President Obama has signed SCHIP…and yes, this is a very good thing.
Pause...do a happy dance up in my couch-based area...continue.
Even before the economy went to shit some 8 million children in the United States were uninsured. They are part of the 45 million uninsured Americans who do not have health insurance through their employer and do not qualify for government assistance.
When the uninsured are at risk…and there should be no doubt that being uninsured is a serious risk…our national security is at risk.
The signing of SCHIP was long over due and will help many Americans meet their basic medical needs without being forced to weigh the health of their children against the limits of their check book and the price of an emergency room visit.
As this bitch read up on the SCHIP signing I stumbled over this story about a family struggling to handle the demands of their autistic child. As many of you know, this bitch’s older brother is autistic and I grew up watching my parents try just about everything to help him handle the world.
For all the media coverage and morning news segments on autism there is a serious lack of coverage dealing with the financial demands. Autism is not a middle class or wealthy communication disorder…even though those are the children and families most likely to be profiled on the telly. And autism costs money…a lot of money…thousands of dollars that are rarely covered through insurance.
Now, before someone comments that we have to practice strategery in these fubaristic economic times, let me assure you that I understand that shit and remind y’all that 1 in 150 individuals are dealing with some part of the autism spectrum and those are just the folks who can get a diagnosis.
Sigh.
The signing of SCHIP should remind us that there are causalities resulting from our decades long experiment in the ownership society…all kinds of families without health care coverage and denied options because our government has had a twisted anti-logic definition of family values.
Even as we celebrate this signing we must not forget that there is work yet to be done…priorities yet to be adjusted…and barriers to treatment that still need to be torn down so that we the people can live life, experience true liberty and achieve real happiness.
So hell yes, one of our highest priorities is to ensure the health and well being of our nation’s children.
SCHIP is one small step for common sense pro-human government for the people…and this bitch hopes it takes us closer to one hell of a giant leap toward universal coverage...
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Pondering the withdrawal method...
Shall we?
President Obama admitted that he “screwed up” in pursuing the nomination of Tom Daschle to Health Secretary after Daschle’s tax drama erupted into a festering mess of drama in the press and on the Hill.
Daschle has withdrawn from consideration, along with Nancy Killefer
who was on track to become the first White House performance officer.
Pause…sip coffee…continue.
Most people know that the Obama administration has one of the toughest applications out there…so detailed that the detailing made news all on its own. And this bitch remembers wondering who the fuck could make it through to the interview much less the nomination hearing-based advise and consent shit.
So ‘tis important to note that these recent incidents of withdrawal are likely not due to a failure of the screening process…which was intense as a motherfucker…but are more likely due to some break-down in the evaluation phase.
You know, the period between screening and before hearings where the administration decides whether a candidate’s fuck ups are terminal or treatable.
Cough.
And that brings a bitch to the withdrawal method and how that shit isn’t a wise prevention choice.
The withdrawal method may work once or twice but each time you use it you increase the odds that the next time you…um, withdraw…cough…may result in a lasting scandal-based drama that won’t just go away with the next news cycle.
This bitch hopes that Team Obama has learned a lesson here – that one should use the protection they are carrying (i.e., the motherfucking screening process and criteria associated with it).
Because not knowing about a candidates skeletons is one thing but knowing and deciding to throw caution to the wind...not once or twice but at least three times...is guaranteed to feed the ‘when will he fuck up, please let me be the one to break that story, Lawd I hope it’s a big one too’ beast that haunts every administration and sure as shit haunts this one.
And a bitch is pretty sure the Obama administration burned through their get out of tax-based trouble involving a nominee jail free card with Geithner.
Sigh.
This bitch is wondering why the fuck the IRS isn’t taking heat for this shit too…since we the people are broke as hell and they the agency have just been outed for leaving some serious cash on table and walking away.
Mayhap a Wall Street/Federal government personal income tax review should be added to the stimulus plan…
…’cause Lawd knows the IRS don’t play nice with the masses living on Main Street.
But that’d be too much like right…right?
Wince.
President Obama admitted that he “screwed up” in pursuing the nomination of Tom Daschle to Health Secretary after Daschle’s tax drama erupted into a festering mess of drama in the press and on the Hill.
Daschle has withdrawn from consideration, along with Nancy Killefer
who was on track to become the first White House performance officer.Pause…sip coffee…continue.
Most people know that the Obama administration has one of the toughest applications out there…so detailed that the detailing made news all on its own. And this bitch remembers wondering who the fuck could make it through to the interview much less the nomination hearing-based advise and consent shit.
So ‘tis important to note that these recent incidents of withdrawal are likely not due to a failure of the screening process…which was intense as a motherfucker…but are more likely due to some break-down in the evaluation phase.
You know, the period between screening and before hearings where the administration decides whether a candidate’s fuck ups are terminal or treatable.
Cough.
And that brings a bitch to the withdrawal method and how that shit isn’t a wise prevention choice.
The withdrawal method may work once or twice but each time you use it you increase the odds that the next time you…um, withdraw…cough…may result in a lasting scandal-based drama that won’t just go away with the next news cycle.
This bitch hopes that Team Obama has learned a lesson here – that one should use the protection they are carrying (i.e., the motherfucking screening process and criteria associated with it).
Because not knowing about a candidates skeletons is one thing but knowing and deciding to throw caution to the wind...not once or twice but at least three times...is guaranteed to feed the ‘when will he fuck up, please let me be the one to break that story, Lawd I hope it’s a big one too’ beast that haunts every administration and sure as shit haunts this one.
And a bitch is pretty sure the Obama administration burned through their get out of tax-based trouble involving a nominee jail free card with Geithner.
Sigh.
This bitch is wondering why the fuck the IRS isn’t taking heat for this shit too…since we the people are broke as hell and they the agency have just been outed for leaving some serious cash on table and walking away.
Mayhap a Wall Street/Federal government personal income tax review should be added to the stimulus plan…
…’cause Lawd knows the IRS don’t play nice with the masses living on Main Street.
But that’d be too much like right…right?
Wince.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
February shall be a month of ponderfication...
‘Tis February, y’all!
A bitch’s birthday month…my blog anniversary month…and black history month.
In other words, February is the shit (wink).
Shall we?
Fubar economics has stressed us all out and if you’re not stressed there is something wrong with you...'cause this shit is stressful as a motherfucker. Whether you are fretting over your economic situation or over loved one’s enduring the fall-out from our decade of mismanagement…well, this is the very definition of drama.
Sigh.
My birthday isn’t until the 22nd, but my present to myself is to speak of those caught up in that fall out. Not the corporations imploding…the people left to fend for themselves because all those corporations are imploding.
Today I’m pondering hunger.
My father, bless is soul, grew up very poor. He rarely spoke of it, but we knew he had known hunger from the respect he showed food. A walk through the grocery store was like a visit to a scared shrine…he hit every aisle thoroughly. When we got home and unloaded everything, my father would stand back and observe his packed fridge for several moments…just him and the security of several guaranteed meals. And I remember that shit…the look on his face, the shame he’d toss my way if I complained about a meal and the ever-present canned goods in the pantry that added some extra food security along the way.
1 in 10 Americans are part of the federal food assistance program...people just like you and this bitch.
Food insecurity is about more than just the inability of our federal system to make sure our peanut butter is safe…it also speaks to the millions of Americans who are at risk for hunger because their next meal is more of a maybe than a sure thing.
Those are facts and figures that too often go unmentioned whilst legislators debate bailouts…and those are the numbers this bitch remembers when pundits try to justify bonuses and planes, naming rights and fancy retreats.
This crisis casts light on the difference between America the brand image and the American reality.
What we are versus what we like to be seen as.
1 in 10...and someone you know is hungry.
1 in 10...and who shall this stimulus serve?
A bitch’s birthday month…my blog anniversary month…and black history month.
In other words, February is the shit (wink).
Shall we?
Fubar economics has stressed us all out and if you’re not stressed there is something wrong with you...'cause this shit is stressful as a motherfucker. Whether you are fretting over your economic situation or over loved one’s enduring the fall-out from our decade of mismanagement…well, this is the very definition of drama.
Sigh.
My birthday isn’t until the 22nd, but my present to myself is to speak of those caught up in that fall out. Not the corporations imploding…the people left to fend for themselves because all those corporations are imploding.
Today I’m pondering hunger.
My father, bless is soul, grew up very poor. He rarely spoke of it, but we knew he had known hunger from the respect he showed food. A walk through the grocery store was like a visit to a scared shrine…he hit every aisle thoroughly. When we got home and unloaded everything, my father would stand back and observe his packed fridge for several moments…just him and the security of several guaranteed meals. And I remember that shit…the look on his face, the shame he’d toss my way if I complained about a meal and the ever-present canned goods in the pantry that added some extra food security along the way.
1 in 10 Americans are part of the federal food assistance program...people just like you and this bitch.
Food insecurity is about more than just the inability of our federal system to make sure our peanut butter is safe…it also speaks to the millions of Americans who are at risk for hunger because their next meal is more of a maybe than a sure thing.
Those are facts and figures that too often go unmentioned whilst legislators debate bailouts…and those are the numbers this bitch remembers when pundits try to justify bonuses and planes, naming rights and fancy retreats.
This crisis casts light on the difference between America the brand image and the American reality.
What we are versus what we like to be seen as.
1 in 10...and someone you know is hungry.
1 in 10...and who shall this stimulus serve?
Friday, January 30, 2009
By request, some thoughts on Lilly Ledbetter…
A bitch is a wee bit warmer.
Not warm but not freezing my Afro off anymore.
Ugh!
Anyhoo…shall we?
The first bill President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
And with his signature women’s ability to challenge unequal pay has been restored.
Blink.
That’s right…restored.
Ms. Ledbetter was paid less than her male co-workers for decades. She found out about it through an anonymous note and took her employer, Goodyear, to court. Ledbetter won a $3 million dollar judgment that Goodyear then challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court…who, by one vote, reversed the original judgment saying that an employee only has six months in which to challenge unequal pay.
Never mind that Ledbetter didn’t know that Goodyear was paying her and they sure as shit weren't volunteering that information.
Well, Lilly Ledbetter campaigned for change and she got it. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a tool to discourage other employers from doing as Goodyear did as much as it is a restoration of fairness to the worker’s right to sue due to unequal pay.
But the need for Ledbetter should stand as a reminder to us all that a huge piece of the Bush legacy sits on the United States Supreme Court…a pro-business, anti-worker and anti-equality majority.
As much as I applaud Ledbetter, I am appreciative of the clarification-based reminder that the masses must be protected from the real activist judges.
Go on with your bad self, Lilly Ledbetter...
Not warm but not freezing my Afro off anymore.
Ugh!
Anyhoo…shall we?
The first bill President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
And with his signature women’s ability to challenge unequal pay has been restored.
Blink.
That’s right…restored.
Ms. Ledbetter was paid less than her male co-workers for decades. She found out about it through an anonymous note and took her employer, Goodyear, to court. Ledbetter won a $3 million dollar judgment that Goodyear then challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court…who, by one vote, reversed the original judgment saying that an employee only has six months in which to challenge unequal pay.
Never mind that Ledbetter didn’t know that Goodyear was paying her and they sure as shit weren't volunteering that information.
Well, Lilly Ledbetter campaigned for change and she got it. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a tool to discourage other employers from doing as Goodyear did as much as it is a restoration of fairness to the worker’s right to sue due to unequal pay.
But the need for Ledbetter should stand as a reminder to us all that a huge piece of the Bush legacy sits on the United States Supreme Court…a pro-business, anti-worker and anti-equality majority.
As much as I applaud Ledbetter, I am appreciative of the clarification-based reminder that the masses must be protected from the real activist judges.
Go on with your bad self, Lilly Ledbetter...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Hold please…
‘Tis cold!
Shit…my fingers are too cold to type.
Wince.
Bitchitude shall return this evening when this bitch is back home and bundled under a blanket.
Ugh.
Shit…my fingers are too cold to type.
Wince.
Bitchitude shall return this evening when this bitch is back home and bundled under a blanket.
Ugh.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
No mas...
Shall we?
There were two stories in the news yesterday that are linking in my mind…the birth of eight babies and the death of a family of seven.
One led the news this morning.
The other moved quickly from breaking news to news round-ups into the second half hour of a morning sorta-news shows this morning.
Eight babies were born to one mother at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre in Los Angeles in California. Mother and multiples are apparently doing well.
Seven people…an entire family…were found dead after an apparent murder-suicide in California. Notes allegedly left by the husband and father indicate that he and his wife had recently been terminated from positions as medical technicians at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in West Los Angeles.
The come joy.
And with it pain.
Sunshine.
Followed by rain.
I can’t help but wonder at the strange connection…not that there is some sort of mystical power associated with Kaiser Permanente, but that two family related stories so radically different somehow connected there.
That a team of damn near 50 people can work in concert to give eight babies the best medical care…
…even as a team from the Coroner’s office worked to empty a home of a family of seven.
I don’t know the back-story for either family...the who, what, when and why of it all is a mystery.
But seeing them both within the same news cycle reminded me that we so often celebrate creation then neglect that which has been created.
And there has to be some lesson here to learn…something teachable to be found in that place where life and death meet between commercial breaks on television.
Something...anything more than...
No mas.
No mas.
No mas.
There were two stories in the news yesterday that are linking in my mind…the birth of eight babies and the death of a family of seven.
One led the news this morning.
The other moved quickly from breaking news to news round-ups into the second half hour of a morning sorta-news shows this morning.
Eight babies were born to one mother at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre in Los Angeles in California. Mother and multiples are apparently doing well.
Seven people…an entire family…were found dead after an apparent murder-suicide in California. Notes allegedly left by the husband and father indicate that he and his wife had recently been terminated from positions as medical technicians at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in West Los Angeles.
The come joy.
And with it pain.
Sunshine.
Followed by rain.
I can’t help but wonder at the strange connection…not that there is some sort of mystical power associated with Kaiser Permanente, but that two family related stories so radically different somehow connected there.
