mpvorkosigan

09:50 am: Don't vote.
Recently, there have been ads with big name celebs telling you not to vote if you don't want change. This was done as reverse psychology. And it works. But I want to give you another reason why you should.

The Powers That Be would prefer that you get apathetic and not vote. They want you to throw up your hands and say "Feh. Why bother? It won't make any difference."

But at this very moment, a tiny little woman in Rome who hasn't voted since Eisenhower is getting ready to send in her ballot, because she thinks this election is important. She's a nun, over a hundred, and still a registered voter in her home state of Massachusetts.

Decades ago, a loudmouth from Louisiana said the same things I'm saying. The Powers That Be would prefer that you not vote because if you don't, then you and your opinions don't count. And if you don't count, if you don't exist, then you're not a threat to the status quo. They killed the Kingfish for that, but his words still ring in my ears.

Your vote counts. Use it well. Vote early if you can, but get to the polls on the day if you can't. Cast that ballot, and let your voice be heard.

Because if you don't, Huey Long died for nothing.

09:47 am: McCainism
I'm posting this in my blog as well as sending out as a bulletin on MySpace, because I think it important that everybody read this and wake up to the tactics the Republicans are using. The following is by my Evil Twin, Peter David. He's said what I and others have been thinking for months.

***

October 14, 2008
THE RISE OF MCCAINISM

"Who is Barack Obama?" John McCain is asking us. This should prompt an obvious response: "Who is John McCain?" But we need not ask, because we have seen John McCain, or at least his type, half a century ago. His type had a different name, and trafficked in a different sort of guilt-by-association, but it was a senator whose tactics were the same. The insinuations were the same. Whether the result will be the same remains to be seen.

That long-ago senator embraced the politics of fear as no one had before. He exploited the fears of a paranoid populace. He acquired notoriety and masterminded a brand of smear tactics that became synonymous with his surname, and it was dubbed "McCarthyism."

McCarthyism effectively came to an end on June 9, 1954, when one courageous attorney named Joseph Welch stood up to the junior senator from Wisconsin and, declaring that McCarthy had done enough in his campaign of guilt-by-association, demanded, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Recently a new term arose to describe the politics of personal destruction: "Swiftboating." But now we're seeing a new level of such tactics, and it is particularly vicious, and it is monumentally unforgivable. It is being displayed by John McCain, and by Sarah Palin, and by their various stalking horses and representatives, and if you're not calling it "McCaining" or "McCainism" then you're just not paying attention.

Not since McCarthy have we seen such attempts at guilt-by-association as the endeavors to link Obama with terrorism, a naked appeal to the deepest anxieties that Americans continue to feel in an uncertain world. "Who is Barack Obama?" asks this woman whose name was unknown to the population of forty nine states a mere two months ago, and who continues to be screened from the press whenever possible. "Who is Barack Obama?" demands this man who was alive during the Red Scare of the 1950s, who saw first-hand how lives were ruined. Who saw how insinuation and fear mongering created a period of history that we, as Americans, should revile and despise.

And yet there are McCain and Palin et al, creating links between Obama and a home- grown political terrorist group that was active when Obama was eight years old. McCain, who was part of the Keating Five, apparently believes that no one should ever be able to be deemed a worthy acquaintance because they did regrettable things years ago. Somewhere Joseph McCarthy is smiling down (or, if you will, up) while John McCain and Sarah Palin hone the craft of McCaining as engineered by the same smear artists who brought down McCain's bid in 2000. Terrorism is the new Communism, and there are McCain and Palin, stoking crowds to such over-the-top fury with their attempts to draw tortured connections between Obama and terrorism that you can actually hear people screaming, "Kill him!" when Obama's name is mentioned. McCain's belated attempts to suddenly defuse the crowd's hostility, to describe Obama as a decent family man pales in comparison to the endless Obama=terrorism sentiments that he and his associates have endlessly stoked.

It's so easy to draw nonsensical comparisons. McCain supporters mention repeatedly that Barack Obama's middle name is the same as that of a terrorist and pretend it means something. Okay. Let's point out that John McCain shares the initials and the first two letters of a first name and the first three letters of a surname as Joe McCarthy. Coincidence? We certainly have more evidence for parallel tactics in the McCain/McCarthy connection.

