As recounted in a previous post, the City of Orlando has made it a crime with penalties including incareration for panhandling on city streets if done outside of restricted areas, measured in a few square feet and bounded by blue paint.
This amounts to a patently unconstitutional violation of free speech in a public forum and protected by the first amendment to the Constitution.
From the syllabus to the USSC decision: "1. An airport terminal operated by a public authority is a non-public forum, and thus a ban on solicitation need only satisfy a reasonableness standard. Pp. 677-683.
(a) The extent to which the Port Authority can restrict expressive activity on its property depends on the nature of the forum. Regulation of traditional public fora or designated public fora survives only if it is narrowly drawn to achieve a compelling state interest, but limitations on expressive activity conducted on any other government-owned property need only be reasonable to survive. Perry Education Assn. v. Perry Local Educators' Assn., 460 U.S. 37, 45, 46. Pp. 677-679."
(emphasis added)
Public sidewalks by definition have to receive consideration as public forums thus protecting people exercising their right to free speech by asking for $.
For Jesus' sake people, feed the hungry.
[For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm
and a shade from the heat.
- Isaiah 25:4]
[There is no dispute that the Hare Krishnas' activities are protected by the First Amendment. Rather, the constitutional dispute is over the character of the airport itself.
If an area is not a "public forum," the Government is not constitutionally obliged to accommodate speech or other activities that would have full constitutional protection on a street corner, for example.] Emphasis added
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/11/nyregion/supreme-court-to-review-soliciting-at-3-big-airports.html
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Last Post Still Pisses Me Off
Took a bit to percolate through my brain, but using the phrase "frequent fliers" in an article on the most incarcerated people in Orlando over the last 10 years attempts a sad, bad, cruel and tasteless joke.
Such "joke" shifts focus from insanity in the policies of Orlando towards homeless people.
Rather than fund drug treatment programs, affordable housing, work training, and shelters for homeless folk, the city fathers spend $ on locking up homeless people, thereby wasting valuable police and jail resources.
Guess they don't want to sully the image of Orlando, where in the immortal words of Eric Cartman, "People starving hardly never."
Waiting for comment from Sentinel reporter.
Such "joke" shifts focus from insanity in the policies of Orlando towards homeless people.
Rather than fund drug treatment programs, affordable housing, work training, and shelters for homeless folk, the city fathers spend $ on locking up homeless people, thereby wasting valuable police and jail resources.
Guess they don't want to sully the image of Orlando, where in the immortal words of Eric Cartman, "People starving hardly never."
Waiting for comment from Sentinel reporter.
Monday, May 11, 2009
"Justice" in Orlando, FL: Where Can a Homeless Person Pee?
Orlando bills itself as the City Beautiful.
Yes, we have many beautiful aspects--unless you find yourself homeless in Orlando. Then, you'd find yourself subject to constant arrests and harassment in the name of enforcing city ordinances.
Then we become the City Mean.
Consider the sad cases of Roosevelt Richardson, incarcerated 123 times ove 10 years for the crimes of: "panhandling and other petty crimes such as loitering, urinating in public and trespassing." (Full story below.) That averages out to over once a month for TEN years.
While we all agree having people pee in public violates the sense of decency if not threatening the entire social order, where can a homeless person pee?
Many businesses open to the public violate the provision of the FL Administrative Code which states such must allow members of the public to use restrooms of the establishment, thus they patently violating the law.
While murders in Orlando have increased dramatically--even as the Orlando Sentinel keeps a scorecard--our POlice protect us from panhandlers. Holy misplaced priorities, Batman.
I'd rather give someone a dollar rather than get killed. Hey even if they use it for beer, I figure they need 1 to cope.
Speaking of druthers, Richardson has his: ["I'd rather be walking the streets hungry than full in the jail," Richardson said.]
Will have to dust off my constitutonal law book to check but feel fairly certain the US Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to free speech included the rights of Hare Krishnas top ask for $ from people.
By extension, people in America have the constitutional right to ask other people for $.
Given the lack of drug treatment programs, affordable housing, and freaking JOBS please remind President Obama that "infrastrucure includes PEOPLE, which look invisible to us but all had mothers and fathers and maybe siblings.
Get involved in your community; Jesus said to feed people to get into heaven: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…" (Matthew 25: 35, 36)
[Used without permission under Fair Use doctrine because this story deals with an issue of national import: homelesness]
orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-most-arrested-051109,0,3935678.story
OrlandoSentinel.com
Jail's 'frequent flier' has been in and out 123 times
Bianca Prieto
Sentinel Staff Writer
At any given time, Rosevelt Richardson is almost certainly at one of two places -- in the Orange County Jail or on an Orlando street corner.
They're hardly his favorite two hangouts. They're just the ones he knows best.
"I've put myself in a rut, and I don't know how to get out of it," Richardson said. "I'm tired of this."
How could he not be? During the past 10 years, Richardson has checked in and out of the county jail 123 times, or about once a month. And right now, he's checked in -- for stint 124. Richardson sits in jail, disappointed with himself but with one inescapable distinction: No one has been booked into Orange County's jail more during the past decade than he has.
Richardson, a 59-year-old homeless panhandler, heads the list of "frequent fliers," the most-booked inmates since 1999, according to jail records surveyed by the Orlando Sentinel.
The group of the county's top 10 fliers is made up mostly of transients who have smiled, cringed, glared and frowned for 836 mug shots. All are men. Most are black.[emphasis added]
Almost all of their arrests are for panhandling and other petty crimes such as loitering, urinating in public and trespassing, records show. Sprinkled throughout the hundreds of arrests are some violent crimes and drug charges.
"In general, a lot of people who come in and out of the jail are people who are homeless or mentally ill," jail spokesman Allen Moore said. "Because of their life circumstances, they get in a position where they violate city or county ordinances [and are arrested]."
