We The Un-People Salute SCOTUS

So, now that the California Supreme Court has ruled that a disinformed majority of voters may declare that some of the people are second-class citizens without equal constitutional rights, what's next? Can any majority now withhold anything it pleases from any minority? If not, exactly where was the line drawn?

Until today, I had blissfully supposed that the courts protected minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

But no. After forty-plus years of sitting in the back of this bus, not by choice, I've begun to get it that in the US of A, the Constitution is not for me.

This was an incredible ruling. The only other legislative catastrophes of comparable dimensions (in my lifetime) have been DOMA and the obstinant refusal of US states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Funny how they all cluster around WSEX on your radio dial. Meaning around the enforced alignment of your gender identity with your biological sex, and the social ramifications that follow from that.

It's the quaint but pervasive notion that homosexuality is a mis-alignment of biological sex with [inherent] gender roles that makes homophobia just another manifestation of sexism. This, then, makes the watchful among us wonder who benefits from keeping queers down.

So anyway, back to my rapidly disappearing legal personhood.

What's next? Does this not mean that he who has the gold (to fund voter propaganda and finance voter turnout) will win the civil rights lottery? If he who has the gold rules, look out, people. The Baptists, the LDS, and the Vatican are not paupers.

And does this decision not invite a 100 Year War of the Propositions in every state?

What would that mean for us at a practical level? Should we plan to move like ping pong balls whenever the majority in state we’re in votes to declare that we’re second-class persons? Will I have to re-file my taxes with each and every reversal? Married. Not married. Married. Not married. And what if I’m in the hospital when a vote comes down? Would Catherine have to leave the room?

People can’t be partly equal. And state-based solutions obviously can’t work.

Specter the Weather Vane

Arlen Spector's decision to leave the Republican party and join the Democrats means most, I think, in the context of US voting trends overall.

When he noted that he couldn't hope to win in a PA Republican primary, Spector merely confirmed what we all know. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the far Far Right. In PA as in all other states except TX, UT and a handful of Dixieloons, the GOP has now completely alienated its moderates.

However, in so doing, it has also completely alienated the American voting majority.

Another way to look at it is that Specter (who, if moderate is emphatically a mercurial, not to say loose-cannon moderate -- I'm not over his role in the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas matter, thankyouverymuch) cannot win either

within

the Republican Party or, if he runs as a Republican, a popular election, either.

Yes, it's important how Democratic Senator Arlen Specter voters on big issues yet to be decided, such as health care and the right to organize. But in two years, this is not going to be such a big deal.

Eighteen Republicans are up for re-election in 2010. And I'm thinking that, barring a catastrophe at home or a disastrous economy error by the Obama administration, the country is of a strong mind to keep Democrats in power for the foreseeable. As more and more youth come of age, and as more and more of us age and notice our dependence on a national healthcare program, and as more and more minority voters enter the picture, the country in fact is likely to increase the Democrats' majority in both houses if the GOP keeps on keeping on the way it has been keeping on.

Let's hope it does. Ladies and gem'men, encourage Governor Good Hair (Perry of TX) and the idiots at Fox News. We've got 'em by the short and curlies.

Another Day, Another Guy Goes Berserk

Where did we lose the notion of honor? There was a time when men killed THEMSELVES when they despaired. Or killed only each other in Ire Rampant, as on the occasion of a divorce "for cause," or attempted bankruptcy.

Not now. No longer. Now the Thing to Do, apparently, is to take out everybody else and THEN kill themselves.

I can easily understand how the desire to kill stockbrokers, investment advisers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and preachers might overwhelm. The rest? Not so much.

Now I'm no fonder of teenagers than anyone else, but I really don't understand slaughtering one of mine own. If I wanted to kill one, I'd go to the nearest pool hall (male) or high school cheerleading practice (female). I wouldn't open the door to my own home and take out my spawn.

Nor do I grasp the appeal of treating a family reunion like a turkey shoot. Heck, I don't even like shooting turkeys. So what's with shooting Aunt Frances and Grandma and Uncle Bo and the nieces and newphews? It's not like you live to get extra insurance money.

No, to me the American concept of male honor leaves something to be desired. Like, honor. This is one of the problems with English-only nationhood. We desperately need an infusion of alien constructs of honor, like hari kari. Now THAT takes guts.

Could You Just Die, Already?

"Bar Bush learns that her nurses in ICU were relocated to Houston after Katrina...."
From Dependable Renegade

The Post-Consumer Society

My wife, Catherine, says that the difference between this depression and the last one is that this time, we're entering the post-consumer society. It isn't going to get back to the way it was. There's no there there. We're zooming past mallworld, on a trajectory somewhere to a place Americans have never been before.

