Displaying 4,891 To 4,920 Of 5,146 Comments I once had a reason to work with the FBI on a major case. This was just a few years before Bush. It was an exemplar of multi-jurisdictional cooperation with local, state, and federal agencies coming together to solve a major crime. Then came Bush and Ashcroft. Within two months, the local and state guys were frozen out of the information pool. Fortunately, they caught the perp before that happened, but it was a shock to those of us civilians who’d had decent relationships with all involved. We were frozen out, too, and we had information all parties could have used. For Obama to try to piece back the links for inter-agency cooperation(as I understand he is ordering done today) is superb, but I wonder how much damage can be undone. I slightly know Panetta, whom I believe to be one of the Good Guys, and I watch in absolute horror as he defends the status quo. What IS going on here? And then, I wonder how much those tied to Cheney, Rummy, and The Family control in the departmental levels that make the probability of intelligence “failure” that much greater. These people’s turf wars or deliberate intent scare the bejeezus out of me. (Bejeezus – an entirely technical term, you know…) » Posted By choicelady On January 5, 2010 @ 7:53 pm Democrats to Bypass Conference Committee to Pass Healthcare Bill Remember – Nelson got what he wanted in the abortion amendment that many of us actually think is pretty close to Lois Capps’ amendment in the House. The other Blue Dogs can be easily cowed with threats of lost federal dollars. That leaves Senator L., and the loss of his chairmanship coupled with removal to the committee on tourism to Bora Bora would probably do the trick. These guys don’t have power any longer. Bringing out the rubber hoses, as Matt Taibi noted, can be done only once. NOW is the time when the final version goes to the Senate floor. I think Obama, Reid, and Pelosi all know they have the power. Now is when they need to use it. We probably won’t see the machinations, but we will see some kind of face saving that lets L. vote for cloture but not the bill. It’s OK – we have enough votes to PASS it once it gets to the floor. I will know more Wed. after my weekly conference call with House and Senate staff. I will see if I have the gumption to post – actually post – what I’ve learned. It’s that danged photo thingy… » Posted By choicelady On January 4, 2010 @ 8:01 pm First – hi Felonious – we missed you! Second, if Reid and Pelosi are open to this, what someone on either Olbermann or Maddow called “ping pong” – back and forth between the houses, and it’s without any reference to the Reeps, then I have even GREATER hopes that the gloves will come off with Lieberman! We know from many reports that L. fears one thing – loss of chairmanship of Senate Homeland Security. I think this shows the determination of the progressives in each house to get a REAL bill without capitulation. And that means to Lieberman! I could be wrong (I often am) but this looks good, it’s heartwarming, and I think it would NOT happen if they did not have a real strategy for dealing with the Great Stone Face of the Senate. NOW is the time to push for real cost effectiveness for all families and individuals, a solid public option, and even some significant coverage for legal immigrants. This is what I’d hoped would happen – can’t believe it IS! It’s very positive because it would not occur if the Dems had not had this in their hip pocket and were willing, after giving bi-partisanship a chance – and that’s fine since it showed the Reeps for what they are, to do what must be done, set a solid path toward real reform, and NOT defer to the troglodytes. And number one in the latter group is Senator L. I am VERY hopeful! » Posted By choicelady On January 4, 2010 @ 7:57 pm Interesting point. I don’t know. I think there is an embedded issue of who did it. As complicated as it gets, if the effigy was hung by someone who is Black, it might have been. Hard to do a realistic assessment of racial bias of white-on-white crime, yes? The characteristics don’t extend to “being president”. They DO extend to “being Black” and being president is beside the fact, back to your point about its not being treason. Courts are very careful, so I imagine if the Bush and Palin (I don’t recall that – Cheney, yes) effigies were linked to white people, then no, not a hate crime. Mean and nasty, yes. Not a hate crime. » Posted By choicelady On January 5, 2010 @ 4:29 pm Hi emerald – did you post on the Planet because I don’t see it. Is there a time lag? I will definitely watch for it! Thank you! » Posted By choicelady On January 4, 2010 @ 8:16 pm Hi KevenSEven- I work with the FBI and other organizations to prevent hate crimes. This effigy does fill the bill. It is not protected speech if it conveys a true threat, and hanging effigies do that. That’s a national standard, so while I totally agree it’s not treason, it IS “hate speech” that carries penalties for its fearmongering. Now, lest someone say hate crimes punish thought, they do not. You can think and even say any damned thing you want. Hate crime laws punish ACTIONS. All crimes – ALL – go to motive. When the issue is sending a message designed to stop someone from acting as he or she would of their own free will, or to send fear through an entire group (e.g., Black people) then it carries the hate crimes enhancement. There are many instances of enhanced penalties for crimes that are “cause crimes” that