PittsburghThoughts

My connect to the guy hanging on the gates of hell wildly swinging back and forth and greeting the condemned in a turrets-like volley of filth and disgusting imagery

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:49:00 +0100

Patton Oswald, whom, by the way, I heard of for the first time 10 minutes ago, Is a foul mouthed, irreverent comedian in the mold of Sam Kinison. In short, he's hilarious, but if you have any sacred cows that moo hell and damnation in your ear, your either afraid to like him or can't suspend YOUR wicked beliefs long enough to entertain someone else's wicked beliefs and have a damn good laugh while you're at it.

My daughter's boyfriend did the animation for this Patton Oswald (is that his real name?) cartoon, and damn-it, I'm proud that she's seeing someone that isn't afraid to go outside the mold of normality and as the Holy Sage of Cartoons, Olive Oil once said, "Oh, Popeye, she's a chip off the old block head." Gene, with a little help from my friends ...

Aging Gracelessly

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:08:00 +0100

Tips For 2010 (Thanks to Bernie)

1. Stay out of trouble.

2. Aim for greater heights.

3. Stay focused on your job.

4. Exercise to maintain good health..

5. Practice team work.

6. Rely on your trusted partner to watch your back.
Take your time trusting others.

7. Save for rainy days.

8. Rest and relax.

9. Always take time to smile.

10. Realize that nothing is impossible.

This should make you smile:

Another casual rant

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:50:00 +0100

Someone comes out with a brilliant book exposing:

The CIA
The Pentagon
The executive branch
The Judicial branch
Congress
The limitless ways that the government has expanded its power to snoop into out lives
Official oppression

Meanwhile in the heartland:

Although highly controversial in the actual trial details, effectively in 2003, a judge ruled in Fox News' favor that lying is constitutionally protected by the first amendment, the right to free speech.
Blackwater wantonly kills civilians
Our cowardly use of drones kill indiscriminately in Pakistan
The same Goldman Sachs executives that drove the free market into the ground are put in charge of fixing it
Tax codes are designed for the wealthy and even though they make higher incomes do not always pay a higher tax based on their adjusted gross income
A neutered, ineffectual Health Care Bill may be passed and if so touted as a success for Democrats
Illiteracy is on the rise
Prisons and homeless shelters are bursting at the seams
Corporations are given sweetheart tax deals nationwide and are viewed with reverence and fervor
We are living under a self -imposed caste system, only this time, the unclean are you and me
The religious right has treated the New Testament like a legal document, inserting loopholes, exclusins and perverting its message.

This happens because people don't read and / or don't understand what they do read and if they read, they do it selectively and opt for the quick fix, i.e., Muslims are evil, war is necessary, guns are good, cracking a few heads during a protest is acceptable as long as it's a protest I disagree with.

You won't wake up. You fell asleep with the prostitutes that line K street. Your stench rises to the heavens. The house on C Street is on fire but you refuse to leave. You have been bankrolled by the legal crime families who import poison and death and export, piece by piece, the America we thought we knew.

Our paid assassins roam the world made acceptable through our cultures of violence, fear and suspicion. There is no shame, no guilt and no atonement. The cancer has metastasised and our pre-existing condition precludes us from salvation.

Is it too late? No. Will we wake up in time to save what's left? I doubt it. Gene

DOOMED TO REPEAT, DOOMED TO REPEAT, DOOMED TO ...

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:59:00 +0100

Sting - ...Nothing like the sun - 04 - History will teach us nothing.mp3

Let's face facts. historians aren't going to know what to do about our epoch. There's a burning desire, enflamed by both sides, to fix blame and they do, but historians? They're supposed to deal in objectivity but how can they when every snot nosed pundit, plutocrat and profession prevaricator takes issue with anything that runs contrary to their ideology of self interest? Maybe if we took the stimulus money and spit it up between the politicians and made each of them fabulously wealthy they'd have less interest in acquiring more and more interest in representing someone other than the ones that keep them fat, dumb and happy while we, the American people become fat, dumber and unhappy.

Historians also have a stake in the ever decreasing money pie. Bill O'Reilly, his Bachelor's degree is in History from Marist College, claims to be a historian for Christ's sake. I don't expect any but maybe a few of the people who specialize in dissecting history, to bluntly state that, the terrible financial ruin of our country began with Ronald Reagan and was exacerbated by a series of self serving Presidents, George the II, being the primary deregulator and senseless war monger, threw our country into receivership and along with like minded free marketeers in Congress, plundered the wealth and prosperity of the country in an unprecedented, antidemocratic immoral orgy of selfishness and fuckyouism.

Yes son, at one time people lived in what they called "houses" and had what they called "jobs". These "jobs" paid money and they enabled people to pay their bills and buy things. It was usually an equitable system and the people who were willing to work harder made more money. But none of that matters now, let's go to the dumpster and see what we can find for your mother's birthday if it isn't already picked over by now ... Gene

It being Sunday and all ...

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:01:00 +0100

In Western Hindostan, 400 miles directly north of Bombay, Mount Abu arises abruptly from the desert. Its inaccessible cliffs are 6000 feet high, and the only practicable approaches to its summits are through steep ravines. Away up on the top of the mountain is a fertile region three miles by six in extent and here in the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Jains built this temple of white marble. The building was taking form here in India during the days of the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The marble must have been quarried three hundred miles away and brought up the precipitous mountain roads.

The Jains of India are native born non-conformists to the prevailing religion of Brahmanism, and their faith dates back five or six centuries B.C. to the time of their leaded Vardhamana, a contemporary of Buddha. They believe in the transmigration of souls but deny the sacredness of caste. The do not worship any one deity as supreme, but pay direct reverence to certain prophets that taught liberality, gentleness and repentance for sin.

This particular temple (called for its merchant builder, Vimala Sah) is dedication to a saintly prophet called Parswanatha, whose seated image is seen yonder on the elaborately carven shrine. There are fifty five shrines or cells in this one building, all are dedicated to the same saint. Repetition is a favorite ceremonial device among the Jains; this curious structure is sort of a litany in stone.

The patient devotion and wonderful skill shown in the lace-like elaboration of the sculptured ornament can hardly be overestimated. Miniature figures of Parswanatha are used over and over as details of the decoration and are intended to remind the faithful of traditional scenes and acts in his life. They are to devout Jains what the images and pictures of Christian saints are to the faithful in the old churches of Europe.

A new feature; old Stereoscope cards that happen to be in my possession

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:42:00 +0100

This is only one of nearly seven hundred rooms in the vast palace of His Imperial Majesty, Kaiser Wilhelm II. You are on the second floor on the side towards the beautiful public gardens. This room is sometim called the Rittersaal (Knights’ Hall) ; it is a part of the palace which was added in 1681 to the the original castle (1443) of the Elector Frederick II.

>
The sculptured groups over those doors (there
are two more in corresponding positions behind you) represent different quarters of the earth. The magnificent pieces of gold and silver work on that sideboard are chiefly legacies from the early kings of Prussia and are fine specimens of the elaborate decoration for which the old German art workmen were famous. That crystal chandelier hanging fron the ceiling used to belong to the old city of Worms, and hug in the great hall where the Diet or convention met in 1521 to consider the heresies of Martin Luther. It is said that Luther's place was directly under it when he made his celebrated declaration ending, ‘Here I stand. I can do no otherwise. So help me God."

About a hundred years ago the Prussian King Frederick William III bough the chandelier from the city of Worms and had it put here in the palace Throne Room.

>
Many of the most famous men of the last two centuries have stood in this room and walked about under this gorgeously ornamented ceiling — Frederick the Great Bismarek, Von Moltke, The first Kaiser Wilhelm: the most beautiful women in Europe have blossomed here like flowers in the splendor of court toilettes.
>

From Descriptive Bulletin No. 1, copywrited, 1904 by Underwood and Underwood.

President Obama bows to Japanese prime minister

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:03:00 +0100

Oops! Wrong video ...

Let me tell you a story about a man named Jed

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:59:00 +0100

Wizard of Oz, The - If I Only Had A Brain - Ray Bolger & Judy Garland.mp3

I made a personal vow that I'd never watch the Beverly Hillbillies movie and I haven't, but, while I was in frantic search mode at 3:00 AM this morning, looking at digital cameras on ebay, I heard it. The Beverly Hillbillies theme music was coming from the living room television that I had left on so as to trick myself into believing that I wasn't the biggest loser in the world, alone and forgotten, while the rest of the world slept on sleep number beds and memory foam.

I don't have anything against the Hillbillies, in fact, I loved them. I remember as a small child when they came on the sit-com scene. I knew that they were something special and would usher in a whole new era of television counter to the I Love Lucy, Honeymooners model.

The begats: and the Hillbillies begat Green Acres and Green Acres somehow begat Archie Bunker and Archie begat The Jeffersons. TV was maturing and somehow turned the tables on its viewers and it cast a light on who we were and why being who we were was hilarious. Norman Lear was indeed learing at us through the interdimensional porthole known as television.