Why is McCain dropping in the polls? You can blame the economy, sure. But perhaps one small reason is that, quite simply, Americans aren't nearly as stupid as the McCaininites think they are. Because back in 1954, the relatively new medium of television put McCarthy right into peoples' living rooms and they saw up close the face of fear mongering, and they were repulsed by what they were seeing. It may well be we're witnessing that again as McCain's tactics are on view for all to see and people resent his thinking that they're dumb enough to be suckered. Which isn't to say that some people aren't dumb enough. But in this day and age, deliberately trying to link someone to terrorism simply because you're trying to become president is nothing short of vomitous. It is despicable. It is dishonorable.
Who is John McCain? He is a man who, with his current tactics, has proven that there is no line he will not cross, no slander he will not voice, if he thinks it offers a wisp of hope that he'll win. Which moves me to ask:

Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Peter A. David

***

Now, after this latest political harangue from me, are you ready to get out and vote, even if it's just to shut me up?

01:40 pm: VOTE!
VOTE.

Because if you don't, the only person you can blame for the shitty government we'll have is yourself.

You won't be able to honestly blame anyone else. You're the one who didn't bother to vote.

Sure, others may not have voted, but that's their fault. You didn't vote. YOU. Not them. Their failure is not yours. They fucked up. And so did you. Because you didn't vote.

So don't make the mistake that those guys did. Get your ass to the polls. Vote. And that way, the only person you can blame for some venal, thieving asshole getting into the White House is the guy you know didn't bother to vote. It won't be your fault.

Stokely Carmichael once said, "Free your mind and your ass will follow." Use your mind and your good sense. Regardless of your party affiliation and your personal ideology, get out there and vote. It's your right and responsibility. Give it some exercise.

09:41 pm: A bitter, depressed laugh...
Found this on Peter David's blogsite. His father-in-law forwarded it to him. Makes ya sick.

***

DEAR AMERICAN:


I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.


I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.


I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.


THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.


PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.


YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON

10:00 am: I love Maureen Dowd...
I found a link to this on IMDB, and am thoroughly gobsmacked. If I can find a way to send this to Obama, I will. In fact, everybody needs to email this to Obama HQ. And if I ever meet Maureen Dowd, I will fall at her feet and kiss her ring for getting Aaron Sorkin to say what a lot of us have been thinking.

Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: September 20, 2008

Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What’s the second step?

BARTLET I don’t care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET “Break’s over.”

A version of this article appeared in print on September 21, 2008, on page WK10 of the New York edition.

02:34 pm: I'm back!
After nearly two years of no home internet access, I finally have a way to post in here without having to go to the library and want for some kid to finish playing Adventure Quest. With the grace of the gods, I've gotten a bigger, faster computer that has a wireless card in it. My neighborhood in East Nashville has at least half a dozen wireless networks, all of them just enough in range for me to hit the ether.

So, now, my darling wife has something else to play at when she gets home from work, as opposed to her usual joys like Diablo 2 or Real Deal Slots. Not a problem; I can play while she's at work, at least until I find a regular job again. Then I'll likely never get on it at all.

Time to motor. She's gonna be home in a minute, and she'll want to get at Pogo.

01:03 pm: What was I just telling you?
Bush wants 10.8 billion to use for the war in Afghanistan.

Wasn't I telling you something about this just the other day? Trust me, if Hugo Chavez keeps going on the way he is, Bush will be wanting to fight him next. That'll be three wars going at once.

Bush is about to go down in history as the president who destroyed America and a lot of the rest of the world.

Here's the bit in the New York Times.

***

Bush to Seek More Aid for Afghanistan as Taliban Regroups
Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press

By HELENE COOPER and DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: January 26, 2007

BRUSSELS, Jan. 25 — President Bush plans to ask Congress for $10.6 billion in aid for Afghanistan, primarily to beef up the country’s security forces, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

The aid request would come before what is expected to be another spring offensive by resurgent forces linked to the Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan. In Washington, the Pentagon announced Thursday that it was delaying the departure of a 3,200-soldier combat brigade from Afghanistan for as long as three months, increasing the American force level there to around 24,000. An additional 20,000 soldiers from other NATO countries are also deployed there.