I agree. We can't buy enough bluetooth thingies and digital garbage cans to get out of the fix Bush et al. put us in by sucking every last cent out of the economy. We can't. Even if we had the money, which we don't.

We're in a post-consumer society now. And what that means is -- well, we are once again thrown back on our own wits, only the question du jour is whether we have any.

Potpourri

I probably have no readers left, and it's my own damn fault.

One thing about me: When I take the plunge, I take the plunge. Ever since I started rescuing stray and abandoned Dobermans on January 6, I've been doing little else. It can't be helped. There's learning, and transporting, and scrounging extra gear, and nursing the spayed and the neutered, and supervising the herd, not to mention picking up the leavings. There are adoption forms to the written and contracts to be devised and homes to be checked and references to be called. And if you're lucky enough to have donors and volunteers, there are thanks to be delivered. If you're new, there are lists to join for advice, and experts to call, and veteran rescuers to locate and network with. And shelters to visit. And shelter and pound staffers to woo. It's a full-time job and it's worth it all. Just to see the happiness on the faces of a new family and the mug of a dog who's found his or her Forever Home makes it all worthwhile.

So if you can, forgive me. I've got a life now. I'll write as I can.

And some things are irresistible.

New Balm for Persecuted US Christians
Now, in retaliation for Kosher salt, there's--wait for it--Christian salt. Don't trample each other in the rush to the grocery store.

Rush the Greaser
That picture of Limbaugh at CPAC, the recent gathering of adults born to cohabiting siblings, underfed in infancy, and beaten regularly at puberty (otherwise called "conservatives") was just the best. Someone said he looked like a bouncer on the afternoon shift at a Penthouse whorehouse. Who could top that? It was partly the shiny black shirt, partly the open collar, partly the Popeye the Sailor Man earring, partly the greasy curls at his neck. (Makes ya wanna . . . puke. Rush, there may be clues here about why women don't like you.) Whatta guy.

"Socialism"?
If you're somewhat at a loss for responding to the leaky crock the conservatives hoist aloft every time we get close to a sensible approach to healthcare, read this. It'll help you get started.

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.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Who knew when I got involved in Doberman rescue that it would consume my life? Not me, that's for sure. And that's where I've been.

It's hard to write with dogs all over you. Right now there are our four and two rescues here. That's a lotta dawg.

I'll write more and more about what being a dog rescuer means, and why it's important, and what fostering involves. But for now, I need a brief dog break!

Sarah Palin has a future in the GOP, says Squeakie Matthews. Yeah. Sarah Palin, Queen of the Bottom Feeders, that lowest 20% of Americans who still think George Bush is a genius and Obama is a secret IslamoTerrorist cell of one.

Michael Steele, the new BLACK chair of the Republican part, is a BLACK chair. Did I mention that he's a BLACK BLACK? A BLACK, AFRICAN AMERICAN-type BLACK AFRICAN AMERICAN? Just like Sarah Palin was a WOMAN. See, for the GOP, it's any old b*tch, any old N-word. We're all interchangeable tokens.

And how about the patriotism of the GOP? Have you noticed? There's just no there there. Any hope we may have had for enough bipartisanship to get the country out of the maelstrom has utterly dissipated, thanks to men like the two Arizona senators, Kyle and the back-stabber McCain. I don't know where they get their values, but not from any place I recognize.

I agree with Senators Collins and Nelson: There's too much in the big budget package that isn't obviously related to job creation. Mind you, I like what's in there. I just think--not for the first time--that the Congressional Leadership is composed of idiots. Reid and Pelosi ought to have had the sense to unpack the funding for other projects from this bill. Anybody could see this GOP attack coming. That they didn't says to me that they aren't worth their paychecks. It's about strategy. It's about rolling out a bill that the GOP doesn't dare oppose without obviously showing its true colors.

NEVER Get a GE DECT Digit 6.0 Cordless Phone

Model 27909 EE1 just sucks. That's $80.00 worth of suck, too.

Item: It weighs, looks, and feels like the high-tech equivalent of a tin can.

Item: The manual says to install the battery pack in the back of the handset. Fine. Only there's no way to get the back of the handset open. Ignore the main photo here. It looks as if there's a split at the halfway mark, which might suggest that the top or bottom half slides down to reveal the battery casket. Not. Look instead at the photo on the right. No line. And what you can't see is the fact that the "call-me-stainless" back has four sides that fit tightly over the front part of the phone, making a slide movement impossible in any direction. Nor can it be lifted up, or popped up, or pried up.

Item: The 1-800 service number has been disconnected. Now you get to pay to talk to these morons about the garbage they've just sold you. Nice, eh?

