Walmart - The Worst

On Keith Olbermann's Worst Person's last night he gave the gold to Walmart for a truly unbelievable story. It seems one of their employees, Deborah Shank, got into a bad car accident and received brain damage so bad she is in a nursing home for the rest of her life and has no memory past the most recent minutes. She had insurance at Walmart and the bills were paid. The family sued the driver and was rewarded $470,000. Walmart then turned around and sued Deborah Shank to get the money to cover her medical expenses, they won and got the money back so now Deborah Shank's husband has to struggle to pay her outrageous medical bills.

Now let's be clear here, although this sounds about as awful as it can be Walmart has done nothing illegal or unusual - whether or not it is right goes to the heart of the greedy and corrupt culture that now exists in America, profits over people is the new golden rule. It is standard practice that money rewarded in a law suit for medical bills goes to the insurance company that paid those bills while the suit was ongoing. If you have medical insurance this will be in your contract somewhere.

And it gets worse, Deborah's son was killed in Iraq last week.

This is all over the news yet Walmart, as usual, has a tin ear for what is going on. People who hear this story say they will never shop in a Walmart again. This doesn't affect me as I already don't shop at Walmart and haven't for years and don't intend to ever do so. It is amazing that Walmart cannot see that to give the woman back her money would be the cheapest positive publicity they ever had. They don't want to set a precedent, you see. If they give the money back in one case suddenly anyone that this has ever happened to at Walmart will demand their money back and will have a case. It might actually cost them a couple of million dollars and your low prices will go right out the window and we can't have that now can we? And just imagine how many poor children will be out of work in China if Walmart has to cut back on their orders.

Keith put them in Worst Person's again tonight and says he will continue to do so. He must like tilting at windmills.

In 2007, the retail giant reported net sales in the third quarter of $90 billion.

Hillary Plummets

With all the mess with the two democratic candidates their approval ratings are falling. But even with the Rev Wright story and Hillary's ridiculous dodging bullets in Bosnia not having emerged before this new poll, Hillary's negatives went way up and her positives way down. Obama's approvals only went down a little and are still better than McCain.

The video is Tim Russert explaining the numbers.

A Day At The Office

OK, I know posting pictures of your grandkids on your blog is so cliche. But there is a reason for that and all grandparents know what it is.

Ally, a whole 7 years old now, spent the day at the office because this week is spring break. Tomorrow she goes up to see another set of Grands (she has several due to divorces, remarrying and great-grands) out in the country but on the California coast. Very cool place and she has her own horse there.

She was running all over the office with Diesel, the company's English bulldog, and making lots of noise. Her dad, Bennet, sat her in from of his iMac and shot some pictures and put them through filters so I had to create a web gallery of them.

Richardson Endorses Obama

Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama today for president. This is very significant for several reasons, he knows Obama from the time both were on the candidate trail, and he is close personal friends with Bill and Hillary. He was even in Bill's Cabinet, and Bill went to Richardson's house to watch the Super Bowl with him. So for him to choose Obama is really saying something.

The most important part of Richardson's speech was his call to stop the bitter fighting amongst ourselves. This can only be a call for Hillary to step down - now, if not sooner. The fact is, and the media isn't reporting it much, that it's just about impossible for Hillary to win. Neither candidate can get the total number needed to nail the nomination, but Obama is going to reach the Convention with more delegates and the greater popular vote. The only way Hillary can win is to convince the Super Delegates to totally ignore the popular vote of the democratic party and go with her instead. This will be a disaster for the party and might cost us the election. The problem is the Clintons have enough power they have a chance of pulling that off, although some of that power seems to be slipping, if they don't stop now they might not have much left by the time this is all over.

Bill Richardson is one of those Super Delegates so his endorsement today is a call to the other SD's that it is OK to make a decision now and that one can survive going against the Clintons. I hope enough heed the message and side with Obama. Richardson was said to be on the short list for Hillary's VP, so taking this step leaves him out in the cold and is a clear sign of the depth of his conviction. This was not a power play, he truly believes Obama will make the better president.

Of course he could be Obama's VP, wouldn't that be something? A black man and a Hispanic on the same ticket, that would certainly be historic, especially if they win. It could work out well, Richardson could help them pull out wins in Texas and Florida which would give them the win for sure. Is America too bigoted to elect such a ticket? I really don't know but I hope not.

Wall Street Wimps

This whole buy out of Bear-Stearns really ticks me off. It certainly puts the lie to the idea that all these rich people believe in a free market and are against government help. They just don't want to see the government help out the poor guy who is losing his home due to predator lending practices from these very same rich people, or the person dying of cancer without health insurance because their employers only gives them 36 hours a week so they can be listed as part-time and get no benefits. E. J. Dionne Jr. nails it in a very good article titled The Street on Welfare:

Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy.

The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. They are desperate to be bailed out by government from their own incompetence, and from the deregulatory regime for which they lobbied so hard. They have lost “confidence“ in each other, you see, because none of these oh-so-wise captains of the universe have any idea what kinds of devalued securities sit in one another's portfolios.

So they have stopped investing. The biggest, most respected investment firms threaten to come crashing down. You can't have that. It's just fine to make it harder for the average Joe to file for bankruptcy, as did that wretched bankruptcy bill passed by Congress in 2005 at the request of the credit card industry. But the big guys are “too big to fail,“ because they could bring us all down with them.

