Randi Rhodes fans ROCK!

Air America Place Message Board was temporary host to the good people, whom we hardly knew but know better now, Randi Rhodes Message Board people, we now consider them a sister board and embrace them to our hearts.

Along with my fellow moderators at AAP, we all wish the RRMB people a good holiday and best wishes on their board refurbishment. We will be visiting them more often and hope that they stop by for a visit at AAP!

My Post Election Experience & Thoughts

Sometimes it does not even seem real.

The back of my car is still covered with anti-Bush stickers. "Turn Left at the Next Election" "Aren't you POOR enough? Vote Democrat in 2004" "Drunken Frat Boy Drives Country into Ditch". These all seem valid & reasonable. I even left the "Donald Rumsfield/Doctor Strangelove" one on long enough, we thought he was leaving - then he's staying - now they really might get rid of him. (Despite his "Craptacular" job that Lizz Winstead reminds us about, what a great description, eh?)

Its all part of my poor relationship with TIME. No, no, not the stupid weekly mag rag that just named Dubya the man of the year, in a giant "Take that you bad 54.5 Million people voted against the Emperor". I mean, the ever quickening pace of the hands on the clock, the pages on the calendar... flying by faster than I can prepare!

Why does Christmas always get here so quickly and yet, when I think about saving money for the trip to Ireland or embarking on a diet or exercise plan, the prospect of taking that AMOUNT of time seem so long? Is just further proof that Einstein was correct? Is TIME RELATIVE??

It seems like a few weeks ago only that I took into account all the possible Presidential challengers and weighed their chances for electability, well before the Primary season. I was pretty darn certain early this time. I signed up with the Kerry campaign in November 2002. Just a few weeks after the sad news about Paul Wellstone.

Now, its not that I was so very certain about Kerry that WHOLE time. I really liked Dean's message. I could have supported him, had he prevailed to the convention. What happened to him was not fair.

I wanted to back the man I felt sure that could trounce Dubya and send them back to wherever Connecticut Cowboys go. I was a little conflicted about my goals for world peace but, hey, the trade off was going to be worth it. I knew that if we were looking at a Kerry inauguration in a few weeks, we would have our hands full- working to pull the Kerry people to the left.

But now... look folks, you've all experienced at least a bit of my disorientation since November 2. When you hear about further civilian deaths in Iraq, more torture, more civil liberties trampled and when you see that cast of clowns taking up all the public space for Corporate sponsorship on Inauguration Day.

Wasn't it just a few minutes ago we were contributing to effort in Ohio?

I really think, since we are already disenfranchised, we should demand a more liberal agenda from the minority party. It is almost truly come true that the Democrats have become a party like any of the others, Green, Libertarian, Looney and all the others, any but the one, the Corporate Republican party.

I really feel that as long as the damn Democrats want to be Republican-LITE, they cannot be anything but shills taking the corporate crumbs and working the periphery of the political system. Like political vermin, opportunistically gorging themselves on the leavings of this not-so-GOP-like party, whatever the hell they are.

Anyhow, as I have always been a Democrat, like my mother & her mother before her, etc. I am not necessarily advocating starting over with a new party. The same as I am not ready to scrap the friends I have here & farm out the aged feline to move to Europe. Its our country, too, dammit!

What do you do to keep your tenuous grip on the passage of time, the lunacy of another four years of Dubya?

Post Election Blues

What a week this has been. This might get you caught up with what's going on in my head...

The Democratic National Committee sent me a link to a survey. Here is how I filled it out.

1. How did you participate in this election?

I made my first donation of many & signed up with the Kerry campaign in November 2002.

As a moderator on a political forum with almost 5,000 members.

Air America Place

Kept my friends & family in the loop with the latest campaign issues.

Put 15 Pro-Kerry and Anti-Bush bumperstickers on the back of my PTCruiser and drove all over town.

Drove people to the polls. Stood outside of poll place to greet voters.

I am a musician in a working Irish band, we donated the band's time to play for fundraisers for local State Senate & for Gov. Minner. Took money to play for Republican fundraiser and donated the money to our favorite Democrat for State Senate campaign.

2. Is this the first time you participated in election activism?

No, won't be the last, either.

3. How would you like to continue to stay involved? (Volunteering, phonebanking, fundraising, local organizing, etc.)

I don't know if I want to be associated with the Democratic Party anymore. If I am going to be disenfranchised, I might as well find a party that is more liberal and does not try to be GOP-LITE to get the middle of America.

