Good News! Old Gay Lawyer Ramblings Is Moving!

Good news!   The web server is restored to life with brand new parts and pieces and some used  parts and pieces cannibalized from older retired boxes!  it has a brand new 500gig hard drive to keep me happy for awhile.  I will be migrating this blog to http://oldgaylawer.com over the next several days and will be attempting to restore some of my old Ramblings that are still resident on the bricks that formerly were the hard drives in the new bigger and better server!  I am even planning a cyber server warming party.  I am going to try to convince Jay Brannan to perform!

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Law Enforcement.

    As everyone knows who has anything more than a very casual contact with me, I have been involved on the defense side of criminal law enforcement for almost forty years.  During my career I have handled all types of crimnal cases from serious felonies to ridiculous misdemeanors.  One of my earliest cases involved the defense of a misdemeanor citation issued in Huntington Beach for  a violation of a city ordinance that declared wall sitting on the city's pier to be a criminal offense.  My client, a young surfer, was ticketed for sitting on the pipe railing on the pier. That railing was not a wall under any definition of wall I could find and the city ordinance didn't define the term wall either. 
This clearly was a case of violating the "don't sweat the small stuff" rule of law enforcement. Not only did we file motions in the trial court but we also tried the case to the court and the court found my client guilty of sitting on the wall, even though only a railing was involved.  We appealed to the next higher court and that court reversed holding that a railing is clearly not a wall. The city spent probably $15,000 in attorney time, court time and other time, including  police overtime all over a $25 ticket. The City sweated the small stuff.

Today Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the Department of Justice will no longer sweat the small stuff and has ordered U S Attorneys nationwide to not bother with prosecuting people and clinics who are  using marijuana in strict compliance with state laws concerning medicinal pot.  Good job, General Holder, it took you long enough. If federal and local prosecutors would use some of the  prosecutorial discretion we have invested them with and not file crappy low worth cases which achieve no serious public good or remedy serious social problems, life could be a lot better and simpler for John Q Public and the expenditure of public funds on all levels less than it is now when money, public and private, is very scarce.

Food, Processed Food, and Other Poisons

This morning as I was mourning my awakening by my 'roommate', Rupert over a first cup of very good coffee and wandering through Google News I stumbled upon this article in the Denver Post.  I read it and thought about it and had another cup of coffee and then decided that I would send it around to various people I know, most of whom have been collected over the last half century.  When I was  preparing to send it on, I wondered what the hell is going on?  I wondered what on earth the 'zoning issues' mentioned in the article could possibly be in areas of the Nation and its urban cancer-cores unserved by traditional (as of the mid to late 20th century) paradigm of food distribution.  I am still wondering about the political question.  I didn't know much, in fact I know practically nothing,  about this process of 'aquaponics' but apparently it's a very simple self contained process for growing high quality fresh unmodified (hopefully) fruits and veggies and other good stuff l in places starved for fruits, veggies and fresh fish (read protein)  e.g., damn-near everywhere in America and particularly in America's marginalized and poverty-stricken inner cities.    The area in Denver where this abandoned green house (pictured in the article) is located does not have food outlets other than are found in convenience  stores and liquor stores and the like, where the chief items of sale are beer, wine, booze and cigarettes, those narcotizing and anesthetizing drugs sold to Americans 'living' on the underside of the pile of humanity in order  to keep them quiet.  I wondered how many fast food franchises are found in that area of Denver and similar areas of our cities.  I don't know the answer but  I am going to snoop and look around and see what Doctor Google  and his applications like Google Earth can tel lme.  I will report back.  People on my email list to whom I sent the  Denver Post link responded in droves (for me) and spoke of the historical destruction of American cities, the destruction of fresh, healthful food outlets in the inner cities and with more links to articles on aquaponics (and at least one offer to let me help).  You grow fresh fruits and vegetables and fish. The fish eat, defecate, breed and their waste feeds your veggies and share the aqueous environment with your growing produce and fruits. I bet you can even use the water to irrigate root veggies that are hard to grow hydroponically.You eat the fish and fruits and veggies which have grown strong and healthily and everything replenishes itself and hopefully you  and your children grow strong and healthy and not obese and diabetic 'living' off poisoned and mercury laden fish (available locally at your nearest Corporate Grocer) and genetically altered fruits and veggies and  grease burgers and grease-fried potato-products and cheese food found in fast food joints across America, all while watching the dumb-downed shows on that Great Wasteland referred to by Newton Minnow in the early days of the Kennedy Administration.  You can read more here, here, and here.  If I were to do this, and I am seriously considering doing it and I end up with a surplus of fruits and veggies and fish, I bet I could trade some for chickens (hopefully pre-butchered) and eggs and maybe even home-baked bread (or tortillas). Just think of the great salsa that can be made from this stuff!
The late Speaker of the House of Representative, Tip O'Neill, himself from the central core of one of America's great but rotting cities, Boston, said that all politics is local.  He was right.  He would also agree, I am sure, with the current mantra to think locally and act globally.

There's a Time Machine in Louisiana.

I find this hard to believe.  This sounds something like out of 1939.  A Louisiana Justice of the Peace has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple.  I like to attach pictures of people who are the subject of my rants but I just cant find one of Justice Keith Bardwell. So this one  of a neanderthalian from the Encyclopedia Brittanica will have to do until I find one of this man who claims to treat everyone equally. I love his comment about him not being a racist, he just doesn't believe in mixing the races that way.  I wonder what he would have done had this couple promised him not to make babies.  You can read the AP news story here
Mr. Bardwell is more than just a neanderthal, he is an endangered species...all by himself.  Apparently he doesn't believe in the principal of equal justice under the law. I wonder what Governor Jindal will say.  Especially since our biracial President saved his bacon today in New Orleans.
  UPDATE:
 Finally I have located a picture that may be Keith Bardwell.  This is the picture that accompanies an article  on this whole sordid affair. You can read the Inquisitr article here  Here is the picture that accompanies the article. I wonder which of these gentlemen pictured here is Mr. Bardwell.  One could not have asked for a better picture to display on a rant like mine.  I am not entirely convinced that this (or one of these) is actually Mr. Bardwell but we can hope.  Hope we can believe in!
NEW UPDATE:
Finally CNN.com has done something worthwhile instead of chasing Fixed News' tail and trying to out-whacko them.  It has published the first found picture of Keith Bardwell.  This picture should hang in a Jim Crow museum somewhere.