Everything for the rich guy and nothing the rest of us. Does anyone still think the Republicans are for anyone BUT the very rich? Bush was happy to spend $20 billion to help the them but for the rest of us it's our own faults for not being smart enough and good enough to be rich.

But if this near meltdown of capitalism doesn't encourage a lot of people to question the principles they have carried in their heads for the past three decades or so, nothing will.

Nothing will, the ideas of the neocons and the rich have reached the point of an ideology as powerful as any religion. No amount of reality will shake their beliefs. But I hope the rest of us can learn their idea of less government was never more than a sham. A complete lie meant only to put more money in their pockets.

So now the bailouts begin, and Wall Street usefully might feel a bit of gratitude, perhaps by being willing to have the wealthy foot some of the bill or to acknowledge that while its denizens were getting rich, a lot of Americans were losing jobs and health insurance. I'm waiting.

Don't hold your breath, E. J. That could really damage your health.

Barack Makes a Speech

And what an amazing speech it was. I haven't heard anything that good since the 60's when we had Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. I often lament at how different the country might be today if we had 8 years of Jack then 8 more years of Bobby, but it wasn't to happen. Which makes me wonder if Obama is taking his security seriously, I sure hope so. This speech was brilliant, a frank discussion about race that was not condescending or scolding. In fact, I think he connected with everyone with his story of his grandmother. I am constantly amazed that, no matter what happens Obama remains cool and in charge, and when attacked does not stoop to the attackers level but raising himself to a higher level. One thing for sure he showed himself to be in an entirely different league than anyone else currently running, or anyone who has run since Bobby Kennedy. I've long wondered where the great leaders were today, they were simply absent, finally after decades we have one.

But this stuff about Rev. Wright really ticks me off. Certainly what he said would anger many people but none of it reaches the level of the church people supporting John McCain who spew outright hate and bigotry. Falwell said God had damned America and delivered 9/11 on us because we harbored gays and no Republican presidential candidate was required to denounce him. Here's a story on Mother Jones by David Corn that talks about McCain's spiritual adviser, Rod Parsley, whose endorsement he actively courted. Where is the outrage about this? Why isn't McCain being called on the carpet to denounce his association with Parsley? The double standard here just reeks:

Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a “war“ against the “false religion“ of Islam with the aim of destroying it.

Dave Stevens

I just found out yesterday that Dave Stevens died last Saturday at the age of 52 from leukemia. Anyone in the comic biz knows who he was, and any comic fan as well. For everyone else he was the creator of Rocketman, which was made into a movie in 1991 with Bill Campbell in his first starring role. He was also the artist who started doing the paintings of Betty Page that made her famous and got her a movie as well a few years ago.

I didn't know him well, only met him a couple of times at the San Diego Comic Con but I worked with some of his art through Bob at Graphitti Designs. I knew his art very well, he was one of the best in the business, and I've never heard anyone in the biz have a bad thing to say about him. A while ago Bob told me that Dave was trying to learn how to paint in the computer and wanted to know if he could give me a call for some advice. Of course I said yes, and I waited for a call that never came. A few months later Bob came by with a disk of a painting Dave did that blew me away. In 15 years of comic coloring I never did anything as good that piece.

Right now I can look up and see the signed, limited edition print of Vampirella painted by Dave that my wife bought me several years ago. The name of the painting seems quite bizarre at this moment - “Back From the Grave.” I have #4 of 850.

“Well, I do expect a lot of myself. I'm a harsh critic because I know what I'm capable of. I have hit those occasional peaks amongst the valleys, but the peaks are so few-things like genuine flashes of virtuoso brush inking, like I've never executed before or since-I can count on one hand the number of jobs where I've been able to hit that mark. The same with penciling. Sometimes it just flows, but more often than not, it's pure physical and spiritual torment just to get something decent on paper. I often get very discouraged with the whole creative process.“ – Dave Stevens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Stevens
http://www.davestevens.com/

George Carlin: Still Funny After All These Years

George Carlin on religion and rights, and stupid shit somebody made up. He's getting a bit old but his humor is still sharp. His genius lies in cutting through the layers of bullshit and showing us the brutal, sharp and horrible truth underneath. Then making us laugh about it.

Credit goes to Pharyngula, where I first saw this.

It's Far Worse Than We Think

Anyone who doesn't read Grag Palast needs to, he reports on the stories all other media sources are afraid to touch. Fortunately, with this story I will provide a link to his blog. This is a story that is incredibly frightening in it's implications:
______________________

Spitzer not only took on Countrywide, he took on their predatory enablers in the investment banking community. Behind Countrywide was the Mother Shark, its funder and now owner, Bank of America. Others joined the sharkfest: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup’s Citibank made mortgage usury their major profit centers. They did this through a bit of financial legerdemain called “securitization.”

What that means is that they took a bunch of junk mortgages, like the Grinning’s, loans about to go down the toilet and re-packaged them into “tranches” of bonds which were stamped “AAA” - top grade - by bond rating agencies. These gold-painted turds were sold as sparkling safe investments to US school district pension funds and town governments in Finland (really).

