Blog Break

Okay, for the next 2 weeks, I am going to be in the USA. I will be in NYC then try to achieve a near perfect zombie bike riding state of relaxation in the flat terrain of Northwestern Ohio. When I get back, I will install my new Photoshop software and then, I assure you, all hell will break loose! Maybe I will try to post from the USA.
But until then,  here are two videos of the great American guitarist, Larry Coryell. One is from 1973. It is of his groundbreaking fusion band, The 11th House performing the piece Yin. I always thought that Coryell was able to do what Miles Davis dreamed of doing at the time.

The second is 2 separate solo accoustic appearances on Australian television in 1983. The second piece he performs is a improvisation based on Ravels Bolero...

Suddenly there seems to be a lot of previously unissued Coryell material available on You Tube....I have always thought that he was one of the worlds visionary musicians of our era....
He is still alive, performing and better than ever and two sons carrying on the Coryell legacy.
A bientot!

Ducking Chair Time......

(from Think Progress)
Eleven years ago a boisterous Christine O'Donnell confessed to Bill Maher and his ABC audience that she'd dated a witch, "dabbled into witchcraft" and even went on a midnight date involving blood on an altar.


Maher aired the Oct. 29, 1999 clip last night on the season premiere of his HBO show "Real Time." You can watch it above. Maher repeatedly called O'Donnell a "nice" person, and twice noted, "I created her!"


O'Donnell appeared on his "Politically Incorrect" nearly two dozen times, speaking about her faith and her conservative beliefs. Now she is the Republican Senate nominee in Delaware.


"She does not have a mean bone in her body," Maher told his HBO audience during his opening monologue, telling them O'Donnell is "an unemployed, anti-masturbation activist and a close friend of mine."


Such a close friend, in fact, that Maher threatened to show a clip each week until she agrees to an interview on "Real Time."


"She's nice and I have the proof," Maher said. "I have 22 episodes, Christine. If you're watching, I created you, you need to come on this show. If you don't come on this show I'm going to show a clip every week. I'm the only one who has them. I ordered them."


Then Maher did the big reveal, a short segment which included actor Jamie Kennedy listening incredulously to her story.


"I dabbled into witchcraft," O'Donnell says in the clip.


"I didn't join a coven, Let's get this straight," she says, as Kennedy asks her questions. "I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not makin' this stuff up. I know what they told me they do."


O'Donnell, sporting super permed hair, a blue sweater and black pants, then describes "one of my first dates with a witch."


It was "on a satanic altar and I didn't know it, and I mean there a little blood there and stuff like that," she says. "We went to a movie and had a little midnight picnic."
This is the woman who claims she only made $5800 annually for the last 5 years, yet manages to be able to live a Republican style, upper class senate candidate lifestyle....
Maybe it is really witch craft!

The "BRONADO"

I grew up living with tornadoes and tornadoes alerts on a daily basis in the Summer in Ohio and Michigan. I have seen a few really grand twisters and are in awe of them. I was amazed to hear about the tornado like phenomena which hit Brooklyn yesterday, as I will be in Brooklyn visitin friends in jut a few days!

This is a pretty cool video shot by some guys in their apartment and contains some NSFW language if that is an issue!

Immigraniada (We Comin' Rougher All The Time!)

Gogol Bordello, the Kings of NYC Gypsy Punk Rock, will make you cry with this song. If they fail, that is your problem. From the cd, 
Trans-Continental Hustle, by Gogol Bordello.

A Faith Based Victory or Another E-Vote Robbery?

Yesterday's hotly contest race for the GOP's U.S. Senate nomination in Delaware ended in victory for the state's moderate, much-beloved former Governor and nine-term U.S. Congressman Mike Castle --- at least according to the tabulation of ballots cast in the race which can actually be verified by anybody as having been recorded accurately as per the voters' intent.

From the State of Delaware's Elections website with 100% reporting:

Verifiable Paper-Based Absentee Results:

CASTLE: 54.7% - O'DONNELL: 45.3%

Unverifiable Election Day E-Voting Machine Results:
CASTLE: 46.7% - O'DONNELL: 53.3%

Nonetheless, the Tea Bag/Palin/DeMint endorsed Christine O'Donnell, who was getting trounced in the popular Castle pre-election polls until only recently after getting losing twice in her quest for the US Senate seat, was declared the "winner" yesterday in spite of the fact that no one can prove that she was actually elected or not.

But that seems to be good enough for the "balls to the walls" (I'm only quoting Rush Limbaugh in his condemnation of Karl Rove for his criticism of O'Donnells seeming victory) far Right Wingers, this "victory" was 100% faith based, since it's impossible to know if even one citizens vote cast on the 100% unverifiable e-voting machines that Delaware forces voters use was recorded accurately.

That said, while we've seen examples of similar disparities between paper-based absentee results and electronically cast results before (the unknown Alvin Greene's "victory" over Judge Vic Rawl in South Carolina's recent Democratic U.S. Senate primary comes to mind) there are logical-ish reasons --- as there always are, in every election --- to justify O'Donnell's computer-reported "victory" yesterday

To be fair,O'Donnell received a late endorsement from Sarah Palin on September 9th, just 5 days before the election. That brought with it a surge of last-minute support from the "Tea Party" and others. The absentee vote percentage was quite small. (1,499 absentee ballots versus 56,083 cast on election day) So you are cautioned to against reading too much into the percentages of O'Donnell votes on the ballots cast before the Tea Bag endorsement of Palin.