The aid request would include $8.6 billion for training and equipping Afghan security forces and would go toward increasing the size of Afghanistan’s national army by 70,000 and its local police forces by 82,000, said a senior American official familiar with the issue.

An additional $2 billion would go to reconstruction projects like building roads, laying down electric power lines, development in rural areas, and counternarcotics efforts, administration officials said. The officials said that they planned to use some of the money to help Afghanistan and Pakistan battle the Taliban and other insurgents along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

President Bush is expected to make a formal request for the funds next month, after a year in which Taliban forces have carried out fierce attacks across the country, particularly in the south.

“The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to and we should redouble our efforts,” Ms. Rice told reporters aboard her flight to Brussels for a NATO meeting on Afghanistan, coming from a donors’ conference for Lebanon that was held in Paris.

President Bush announced two weeks ago that he was sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, where the United States already has about 132,000 troops.

The troops to remain longer in Afghanistan, from the Third Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, provide commanders with more forces before an expected spring offensive by the Taliban. The unit was supposed to return to the United States next month. But commanders asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for additional forces when he visited Kabul last week and he said at the time that he was inclined to support the request.

In a statement, the Army said the additional forces were necessary to “deny the Taliban a base of operations.”

Because another battalion is scheduled to leave Afghanistan shortly, the actual increase in American troop numbers as a result of holding over the 3,500-member brigade will be about 2,500 troops, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

The increase comes at the same time that the Bush administration is renewing pressure on European allies to increase their troops in Afghanistan and is aimed at quelling European concerns that the United States may soon draw down in Afghanistan to meet its growing troop commitments in Iraq. British, Canadian and Dutch troops have at times since last summer been in intense combat in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s heartland.

In addition, an American general, Dan K. McNeil, is taking command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan next month, taking over from a British officer.

The NATO-led force remains about 15 percent short of the troop and equipment levels pledged by its contributing nations, a point that is bound to be of contention during Friday’s scheduled NATO meeting in Brussels to discuss Afghanistan.

Mr. Gates has been more open to adding troops to Afghanistan than his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, who argued for holding down force levels. Mr. Gates has indicated that he favors aggressive action to root out the Taliban and has said repeatedly that Afghanistan cannot be permitted to fall back into chaos.

American officials say that Taliban fighters are mounting increasingly brazen cross-border attacks from Pakistan and are preparing to resume attacks in the spring, as they have done every year since the American invasion, which toppled the Taliban in 2001.

Since 2001, the United States has provided over $14.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan.

Helene Cooper reported from Brussels, and David S. Cloud from Washington.

***

We are so fucked there are not superlatives enough to describe it. I don't think moving to the outback and hiding in a cave is enough protection from the shitstorm that's about to hit.

In the words of Samuel L. Jackson, hold on to your butts.

08:20 am: Look who's our next victim
We're about to invade Venezuela.

Or we would, if we weren't so wrapped up in Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan.

Do people really not pay attention to history? Afghanistan is the country that destroyed the Soviet Union. Not us. The Russians went in there to pacify the place, spent twenty years getting the shit stomped out of them, wrecked their economy, and now what was once one of the most powerful nations on this planet is a second-rate nation, just shy of banana republic status.

And we're following suit. We've pissed away enough money in this insane war to build a fleet of starships, and with every month that goes by we waste more money and lives. All in the name of oil and making people rich.

Because this is about money. Truthfully, that's all this is about. Money.

Hugo Chavez, the charismatic and outspoken president of Venezuela, is not being shy about his opinions of the Bush administration. He wants to turn his country into a socialist state, which isn't that tough. Half the nations on this planet have something resembling a socialist oligarchy. Big deal: money drives everything, no matter where you are. Chavez, though, is doing as much as possible to piss off Bush, and is being public about it.

He sends get well wishes to Castro in his latest speech. He calls Condi Rice "missy". He refers to the U.S. as an empire, and he may be right.

And he waves in our faces the fact that Venezuela is the largest producer of oil in this hemisphere, and as greedy as we are, next thing you know we'll be down there with tanks and guns and bombs, killing everybody and stealing their oil.

Just watch.

Here's the news article that's got me foaming at the mouth like this.

