Today I Cast My Vote for Obama, Rice, Oliver & Bullock...

This morning I woke up, made my coffee, checked my e-mail, listened to an hour or so of Stephanie Miller, then I made my way downtown to vote on the first day of Oklahoma's early voting option. It took me about 10 - 15 minutes to find a place to park in a scene that seemed overwhelming and a skosh discombobulated. Once I'd parked my car, and found my way to the end of the line I found that the voting process in Tulsa was more organized and going much more smoothly than I had originally thought. It was a beautiful day here in Tulsa, so there was no problem standing outside in shorts and a t-shirt for about an hour as the line wound itself around the parking lot and into the Election Headquarters. Once inside the Election Center I filled out my green form, then queued up to get my ballot (fortunately a woman standing next to me in line told me that I had missed an important step in the process and hadn't had my green sheet marked with my proper precinct, ballots, and registered party). I rejoined the line behind the woman who had been so kind to direct me to the counter on the other side of the line where my green sheet was properly completed. Once I reached the table where ballots, pens and "I voted" stickers were distributed, I had learned about the 77 year old lady's lunch plans (a tea room recently opened on Harvard), and the fellow in line behind me who was voting in his first presidential election. I took my ballot and solemnly went to a cardboard station where I read the ballot measures again and voted rather randomly for the judges, but I took great care with my vote for Obama/Biden and Andrew Rice (over James Inhofe) and Georgianna Oliver (over John Sullivan) and George Bullock (over Dan Sullivan) - it seems as if the Sullivans produced more than one right-wing political tool here in Oklahoma.

Anyway, afterward I headed home, picked up my doggies and headed for the Bark Park (as I already mentioned it was a loverly day here in Northeastern Oklahoma). Then I took the boyz home and drove to campus where I worked out - the only thing that has kept me sane over the last two weeks :). After working out (20 minutes on the elliptical machine, 30 minutes on the rowing machine, plus 50 ab shots),I stopped by Jim's Coney Island and treated myself to an oregano chicken dinner - most of the half chicken I brought home with me. I voted today, so that on the official voting day I will be available to drive Democrats to the polls. Here are a few subtle questions I have devised to guarantee that the folks that I am shuffling to the polls are actual Democrats: Questions such as "Did you catch Sean Hannity last night?" (Of course, if the answer is "Yeah, it was great" then I drop them off at the nearest Denny's or Waffle House, and tell them to call a cab), or I might speculate that "Global warming is such a scam." and if they agree to this proposition they also will be dropped off at the nearest cafe or corner. Or perhaps I will just tell them that their voting day is tomorrow (thanks BobR!). That's my plan for how to survive and feel like I made at least a small contribution to the Obama victory that I hope is just around the corner. Go Obama/Biden 2008!!!

Sherman Alexie on The Colbert Report

For more information about Sherman Alexie, see the Official Sherman Alexie Web Site.

Are You Suffering from EAD(Election Anxiety Disorder)?

If you, like me, have been unable to sleep, or eat, and can only find fleeting relaxation in a very large beverage or three, and you can trace the cause of this particular anxiety to the upcoming election, then you, my friend, may be suffering from Election Anxiety Disorder.
Articles like this one sure don't help calm my already frayed nerves:
Accuracy Of Polls a Question In Itself
Skeptics Challenge Assumptions Made

Here are a few of the symptoms of EAD (Election Anxiety Disorder):
1. Do you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with a disembodied head of John McCain chasing you to Canada?
2. Do you feel sick to your stomach every time somebody mentions Sarah Palin, Alaska, or the phrases "you betcha" or "guys and gals?"
3. Do you refresh the web sites 538.com or HuffPo more than twice every hour?
4. Have you begged your physician for a few xanax or valium just to get you through until next Wednesday?
5. Are you so blasted by the time that Rachel Maddow comes on that you have to stay up and watch her show again (which fortunately isn't a problem, as you haven't slept for at least a week)?
6. Is your credit card bill filled with charges to Obama for America, the DNC, and your local senatorial candidate?
7. Are you so disgusted that you can barely wave to your neighbors who have a McCain/Palin sign in their yard?
8. Do you listen to Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, and Randi Rhodes all day at work until you are about to scream?
9. Are you watching Barack Obama's half hour show on the TV right now?
10. Are you a freakin' nervous wreck and have your friends and co-workers suggested that you ignore politics for the next week, but you know that it would be easier to give up heroin if you were a junkie?

If you answered yes to more than five of the above questions then you are likely suffering from EAD. All I can say is hang in there, stay busy by making phone calls, or voting early so that you can spend all day on November 4th driving other Democrats to the polls. Wear your Obama t-shirts, buttons, and bracelets whenever you can get away with it. Don't give up and know that we'll always have Canada if the Republicans steal 2008 (again), but I am hoping against hope that I don't have to move to Canada, that this year, this time, America will wake up and vote for a real future, a real change, real hope. Vote Obama/Biden 2008!!!

To Those 7% of PUMAs Who Still Have Not Jumped on the Obama Wagon

WARNING - MAJOR RANT AHEAD (you have been warned!)



Nobody effing cares anymore - you are so irrelevant that it is just too easy to ignore you (provided that you live in a state that is going to be so blue it is almost navy - a state like New York, Massachusetts, Maryland or California). So if you live in any of those states nobody freakin' cares what you do on November 4th - you can stay home and masturbate or pick your nose or try to explain why you are so goddamn lame on your flimsy little website or blog or whatever vehicle you may chose to try to explain (or not) why you have decided to hold onto your grudge (whether it be a lingering sense that your candidate, Mrs. Clinton, was done wrong or you are just a closet racist after all - I am not suggesting that those are the only two plausible reasons why you have not yet joined the Obama campaign, but without any explanation from you, we are left guessing). Just don't try to convince any of us who have been working for the change that will benefit you and your family (partner, husband, wife, child[ren], or parent[s]), or that you had anything to do with anything positive that may happen in this country in the next four or, if we are lucky and wise enough as a nation, eight years. Just go away - we obviously don't need you on election day, and we don't need you now or anytime in the future. You have rendered yourself forever irrelevant - so just go away. Buh-bye, now and forever.... OBAMA/BIDEN 2008!!!

For a more nuanced view of the role of race in the 2008 presidential election, please see Frank Rich's piece, In Defense of White Americans, NYTimes, October 25, 2008.

Let's Hear It for Tribal Librarians

This week I attended the National Institute of Tribal Librarians conference held in Catoosa, Oklahoma at the Cherokee Casino. The conference attracted participants from as far away as Alaska and Hawa'ii. It was amazing to meet and talk with tribal librarians who work on reservations and in tribal villages with very small budgets and very few staff. Yet everyone I met had such a demonstrable enthusiasm and love for their work that it was infectious and inspirational to share ideas and stories with each of them.