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The Powers that be in America Need You.

           The powers that be in this Nation need you.  They need your back.  They need your hands and they need your brains.  They need your bodies.  They need your reproductive capacity.  They need your undivided attention to the task at hand.  The task at hand is simply to support their avarice and greed. They need you to work hard and they need your money.  When you are a child they need you in school.  When you are older they need you to spend.  When you are older still they need you to breed and they need you to spend.  They need you to borrow money you don’t need and can’t afford and  most importantly they need you to spend that borrowed money.  And will you are doing this they need you  to be contented cows.  When you are old they need you to die.  Most especially they need you to die.

A Great Speech!

  The President gave another Great Speech.  You would almost think he was Candidate Obama again!  Perhaps he is Candidate Obama, and the Great Speech was his opening salvo for his re-election bid in 2012. If the GOP can use wedge issues to win elections by electrifying its base, why can't Mr. Obama?
  My neighbor stopped by last night both to visit my cat and to tell me how impressed she was with the  Speech. I hope she wasn't too let down when I let the air out of her tires by asking if he had announced he was going to use his power under the law to stop the continuing discharge of patriotic soldiers, sailors, airmen and yes marines while he is pondering how many, if any, more troops he's going to send to fight, bleed and die in Afghanistan.  I was exceedingly underwhelmed by the reiterated 2008 promises.  There is no doubt that the man can talk the walk but seems totally unable to walk the talk. There really is nothing to be seen here, folks, move on. You can come back and tell me when actually does something that resembles walking the talk.

A Video for Our Times.

This is an amazing video. Guess which cat wins out and obviously has the brains.http://www.wimp.com/threecats/   There is a  political lesson in there somewhere.  Enjoy.

President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize.

Now that the President is the surprise winner of this Nobel Peace Prize. I have a suggestion.  The actual cash prize is not insubstantial, so why doesn't he donate the proceeds to some organization like the National Association of Free Clinics.  The NAFC are the good folks who are bringing mobile medical and dental clinics to various locations in the US that are sorely in need of medical care for the working poor in this country.  Keith Olbermann has suggested that the NAFC should bring mobile clinics each week to the capital cities of each state in the union that is represented by a Blue Dog Democratic senator or a GOP senator sitting on the Senate Finance Committee who oppose the public option in the pending health care bills.  This is in the hope of shaming those servants of the health insurance companies into changing their position on the public option.
Mr. Obama gets a $400,000 year salary and has free rent  and great medical care.  He doesn't need the prize to live well.  He should donate it to push his desires for real health care reform in this county.  We should all write the President and urge him to do this.

Let the Democrats Enforce Party Discipine!

  I listened last night to part of Keith Olbermann's very personal special comment on healthcare in America.  It was pretty impressive and very personal.  But he is absolutely correct, Americans are in servitude to the health insurance industry and apparently the health insurance industry owns the Senate of the United States outright.  It is time for Americans tio do something to cast off the shackles of servitude imposed by their masters.  Keith is right, premium strike would not work. For the simple reason that if Master cancels your insurance for non-payment  and then it's reinstated later you are saddled with the yoke of a pre-existing condition and you are franky "shit out of luck" as they say in my part of the woods.  The only way besides the traveling Free Clinic which sets up shop each week the capital city of each of the Blue Dog Democrats to shame them into supporting real health care reform, is to pester the senate leadership and the democratic caucus to understand that health care reform is the most important thing in America and to let them know shaply, frankly and loudly that any senator votes no on cloture on the coming GOP filibuster of real health care reform will lose his or her positions in the senate leadership and by this I mean they will lose the chairmanships of committees and sub-committees in the senate.  Let's get on this and demand they enforce party discipline.   Vote No on Cloture and "Off with their heads!"

Big Brother Wants to Know More About YOU, Everything About YOU!

   The Los Angeles Times this morning published an article about Tony Rackauckas' latest scheme and power grab. Tony, the man who in past years has organized poltical campaigns that resulted in the removal from office of a California Chief Justice and several associate justices of the Supreme Court and who was rewarded for his efforts by being appointed to a vacant judgeship in Orange County and who subsequently ran for District Attorney and was elected to that office  has come up with a new scheme.  Under this new scheme, which is really a scam, a person charged with a misdemeanor (a public offense which is punishable by no more than a year in the county jail) or a 'personal use' drug felony (punishable by imprisonment in State Prison) can have his or her criminal case dismissed with absolutely no personal consequences upon payment of a $75 processing fee and the 'contribution' of a sample of the person's DNA to a database maintained not by the FBI or the California Department of Justice but rather by the District Attorney himself.  Tony's database is completely independent  of the ones created by law and controlled by law.  The lawful databases have restrictions on how those databases can be used and controlling access to the use of the information contatined in those databases.  There are no such restrictions on Tony's database.  Conceivably Tony or any successor could sell the information, license it, patent new therapies developed from it or just plain old use it for nefarious poltitical purposes.  Not only that but the source of this 'wealth' is any citizen who is charged by Tony, since he and he alone decides who is charged with crimes.  After almost 40 years as a street lawyer, handling a large number of misdemeanor criminal cases over that period of time, I know that most people being dragged into the criminal justice system, deservedly or not, are terrified of what might happen to them, their families and even their careers. For example the conviction of any person of a marijuana offense, renders them ineligible for any federally guaranteed student financial aid.  This ineligibility follows that person for the reminder of their lives.  It is a classic bill of attainder. Conviction of certain misdemeanors, rightly or wrongly, disqualify a citizen from certain professional licenses.  Citizens charged with such crimes are rightfully fearful of their futures and their careers.  So what happens when a young deputy DA summons a person charged with such a crime into a conference room and offers to dismiss the case for a mere $75, their signature on a waiver, and a swab of their mouth?  Let me guess, the overwhelming number of such people pay the money, sign t he paper and open their mouths.  From that day forward each such person has given up his or her essence, the code which describes them as a member of homo sapiens and which differentiates them from every other person on the planet.  It is the essence of who YOU  are.   This Essence is now under the direct and unsupervised control of a politician.
There are other evils associated with that.  Currently a prosecutor's duty is not to ensure convictions of crime, but rather to use his or her best efforts to ensure that justice is done.  That means a prosecutor is obligated to dismiss a criminal case if he or she has evidence of the innocence of a defendant that puts in serious doubt that person's guilt of the offense charged.  This scam  is destructive of that end, the prosecutor is now willy nilly dismissing cases in order to build this database.  Justice be damned!  We have a database to build!  Not only that but it places the prosecutor in the untenable position of being a witness against the defendant in the person of the witness who testifies to the identity of the perpetrator based upon the DA's database.  That witness is an employee not of an accredited, licensed and independent crime lab but of the DA's own office.  That is unprofessional and unethical.
While I am certain that Tony is possessed of some modicum of good faith, a locally controlled database within the prosecutor's office is just too much of a temptation to be waived in front of a politician.

