Happy New year

Happy New Year!

I am not one of those people who 1.goes out on New Year's Eve and 2.makes new year resolutions. We are just trying to figure out what to do about dinner tonight so we can get food and get back in before the drunks get on the road.

However, I did have a startling revelation this week. My friend, Risa D'Angeles does a fabulous weekly horoscope, Night Light News. Last week the horoscope talked about not feeling guilt for changing things to make the world better. Yes, that was eye opening for me, the queen of guilt. Then I realized if I would stop judging myself harshly, maybe I could do the same thing for others and not judge others with that same critical voice.

D'oh!

So happy new year! May 2007 be fabulous for all of us except Bush.

Disgusting

I am in the middle of walking the dogs. This business about Saddam being hung within hours is really bugging me. I am not for the death penalty in any way shape of form. Having had a number of brushes with friends and relatives who have been murdered, I was firmly committed to having those people serve life sentences for their acts.

Killing Saddam doesn't bring Pat Tillman back. He is dead at the hands of the army he served. There are still no complete answers to why we lost him.

There is still no plan for why we continue to be in Iraq and no plan for all those Marines the idiot in chief is going to use in Iraq as fodder to escalate the violence. I don't know why there is this need for blood lust. As a Scorpio, I know revenge but I usually prefer the petty kind.

I have no vote in this whole proceeding. The carnage will escalate today and the bombs will continue to explode. Lives will continue to be shattered while that jackass sits in Texas, clearing brush and ignoring Gerald Ford's funeral. Of course this is all happening with these people in charge, they have no respect for life and a high regard for death, as long as it isn't theirs. Disgusting.

The day after

I think I am stoned on cookies. I am having a hard time putting sentences together and am just fixated on the box of sparkley cookies sitting on the table. Must...eat...another...one.

As usual, my Christmas day was spent with family. We feasted over presents and pork on Christmas morning. One of my nieces works in the bra department of the local Nordstrom's so she had us roaring over bra fittings for the large and small woman. Yes, but we seem so normal.

By the end of the prime rib feast at my sister's, I needed to be in a room by myself. No jokes, no tv, no relatives anywhere to be seen. Just the dogs and cats. OK, maybe Jo.

Today was spent in catatonic bliss. Waking up for a half and hour and then going back to bed, because I could. This is what the holidays are really about, gluttony and sleeping.

Gloria Christmas

My grandmother was a constant all of my life until her last day here. She was a loving, funny woman who fed us tortillas right off the grill with butter dripping down our arms. My siblings and cousins can still get a look on our faces remembering those times.

For Christmas Eve, Grandma would put on a Mexican buffet of unbelievable proportions. All of us would trek over there and hang out, eat and watch my grandma open her presents. It was an all evening laugh fest, filled with chile, tamales, ham, tortillas, rice, beans and plenty o' dessert.

When Grandma died in the 80's those festivities went away. While living in New Mexico, I realized I was missing that part of Christmas. So I started making phone calls to my cousin's, my mom and my aunt to regroup and get this party started again. I decided that my generation had to be in charge of the food so we could learn how to make the food and keep the traditions alive.

Then I threw in a new twist with an ornament exchange. You know when you can steal ornaments from someone else then they have to pick a new one or steal from another. With my family it can get a little wild. Like last night there was the reappearance of the yule stool, a turd ornament.

Last night was particularly special for us because we had cousins there who we hadn't seen in about 30 years. I won't go into the long, sad story of family hurts but I will tell you my heart was full of joy getting to see my cousins, one of the kids and the rest of my family all carrying on in the true grace of real family values. I could also feel the spirits of my grandmother, my father and uncle enjoying the laughter and love in the room.

And it wasn't even Christmas Eve. No wonder I love this time of the year the most.

Wedding bell blues

Big news here in the Golden State. The state Supremes are going to review the case for same sex marriage next year. The SJ Merc has an article detailing the upcoming legal battle.

In this story, the writer quotes the fabulous Shannon Minter from the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Shannon did an incredible job arguing our case in the Appeals court earlier this year. We lost that one and that is why the Supremes will be hearing the case.
Shannon summarizes this situation:

"Every day that goes by,'' he said, ``our couples are hurt in so many different ways by not being able to legally marry.''

Amen brother.

Shannon talked about how some of the litigants are in their 80's. That would be our lesbian godmothers, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, otherwise known as just Phyllis and Del. They were the first couple married in San Francisco and have been together for over 50 years. I adore those two women. I love listening to their stories and the fights they have won for us over the years. As far as I'm concerned the lgbt movement is nothing without them.

So now how about lgbt Latinos and marriage. I am on the board of the National Latino Coalition for Justice, NLCJ. We are working on bringing the conversation about marriage into the Latino community in the same way the Black Justice Coalition has done in the African American community. Here's that key piece of organizing successfully. Have the right outreach people. Send Latinos to the Latino communities and send African Americans to the black churches. It's that simple. We can construct the right messages for our communities, we look the same as the people we are speaking with and share much of the same history.

The hard part for the lgbt community is getting us to the table at the beginning of the efforts. We always know when we are added as an afterthought. That doesn't help the trust needed to be successful.

I personally think the key to this whole battle will be the successful organization of our friends in the faith communities. This will be the front line of public debate. The biblically correct will bring out all the cannards about Adam and Eve vs Adam and Steve. How quaint, how stupid, and unfortunately, effective. I think we have to be very supportive of getting every ordained person we all know to come out righteously for our equality. Only then can we shift the conversation to equality and away from bumper sticker sayings.

The case probably won't be heard until fall of '07. The final word will come 90 days after that hearing. Until then, buckle your seatbelts and don't repeat any bumper stickers.

My little man

One of my year round Christmas presents, my little man.

Waaah

When I started this blog this year it was with the intention of getting back to do regular writing like in my former life as a journalist. It was just to have fun, write about things that interest me and join the blogosphere.

Since then, I have become obsessed and corrupted by statcounter. Apparently instead of enjoying myself and just goofing off with this new toy, I have become valid if only someone reads this blog. I have succumbed to the bane of competitive writing. It is all about the number of hits I get on this site. Ego, ego, ego has taken over so, while continuing to write about things that interest me, I must check all the time to see who has visited.

But this begs the question of chicken v. egg. If a writer writes and no one reads the writing what does that make the writer?

I was talking to my friend, Reverend Holly Beaumont tonight. I was whining about no one reading my blog. Her response? "Now you what it is like to write and preach a sermon and then have someone say to you 'Sorry I missed church this week, we went to the lake.'" Amen, sister.

But since much of my part of the world is slowing down for various holidays, so goes the blogosphere. No time to read or write much, let alone pay attention to these ramblings.

Oh well, I will just continue plodding along and try to remember to have fun. Sheesh, I am an old Eeyore.

A few random thoughts

Gore/Obama anyone?

I will be interested to see who announces their Presidential candidacy before the end of the year. John Edwards will be announcing in the lower 9th ward soon. I would also bet that my former Governor, Bill Richardson will get out of the blocks soon too. Giuliani right after the first of the year, I'd wager.

Rosie O for Price is Right?

Evan Low for State Assembly? Oh wait, he hasn't even been on the Campbell city Council for a month yet. I got a little ahead.

The gas prices keep going up so BushCo is punishing us firmly and reminding us who is really in charge.

Can anything happen related to LGBT rights without HRC sending out a press release? Today it was commentary about the new Log Cabin director. Oh boy, I so don't care. If the public only knew about the behind the scenes scandals, I wonder if the money would keep flowing.

The L Word comes back in two weeks. Now we can see how stupid Bette will fix her kidnapping her baby situation. Carmen is gone but Marlee Matlin and Cybill Shepherd are joing the cast. Sigh, no Latinas.

Don't forget New Orleans.

Find some way to make your community better.

Have fun.

Let someone merge in on the road.

Be kind to animals.

Be kind to children.

Be kind to people older than yourself.

Be grateful for one thing today.

He never had a chance

Today's NYTimes has an interview with Marina Litvinenko, the widow of Alexander Litvinenko.

Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the former K.G.B. agent who died of radiation poisoning in London, said Friday that he began to worry about the safety of Russian exiles like himself in July, when the Parliament in Moscow, with little overseas fanfare, approved a law legalizing strikes beyond Russia’s borders against those the Kremlin considered to be extremists or terrorists.