On a recent weekday, Richardson pulls up a chair in a barren interview room at the jail. The skeptical look on his face shows through his salt-and-pepper beard and extends to his bald head and eyes. He doesn't yet understand why he would be of any interest to a reporter. He's surprised -- almost pleased -- to learn he's at the top of the list. This time he's here for violating probation on a prior trespassing and panhandling case.
The room echoes as he answers questions about why he can't stay out of jail.
"Because my income is panhandling," Richardson says. said. And in Orlando, that's illegal.
Arthritis invaded Richardson's joints a few years ago, making it nearly impossible for him to do the only trade he knows: migrant field work. He dropped out of school in sixth grade to follow the fields to pick oranges, cucumbers, watermelons and tomatoes, he said.
He fathered four children but left his family when his youngest son was 6 months old. Richardson said he hasn't spoken to them since he left their Gainesville home in 1986.
His small stature, which earned him the street nickname "Shorty Kellem," doesn't help him get work in day-labor jobs. But this time, he hopes a judge will help him get on his feet by ordering him to a work-release program.
"I don't know how to get out of this cycle," said Richardson, explaining that he has to start over every time he's released from jail. "It's wearing me down."
Although life may appear easier behind bars -- the guarantee of three meals a day, a roof over his head and a warm bed to sleep in -- he says he doesn't want to be there.
"I'd rather be walking the streets hungry than full in the jail," Richardson said.
He has past felony convictions on drug charges but says he has been clean for the past four years.
Recurring arrests are hardly limited to Orange County, though its frequent fliers are more prolific than those in some counties. The most-arrested person in Osceola County is Martin Luther Wagner (59 times during the past decade), according to the Osceola County Jail. Wagner also has arrests in Orange County, records show.
In Lake, No. 1 is Thomas Cleveland Bass (52 times). Seminole and Volusia counties were unable to compile similar statistics.
Each time Richardson is picked up by police and hauled off to jail, he loses his few possessions.
When he returns, they have either been tossed out or stolen by other homeless people, who need it, he said. All he owns are the clothes he wore to jail. His identification card expired on his birthday, April 28, so now he doesn't even have that.
"The little stuff I did have is gone," Richardson said.
At the Coalition for the Homeless on West Central Boulevard, clients are offered lockers for a small fee paid by the week or the month. If the rent is not paid, the items are tossed, spokeswoman Muffet Robinson said.
Occasionally, coalition workers will receive a letter or call from the jail asking them to keep the items until the locker renter is out of jail.
"They do what they can to work with the guys," Robinson said. "But we are not a storage facility."
Almost half of the men in the group list the coalition as their home address, according to public records. Privacy policies do not allow the coalition to confirm whether the men are clients.
"It's all trash and litter to most of us, but to them it's their stuff," said Jim Wright, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida who works with the homeless.
"It must be frustrating as all get out ... when you get arrested and it all disappears."
Although Richardson has grown accustomed to the in-and-out routine, he said he wants change.
Meanwhile, he plans to serve the rest of his several-month sentence.
If anyone is looking for him, he said: "Oh, I'm not hard to find. Just check the jail."
Anthony Colarossi and Gary Taylor of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Bianca Prieto can be reached at bprieto@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5620.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
Yes, we have many beautiful aspects--unless you find yourself homeless in Orlando. Then, you'd find yourself subject to constant arrests and harassment in the name of enforcing city ordinances.
Then we become the City Mean.
Consider the sad cases of Roosevelt Richardson, incarcerated 123 times ove 10 years for the crimes of: "panhandling and other petty crimes such as loitering, urinating in public and trespassing." (Full story below.) That averages out to over once a month for TEN years.
While we all agree having people pee in public violates the sense of decency if not threatening the entire social order, where can a homeless person pee?
Many businesses open to the public violate the provision of the FL Administrative Code which states such must allow members of the public to use restrooms of the establishment, thus they patently violating the law.
While murders in Orlando have increased dramatically--even as the Orlando Sentinel keeps a scorecard--our POlice protect us from panhandlers. Holy misplaced priorities, Batman.
I'd rather give someone a dollar rather than get killed. Hey even if they use it for beer, I figure they need 1 to cope.
Speaking of druthers, Richardson has his: ["I'd rather be walking the streets hungry than full in the jail," Richardson said.]
Will have to dust off my constitutonal law book to check but feel fairly certain the US Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to free speech included the rights of Hare Krishnas top ask for $ from people.
By extension, people in America have the constitutional right to ask other people for $.
Given the lack of drug treatment programs, affordable housing, and freaking JOBS please remind President Obama that "infrastrucure includes PEOPLE, which look invisible to us but all had mothers and fathers and maybe siblings.
Get involved in your community; Jesus said to feed people to get into heaven: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…" (Matthew 25: 35, 36)
[Used without permission under Fair Use doctrine because this story deals with an issue of national import: homelesness]
orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-most-arrested-051109,0,3935678.story
OrlandoSentinel.com
Jail's 'frequent flier' has been in and out 123 times
Bianca Prieto
Sentinel Staff Writer
At any given time, Rosevelt Richardson is almost certainly at one of two places -- in the Orange County Jail or on an Orlando street corner.
They're hardly his favorite two hangouts. They're just the ones he knows best.
"I've put myself in a rut, and I don't know how to get out of it," Richardson said. "I'm tired of this."
How could he not be? During the past 10 years, Richardson has checked in and out of the county jail 123 times, or about once a month. And right now, he's checked in -- for stint 124. Richardson sits in jail, disappointed with himself but with one inescapable distinction: No one has been booked into Orange County's jail more during the past decade than he has.
Richardson, a 59-year-old homeless panhandler, heads the list of "frequent fliers," the most-booked inmates since 1999, according to jail records surveyed by the Orlando Sentinel.