Jed is dead, he came this close (a very tiny space between the pointer finger and the thumb) to being immortalized as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of OZ, but In a bizarre twist of fate, he contracted aluminium poisoning from the tin man make-up who he was originally cast to play. Ray Bolger was amenable to switching roles and became the tin man while Buddy Ebsen became too sick to play the scarecrow, much to his everlasting chagrin and Jack Haley was brought in for the Scarecrow role and the rest is movie history.

Most of those actors that we loved in the second wave of television sit-comery are dead and it depressed me to watch them young and vital, well Jed and Granny weren't young but they sure as hell were vita, whizzing and pasting and pooting through their careers only to end up as as a meaningless Barnaby Jones robot and, I suppose dying as she lived, Irene Ryan died happily suffering a stroke during a Broadway performance of Pippin.

Dick Van Dyke also ended his career on a down beat as some detective / doctor / wizened old elf that wore a doomed expression that loudly exclaimed, "Is it payday yet?"

I can hardly watch Monty Python. Not only is it dead man walking, he's mocking, talking, joking, and existing forever in some film canister that lays lifelessly on a dusty store room shelf. Ok, it's not a dusty store room shelf, it's a temperature and humidity controlled environment but that's only because they can march them out generation upon generations and make MONEY on them, or, it, or whatever pictures of dead people should be called.

For some reason I'm not prone to apply these standards to movies, maybe because I have such a personal relationship with television, me and Howdy Doody were buds. It's like watching your friends grow old and die, meanwhile your great grandfather and mother, the movies, were dead long before you came on the scene. Gene

As You Like It by William Shakespeare,

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Another attempt to wrest nature into something more manageable

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:59:00 +0100

Plowing my way to happiness, or, She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy.mp3 (Thanks to M for song suggestion)

I had the big idea to fix my tractor and get a snow plow for it. I broke the front spindle off the axle and parked it about 5 years ago. Saturday, I brought up my welder and welded the spindle and axle back together. I cleaned the carburetor, drained the old gas, put in a new battery (electric start) and did some general maintenance on it. AND THEN, it wouldn't start. I narrowed it down to the starting relay and went to Pep Boys and told the guy behind the counter to sell me ANY 12 volt relay because starting relays all do the same thing. He wouldn't or couldn't because he needed NUMBERS. I found a 300 amp 12 volt battery disconnecting switch made for theft protection and used that instead. Still no startie. I have the complete John Deere sevice manual that was written back when manuals were weighty things filled with everything you'd need to do repairs, general maintenance and the complete specifications from tire pressure to bolt torque specs. I adjusted the carburetor as per the manual and success!

I began my Internet search for a plow. Ebay was ridiculous. Lots of snow plows but the sellers weren't sure what make or model of tractor they fit and the ones that were sure wanted an arms and two legs. I sent emails, requested pictures and even found a guy with a plow 16 miles from where my daughter lives in N.J. I ask him if she bought it for me, would he help her load and tie the trunk lid down if necessary, he agreed but I still wasn't satisfied, the choice seemed to be either spend too much money or take a chance buying something that might not work.

I tried Craig's list next and found guy near Cleveland that had the exact plow I needed for 75 bucks. I called him and offered him 60 because I had to drive over 100 miles to get there. He thought I said 50 bucks and agreed! I hope he doesn't read this! Yesterday, my wife and I, took a pleasant trip to the Cleveland suburb of Bedford and I bought the exact plow I needed for 50 bucks, I was in heaven.

It's all fitted up. I had to make a piece of linkage that was missing, I like to think of it as the missing link and now I have a running tractor with snow plow. As Bing Crosby and a host of other iconic singers have sung, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Gene

P.S. Note the wheel weights and tire chains!

I know that wascawee wabbit is awound here somewhere

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:43:00 +0100

Two reminders from Thom Hartmann The Ft. Hood Massacre Is George Bush's Fault | | AlterNet:

U.S. rejects Taliban offer to try bin Laden

October 7, 2001 Posted: 11:48 AM EDT (1548 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House on Sunday rejected an offer from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to try suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan under Islamic law.

The offer came as the United States massed forces in southwest Asia for a possible strike against Afghanistan if the Taliban refuse to surrender bin Laden. A Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the Taliban offer and repeated U.S. demands that bin Laden be turned over unconditionally.

The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, made the offer at a news conference in Islamabad. Zaeef said the Taliban would detain bin Laden and try him under Islamic law if the United States makes a formal request and presents them with evidence ...

Diplomats Met With Taliban on Bin Laden

Some Contend U.S. Missed Its Chance

By David B.Ottaway and Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 29, 2001; Page A01

Over three years and on as many continents, U.S. officials met in public and secret at least 20 times with Taliban representatives to discuss ways the regime could bring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to justice.

Talks continued until just days before the Sept. 11 attacks, and Taliban representatives repeatedly suggested they would hand over bin Laden if their conditions were met, sources close to the discussions said ...

Two of the right wing's finest

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:54:00 +0100

The man who would be Governor of Michigan, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) has a large mouth and small brain. If not completely traitorous he does his little monkey dance right on the edge, someone throw him a banana to shut him up. Rachel Maddow makes quick work of exposing him for the reckless, loose lipped, pandering, egocentric demagogue he is. ****************************************************** Farewell Lou Dobbs. He leaves amidst controversy and contentions of racism and that he was dismissed for allegedly leaving disparaging comments, under an alias, on a stripper's blog. Here's an example of his style. While contending that he 'believes" that Obama is a citizen, he has amassed evidence to the contrary and then innocently asks, "Why doesn't he just produce the birth certificate?" Roland Martin eviscerates Lou Dobbs' argument even with republican Congressman Ted Poe (TX-02) joining the fray against common sense, the will of the American people and displays his own penchant for "soft racism."

Symptoms of a sick society

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:53:00 +0100

Merrily we roll along,

In a land where the rich and powerful rarely suffer the consequence of their crimes or immorality and no one has a greater sense of entitlement than the rich, black children serve life without parole at a rate ten times that of white children, our military is revered even after committing atrocity upon atrocity, cover-up after cover-up, industries poisons oceans, rivers and streams, chicken is produced en masse in pens so small that chickens legs atrophy, fruits and vegetables are dyed for appearance sake because we are such babies that we won't eat a discolored apple, genetic alteration is commonplace and no chemical, antibiotic or hormone is too horrendous to add to our food while caloric content is through the roof, is it any wonder that we react like automatons when we should be seething with outrage?

The teabagges have it half right but their vitriol is so misdirected that they rage against the very ones that they should be forming alliances with. Why would a person on the lower side of middle income defend capitalism and it's vicious hand maidens: union hatred, medical insurers, trickle down economics, disdain for the poor and the dissolution of government and public programs?

The money's there, at least the national credit card is, otherwise how can we keep our trumped up "War on terror" going full tilt? Could it be that we have been snookered so badly that the war must continue in order to forestall any investigations as to why we are fighting in the first place? Blackwater, literally and figuratively, knows where the bodies are buried. Why was Blackwater expelled from Iraq but is still there?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN):

The State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources. A source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted the two-page "spot report" on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy's Tactical Operations Center.

From The Nation, 11-10-09 Blackwater Attempted to Bribe Iraqi Officials:

Not long after the Iraqi government announced in September 2007 that Blackwater would be banned, top Iraqi officials swiftly changed their tune about the company and began to publicly state that without Blackwater there would be a security crisis for US officials. After the incident, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly found himself under heavy US pressure to back off his initial demands of expulsion and prosecution. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice immediately called the Iraqi prime minister to apologize, she made a point of emphasizing publicly that "we need protection for our diplomats." A few days later, Tahseen Sheikhly, a representative of Maliki's government, stated, "If we drive out this company immediately, there will be a security vacuum...That would cause a big imbalance in the security situation." In a telling 180 degree turn, Maliki swiftly agreed to withhold judgment on Blackwater's status, pending the conclusion of a "joint" US-Iraqi investigation. Ultimately five Blackwater operatives were indicted in a US court on federal manslaughter charges stemming from the Nisour Square shootings, while a sixth pled guilty.

The New York Times, 11-11-09 Blackwater Said to Approve $1 Million in Iraqi Bribes After Shootings - NYTimes.com:

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

This is one or the many bastard children of this war. The list goes on and on and is so hideous that too look upon that, like a modern day Medusa, it would turn the cruellest heart to stone. So we remain children, squabbling over the presidents syntax or whether he used this word or that. Like a virus we are slowly destroying our host organism along with our childrens future. Gene

The Free market does it again!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:46:00 +0100

Health (I don't) care,

The house passed a comprised health care bill and Nancy Pelosi is smiling like a Cheshire cat. It's 2000 pages, largely unreadable and giveth on one hand and taketh away on the other. To see the real picture, imagine the insurance companies smiling like Cheshire cats and Nancy Pelosi in stoic resignation.