target whole groups, so this is not just about Obama, it does not penalize thought and speech per se, it is around an action that is designed to be fearful. That’s why the witch doctor signes and other such nastiness are NOT hate crimes. They are not symbols of death. This is. And, to add one more dimension: there are no protected classes of people. NONE. There are protected characteristics we all have: race, religion, ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, etc. We all have them. White people can be and are protected against crimes directed against them by people of color – just doesn’t happen often. So don’t get mad because you think certain groups get extra protection because they do NOT. The crimes directed against any characteristic can affect us all. Hope that clarifies? » Posted By choicelady On January 4, 2010 @ 8:11 pm Great post, E-cat! This is dear to my heart. Because I’ve had some health problems induced by bad western meds, I tend to shy away from a lot of things my doc wants me to do. I have developed major food intolerances thanks to an unneeded sulfa drug that affected me violently back in 2000, so when the doc wanted me on Lipitor with its digestive complications, I told her to give me three months, and we’d talk. I then took a dose of my own homemade “medicine” and started eating Benecol, a plant sterol ester-based margerine substitute. It’s expensive (Promise Control is cheaper so I now use that) but is about the equivalent of a co-pay – $10 per month. I lowered my cholesterol by doing two things – stopping some really bad habits I’d acquired eating on the run, and eating Benecol. Lowered it 60 points in three months. My doc is annoyed but cannot argue with the results. That said, I find it wildly contradictory that HuffPo decries various medical things, berates Congress for not doing what she thinks they should in challenging PhRMA, and then has an entire section devoted to FOR PROFIT “natural” medicine. If I did everything suggested there, I’d be bankrupt. What’s the difference between a snake oil doc pushing pills and a snake oil doc pushing other pills? In the latter case, the results are dubious at best. The only reason I know for sure that Benecol and Promise Control work is that my husband used them, and now I have. It was a no-harm, not much money alternative, but some of the stuff Ariana pushes is a bit more dicey and a lot more money. She seems perfectly OK with people spending freely on Little PhRMA, so where’s the logic? I think Arianna is hypocritical, and I think she is becoming dangerous. On this as on so many other levels. » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 10:42 pm KQ – you were one of the posters upon whom I came to rely until you vanished. I also learned a great deal from the posters, but the content began to dwindle in reliability, so when you posted POV, over I came. Thanks! » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 10:27 pm And gormless “progressives”! OK – I’m not entirely sure what gormless means, but I love the word. At any rate, the progressives that will (and I’ve had this conversation just to see what would happen) extol the wonders of Swiss health care while decrying our pending legislation. I am far from right all the time, but one DOES try to be accurate to the best of one’s ability. Wish that were the norm. » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 10:24 pm Guns, Knives, Hammers and Bricks* Oh indeed – I am not suggesting outlawing the EMOTION (serves me well, from time to time) but the irresponsible ACTS one takes because of it should red-flag a warning and maybe prohibition against GUN ownership. You can get hopping mad all you want, just so you don’t hit. Or worse. That’s what is the trigger, not the anger. Sorry – I can see why someone might get a wee bit creeped out by my comment!!!! » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 8:02 pm OK – opening a bit of a door on my own history. I do agree that having abortion legal and safe probably has made a huge difference. I used to walk women into clinics because my heart went out to them. No one should do this under duress from protesters outside who will NOT leave them alone. They needed friendly faces, support, a kind word, so I did it. And they talked with me – and they were doing their best NOT to bring a child into the world whom they could not adequately support and who would be subject to neglect, no matter how inadvertant, and open to gangs and other hard influences. People who think abortion is selfish have rarely met the women who elect it. For them it’s the death of dreams – you know, the loving family, white picket fence (even girls in the inner city want this sort of happy ever after.) Many girls and women and even mothers of girls cried with me thinking they, buy the lights of what their religion said to them, were going to hell because of it. Think of that – they were willing to lay down what they considered their immortal souls TO PREVENT FURTHER HARM TO AN INNOCENT CHILD. That’s powerful sacrifice! Since I’m not very well grounded in theology and cannot conceive of a God so mean, all I could say was that I truly believed God and Jesus would be the first to understand their pain and anguish and decision. It’s lousy theology, but I’m not sorry I did it. But yes – I do think that choice, that sacrifice, has prevented millions of potential children being born and then themselves being sacrificed by a society that reveres them only before birth and throws