The group of the county's top 10 fliers is made up mostly of transients who have smiled, cringed, glared and frowned for 836 mug shots. All are men. Most are black.[emphasis added]
Almost all of their arrests are for panhandling and other petty crimes such as loitering, urinating in public and trespassing, records show. Sprinkled throughout the hundreds of arrests are some violent crimes and drug charges.
"In general, a lot of people who come in and out of the jail are people who are homeless or mentally ill," jail spokesman Allen Moore said. "Because of their life circumstances, they get in a position where they violate city or county ordinances [and are arrested]."
On a recent weekday, Richardson pulls up a chair in a barren interview room at the jail. The skeptical look on his face shows through his salt-and-pepper beard and extends to his bald head and eyes. He doesn't yet understand why he would be of any interest to a reporter. He's surprised -- almost pleased -- to learn he's at the top of the list. This time he's here for violating probation on a prior trespassing and panhandling case.
The room echoes as he answers questions about why he can't stay out of jail.
"Because my income is panhandling," Richardson says. said. And in Orlando, that's illegal.
Arthritis invaded Richardson's joints a few years ago, making it nearly impossible for him to do the only trade he knows: migrant field work. He dropped out of school in sixth grade to follow the fields to pick oranges, cucumbers, watermelons and tomatoes, he said.
He fathered four children but left his family when his youngest son was 6 months old. Richardson said he hasn't spoken to them since he left their Gainesville home in 1986.
His small stature, which earned him the street nickname "Shorty Kellem," doesn't help him get work in day-labor jobs. But this time, he hopes a judge will help him get on his feet by ordering him to a work-release program.
"I don't know how to get out of this cycle," said Richardson, explaining that he has to start over every time he's released from jail. "It's wearing me down."
Although life may appear easier behind bars -- the guarantee of three meals a day, a roof over his head and a warm bed to sleep in -- he says he doesn't want to be there.
"I'd rather be walking the streets hungry than full in the jail," Richardson said.
He has past felony convictions on drug charges but says he has been clean for the past four years.
Recurring arrests are hardly limited to Orange County, though its frequent fliers are more prolific than those in some counties. The most-arrested person in Osceola County is Martin Luther Wagner (59 times during the past decade), according to the Osceola County Jail. Wagner also has arrests in Orange County, records show.
In Lake, No. 1 is Thomas Cleveland Bass (52 times). Seminole and Volusia counties were unable to compile similar statistics.
Each time Richardson is picked up by police and hauled off to jail, he loses his few possessions.
When he returns, they have either been tossed out or stolen by other homeless people, who need it, he said. All he owns are the clothes he wore to jail. His identification card expired on his birthday, April 28, so now he doesn't even have that.
"The little stuff I did have is gone," Richardson said.
At the Coalition for the Homeless on West Central Boulevard, clients are offered lockers for a small fee paid by the week or the month. If the rent is not paid, the items are tossed, spokeswoman Muffet Robinson said.
Occasionally, coalition workers will receive a letter or call from the jail asking them to keep the items until the locker renter is out of jail.
"They do what they can to work with the guys," Robinson said. "But we are not a storage facility."
Almost half of the men in the group list the coalition as their home address, according to public records. Privacy policies do not allow the coalition to confirm whether the men are clients.
"It's all trash and litter to most of us, but to them it's their stuff," said Jim Wright, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida who works with the homeless.
"It must be frustrating as all get out ... when you get arrested and it all disappears."
Although Richardson has grown accustomed to the in-and-out routine, he said he wants change.
Meanwhile, he plans to serve the rest of his several-month sentence.
If anyone is looking for him, he said: "Oh, I'm not hard to find. Just check the jail."
Anthony Colarossi and Gary Taylor of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Bianca Prieto can be reached at bprieto@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5620.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Warm Milk and Morphine
Hospitalized briefly in March with minor infection that led to impossibly low blood pressure with a side dish of anemia.
Who knew? Thought feeling faint and listless just result of hangover.
Neighbors called 911 for me and hospitalized for five days.
Roommate for last 3 days: an elderly, insomniac gentleman with penchant for guttural curses and noises and tv viewing all night long, not a prescription for a good sleep.
Took a day for Dr. to authorize sleeping pill. For night without pill, nurse brought me warm milk before morphine shot.
If in Orlando and take sick, I highly recommend Orando Regional Medical Center or whatever they call it nowadays, great food--especially the soups--and staff.
I'd give Fl Hospital ER from previous visit a nod because they have large screen tv's. Food just a touch below ORMC but still really good.
Hope to blog more regularly
Who knew? Thought feeling faint and listless just result of hangover.
Neighbors called 911 for me and hospitalized for five days.
Roommate for last 3 days: an elderly, insomniac gentleman with penchant for guttural curses and noises and tv viewing all night long, not a prescription for a good sleep.
Took a day for Dr. to authorize sleeping pill. For night without pill, nurse brought me warm milk before morphine shot.
If in Orlando and take sick, I highly recommend Orando Regional Medical Center or whatever they call it nowadays, great food--especially the soups--and staff.
I'd give Fl Hospital ER from previous visit a nod because they have large screen tv's. Food just a touch below ORMC but still really good.
Hope to blog more regularly
Thursday, February 26, 2009
RepubliKKKans blame the victims
As with denying abortions to victims of rape and incest, now RepubliKKKans want to deny relief to people sucked into buying a home at the top of the housing bubble, enticed by the Greenspan mantra and fantasy that housing prices always go higher.
(Cue Blood, Sweat, and Tears, "What goes up...")
Many home buyers got sucked into atrocious Adjustable Rate Mortgages or refinancing schemes sure to lead to foreclosure.
Just today, local Orlando tv "news," WFTV, reported on lady charged $26,000 in closing costs on a loan giving her $9,000 cash for her home equity. (no link) Then her mortgage payment nearly doubled, from $800 to $1500, when her ARM rate reset.