I am a leftie. You guys don't represent me, it seems.

4. Did you feel the actions you took were effective?

Yes.

5. Was it a good experience for you?

Yes. Up until election night.

6. How would you make it better?

How can you ask THAT?? When 60% of eligible voters go to the polls, people were very committed to voting.

The Democrats AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL could have made the National message better- more about the economy and what is now going to happen to us, now that we will truly have one party government. You guys dropped the ball.

7. Please share other thoughts and comments you have about the 2004 election and what Democrats and the Democratic Party should do going forward.

I am mad as hell at the DNC, because those GOP bastards stole the election in Ohio and Kerry was TOLD to concede too early.

Before the 2006 election cycle, there needs to be many changes made at the STATE/COUNTY level to avoid fraud. Not enough was done about Black Box voting. America can do better than this 3rd world shambles voting and protect votes for each and every eligible citizen. The dirty tricks of the Karl Rove gang for preventing poor & minorities from voting must not be allowed to continue. The DNC dropped the ball on this for the 2004 vote, too. We knew they would try to steal it. And they did.

I want our troops out of this sham of an illegal war. Terrorists cannot be defeated in a ground war in the wrong country. (Of course Iraqis hate us now, we are occupying their country and torturing people) Where is Osama bin Laden?

The world community cannot believe we Americans are so stupid. And neither can I.

Bush's answer for robbing Social Security is THE FLU. Steal from the poor and give it to the rich. That's a hell of a way to live out the rest of our miserable lives.

Oh, yeah, and did I mention, that I am mad as hell at the DNC??? Fire that damn Terry McAuliffe and quit selling out to big money corporate outfits. Get back to the people and pull your heads out of your backsides!

You can take this survey yourself, Democrat Post Election Survey

Bush: "Success Is Not An Option!"

Posters for your people to see!!

We are less safe than in 2001, thanks DUBYA!

C.I.A. Unit on bin Laden Is Understaffed, a Senior Official Tells Lawmakers


By JAMES RISEN

ASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, a senior C.I.A. officer with extensive counterterrorism experience has told Congress.

The bin Laden unit is stretched so thin that it relies on inexperienced officers rotated in and out every 60 to 90 days, and they leave before they know enough to be able to perform any meaningful work, according to a letter the C.I.A. officer has written to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

Hold BUSH Accountable

Please view this ad from the Kerry campaign. Bushites want it both ways. They should condem the ads by the spin off groups that incorrectly throw mud on Kerry's distinguished service record.

We're Back!

We had a great trip and I have some crazy pictures of the family. The surprise party for my mother went very well. I will add to this later when I put pictures up on this blog.

So, the politics have really hotted up. More on this!

Blog ECHO, I found this today...

Y'all should check out this stuff in the Tom Tomorrow blog...

and this cartoon...

Busy, busy & going back to Oklahoma

Kelly and I are flying back home for quick trip, a surprise for my mother's 70th birthday. I reckon she does NOT read my blog. We get in this afternoon in time to see my sister for HER birthday, too!!

I will have to try to blog remotely, from the wireless gizmos.

I have been very busy and have been bad about blogging. The
Air America Place forum has been a lot of work, because despite the Bush Crime Family effort, the post-convention bounce was felt by our traffic and new members.

Its a problem we could only dream of 2 years ago!!

Talk to you from the road!

Flutecake, the webpage style gets updated now that I have a new DOMAIN Host!

I got it all done! Now, I just need to add more photos and artwork. Oh, yeah, and the Cafe Press store is coming, too, baby!

Web Based RSS News Reader

I have to say, I couldn't decide or figure out any better way than to do it this way. If you can tell me a better way, comment.

Convention B L O G G E R S

We gotta love bloggers, right?? Let's get geared up for the DNC!!

TomPaine.com - Betraying Iraqi Women

This, to me, is not a shock but it is still very sad, I hope this makes you want to read this article.

Betraying Iraqi Women
Lucinda Marshall
July 16, 2004

Remember when the Bush administration told us that American soldiers would be greeted as liberators? How about when we were told that the war would free Iraqi women? We know that the citizens throwing flowers never materialized, and now it turns out that helping Iraqi women was just a PR line too.
...
Despite the Bush administration's assurances to the contrary, conditions for women have worsened substantially as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its continuing aftermath. The contrast between the rhetoric and the reality is stunning. ...
The Bush administration’s claim of rescuing Iraqi women is just one more false pretense for war. It systematically ignores Iraqi women’s needs, terrorizes their lives and shows an extraordinary degree of misogynistic hubris. While it would be impossible to undo the damage, we must go beyond the basics of rebuilding the infrastructure and address issues such as honor killings—as well as our own complicity in the violence committed against women as an act of ‘liberation’. Most importantly, we must listen to the voices of Iraqi women and insist on their right to fully participate in healing their country.