them and their families to the wolves afterwards. We don’t like women and children as a society. Until we do, and make room for them, abortion is the only option that prevents the harm of creating unwanted children we turn into criminals. I think we could do a LOT better, don’t you? » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 7:57 pm Oh, Em! How dreadful! So much for crime being “down” when it happens to someone you know! We will send our thoughts, energies, and prayers her way. I am so, so sorry this has happened to her and your friend. » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 7:46 pm Anyone heard from FeloniousMonk lately? Haven’t read anything from him in a long time. If you’re reading, not posting, Felonious, Happy New Year. Miss you! » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 12:56 pm You of course make an outstanding argument, AdLib. I do wonder though, whether outlawing anger – acts of anger – might not be the solution? By this I mean anyone – ANYONE – with a record of a legal complaint by someone else for anger, be it domestic violence, road rage, being fired for being out of control – being banned forever from owning a firearm. First strike. No exceptions. If we yammer on about “personal responsibility” then let us live by that. If you don’t take responsibility for your acts in small things, danged if we should let you loose with lethal ones. How could the NRA quibble since they’re the “guns don’t kill people, people do” folks? We shall know you not by the company you keep necessarily, but by what you DO. And that means you’re banned forever for being a hothead, indifferent to others, mean, violent, angry. Would that work? It would be a lot of record keeping, but so is the aftermath of violence, and this would shed a lot less blood along the way. Just a thought. » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 12:54 pm Hi Boomer! Tried, in vain, to take a vacation but mostly worked anyway. Glad to be back with my beloved Planet friends! Happy New Year all! » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 12:44 pm Does anyone remember the “All in the Family” segment when Mike and Gloria are arguing with Archie, and he says to his daughter, “Would it make you feel better, little girl, if they threw all those people out of windows?” Guns don’t require the intimacy, indeed. They seriously change the game. However, I find as I grow older, I don’t so much want to ban guns as the people who use them. I do see the impersonality of it, and my own training – a REAL overstatement – with them, shows me that I’m as bad with them as with a camera. Huh? Well, I have the personality type that somehow believes that the camera should photograph what I want even if someone is in the way, and a gun’s bullet… So I will never take more than snapshots, but snapshots with bullets just are too dangerous. I’ve been trained, I make great target points, I’m really good – and should never be left alone with a gun and a bad mood. I get the gun ban issue because of this, but fundamentally the core of American personality problems is THE problem. Americans believe in American exceptionalism, in the myth of rugged individualism, in the now-unspoken manifest destiny and white supremacy that make guns a logical part of our “culture”. Hyper individualism makes having a gun and using it essential. I don’t doubt the potential in crime (though it’s actually down everywhere – can’t explain it) and need for self defense, but part of that problem arises from our segregation from others, not just racially but emotionally. Our neighborhood, not to stop crime but to be whole, had a Christmas dinner for homeless neighbors on Christmas morning. Without a doubt, it has changed the neighborhood for the better. We all know one another now, including the homeless people, much better. Crime, as an issue of intrusion upon one another, has simply STOPPED. We are one people. Will it last? As long as we continue to talk to one another and say “Hi how ARE you?” and continue our common humanity, yes. Every other culture but ours has a sense of the common good. You see it destroyed in war (Congo, etc.) but we destroy it in peace. The fundamentals of hyper individualism make us distrustful, make that distrust come TRUE, and bring us back full circle to needing to protect ourselves against the very people we have treated badly who distrust us. You can make a gang banger smile simply by smiling at him. I’m not stupid – I’ve walked the mean streets and know when simply to be careful, and I’m not so Pollyanna as to think I, white middle aged privileged woman, can charm absolutely anyone. But we have these stupid rules (never look groups of Black men in the eye) and prejudices against teens (especially of color), homeless, etc. that can be a justification for distance, and that distance itself breeds hostility and fear. The nation has an opportunity for a liquor-free “attitude adjustment” with Obama. It’s amazing how we’ve come together so well to elect him, and I’d like for that to persist in saving the nation. In the process, I’d hope we could drop the hostilities that breed fear that in turn breeds the need for guns. That’s my hope for the new year. Guns don’t kill people. Angry, fearful people kill people. Let’s ban the anger and fear first. Might do a world of good? » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 11:55 am Welcome Jan. I’m fairly new here and love it. I learn so much from the other inhabitants of the Planet. It’s