Mortgage companies made boatloads of bucks as prices went up, some by marketing bad loans to gullible customers.
Banks, mortgage companies, and the scions of Wall Street built a financial house of cards on the backs of people who bought houses in the US.
Even Ace Greenberg, forme chairman of Bear Stearns knew the housing bubble would collapse: saying on Frontline [(Question from Frontline): Did you know the housing bubble was going to burst?
I knew this: I knew that it was crazy to see people flipping houses for profit. The vigorish in buying and selling a house is so big that it's ridiculous. I mean, the house has to go up 5 to 10 percent in value before you're even by the expenses and maintenance and so forth. So I thought that was crazy, and the speculation was crazy. I thought it was crazy to see ads where people would lend you 140 percent of the assessed value of your house. I thought that was nuts. Did I know that grassroots brokers were getting people financing that had no business [buying], that they were falsifying their wages, they were falsifying their ability to carry the mortgage? Did I know it was that bad? No, I did not.]
From the NY Times: [They (AIG) were the worst of them all,” said Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and a derivatives expert. Mr. Vickrey of Gradient Analytics said, “It was extreme hubris, fueled by greed.” Other firms used many of the same shady techniques as A.I.G., but none did them on such a broad scale and with such utter recklessness.] Emphasis added
From Frontline, Inside the Meltdown
[Why would banks in Switzerland and Japan and Brazil be so focused on homes owned by poor people in America? But you have to see what happened between 2000 and 2007. ... It took humankind centuries to get to $36 trillion, and then it took us six or seven years to double that. And in no time at all there's twice as much money looking for something to invest in, but there aren't twice as many businesses and factories to invest in. They had to find something new. One of the things that was growing the fastest and attracting the most investment was the subprime housing market in the U.S. And then you create these leveraged products off of it, so a billion dollars of subprime loans can support $10 billion worth of structured products. Then you create these credit default swaps on top of those. And suddenly that $10 billion that really is based on $1 billion is actually supporting $100 billion worth of investments elsewhere.
And that actually would have been OK ... if they'd seen it as long-shot bets. ... But what they did was they took this stuff and used it as the building blocks on which they built their financial empires. ...]
Plus the mortgage companies themselves completey let standards fall by the wayside, as evidenced by this story at eye on miami about a man with presumably bad credit buying 3 properties in a 1 month period for $750,000 with no money dow2n.
Resonable people ought to agree the former borrower deserves relief while later schmuck deserves foreclosures.
Yet as Geniusofdespair noted in 2007, "This mortgage monkey business leading to foreclosures is going to crash the housing market."
Yet the RepubliKKKan bloodsuckers, having gotten $millions from developers and mortgage companies and banks, use their undead minions in the press spew to spew venom about "helping those who made bad choices."
Meanwhile, tent cities spring up across the US.
Let us call these what we ought: "Bushvilles."
In Hard Times, Tent Cities Rise Across the Country
In uncertain times, more people nationwide find themselves living in tents, on the streets
By EVELYN NIEVES Associated Press Writer
RENO, Nev. September 18, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press
A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.
Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.
Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" — an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.
From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.
Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.
"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition. "The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."
The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.
"What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the 80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group for homeless advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Seattle.
The relatively tony city of Santa Barbara has given over a parking lot to people who sleep in cars and vans. The city of Fresno, Calif., is trying to manage several proliferating tent cities, including an encampment where people have made shelters out of scrap wood. In Portland, Ore., and Seattle, homeless advocacy groups have paired with nonprofits or faith-based groups to manage tent cities as outdoor shelters. Other cities where tent cities have either appeared or expanded include include Chattanooga, Tenn., San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio...
In Seattle, which is experiencing a building boom and an influx of affluent professionals in neighborhoods the working class once owned, homeless encampments have been springing up — in remote places to avoid police sweeps.
"What's happening in Seattle is what's happening everywhere else — on steroids," said Tim Harris, executive director of Real Change, an advocacy organization that publishes a weekly newspaper sold by homeless people.]
(Cue Blood, Sweat, and Tears, "What goes up...")
Many home buyers got sucked into atrocious Adjustable Rate Mortgages or refinancing schemes sure to lead to foreclosure.
Just today, local Orlando tv "news," WFTV, reported on lady charged $26,000 in closing costs on a loan giving her $9,000 cash for her home equity. (no link) Then her mortgage payment nearly doubled, from $800 to $1500, when her ARM rate reset.
Mortgage companies made boatloads of bucks as prices went up, some by marketing bad loans to gullible customers.
Banks, mortgage companies, and the scions of Wall Street built a financial house of cards on the backs of people who bought houses in the US.
Even Ace Greenberg, forme chairman of Bear Stearns knew the housing bubble would collapse: saying on Frontline [(Question from Frontline): Did you know the housing bubble was going to burst?
I knew this: I knew that it was crazy to see people flipping houses for profit. The vigorish in buying and selling a house is so big that it's ridiculous. I mean, the house has to go up 5 to 10 percent in value before you're even by the expenses and maintenance and so forth. So I thought that was crazy, and the speculation was crazy. I thought it was crazy to see ads where people would lend you 140 percent of the assessed value of your house. I thought that was nuts. Did I know that grassroots brokers were getting people financing that had no business [buying], that they were falsifying their wages, they were falsifying their ability to carry the mortgage? Did I know it was that bad? No, I did not.]
