Author: glitterscale

Sean Hannity made this point over and over: we are the “Nut Roots”.  I thought as an epithet that it really lacked the slicing and dicing these folks normally do.  As a matter of fact, I thought “Nut Roots”  sounded nourishing and comforting, something that is sorely needed these days.

And the admission that we are “roots” was telling, I thought.  We are grounded and we are supporting and we everything that wingnuts are not.  The very name tells you that they are aery fairy, not grounded and not even centered as you can imagine them trying to lift all those nuts and keep them in the air!

continued

So, as grounded, centered citizens, I feel it is our duty to support the US in the best manner possible and that means, to me, grounding all those wingnuts for a while, so real growth can sprout.  I see our task is to let our roots down even deeper, make our presence even greater by that strength.

Add to that the message from Chief Tecumseh:

    Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.   Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their views and demand that they respect your.  Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life seek to make your life long and of service to your people.  Perpare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

    Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a stranger if in a lonely place.  Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.  WHen you arise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life and strength.  Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.  If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

    When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.  Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

Right now most of our challenges are earth challenges:  Global Warming, Global Warring, Global Whoring (global conglomerates).  Although it is a monumental task to get those things on a better track, what better death song could we create?

Cross posted at the orange place

the FDA is trying again to restrict alternative therapies and supplements.  Now I don’t want to go to a regular doc and get loaded up with at least three or four prescriptions, so I go to an acupuncturist who also may give me some supplements as needed and I go to a pilates instructor trying to undo decades of misuse of my great body.

Those are now at risk.  If you, like me, want to have the freedom to choose your therapies, please comment to FDA and talk to your reps.

Thanks
Update [2007-4-30 14:39:12 by glitterscale]: link is now fixed.
Here is a link for the info on this:
FDA Guidance

I know that you don’t really even want to think about this but this goes beyond what we think about in supplement abuse.  Do you really want to have to get a prescription for vitamins?

My daughter visited China this past week.  Pollution was so bad, one woman told her that a day there took 3 months off of your LIFE!

We assume somehow that things over there do not impact us over here.  And a lot of people don’t understand the law of connectedness – i.e.  “In as much as you do it unto the least of these you do it unto me”  or “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or other words to that affect.  The loss of bees, the loss of rain forest, the impact of global warming affect us all, even if we try to avoid looking at those connections.

But we are not immune to what happens over there – see below:
So now we have a bigger problem – importing the problems we have helped create in China:

Almost a dozen companies have found that they have used melamine-contaminated ingredients from China in their animal foods, either wheat gluten, corn gluten or rice protein concentrate. In the United States, more than 60 million containers of cat and dog food have been pulled from the market in the past five weeks.

People who bought pork from the American Hog Farm, a 1,500-animal facility in Ceres, Calif., between April 3 and April 18 are being advised not to eat the meat, California health officials said yesterday, although there have been no reports of illness in either people or the hogs. Authorities are tracking down all the purchasers.

Belatedly, after a couple of weeks of people worrying about their pets, it is becoming obvious that the food chain is in jeopardy.

Criminal Probe Opened in Pet Food Scare

There are several things to notice about this – the headline is misleading – it is actually people food that is now in jeopardy.  God forbid we should actually have people thinking about the food they eat!  The second is, why do we wait until tragedy strikes – isn’t that why we have an FDA?  Oh wait, I forgot – the BushCo groups prides itself on doing zippo/nada for the people.

But there are several hidden layers here – what is happening to the Chinese people who also eat this stuff?  How did it come to contaminate food stuffs?  China is fast becoming a pollution disaster of major proportions but we don’t see it because we don’t get a lot of international news.  There are a lot of Asian dishes that use this gluten – rice gluten and wheat gluten both.

Our great poverty at the moment is our inability to understand our connectedness with other countries and this is at a time when the world has shrunk to a remarkable degree.  We have no news organization willing to give us (the average news consumer) that world view.  We have no activism that spans the globe regarding pollution and the conditions that people are forced to live within.  But we will see a rise of this kind of thing from here on out simply because it is part of what we are literally buying into.  And we are not blameless – 350 million people smoke in China and where do you think that they got that from?  And most of those toxic factories are supplying the US with goods and the reason they can supply us those goods so cheaply is the cheap labor and the lack of restraints on pollution.  And we are buying into that philosophy and dystopia literally.

)which will have to be reworked many times before I send it!  (Mostly because of my regrettable tendency to regress, digress, and egress!!)