a very good place for thought and reflection, and we do not ALL agree on every issue, but we all do talk wisely and well to one another. It’s very good information we all share. Rest and stay awhile; it’s also a very pleasant place to be a human being. » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 8:06 pm Cher, this is magnificent research! Thank you so much! This is a keeper for all the fern-bar, world-weary progressives who think the entire nation has given up on Obama. I think it was KQuark who said it’s the long-stemmed wine glass progressives, not the meat and potatoes folks (I think some of that is my words, not KQuark’s.) I do believe that people will rally if and when there is progress on health care, etc. And this morning’s paper indicated that even in Sacramento THEY ARE HIRING AGAIN. Not a lot, but hiring. Whoo Hoo! Since we look like a major depression zone, that is very good news. I am an historian by background, so I went back to look at FDR’s record for the “Top of the World” post, and found FDR took several years to develop the WPA and several other programs. So I have some confidence. My world-weary progressive associates blathered on about how independents are disgusted with Obama and Congress, and that Dems will lose in 2010 – even though people like their own elected officials. Well, people vote for their own elected officials, so we might NOT see a lot of alteration of Congress? It’s very interesting that you’ve found LESS opposition with this search than we’d have projected from HuffPo and MSNBC. Wow – that is just amazing. Give us all some hope! Thank you! » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 1:12 pm You got that right! » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 10:47 pm You know, PatsyT, it’s almost as if they DO want Cheney because being a complainer is so much easier than building a better nation. I mentioned to the NYNW (New Year’s Narcissistic Whiner) that he might want to read Paul Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest” (dedicated to a beloved friend of mine who is amazing) about the global movements – plural, movements – to help people build small circles of comparative efficacy and autonomy that allow them to live better and determine more of their own fate. The NYNW brushed it off as irrelevant. Well, OK – simple people living in small villages in the jungles of unknown places may SEEM irrelevant, but there are millions of them. Here, too. We in the West and especially communities of privilege want BIG and IMMEDIATE solutions. Why? Then we don’t have to help. KQuark – thanks for understanding my fury at the “no skin in the game” people. You and escribacat are always and forever in my thoughts as I work the federal health bill, try to move it forward, with, we hope a public option, but just move it for YOU both. I don’t even know you in person, and I care passionately about you and want whatever will make your lives easier, your health better, your financial future more secure. YOU are MY “skin in the game” because I have gold-plated insurance (for now) and don’t need to care if all I think about is my own condition. Why is it so hard for the NYNW to own up to the fact that he does NOT define the world? I do NOT get it, and I’m scared of the ways these selfish idiots can drag us down. And yes, bring back Cheney or Sarah or both. » Posted By choicelady On January 3, 2010 @ 10:26 am Thanks, escribacat – fortunately, he’s NOT a friend at all. Just met him this time, and he so annoyed the hosts he is banned from future gatherings. It is my profound hope NEVER to meet him again, though his wife is lovely. But it is the tenor of the times with too many people I know, and it’s scary! My generation (I think you’re younger) embodies that line from “Postcards from the Edge” – “Instant gratification takes too long!” I disliked that about the 60s and see that unfortunately it’s survived into this milennium. Bah! REAL progress just is not a series of quick-fix feel good steps. It’s going to take TIME. And if we don’t support Obama in the process, we will lose a man who just may be one of the greats. Will we let him become great? Will we do our part to make our nation great as it could be? Damn – I hope so! » Posted By choicelady On January 2, 2010 @ 10:41 pm Thank you for good sense, Tiger99. Thanks to all for noting that it’s probably never a good idea to say, “If *I* were in charge…” because we’d screw up for sure. I spent New Year’s Eve with two men, both successful and self-identified as progressives. They are “done” with President Obama. Why? He has not fixed everything already. One claimed, in the height of solipsism, that HE had written a letter telling Obama that if Obama did not do what the writer wanted immediately, he, the writer was simply NOT going to vote again. And then he said to me, “The President ought to be very worried about getting such a letter from me.” I wanted to post some of this, but what the heck – replying to good sense with my rant against so-called progressives should suffice. I am not “off” Obama by a long shot despite the fact that I want Bush and Cheney to hang by their thumbs, want Gitmo closed yesterday, want universal single payer health care if not today then tomorrow, want the religious right to be embarrassed enough about their willingness to embrace The Family to slink under their rocks, want-want-want-want things done MY way. Now. But I lobby. I work with state and federal legislators, good, bad, and mediocre, every