***

Chavez to U.S. Officials: 'Go to Hell'
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
.. type=text/javascript>document.write(getElapsed("20070122T111520Z"));..> 2 hours ago..UPDATED 1 HOUR 32 MINUTES AGO..

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez told U.S. officials to "Go to hell, gringos!" and called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "missy" on his weekly radio and TV show Sunday, lashing out at Washington for what he called unacceptable meddling in Venezuelan affairs.

The tirade came after Washington raised concerns about a measure to grant the fiery leftist leader broad lawmaking powers. The National Assembly, which is controlled by the president's political allies, is expected to give final approval this week to what it calls the "enabling law," which would give Chavez the authority to pass a series of laws by decree during an 18-month period.

On Friday, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Chavez's plans under the law "have caused us some concern."

Chavez rejected Casey's statement in his broadcast, saying: "Go to hell, gringos! Go home!"

He also attacked U.S. actions in the Middle East.

"What does the empire want? Condoleezza said it. How are you? You've forgotten me, missy ... Condoleezza said it clearly, it's about creating a new geopolitical" map in the Middle East, Chavez said.

In typical style, Chavez spoke for hours Sunday during his first appearance on the weekly program in five months. He sent his best wishes to the ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, his close ally and friend who has been sidelined since intestinal surgery last summer.

Other comments ranged from watching dancing Brazilian girls wearing string bikinis at a recent presidential summit to Washington's alleged role in the hanging of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"They took out Saddam Hussein and they hung him, for good or worse. It's not up to me to judge any government, but that gentleman was the president of that country."

Holding up a newspaper with a photograph of him gazing at a string bikini-clad Brazilian dancing samba during a summit last week in Rio de Janeiro, Chavez laughed and said: "I didn't know where to look ... It was truly a thing of beauty."

Chavez, who was re-elected by a wide margin last month, has said he will enact sweeping reforms to remake Venezuela into a socialist state. Among his plans are nationalizing the main telecommunications company, CANTV, and the electricity and natural gas sectors.

He said Sunday his government will not pay the market value for CANTV, but rather will take into account debts to workers, pensions and other obligations including a "technological debt" to the state. CANTV, partially owned by U.S.-based Verizon Communications Inc., was privatized in 1991.

The president's opponents accuse him of using his political strength to expand his powers.

Relations between Caracas and Washington have been tense since Chavez was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup that he claimed the U.S. played a role in. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied being involved, although it recognized an interim government established by coup leaders.

Since then, Chavez has consistently accused the U.S. of conspiring to oust him and often asserts the CIA is working to destabilize his government. U.S. officials have denied trying to overthrow Chavez, but they have labeled him a threat to democracy.

Criticizing excessive consumption and self-indulgence, Chavez also announced plans in his broadcast to raise domestic gasoline prices and approve a new tax on luxury goods such as private yachts, second homes and extravagant automobiles.

He did not give details on the gas price hike, which he said would not affect bus drivers who provide public transportation, or the luxury tax. He said revenue from the new measures would be put toward government social programs.

Venezuela is one of the world's leading petroleum exporters and gasoline now costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

***

Do you see why I'm so concerned? Just watch. Bush is going to claim that Chavez is harboring terrorists and we should go down there and put an end to him. We'll be in another war in six months. This time closer to home.

This planet is getting smaller by the day. And if we don't learn to get along, we're all gonna be a greasy spot on the galactic map. There won't be an Earth anymore, just a drifting cloud of radioactive dust and oil.

Let's see Bush try to get rich offa that.

11:19 am: Too old and too country
I found out a few days ago that Stonewall Jackson, one of the great old pickers of the Grand Ole Opry, is suing for ten million dollars.

Why? Age discrimination.

Stonewall's been an Opry performer since 1956, the year before I was born. He's not in the same league as Willie or Cash, but he's a good, solid performer who's been around for a long time.

But he's been pushed out by Opry general manager Peter Fisher because he's too old and too country.

I find this insulting and infuriating. The Opry is the definition of country, and has been since the Twenties. And we all get old. That can't be helped.

I'm going to crosspost this to my LiveJournal site, and email the article to Kiny Friedman, who I know will get it out to Willie and others. Maybe with enough negative backlash, Gaylord will respond by firing Fisher, and that'll be the end of it. Somebody surely needs to bitchslap the man. And I figure the country music community will be happy to do so once all the greasy details of his actions emerge.