Here's what the one man who has displayed the rare commodity of consistency throughout the election and the year since, Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich, a leading proponent of a single-payer "Medicare for All" had to say about the house version:

This health care bill continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care. America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for its privatised health care system. As a result, we are less competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through socializing the cost of health care.

Marcia Angell, M.D., Physician, Author, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School wrote in the Huffington Post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-angell-md/is-the-house-health-care_b_350190.html&cp:

To be sure, the bill has a few good provisions (expansion of Medicaid, for example), but they are marginal. It also provides for some regulation of the industry (no denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, for example), but since it doesn't regulate premiums, the industry can respond to any regulation that threatens its profits by simply raising its rates. The bill also does very little to curb the perverse incentives that lead doctors to over-treat the well-insured. And quite apart from its content, the bill is so complicated and convoluted that it would take a staggering apparatus to administer it and try to enforce its regulations.

What does the insurance industry get out of it? Tens of millions of new customers, courtesy of the mandate and taxpayer subsidies. And not just any kind of customer, but the youngest, healthiest customers -- those least likely to use their insurance. The bill permits insurers to charge twice as much for older people as for younger ones. So older under-65's will be more likely to go without insurance, even if they have to pay fines. That's OK with the industry, since these would be among their sickest customers. (Shouldn't age be considered a pre-existing condition?)

Sounds pro-insurance lobby if you ask me, but wait, there's more:

Insurers also won't have to cover those younger people most likely to get sick, because they will tend to use the public option (which is not an "option" at all, but a program projected to cover only 6 million uninsured Americans). So instead of the public option providing competition for the insurance industry, as originally envisioned, it's been turned into a dumping ground for a small number of people whom private insurers would rather not have to cover anyway.

And to think, the republicans are opposing this? WHF do THEY want? Human sacrifices to the Gods? Wonderful system, wonderful representation and I wonder what's next. How about a bounty on Muslims? I see a future there. We can boost the economy by creating bounty hunting jobs and kill Muslims at the same time. Oh, and health care? The republicans are right, the market is taking care of that too Looking Abroad for Health Savings - Prescriptions Blog - NYTimes.com:

No matter what Congress does with health care legislation in the next few weeks, one thing is already clear: the result will not do much to control the climbing costs of medical care in the United States.

And that is why many employers and insurance companies may seek savings by encouraging patients to travel abroad for treatment.

Offshore medical care is usually significantly less expensive than in the United States, and the wait times are often shorter. A heart operation that might cost $130,000 in this country could cost $18,500 in Singapore or $10,000 in India.

Estimates of the number of Americans traveling abroad for treatment — “medical tourism,” some call it — vary widely, from 75,000 to 750,000 last year. But many experts consider it a growth industry.

I use to be disgusted now I'm just amused, Gene

Finally, some sanity, no thanks to Lindsey Graham

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:28:00 +0100

From McClatchy Newspapers by James Rosen:

Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2009

Senate rejects effort to block civilian trials for 9/11 suspects

WASHINGTON — After an emotional debate over how to keep Americans safe, the Senate Thursday narrowly defeated an effort to prevent civilian trials in U.S. courts for the accused planners of the 9/11 attacks.

The Senate's 54-45 vote to reject the measure by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., opens the door for President Barack Obama to bring Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to trial in federal court, rather than the military commissions Graham helped create.

Obama has pledged to shutter the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January and transfer some of its 220 detainees to the U.S. for trials in civilian courts.

Three Democrats — Jim Webb of Virginia and Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor — and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut joined all 40 Senate Republicans in voting for the measure.

Graham, a military lawyer who's served active duty in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, pleaded with his colleagues to back his amendment to a spending measure for the Justice Department and other federal agencies.

"Tell the president that we're not going to sit by as a body and watch the mastermind of 9/11 go into civilian court and criminalize this war," Graham said. "If he goes to federal court, here's what awaits — a chaos zoo trial."

Graham, who helped craft the 2009 Military Commissions Act, said he wants all the Guantanamo detainees to be tried before military tribunals. He crafted his measure narrowly, however, to focus on Mohammed and five other alleged Sept. 11 plotters at the Guantanamo prison.

"Khalid Sheik Mohammed didn't rob a liquor store," Graham said. "He took this nation to war, and he killed 3,000 of our innocent citizens."

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said federal courts have convicted 195 felons of terror-related crimes since the 2001 attacks, while military tribunals have produced only three convictions.

"The Graham amendment would be an unprecedented intrusion into the authority of the executive branch of our government to combat terrorism," Durbin said. "To argue that we cannot successfully prosecute a terrorist in an American court is to ignore the truth and to ignore history."

The Supreme Court struck down the military commission system set up by President George W. Bush, and in a later ruling put restrictions on revamped tribunals that Congress had subsequently created.

Christopher Anders, the senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, hailed the terrorism vote.

"Thankfully, the Senate has made the right decision by not tying the president's hands when it comes to prosecuting detainees," Anders said. "Making it more difficult to prosecute detainees in our federal courts only serves to delay bringing them to justice."

A bevy of powerful senators joined the nearly three-hour debate, among them the chairmen of the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary committees, 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and a former federal judge and former prosecutors.

"We're the most powerful nation on earth, with the most tested court system on earth," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. "Are we going to tell the world . . . we're not up to trying the people who have struck at us?"

Nighttime for the Generals

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:02:00 +0100

The Good:

General Eric Shinseki Eric Shinseki - SourceWatch

General Wesly Clark Anti-terrorist expert exposes Bush's weakness on security

The Bad:

General McCaffrey One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media Complex - Series - NYTimes.com

The Ugly:

General Stanley McChrystal Jon Krakauer: McChrystal's Explanation For Pat Tillman Cover-up Is "Preposterous"

Magic Eye 3-D

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:54:00 +0100

This one is good if you can hold the 3-D effect. It comes out of the screen at least two levels. Slightly cross your eyes until you get the 3-D effect and then you can relax them and enjoy.

The state of being me

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:47:00 +0100

Nothing outrageous, insufferable, poorly planned, executed or conceived has happened lately. There have been minor intrusions into the world of peace an quiet but that's to be expected. I've been laying low. There's nothing I want to say, do and no place to go.

My microcosm is shrinking and I'm being sucked down the drain. It's just as well. I have too much junk, too many thoughts and too much time. My life is a library full of used, discounted books that no one cares to read. I don't either.

I keep waiting for that magical moment when I get my shit together, literally and figuratively. I prefer 3-D color dreams where I can fly. Soar over rooftops like Peter Pan. Cross international boundaries, be spotted by radar and play catch me if you can with military missiles. Like Zeus hurling lightning bolts, I'd grab them and send the back from whence they came. I'd have the voice of many waters or of Muddy Waters. I'd race beams of light across the universe.

I'd ride a bicycle across the moon like ET. Walk on air like Wile E. Coyote, Moon walk, shit talk, and rock. Wired, admired and desired. That'd be me.

Until then I'll stay in my disguise, Mr. Anonymous, watching you from the corner of my eye. Gene

Obama, facilitator in chief

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:53:00 +0100

Go along to get along,

On the the 26th, two days ago, The New York Times called For Obama to end the cover-up of possible crimes by the Bush administration. It's pointed view is that, now, they are becoming Obama's crimes and cover-ups. The Obama administration is using the same "Bush-era argument that the executive branch is entitled to have lawsuits shut down whenever it makes a blanket claim of national security." The lawsuits stem from the government’s extraordinary rendition program, under which foreigners were kidnapped and flown to other countries for interrogation and torture.

I think the reason is plain, Obama is afraid of the CIA. He granted immunity to the CIA torturers in April this year and his Alberto Gonzales, Eric Holder said:

"It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department,"

which sounds to many, similar to the Nuremberg Defence; that the defendant was "only following orders."

The war crimes tribunal of Nuremberg established a set of principles, Nuremberg Principle IV states:

"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

Our military has never held themselves up to the same standards established at Nuremberg. If we did I doubt that we'd be able to fight wars. Once free will is surrendered to a higher authority, the higher authority has an awesome responsibility, and because we are flawed creatures operating within a corrupt system, there will never arise an incentive to change.

We are being held at the mercy of our killing creations. Worse yet suspicion of government today amounts to meaningless protests by the too few who are easily portrayed as kooks and malcontents.

Now that Obama has adjusted and adapted to his new role as facilitator in chief, those guiding the machine will continue to develop new ways to kill, both literally and politically. We are at the point in our history where even "the most powerful man in the world" has to watch his back and be careful of who he pisses off.