From the NY Times: [They (AIG) were the worst of them all,” said Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and a derivatives expert. Mr. Vickrey of Gradient Analytics said, “It was extreme hubris, fueled by greed.” Other firms used many of the same shady techniques as A.I.G., but none did them on such a broad scale and with such utter recklessness.] Emphasis added
From Frontline, Inside the Meltdown
[Why would banks in Switzerland and Japan and Brazil be so focused on homes owned by poor people in America? But you have to see what happened between 2000 and 2007. ... It took humankind centuries to get to $36 trillion, and then it took us six or seven years to double that. And in no time at all there's twice as much money looking for something to invest in, but there aren't twice as many businesses and factories to invest in. They had to find something new. One of the things that was growing the fastest and attracting the most investment was the subprime housing market in the U.S. And then you create these leveraged products off of it, so a billion dollars of subprime loans can support $10 billion worth of structured products. Then you create these credit default swaps on top of those. And suddenly that $10 billion that really is based on $1 billion is actually supporting $100 billion worth of investments elsewhere.
And that actually would have been OK ... if they'd seen it as long-shot bets. ... But what they did was they took this stuff and used it as the building blocks on which they built their financial empires. ...]
Plus the mortgage companies themselves completey let standards fall by the wayside, as evidenced by this story at eye on miami about a man with presumably bad credit buying 3 properties in a 1 month period for $750,000 with no money dow2n.
Resonable people ought to agree the former borrower deserves relief while later schmuck deserves foreclosures.
Yet as Geniusofdespair noted in 2007, "This mortgage monkey business leading to foreclosures is going to crash the housing market."
Yet the RepubliKKKan bloodsuckers, having gotten $millions from developers and mortgage companies and banks, use their undead minions in the press spew to spew venom about "helping those who made bad choices."
Meanwhile, tent cities spring up across the US.
Let us call these what we ought: "Bushvilles."
In Hard Times, Tent Cities Rise Across the Country
In uncertain times, more people nationwide find themselves living in tents, on the streets
By EVELYN NIEVES Associated Press Writer
RENO, Nev. September 18, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press
A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.
Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.
Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" — an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.
From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.
Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.
"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition. "The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."
The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.
"What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the 80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group for homeless advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Seattle.
The relatively tony city of Santa Barbara has given over a parking lot to people who sleep in cars and vans. The city of Fresno, Calif., is trying to manage several proliferating tent cities, including an encampment where people have made shelters out of scrap wood. In Portland, Ore., and Seattle, homeless advocacy groups have paired with nonprofits or faith-based groups to manage tent cities as outdoor shelters. Other cities where tent cities have either appeared or expanded include include Chattanooga, Tenn., San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio...
In Seattle, which is experiencing a building boom and an influx of affluent professionals in neighborhoods the working class once owned, homeless encampments have been springing up — in remote places to avoid police sweeps.
"What's happening in Seattle is what's happening everywhere else — on steroids," said Tim Harris, executive director of Real Change, an advocacy organization that publishes a weekly newspaper sold by homeless people.]
Friday, February 20, 2009
California RepubliKKKans marching off the cliff.
No one likes to pay taxes.
But even the dimmest bulb should realize a $42 BILLION needs to get paid by raising SOME.
Not so Cali RepubliKKKans in the legislature who fired their leader in favor of 1 who apposes taxes.
Jeepers, even Governor Terminator can do the math:
[''Our caucus is pretty solid in terms of not voting for a tax increase,'' said Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks. ''We know the dire situation the state is in, but we do more damage by taxing Californians.''
Schwarzenegger criticized that stand during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. He said there is no way to close the $42 billion deficit without tax increases.
''If you think that you can do this without any increase in revenues, then you have a big math problem,'' Schwarzenegger said. ''I despise revenue increases. I hate taxes. But when you're faced with that kind of a reality then that's where you have to go.'']
Wonder when Governor great tan of Fla will get such an epiphany?
But even the dimmest bulb should realize a $42 BILLION needs to get paid by raising SOME.
Not so Cali RepubliKKKans in the legislature who fired their leader in favor of 1 who apposes taxes.
Jeepers, even Governor Terminator can do the math:
[''Our caucus is pretty solid in terms of not voting for a tax increase,'' said Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks. ''We know the dire situation the state is in, but we do more damage by taxing Californians.''
Schwarzenegger criticized that stand during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. He said there is no way to close the $42 billion deficit without tax increases.
''If you think that you can do this without any increase in revenues, then you have a big math problem,'' Schwarzenegger said. ''I despise revenue increases. I hate taxes. But when you're faced with that kind of a reality then that's where you have to go.'']
Wonder when Governor great tan of Fla will get such an epiphany?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Why do Republikkans hate American jobs?
Let me put this in terms even Michael Steele, current chairman of the Republikkkan National Committee, can understand.
When you go somewhere and peform a task and someone gives you $ for doing so, that's a job.
As an unemplyed CAD drafter, I damn well know paycheck equals job. Hell, let ME design roadways for 3 years.
Sure a road contract ends, but you can feed yur family in the meantime and then go onto the next contract or job if the economy ever improves.
Of coursee Stephanoupolis can't understand Steele's argument because it's INSANE!
[STEELE: What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.
STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates. It's going to be long term. What he's creating...
STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job?
(CROSSTALK)
STEELE: Hold on. No, let me -- let me -- let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we're talking about have an end point.]
As a small-business owner, I'm looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It's a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I'm -- either way, the bottom line is...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don't really understand that distinction.]
When you go somewhere and peform a task and someone gives you $ for doing so, that's a job.
As an unemplyed CAD drafter, I damn well know paycheck equals job. Hell, let ME design roadways for 3 years.
Sure a road contract ends, but you can feed yur family in the meantime and then go onto the next contract or job if the economy ever improves.
Of coursee Stephanoupolis can't understand Steele's argument because it's INSANE!
[STEELE: What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.
STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates. It's going to be long term. What he's creating...
STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job?
(CROSSTALK)
STEELE: Hold on. No, let me -- let me -- let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we're talking about have an end point.]
As a small-business owner, I'm looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It's a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I'm -- either way, the bottom line is...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don't really understand that distinction.]
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
"What Would Jesus Buy?"