From the presentation given by the librarian at Jemez Pueblo, NM (Tammy Sandia) to a private discussion with Lena Fall (Whiteriver Apache, AZ), I learned so much about the day-to-day struggles and successes that occur everyday in small, rural tribal libraries across the country.

The conference programs ranged from information on using Wikis as a communication tool within libraries to a very valuable session on how to apply for basic grants from the Institute of Museums and Library Services. I made a presentation on resources and materials that would make up a core Indian law collection. I began by explaining the difference between Federal Indian Law (the law imposed on Indian people by the Federal and, to a much lesser extent, State government) and Tribal Customary Law (the internal ways that Tribal people have resolved conflicts since time immemorial). I also shared my vision - a concept introduced to the conferees on the first day of the conference by noted Choctaw storyteller and keynote speaker, Tim Tingle.

Here is the vision that I read at the beginning of my presentation:

My vision is to see the courts of this country filled with Native attorneys and Native judges who are fighting for, litigating and deciding cases that advance Indian rights, land claims, and other issues that impact and improve the lives of Indian people across the country (and throughout the world). My vision includes the revitalization and growth of tribal courts that will serve to keep alive and promote traditional values and customary law that will go on to be incorporated into federal and state law and influence the decisions that federal and state courts make. My vision also is that tribal court decisions and tribal codes and constitutions and regulations will take their rightful place alongside other cases and laws as precedential authority of the third sovereign, and that someday a Native Justice will sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Through discussions prompted by my presentation and conversations that I had in the hallways outside the meeting rooms, I offered to send boxes of surplus law books to nascent tribal libraries whose budgets are so very small or non-existent.

Finally, I took away from this conference a renewed commitment to supporting tribal libraries as places where children (and in some cases, adults) may first encounter books and learn a love of reading that will stay with them and see them through their lives - no matter what their aspirations may be. To be a life-long reader is a great gift that is often imparted by a local librarian, and by giving that gift, a world opens up before a child's eyes and what a wonderful thing that is!

Colin Powell Endorses Obama - Wooo Hooo!

The first thing I heard on NPR this morning was the great news that Colin Powell had endorsed Barack Obama for President :) You all can read all about his endorsement by clicking on the link above, but Powell's endorsement of Obama got me thinking about the other significant endorsements that Obama has garnered both before and after he earned the Democratic nomination on June 3, 2008, That is the date when Barack Obama secured enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president. Here's my list of the most important Obama endorsements (in no particular order):

1. Oprah Winfrey (Come on, that $2300/head partay she held for Obama was HUGE).

2. Stephanie Miller (a true Momma for Obama right from the get-go).

3. Senator Teddy Kennedy (when the patriarch of Camelot got behind Obama, people took notice).

4. Caroline Kennedy (another member of Camelot compares Obama to her father).
5. FourFreedoms Blog (a great example of the power of the blogosphere).

6. Many, many Newspapers and Magazines (among them the NYTimes, Chicago Tribune, Esquire, The New Yorker, etc....).

7. The rest of the world (Check out this ABC Poll: World Wants Obama as President).

Here's another web site that breaks down world opinion country-by-country: If the World Could Vote.

8. All but 7% of Hillary-supporters, AKA PUMAs (We knew that most of you grrrls would come around).

9. Bill Clinton (come on, Big Dawg, you can say his name!).

10. Obama's fellow candidates (Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden - duh!).

11. I know, I know, I said I would stop at ten, but I just gotta mention all of those older, white, working class folks (not to be confused with PUMAs) who put down their guns and their bibles long enough to pin an Obama button on their lapels. Here's a case in point, check out Republicans for Obama.

Way to go people - there are numerous important endorsements that I didn't have room to list, but I must give them a shout out here - Kalyn Free (Founder and Leader of INDN's List and DNC Superdelegate), Senator Claire McCaskill (an early and ardent support of Senator Obama), Al Gore (the man who will always be the 43rd president in my mind), I could go on and on, but I want to get this posted while the Powell endorsement is still hot in this 24 hour news cycle that we all live in. Go Obama/Biden 2008!

The GOP's War on Natives(both at home and abroad)

Palin's Abysmal Record on Alaska Native Issues

Although Sarah Palin's husband Todd claims Native heritage on his grandmother's side of the family (Yup'ik Eskimo), this connection to Alaskan Natives has not resulted in Palin's support for Alaska Natives. In fact, Governor Palin has thwarted progress and advancement for Alaska Natives at virtually every turn. Here are just a few of the ways that Palin has failed to protect rights that matter to Alaskan Natives:

1. Palin has consistently voted and lobbied against subsistence hunting and fishing rights for Alaska Natives (it seems if you can't shoot it from a helicopter, then Palin isn't interested in hunting it). In terms of fishing rights, which are essential not only for cultural survival, but also for the very existence of Native peoples who reside in Alaska, Palin has fought to diminish the scope of the waters that Alaskan Natives can fish, in direct conflict to a Federal Court order that held: "Congress in 1980 had expressly granted the U.S. Interior and Agriculture Departments the authority to regulate and protect Native and rural subsistence fishing activities in Alaska."(Decision entered May 15, 2007, Docket No. 110).

2. Palin Has NOT Supported Tribal Sovereignty
"So extreme is Palin on tribal sovereignty issues that she has sought to block tribes from exercising any authority whatsoever even over the welfare of Native children, adhering to a 2004 legal opinion issued by the former Murkowski Administration that no such jurisdiction exists (except when a state court transfers a matter to a tribal court). Both the state courts and the federal courts have struck down Palin's policy of refusing to recognize the sovereign authority of Alaska Tribes to address issues involving Alaska Native children. Native Village of Tanana v. State of Alaska, 3AN-04-12194 CI (judgment entered Aug. 26, 2008) (Ak. Super. Ct.); Native Kaltag Tribal Council v. DHHS, No. 3:06-cv-00211- TMB (D. Ak.), pending on appeal No 08-35343 (9th Cir.)). "
This attack on Tribal Sovereignty runs counter to established federal law (Indian Child Welfare Act, 25 U.S.C. 1901 et seq., 2000, and numerous federal court decisions, among them, the pre-eminent Supreme Court case on the issue of the welfare of Indian Children Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30, 1989.)

3. Palin Has Attacked Native Languages:
Governor Palin has repeatedly refused to accord proper respect to Alaska Native languages and voters by refusing to provide language assistance to Yup'ik speaking Alaska Native voters.

