head in sand

and about the environment.

this is something else i just don't get.  even if you think climate change is a hoax (and really? really?), why are you so opposed to cleaning up dirty air, requiring industries to keep paint and oil out of our drinking water and crops, and limiting the amount of crap we all put into landfills?  why?

why is the only dude in my neighborhood that doesn't use the FREE recycling bins provided by our city (a no-sort container for aluminum, glass, paper, plastic, textiles, cardboard, etc) one of those batshit republicans with the "who is john galt" bumper sticker on his old jeep cherokee...right next to the obama as the joker sticker?  because he's making a statement that he doesn't believe in recycling?  or is it that he is so unbelievably selfish he doesn't care that he's leaving a slightly dirtier world to his children?

and do you no-government-ever-at-all people honestly believe that businesses and industries will benevolently pay to dispose of toxic materials because it is the right thing to do?    fuck no.  without regulations, they would be dumping every single toxicity they manufacture into the air, ground, creeks, rivers, lakes and oceans, contaminating everything you breathe, eat, wear, and shit.

and is it such a bad idea to invest in the manufacturing jobs of tomorrow?  i mean, get a clue.  coal mines, oil fields, and all that is dirty is going away (and honestly, do you really want to work in any of those nasty ass industries?).  we need to invest in clean energy, renewables, and the related maintenance technologies so that china doesn't take that market.  the world is going green.  period.  we can either lead the way or we can resist ourselves into a dark, dirty, uninhabitable, bankrupt america that looks more like the districts of panem than the country we see today.

yeah, yeah, yeah, "we don't have the money".  we have the money, we just spend it poorly...no argument there.  the difference between you and me and money is that you blew it when you took down the economy and started (and want to keep blowing it on) unnecessary and strategically bankrupt wars and tax breaks for people who don't reinvest those savings in america.  i'd rather spend it to clean up, rebuild, educate and rehire america.

it would be awesome if you'd get your head out of your ass so we could all work together, to really talk about where we can intelligently reallocate our limited funds, and get this ship turned in the right direction.  but so long as you're focused on the earth being 6,000 years old, regulating my uterus, and stockpiling assault weapons to protect yourself from the muslim president, there's no way we can have an intelligent conversation with you...because you are proof that we aren't spending enough money on education.

~k

loathing compromise

reasonableness in the american debate is clearly on hiatus. i can't even wrap my mind around how it is that people seem so tied to ideology that the real world bears no consideration. no matter the subject. every issue, every decision, every attempt at action is blocked by a mad mob and fought with the blood of vengeance. and these are the fucking morons running our country, so consumed with, by, and for political gain, they've brought plague to our land.

and i know you think i'm talking about those dipshitty teabaggers, but it's not just on the right. i see that shit on the left too. people who post to facebook, "obama called today to ask for money, but i don't support republicans". so, let me get this straight: that self-proclaimed liberal would rather risk the chance that the likes of michele bachmann, or any of the other looney tunesy GOP presidential candidates, become serious contenders. wtf!? the most ironic thing about "obama the republican" is that the fringe (and some of the not-so-fringe) on the right call the same president a socialist.

so he's a republican to one party and a socialist to the other. huh. how is either extreme any less out of touch with reality?

don't we all live in a world where compromise is a part of life? in my own life, for instance, i want to wear jeans and t-shirts to work every day. but i also want the perks and pay of corporate america. so i compromise to their dress code. sometimes i watch dumb shows i don't want to watch so my husband (heh, i said husband) will watch my dumb shows with me. every day i go out into the world requires a number of compromises because common courtesy, success, and society demands decorum, and i'm not by nature the prim and proper type. if such is life, how did compromise become such an anathema in the american political debate?

the liberals are pissed that the president even brought up cuts to medicare and social security. why? their social security and medicare benefits are locked in. i don't understand how a bunch of grasshoppers are fighting over a benefit that's mine. social security and medicare as they exist today will never survive in tact for me. so why don't you grasshoppers sit your old asses (and yeah, i'm talking to you harry reid) down and let _us_ decide how to restructure social security and medicare, and while we're at it, we'll go ahead and figure out how we are going to prosper in this world you no longer recognize or understand. i've no doubt we'll fuck up a bit along the way, but i don't see how we could come anywhere near the calamity that's befallen us since y'all took over.