When the housing bubble burst and the paint flaked off, investors were left with the poop and the bankers were left with bonuses. Countrywide’s top man, Angelo Mozilo, will ‘earn’ a $77 million buy-out bonus this year on top of the $656 million - over half a billion dollars – he pulled in from 1998 through 2007.

But there were rumblings that the party would soon be over. Angry regulators, burned investors and the weight of millions of homes about to be boarded up were causing the sharks to sink. Countrywide’s stock was down 50%, and Citigroup was off 38%, not pleasing to the Gulf sheiks who now control its biggest share blocks.

Then, on Wednesday of this week, the unthinkable happened. Carlyle Capital went bankrupt. Who? That’s Carlyle as in Carlyle Group. James Baker, Senior Counsel. Notable partners, former and past: George Bush, the Bin Laden family and more dictators, potentates, pirates and presidents than you can count.

The Fed had to act. Bernanke opened the vault and dumped $200 billion on the poor little suffering bankers. They got the public treasure – and got to keep the Grinning’s house. There was no ‘quid’ of a foreclosure moratorium for the ‘pro quo’ of public bailout. Not one family was saved – but not one banker was left behind.

Every mortgage sharking operation shot up in value. Mozilo’s Countrywide stock rose 17% in one day. The Citi sheiks saw their company’s stock rise $10 billion in an afternoon.

And that very same day the bail-out was decided – what a coinkydink! – the man called, ‘The Sheriff of Wall Street’ was cuffed. Spitzer was silenced.
______________________

So once again the rich rip off the poor and middle class and get away with it while ordinary people are screwed. The thing that always puzzles me is why they are so greedy. One hundred million dollars isn't enough, they want 2 or 3 times that. I don't think the people they screw over are real to them, it's all just a game.

The Nightmare Girl Comic

My big graphic novel project is starting to take shape with the first 13 pages done. I've set up a Web Gallery using iPhoto 08, first time I've used it and it's great. Down at the bottom of the web page there are various settings for how to view the thumbnails so everyone can use what they like best. Carousel let's you flip through it like you would flip through album covers in iTunes, very cool.

Then there is the head of the project, Jimmy Leigh's MySpace page, which will have artwork show up occasionally. And, of course, there is the main Nightmare Girl and Dark Matter Comics web page where he is going to set up a Flash flip book for the pages.

I'm really having fun with this. Once we get into her nightmare world I get the chance to really let loose and do all kinds of fun stuff. And Jimmy and Duval put in a lot of single panel pages which is the colorist's best friend. Allows us to really go into detail and do some nice rendering.

Keith Goes After Hillary in a Special Comment

For the first time Keith turns his blistering commentary on a democrat. There is a difference to this one, though. When hitting Bush or Cheney or any other Bushite there has only been anger and contempt, all well deserved, well-aimed and well said. But this time he goes after Hillary Clinton and there is obvious pain in his face and voice that he needs to do this, and he pleads with Hillary to change course. There is still anger and his commentary is still very much to the point and very, very biting and he's saying all the things I've been thinking for weeks. I voted for Hillary here in California but if the vote happened today I would go for Obama.

At the end of the second to last debate it looked like Hillary was going to take the high road even if it meant she lost and I breathed a sigh of relief, but only days later she turned the negative rhetoric into high gear and it's been getting worse ever since. It's already at the point where if she gets the nomination I will still vote for her but very, VERY reluctantly. And I won't be voting for her but against McCain, who I think will be as bad as Bush since Bush has already set the course of MacCain's presidency. At one time I would have been very happy to vote for her but not any more, her scorched earth policy, to win at any cost is just too distasteful and getting worse every day.

Some have even said she is trying to make sure Obama will lose to McCain if he gets the nomination so she will be able to run again in 2012. Unfortunately, that she could be so cynical and would be willing to screw the country over just to get her win, is not all that hard to believe.

The REAL News

Elliot Spitzer is a huge boon to the Bush administration. Why? Because the story of his scandal blanketed the news and knocked the real news out of center stage so most Americans will never know of it. The first one is all about KBR, an off-shoot of Halliburton, who has been supplying water to our troops that make the sick:

A report obtained by The Associated Press said Soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

Just imagine how bad things could be if the right wingers in power weren't patriots who support our troops!!!

Then there is this one about Bush vetoing legislation that would make torture illegal. He says the US doesn't torture but then why would he veto this law? The obvious and clear answer is that the US does torture and Bush is afraid if it's made illegal he could be held accountable:

'We do not torture," President Bush insists, yet that assurance is accompanied by an unspoken "but." In vetoing legislation,1,218858.story that would require CIA interrogators to abide by the same humanitarian standards imposed on their counterparts in the U.S. military, Bush again has drowned out his denials with an ominous silence about just what "enhanced" interrogation tactics he considers appropriate.

"because the manual is publicly available and easily accessible on the Internet." So, of course, are the Geneva Convention In a shameful Saturday radio address justifying his veto, Bush argued that CIA interrogators can't be confined to techniques allowed by the Army Field Manualand the Detainee Treatment Act, which prohibit "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." By the president's logic, acceptance of the humanitarian standards included in those documents also deprives the United States of the element of surprise.

He pretty much says that the CIA has been torturing people and will continue to do so. I remember one survivor of the Hanoi Hilton saying that one of the things that gave them strength was the knowledge that the US would never do what the Vietnamese were doing to them. No longer true, thanks to Bush.