Look Sen. Bond, you are a repub and I know this is not news to you.  I DO NOT WANT A MONOLITHIC GOVERNMENT!!! Straighten up and put on that integrity thing and put on that “vision” thing.  Put away that rubber stamp and no one will get hurt!  Right now I am looking at a government in such disarray that it can only keep bleating out “talking points” incessantly (Sort of like one of those “tickle me Elmo dolls that my daughter wouldn’t take home for her kid!)  Guess what?  Nobody cares any more.  We’ve heard them all and they were not that creative to begin with!

(Over the flip (flop?)
Now you still have power, oh yes!  People still stand and salute when you enter a room I am sure.  And people find themselves thrilled to be in the audience on those rare public appearances you make (Or do you?)  And you can block traffic with your limo and you can block bills with a wave of your hand in committees and you can block bills coming to vote by (gasp, wheeze) filibustering!  (Jeez, was it only yesterday you were saying that filibustering should not be ALLOWED any more?  Boy, how times have changed!)

But, my son, time moves on and things do change to some degree.  Right now the repub star is on the wane (you may have noticed?)  And with poll numbers coming out it is clear the Murricans don’t much trust you guys any more.  (Gee, I wonder why?  Could it be the scandal of the week?  Or maybe the war, or maybe the environment, or maybe the scandal of the month?)  So the next time to vote will be pretty interesting, don’t ya think?  And it isn’t very far away.  And, look, the dems are raising more money (wasn’t that your last bastion, being able to blow the other candidate out of the water with all that money you were sloshing in?)  Well guess what, things will be slightly different in the ability to do ads this time.  And also, you have accumulated a horrible record which will allow for some really great ads for the folks opposing you.  True, you still have Karl since nobody has managed to lay a finger on him legally, but HE HAS NOW BECOME NOTICABLE!  That latter fact may become a problem cause Karl aint all that likable from an outsider’s perspective.  And true you have the AG who is willing to run the gamut to be able to field all those lawyers (?) from Pat Robertson’s University.  And you have those judges on SCOTUS that might come through even better the next time than they did in 2000.  But you know – all those things have contributed to your image, son.  Whereas Darth Cheney was soaking up all those dark vibes, now they are bleeding on(or shadowing) all of you repub congresscritters!

Now I agree, the moderate repubs and the so-called liberal repubs, few though they are will probably get slaughtered (or voted out) first being as they are all from states who hold such views, but the purple states are getting a lot bluer guys.  Talent may have been no-Talent, but he lost a close one EVEN WITH GONZO’s legal help with those “election fraud” cases.  And some of the RED RED states are turning purple (probably from trying to hold their breath looking for competency from Bushco!)

Now you and the dems have been remarkably competent (wow, this is hard to believe!) in restraining the efforts of third parties.  This is now a big big problem for the electorate because you and the dems have been name calling each other for decades now leaving the majority of us leery of either of you.  And I know some of that was calculated because it is hard for Rove to do his magic when big numbers of folks come out and vote!  But, dear heart, you guys have really really screwed the pooch this time.  Nobody wants you in power ANY MORE!  Nobody wants this war.  Nobody wants a do nothing government.  They want services, they want (DO YOU HEAR ME???) oversight!!!  And they want to know WHERE THEIR MONEY WENT!!!!

So I have a problem.  I don’t love you, I don’t want you around any more, but I am afraid to leave the dems with absolutely NO opposition because they will almost be as bad as you guys were with no opposition.

So get busy with the integrity and vision thing and get over whatever vestiges of “potomac fever” you have (sober up!) and start talking to us voters as if you recognize THAT WE OWN THIS COUNTRY AND THAT ENORMOUS DEBT YOU BUILT UP!!!!

Sincerely but No love,

You gotta read this, it is so rocking!!
Leahy’s letter to Gonzo

Within that letter lurks some great material:

1. Need for special counsel?
2. Why is Whatzerface still doing working for DOJ after pleading the 5th?

See on other side for great quotes:
The best quote of all from the letter:

“The office of the Attorney General appears to be hopelessly conflicted,” wrote Leahy and Whitehouse.

Other great quotes:

You must know that her testimony would be important to the Judiciary Committee, since you offered her as a Department witness and agreed in your meeting with Judiciary Committee Senators on March 8 that the Department would cooperate with the Committee in providing her testimony along with that of others.

and

Has it ever happened in the history of the Department of Justice that an attorney has refused to cooperate with OIG or OPR or asserted Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and remained an employee of the Department? Please provide information regarding any precedent for these extraordinary circumstances.

For the less trafficked blogs, (and maybe even for the trafficked blogs) raising money is problematic.  I had a thought while over at Firedoglake looking at their survey.  What if a coalition of blogs got together and had a American Hero(ine) contest, with the winner decided by donations?  People could donate 10, 20, 30 dollars with the cents designating the winner.  People could even donate more than once if they really liked more than one entry.

More on the flip:
The entries could be diaries in one category and projects in another.  (I envision a whole separate blog where people could put up what they thought was great on the blogasphere.)  Each entry could be numbered 1 – 99.  A blog could possibly enter more than one entry but would be limited by the number of blogs that joined in that category.  For instance, if 30 blogs joined then they could limit diaries for each to 3.

Voting could be done quarterly or even monthly and the amounts could be split according to various formulas.  One formula might be that 80 or 90 percent would be split evenly with the participating blogs but the winners would share the 10 or 20 percent.  People could read entries from blogs they haven’t seen before.  Deadlines for posting votes (donations) would be prominently visible and current tallies on votes would be kept.

I believe this could solve several problems.  First, we have a short term memory and it would serve as a reminder of the issues we have dealt with over the last several days or weeks.  Second, people could get a view of the best writing coming out of a lot of blogs, all of which would be linked within that contest blog.  Third, projects ongoing and in the intermediate stages could be highlighted bring much needed cash and attention to the writers.  Fourth, writers could find encouragement in the applause (denoted by votes) where sometimes mojo is hard to come by.

The problems this creates is how to get these blogs to be able to come tegether – what would be the criteria?  How many (certainly no more than 99 using this schema unless we go to the dollar level).

Oh yeah – and who could put in an entry?  Could a reader enter a diary that they found fascinating or could a writer on a blog enter their diary?  I think there would have to be an okay by the blog owner for any entry.

Obviously there would have to be some programming and I don’t know who would do that.  Votes would have to be tallied for different sections and different categories perhaps.  People would have to be allowed to make more than one “vote” – diaries and projects and perhaps categories?  But there might be coalitions of blogs in different categories that could use the system – say witches and warlocks in one section and political blogs in another section and writer writers in another section.  Act Blue can get a tip from donors and this blog would have to be able to either take 5% from the donations or gather tips.

what would you think would be different?

Remember when they were all saying that Bush was the one to have in charge during 9/11, that Gore was too weak to be able to deal?  Well guess what?  We probably wouldn’t have had a 9/11 with Gore in office.  Katrina would have been dealt with reasonably without a governor lamenting that she didn’t change parties so her state could get aid.  We might have had a patriot act but not as offensive.  No Brownie, no Gonzo, no Rove with his Machiavellian tricks, no going around FISA on Gore’s watch.  We might have had judges that were sane, diplomacy in action, environmental safeguards, an economy that was fair and a first lady that would be a joy to listen to and first kids that didn’t embarrass us!
All of our scandals are based really on crony-gate.  Abramoff, Rove, Gonzo, Griles, Randall, Noe, Nye, Delay have built their houses on “you scratch my back and I scratch yours” without any governing thought about morality, decency or ethics.  Gore wouldn’t have bought into that, I don’t believe.  He would, I believe, have invade Afghanistan if called upon to do so, but not Iraq.  He definitely would not have singled out individual nations as “axis of evil”.  He wouldn’t have vetted his campaign stops so only loyal Gorites (Goreans?) could attend.  He wouldn’t have be totally unable to be curious, to be compassionate, to be committed, to be reflective as our current occupant is.  He wouldn’t have laughed off Kyota, abrogated every treaty we ever made, lied to the American people every day in office.

What do you all think?  Am I too kind to Gore?  What is your alternative universe like?

promoted by BooMan:

What a week – the justice department laid an egg and boy did it smell rotten when it cracked open!

Al Gore was on the hill telling them how the cow ate the cabbage (although he didn’t say much about land based methane, just methane in the ice at sea.)

Bush is going back to stonewalling and we find that they either do not use government email servers, preferring to use RNC servers instead, or just do NOT use emails because they anticipate suits!

The dems seemed to have found some cartilige and are calling for subpoenas from both houses.  Now we will see whether packing the courts and DOJ has paid off for the Bushites.
So what changes have you felt?  Spring?  New corners turned?  I find myself completely retired and totally unsure how to deal with it.  Yes, I have plans, but really most of them seem to involve a person I am not (housecleaning? UGH)!

