God Dem!

Pomp and Greed

2016-11-17T04:55:00.000-08:00

This morning, I'm thinking about humans and how they need the definition of circumstance. Humans love to build a ritual, a standard, a set of rules or actions, that define how things are handled in the world. We see it everywhere and when it's not followed, people notice.

Like taking a knee during the anthem.

Or, say, not placing your assets into a blind trust when you get elected.

If only one of these inflames you, and it's not the second one, why are you here? What is it about America you want to protect and admire?

Think about it... when you have access to all the keys and you have a business empire, there will be conflicts of interest. The people who are on the other side of the issue WORK FOR YOU. There is no way, if you are in a dispute with the GSA over the rent on a building you rented and your are the GSA boss's boss, that there won't be pressure and you don't stand to gain.

Who loses? Taxpayers. We get to pay and pay and pay.

There are a myriad of ways to loot the Treasury and none involve a Fast and Furious dream team.

Tax troubles? Hire the right guy and they're gone. Stupid environmentalists messing up your bottom line? You're fired! You're hired! Done. All of these entities are there, in some form or another, to preserve the nation's wealth and keep it for the people. This is about to change.

We're racing towards a fuck-you to the good old days and ways to a level never ever seen. Literally, everything that is our ritual and circumstance for how we conduct our government is about to get tossed because some of us picked a President who never cared about any of it... unless there was an angle he could play. We are leaving the land of measured response and jumping blindly into tit-for-tat, outright stealing, graft, and corruption. It breaks my heart that our venerable super power government was so easy to break.

We need rituals to check greed.

Everything I believed we were, solemn, intelligent, patient, capable and strong, is breaking apart. I thought Trump was a buffoon but I thought he was an American. Turns out, he is quite willing to take down a superpower in a single election. The world is right to be appalled.

I understand people were feeling unheard. I do. There aren't going to be any take backs here, though. The depth of your anger is now matched by the world's despair, and neither will see respite. You'll stay angry that the America dream is dead, and our interconnected global economies will free-fall taking all of us along, angry and lashing. WWIII just opened a sleepy eye and smiled.

America has no ritual to stop this march. Pomp and circumstance, meet chaos and greed. They're here to stay.

Thinking Out Loud

2016-11-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

Today I read that our President-Elect added an Ant-Semite to the Nazi and the Former RNC Chair who make up his cabinet. World policy is not my long suit, but I'm not unread, and for the life of me, I don't see the end game with this guy.

Piss off Israel? Make Europe irate? What is the purpose? Cause rifts with our Allies, pony up to Russia?

This is not our usual rodeo.

Usually, my gut reaction is to question who benefits from the action. I know none of this would be happening if Trump didn't see a benefit to himself and his enterprises. I wish I knew the connection.

Comments are on for this one. I'm willing to listen to any theory.

Ripples

2016-11-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

I crossposted yesterday's post to Facebook. After all, that's the platform that was under siege, so it seemed appropriate to push it out in that arena. Expectations were low... I was writing about angry people. I highly doubted that the response was going to be positive, and I wasn't entirely sure I wouldn't get my ass handed to me by a mob.

Each of us is a pebble, though, and it's easy, in the turbulence, to forget your power to ripple.

I did. And, I'm ashamed that I didn't think the people in my life were thoughtful enough to hear me and to say, support, self-reflect, and choose loving responses. This is what swirling in negativity does... it changes how and what you see, and mutes who and how you love. It changes you in a million little angry ways; it crowds the air right out of your chest and darkens your view of humanity.

My friends and acquaintances are generous with their respect and acceptance. I'm blessed to have them and am glad I threw my pebble out there so this lesson could be re-learned.

Mostly, it's amazing how much nicer my feed is today. I think a lot of pebbles are sailing, and that feels pretty great. Sometimes, we just need to reset one another after we get angry. Calm in a storm, or right after, when ire is high and stamina is low, is difficult; reminding each other that we care for one another is the burst of glory, shining across the ripples, in the morning.

Social Obit

2016-11-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

I like facebook. It keeps me connected with music and bands that I support, let's me promote and plug local venues that support live music, helps to make plans with friends on where to go and who to see, and talk about current events, dog videos, and my kids.

Social.

During this election, it got pretty politicky, and I'm ok with that... because I walk those paths with some insider knowledge. Bernie Sanders appealed to me and my core values and I supported that campaign. When he didn't win, I knew, because I have kids, I would vote for HRC. I had zero interest in discussing that so I posted that I was not going to discuss politics on facebook. For the most part, I didn't. For me, other than the down ticket races, the election was over.

Doing this kept it social.

As I wrote before, my plate is full, and I need to stay aligned with a peaceful, grace-filled path. Yammering over ugly political positions will spill over onto my mother and my kids, and that's not fair. Now that this election is over, the sheer amount of vitriol on facebook is killing the site for me. I have unfollowed many, in the interest of limiting how many nasty screeds and gotcha comments I read, trying to avoid the foot on the head of my enemy mindset that leaves the conversation dead and the feelings red hot.

Today I read how to take my account down. If this is the new definition of social, this joyless shit-pile of hate, I may just fade away for awhile.

You see, I equate social with interaction that edifies, lets your endorphins rock, and your laugh bubble up. Social is sharing, and connecting and helping and emoting. Social is finding something wonderful and telling others about it. It's celebrating all the cool groovy things that rock your world, and giving that information, that beauty, that hilarity away. It is, at its core, a giving medium.

It's why there's a share button. So you can push more beauty, laughter, and your joy out to your ever growing circle. If we get back there, we'll be better for it.

I may tough it out, I may close up my shop, and if nobody notices, then that's probably for the best. In the long run, living gently and with positive optimism is best, and I can do that anywhere in the real world.

In the social realm, not so much.

Weather and Feathers

2016-11-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of maxims are taking up space in my head. Fair weather friends, and birds of a feather.. and it's fairly obvious, in these days of division, that both are pertinent.

I'm single, and currently dabbling in dating, but not really. My marriage was one of unlike minds and during the debut and meteoric rise of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, and the hating Rush wannabees, we left the arena of support and traveled a path of mockery for my ideals. This is not a good recipe for marriage. Mine did not survive it.

I grew up in a home where unlike minds (politically), got along well, enjoyed the debate and exchange of ideas, and supported differing ideals. It was, perhaps, a bit unusual for husbands and wives to be like that in the 50s and 60s... I have no other marriage of that era to compare it to, but it worked, for a long time, in my family.

Personal norms and in-the-world norms are different birds.

In this heyday of America polarity, dating is sketchy. Especially if your background includes a bomb crater like mine. I don't have it in me to step around ideals that appall just to make it work, and I resent the inference that I'm the one that has to step. In this newly charged atmosphere, it'll be a time of long deserts and short oasis.

Which, frankly, cheats everyone.