and the tea-baggers, well, they are morons. they are so tied to their "no new taxes" credo that it seems to warp their ability to comprehend that paying taxes is part of the greatest compromise of all - society. even considering letting america default on its obligations (obligations that very body of government incurred legally) is reckless and juvenile. to me, it shows a shocking disregard for our (see the future) fates in america. i have never been more ashamed of our government or felt so deserving of the world's laughing stock.

we are failing to address what ails this country. we can't develop a meaningful strategy because we aren't paying attention to history and facts. we aren't adapting to living in a different kind of world. we aren't having a serious debate. we aren't paying attention to each other. we are letting the fringes cause a ruckus and write the public narrative, to the detriment of america. to the detriment of our country, our future, our prosperity and the magic that makes us the envy of the world.

~k

"our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.... i think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends ... and i think i’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. that’s what’s insane about it."
John Lennon, Interview BBC-TV (June 22, 1968)

a naysayer says

i've been watching the current discourse with a disaffected interest. for the first time i can remember, i do not believe that our politicians have america's best interests at heart.

i've long been a defender of public servants on both sides of the aisle - in perhaps this one regard only - in my sincere belief that we all love america, we simply disagree on the government's role in things. however, as i peer into the cesspool inside the beltway, listen to the budget busting bullshit being spewed not just by current office-holders but also by those seeking offfice, i am utterly aghast.

how anyone on the planet who knows jack shit about debt, defaults, volatile stock markets, and _very_fragile_economic_recoveries_ can even consider not raising our debt ceiling is beyond my apparent meager comprehension skills.

does it really take a degree in rocket science or advanced economics to understand what will likley happen if we default on our debt? let's see. first, our credit rating takes a nose dive which will double the interest we're paying on the debt we legally incurred and are morally bound to repay. secondly, our stock market will take a giant shit; anyone wanna take a guess as to how much? 600 points? 700? if our federal government can no longer borrow money (and folks, how many fucking times do i need to remind that our economy is based almost entirely on spending and if consumers can't spend, the government _must_ spend or the economy jumps off a cliff), our economy is doomed.

and what happens if our economy completely falters? municipalities around the country will go bankrupt, constituents all over america will follow suit, there will be absolutely no money to build or repair infrastructure, hospitals will have to start turning away medicare and medicaid patients cuz there won't be any money to pay those bills, social security payments will cease, every old person in america will have to move in with their kids or into a homeless shelter, and america will be full of destitute, homeless, hungry people living in a country with broken roads to empty houses. america. will. die.

so tell me, are all those sycophants and all the teabaggers that brought them to power really looking out for america's best interests? (and yes, i blame this almost entirely on the GOP for (a) getting us into this mess in the first place, (b) successfully blaming it on the democrats who are too big of pussies to adequately defend themselves, (c) refusing to acknowledge what everyone else in the entire world already knows - that we cannot get out of this debt crisis without raising revenue, and (d) its absurd contempt for compromise). i think not.

not unless they genuinely believe that the best thing for america is a modern day sacking.

~k

twas the perfect sunday till...

when i got out of bed this morning, i knew i'd spend much of today thinking and writing. for the first time in weeks, i feel rested. i awoke happy that my puppy let me sleep till almost noon, that i found a most lovely letter from my love, and i was super stoked to take apart both of my newspapers whilst my coffee brewed and i fired up the tele for this morning's meet the press.

what i didn't think i'd be writing about was my great disappointment with the american people. i've long and often ranted about the morons out there with voting pens, those dingalong followers who hang onto every insipid lie-of-a-word spoken by the fear-mongering right, who cannot utilize a single brain cell to think rationally through their feelings of terror and their fear of terrorists. but after making it through my favorite section of the ny times, and not knowing whether to post frank's column, maureen's, tom's, or shockingly nick's, i'm here to write my own about the burlington-coat-factory-community-center that's got the fear mongers and their herd of dipshits in an uproar.