That a team of damn near 50 people can work in concert to give eight babies the best medical care…
…even as a team from the Coroner’s office worked to empty a home of a family of seven.
I don’t know the back-story for either family...the who, what, when and why of it all is a mystery.
But seeing them both within the same news cycle reminded me that we so often celebrate creation then neglect that which has been created.
And there has to be some lesson here to learn…something teachable to be found in that place where life and death meet between commercial breaks on television.
Something...anything more than...
No mas.
No mas.
No mas.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
We’re still number one…
Last week we learned that my home city of St. Louis Missouri still ranks number one in the United States for gonorrhea and chlamydia rates.
That’s right…we’re number one.
Next week…February 3rd…this bitch will join pro-choice activists in Jefferson City for Prevention First Day, when we will deliver petitions and lobby our legislators to support the Prevention First legislation in Missouri.
Putting prevention first would seem like an easy sell…since we’re number one. But we face a lot of opposition here to things like medically accurate comprehensive sex education, compassionate assistance for rape emergencies, birth control protection, a women’s health services program and patient protection.
Sigh.
And even though we have a new pro-choice Governor and several new pro-choice legislators, we still face a legislature that would rather restrict access to reproductive health care in an effort to protect women from…um, ourselves (ugh)…than deal with the fact that what we are currently doing isn’t working on too many levels...unless the goal is for St. Louis city to rank number one in the country for gonorrhea and chlamydia rates.
Blink.
The choice is clear…insulting as hell do-nothing ridiculous and medically inaccurate restrictions or education and prevention.
Missourians are not alone in this situation…politics is local and change happens from the ground up. So, we cannot sit back and wait for the Obama administration to wave a magic wand and make it more better here. We’ve got to make our case to those who govern our state, where the clock has been ticking and every second that passes is a moment lost when we could have been dealing with this shit.
And did I mention that we’re number one?
Mercy.
That’s right…we’re number one.
Next week…February 3rd…this bitch will join pro-choice activists in Jefferson City for Prevention First Day, when we will deliver petitions and lobby our legislators to support the Prevention First legislation in Missouri.
Putting prevention first would seem like an easy sell…since we’re number one. But we face a lot of opposition here to things like medically accurate comprehensive sex education, compassionate assistance for rape emergencies, birth control protection, a women’s health services program and patient protection.
Sigh.
And even though we have a new pro-choice Governor and several new pro-choice legislators, we still face a legislature that would rather restrict access to reproductive health care in an effort to protect women from…um, ourselves (ugh)…than deal with the fact that what we are currently doing isn’t working on too many levels...unless the goal is for St. Louis city to rank number one in the country for gonorrhea and chlamydia rates.
Blink.
The choice is clear…insulting as hell do-nothing ridiculous and medically inaccurate restrictions or education and prevention.
Missourians are not alone in this situation…politics is local and change happens from the ground up. So, we cannot sit back and wait for the Obama administration to wave a magic wand and make it more better here. We’ve got to make our case to those who govern our state, where the clock has been ticking and every second that passes is a moment lost when we could have been dealing with this shit.
And did I mention that we’re number one?
Mercy.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A Monday morning WTF…
I just read this news item about Pope Benedict XVI and his decision to lift the excommunication of an unapologetic Holocaust denier.
Blink.
The Pope lifted the excommunication of British Bishop Richard Williamson, who said in and interview on Swedish television...
"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," … "I believe there were no gas chambers," … then added "I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them by gas chambers."
Now you’re probably wondering what penance Bishop Williamson had to do to earn the lifting…wondering how many Hail Mary’s it takes to make up for uttering that rancid shit, particularly given the Church’s history during WWII…and more than a wee bit quizzical over whether Bishop Williamson offered a recantation prior to being welcomed back into the fold.
Well, Bishop Williamson didn’t do any penance.
He offered no recantation.
He was just…well, welcomed back.
Umm to, you know…mend fences with the break away Society of Saint Pius X that the previous Pope kicked to the curb in the late 1980’s for some other shit.
I’m not kidding!
Pope Benedict weighed mending fences with this one order against welcoming an unapologetic Holocaust denier back...and he opted to mend the fence.
What the fuck?
Wow.
That’s just…disturbingly rancid, even for this Pope.
And a bitch has to confess that it makes displeasing him beyond comforting...
Blink.
The Pope lifted the excommunication of British Bishop Richard Williamson, who said in and interview on Swedish television...
"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," … "I believe there were no gas chambers," … then added "I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them by gas chambers."
Now you’re probably wondering what penance Bishop Williamson had to do to earn the lifting…wondering how many Hail Mary’s it takes to make up for uttering that rancid shit, particularly given the Church’s history during WWII…and more than a wee bit quizzical over whether Bishop Williamson offered a recantation prior to being welcomed back into the fold.
Well, Bishop Williamson didn’t do any penance.
He offered no recantation.
He was just…well, welcomed back.
Umm to, you know…mend fences with the break away Society of Saint Pius X that the previous Pope kicked to the curb in the late 1980’s for some other shit.
I’m not kidding!
Pope Benedict weighed mending fences with this one order against welcoming an unapologetic Holocaust denier back...and he opted to mend the fence.
What the fuck?
Wow.
That’s just…disturbingly rancid, even for this Pope.
And a bitch has to confess that it makes displeasing him beyond comforting...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Happy Birthday Rob Thurman!
Rob Thurman!
A bitch is beyond relieved that your ass didn't get arrested whilst attending the inauguration (wink) and so very lucky to have you as friend.
Happy Birthday damn it!
A bitch is beyond relieved that your ass didn't get arrested whilst attending the inauguration (wink) and so very lucky to have you as friend.
Happy Birthday damn it!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Language and immersion…
Happy Friday, y’all!
C-Money and this bitch are getting ready for the NHL All-Star Game this Sunday…yay!
Mercy, it seems like the season just started and here we are at the All-Star break already.
Blink.
Anyhoo, this bitch caught this news item about how Nashville residents defeated an English only measure and…well, go on with your bad self Nashville!
That reminds me of a post I’ve been meaning to put up.
I recently met with a certain Rhonda Broussard, Founder and Executive Director of St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, to learn more about their program and opportunities for adult education within it. Despite the multi-state and multi-community efforts to declare English the only language folks can communicate through here in America, the world we live in is multi-lingual and all of us need to re-think that if we are going to fully participate in all things global.
Language immersion programs improve overall academic achievement and enhance brain development, memory and cognitive learning. While most public schools begin teaching a second language in middle school, Language Immersion Schools start off teaching that second language in kindergarten…in all classes so that children learn through that second language.
But it is never to soon to get your language on – C-Money and this bitch are looking into the adult programs SLLIS will offer. A bitch studied Latin in school and has always longed to study French and Spanish.
So, a tip of the Afro to Nashville!
And a thank you too for reminding a bitch that language doesn’t have to be English-only to unite us...indeed, the world we live in demands that we re-think our approach to learning new languages so that we can give our communities the tools we need to communicate and grow.
Congratulations and best of luck to St. Louis Language Immersion Schools!
C-Money and this bitch are getting ready for the NHL All-Star Game this Sunday…yay!
Mercy, it seems like the season just started and here we are at the All-Star break already.
Blink.
Anyhoo, this bitch caught this news item about how Nashville residents defeated an English only measure and…well, go on with your bad self Nashville!
That reminds me of a post I’ve been meaning to put up.
I recently met with a certain Rhonda Broussard, Founder and Executive Director of St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, to learn more about their program and opportunities for adult education within it. Despite the multi-state and multi-community efforts to declare English the only language folks can communicate through here in America, the world we live in is multi-lingual and all of us need to re-think that if we are going to fully participate in all things global.
Language immersion programs improve overall academic achievement and enhance brain development, memory and cognitive learning. While most public schools begin teaching a second language in middle school, Language Immersion Schools start off teaching that second language in kindergarten…in all classes so that children learn through that second language.
But it is never to soon to get your language on – C-Money and this bitch are looking into the adult programs SLLIS will offer. A bitch studied Latin in school and has always longed to study French and Spanish.
So, a tip of the Afro to Nashville!
And a thank you too for reminding a bitch that language doesn’t have to be English-only to unite us...indeed, the world we live in demands that we re-think our approach to learning new languages so that we can give our communities the tools we need to communicate and grow.
Congratulations and best of luck to St. Louis Language Immersion Schools!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Blog for Choice – There, but for Roe...
Today a bitch celebrates 36 years of Roe v Wade. I hope to see my fellow St. Louisans at the Ethical Society on Clayton Rd. (6p-9p) at our local anniversary event (hint, hint and triple hint).
The Blog for Choice suggested topic this year asks what my top pro-choice priority is for President Obama and the new Congress. That’s a hard one since this bitch has many a top pro-choice priority of our new government – reform our global HIV/AIDS policy, pass and fund the Prevention First Act, return comprehensive sex education to our nation’s schools and reform health care…and a whole lot more.
But a question asked by RH Reality Check caught my attention – what
Roe does and doesn’t do.
I’ll take the second portion of that one and dive the hell on in!
Roe v Wade doesn’t make everyone give a damn.
It doesn’t guarantee that we will get active in our communities…live our values…take a stand...lobby or march or write our legislators.
The existence of Roe v Wade doesn’t automatically make pro-choice activists out of everyone.
It does, however, give those of us who do give a damn something to fight for…to build on…and to defend.
But oh how I wish Roe had magical powers.
Because beyond the legal challenges and policy battles are the real people who too often feel the harsh impact of all that shit.
There are the teens denied access…the poor denied choice…lesbians and gays denied parenting rights…women denied meds…and thus Roe v Wade is denied fulfillment.
If Roe did possess magic it would be able to make individuals connect their lives with the reproductive justice movement…their pharmacy experience with a pharmacy denial bill…their infertility treatment with those refused access because of sexual orientation…their choice with the insult that is a coercion bill…their limited income with those denied choice because of the limitations of their bank account.
Then there'd be a greater appreciation that there, but for Roe v Wade, go us all.
But for a movement...but for those who are active in it...but for those who will become active today...and the others who will lift their fists tomorrow and proudly declare that they are pro-chocie activists in the struggle for reproductive justice.
But for January 22, 1973.
But for Roe.
The Blog for Choice suggested topic this year asks what my top pro-choice priority is for President Obama and the new Congress. That’s a hard one since this bitch has many a top pro-choice priority of our new government – reform our global HIV/AIDS policy, pass and fund the Prevention First Act, return comprehensive sex education to our nation’s schools and reform health care…and a whole lot more.
But a question asked by RH Reality Check caught my attention – what
Roe does and doesn’t do.I’ll take the second portion of that one and dive the hell on in!
Roe v Wade doesn’t make everyone give a damn.
It doesn’t guarantee that we will get active in our communities…live our values…take a stand...lobby or march or write our legislators.
The existence of Roe v Wade doesn’t automatically make pro-choice activists out of everyone.
It does, however, give those of us who do give a damn something to fight for…to build on…and to defend.
But oh how I wish Roe had magical powers.
Because beyond the legal challenges and policy battles are the real people who too often feel the harsh impact of all that shit.
There are the teens denied access…the poor denied choice…lesbians and gays denied parenting rights…women denied meds…and thus Roe v Wade is denied fulfillment.
If Roe did possess magic it would be able to make individuals connect their lives with the reproductive justice movement…their pharmacy experience with a pharmacy denial bill…their infertility treatment with those refused access because of sexual orientation…their choice with the insult that is a coercion bill…their limited income with those denied choice because of the limitations of their bank account.
Then there'd be a greater appreciation that there, but for Roe v Wade, go us all.
But for a movement...but for those who are active in it...but for those who will become active today...and the others who will lift their fists tomorrow and proudly declare that they are pro-chocie activists in the struggle for reproductive justice.
But for January 22, 1973.
But for Roe.
Roe v Wade Day on RH Reality Check...
Today is the 36 anniversary of Roe v Wade, y'all.
RH Reality Check will host a live blog discussion on pro-choice messaging. Join Gloria Feldt and Sarah Stoesz on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Thursday, January 22nd from 3-4pm EST for a live blog discussion about messaging and the reproductive rights movement.
Check it out!
RH Reality Check will host a live blog discussion on pro-choice messaging. Join Gloria Feldt and Sarah Stoesz on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Thursday, January 22nd from 3-4pm EST for a live blog discussion about messaging and the reproductive rights movement.
Check it out!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Lemongrass…
Lemongrass is the new gold…
Blink.
…and the inaugural is now history.
Let’s jump right on into the first 100 days, shall we?
President Obama will meet with military advisors today to discuss halting the trials at Gitmo and closing the detainee program down.
The Obama Administration is expected to issue executive orders to repeal the Global Gag Rule and limits on stem cell research.
And the administration is set to host a fiscal responsibility summit next month to address the growth of Medicare and Social Security.
Cough.
Mercy, a bitch is still relishing the joy of watching Scooter B. and the minions fly off into the sunset…thank the gods…and we’re already off to the races.
Buckle up, chil’ren!
Change Boulevard may be a road worthy of travel but it is sure to be bumpy as a motherfucker…
Blink.
…and the inaugural is now history.
Let’s jump right on into the first 100 days, shall we?
President Obama will meet with military advisors today to discuss halting the trials at Gitmo and closing the detainee program down.
The Obama Administration is expected to issue executive orders to repeal the Global Gag Rule and limits on stem cell research.
And the administration is set to host a fiscal responsibility summit next month to address the growth of Medicare and Social Security.
Cough.
Mercy, a bitch is still relishing the joy of watching Scooter B. and the minions fly off into the sunset…thank the gods…and we’re already off to the races.
Buckle up, chil’ren!
Change Boulevard may be a road worthy of travel but it is sure to be bumpy as a motherfucker…
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration Day…
Today is Inauguration Day and millions will watch Mr. Obama take the oath of office and become this nation's 44th President.
And then...then the work begins.
