On Ringtones - Don't Blame Me, Blame David

David is wicked, wicked, wicked, in many different ways, but sometimes I cannot resist his evil influence.

Congress, Please Hear The Voices Of Dissent!

Will the Congress, including Democrats, simply roll over and give Bush and Paulson all they want? I'm quite concerned that they will. If you agree, and you have not been in touch with your representatives and senators in Congress, I urge you to contact them. Ask them to heed the voices of dissent to this particular plan, as they did not do in the run-up to the Iraq War, when they signed on to the Cheney/Bush misbegotten plan for "spreading freedom". I'm not saying that nothing needs to be done, but it seems to me that Paulson, a product of Wall Street, and Bush are handing us a poison pill to swallow.

From the New York Times:

As economists puzzle over the proposed details of what may be the biggest financial bailout in American history, the initial skepticism that greeted its unveiling has only deepened.

Some are horrified at the prospect of putting $700 billion in public money on the line. Others are outraged that Wall Street, home of the eight-figure salary, may get rescued from the consequences of its real estate bender, even as working families give up their houses to foreclosure.

Most economists accept that the nation’s financial crisis — the worst since the Great Depression — has reached such perilous proportions that an expensive intervention is required. But considerable disagreement centers on how to go about it. The Treasury’s proposal for a bailout, now being negotiated with Congress, is being cunveiling has only deepened.

Read the entire article at the NYT and ask your senators and representatives to hear those voices and not rush a bad bill through in a state of panic.

UPDATE: Yes, I am nagging you. Its important.

My Living Will

Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room, and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

She got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my wine.

She's such a bitch...

From a naughty friend in the West.

Johnieb Is Out Of Internet Contact

As I was heading to my doctor's appointment, I received a phone call from Johnieb to say that we are not to worry about him. You won't hear from him for a week or so, because he will not have internet service, but he is not sick again. He left a message at his blog, Here Still Running, too.

When I heard his voice, my heart jumped, because I had sent him my phone number so he could let me know if he did get sick again, and, at first, I thought that was the reason for his call, but it was not. Thanks be to God!

From True Majority

In an email from True Majority:

Dear June,

Call your Senators right now and urge them to stop the Bush corporate bailout.

In his last days in office, George Bush is trying to scare Congress into giving away the treasury to Wall Street.

Those are extreme words, but not as extreme as the reality -- over the weekend a plan was concocted to give away $1.8 trillion dollars of tax money with NO limits on how it's spent, and no guarantees we'll ever see it again.1 And the Treasury Secretary had the gall to say limiting payouts to executives who created this mess would be a "deal breaker."2

This is a deal which SHOULD be broken. Or at least re-negotiated. Economists have already made clear that this is a bad deal for everyone except the corporations and wealthy investors whose greed created the crisis.3

Tell your Senators to oppose George Bush's corporate bailout:

The Bush administration is trying to ram this through in only 72 hours by claiming there will be dire consequences if we don't pass the bailout exactly as written. Once again they're using fear to scare Congress and the American people into submission. We have to stop them.

Here's a suggested script:

"I am a TrueMajority member calling to urge the Senator to oppose the Bush corporate bailout. It's time that the Government support ordinary Americans instead of bailing out their corporate cronies."

Thanks for taking action,

-Ilya

Ilya Sheyman
Online Organizer

1 cnbc.com/id/26808715
2 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13676.html
3 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13689.html

If the Bush bailout passes as submitted, we, the ordinary citizens, will be screwed, but the leaders of the companies, who by their risky and irresponsible behavior, ran the companies under, will walk away (jobless or not) with their millions (billions?), and we, the taxpayers will be left to foot the bill. It seems that not only US banks will be covered, but also foreign banks, like Barclay and UBS, which are licensed to do business here.

I feel compassion for the workers in lower echelon positions in the companies, who will lose their jobs, as well as for the folks who have or are soon to lose their homes. What about them? What provision will be made for them?

I ask where the president and the Congress have been for the last few years? It was not just yesterday that we learned that the housing market was collapsing. Did no one believe there would be consequences? Why did the powers wait such a long time to face reality. I'm looking at you, Democratic members of Congress. You've been asleep at the switch, too. I'm wondering if Bush is trying to arrange that the country will be ungovernable, because he smells a Democratic victory ahead.