Some Things Need to be Passed On.

I did not know who Anne Lamott is until after I found this letter to President Obama on the web this morning but I really am envious of the skills of this author.   I read it. Then I read it again, this time. aloud, It read to me like a good sermon coming from the mouth of a good preacher and when I had finished reading and listening to it there was a great silence in my soul and a calm and a knowledge that this is what we, as Americans, must do for all the reasons set out in this letter:  Here is its full text:

"Dear Mr. President,

I am afraid there has been a misunderstanding since that election in 2OBAMA008, during which 66,882,230 Americans cast their votes for you. Perhaps one of your trusted advisors has given you bum information. Maybe they told you that we voted for you -- walked, marched, prayed, fund-raised and knocked on doors for you -- because we hoped you would try to reunite the country.

Of the total votes cast that long-ago November day, I'm guessing that about 1,575 people wanted you to try to reconcile the toxic bipartisanship that culminated in those Sarah Palin rallies.

The other 66,880,655 of us wanted universal healthcare.

You inherited a country that was in the most desperate shape since the Civil War, or the Depression, and we voted for you to heal the catastrophic wounds Bush inflicted on our country and our world. You said that you were up to that challenge.

We did not vote for you to see if you could get Chuck Grassley or Michael Enzi to date you. The spectacle of you wooing them fills us with horror and even disgust. We recoil as from hot flame at each mention of your new friends.

Believe me, I know exactly how painful this can be, how reminiscent of 7th-grade yearning to be popular, because I went through it myself this summer. I did not lower my bar quite as low as you have, but I was sitting on the couch one afternoon, thinking that this adorable guy and I were totally on the same sheet of music -- he had given me absolutely every indication that we were -- and were moving into the kissing stage. Out of nowhere, I thought to ask him if he liked me in the same way I liked him.

He said, in so many words, no.

And Mr. President, that is what the Republicans are saying to you: They are just not that into you, sir.

This may have thrown you for such a loop that you have forgotten why you were elected -- which was to lead your people back to the promises of our founding parents. Many of us no longer recognized our country after eight years of Bush and Cheney, and you gave us your word that you would help restore the great headway we had made on matters of race, equality and plain old social justice.

People, get ready, you said; there's a train a 'coming. And we did get ready. We hit the streets. We roared, whispered, cried, whooped and went door to door, convinced that even if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had not specifically dreamed of you, his dream of justice and equality and pride might come into being through your vision, your greatness, through the hope that your words gave us, through the change you promised.

He dreamed of a leader like you. Just like you. And something in the deepest part of this country's soul heard.

After eight years of Bush, and then the Palin nomination, we were battered and anguished and punch-drunk. But in rallying behind you, we came back to life, like in Ezekiel when the prophet breathes the spirit of bearing witness and caring onto the dry bones, and those bones come back to life, become living people again, cherished and tended to.

We did not know exactly how you would proceed to restore our beloved Constitution. It seemed beyond redemption, like my kitchen floor did briefly last week after my dog, Bodhi, accidentally ate 24 corn bread muffins. You said you would push back your sleeves and begin, that it would take all of us working harder than we ever had before, but that you would lead. While acknowledging the financial and moral devastation of the last eight years, you said you would start by giving your people healthcare. You would do battle with the conservatives and insurance companies. You said in your beautiful way many times that this was the overarching moral and spiritual issue of our times, and we understood this to mean that you took this to be your Selma, your Little Rock.

I hate to sound like a betrayed 7-year-old, but you said. And we believed you. Now you seem to have abandoned the dream. That is why moderates and liberals and progressives like myself all seem a little tense this summer. It is time to call your spirit back. We will be here to help when you get back from vacation. We want to help you get over the disappointment of Mr. Grassley's cold shoulder, of Mr. Enzi blowing you off, even that nice Olympia Snowe standing you up. We can and will take to the streets again, march and hold peaceful rallies, go door to door, donate to any causes that will help get out the truth of what a public option would mean. But we need you to shake off the dust of the journey and remember the promises of Dr. King, and we need you to lead us toward what is no longer so distant a shore.

Do it for Teddy Kennedy, boss. Do it for the other Kennedys too, for Dr. King, for Big Mama, for the poorest kids you met on the trail, the kids who go to emergency rooms for their healthcare, do it for their mothers and for Michelle. Just do it.

Trusting you, Mr. Obama

Anne Lamott"

Blue Dogs Need Go the Way of the Passenger Pigeon.

The Blue Dog Democrats, the fiscally conservative, socially conservative inepts need to go to the way of the passenger pigeon.  They need to be extinct.  They serve no useful purpose other than for bragging rights for Democrats so they can  pretend that they control the legislative process in the Congress of the United States.
It is historical fact that the congressional democrats have been totally unable to govern this Nation since at least the time of Harry Truman and perhaps beyond that.  There seems to be no such thing as party unity or party discipline. Whipping democrats is akin to herding cats.  Will Rogers was absolutely correct when he said that he belonged to no organized political party, he was a Democrat.
I know their are ancient historical reasons for the Demoratic Party's political impotence all the way  back to Reconstruction and beyond even to the days of the evil of human slavery and its identical  horror the slaughter of the Native American Peoples, the twin foundations of Manifest Destiny.  The Congress has for decade upon decade done the bidding of the business trusts and huge corporations roundly condemned by President Theodore Roosevelt.  Nothing is going to change until we take the evils of money out of our political system, give up the insane idea that money equals speech and begin to publicly fund election campaigns.  Blue Dog Democrats either need to be democrats or get the hell out..  It is time for Americans to understand that corporations aren't entitled to representation in the Congress. "We the People" in the preamble of the Constitution means just what it says.  Take back the government of the United States! Put it back where it belongs in the hands of the People.