I’ve been watching the network coverage of all things inauguration related…the emotional interviews with attendees, the awkward unscripted ‘oh, shit…we’ve got how many hours of coverage to fill?’ pundit-based blathering and the never-ending wide shots of the stage and the crowds that surround it.
It’s easy to get caught up in the exploration of this moment in history.
But I’m feeling rather serious today. I’m thinking of all the great expectations and daunting challenges that are ahead of us. And I’m ready to be a part of making change happen after the cameras shut down and the crowds go home.
I'm beyond ready to witness historic policy changes and some serious results…after the parades and the balls and the post-event analysis of Mrs. Obama’s dress.
But today we witness history…the transition of power and the responsibility that comes with that power.
And then?
Then the work officially begins.
Our long national nightmare endeth and this bitch hopes we wake up audacious...
And then...then the work begins.
I’ve been watching the network coverage of all things inauguration related…the emotional interviews with attendees, the awkward unscripted ‘oh, shit…we’ve got how many hours of coverage to fill?’ pundit-based blathering and the never-ending wide shots of the stage and the crowds that surround it.
It’s easy to get caught up in the exploration of this moment in history.
But I’m feeling rather serious today. I’m thinking of all the great expectations and daunting challenges that are ahead of us. And I’m ready to be a part of making change happen after the cameras shut down and the crowds go home.
I'm beyond ready to witness historic policy changes and some serious results…after the parades and the balls and the post-event analysis of Mrs. Obama’s dress.
But today we witness history…the transition of power and the responsibility that comes with that power.
And then?
Then the work officially begins.
Our long national nightmare endeth and this bitch hopes we wake up audacious...
Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday illishness…
I think the cold is getting to me.
My head hurts, damnit!
Shit.
Anyhoo, this bitch is amazed that birds were behind that plane crash into the Hudson River yesterday. Thank Gawd everyone survived…a tip of the Afro to that pilot and crew...but who the fuck knew bird strikes were so dangerous?
Pause...Google 'bird strikes'...review results of search.
Oh.
Blink.
Note to self – don’t fuck with geese.
Toodles until a bitch’s Afro stops hurting…
My head hurts, damnit!
Shit.
Anyhoo, this bitch is amazed that birds were behind that plane crash into the Hudson River yesterday. Thank Gawd everyone survived…a tip of the Afro to that pilot and crew...but who the fuck knew bird strikes were so dangerous?
Pause...Google 'bird strikes'...review results of search.
Oh.
Blink.
Note to self – don’t fuck with geese.
Toodles until a bitch’s Afro stops hurting…
Thursday, January 15, 2009
No place to go...
A bitch is fucking freezing!
I’m sitting in my couch-based lair…and I’m fucking cold.
Damn drafty old as hell house!
Shit.
Anyhoo, be kind to your animal friends and remember they shouldn’t be out in this shit for extended periods of time anymore than your ass should.
Mercy!
Moving forward…
The Great Illinois Senate Standoff – To Seat of Not To Seat Burris - is over. Confirmation hearings are underway and, of course, confirmation drama has arrived to keep the political press happy. And Congress is about to get its bailout on…again.
But this bitch is pondering things on the ground.
Maybe, ‘tis because I’m blessed to have a home and heat…it may be drafty, but it sure as shit isn’t the same as being outside in 1 degree weather…but I read this story about volunteers searching for the homeless to try and prevent deaths due to exposure and I couldn’t help but wonder if our national housing crisis has helped people better understand homelessness.
So many people face evicting from foreclosure that federal and state governments are considering a moratorium on that shit.
And those folks who face eviction aren’t all people who foolishly signed up from a domed from jump mortgage.
Our economic crisis is a beating and a half, but it is also an opportunity to do some inner work and better understand the other…that sometimes hard times, mental health conditions or physical health problems overwhelm us.
Sometimes things don’t work out or fail to work out fast enough to save a home.
Sometimes people end up sleeping in their car or on the street.
In the cold…in this cold…and there, but for a similar crisis, could go any of us.
This bitch wishes those who volunteer safe and fruitful searching…
I’m sitting in my couch-based lair…and I’m fucking cold.
Damn drafty old as hell house!
Shit.
Anyhoo, be kind to your animal friends and remember they shouldn’t be out in this shit for extended periods of time anymore than your ass should.
Mercy!
Moving forward…
The Great Illinois Senate Standoff – To Seat of Not To Seat Burris - is over. Confirmation hearings are underway and, of course, confirmation drama has arrived to keep the political press happy. And Congress is about to get its bailout on…again.
But this bitch is pondering things on the ground.
Maybe, ‘tis because I’m blessed to have a home and heat…it may be drafty, but it sure as shit isn’t the same as being outside in 1 degree weather…but I read this story about volunteers searching for the homeless to try and prevent deaths due to exposure and I couldn’t help but wonder if our national housing crisis has helped people better understand homelessness.
So many people face evicting from foreclosure that federal and state governments are considering a moratorium on that shit.
And those folks who face eviction aren’t all people who foolishly signed up from a domed from jump mortgage.
Our economic crisis is a beating and a half, but it is also an opportunity to do some inner work and better understand the other…that sometimes hard times, mental health conditions or physical health problems overwhelm us.
Sometimes things don’t work out or fail to work out fast enough to save a home.
Sometimes people end up sleeping in their car or on the street.
In the cold…in this cold…and there, but for a similar crisis, could go any of us.
This bitch wishes those who volunteer safe and fruitful searching…
A Proposition 8 legal update…
FYI from the National Center for Lesbian Rights…
Women’s Groups Warn Against Consequences of Putting Equality Up to a Public Vote
1.14.09 Several leading local, state and national women’s rights organizations have submitted an amicus curiae—or friend of the court—brief to the California Supreme Court, asking the Court to invalidate Proposition 8 because of its disastrous implications for women and other groups that face discrimination. The organizations joining the brief—filed in support of the petitioners in Strauss et al. v. Horton et al. (#S168047)—will include Equal Rights Advocates, the California Women’s Law Center, Women Lawyers of Santa Cruz County, Lawyers Club of San Diego, Legal Momentum, and the National Association of Women Lawyers.
In the papers submitted to the Supreme Court, the prominent women’s groups argue that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution and that such drastic changes cannot legally be made through a simple majority vote. They argue that such changes require, at a minimum, a two-thirds vote of the legislature before being submitted to the voters. They further state that the position of the proponents of Proposition 8 is both offensive to the rich history of equality in California and contrary to California law.
“There was a time when women couldn’t own property, couldn’t vote, and were excluded from equal opportunities in education. If these had been up for a public vote we still might not have them,” said Irma D. Herrera, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates. “Our constitution proudly protects women and minorities from having our basic civil rights stripped away so easily as they could be with Proposition 8. For the Constitution to have any meaning, core principles such as equal protection can’t be up for grabs in every election.”
For more information and to read the entire press release visit the National Center for Lesbian Rights website.
Women’s Groups Warn Against Consequences of Putting Equality Up to a Public Vote
1.14.09 Several leading local, state and national women’s rights organizations have submitted an amicus curiae—or friend of the court—brief to the California Supreme Court, asking the Court to invalidate Proposition 8 because of its disastrous implications for women and other groups that face discrimination. The organizations joining the brief—filed in support of the petitioners in Strauss et al. v. Horton et al. (#S168047)—will include Equal Rights Advocates, the California Women’s Law Center, Women Lawyers of Santa Cruz County, Lawyers Club of San Diego, Legal Momentum, and the National Association of Women Lawyers.
In the papers submitted to the Supreme Court, the prominent women’s groups argue that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution and that such drastic changes cannot legally be made through a simple majority vote. They argue that such changes require, at a minimum, a two-thirds vote of the legislature before being submitted to the voters. They further state that the position of the proponents of Proposition 8 is both offensive to the rich history of equality in California and contrary to California law.
“There was a time when women couldn’t own property, couldn’t vote, and were excluded from equal opportunities in education. If these had been up for a public vote we still might not have them,” said Irma D. Herrera, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates. “Our constitution proudly protects women and minorities from having our basic civil rights stripped away so easily as they could be with Proposition 8. For the Constitution to have any meaning, core principles such as equal protection can’t be up for grabs in every election.”
For more information and to read the entire press release visit the National Center for Lesbian Rights website.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Pondering justice for Oscar Grant...
There are no words to express my sorrow upon reading of the BART shooting incident and the death of Oscar Grant. With the news that the police officer who shot and killed Mr. Grant has been arrested comes little relief and even less satisfaction.
It is impossible for me to approach this from a distance. I have a brother, cousins and friends…when I hear that an unarmed black man was shot point blank in the back by a police officer in a BART station I think of them and what they mean to me and that there, but for fate or destiny or something I will never really understand, go me and mine.
Bill Cosby speaks of the need for the black community to move beyond our victim mentality but it is the victimized reality that’s anything but easy to move beyond.
I do not know how to define justice for Oscar Grant.
I just don’t know.
Even if the police officer is convicted and sentenced…even if Mr. Grant’s family wins a settlement…and even if changes are implemented and trainings are instituted, justice remains an elusive concept.
There’s part of me that thinks we would all benefit from embracing the inadequacy of words like justice in cases like this. I wonder if more of us would work to better our society if we were forced to wrapping our arms around that inadequacy and immersing ourselves in the unimaginable frustration of it. And I think that we would all do well to sit back and get the fact that no march, no conviction and no settlement will provide “justice” for Oscar Grant.
We need to feel that shit down in our bones.
To own it.
To dive our hands into it…let it mark our flesh and seep into our system until we writhe in agony over the relentless reality of it.
And as bitterness fills our mouths…as we spit with rage and disgust…as our fists clench at our side, maybe we’d take a step toward prevention.
Because I just don’t know how to define justice for Oscar Grant, but something has got to change.
Before we lose another Oscar Grant.
Before, even though we know there are no guarantees...no quick fixes...no cure for this disease.
Before.
Have mercy, there is so little satisfaction in the after...
It is impossible for me to approach this from a distance. I have a brother, cousins and friends…when I hear that an unarmed black man was shot point blank in the back by a police officer in a BART station I think of them and what they mean to me and that there, but for fate or destiny or something I will never really understand, go me and mine.
Bill Cosby speaks of the need for the black community to move beyond our victim mentality but it is the victimized reality that’s anything but easy to move beyond.
I do not know how to define justice for Oscar Grant.
I just don’t know.
Even if the police officer is convicted and sentenced…even if Mr. Grant’s family wins a settlement…and even if changes are implemented and trainings are instituted, justice remains an elusive concept.
There’s part of me that thinks we would all benefit from embracing the inadequacy of words like justice in cases like this. I wonder if more of us would work to better our society if we were forced to wrapping our arms around that inadequacy and immersing ourselves in the unimaginable frustration of it. And I think that we would all do well to sit back and get the fact that no march, no conviction and no settlement will provide “justice” for Oscar Grant.
We need to feel that shit down in our bones.
To own it.
To dive our hands into it…let it mark our flesh and seep into our system until we writhe in agony over the relentless reality of it.
And as bitterness fills our mouths…as we spit with rage and disgust…as our fists clench at our side, maybe we’d take a step toward prevention.
Because I just don’t know how to define justice for Oscar Grant, but something has got to change.
Before we lose another Oscar Grant.
Before, even though we know there are no guarantees...no quick fixes...no cure for this disease.
Before.
Have mercy, there is so little satisfaction in the after...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Get thee gone!
Shall we?
A bitch caught Bush’s final press conference yesterday and…well, wow.
Umm.
Wow.
Someone is delusional as a motherfucker, punchy and knavish too!
In his final press conference (thank the gods!!) President Bush let us see the real him – a smug, over confident, intellectually lazy and disturbingly dismissive ass who is incapable of regret and resentful of criticism.
The man was in rare form…even for him…and it would have been funny except it wasn’t.
In a performance bursting with insults to our intelligence one particularly insulting attempt to revise history seems to stand out – Bush’s thoughts on the Katrina disaster.
"You know people say the federal response was slow—don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard drivers, to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs—30,000 people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. It's a pretty quick response. Could things have been done better? Absolutely. Absolutely. But when I hear people say, 'The federal response was slow'—what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?"
Blink.
Cough.
That rant was delivered with aggressive damn near bully-ish body language that reinforced his seemingly sociopathic inability to grasp why people are upset about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
Ugh.
As tempting as it is to dismiss all things Bush now that the long national nightmare that was his presidency is set to end, a bitch just can’t.
This final press conference was a window into the real…a view of the actor off script and, just as we suspected, the man is pure unadulterated fubar in human form.
And we must remember that...even as we begin the process of cleaning up all the shit left behind.
Mercy.
A bitch caught Bush’s final press conference yesterday and…well, wow.
Umm.
Wow.
Someone is delusional as a motherfucker, punchy and knavish too!
In his final press conference (thank the gods!!) President Bush let us see the real him – a smug, over confident, intellectually lazy and disturbingly dismissive ass who is incapable of regret and resentful of criticism.
The man was in rare form…even for him…and it would have been funny except it wasn’t.
In a performance bursting with insults to our intelligence one particularly insulting attempt to revise history seems to stand out – Bush’s thoughts on the Katrina disaster.
"You know people say the federal response was slow—don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard drivers, to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs—30,000 people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. It's a pretty quick response. Could things have been done better? Absolutely. Absolutely. But when I hear people say, 'The federal response was slow'—what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?"
Blink.
Cough.
That rant was delivered with aggressive damn near bully-ish body language that reinforced his seemingly sociopathic inability to grasp why people are upset about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
Ugh.
As tempting as it is to dismiss all things Bush now that the long national nightmare that was his presidency is set to end, a bitch just can’t.
This final press conference was a window into the real…a view of the actor off script and, just as we suspected, the man is pure unadulterated fubar in human form.
And we must remember that...even as we begin the process of cleaning up all the shit left behind.
Mercy.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A Weblog Awards request…
This bitch has a request for all y’all.
Get over to the Weblog Award site and vote.
No, this blog isn’t a finalist for a Weblog Award…in any category…AngryBlackBitch was bageled, I tell you!