Ángel Franco/The New York Times
Anna Nick, a local elder, is the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit demanding that election ballots and referendum questions also be available in Yup’ik. I want to know what I am voting on, she said through a translator. (See the NYTimes, "A Visit to Akiachak").

Why the Colombian Free Trade Agreement Hurts Indigenous Peoples

This is from a Statement issued by the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia:
We act with precise urgency. We risk our lives and offer our lives for life. We struggle with all our capacity against the sophisticated propaganda that is nothing more than well-crafted lies, against laws and measures that impose the interests of others against life itself and justice. We call on therefore, on the wisdom, the serenity and the respect that comes with dialogue. We love and defend dialogue. But we do so mobilized with firmness. We are people of our word and of dialogue. We live it through our assemblies, and within our Life Plans. Everything that we have created is based on a process of dialogue between contradictions and differences. We therefore need and call on an interlocutor who is legitimate, with whom we can dialogue. And we are totally committed to engage in this process.

What is it that we are proposing?
* That the necessary conditions for a process of dialogue are immediately established, in order to discuss the five main points of the agenda that we propose.
* That the dialogue is carried out under the watch and with the backing of legitimate and unquestionably credible persons, and with authority that is recognized in any part of the world.
* That in this dialogue, every sector of society is represented, according to democratic mechanisms of participation, giving priority to the majority of the population that has been excluded, marginalized and exploited.
* That honesty, truth and respect become non-negotiable conditions for the development of this dialogue, and those that violate these principles are excluded from participating in the process.

United State Government Seeks to Undermine the Government of Bolivia

It is no secret that the Bush/Cheney administration is not supportive of the government of Evo Morales, the first Indigenous, democratically-elected president of a Latin American country since the Spanish invasion of that territory over 450 years ago, but it turns out that their dislike of the Aymara Native has manifested itself in several covert actions that seek to undermine Morales' administration. Among the actions taken by the Bush/Cheney administration is one that seeks to suspend longtime U.S. trade benefits for Bolivia because of that country's failure to cooperate in drug-fighting efforts in the past year, the top U.S. trade official said on Friday, but Morales stated yesterday that his country would rather forego the U.S. aid than live under the threat of U.S. oppression (Bolivia Won’t Bow to the US, says Morales).

The above-mentioned stories represent just three ways that Indigenous peoples across the Western hemisphere are struggling to maintain their rights, their liberties, and their very way of life. It is no coincidence that these rights are threatened by the Bush/Cheney/McCain/Palin political party, and all the more reason why we need to elect Obama/Biden in just three short weeks. During the final presidential debate, when asked about the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, John McCain enthusiastically endorsed the Agreement, Barack Obama expressed reservations about jumping into another free trade agreement that may end up supporting a regime that oppresses its own people and may be responsible for death squads attacking union leaders. These are some of the facts that may not receive much coverage, but need to be considered by voters who are about to go to the polls very soon and cast what may well be the most important vote of their lives. Viva Obama/Biden 2008!

Happy Indigenous Rights Day!

"What I have seen in recent political rallies for McCain and especially those for Governor Sarah Palin, frightens me – for Senator Obama’s life and for our country in very dangerous times. I hear the voices of fear – unfounded fear of a black man to serve as our national leader; and I see the faces of hate that such irrational fear generates. They are the voices and faces of fear and hate that we saw in photos and reports in the 1960s of white men and women screaming hate-filled, racist epithets at courageous black children being escorted by soldiers into their first day of a public school, and at the brave young black woman entering the University of Alabama, theretofore not open to blacks. Saying nothing of his qualifications, which to me have been manifestly obvious, the election of Senator Obama will signal to the entire world community a welcome change. America will be seen in a new light, a light in which our enemies and antagonists will find it difficult to make their mischief against us. And here in America we can take a new pride in our system and in our people. More importantly, we can look into the faces of our children, regardless of any color or gender, and tell them in honesty that any of them, if they aspire to it, can become President of the United States. That alone, to me, is worth the risk that those – both serious opposition and cynical bigots alike, see in his liberal proposals and his lack of experience.
Barack Obama is a man for our time, and we must not let that pass."
Charles Trimble, 73, Oglala Lakota, born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Here's a link to news from Indian Country: Indianz.com

Song for Sarah

This great little ditty was posted on Facecrack by Raine of FourFreedoms fame. I now give you all a song dedicated to Mrs. Todd Palin:

The Measure of a Religion

As far as religion goes, I was reared in the Society of Friends (Quakers) and I have throughout my life attended various Quaker Meetings, in Albuquerque, Monteverde, Costa Rica, Portland, and now I have recently begun attending again the Green Country Friends Meeting here in Tulsa. I consider myself Quaker in the way a person whose parents arrived in this country from Italy must consider her/himself Italian. It is my heritage, however, I do not consider myself Christian. That may be a contradiction that my mother and others who practice the Christian religion cannot reconcile, but it makes perfect sense to me. Long ago I decided that one of the best ways to evaluate a religion is to observe those who practice the religion and watch and see how their belief system manifests itself in their lives. Frankly, I have not been very impressed by the behavior of most who call themselves Christian. They strike me as a tremendously judgmental and intolerant lot and quite prone to war and violence although they ofter refer to their savior as the "Prince of Peace."

This week I had two occasions to reflect on religion. On Wednesday evening I went to see Religulous, Bill Maher's cynical and comedic take on the three great religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Maher's premise, in a nutshell, is that is very difficult (in his case, impossible) for someone to suspend his/her rational thought and believe in such concepts as the virgin birth of Christ, the notion that Adam and Eve were cavorting with dinosaurs, or that scientists the world over are wrong about the age of the earth and a little concept called "evolution." Maher points out the that "faith" by its very definition suggests that there are things, ideas, and beings out there that are not verifiable, but must be accepted as fact if one is to consider her/himself a true believer. That is a suspension of reality as we experience it that both Bill Maher and I are not willing to make.

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

In contrast to the thoughts I had after watching Religulous, I had a very different experience on Thursday evening. That night I attended a lecture given by the Ven. Ringu Tulku Rinpoche - a Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher whose talk was entitled "Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness." I was struck immediately by the very realistic belief system that the monk began describing. He talked about how we can change our outlook and ourselves to be more in the present and to show more compassion to others. There was nothing in the monk's lecture that suggested I should suspend my rational thought and accept on blind faith a story that seemed incomprehensible to me. Rather it was just the opposite - the Rinpoche discussed how important is was for a practitioner of Buddhism to become more aware of her/his surroundings, of the reality of which we are a part, and to not deny reality for some notion of an unfathomable faith in a higher power.