So how are your stress points these days?  Where do you see changes either coming or going?  New job?  New home?  New place?  How is your health?  Are you just hanging on or are you ready to do a tap dance?

What’s your predictions?  Will Bush feel the heat?  Will Gonzo go?  Will Rove find the door hitting him on the butt on his way out?  Will there be some courage on the part of the repubs to throw off their yolk and come into the light?  Will we get a raise!  Or just a rise out of Tony Snow? Will we be able to do something to save our hides re global warming?

You know how the stress point counter goes:  you get one for moving, one for buying a new home, etc.  Well add a stress point for each scandal you are following!

Cross posted at Dkos

So if the dems are truly going to pull out the earwax candles and slowly extricate that logjam of wax in the repubs ears, why can’t they do a little investigation on our buddy Jeff Gannon/Guckert?  If it takes a blow job to get an impeachment (apparently treason, malfeasance in office, lying to congress and the public just doesn’t qualify) then let’s find out who Jeff was blowing off when he was visiting.  Cause his visits didn’t necessarily target the WH press conferences.

Follow me into conjectureland:

Now I cannot find the original diary that listed Gannon’s visits to the WH, but it was a fascinating listing because WHO he visited was not listed.  So we were (and are) left with speculation about who Jeff’s WH sponsor was (and probably IS).  What if it were Rove that Jeffy was tangoing with?  Would that change the equation for the kool-aid crowd?  You know, the “gayness” of it all?  Would the kool-aid drinkers just be glad it was Rove and not the presnit?  Or would the mere gay thing so close to the presnit cause waves of distress amongst the sheep?  I certainly hope so.  I can’t see the vp or Libby in the role of supplicant to Gannon’s butch self, but that probably is a bias based not on fact but on the fact that they are married.  Rove, too, has been married but on and off.

Anyway, my point is this:  if it takes a blow job to get rid of Bush, let us find out who has done the blowing to whom in that there WH.  Then we can ask Bush to ‘splain why he has tolerated such behavior.  (Assuming it wasn’t he, himself, getting the lathering!)

Is there a dem who might (maybe under pretext of looking at Abramoff’s visits) go exploring for connections?  Things are heating up anyway.  Lets throw in a few more charcoal briquets!

I was thinking about an open letter to Sen. Bond:

“Dear Bond, time to dig out that cloak of integrity – you know the one – the one that allowed people to feel you are a straight shooter?  Maybe it is in the back of the closet all rumpled and just needs some freshening up or maybe it is in the attic and has some mold where you spilled those quail eggs from one of rove’s parties?  Or did you leave it in the garage, maybe on the floor soaking up oil dribblets?”

But then I thought, can you really regenerate integrity?  Or is it like a penis – you have to put it in ice and reattach it rather quickly?  Maybe it is like trust, once broken very hard to regain, but can be regained over a long period of time by acting consistently in a trustful manner?  And what IS the difference between integrity and trust?
We know that integrity is NOT

1. failing your duty, failing to do due diligence, failing to hold hearings about how the taxpayers’ monies are spent, failing to insure armor and good health care for our troops.
2. accusing opponents of treason and yet failing to root out treason in the oval office when a CIA agent is outed.
3. selling out seniors to the drug companies and selling out debtors to the credit card companies and selling out our energy costs and networks to oil companies and selling out our troops to the sub and sub sub contractors of Haliburton and trying to sell out our seniors yet once again the the finance mavens on wall street.
4. allowing torture, trashing of international treaties, gulags, renditions and generally lack of accountability and law abiding behaviors.
5. lying, stealing votes, election fraud, selling influence to lobbyists, or projecting one sins upon others.  (And in general just being a f00king hypocrit!)

So how can you clean off that cloak Mr. Bond?  Just brushing it off won’t do it.  It will show all kinds of stains now that we’ve seen some of the things under the rocks where you left it.

Might I suggest a simple step forward?  Just acknowledge that things are not right!  Just acknowledge that there are things to do to set them right!  Acknowledge your part in this war, acknowledge that you’ve helped purchase this blood on all of our hands.  Acknowledge that we have interests in the region and how can we make all of this crap right! Maybe there are some things we cannot really make right at this point and none of us really know everything, but at least ask some f00king hard questions of yourself and everybody else on that ridiculous plot of land in the beltway!