Read this

Every time I see Bush or Rumsfeld on tv with their smug ass faces telling us that they know better, I want to do a number of things. Bitch slap, scream at them, the usual run of the mill responses.

The San Jose Mercury is running a series of articles about the life of a local man who came back from Iraq with a traumatic brain injury. This is what those aholes have done to our country and citizens. Please read this.

Column

Leonard Pitts. columnist from the Miami Herald had written an exquisite piece of equality for all people. Start your weekend right with this lovely read. You may find yourself humming after reading it.

My my

My my, seems the good rev Dobson is a plagiarist. He had a ridiculous column printed in Time mag with his asinine analysis of Mary Cheney's pregnancy. I know there are a lot of people riveted on every word he says. Luckily there are millions who don't give a crap.

According to Pam over at the Blend, he swiped a paragraph from another author without any acknowledgment. Then Americablog points out that two scientists have sent letters to Dobson demanding that he never reference their material again and that he, um, lied about their outcomes.

Bad, bad man.

Time has a lot of 'splainin to do.

Mea culpa

I finally got my Time mag today and was immediately immersed in the article about Alexander Litvinenko. It is a long, thorough article about the spy vs spy story involving, basically the whole world. A while back while writing about this story, a reader questioned what Putin's motive was if he, in fact, had Litvinenko murdered.

I responded with a typically American response, "Of course I know what I am talking about." In fact, I know only what I read from a multitude of sources. Time pointed out the error of my ways. I can count to 100 in Russian, I don't speak the language. I have read many books and seen a great deal of Russian art, I have never been to Russia and seen Russian art in the Tretyakov museum.

This blog has given me a chance to remember how much I like to write, what in fact, I learned in college. Many people in the blogosphere are experts in areas of great concern. Glenn Greenwald is a lawyer and writes about the law. I am an expert only on what I find of interest. That is not to say I am an expert on everything I am interested in but merely an expert on what I pursue in knowledge.

Thus, I have become a student of hockey. I can now carry on a conversation about icing, boarding, fighting and whether a player is playing well or my team sucks. I even read "Ice Hockey for Dummies" this summer. Any chance I get, I'm off to see the Sharks.

Ask me a question about politics and I can probably have a pretty informed opinion unless you ask me about the politics of Columbus, Ohio. National, state and local I can pop up with something to discuss and explore. I have spent hours on the phone with Ms Marinucci. She gets her payoff this month for being such a good friend with a dozen home made tamales.

Yeah yeah what's the point? I don;t know if I have one but I have been taught to make amends when wrong. So I doing the public, national and international flagellation for acting like a know-it-all American. I guess there is more to learn.

Yeah baby

I started to write about some holiday downer and then came to my senses. Since I have been invited back for a second job interview after Christmas I am now officially deliriously happy.

What a nut case I am acting like a dissertation on death and dying is nice reading less than 2 weeks before Christmas. Time to go shopping I say! Oh wait, I am almost done shopping. Time to finish the Christmas cards, wrap presents tomorrow, watch the Sharks, oh yes, I get to have fun.

Ruby the now tail less cat is doing well, the two long haired dogs have been shorn of their hair, some long lost cousins are coming for our Christmas party at my sister's house and life is good. I am going to Sharks game Saturday night, my cousin's family is coming over Friday to see our animated tree and Christmas village (see picture), I have gas in my car and presents under the tree. Yeah baby, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Virgen de Guadalupe

Yesterday, Dec 12th was the feast day of the Virgen of Guadalupe. For most Mexicans, she is considered the patron saint of Mexico. I would include myself in that group.

While my grandparents were devoted to San Martin de Porres and St Jude, I had always felt much more drawn to Mama Lupe because of her maternal image and desire for good things to happen for her people.

Today I have an old calender picture that belonged to my great grandmother and have various images of her around my house. She has, of course, a heavenly look on her face but I also feel the warmth and concern of the dark skinned mother.

A few years back, my cousin lost his son in some sort of freak incident. Looked like SIDS but wasn't. Anyway, we were all devastated with this loss of an 18 month old child. The aftermath was painful with months of loss of faith, doubt about the future and frustration with having a huge gap in all our lives. I kept praying to the Virgen asking for some help.

I went to Mexico for the feast day with my co-worker to stay at her parents house in Juarez. What I saw was an amazing display of devotion and faith. Thousands of people were dancing, singing and praying both inside and outside the Cathedral in Juarez. Additionally, there were a number of crosses in front of the Cathedral calling attention to the women who have disappeared around Juarez.

There was a large painted picture of the Virgen in the plaza that I stopped to visit with there. I asked Mama to help my cousin and bring that baby to them. She promised she would do that but I had to promise to always help the Mexican people. Fair enough, I was given talents to help people and these are my people so I should help my family.

Riley will be four next month. She came to my cousins within seconds of her birth. I go over and see her at least once a week.

Yesterday I had an interview with an agency that works for immigrants. They already asked me back for a second interview. Thanks, Mamita, I promise to help the family.

Latest Litvinenko

My head is spinning from all the developments of the Litvinenko poisonings. Here's the latest from the NY Times. London, Moscow, Hamburg, where will this go next?

spy vs spy

More information about the Litvinenko poisoning indicates more clues pointing towards Moscow as the source of the radioactive materials used. According to WaPo, there was a press conference held in Germany shedding more light on this puzzle.

Now Moscow is investigating the death in London while the Brits are in Moscow investigating. The Germans have found traces of the polonium 210 in Hamburg. From yesterday's press conference:

German radiation experts said Sunday that they had confirmed the presence of polonium-210, the substance that killed Litvinenko, at two locations in Germany and were 95 percent certain that traces found at other locations had come from that radioactive isotope. Final tests were needed to confirm its presence at some locations, German officials said. Officials did not specify exactly where the polonium-210 had been found.

Since I watch CSI all the time, I am wondering if there is a fingerprint identification to the polonium. Can the traces which have been found be tracked back to the same contamination that Litvinenko died from? So if it is the same element, does it have the same exact composition as what was in Litvinenko's body and can only be made at a particular nuclear plant, say in Russia? Where is Gil Grissom when I need him to answer my questions?

The Virgin Mary

I am back from a whirlwind trip to Columbus, OH. No snow on the ground here, thankfully!

While I have been trying to catch up on my non-plane reading, I was noticing the Mary Cheney turbulence in the force. Of course the conservatives are going nuts over her and Heather bringing a child who will be loved into this world. I guess this is a case of Heather is one of the two mommies, too.

I had some random thoughts about this unfolding story. Like what was Mary Cheney doing being pregnant and going out to hunt with her daddy? Another errant shot from her daddy and that is the end of the road!

Also, I know this is a very personal decision to make about having a baby. Whether the decision is about adopting, insemination or ending a pregnancy, these are all very personal decisions. So if this baby is going to be raised by two women and has not involved any men except for the initial donation, why are all these gay men talking about it as if they would know more than a lesbian? Guys, get out of the way and let the women speak!

I will make the same point I made in an earlier post, with all the crap going on in the world, aren't there more important things to be concerned about than this baby?

Next gift

Well I am running on Mexican time on this one. Not that I try to be Señora On Time with news. Well here is the next Christmas present, Mary Cheney is pregnant. The baby is due in late spring which means she is well along in the pregnancy, like way before the elections. Hmm, I guess timing is everything.

No!

How embarrassing! Check out this story of gas on a plane.

Elian's house

While in Miami I spent a fair amount of time reading Cuba Confidential by Anne Louse Bardach. This book is about the Cuban community in Miami, Elian, of course Castro and all the politics of these intersections. One of the reasons to read the book is because my friend, Jorge, who I was staying with, his brother is the mayor of Miami. His brother was one of Elian's attorneys. His brother, Manny, was in the house negotiating with the Attorney General's office when the feds came crashing in the door to get Elian.

I got Jorge to drive me over to the house where all this transpired. This is the picture of the house. There is a photo on the right hand side of the palm tree in the middle of the yard. The photo is of Elian's mother, Lizbeth Broton, who died on the trip over the Florida Straits.