Flock It!

I'm trying out a new web browser called Flock. I first looked at it months ago and thought it had potential but was not ready for prime time yet. When I discovered they had a new update I downloaded it again and it is much improved. Seems to be incredibly fast, especially in Gmail, and it works very nicely with Photobucket. I'm using their blog editor to write this to see how it turns out. Seems a bit picky in many ways but using Blogger itself works far better on Flock anyway even if their blog editor doesn't work well.

Really, there seems to be little advantage to using the blog editor instead of Blogger. And as far as being social on the web, I'm not, but I do have Gmail, Photobucket and Blogger and Flock seems to work quite well with them. More user friendly for these services than other browsers and the most important part is it's faster everywhere than Safari. Time will tell if I keep using it but I like it so far.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

McCain's Temper

There is an article at salon.com by Mark Benjamin about McCain's temper. But it sounds like this is more than temper, apparently he can go far enough out of control that some generals who know him don't want his hand close to the button:

"I like McCain. I respect McCain. But I am a little worried by his knee-jerk response factor," said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004 and is now campaigning for Clinton. "I think it is a little scary. I think this guy's first reactions are not necessarily the best reactions. I believe that he acts on impulse."

"I studied leadership for a long time during 32 years in the military," said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, a one-time Republican who is supporting Obama. "It is all about character. Who can motivate willing followers? Who has the vision? Who can inspire people?" Gration asked. "I have tremendous respect for John McCain, but I would not follow him."

"One of the things the senior military would like to see when they go visit the president is a kind of consistency, a kind of reliability," explained retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, a former Republican, former chief of staff of the Air Force and former fighter pilot who flew 285 combat missions. McPeak said his perception is that Obama is "not that up when he is up and not that down when he is down. He is kind of a steady Eddie. This is a very important feature," McPeak said. On the other hand, he said, "McCain has got a reputation for being a little volatile." McPeak is campaigning for Obama.

Obama's coolness under pressure sure looks like a plus compared to McCain. I wonder how messed up the guy really is from his 5 years at the Hanoi Hilton. I mean I respect him for surviving that ordeal, I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it, but something like that has GOT to mess a guy up for life.

Bumper Stickers

Junior Super Tuesday

I voted for Hillary on Super Tuesday but as time goes on I'm leaning more and more to Obama. I think if I were voting today it would be for him, she's really been pissing me off the last week or so.

She has really gotten dirty in her tactics; for instance, she said she has experience and McCain has experience but Obama has a speech (she claims his entire campaign is based on his speech at the 2004 Convention). That is just plain stupid because if Obama takes the nomination McCain can now use this against him. She sounds like she moved over to the pubs camp on that one.

The one that pisses me off the most is her ambiguous answer on 60 Minutes when asked if she thought Obama was a Muslim. All she said was she didn't "believe" he was and didn't know of any evidence that supported that. She purposely left it open so those who think so can say "See, even Hillary doesn't know for sure, she just believes he isn't." The honorable thing to do would have been to say she knows he is a Christian and that she also knows that the rumor is a right wing attack campaign, the very kind aimed against her many times.

I was hoping she would take the high road but she didn't and I think less of her for it. Some things are more important than winning. That's where I have to hand it to Edwards for pulling out when he did. He knew he wasn't going to win so he bowed out so he wouldn't be the spoiler, so it would be a fair fight between the front runners. I hope Obama picks Edwards as his VP, or at least Attorney General. A fiery fighter is just what's needed to clean up the horrible mess in the justice dept.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

My friend, the Village Green, had her father pass away the other day. I never met him but feel like I will miss him. I wanted to post a link to her tribute to him on her blog:

Long Live The Village Green

There is also a book that he and her mother wrote about their love letters during WWII after he had to come back to the states for a while and she was still in her native England:

Dear Stephanie, Dear Paul

OBAMA'S PATRIOTISM

On Monday on Countdown Keith brought up this story:

In our fourth story tonight: Measuring a man’s patriotism by his allegiance to symbols. The “Associated Press” reporting yesterday, the conservatives question Senator Barack Obama’s patriotism because he does not wear a flag pin and because he did not put his hand on his heart during the national anthem last September. CNN.com aiding and abetting with a shocking online poll: Does Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be the president of the United States?

Obama has already said his grandfather, a World War II vet taught to put his hand up for the pledge but stand for the anthem a common practice as you can see in any ballgame. As for a flag pins, Obama stopped during in the runup to the Iraq invasion when it seemed to become, quote for him, “A substitute for true patriotism”.

Yesterday, he challenged the Republican monopoly on supposed patriotism: “A party that presided over a war in which our troops did not get the body armor needed or was sending troops over who are untrained because of poor planning or not fulfilling the veterans’ benefits that these troops need when they come home or undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary? That is a debate I’m very happy to have.”

Keith then brings on Rachel Maddow, my favorite left wing radio person, to comment on this and zeros in on the important part:

He’s doing something here that national level Democrats have either been too insecure or browbeaten to do in the last few years. He’s not in hiding. He’s not wishing this away. He’s literally confident and calm in picking up this teargas canister and flinging it back from where it came. He’s saying, you want to talk patriotism, let’s talk patriotism. You want to talk American ideals, all right secret prison guys. Let’s do it.