My great-uncle was Jimmie Rodgers, one of the first country superstars from the Twenties and Thirties. I'm glad he's not around to see this.

01:27 pm: A day after Christmas, and...
I'm fiddlefarting. Watching at Wonderfalls, reading Paul Wilson's latest Reapirman Jack novel, smoking my last cigarette, rinsing out some dirty clothes in the bathtub. Looking out the front door at a bleak, cold December landscape, wishing I had a job.

Clara and I are supposed to be going to dinner at Charlie's tonight. Late Christmas dinner. There'll be presents, I guess. We handed ours out when we were moving, so that we wouldn't lose them in the process. It'll be the usual gaggle; Dan, Fran, Maurice, Charlie and Patsy. Us. Cats.

I got presents from Charlie already. We hit Goodwill last week, where I found a monster moose plushie for Clara and a fairly nice tie for myself. I've finally wrapped my brain around something Charlie's been telling me for years, that regardless of what designer's name is on it, an ugly tie is still an ugly tie. I did well with this one, though. It's a black and red Hardy Amies, all silk, wit the original Savile Row label on it.

Why I got it I still don't know. I'm to the point of accepting that I won't ever find an office job, if I do get work it'll be some crappy dead-end gig in a warehouse or a cubicle somewhere, and nothing that'll allow me to doll up in the expensive duds that are gathering dust in my closet. At 49, my life is effectively over. I can't support my family, much less myself. My prodigious memory and intellect are useless. Nothing I have learned in my life is any good. The fact that I know the registration number of the DSV Proteus and that James Tiberius Kirk was born in Iowa can't get me a paycheck. I know the names of every Doctor Who actor, with the exception of the guy who played him in the stage production in the Eighties. Does that get me work? No. The fact that I'm a great-nephew of the first country music superstar of the twentieth century, Jimmie Rodgers, means nothing. That and five bucks will get me a cup of coffee atStarbucks.

But I'm too damn stupid and/or stubborn to quit. So what does that make me?

A typical human, I guess.

Mike

12:05 pm: Not there anymore...
As of the weekend after Thanksgiving, I got knocked offline for nonpayment of my Comcast account. I'd borrowed some money from a friend to cover what of the bill would keep me online, but like an idiot I got him to deposit it in my bank so I could pay my bill that way. It took eight days to clear the account due to the holiday weekend.

I got a new job, which lasted all of two weeks. When I got my check, I went and paid the balance, which made those guys happy, but I had to grovel in order to get the service turned back on. They said they'd come by on Friday and switch it back on.

And the day they came, Friday of last week,12-15-06, was the day that my new landlord told my wife we had to be out by three. Either that, or pay the next two weeks' rent.

So, with the aid of four of my best friends, we started hurriedly shoveling stuff outta here and running across the street to the new place, which is one bedroom smaller and has no hookups for a washer and dryer. Right now I have a small load of laundry hanging from the shower curtain rod and one of my hatracks, and still haven't hung up the two pairs of jeans that are still in the tub, well past soaking wet.

One of the annoyances of this is that we have no place to hook up the stereo, and I need music to keep me mildly sane. That's minor, though. The major annoyance is that the new landlord tells me that he isn't hiring, but there's an ad in the Nashville City Paper from him stating that he's hiring, ten an hour to start. And I need a job. I got bills to pay, and Nashville Electric is expensive. Comcast is expensive. And, like Mal Reynolds, me and the wife have a powerful need to eat sometime this year.

I'm not gonna badmouth my erstwhile landlord, although I have plenty of reason. My new landlord, Carlton Martin, is a really nice guy who went to a lot of trouble getting things ready for us here, and he's not in good health, so I did a fair bit of this myself. My work isn't up to my unreasonably high standards, but it'll do.

My friends, two of whom took the day off to help us, went far beyond the call. Fran Bray and Dan Caldwell not only brought boxes and lugged stuff, but at the end of the night took all of us to China Star for a great Chinese buffet, where Clara and I pigged most heinously. Our other two friends, Charlie and Patsy Williams, worked their asses off as well, and when you consider that all of us are pushing fifty or more, and Charlie's got a weak heart, that's remarkable. Actually, it beautiful.