More Litvinenko

Anne Applebaum has a must read column on the Russian poisonings, the current state of the KGB and various details about former KGB agents. She provides this description of the mystery of Russia:

In other words: Though we don't know who killed Litvinenko, we have learned that London is a more exciting place than we thought it was. We have learned that the complex plots of Dostoevsky novels merely reflect Russian reality. And we have learned that the old KGB lives on in new guises.

The country that spans 11 time zones, brought us Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Lenin, Stalin and Putin remains a mystery for those of us who are non-Russians.

Early gifts

Amazing what winning an election will get ya. Another of the slew of holiday gifts arrived yesterday, John "The Moustache" Bolton is leaving the UN. Plus the idiot in chief is throwing temper tantrums about Bolton's exit. The NY Times has some priceless remarks. This is from Bush's statement:

“They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time,” Mr. Bush said. “This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation.”

Uh, mirror over here for the President please. By the way, that majority Senate support doesn't exist. It's just another one of your hallucinations.

Being the spoiled guys, they still wanted their own way:

Mr. Bolton wanted very much to stay at the world body, administration officials said, and Vice President Dick Cheney backed exploration of some way to bypass the Senate. But that course was almost certain to inflame tensions between Congress and the White House, and in the end, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bolton gave up.

Waaaah. See ya later sucka, don't let a UN resolution hit you on the ass on the way out.

Brain less

Back from Miami. I am delirious from the time change. I can't think but I am tormented by the thought of poor Lance Bass, that he is single again. Yeah right, like I care. Maybe tomorrow I can string some thoughts together. Or maybe I will just have to put up more Christmas decorations.

Miami

So I have no job, haven't had one in over 7 months now. But here I am in Miami at my friends Jorge and Dylan's house.

Thanks to the magic of electronic communication, I have now listened to the Sharks game in Detroit, finally got on to my blog and am up-to-date with my email. And I have a tan, had key lime pie and sat on Miami Beach the last two days.

Miami has a special tropical beat to it. There are so many nationalities and cultures here, it just vibrates at a different speed than other places I've been to. Driving is an adventure. Jorge says you don't make signal changes because that would give away your strategy. Red lights are just a suggestion.

Today was also the 50th anniversary of Castro's revolution in Cuba. He was not sighted at the military parade celebrating both his birthday and the revolution. Yesterday I was at the beach and was thinking what if Castro is declared dead, how would I know? Yes, in MIami I had that rocket scientist thought. Like there wouldn't be a massive explosion from the Cuban emigre community in the streets of Miami. Duh. From the Miami Herald coverage about the

There is more on the Russian poisoning in London. I'm still following it but, hey I am in Miami and will get back to this on Monday with pics.

More Litvinenko

In this story from AP, the Brits are on Alexander Litvinenko death like white on rice. My favorite part fo this story was the suggestion that Litvinenko had done this himself, slipped himself a radioactive cocktail.

This substance, polonium-210, is a highly toxic material that can only be produced in a nuclear reactor thus limiting the places in the world it can be produced. So how does Litvinenko bring it into Britain and hold on to it until just the right time, whatever that may be? I read some blog comments today trying to blame this on the Israeli government, too, which I thought was astounding.

Litvinenko has a history with a Russian oligarch, Boris Berezovsky. Supposedly Litvinenko, when he was with the FSB, was ordered to kill Berezovsky. Instead, Litvinenko told Berezovsky about his orders and the oligarch fled the country. They had both relocated to London. Putin's buddies in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian alleged legislature, started pointing fingers at Berezovsky right away as the culprit in this sordid mess.

In this little tidbit from Moscow News, the plot thickens even further, with links showing up to the Kremlin takeover of Yukos oil. Berezovsky was one of the owners of Yukos before the Soviet style takeover. The principal owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is now freezing his ass off in a Siberian prison. (Wikipedia on Yukos here.)

So now we have Yukos, Putin, the murders of Anna Politskovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian emigre community in London and the British security forces all involved in a real life spy story.

Too bad real people are dying in this story.

Nice marriages

Next time I hear any of the Bible thumpers going off about the sanctity of marriage, I will have two really good answers to their idiocy: Kid Rock/Pamela Anderson and Britney Spears/Kevin Federline. I got your institution of marriage right here.

Now they are all divorcing. Yup, I sure am a threat to that institution.

Answers

Larisa Alexandrovna over at Raw Story has written a brilliant piece with most of the answers to the Litvinenko murder. She identifies the Russian agencies behind the poisoning and gives clear reasons for Putin to be called the Poisoner.

H/t to Pam over at her new coffee house. A bigger h/t to Pam for putting together people of color blogs in one place for all to visit.

Putrid the Poisoner

More is being revealed about the horrible death of Kremlin critic, Alexander Litvinenko, of radioactive poisononing. The crux of this NY Times article says this:

"This is not the kind of weapon that any kind of amateur could construct. It would require real resources to do it."

No this is no ordinary rat poison. It is radioactive poison dropped into something that Litvinenko ate or drank. Then for three weeks he suffered horribly until he died this weekend. Very nice.

Putin the Poisoner

So lo and behold the departed Mr Litvinenko had radioactive substance in his urine. The Brits finally found polonium-210 in his urine. A lot late but still, at least an answer.

In this article, the Russian emigres in London are speaking out about who is responsible for this murder-Putin. Obviously Putin the Poisoner is acting as if they are all crazy. He's taking a page out of Bush's handbook on how to deal with this PR mess. Ignore it. Deny it. Make absurd statements.

In his death bed statement, Litvinenko said this:

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed."

Also from this AP article, his friend and spokeman Alexander Goldfarb said Litvinenko had dictated the statement before he lost consciousness on Tuesday, and signed it in the presence of his wife, Marina.

Putin is proving to be no more than a KGB thug, an oligarch of the highest order. He puts an oil oligarch, Khoderovsky in Siberia, while trying to appear like he is moving the country further towards democracy. You can take the guy out of the KGB, make the KGB go away but he will always be a thug. A dictator all dressed up in nice suits, hanging around with another thug, Bush. What has the world become?

Putin critic dies

Very sad. WaPo says that Alexander Litvinenko has died in London. Cause of death remains unknown but let me take a wild guess: the St. Petersburg mob on the orders of Putin.

We shall see.

Happy Turkey Day

Hockey tonight! No more talk of Russian poisonings or ugly things in the world. I'll just pretend I am Bush.

Have a good Turkey Day or whatever you do tomorrow.

More on poisoning

The Washington Post has more to say about the Litvinenko poisoning. Apparently the St. Petersburg Russian mob is subbing for the FSB as Putin's Poisoners. From WaPo:

Mario Scaramella, the Italian who had lunch in London with a former Russian spy on the day the man was poisoned, said Tuesday that he showed the Russian e-mails during the meal that warned their lives might be in danger.

I guess Scaramella was right. Again the connections to Anna Politkovskaya surface.

In a separate interview later, Scaramella said the e-mails mentioned "dangerous people" behind the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin whose unsolved murder last month in Moscow has caused an international outcry. He said the e-mails indicated that those responsible for her death were members of the Russian mafia from St. Petersburg.

Next Russian chapter

Oh this just keeps getting better. An AP report tonight says that the latest Putin poisoning may have included some sort of radioactive material along with the already diagnosed rat poison. This may explain why Litvinenko lost all his hair and has suffered damage to all his internal organs. No ordinary rat poison for Kremlin enemies, no siree. Gotta add a little hot stuff to the mixed drink.

From the AP story, I guess Mr Litvinenko really pissed off Putin the Poisoner:

"Somebody has asked me directly, who is guilty of Anna's death? And I can directly answer you: It is Mr. Putin, president of the Russian Federation," Litvinenko told the Frontline media club in London in October.

Deny, deny

I am shocked and stunned. The Russian secret police, the FSB, are denying any poisonings. According to Moscow News they are saying it is all lies. What a laugh. Like they were going to come right out say, "Yes, this is our weapon of choice. We punish our enemies with secret liquids in their foods to maim and kill them." That's exactly the response I would expect from Putin the Poisoner.

