cheery day yesterday

my family drove up from Jersey to wail and moan over Sick Boy (me) and bring me tons of food which i will eat but slowly, slowly! evening brought Madame Olivia, queen of hearts, and we had fun playing Clue and watching silly movies for hours. happiness, gotta be good for me.

but today brings me back to the terrifying right wing agenda taking over our lifes. Here's one example - And the Daily Howler shows that not only do the Rich NOT pay more taxes than we do - we've been giving them damn money. Is this really a big surprise to anyone?

The New York Times does us its usual crap when it discusses the costs of Bushie's new Social Security program (Note: Reg. required.) which is apparently going to need billions to trillions of dollars borrowed - when we are in debt and at war and, let's face it, not being encouraged to buy Made In America anymore. You can see their lack of journalistic integrity by their refusal to look at these two paragraphs at the same time:

"The president does support personal accounts, which need not add over all to the cost of the program but could in the short run require additional borrowing to finance the transition," Mr. Bolten said. "I believe there's a strong case that this approach not only makes sense as a matter of savings policy, but is also fiscally prudent."

Proponents say the necessary amount of borrowing could vary widely, from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade, depending on how much money people are permitted to contribute to the accounts and whether the changes to Social Security include benefit cuts and tax increases.

Uh-HUH. Right when we need someone to pick the way through their tangled legal and financial talk, the Times fails to do its job. Bolten believes there is a strong case - he doesn't explain what the case is or why it's strong. (You all know how I feel about politicians who use the word BELIEVE - they usually use the word to avoid having to prove anything. It's a red flag and journalists should jump at it.)

How is it fiscally prudent to dig a deeper hole? He also uses the phrases "short run" and "additional borrowing" - well, a decade isn't exactly short, especially when we don't know where we're gonna be in ten years-and we're running a war that costs several billion a month. And wait a second - ADDITIONAL borrowing? Additional on top of what? Could be talking about what we've already borrowed. Could be referring to borrowing already earmarked to finance the program. When will the Times get some balls and ask some who where how when why and what? (Not to mention where we're gonna get the money to pay back all this shit in ten years?)

still trying to get this damn crap out of my lungs....

Meanwhile, I had this idea which, well, I wonder if y'all be willing to try. (This is mostly for my New York friends.)

I'm really tired of getting holiday gifts each year which you know, are totally meaningless. Yay, gift certificate for Barnes and Noble. Yay, new pullover from Gap. I mean, thousands of people have this shit. It has nothing to do with the meaning of any holiday whatsoever. It's just people buying stuff, and it's annoying.

How about we get together and each pick one person out of a hat or whatnot and work on finding a truly meaningful gift? Something handmade, maybe, or something with special meaning to the other person. Not just CRAP. Something you'd hold near your heart for the rest of your life. Something special and real.

Today's Black Friday, the day everyone runs outside and starts spending money in their SUVs. Which is great for them. I'm looking for something a little more special, and we as Deaf people have a community that lets us work on something special. I'm not saying we can't buy things - but if we do, it better be something unique, eh?

Well, comment if you think this is an interesting idea and if anyone wants to try it...

j

still sick and miserable and more than willing to share ;)

i am considering that all of this is a message from the whoever saying "go, before it gets worse, because it's going to."

more on "gay marriage"

I didn't realize this, but apparently a lot of the so-called "gay marriage bans" did a lot more than just ban gay marriage. The Boston Globe reports:

In pivotal Ohio, for example, the voters may not have realized it but they voted to strip people of the right to contractually arrange distribution of assets, child custody, pensions, and other employment benefits. They most definitely were not "protecting" marriage; they were attacking gay people. That is why the political and business establishment there, including Republicans, opposed the measure.

It seems that the language of "ban gay marriage" was used to cover up a whole host of other things. This is troubling. Personally, I don't believe the State should be interfering with marriage at all; that should, in theory, be left to the churches. Problem comes because recognition from the Church leads to rights by the State - and it is these rights we want, not just the "right" to walk down the aisle. Although I definitely want that for myself one day.

