The older I get, the more stories of injustice and fraud against the most frail of us tug at my heart. With that, I'm either mopping up the tears or finding something soft and light to throw at the closest electronic device.
The latest: this heartbreaking story from my home state. My partner and I have Last Wills, Living Wills and Power of Attorney documents for each other. Still, the thing every other partnered couple fears deep down happened here. I pray that God is on the side of justice as one of the men sues his county of residence. It won't change the sad events; however, this is an opportunity for that county and any other in the state to clean up their act.
I haven't watched 60 Minutes in some time. Though the promise of an interview with Al Pacino drew me in (it's rare he grants interviews -- perhaps the reason for that is in the viewing of the interview itself), it was the main story which took up two of the three segments. The hurt, anger, sadness and pit-of-the stomach nausea I felt in years past as people I loved fought their fights with cancer came roaring back.
I've seen the face of pure, stinking rotten evil in this world only a few times. Last night was one of those nights:
I spent a good chunk of my childhood obsessed over lists. Specifically, Billboard magazine's Hot 100. I had my favorite songs (this one -- audio only -- moving up the chart cracks me up. Enjoy!), but it was so very rare that a song I liked ever hit the top of the charts.
I've had two lists bouncing around my head until this morning. On the surface, what the lists say about our society is pretty disturbing. Just like the Hot 100 lists from years ago, a closer inspection reveals a few favorites that are sure not to bubble to the surface and a lot of other information which only shows one side of a much larger problem.
First, the injunction that's part of a "civil lawsuit proposed by the city attorney's office,80 defendants, most of them gang members, would be barred from . . " the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. Some that are in recovery from drug abuse and live in the area seem appreciative of the potential break in the non-stop drug shopping mall. There was a small pocket of protestors outside the announcement of the proposed lawsuit -- upset about not enough done to build/remodel affordable housing in the area but I'd guess not upset about barring the gang activity involving drug deals in the Skid Row area.
Short of erecting an actual wall and a moat of some sort, if the injunction goes through, it doesn't stop the dealing -- it just moves it into the shadows and outside Skid Row's "boundaries". The key to ongoing recovery for drug addicts is making the conscious choice to not use, even if the decision is made hour by hour or minute by minute. A stronger network of support for those in recovery in the neighborhood as well as an increase acceptance of the presence of recovery groups and locations would be a big help.
At the other side of the world, another list that tells a larger story upon closer inspection, but doesn't tell the entire story. This list comes with pictures, so everyone's a winner. It is interesting to note that the assertion that the corporations in the list pay no income tax is like looking at a penny from one direction and saying there are no bumps or ridges in a penny. You and I know that's not true, but if you only stare around the edge and feel it with your finger, it's as smooth as copper/zinc gets.
Taxes get paid. Not necessarily paid to the IRS/U.S. Treasury, but paid somewhere. Perhaps a more united effort by the countries to which taxes are paid to demand the same percentage from corporations as the U.S. demands . .
Nah. That'd be like making Skid Row in L.A. a "drug free zone".
. . . has been told and augmented with comments from some of the accused in, of all places, military.com!
Not MSNBC.
Not the New York Times.
Not even the (insert name of your favorite liberal newspaper/magazine here) !
Finally, Brad Friedman's months long efforts to write about and talk about, write about and talk about, then more of the same, the testimony of Sibel Edmonds (seh-BEEL ehd-MUHN-dz) is FINALLY starting to get a little traction. Here is part of what Brad wrote this past August, just to whet your appetite for what an interesting story this really is:
Thanks to a subpoena issued by the campaign of Ohio's 2nd District Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate David Krikorian, her remarkable allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, and criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of the government of Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the first time, in her under-oath deposition.
So, if you are interested in the details and can't find the time to sort through his chock-full-of-info-and-brightly-colored blog, check him out on the radio later this week (though, I still don't understand how he doesn't yet have his own nationally syndicated show -- he's got a great voice for radio and a rapid-fire, jam-packed interview style when he's on air). Just search for Green960 this Friday and listen on-line between 6 pm and 8 pm Pacific as he is filling in for the regular host of "Live From the Left Coast".
If there really is an investigation ongoing into what Ms. Edmonds testified to this past August and even half of what she testified to is true, this could get ugly.
And, while it's tempting to brand this one a full-blown liberal smear job, then how would one rebrand this story when it was also reported here?
OK, so it's not a great big roaring thunder of traffic, but I kept having a moving picture much like this in my head since 10 am Pacific today. SF Gate (the online version of the Chronicle) has all the details on California's Supreme court ruling from earlier today.
To be fair, most everything I was hearing/seeing/reading was preparing everyone for an upholding of Proposition 8. The real "nail biter" here was whether all of the marriages of gay couples and lesbian couples between May 2008 and early November 2008 would continue to be valid or if they would be invalidated.
Those marriages, per the court ruling, are still valid.
Not being an attorney or legislator, the other picture in my head formed was that of two groups of employees at a company. 90% of them get the same 3 weeks of paid vacation time each year and the company closes its doors during those three weeks. The other 10% of employees only get one of those weeks paid.
The reason? Does it matter? Why wouldn't everyone get 3 weeks paid vacation? Or, why not give everyone one week of paid vacation and two weeks unpaid?
Now, in the real world, it's rare a company closes its doors for three weeks. Vacation pay in the U.S. is determined by the employer and, at least in my experience, is based on how many years you have worked for the company. Those with the largest number of years of employment with the company get the largest amount of vacation pay. Outside of the U.S.'s relative cheapness in giving employees paid time off, most workers are O.K. with "more seniority, more paid time off" as the rule.