Alexander Litvinenko was moved yesterday into critical care as his health took a down turn. But the FSB says it is "nonsense" that they would be involved. Russia must be the most ironic place on earth if all these enemies of the Kremlin just happen to get poisoned.

This reminds me of how the boyars tried to get rid of Rasputin in 1916. Rasputin was invited to the palace of one of Nicholas's cousins, Felix Yusopov. They first poisoned him and when that didn't work, they shot him. Even after being poisoned and shot, Rasputin was still alive. Sos Yusopov and his buddies dragged Raputin to the Neva River, chipped a hole in the ice and threw him in. When his body was discovered three days later, there was water in his lungs showing that he was still alive when he was tossed in the river.

I guess the modern Russian assasins have gotten more efficient.

Poisonous Putin

Since the name Vlad the Impaler has been taken, Vladimir Putin is going with Putin the Poisoner.

In further developments from the Anna Politskovskaya murder, a former member of the FSB (the modern KGB), Alexander Litvinenko, has been poisoned in London. According to the WaPo, Litvinenko has been investigating Politkovskaya's murder in Moscow last month. Now Litvenenko has been in a London hospital for two weeks and could die from the rat poison slipped to him during a meal.
Remember Politskovaya said she had been poisoned on her way to Chechnya last year. And here is where the circle gets completed in this Russian web: Litvinenko had written a book saying Putin had authorized the bombings of apartment buildings in Chechnya which started the second Chechen war. Politskovskaya had been covering both wars and had always maintained that Putin was responsible for starting the second Chechen war.

Also there was the case of the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, the current President of Ukraine. Yushcenko, who was the anti-Kremlin candidate in the election, was taken ill during the campaign in what was later diagnosed as poisoning. Yuschenko's face was disfigured from the poisoning and remains scarred today.

In the Tuesday Post, the editorial board takes a well deserved whack at Putin and his buddy Bush not to mention Tony Blair who all happened to be together this weekend, dressed in their finest Vietnamese wardrobes.

We trust that the British authorities will vigorously investigate the attack on Mr. Litvinenko -- who is now a British citizen -- and that Prime Minister Tony Blair will take seriously the possibility that a colleague in the Group of Eight sanctioned a political murder attempt in London.

I guess now I will never get to go to Russia after writing all this online. Oh well, at least I can continue to honor Anna Politskovskaya and share the news. Too bad Putin, you poisoner, I hope you are about to get caught with your hand in the rat poison.

Ruby

This is a picture of one of my cats, Ruby.

Last night we came home and couldn't find her. She was at the neighbor's house because the neighbor's dogs had chased her and got a hold of her. I am posting this picture of her because Monday she will no longer have the tail shown in this picture. The dogs dislocated her tail and now it must be taken off. She will be a stub tail cat.

But at least she will still be with us and able to nuzzle me under my chin. And purr loudly and sit on my chest.

Focus!

Less than a week until Turkey Day. I've never been a big fan of consuming gross amounts of food on a special day but really enjoy the company, especially now that I am home with the familia. With all due respect to all my Jewish friends (especially the Silver family) I do love Christmas.

This time of the year also makes me want to forget about the idiot in chief and all his cronies for a while. I am trying a news vacation for big hunks of my day as opposed to the compulsive reading of every shred of news available, including reading the Moscow news. So I am reading books, putting more Christmas stuff out every day, planning the lights in the front of the house, figuring out which day to get our tree, measuring to put up the Christmas village, getting the cards ready to go. The list is very long and I enjoy every bit of it.

So while DC is agog over Nancy Pelosi supporting a candidate who didn't win for leadership, I think I will make ornaments. Plus has anyone else noticed that all of a sudden the punditry have become fashionistas. Who asked, after all, who she was wearing at her meeting with Bush, Chris Matthews? Armani, baby! But the press has been full of accounts of what colors the women are wearing and what labels. Puhlease, did Carrie Bradhsaw get elected? Is Jimmie Choo all the rage on Capitol Hill now? And what do these guys know about labels, anyway?

Me, at least acknowledge I learned it all (whatever that is) from Carrie Bradshaw but putting it on the pages of the Post is a bit much. Does anyone ask Harry Reid who he was wearing? OH, Rahm, who is your designer of choice, Hugo Boss? Sexism rears its pretty little head again to try and make the first speaker of the House a lot less important. So she backed a loser in the leadership race, who will care next week or even tomorrow? People died today in Iraq, I don't care what color Armani suit the woman wore.

Can we get a little perspective here?

My favorite time of the year is upon us and I need to stay focused, get a job, decorate the house, finish the buying and have a damn good time.

What next?

I see Trent Lott has been elected to Republican leadership again in the US Senate. That's nice, a return to idiotic, racist sentiments accidentally falling out of his mouth are in the future. This will translate well to African American outreach for the Thugs. In WaPo there are a number of reasons given for his resurrection from the Civil War dead, by all white politicians. The African Americans in Congress have a much better memory. People of color can remember what racism looks like and feels like since we deal with it every day. I especially like the forgiveness part in the story. Did anyone ask any African Americans if they forgave General Lee, I mean Senator Lott for what he said? Oh wait, I am sure the token balck Republican, JC Watts, forgave him.

Hard to believe next week is Thanksgiving. The week after that I am going to run off to Miami to hang with my Cuban home boys. Five days in Miami with gay Cubans, how awful! I will have to read the Miami Journal every day to be able to keep up once I get down there. But, oh, do I look good in a Florida tan.

Tuesday funnies

This is hilarious. The woman who is taking Tom DeLay's place in Congress for a whopping one month was sworn in today. That's right, she will be congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs for about one month. According to the Washington Post she said:

"I'm working hard to accomplish the things I'm working for," she said yesterday. "For tax cuts. For immigration reform. To make sure we have a good solution for the war in Iraq."

Yep and I and I am going to wake up and be 5 foot 4. Read the whole article, it is downright side-splittin'.

So while I am on the subject of Tuesday funnies, here is Carla Marinucci with some tidbits from her trip to Mexico with Ahnold. My favorite tidbit, his set of favorite movies that he gave away in Mexico: "Doctor Zhivago,'' "Ben-Hur," "The Godfather," "Goodfellas," "The Sound of Music," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Twins." What a double feature -The Sound of Music and T2.

So my last funny is my own story. Today at BAWSI Rollers, we were waiting for the kids parents to pick them up. Sharon Kelleher who is my BAWSI boss and I had gone to a luncheon today where BAWSI got an award. Brandi Chastain was the keynote speaker. WE were talking about how fast she got back into shape after having a son in JUne. Sharon asked me if I had any ab muscles. I said "Yeah, Mexican abs, they stick out."

That's all for tonight, thank you everybody. Drive home safely.

Monday quarterbacking

The political scene continues to look like a hockey game which goes really fast with lots of hard contact.

As I predicted, Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican party, bit the dust. You can't preside over a massive loss like last week's ass kickin', lying the entire campaign and expect to keep your job. Then James Carville stepped up for, I would presume, the Clinton camp to pronounce the end of the Howard Dean era at the DNC. Oh my gawd the wailing over that statement, I thought someone was giving birth. But I have never been of the opinion that Dean would last all 4 years of his term and I believe that whoever becomes the Presidential candidate will replace Dean with his person.

Another thing, since this is my blog and I can say whatever I want, I have yet to see some proof that the 50 state strategy was the reason we won this election cycle. I would love to see some data with specific races and numbers to show that this DNC strategy was the reason for the win last week. I don't know that it was Schumer and Emmanuel who are responsible for the winds either but for gawd's sake, can we be a little data based here? The DNC strategy didn't shift the seat in NM-1 that had been hoped for, nor did Pombo lose here in Calif because of it so I am waiting to be convinced about how we got there.

In the meantime, Nancy Pelosi looks fabulous in Armani. I feel like the Dems are saying all the right stuff with the right attitude. Except now there seems to be a little bit of a problem with the leadership battles on our side. According to WaPo:

House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi's endorsement of Rep. John P. Murtha's bid for House majority leader set off a furor yesterday on Capitol Hill, with critics charging that she is undercutting her pledge to clean up corruption by backing a veteran lawmaker who they say has repeatedly skirted ethical boundaries.

Like I said, it's a hockey game.