When something like this happens, you find out real damned fast who your friends are. Charlie, Patsy, Fran, Dan and Carlton are more than just friends. They're family.

On a related note, I have another chance at getting on with Comcast. When setting this back up, I spoke with a customer service tech named John. Turns out he's a lead tech, with a bit of clout when it comes to getting things done out there, and he sent me an email telling me to reapply and put him down as an employee referral. I've done this, and with God's grace I'll get hired and start working soon. I need the money, and I know how to do this stuff. It's either that, or start doing standup out at Zanie's.

Something's gotta break for me soon. I'm tired of scuffling. And unless I hit Powerball for some huge amount of money real damn soon, I'm gonna have to get a job and quick.

08:41 pm: I wish the hell I had the money...
...to get me some of these.

I get offers from JR Cigars on a regular basis, and even though I'm so broke I can't pay my bills, I do whimper a bit about the goodies that Lew Rothman has on his site. Now, although I think you're mostly paying for the name, Montecristo does make some pretty good cigars, and I like them when I can afford them. These I would go out of my way to get just because of the name.

MONTECRUZ NEGRA CUBANA
WILD THING CIGARS

Item Code: MZWT
Packaging: Specialty of 15 - Glass Tubes


SPECIAL: Weekly Special Pricing:

Retail Price: $75.00
JR PRICE: $29.95
You save: $45.05
Quantity:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Origin: Nicaragua
Length: 6.50
Ring: 48
Strength: Full
Wrapper Color: Medium Brown (E)
Wrapper Type: Ecuador Sumatran
Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: NIC/DR
Shape: Figurado (other)

***

What they mean in this case by figurado is thay they look vaguely like the old perfecto, tapering to a sharp point on the business end, while the end you chew is twisted off in a pigtail that you clip off before you light it. In short, at six and a half inches long by 3/4 inch think, it's an old style perfecto. There's not much wild about it by the standards of, say Acid Cigars, makers of the Nasty, which looks like something the Wild Man Of Borneo would smoke, but the name is hard to resist.

And at two bucks a stick, it's a damn good price. But unless and until some sympathetic cigar head decides to take pity on an old man and send me a case of them, I'm just gonna have to make do with what I can get, which ain't much.

11:08 am: The hammer falls
Finally got my ordered-at-the-last-minute shirts from Alex at bluesunshirts.com today. Last night, I surfed through Black Market Beagles and some of the other Firefly fan sites, only to find that Fox/Uni has come down even harder on fans who are selling t-shirts and such that are unlicensed.

And they were the ones who asked us to do this in the first place.

It's called viral marketing, what some of us used to call grass roots sales. Nobody gets rich off this; it's just fans selling stuff to fans. It's been around forever. Got a tv show you like, write a fanzine or make custon t-shirts or jewelry or whatever. Sometimes the actors did this. Majel Barrett's Lincoln Enterprises is an early example.

There are a lot of folks doing this sort of thing. Studios and producers used to look the other way, knowing that no one was getting rich off this and it kept the show alive in the fan network.

But Fox and Universal have gone and gotten lawyered up over this, and the result is that the Browncoats are now fighting back. Bad press over this is going global, with the end result thatI see being that Fox/Universal is going to lose money as a result. Fans will wind up boycotting Fox and Universal productions, and while the sting may be minor, their beancounters will feel it.

I'm gonna sit back and watch. I have shirts that I got from Alex just before the stop date, and I'm wearing one now. Hot Topic has the official license, and I won't buy their crap. I'll go someplace else. They can't take the sky from us.

12:33 pm: Down the drain
A week or so ago, I clicked on Joe Straczynski's blogsite, jmsnews.com, to find a note from him about disaster banging on his door. Joe's hard drive crashed bigtime; he runs Dell systems exclusively, and while I'd dearly love to talk him into getting an Alienware system, he's driven Dells for years and thinks they're the shit.

He left his desk for ten minutes and when he came back his drive was making clanging sounds. The screen had gone black except for a message saying that the drive had exceeded EIDE specs.

He had the drive examined, and it's toast. No way to recover the data.

And the new novel was on that drive.

12:14 pm: Outta work again.
As of today, I've been outta work for eight days.