Sigh.
Thank Gawd my ass isn’t sensitive about such things (wink)!
Anyhoo, a certain Grace the Spot is nominated for Best New Blog and a bitch would like y’all to vote for them...because they’ve got a great site that’s a welcome addition to the internets.
Oh, and be sure to vote for Shakesville for Best Liberal Blog and show some love to a blog this bitch contributes to!
Many thanks.
Get over to the Weblog Award site and vote.
No, this blog isn’t a finalist for a Weblog Award…in any category…AngryBlackBitch was bageled, I tell you!
Sigh.
Thank Gawd my ass isn’t sensitive about such things (wink)!
Anyhoo, a certain Grace the Spot is nominated for Best New Blog and a bitch would like y’all to vote for them...because they’ve got a great site that’s a welcome addition to the internets.
Oh, and be sure to vote for Shakesville for Best Liberal Blog and show some love to a blog this bitch contributes to!
Many thanks.
A Conversation About Race...
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is starting up a new blog on race.
Blink.
This bitch is beyond curious to see how A Conversation About Race goes…particularly since The Post’s website, Stltoday.com, has had some….ummm, well ig’nant as hell racist bullshit pop up in comments to articles in the past. As a matter of fact, some of the comments to the stltoday.com article announcing their new blog are evidence that St. Louis needs to have some conversations about race…stat.
Lawd, give me strength.
Suffice it to say this bitch will be watching and reading closely as The Post attempts to move beyond the School of Tolerance into the real.
Buckle up, because this is sure to be a bump-based ride...
Blink.
This bitch is beyond curious to see how A Conversation About Race goes…particularly since The Post’s website, Stltoday.com, has had some….ummm, well ig’nant as hell racist bullshit pop up in comments to articles in the past. As a matter of fact, some of the comments to the stltoday.com article announcing their new blog are evidence that St. Louis needs to have some conversations about race…stat.
Lawd, give me strength.
Suffice it to say this bitch will be watching and reading closely as The Post attempts to move beyond the School of Tolerance into the real.
Buckle up, because this is sure to be a bump-based ride...
Friday, January 09, 2009
An anonymity quizzical…
Happy Friday, y’all!
Let’s jump right the fuck it.
A bitch read that opponents of marriage equality in California want donors in support of their efforts to remain anonymous claiming that folks have been harassed and businesses have been threatened with boycotts.
This bitch is tempted to point out that a pot is trash talking a kettle here, since the campaign against marriage equality in California was pretty damned harassing it’s damn self. But this call for anonymity is alarming and worthy of further exploration.
Shall we?
California’s Political Reform Act has been around since this bitch was a year old. Established in 1974, it requires disclosure for donors to candidates and political committees. A bitch thinks that’s a good thing…and so did the anti-equality groups that are now fussing about that shit. Opposition groups used donor records to threaten…wait for it…boycotts (gasp!) and attack individual donors (gasp again!) who support marriage equality.
Cough.
Now, this bitch is willing to acknowledge that there is a line and that it should not be crossed. People should not fear for their lives or safety…violence will not win this battle.
But the fear of violence is not what this move is really about.
What the opposition is…umm, opposing...are the financial and social ramifications of taking a stand. Trust that my activist ass knows them well. Activists have their homes and businesses picketed, their family and friends taunted and their jobs targeted…all because they have been identified as a donor or supported of a cause someone else is fighting against.
And knowing that a business seeking your money is also seeking to deny you rights is pretty fucking important. Boycotts are painful and powerful…that's why we do them, along with the fact that a bitch isn't interested in spending money with businesses that donate money to bullshit.
People have the right to donate in support of whatever political campaign or group they want to and the masses have the right to know that shit and adjust their spending accordingly.
Anonymity, my black ass...
Let’s jump right the fuck it.
A bitch read that opponents of marriage equality in California want donors in support of their efforts to remain anonymous claiming that folks have been harassed and businesses have been threatened with boycotts.
This bitch is tempted to point out that a pot is trash talking a kettle here, since the campaign against marriage equality in California was pretty damned harassing it’s damn self. But this call for anonymity is alarming and worthy of further exploration.
Shall we?
California’s Political Reform Act has been around since this bitch was a year old. Established in 1974, it requires disclosure for donors to candidates and political committees. A bitch thinks that’s a good thing…and so did the anti-equality groups that are now fussing about that shit. Opposition groups used donor records to threaten…wait for it…boycotts (gasp!) and attack individual donors (gasp again!) who support marriage equality.
Cough.
Now, this bitch is willing to acknowledge that there is a line and that it should not be crossed. People should not fear for their lives or safety…violence will not win this battle.
But the fear of violence is not what this move is really about.
What the opposition is…umm, opposing...are the financial and social ramifications of taking a stand. Trust that my activist ass knows them well. Activists have their homes and businesses picketed, their family and friends taunted and their jobs targeted…all because they have been identified as a donor or supported of a cause someone else is fighting against.
And knowing that a business seeking your money is also seeking to deny you rights is pretty fucking important. Boycotts are painful and powerful…that's why we do them, along with the fact that a bitch isn't interested in spending money with businesses that donate money to bullshit.
People have the right to donate in support of whatever political campaign or group they want to and the masses have the right to know that shit and adjust their spending accordingly.
Anonymity, my black ass...
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Pondering the newly created CPO position…
A bitch is still trying to recover from the affront to the senses that is Ann Coulter, the Queen of Rancidity, who polluted up my television set yesterday on the Today Show.
Lawd, have mercy!
Ann Coulter sightings before this bitch has finished my first cup of coffee should be against the law.
It lives, people.
And it wants you to buy another book.
Shudder.
Anyhoo…
This bitch is fascinated by the announcement that the Obama administration will have a Chief Performance Officer.
Nancy Killefer will be the nation’s first CPO and will be responsible for real time assessment of our government’s performance rather than the ‘this is what was fucked up last year and no one is responsible for fucking it up’ system that we currently have. A bitch adores a GAO report as much as the next political junkie, but there’s something to be said about addressing fuckeduptitude before a fabillion trillion dollars funds a guaranteed mistake or pays the salary of a do-nothing manager.
Killefer will face a federal government that currently uses CYA systems to measure performance. Agencies report a lot of numbers that are measured against goals that have nothing to do with their mission. And the masses get clued in to a problem when people are left to die after a flood…food makes thousands of us sick…or a GAO report points out that we’ve spent $2,000 on a roll of toilet paper.
And she’ll also face a federal government that likes those CYA systems the same way my dawgs like their Christmas bones.
Mmmhmm, Killefer is going to have to get her Cesar Millan on and be a dedicated pack leader if she stands a chance at measuring outcomes and improving government!
Lawd knows a bitch wishes NBC had run a segment on this new role instead of the nauseating Coulter infomercial from hell they caved to yesterday.
But that would have been too much like right…
Lawd, have mercy!
Ann Coulter sightings before this bitch has finished my first cup of coffee should be against the law.
It lives, people.
And it wants you to buy another book.
Shudder.
Anyhoo…
This bitch is fascinated by the announcement that the Obama administration will have a Chief Performance Officer.
Nancy Killefer will be the nation’s first CPO and will be responsible for real time assessment of our government’s performance rather than the ‘this is what was fucked up last year and no one is responsible for fucking it up’ system that we currently have. A bitch adores a GAO report as much as the next political junkie, but there’s something to be said about addressing fuckeduptitude before a fabillion trillion dollars funds a guaranteed mistake or pays the salary of a do-nothing manager.
Killefer will face a federal government that currently uses CYA systems to measure performance. Agencies report a lot of numbers that are measured against goals that have nothing to do with their mission. And the masses get clued in to a problem when people are left to die after a flood…food makes thousands of us sick…or a GAO report points out that we’ve spent $2,000 on a roll of toilet paper.
And she’ll also face a federal government that likes those CYA systems the same way my dawgs like their Christmas bones.
Mmmhmm, Killefer is going to have to get her Cesar Millan on and be a dedicated pack leader if she stands a chance at measuring outcomes and improving government!
Lawd knows a bitch wishes NBC had run a segment on this new role instead of the nauseating Coulter infomercial from hell they caved to yesterday.
But that would have been too much like right…
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Pondering Surgeon General Gupta…
Mr. Obama has apparently tapped Dr. Sanjay Gupta to be the next Surgeon General.
Okay…cool…he’s a practicing brain surgeon with White House
experience that knows how to deal with the media and talk to politicians.
But a bitch finds that this pick comes with extra journalistic amusement-based quizzicals.
CNN has a report up quoting “sources” that say the Obama transition team has approached Gupta and stating the Gupta met with Team Obama in November in Chicago.
So, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent didn't breaking news about the new Surgeon General pick because he is the news about the new Surgeon General pick.
CNN also reports that Gupta declined to comment and they issued a statement saying “Since first learning that Dr. Gupta was under consideration for the surgeon general position, CNN has made sure that his on-air reporting has been on health and wellness matters and not on health-care policy or any matters involving the new administration."
That shit just begs some questions – when did CNN learn that Dr. Gupta was under consideration, did they learn this information from Dr. Gupta or another source and why the fuck didn’t they ask Gupta to step aside while under consideration?
I mean, just because the people reporting the news are the news doesn’t mean the other people reporting the news are off the hook for reporting the news.
Right?
Or is this a sign of the Dan Abramsification of all things media?
Gasp.
Okay…cool…he’s a practicing brain surgeon with White House
experience that knows how to deal with the media and talk to politicians.But a bitch finds that this pick comes with extra journalistic amusement-based quizzicals.
CNN has a report up quoting “sources” that say the Obama transition team has approached Gupta and stating the Gupta met with Team Obama in November in Chicago.
So, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent didn't breaking news about the new Surgeon General pick because he is the news about the new Surgeon General pick.
CNN also reports that Gupta declined to comment and they issued a statement saying “Since first learning that Dr. Gupta was under consideration for the surgeon general position, CNN has made sure that his on-air reporting has been on health and wellness matters and not on health-care policy or any matters involving the new administration."
That shit just begs some questions – when did CNN learn that Dr. Gupta was under consideration, did they learn this information from Dr. Gupta or another source and why the fuck didn’t they ask Gupta to step aside while under consideration?
I mean, just because the people reporting the news are the news doesn’t mean the other people reporting the news are off the hook for reporting the news.
Right?
Or is this a sign of the Dan Abramsification of all things media?
Gasp.
Send a message to Mr. Obama for Darfur…
Speaking of leadership tests...
The genocide in Darfur didn’t end just because the media has stopped covering it and bringing an end to the atrocities there needs to be a priority from day one.
Please take a moment and visit Add Your Voice to send a message to President-elect Obama urging him to keep his promise of unstinting resolve to end the genocide in Darfur.
Thanks.
The genocide in Darfur didn’t end just because the media has stopped covering it and bringing an end to the atrocities there needs to be a priority from day one.
Please take a moment and visit Add Your Voice to send a message to President-elect Obama urging him to keep his promise of unstinting resolve to end the genocide in Darfur.
Thanks.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Pondering the leadership test...
Shall we?
As the world wakes up to the New Year, this bitch is pondering the challenges that are before us. The horrible violence in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that is the result…the continuing atrocities in Darfur that continue even as the world turns our back on them…Zimbabwe’s Mugabe and the cholera epidemic he can’t deny away…the world economic crisis and the restructuring of all things it calls for…and all of the neglected domestic areas we failed to nurture in times of plenty are just a few that come to mind.
Ugh.
Shit.
Lawd, it’s enough to make a body long to go fetal and commence blubbering.
So it comes as no surprise that political pundits are falling in love with the phrase “leadership test.” Hell, if Mr. Obama isn’t about to get his leadership skills tested then a bitch isn’t a bitch!
Wink.
The thing is these challenges aren’t just a test of Mr. Obama’s ability to lead…and they sure as shit are…they are our leadership test too.
We need to ask ourselves some serious questions about what our priorities are locally, nationally and internationally…I’d like the Medicaid cuts made under a Republican Governor from hell in Missouri restored under our new Dem. Governor, the St. Louis city public education crisis addressed as candidates campaign for Mayor and comprehensive sex education returned to Missouri classrooms.
And we're going to have to weigh our priorities against the daunting realities of broke as hell states in a broke as hell nation in a broke as hell world.
Big time decisions are being discussed and debated right now and will be made in the coming weeks…in cities and towns, states and territories and on the Hill.
We all face a leadership test in 2009.
And this test is already running...has already begun...and never really ends.
As the world wakes up to the New Year, this bitch is pondering the challenges that are before us. The horrible violence in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that is the result…the continuing atrocities in Darfur that continue even as the world turns our back on them…Zimbabwe’s Mugabe and the cholera epidemic he can’t deny away…the world economic crisis and the restructuring of all things it calls for…and all of the neglected domestic areas we failed to nurture in times of plenty are just a few that come to mind.
Ugh.
Shit.
Lawd, it’s enough to make a body long to go fetal and commence blubbering.
So it comes as no surprise that political pundits are falling in love with the phrase “leadership test.” Hell, if Mr. Obama isn’t about to get his leadership skills tested then a bitch isn’t a bitch!
Wink.
The thing is these challenges aren’t just a test of Mr. Obama’s ability to lead…and they sure as shit are…they are our leadership test too.
We need to ask ourselves some serious questions about what our priorities are locally, nationally and internationally…I’d like the Medicaid cuts made under a Republican Governor from hell in Missouri restored under our new Dem. Governor, the St. Louis city public education crisis addressed as candidates campaign for Mayor and comprehensive sex education returned to Missouri classrooms.
And we're going to have to weigh our priorities against the daunting realities of broke as hell states in a broke as hell nation in a broke as hell world.
Big time decisions are being discussed and debated right now and will be made in the coming weeks…in cities and towns, states and territories and on the Hill.
We all face a leadership test in 2009.
And this test is already running...has already begun...and never really ends.
Monday, January 05, 2009
To seat or not to seat…
A bitch took a nice break from the internets over the holidays and caught up on doing nothing…and watching movies…and watching hockey…oh, and sleep.