Those Fucking Blue Dog Democrats!!

           Jay Rockefeller's public option failed in the Senate Finance Committee failed today.   The Democrats and Republicans voting against it said that it would put the bloated, corporate-welfare supported health insurers out of business.  They said  Baucus says he voted against it because it won't pass on the floor but that he really is in favor of a public option..   He's also a man of conviction and feels duty-bound to earn the 3.7 million dollars he;s been paid in campaign contributions by the health care industry.  It's nice to see he's honest and stays bought once bought.Corporations have no right to life!  Reform that mandates that people to buy coverage from insurance companies and does not control those companies and just funnels money to them from the subscribers is not reform. It's corporate welfare.

Finally I Found My Way to the Grocery Store!

  And among the other treasures I found, I brought home some tequila and margarita mix! Oh joy!  Oh happy times.  I even convinced one of my neighbors, dear sweet Vivian, to come over and drink some with me.  It was very nice we haven't had a chance to visit since she split from her husband.  We talked about all sorts of stuff.  We talked about her divorce, her ex-husband, her daughter (my niece), her house and our neighborhood.  We even talked about the medical establishment. It was quite fun.  Thankfully the heat has moderated.  Hopefully tomorrow will be cooler.  This visit has assuaged a bit my bone-numbing loneliness.

Only in Orange County, California!

This morning's Orange County Register, formerly known as the Santa Ana Register carries a story about how anyone who is so inclined can purchase a mattress for $30,000 at either of the two Bloomingdale's here in Orange County.  As an aside the Register's  parent company, Freedom Communications, Inc. has recently filed a chapter 11 petition in Delaware.  You can read this faux (not Fox) article here.  I guess the Register is getting money from wherever it can find it.  I wonder what the Register charged for that 'news.'
In my view anyone who, in this day and age, is willing to spend $30,000 on mattress should be marched out to the nearest brick wall and shot dead. Don't these folks realize that the unemployment rate in California is 12.2% of the available work force, and if you counted the unemployed honestly you could add at least 170,000 of our fellow citizens to that figure?  Don't these folks realize that the economy is in the tank?  Don't they realize how many of their fellow citizens lack for medical care?   Haven't they noticed that GM which was the main beneficiary of the auto bail out of a few months ago is back at it again and pushing gas guzzling SUVs  as the solution to peoples' problems in their current advertising campaigns on television?  Don't they realize that Wall Street wunderkind are back pushing securitized ponzi schemes?

Random Stuff.

My friend sent me an email today, actually he forwarded me an email because it was interesting.  The author of that email herself forwarded another email in which the original sender speculated and pondered societal issues that are front and central in the opening decade of the 21st Century.  Or at least what he thought were central to to him.  He started his essay with a definition of a politician. That's what really caught my attention to the essay and caused me to read it.  His definition of  a politician was something to the effect that a 'politician is the only person who can  invent a problem and then campaign against it.'  I immediately thought of some of the election cycle campaigns of the last few election cycles in which the GOP invented serious problems in the body politic and then waged horrific campaigns against those 'serious problems.'   I am speaking of course of issues like queers wanting to marry other queers and issues like people who have a point of view about something and want to burn flags to make their point.  They then went on to propose amendments to constitutions, state and federal, to outlaw those practices--or thoughts of those practices-- and thereby save the civilized world from doom and damnation and also ensuring their own election to whatever office it was they coveted.
That author then proceeded to elaborate on that and I found his biggest issue was that he was being taxed to death.  He complained about some two hundred taxes that he had no use for, including those that brought him water, education, fire protection, police protection, sewer services, parks, recreation and all the other societal evils he was warring on.   That's when I lost interest in that "I have mine, fuck you Bozo" bullshit.   Guys like that are part of what's very wrong in America today.

Oh My Gawd!

I have discovered a fellow who bills himself as a misanthrope. His name is Jay Brannan. I dont believe he's really misanthropic, but if he wants to call himself that, I can understand where he's coming from.  I really like his point of view on the part of his persona that is gay and his view of its place in his life.  He has made me ponder some of the things that I have felt and said in the past. I will probably write more about him as I think about him and his vision more. I am going to buy some of his music.  He has a blog on blogspot: You can read it here  He also has a webpage with lots of his music on it.  You can visit it here and listen to his music. Don't steal it, buy it..

Doesn't This Say It All!

I found this cartoon on the web today and I think it is brilliant.  It certainly shows the mindset of the Cave Dwellers who have been convinced to vote against their own personal and financial interests by the Corporations who always vote for their own financial interests (with their dollars, stolen from the Cave Dwellers).

Max Baucus' Bill DoA?

Last night Lawrence O'Donnell, a former chief of staff of the Senate Finance Committee stated on the Keith Olbermann show that Baucus' newly unveiled 'plan' to reform health insurance was one democratic defection short of death.  He stated quite clearly and emphatically that the Montana 'democrat' could not afford another defecting dem.  He was referring to Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) statement that he could not and would not support the Baucus bill without a public option to control the appetites of the health insurance industry.  Today Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced her opposition to the Billion Dollar Gift to the health care insurance industry.  Does this mean the bill and the max tax included in it are dead on arrival?

Dick Cheney's Secret Surgery.

It is reported that former vice president, Dick Cheney, is in surgery at the George Washington Medical Center to repair a stenosis of his spine.  I have heard it on good authority that he is hospitalized not to repair his spine but to have his gua'uld parasite removed.  The surgery is very tricky and requires that the gua'old first be anesthetized so that it doesn't kill itself and its human host.  We all send our good thoughts to Mr.Cheney and his family and pray that he survives this very serious surgery.