In 1987 I traveled to Tibet, and one of my most enduring memories of that trip is the true kindness and generosity of the Tibetan people. The Tibetan people, in spite of their horrible treatment at the hands of their Chinese occupiers, were gracious and friendly to me, an obvious outsider. They welcomed me to join their pilgrimages and shared the chang and tsampa that they had with me, and they were so very appreciative of the photos of their revered leader, the Dalai Lama, that I had brought along to distribute as I traveled through their impressive land.

If a religion can indeed be measured by those who practice it, I must surely take my hat off to the people of Tibet and their particular form of Buddhism. They are so peaceful in the face of such overwhelming strife and violence that the Chinese have perpetrated on them. The Dalai Lama, their spiritual and political leader, to this day counsels non-violent responses to all wrong-doing, a remarkable response when one realizes the extent of injury and violence that has been done to the Tibetan people. Indeed, if John McPalin ends up stealing the election this November I have a notion that I should go to Dharamasala, India (the home-in-excile of the Dalai Lama) and take up Tibetan Buddhism. Om-mani-padme-huum...

Campaign Cartoon (10/08/08)

Tom Toles
Gamblin' Grampy McAbout-to-blow doubles down.
Enjoy!

Downticket Candidates

So everybody is talking about the Vice Presidential Debate (or at least the fabulous Saturday Night Live parody that can be viewed here if you still haven't seen it):



along with the top of the tickets and what kind of strategy each will bring to the debate on Tuesday night. But those candidates aren't the only candidates running. There are a number of candidates who are running for a seat in Congress. Here in Oklahoma we have a young politician, Andrew Rice, who is running an uphill battle against one of the most out-of-touch members of the U.S. Senate (Jim Inhofe). Most recent polls show Andrew Rice within striking distance of Jim Inhofe, and as a resident of Oklahoma I am hoping beyond hope that Rice can send Inhofe back to the Sooner State and bring a real change not only to Oklahoma but also to the Nation's capital.

Another significant challenge to a GOP incumbent Senate seat is Al Franken who, as of today, is leading Norm Coleman in Minnesota. Another important race is out in New Mexico where Tom Udall is running against Heather Wilson for the seat currently held by Republican stalwart Pete Domenici. In Alaska, Mark Begich is trying to unseat the currently indicted Ted Stevens (whose trial is ongoing in Washington D.C.). Other possible pick-ups for Democrats this November include Kay Hagan in North Carolina (who is poised to upset Elizabeth "Enough with the Viagra, Bob" Dole). Jeff Merkley is running a very tight race against incumbent Gordon "I'm just a RINO - Republican-in-name-only" Smith. In Virginia, Mark Warner is up 20% points plus on Jim Gilmore. Last but certainly not least, Jeanne Shaheen is in a very tight race against John Sununu up in New Hampshire. Many of these races will depend on the turn-out and the enthusiasm that voters show for the top-of-the-ticket candidates (Obama or McCain).

Just another reason why it is so important to not only cast your vote for the Democratic ticket (if you claim to be a Democrat!), but also follow through and mark the rest of your ballot for the Democratic Senate and House candidates. Obama and Biden are going to need a working majority to begin the monumental work that it will take to clean up the colossal mess left by the Bush/Cheney administration.

Here's Obama's latest ad to counter the incessant attack ads from the McBush camp:


For a hilarious satirical piece on Mrs. Palin, please read the Four Freedoms Exclusive penned by the fabulous Velveeta Jones.

In Case You Missed the Debate Last Night....

Well, it wasn't the train wreck that we had all hoped for, but Governor Palin's debate answers were vapid, shallow and completely void of any substance. Senator Joe Biden (D - DE) did a respectable job and did show some real knowledge and some detail in his answers. Of course, he didn't announce at the onset that he reserved the right to ignore any questions and not answer a question in the way that the moderator or the audience might expect. Meantime here's a nice summary of Palin's thought-process during the debate (courtesy of Daily Kos).

Senator Bernie Sanders Offers a Bit of Sanity

"Having mismanaged the economy for eight years while continually insisting that the 'fundamentals of our economy are strong,' the Bush administration now wants the middle class of this country to bail out Wall Street. Meanwhile the wealthiest people, those who have benefited most from Bush's policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd."

Senator Bernie Sanders, October 1, 2008

Okay, okay, I admit that I have probably crossed the line from having a passing interest in politics to being a full-blown political junkie. Here's the proof - it is 4:45pm (CST) and I am watching C-SPAN2. At the moment Senator Bernie Sanders (I - VT) is offering an amendment that actually makes sense - it would place much of the burden of this colossal bailout on those who are responsible for creating this mess. Here is the most salient detail of the Sanders Amendment: "In the case of a taxpayer other than a corporation, there is hereby imposed (in addition to any other tax imposed by this subtitle) a tax equal to 10 percent of so much of modified adjusted gross income as exceeds $500,000.00 ($1,000,000.00 in the case of a joint return or a surviving spouse."

I hope that this amendment is taken seriously and attached to the bill that the Senate is debating today, but I don't hold out much hope for that. I have heard many senators talk about how this piece of legislation may return a good part of the $700 billion tab to the taxpayers who are being asked to front this astronomical amount of money, it may even generate a profit for taxpayers. That makes me laugh if we weren't talking about such a huge sum of money. It brings to mind remarks that we heard during the run-up to the Iraq war that the oil from Iraq would pay for this incursion into a country that had not attacked us. Now almost a trillion dollars later, the Iraq war has not paid for itself. In fact, the Iraqi government has over 10 billion dollars in a New York bank, no lawmaker has susggested that that money be used to pay for the costs of rebuiliding a country that is in shabbles.

So I despair that taxpayers will ever see any reward or repayment for their largesse. American taxpayers will be played the fool again, and again, and we will take it, because our voices are so easily discounted. I am angry at Senator Obama, Senator Dodd, Senator Schumer, and many other Democrats who are so eager to pass this admittedly-flawed legislation. I applaud Senator Bernie Sanders who at least attempted to put the responsibility of this fiasco at the feet of those who caused it. I will hold my breath and wait and see if his amendment passes and makes this bailout a little more palatable to those who will ultimately feel the sting of this bill. I fear that I will pass out when the vote is taken.