The avoidance of strife means there is no seeking of the middle. Without that movement, the new and bitter stereotypes of what one's politics equates to in terms of their belief system is never tempered with gentle discussion and listening. Stereotypes are built off behavior extremes and easy labels; they do a colossal disservice to being a better human.

Beyond dating, I sense a drawback from friends and acquaintances that I suspect is wholly politically driven, and this sucks. These are the spaces where the best conversations, ones that promote thinking and contemplation, middle ground and growth, happen. It's sad that they're leaving, but they can if they need to. Friendship is valuing another's essence. It doesn't require one of the parties to chase and change in order to stay friends. Love, friendship, and simple human interaction are not political acts; you can pollute them with that... but their true form is based on love and appreciation of the individual.

I'm choosing to remain thoughtful, fully liberal, and loving. I don't know how to be anything else. But I will not tamp myself into someone else's mold, nor will I embrace fear over love, or practice mockery and derision. I know the pain of that path, first hand.

WYSIWYG, in all things, including weather and feathers.

Kitchen Fodder

2016-11-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

So, today I am cooking. When the kids were smaller (and money tighter) I could get a pretty awesome groove on in the kitchen. Masses got fed with good healthy food, and there was dancing, bad puns, and worse song parodies to keep it interesting.

Feeding young adults is different. Their schedules are insane, they like all the crap I never dreamed of feeding them when they were small, and they cook until my kitchen looks well bombed.

Eventually, they'll be out in the world, the dishes will be theirs to deal with, and efficiency and economy will reign. Until then, why not chocolate chip pancakes at 10 pm and everything brownies for breakfast? (Well, not everything, I suppose. We're a long road from the 70s, in more ways than one.)

I'm a bit more organized when it comes to the sustenance plan. Yesterday I made a ham, and today I've got split pea soup and a pot of lentils with tomatoes, carrots, celery, and onion simmering down that will go into the freezer, and there will scalloped potatoes for supper. I need to feed my family, but I also need to feed me, and the simple pleasure of cooking does that.

Sometimes, all you can do is strip down to the simple. There's a point where nothing is better than something. Declutter the house, declutter your mind, feed the body, tune the soul.

The path to well begins in the kitchen. Let's dance, and taste, and laugh, and heal. Hallelujah.

Muted

2016-11-12T05:42:00.000-08:00

Balance is important. Where I walk currently, I carry three kids, a parent, a job, a house and myself. My mother has been in my care full time for five years, and another three were me propping up her independent existence by driving 25 minutes to her home and doing everything, at least three times a week, For the past two years, she's been bed bound. This is much harder on her than on me, and I am grateful that she is home and we are making it work.

But, this plate of mine is pretty full.

One of my coping mechanisms is swimming and another is dancing. I rarely care if I'm the first person on the dance floor if the band is good. When I dance, the music changes and charges me. The beat drops into my hips and a joy permeates throughout my body. I never dance for anyone but myself. Checking in with myself on this intimate level resets me. When I dance, I joy.

So last night, I went to my usual haunt and their reliable house band, ready to joy....no, needing to joy. Emotionally, I was whipped, This has been a hard week for idealism. I suppose I should take a little segue here to mention that places have vibes and I sense and value them. My favorite hole in the wall had joy de rigueur... its vibe grabs you and lifts you to a wonderful, comfortable, beloved place. But, last night, it was different. There was a film of something not quite sad, not quite like regret, that covered the place.

The band played.
People danced.
Beer flowed, dinner consumed, chatting occurred...

and it felt surreal as hell.

It wasn't just me who noticed it. Several friends shared they felt it too. A few people I am fond of came up to me and talked around politics without saying anything about politics. I wondered if seeing it in the micro, via the kinds of conversations happening in social media, was driving their desire to reconnect, but with disconnect.

So fucking weird.

So muted.

But the casualty of the night was joy. I never reached my Nirvana place, where I'm reset, sweaty and beaming. It felt like puppet dancing. No Pinocchios, hard strings. I woke up this morning and thought, I did not joy last night.

I don't think anyone did. This is not a pain of losing an election, but of sensing, in real time, what the true cost of embracing our divide will take from us. While we process this, and perhaps decide the cost is too high and some middle ground must happen, we are not tuned, not playing with passion, and not connected. We're letting situations drive us, steal our celebration of one another, shape our view, and tamp down our humanity; all to feed an anger that is insatiable and like most anger, unkind.

We are joy, on mute.

Forestry 101

2016-11-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

Bear poking is not advised.

Poking a bear, especially a grumpy one, will not bring you the outcome you desired.

Persisting in poking a pissy bear lets the bear know you think you are better than the bear. Bears, as a rule, are quite good at being bears, while bear poking, at best, is a low skill pastime.

Woke bears can be scary. Telling a woke bear to settle down is akin to poking.

Telling off a woke bear in the middle of the bear's habitat is not a playing field tilted to your advantage.

In summary, you need the economics of large American cities in order to survive, and they are PISSED. Let them be, and stop showing your ass every five minutes. And, for God's sake, stop poking, pontificating, and acting like butter wouldn't melt in your mouth. We've all seen the videos, heard the tapes and see the graffiti. There are no angels in the forest.

Hard Truths, Bitches

2016-11-11T05:10:00.000-08:00

I remember taking a stupid little poll, on Move-On, probably, asking who you wanted to run for the Democratic nomination... and I picked Biden, Sanders, and Warren. This was long before the actual hats hit the ring and the subsequent shenanigans, and I made those picks based off a list of about 15 names.

Not choosing HRC was deliberate. I'd actually seen her in Chicago in 2007, and I heard a lot of her policy and approach positions. While I admired her a great deal, I didn't catch fire.

Fire matters.

You can't create passion from policy papers, it's a heart thing. And this brings me to the rant. From the very beginning, there was a cadre of older women voters who WOULD NOT LISTEN. This was their time, the culmination of all the misogynistic bullshit they endured their whole lives, and this was non-negotiable. Getting a woman in was the goal. Not the best person, or the most nuanced choice given the times and tides, but a woman. Period. Fuck you, don't talk to me, this is our shining moment in the sun, the anti-penis... well, you get my drift.

And now, our gender is going to pay, see the set-back of years of effort, and frankly, it wasn't necessary.

The coronation of HRC so early on rankled a lot a people, female people, like me, who actually believe in the process of weighing, debating and choosing. Bypassing that process because it's your turn felt like we were running Bob Dole, a horrible candidate whose platform consisted of "it's my time". Um, nope.

The world never stops changing, and yeah, it sucks that your candidate missed that crucial bus and the electorate needed a different message and skill set to inspire it. It's like training for the Olympics your whole life and peaking one year too soon. It slams you in the gut.