Max Baucus Continues to Suckle.

Max Baucus, chairman of the senate finance committee after much labor has brought forth in the Land the aborted fetus of a plan to provide health care to the millions of Americans currently without healthcare.  He achieved this marvelous feat by searching in the Desert of Bipartisanship for concessions asked for by the Cave Dwellers and then pasted them onto the desires, wishes and demands of the Corporations by whom he is employed.  He got no agreement from the Dave Dwellers even though he gave them what they wanted but he has guaranteed his right to suckle at the teat of the health insurance industry.  Good job, Max.

President Jimmy Carter Recognizes Racism When He Sees It.

President Carter was asked today what part racism played in Representative Joe Wilson's (R-SC) intemperate, rude and disgraceful outburst in the House of Representatives on the night that President Obama addressed the Congress in joint session on the topic of reforming the health care delivery system.   Carter a former governor of Georgia and a man raised and educated in the south minced no words and pointed out that a great many opponents of Mr. Obama as president are terribly uncomfortable with the fact that the President of the US is a black man.  Maureen Dowd said much the same thing over the weekend.

My Dear Friend Since Ancient Times.

Has published a local magazine for many years and recently published an op-ed piece that is very much worth reading and taking to heart.  It can be found here and I urge you to read it.

My Favorite Cave Dweller Protest Sign.

    This sign does more than anything I have seen to convince me that the great mass of  Cave Dwellers really are terminally stupid and really deserve to be interviewed by the Health Insurance Companies' Death Panels.

New Graduate Program in Georgraphy at South Carolina University.

I heard today a major unnamed university in South Carolina will commence a new graduate program in its school of geography. Come June of 2011 it will confer its first master of science degree in the geography of the Appalachian Trail Region.

Matt Taibbi Explains How YOU Will Be Fucked by Heathcare Reform.

This morning I read a ten day old article by Matt Taibbi of the Rollingstone Magazine. In this long article he explains how we got to where we are in this debate that is mostly like a fixed shell game. He points out how Mr. Backus of Montana and his Gang of Six have high jacked thei legislative process to protect the economic interests of the health insurance industry which the Gang of Six is 'ethically' bound by payment of money to protect. Matt is not afraid to call a whore a whore and does so on many different occasions in this op-ed piece. I wish someone could say that Matt is lying about this but unfortunately I cannot.

Maureen Dowd Scores One.

Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed piece in this morning's New York Times hit the nail square on the head. It is aptly entitled "Boy, Oh Boy" and ties the GOP politicians of South Carolina into their total disbelief that a man of bi-racial ancestry is the President of the US. This just really sticks in their craws. It is something I have believed for a long time. The GOP politicians south of the Mason-Dixon Line are the unreconstructed intellectual and moral descendants of slavers and segregationists. Ms. Dowd recites a Litany of the historical Racism of South Carolina. however she fails to point out in this litany that South Carolina on December 20, 1860 was the very first of the Confederate States to attempt secession from the Union. It's the home of John C. Calhoun who first gave birth to the concept of Nullification, the location of Fort Sumter, the home of Strom Thurmond who was the nominee of the Dixiecrats in the 1948 presidential election, the home of Mark Sanford the foremost authority in the world on the Applachian Trail and of Argentine Salsa Romances and the home state of Joe Wilson who lied to America from the historic floor of the House of Representatives about lying and insulted the President in his quest to be the John C. Calhoun of the twenty-first century. She probably also ought to have listed the connections that South Carolina has to bible-thumping racist christianism.

Lawyers' Lessened Free Speech Rights.

Again the New York Times runs an interesting and provocative article. Th is one concerns the rights of lawyers to speak their minds about their colleagues and judges before whom they appear. There is one discipline story that I find very interesting it is the story of the lawyer, who was not working as a lawyer, who sat on trial jury and after the verdict was in and the jury discharged wrote about his experiences on the jury. As far as I know there is nothing that prohibits a juror from voluntarily discussing his experiences as a juror. Why he would be disciplined for that is a bit beyond me. He can't do what any other trial juror can do voluntarily after discharge? That really bothers me. Such a rule seems like so much buffalo chips.

Ain't It the Truth!

This is a marvelous Auth cartoon describing the current state of the Healthcare debate in the United States. This is what happens when you have a Congress beholden to the Richest Guys in America. Americans need to go forth and let Congress know that we demand healtcare for all. It's a human right. We need to tell those Cave Dwellers, like Joe Wilson, that the penalty for denying human rights to Americans is a trip home and a search for a real job.

No Health Insurance for Illegal Humans?

wish someone would explain something to me. I fail to understand the holy furor over making sure illegal human beings can't buy medical insurance under any of the pending bills in Congress. It seems to me that's all we are talking about, who can buy insurance in order to provide for medical care. No one is applying for free medical care. It seems that since the Cave Dweller, Joe Wilson, shouted down the President that the Gang of Six including our own fool, Senator Bauckus, is working on a mechanism for verifying that no illegal human beings will be served. This verification system will no doubt be very expensive and probably won't even work anyway. Denial of insurance coverage to certain classes of people will have the effect that they will go to the emergency room and get the most expensive treatment available. That will (and does) cost the American taxpayer many billions of dollars each and every year. Wouldn't it be cheaper to the taxpayer to just allow everyone to purchase coverage and be done with it and eliminate the emergency room expense? Some of the Cave Dwellers are pushing another idea: eliminate the federal subsidy and payments for emergency room services and push health care providers into bankruptcy.In the event of pandemics and epidemics such as the promised H1N1 pandemic is it prudent to deny health services to anyone? Isn't that piss poor public health policy?

Take It Like a Man, Mike.