Prayers, Please

This afternoon, I'm going to see an orthopedic specialist about my knee and my foot. The trouble started a few months ago, as I was heaving myself out of the bathtub. I felt a twinge in my right knee. My right knee WAS my good knee, doing the heavy lifting, because the left knee was weak due to osteoarthritis and the ravages of living past my allotted three score and ten years. I tried to take my regular walk that evening, and came home limping and in great pain. I waited a few days to see if the knee would get better on its own, but the situation deteriorated further, with back and shoulder pain now in play. I went to my family doctor who gave me a steroid shot in my rear to try to alleviate the pain in all three areas. The pain eased, but my knee was not right. I could feel the bones clicking, and the knee felt unsteady. Then, just before we evacuated for Hurricane Gustav, my heel and then the whole bottom of my foot began to hurt, and for a couple of days, I could hardly walk. Then that pain became less, but I determined to see a specialist for help as soon as I could. I believe the foot pain is connected to the knee problems, you know, like in the "Dry Bones" song. All dem old, dry bones bones is connected.

Pray that the doctor can find out what the problem is and that it is easily fixable. Yes, I would definitely like an easy fix. Thank you in advance. I gave you all the boring details so you could tell God exactly what the problem is, in case she doesn't already know.

UPDATE: Thanks for the prayers. They worked. The diagnosis is osteoarthritis for the knee and plantar fasciitis for the heel. The doctor gave me a steroid shot in the knee, and he is sending me for physical therapy, which I have long wanted. That is the very good news. If this does not work, there are other alternatives before resorting to knee replacement. I'll say more about the visit to the doctor later.

A New Old Friend

The Rebellious Rev recently linked to one of my posts and dropped in to wish me Happy Birthday. In his post with the link, he described me as "A friend from another blog life...." Now that is intriguing. Who can he be? I love a mystery, and I'm not in a hurry to know who he is, because I'm having fun trying to guess.

He started a new blog under the new name linked above. He's a Rebellious Rev from Texas! What's not to like about that? You may want to have a look. He is a rebel. Some of my friends and I are already on his blogroll. He works fast.

And Furthermore, On McCain's Health Care Plan....

John Bassett has left a new comment on your post "McCain's Health Care Plan":

"Well, this little quote certainly does remind us what McCain really believes and what philosophy would actually guide a McCain administration.

But the actual plan he is putting forth should scare most of us. McCain proposes treating employer-paid health care as taxable income. Since the value of that benefit will exceed the credit of 2500 dollars that he proposes to offset it, almost anybody who gets health care through their work will see a significant tax increase.

Now, the aim of this plan is to eliminate the employer-paid plan. Right away, younger employees will seek to opt out of the plan since most are either health enough to take the risk of having no health care or will be able to buy it for cheaper than the group premium. This will leave only older or sicker workers in the pool, and that will drive up prices for the group further. Finally, the employer will want to end the expensive plan altogether. The older or sicker workers will not be able to purchase any meaningful insurance on the market, so they will be uninsured.

But it gets worse. Under the McCain plan, insurers will be exempt from any state regulation except where the plan is supposedly centered. So, the state which offers the fewest protections will be home to the most health care plans. And you can be sure that they will buy the best state legislature they can to make sure this continues!

So, under McCain, you will either not have health insurance, pay more for health insurance, and, when you do buy health insurance, you will discover that you have little, if any, recourse when the insurer decides not to pay your bill. And remember, McCain and his fellow Republicans will not even let you declare bankruptcy if you run up medical bills your insurer will not cover. The only safe thing to do will be to get sick and die.

I do understand the distaste that many working-class people feel for the Gruyere and Pinot Grigio crowd that flocked to Obama early on. But voting for McCain because you do not like them is like drinking sterno because you dislike white wine. It is utter insanity."

Thank you, John. You did the hard work on this one.

McCain's Health Care Plan

From Paul Krugman:

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

McCain's plan sounds perfect to me. What do you think?

With thanks to the Weird Rabit.

New Roads, La. (Since We're On The Subject)

The Randall Oak

Here's a bit of information on New Roads from the LSU Agricultural Center. Pictured above is the Randall Oak, a HUGE tree that is over 300 years old. The tree is on the property adjacent to ours. The story (legend?) is that James Ryder Randall wrote the words to "Maryland, My Maryland" under the tree, while he was Professor of English at Poydras College, which was once located on the property. One day, I'm going to post a picture of the tree with a person standing near it to give you a true sense of how large the trunk actually is.


The Pointe Coupee Parish Courthouse

Listed on the National Historic Register, this building was originally built in 1902 of Romanesque Revival architecture. On the grounds is a statue of Major General John Archer LeJeune, World War I hero for whom Camp LeJeune, North Carolina is named.

I like the turrets.

Thus endeth the geography lesson.