Sigh.
It was fantabulous, but I missed y’all…I truly did!
Shall we?
A certain Roland Burris will head to Washington for a meet and greet with Senate Democratic leaders this week.
Pause…consider…continue.
Okay, okay…this clearly won’t be a nice meeting between friends. Senate Democratic leaders are likely going to try to stall seating Burris so that Blago can be impeached and replaced with someone who will then have to decide whether to withdraw the Burris nod or offer forth someone who can win a Senate race (translation – raise a shitload of money).
Burris is probably going to force their hand.
A bitch can just see it…71 year old Burris sporting an I Am a Senator sign attempts to enter the Senate only to be refused entrance at the door.
Oh and Bobby Rush would have to be there for the pre and post event press conferences.
Merciful Gawd.
Even Senator Reid conceded that there is room to negotiate and that there is a possibility that Burris will ultimately be seated…after drama followed by drama followed by more drama.
Sigh.
And Mr. Franken appears to be headed for Washington.
Blink.
Al Franken will be declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate race, but that shit is going to face legal challenges that will delay the settling of his ass on a Senate chamber chair for some time.
All this ass hovering non-seating is making a bitch’s Afro spin!
Sigh.
It was fantabulous, but I missed y’all…I truly did!
Shall we?
A certain Roland Burris will head to Washington for a meet and greet with Senate Democratic leaders this week.
Pause…consider…continue.
Okay, okay…this clearly won’t be a nice meeting between friends. Senate Democratic leaders are likely going to try to stall seating Burris so that Blago can be impeached and replaced with someone who will then have to decide whether to withdraw the Burris nod or offer forth someone who can win a Senate race (translation – raise a shitload of money).
Burris is probably going to force their hand.
A bitch can just see it…71 year old Burris sporting an I Am a Senator sign attempts to enter the Senate only to be refused entrance at the door.
Oh and Bobby Rush would have to be there for the pre and post event press conferences.
Merciful Gawd.
Even Senator Reid conceded that there is room to negotiate and that there is a possibility that Burris will ultimately be seated…after drama followed by drama followed by more drama.
Sigh.
And Mr. Franken appears to be headed for Washington.
Blink.
Al Franken will be declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate race, but that shit is going to face legal challenges that will delay the settling of his ass on a Senate chamber chair for some time.
All this ass hovering non-seating is making a bitch’s Afro spin!
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Et tu, Bill Richardson?
Breaking news that’s still breaking and will continue to break for days!!
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has withdrawn from his nomination to…umm, what was it? Oh yes, Commerce Secretary!! So many nominations, so many nominees. Anyhoo, one time presidential candidate Richardson is withdrawing because of the anticipated distraction-based drama surrounding an investigation into…wait for it!..an alleged pay-to-play deal between some company that made donations to Richardson’s causes and was awarded contracts.
Blink.
There’s no indictment and Richardson isn’t under arrest…this is an investigation and politics overfloweth with them 24/7/12.
But daaaaaaamn, talk about drama!
Pay-to-play is the investigation du jour…big time.
Sigh.
And looking to politicians for the campaign finance reform these scandals demand is like hiring the fox as a hen house security consultant.
***logs off to see if the breaking news that's been breaking all day has become a developing story yet***
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has withdrawn from his nomination to…umm, what was it? Oh yes, Commerce Secretary!! So many nominations, so many nominees. Anyhoo, one time presidential candidate Richardson is withdrawing because of the anticipated distraction-based drama surrounding an investigation into…wait for it!..an alleged pay-to-play deal between some company that made donations to Richardson’s causes and was awarded contracts.
Blink.
There’s no indictment and Richardson isn’t under arrest…this is an investigation and politics overfloweth with them 24/7/12.
But daaaaaaamn, talk about drama!
Pay-to-play is the investigation du jour…big time.
Sigh.
And looking to politicians for the campaign finance reform these scandals demand is like hiring the fox as a hen house security consultant.
***logs off to see if the breaking news that's been breaking all day has become a developing story yet***
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Don't bother, they're here...
Cough.
Shall we?
Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.
Blago got his audacity on yesterday when he appointed a certain
Roland Burris to represent Illinois in the Senate.
Blink.
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.
The political pundits are in frenzy over this shit and the implications of seating or not seating Burris.
Oh, and just in case a body missed the racial angle (as if!!), Rep. Bobby Rush flipped his flop and took it there at the press conference…big time!
Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.
So, here we are. Illinois lawmakers get to decide on impeachment…the legal community gets to debate whether this appointment can be blocked...the Senate gets to kick off 2009 with multiple shit-storms swirling about…and Blago gets his last laugh/major fuck you moment in the sun.
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
In many ways, 2008 was a year through which we wrestled with racial issues long neglected…and may saw Obama’s election as the end of our long national nightmare.
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
But we are so not post-racial, people.
And where are the clowns?
This move, though self-serving beyond belief, is a fine example of that.
And I can’t help but see this as the political move equivalent of a defeated general tossing plague ridden corpses over castle walls after a failed siege while yelling “Happy Fucking New Year, bitches!”
There ought to be clowns…
And some of y’all were worried that a bitch wouldn’t have anything to bitch about (wink).
...well, maybe next year.
Happy New Year!
Shall we?
Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.
Blago got his audacity on yesterday when he appointed a certain
Roland Burris to represent Illinois in the Senate.Blink.
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.
The political pundits are in frenzy over this shit and the implications of seating or not seating Burris.
Oh, and just in case a body missed the racial angle (as if!!), Rep. Bobby Rush flipped his flop and took it there at the press conference…big time!
Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.
So, here we are. Illinois lawmakers get to decide on impeachment…the legal community gets to debate whether this appointment can be blocked...the Senate gets to kick off 2009 with multiple shit-storms swirling about…and Blago gets his last laugh/major fuck you moment in the sun.
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
In many ways, 2008 was a year through which we wrestled with racial issues long neglected…and may saw Obama’s election as the end of our long national nightmare.
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
But we are so not post-racial, people.
And where are the clowns?
This move, though self-serving beyond belief, is a fine example of that.
And I can’t help but see this as the political move equivalent of a defeated general tossing plague ridden corpses over castle walls after a failed siege while yelling “Happy Fucking New Year, bitches!”
There ought to be clowns…
And some of y’all were worried that a bitch wouldn’t have anything to bitch about (wink).
...well, maybe next year.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
My people call it fiction…
A bitch loves a good book.
Hell, I’m working on one my damn self…and I sure as shit hope that shit is good.
Pause...fret...continue.
I’m not working on Memoirs of a Bitch...mercy...and this bitch thinks the memoir may be in trouble after yet another publishing malfunction revealed a memoir to be a work of fiction.
Gasp.
This is more than just a failure of fact checking…or another author who has lost his damn mind...this bitch thinks it’s an example of the masses failing to properly appreciate fiction.
Blink.
Some of these memoirs exposed as fiction are really good works of…well, fiction!
But we like the fantastical to be real…to read about amazing real life stories of beautiful romance, foster children turn gang members turned authors or a million little pieces of recovery.
Those stories may be out there, but do they only work if they are true life fact infused memoirs?
Fiction kicks ass...sometimes an escape from reality is just what you need. A bitch can't help but wonder why people opt for the lie rather than admit that they wrote a good story and less than half of it really happened.
Mayhap it’s easier to promote a memoir and that’s why they are hot. A few sessions of media training for the author and they can send her or him forth to share their so false it sinks tale to the masses.
Or maybe the authors are assholes trying to make a dime and get fifteen minutes fast and easy.
Either way, my people call that shit fiction.
Fiction, for the love of all that's still a good read and should have been pitched that way!
Lawd, have mercy...
Hell, I’m working on one my damn self…and I sure as shit hope that shit is good.
Pause...fret...continue.
I’m not working on Memoirs of a Bitch...mercy...and this bitch thinks the memoir may be in trouble after yet another publishing malfunction revealed a memoir to be a work of fiction.
Gasp.
This is more than just a failure of fact checking…or another author who has lost his damn mind...this bitch thinks it’s an example of the masses failing to properly appreciate fiction.
Blink.
Some of these memoirs exposed as fiction are really good works of…well, fiction!
But we like the fantastical to be real…to read about amazing real life stories of beautiful romance, foster children turn gang members turned authors or a million little pieces of recovery.
Those stories may be out there, but do they only work if they are true life fact infused memoirs?
Fiction kicks ass...sometimes an escape from reality is just what you need. A bitch can't help but wonder why people opt for the lie rather than admit that they wrote a good story and less than half of it really happened.
Mayhap it’s easier to promote a memoir and that’s why they are hot. A few sessions of media training for the author and they can send her or him forth to share their so false it sinks tale to the masses.
Or maybe the authors are assholes trying to make a dime and get fifteen minutes fast and easy.
Either way, my people call that shit fiction.
Fiction, for the love of all that's still a good read and should have been pitched that way!
Lawd, have mercy...
Monday, December 29, 2008
Pondering bridge building...
A bitch is recovering from my holiday feastitude and hopes y’all are too!
Let’s jump right in, shall we?
I caught the weekend political chats and something David Axelrod said on one of them made a bitch’s Afro hurt.
He was defending the choice of Rick Warren speaking at the Inauguration and said that the incoming administration looked forward to working with him and his on those things they do agree on even as they acknowledged the many things they don’t agree on.
The things they do agree on include fighting poverty in general and disease in Africa in particular.
Blink.
Now, a bitch has little patience with the way folks present the challenges facing the world as if poverty falls under one column and reproductive justice falls under another and never the two shall meet…or as if the battle over comprehensive sex education is on one side of the policy world and the fight against HIV/AIDS is on the other and those two don’t belong in the same conversation.
Lawd, have mercy.
But it occurs to me that this may be a teachable moment…for the incoming administration and for those who support bridge building with Rick Warren for the sake of bridge building with Rick Warren.
Pause...sip exceptional cup of coffee (yum!)…continue.
Here’s the thing…the Rick Warrens of the world aren’t using the same raw materials as we are.
I can just imagine this project.
We’re hammering and connecting shit.
They’re hammering and connecting shit.
But we’re using solid and proven materials like comprehensive sex education, condoms and family planning.
They’re using the structurally unstable and known to fall apart materials of abstinence-only education held together with a mixture made up of one half ‘condoms are bad’ and one half ‘family planning isn’t sanctified’.
Oh, we can build away on our bridge and eventually we’ll meet in the middle…but then what?
How far do we take this shit?
Do we walk across from our side even though we know we’re doomed to tumble once we put some weight on their structurally unstable side of things?
I’m curious as a motherfucker about what the plan is here, because you know and I know that you know and I know that bridge building dialogue for the sake of bridge building dialogue is the very definition of bullshit.
So, are we supposed to build this bridge to prove some point…to educate someone and walk them toward the bright light of reality?
Or is this project the intellectually lazy dialogue version of the bridge to nowhere?
‘Cause if it is, this bitch would just as soon take a pass and jump right to fighting poverty and disease with tools that fucking work.
Shit.
Let’s jump right in, shall we?
I caught the weekend political chats and something David Axelrod said on one of them made a bitch’s Afro hurt.
He was defending the choice of Rick Warren speaking at the Inauguration and said that the incoming administration looked forward to working with him and his on those things they do agree on even as they acknowledged the many things they don’t agree on.
The things they do agree on include fighting poverty in general and disease in Africa in particular.
Blink.
Now, a bitch has little patience with the way folks present the challenges facing the world as if poverty falls under one column and reproductive justice falls under another and never the two shall meet…or as if the battle over comprehensive sex education is on one side of the policy world and the fight against HIV/AIDS is on the other and those two don’t belong in the same conversation.
Lawd, have mercy.
But it occurs to me that this may be a teachable moment…for the incoming administration and for those who support bridge building with Rick Warren for the sake of bridge building with Rick Warren.
Pause...sip exceptional cup of coffee (yum!)…continue.
Here’s the thing…the Rick Warrens of the world aren’t using the same raw materials as we are.
I can just imagine this project.
We’re hammering and connecting shit.
They’re hammering and connecting shit.
But we’re using solid and proven materials like comprehensive sex education, condoms and family planning.
They’re using the structurally unstable and known to fall apart materials of abstinence-only education held together with a mixture made up of one half ‘condoms are bad’ and one half ‘family planning isn’t sanctified’.
Oh, we can build away on our bridge and eventually we’ll meet in the middle…but then what?
How far do we take this shit?
Do we walk across from our side even though we know we’re doomed to tumble once we put some weight on their structurally unstable side of things?
I’m curious as a motherfucker about what the plan is here, because you know and I know that you know and I know that bridge building dialogue for the sake of bridge building dialogue is the very definition of bullshit.
So, are we supposed to build this bridge to prove some point…to educate someone and walk them toward the bright light of reality?
Or is this project the intellectually lazy dialogue version of the bridge to nowhere?
‘Cause if it is, this bitch would just as soon take a pass and jump right to fighting poverty and disease with tools that fucking work.
Shit.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Holiday preparedness…
Lawd, a bitch has been so tired that I couldn’t seem to finish a damn thing!
I think the year is catching up to me…and add to that my annual case of the holiday blahs…oh, and the fucked up weather from hell…and suffice it to say this bitch has not been productive this week.
Shit.
But I woke up this morning with a holiday skip to my step and Elvis Costello, by way of Nick Lowe, playing in my Afro.
As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There’s one thing I wanna know:
What’s so funny ‘bout peace love & understanding?
ABB’s holiday preparedness list of needed things…
Check!
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
4. Amusements in the cue…
C-Money and this bitch are currently on Season Three of Battlestar Galactica...and daaaaaaamn!
I don’t know how people managed to wait a week between episodes for them to resolve some of the shit that comes up on that show!
Hopefully the DVD gods will smile upon the House of Bitchitude and send forth new discs...stat.
Sigh.
Cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Ohhhh
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Blink.
This bitch wishes the happiest of happy and multitudes of joy for all 'yall!