Item: You guessed it: When they answer, they answer in a distinct East Indian accent. I'm teeth-gritted, white-knuckled OK with that, but I do at least expect them to know what the hell they're attempting to talk to me about in English.

Item: They don't.

"Slide the back of the handset. It will open."
"No, it won't. Because it can't slide. Do you know why it can't slide? Because it fits on the front of the handset like a box top. It has four sides. Something can't slide unless there's at least one open side to slide out of. Do you see?"
"I believe I understand you. Will you please hold a moment?"
"Do I have any choice?"
"I will be back in just a moment."
(Pause, pause, pause, pause, pause. Pause, pause, pause, pause, pause, pause.)
"Thank you for your patience.[!] Now, if you will slide the back of the handset, it will open."
"What did you say to me?"
"Ma'am, I said, 'If you will slide the back of the handset, it will open.'"
"Did you hear me when I told you that IT WILL NOT SLIDE OPEN BECAUSE IT CANNOT SLIDE?"
"Perhaps you can get someone to help you. . . . "

Repeat four times.

Item: After 10 minutes on the help line, this woman actually had the 'nads to suggest that I "get someone to help me."

"Um, what are they paying YOU for! I didn't call to ask about your mother-in-law. I called because ostensibly you can help me. That is what you are here for, is it not? However, it is all too evident that you don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about, that you've never seen this model in your life, that you wouldn't know 'slide' from 'chinchilla,' and that helping me is the very LAST thing you can do!"

Just. Do. Not. Get. This. Phone. This "phone" is a bait-and-switch phone. It pretends to be a phone when actually it is a paperweight. This "phone" in my view was manufactured for the sole purpose of driving people insane. It probably comes with a coupon for psychotherapy.

It is sold by Home Depot. If you must go there for a phone, DO. NOT. GET. THIS. PHONE.

It is better by far just to go outside and yell.

In My Dreams

Do they teach this in obedience? Agility? Utility? Anywhere???
Thanks to my pal Sally for this LOL!

Nurse Removes Woman's IUD "on Conscience"

So you go in to have the IUD adjusted, and the nurse arbitrarily and unilaterally decides you shouldn't have an IUD at all and yanks it. See George Bush's "provider conscience" regulation. It's real, it's here, it's horrible, and it's happening in the US of A. Unbelievable, outrageous, and true. Get on the phone to your Senators and to the White House.


Reprinted in full from Salon:

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 03:00 PST
Oops, I accidentally pulled out your IUD!

Let me tell you a true story: A woman in Albuquerque, N.M., went to a local health clinic to have the long string of her IUD shortened. No big deal -- all it takes is a simple snip. The nurse prodded her with a speculum and then, inexplicably, began pulling on the IUD, causing her sudden, intense pain. Then the nurse said one thing you never want someone to say when they have their hand in your vagina: "Uh-oh!"

"Everyone in the office always laughs and tells me I pull [IUDs] out on purpose because I am against them"

Surely, the patient must have been terrified -- but then the nurse offered an explanation: "I accidentally pulled out your IUD. I gently tugged and out it came ... I cut the string than went back and gently pulled and out it came. It must have not been in properly." That might have been somewhat reassuring -- oh well, accidents happen -- only, the nurse continued to explain that "having the IUD come out was a good thing" and then offered, "I personally do not like IUDs. I feel they are a type of abortion. I don't know how you feel about abortion, but I am against them."

Hmm. The nurse continued: "Everyone in the office always laughs and tells me I pull these out on purpose because I am against them, but it's not true, they accidentally come out when I tug." Kidding about removing patients' birth control against their will? Hilarious -- sign me up for a visit to your office! Also: It's happened enough times that you have a reputation for it? Despite this being her "mistake," the nurse refused to insert a new IUD.

This is all according to court documents filed by the patient in a suit against nurse practitioner Sylvia Olona and Presbyterian Health Services Rio Rancho Family Health Center. The patient suspects, for good reason, it seems, that the nurse intentionally pulled out the IUD because of her personal belief that they cause abortions. Not that it matters in this case, but that is factually incorrect. (Also, as Miriam Axel-Lute writes on Babble, "So the way she's against abortion is to screw up people's birth control, making it more likely they need an abortion? Swift one there.")

This story seems a good, although frightening, reminder that the "provider conscience" rule went into effect on Tuesday and isn't affected by Obama's immediate order to halt Bush's pending federal regulations. Until the rule is reversed by the Obama administration, religiously or morally guided medical professionals -- like nurse Olona, assuming the allegations are true -- will find it much easier to get away with denying women the medical treatment they want and need.
― Tracy Clark-Flory

In My Real World . . .

Woke up this morning musing about the events in my personal life over the last couple of weeks.