The story of the sexual escapades of the former Yorba Linda Assembly member who abruptly resigned from office yesterday after a local TV station played excerpts from a tape in which the Family Values Champion bragged of his sexual exploits to another Assembly member has suddenly changed. Mike Duvall, stud extraordinaire, now says he wasn't having an affair with the lobbyist for Sempra Energy he was just guilty of "inappropriate storytelling." This is reported today in the Los Angeles Times. The self-admitted 54 year old liar, who never graduated from high school, now wants us to believe he just engaged in junior high-schoolish adolescent behavior by making up stories about the lobbyist and another woman to impress his colleague on the Assembly committee he served on. Gee whiz, Mike, is your ego bigger than your penis? Have you no shame? Can't you go quietly into the sunset and return to selling insurance? No matter which story is true, you have acted the fool. Now shut up, take your medicine, and get on with your life. Take it like a man!

Congratulations to Assemblyman Mike Duvall (now Ret).

Another failing for a leading family values campaigner who practices the Do as I say not as I Do brand of family values. Well I was concerned in reading the LA Times article that Mr. Duvall might have confessed to engaging in a menage a trois type of behavior. However I was wrong, he was a typical Cave Dweller type of alpha male engaging in serial fornicative behavior. Apparently one of his two mistresses is a lobbyist for the Sempra Energy Company ("Glad to be of Service!").
Mr. Duvall has suddenly returned to his wife and family in shame in the lovely conservative Orange County city of Yorba Linda. I bet if I looked I could see evidence of fire and brimstone to the northeast of me. Good luck to you, sir, in your new endeavors on behalf of the citizens of your former Assembly district. God bless! I am happy heterosexual marriage is safe in your embrace.

Wal*Mart Pushes On.

There is an article today at Time.com about Project Impact which is the retailer's new push to squish what's left of the competition. It involves brighter stores, friendly staff, and other of the usual cosmetic changes all in the hope of bringing up the stock price for large and institutional investors. My question is where are they keeping the slaves and child laborers who are making the shoddy merchandise Wal*Mart pushes?

Wow! I Can Hardly Believe It.

I watched part of President Obama's speech to the school children of America. I had no idea I was being both hypnotized and indoctrinated at the same time. When it was over I had an almost irrepressible urge to play on the Jungle Jim at the local school while singing old socialist hymns. That was simply astonishing!

Astonishing Doesn't Do This Justice.

My friend sent me this link. It's long and it's loud so turn the volume down. It is simply an exquisite piece of art, sand painting. Enjoy!

The Scammers Are Back! Count Your Fingers!

There is a most interesting article in today's New York Times. Wall Street Bankers are up to their old tricks. Remember how the health insurance industry health insurance reform by worrying the world that Dreaded Death Panels would be created to kill off poor sick Gramma because she too sick and old to be worthy of health care? Well Wall Street Gambling Interests are putting together a new security, or a new ponzi scheme if you wish. This one also involves your grandmother, she was so useful to them with health care, they figure that they will bring the dear old lady back for an encore. Basically Wall Street wants to buy Gramma's life insurance policy for some small premium over it's surrender value. Surrender Value is what an insurance company will willingly pay to the owner of the a policy to get off the hook so that if Gramma dies they won't have to pay out any money to the beneficiaries. Enter the WSBs. They go to Gramma say if you sell your policy back to the life insurance right now they will you say $400,000 for the policy, if Gramma doesn't sell her policy back to the insurance company and she dies the insurance company will have to pay the face value of the policy, say one million dollars to the named beneficiaries. Now if Gramma needs the money that can be a tempting offer. If the WSBs say offer her $500,000 for the same policy, that is an even greater and sweeter temptation to poor old Gramma. Let's say she accepts the offer and now has a half million dollars to squirrel away somewhere and to pay her expenses with. The WSBs leap with joy because they pay the premiums now and keep the policy in force. If Gramma had sold the policy back to the life insurance company it would no longer be in force. The WSBs now gather up bunches of these policies they have purchased and "securitize" them. You have heard this term before...it's what the WSBs did with mortgages of the past several years during the real estate "boom". "Securitize" simply means they turn Gramma's life policy into a security and start selling interests in the policy and promise high returns to people who buy interests in these securities. These interests are generally in the form of fractional interests in the policies underlying these securities. WSBs now have an interest in poor Gramma dying off quickly because when she dies they get the payout less whatever is owed to the investors in the way of interest payouts is theirs to keep. WSBs now have will have an interest in how long dear old Gramma lives. She want her to die quickly, the quicker the better for them. They are marketing your grandmother to the world and betting she dies sooner than later.

The Legacy.

It has been a thoughtful two days since we learned of the passing of Teddy Kennedy. He was an imperfect man, no doubt, but we are all imperfect men and women. Much as been said about him, much of it loving and respectful, some of it brash and evil and even hate-filled. His colleagues such as Vice President Biden in tearful remembrance. His political enemies singing songs about him in remembrance of a consummate legislator and his ideals, who served close to five decades in the Senate. Some of those we will fine returning to business as usual, attacking his ideals and his values and his caring for "least among us" in favor of business as usual in America shortly after he is laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery next to his brothers. I have been thinking about what to say and what to write about him and suddenly I realized that his eulogy has already been written. It was written on November 19, 1863 by none other than President Lincoln who speaking at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery said in the last of sentence of that address:
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

In Memoriam Edward Moore Kennedy.

Tonight Ted Kennedy passed from our scene. How great a loss that is for us and for the world. He was a great legislator and a good human being. We are richer for his time among us and poorer now that he is gone. It is a shame he didn't live to see universal health care in the only western democracy that doesn't have such a thing. A fitting memorial for the Lion of the Senate would be to enact Universal Health Care in his name. Requiescat in pacem, Teddy.

No Public Option, No Real Healthcare Reform.

After thinking about this whole issue of healthcare reform, I am of the opinion that there can be no meaningful healthcare reform without a viable public option. The reason for this is very simple: without a public option there is no way to keep the health insurance industry honest. None at all!

GOP Red Herring Sale---More Fear & Terrorism

Our "friends" at the Republican National Committee have a released a document called the Seniors Bill of Rights. This document attempts to secure a political victory for themselves and their patrons by scaring the feathers off of our Senior Citizens. You can read those items on that site and come to a single conclusion. The only people talking about any of those evil things enumerated as evils to be protected against are the GOP and their Patrons, the for profit health insurance industry. They through ridiculous red herrings (that no one else has imagined, much less offered up as policy) and promise to defend against those fake stories and worries. Terrorism is defined as the use of fear to achieve political ends. These non-existent worries are offered up the GOP. They scare seniors witless and then they promise to defend against them by the keeping the status quo in place. The GOP is totally without any conscience and has no shame whatsoever. The RNC should be sent off to Guantanamo Bay to keep our seniors safe. The RNC is definitely a terrorist group.