[What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!
From producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPERSIZE ME) and director Rob Van Alkemande comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of the holidays. Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer's jacket, bleached his hair and became Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on the subways, to the leader, with the film's co-star, Savitri D., of a worldwide movement to slow consumption.]
Sunday, November 30, 2008
"I Hope Obama Can Keep Some of His Promises."
Qoute from person I respect.
Nevertheless to look at US from what Obama can do for us misses the point.
On election night, he told us rebuilding this country will amount to a long and difficult task, accomplished by calloused hands, brick by brick, stone by stone, weld by weld, by all citizens.
Food banks all over the country need food because demand has soared.
The # of people receiving food stamps will reach an all time high.
So each 1 of us needs to DO something. While respecting volunteers working on Thanksgiving to feed the hungry, this ain't a 1 day deal. Poverty has moved into the suburbs. The US and the world faces a depression, and we must individually help each other. (Link from Suburban Guerilla.)
Each 1 teach 1 someone once said. Tutoring for the Adult Literacy league taught me more than my student ever learned; God bless you Katie Mae McGee, a student who dropped out of school at 14 to take care of siblings in Ga.
Give canned goods at local food bank.
Give $.
Volunteer; local papers usually list opportunities. Local Red Cross branches need people power as well as money.
Live the words, "In as much you did it for the least of My brethern, you have done it for Me." Matthew 25:44
(Words slightly diff in this translation but thought, and the song, remains the same.)
[We have seen a 100% increase in demand in the last year … and food donations have dropped precipitously," says Dana Wilkie, CEO of the Community Food Bank in Fresno, Calif.]
[Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp benefits. Advocates are also optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to end childhood hunger and whose mother once briefly received food stamps, will make the issue a priority next year.]
["Poverty is spreading and may be re-clustering in suburbs, where a majority of America's metropolitan poor now live."
The study was released ahead of next week's conference on concentrated poverty at the Fed. It shied away from explaining the causes of poverty, but past research have linked the phenomenon to loss of jobs in manufacturing, agriculture and mining.
With the U.S. economic outlook rapidly deteriorating, poverty could get worse.
The U.S. housing market collapse has unleashed the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, forcing business to scale back on investments and driving the unemployment rate to a 14-year high.]
Nevertheless to look at US from what Obama can do for us misses the point.
On election night, he told us rebuilding this country will amount to a long and difficult task, accomplished by calloused hands, brick by brick, stone by stone, weld by weld, by all citizens.
Food banks all over the country need food because demand has soared.
The # of people receiving food stamps will reach an all time high.
So each 1 of us needs to DO something. While respecting volunteers working on Thanksgiving to feed the hungry, this ain't a 1 day deal. Poverty has moved into the suburbs. The US and the world faces a depression, and we must individually help each other. (Link from Suburban Guerilla.)
Each 1 teach 1 someone once said. Tutoring for the Adult Literacy league taught me more than my student ever learned; God bless you Katie Mae McGee, a student who dropped out of school at 14 to take care of siblings in Ga.
Give canned goods at local food bank.
Give $.
Volunteer; local papers usually list opportunities. Local Red Cross branches need people power as well as money.
Live the words, "In as much you did it for the least of My brethern, you have done it for Me." Matthew 25:44
(Words slightly diff in this translation but thought, and the song, remains the same.)
[We have seen a 100% increase in demand in the last year … and food donations have dropped precipitously," says Dana Wilkie, CEO of the Community Food Bank in Fresno, Calif.]
[Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp benefits. Advocates are also optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to end childhood hunger and whose mother once briefly received food stamps, will make the issue a priority next year.]
["Poverty is spreading and may be re-clustering in suburbs, where a majority of America's metropolitan poor now live."
The study was released ahead of next week's conference on concentrated poverty at the Fed. It shied away from explaining the causes of poverty, but past research have linked the phenomenon to loss of jobs in manufacturing, agriculture and mining.
With the U.S. economic outlook rapidly deteriorating, poverty could get worse.
The U.S. housing market collapse has unleashed the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, forcing business to scale back on investments and driving the unemployment rate to a 14-year high.]
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Consumer Fervor Runs Rampant: Kills Human Beings
In the orgy of consumerism known as Black Friday, '08, shoppers trampled a Wal Mart worker to death when the doors to the store opened.
Yes, that has become Thanksgiving in the US, originally a day to celebrate the harvest and bounty provided by the Almighty (whatever you call Her) but now a weekend of gluttony, football, buying consumer products at marked down rates--marked down from inflated prices so "bargains" still produce profits--and trampling to death.
We have become a nation of "Restless Consumers."
[CNN) -- Three violent deaths in two stores marred the opening of the Christmas shopping season Friday.
In the first, a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.
In the second, unrelated incident, two men were shot dead in a Toys "R" Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store, police said.]
[Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."] emphasis added
Yes, that has become Thanksgiving in the US, originally a day to celebrate the harvest and bounty provided by the Almighty (whatever you call Her) but now a weekend of gluttony, football, buying consumer products at marked down rates--marked down from inflated prices so "bargains" still produce profits--and trampling to death.
We have become a nation of "Restless Consumers."
[CNN) -- Three violent deaths in two stores marred the opening of the Christmas shopping season Friday.
In the first, a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.
In the second, unrelated incident, two men were shot dead in a Toys "R" Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store, police said.]
[Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."] emphasis added
Friday, November 28, 2008
Obama Backlash Begins
[LA Times By Howard Witt
November 23, 2008
Reporting from Bogalusa, La. -- Barely three weeks since America elected its first black president, noose hangings, racist graffiti and death threats have struck dozens of towns across the country.
More than 200 such incidents -- including cross burnings, assassination betting pools and effigies of President-elect Barack Obama -- have been reported, according to law enforcement authorities and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.
Racist websites have been boasting that their servers have been crashing because of an exponential increase in traffic.