He folds on the big international issues, isn't clear exactly where he stands on the big domestic issues and is loved for his sense of humanity. Gene

Keith rips them a new one but damn, it should have been me

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:58:00 +0100

Since we're the same age and have the same political philosophy, Billy Boy Arnold - It Should Have Been Me.mp3

American Classic

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:32:00 +0100

Thanks, again, to Bernie K,

After a two year loan to the United States, Michelangelo's David is being returned to Italy .

Cow Manure

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:54:00 +0100

Thanks to Bernie K.

Political Science For Dummies

DEMOCRAT	You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You push for higher taxes so the government can provide cows for everyone.
REPUBLICAN	You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?
SOCIALIST	You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST	You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE	You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE	You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION	You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION	You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION	You have two cows but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION	You have all the cows in Afghanistan , which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION	You have two cows. They go into hiding. They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION	You have two bulls Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION	You have one cow. The cow is schizophrenic. Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow. The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. The cow asks permission to be cut in half. The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION	You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION	You have millions of cows. They make real California cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegal. Arnold likes the ones with the big udders .

Great Balls of Fire

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:56:00 +0200

If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:12:00 +0200

Olivia Newton-John - I Honestly Love You.mp3

Hello my companion through thick and thin,

Dear Blog, I can't tell you how much you mean to me. You are always there and never judge. While what you give isn't love, I'll take it over love. Love hurts and never seems to be what it should. Love leaves me cold, but you dearest Blog leave me warm, invigorated and fulfilled.

Remember the time we made fun of Tom Delay? We imagined him masturbating in the backseat of a car being driven by George W. Bush. Hahahahah, we called him "Hot tub Tom."

You've helped me through financial issues, medical issues, family issues and issues in general. I don't know where I'd be without you.

You're so darn cute and you're all mine. I love you Blog O' Mine. I love you. Kisses, Gene

I get it DONE!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:08:00 +0200

It's Monday, time to relax, I've got all the time in the world to get it done. If it doesn't get done today, because I've had one hell of a weekend, tomorrow's only Tuesday and surely I can get it done on Tuesday.

Time rolls on and all those little jobs that I've planned on doing have been set back, it wasn't my fault. I meant well and Wednesday is a reasonable deadline besides I'm broke and nothing gets done without money, gas, postage, food, all cost money, in fact I'm sitting here racking up the bills, the heating and light, water, sewage, damn there's wear and tear on the body, clothes wear out, the car wears out, we're almost out of coffee and Columbian is through the roof. What? I should drink coffee that I don't like as much because it's cheaper? Not on you life.

No one's returning calls. What am I chopper liver? Time to write a nasty letter. Why can't I have a one size fits all nasty letter? Like a "get it off your chest" form letter. Something like:

Sirs,

You have committed the ultimate sin and pissed me off, prepare for the consequences!

Your's truly _________________

Too non-specific. Maybe a categorized selection:

Legal
Personal
Automobile related
Ebay
Utilities
Medical
Political
Stupid, impossible to classify
Banking
Insurance
- Home
- Car
- medical
- Life

Damn, I could subcategorise everything and having all those form letters would be more trouble that writing a specific one. Forgetaboutit.

Getting back to the subject at hand, it's Wednesday and I still have the things that I wanted to get done on Monday plus accumulated things pending. I'm disgusted, it's pushing it, but I'll do it tomorrow.

It's tomorrow and I'm still disgusted only now I'm nervous that things won't get done and no one's returned any calls yet. I don't know whether to shit or go blind.

Friday's here and everyone leaves early or takes Friday off. Why does everyone have a charmed life but me?

After the weekend I'm going to get serious about all this shit. I'm a responsible person and no one's fool. Think you can shit on me? Think again potty boyz. I'm da man, and I'm getting it DONE. Gene

Must fight them over there so the rich can fuck us over here

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:58:00 +0200

Oh, woe is us in this "all or nothing" land. Since only a few at the very top of the food chain, Goldman Sachs jumps to mind, do have it all, the rest of us are left with the shards, scraps and virtual nothings of a country coasting on its glory days, coasting to a stop and a quick reverse.

Goldman Sachs earned $3.2 billion in the third quarter, as revenue from trading rose fourfold from a year ago. "Revenue from trading." Here we go again. No Factories, no steel plants, nothing that would insure employment, wages or health care for the ragged plebeian but "trading". I'd like to do some trading of my own, first, I'd trade all those SEC regulators that cut their teeth at Goldman Sachs for some outside people, maybe put Elliot Spitzer in charge of finding and hiring them. I'd trade the concept of "too big to fail' in for a new phrase, "just too big period", as Robert Reich was so fond of saying. Then I'd make the rich pay, they use more of their share of the public commons than anyone else: the courts, the roads, the air waves the waterways and are all polluted by their stench. If they can't buy it, they lobby to have the regulations made favorable to their selfish usage and of course there's the "good old boy" network to keep things in check should all else fail.

These things are prevalent on all scales of government, but the most heinous are reserved for the federal governmentt, i.e., our shadow operations: the CIA, military intelligence, and a thousand other unknown and unheard of acronyms meaning one thing, find em, round em up, use whatever means to get information and then either bury them or send them of off to foreign prisons where they can struggle like rats to survive.

Billions in boxes shipped to Iraq, October surprises and arms, arms, arms, always arms shipped to the highest bidder, today our ally, tomorrow our enemy. War engenders so many illicit ways to make a fortune, no wonder we never stop finding reasons to keep bombing, killing and in our endless piques of self righteousness, thumb our nose at any international organization that we helped form to keep checks and balances on nations that would do, had they the might, the very things we do.

Am I crazy? Am I seeing conspiracy theories under the bed? I'm afraid not, one needn't look too far to find factual information that most of our babified media won't report. In Harpers this month there's a story of attrtion:The intelligence factory: How America makes its enemies disappear—By Petra Bartosiewicz (Harper's Magazine) about how we winnow away our threats, mistakes and contrivances through the use of force, torture, prematurely faded memories and out and out lies, we condemn, mostly mid-easterners that won't comport to our way of life and may or may not have terrorist connections to beatings, shootings, death and imprisonment all in the name of Home Land Security, that lovely catch-all that we use to legitimise thug mentality. It's happening all over the world and we are behind it.

But here at home we are in Happy, Happy Land at least we try to be and the medical establishment, which has become no more than a high stakes drug pusher, does it's best to insure that we are. Goldman Sachs be damned, rising poverty levels be damned, foreign interloping be damned, our souls? Damned along with the rest.

So we end up poor and hated worldwide. What will the rich do that they haven't already done? Build internment camps? Brand us on our foreheads? No, they will always need us to fight their wars. To propagandise, to see how far they can push the human envelope before it folds. To wave their flags and cry don't shoot until you see the green of their money.

Enlistment for all branches of the military is up from last year. No job, no college, why not spin the wheel of death and see what happens? Can it be worse that living in squalor, without a job, car, money or hope? The boys roll out, the coffins roll in. Some mother in Pakistan just lost her son in a drone attack. Another family will hate us forever and we say our boy died for your freedom, don't you feel guilty, shouldn't it have been you dying for your own freedom? Ashamed and disgusted, Gene

Six year old rides strange cloud

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:22:00 +0200

Six Year old boy rides strange Moscow cloud to father's laboratory in the Bavarian Alps.

Little Eddie Munster climbed aboard his father's cloud sent to bring him back to his laboratory in the Bavarian Alps for a second operation. Eddie was born part vampire and part undead Frankenstein Monster. His father who is all Monster has been trying to infuse Eddie with human stem cells in an effort to check and in some cases reverse his natural tendensies and developemnet towards Monsterism. Little Eddie was surprised by all the fuss and said to our, on the scene reporter, Gene Z., "Man, all this excitment makes me want to bite a neck." Little Eddie was taken into protective custody after he fell through the strange cloud over Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski's forest reserve in Krzemionki.

LIttle Eddie Munster

Professor Munster.

Americans for Prosperity for the Few

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:59:00 +0200

Rachel slaps em down but like an evil "Rocky" they stagger to their feet expecting the other side to throw the fight,

Not a big surprise or even a small one but I've given up on the human race. Oh, individuals are fine for a while until they get under your skin but groups are so bound by "group think" that they negate their own purposes and then have to make personal concessions so that they can live within their group hypocrisy.

A big, for instance, jumps right out at me; all those supposed grass roots organizations that the conservatives or whatever they are like to tout as sprouting from the ground up.

The theory being; people are so tired of the status quo, or so afraid to change the status quo, they will unite around either some charismatic leader or political idea being purposed by less than charismatic followers. Surely, get enough people in a room, vocal and irrepressible, and the ones that haven't made up their minds, or are even opposed to the propositions being put forth, will feel a certain pressure to join the throng. The rest like drawing little Hitler moustaches.