Read a Banned Book This WeekMake a Librarian's Day :)

Some of the Banned Books of 2006:

This week is the week that the American Library Association marks Banned Book Week. It is a week to focus on many of the books that at one time in the history of this country have been censored or outright banned and even burned in the public square. We have all heard the story about how then Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin approached the public librarian in that town and asked her about the process of removing certain books from the shelves. Mrs. Palin subsequently fired the librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, who was later reinstated after a public outcry over Palin's actions. See Palin pressured Wasilla librarian TOWN MAYOR: She wanted to know if books would be pulled.

Also see ABC Investigates Sarah Palin's Book Censorship:


Book banning is nothing new, but the stalwart defense against censorship has often been taken up by librarians who by their very profession, understand the value of an informed citizenry in a robust democracy. This morning on NPR they presented information about the short-term successful banning of The Grapes of Wrath - a book that the proponent of its banning had apparently never read. See 'Grapes Of Wrath' And The Politics of Book Burning

Here is a list of books that have been subject to bans or community controversy (from the ALA web site):
The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2006” reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:
“And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group;
“Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;
“Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language;
“The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
“Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity;
“Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language;
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group; and
“The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence.
Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.

Here is a link to the background of the situation in Kerns Country in Califormia that instigated the banning of "The Grapes of Wrath."

Here's a great review of a book that chronicles the sage of the banning of "The Grapes of Wrath:"
Forbidden Fruit: The Banning of The Grapes of Wrath in the Kern County Free Library

Thank god for the steadfastness of librarians across the country who hold the line against censorship and book banning.

Bi-Partisanship Be Damned - Do the Right Thing !!!

So here's the way the deal (didn't) go down: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson comes to Congress with a two and a half page Bill that he exclaims that Congress must pass, "without clutter" as soon as is humanly possible. Congress is taken off-guard and in their stunned state agree that there is a CRISIS and begin to work with what Sec. Paulson handed to them (mistake number one - they should rather have taken a few deep breaths, sat down and looked at the financial situation). This is especially true since the Bill contained language as cited below:["Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Talk about a recipe for a disaster. (emphasis mine).]

At that point the Democrats should have called upon their best minds and gone to their drawing boards and crafted a plan of their own - a plan that would include a bailout for people who are about to lose their homes because of lousy loans that they signed, but may have been presented to them in suspect terms at the onset. All the while, we can't forget to point to the source of this fiasco. That is the Republican Party, specifically the Bush/Cheney administration who are responsible for this disaster. So that was the Democratic congress's second big mistake, but the good news is it is not too late to correct it. Rather, the ball is in the Democrats court and I suggest that they go for an overhead slam,. It will be an easier sell now that they have tried to walk the bi-partisan path and for their efforts they got a one huge Bronx cheer.

The Dems need to see this as a fabulous opportunity, not something about which to throw up their hands. The GOP owns the mess - the Dems need to own the solution. They need to create a Bill that is palatable to most Americans - give a break to those who are about to face foreclosure, they need to give bankruptcy judges the power to rework people's balance sheets so that their debtors get something (which is almost always better than nothing), and give people a way out. All of this needs to be done before Congress ever even turns its attention to the fat cats on Wall Street. In fact, giving the people of this country those tools and that kind of flexibility just might solve the problem or at least buy us enough time to work on the credit/financial big money trouble that we all see is out there.

If ever there was a time for the Democratic Party to stand up and stand tall and take the reigns and show the country who the true leaders of this country are, now is the time. They need to put a cap on CEO pay, not take up the mantle of the government, thereby putting the true conservatives in a bind - I don't believe that they want to see the government involved in the market place any more than the Democrats want to interject themselves on behalf of the government (which may I remind you is still the Bush/Cheney administration.) So the Dems need to place the problem squarely where it belongs and that is in Bush, Cheney, and Paulson's lap.

So what we need in this bill is to regulate the industry whose gross excesses got us into this mess. Regulate, regulate, regulate. Got that Dems? Democrats - YOU ALL have a majority - use it. So it may not pass the Senate, at least you'll be working from your perspective, NOT THEIRS. You can point to the Republicans as the roadblocks, the obstacles, the PARTISANS :D Get to work Democrats and if you need us you know where to find us... out on Main Street.

It's Always Been "McCain First,"Country Be Damned

"It’s that utter power vacuum that gave McCain the opening to pull his potentially catastrophic display of economic “leadership” last week. He may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office."

Frank Rich, McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere, NYTimes, September 28, 2008

As Frank Rich has so cogently written in this morning's NYTimes, John McCain will do or say absolutely ANYTHING to become president of these United States. Allow me to count the ways in which this "maverick" candidate has sold his soul for a ticket to the White House and explain why all his twisting in the wind, flip-flopping to a greater degree than any other candidate in modern history, and resorting to sheer gimmickry has or at least should have lost any support for his candidacy that he may once have legitimately had.

It has always been "McCain First," as a story by a fellow POW in Hanoi pointed out, McCain was not the only soldier to be offered an early release. It was a common offer and one that all men imprisoned by the North Vietnamese rejected. Although that does not mean that all POWs were released. See McCain and the POW Cover-Up (originally appeared in The Nation). It seems that one of the hallmarks of McCain's hero status and a huge rationale for his qualifications for president are built on a sham.

This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the scams, deceit and outright lies McShame has told on his path to the White House. Back in the 2000 presidential campaign McCain called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance." On April 2, 2006 John McCain said on Meet the Press very clearly that he no longer believed that Jerry Falwell was an agent on intolerance. Had Falwell changed? Or did McCain decide that he needed the support of the right-wing religious fundamentalist nutjobs to win the presidency? If this were an isolated incident, I might be willing to give McCain the benefit of the doubt, but it was rather the first in a long line of political about-faces that were transparently done to get McCain elected.

As the time to cast our votes draws nearer, the flip-flops have a stronger smell of desperation, and the gimmicks seem to be getting even more incredible and obvious. From the selection of the highly unqualified Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential choice to his latest theatrical move to "suspend his campaign," it has become clear to me that the only element John McCain has ever put first is himself.

As for the role of the Main Stream Media (the group that McCain used to refer to as "his base"), they seem to be slowly coming around to the realization that the "Straight Talk Express" has been delivering anything but straight talk for some time now. And as nobody likes to be played as a fool (even the press corps), they have finally started pointing out some inconsistencies in McSame's policies. McCain, who has not voted since April 8, has now missed five-and-a-half months of roll calls in the Senate, during which 115 votes have been held. According to a database created by washingtonpost.com, McCain has missed more than 64 percent of his votes in the 110th Congress, more than any other senator. (Washington Post, 09/27/08). Is it any wonder that McCain is having trouble running a presidential campaign and keeping up on the crisis du jour at the Capital? That's all the proof I need to vote for Obama in November. Obama can walk and chew gum at the same time - a challenge that eludes Grampy McSame.



