Single What? Female...

cause everything happens...

while I'm away...(at least things just happen; it's not like when Countdown producer Greg Kornick goes away, people die...you must see his response at Bloggerman (the link will be below))

I was having a lovely time in Massachusetts (yes, I am a screaming liberal from Massachusetts and I live in New York City...I have no validity with a die-hard Red Stater), visiting my family, catching up with friends and listening to Stephanie Miller as she updated us all on the election fraud issues among other things...AND I HAD NO INTERNET ACCESS!!! (which some of you may actually be glad about :p). So now it's catch-up time...

THE LATEST:

Rep. John Conyers, according to Stephanie Miller-apparently claimed on the Ed Shultz show this past week that he has MORE THAN ONE SENATOR ready to sign off on a formal challenge of the election. I'm thinkin', juuust in case, you might want to e-mail,call, fax, write your senators and make sure they're on the short list there. Details are still being worked out, but it looks like there may actually BE a formal challenge as Rep. Maxine Walters-according to Keith Olbermann-has said she would sign off on the challenge as the House signatory. Again, time to e-mail, call, fax, write your Congressfolk and make sure this all happens.
ALSO, just now, Olbermann, back from vacation, has just added a new entry (good thing I had to start late due to over 2600 pieces of SPAM in my work mailbox) about one of John Kerry's Ohio lawyers very strong statement from last Thursday about how all this really has to be looked into even MORE now due to the "severely compromised" recount in Ohio (i.e. the tech guy from Triad saying he needed to fix a machine and asked what precincts had voted on it-such a question, by the way, is a no-no) Check out details at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

and then write back to Keith and say "I love you Keeeeeith, oh yes I dooooo..."


No matter what happens in Congress there WILL be a protest January 3rd in Ohio. You wanna be there? Be there with United For Peace and Justice:

www.unitedforpeace.org

They are also planning for January 6th protests in DC (and at your Congressfolk's offices in your home towns if you choose) as well as a HUGE rally on Inauguration Day (I personally hope to head down to DC for that one. Most likely, from what I have heard about security, we'll be placed in Arlington, VA or some place even further off, but I'm all for heading down-road trip anyone?)

IN THE MEANTIME....

There's HOPE ladies and gentleman. In Kiev, Youshenko has a strong lead over his Russian-backed opponent in the re-vote there. Despite the voter fraud HERE by the Republican party, you gotta give them this: they did not try to put Dioxin in Kerry's coffee...that we know about.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/12/27/ukraine.vote/index.html

AND, if you hadn't heard this last week, Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire, who had asked for a recount in the gubernatorial race in Washington state, ended up with a 130 vote LEAD after a recount which included a bunch of ballots from a heavily Democratic county that had been "disputed", but the state Supreme Court said "Count 'em" so they did and Gregoire got 311 more votes; her opponent only 191-the balance gave her 120 extra votes to add to the 10 vote lead she already had after a recount without the King county ballots. Of course, the Republicans are appealing. Notice how the Republicans always FIGHT the recount?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/23/wash.gov/index.html


And speaking of Republicans trying to fight for their jobs, despite the fact that Bush thinks that Rumsfeld is doing a "superb job", more than one Republican senator has declared that they have "no confidence" in the man, particularly after the whole "you go with the army you have, not the army you want" AND the "auto-pen" debacles. Gotta love how Rummy suddenly appeared in not only Iraq but at Landshul Hospital in Germany this past week shaking hands and thanking soldiers for all their hard work. Yeah, I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when that trip was planned. *"Um, Don?" - "Yeah, Karl?" -"I think it's time you made a trip-" - "Oh Karl, I'll sign the letters, I promise! Don't make me go back there!" - "Don...you'll sign the condolence letters by hand-in fact, here's some to take with ya- AND you're going back to Iraq...and Germany-" - "The HOSPITAL?!?! Oh come on! You heard the President, he said he knows my heart-" - "Yes, but the soldiers don't, and neither does the press, so it's time to take a trip, Don. Don't worry, we got one of those NEW Humvees for ya... now go pack up, the plane's leaving in an hour..."*

Speaking of doing things you don't like...as I have previously mentioned, it appears that the administration doesn't like to announce certain passed bills or laws or have press conferences during regular hours. While I was out, Bush had his press conference, making his statement about Rumsfeld's callous behaviour ("I have seen the anguish in his eyes...I know his heart") at NOON on a weekday and THEN the day before Christmas Eve, they released the new forestry rules: basically he's paring down environmental law AGAIN, but you can see the details here at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/23/politics/23forest.html?th

you'd think that if this were a good thing, they might announce it when people are PAYING ATTENTION...oh wait, I forgot, this is the W's administration...

AND speaking of wacky things Bush won't give on...the tax cuts. We've got a war, the highest deficit in history, but the tax cuts will HELP (really they WILL!) as well as Bush's changes to the tax code...save for the $37 BILLION that those changes will take from New York State alone, thus spake Senator Chuck Shumer today (according to WNYC). Have you checked out how YOUR state will fare under these new rules? Have your Congresspeople?!?!? You might want to mention that to them when you e-mail, call, fax, write them about the election fraud, the forest issue, Iraq, and whatever else you have on your mind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/nyregion/27taxes.html?th

Such as the fact that if you have kids going to college or plan on going back to school, don't think that that Pell Grant is going to help as much as it could.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/23/education/23pell.html?th

Yeah, education's real important, unless you have no money and need financial help. Why raise taxes when we can take money from Pell Grants...oh and from FOOD AID.

http://www.kintera.org/site/pp.asp?c=irKQL0NSE&b=275581&sid=43982053

cause didn't you know, that particularly in RECENT YEARS, the US is the stingiest nation when it comes to foreign aid *them foreigners should take care of themselves...we got our own people to fatten up...*

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/23/opinion/23thurs1.html?th

and a reminder to people who think that these countries who need the help just need to pull up their bootstraps and help themselves. The funds they are to recieve are to help them become SELF-SUFFICIENT. And when such nations live in less poverty, with less disease, they tend to have less anger and hopelessness, which leads to them being less apt to fall into the traps of extremism, which leads to less genocide and less terrorism, etc etc etc. If each of the G-7 nations gave up less than one percent of their GNP, you could virtually wipe out hunger in Africa and other poor nations (according to Unicef and the Audrey Hepburn Foundation--feel free to check my details--and may I mention that Norway is already up to .92 percent over the last couple of years?). Yet somehow, the Bush administration can't seem to find the money...at least, not for poor people...in Africa or here.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE...cause after all that we could use a chuckle... CNN.com again provides me with the fav morning headline of the day: "Naughty Kids Christmas Gifts Sold On E-Bay"..see for yourself at:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/27/ebay.gifts.ap/index.html

and please send a thank you to the guy at www.smokinggun.com who came up with the "O'Reilly Approved Loofa" that you could buy that someone special for Christmas (belated Hanukkah, Solstice, Kwanzaa, etc)

And to this member of Red Sox Nation...sing along with me..."Happiness.. is signing Jason Varitek, making him Captain.." Yes, the Sox sealed the deal with Tek this past week AND, Tom Brady redeemed himself for the Miami Horror and helped his team beat the Jets yesterday 23-7 (the many injured on the team now have the opportunity to heal up over the bi-week)

This will conclude today's rant save for my request that you KEEP E-MAILING!!!!! E-mail, call, fax and write your friends, family, the press and your Congresspeople!!! Again, I say, why should Ukrainians have all the fun? Let them know that you are paying attention and want to be heard! Pass it on, pass it on, pass it on!

Peace --Alex

posted by funkweee @ 9:03 AM