it's all we've heard about all week, right? i mean, how many people saw general patraeus on meet the press last sunday, or listened to him in any number of the other mediums he's visited this past week to try to sell his cause in afghanistan to a weary america? i'd say a much smaller percentage than saw and heard all the nonsense about the "9/11 mosque" (such bullshit that description is!). funny how, and this is all frank rich, the same hawks who beg and scream for patience with the afghanistan war are the same ones comparing muslims to nazis: the irony being that they want us to fight a war and build a nation for those they label nazis at home. frank rich calls it "putting politics over country".

i call it fucking deceitful (which might be one of the biggest reasons he has a column in the ny times and i'm over here at blogger (the other being that i also like to write about my dog, life in the district, and all the other mundane "nonsense" that drives some of my readers to the brink of insanity)). and to what end? i'm clearly not the only person who recognizes that muslims around the world are watching this debate, with visions of sugary terrorist recruitment dancing in their heads.

or as maureen dowd poignently pointed out, using charles mackay quotes in her column today, "of all the offspring of time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome... a misdirected zeal in matters of religion befogs the Truth most egregiously."

so why i ask - myself, all of you, and the entirety of the world, is it that a respected "news organization" (not respected by me as the case may be), with billions of dollars in its coffers and millions of dedicated followers can so fervently, and without even the slightest hesitation in decency, flaunt error with such zeal to so egregiously befog the truth, to the detriment of not just democrats in upcoming elections, but the safety, security, and health of americans at home and those sacrificing their lives for "nazis - afghans i mean -" abroad?

and can we really wonder why it is that i'd rather think about and write about chicken bones, bluto, my dog, and my love?

i think not.

~k

afraid of my space

though i've been here several times the past week, i've written not a word. it's not that i haven't had anything to say, it's that i'm afraid to say it. afraid to be myself in my own space, observe what i will, say what i will, live as i will. as though it's my responsibility to live up to other people's ideal of me.

how fucked up is that?

like seriously, how could i let someone else's assholio comments get to me so deeply? i pride myself on not giving too much of a shit about what other people think, and here i am cowering from my own blog. in spite of the outpouring of support from those of you who love me just as i am, instead of how you think i should be, i am still here in stumble mode.

maybe getting it out here will get it out of my head, and knock whatever's standing in my way right off its post. or at least i can hope...

~k

fridays should be cakedays

everything was hard today!

first off, going into today i knew there was going to be some serious work drama. so i took lotsa deep breaths and pretty effectively controlled damage. but it was hard.

and there were computer issues - firmwide. and i have such little patience for technological irritants, the amount of stress i feel (admittedly asinine) is probably unhealthy.

and the paycheck fiasco. this is no one's fault, just an unbelievably ginormous comedy of misfortune. i just moved to a new city (in case you hadn't heard). my city has no chase bank (fer reals!?). so i had to open a new bank account. and whilst my original plan involved an auto deposit this week into my old account at chase and my end of the month paycheck going into the new one, turns out there's this pesky "live" check in the middle.

so the live check could only go to the new bank cuz there are no old banks within a 50-mile radius. and apparently new banks put holds on the checks of customers with new accounts (if i'd've understood the implications of this inconvenience, i'd've cashed my paycheck at bank of america and walked across the street with cash for said new bank account). so it's friday, my very last car payment was due today, and i had access to $8.33.

the worst part about that is that i have money everywhere, just nowhere i could get to it.

so, my company (being the awesomest most supportive, understanding place on earth) gave me a check from a petty cash account for a grand as a loan till my check clears. awesome, right!? so i do all the paperwork for that (which was doubly hard with all the computer mishaps), get the check, walk over to shitibank, and they wouldn't cash the check.

i have a california id, a check from a company right down the street, a new signature, ugh. so for 20 minutes i sat there while they figured it out, which they couldn't do until i called our LA office to put the hammer down.

yay! money!

and i got into a cab driven by the nicest cabbie possible. and i got home to a big dose of puppy love, a glass of wine, good company with good friends. and cutie texts from someone i love.

all's well that ends well.