day. With some very notable exceptions, they are good people doing an amazing balancing act among competing demands. And they recognize that, like it or not, others DO have rights even if we dislike them. Walking the line among all the people tugging on their sleeves is actually HARD. I celebrate Obama’s bi-partisan outreach because now that he’s tried, and they have failed, he does not need to keep doing it. It’s been months since he did that, and it’s because he needed to let them either show responsibility or hang themselves with their own rope. The Reeps did the latter. I celebrate Obama’s outreach to religious conservatives because they immediately self-exploded on sex scandals, adherence to amazingly disgusting things such as the Ugandan demand for the death penalty for same-sex attration, and for rigidity in the face of outreach that shows them up as hypocrites. I celebrate the man’s return to the rule of law, however creaky the apparatus may be. I celebrate his return to Congress as the rule maker, to the courts as the source of review, and for having the smarts to submit the Bush Doctrine law cases on torture, rendition, and other issues to the courts that have largely shot it all down, leaving the brand on Bush, not on Obama. And I remain a progressive wanting much, much more – and am finding that most of my progressive allies – and I apologize but this is MY experience – at least the WHITE ones – are superficial narcissists at best. When push comes to shove, it’s really only about them, NOT about ideas, cooperation, community, uplift – certainly NOT about making alliances with the amazing and wonderful people in communities of color who are actually moving things forward, making some stupendous changes in their communities, raising up what Obama said was necessary – our all getting involved together. No, for the armchair critics, it’s only about their right to be forever cranky and disaffected. AND I AM SICK OF THEM! At the core they have NO skin in the game because it really does not matter to them who is in office – they gain and lose very little. I look at them, compared to the breast cancer victim with no insurance, the family struggling to get off welfare, the communities that lost their last manufacturing plant, the men and women who were lied to about credit card interest, given aubprime mortgages when they qualified for conventional rates – and on and on and on. I see both Obama and Congress struggling with these issues that will, I deeply regret, take TIME to resolve. In his first year, FDR got the CCC established, but it took until 1936 for the WPA to be started (passed in 1935 two years after FDR’s inauguration but ramp up took another year.) I think it’s not lost on Obama that the one big program, National Recovery Act of 1933, was shot down by the courts. Obama is moving much more carefully – this court is still not his friend. OK -all that said, my fury at the idiots who style themselves as progressive but who are too good to dirty their hands by working collaboratively with others, by doing ANYTHING at all, or even by voting for someone who is, in their eyes, imperfect, is one of the most grossly evil acts of our time. When push comes to shove, too many look out for Number #1, just like the Wall Street magnates, and where does that leave us? I have met several people, ranchers and farmers, who are gun rights supporters because guns are tools for them. I personally detest hunting for sport but understand it as a protein necessity in families living on the edge financially. I have a real sense that we need to look at the gulf between Saturday Night Specials/Semi-Automatic handguns in urban areas and rifles and shotguns in rural settings. I think the solutions here are quite sensible (only the Tim McVeigh’s of the world would see this as a start of gun confiscation and deny their personal responsibility I believe) but the urban professional pseudo-progressive whiners will tell you that guns MUST be banned, MUST be confiscated, MUST be done away with. They also hate the police – until they need them, of course. So – someone talk me down. Obviously, I need a better set of people with whom to celebrate New Year’s Eve (the rest of the group was marvelous and quite put off by these two) but I fear I see this in so many people today. My way or the highway. Easy and cheap solutions. No quick fix, no support. I fear Obama will not be given much of a chance to fix the 40 years – yes FORTY years – of the march to the right, the destruction of our economy, and the erosion of democracy. But what galls me is that it comes largely from people for whom whining has primacy over work and even democratic ideas. And I have NO idea what to do about it. Good sense. I can no longer call it common sense because it is not very common. I just wish it were. » Posted By choicelady On January 2, 2010 @ 9:58 pm Many of us in her NON blog-o-sphere have been advocating this for YEARS. My first brush with community banking came decades ago with the South Shore Bank in Chicago (now just Shorebank I believe) that made all its loans in poorer neighborhoods and to small, largely minority owned businesses as well as to homeowners. We’ve known the benefits of community banking and credit unions. Right after “the fall” last year, I was able to secure a 5-year CD at 5% per year when all banks offered was just over prime. (That has changed, but the credit union is still ahead of commercial banks!) So she’s now taking credit (‘scuse the pun) for information