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

893 for US troops, 60 UK, 60 Other in the last 485 days

Civilians.

Min 11,164 or Max 13,118

:(

^
^
|

Click here!!!

Bush's Twisted Idea of 'Safer' - by Juan Cole

This is an excellent editorial comment. However, I would have added the outrage of the world and Muslims, in particular, regarding the prisoner torture in Iraq. Again, I say, Bush is al-Qaeda's best ally as recruiting tool.

Betcha that some of that poppy/heroin money from Afghanistan flows to Bush/Cheney campaign coffers. You can be certain they already have the Saudi money for it.

Cole says in that article...

"The U.S. is arguably much less safe because of the invasion of Iraq....
Pursuing a policy that makes us highly unpopular with 1.3 billion people is not a means of making us safer. So, no, Americans are not safer, Mr. Bush.
They face the threat of substantial narco-terrorism from Afghanistan. Iraq is a security nightmare that could well blow back on the American homeland. Pakistan remains a military dictatorship with a host of militant jihadi movements that had been fomented by the hardline Pakistani military intelligence. Saudi Arabia is witnessing increased al-Qaeda activity and attacks on Westerners. And the Israeli-Palestine dispute is being left to fester and poison the world."

Whitewash! - by Paul Craig Roberts

This is my picture, taken at Wyoming Park this morning. I also took the same picture with my camera phone and sent it to my Moblog and sat out in the park and typed this into the phone, "This is the poor old fishing lure tree that fell over in last night in the storm. You know, Charlie Brown had his kite tree, well, people always fished under this tree and lost their lures and bobbers on the branches. It was always decorated. I will miss it being there."

Newszap.com Published: July 13, 2004
Heavy rains flood roads
By Cathianne Werner-Porterfield, Delaware State News

This photo, taken at 5:15 p.m. Monday, shows at least 2 feet of water in back yards of houses along Fairfield and Laredo drives in Smyrna.Delaware State News/Doug Curran

DOWNSTATE - A slow-moving line of storms dumped nearly a foot of rain in some parts of Downstate Monday afternoon and evening, flooding roads and yards and shutting two of the state's busiest highways.

Travelers were stranded, intersections from Smyrna to Dover were flooded and some Smyrna neighborhoods had to be evacuated by boat.

Kent County Levy Court President David Burris declared a state of emergency from Cheswold north to ensure National Guard resources would be available should they be needed, said Kent County Public Safety Director Colin Faulkner.

According to the National Weather Service, rainfall reports from around the Smyrna and Leipsic areas were ranging between two to five inches by 6:30 p.m.

However, the National Weather Service's radar was indicating totals of six to eight inches with estimates of three to four inches falling per hour, said meteorologist Al Cope.

...

A tornado warning was issued for Kent County about 5 p.m., but Mr. Cope said there was never any confirmation.

"There was no confirmation of any tornadoes or even wind damage," he said. "We saw a report of a possible funnel cloud from Dover Air Force Base and the radar was indicating that the thunderstorms over northern Kent County could possibly be producing tornadoes, but we never got any confirmation of that."

He said rain was falling at a rate of 3-4 inches per hour with no indication that it was going to let up until this morning.

"It just keeps coming," Mr. Cope said. "There's more stuff coming out of Maryland. The storms are lining up. We call it 'training' because they keep lining up like cars on a freight train and there are several of them."

...

I was late to work because of all this. I just had to stop and soak it all in, pardon the pun.

This is a tough lesson for me. I should blog my paranoid thoughts here because it seems more & more they become reality and news with this damn administation. I am, afterall, the queen of TinFoilism.

See the balloon about postponing or cancelling the November elections that the Bushies are trying out on us this week.

I have been saying this verbally, but not in writing, since March or since about the time of the Spanish election, anyway. Once the polls start showing Kerry solidly in the lead, of course, they have to find another way to steal the election.

Maybe its time to look at ex-patriating before its too late.

We have fought them on two other fronts, somewhat successfully. The felon list in Florida was rejected. And they have faced a lot of opposition about the paperless electronic voting.