~k

pew(ke)

when my alarm starts going off each morning, about an hour before i get out of bed, i flip on n.p.r. for an overview of the day's headlines. and you know what i heard this morning? i heard the pew report that china has overtaken the united states as the top investor in clean energy technology.

this makes me so effing angry, i don't even really know where to start.

but i think i'll start with the planet's worst enemies. for one second, i will bite my tongue till it bleeds, and accept the truly asinine view that there is no such thing as man-made global warming (or as i like to think of it, "climate change", because when people are too, er, dumb? to recognize that global warming doesn't mean it won't ever snow again, i try to use less confusing words).

okay, it's really hard, but i'm doing it. AND IT DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING MATTER!

even if you disagree with every scientist in the entire world, because you're smarter than them (yeah, you who voted for sarah palin to be vice president), and think global warming is a liberal hoax, how can you still be so stupid as to not recognize that our economic security, technological advancement, the wave of the future, the current worldview outside of the bassackwards bible belt mentality (or what you might like to call "real america"), and our national security depend on going green.

this pew report makes it pretty clear that the greatest innovative minds are still in america, that there are billions of american investment dollars waiting to be dumped into clean energy technology and small businesses (like my friend jim's solar panel business, run on sun (much more on this later)), but that china is where it's all going. because china knows a good business venture when it sees it, even if it sits and laughs at all of us dummy liberal hippies.

american investors won't put their money into small businesses or green research until there are some government regulatory guarantees that establish a marketplace (e.g. cap and trade). and american brains aren't going to stay in america, produce in america, and create jobs in america if china is bankrolling the development of the products their brains think up and then selling that shit to the developed world (which, incidentally, is asking for this stuff).

and don't even get me started on national security, and the fact that our addiction to oil funds terrorism.

if anyone in this country was really thinking, we would stop wasting time pointing at tenable junk science, and recognize that it doesn't matter if the science is junk. the developed and developing world is going green. that's where the brains and money are going. and if we aren't going to support it here, if we aren't going to invest in those brilliant green minds and the ability to produce clean energy products to sell around the world, the united states of america will sooner than later no longer be the developed world.

~k

the grasshopper generation

i'm fascinated by the generational divides that prevent more fluidity in adapting to a changing world. whether it's at the office, in politics, or just around town, the old guys with their old ideas and outdated ways of doing things are just in the way of progress.

and i'll bet they once said the same thing about their parents.

i mean, as it does, the world has changed. we are all connected by this little white window sitting in my lap right now, that allows me to communicate _by video chat_ with someone on the other side of the world, whenever i want. and we the world all depend on each other, on each other's monetary policy, political and social stability, and we all need each other to prop up our own security and prosperity.

in this new game called the real world, we are made up of diverse players working closely together, of men and women from every color, background, education, opinion, and corner of the world. yet, in this country (and most in the western world), we are primarily represented, at the highest levels of our government no less, by old white guys from a generation that consumed everything built by the "greatest generation" before them. they broke everything by over-consuming, over-using, and under-repairing. and now they want to cut taxes so's to encourage more of that vile over-consumption as the solution to the problems it caused.

maybe if you really think maintaining the [broken] status quo is the direction our country should be heading.

but the way i see it is that we can no longer survive in this ever-changing world by grasping on to foregone days and even more foregone ways. lest america prefer to find itself in a political, social, and economic situation that now qualifies a country as "developing". we're about to become out-developed by bigger and better thinkers, with brighter educations, newer and shinier tools and toys, and a vision toward the actual future that's happening. that is, if we don't annihilate ourselves with pollution, or just bludgeon ourselves to death with the iron club our middle eastern oil addiction has bequeathed our intrepid enemies first.

look, the debt situation in this country is truly frightening. we are selling our freedom to those who purchase our debt. and we will fix that later, just as we have in times before. but right now, we need to make sure we're going to be strong, healthy, and cohesive enough to succeed. we have to make sure we're still going to have a country to save, and a seat at the big player's table when it's time to focus our resources on bringing down the debt.

but i will be damned to next tuesday before i sit here and let the GOP blame democrats for this situation. after eight years of reckless and irresponsible fiscal policy, they might consider saying yes to something new, something that might actually work in a world they clearly no longer understand and are too frightened to accept. but one thing i can guarantee won't solve the problems is tax cuts.

so get over it. and let's rise up to the challenges we face, make america strong enough to survive within and prosper beyond these difficult times, and then set about tightening our belts and and ending our voracious and dangerous appetite for stuff.