We have millions of empty drums pounding themselves in an effort to express their frustration at the expense of the other 98% of their brain. Here's a perfect example that I watched unfold last night. This man, Tim Philips, is not one iota short of having the chutzpa of a holocaust denier.

Summation: We are grass roots even though we start from the top down and use the American people to fight for rich people's interests at the expense of their own, and "Yes, we can fool all the people all the time."

Correspondence to the Attorney General

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:21:00 +0200

The following is Doman Auto Sales' response to the complaint I filed against them with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and Bureau of Consumer Protection. I had to retype their response and my reply because I couldn't get the consistency that I desired through the scanning software.The whole story was relayed in a previous blog that somehow got lost in the chronosynclastic infundibulum of the Internet.

DOMAN AUTO & MARINE SALES, INC.

Dear A. David Etzi,

We have read the above complaint and would like to thank you for the opportunity to preserve goodwill for our business.

We sold Mr. Zizis the vehicle as shown on our sales contract over several days. Mr. Zizis inspected and test drove the vehicle. We believe he took the car to a mechanic to have it looked over before purchase. He noted several things wrong with the vehicle, cosmetic ( dents and interior condition ) and mechanical ( engine oil seepage ) including the air conditioner and made an offer. His offer on the vehicle, which was listed for $2750.00, was $2000.000 plus costs and we were to repair the air conditioning only ( at our expense ). In our opinion, Mr. Zizis knew exactly what he was purchasing. We maintained full disclosure of the vehicle and terms of the sale. You will note that on the contract there are items circled and underlined for emphasis. In addition, the vehicle had current state safety inspection and did not exhibit any of the conditions Mr. Zizis quotes at the time of the sale. We agreed to his offer and repaired the air conditioning. The following day Mr. Zizis returned, test drove and inspected the vehicle again. Finding it satisfactory, he purchased as shown on the sales contract. Mr. Zizis did purchase a service contract and elected not to have the components he refers to be covered components. He declined the additional coverage even though it was available to him.

We find it noteworthy that no documentation for the repairs has been included with the complaint and incomprehensible the Mr. Zizis could pay $2,367.70 for a car and request we pay $2,435.32 for his maintenance. We have no way of rebutting the second hand information he quotes. However, we believe any maintenance costs the vehicle needs have been grossly exaggerated. In addition, we have no means of monitoring the use of the vehicle once it leaves our facility. We understand that maintenance repairs for consumers can be untimely. However, they can be caused or magnified by consumer use, misuse or neglect. Please note on his statement regarding a hydraulic leak, "after a day there were hydraulic leaks in the driveway. I called the dealer the following week. There are a number of questions we will never have an answer to. But, it is entirely the customer's responsibility to maintain the proper operation of the vehicle so that consequential damage does not result. This is especially true at Mr. Zizis' price point. If we were to believe Mr. Zizis that several major components in the braking system were faulty at the point of sale, we believe they would have manifested themselves over the course of the several days while he was test driving and purchasing. Again. we have no way of controlling what happens to a vehicle after it leaves our facility.

As a dealer we feel we have completed our portion of the transaction in good faith. Mr. Zizis, an experienced car buyer, inspected, negotiated price, requested specific repairs and was fully aware the condition of the vehicle before purchasing. We stand by the terms of the sale and in Mr. Zizis' own words "I was satisfied". We also take exception to the use of innuendo in this forum.

If you have any questions or need additional information, I can be reached at the address, telephone number or email address above.

Sincerely,

Chris Pantelis, Doman Auto Sals, Inc.

My rebuttal, also sent to the Attorney General:

Re: Doman Auto& Marine Sales, Inc.

Dear Mr. A David Etzi,

In Doman's response to my complaint against them, the third sentence is a complete fabrication; "[We] believe he [Gene Zizis] took the car to a mechanic to have it looked at before purchase." They know full well this isn't true.

All that I noted that was wrong with the vehicle was the air conditioner wasn't working. I did not make a counter offer. Their salesman, Bob Smith, offered to fix the air conditioner and lower the price.

They say, "In their opinion Mr. Zizis knew exactly what he was purchasing." Yes this is true; I was purchasing a car, which I thought had an operational braking system. They site the underlined portions of the sale contract and the fact that it had a current state inspection sticker as if to indicate that they are relieved of ANY responsibility for selling a car with a leaking corroded brake line system.

I'm to believe, according to them, and so are you and the Bureau of Consumer Protection that a problem of such magnitude developed, in the two days that I took charge of the car, that the brake lines spontaniously corroded and ALL the brake fluid leaked our causing the brake pedal to go to the floor while being driven. I consider the absence of any kind of tangible proof that they didn't know what they were selling as sheer fabrication and an insult to my intelligence.

They mentioned that I purchased a service contract and that I chose one that didn't cover the specific components that were bad. This is completely irrelevant. Addressing the test drive, there was only one, not two as they state in their response, the one I took originally when I first saw he car on their lot. A test drive will not indicate that there's a hydraulic leak until the amount of fluid is at a critical level. They could have simply filled the master cylinder every morning to avoid any test drive braking problems.

Doman's finds it noteworthy that no documentation for the repairs has been included with the complaint. As I stated to you, I originally sent all of my records to the Harrisburg Office and I called you as soon ( today ) as I received Doman's response to ask whether or not they had forwarded the records to you. I also called Harrisburg but they were unable to tell me if they had.

Doman also calls my information second hand information while I suppose theirs is solid gold.

In the third paragraph down, towards the bottom of the page, they assert that "Any maintenance costs the vehicle needs have been grossly exaggerated." Maintenance? Replacing corroded brake lines is maintenance?

They save the disclaimer for last: "We have no means of monitoring the use of the vehicle once it leaves our facility." ( In this case, two days after it leaves their facility ). Then to add salt to the wound, "They [the maintenance costs] can be caused or magnified by consumer use, misuse or neglect." They then quote my statement, "After a day there were hydraulic fluid leaks in the driveway, I called the dealer the following week." It was Saturday when I observed the leaks.

They hammer their maintenance point calling it, "The customer's responsibility to maintain the proper operation of their vehicle so that consequential damage does not result." I know how to maintain a vehicle.

Their final paragraph, they feel that they have completed their portion of the transaction in good faith and take exception of the use of innuendo in this forum. Well, I take exception that someone in my household could have been killed due to their flat out neglect and then when they get caught, hide behind their mumbo jumbo.

Yours truly, Gene

New Jersey Trip Part Deux

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:18:00 +0200

At the risk of being boring, I have MORE PICTUES of our visit to Natalie's,

Housing in Hoboken, Great place and Franks Sinatra's home town.

Cat painting that struck me in the Antique Emporium of Asbury Park.

See, I told you.

The following pictures are more things from the Antique Emporium, Things I like but wouldn't buy because they're expensive and I have no place to put them.

I love this painting and almost did buy it, almost. Uncle Sam getting down and dirty, rolling up his sleeves to do what must be done. If only ...

This is so out of focus and a rather shitty attempt to repair it with the software from my photography program but I'll bet you still get the idea.

This ship's compass was huge, almost a foot across. The actual magnetic part floats in some fluid for mimimal resistance. I didn't even ask, "How much?"

Beautiful hand painted tray.

Loved this unusual clock.

Big Marlins like this used to be everywhere, they are getting rarer and rarer.

The British invasion never sleeps.

It's staying alive. ( These painting were huge maybe 7 or 8 foot tall).

Baby you can drive my car.

Pretty stuff and a half decent photo.

Love the black babies.

We got back to Elizabeth, N.J., where Natalie lives, just in time to wittness the Hermandad del Senor de los Milagros de Elizabeth procession. The long poles are used to lift up the overhead wires.

After a particularly difficult pass under the wires, the spectators clapped.

A band followed behind and some woman pulling up her pants.

The carriers, of the huge, heavy Jesus box.

We said our goodbyes the next morning and were on the road back home. Gene

Our N.J. Trip to Natalie's

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:16:00 +0200

I love New York.

Natalie , Our daughter, looking a little defiant, a little vunerable and cute.

Some old guy sitting with my wife.

Strike a pose.

Grand Central Station where we discovered the secret of the arches; you stand facing a corner in the domed room and talk while someone stands in the ach on the other side of the diagonal facing the corner, you can talk to each other as plain as day.

Street scenes.

We saw this guy later at the subway station with his guitar and a wha-wha pedal, Not a bad Jimmy Hedrix. He did Little Wing and Vodoo Child.

Art for sale. A little vulgar but IT'S NEW YORK CITY!

One of the hundreds of public libraries.

Fire escapes are everywhere.

Natalie and her new Beau, he's an illustrator and cartoonist. How cool is that?

These little bronze guys are on the loose in the subway.

To be continued ...

Chopin, the first, Last Waltz

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:30:00 +0200

No use bullshitting myself, I have to call the doctor today and fess up. My foot is taking its sweet time to beat the infection that's been beating it. Pain sucks, I'm sick-up and fed.