I'm puzzled as to how I dealt with this for close to two years when I was outta work before. I'm just short of climbing the walls here.

When I went in last Friday, not this past but the week before, I was sick, had the shits. We were busy, but I had to go and right then. I had just gotten in the bathroom when somebody came rattling the doorknob. I pissed me off. I buckled my belt and flung the door open. Told the guy to come on in, he could have it, I fuckin' quit.

Five minutes later the manager came in and jumped my ass, don't cuss out the customers, this guy spends a lot of money up here. I told her I'd apologize. She left, I thought nothing more of it.

Saturday I went in and started my shift. I was told that the same manager would be here in a bit, we had to talk.

We didn't talk much. She said you cursed and belittled a customer, you're fired, here's your final check, git. I got.

The irony of this is that I had just bought my boss a copy of The Princess Bride, and it looked like my job was secure. Despite my grumpy spasms, I was the best at what I did for them, fast and accurate. Washing dushes in a restaurant isn't very demanding, it sure isn't rocket science, but you have to be thorough and fast. They liked that.

I miss working at the Alley Cat, but not that much. They've run off a lot of good people since I started, and I don't consider it to be a smart way to run a bar. It's their loss. I've got other leads, and all of them pay better. I'll have a job again soon.

12:59 pm: Kinkyness
Most people use the Internet for shopping, porn, useless fei-hua. Some of us use it for research. My wife plays Adventure Quest. I surf blogs, and check on friends.

Kinky Friedman, who I've known in passing for a long time, is running for governor of Texas. His opponents, Rick Perry and Greg Bell, among others, are trying to make it look like Kinky is a racist. They're digging up bits from old comedy routines and concerts, pulling them out of context, and passing them off as proof that he's an evil racist bastard.

Kinky's a lot of things, but a racist is not one of them. He's sarcastic, crazy, acts like a badass, but underneath his cigar-chomping Mike Hammer cowboy exterior, he's a marshmallow, a rabbi in snakeskin boots. This is a man who loves dogs so much he's trying to rescue every unwanted pet in the country.

He's about as racist as I am. And I'm not racist at all.

The notion of this happening to him really bugs me. I've contacted him through his campaign staff, hoping that he can shoot this down before it gets any more out of hand than it has.

01:43 am: Lea's fire
Went to Lea's page yesterday, or maybe Sunday; days kinda blur together. Some very upsetting shots of the smoke-shadows where the kitties died. As someone who's buried more than one cat in thirty years, it's heartbreaking to look upon. Fat old man, looking at these pix of death and trying not to fall apart. God, she's tough. I couldn't handle it.

My old roommate came by with a belated birthday gift just before work. A gallon of Shiner Bock and a new cheapass digital watch. The thought was nice, but the watch, which I was supposed to wear for work in place of my expensive Seiko chronograph, was not waterproof and was dead in seconds. The Seiko is good to 50 meters.

I think I'll keep wearing the Seiko.

Dead as hell at work tonight. Even with all I normally have to do, washing dishes, sweeping/mopping, taking out trash, general cleanup, I was still standing around half the time. Even for a Tuesday, this was a dead night. I logged out at 12:30, about an hour before I usually leave. And I still got my eight; I went in at 5 instead of 6. I've gotten tired of coming in and finding a mess where the servers and bartenders have thrown dishes into the sink without scraping them. If I go in early, the day dishwasher and I cross paths, which means we don't have any surprises.

This is a very good thing.

11:01 am: Lea Hernandez
Last night, I saw on peterdavid.net that Lea, who I've never met but have some familiarity with through her work, was in a house fire a few days ago. She lost almost everything.

I've reposted the info I got from Peter to BuckDharma.com, in hopes of galvanizing the BlueOysterCult community into helping. I can guarantee nothing, and at this point, broke as I am, there's little more I can do. But if anyone reading this can help, go to Lea's page and donate to the cause. This is a good lady who needs help, and it's up to us to do what we can.

Individually, we can't save the world. As a group, we can try, and maybe fail. But as individuals, we can do a little to help each other when we can.

My heart goes out to Lea and her family, who lost not just property but pets in this blaze. Emotional support and communication are all I can give. Maybe that'll help, but it sure doesn't feel like much.

Miles