Fidel Castro seems to be clinging to life. The Miami Herald is reporting he is dying of some version of cancer. The US government is always studying pictures of him for signs of impending doom and now the docs studying the pictures say he looks really sick. Like less than 18-months-left-to-live sick. We had a discussion about this yesterday and since my Cuban home boys have beat me about the head talking about Castro and the need for his reign to end, I was going for the quicker is better option. Jo thinks that there will be massive interference by the US government when Castro dies. While I don't disagree with her, I know there are Cubans on both sides of the issue and water on this. They should decide.

One good thing about these election results would be that I hopefully never have to lobby Florida Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtenin or the Diaz-Balart brothers for anything. I hated dealing with them and now, oops, they are in the minority. Yippeee, just like a hockey game.

I think I put enough sports metaphors in here to last a while.

Sunday thought

H/t to my buddy Kathy over at Birmingham Blues.

Another win!

Holy Crap I forgot to talk about my little brother, Evan Low! Evan worked a fabulous campaign for Campbell City Council and WON! Yes an API homosexual is now on the Campbell City Council. I am sure he is drunk with power, going from President of the Silicon Valley LGBT Dem Club to Queen of Campbell. I love him. Next step, get him on the DNC and going to all those queer elected meetings. Whoohooo!

Gay civil unions en Mexico

The Governator is in Mexico City on the same day the Mexico City assembly passed legislation allowing gay civil unions. Perfect. No fall of a centuries old civilization or riots in the streets, just equality. How ironic, how perfect. How unhappy the Catholic Church is. Ahh too bad.

Also there is election data about how Latinos paid back the ReThugs for all the talk about immigration. Talk about us like dogs, we'll vote for Dems. According to USA Today:

Republican gains among Hispanic voters evaporated in Tuesday's election, and some party leaders are blaming harsh rhetoric on immigration for the reversal.

Duh.

People on this side of the border don't know a lot about Mexico. As Ms Marinucci wrote today, Mexicans on el otro lado, the other side, hate the Governator. There are plenty of reason from that perspective including vetoing driver's licenses for undocumented people.

When I was working with AIDS organizations and LGBT groups in Ciudad Juarez on the border, I would give them big time props for the work they could accomplish in a small amount of time. One group, in a two month period, got their own radio show, got the Catholic Church to do a gay mass, started their own newsletter and were invited to sit on the Huma Rights Commission for the state of Chihuahua.

But yet, politicians have ignored the Latino community and do so at their own risk. Kerry spent a very small amount on Spanish language advertising in '04. His ads, at least in New Mexico, talked about Haliburton.

Dude, I have news for you. When a person is working 2 or 3 jobs, they don't give a shit about Haliburton.

On the other hand, Bush's ads talked about family values in the Latino community. Guess who won New Mexico?

So while Bush may have made some in roads in the past, it's all dust now. We don't forget nor should we. Ignore us at your own peril.

In the meantime, I guess it is time to get civil in Mexico City.

Que viva Mexico, viva.

New Senate

Here's some good reading. This is the list of all the new Senate Comittee Chairs starting in January.

Barbara Boxer in charge of Envirnoment and Public Works, Ted Kennedy in charge at Health and Education, oh MY GAWD! It just keeps getting better!

A landmark

I got a good lesson today on what the victories mean for us. My friend Bonny has a 12 year old son, Devon. Jo and I took Devon to his first political activity, we pushed his stroller in the Dyke March in Santa Cruz when he was less than a year old.

HE has NEVER seen a Democratic victory at the national level in his lifetime. And now he has seen it with his own eyes. YEAH BABY, we win the HOUSE and SENATE. Bush is toast.

Happy Day

A little bit of analysis as my brain is able to put things together.

It is very important to note that the overwhelming tide of anti-gay marriage amendments votes did not affect the outcome of the general election. The useful little referendums designed to bring out the homohaters who would also vote for homohating Republicans did not work. Period.

We didn't win most of those ballot measures but we did win in Arizona. We now have the model for what works, not just some theory. Enough with all the experts coming in from DC, locals now know how to win.

So what this also signals is the end of the slimy relationship with the R's and the radical conservatives. The bible thumpers are squealing today about the losses and blaming the cabal of Giulani/McCain/Romney for the losses. This is going to be an ugly break up. Bush won't be able to suck up to those conservative types anymore cus it's break up time. Just can't do it anymore.

And we have many unanswered questions now, too. Bush gave Rummy to boot over Cheney's apparent disapproval. So not only is Rummy out but now Bush is shoving Cheney out of the moving car. Bush didn't even slow the car down to push his ass out. And where does Rove end up now that his strategery has failed? I think Mehlman gets the next boot off the island and who knows who is next.

Just take a look at the new cast coming on to the stage. Bush Jr is starting to get close to Daddy's folks at the expense of Cheney and his thugs. The new guy at Defense is one of Daddy's home boys as is James Baker. Baker will be revealing the results of his Iraq Study group report any day now to keep the news cycle on the ReThugs. The Study Group will be filled with all kinds of wonderful stories and fables which will allow us to get out of Iraq in order to, once again, save Jr's ass. But at least there is a chance now to stop the madness and save some lives. Not to mention the joy of watching the political demise of Daddy Dobson and his ilk.

Oh happy day!

Hope

To papraphrase my old friend Jeep, if I was any happier, I'd have to be twins. We took the House, are inches away from winning the Senate, Rumsfeld has resigned and Bush looked like a bitchy queen on his press conference. I got to spend yesterday afternoon with the wheel chair kids, go to the Sharks game and see them win and Evan Low won for Campbell City Council.

Now if only I could find a job, ah, life would be perfect. But I know a lot of folks were waiting on tomorrow before moving ahead so I am hopeful. Actually I feel more than hopeful, excited about the future is more like it.

Despite everything that has gone on this year, I feel really good right now finishing up this year. I am going to go plant tulips, make appointments with electeds to help with BAWSI, help get an event together with Billie Jean King in April at Stanford and get a good job.

Latest reports have Tester winning in Montana so if we win VA, and the count is going the right way for us, we will have the Senate, too. I am too happy to write much snarky stuff cus....there is no reason to do so today! These victories come too infrequently so I will celebrate.

To life, hope and the future, cheers!

Tidal wave, I hope

Twas the night before the election and all through the House, Democrats were dancing but not in front of anyone else.

The numbers are wildly exciting, we look to kick the crap out the Rethugs tomorrow and take back the House. All the political reports say basically the same thing, Dems win between 25-35 seats, could be a tie in the Senate or we get the majority, 51-49. I can't stand it! What joy, what hope, what a chance to see justice in my lifetime.

The California Guv race is, as I have said, over. The Governator is probably the one high profile Dem who will win big tomorrow in a contested race. Of course that all depends on your definition of contested. Poor Angelides never got traction. In the Chronicle today, Ms Marinucci talks about a slice of gossip. The Governator could run for Senate against Barbara Boxer. Ok can't worry about that today. That contest will be in a few years.

In the meantime, vote, vote, vote. Go do something tomorrow. Don't look back on tomorrow with any regret.

I will be out waving yards signs around for known homosexual candidates, Evan Low for Campbell City Council and Clark Williams for San Jose City Council.

Also I will be posting California and New Mexico updates to Pam's House Blend. She will be part of the CNN blog reports tomorrow night. Also keep up on the blogs because I know we in the blogosphere will more up to date than the MSM.

I hope to see Ken mehlman's pants go up in flames tomorrow live.

And I can hear the wailing now, waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

Too bad, big babies. Go change your diapers.

Missing Janet

As I get older, I realize I've met a lot of people in that time. some are just blips on the radar and some create a warm spot in the heart forever. Janet Hogan was one of those warm spots.

Yesterday I was reading the obits in the San Jose paper and there was her obit. I couldn;t believe it, I was so shocked and sad.

We used to work together at Seagate many moons ago. Then I ended up living with her and her twin sister, Annie, for a few years. They both are very. very special women.

Janet was diagnosed with brain cancer 5 weeks ago and died last week. Today was her service. After soccer I ran up to the mountains to go to the memorial. So many things were going through my head on the drive up about Janet and our times together.

She was such a gentle soul and always kind to me. She and Annie helped me through some rough times, took me in and gave me a family when I didn't have one.