This was my computer in 1984-- furthermore (this is a scary thing to calculate!), $2301.55 in the year 2003 has the same "purchase power" as $1300 in the year 1984.

As opposed to what we spent on those iMacs, $1436.16 in the year 2003 has the same "purchase power" as $1300 in the year 1999.

And you know it has to be worse in 2004!!!

Geek things this week:

1. Fixed the MMS settings on my smart phone, Nokia 3650. Posted to my Text America MoBlog, Flutecake for the first time in months.

2. Moved into the hosting site for Celtic Harvest . Setup new mail boxes for the people in the band. Some minor issues remain, had a DNS error sending from work PC. Sent support an email. Need to put the forwarding script on the old Geocities webpage and edit it.

3. Installed new games that were FREE at Mac Tucows.

4. Reinstalled the password keeper software, 9.95 PASSWORD MANAGER, that I forgot the password for on my Palm. (BIG TIP: be sure to delete the backup on PC or Mac before you install! Actually, should do a Hot Sync once without it before installing) Hey, c'mon, I was on vacation. I have lots more to update there.

5. Setup new eBay user ID. Going to get cracking!! Hoping to become an eBay success!! Waiting to hear from Clarke tin whistles about wholesale.

6. Posted new pix for the vacation, Dudley visit Delmarva album on WebShots.

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004:   Kerry 291   Bush 247

This is exciting news.

I haven't been blogging too much this week because its the first few days back to the OFFICE after vacation.)

Freeway Blogger is something I found tonight while poking around the lefty weblogs, BLOGS, whatever... including Tom Tomorrow. This Modern World

Anyhow, this is the kind of thing I think about a lot, making signs for people to see. Hmmmm....

"By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor." ~ Paul Krugman in the New York Times.

Swept the living room today to get ready for the new sofa!! Listening to Morning Sedition & Unfiltered on Air America while I do this. Checking the Unfilted bog, my reading for later today...

Krugman's column yesterday.

Chomsky's latest.

t r u t h o u t - Jim Hightower | The People's Media Reaches More than FOX Does

t r u t h o u t - Latest Insider Book: Bush Plays into Bin Laden's Hands

Send Bush to Mars

ABS-CBN News says:

"...California-based Keynote Systems, which monitors the Internet performance of many large corporations, said it detected a “major” issue affecting the availability of websites for such companies as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Apple, lasting from about two hours Tuesday morning.

Keynote said the outage appeared to affect only clients of Akamai Technologies, which helps manage major companies’ Internet traffic. The service was apparently hit by hacker attacks in which a site or network is flooded by requests.

Although the problem appeared to have been fixed, some Yahoo e-mail users said they still experienced problems into the evening. Spokesmen for Akamai and Yahoo could not be reached for comment. ..."

So, basically, it seems that this leg of the internet has been hacked. They seem to be up and down, etc.

I am very PARANOID about this because it seems perfectly plausible to me that the current bastards in power are very threatened by the grass roots movement on the internet that solidifies the liberal movement.

You see, always ask yourself this question about events you cannot fully understand, WHO BENEFITS?? You see, if they knock out the internet in key places, then they can slow down the movement to throw them out of power, and they only have a few months to subvert the remaining communication & freedoms of America.

Sound CRACKED?? Oh, baby, you heard it here first is all.

 Mac.com FLUTECAKE site This is what I worked on today, oh, and laundrey!

;-)

Well, this is just not my day.

Yahoo's problem, it turns out, is with Macs. I am taking that personal. I have Netscape 7.1, yet we cannot log in or out or anything.

I am kinda angry.

Now, I can't seem to get the Moblog to update. These two things are unrelated. But it is very aggrivating.

More on this later, I suppose.

This and that today.

I had a nice chat with Ruthie. Wants us to visit DC.

Testing out mobile entries to this Blog and to the Moblog.

Shopping for a new sofa.

Film at 11.

Yahoo is having fits this week, since they had an internet blackout the same day they changed their mail service.

Yahoo

Does it work for you??

Bloomsday is a secular holiday, celebrated annually on June 16. The day both celebrates the life of the Irish writer James Joyce and commemorates the fictitious events in his novel, Ulysses, all of which took place on a single day in Dublin.

Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Bloomsday blog

Happy Bloomsday!

The Word Spy - dittoheads

"dittoheads noun. People who mindlessly agree on an issue or idea because it fits in with their ideology or because they are followers of the person who put forth the idea in the first place. Originally used to describe Rush Limbaugh fans."