If this had happened in 2004, this would have seen as John Kerry taking those swiftboat veteran attacks and using them to say, all right, if you won’t denounce this George W. Bush, let’s talk about your Vietnam era service. That’s what a confident candidate does with these kinds of attacks.

And this is exactly the kind of thing I've wanted to see for years. The rightwingers twist the debate and accuse the dems of doing the very thing the Republicans are doing, and the Democrats never set the record straight. If Obama can turn the tables on them I will be very happy, to say the least.

Hillary Done?

Can we stick a fork in her? Yeah, I'd say so. The pundits say she would have to win 65-70% of the vote in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania and that's impossible. Obama's momentum has been incredible and it keeps growing, and his campaign seems to be extremely well organized while her's is not.

I feel sorry for her, it's not that she's run a bad campaign, it's not that she's an inadequate candidate, she just had the bad luck to run in the same year Obama ran. The problem is that HE is just that good, at least at getting people excited. Democrats have turned out at the polls with almost twice the number of voters as Republicans, and Obama is also claiming most of the independents. If Obama can keep this level of excitement up the November election should be a blowout.

I sure wish I had her to vote for in 2004 rather than John Kerry. He was a pretty weak candidate and that is being generous, Hillary would have blown him away. But she waited one more cycle, not realizing Barack Obama was waiting for her in 2008. Who could have known that. Obama is a phenomenon, just being good isn't enough. I just hope he can actually get things done when he gets into office. I still have serious doubts about his level of experience but I hope I'm wrong.

If Hillary is smart, and can swallow her pride and not go negative in the next two weeks, she should become Obama's VP. She can be his Cheney, his behind the scenes knife fighter. That way she can add her experience to the ticket.

American Atheists

This is the head of American Atheists telling secularists not to vote because no one is courting our vote. This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. All not voting would do it make us completely irrelevant in national politics.

My Mom

Finally got over to the nursing home my mom had been sent to, just haven't had the time or energy to get over there. She just had a jaw infection but we can't get anyone to say why they sent her to the nursing home for physical therapy afterwards.

When I got there I leaned over to gently yell in her ear to say hello, her hearing has been going steadily for 40 years. When I'd last seen her she didn't even know who I was at first because she couldn't hear me and her macular degeneration had gotten so bad she couldn't see me, either. So I knew I had to yell in her ear, as soon as I did she started hitting me and yelling at me to get away.

“Who are you! What are you doing here! Get away from me, get away from me!”

The level of hostility was startling but I figured she was just scared and didn't know where she was or what was going on, when someone can't hear no one at the hospital bothers to try and make her understand they just keep doing things to her. So I tried her other ear in case she could hear better in that one, nothing, she kept yelling and hitting and pushing me. So I stepped back, with macular degeneration she can still see around the edges so I thought if I stepped back she could see me.

And she did, she stopped for a second and said: “Kevin?” Then started yelling again: “What are you doing here?” Over and over, like she thought she was some place I couldn't get to. Then she yelled: “I don't believe it, you aren't Kevin, go away, go away!” While continuing to push and hit me. So I went and talked to the nurse since I only seemed to be upsetting her, the nurse didn't have much to say except that she had been like that since she had come in.

It looks like her hearing is gone completely now, but worse, that her mind is gone too. It was only a few weeks earlier that I'd seen her last and she had trouble focusing and kept drifting off and repeating herself but was otherwise perfectly coherent for someone 91 years old. And I've never seen that much hostility from her before. She had been getting more hostile in the past few years because she was in such bad shape she couldn't do anything any more and was pissed as hell about it, but nothing like this.

From what I understand Alzheimer's shouldn't come on that quickly, but hostility is one of the signs of it. I've been prepared for her to die for a while, even wanted her to because she was so miserable, but I wasn't prepared for this. I immediately went home and had 2 beers to calm down, and I drink so little these days that 2 beers is two months worth. I wouldn't even have the beer if Rod hadn't come over 2 weeks ago and I had gotten beer for him. But for the rest of the day I've been shaky and very nauseous. Monday we'll have to try and get in touch with her doctor and find out what is going on and see what we need to do. Maybe I'll go back with a large note pad and marker to see if I write things - very large - if she will respond to them. Maybe if she just knows what is going on she'll calm down some.

Made My Decision

A friend of mine sent me an article written by Noam Cohen in The New York Times on Hillary and Obama:

On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.

As a longtime Mac user now I want to vote for Obama, but wait, I better keep reading:

While Mr. Santa Maria praised barackobama.com for having “this welcoming quality,” he added that it was “ethereal, vaporous and someone could construe it as nebulous.” He said there was a bit of the “Lifetime channel effect, you know, vasoline on the lens” to create a softer effect on the viewer.

Then it hit me; that is actually a good description of Obama and his campaign and one of the things that bugs me. He is indeed nebulous, pushing feel good generalities without giving too many hard facts or details. I don't like that, gives him wriggle room down the road.

The “hectic” site that the Clinton campaign is offering could actually be quite strategic, exactly in step with her branding. After all, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly emphasizes how hard she will work for the average American “starting on Day 1.” If she comes across as energetic online, that may simply be her intention. If she shouts a bit more, typographically speaking, that may be the better to be heard.