Here's a link to the full text of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Read it and weep :(

Read David Sirota's Top 5 Reasons to Vote Against Wall Street's $700 Billion Bailout

For a much more palatable solution, read: Trickle-Up: What a Progressive Bailout Would Look Like

Pathetic Grampappy and the 700 Billion Dollar Boondoggle

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Forbes, September 23, 2008

Soomebody better tell John McCain that sometimes the president needs to walk and chew gum at the same time, in other words, he/she sometimes needs to multitask. However, I am so glad that Grampy McSame decided to rally and join Barack Obama in Oxford, Mississippi for the first presidential debate. A debate in which ole Grampy managed to get through without incessant "blurting out of random crap."

But back to DC for more Bail Out Fun Plans - a plan that was about to come together until John McCain swooped into town and got behind the radical right's idea that what this fire needed was more gasoline, i.e. less regulation is the key to solving a situation that was brought about by virtually dissolving any oversight and regulation. This makes sense only if you believe semi-fascist, former-president Ronnie Reagan's infamous line that the nine most frightening words in the English language are "I am from the government and I am here to help you." At this point I think that it is a good thing that the politicians inside the beltway are bringing other ideas to the table, rather than swallowing Bush's urgent plea to pass his ridiculous Bill hook, line and sinker. Because sink is what Bush's Insane Bill of No Accountability, Oversight or Judicial Review would do to our already gigantic financial debacle. Never mind the fact that this Bill (as suggested by Bush) puts all the power for resolving this colossal failure in the hands of one man whose last job before he became Secretary of Treasury happened to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs. A job that paid Paulson over 38 million dollars in 2005. With that glaring conflict of interest staring them in the face, I applaud Congress for going back to the drawing board to rewrite this horrible piece of legislation. I just hope that saner heads of Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd prevail and that while they send billions of dollars to Wall Street they don't forget to give the taxpayers a stake in the game that they are essentially buying, along with making sure that excessive CEO pay is checked, and that the Bill includes assistance for those people who are about to lose their homes in foreclosure. It also should include some measure of oversight and regulation to insure that this boondoggle doesn't beset us again in the foreseeable future.

Here are some links for further reading on the Financial Crisis of 2008 (how we got here and how we can get out, and a few other issues that we must consider during this feast of foreclosure and crisis of credit that is going on across America):

See Brian Wingfield and Josh Zumbrun's article in Forbes (see quote at top of post) The Paulson Plan - Bad News For The Bailout

10 Ways to Bail Out Wall Street (and Main Street) Without Soaking Taxpayers in Debt

McCain's Economic Plan: Blurt Out Random Crap

As Homes Are Lost, Fears That Votes Will Be, Too

Privatizing Profits, Socializing Loses

"When you privatize profit and socialize risk, it's a prescription for lack of discipline,"
Rep. Jim Leach (R - Iowa), Chairman of the House Banking Committee in the 1990s.

"This administration is asking for a $700 billion blank check to be put in the hands of Henry Paulson, a guy who totally missed this, and has been wrong about almost everything. It's almost amazing they can do this with a straight face. There is clearly skepticism and anger at the idea that we'd give this money to these guys, no questions asked."
Dean Baker, Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington

What the Hell?
I had been attempting to educate myself on the sub-prime mortgage mess ever since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out, but today I gave up. I don't need to know any more than it is WRONG for taxpayers to bear the burden of the colossal financial mess that has its roots in the GOP deregulation madness that has finally come home to roost. No oversight equals no accountability. There are reasons why we are a country of laws - laws that apply to corporations as well as the average Joe. When the free marketeers finally succeeded in getting the government off of their back, they ran their ships into an iceberg, and now they want the government (read: average Joe Taxpayer) to bail them out. I say no way, not on Bush/Cheney/Paulson's terms. Not with this language in the legislation: "Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Talk about a recipe for a disaster.

There has been a piece floating around the internets entitled This is Your Nation on White Privilege, in which the author Tim Wise contrasts differing perspectives on various situations as viewed through a lens of race. This bail out smacks of the ultimate white/corporate/male/wealthy privilege that would never fly if the entity that needed the bail out were African-American working class families who just couldn't come up with the mortgage payment or pay a credit card bill. We know that this is true because there is little discussion of actually helping out the folks who can't pay their mortgages, rather all of the seven hundred billion dollars would go to the corporate fat cats who offered and signed off on those risky loans in the first place. This is a classic case of corporate welfare, and I, for one, hope that Congress calls McBush's bluff on this bail out scheme and "Just says no."

Last week I wrote the following in anticipation of the next shoe to drop, little did I anticipate that the shoe would be not just another shoe, but an Imelda Marcos-sized closet of shoes. A case on point: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get major bail-out, then AIG. Who's next? The answer to that question is the entire financial industry, every sub-prime mortgage lender, every hedge fund manager, every speculator, every derivative actor, every short-seller, every fly-by-night CEO and risky banker, every person who is working on Wall Street.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would cause great turmoil in our financial markets here at home and around the globe. This turmoil would directly and negatively impact household wealth: from family budgets, to home values, to savings for college and retirement. A failure would affect the ability of Americans to get home loans, auto loans and other consumer credit and business finance. And a failure would be harmful to economic growth and job creation.”
Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury (NYTimes, September 7, 2008)

Some background information for those who are not economists or Security and Exchange Commission insiders:
Set up by the government - but run privately - Fannie and Freddie (Both "government sponsored entities"or GSEs) have been in the business of backing mortgages since 1968. Like any re-insurer that backs up loans, they make it easier for banks to issue riskier mortgages at lower rates. That means more mortgages for more families. Today Frannie and Freddie either own or back up 41% of home mortgages.

The companies ply their business in a number of ways. First, they buy mortgages from banks, savings and loans, and other mortgage lenders, freeing those lenders' cash to make more loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pay for those mortgage purchases by selling bonds in the public markets. They also guarantee mortgage-backed securities, investments sold on the open market that are backed by pools of thousands of home mortgages. The system is known as the secondary mortgage market.

Both before and after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became private companies, the system helped make credit widely available. The companies, which were created by Congress but are owned by investors, suffered more than $9 billion in mortgage-related losses last year, and analysts expect those losses to grow this year. Because they were chartered by Congress, both companies have the implied, if not legally binding, backing of the government. That allows them to sell bonds at lower interest rates in the open market because investors perceive them as safer.