Just in case you weren't sure.

;-)

The #1 Christian Advice site. Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian.

And if you are wondering why I would be interested in this, well, to quote Betty, "It's the STUPID, STUPID!"

Vince Foster, Part XII

Death of a Journalist Exposes a Secret Government

The Last Circle

Reaganism versus 'neo-Reaganism'- by Justin Raimondo Ahh, a better way to remember the Gipper!

:-)

Here's a web site with more information on the book

House of Bush/House of Saud

I am currently reading American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips but the House of Bush/House of Saud book by Craig Unger will be my next one.

Go see Fairenheit 9/11 trailer at Michael Moore's website. I can't wait to see this movie!!

The lastest news on the wireless front. I had difficulty with my Nokia 3650, I guess I dropped it or banged it around too much and its a tough le$$son to learn. I bought another one for a good price on eBay. While it works great, it does not know how to reach the Tmobile GPRS network. I will have to call customer support tomorrow to sort this out.

This means that I have not been wireless for about a week. Grrrr. I have 2 good non-bluetooth phones to fall back on but have really learned to like that GPRS service. Basically, for those of you that might read this and are saying to yourself "who cares about that!", it means that I can send email or look at the internet and still be able to take a call.

BUY THIS KERRY PIN FOR $2.00 Just Click On The Image Below

CopyNo.com I am getting this, for sure. This is why I have not put my cartoons on the web (well, that and I hate scanning).

Optimizing Animated GIFs / GIF Animation - WebReference.com Here's another.

About.com: http://vse-online.com/animation-maker/index.html I am looking at animated gif ware. Oh, goody, say you all!

We are discussing quite a few fun points on the AAP Tin Foil forum.

If you have fast-ish connection *click* to see the gif of the WTC 7 collapsing, courtesy CBS.

This building housed the offices of Con Edison, the FBI and the CIA.

"WTC-7 was a 47-story building and became a two-story pile of rubble, making it the first major structure in the United States to collapse because of fire."

My favorite, so far, Serendipity.

This is St. Peter's cemetery in Lewes, Delaware. I like old cemeteries.

Here it is Memorial Day. My thought for the day...

Anything War can do, Peace can do better.

The death toll rises. Not just in Iraq, but here at home, too. We have to fight to take America back for the people. America is not a corporation.

Added the buttons above, on my opening remark to link to Air America Place, where I live. (or so it seems) Also, a button for the moblog and PeaceButtons. Also, added the rolling counter on the footer at the bottom to count the cost of war. Leave a comment if you think I should move that to the top, instead.

NPR's Day to Day short piece from May 25 its ALL ABOUT FEAR!!

Tom Toles!!

Today, its a web ramble. More later...

Sooner Thought blog
Liberal Oasis
Take Back the Media
Girlamatic
the forum to Talk About Comics
Amptoons blog

WIRELESS

I should tell you about the changes made in the wireless computing arena since the lapse in the blog, from August 2003 until May 2004...

Back last summer, I was extremely fixated on getting a Treo 600. But, T-mobile did not come out with it and I NEEDED a new gizmo in the worst way. I had made the Handspring Prism & VisorPhone last for years but the trip to Europe in August was the final straw!! I nursed it along for a few weeks but by November I had to break down and buy a new outfit.

I went with a Nokia 3650 bluetooth phone and a Palm Tungsten T3.



I had wanted to stay away from 2 pieces to have a wireless palm, but I have found that the phone & TT3 combo works great. The best part is the large screen real estate of the TT3. I got that outfit with the wireless keyboard. Works great but hoses beaming files & events to Mikey.

None of this was cheap. But all necessary.

GO here to see TextAmerica FLUTECAKE photo blog, also has been infrequent!! BUT I VOW TO IMPROVE!!!

Point is, the TT3 takes an SD card, which goes into little Mustek 4MP camera and back again... gets emailed as attachment from Snappermail or FTP with VFSFTP, left over from the old PALM CAM. Another site that needs updating!!

Then there's my Webshots gallery, too. I will be adding more there, too.

Anyhow, I was not too much fun over the winter. Pictures have a way of not happening when you don't feel expressively artistic. But summer is fast approaching and life begins again!

Okay, guilt takes over, again. I saw this article in the NYTimes.

And I was reminded that I have abandoned this blog. Too sad. Especially these days, when it is so important to document all the great resources and have one good place to archive things.

It starts back up, NOW!!