison  is shut down & all the troops are home meaning ending the Afghanistan war as well. War is over does not equal leaving thousands of troops in the region either.

"Some Iraqi citizens offered a more pessimistic assessment. "The Americans are leaving behind them a destroyed country," said Mariam Khazim of Sadr City. "The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans."


I can't help but feel the end of this war is more about the 2012 election- as a checklist of accomplishments.  Why didn't Obama  end the war in the first year of his presidency, as opposed to his last year, pre-election?


Some of the many traumatic stories of this war include the death of Casey Sheehan, and Lt. Ehren Watada. Sheehan's Mother, Cindy Sheehan became a pioneer in occupying the George Bush ranch area in Texas- asking what is the noble cause?
Lt. Watada refused to go to Iraq, in defense of the constitution. He did jail time, and was held by the military for years after the military botched his trial & created a legal "double jeopardy" situation & the case was thrown out,  yet the military still kept him, even after his term of service had expired. 


Melissa Etheridge wrote a song about the two, titled Imagine That

Gingrich Holiday tune~ LOL

$15 Trillion.... yawn

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 09 Dec 2011 at 06:53:53 PM GMT is:


The estimated population of the United States is 311,822,174
so each citizen's share of this debt is $48,276.80.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.94 billion per day since September 28, 2007!

Yes we hit the $15 trillion mark in debt, but hardly newsworthy, Eh?

Yawn.....


Click here to see the National Priorities project running count of tax cuts for the rich.

Occupy Melbourne tent monsters

Hats off to their creative, playful approach

The Brotha is a Mutha....

Herman Cain has suspended his campaign. One headline read:

"Candidate was dogged by allegations of sexual harassment and an affair"


More like candidate is a dog when it comes to sexual harassment & a 13 year affair.

The brotha said it's all about  assessing the impact that the allegations were having on his wife, his family and his supporters.


That & the fact he probably can't raise another dime for his campaign!


Rather than thinking he is a lowlife sex hound, Cain says " his wife, knew nothing about Ginger White nor his financial support for her until the mother of two came forward last week.


"My wife now knows My wife & I have talked about it, & I have explained it to her. My wife understands that I'm a soft-hearted, giving person."

It seems pretty clear what Cain was "giving", but now he will be giving his endorsement to another candidate. Let's not get all weepy though... it appears by suspending his candidacy, rather than officially dropping out, he can still spend & raise campaign funds 

Creative Lawyers

Thank you for calling XXX Law firm.

 I'm either away from my desk, or out chasing ambulances right now. 

Please leave a message & I'll return your call so we can sue the bastards!

A story with Heart

I was happy to hear Deputies refused to evict a 103 year old woman, MSNC reports:


Fulton County Sheriff’s deputies and a moving company hired by the bank showed up at Vita Lee’s Penelope Road home on Tuesday, according to a report on WSBTV.com. Deutsche Bank apparently holds the mortgage that is being serviced locally by Chase, the station reported. The planned eviction was reportedly the latest move in a legal battle that dates back years.
But when the men saw the frail woman, they opted to leave instead of carry through with the forced move.

"Please don't come in and disturb me no more," Lee told WSBTV.com. "When I'm gone you all can come back and do whatever they want to."

Shame on Deutsche Bank & Chase for attempting to throw an elderly woman out of her home. It is heartening the Sheriff's police & moving company decided it was not the right thing to do.

She's lived in the home 53 years, now, along w her 83 year old daughter. Vita Lee will soon celebrate her 104th birthday, hopefully in her home. 

We are the many ~ Occupy song

We are the many

Lyrics to "We Are the Many":

Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight

They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none

So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest

We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy

Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We are the many
You are the few

I did not hear about this on the news....

APEC World Leaders Dinner Gets Occupied
Within secure zone, musician sings on behalf of the many

Honolulu - A change in the programmed entertainment at last night's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gala left a few world leaders slack-jawed, though most seemed not to notice that anything was amiss.

During the gala dinner, renowned Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who performed at the White House in 2009, opened his suit jacket to reveal a home-made “Occupy with Aloha” T-shirt. Then, instead of playing the expected instrumental background music, he spent almost 45 minutes repeatedly singing his protest ballad released earlier that day. The ballad, called “We Are the Many,” includes lines such as “The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw.... And until they are purged, we won't withdraw,” and ends with the refrain: “We'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.”

Those who could hear Makana’s message included Presidents Barack Obama of the United States of America, Hu Jintao of China, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, and over a dozen other heads of state.

“At first, I was worried about playing ‘We Are The Many,’” said Makana. “But I found it odd that I was afraid to sing a song I’d written, especially since I'd written it with these people in mind.”

The gala was the most secure event of the summit. It was held inside the Hale Koa hotel, a 72-acre facility owned and controlled by the US Defense Department; the site was fortified with an additional three miles of fencing constructed solely for the APEC summit.

Makana was surprised that no one objected to him playing the overtly critical song. “I just kept doing different versions,” he said. “I must’ve repeated ‘the bidding of the many, not the few’ at least 50 times, like a mantra. It was surreal and sobering.”

Makana’s new song is inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has taken root in cities worldwide. Last Saturday, eight protesters were arrested when they refused to leave the Occupy Honolulu encampment at Thomas Square Park. Occupy Honolulu has joined other groups, including Moana Nui, to protest the APEC meeting, and while Makana performed, hundreds of people protested outside.

After facing large-scale protests in South Korea, Australia, Peru, and Japan, APEC moved this year's event to Hawaii, the most isolated piece of land on earth. In preparation for the meeting, homeless families weremoved out of sight and millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on security—including over $700,000 on non-lethal weapons for crowd control. In a bitter twist, the multi-million dollar security plans backfired when a local Hawaiian man was shot and killed by a 27-year-old DC-based federal agent providing security for dignitaries.

Makana’s action was assisted by the Yes Lab and Occupy the Boardroom. In recent weeks, Occupy protesters have been showing up at corporate events, headquarters and even on the doorsteps of those in power. “Makana really raised the bar by delivering the Occupy message inside what is probably the most secure place on the planet right now,” said Mike Bonanno of the Yes Lab.

Thank you Yes lab- you creative geniuses for coming up with such fresh ideas. 

Pizzagate: In America Pizza is a vegetable

Move over ketchup, Pizza in now joining the ranks of "vegetable" classification as well. Thanks to powerful lobbies, who fought to keep french fries & pizza prominently on school lunch menus.

Another provision in the bill the House passed, bars the USDA from changing the way it credits tomato paste, used in pizza. The change would have required pizza to have at least a half-cup of tomato paste to qualify as a vegetable serving. Current rules, which likely will remain in place, require just two tablespoons of tomato paste.

The U.S. House of Representatives dealt a blow to childhood obesity warriors on Thursday by passing a bill that abandons proposals that threatened to end the reign of pizza and French fries on federally funded school lunch menus.
The scuttled changes, which would have stripped pizza's status as a vegetable and limited how often French fries could be served, stemmed from a 2010 child nutrition law calling on schools to improve the nutritional quality of lunches served to almost 32 million U.S. school children.

All pizzas are not created equal:
Let's face it, cheap frozen pizzas have little nutritional value at all. There are some gourmet versions  of pizza that really do have full servings of fresh veggies piled on them- but that is not what they are serving up in the USDA school lunches.

Ironically, while starch & pizza as a vegetable will be served, many cash strapped schools have eliminated physical fitness programs entirely, or families need to pony up hundreds of dollars to participate in sports programs.

Due to the tanked economy a huge proportion of children qualify for the free or reduced price meals served at schools.

The problem is the obesity epidemic. In the food world, starchy, lower quality foods are generally cheaper, so low income families tend to purchase them to stretch food budgets. But each bad or marginal choice food children are served all adds up & they wind up with the host of  health problems obesity causes.

School cafeteria food is marginal anyway, I once heard it described as best in class for "accuracy & distance" (think food fight).  But for some kids the school meals programs maybe the main or only meals they get on any given day- making what is served even all the more important.

BUY NOTHING DAY

A fun old timey feeling to this clip.
This idea of being in a stampede of people to get some sale special, because big businesses hope to create a consumer frenzy is unappealing.
Sleep in. Relax. Enjoy nature. Consider making a donation to the local food bank or favorite charity.
Donate some warm clothes, hats, gloves to the homeless shelter or local Occupy site.

Although a rerun, I still love this '09 Buy Nothing spot.



Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

MIC CHECK: Eric Cantor, Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann & Karl Rove

The Occupy movement uses a technique called "Mic Check", like microphone check, in lieu of a microphone, a speaker calls out a sentence, the crowd repeats it so all can hear. 
The 99% have a little somethin' to say


 Majority Leader Eric Cantor interrupted at Rice University with a Mic Check by Rice University grad students, in solidarity with Occupy Houston.




Union Busting Wisconsin Governor headed for recall:



Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann the 99% have something to tell you




But this is classic~

Karl Rove first tells Occupy Baltimore Mic Check crowd if they support free speech to
 "Shut up & wait till the Q & A"
 Rove then yells back at people chanting *WE ARE THE 99%* "Noooo! No you're not"

The Mic Check:

"Mic Check! Karl Rove is the Architect. The Architect of OccupyIraq. The Architect of OccupyAfghanistan. The Architect of tax cuts for the 1%. The 99% think it's time to #Occupy the Architect. To #Occupy the Architecture. 

Gingrich: Let them clean toilets!

In an epic tumble from the top spot after rivals Cain & Perry fatally fumbled their presidential runs,
Gingrich flushes his chances altogether in one fell swoop.

Speaking at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the former House Speaker said his system would be an improvement on current child labor laws, which he called "truly stupid."

"It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid," Gingrich said. "Saying to people you shouldn't go to work before you're 14, 16. You're totally poor, you're in a school that's failing with a teacher that's failing."