They helped me make one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make, to give up my dog. Since I was so lacking in resources in those days, physical,mental and spiritual, they knew my dog needed a real home, something I couldn't give him. But they were there for me with lots of love and hugs after I gave him away. That must be why I have so many dogs now, to make up for that loss.

I hadn't seen in her years but thought of her often, always lovingly. She showed me how to love animals, be kind to other beings, how to enjoy life in simpler terms. Janet also put up a newspaper headline on the fridge, Thousands Flee as Gloria Approaches, for Hurricane Gloria. I loved hanging out with her and laughing, talking about books and life, carrying on like a couple of crazy girls. We all went to reggae concerts, listened to music, read books at the dinner table.

Funny how I usually want to hide out with grief. But today it is telling the story of Janet Hogan and how I loved my friend and the world is a little less bright with her passing.

I'll miss you.

Post Halloween

Here's a sweet story about the history of Halloween in the Castro. In those years I had wanted to go to the Castro but somehow got stuck in the wildness of Santa Cruz and Halloween there. Now both places are way too violent to even take a chance.

But back in the day in Santa Cruz, what a great time I had cruising the downtown on Halloween weekend. There were hundreds of people out on the sidewalks and there were a couple of big time costume contests happening so the sheer imagination of contestants was mind blowing. Of course, back in those days, that was the point-to not have a mind by Sunday morning. It was festive, fun and made up of community people. Now there are stabbings, gun fire and various other forms of mayhem that have become Halloween. It's almost like New Year's Eve, strictly amateur hour.

The Sharks lost tonight, the last weekend before the elections in upon us with more crap to be dumped on us by desperate candidates from a desperate party. I think I will play soccer and read, pretend like none of this is happening.

La Historia

My grandfather was an immigrant from Mexico. When he became a citizen, he insisted the whole family drive all the way to freakin Austin, the state capital, from little Del Rio on the border. He said they all needed to see the capital of their state.

After sight seeing, the family went to a local restaurant. There they were told that citizens or not, the restaurant was not going to serve them because they were Mexican. My grandmother's head almost blew off her shoulders she was so mad.

So what has changed, 60 years later? Mexicans are still the problem, whether we have papers or not. There is a need to build a fence, apparently, to keep out all those people busing tables and washing cars. Oh, one minor detail, stupid ass Bush didn't make sure it was funded. That would require some seriousness on his part as opposed to just giving cover to his buddies. This way they can say they are tough on immigration without really doing anything or having it cost anything. Most Americans won't even know they have lied to on this one, too.

Tomorrow is Day of the Dead for those of us who follow the traditions. So the other day I went to a Mexican store to get some needed items. My mom told me about a fellow who used to work for my grandfather many, many years ago and Jose now owns a store out where I was headed.

Jose was the man who brought the statue of St Jude from Mexico for my grandfather's grave. A few years after the placement of the statue, some thug stole the statue from the headstone, leaving only the feet. It has been like that since.

So I went to see Jose. I introduced myself and asked for his help. The statue needed to be replaced, to honor both my grandparents' memories. He was leaving for Mexico this week. He promised to get the statue for me.

I couldn't stop crying when I talked to him and I have no idea why. Except that tomorrow when I go to clean up their graves and put flores there for them, I know that I will have kept the promise I made a long time ago. The grave will be complete again soon.

My grandfather was the one who took me to see JFK in the JC Penney's parking lot in San Jose. He was the one who lost his job when he was accused of stealing from his job. After all, what Mexicans could afford to send their son to Norte Dame without stealing?

Next Tuesday when I go to vote, I'll remember him when I vote for all the Democrats. I'll offer a kind thought to the man who had enough pride to want something better for all of us and put up with the indignities he suffered for being brown. And someday soon I will see St Jude standing over his resting place and thank him for the gifts he gave all of us.

Halloween night

Too full of candy and cake, aaaahhhh, must go to bed. Life is grand, though.

Birthday wish

Here's my birthday wish......
Thanks Kos for the image.

Kathleen

Fourth grade was a very long time ago. Fourth grade starting at the Catholic school with all new kids, 50 kids in the class and new rules was a shock to me. But out of the horrors of Catholic school came a life long friend, Ms Kathleen.

Some of us are lucky enough to have one really good friend and I have two, Kathleen and Julie.

She occupies a place in my heart where there are no others. Someone who endured the whole trauma of that particular classroom, that particular group of kids so we have a special history together. She has known me almost as long as my family and understands that place where we grew up. Her parents are buried in the row next to my father.

Recently I was across the street from our old church. I saw a funeral ending and people leaving the church. I suddenly remembered it was the mother of one of our old classmates. I immediately called her and even though she wasn't home, I gave her the play by play of the people leaving and the cars driving to the cemetery. Yes, it is a strange and wonderful relationship.
We reconncected after one of her sisters died and I read the obituary in the paper. I sent her a letter and one night in December I got a phone call from her. We caught up, shared our lives and my life has been better since that call. Her generosity of spirit is amazing. I look forward to our long talks and even longer laughs.

What a joy to know I have a friend for life who makes me laugh and understands my tears. Happy Birthday. You will always be a day older than me, old thing.

And for you, once again, the headless nun.

Julie

MMMHHH, Gayle's Bakery lemon poppyseed cake for dessert. Must be birthday season.

I have two incredibly wonderful women in my life who both have birthdays right around now. I thought I would share a little bit about them and celebrate their birthdays, too.

Julie's birthday is Oct 27. She came into my life 11 years ago when she helped me recover use of my shoulder after an operation. What an incredibly generous heart she has! She is not the typical vindicative, I'll-remember-everything-you-ever-did-to-me Scorpio like I am. Julie is helpful, gentle and let's me tease her all the time. We used to work out together in the gym for quite a while but she started her own physical therapy business so we couldn't keep our standing dates. She was the last one at my house when I left Santa Fe.

One time I was having a really hard time and was visiting her at work. She just sat down with me and gave me a cookie. Nothing more complicated than a friend sharing a moment of kindness.

I am so lucky to have her as my friend all these years. Nothing complicated, just the essence of true friendship and love. I am blessed.

The Mummy

I am just in the Halloween mood these days, hence the Halloween titles. The air is not crisp yet in this part of California. I was in shorts all day and the top was down on the car. But there are plenty of decorations everywhere I went so I am feeling more festive daily. Plus tomorrow is the start of birthday weekend and I can be relieved of the burden of no job.

I also don't have to pay attention to Darth Cheney, the idiot in chief or "just back off" Rumsfeld. Changing one letter in that description of Rumsfeld is a much better description of him, don't you think?

After watching another episode of Ugly Betty tonight, I am glad to see the mean people starting to show a little humanity. The gay gay is not quite so snarky. The gorgeous Vanessa Williams is a lot less nasty and I continue to just love Betty. She is my new idol. Betty is getting better comebacks and a lot more sassy. You go, girl, make us all proud.

Autumn also brings out such vivid memories of days past, lives lost and worst of all, bakeries closed. The bakery of my childhood closed this week, the week before my birthday. There went the chocolate cake with real whipped cream for my cake. No more sitting in the parking lot eating a chocolate eclair. I can't get Ms Marinucci her favorite cookies as a treat. Gone, all gone. Such a loss.

This caught my eye today. I think former NJ Gov Jim McGreevey is a lesbian. He announced he wanted to marry his partner if and when marriage becomes totally legal in NJ. He is doing lesbian dating, complete with the U-Haul on the second date. Minor detail - if he wants to get married he has divorce his second wife first.

I just want to add that Rush Limbaugh is a boil on the butt of humanity for making fun of Michael J Fox and his disability. So is that jackass Congresswoman in Wyoming for threatening one of her opponents who is in a wheel chair. I shared the WY story with my friends from the after school program, both of whom are in chairs. All that afternoon we kept saying to each other, "If you weren't in a wheel chair, I'd slap you." Or "If you were in a wheel chair, I would slap you." Limbaugh, you pitiful excuse for a human being, you should be so lucky to be around such wonderful people.

The Headless Nun

I went to Catholic school. This may explain my salty use of the language. I can cuss in English and Spanish with a nasty word in Navajo thrown in.

