Did You Hear What I Heard about the Paulson Bailout?

Did I hear MSNBC's financial guy this morning say that the Paulson multi-billion Christmas gift to Wall Street actually includes a provision that would make it hard, if not impossible, for these incompetent thieves to pay back the US taxpayer?

Will anybody ever haul Bush, Paulson, Rumsfeld, Pearle, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and all their Executive, Legislative, and Judicial cronies to a guillotine for the most concentrated acts of treason ever to manifest on US soil? Compared to the Bush crimes, the Civil War was petty.

I don't get it. The flabby, lamby-pamby nonsense coming out of Congress today makes me sick. And I'm not at all pleased that Obama is traipsing down the same old bail-out path that Bush took.
I don't buy it.

Valet Parking at the Scottsdale Conference Center and Resort

This is Cath's new Prius, courtesy of a valet at the Scottsdale Conference Center and Resort. That occurred on the night of January 17. Today is February 9, and she still doesn't have her car back. Not that the folks at the Scottsdale Conference Center and Resort give a damn.

Ask me how helpful management has been. Short answer? AWOL.

The valet at the Scottsdale Conference Center and Resort slammed one of Catherine's co-worker's car into hers, causing damage so severe that they estimated it will take 100 MAN HOURS to fix, The hatch is bent, the deck is bent, the side is dented, and then there's the corner you see that's torn off.

That has already taken 3 weeks. We're still counting.

And it will cost $8,00- to $9,000 to repair.

Not counting the depreciated value of a car involved in an accident.

Say what? Did you know that a car involved in an accident is automatically worth less, even fully repaired, than the same car never involved in an accident? It's true. And it's trackable by the VIN number assigned to every car. Your accident details can be discovered downstream for the rest of your car's life.

AND: Did you know you can claim for that depreciated value? I didn't either, until a couple of weeks ago. This is the kind of thing you find out if you're a white-collar person who works with people who talk about taking care of business. People who know how to deal with the system. It's the kind of thing a woman without access to that world, or a minority person without access to that world, will never, ever hear.

Needless to say, we're not thrilled with the Scottsdale Conference Center and Resort. Paying to make us whole, as they say, doesn't deal with the inconvenience, the hassle of having to bird-dog the repair and insurance angles, and the unbelievable pain in the tush that a wrecked car constitutes. At the very least they should give us a two-day spa package, with meals and a very nice room.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Life in Arizona for Latinos and Queers

Oh, please join me and other gays and lesbians as we grovel in appreciation. We've been granted the "right" to pay the city of Phoenix $50.00 so that we have the right to visit each other in hospitals, nursing facilities, etc.

It's the Domestic Partnership Registry. Yay.

We're thrilled. Not.

Do you get the part about how WE have to PAY to be accorded a simple fact of civilized society that hets take for granted--because, for hets, it is granted, free?

This is "equal protection under the law"?

Well djes, here in Arizona, where our sheriff marches Latino deportees through the streets to humiliate and demean them, this is what passes for civilization.

And we pay taxes, too?

Memo to Cheney: EF Off

Dick Cheney is INSANE, a LIAR, a TRAITOR, a FEAR MONGER, a PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC, a MEGALOMANIAC, and most of all, a YESTERDAY, HAZBEEN, ROTTEN-HEADED OLD MAN. GO. LEAVE. DIE, YOU MISERABLE OLD BASTARD.

Doing Two Things At Once? Here's a Thought

From approximately the first third of Obama's campaign, I've been concerned about the "bipartisan" strategy. Now, with the appointment of Judd Gregg, I'm more concerned, and the reason is because bipartisanship takes two. Otherwise it's a fool's errand.

Judd Gregg wants to abolish the Commerce department. Fine with me, but I also want our trade agreements renegotiated from a bona fide liberal economic perspective. He's not the guy for that.

Judd Gregg supports the stimulus bill but won't vote for it. Some support. How does that translate into proper behavior for a Cabinet officer? It looks like making a fool of the President to me.

McCain repaid Obama's gentlemanly overtures with back-stabbing. The GOP stonewalled him in the House. Cheney is speaking publicly to undermine him on domestic security. How is this "bipartisan"?

It isn't. This is the party that called "bipartisanship" another word for date rape. Google on Grover Norquist if you don't believe me.

This is the party that has one constituency: Far-Right white men. These geezers and their warped offspring have been hanging around like cockroaches since the New Deal, and they're not going to go away now, not when we look to be on the verge of rolling out a Second New Deal. Not when women's rights are in the ascendant for the first time in 30 years. Not when GLBT people appear to be at the door of the House of Humanity for the first time ever. Not when there's a Black man and a Black woman in the White House. Not when Planned Parenthood can get on with the job it was created to do. Not when three SCOTUS Justices are in the works. Oh I don't think so.

I hope that Obama can do two things at once. I hope he can talk "bipartisanship" while he's kicking their teeth down their throats.