************************************************************

I don't know how it's possible but everyday I find something new to drill, hammer and either fix or create. My basement is half delicate repair shop and half industrial complex. I can work on your pocket watch (although, fixing it is a quite a different story) or weld your car frame.

Today's concern is the rug in the room in which I sit. It's ugly and stained. I'll look at each of my 3 rug machines and judge which measures up closest to performing in the manner it was intended.

I could probably sleep the day away. I feel tired and this weekend is the big drive to NJ to see our daughter. We'll spend some of at least two of our days in NYC, like the bumper sticker says, We love NYC but to truly enjoy its idyllic atmosphere you need a goodly supply of any world class city's life-blood; MONEY.

In my youth some knuckle head friends and I hitched hiked to NYC and stayed with a friend's sibling. I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground back then and we bought a bottle of some toxic strawberry Liquor to celebrate our stupidity. We were trying to test the theory put forth by the Band that "You (meaning: you, me, he, she or 'it') just ain't as sweet as my Strawberry wine, no no." The trip sucked, the wine was foul and I returned home neither wiser nor less enthusiastic for doing impromptu, stupid shit.

Why was time so meaningless then and yet so precious today? How could we have destroyed so much over so little?

Adventures are over, nothing stuck except that which has inner life. Here kids, here are my genes, they're pretty good genes, so don't piss them away like I did. Take this gift and build upon it, regard it jealousy, protect it and may you live without regrets. Gene

Dat ol Tar baby got dat Brer Rabbit all bollixed up, sho-nuff

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:44:00 +0200

Gene, The Time traveller has something important to tell you.

Yes, oh mighty Time Traveller?

Do not worry about not being around to see it, it has begun.

Oh, no!

Oh, yes! In a short time Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck will recant their treasonous, immoral behaviour. Money and powerful friends will fail them. The creator is looking into their soul and they are on the brink. They will writhe in their beds. They shall seek solace but none will come. The devil has come to claim them as per their agreement. They will wail and gouge their eyes on national Television. They will beg forgiveness.

Really?

Really!

And I'm going to see it happen?

Yes.

Cool beans! Thanks, Time Traveller you've made me very happy.

No problemo.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine headin' my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

A long slough through a long blog

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:43:00 +0200

Fuses blow, car in tow and I don't know, or, A crap a nap, and a slap,

Today was a funny, twisted, fucked up day. It was the kind of day that, somehow, everyone seemed to know that I went off my Zoloft and they had decided to test me. It started this morning or rather it didn't start this morning, my daughter's car that is, the one that's hers in name only. She took another vehicle and left me with the problem.

I called AAA before 9:00 AM and they dispatched a tow truck. All I had to do was to figure out who I wanted to make the next donation to, call them and tell them to get ready, the car is on it's way. I opted for the same place that I had recently forked over $2000.00 to, no more than 2-3 weeks ago. Silly me thinking I'd get the A+ treatment simply because I was a fabulous customer. They weren't open yet. A slight panicky feeling was rapidly approaching. My second choice wasn't open yet. Be patient, be patient I told myself, it's almost 9:00 and everything opens at 9:OO.

They did and I was set, they said no problem, that they weren't very busy today. I laughed in the face of almost being made to look like an ass. I laughed into its ass. Its ass was in my face and I was laughing. The tow truck driver came, he hitched up his truck and I told him I'd meet him at the car dealer's service department.

I did, the mileage didn't go over the free allotted mileage so there wasn't any charge at all. I talked to the service desk (man/kid) and drove home, almost. I decided to stop at one of my favorite second hand stores on the way home, The Salvation Army, laugh if you must but my mother was a sales lady for the salvation army for over 20 years. I was born to shop there. I remember, as a small child, Christ-like and everything, going to Christmas dinners there. The men that worked there also lived there, they were on a Salvation Army inspired prolonged self improvements plan and I even grew to know and like a few of them. But that's another story for another blog. or maybe several stories, I'll get back to you.

The first thing I had to do when I arrived at The Salvation Army was to seek some salvation myself and go to the bathroom. At the precise moment I grabbed the men's room key, another fellow was biding his sweetheart farewell. I instinctively knew he was also headed to the men's room. I was walking so close to him we could have been holding hands but truthfully, he wasn't my type. He seemed to be the kind that a lot of men around here have allowed themselves to become, tough guys, men so macho that they sweat testosterone. He was probably headed to the men's room to rid himself of the overflow. We arrived at the door together. I opened the door, holding it ajar, I ask if he wanted to go first, although, what I had to do in there was gaining uregency. He looked dumbfounded and dumb at the same time. He mumbled something about two stalls. I said, "No, there was a commode and that was it."

Then, I did the unforgivable, I said, "I have to shit, if you just have to piss you can go first." He looked at me with pity in his eyes, the contemptible kind, the kind that makes you kill the crippled creature rather than taking it to the Vet's. His disgust with me was immeasurable, he turned and walked away. I stood on the threshold of The Salvation Army men's room, watching him in his superiority and splendor walk away. I yelled, "I was trying to be courteous to you ASSHOLE!" When I was finished I was glad and slightly proud that he and his toothless girlfriend had left the store. I was relieved that I could roam the aisles once again oblivious to a piano wire attack from behind. I bought an interesting toy for my grandson and drove home.

Once home I returned to my current project lying in wait for me in my basement. I had to figure out why the power supply for my rechargeable drill crapped out. Before I could trouble shoot the circuit I had to fix my meter. I replaced the meter's fuse and proceeded. A fuse had also blown in the charger. Hmmm, must be blow a fuse day in heaven. I'll pick up fuses later when I go out.

Nancy, my wife had taken our grandson Tre out and Gina had taken my van to work. I was feeling mean and sick I decided to sleep it off after doing the minimum amount of house work that I could get away with. My foot is still sore, swollen and inflamed. I wanted to call someone and ask what's with all this shit that been happening to me. I ran to my second refuge instead, second only to the sacred napping places: the couch and the leather chair that I love so much, the Internet.

I had some ebay business pending and wrote emails reassuring the customers that their orders were shipped the previous day. I'm not knocking them dead on ebay yet but a few bucks here and a few bucks there and everywhere a buck buck. I checked the tuba section. The frenzy to purchase used ebay tubas hadn't started yet, there was still a day or two to go. I searched for one of Duane's (my son) classmates on google, he went into his father's business and plays the tuba for the River City Brass Band here in Pittsburgh, I called and left a message. Finally the nap.

I was awakened by the phone, it was the car dealer, they couldn't get in the car. Huh? The key didn't work, the door key. I said ok, toke note of the time and called my wife to ask if she knew where the spare set was. She called Gina and then called me back, it was around 2:30 - 3:00. "Gina said,' Her door key is on the key ring I gave the dealer and it's been working fine.'" I called the dealer, no answer. I called and called and called. Finally I got through to "Nick," the guy I had been dealing with. I told him the bad news. He said, "No way." I said, "Way" It went on along those lines for a while and then he said he'd look and try the key again. Dead air. Gina came home and in the middle of the explanation to her, Nick came back on the phone. He said they slim jimmed the door and were in. He said something about looking at the lock and figuring why it didn't work. I said, "Don't worry about the lock! Fix the damn car so we can pick it up! You said it would be done today, you're only open until 5:00 and it almost 4:00 now!" He accused me of yelling at him.

The tow truck driver was the culprit that locked the door. Nick suggested I call triple A and yell at them. The bathroom guy was nothing, now I really did want to kill. He said, "I have the parts and I might be able to fix it before 5:00." I said, "If I knew you guys weren't going to even try to start before 3:00 I would never have taken it to you." I reminded him that I had, 2 or 3 weeks ago, just spent $2000.00 bucks there. He then dropped the bombshell that made everything fall into place. He said he was changing the ignition switch mechanism and lock assembly on the steering column. So when he told me he would look at the lock, he meant the ignition switch lock, not the door lock.

He said to leave soon and be here by 5:00 so he wouldn't have to wait around for me when it was his time to go home. My daughter and I left. He showed me a key machine and said there is a chip in the key. The machine should be able to read the key and give him the code for the blank, one of 15 different blanks so he can cut the key, BUT, our key was damaged and the machine couldn't read the code and therefor couldn't tell him what blank to cut. He could do it manually program each one into the machine and see if it was the right one but each key takes 4 minutes for the computer to spit out the information. So that's an hour just tryint to find the blank, then I remembered. Yesterday Gina gave me her key and said look at this, it was bent. It was bend badly, almost 45 degrees bent, I put it in my vise and force it into trueness and also destroyed the chip.