I am still great friends with Kathleen whose birthday is the day before mine. We have known each other since the 4th grade. I had to share this picture with her one time because I done some Photoshop thingies to it and inserted the name of our 8th grade nun into the photo. It was great!

Catholic school in 1968 was a horrible place. We were subjected to whacks with rulers, fasting before mass, inspection by the flying monkey nuns to make sure we had blue rubber bands in our hair to match the uniforms. We had no art, barely any PE, too many kids in a classroom and abusive teachers. We had fellow students who would faint during Mass because they were so hungry. So what did the nuns do to punish them? Didn't let them eat after Mass.

Am I bitter? Noooo. That's why I have kept the headless nun. My friend Kathleen's sister, has a collection of nun things. I have a couple of nun dolls that have flames shooting out of their mouths. But this is my favorite.

No beatings, no abuse, no head. Peace at last.

Monster mash

Counting down to election day, I am glad I have a form of TIVO so I can watch Jon Stewart and not the accompanying commercials. Cheney actually admitted today he was Darth and Bush assured us he is an idiot. "We're not going to stay the course because we are flexible but we are going to stay there forever. Hehehe." Imagine Jon Stewart's impersonation.

This picture is a bit of Latino surreality. I took it when I was with my mom and aunt at the cousin's birthday party. It is a mariachi singing in front of a giant TV at the rest home. On the screen is none other than Desi Arnaz, famous Cuban. So there are Latinos, front and back, one a real one and one a real one on TV. It was too much for me to take in so I just sang along.

Here's a good one from over at DailyKos from Novak:

New Mexico-1: Rep. Heather Wilson (R) is down in the polls and showing alarmingly soft support among the suburban Hispanic constituency that was key to her victories in the past. Her recent ad touting her vote to override President Bush's stem-cell veto is a huge miscalculation -- the stem-cell issue is good only for Democrats, it can only hurt Republicans, whichever side they fall on. Atty. Gen. Patricia Madrid (D) has superceded the scandal surrounding her prosecution of federal witnesses in a major corruption trial in New Mexico, and Republicans fear that Wilson, a tough campaigner, may be at the end of her rope. Likely Democratic Takeover.

I am warming up to dance on Heather's campaign in less than 2 weeks. What a concept, a Hispanic woman representing state which is majority minority. What next? The NM Governor running for President?

I just read a post on the SF Chronicle's political blog. A blogg used a phrase calling this administration "devoid of content." Such a brilliant phrase. Too bad it is true.

What world will we wake up to on Nov 8? I can only dream of blue skies, bright stars and Congressional offices calling moving companies to get their shit outta there. Not a minute too soon for the world.

NJ

Whoa! Marriage is on the way in New Jersey. All kinds of links here, Blabbeando, Pam's House Blend and needless to say there is plenty bubbling up everywhere about this news. Pam's place also has quotes from the Freepi as they nut out over the demise of western civilization.

It is less than two weeks away to the election. Do not get distracted. It is about Iraq not marriage, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Pay no attention to the closet cases trying to distract you.

Los Alamos,NM

More news from the Land of Enchantment... Los Alamos, New Mexico is the birthplace of the nuclear bomb. Los Alamos labs or The Lab as it is known in northern New Mexico, sits on a plateau about 45 minutes northwest of Santa Fe. On clear days it is easy to see the water tower that has sat there since the famous Dr Oppenheimer roamed around up there.

It is a nuclear lab that doubles as a sieve. Stuff comes out of there that you wouldn't believe. Wen Ho Lee spent about a year in solitary confinement for trumped up charges. The Feds screwed him so much that the judge who freed him apologized on behalf of the American people for the way he was treated.

There have been investigations showing people suing lab credit cards to buy BBQ's, among other things, for themselves. There have been reports of rampant sex in secure facilities. Then there was a hard drive that disappeared only to turn up months later behind a copy machine.

So today there are reports of lab secrets turning up in a meth lab. That would be classified documents in the hands of people processing meth with explosive chemicals. Well I guess better in their hands than Rumsfeld. But there is going to be a lot of 'splaining to do on this one.

Why I oughta...

I am wondering how vile the good ol' US of A can get before election day. After Kevin Tillman's blog on Truthdig evoked some of Rush's nastiest zombies on to him, then Rush accused Michael J Fox of going off his meds in order to do an ad for Clare McKaskill, now the woman who holds Wyoming's on seat in Congress threatened to slap one of her opponents. The only thing holding her up from that bitch slap? He is in a wheel chair.

What pray tell did the candidate, Thomas Rankin, say during the debate that caused such a disturbance on the dark side? He accused her of taking money from Jack Abramoff. In fact she took $22K from Tom Delay but he hasn't been convicted. Of all the nerve confusing Tom Delay and Abramoff.

The ReThug also made a slur against him as a disabled person which I really find offensive. Since today is my day to work with the kids in wheel chairs I am particularly agitated over this one. Read the whole harrowing account here.

Why?

Why does Bush have a job and I don't?

I know what the internets are, I am using it right now. I know what Google is, I am using it right now. I even live close to Google. I can read and write and even understand what I read and write. I don't need much translation when people talk to me. I don't chew with my mouth open in public.

I won't wear a dress though. Well, neither does Bush. I am fairly clear in my thought and speech. I am not responsible for the downfall of two countries. I don't get one bit of advice from Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Alberto Gonzales. I don't torture.

So why does Bush have a job and I don't?

Now what?

Today I went to Santa Cruz. I know, there are worse things than to have to drive through the redwoods and go to the ocean. But I can feel the closeness to Halloween now. By going back to where most of my ghosts remain, I can feel their presence and remember their lives.

I drove by the cemetery where Carmella's ashes lay. I went to the ocean where we threw Jay's ashes in between bouts of sea sickness. I drove by the old Santa Cruz AIDS Project office and remembered how many times I had been there, when so many of my friends were still alive. I heard their laughs and felt my sorrow.

It was not a pleasant stroll down memory lane. That lane is too filled with seeing pain and death, seeing and smelling bodies covered in cancer, bodies too weak to continue, no laughs left. They were all too young, we were all too young to see them die.

On the way out of town, I drove by the Denny's. Back in the day, Denny's would give people a free meal on their birthday. Since Gary and I had the same birthday, we would go over there in the afternoon and talk shit about everybody. We would laugh, tell dirty jokes and enjoy our day together. I can't do that anymore. Denny's doesn't offer a free meal and Gary left to be with Chet. And Jay, Gary, the Pineapple Princess, Margaret, Vickie, Randy.

To make it an even better day, I was given the "thanks but no thanks" response to a job I had really hoped to get. I now had a perfect climate for weeping and cleaning, a Mexican holiday.

Tomorrow I will try again on the job market. This sucks. But the Sharks won and Jeffrey Skilling got sentenced to 24 years for his part in Enron. I still have a place to live, everyone is healthy and eventually someone will give me a job. Time to light another candle.

More Tillman

Please read this article written by Pat Tillman's brother, Kevin, at Truthdig. You may remember Pat Tillman as the guy who walked away from the NFL to go serve in the army. Kevin and Pat enlisted together and this is the first time one of the family has spoken out about the war. I had posted earlier about Tillman becuase he was such an anomaly, a thinking man in war.

Guest blogging

I am guest blogging at Pam's House Blend today. Run on over there for a quick hit of adrenaline.

This keeps getting better

I must be the stupidest woman on the planet. Oh wait, Kathy at Birmingham Blues tells us about Twinkle, the little star of Alabama politics. She is much more stupid. Anyway, I had been thinking that over the last two hundred years that the US has been in existence, the government was for and by the people. Thus, my stupidity. Not in the last six years, sister.

According to a new judicial ruling, the White House must turn over all the visitor logs from the office of Darth, the vice-president. How could this be happening that it takes a court order to find out who was visiting the vice-president? Lily Tomlin had the answer years ago, "We don't care and we don't have to."

According to Editor and Publisher, the Washington Post requested the logs back in June. The ruling came today and the judge was not happy. Even better, it was a Latino judge, Ricardo Urbina, who ordered the Secret Service to turn over the logs by Friday, Oct 20. Yup, give those logs up so we can see who has had access to Cheney for the last two years.