Gingrich then proposed a system he said would help those students rise from poverty.

"I tried for years to have a very simple model. These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work; they'd have cash; they'd have pride in the schools. They'd begin the process of rising."

WOW!!! Promoting Child labor AND Union busting all in one announcement. Never mind that he just said the poorest kids should  clean their own schools for pocket money & pride.  Notice he's not suggesting the upper crust have their kids clean their own schools. 

Never mind that janitorial services require the use of toxic chemicals, and special training about health & safety, including knowledge about OSHA safety requirements,  including bloodborne pathogens, and most large scale janitorial staff are also required to get immunizations for hepatitis. 

So if one master janitor is out sick or busy, will they be calling student janitors out of class to clean up overflowing toilets?
Gingrich wants to take union jobs away, &  take us back to the days of child labor.
Let's hope the proud junior janitors, and newly unemployed union janitors take solace in the fact that Gingrich had a $500,000 to $1 million line of credit at Tiffany's, that "now has zero balance, and it has been closed.”


                                                                    Newt has shown us the pig he really is!

Well said: Police in riot gear reaction to # Occupy as "normal"

By Nicholas Caleb of Portland, Oregon.Nick is a local attorney, college professor, and most recently, an Occupy protestor. Read the entire article at Blue Oregon.


Failing to use violence on peaceable assemblies should not be lauded as respectable restraint. Instead, we should be outraged that it is ever even a consideration in the first place!

"I am very, very troubled about a narrative floating around in local political discourse: that Occupy protestors are solely responsible for increased police spending and must cease their activities because they are causing the absurdly large police presence which materializes in order to monitor each protest.

This narrative implicitly assumes that police have no option but to flood the streets with officers when any large group of people gathers together. And apparently, some of the police must be dressed in full riot gear (and visible to everyone) even when there is no indication that violence will occur. The absurdity of this tactic was immediately apparent to anyone who participated in yesterday's protests, filled with citizens young and old -- college students, retirees, established labor officials, war veterans, and other concerned citizens -- marching (while happily dancing to funk music, a sign of violence if I've ever seen one) with the intent of highlighting the failures of a broken system. From the response of the police, you'd have thought that Occupy organizers had proposed a violent overthrow of the local government! Instead, police knew very well from discussions with the organizers and their own secret infiltrations of public meetings (really, what is the point?) exactly which protestors planned to enter banks and be arrested for non-violent disobedience -- sitting in the banks and thereby disrupting business.

Let me propose a different narrative: the police are implementing specific policy choices when they decide to pay their officers overtime and recruit extra officers from departments around the area. They are not forced to do so. In fact, in light of the repeated and consisted peacefulness and non-violence of Occupy protests up to this point, the police go far beyond reasonable bounds when they arrange intimidating displays on the streets. And when individual police officers (names withheld, but I'll be submitting complaints to the city) are visibly itching for a violent confrontation, pushing people around with horses and hitting women with batons, the police are the instigators of violence and not the protectors of citizens.

The first irony of the situation is that we have a Constitution granting, as its chief civil liberty, the right of citizens to peaceably assemble. Presumably, this right extends to the ability to express displeasure at the dominant ideologies of the day without having to submit to intimidation and implicit threat of violence that accompanies the presence of riot police. Scaring people during an assembly, though not as serious as actually beating them, is a form of prior restraint, of telling you that the State doesn't authorize your message.

The second great irony of this situation is that the Portland Police are going to bankrupt themselves with their adopted strategy if Occupy protests continue.Like a boxer who has just seen a cut open up over his opponent's eye, any Occupy organizer worth his salt is going to notice the vulnerability of the police to this brute economic fact and immediately organize more protests. 

In fact, the next protest should be aimed directly at the overuse of police force. Imagine the irony of the police coming out dressed like storm troopers to intimidate protestors who are trying to highlight the excessive uses of police force and intimidation. We might be treated to such a show very soon, as leaders of the police apparently cannot tame their authoritarian instincts even when self-preservation and legitimacy are on the line."

I've seen & heard lots of news coverage stating the cost of having enhanced police presence. I love the idea of protesting the police overreaction & the ironic, or would that be oxymoronic response that would create! The Occupy movements have been largely & purposefully peaceful. In fact when the Portland Oregon eviction came down, the Occupy crowds were often chanting, to the riot gear clad police, "We are peaceful people". 

Wow! That was powerful stuff facing down baton wielding, in your face, throngs of riot police. Such a Gandhi moment. 

The sad commentary is the masses have been so quiet & complacent, law enforcement & municipal authority figures are startled to suddenly hear the roar of the discontent & realize there are so many. 

Imagine if the Occupy movement grows to a point where they realize there is no way they can send floods of police to try to have an intimidating presence at every event peaceful citizens opt to exercise their Constitutional right to assemble freely. 

I'm loving the peaceful revolution & hope the police calm down & learn this is  the new normal, and understand it is a constitutional, legal right to freely assemble. 
Granted the free speech is at a roar, but it is long overdue.