Finally, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities -- their bonds and mortgage-backed securities -- are one of the basic tools of financial-institution spreadsheets in the United States and abroad. U.S. banks buy billions of dollars worth of them a year. Further, because of the perceived safety, federally insured financial institutions can hold high concentrations of the government-sponsored-enterprise securities, well above that allowed of other securities. Those many tentacles into the financial system are the main reason why some -- most prominently Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan -- have expressed concern about "systemic risk." That is, under their current structures, if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac falter, the shock to the system could be too great, and the financial risk to the government too heavy, to bear.

Fannie and Freddie do not lend directly to home buyers. Rather, they buy mortgages from banks and other lenders, and thereby provide fresh capital for home loans. The companies keep some of the mortgages they buy, hoping to profit from them, and sell the rest to investors with a guarantee to pay off the loan if the borrower defaults. Because of the widespread perception that the government would intervene if either company failed, they can borrow money at lower interest rates than their competitors. As a result, they have earned enormous profits that have enriched shareholders and managers alike: from 1990 to 2000, each company’s stock grew more than 500 percent and top executives were paid tens of millions of dollars.

Those profits were threatened earlier this decade, however, when new competitors emerged and after audits revealed that both companies had manipulated their earnings. The companies were forced to replace top executives, pay hundreds of millions in penalties and consent to strict growth limits. To keep profits aloft and meet affordable-housing goals set by Congress, the companies began buying huge numbers of subprime and Alt-A mortgages, the highly profitable loans often taken out by low-income and riskier borrowers. By the end of last year, the companies had guaranteed or invested in $717 billion of subprime and Alt-A loans, up from almost none in 2000.

“I want these companies to help with affordable housing, to help low-income families get loans and to help clean up this subprime mess. Otherwise, why should they exist?”
Representative Barney Frank, (D - Massachusetts), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

A report released earlier this month by a regulator, noted that although Freddie and Fannie had a combined $19.9 billion of “unrealized losses” on mortgage-related investments, neither company had reduced its earnings to reflect those declines. That is because they judged the losses to be temporary — in essence wagering that the mortgage market would recover before those assets were sold. Such a wager is permitted by the rules but difficult for outsiders to analyze. Both companies have also recently changed their policies on delinquent loans, which they previously recorded as impaired when borrowers were 120 days late. Now, some overdue loans can go two years before the companies record a loss.

“We’ve taken tremendous risks by loosening these companies’ purse strings. They could cause an economywide meltdown if they got into real trouble and leave the public on the hook for billions.” Senator Mel Martinez, (R - Florida), Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Ah, Senator, more prophetic words have rarely been spoken....

If you want to follow this debacle or send a message to Congress, click here.

Sign Senator Bernie Sanders' Petition to Secretary Henry Paulson.

Read Naomi Klein's excellent piece: Now Is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine. Ms. Klein was on the Stephanie Miller Show this morning (Wed. Sept. 24, 2008). I recommend listening to the interview (it should be available at StephanieMiller.com later today).

And the McBush Mistakes Just Keep On Coming....

It is jaw-dropping the number of gaffes (outright blunders or as I like to refer to them, idiotic mistakes) that have been uttered by the mouth of John McCain over the course of the last week. If these are not signs of the judgment that McSame would exercise should he be fortunate enough to steal another election for the GOP (Giddy Over Palin), then on what are we to base our decision in November?

Here's a brief run-down of the colossal poor judgments/incorrect statements/general idiocy that McCain has demonstrated since his first huge example of poor judgment - the selection of Mrs. Todd Palin to be his vice presidential candidate:

1) "Our economy, I think still—the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
John McCain, speaking on the morning of September 15

2) "Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino. They allowed naked short selling -- which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground. The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the President and has betrayed the public's trust. If I were President today, I would fire him."

Wow. "Betrayed the public's trust." Was Mr. Cox dishonest? No. He merely changed some minor rules, and didn't change others, on short-selling. String him up! Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential.

From McCain's Scapegoat, WSJ, September 19, 2008

Not only is McCain's rash rush to a populist position insincere and hardly credible, given his long history of surrounding himself with "Foreclosure Phil" Gramm and championing every opportunity to deregulate any industry that he sees a government hand lending oversight to risky business, but he also doesn't seem to understand that it is not the president's perogative to fire the duly appointed Head of the Security and Exchange Commission without cause (which includes only acts of malfeasance or negligent oversight - neither charge applies to Mr. Christopher Cox).

3) McCain on Spain Tries Lamely to Explain (copyright by mfayehadley, 09/18/08) - a bizarro scenario in which McIdiot appeared to not only know the name of the President of Spain (Zapatero), or that Spain is an ally of the United States, is a fellow member of NATO, but he also apparently is geographically-challenged, not understanding that Spain is a country in Europe not Latin America. !Que loco!

4) McSame commenting on Septembet 17, 2008, his recent visit to and oil rig out in the Gulf of Mexico: "An oil rig off of the Louisiana coast. It survived hurricanes. It is safe, it is sound, and to somehow — And by the way, on that oil rig — and I’m sure you’ve probably heard this story — you look down, and there’s fish everywhere! There’s fish everywhere! Yeah, the fish love to be around those rigs. So not only can it be helpful for energy, it can be helpful for some pretty good meals as well."

Well, I guess that McInsane hasn't heard about the three oil rigs missing in the wake of Hurrican Ike, and I guess he's bought hook, line and sinker the following myths:
"Hurricanes won’t damage oil rigs. The U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 113 offshore oil platforms and caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons. In fact, damage to offshore producers accounted for 77 percent of the oil industry’s storm costs. In the wake of Hurricane Ike, there are at least three offshore oil rigs missing and 'presumed to be total losses.'"

If anyone in this country still plans to cast his/her vote for the McBush/McPalin ticket I must assume that you are one of the fortunate 400 wealthiest Americans whose net income has grown by over 600% in the past seven years. If you are not one of this tiny and, dare I say it, elite group, then I gotta ask you WTF are you thinking or have you abandoned that faculty at your neighborhood Wal-Mart? Please think about this choice that you will make in just over six short weeks and cast your vote for real change. Obama/Biden '08!

Mind Over Matter...(on turning 50)

Yesterday, I had my 50th birthday and like many people facing this milestone, I had mixed feelings about celebrating the occasion. There are several cliches that I will run through just because they seem apropos - golden oldies like, "If I thought I was gonna live this long, I would have taken better care of myself," or "Turning 50 isn't great, but it beats the alternative." On a more serious note, I never really thought I'd reach this age. I have battled severe clinical depression most of my adult life, and have attempted suicide on more than one occasion. But here I am, thanks in no small part to a wonderful therapist and a fabulous psychiatrist that helped me through my most recent battle with the demon depression. Thanks also to my wonderful family who has always been there for me, no matter how badly I tried to hide from them and the world at large. And thanks also to the amazing friends that I have had the great good fortune to know, some for many, many years.