You know, I never understood one thing. Right-wingers complain all the time about gay people being promiscuous etc. Well, here's a big bunch of gay people wanna get married and, apparently, not be promiscuous. Right-wingers don't want us to do that either (maybe because they would have to face up to the fact of their own bullshit.)

freedom

a lot of people have been talking about the anti-gay marriage initiatives around the country. found this poem on the internet, kind of hits it where it hurts:

Democracy, by Langston Hughes

Democracy will not come

Today, this year

   Nor ever

Through compromise and fear.



I have as much right 

As the other fellow has

  To stand

On my two feet 

And own the land.



I tire so of hearing people say, 

Let things take their course.

Tomorrow is another day.

I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.

I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.



      Freedom

      Is a strong seed

      Planted

      In a great need.



      I live here, too.

      I want freedom

      Just as you.

another stolen election?

Uh-huh. Nobody will do squat about it now because Senator John Kwik-vanish! has conceded the election. But it's becoming clear that all over the country, the Diebold voting machines performed exactly as expected: by ringing up lots of Bush votes, sometimes an absurd number:

From Ohio:

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Bush actually received 365 votes in the precinct, Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told The Columbus Dispatch.

The article goes on to wonder if this repeated in other counties, but officials "decline to comment," of course.

In Florida, it appears the machines were hacked:

In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.

In Dixie County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.

The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the counties where optical scanners were used. Franklin County, 77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for Bush.

Why isn't the media reporting on any of this? Probably to support Bush's dreams of "unity" - as if the election gave him a clean slate, as if we were supposed to forget about the bodies in Iraq (which is now, I believe, in a state of emergency), and as if accepting another lie at face value cleaned their consciences of all those they ignored before. More importantly, the fact that all of this hacking benefits only Republicans is more than a little suspicious - and a full, national investigation should be happening as soon as possible. Should bes won't be, of course, But if this is more widespread - if we see it in New Mexico and all the other states Kerry was supposed to carry - we may be in trouble.

And I wonder what, exactly, people said to Kerry that day to make him change his mind from fighting for every vote to that outrageous, undignified "unity."

Update: Story is now on CNN.

relapse

After Monday I slept all afternoon. When I woke up I had a fever of 103.

Yep. Relapse. They took me off the antibiotics after the allergic reaction and didn't replace them with anything. So the infection came back.

They put me on Biaxin. It's like a super-powerful new antibiotic. It's giving me stomach cramps. That plus the coughing equals really, really, miserable joe.

And I was doing so well on Sunday.

vote

you heard me, now do it.

but don't vote for "republican family values" - liberals have better ones.

and don't vote for your beliefs. vote based on the facts. and double check them.

right, improving...

today kind of sucked. i wasn't really feeling that good but i decided to try going back to work. huge mistake.

i get on the subway and start coughing right away. not little coughs but the deep ones from the stomach. hurts like a bitch. then some old crazy guy sits next to me and starts... pushing me. Like I'm right next to the metal gate on the seat next to the door, and he's trying to shove me through it like pasta dough. and the side he's pushing on is the lung that had the pneumonia. and i can't get up and move because the train's crowded. so all the way to 96th st. i get poked and I'm pushing back like you would with a child - not really pushing, just holding his crazy old elbow back. and when i get up at 96th to switch to the express, he pushes me from behind.

that's right, pushes me.

i turn around and glare at him but i have to run catch the train so there's no time to beat the bastard upside the head like he deserves. he smiles at me triumphantly.

i think, the morning's got to get better.

but walking out of the subway kills me. i mean, kills me. by the time im at ground level im barely breathing and i look like i've run a marathon. okay. i can cope. really. or so i tell myself. i keep walking to work, take the elevator up, put my stuff down. it's 8 am; i came in early to see, you know, if i could catch up a little. i walk to my mailbox and pass my boss; she takes one look at me and asks me if i really think i should be in the office. i start coughing and i can't answer cos im short of breath anyway. she sends me home.

but it takes a while before i can get on the subway again after all that. so i walk really slowly to park place, to give myself time to recover, then just huddle and cough on the seat all the way home.

honestly, it feels like i'm not getting any better at all. i hate this.

i spend the day on the couch lying down alternately coughing and breathing hard. my friend Elizabeth comes up from jersey to say hey; she's home for the summer. we watch waking life, but i keep falling asleep; body's way too tired to cope with sitting up. elizabeth is sweet and takes good care of me. we find this horrifying website on voter suppression which i encourage everyone to check out.

here's to future health... joe