Who is this on 400 different occasions, Jack Abramoff and his little friend, Ralph Reed? Ken Lay was here, gosh could you have been talking about energy policies behind our backs? Nah, couldn't happen.

Well it did happen and now we are all going to know about the level of corruption coming out the stinky Naval Observatory and the Old Executive Office building. (That's where Cheney lives and works.) I am starting to feel like the asthma attack I have been having for the last six years is coming to an end.

Paybacks are a bitch, fellas. And we are all on the side of the road watching this payback come in buckets.

Thar she blows

The tidal wave is starting! In my former state of New Mexico. Raw Story uncovered, or rather found a long lost story of one Heather Wilson, NM-1. As they say in New Mexico, eeeeeee. Yes, that's a word there. And it has multiple sylables to it. Anyway, I digress.

Some background first for this juicy gossip. Heather was the Cabinet officer for the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department-CYFD. According to Raw, on her third day there as head of the department, she removed a file regarding HER HUSBAND. Yes it seems there is a weak Foley tie-in here because her husband supposedly touched a 16 year old inappropriately. When confronted with this behavior, she denied it on camera from a local TV station. Then when told they were going to run the story she confessed. Ok read the whole story at Raw.

This is the same woman who broke down crying when talking about Janet Jackson's boob being revealed at a Super Bowl halftime. This same woman who was on the page committee in Congress when Foley was showing up at the page dorms all likkered up but has shed no tears over the behavior of her colleague.

This is Heather, rhymes with leather who is notoriously homophobic and marches to Bush's tune. The tidal wave is crashing in New Mexico and the country and Albuquerque will be better off without this woman in DC. Yeah baby!

Five things

I have been tagged by Ms Julie Enszner to identify five things that feminism has done for me. Since Julie is one of the smartest women I know, I must follow down this path she has directed me to.

1. I found my voice.

2. I heard other women's voices and didn't feel so alone.

3. Gave me moments when I actually saw that I was equal to men.

4. Let me play sports with total glee.

5. And....this took me a while but feminism gave me the right to never wear a dress again.

No way!

As further proof we are going to hell, it is now possible to get either your coffin or urn with Major League Baseball colors and logos. As a former fervent baseball fan, I could have, at one point in my life, imagined my next chapter decorated in the Giants orange and black. But since the Barry Bonds is a big cheater fiasco known as the current Giants, I would have to pass on that one.

Which leads me to wonder, what happens if you bury a steriod user in one of these decorated vessels? Does it eventually blow up, expand at a ridiculous rate and eventually look totally distorted and freakish? Just wondering.

Pathetic

Tyrone Garner who was half of the duo challenging sodomy laws which eventually were over turned by the Supreme Court died 37 days ago. But his family did not have funds to pay for a funeral. His body has been turned over to the state so that it can do a free cremation.

Apparently there was a fund established to help the family pay for his funeral expenses. So far it has pulled in a whopping $225. For the man who helped get rid of the sodomy laws in this country, people have only given $250. The family needs $430 to put him in an urn. If he was the white half of the duo would this be happening? And where are the national orgs on this with their multi million dollar budgets? This is nothing short of pathetic. Where are our priorities?

Please look to Keith Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick for more of the details and where you can send some money.

Kibbles and bits

This is sad. Former Congressman Gerry Studds died over the weekend. He was the first openly gay member of Congress. His has left a widower behind who is not eligible for the federal pensions that every other widow and widower get. The same battle over and over again, whether it is the gay lesbian partners of people killed on 9/11 or police and service members killed in action, we just don't count for federal benefits. When my father died, my mother got his social security and so did the kids. If my partner dies, I get nada.

In the Weds Washington Post, there is an article about what would happen to the Bush presidency when we win in 20 days and take back one or both houses of Congress.

On desks around the West Wing sit digital clocks counting down the days and hours left in the Bush presidency, reminders to the White House staff to use the time left as effectively as possible. As of 8 a.m. today, those clocks will read 825 days, four hours. But if the elections go the way pollsters and pundits predict, they might as well read 20 days.

Oh please god let it happen, let it become reality!

I haven't saide anything about Ms. Marinucci lately so I thought I would post her latest blog about Clinton coming to SF to raise money. She also lists the other stars to be on stage with him. Maybe I can be her photographer that night. Yeah and maybe I will wake up 5'4".

For those of you who missed Frank Rich's fabulous column last Sunday in the Times, here it is. No subscription needed.

And one last item, the Sharks shut out one of the last unbeaten teams in the NHL tonight, the Dallas Stars, 2-0. Nabby was unbelieveable. Nothing like a Sharks win to make the night perfect.

An essay from a dead woman

An essay from the murdered Anna Politskovkaya in the Washington Post.

Anna Politkovskaya

Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in the elevator of her Moscow apartment as she was bringing groceries home. As is the usual case for Russian journalists who piss off the Vladamir Putin, her murder will go unsolved. There have been

I don't pretend to be Condi in terms of being a Russia expert. I am studying the language and have spent a fair amount of time reading Russian history and studying Russian culture. But I am such an expert that I didn't know about Anna Politkovskaya until she was brutally shot down last week. Now after reading about her bravery, I feel compelled to honor a sister warrior.

Ms. Politkovskaya was born in the United States to diplomat parents. She returned to the Soviet Union to study. She became a journalist and had published several books very critical of Putin. Ms. Politkovskaya was writing for Novaya Gazeta, a biweekly paper in Moscow, at the time of her murder.

Anna Politkovskaya knew what she was doing in Putin's Russia. She was writing almost exclusively about the war in Chechnya and documenting the torture suffered by ordinary citizens at the hands of the Kremlin sponsored government. She was so highly regarded for telling the truth, when the Chechens took over the school in Beslan, she had been requested to return to Chechnya to help negotiate the standoff. There was apparently an attempt on her life during her trip to Beslan when she became unconscious after drinking tea. She was violently ill from this episode and never made it to Beslan. The Russians eventually killed 125 hostages and all the Chechens by storming the school.

Reading other accounts of her bravery and committment to fairness while poking her finger in the eye of the Kremlin makes me incredibly sad that we have lost such a warrior.

From the Guardian:

Her seriousness is not just her frown, her severe glasses and full head of grey hair. It's the tension, anger and impatience in her whole body, making clear that her sense of the continual injustice being perpetrated in her homeland never leaves her, that she can't shut it out in a way almost all British journalists, even the campaigning, radical kind, can.

In her words:

"To this day there's torture in any FSB branch in Chechnya, like the so-called 'telephone', where they pass an electric current through a person's body. I've seen hundreds of people who've been through this torture. Some have been tortured in such an intricate way that it's hard for me to believe that it was done by people who went to the same sort of schools that I did, who read the same textbooks."

No wonder Bush is best friends with Putin. They both like to torture people.

Anna Politskavaya apparently was doing a wonderful job for a small newspaper with limited readership in country that covers 11 time zones. She had pissed off the Kremlin/Putin, the Kremlin back thug boss of Chechnya, Kadyrov, the security forces in Russia to name a few. She was unrelenting in her critcism of Putin and has called him out for use of Bush's war on terror. Putin has tried his own smoke screen, linking his invasion of Chechnya to the global war on terror. Any wonder the results are the same? Rebellion, home made terrorists, torture and lies. And if there are any questions about Putin's heavy hand, there have been 21 murders of journalists in Russia since Putin took office.

I think I am hearing Janis Joplin "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

Rest in peace, hermana. You served the world well.


Read more here and here.

Gus

Ever have a day with minimal brain cells firing? That was my day today. It was easier to walk the dogs and not think than to read the paper and catch up on the weekly mags. So since I have nothing to add to the worldly conversation, here is a picture of Gus, the man of the house.

NCOD

I hope everyone had a nice National Coming Out Day. I forgot to leave the house let alone come out of the house. H/t to Pam at the House Blend for actually reminding us about coming out. And Shakes Sis added to the discussion from the ally side. So former Congressman how was your first coming out day? And I don't mean your peepee coming out of your pants.

Ruby

My Ruby, hard at work in the house. Her job? To look cute like this. Actually she has discovered the next door neighbors so when she hears them pull up, she hops on the fence and races over so they can pet her. I am obviously not enough human for her.