~k

the curse of vanity

there once was a day i wondered if anyone would ever want to date me. fer reals.

i mean, yeah, sure, i'm smart, i care, i'm pretty, interesting, worldly, adventurous, snarky. and i'd even go so far as to fancy myself 'funny," and in a witty kinda way to boot. but i walk with a cane, i have braces on both my legs, and sometimes my physical and fashion limitations are really fucking annoying.

and not just for you.

i'm a silver lining kinda girl, so i see what's awesome about me first. and i am well aware of the benefits that come with being gimpy. i get great parking, don't have to wait in lines, didn't have to pay as much for college or law school, and i even make it onto those diversity check boxes in the employment line.

and believe me, i shamelessly take advantage of all of the above benefits, because if you, for one fucking hour of your life, had to spend time in my shoes, you too would agree that i deserve the advantages society offers me for having to put up with the bullshit i do every day.

sometimes i feel compelled to put this out there (i mean, it's been almost 20 years i've had to live with this), because so many of the people in my life don't see me as truly challenged as i am. and while that in itself is a blessing for which the english language is too limited to express, it's also not. because, while we all face challenges every single day of our lives that complicate the wonderful, get in the way of the fun, and demand sacrifice that otherwise wouldn't exist, mine probably sucks more than yours.

and sometimes i want to remind you.

check. sometimes i _need_ to remind you.

~k

the great divide

i am once again in my home away from home, in my other home city, and following a weekend of wondrous national security overload at a truman conference extraordinaire, i here sit contemplating the political scene this one year past the inauguration of a lifetime.

and i have to say, being a tried, true, and dedicated democrat, the one thing i've found i can consistently expect from our party, and liberals generally, is disappointment. we are so good at shooting ourselves in the foot, letting run rampant our self-righteous diatribes of disappointment in a status quo we can't even stop falling over ourselves bitching about to do anything to correct, that we lead ourselves right down a losing lane.

and then we have the audacity to blame it all on a president we lent blood, sweat, tears, and our hearts to see elected, only to abandon him in his hour of greatest need (see falling poll numbers, a healthcare debate gone awry, climate change legislation climbing deeper into a sinkhole).

why?

because our liberal elitism, our over-educated masses of deep thinkers, is too deeply embedded in pragmatism and intellectual prowess to recognize that the great divide our rifts cause do nothing to bring our party together. in fact, it does everything to keep us divided enough that we don't even stop to notice that the republican crazies are telling the only story anyone can hear, and the only story the masses are starting to believe. i mean, when i support the president, i'm accused by liberals of "drinking the kool-aid", or "clapping for tinkerbell".

the thing that republicans do well (and in no small part i credit the absence of intellectual acumen in its rank and file) is stick together, and stand up for one another. when reagan was president, his poll numbers fell like a house of cards his first year. yet instead of sitting back to see conservatives pointing fingers at one another, the republican party came together, to stand stronger together, and brought enough emotional patriotism into the narrative, that they were able to get those poll numbers back up, and win in a landslide come re-election time.

we are letting these teabagger dummies rant on about socialism and obama's far left agenda (lest we forget that our president is also the same hawk who upped the anty in a war in afghanistan), that healthcare will bankrupt us, when it's actually doing nothing about healthcare will bankrupt us. that big government intrustion is what caused the economic crises, and will continue to plague our unemployment numbers whilst we're delving deeper and deeper into an irrevocable abyss of debt, as if the bush administration had nothing to do with the economic crumble.

we are letting them tell the story, we are letting them write the narrative (in words so small they can all understand), because we are too busy bagging on our president, attacking one another because healthcare doesn't go far enough, because obama hasn't closed guantanamo, because he doubled down in afghanistan after promising us peace, love, and togetherness (not sure where _anyone_ heard such nonsense in his campaign stumping). because we think too much to stand down and be supportive, because we are so selfishly engaged in wanting more attention for ourselves, and being right, that we can't stop making liberal noise loud and long enough to be on the side of america.