***logs off to continue getting my groove on***
I think the year is catching up to me…and add to that my annual case of the holiday blahs…oh, and the fucked up weather from hell…and suffice it to say this bitch has not been productive this week.
Shit.
But I woke up this morning with a holiday skip to my step and Elvis Costello, by way of Nick Lowe, playing in my Afro.
As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There’s one thing I wanna know:
What’s so funny ‘bout peace love & understanding?
ABB’s holiday preparedness list of needed things…
1. Food-based yummification
Morning feasting…
Bacon…’nuff said.
Potato to fry with onion
Eggs to scramble with cheese
Coffee…to wash down the yummification!
Mid morning sometime-food indulgence…
Apple pie…warm
Ice cream…cold and artificially flavored with vanilla
Bowl it comes in?
Guaranteed to be empty in a matter of seconds!
Morning feasting…
Bacon…’nuff said.
Potato to fry with onion
Eggs to scramble with cheese
Coffee…to wash down the yummification!
Mid morning sometime-food indulgence…
Apple pie…warm
Ice cream…cold and artificially flavored with vanilla
Bowl it comes in?
Guaranteed to be empty in a matter of seconds!
The Feast…
Asparagus drenched in butter
Creamed spinach…because C-Money digs that shit
Garlic mashed taters with butter goodness
Prime rib roast… Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!
More pie and ice cream unless I pass the fuck out after dinner…
And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Ohhhh!
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Asparagus drenched in butter
Creamed spinach…because C-Money digs that shit
Garlic mashed taters with butter goodness
Prime rib roast… Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!
More pie and ice cream unless I pass the fuck out after dinner…
And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Ohhhh!
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
2. Libations…
Wine
Whiskey
Vodka followed by grape cran
Sun Drop soda pop…because C-Money digs the hell out of that shit
Water…to hydrate
3. For the dawgs…
Bones...biscuits...and affection?Wine
Whiskey
Vodka followed by grape cran
Sun Drop soda pop…because C-Money digs the hell out of that shit
Water…to hydrate
3. For the dawgs…
Check!
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
4. Amusements in the cue…
C-Money and this bitch are currently on Season Three of Battlestar Galactica...and daaaaaaamn!
Hopefully the DVD gods will smile upon the House of Bitchitude and send forth new discs...stat.
Sigh.
Cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Ohhhh
What’s so funny bout peace love & understanding?
Blink.
This bitch wishes the happiest of happy and multitudes of joy for all 'yall!
***logs off to continue getting my groove on***
Monday, December 22, 2008
So cold the air smells of ice…
Lawd, have mercy!
‘Tis wicked cold out there…frozen solid…so cold there’s ice on the inside of my car windows!
Shudder.
This is the kind of weather my sorta-beagles hate. They both are reluctant as hell to go outside and take care of their bitness, so this bitch has to keep a careful watch on them lest they find a warm corner and turn it into their personal dawg toilet. But one dawg's frigid torture is another dawg's dream come true…Sweetie the three-legged chow mix is thrilled that her thick fur can now be put to use and she’s taken to lounging on the back porch, nose held high as the bitter wind blows.
Sigh.
Dawgs are nothing if not diverse.
Anyhoo…shall we?
I tried to digest the news that the banks that received bailout cash aren’t tracking how they spend that shit…or are refusing to reveal how they are spending it …or are pulling some fucked up combination of not tracking and refusing…Lawd!..and my brain all but spit that data back out.
The mind can only take so much.
My first thought was about the responsibility of reporting back to a bitch…since I’m now an investor…on where the fuck my money is going, but that quickly gave way to a fierce wave of what-the-fuck pissed off wonder.
If banks aren’t keeping track of what they are doing with bailout cash, how the fuck are we going to evaluate whether the bailout infusion of cash accomplished anything?
Oh wait.
I get it.
There was a plan hidden within the lack-of-specifics non-plan bailout plan after all.
And trusting The Man with cash is like trusting a cold-hating, pee hording sorta-beagle to do the right thing.
Oh, they may surprise a bitch and go to the door, but odds are they’re trying to wait my ass out so they can pee on the carpet and stay warm while doing it when my ass is not paying attention.
Blink.
***logs off to shove dawgs outside for morning bitness***
‘Tis wicked cold out there…frozen solid…so cold there’s ice on the inside of my car windows!
Shudder.
This is the kind of weather my sorta-beagles hate. They both are reluctant as hell to go outside and take care of their bitness, so this bitch has to keep a careful watch on them lest they find a warm corner and turn it into their personal dawg toilet. But one dawg's frigid torture is another dawg's dream come true…Sweetie the three-legged chow mix is thrilled that her thick fur can now be put to use and she’s taken to lounging on the back porch, nose held high as the bitter wind blows.
Sigh.
Dawgs are nothing if not diverse.
Anyhoo…shall we?
I tried to digest the news that the banks that received bailout cash aren’t tracking how they spend that shit…or are refusing to reveal how they are spending it …or are pulling some fucked up combination of not tracking and refusing…Lawd!..and my brain all but spit that data back out.
The mind can only take so much.
My first thought was about the responsibility of reporting back to a bitch…since I’m now an investor…on where the fuck my money is going, but that quickly gave way to a fierce wave of what-the-fuck pissed off wonder.
If banks aren’t keeping track of what they are doing with bailout cash, how the fuck are we going to evaluate whether the bailout infusion of cash accomplished anything?
Oh wait.
I get it.
There was a plan hidden within the lack-of-specifics non-plan bailout plan after all.
And trusting The Man with cash is like trusting a cold-hating, pee hording sorta-beagle to do the right thing.
Oh, they may surprise a bitch and go to the door, but odds are they’re trying to wait my ass out so they can pee on the carpet and stay warm while doing it when my ass is not paying attention.
Blink.
***logs off to shove dawgs outside for morning bitness***
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Pissing in Corn Flakes – The Round-Up…
Shall we?
A bitch read the news that Chrysler is shutting down 30 plants for a solid month and my stomach dropped. Lawd, have mercy…talk about pissing in thousands of bowls full of Corn Flakes simultaneously.
Shit.
This is one of those happenings when theory gets real…and this bitch wonders whether folks have any idea what we are all about to witness. Saying that car manufacturers should be allowed to fold and watching them fold are two very different things. Add to that the daunting problem of America’s major production-based product being consumers with 2/3rds of our economy being based on those consumers getting their spending on and…well, we’ve seen the good and the bad and we’re about to see the ugly.
Wince.
Onward to the Greatest Ponzi Scheme on Earth.
Friends shouldn’t let friends regulate friends.
Pause…consider…continue.
Mayhap that should be ‘the masses shouldn’t let friends regulate friends’?
And this bitch is beyond disgusted with the current pleas coming from those friendly regulators that Madoff misled the SEC. If assholes didn’t mislead investors what the fuck would the SEC do? And Madoff wasn’t even slick…not even sorta clever…hell, he didn’t even work up a good sweaty sheen trying to cover his bullshit up!
There were flies all over the place…a stench wafting up and about almost from day one...a dedicated investigator would have begun the search for the piles of bullshit immediately.
Fuck a duck on Sunday.
And finally, the selection of the Purpose Driven Bigot to offer up prayers during the Inauguration.
Mercy.
A bitch yields the floor to the fantabulous Pam of Pam’s House Blend…
…and adds a dash of Katy Perry while pondering change.
Cause you're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in and you're out
You're up and you're down
You're wrong when it's right...
So much for a nice bowl of corn-based flakes...
A bitch read the news that Chrysler is shutting down 30 plants for a solid month and my stomach dropped. Lawd, have mercy…talk about pissing in thousands of bowls full of Corn Flakes simultaneously.
Shit.
This is one of those happenings when theory gets real…and this bitch wonders whether folks have any idea what we are all about to witness. Saying that car manufacturers should be allowed to fold and watching them fold are two very different things. Add to that the daunting problem of America’s major production-based product being consumers with 2/3rds of our economy being based on those consumers getting their spending on and…well, we’ve seen the good and the bad and we’re about to see the ugly.
Wince.
Onward to the Greatest Ponzi Scheme on Earth.
Friends shouldn’t let friends regulate friends.
Pause…consider…continue.
Mayhap that should be ‘the masses shouldn’t let friends regulate friends’?
And this bitch is beyond disgusted with the current pleas coming from those friendly regulators that Madoff misled the SEC. If assholes didn’t mislead investors what the fuck would the SEC do? And Madoff wasn’t even slick…not even sorta clever…hell, he didn’t even work up a good sweaty sheen trying to cover his bullshit up!
There were flies all over the place…a stench wafting up and about almost from day one...a dedicated investigator would have begun the search for the piles of bullshit immediately.
Fuck a duck on Sunday.
And finally, the selection of the Purpose Driven Bigot to offer up prayers during the Inauguration.
Mercy.
A bitch yields the floor to the fantabulous Pam of Pam’s House Blend…
…and adds a dash of Katy Perry while pondering change.
Cause you're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in and you're out
You're up and you're down
You're wrong when it's right...
So much for a nice bowl of corn-based flakes...
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
By request, some thoughts on Oprah, the size of a person's ass and healthy happiness…
A certain Jason asked this bitch for my thoughts on Oprah’s recent weight-based confession.
Blink.
Jason, a bitch didn’t watch the episode nor have I had the chance to read the article. What I did see were several quotes and out-takes from Oprah regarding her disappointment in having gained back some of the weight she lost a few years back.
Now, I’ve been skinny and I’ve been overweight. I’ve listened to people judge others for that shit and been insulted regardless of the size of my own ass.
The thing is…and I think Oprah eventually circled back to this point…that folks need to be healthy. This bitch happens to think that the road to healthy requires the fuel of happiness and that happiness isn’t achieved by ripping into yourself because you’re carrying extra pounds.
Shit, when I'm unhappy I'm far more likely to eat sometime foods all the fucking time and in large quantities!
And there’s nothing less attractive than a person mouthing off about how fat someone is or how some celebrity has let it all go to hell…and when a body turns that superficial shit on themselves 'tis just sad.
Cough.
This bitch’s "ah ha moment" regarding weight came when I faced surgery for fibroids several years back. I gained a lot of weight…some of it due to meds and a lot of it due to a serious affection for dulce de leche ice cream (yum!) and all things fried. And I said a lot of unattractive and sad things about myself. But when I sat in a hospital waiting to go into that operating room, the size of my ass was the last thing on my mind…and you can bet your ass it didn’t return to be top of mind when I was blessed to wake the fuck up three hours later.
Sigh.
Yeah, I’ve been skinny and full of figure and everything between.
And I’ve been fine as hell through it all (wink).
It just took a healthy dose of reality for me to really realize that.
Mayhap Ms. Oprah is working toward achieving a healthy happiness as she strives to achieve a healthy weight/appearance/shape for her ass.
One thing's for sure - if she feels like everyone is talking about her weight she need only look at the dieter in the mirror for the source (wince).
Blink.
Jason, a bitch didn’t watch the episode nor have I had the chance to read the article. What I did see were several quotes and out-takes from Oprah regarding her disappointment in having gained back some of the weight she lost a few years back.
Now, I’ve been skinny and I’ve been overweight. I’ve listened to people judge others for that shit and been insulted regardless of the size of my own ass.
The thing is…and I think Oprah eventually circled back to this point…that folks need to be healthy. This bitch happens to think that the road to healthy requires the fuel of happiness and that happiness isn’t achieved by ripping into yourself because you’re carrying extra pounds.
Shit, when I'm unhappy I'm far more likely to eat sometime foods all the fucking time and in large quantities!
And there’s nothing less attractive than a person mouthing off about how fat someone is or how some celebrity has let it all go to hell…and when a body turns that superficial shit on themselves 'tis just sad.
Cough.
This bitch’s "ah ha moment" regarding weight came when I faced surgery for fibroids several years back. I gained a lot of weight…some of it due to meds and a lot of it due to a serious affection for dulce de leche ice cream (yum!) and all things fried. And I said a lot of unattractive and sad things about myself. But when I sat in a hospital waiting to go into that operating room, the size of my ass was the last thing on my mind…and you can bet your ass it didn’t return to be top of mind when I was blessed to wake the fuck up three hours later.
Sigh.
Yeah, I’ve been skinny and full of figure and everything between.
And I’ve been fine as hell through it all (wink).
It just took a healthy dose of reality for me to really realize that.
Mayhap Ms. Oprah is working toward achieving a healthy happiness as she strives to achieve a healthy weight/appearance/shape for her ass.
One thing's for sure - if she feels like everyone is talking about her weight she need only look at the dieter in the mirror for the source (wince).
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Pondering Dickey C.’s reflections…
Oh, I’m all alone now
No love to shield me
Trapped in a world
That’s a distorted reality...
This bitch caught the teaser segment on ABC News this morning for Vice President’s Cheney’s exclusive reflection-based interview that the network appears to be spreading across their entire news line-up for all its worth…and Reflections by The Supremes popped into my head.
Sigh.
Dickey C. is reflecting on his eight years in office and laying claim to the policy of torturing terror suspects, saying that…wait for it!!!...9/11 has been his prime motivation for most of the programs the administration gave a green light to.
He went on to add that 9/11 changed him and his thoughts on what was appropriate to do in defense of the nation.
Blink.
And a bitch can’t help but wonder at that admission and Dickey C.’s apparent inability to see in the mind of the other the same logic he’s tossing out in his own defense.
Fear…the natural instinct to protect family and home…the willingness to go beyond the borders of previously held values because you believe the enemy has no values or limits and is capable of anything and everything…all that has been used to justify all manner of atrocities since humans stood up and built a fire.
But that don’t make it right.
Sigh.
Damn if this isn't an example of how easily those in power fail moral tests and how all their justifications fall apart in reflection...
...where a glance at the mirror reveals the monster you fear most staring right back atcha.
And the whole world was watching.
The whole world was watching...
No love to shield me
Trapped in a world
That’s a distorted reality...