And America's most potent symbol of racial hatred, the Ku Klux Klan, is reasserting itself in a spate of recent violence, after decades of disorganization and obscurity.
Nearly two weeks ago, the leader of a cell based in Bogalusa, La. -- a backwoods town once known as the Klan capital -- was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of a woman who allegedly sought to become a member but then changed her mind.
Late last month, two men with ties to a notoriously violent Klan chapter in Kentucky were charged in a bizarre plot to kill 88 black students and then decapitate an additional 14 students -- and then assassinate Obama by shooting him from a speeding car while wearing white tuxedos and top hats.]
Fl Drug Rehab Options
A kind comment to my post on "Drug Rehab or 31 Car Police Chase," gave a great link for Florida Addiction Rehabilitation options.
Struggling with my own doomed liquor love affair, pouring vodka into the hole in my soul, did not mean to make light of personal tragedies and addictions.
Beyond the social costs inherent in building more jails but failing to fund treatment for those seeking help, those who've decided they want to live, everyone please understand you can't put anything into your bloodstream to cure all ills.
Whatever the circumstance, something good lies out there for everyone.
You gotta have faith.
Plant a good seed and something good will grow.
Email me if you need personal support.
Good luck and God bless.
Struggling with my own doomed liquor love affair, pouring vodka into the hole in my soul, did not mean to make light of personal tragedies and addictions.
Beyond the social costs inherent in building more jails but failing to fund treatment for those seeking help, those who've decided they want to live, everyone please understand you can't put anything into your bloodstream to cure all ills.
Whatever the circumstance, something good lies out there for everyone.
You gotta have faith.
Plant a good seed and something good will grow.
Email me if you need personal support.
Good luck and God bless.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Leopards CAN Changer Their Spots/ Bab West's Biden interview
Local Orlando health reporter and "news anchor" Barbara West's interview with Joe Biden had her quoting Marx and using other RNC talking points to the point where Joe asked, "Are you joking?
Buried at the bottom of a story on the interview in the Orlando Sentinel we find out that the inquisitioner had married Wade West, a Republikkkan media consultant: "Several readers questioned how objective West could be because her husband, Wade West, was a Republican strategist, who contributed $2,250 to Republican candidates from 2000 to 2006. Barbara West said he was no longer a strategist and instead runs America Fundraising Auctions, which stages charity auctions."
Earlier in the piece, the Sentinel TV critic, Hal Bodeker, did quote from person at the independen Poynter Institute on journalim: [Jill Geisler, who teaches ethics and management at the Poynter Institute journalism school, said West has a right to ask any question she wants. "Depending on where you sit, you may say, 'Somebody finally asked the question I had,'. " Geisler said. "Others would say it's loaded language."
Geisler found some of West's language hyperbolic and described the anchor as coming from a point of view similar to talk radio hosts Sean Hannity's or Rush Limbaugh's.
"I can ask you 'Have you stopped beating your wife?' and say it's just a question, but there's an assumption embedded in it," Geisler said. "There was a world view in those questions."][emphasis added]
Limbaugh and Hannity, journalists who call it right down te middle. She went on O'Reilly first to defend herself, kind of says it all there.
Later today I'm going to sprout wings and fly AND change my spots.
Buried at the bottom of a story on the interview in the Orlando Sentinel we find out that the inquisitioner had married Wade West, a Republikkkan media consultant: "Several readers questioned how objective West could be because her husband, Wade West, was a Republican strategist, who contributed $2,250 to Republican candidates from 2000 to 2006. Barbara West said he was no longer a strategist and instead runs America Fundraising Auctions, which stages charity auctions."
Earlier in the piece, the Sentinel TV critic, Hal Bodeker, did quote from person at the independen Poynter Institute on journalim: [Jill Geisler, who teaches ethics and management at the Poynter Institute journalism school, said West has a right to ask any question she wants. "Depending on where you sit, you may say, 'Somebody finally asked the question I had,'. " Geisler said. "Others would say it's loaded language."
Geisler found some of West's language hyperbolic and described the anchor as coming from a point of view similar to talk radio hosts Sean Hannity's or Rush Limbaugh's.
"I can ask you 'Have you stopped beating your wife?' and say it's just a question, but there's an assumption embedded in it," Geisler said. "There was a world view in those questions."][emphasis added]
Limbaugh and Hannity, journalists who call it right down te middle. She went on O'Reilly first to defend herself, kind of says it all there.
Later today I'm going to sprout wings and fly AND change my spots.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Down Ballot Effect Pushing Obama Up in Central Florida?
For those unfamiliar with the cesspool of central FL politics, we have 2 real Repukkklican cretis in Ric Keller, FL US Rep. district 8, and Tom Feeney, FL-24, the latter named one of the most as ethically challenged four years in a row, both from slightly republikkkan districts.
Feeney has come in for great ridcule from FL columnists, including Mike Thomas of the Orlando Sentinel and Dave Senior of the Examiner papers.
This pissed people off so badly the cretin had to open tv ads with an apology.
Golfing with Abramoff, MasterCard.
Apolgizing in campaign ads, Priceless!
People usually start at top of the ballot but, possibly planning on pitching out these crooks, could this possiblyy influence the top of the ballot?
Pray it does.
peace.
Feeney has come in for great ridcule from FL columnists, including Mike Thomas of the Orlando Sentinel and Dave Senior of the Examiner papers.
This pissed people off so badly the cretin had to open tv ads with an apology.
Golfing with Abramoff, MasterCard.
Apolgizing in campaign ads, Priceless!
People usually start at top of the ballot but, possibly planning on pitching out these crooks, could this possiblyy influence the top of the ballot?