That is much more of what I want in a president. I don't want nebulous, I want hectic energy; I don't want compromise that looks just like failure, I want a feisty fighter.

I also think that Obama is more nebulous because he doesn't actually know what he's going to do when he's in the White House, just vague ideas about what he wants but no definite plan. While Hillary knows exactly what she is going to do and can get it done. It's the difference between experience and the lack of it.

So I'm voting for Hillary. Yes, I'm disappointed in her, she's far too conservative for me, but I'm not sure that Obama is any more liberal. That seems to be a tag the media put on him and it has no substance. The guy who was liberal enough, John Edwards, isn't in the race any more and isn't a choice so I have to settle for what is left.

With any luck Hillary will pick Edwards as her VP, although there is a certain symmetry in Obama being the VP. Perhaps in 8 years he'll have the experience necessary for the top job.

Super Tuesday

Big decision coming up and for once California is in the thick of things. In the past it's always been over before we had our primary, very frustrating. But now I have another dilemma, who to vote for? John Edwards has always been my man, he was the only one who seemed to understand that the country is run by the corporations and rich and they were all stomping on the poor and middle-class in a big way. And he was the only one mad about it, as mad as I am.

My first thought was that I had to go for Obama since he is the more liberal of the 2 left, but then I got this link from a friend that put all that in doubt. I'm not sure how accurate this is but I've seen enough that made me question Obama's liberal leanings already. Several searches on it have muddied the water further, some say he's more liberal some say Hillary is.

Then there is the question of who will win. Will Americans elect a black man with the name of Barack Hussein Obama? Will they elect a woman who also happens to be Hillary Clinton? Lots of people hate her, for no good reason in my opinion, but it exists all the same. I could make damn good arguments either way and I could make damn good arguments of what each one's advantage in the race would be.

Barack is young and dynamic and can inspire the young people to come to the polls, Hillary is tough and experienced and has the political backing and election machine to get it done. I just keep going in circles, all scenarios could happen and we won't know which one will actually happen until the election.

Been watching speeches all day on CNN. Oddly enough, Hillary has been more dynamic and magnetic than Obama today. Most important for me is she came right out today and said her ultimate goal is universal health care, not even Edwards said that, and Obama's health plan is a little too far to the right. His response to the current economic crisis was luke-warm as well, far too much of a Republican tint to it, let the market work it out crap that we all know only favors the rich.

And once they are in office who will be more effective? Hillary claims the experience and she has it, more experienced than most of our presidents have been, including Bill. I've heard that as Senator of New York she has worked tirelessly for the people of New York and been very effective. Obama is one of the least experienced to ever run for president. About the same age as Kennedy but Jack had 13 years as a Congressmen and Senator under his belt when he ran. And yet, Obama put together an impressive political machine very quickly when he decided to run and raised money like crazy, showing an incredible degree of competence. He's almost matched what Hillary had years to create, that's damn impressive.

If I knew Obama was going to take Edwards on as VP that might seal my vote, or even if Edwards comes out and supports him, seems odd to me that he hasn't. If I knew that if Hillary won she would take on Obama as VP I could go for that. That could give us a 16 year democratic dynasty. Might almost be enough to overcome the tremendous damage Bush has done to this country, damage I'm not sure we can recover from at all. Or even Edwards as VP would work.

I've been saying I won't vote for Hillary because she's been bought by the corporate lobbyists, but that is iffy because the only reason Obama hasn't been totally bought yet is because he's still new. Give him some time and I think he would sell out to a greater degree than Hillary. In fact, I almost think that once Hillary is in office she will feel like she has arrived and will feel like she can give the corporations the finger and do what she wants because she will have already achieved her biggest ambition and doesn't need them any more.

I tend to think Obama has a better chance of getting elected and still lean towards the idea of him being more liberal, but he is always vague when he talks, never really makes heavy promises or gives details. While Hillary does give details, like stating flat out that she wants to aim towards universal health care. That statement alone might just get my vote.

I have a feeling I'll be mulling this over all the way to the polling place on Tuesday. But right now I think I'm leaning towards Hillary, health care is the single, most important issue for me.

Edwards & MLK III

Here is a letter sent to John Edwards from Martin Luther King III after they met and talked.

January 20, 2008 The Honorable John R. Edwards 410 Market Street Suite 400 Chapel Hill, NC 27516 Dear Senator Edwards: It was good meeting with you yesterday and discussing my father's legacy. On the day when the nation will honor my father, I wanted to follow up with a personal note. There has been, and will continue to be, a lot of back and forth in the political arena over my father's legacy. It is a commentary on the breadth and depth of his impact that so many people want to claim his legacy. I am concerned that we do not blur the lines and obscure the truth about what he stood for: speaking up for justice for those who have no voice. I appreciate that on the major issues of health care, the environment, and the economy, you have framed the issues for what they are - a struggle for justice. And, you have almost single-handedly made poverty an issue in this election. You know as well as anyone that the 37 million people living in poverty have no voice in our system. They don't have lobbyists in Washington and they don't get to go to lunch with members of Congress. Speaking up for them is not politically convenient. But, it is the right thing to do. I am disturbed by how little attention the topic of economic justice has received during this campaign. I want to challenge all candidates to follow your lead, and speak up loudly and forcefully on the issue of economic justice in America. From our conversation yesterday, I know this is personal for you. I know you know what it means to come from nothing. I know you know what it means to get the opportunities you need to build a better life. And, I know you know that injustice is alive and well in America, because millions of people will never get the same opportunities you had. I believe that now, more than ever, we need a leader who wakes up every morning with the knowledge of that injustice in the forefront of their minds, and who knows that when we commit ourselves to a cause as a nation, we can make major strides in our own lifetimes. My father was not driven by an illusory vision of a perfect society. He was driven by the certain knowledge that when people of good faith and strong principles commit to making things better, we can change hearts, we can change minds, and we can change lives. So, I urge you: keep going. Ignore the pundits, who think this is a horserace, not a fight for justice. My dad was a fighter. As a friend and a believer in my father's words that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, I say to you: keep going. Keep fighting. My father would be proud. Sincerely, Martin L. King, III