So, who would ever agree to randomly select 10% of employees to only receive one week of vacation pay and no pay for the other two weeks while my fictional company closes its doors for its workers' mass vacation?
It seems the California Supreme Court had no problem agreeing to this while "grandfathering" a small group of the 10% who, through determination and hasty preparation and execution, found a way to get all three weeks vacation paid.
And, now I'm back to why I've had traffic in my head most of the day. Those thousands of G & L couples whose marriages were not invalidated today have laid down a big street over which all sorts of attorneys and advocates will motor to give all consenting adult couples, gay, lesbian, straight, what-have-you, will eventually have the full right to marry and all enjoy the same benefits and same designation.
<<<<<< I'll have this tile ad up through Friday night; however, if you decide to sign the petition to which the tile ad links, you'll need to do so by Friday 4/24/09 at 12 noon Eastern / 9 am Pacific.
I've been listening to liberal radio chat show host Mike Malloy on the podcast I purchased (25 cents for nearly 2 hours of scream therapy? What a deal!) going back and forth to/from work. I'm sure I'm providing some sort of entertainment to my fellow subway riders as my jaw drops and eyes roll while I listen to Mike read excerpts from last week's released and fairly well redacted memos
Here's one last post I'll link to until the weekend about this ghoulish, ghastly and nauseating behavior by the previous Administration. If you can make it through any of this sick, twisted awfulness unaffected, then you're off the hook for signing the petition.
In between protesters, police, tourists and residents, pairs of people were quickly hustling in, out and around as part of The Great Urban Race. Something of a cross between a scavenger hunt and CBS' "The Amazing Race", I kept seeing stranger and stranger costumes from the race's participants. The walls finally cracked when I saw a young Asian male duo both dressed as Power Rangers (one blue with the hood encasing the head and the other in yellow with the hood down). I could not stop laughing in the midst of the light rail station and didn't let the odd stares bother me.
On a more serious note:
News from Raw Story: a woman recovering from surgery related to cancer is suing one of the bailed out banks for wrongful termination. I liked that her goal seems mostly to create awareness of the needs of employees on disability within the Human Resources department of the bank.
I've known far too many family members who battled with cancer. I cannot imagine having to wrestle with the physical and emotional challenges of cancer AND having to stress over losing my job which provides my disability income and health insurance. Shame on this bank! She seems well on her way to having her day in court based on what is in the article and I cannot wait to see her victorious!
In comparison to bonuses paid to the banks' Financial department employees AND the money paid to banks based outside of the U.S., the dollar amounts are miniscule. Still, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck . .
More grist for the mill:
The Boston Herald published an Op-Ed from Bill O'Reilly about an article that has not been written yet, only talked about in front of an audience at a university. So much has been published about so many of the activities of the previous administration (there are more coming this week) -- couldn't O'Reilly have (been fed) formed an opinion on something there?
Well, if nothing else, tomorrow or Tuesday's Countdown airing will give Olbermann a chance to whip out the O'Reilly (bumbling Mary Tyler Moore news buffoon Ted Baxter) impression. Why is this just so easy to do?
Nothing on any of the government's websites, but I'm not surprised and I just don't have the focus to hunt around for hours on end.
I did find, off of the ACLU biography of Mohamed Farag Bashmilah, a "reply brief" regarding the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit filed by the plantiffs (ACLU attorneys, etc.) to ask the court to overturn a previous decision in the case. The document was signed on 9/25/08. I'm not an attorney myself, but from what I could make out, they did a great job convincing me to overturn the decision, if I was that Court, of course.
It's one thing to hear in abstract about renditions and the role our government and the corporate world may have played. When I read first hand accounts from a survivor of rendition and one of the soldiers at Gitmo, it makes it so much more difficult to keep treating this as just another news story.
I'm wondering who else might be feeling the same as I am and if they're in a better position to do something about it.
I could have sworn steam was coming out of my ears while I watched Olbermann and Rachel tonight as they talked about a front-page story in today's Washington Post entitled "Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official". I will leave it to you to take in this article and process as you see fit. I recommend removing all heavy, hard, sharp and otherwise dangerous materials from the room and find extra padding that you feel all right with throwing, tearing, etc.
I took our dogs for a walk to process and had this hard 'n' heavy ditty on the iPod and just lost myself in the sonic fury. Feel free to treat yourself to "Take It Off" by The Donnas --- rock out, bang yer head, take whatever you like off (safety first, please!). Click here for lyrics
I'll let this roll around a bit, see where things land and perhaps comment a bit further
No, you're not over-medicated or hallucinating or reading a Canadian blog.
The suffocating and strangling fog that has fallen over the U.S is slowly starting to lift and burn off. A little ashamed to say I had to read the article about the federal appeals court ruling yesterday out loud in order to understand the reason for the lawsuit which led to yesterday's ruling and why this appeals court decision was so important.
In a nutshell, if the FBI issued a National Security Letter looking for information, the entity receiving the letter could not say a word about the request to anyone. This, of course, lead to heaven-only-knows how many constitutional abuses being done where no one could see, hear or read about it.
No word on how long it will take before abuses under this portion of the Patriot Act will be revealed. I will wait patiently . . no . . I freakin' cannot WAIT to see what kind of absurdity comes out because of yesterday's ruling. I'll do my best to not be surprised, but I have a lousy track record of that when it comes to things like these over the last 7-8 years.