I am still in touch with my best friend from high school, although I just spent the last hour or so trying to find the obituary of my first best friend, Michele Dermond, who was not as fortunate as I, she died of a drug addiction and/or homelessness (depending on who is telling the story of her demise) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, sometime in the early 1980s. I remember my parents telling me about her death -they were friends with Michele's parents - Jackie and Ed Dermond. Ed worked with my Dad at Detroit Diesel Allison. I remember playing in the backyard of the Dermond's house off of Girls School Road. We started the fairy club. I remember walking to a Reed's Drug Store and buying a small bag of miniature Reese's peanut butter cups and sitting on a retaining wall over an almost dry creek and eating the candy while it melted on our fingers. I also remember that my Mom said to me when I told her about how we spent our afternoon, that "that is a memory you will have all of your life." And because she said that, it is so. I do remember that afternoon, the heat of a Hoosier summer, the walking and stopping to sit on the concrete wall, licking the chocolate off our fingers, hanging out with Michele, talking and laughing. We both planned to be writers, she actually wrote a diary - I just dreamed of fame and fortune. I have often tried to think about what happened in her life - we lost touch when we went off to different universities (I headed to Indiana University in Bloomington, Michele went to Ball State in Muncie, IN). I was poised to head up to visit her after we had both finished our undergraduate degrees, but a snow storm got in the way. That was the last time I talked with her - I could tell by the sound of her voice that something significant in her life had changed, but I didn't guess what it was. Not that I hadn't done my share of illegal substances by that time in my life, but I wasn't living on the streets, surviving hand to mouth, trying to score my next fix.

In any case, I just said "Hasta luego," to my parents who drove out (620 miles - I come by my love of road trips honestly) to help me celebrate my birthday. While they were here, I asked them again about what they knew about Michele's death, and they repeated the story that I remembered and have already recounted here. I picked up another piece of information that may help me as I search the vital records of Indiana, that is Michele's mother's maiden name, so I will go back online with this new piece of the puzzle and see if I can find a record of her death.

I have devoted a lot of this post to a friend now long gone, but there are certainly many friends who have been an important part of my life and I hope will always continue to be a part of my life. Not just my best friend from high school, but my two dear friends in Albuquerque, along with a group of friends that I am fortunate to work with at the University of Tulsa, and I cannot neglect to mention a new group of friends that I have met thanks to the Stephanie Miller Show and the blog, FourFreedoms. They are a great bunch of folks whose politics and good-humor have gotten me through some of the toughest times I have experienced over the past year.

Kalyn, mfaye, & Vicki at my 50th b-day party

I, like all honest people, have no idea how much more time I have to live in this world, but I am forever grateful for the people who have touched my life, those I mentioned here and those who will be forever in my past. It has been a wild ride and a good life so far, and I will continue on as long as I can - trying desperately to make a positive difference on this planet.

And She's Mean, Too :(

Who would have guessed that Sarah Palin is such a beee-otch? She sure proved it last night with a speech full of lies, hyperbole, attacks and sheer hate-filled talk. Where to start? In case you missed it - here it is in all of it's hate-fueled glory. It was set-up by a string of other lie-filled speeches by Mittens Romney, Mike Huckleberry, and Rudi "Noun-verb-9/11" Ghouliani. By the time Palin took the stage the audience had worked themselves into a frenzy of attack mode, ready to hear all of the lies and hate without any expectation of substance or a real discussion of issues that face Americans today.

I couldn't figure out what Mittens Romney was going on about - his theme seemed to be it's all the fault of the "liberals" completely ignorant of the fact that liberals haven't been in charge for the past eight years. What the hell was Mitt Romney talking about? It hasn't been liberals who have raised the national debt, spending money like drunken sailors. George W. Bush & Dick Cheney are certainly no liberals. It wasn't liberals who bowed down to special interests at the expense of the people. Liberals are not the party that gave tax breaks to the richest 1% of the population, while screwing the other 99%. Liberals are not to blame for the debacle that is Iraq, nor was it liberals who have ignored all the environmental laws and allowed our world to get dirtier and dirtier. Liberals were not the ones behind giving medical care over to health insurance and pharmaceutical companies so that even if a family has insurance - they still may be overwhelmed by medical bills, get behind in payments, and lose their house or their job (and thereby losing what little health insurance they had). Liberals didn't enshrine oil and gas companies and the huge, growing world of privatization to enrich themselves and their country club cronies with millions and millions (in some cases even billions) of dollars (Allow me to name just of few of the corporations and their boards and CEOs that were greatly enriched during the reign of Bush/Cheney: Kellogg, Brown & Root, Halliburton, ExxonMobile, BP, Chevron, Shell, Smith Barney, Citigroup, Enron, and the bail out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Liberals generally did not support the passage of FISA or the strong expansion of surveillance powers by the executive branch of government.None of these are problems created by liberals, they are all the legacy of the GOP, the party that has been in charge for the past eight years, the party that it is time to retire in November.

Mike Huckleberry gave his homespun sob story about his trailer park upbringing, followed by Rudi "Noun-verb-9/11" Ghouliani who had nothing substantive to say about any issue that matters to anybody.

Here is some fact checking from Palin's speech (along with a few other whoppers spoken by the greasers who warmed up the crowd) last night:

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

From Huffington Post's Jim Kuhnhenn along with AP's Writer Jim Drinkard.

Here are a few more corrections from Gov. Sarah Palin's remarks to the Republican National Convention about her record in which she stretched the truth:

GAS PIPELINE

PALIN: "I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.

THE FACTS: Palin implies that construction has begun on a major natural gas pipeline from the top of Alaska into Canada. That is not correct. In fact, no building has begun and actual construction is years away, if it ever happens. This summer the Alaska Legislature, at Palin's request, passed a bill under which the state will issue a "license" to a Canadian energy company, TransCanada Corp., and pay it up to $500 million as an incentive to someday build this enormous project, which Alaska politicians have long sought with little success. The license is not a construction contract, and federal energy regulators have not yet approved the project. Palin also puts the price tag for the project at $40 billion, an exaggeration. This is roughly $10 billion more than most cost estimates industry players and consultants have made to date.

EARMARKS

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation, although she has cut, by more than half, the amount the state sought from Washington this year. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina Island, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

From the Daily News reporter Wesley Loy and the Associated Press.

Read more about Mrs. Palin in the Alaska Daily News - I Have Known Sarah Since 1992...