The point of this post is: Who knows? Absolutely nobody does. O'Donnell doesn't. Castle Doesn't and the State of Delaware doesn't. Even the manufacturer of the e-voting system used in the election, Danaher/Guardian, would be unable to prove who won or lost the race.

While the Republican establishment is beside itself after last night's reported results (Castle, who they'd supported, was thought to be an easy win over Democratic nominee Chris Coons, while polls currently show O'Donnell getting trounced by him), the same 100% unverifiable e-voting systems will be used again in Delaware (and 20% of the rest of the nation) on Election Day on November 2nd this year. If O'Donnell loses the general election --- or wins --- there will be no way to prove that she did --- or didn't.

"Tea Baggerss" who support O'Donnell, and who claim to give a damn about representative democracy and self-governance, would be wise to finally start taking notice of the real threats to our supposedly inalienable right of self-rule. HINT: The threat ain't ACORN.

Reality Rears It's Ugly Head

That's right. In spite of the stimulus bill, in spite of TARP, in spite of the GM/AIG/Wall Street bailouts, the first Obama budget (2010) has closed the deficit by 13%, according to Bloomberg.

The excess of spending over revenue totaled $90.5 billion last month, smaller than the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and down 13 percent from $103.6 billion in August 2009, according to a Treasury Department report issued today in Washington. The gap for the fiscal year that started in October was $1.26 trillion compared with $1.37 trillion last year at the same time.

This is not to say that all is hunky-dorry in budgetland, yet:

The economic recovery has helped generate more tax revenue for the Treasury, even as the Congressional Budget Office forecasts the deficit this fiscal year will reach $1.34 trillion, the second-largest on record. The Obama administration faces the challenge of trying to limit the shortfall while stimulating an economy with joblessness close to 10 percent.

Now remember this when the debate over tax cuts ratchets up beyond what it is right now and Republicans refuse to admit that tax cuts for the wealthy balloon the deficit even more with no pay-fors. John Boehner's admission that he would support the compromise that extends tax cuts without the benefits for the super-rich folks has the GOP in a lather

How ever will the poor Republicans deal with this ugly reality? STAY TUNED!

Help Karl Find His New Home!

Amid the launch of a new campaign to encourage greater scrutiny of the right-wing "American Crossroads" groups known to many as the "shadow RNC," an activist organization declared that it would give $100,000 to any person who comes forward with "information leading to the arrest and conviction of Karl Rove."

The campaign is being conducted by American Crossroads Watch, an offshoot of Velvet Revolution, which promotes issues key to many progressives activists and represents the political will of dozens of organizations and unions nation-wide.

Their newly launched Web site declares:

Karl Rove created American Crossroads to continue his 40-year history of unfairly manipulating elections on behalf of oligarchs. He joined with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a cabal of corporate barons, and other CEOs that want Big Business to control our elections and our government.

Rove’s group plans to amass more than $50 million from companies making secret donations, and spend that money to influence elections and buy candidates who will act on behalf of those companies and their deregulatory policies. These same polices brought us Enron, the collapse of Wall Street banks, Bernie Madoff, Jack Abramoff, the Gulf oil spill, the recent coal mining disasters, and the corporate controlled Supreme Court.We are fighting back on behalf of the 87 percent of Americans who do not want corporations to buy politicians and control our government.

Crossroads Watch specifically refers to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allowed 527 groups to accept unlimited donations from any source. They and many progressives charge that removing the caps on how much money the wealthy can dump into election advertising has the potential to undermine America's democracy.

In a request for an advisory opinion [PDF link] filed with the Federal Election Commission, an attorney for Protect Our Elections cites reporting by RAW STORY, Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post to build a case alleging that Rove and his groups have effectively replaced the official RNC, hence they should be subject to the same rules and not be allowed unlimited donations. A second request [PDF link], filed with the Department of Justice, urges the protection of the 2010 elections from wealthy individuals and groups who seek to win "by hook or crook."

They further insist that the DOJ "[launch] a specific criminal investigation into American Crossroads/American Crossroads GPS for its coup d’etat of the RNC for the purpose of controlling the United States Government."

Naturally, the offer of a reward for Rove's arrest and conviction was issued by way of an online wanted poster.

In trying to warn candidates away from accepting the support of Rove's group, American Crossroads Watch also launched an Internet ad targeting former executive Carly Fiorina, now a California Republican Party nominee to the U.S. Senate. A list of "targets" was posted on the Crossroads Watch Web site and supporters were urged to contact the candidates and emphasize their opposition to Rove's "laundered" money and "dirty tricks".

A sister organization, U.S. Chamber Watch, last week filed an I.R.S. complaint against the Chamber of Commerce, alleging the conservative, big-business lobby laundered millions of dollars from a group closely tied to embattled insurer A.I.G

Can't Explain

Well, sometimes a song says more than I can.
It's not that I don't have anything to say these days, it's more like I don't have my familiar reality to be able to express myself. I have my regular work space but an unexpected guest who kind of parked himself here for the last 2 weeks and isn't going to leave for another week....
Be patient...I am trying hard!

New Computer!

I'm back on line! I have a spanking brand new shiny beast of an imac! Hoorah!

Interlude

Between a house full of visitors and computer meltdowns I haven't been able to be on line much at all. I am going to have a brand new imac in just 8 days! But for the next few days, I may not be able to post...sorry...