"Are you sure the steering column components are bad," I ask. He was certain, although I didn't think they were, he was the expert, probably at ballooning the bill, but I had all the fight ground out of me by then. "OK." I said, "Monday?" "Yes, Monday," he said. I told him I had felt offended that he accused me of yelling at him, I said, "If you thought that was yelling at you then you've never been properly yelled at." He conceded that he was a little harsh himself but HE didn't like my use of the word kid when describing what I thought he was. "I've got a college education." Then he said he'd try to knock as much off the bill as he could. I thanked him and like two generations of dipshits frustrated at one another we reconciled and bid one another ado.

We came home and ate, Later that evening, Nancy and I went out, refreshed our vows and bought fuses at Radio Shack. I told her I always wanted to open a combination motel / electronics store and call it Radio Shack Up. Maybe someday, I will. Gene

Killing two blog entries with one automatic weapon

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:03:00 +0200

Pre-Halloween, autumn, tuba blog and we have nothing to fear except fear itself but let's act like a buch scared, out of their mind Lemmings anyway,

I have the unmistakable smell of Ginko Balls on my shoes. It's unmistakable only if you don't have dogs that shit in your yard. Ginko smell = dogshit. I once wrote about our Ginko tree in a poem.

Ode to a Ginko

When Ginkoo balls fall

and that fragrance fills the air

Aromatic Autumn

You smell like old underware

***************************************************

I just returned from the secondhand store where, wonder upon wonders, they have a beautiful Yamaha Tuba with case. As soon as I sat down I googled it. They have quite a few listed on ebay the most expensive is almost $2500.00 and it isn't as pristine as the one on the shelf above the worn out shoes.

If I remember correctly I bought an accordion on the same premise; that it was worth a whole lot more that I could buy it for. With the accordion I was wrong, I'd have been lucky just to make my money back, let alone turn a profit. So now there's an accordion tucked away in the bowels of my comfy overstuffed basement. I hope some day some offspring's offspring finds it and thinks I knew how to play it.

I did buy a Pharaoh's head gear though, quite becoming on me I think. They also had a Jonny Depp pirate hat that was also quite lovely. It seemed to be woollen or thick felt (is there a difference?) and who wouldn't want that? I may have hit the Halloween mother load, so many colorful head pieces ... Too bad I have only one head.

So I danced and sang King Tut by Steve Martin for a while and then started to feel puny again. This infection in my foot has me in a dithering malaise.

For the ones that read yesterday's, Make a wish Foundation blog and just didn't think it was funny, like my wife who thought it was alarming. I had just watched a Bruce Willis, Die hard, Kill Harder and eat you victims flesh movie and I felt a little jealous that he can shoot down at least 4 helicopters per movie and I have yet to bring down a single one.

So, as Hamlet said, Tu-ba or not Tu-ba, that is the question. Omp Pa Pa, Omp Pa Pa Omp Pa pa.

***************************************************************

Because, you, dear reader, deserve only the best, and I wish I could give it to you, I thought I'd include a partial blog entry that I was meandering with. I once again attempted to meld scientific principles metaphorically with our current state of affairs. The funny part is, everyone knows what's wrong we just can't sit down and decide how to fix it. So my metaphor involved smacking something, I'm not sure what, with a metaphorical hammer and rebuilding the whole kit and kaboodle. Or maybe I was just showing off ...

Theoretic magnetic regions are randomly distributed within an iron bar, each having their own north and south poles. Strike the iron bar with a sharp blow from a hammer and the theoretical magnetic regions align. You now have a multitude of norths and corresponding souths magnifying the strength of the magnetic field. The bar has become magnetically polarized. Cut the bar in half and you have two bar magnets, cuts those halves in half and you have four bar magnets, You never lose a pole. When one is present the other is present.

You could bend the bar magnet so that the two poles touch and thereby cancel one another out. You could demagnetise the bar with a second sharp blow or you could heat it, Heating the bar magnet permits the magnetic regions to lose their allegiance to one another and go back to random distribution. No one is sure why any of this works the way but it does and current theories explain it rather well. However, a theory is never proof. A theory is an explanation for certain phenomena based on observation, tests, laws and facts. A theory is a weighty thing. It is not a crack pot idea as certain sects would have us believe.

Numerous sharp blows have polarized factions across the country: the birthers, the death panelists, the preemptive war crowd, the gun slingers, the laissez-faire capitalists, the demagogues and the woefully ill informed Fox viewers.

The blow; was it Watergate? Reagan? A Bush under every rock? Vietnam? Or was it that most damaging sharp blow in recent history, 9-11? Whatever it was, or is, these things are the primary factors in our zeitgeist.

Some, simply need to shake the stupidity that holds them in place and almost everyone thinks that by resisting change, change will never come, They're wrong, the change is here and it reflects our efforts to deny it. Rather that a natural outflow of our justice and good will, the change is as twisted as it is convoluted, trying to jam itself into the space allotted for it.

Strike the bar and allow the magnetic regions to become random again. They will eventually align themselves, but maybe, this time, rather that point to war and hate, a new way will appear. Or, are we too steeped in fear to even take the chance?

Steve Martin - King Tut.mp3

If it's not too much to ask ...

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:20:00 +0200

Dial tone, button punching sounds, and then:

Hello, Make a wish Foundation, how may I assist you?

I have a candidate for you, to grant his wish.

(Sotto voice, Doesn't everyone?)

Hello?

Yes I'm sorry you cut out for a second, you were saying something about a child and making an application to grant a wish?

He's not a child.

This is very irregular, who are we talking about?

Me.

And how old are you?

Fifty eight.

I'm sorry sir but the Make a wish Foundation is only for children.

I'm a child at heart.

Yes I'm sure, You have a nice day.

Wait, wait, I'm going to die.

Aren't we all?

But I mean soon.

How soon?

Real soon, the doctor said I'll never make it to seventy.

And you're fifty eight?

Yes.

You have twelve years to go, enjoy what you have. Now I really ...

It's just a small wish. Probably won't cost as much as

sending a kid and his family to Disney world.

Money isn't the issue.

Can I talk to the supervisor?

One moment.

Hello, I have a child here that I believes qualifies for your Make a wish thingie. There must have been a misunderstanding with the first person I spoke to.

Ok, let's start this way ... What is the child's wish?

Oh, it's going to sound silly after all this hub bub.

The wish please?

I want ... .errrrr ... My son wants to shoot down a helicopter with an automatic weapon before he dies.

Click ...

Subliminal positive reinforcement

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:50:00 +0200

Like sand through the hour glass so are the days of our lives,

I went to see the doctor earlier today. My foot is sore and swollen. The malady seems to emanate from, or, as an accompanying symptom to, the icky, ulcerated spot between my toes that won't heal. I automatically thought diabetes. My blood glucose has been elevated over the last several blood tests, plus, I was sick. My temperature was high and I ached. Thoughts of self immolation seemed reasonable.

The doctor was good enough to see me on short notice and even though I wasn't crazy about going, I think I'm in the mid-hundreds of visits, I went to keep the peace and possibly my toes.

Although the doctor is young, he has the aura of a wizened, ancient man of medicine. He is plain speaking and honest to the point that the patients that need sugar coated prognoses, don't care for him. He also listens, and with both ears.

I mentioned the recent swelling of my ankles due directly to my liver disease.

He answered, " The liver makes ______________ (a big worded protein) that circulates through the bloodstream like the Swiffer (I made the Swiffer references up) mopping up the excess fluids present in the tissues. Your second rate, discount liver isn't making enough Swiffers and the fluid accumulates."

At that point I felt impelled to insert my genital edema joke. It wasn't entirely a joke, I once woke up pre-transplant with a swollen penis. Although I would have preferred the fluid to be equally distributed thereby enhancing my manhood, it listed to the right and looked downright bizarre.

We talked liver transplant for a while. I told him I thought that there must be a protocol that keeps doctors from discussing a second transplant because no liver doctor has broached that subject so far. There wasn't any as far as he knew, but he offered me some hope; transplant clinics are sometimes more inclined to do a second transplant on a patient known to follow their instructions rather that wasting a liver on a crap-shoot, bleary eyed, unrepentant alcoholic.

Yes Virginia, fuck up your life and not learn from the fucking up, and there is no Santa Claus or liver transplant for you.

During the course of our conversation, maybe with the big picture in mind, he looked dead at me and said, "You won't live to seventy." Ouch!

You wanna bet? YOU QUACK! I'll show you who's going to live.

Thanks Doc, I needed that! Gene

P.S. According to the two glucose tests given, I'm not diabetic or pre-diabetic. He also ruled out gout. Yea!

Warring Hummels and other non sequiturs

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:39:00 +0200

Ebay goes to war

I've been selling stuff on ebay ... It's neither fun nor rewarding. Some things you have to guess their value, making it a risky endeavour. Don't bother thinking that you can see what comparable items are selling for, of course I do that.

The part I enjoy is taking pictures and describing stuff. I'd like to say about some stuff..."Here's some real crap," for instance, figurines of babies or dogs. What am I doing with that junk anyway? Oh. I like the receiving money part too.

It's all part of my bigger effort to rid my life of unnecessary baggage.. If' I live long enough to completely shed my outer layer of accumulation, I'll considerate my life a life well lived but I'm going up against a long tradition. My mother loved her junk too. She'd sit in her living room, read romance novels and cover everything with a fine patina of nicotine. If you ever have to detoxify similarly covered candy dishes, wall hangings of anything that won't wilt or dissolve, I highly recommend cleaning them in an ammonia solution, Clorox won't touch it.

Some things are useless from the moment they're conciewved. What did George Carlin say? "My shit's stuff while your stuff's shit?" Oh, but I miss the man.

Maybe we could hold proxy wars. Round up the nation's useless Home Interior stuff, Avon stuff, and stuff of no particular distinction, and place them in a battle field. We could make it a patriotic gesture, like giving up rubber and silk during the big one. Then, after every nation is in, have a world wide seek and destroy mission. Whoever suffers the least casualties to their junk wins that round. No Bunker Busters or Nukes, in fact we'd have to mime hand to hand combat like kids playing with action figure.

When it's over, the winner qualifies for preferred treatment from the IMF and the World bank znd Knick Knack production begins anew. We cold have corporate sponsors pay for the mock melees and travel expenses. We could sell commemorative regalia. Entire evens could be televised and the enemy can always shout, "New guy" and redeem himself as a hummel. Gene

Cats

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:18:00 +0200

Barbra Striesand - Memories (Soundtrack from CATS).mp3

If I was a cat everything would be cool, I'd have no worries, no "situations" no money problems, nothing.

Oh, I'd still be vulnerable to disease and other negativities and seeing a large, looming, kick-ass stray cat would probably scare the shit out of me but these are things that I've endured, in one way or another, as a human as well.

The difference is cats never worry themselves sick, oh wait, there are neurotic house cats and if there can be neurotic house cats why shouldn't there be neurotic feral cats too? Imagine a young Woody Allen cat, or a supremely insecure Richard Lewis cat, who, by the way, had a short lived TV sit-com starring Jamie lLee Curtis. The series was ruined, the whole premise destroyed once they had sex. The show was built around the sexual tension existing between the two characters and... but I digress.

Oh the other hand, in the wild could a Woody Allen cat even evolve? There are bound to be aberrations in every species but maybe the duality of a cat neurosis has a survival benefit; who would ever take in an unrepentant killer cat, love and feed it?

It's quite reasonable to assume that the world is filled with Woody Allen cats, cats seeking redemption, for their murderous ways while suffering the guilt of being who they are. Think Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where the mild mannered Dr. Jekyll eventually gives way to Mr Hyde's insidious, criminal tendencies. Cats fighting their inner demons without so much as a comfortable philosophy to assuage them.

I don't want to be a cat after all. It wouldn't be cool, I'd have too many worries, and situational problems. As for the money ... Woody Allen and Richard Lewis cats have both done well for themselves and the venerable Mr, Hyde stills kills for the sheer pleasure. Gene

Choir of small insects

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:30:00 +0200

Two black men and a bug man,

It seems that everyone has something to say. People with no more oratory skill, or knowledge than Sarah Palin are given a world stage to pontificate on things far beyond their ken. Worst still, credentials have been replaced by notoriety: *Tom Delay, **Ken Blackwell and ***Alan Keyes come to mind but the choices are endless and the nation's premier nut house (Washington) is rife with choices.

Like a cricket's stridulation we are incessantly beaming our noises into the ether, but, while Crickets have their "ears" located on the knees of their front legs, we have our heads up our asses., probably accounting for the shitty discourse that passes for normal today. And let us not forget that the most beautiful array of Peacock feathers emanate from his anus.

All this is to say that our sometimes beautiful, floral speeches are as much meant to attract as our outraged screeds are to repel. Although we wish words alone could do the trick, it isn't that easy, words, in no way, necessarily define our thoughts or positions.

What does define our ethos, logos and pathos then? Just like momma used to say, "Our actions speak louder than our words." It's our actions that matter, call it what you will, but our refusal to be civil and moral, check that, a refusal to do what's required of us to be upright human beings, we fail to florish, and while branding it as good policy, it is as selfish and thoughtless as it is expedient and in most situations, ruthlessly discharged.

Man's default position is to be always be stuck in a decreasingly spacious box. Some start off in large boxes and some in small ones. To push back has limited value. Like Obama and his people we can hope to not lose more ground, or, like Alexander the Great we can cut the Gordian knot that ties us to our potential fate and in one decisive, bold stroke free ourselves from the bonds that hold us powerless . . Gene

*In 2005, a Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on criminal charges that he had conspired to violate campaign finance laws during that period. DeLay denied the charges and pled not guilty, saying they were politically motivated and the law he was indicted under did not apply until later,

**Ohio voters sued Blackwell on August 31, 2006 in a case called King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell in which individual voters and three voters' rights groups alleged that, in his capacity as Secretary of State, Blackwell "allocated [2004] election resources in a racially discriminatory manner and instituted racially discriminatory procedures for provisional voting, purging voters from the statewide voter registration database, and maintaining the chain of custody of ballots. The complaint alleged that these actions led to the dilution and/or cancellation of plaintiffs' vote due to ballot cancellation and tampering, long poll lines, mechanical difficulties with voting machines, and unclear precinct boundaries." The complaint claims that plaintiffs reasonably feared these problems would recur in the November, 2006, election, and asked the court to appoint a special master to perform Blackwell's election administration duties in that election.

This is the same Ken Blackwell that wrote, criticizing ACORN:

As negotiations over Congress’s emergency rescue bill continued over the weekend, repeated rumors leaked out that the Democrats were trying to funnel money to a hyper-partisan organization involved in criminal voter fraud. I’m speaking of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — known by its acronym, ACORN. Although ACORN was cut from the final legislation, it’s important to understand this organization and its long history with, of all people, Barack Obama. And it’s important to see how partisan this emergency legislation has become.

***Goofy black bastard:

My email to Fred Honsberger

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:27:24 +0200

Fred, Usually I shake off your hate speech and incitements like a dog shaking off fleas, therefore, I don't write or call. That, coupled with the fact that you personally nauseate me with your myopic views and daily status quo diatribes. Why would you want anything to change? You got yours Fred and, to you, that's all that matters.

I took this exception, although you contradicting yourself is the rule rather than the exception, to ask you why violence is just ducky when it suits your agenda but not when it suits others that don't hold your "capitalism at all cost" views.

You battered your guest, the G-20 summit protestor, because he wouldn't denounce violence. I have to ask, what violence have you ever denounced? I can't think of any. You love waterboarding, you think decimating and dislocating hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq was just dandy.You brushed it off as a necessary casualty of war. Iraq was a war of choice Fred and no matter how many times you say it helped keep us safe, you know that's not true. There's big money in fear Fred, ask your Pimps.

I presume you want us in Afghanistan, Iran and possibly Pakistan. If a General somewhere says it's part of our war on terrorism that's good enough for you, you stand at attention and salute Irregardless that you ran and hid under the bed when it came time for you to serve.

So, tell me comrade, what violence have you denounced? I'm all ears. Gene

I get all bleary eyed

noreply@blogspirit.com (Gene) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:27:00 +0200

Death by one thousand cuts,

I'm waiting to hear back from Blogspirit, the host of this blog. I ask them a simple question about how to retrieve my deleted files. They sent me a minimalist reply that contained zero usable information. I think it was seven words long. The last time I checked ( I never really checked) seven words isn't enough wordage to explain how to open a bottle of Ketchup let alone retrieve blog archives.

I sent them a the same question a second time. They told me they had already answered my question, subtext: Are you stupid or what? I wrote them again, the usual disgruntled consumer complaint garboo, only this time I was a bit more aggressive, either answer my question so that I may retrieve my lost blog entries or refund my money. I haven't heard back yet.

So, I'm running on borrowed time using a service that I don't particularly like but having nothing else to replace it with, for now. Did I mention that the blog host, Blogspirit is a French concern? While I admire the French and their unique national characteristics, what other country could make a French movie as well? In the family of nations, they are the intellectual geezers, woman pleasers, and world renown cheesers. But will they refund my dough?

They, the napoleonic blog police, may use this blog as proof that even thought I asked for my money back I continued to use their product, so therefore your honor, "How dissatisfied could he really be?" "Your honor, may I speak in my defense?" Go powder your wigs you flaming French fags. (If I offended: wigs, flames or fags I apologize.)

Maybe I'll get my refund, big deal, 87 dollars, 57 Euros, but my blogs, my beloved blogs who gets them? Are they meant to wander forever like orphaned thoughts in the purgatory of cyberspace? Someday my children, my MP3 files, my youtube videos and my irreverent, desultory ramblings ...we will meet again ... farewell for now and may flights of Angels sing you to your rest. Gene