Whatever I did for Floozie, Floozie did for me. I've gotten really interested in dog rescue, to the point that I hope to play at least a small role in getting something reputable going for Dobies in my part of the state. To that end, I've been on the phone or in a book or doing dog rescue ever since Miss Flooze moved to her forever home.

There's a lot to a good rescue op, and IMHO, "good" starts with the dogs' needs and a clear and adequate code of ethics. The dogs need a reputable operation, not just in the obvious ways that have to do with decent, experienced, loving people committed to meeting the dogs' best physical, emotional, and mental interests, but also in ways having to do with public expectations and public perceptions.

If the people involved are perceived to be sloppy, slipshod, uninformed, or careless operators--or worse--the dogs suffer. No one will support the organization, or contribute to it, or align him- or herself with it. Without those pillars, there's no organization, and the dogs pay the consequent high price.

So, imagine my shock when one highly placed official (who absolutely should know better) told me bluntly this weekend that anybody who doesn't have a 501(c)3 (non-profit tax status) is "free to run his business as he sees fit." And mind, this was in the context of my exploring the possibility of filing a formal complaint.

Well, ah, no. There are so many things wrong with that absurd statement. One, it's not true; legal requirements don't begin with getting a c3. Neither do ethical requirements. Two, regardless how you or I "see fit," there are objective standards for determining what constitutes a "good" rescue operation. We may find this or that minor departure to be tolerable temporarily, and perhaps even disagree about that, but we will agree that a few things are minimal requirements, and integrity is one of them.

Nobody who genuinely cares about the dogs could or would minimize either the importance of clean, transparent business practices or the importance of clean housing and wholesome fresh food and water in appropriate quantities. All these are non-negotiables for ensuring the quality of an animal rescue.

So. Now you know why I like dogs more than I like people.


Flooze Update: Floozie, whose name is now Venus--far, far more fitting for a Dobie princess--is delighted and so are her people and her animal family. Everybody's getting on fine. Floozie is learning about doggy doors and cats, and her two- and four-legged family are coming to know what a smart, sweet, playful, and pleasing little gal she is. I'm so happy. She's going to be fine for the whole entire rest of her life.

And Oh, Wasn't it Wonderful?

OK, I cried from 10:30 a.m. on.

I never, ever, even in my wildest hopes and dreams in the late 1960s, imagined this day. My soul is stirred in greater hope and faith in my country than at any time since Lyndon B. Johnson sadly assumed the responsibilities of his fallen President, John F. Kennedy. I've never been prouder of the United States of America than I am at this moment. I'm even thinking of hanging the flag from my own home, secure now that at last it represents the Bill of Rights the Constitution and the great, great values of liberty and justice for all.

Snapshots from my memory: The inimitable, the unique, the unforgettable Aretha Franklin and the intimation all people of good will must have had of the meaning of this moment to the First Lady of Soul. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts' sorry muffing of the oath of office, unique (at least in my memory of presidential inagurations dating back to Ike), and Obama's gracious effort to give the lad a do-over. My first glimpse of our new First Lady in a fabulous muted chartreuse suit. The pleasure of seeing the First Kids and the First Grandma made a natural part of the day's great events, naturally. My President's powerful speech, the heavy repudiation of the policies and values of the previous administration so richly deserved. My own response to the call to meet the challenges ahead, my own small "Yes I can." The joy when I heard the stirringly beautiful instrumental motif from Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts" (1848) the lyrics of which are so appropriate for this new President and this new moment in a new America:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

The beloved Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery's wonderful benediction and how perfect it was for him to have delivered it. Now that's a Christian minister, my friends a man with his eyes on God. He made me remember, at last what I love about Christianity.

The mass of people, there in joy and hope and not in protest. The little children seeing a Black man take the presidential oath. The grown men weeping.

And by contrast, the huge crowd's very, very funny impromptu send-off to W and Mrs. Bush: "Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, Good Bye!"

More later. Hallelujah, Praise God. America's come home.

President Barack Hussein Obama

"Thank God Almighty, Free at last!"

One Question, Maybe Two

How is it that with eight years of Bush flim-flams, lies, and theft, the US Congress didn't get it that the Wall Street "bail out" was just another raid on our tax dollars to enrich Bush's already super-rich cronies?

Where's the FBI?

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

As you can see from the overlap of the video onto Pico's official portrait, we are experiencing technical difficulties. The main one is that I can't edit the right-side widgets at all--a problem numerous Blogger bloggers are experiencing, and one that Blogger isn't rushing to help us with.

If you notice a number of fluctuations in layout in the next few days, it'll be me, trying to reload the template and update the links and stuff. I hope you will bear with me. There's no point in blogging without you!

Thanks. I'll try to get 'er done and quickly and painlessly as possible.