Let Us Be Crystal Clear.

The current bogey-man debate over Health Care is more like a food fight than anything else. First of all let's be sure we are talking about the same thing. This debate is not about health care. Potentially we have the finest health care available anywhere at any cost. The debate is much more about how it is rationed, if you will. The current distribution system is a bottom line distribution system. It is set up based upon the insane belief that someone or something should be making a profit Those who are opposed to changes in the distribution and current system of rationing of this fundamental right are not led by stuffy Dickensian GOPers, although those fellow have signed on in that battle. People like Smiling Chuck Grassley are modern-day Hessians. They are hired guns, if you will. Smiling Chuck has taken in 2.5 million dollars from the health care and pharmaceutical industry during the last 5 years.The Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party are in the forefront of opposition too. This Battle for America is esentially being waged, directed and, more importantly, funded by those who have the most to lose by making any meaningful changes in this system of rationing. There is a precept of politics coined in the last 30 years that says it all and is just as relevant and foundational as when it was first uttered: follow the money! The health insurance industry funds 15% of the Gross Domestic Product of the the U.S. and they make a hefty profit out of it. Some $14, 000,000,000 at last count. The American People are a cash cow for the industry. What's wrong with this picture? Let me tell you what's wrong with this picture. Adequate health care is a fundamental human right. It is not something that should be designed to make money, obscene amounts of money, for the gate-keepers and the collectors of ration stamps. Simple morality demands a change in this system. It demands a change whereby delivery of health care is maximized and the evil of profit-taking is minimized. That is the main reason why a so-called public option must be included in changes in the health care delivery system. It is absolutely essential that we keep health insurers honest. Nothing short of a public option will do this.

You Got to Love Barney Frank!

Barney had this marvelous exchange with some nutcase in one of his town hall meetings in his Congressional District. It is one of those things I wish I had said. Watch it here. It's about time someone talked back to one of those nutcases on the Right. Give 'em hell, Barney!

In Memoriam Robert Novak

He is no great loss to the world. If ever there was a man who was a total waste of air, water and food, it was the late Mr. Novak. In his passing we have probably eliminated the possibility of any indictment of Darth Cheney.

Repair California!

Hendrik Hertzberg has written a compelling comment in the New Yorker Magazine calling for a Constitutional Convention in California. Such a convention would require two votes of the People in 2010. The first would authorize the electorate to call a convention, currently only the Legislature by a 2/3 vote can call one. California's Legislature can not even must a 2/3 vote to pass a budget, it is never going to call a convention. The second measure on the 2010 would actually call the convention and require that a new constitution for the Golden State be submitted to the voters at the 2012 general election. The Delegates to this convention would be chosen by lot from among the adult citizens of the state. That is an amazing concept, such delegates would not be subject to electoral pressure and would not, as Hertzberg says, be beholden to the appointing authority.
Check out Repair California's website here! It makes much more sense than the current situation in Sacramento.

I Have About Had It.

I have just about run out of interest in the Hope Campaign of President Obama. He promised us Change. He promised us Hope. He has given us bullshit. He has danced with the wolves of the status quo. No change has been fortcoming. He criticizes DADT and says it must go and yet he refuses to use the power he has to effect that change by ordering the retention of talented officers and enlisted service members because they are needed in spite of the DADT rule he so roundly criticizes. He waffles back and forth on Healthcare Reform. Saying the public option is essential which his department heads say it isn't. He cuts deals with Big Pharma to save Healthcare and then denies the existence of those same deals. When is this going to stop? At the end of his term of office?

Oh the Horror of the Thought!

Could it be? Could the evil rumors be true? Could it be that the Great White Hunter of the GOP, Deadeye Cheney, is running for President in 2012? Say it isn't true! Please, sir, die for your country!

Smiling Chuck Grassley.

President Obama two days ago praised Chuck Grassley (R-IA) as a reasonable man working to get health care reform of some sort through the United States Senate. The very next day, Smiling Chuck, the Farmer-Lawmaker, as he bills himself told a public audience that they have a right to be fearful the batshit crazy tales and baseless rumors of the far right wing respecting Death Panels and the like under the proposed health care bills. Some gratitude this man showed the President who the day before had been the beneficiary of presidential praise. Grassley, who has accepted 2.5 million dollars from the health care insurance industry and Big Pharma since 2003 has emerged as a knight in shining armor to do the bidding of that industry. He is also responsible (along with Vice President Biden) for having given the Nation the Bankruptcy Reform act so desired and begged for by the banking industry. His solution to the bankruptcy 'crisis' was fix what the banks said was wrong with our bankruptcy system on the backs of poor people.
I am led inexorably to the obvious conclusion that Smiling Chuck is not only part of the problem with this Nation but is a whore and harlot. The only question in my mind is will he be an honest whore and harlot and stay bought.

In Memoriam Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Last evening the founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed from our lives. The world is a much better place for her having been here with us. She cared for the least among us and she brought us, as a society out of the Dark Ages in which we hid. When I was a child I knew of several children who suffered from mental retardation. I didn't befriend them because I feared them. Being like them was one of my greatest fears. I suspect that fear was almost universal, the cry of "Retard!" was even more of an insult than being called "homo" among my age peers. The Los Angeles Times has a marvelous and amazing obituary here this morning. Requiescat in pacem.

In Memoriam for an Empathetic Judge

Robert M. Takasugi passed on August 4th. He was a judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California and sat in Los Angeles. You can read his Obituary here in the Los Angeles Times.
Judge Takasugi was a survivor of the Internment Camps used in the Second World War to protect "real Americans" from their own fears about Japanese spies and terrorists during that conflict. He was what President Obama would call an empathetic judge. He understood oppression and oppressors and he hated oppression. Thank you, sir, for your years of service to the Constitution and your fellow citizens.

Congratulations to Madam Justice Sotomayor.