the worst part about it is that the republican party itself is under the barrage of a great dividing firestorm, with no real leaders, and voices like glen beck, sarah palin, and rush limbaugh speaking the loudest. and instead of taking advantage of this opportunity to help them nail the final coffin in their dwindling party, we're helping them move even farther to the right, and pick up steam along the way.

and what's the end result of all this nonsense? we are going to lose our majority in congress this fall, and then we'll really know what it's like to be behind a president who can't get anything done, because the party of no will hold all the cards. and we'll have no one to blame but ourselves, because when push came to shove, we didn't have the ability to do the hard work, get behind the people trying to help our agenda, and tell a better story than "i'm better than you".

and you know what, we'll deserve it.

~k

you don't know dick!

dick cheney needs to shut the fuck up! in following his daughter's lead on calling democrats weak on national security, he's now taken to claiming our president is "dithering" because president obama is taking the time to make an informed decision about afghanistan and strategize accordingly.

sigh.

wasn't it the complete and utter absence of strategy in the former vice president's administration that got us into this mess? after running into afghanistan without thinking, learning, or coordinating an effective ground game, the bush administration then turned its head to the west and decided iraq was ripe for a coup. without getting the job done, they dropped the ball.

and eight years later, here we are trying to figure out what the hell we're going to do. and dick cheney has the balls to criticize our president for listening to everyone at the table, taking a realisitic look at the instability in pakistan, the taliban, what would happen if the taliban control on pakistan's western front could strengthen enough to topple the government and get their hands on a nuclear weapon, thinking about how much success we'll have if the government in kabul doesn't have the legitimacy for an effective partnership, and what it is we're trying to achieve.

and whether the commitment of our troops and treasure, and our soul as a nation, is worth the end game (presumably a stable afghanistan that doesn't want to help the taliban train bad guys to be terrorists). that's a lot to consider, at least i think it seems like a lot to consider.

so dick cheney, sit down and shut the fuck up. let the smart guys use their brains to figure this out, because the dummy cowboys in your administration didn't exactly put afganistan in the win column for america.

~k

schindler's list

i have so much i could be writing about right now (nobel peace prizes, finishing 'truman', afghanistan on my mind), but here i am doing a movie review (which is kinda hilarious since i almost never watch movies).

i hate steven spielberg for making a movie that's making me have to talk myself out of killing myself. which i might be able to do if i wasn't so emotionally exhausted. so much so that my tear ducts hurt.

fer reals, why does it hurt so much to know that people've done that, and still do that, to each other?

~k

the remains of a party

in the summer of 1948, the chair of the republic national committee, congressman carroll reece of tennessee, claimed that "there remained nothing of the democratic party but three distasteful elements: southern racists, big-city bosses, and radicals bent on 'sovietizing' the country".

in listening to the president speak tonight about healthcare reform, complete with numbers, statistics, and an inspirational kick,"that we aren't here to fear the future, we are here to shape it", i felt a surge of my own american pride. especially when he handed an
opposition-sans-a-solution its ass on a silver platter.

which brings me to the three distasteful elements of what little remains of the republican party today: racists, rich white men, and radicals bent on jesusizing the country.

~k

a campaign shake up

it seems that the obama-esque 'staying above the fray' campaign is being cast aside by newsom and co. and on minor reflection, maybe gavin ain't the kinda guy to play that game anyway.

his campaign manager, and long-time strategist and friend, eric jaye, resigned today because of a "fundamental difference in how to run the campaign". he has since been replaced by the attack shark garry south, who seems to be the kinda guy who'll stoop to any low to get his man elected. as if a clash of titan egos with knives is what california needs right now.

though i will hold final judgment until i get a good look at the rhetoric and grassroots and media outreach of the new management, i have a bad feeling that i'm about to have no one to support in the gubernatorial race of my dysfunctional state.

and if it comes down to one candidate being less of a douchebag than the other, i'm done with california.

~k