This bitch caught the teaser segment on ABC News this morning for Vice President’s Cheney’s exclusive reflection-based interview that the network appears to be spreading across their entire news line-up for all its worth…and Reflections by The Supremes popped into my head.
Sigh.
Dickey C. is reflecting on his eight years in office and laying claim to the policy of torturing terror suspects, saying that…wait for it!!!...9/11 has been his prime motivation for most of the programs the administration gave a green light to.
He went on to add that 9/11 changed him and his thoughts on what was appropriate to do in defense of the nation.
Blink.
And a bitch can’t help but wonder at that admission and Dickey C.’s apparent inability to see in the mind of the other the same logic he’s tossing out in his own defense.
Fear…the natural instinct to protect family and home…the willingness to go beyond the borders of previously held values because you believe the enemy has no values or limits and is capable of anything and everything…all that has been used to justify all manner of atrocities since humans stood up and built a fire.
But that don’t make it right.
Sigh.
Damn if this isn't an example of how easily those in power fail moral tests and how all their justifications fall apart in reflection...
...where a glance at the mirror reveals the monster you fear most staring right back atcha.
And the whole world was watching.
The whole world was watching...
Monday, December 15, 2008
Cold as hell...
A bitch is fucking freezing!
15 fucking degrees and a sheet of ice on everything?
That shit ain't right.
And now I have to go outside and warm up Ms. Sister Girl Cabrio so we can slide our way to work.
Shit!
Bitchitude shall return this evening...when a bitch can put on my flannel and thaw the fuck out.
15 fucking degrees and a sheet of ice on everything?
That shit ain't right.
And now I have to go outside and warm up Ms. Sister Girl Cabrio so we can slide our way to work.
Shit!
Bitchitude shall return this evening...when a bitch can put on my flannel and thaw the fuck out.
Friday, December 12, 2008
The proof is in his hair?
Have y'all heard the news that Big Rod is crazy?
Blink.
Mmmhmm, and...allegedly...the proof is in his hair.
Lawd, give me strength.
Brother Rob Thurman breaks this shit down.
Go on with your bad self, Brother Rob!
Blink.
Mmmhmm, and...allegedly...the proof is in his hair.
Lawd, give me strength.
Brother Rob Thurman breaks this shit down.
Go on with your bad self, Brother Rob!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Felonious politics and the need to keep this shit real…
Shall we?
A bitch was hoping the anticipation would last longer, but damn it all if Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. didn’t fess up to being Candidate #5 during a press conference yesterday.
Blink.
Rep. Jackson is not the focus of this corruption investigation and he denied sending emissaries to see Big Rod to pitch a pay-to-play deal in the Great Illinois Senate Seat Auction of 2008, but this bitch predicts his dream of joining the Senate is now over.
Pause…crack knuckles…continue.
This bitch is more than a little disturbed by an emerging theme surrounding the political drama in Illinois. Many a talking head has presented Illinois as some rare state where corruption has gone wrong…as if pay-to-play was conceived, birthed and permanently resides in Illinois.
And that, my friends, is bullshit.
I’ll give them that Illinois has had a series of juicy scandals, but no one should look at this shit as an Illinois problem.
If your jaw dropped…if you cursed under your breath at the clumsiness of it all…if you are disgusted by the stupidity of an elected official already under investigation chatting his ass off in bug-able places and allegedly discussing all manner of illegal activity in the Governor's office…Lawd, have mercy...and you happen to not live in Illinois, then you need check that
better them than us attitude and get real about the role back-room dealing plays in politics everywhere.
Every fucking where.
Shit, North Dakota beats Illinois by a long shot.
Cough.
I’m not defending this shit.
I just don’t see any benefit in anyone thinking bold ass felonious politics is as unique to Illinois as Chicago style deep-dish yummified pizza.
There, but for the lack of a federal investigation, go far too many states...
A bitch was hoping the anticipation would last longer, but damn it all if Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. didn’t fess up to being Candidate #5 during a press conference yesterday.
Blink.
Rep. Jackson is not the focus of this corruption investigation and he denied sending emissaries to see Big Rod to pitch a pay-to-play deal in the Great Illinois Senate Seat Auction of 2008, but this bitch predicts his dream of joining the Senate is now over.
Pause…crack knuckles…continue.
This bitch is more than a little disturbed by an emerging theme surrounding the political drama in Illinois. Many a talking head has presented Illinois as some rare state where corruption has gone wrong…as if pay-to-play was conceived, birthed and permanently resides in Illinois.
And that, my friends, is bullshit.
I’ll give them that Illinois has had a series of juicy scandals, but no one should look at this shit as an Illinois problem.
If your jaw dropped…if you cursed under your breath at the clumsiness of it all…if you are disgusted by the stupidity of an elected official already under investigation chatting his ass off in bug-able places and allegedly discussing all manner of illegal activity in the Governor's office…Lawd, have mercy...and you happen to not live in Illinois, then you need check that
better them than us attitude and get real about the role back-room dealing plays in politics everywhere.Every fucking where.
Shit, North Dakota beats Illinois by a long shot.
Cough.
I’m not defending this shit.
I just don’t see any benefit in anyone thinking bold ass felonious politics is as unique to Illinois as Chicago style deep-dish yummified pizza.
There, but for the lack of a federal investigation, go far too many states...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
And all that jazz…
Confession – the soundtrack for Chicago is still running through a bitch’s Afro in response to the Great Illinois Senate Auction of 2008.
Sigh.
Anyhoo, this bitch caught the tail end of a news report on Big Rod’s big drama that mentioned a certain Candidate #5 of the numerous candidates vying for the open Senate seat in Illinois. Allegedly Candidate #5’s emissaries said they could raise up to a solid million for Big Rod…mayhap for his own Senate run…and that they were willing to give the Governor something tangible upfront.
Blink.
Find a flask
We're playing fast and loose!
A bitch is obsessing!
It's just a noisy hall
Where there's a nightly brawl!
Who is Candidate #5?
Who are these emissaries?
What tangible thing were they willing to offer up?
No, I'm no one's wife (wink)
But, Oh, I love my life!
Lawd, this hot mess of a political scandal is going to take a lot of people down…hard, face down and onto cold concrete.
And all that jazz…
Sigh.
Anyhoo, this bitch caught the tail end of a news report on Big Rod’s big drama that mentioned a certain Candidate #5 of the numerous candidates vying for the open Senate seat in Illinois. Allegedly Candidate #5’s emissaries said they could raise up to a solid million for Big Rod…mayhap for his own Senate run…and that they were willing to give the Governor something tangible upfront.
Blink.
Find a flask
We're playing fast and loose!
A bitch is obsessing!
It's just a noisy hall
Where there's a nightly brawl!
Who is Candidate #5?
Who are these emissaries?
What tangible thing were they willing to offer up?
No, I'm no one's wife (wink)
But, Oh, I love my life!
Lawd, this hot mess of a political scandal is going to take a lot of people down…hard, face down and onto cold concrete.
And all that jazz…
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
He only has himself to blame…
This bitch was listening to NPR while driving to work this morning and heard the breaking news that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges.
The Governor of Illinois?!?
Oh my…how not shocking.
I must confess that my first reaction was pure jealousy. Well, it isn’t fair! Illinois gets all the federal corruption investigations of sitting Governors! And now it looks like they’re getting an impeachment too while certain Governors are going to ride off into the sunset come January indictment free despite their scandalicious behavior.
Couldn’t Mr. Fitzgerald spread the love a little?
Shit.
Anyhoo, based on the press conference it would seem that Big Rod had it coming…he had it coming…he only has himself to blame!
Sorry…my bad…that damn song has been in a bitch's head all fucking day.
Cough.
Pat Fitzgerald of the bring Scooter Libby to sorta-justice Fitzgeralds held a press conference in which he read from the wiretap transcript, replacing all those alleged “motherfuckers” and “fuck him”s with “bleeping” and “bleep him”s.
Pause…consider…continue.
And shouldn’t those have been motherbleepers?
What?
I’m just asking.
The political pundits are now scrambling to uncover possible links between Obama and Obama supporters and anything Obama related and the now indicted Governor…and a bitch awaits the fruit of their labor...but my ass was struck by the alleged use of phrases like “fuck him, that motherfucker” by Big Rod in response to the Obama team’s alleged apparent unwillingness to pay-to-play with anything more than their gratitude.
As someone who regularly uses phrases like "fuck that fucking motherfucker", I can tell y’all that the phrase isn’t a term of endearment and probably speaks volumes about the nature of the response to Big Rod's "show me the motherfucking money!" Senate appointment pitch.
Time shall tell.
Either way, this is one hell of a fucked up drama hitting Illinois just when they need it least.
And ain't that a fine mess to kick off the new year with?
Shit.
***logs off singing My kind of town, Chicago is a bitch's kind of town! in a desperate attempt to get the soundtrack from Chicago out of my Afro***
The Governor of Illinois?!?
Oh my…how not shocking.
I must confess that my first reaction was pure jealousy. Well, it isn’t fair! Illinois gets all the federal corruption investigations of sitting Governors! And now it looks like they’re getting an impeachment too while certain Governors are going to ride off into the sunset come January indictment free despite their scandalicious behavior.
Couldn’t Mr. Fitzgerald spread the love a little?
Shit.
Anyhoo, based on the press conference it would seem that Big Rod had it coming…he had it coming…he only has himself to blame!
Sorry…my bad…that damn song has been in a bitch's head all fucking day.
Cough.
Pat Fitzgerald of the bring Scooter Libby to sorta-justice Fitzgeralds held a press conference in which he read from the wiretap transcript, replacing all those alleged “motherfuckers” and “fuck him”s with “bleeping” and “bleep him”s.
Pause…consider…continue.
And shouldn’t those have been motherbleepers?
What?
I’m just asking.
The political pundits are now scrambling to uncover possible links between Obama and Obama supporters and anything Obama related and the now indicted Governor…and a bitch awaits the fruit of their labor...but my ass was struck by the alleged use of phrases like “fuck him, that motherfucker” by Big Rod in response to the Obama team’s alleged apparent unwillingness to pay-to-play with anything more than their gratitude.
As someone who regularly uses phrases like "fuck that fucking motherfucker", I can tell y’all that the phrase isn’t a term of endearment and probably speaks volumes about the nature of the response to Big Rod's "show me the motherfucking money!" Senate appointment pitch.
Time shall tell.
Either way, this is one hell of a fucked up drama hitting Illinois just when they need it least.
And ain't that a fine mess to kick off the new year with?
Shit.
***logs off singing My kind of town, Chicago is a bitch's kind of town! in a desperate attempt to get the soundtrack from Chicago out of my Afro***
...like bears at the zoo.
Let’s jump right on in, shall we?
The economic news continues to be grim…so much so that this bitch had to turn the news off the other night and watch several hours of Discovery Health Channel programming followed by some Animal Planet. Nothing puts life into perspective like learning about a woman who was pregnant for 46 years and then watching surgeons remove a…well, I won’t spoil it for you and you might be eating, but trust a bitch that Discovery Health is a fantabulous avoidance tool.
And don’t get me started on Animal Planet…talk about drama!
Anyhoo, there is no way this St. Louis based bitch could avoid the news that Anheuser-Busch InBev is cutting 1,400 jobs…most of them from the St. Louis area. We knew this was coming…the merger earlier this year created a lot of overlap…but the timing is fucked given the job market and the reality that market isn’t going to get healthy anytime soon.
Sigh.
I woke up this morning thinking about the current state of things…the proposed government sorta-loans and the housing fuckeduptitude…and I’m reminded of wild animals wandering into suburban neighborhoods to forage for food.
The suburban sprawl continues to creep into bear territory…the bears learn that there is food to be had from garbage cans and such…and authorities keep rounding up bears and flying them back into the wilderness only to have them wander back in time after time.
People start freaking out. Some call for population control...others try to come up with new and improved garbage cans…and the bears keep coming down from the mountain to get their forage on.
The cycle continues… because no one wants to discuss the reasons for why those bears are strolling through the ‘burbs.
Shit, we’ll start killing off bears before we consider hitting the brakes and addressing the question of whether we need another subdivision out in what used to be bear country…whether building that subdivision is a wise economic decision or whether it makes more sense to rethink the definition of growth and mayhap rehab an existing neighborhood in the city.
Instead we continue to do what we’ve been doing because there’s no doubt on the winner in a growth versus bear battle…
…and this bitch fears the American worker will soon be on exhibit in a zoo and damn near extinct in the wild.
Lawd, have mercy!
Mayhap a bitch should rethink falling asleep whilst watching Animal Planet.
Blink.
The economic news continues to be grim…so much so that this bitch had to turn the news off the other night and watch several hours of Discovery Health Channel programming followed by some Animal Planet. Nothing puts life into perspective like learning about a woman who was pregnant for 46 years and then watching surgeons remove a…well, I won’t spoil it for you and you might be eating, but trust a bitch that Discovery Health is a fantabulous avoidance tool.
And don’t get me started on Animal Planet…talk about drama!
Anyhoo, there is no way this St. Louis based bitch could avoid the news that Anheuser-Busch InBev is cutting 1,400 jobs…most of them from the St. Louis area. We knew this was coming…the merger earlier this year created a lot of overlap…but the timing is fucked given the job market and the reality that market isn’t going to get healthy anytime soon.
Sigh.
I woke up this morning thinking about the current state of things…the proposed government sorta-loans and the housing fuckeduptitude…and I’m reminded of wild animals wandering into suburban neighborhoods to forage for food.
The suburban sprawl continues to creep into bear territory…the bears learn that there is food to be had from garbage cans and such…and authorities keep rounding up bears and flying them back into the wilderness only to have them wander back in time after time.
People start freaking out. Some call for population control...others try to come up with new and improved garbage cans…and the bears keep coming down from the mountain to get their forage on.
The cycle continues… because no one wants to discuss the reasons for why those bears are strolling through the ‘burbs.
Shit, we’ll start killing off bears before we consider hitting the brakes and addressing the question of whether we need another subdivision out in what used to be bear country…whether building that subdivision is a wise economic decision or whether it makes more sense to rethink the definition of growth and mayhap rehab an existing neighborhood in the city.