This morning the Los Angeles Times carried this historic story, the swearing in of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, of New York, as the 111th person to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States and only the third woman so to serve. Here is a picture of the new justice taking the constitutional oath from the Chief Justice. This picture reminded me of the second oath-taking by President Obama at the hands of the Chief Justice when the Chief so badly bobbled the presidential oath. I notice today he is reading from cue cards. I hope he did better this time. It really is a banner day for Madam Justice and for our Hispanic citizens who now have representation on the hightest court in the land. Congratulations Madam Justice and I wish you good health and l ong, distinguishe and heroic service on SCOTUS. Bienvenidos!

We Can't be an Empire if We Keep You Healthy!

I am reading new arguments that say any significant reformation of the health care delivery system is going to require tax increases dropping down into the middle class in order fund medical care for low income people. That coupled with the bullshit about the 'death panels' that will decide which of us deserve to live and get health care and the forced euthanization of seniors and mandatory hospice care for everyone who has a medical condition more serious than influenaza are designed to frustrate any changes in the health care delivery system in the US of A. These lies are being told by the Cave Dwellers, Tea Baggers and othere assorted prevaricators in the employ and service of the obscene profit making of the health insurance industry. Remember health insurers have profits only if they (1) collect premiums, (2) invest wisely and (3) somehow limit the payouts for health care. How do they limit payouts? There are many ways. They can invoke exclusions for pre-existing conditions, faux claims of fraud when they discover that the customer didn't fully disclose that they treated for pneumonia ten years and recite the mantra that had they known that, they would never have issued the insurance policy to begin with. Some of them have annual expenditure caps..."opps we've already spent too much money on you this year" and the like.
One of the unspoken assumptions in their argument that taxes have to be increased in order to pay for a revamp of the system is that nothing else in our budget is going to be cut and that non-health care related programs such as the F-22 stealth fighter along with other Department of Defense boondoggles will be funded at the same levels as in the past. They will remind us that we still have to pay for the $2,000,000,000,000 Bush Iraqi War that was 'funded' off budget. See we also have to fix Iraq which we broke almost 7 years ago...and folks don't forget we are spending lots of dollars in Afghanistan. I am sorry folks but we cant afford to fund your health care, but just be comforted that there will be 'pie in the sky when you die' and in heaven there will be no sickness and no death.

Bank of America Has Its Own Stimulus Package.

Recently I got my statement on my visa card from Skank of America. It said my payment is due on 8/8/09. I went on line this morning to pay it and told the computer to pay my bill on 8/8/09. The computer told that it would roll that payment over to be credited on the next business day. August 8th is a Saturday, apparently it's not a business day even though its branches are open on Saturday, August 8th. Two months ago this happened to me and the Saturday date was rolled over to the following Monday and I was warned in my next statement that if that happened again in the next year, my interest rate would be raised. This time they would only charge me $35 for a late payment fee! How sweet and generous of them! Today I called them and was told that they do that because Saturdays are not banking days and because the contract I signed with them allows them to do that. The helpful young 'banker' on the other end of the phone line said I could avoid that by simply paying early! Then I asked him why the statement which sets a 'due date' doesn't warn consumer of the roll over and his comment was because we don't have to.

What the Fuck?!

Today I asked Google to find me some gay blogs. I was hoping to find one that I could enjoy and even perhaps exchange ideas about being gay and living in the real world in the opening decade of the 21st century. I was sorely disappointed. Apparently the only gay blog that isn't primarily involved with sex, porno and generally getting off is Andrew Sullivan's blog and a few others. I mean like sex just as much as the next guy but life is about more than just getting one's rocks off. And the good lord (snicker) knows that I am not opposed to porn. My only reservation about pornography is that porno stars are inherently oppressed by industry in many ways including emotionally and financially. Yes and I say this with full knowledge that I have during my career represented more than a few gay porn houses. If what I found on Google is representative of gay men then it is no wonder that most of the world at least is scared shitless of us and even hates us...witness the shooting last night in Tel Aviv. My primary interest at this point in my life is not getting off, it is living a happy and contented life and indulging and being indulged by my friends, both new ones and old ones, and in passing on some of my life experiences and perhaps some little bit of learned wisdom to other gay men. I hope no one will interpret that as a sexist remark, I say it only because I don't know what I can offer lesbians, having never been one.

What is going on with the Birthers?

A new phenomenon has been created. It is the Birther 'controversy'. These folks who are part of a species of people I call the Cave Dwellers are people, who despite all contrary evidence believe that President Barack Obama is not entitled to be the President of the U. S. of A because he is not a natural born citizen of the United States as is required by Article Two of the Constitution. These crazy folks believe that he was born of a white woman from the heartland of America and a father from the African nation of Kenya in Kenya. They derive their opinion based on the 'testimony' of an elderly Kenyan woman who claims to be both his step paternal grandmother who also claims to have been present at the birth of Baby Barack in Kenya. They explain away the birth certificate that says he was born in Hawaii and the contemporaneous birth announcements published in Hawaiian newspapers as ancient conspiracies and frauds. They claim a conspiracy the state government of Hawaii's Vital Records and some sort of Muslim plot dating from 1960 to make this baby President of the United States almost fifty years after his birth. Recent polls suggest that this conspiracy theory originated and is most strongly believed in the Old South. Which gives this a decidedly racial basis in the old Confederacy. Almost 53% of good white republican folks in the old Confederate states either believe he is not a citizen but an "illegal alien" or that his 'natural born' citizenship is open to dispute. These folks are not in the reality based community (as Bill Maher calls it) but rather are truly Cave Dwellers.

The New Temporary Old Gay Lawyer Ramblings Blog.

Hello everyone. You will notice that Old Gay Lawyer Ramblings looks different and is now temporarily hosted on blogspot.com. This is because until Tuesday last I hosted my blog on my own server. On Tuesday morning that server passed on. I have to build a new server and get it up and running and then I have to remove the data from the old dead hard drive and restore it to the new. This is going to take me awhile and I have discovered I have missed writing my ramblings and other such fun with words. There is just too much going on in the world for me to be happy without commenting and ranting about it. I shall do this.