Bush vs Jesus

Hell of a Day

That was yesterday and it isn't going to get any better for days. If I was a superstitious man I'd say the universe was out to get us and Darcy agreed that it sure seemed like that. For the 6 months when she was mostly in the hospital and we weren't sure if she would live annoying crap kept happening, exactly when we (mostly me) didn't want to deal with it. Things like my very reliable Camry breaking down twice, which makes 3 times in the 11 years I've had it. And 3 or 4 annoying things would happen every week.

Yesterday was a doozie. Started out with Darcy waking up with a bad tooth-ache. She's had this for over a week and has been taking Amoxicillin, because she's immune compromised such things can be very dangerous. We went to the dentist last Monday and he couldn't find the infection. He thought the anti-biotic had taken care of it and it would just go away. So waking up with it swollen and hurting on Sunday was bad, especially since she had to be in the hospital Monday morning for an operation. So we went to the dentist's office and saw another of the 20 dentists they had there (I really hated the place as soon as we saw it). After waiting 2 hours the dentist comes in, takes one look at the x-rays, the very same ones the other doc saw on Monday, and immediately said she had a massive infection in a tooth that had a root canal done to it. That it called for major surgery because it was in the bone. At this point all we know is that one of these dentists is completely incompetent but don't know which one. Probably be both.

Earlier in the day we got a call from the home where my mom is staying, saying she went to the dentist with a tooth ache but it was so bad he sent her to the hospital for oral surgery. ARRGGHH!

Back to Darcy's dentist, who now refuses to operate until she has Darcy's doc sign off on it because she has so many serious conditions. This is standard procedure and Darcy had told them to get that last Monday when we were first in but the doc said he didn't need it and they hadn't done anything. I'm holding my temper, all I want at this point is to get out and never set foot in there again but Darcy is chewing them out big time. Her closing shot was “If anything bad happens it's your fault.” When we got to the car a little old Asian lady had followed us out and in broken English tried to say it was our fault they didn't have her doctor's permission to operate. At which point I lost it and started screaming at her at the top of my lungs, this didn't faze her at all and she just kept trying to insist it was our fault not theirs and I just drove off with her still talking. Her son must own the place.

So here it is Monday morning and Darcy has to head over at 7am to get her arm operated on, which should have been done 2 months ago but the docs blew it. They had put a fistula in her arm for the dialysis, but it needed 6 weeks to grow and they went ahead with emergency dialysis by putting a plastic tube down a vein in her neck. This is bad because it is more prone to infection than the fistula but we had no choice. By the end of November the vein surgeon wanted to operate again and move the fistula to a better position. It had already been 6 weeks at that point, now it's 2 months later and we'll have to wait for this operation to heal and the whole idea had been to get off the plastic tube as soon as humanly possible.

And I forgot to mention that when I went to turn the TV on so I could record the playoff games our very expensive HDTV was dead. This is a problem because the thing weighs a ton, I can't even lift half of it, it takes 2 VERY strong guys to move it with difficulty. In the meantime we can't watch any of our recorded shows and sitting down to watch TV at night is our time together since even going out to dinner is a major effort. The shows will keep recording and our DVR will just start erasing older shows automatically as the hard drive gets filled to capacity. And who the hell needs to deal with this now!

My mom, as of last night, was resting comfortably but one side of her face was swollen up. Her doc is Dr. Saran and I said that I hope he can wrap this up quickly. Darcy didn't laugh, she thinks the love of puns is a basic, male genetic flaw. But I'm going to have to go over to her hospital after Darcy gets out of surgery - they are going to keep her overnight - Darcy that is, Mom has already been kept overnight.

And I'm pretty sure a couple of emergency rushes are supposed to come in today at work. I'm sure they will call me when that happens.

The Economy

Edwards is my man because he's the only one who talks about the 2 Americas. Rich Republicans don't even believe it exists, or if they do just don't care, they got theirs. The well paid, fat cat media doesn't relate to it either, but anyone living in that second America, the poor one, or the middle class one who is one disaster away from homelessness, knows exactly what he is talking about. And the worst cause of concern is health insurance, people pay a lot of money for it or don't have it at all and are worried that they will soon be in big trouble. But there isn't much point in paying a lot for health insurance because as soon as you come down with something serious they will refuse to cover you.