Instead we continue to do what we’ve been doing because there’s no doubt on the winner in a growth versus bear battle…
…and this bitch fears the American worker will soon be on exhibit in a zoo and damn near extinct in the wild.
Lawd, have mercy!
Mayhap a bitch should rethink falling asleep whilst watching Animal Planet.
Blink.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Pondering the Chicago sit-in...
A bitch saw a news report on the worker sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors and…well, wow! The story is getting a lot of play and this bitch thinks this worker action is an example of the reality many workers face in these fubaristic economic times.
The workers were laid off with three days notice and no offer of severance or vacation pay. Their bosses blame Bank of America for not extending credit. Bank of America says that they are not responsible for Republic Windows and Doors responsibilities as an employer. And
this bitch is thinking that this shit is exactly why most of us are fucking disgusted with the bailout epidemic currently breaking out in Washington.
Between the lack of home-owner considerations in the first bailout plan to the general disregard towards worker protections in the current proposals, there is a serious disconnect between the proposals to stimulate the economy and the creation of plans that actually reach workers who are the engine that will actually stimulate the economy.
And I don’t give a flying shit if some CEO is working for a $1 a year…show me that motherfucker’s complete compensation plan, which I suspects is oozing money.
Fuck.
And the workers of Republic Windows and Doors continue to occupy the space they labored in while their demands for economic justice are met with shrugs and denials of responsibility.
This reality…the worker’s reality…is what we need to consider as our government tosses billions at companies without so much as a “go fuck yourself!” to address the workers at those companies who will be left out in the cold when the money machine goes off line.
Shit rolls down hill...
…and picks up speed along the way.
The workers were laid off with three days notice and no offer of severance or vacation pay. Their bosses blame Bank of America for not extending credit. Bank of America says that they are not responsible for Republic Windows and Doors responsibilities as an employer. And
this bitch is thinking that this shit is exactly why most of us are fucking disgusted with the bailout epidemic currently breaking out in Washington.Between the lack of home-owner considerations in the first bailout plan to the general disregard towards worker protections in the current proposals, there is a serious disconnect between the proposals to stimulate the economy and the creation of plans that actually reach workers who are the engine that will actually stimulate the economy.
And I don’t give a flying shit if some CEO is working for a $1 a year…show me that motherfucker’s complete compensation plan, which I suspects is oozing money.
Fuck.
And the workers of Republic Windows and Doors continue to occupy the space they labored in while their demands for economic justice are met with shrugs and denials of responsibility.
This reality…the worker’s reality…is what we need to consider as our government tosses billions at companies without so much as a “go fuck yourself!” to address the workers at those companies who will be left out in the cold when the money machine goes off line.
Shit rolls down hill...
…and picks up speed along the way.
Friday, December 05, 2008
The Bleeding Deacon Grand Opening…
What?The Bleeding Deacon Grand Opening
When?
Saturday, December 13, 2008 6:00 PM to 1:00 AM
Where?
4123 Chippewa St. (Just West of Gravois Ave.)
The Damage?
‘Tis FREE!
And there will be complimentary snacks and drinks!
A bitch had the honor of stuffing myself at The Bleeding Deacon a couple of weekends ago and it was fantabulous!
By request, a rant…
This one’s for Margaret in Bangor…who has promised a bitch hot chocolate if I ever visit!
Shall we?
Ed Rendell put his foot in it when he said Janet Napolitano was perfect for her new job in government because she has no life.
But Rendell said what a lot of people think about singles in general and single women in particular – we have no life so we have tons of time and few personal obligations.
If a bitch had a dollar for every time someone has said shit like that to me I’d be able to fund a fucking bailout.
Well, I call bullshit!
And the people saying it should know that it is bullshit…unless they actually spent their single years sighing and fretting over when they’d partner up and thus get a life.
Shit.
Breaking news – I have a life!
A bitch may be single but I sure as shit have a family.
Gasp!
Pause…roll eyes…continue.
Now this bitch knows that conservatives has been busting ass for years trying to define “family” as one man and one woman joined in sanctified marriage with at least two kids, a mortgage and a pair of chocolate labs, but if this bitch waited for those assholes to get a fucking clue I’d be a damn fool just like Ed Rendell is a damn fool for thinking Napolitano’s single status equals a lack of a life which will then make her the perfect workaholic for her new job.
Lawd, have mercy.
The worst thing about the comment is that it ignores the accomplishments of Napolitano and folks like her working in government who get the fucking job done and balance having a life with service…
…but a bitch doesn’t need to hear a chorus of crickets to know that shit won’t be acknowledged anytime soon.
That'd be too much like right...
Shall we?
Ed Rendell put his foot in it when he said Janet Napolitano was perfect for her new job in government because she has no life.
But Rendell said what a lot of people think about singles in general and single women in particular – we have no life so we have tons of time and few personal obligations.
If a bitch had a dollar for every time someone has said shit like that to me I’d be able to fund a fucking bailout.
Well, I call bullshit!
And the people saying it should know that it is bullshit…unless they actually spent their single years sighing and fretting over when they’d partner up and thus get a life.
Shit.
Breaking news – I have a life!
A bitch may be single but I sure as shit have a family.
Gasp!
Pause…roll eyes…continue.
Now this bitch knows that conservatives has been busting ass for years trying to define “family” as one man and one woman joined in sanctified marriage with at least two kids, a mortgage and a pair of chocolate labs, but if this bitch waited for those assholes to get a fucking clue I’d be a damn fool just like Ed Rendell is a damn fool for thinking Napolitano’s single status equals a lack of a life which will then make her the perfect workaholic for her new job.
Lawd, have mercy.
The worst thing about the comment is that it ignores the accomplishments of Napolitano and folks like her working in government who get the fucking job done and balance having a life with service…
…but a bitch doesn’t need to hear a chorus of crickets to know that shit won’t be acknowledged anytime soon.
That'd be too much like right...
Ooooh Canada...
Longtime readers know that a bitch adores Canada.
Not only is there great hockey…and Tim Horton’s…and an abundance of Smarties…but Canada also has some of the best political theater in North America!
Blink.
What?
Did y’all think we have the only show ‘round?
Shit.
This bitch has been following the drama facing Canadian PM Harper and my ass is fascinated. Harper is on the ropes now that Liberal and New Democratic parties have joined Bloc Quebecois in an attempt to unseat Tories…so Harper has suspended Parliament!
Daaaaaaaaamn.
Confession – a bitch has always been a wee bit jealous of that dissolve government and no confidence shit. That would have come in handy as a motherfucker down here...more than once...sigh.
Anyhoo, this bitch wants details!
What’s the status?
What’s going to happen?
Is this a good thing or is all hell about to break out?
And when is the price of Smarties going to go down (wink)?
Not only is there great hockey…and Tim Horton’s…and an abundance of Smarties…but Canada also has some of the best political theater in North America!
Blink.
What?
Did y’all think we have the only show ‘round?
Shit.
This bitch has been following the drama facing Canadian PM Harper and my ass is fascinated. Harper is on the ropes now that Liberal and New Democratic parties have joined Bloc Quebecois in an attempt to unseat Tories…so Harper has suspended Parliament!
Daaaaaaaaamn.
Confession – a bitch has always been a wee bit jealous of that dissolve government and no confidence shit. That would have come in handy as a motherfucker down here...more than once...sigh.
Anyhoo, this bitch wants details!
What’s the status?
What’s going to happen?
Is this a good thing or is all hell about to break out?
And when is the price of Smarties going to go down (wink)?
Thursday, December 04, 2008
A Bitchfirmation for Fal…
For Fal, because you asked.
Shall we?
When my father passed away I struggled with a lot of things. I wanted to be angry...to scream and shout and vent, because my time with him was too short. I wanted to mourn as the ancients did…to wail and moan and beat at my body until my physical pain equaled my emotional pain. And I wanted everything to stop…for motion to cease and time to stand still until the storm in my heart settled.
But time didn’t stand still.
Life moved on with freakish normalcy even though everything in my world was anything but normal.
I woke up one day with a song playing in my mind…one of my favorite songs from church that I used to sing while standing beside my father so many years ago.
I feel like going on.
Though trials come on every hand.
I feel like going on.
I hummed it as I prepared to start the day and I sang it in the shower, as tears of blessed remembrance blended with the water washing over my face.
Though the storm may be raging
And the billows are tossing high,
I feel like going on.
I sang while driving to work…and suddenly I just pulled over and knew, even as I sat in a car on the side of the road, that I wept out of love for a most extraordinary man. And I found the fuel to go on.
Though trials come…
Let yourself feel.
Let the tears flow.
On every hand…
For you will find that you can celebrate a life even as you mourn the loss of it.
I feel like going on.
And you will.
Shall we?
When my father passed away I struggled with a lot of things. I wanted to be angry...to scream and shout and vent, because my time with him was too short. I wanted to mourn as the ancients did…to wail and moan and beat at my body until my physical pain equaled my emotional pain. And I wanted everything to stop…for motion to cease and time to stand still until the storm in my heart settled.
But time didn’t stand still.
Life moved on with freakish normalcy even though everything in my world was anything but normal.
I woke up one day with a song playing in my mind…one of my favorite songs from church that I used to sing while standing beside my father so many years ago.
I feel like going on.
Though trials come on every hand.
I feel like going on.
I hummed it as I prepared to start the day and I sang it in the shower, as tears of blessed remembrance blended with the water washing over my face.
Though the storm may be raging
And the billows are tossing high,
I feel like going on.
I sang while driving to work…and suddenly I just pulled over and knew, even as I sat in a car on the side of the road, that I wept out of love for a most extraordinary man. And I found the fuel to go on.
Though trials come…
Let yourself feel.
Let the tears flow.
On every hand…
For you will find that you can celebrate a life even as you mourn the loss of it.
I feel like going on.
And you will.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Stuffy of nose and oily of stomach…
A bitch is feeling illish…stuffy of nose and oily of stomach.
Shit!
Oh well, ‘tis the season for colds and such.
Wince.
Let’s jump right on in, shall we?
This bitch took the weekend off from everything so my ass is catching up on the sorta-news…and Lawd have mercy!
Pondering the attacks in India…
I’m always amazed by how the press is unable to report on a world event without filtering it through a narrow American perspective. In the case of the attacks in India, the media frenzied about whether these attacks were launched Al Qaeda…and that’s understandable, since they were coordinated and multi-locational.
But to stop there...to get hung up there and then gaze about frantically in obvious confusion when your own expert consultants point out that it might not be that simple?
Well, that’s just fucked up and frustrating as hell.
Breaking news – other countries have internal and external threats that are different from our internal and external threats!
Is it too much to ask for an exploration of the complexity of it all?
Can a bitch get some background information, for the love of Reporting 101?
***cue crickets***
Shit!
Pondering the Wal-Mart stampede…
Lawd, have mercy!
A man was trampled to death when doors opened at a Wal-Mart for post Thanksgiving Day shopping. Let me say that shit again…a man DIED!
And people went on shopping.
Hell, they demanded that they be allowed to continue shopping…’cause they had waited in line for several hours.
Blink.
What the fuck, people?
This wasn’t a food riot outside of a United Nations relief drop. This was an opportunity to shop at a motherfucking Wal-Mart!
Fuck a duck, what the hell could you possible need bad enough to continue to get your shop on after…of fuck it.
Save money maybe but "live better" my black ass...
Shit!
Oh well, ‘tis the season for colds and such.
Wince.
Let’s jump right on in, shall we?
This bitch took the weekend off from everything so my ass is catching up on the sorta-news…and Lawd have mercy!
Pondering the attacks in India…
I’m always amazed by how the press is unable to report on a world event without filtering it through a narrow American perspective. In the case of the attacks in India, the media frenzied about whether these attacks were launched Al Qaeda…and that’s understandable, since they were coordinated and multi-locational.
But to stop there...to get hung up there and then gaze about frantically in obvious confusion when your own expert consultants point out that it might not be that simple?
Well, that’s just fucked up and frustrating as hell.
Breaking news – other countries have internal and external threats that are different from our internal and external threats!
Is it too much to ask for an exploration of the complexity of it all?
Can a bitch get some background information, for the love of Reporting 101?
***cue crickets***
Shit!
Pondering the Wal-Mart stampede…
Lawd, have mercy!
A man was trampled to death when doors opened at a Wal-Mart for post Thanksgiving Day shopping. Let me say that shit again…a man DIED!
And people went on shopping.
Hell, they demanded that they be allowed to continue shopping…’cause they had waited in line for several hours.
Blink.
What the fuck, people?
This wasn’t a food riot outside of a United Nations relief drop. This was an opportunity to shop at a motherfucking Wal-Mart!
Fuck a duck, what the hell could you possible need bad enough to continue to get your shop on after…of fuck it.
Save money maybe but "live better" my black ass...
Monday, December 01, 2008
Pondering World Aids Day...
I remember the first time I heard of Aids and saw images of those suffering from it flash across the television screen.
I remember friends lost…the hateful rhetoric of those who saw their death as God’s judgment…the courageous activists who have taken us so far…the marches and protests…the songs and poems…and the continuing presence of Aids in the world.
And I circle back to the fact that every day is World Aids Day.
Every second…and we must place a priority on treatment, research and education.
Every hour…and we cannot afford to continue to think of Aids as someone else's problem.
Every day…and we must discuss of Aids impacts our loved ones and communities and act on that accordingly from a position of respect.
Every second...every hour…every single day.
I remember friends lost…the hateful rhetoric of those who saw their death as God’s judgment…the courageous activists who have taken us so far…the marches and protests…the songs and poems…and the continuing presence of Aids in the world.
And I circle back to the fact that every day is World Aids Day.
Every second…and we must place a priority on treatment, research and education.
Every hour…and we cannot afford to continue to think of Aids as someone else's problem.
Every day…and we must discuss of Aids impacts our loved ones and communities and act on that accordingly from a position of respect.
Every second...every hour…every single day.
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