Pray it does.
peace.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
"Back in the Saddle Again"
Well not exsctly, but did return homw from hospital healthy as usual--3 squares a day I didn't have to cook or clean after, which minor miracle occurred with me with no medical insurance, must have had to do with me passing out in apartment parking lot with impossibly high blood pressure-- to find door locked with deadbolt but 'puter and peripherals gone.
Stupid thieves, had taken out hard drive prior to sending to HP so they got door stop and printer and flat screen.
At my church using SMALL monitor and really miss my flat screen but Galveston got hammered while I have rest of my stuff.
Blessings abound for all.
Stupid thieves, had taken out hard drive prior to sending to HP so they got door stop and printer and flat screen.
At my church using SMALL monitor and really miss my flat screen but Galveston got hammered while I have rest of my stuff.
Blessings abound for all.
Drug Treatment or 31 Car Police Chase?
Local tv news reports featured the father of the suspect and his tearful reports of trying to get his junky son invluntarily committed or into drug treatment.
http://www.wftv.com/news/17521782/detail.html
Looking for video.
http://www.wftv.com/news/17526766/detail.html
Check out the vid; OJ got nuthin' on JM.
Which makes more sense or costs less $, treatment or pursuit and incarceration?
"[Jason] Morse was arrested in April in connection with two thefts of OxyContin in Seminole County."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-chase2108sep21,0,1678850.story
http://www.wftv.com/news/17521782/detail.html
Looking for video.
http://www.wftv.com/news/17526766/detail.html
Check out the vid; OJ got nuthin' on JM.
Which makes more sense or costs less $, treatment or pursuit and incarceration?
"[Jason] Morse was arrested in April in connection with two thefts of OxyContin in Seminole County."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-chase2108sep21,0,1678850.story
Monday, September 1, 2008
I blog therefore I am
Going cold turkey hurts.
Without a 'puter, could not read newslinks and fave FL newspapers or int'l ones.
Newslink.org, a project of American Journalism Reveiew, has links to newspapers from all over the world, save for the London Independent with the esteemed Robert Fisk reporting on Mideast affairs.
Sheesh, hard to start my day with coffee but no Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, or St Petersburg Times (the one in FL). It did renew my appreciction of the printed paper, however, so nice to hold it in your hands and jot notes down rather than bookmarking articles that disappear into the ether in a week.
Missed those bloggers I've come to know as friends, 1 sided admiration surely as titans of blogs barely notice my humble little empire of dirt, but reading people daily lets me know something of the individual bloggers: Atrios, Field Negro, Suburban Guerilla, and America Blog. Even have had a few emails from the last 3, honoring me greatly.
Yet, I started this blog for me, not as narcissism but to publish thoughts in my head before it exploded from the crushing craziness of the Cheney administration.
Pres. Skippy even had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to say on camera after Russia invaded Georgia that violence and intimidation has no place in international affairs in the 21st century.
By the goddess, how could he dare say that? Give me some of the drugs he gets, Prozac probably.
You see, that happens when US invades a country for no reason save oil and hubris; any fleabag country with a flag and a few tanks feels it can invade when it wants to.
If it weren't so absolutely absurd, I'd cry.
Peace out, y'all.
Without a 'puter, could not read newslinks and fave FL newspapers or int'l ones.
Newslink.org, a project of American Journalism Reveiew, has links to newspapers from all over the world, save for the London Independent with the esteemed Robert Fisk reporting on Mideast affairs.
Sheesh, hard to start my day with coffee but no Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, or St Petersburg Times (the one in FL). It did renew my appreciction of the printed paper, however, so nice to hold it in your hands and jot notes down rather than bookmarking articles that disappear into the ether in a week.
Missed those bloggers I've come to know as friends, 1 sided admiration surely as titans of blogs barely notice my humble little empire of dirt, but reading people daily lets me know something of the individual bloggers: Atrios, Field Negro, Suburban Guerilla, and America Blog. Even have had a few emails from the last 3, honoring me greatly.
Yet, I started this blog for me, not as narcissism but to publish thoughts in my head before it exploded from the crushing craziness of the Cheney administration.
Pres. Skippy even had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to say on camera after Russia invaded Georgia that violence and intimidation has no place in international affairs in the 21st century.
By the goddess, how could he dare say that? Give me some of the drugs he gets, Prozac probably.
You see, that happens when US invades a country for no reason save oil and hubris; any fleabag country with a flag and a few tanks feels it can invade when it wants to.
If it weren't so absolutely absurd, I'd cry.
Peace out, y'all.
Pop Goes the Compaq Presario Power Supply
Honestly, while sitting on my couch 18 August with the computer turned off, heard a pop from area where it sat. No lightning, computer off, and thing blew.
Still under warranty so it lies in hands of tevh gods to get it back to me.
Spoke with customer service, and nice lady told me their ofc located in Argentina: nice weather, no hutticanes, hopefully that fascist stuff has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Still under warranty so it lies in hands of tevh gods to get it back to me.
Spoke with customer service, and nice lady told me their ofc located in Argentina: nice weather, no hutticanes, hopefully that fascist stuff has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Hurricane supplies: "food, water, whiskey"
While having their priorities out of order--you always have to get more booze and beer than you think 'cause with power out what else can you do but get hammered?--nevertheless these folk got it covered:
[Willie Dykes, 58, and friend Essy Pastrana, 48, live on a sailboat in Key West, and said they weren't going anywhere. The pair was filling up gas cans Monday morning and buying supplies like food, water and whiskey.
"We're gonna ride it out," Dykes said, his fluffy white beard blowing sideways in the wind. "We're not worried about it. We've seen this movie before."]
[Willie Dykes, 58, and friend Essy Pastrana, 48, live on a sailboat in Key West, and said they weren't going anywhere. The pair was filling up gas cans Monday morning and buying supplies like food, water and whiskey.
"We're gonna ride it out," Dykes said, his fluffy white beard blowing sideways in the wind. "We're not worried about it. We've seen this movie before."]
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