That said, you militant ladies who were unwilling to even think of what the rest of us in the party wanted, needed, and how the tone of the country had changed, thanks for grabbing us by the pussy. We didn't get to say no, either.

This party whose values and ideals I love is due for a major shake-up. You want to win, look around. Look at the people who despise the DNC, the tits for tat, the games, the money, the disassociation of from the grungy, struggling, un-moneyed base. HELLO.

There are zero parties in this country that are actually interested in the people, and only one who can possibly get that back. The other one lies disingenuously, proficiently and astonishingly. If the Dems want to build this thing, they need to tack back to being scrappy and defiant. Kind of like Bernie, but perhaps 30 years younger. Where are those people? Put them in charge and let's raise some hell.

But, for God's sake, never, EVER, tell us, process be damned, who you've decided is Queen.

Letter to my Daughter

2016-11-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

The sun, on its second rising post election, has me thinking of women and our simple quest to be human in a world determines to keep us as other.

I have a lovely, accomplished, brilliant daughter. She's headed to college this fall, and her world is full of promise, college applications, and dreams of a freshly minted adult life where she makes her choices, determines what she does with her time to create her future. She wants, has the aptitude and grades, and the passion to be a research scientist. Her future, as Tom Petty sang, is wide open.

As a parent, I study campus rape statistics, eye the Brocks of the world, and talk to my daughter about living fully, yet safely. This should be her right, to move and be safe, to contribute to society and be safe, to add to the collective brain trust of our nation, and be safe.

Now we have President Pussy, and it's difficult to see that her four years are now moved into a culture where assault in green lit from the top.

Our beloved American daughters are as human and valuable as our beloved American sons. We are failing to hold, keep and promote that belief. As a population of parents, half the nation blew this sacred trust.

Baby? What Baby?

2006-01-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

Mention religion these days at your peril. We are bombarded by images of Dominion takeover, court stacking, zealotry and the unsupportable Intelligent Design from one side, and belief of persecution, attack by secular hedonism and being the only party of faith by the other. We’ve been handed our positions by the dividers, not uniters; it’s time we lost the blinders.

It is no more true that all Republicans think Pat Robertson makes sense that it is that all Democrats are athiests.

Unquestioning acceptance of religious stereotypes according to party affiliation is a dangerous path. Entrenchment along these lines leaves little room for acceptance and growth, both as a nation and as individuals undertaking journeys of faith.

Jews are encouraged to constantly question their faith. Christians know that to rail against God is beginning of learning. Seeking, questioning, arguing and acceptance are part of every major faith on this planet. Most of those faiths are at home and welcome in their quest, here, in America.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them choose.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. — Peter Ferrara, George Mason University School of Law

What I fear, and what motivates many faith based groups nationwide, is the potential backlash against religion caused by this insane manipulation of faiths for political gain; thowing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. When we see Intelligent Design stuck down in the courts, we need to maintain objectivity. This attempt to teach unsupportable theory should not be in the classroom; striking it down sent a great message. The message, incidently, is NOT religion is bad, go back and hide in your hole, you nut-jobs!

So what is the message? It’s simply that the steps towards faith need to be sought, questioned, argued and accepted elsewhere. School is not the venue. There is a place for religion in school, however, and its place in the curriculum is critical.

Human history is inexorably intertwined with the journeys, by billions, towards faith. The incredible gains in human interaction, the sorrowing loss of millions of lives due to religious manipulation and persecution, and the ability to grasp and understand inferences in literature and nuances in socialization cannot be understood fully unless some working knowledge of religious history is part of the student’s filter.

We need to be careful that in an effort to quash things like Intelligent Design, we lose site of the value of insightful coursework like “The Bible and Its Influence“.

Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, says the textbook, which is promoted as an examination of the Bible’s influence on
literature, art, history and culture, successfully keeps religion out of public schools. The center is a non-profit institute that promotes constitutional freedoms covered by the First Amendment.

“If you’re considering a Bible elective, look at this textbook,” says Haynes, who helped review a draft of the book with 41 other scholars, including Christians, Jews and agnostics. “They’ve done a Herculean effort to make it as constitutional as they could.” — USA Today

I happen to know quite a bit about this project, as a family member of mine did a large chunk of editing on it. The effort to keep a historical, verifiable perspective was paramount. I have a great deal of respect for this work; I hope my kids have an opportunity to tackle this coursework and the inevitable questions it will raise. I’m not afraid of questions. They’re part of the quest for knowledge. They are also a crucial part of testing and building faith.

The correct position to take with religion in schools is not to look at how to bend facts to conform to religion, but rather to study religion’s far reaching impact on the continual development of the human race. It’s in our art, our music, and our literature, it affects our perceptions, our decision making and the stucture of our society. God is, literally, everywhere.

Regardless of our personal stance on spirituality, we cannot deny the influence of religion on the development of individual and societal humanity. Thanks to the efforts of dedicated, intelligent and frequently faithful scholars such as those involved in “The Bible and Its Influence“, we can keep the growing baby and lose the stagnant bathwater.

Crossposted at Bring It On!

In my Heart

2006-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for awhile

If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for awhile -- Warren Zevon

I used to think everybody has a person in their life that causes their mind to stretch into a new realm. I know now that people like that are unusual and considerable gifts. You get them for short time, and that time is your measure of what you can absorb and develop into something new.

I am a person of faith. I am also a skeptic of organized religion. To me, this makes perfect sense.

Organized religion doesn't reach me. The sermons do not hold my attention, nor do they dictate my behavior. Yet, I felt that both those things were the ultimate goals.

Reading about the intentions of Christ on this earth speaks volumes to me. I feel in my core that this is the measure in which the evolution of humanity is hinged. We will plateau unless we reach a level of love for each other that mirrors the love Christ enacted towards the least fortunate.

Gertie showed me through the way she went about her daily life that public and private piety were not exclusive. Her example, which began with the day and ended when she laid her head down, was a true example of taking the teachings of Christ, be they humility, kindness, selflessness or love, and simply living them. In pain for nearly 50 years, she endured. When she stumbled, she tried harder, when she saw need, she filled, when she saw hurt, she loved. In all things, she laughed, loved, and lived with lively interest.

Her faith was a strength, and her goal was to just be more like Christ -- more loving, more accepting, more humble, more appreciative. These qualities helped raise 10 amazing children, and they in turn marked the starting point for yet more loving families as grandchildren grew up and flew away into the world.

A tiny woman of sheer strength, self possession and determination won my heart and admiration. Losing her leaves me once again with a book in my hand, questions in my heart and a jaded eye.

It also leaves me with a flesh and blood example of why the journey is worth it.

It's the Money, Stupid

2006-01-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Abramoff Week has been interesting, to say the least. It's quite a feat to span the country with your crime spree, which leads me to believe Jacko has more staying power than, say, the Downing Street Memos. While equally damning, there's something about buying a company without any real cash, pilfering it with abandon, then starring at the ceiling whistling while the guy you bought it from gets snuffed, that has all the guilty appeal of good trashy novel. Mickey Spillane, anyone?

When Jacko went to Washington, however, is when the sex scene hit. Who need rules in today's Washington, anyhow? Jest goin' wid da flow, kid. This Washington iz open fer da bidness, doncha know. I gots me some gen-u-wyne goods here, and all I needs is a little grease. Bend over, baby, it's votin' time!

Quite the page turner, eh?

If there is anyone out there who doesn't get how completely Jacko is about to screw Washington, here's a primer:

Since 1998, the amount of money spent on lobbying has doubled.

Lobbying in 2004 ran to 3 billion. That's about twice what we spent on campaign finance. Herring, anyone?

"Our report reveals that each year since 1998 the amount spent to influence federal lawmakers is double the amount of money spent to elect them." -- Roberta Baskin, Center for Public Integrity

Approximately 250 former agency heads and members of congress are lobbyists. It pays, apparently, quite well.

And the paperwork? Oy Vey. Nearly 14,000 documents that should have been filed are missing; nearly 300 individuals, companies or associations lobbied without first registering; more than 2,000 initial registrations were filed after the allowable time frame; 210 out of 250 top lobbying firms failed to file one or more required document; and in more than 2,000 instances, lobbyists never filed the required termination documents at all. -- Center for Public Integrity, Lobby Watch

The fourth estate is cottoning nicely to their role of enablers. It's almost sickening. We saw 10 stories on campaign finance for every one about lobbying. Makes you wonder if the press is dining and hitting the links, too. Thank God for blogs.

Lobbyists spend a lot of time on the hill, with 17,300 companies lobbying the House, and a mere 17,200 lobbying the Senate. By comparison, a measly 2,000 companies lobby the Whitehouse. Must be why George has time for so many vacations. What a relief. I thought it was a question of attention span.

During the day, I spend my time keeping books. You keep books long enough, and accounting patterns emerge. Corporations develop their own cultures. Some are very above board, others put the payment amount in tiny type and the payment plus the penalty in big type. I always assume bottom line projections reflect the profit center resulting from holding all the money of the customers who don't pay attention. I feel pretty confident in that culture, it'd be up to the customer to notice they paid too much.

What's happening in Washington is a culture, too. We've got legislators who can influence direction, and corporations who want a variety of things that will enable them to make more money. Regrettably, these things often pollute, adversely effect the economic prosperity of workers or the prosperity of a country dependant on a robust middle class. Are all corporations bad? Hardly. But for some (Lockheed Martin, Altria Group, AT&T, Verizon, PhRMA), there's a definite culture at work, and in the last six years they've lobbied their asses off. (Can you hear me NOW?) I'll repeat it: Since Clinton, the amount of money lobbyists spend to influence votes in Washington had doubled. Doubled.

Things grow in a receptive environment. When something doubles in size rapidly, the culture must be conducive for it to do so.

Rapid, unchecked growth burns out. Maintaining the pace forever is just too much; the organism can't support it. Washington has been in a free-for-all state for too long; it's gotten sloppy. The real gift here is that so many lobbyists are former politicians; this group knows how to cut a deal.

Hellooo, Jacko. Wanna do lunch?

When the party busts up, we'll have a finite window to fix it. Sitting politicians will make the former politicians turned lobbyists out as the bad guys, but I think that's, in the vernacular, a load of hooey. So should you. When you pull a piece of meat out the fridge and it's green, do you assume the rot is just on the surface, or do you throw the whole mess away as a bad risk?

We're dealing with green meat, and the green money that drives it. As long as the next election is the whipping post every politician is tied too, the will of corporations will take precedence over the will of the people.

So, here's my two-cent solution. One Term and Out. President, 6 years. Senator, 8 years. Rep, 4 years. One shot at the money. No re-election campaigns, no need to raise insane amounts of money, no need to cut deals today for war chest cash tomorrow. Stagger elections so the congress is populated with new and experienced people, but no lifers. The original concept of Civil Service was to attract smart, patriotic people to "serve" a term for the country and then get back to their business. Coupled with campaign finance reform (that doesn't attempt to muzzle blogs while letting bought and paid for corporation-style news opine unmolested), One Term and Out could literally change the way Washington does business. Perhaps even put the trust of the American people back into the equation. Make our governance accountable to the people, for the people.

It's not a democracy if your representation is, literally, out to lunch.

Stepping Up

2006-01-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity. -- Gilda Radner

I must take a week or two to be 1000% with my family. I will be back, and we'll tackle more stuff, but for now, that is where I need to pour my efforts.

If you pray, ask God to watch over Gertie. She's very special. He'll know who she is.

Milestones

2005-12-16T16:03:00.000-08:00

Milestones are like little gifts. You're handed the opportunity to reflect; how travels the path you've chosen, or didn't? What lies ahead? Are you ready? Are you scared?

Sometimes people don't recognize milestones. There's always something still out of reach, a goal or desire required for ultimate happiness. Other times, milestones are of the in your face variety. A decision is required. A door must open or close in your life. Relationships, jobs, death... all stones of a sort, to be endured or enjoyed, but undeniably, to be recognized and pondered.

God Dem! is one year old.

Re-reading my first post was interesting, to say the least. Like lots of left leaning bloggers, the Presidential Election was a turning point that bloated discontent to the breaking point and belched it into the blogoshpere. I was a belchee. Anger, an emotion I'd never felt in connection to the American political scene, was in my driver's seat. I'd lived in a reddish state, surrounded by people who ate, breathed and slept Rush Limbaugh, patiently waiting for sensibility to take over. Surely a blow job was not this encompassing.

But it was.

If so, certainly we could move past a "mis" leader after four years? The administration that scared me with nonexistant nukes, yellow cake, and WMD's should be accountable for their words, right? The President who was a divider, not a uniter, would publicly scrutinized for his actions?

What we saw was the nastiest election ever. Florida was too close to call. The last three weeks of the campaign left me nauseated. Truly, I saw American idealism decimated for profit and power. My country was not great, it was not honest, it was not civil or gracious. She was the hot, easy chick who asked for it. America is a nation that is comprised by millions. Our "being", as it were, is personified by the leaders we choose to implement the course we believe best. When the bullies took the keys from Diebold, they changed the look of the country.

They raped idealism.

Overnight, we became citizens too scared and stupid to know what was best for us. We allowed aggression to become our footprint, without viewing aggression through Honor's looking glass. Afghanistan lies on the bed, forgotten, while Cheney humps for oil. We've shit on our veterans, exist in racial denial, and denigrated our poor.

A year later, I look at the body of essays that is God Dem!, and I'm proud of the work. This blog started in anger has grown, and grown up. Through it, we've pondered the role of liberals in our world, the schism of the Democratic Party and religion, in three parts (1, 2, 3), the power of prayer, and the fall of an administration built on a tissue of lies. I've met some amazing minds, and learned how to defend with grace and pith.

Coming into another election year, we will undoubtedly be nauseated again. This time, though, the number of blog voices has grown in both ability and desire. We understand very well that nothing less than citizen involvement will do. There will be no more waiting for sanity to prevail.

Lock and load.

The Piper

2005-12-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

We are a country in love with clichés, figures of speech, maxims, you name it. In America, things come home to roost. If you build it, they will come. What goes around, comes around. If you have to ask, you can’t afford it. We don’t do the crime if we can’t do the time

In the case of the Iraq war, it’s time to pay the piper.

Comparisons of Iraq to the Vietnam War are increasing. I’ve seen several remakes of Nixon’s “Vietnamization” speech of 1969, and it’s a bit eerie. Dems in Washington smell blood, and some of the more professional fence sitters (Hi, Hillary!) are sliding off the pickets. Personally, I think this country runs best when the congress and the Whitehouse are controlled by different parties. After this last fiasco, I’d like to see a fiscal conservative of any stripe replace the theo-wags in the House (Yes, Mr. Santorum, I’m talking to YOU, and no, I’m not Satan), and a Dem with vision at the helm. Gore would do nicely.

But, we were talking about maxims, weren’t we? Specifically, piper paying, I believe.

This is where any similarity to the Vietnam War ends. We have summarily created growing enemy combatant forces, training grounds and funding in Iraq where there were none. (See the things come home to roost thing, above. You see, we built it. Now, they are coming.) In Vietnam, we schlepped some fancy names on it, and finally, years too late, we pulled our troops out.

Confronted by a demoralized army on the battlefield and by growing opposition at home, in 1969 the Nixon administration started withdrawing most of its troops in order to facilitate what it called the "Vietnamization" of the country. The rest of America's forces were pulled out after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated a "peace settlement" with Hanoi. As the troops withdrew, they left most of their equipment to the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam — which just two years later, after the fall of Saigon, lost all of it to the communists. – Martin Van Creveld, The Forward

It’s VERY expensive to move gear out of an arena. That’s why we left all that stuff in Vietnam. That, and because in order to conduct a classic withdrawal, moving piles of equipment over hundreds of miles, we put our military personnel at extreme risk. Factor in a country guaranteed to sink into an all-out civil war, whose love of America is thin, and whose population is growing daily with our true enemy, Al Qaida, and you have a horrific scenario of our own making. What goes around comes around.

Why do it?

Well, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. Our 1960’s version of the military was vastly different than the one we field today. The technological advances in weaponry which enabled us to mass greater firepower and effectiveness with less personnel (not to mention the huge cost of these weapons), means we don’t exactly have that many of them. It’s critical to our national defense that we keep them, and that means we have to move them with our troops. Hence we are already committed to an expensive and deadly classic withdrawal strategy.

Handing over their bases or demolishing them if necessary, American forces will have to fall back on Baghdad. From Baghdad they will have to make their way to the southern port city of Basra, and from there back to Kuwait, where the whole misguided adventure began. When Prime Minister Ehud Barak pulled Israel out of Lebanon in 2000, the military was able to carry out the operation in a single night without incurring any casualties. That, however, is not how things will happen in Iraq.
Not only are American forces perhaps 30 times larger, but so is the country they have to traverse. A withdrawal probably will require several months and incur a sizable number of casualties. As the pullout proceeds, Iraq almost certainly will sink into an all-out civil war from which it will take the country a long time to emerge — if, indeed, it can do so at all. All this is inevitable and will take place whether George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice like it or not. – Martin Van Creveld, The Forward

Once we’ve paid for all that, we still have to maintain a presence in order to keep the dogs at bay. Iran, complete with impending nuclear capability, will sniff around that door immediately, and this war that wasn’t about oil but really was about oil is going to require us to stay in a security capacity. The value of the region is too high.

The cost of this war for lies, ego and profit sickens me.

Tough nuts. The piper is at the door and he doesn’t take checks.

Impeach Bush.

Sandbox Ettiquette

2005-12-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

Kids have a way of peeling back gentility. When needs are immediate, and generally self orientated, the niceties of cooperation are basically just in the way. After all, we’re talking things of value, here; who wants the red truck when the blue one rocks?

Not getting your way happens. It’s how you handle it that’s interesting.

Grabbing works, sometimes. Just march your happy self across the box and TAKE that toy. This works best for the littlest or the biggest kid. Little kids get away with grabbing because they’re too little to know better. Uh huh. Big kids get away with it because they’re scary. Oh boy.

Once a toy is commandeered, there are choices. Adults would ask for it back in a reasonable tone. In the sandbox world? I don’t think so. Depends on the variables. How big is the kid? Is your Mom looking? What would make you happiest? Grabbing it back, throwing sand, or just whacking the kid upside the head with the yucky truck?

See, you were having a good time with the blue truck. You made roads and built a big pile of sand. Things were great. Then, three kids grabbed your truck, stomped your pile flat and dug a big hole where your extra sand used to be.

Everything is messed up. You not only got no sand, you owe huge amounts of sand. You may never get that hole filled. Plus, they stole your truck!

Sometimes, being the nice kid in the sandbox sucks.

So you check out the three kids. Kid number one talks pretty tough, but you think he’s bluffing. He’s got the truck. He’s also got two kids to back him up. Kid number two is big. And scary. He looks like he’d eat live baby rabbits. He keeps digging that hole, deeper and deeper. Kid three is a weirdo. He keeps standing behind one and two, whispering in their ears. He’s creeping you out.

Big Time.

What’s the best way? Who do you tackle first? You can’t walk away because you really love that truck. After scoping out the status of the ruined sandbox, it’s obvious your truck needs you too.

Sometimes, problems are just too big for one kid to solve alone. A kid needs reinforcements. A kid needs numbers. A kid needs….you.

Allleealllee all in free!

Georgie swiped our truck. Little Dick’s digging for oil and smearing dirt to cover his tracks, and that weird kid Karl just took a crap in the sandbox.

There's a lot more of us now than there used to be. It's time to get our truck back.

Go!

The Real Deal

2005-11-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

Democrats stand accused of lacking vision. Not just by Republicans, either. Moderate stances are berated by the far left as selling out, and extreme left stances looked at skeptically as unattainable by the middle. While hanging on to this bucking bronco is a challenge, Dems revel in the significant change brought about when they stayed on the horse together.

We count things like the civil rights movement, the race for the moon, and The New Deal, complete with its progressive policies such as Social Security, laws to protect labor and the GI Bill in our win column. Big stuff. Changed the face of America. The basis for progressive American equality.

Hardly. Until we understand what went wrong, we haven’t got the true chance to be the party for positive change. Here’s why.

Between 1945 and 1955, the federal government transferred more than $100 billion to support retirement programs and fashion opportunities for job skills, education, homeownership and small-business formation. Together, these domestic programs dramatically reshaped the country's social structure by creating a modern, well-schooled, homeowning middle class. At no other time in American history had so much money and so many resources been targeted at the generation completing its education, entering the workforce and forming families.

But most blacks were left out of all this. Southern members of Congress used occupational exclusions and took advantage of American federalism to ensure that national policies would not disturb their region's racial order. Farmworkers and maids, the jobs held by most blacks in the South, were denied Social Security pensions and access to labor unions. Benefits for veterans were administered locally. The GI Bill adapted to "the southern way of life" by accommodating itself to segregation in higher education, to the job ceilings that local officials imposed on returning black soldiers and to a general unwillingness to offer loans to blacks even when such loans were insured by the federal government. Of the 3,229 GI Bill-guaranteed loans for homes, businesses and farms made in 1947 in Mississippi, for example, only two were offered to black veterans. -- Ira Katznelson

Two, for God’s sake. This is not a case of the naughty south erecting borders for racism. These were federal level programs, kids. The inherent issue here is that compromise, to get these programs in place, required racism to be accepted by every member who voted to enact them. The results were devastating to African Americans. These programs legislated astonishing growth and education for whites in this country and cemented the economic racial divide. Our country gained immense power and influence in the global arena. We weren’t setting the bar. We WERE the bar. Well, some of us were.

Do we really think we don’t need 30 percent of our brainpower?

The New Deal screwed America by reducing our growth ability. It limited us to only some of our brains and talents. It fostered a festering unrest that costs billions in everything from lost potential to poverty costs. I want you to conceptualize what YOUR neighborhood would be like today if The New Deal had been set up for every American. Think about abandoned stereotypes, think about actually UNITED states, think about the staggering potential in every area. Think about less poverty, less crime, less despair.

Now think about New Orleans.

We’re big on blaming Bush for being an insensitive and inept leader. He is. That said, Katrina’s shame belongs to the entire nation. We all own a piece of this despair.

This is where Dems need to stand. All of us. We need to create A Real Deal. We need to be candid and without guile. We need to rescind racism from the language of our legislation. We need to open our American mouths, start talking about and stop buying into racial scare tactics and stereotypes. We need to hold the vision of an America firing on all cylinders as the ONLY reason we are running. No more half-assed reaching out to Black America. No more half-baked promises for change. We need every damned brain in this country. We do NOT need outsourced people untrained and earning below their potential. We do NOT need drop out and pregnancy rates through the roof in schools located in impoverished neighborhoods. We do NOT need skewed rents to consolidate neighborhoods by race. We can NOT accept dehumanizing people based on skin color.

The Real Deal is unfettered opportunity. Dems, willingly embracing this as a number one priority and running candidates capable of bringing it to fruition, will be unstoppable. We all saw, as they drowned and struggled and cursed -- the folly of The New Deal, three generations in. Understand this; none of this is going away. We need to deal with it, together, now.

It’s time to get REAL.

Don't Waste Me

2005-10-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

I received this comment in response to a post I wrote about the continued attrition of money for veteran’s benefits over at Bring It On! I believe what he has to say will resonate with many. Our country needs to accept the responsibility of the lives who wield our weapons. Citizens need to protect our warriors from a political moral abyss that spends their lives or discards their bodies. It's the least we can do. His service means a great deal to me, and all the Bring It On writers, some of who are veterans themselves. Thank you, Liberal Jarhead, for being there for us.

Your nephew and friends are in my prayers. I hope they come home healthy in body and mind.

I'm a retired Marine, and my two brothers (also Marines) and I are all disabled vets. Although there are a lot of wonderful people working for the VA, experience convinces me that the bureaucracy doesn't give a damn about veterans.

I had some epiphanies about the military during my 20 years in, starting when I was 18, and I quickly learned to trust the people to my right and left, and often my immediate leaders, but not the system. We were ready to die doing our jobs if we had to, but we wanted to be valued - you could sum it up as, "I'm trusting you with my life - spend me if you have to, but for God's sake do it for something worth it. Don't waste me."

Now I see the same pattern between this administration and the people in the military, and the people of America.

Most people are pretty decent and solid, but this government doesn't care about ordinary people. They've spent the lives of 2000 young patriots now - for what? Halliburton. Similarly, starting with Nixon and Reagan, they've enacted policies that have directly and indirectly led to the suffering and deaths of many more thousands of Americans through cuts in needed services. While Reagan was in office, a homeless veteran froze to death in the park across the street from the White House. They knew he was there; they just didn't care. If the so-called Great Communicator had had a trace of compassion that could never have happened. I work with the mentally ill, and the way our government treats them (or doesn't) is a disgrace.

We the people are willing to sacrifice for our country, our society - look at the stats showing that Americans keep giving more time and money to help others every year; the kids in high school now are doing more volunteer work than any generation in history. Most of us are willing to pay taxes to help protect our people and help each other - we just ask, "Don't waste our sacrifices."

These people are basically corporate raiders who've pulled off a hostile takeover and are gutting the organization they've hijacked for the benefit of themselves and their friends. Once they've sucked it dry, they'll throw it away and move on. Except for the ones who want to impose a pseudo-Christian theocracy (for anyone who wants a look at what that would be like, read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.) The only way we can stop this process is to get active. Don't just forward e-mails! Write letters to legislators and newspapers. Organize discussion groups. Find candidates you can believe in and volunteer to help their campaigns.

These are sacrifices of time and energy, but they're worth it.

We Don't Want Your Kind 'Round Here

2005-10-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Tell me again why Republicans are considered to be more supportive of troops?

Capt James Yee’s book will turn your stomach. Yee was accused and thrown into Guantanemo. Here are his words:

“It was my turn to be humiliated every time I was taken to have a shower. Naked, I had to run my hands through my hair to show that I was not concealing a weapon in it. Then mouth open, tongue up, down, nothing inside. Right arm up, nothing in my armpit. Left arm up. Lift the right testicle, nothing hidden. Lift the left. Turn around, bend over, spread your buttocks, knowing a camera was displaying my naked image as male and female guards watched.

“It didn’t matter that I was an army captain, a graduate of West Point, the elite US
military academy. It didn’t matter that my religious beliefs prohibited me from being fully naked in front of strangers. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been charged with a crime. It didn’t matter that my wife and daughter had no idea where I was. And it certainly didn’t matter that I was a loyal American citizen and, above all, innocent.”

What is truly awful is what happened to Yee after his charges were found baseless and dismissed. The pentagon has developed a nasty habit of character assassination of people who speak against it. The favored ploy is accusing them of sexual misconduct. This is not an accusation of abusive or non-consensual sex as a layperson would interpret the term, but rather this:

But the favored technique clearly lies in bringing charges of improper sexual conduct, invariably involving consensual sexual relations. These charges are easily brought. The number of eunuchs and sexual abstainers among the uniformed military is low and sociological research has long shown that the vast majority of the population has sexual relations outside of wedlock at some point. That means that these charges can be brought against virtually anyone. If the rules were enforced uniformly and aggressively, we would not be able to maintain a volunteer army. But the current highly selective application may achieve the same result. Two important bar organizations have already looked at the situation and concluded that the application of sexual misconduct rules by the uniformed services suggests highly uneven application. Both urged reforms. The Pentagon refuses to budge. The tool is too powerful, and too readily abused. Therein lies its attraction. – Balkinization

Here’s some stuff to chew on:

Maj Gen Thomas J Fiscus, Judge Advocate General of the Air Force – known to have criticized rules on treatment of detainees – accused of sexual misconduct

Lt Gen John Riggs – questioned the level of troop commitments to the Iraq campaign – accused of sexual misconduct and technical contract infractions

Gen Kevin Byrnes – responsible for incorporating changes in doctrine on interrogation and treatment of detainees, rumored to have had reservations about changes hammered through by Rumsfeld – accused of sexual misconduct

This is not about dedication to United States of America. This is about silencing dedicated soldiers who understand that the putrid smell of greed is despoiling the country they’ve sworn to protect. America sent these people out, ill-equiped and under manned, and when they tell the American people the truth, America repays them with by defaming their characters and destroying their careers.

Anybody who believes this is acceptable sucks.

Hat tip to Balkinization for opening my eyes so thoroughly.

Everyday People

2005-10-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

We're raising three children. There's nothing like hearing yourself parroted back by a three year old; it gives you an absolute time definition of when you morphed into your oh so tragically un-hip parents. Holding children's constant, absorbing gaze forces you to set up a filter for your imperfections. Screen out the cussing and bawdy entendres, and there you are, stuck inside your parents, wondering just what in the hell happened.

One of the benefits (why, half full, funny you should ask) of this self imposed screen is that it provides a ready made opportunity for self improvement. Instead of muttering "Murphy doesn't know shit", you can regale yourself with "Murphy exhibited his usual infantile cognitive powers of assessment on this one." See, your vocabulary is improving already.

We use this internal screen because we love our children. Most of us hated the "do as I say, not as I do" style of parenting, having rebelled so successfully against it in the 60's and 70's. I know I am determined that I not be a pushover, but that I will be honest and accessible to my children. I want them to have the best base possible to build on. Their lives and choices are theirs. It's my hope that they will land farther and stronger from me than I landed from my parents.

Part of the reason this is so important to me is because of race. Growing up, I lived with a parent who was a card carrying member of the NAACP in the early 1960's, in the SOUTH, and a parent who basically thought that was a load of crap. The interesting thing was, though, that seeing the world through the eyes of the civil rights activist gave me the opportunity to understand seeing it through the eyes of racist. It's hollow, you know. What's interesting is how deliberately they play it. Bennett's remarks last week are a perfect example.

This country has a long history of defining abilities by race. We love our stereotypes. We invoke everything from brains to penis size in our idiotic endeavor to quantify the abilities of the human mind by the packaging that surrounds it. We persist in "normalizing" these labels in an effort to bind cohesiveness through hate. If each decision is defended by assumptions that "everybody" understands, perhaps it's the sense of inclusion, of being more than you really are, that appeals.

I won't be joining the club.

When we abandon our filters, the necessary mechanism we create as adults to force us to better ourselves, the potential for improvement wanes. Until we strive, unified in the belief each life and mind is valuable, our country can NEVER reach it's potential.

Accepting the value of each life gives us the opportunity, for the first time in the history of this country, to cease to divide ourselves. If we choose not to impede the progress of some in order to grease the wheels for a few, we stand uniquely posed to capitalize of the massive gains America made in the 20th century.

Katrina is our wake up call. If we embrace what we want our individual selves to become, the better person we filter to, then this is the moment to right racial wrongs and set the course for the best damn country in the world.

Renounce assumptions. Hold hypocrisy to the light. Don't be the first to blink.

We're all grown up now. The time for division is over.

Opportunity Knocks

2005-09-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Back in March, I wrote a post about Ronnie Earle. I like Earle. Not much has changed there. Things today are different though, and it's an important difference.

In March, back when I put up the "Don't Delay, Indict Tom" banner on the top corner of my site, I thought I was mad as hell. Sometimes emotions are sneaky. We get so caught up in them we can't actually analyze them. My six month retrospective tells me I wasn't so much angry as brimming with frustrated disillusionment.

Folks on the right look at the overall change in America as a straightening of far left tendencies. I never saw it that way. All my life I have voted my conscience. I vote 60- 70% Democratic, but that's not a formula, it just my view of who, in any given race, can do the job. If you vote only along party lines, you're letting somebody else, and their agenda, do your thinking for you.

I happen to feel that it makes sense to be financially conservative. I dislike feeling dependent on anybody. I don't run my personal life that way; I damn sure don't want to run my country that way. Socially, I'm liberal. I accept that abler bodies and minds have a responsibility to those less fortunate. I think everybody had to try; everyone must do their best.

As a Christian, I believe that stepping into the breach and lifting is required. God doesn't ask us to drive Humvees and have the best toys, he simply wants us to see each life as valuable, even if the owner of that life acts like it isn't . Ultimately, I believe that accepting the value of each life allows us to decline the temptation of division; we can choose not to structure our society as an obstacle course, creating losers in order to make winners. Brains and abilities are already disparate. We don't need to build more division; the challenge before us is to figure out how to excel using ALL the brains and abilities, whatever their levels.

Hence the reason for the frustration. Everywhere I looked, I saw things I disagreed with. We spent a hell of a lot of money. If I ran my checkbook that way, I'd be living under an overpass. Stories kept changing. If I pulled that crap with my Mother, I'd still be eating Ivory Soap. Principles lost their transcendence. During the Clinton presidency, the lie about the sex became a metaphor for the reason the presidency must end. Clinton, to many, was an unprincipled man. Five years into this presidency, where are the principles behind this war, with its constantly changing premise? Where are the principles behind the Abu Gharib torture, when rank and file are left to hang and their superiors don't have their backs, are not demanding to be accountable for their people? Where are the principles behind the Patriot Act? Cutting the civil liberties of the taxpayer will not trap the terrorists -- only building a communicative network with other countries will do that. Sure it's easier to control the citizenry, but that doesn't make it right.

Which leads me back to Earle. Ronnie Earle is a principled man. He happens to not like people breaking the law because they've got power. Things will be said about Earle. Most will not be true. He's not partisan, (his indictment ratio of 13 Democrats to 3 Republicans supports that) but he sure as hell hates power hungry politicos who abuse the law for personal gain. He's a good guy. Lately, we seem to have a dearth of those.

People who roared about Clinton should be fervently supporting Earle. He's got the high ground here. In fact, folks in the middle and Republicans who no longer recognize this spendthrift party of cronyism as their own should back Ronnie Earle. Drawing the line in the sands of reason is the first step to regaining a healthier American political system and a recognizable Republican Party.

I miss those guys. I wish them Godspeed.

Hey Boys and Girls, Wanna Play?

2005-09-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile, I come across something that is too funny to keep to myself. Madmary sent this to me, and I'm compelled to share. Polish up the plausible deniablity kiddies, and let's play!

-- Courtesy of Salon

Hide and Sneak

2005-09-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

I'm pissed. AGAIN. Hypocrites are starting to wear thin on me, and those asshats sitting on both sides of the aisle are hypocritimus maximus.

What on God's green earth possess these people? We are blessed with some truly outstanding examples of humanity in our armed forces. Selfless, disciplined, dedicated, and courageous -- these folks set aside their own dreams and goals, daily joys of seeing children grow, marriages deepen and careers thrive to go around the world, live in conditions that would make most of us stroke out, and possibly get killed. The rest of us, comfy and happy, stressing over whether McDonald's or Taco Bell is the best choice tonight, looking forward to a snuggle with our spouse and some great football this weekend should feel a moral imperative to take care of our caretakers.

Rep. David Obey, D-WI thought so too. He tried an interesting experiment this week:

And so last Wednesday, Obey entered the laboratory of the subcommittee on military construction and proposed an amendment to restore $1 billion of the $1.5 billion President Bush cut from the budget for military family housing.
As Obey noted in an interview, "it's obvious that you have atrocious
barracks for the troops with families and also for the single troops." Wouldn't a Congress that passes resolutions "singing hosannas to the troops" give the same troops decent places to live?
But then the experiment kicked in: Obey proposed financing the budget increase by reducing Bush's recent tax cut, but only for the roughly 200,000 Americans who make more than $1 million a year.
Under Obey's amendment, these taxpayers would receive a cut of $83,546 this year -- more than most Americans make annually -- instead of the $88,326 they are currently scheduled to receive.
This small contribution to the troops was voted down on a party-line vote. A spokesman for Rep. Joe Knollenberg of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee, said that Obey's amendment was inappropriate -- tax matters are properly dealt with in the Ways and Means Committee, he said -- and that Knollenberg hoped "that additional money would be found" to improve housing for the troops. -- Washington Post

I find these priorities completely screwed up. If I was wealthy enough to qualify for a 88 THOUSAND dollar tax cut, I think taking $4800 less and restoring 2/3 of the cut taken from our service people would sound like an upright thing to do.

In the face of what our service people endure on our behalf, it's barely a start.

Hiding behind procedural rules cuts exactly zero crap with me. Either you care about righting this wrong, or you care about who got you elected and who might get you elected again.

Flaunting selfishness in the face of valor is abominable.

People, Get Ready

2005-09-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

We registered our house as available to offer shelter to people displaced from their homes by Katrina at two different sites. We’re not well off, but we do produce a lot of food off our little farm, and one thing we have in abundance is good eats. Knowing you have food for your family covered frees up people to concentrate on the other Katrina realities such as the labyrinth of insurance negotiation and finding work. We hope we will be contacted, but nothing so far.

Part of the problem, of course, is that displaced people have limited resources for finding us. This is an area that FEMA really needs to look at. Having a stockpile of technology ready to reconnect victims with opportunities is crucial. Not only for the people who need help, but the people who want to help are equally reliant on their technology. I’ve received emails asking that I try to locate evacuees myself, in an effort to let them know I have housing. I’m fine with that, but again, we are missing a significant puzzle piece when the gap between need and help is so wide.

One person can’t make the difference that ten, a hundred, or a thousand can.

Next time, I hope we foresee and solve the tech breakdown between helper and helpless. Since right now is where the need is, Rabbi Marc Gellman has a solution that I like very much.

Rabbi Gellman believes that it will be months if not a year before displaced families can return home. Shelters cannot function for that kind of time. Most housing offers are short term and can accommodate just a few. Resettling whole families is a big job with impact on the new communities in terms of schools and services. The Feds are going to be busy rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, so most of these individual needs are probably not going to be met by Washington (and possibly not by the overburdened states).

His solution? The Starfish Project.

Therefore, it is clear to me that the best solution to this emergency is for the houses of worship to step up to this sacred task and help resettle these families in their towns. Religious congregations are perfect because they are larger than a family and smaller than the government. They are perfect because they already exist. They are perfect because they are already spread out all over this great land, and most of all they are perfect because it is their mission to do this. The moral integrity of not just America is at stake now. The moral integrity of America’s churches and other holy communities is at stake now. – Gellman, Newsweek

This is an opportunity for People of Faith across this country, frustrated by the Republican hijacking of Christianity for un-Christian behavior, to get back to the roots of faith. I urge you to bring this idea to your communities and places of worship and get the conversation started. Hands on helping, working together to help raise up another who has stumbled, is just the tonic we need.

All I know is that we need to do this to fulfill God’s commandment and my favorite story. God’s commandment comes from the prophet Isaiah, “You are a refuge to the poor, to the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm” (Isaiah 25:4). A check to the Red Cross is good but it alone is neither refuge nor shelter. A shelter is an opening of arms wide enough to catch them. A shelter is using our blessings to ease their burdens. A shelter is bringing them close to our hearts and holding them until they are strong enough to walk on their own to the next place they will decide to live. A shelter is a group of families of
faith and hope, giving faith and hope to those who have just come up out of the waters and deserve to find more than a desert on the other side. America’s houses of worship are perfect shelters for the victims of this American storm. Some are already doing it now. More must do it tomorrow. – Gellman, Newsweek

The reckless spending of this administration is coming home to roost. We’ve spent a pile in the past five years; we’re well in bed with debt these days. It’s up to Americans to help each other. If we are what we believe ourselves to be, a caring nation with can-do spirit, we need to stop waiting for our uncaring, can’t-do government. Flexing our civic muscle, empowering our religious leaders and taking back our country from a bunch of talking points asshats on both sides of the aisle would put us a long way towards righting the rift that divides our country and allows us to be played against each other.

Religion has power in this nation. It’s just not the warped Pat Robertson “death-to-infidels” variety we’ve been beat with -- to the point that many believe that unless they pollute religion with politics, faith will fail. Faith can’t fail, people do. So get those conversations started, eh?

People get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don’t need no ticket
You just thank the Lord

People get ready
For the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers
From coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There’s room for all
Among the loved the most

Let’s raise this country up … once displaced American at a time.