the community banking world has known forever. She is too late to the party, is Ms. A. What a fraud. And she leaves out the banks and lenders to the Muslim-American population that offer interest-free (“riba” free) home loans. They were recommended by ME to the community banking world because they do the only HONEST rent to own, interest free homeowner program in America. Very cool people. Very stable banking program (Bank of Whittier in CA does these, among others.) Let’s see if she will suggest as I have that the entire world could emulate MUSLIMS. HAH! Believe she will do that when I see it! » Posted By choicelady On December 31, 2009 @ 3:23 pm Thank you AdLib – this is helpful. I keep wanting to write but have trouble finding the previous directions, so now this is bookmarked. Maybe, one of these fine days, I will figure out what I want to say and say it. Much obliged for the help! Pepe – no WAY would you seriously threaten harm to anyone. You’re too funny and kind. Anger is real and honest. I did not see what you said, but I have faith in you. Since all of us live in this virtual planet, if you decided to live up to your handle, only YOU bear the consequences in real life! Happy New Year to all! » Posted By choicelady On December 30, 2009 @ 10:21 pm Oh – HAVE to tell you a funny/not funny story. Some years ago in upstate NY, a friend of mine decided to get cable. She asked, though, that she NOT get the all-religion channel which she loathed. When she got home after the cable guy was there – the religion channel was ALL she got on every single outlet. Guess she peeved someone, hmmm? It got fixed, but the perp was never discovered – whether it was the installer, the main office, some wacko. So beware your wishes. Those people mean business! » Posted By choicelady On December 30, 2009 @ 10:41 pm I travel a lot, and that means TV in motel and hotel rooms. I am horrified how much crap is provided by those facilities – minus MSNBC and often even CNN. I can get all the FOX-related stations, sub stations, reruns, etc. but not things I really want. It’s creepier when it’s listed but you can’t get it, when it’s there, but it’s such poor quality you can’t watch it – and all the FOX stuff comes in crystal clear. Since I’m all over the state of CA and often in other states, and it’s so similar an experience, I have to think there is a reason for it. Any guesses anyone? » Posted By choicelady On December 30, 2009 @ 10:38 pm Apparently, and recent (28minutes ago) reports say it’s serious. I am serious, too, when I say the uber right will find some conspiracy against Rush involving Obama that “caused” this. Rush’s horrible way of life and eating, drinking, and drug habits of course had nothing to do with it. “Personal responsibility” can be overlooked when you can blame everything on the president, right? » Posted By choicelady On December 30, 2009 @ 10:31 pm Emerald – this is beyond wonderful! Even as a person working for a grand faith organization, I have no real belief in prayer BUT I have seen the power of people coming together and directing energies toward someone’s well being that results in something very fine! No matter the cause, your sister’s recovery is absolutely, manifestly a beautiful thing. We are SO happy for you and her and your family! IF we helped, we are happy. But our energies and care are also for YOU, a member of our beloved community. May this new year be the best yet and the celebration of the power of life and love totally joyous for you. And for everyone on the Planet! And thank YOU, dear kesmarn, for your lovely words to me! This is a grand place to live! When I fight with gritted teeth agains the forces of darkness (nothing supernatural – just rotten-to-the-core people) I come here and laugh and learn and am moved by the deep and compassionate humanity of you all. And your amazing, eye-popping senses of humor! It’s a joy being part of this Planet. Thank you. Emerald – HAPPY NEW YEAR! A big, virtual hug to your sister, too! » Posted By choicelady On December 29, 2009 @ 9:19 pm Arlen Specter: GOP Already Thinking Ahead to 2012 Kalima! How awful about the theft! That’s massive, and I am so sorry! May I add in about your fast – for various reasons, my late mother went largely unfed for about a week due to her own illness and my father’s physical incapacity. It took a week to have them tell me they needed my help. As a result she suffered massive kidney problems directly related to that. Cesar Chavez died of kidney failure due to his many fasts. So – be very careful! » Posted By choicelady On December 29, 2009 @ 10:40 am The High Costs of Private Contractors Amen, Emerald and Nellie – and I have no idea what to do about this. When your supposed allies (I exempt Keith and Rachel) purvey crap (a technical term, of course) where do we look for good information? I do find Frontline reliable, but all of this is a drop in the bucket of media availability. What IS it that HP et al. WANT? When I read supposedly liberal news and see rotten information put out so Obama can be slammed, Dems put down, what IS the point? If you begin with a straw man – bad info – of course you can wax prophetic about how failed this presidency already is. Huh? But the point is – WHY? It can’t all be corporate since some of it is coming from non-corporate sources. Help – someone talk me down???? » Posted By choicelady On December 27, 2009 @ 12:09 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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