Here is something from Alternet:

Democrat John Edwards and Republican Mike Huckabee are the messengers of class politics in this election - the Huey Longs as I called them a while back. As Reuters today reports:

"Ask corporate lobbyists which presidential contender is most feared by their clients and the answer is almost always the same -- Democrat John Edwards...Edwards' tone and language on the campaign trail have increased business antipathy toward him. His stump speeches are peppered with attacks on "corporate greed" and warnings of "the destruction of the middle class.'...But this year Edwards is not alone. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, sometimes also rails against corporate power and influence, tapping a populist current that lies just below the surface of U.S. politics."
On the Democratic side, Edwards class-based campaign has pushed candidates like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to lately vent more populist themes (though Obama's underlying message remains class-averse). That stands in contrast to the Republican side, where the rest of the field against Huckabee is digging in promoting more Bush-style upper-class warfare.

Even if Edwards doesn't get the nomination he deserves a lot of credit for changing what the top 2 are talking about. More and more they keep taking Edwards' issues and using them as their own. I don't think either would have come out with major health insurance reform if Edwards hadn't done it first. Now they are stealing his talking points on the economy.

Edwards deserves the nomination and would get it if he got the publicity the other two got. But the corporate media doesn't like him because they know he will not be friendly and expand their markets. The reporters are all well paid and just can't relate to his message, plus they think Hillary and Obama are better stories. They may be right but because we have such a shoddy media (if not downright corrupt) the man who should be our next president isn't going to get the chance.

Although I wouldn't right him off yet, he's tough. Simply the fact that the corporate lobbyists are scared of him is enough reason to vote for him.

Nightmare Girl

I've got a new comic book coloring project. Been a while since I had a juicy one and this is a doozie - 120 page graphic novel, I'll be at this one for a while. I've got 3 pages done so far!

With all the stress of the last year my brain is having trouble focusing, I'll answer an email and the next thing I know I've spent 2 hours answering emails instead of working, not my usual pace but I'm so easily distracted these days. Also I'm just damn busy, Darcy took care of just about everything around the house, cleaning, shopping, cooking. Now I have to do all that, and take care of her and work my usual 14 hours a day. She is getting more independent as time goes on so I don't have to stay home until almost noon to get her ready for dialysis, she can do it for herself now, but she is not up to shopping or cleaning yet and I'm not good at either one of those. But I'll get past it, I always do. She's trying to chip in by doing some flat coloring for me but 3 days a week of dialysis really eats up a person's time.

The name of the comic is Nightmare Girl and the page here is the main character just before the nightmare begins, click on the image for a larger view. Creator and writer is Jimmy Leigh, who really has a lot invested in this project and pays me on time, which is very important since times are pretty tight right now. Here is Jimmy's Facebook page. The only thing of mine on there is the background image, which is page 1, scroll down for page 4 of the comic. Jimmy is quite a character, which is a necessary requirement for comic book creators. Duval Stowers is the artist, doing both pencils and inks. Man, is that a lot of work for 120 pages but he's a talented artist. Haven't met Duval yet, just talked on the phone a couple of times.

Here is the official Nightmare Girl web page. Not a lot on it because we are just getting started but it will fill up soon with sample pages. As for me, I've got to get to work, even though it's 10:15 pm. Sleep is for the weak!

Iowa 2008

The news people are just so excited and having so much fun today. Nothing they like better than a tight race to increase their ratings.

Just saw David Gregory interviewing Edwards and he said that Obama says that we need someone to unite us and not be divisive. My thought was fuck that shit!! I want the neocons crushed like the bugs they are so they all scurry back into the deep, dark, dank holes they should never have crawled out from. And so completely crushed they would be afraid to show their faces for decades.

Edwards said he couldn't disagree more, he sees his job as president is to fight for the American people against the corporate interests and those people are not going to just go away and you are not going to "nice" them away.

Awright, John!! Of course, that means he's done for even if he wins Iowa. The corporate media will HowardDean him big time and sink his entire candidacy. They will hate him more than any other candidate.

The New Year

Here it is 2008. As I said in 2007 I'm continually amazed by these dates. We are actually in the 21st Century. Doesn't look anything like the artist's rendering of the future in magazines in the 50's and 60's. My granddaughter Ally will be 7 on January 7. This means she has never lived in a time when the yearly date didn't begin with a 2.

What I also said in 2007 was I hoped Darcy would still be around for this New Year because I could see she wasn't looking too good. Too many years past her lung transplant, all those heavy duty meds were taking their toll.

Little did I know how right I was. She spent close to all of the last 6 months in the hospital and got down to skin and bones, too weak to even lift herself up into a sitting position in a bed with railing. Twice I thought she only had a day or two left but she pulled through each time. She is now on dialysis because the drugs have completely destroyed her kidneys and has been home for 3 weeks. A week ago she surprised me by getting out of bed and walking to the living room by herself. I didn't even know she had done it until I walked in there and saw her on the couch.

So she has beat the odds again, as she has so many times in the past 15 years since her first diagnosis of a fatal lung disease. I think both of us are pretty sure she won't make it to 2009. The trick for times like these is to live in denial, don't think about it and just enjoy each day that you have. All those self help gurus got it all wrong, denial is a great thing and living in the moment really sucks. If you ever have to do it you will know what I mean.

But here is something to get the new year started off right: