Notes on '06

Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most
frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is
nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people
won't feel insecure about you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were
born to manifest
the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically
liberates others.

Queenie's Daughter could write quite a bit about the personal dynamics of her family and family in law. She could gas about her angers and pains. But what would be the point. There are, as QD sees it, always two options: either focus on what's working or focus on what's not working. This isn't some Polyanna platitude, it is merely a fact. Therefore, QD will share with you another little nugget she has discovered that works for her. For Queenie's Daughter, the best pajamas are always handme down boys clothes (note, pajamas not neglige, this is not about nightgowns nor penoirs) THEREFORE, QD strongly suggest that when in need of women's pj's - the best bet is a trip to the mens department.

Right now, many of Queenie's Daughters best beloveds are in pain and there is nothing QD can do to help them. This feeling of powerlessness often leads QD to start a little trouble in her own life so she doesn't feel selfish being happy while others are suffering. This is really stupid and this year, and starting right now, QD resolves to quit making trouble where none exists.

Men's pajamas and no trouble? That's positively revolutionary!!!

Peace Out - See you next year.

Well read Fred

He is not PC
Sometimes we don't agree
But he writes so well
What the hell!!!
FRED ON EVERYTHING

Have gone to Patagonia

When the going gets tough, this toughie goes to the library (or bookstore).
Here's the latest great escape:
In Patagonia
and a little background:
Bruce Chatwin: A Tribute

Rest in Peace

Presidential adviser fought to integrate Army
December 24, 2005
BY STEVE HUNTLEY Staff Reporter

Truman K. Gibson Jr., a Chicago attorney who had been the last surviving member of the World War II-era "black Cabinet" of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman, died Friday at Mercy Hospital after an illness of five weeks. He was 93.
As an advocate for African- American soldiers in the War Department from 1940 through 1945, Mr. Gibson fought tirelessly to break down the segregation that ruled the U.S. Army, to persuade the military leadership to commit black servicemen to combat instead of relegating them to service and support duty, and to protect the rights and even the lives of African-American soldiers trained at camps mostly in the Jim Crow South where white violence was a constant threat.
"Truman Gibson was one of the great resources of the civil rights battles who was never acknowledged as he should have been," said Abner Mikva, the former Illinois congressman, federal appellate judge and White House counsel.
That story was the heart of Mr. Gibson's memoir, Knocking Down Barriers: My Fight for Black America, published this year by Northwestern University Press.
"I am just so thankful that he got to do that book, to say what he wanted to say," said his daughter, Karen Kelley of New York. "He lived nearly 94 years pretty much on his own terms, and it was such a wonderful life." //more//

Shine In New Orleans

Shine on the Titanic
SHINE IN NEW ORLEANS
Say the twenty ninth of August1 was one hell of a day.
When the news got around the bayou town
That the New Orleans levees were blown on down.
Step the Black man into the Astrodome
They called Shine; hollered
"Fema, Fema don't you know,
Why there's eight feet of water in the ninth ward!''
Then Fema say, ''Git back, you dirty Black!
We got twenty-five pumps to keep this water back.''
So Shine jumped on a board, sailed over, waved his Black ass and begin to swim,
With a thousand millionaires lookin' at him.
So the white man's wife stepped on board.
Say, ''Shine, Shine, please save poor me,I give you all the pussy you can see."
'Shine said, "I got pussy on land, I got pussy on sea,
l got twenty-five motherfuckers in New York just waitin' on me.''
So the white man's daughter stepped on board,
She say, ''Shine, Shine, please save poor me;
I'll name this kid after thee.'
'Shine say, ''Bitch, you went and got knocked up, that's fine,
But you got to hit this water just like old Shine.''
So the white man stepped aboard,
He say, (pompous voice) ''Shine, Shine, please save poor me,
I'll make you richer than any Shine could be.
''Shine say, "To make me rich would be very fine,
But first I have to save this black ass o' mine.
''Shine say, "Sharks, look out, l know some o' this black ass you'd like to taste,
But from here to New York's gon' be one hell o' a race.''
So the news got around the bayou town,
That the New Orleans Levees had been blown down.
Shine was in Harlem on Thirty-Fifth Street
Damn near drunk, fucked his twenty-five bitches,
And his dick got sore; went to the doctor.
The doctor say, "Shine, I gon' have to cut your dick off.''
Shine say, ''lf you cut it off, you better cut it down to the motherfuckin' bone,
'Cause if you leave any kind o' meat. I'm gon' fuck right on.''
He say, "If I should die, soak my balls in alcohol;
And lay my dick on my chest,Then tell all them cocksuckin' whores
Old Shine's gone to rest.''
Shine died -- went to hell.
The Devil said, "All you bitches, you better clamb (climb) the motherfuckin' wall,
'Cause Shine gon' come back down here and fuck us all!"

1 – On August 29,2005 a storm surge from Hurrican Katrina breached the levee system that protected New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Most of the city was subsequently flooded mainly by water from the lake. Shine is a mythic African American hero and this is the story of his escape from the flood waters.

Retroseptic

This last year has been one of the most externally horrific and frightening years that Queenie's Daughter has lived through. QD's first decade wins the prize for internally terrifying and horrible, but last year takes the cake for aweful things happening in the outside world. Tsunami-earthquake-hurricane-flood-war-treason etc. etc. It makes one almost believe in pure evil. Almost, but not quite.

This is Craig Crawford's blue but blunt account of some of the horrors of 2005.

QD has to figure out a way to perk up and get hopeful about 2006.
Actually the dire gloom and doom of Exodus 2006 cheered the royal spawn up quite a little bit.

In the Chinese Zodiac, the new year will be the year of the dog...
The year of the Dog: is a year for reflection and to assess ones values. There will be disturbances, revolts, but as the Dog is always on the lookout, honesty will always rule the day. This year will see great benevolent and idealistic deeds and various unusual changes; a time when broadmindedness and fairness will be supported. Although this year is one of great cynicism a sense of balance and tranquility will be upheld.

Above the Law?

Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.
A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Heart newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.
The 11-judge court that authorizes FISA wiretaps modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation.
But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history.

I guess if the American people are too apathetic or lazy or wicked to be concerned about a president who considers himself to be above the law, then we deserve what we get. Queenie's Daughter is so tired of people who do not teach by example and then resort to strong arm tactics, deceit, and manipulation. And of course, the political is personal - so read that how ever you want to.

What do you mean Haymarket?

"Anarchism does not mean bloodshed; it does not mean robbery, arson, etc. These monstrosities are, on the contrary, the characteristic features of capitalism. Anarchism means peace and tranquility to all."--August Spies, Haymarket anarchist

Irony in the Rove House

“I am trying to do my job, and creating rumors is not appropriate, and has been very damaging...” Susan Ralston, Karl Rove's assistant clearing up reports that she was leaving her post.

This is rich: Karl Rove's assistant complaining about people who spread false, damaging rumors.

New York City Hero

Toussaint to Bloomberg: You are Shaming NYC
Dec. 21- Yesterday you used your position as Mayor of New York to call us "thuggish"and "selfish." How dare you?Our children turn on the TV to see the Mayor denouncing their parents as "morally reprehensible." Have you no shame? As you know better than most, this strike was forced on us by the MTA. You know this because you share much of the blame. It is your provocative rhetoric about what givebacks we transit workers must accept for the next generation of transit -- our children and new immigrants -- that has pushed our members beyond the limits of their patience. You all but demanded this confrontation, and now you act angry and surprised. You owe all New Yorkers an apology for poisoning the atmosphere around difficult labor negotiations. You call us “irresponsible.” New York City and New York State have slashed their subsidies for mass transit. Mayors and Governors have created a seemingly permanent Structural Deficit for transit which much be filled by costly borrowing. Wall Street has profited, but Main Street has suffered. But you knew that already from your previous career. Now that the debt-servicing bill has come due, the MTA demands that we pay the price: worse health care and worse pensions. But what about our conducting an "illegal" strike? What about the law? You are all over the media with high-minded talk about "illegal" behavior, castigating criminals and screaming that no one is above the law. Your hypocrisy knows no bounds. You must hope everyone has forgotten your biography: "Bloomberg on Bloomberg." You boast on Page 59 on how you started your rise to great wealth, great enough to enable you to buy the Mayor's office twice. You set up your office "...all without permission, violating every fire law, building code and union regulation on the books." I guess illegality is in the eye of the beholder. A confessed lawbreaker has the gall to lecture 34,000 hard working people whose only crime is standing up for their families and for dignity and respect on one of the toughest, most dangerous jobs in New York. Stop using transit workers as a punching bag to undo decades of pension gains for city workers. Stop demonizing transit workers in the eyes of the public.Stop bullying and start acting like the Mayor you promised to be.

What? You mean the world doesn't revolve around New York City?

BLASPHEMY!
or is it?

Queenie's Daughter has been busy checking in with her regular internet reading: The Guardian, Firedoglake, WaPo, Crooks and Liars, Needlenose, Drudge, Raw, etc.

And what do you know? The MTA strike doesn't appear to prominently anywhere! QD called Queenie and asked, "Is it me or does this strike story not exist outside New York." Queenie replied that QD should not be suprised. Then Queenie's Daughter asked, "How can this story not have legs? It is like a bell weather for the climate of the country that working class people are willing to risk the little they have to stand up to the greedy corporations." Queenie expressed her agreement but then wisely pointed out that the New York transit strike is not the only story being down played by the press.

"We are at war and even that story doesn't have legs."

Damn Queenie.

Plea Deal

London Bridge is Falling down
Falling down
Falling down
London Bridge is falling down
My Fair Ladies

OR

"Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, facing trial on fraud charges Jan. 9 in Florida, is negotiating a possible deal with the Justice Department, in which he would agree to plead guilty and cooperate in the wide-ranging political corruption investigation focused on his dealings with members of Congress and executive branch officials, people familiar with the talks said last night.Abramoff would provide testimony about numerous members of Congress and their staffs if he and the Justice Department reach an agreement, the sources said. Negotiations have been ongoing for several months, people knowledgeable about the discussions said, but pressure is mounting because of the pending trial."
Tiara Tip WaPo via FireDogLake

Personal Note:
Please Mr. Fitzmas,
Please Give us Karl in a Frog March for Christmas!

Fair Pay for the MTA Day 2

So QD is not live blogging the strike. Yesterday she called out of work and spent the day prettying up the casa. Today, rode in via Fifth Ave. and must say that it is so relaxing without all the buses. They are noisey! They creek and sigh and groan and today - the bike filled streets were like a taste of civilization. Calmer, quieter, invigorating, and generally quite nice.

The whole point of this strike is to protect future workers from getting completely screwed over pensions and benefits. The MTA should be seen for what it is: a rapacious and greedy piggy who needs to be penned in and possibly served for breakfast.

Any bets on how long the strike will last? This week is fine. It is the holiday week and people are on slow down anyway. Next week, what with holiday hangover and still a strike ... oy ... it may get ugly!

As for Queenie's Daughter ... she will be here for the duration biking around and keeping Christmas.

FORD BUCKLES UNDER PRESSURE

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday said it will run advertisements in gay publications, reversing a decision last week to pull all advertising of its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands from that sector.
In a letter to some gay, lesbian and human rights groups, Ford said it has decided to run corporate ads for all its eight brands, including its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, in the targeted publications.
"It is my hope that this will remove any ambiguity about Ford's desire to advertise to all important audiences and put this particular issue behind us," Joe Laymon, Ford's group vice president for corporate human resources, wrote in the letter, which was posted on Ford's web site.

Queenie's Daughter says, "If one had one's driver's license one would now consider buying a Jaguar."
Tiara Tip America Blog

FAIR PAY FOR THE MTA!

Fallen Heros Shipped Without Dignity

"John Holley and his wife, Stacey, were stunned when they found out the body of their only child, Matthew John Holley, who died in Iraq last month, would be arriving at Lindbergh Field as freight. ... The bodies of dead service members arrive at Dover Air Force Base.
From that point, they are sent to their families on commercial airliners." //more//

More inhumane treatment and now we are torturing the families of our brave soldiers.
What kind of PATRIOTISM is this George Bush? You are the commander in chief, this your responsibility. Do you think so little of people who have given their lives for your lies? What arrogance, what cruelty you possess. Sometimes, it is embarassing to be an American.

Riddle Me This

AJC's Tucker: "This country is not ready to elect a woman"
But we were ready to reappoint an idiot!

Go Figure

Simple, Eloquent, Correct

JANE SAYS:
"Number one, Dan Froomkin's column is often the only thing worth reading in the Washington Post, the one thing they've managed to do right as they crawl their way out of the 18th century amidst a series of spectacularly bad decisions that have blown their credibility and set them in lockstep with the wooly mammoth. So the reporters don't like the guff they're taking from bloggers? I bet they don't. But that's what you get when you set the bar so low the only people who stick around are the ones who can limbo under it." //more//

Queenie's Daughter Says:
18th Century? Ho, more like the 12th or 13th! And Jane, if you're ever in Harlem, give us a call!

The Secret of the Narwhal Tusk

"This whale is intent on understanding its environment..."
"Scientists have long tried to explain why a stocky whale that lives in arctic waters, feeding on cod and other creatures that flourish amid the pack ice, should wield such a long tusk. The theories about how the narwhal uses the tusk have included breaking ice, spearing fish, piercing ships, transmitting sound, shedding excess body heat, poking the seabed for food, wooing females, defending baby narwhals and establishing dominance in social hierarchies.

But a team of scientists from Harvard and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has now made a startling discovery: the tusk, it turns out, forms a sensory organ of exceptional size and sensitivity, making the living appendage one of the planet's most remarkable, and one that in some ways outdoes its own mythology." //more//

CREW SUES DEPT. OF STATE OVER KATRINA RECORDS

“The American public is entitled to know which countries generously offered their assistance in the aftermath of Katrina and how the U.S. government responded to those offers. The State Department’s refusal to provide this information suggests that our government is still attempting to hide its ineffectual response to Katrina,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW. “The only way to ensure greater preparedness for any future disaster is for there to be a full airing of the failures of the past. It is scandalous that our government is still trying to cover up its breathtakingly inadequate response to the greatest natural disaster in our nation’s history.” //more//

Honor Thy Father and Mother

Elderly Turn To Drug Dealing
"When a person is on Social Security, drawing $500 a month, and they can sell their pain pills for $10 apiece, they'll take half of them for themselves and sell the other half to pay their electric bills or buy groceries," Floyd County jailer Roger Webb said.

This recent article about the rising numbers of elderly arrested for reselling their prescription drugs so that they can afford the bare neccessities causes Queenie's Daughter to ask, "What good is religion?" Most of America claims to believe in God and yet we let our elders suffer slow deaths in indignity and poverty? God save me from your followers. How sad.

Frist This you BULLY

Fight for Freedom Wherever there's Trouble
SEN. ROBERT BYRD IS THERE!

"Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia said Monday he doesn't expect Democrats to filibuster the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but he still chastised Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for threatening to stop any such effort through a drastic parliamentary effort that has been dubbed the "nuclear option."

If he ever tries to exercise that , he's going to see a real filibuster if I'm living and able to stand on my feet or sit in my seat," Byrd said in a Senate debate with Frist, R-Tenn."

Kiss me I'm beyond fixin'

"This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."
- Sigmund Freud, speaking about the Irish.

...Until Democracy is Destroyed
Diebold Announces Management Changes
Raw Story:Diebold CEO resigns after reports of fraud litigation, internal woes
a n d
BRAD BLOG keeps DIEBOLD in the crosshairs...Fraud Litigation Imminent!

More NOLA And Today's Conversation

Right in front of our faces this is happening.

Drowned city cuts its poor adrift

But this reminds me, as we were discussing this morning, that playing by the "rules" is no guarantee of safety. More and more I am able to understand how it happened in Germany. I'm reminded of the many German Jews who went on about their "thrifty, industrious" lives, served in the military, went to school, worked diligently at their jobs - and when the gangsters came, so what! And New Orleans is one of the cities to which Catherine Austin Fitts paid particular attention. That woman is so "on it" that I'm frightened for her. That's one reason why I don't discuss solari with "outsiders". She's either being tolerated for some sinister reason or she's under the radar, but if the wrong people notice lots of people paying attention to Fitts - sayonara I bet!

All my love,

Maman

Giant Jelly Fish

echizen kurage = giant jellyfish

Torture According To This Administration

Posted on HuffPo by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In sum, the White House's policy which we can expect Condi to elaborate "comprehensively" is "we don't torture because we choose not to call it torture and we will fight all efforts to define torture according to its ordinary meaning."

Peace King Tunnel

You know Neil Bush of Silverado fame. The same Neil Bush, son of the then vice president of the United States, was scheduled to have dinner ... with Scott Hinckley, brother of John Hinckley, the day after a bullet came within an inch of making Neil Bush's father the new president of the United States. What's that sexy semiconductor mogul up to now???
Neil Bush Meets the Moonie Messiah
By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet. Posted December 5, 2005.
Peace King Tunnel Info
(Tiara Tip Queenie)

NOTE: This is NEIL Bush - not Jebby the fat little brother
(Tiara Tip Fidel Castro)

Queenie's Don't Miss This

HOMECOMING

Best Christmas Light Show

http://tinyurl.com/bzs3t

New To Us Mammal found in Borneo

Swiss-based environmental group WWF said on Monday its researchers photographed the strange animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, in the dense, central mountainous rainforests of Borneo.
"This could be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island," said the WWF in a statement.
The mammal, slightly larger than a cat with red fur and a long tail, was photographed twice by a camera trap at night.
Locals and wildlife experts who viewed photographs of the animal, which has very small ears and large hind legs, said they had never seen such a creature before and were convinced that it was a new species, WWF said.

cross between a cat and a fox = fat or cox?

Not in my back seat!

Can you say homoFORDic
Cars for people that hate!

DeLay is a crook not a Christian

DeLay's Money Laundering Charges Upheld

Houston Chron. has a nice recap.

This split decision makes it harder for the Repugs to try their usual dems conspired to hurt us trick (which doesn't meant they wont try). Frankly, as a non laywer the conspiract charge seemed a little odd. The deed was done before the law barring it took effect so it seemed like a reach at best. But what a nice reach the long arm of the lay has... reaching right into Tomcats House pulling him out by the tail scratching and spitting and grinning like the uncontrite felon he is alleged to be!

No wonder people dont trust politicians!!!

From Wall Street to Sesame Street

Paul Street explains...

Tipped off by DIRELAND

Mom's Mad

Barbara the Barbarian is about to open a can of wup-ass?
read on

Retro is not Pretty

Queenie's Daughter has a friend who lost her home in New Orleans due to Katrina. Her friend has been back to New Orleans several times, although she is moving away from the region. Her friend has told her that sadly little has been done in New Orleans because so many people are bickering over blame and race and not enough people are banding together to cooperate and rebuild. Queenie's Daughter spent several years in New Orleans and she is not suprised by this news. Here's more from Raw Story - and QD wonders why she is blue: we're moving BACKWARDS.

The Avoyelles Parish Ignorance Top Five List:
5. The local casino refused to serve alcohol to evacuees, although they were free to spend their money gambling.
4. They brought in the National Guard to protect Wal-Mart because there were "too many" evacuees in town. Read: too many black people.
3. A police officer working at the shelter was so virulently racist and so prone to barking at evacuees as if they were prisoners that the two highest ranking female officers quit the post in protest. Despite attempts by these two officers and the captain of the shift to have him removed, his "family connections" kept him there.
2. A young woman and her child were invited to stay with a local woman, until said local woman's neighbors began calling her with racist threats. Although this local woman refused to tell the young woman the precise nature of the threats, she explained: "Let's just say it's hunting season, so if they shoot you, they can say it was an accident."
1. A town just a short distance away from Marksville was scheduled for a FEMA trailer park. (Marksville had already refused to house one there.) The big topic of the town meeting: "Can we segregate it?"

No ID No Ridey

Meet Deborah Davis
She was arrested for not showing her ID to a cop.
She was told that whenever a cop tells you to show ID you must comply.
She told them No.
She was arrested.
She is contesting her arrest.
She is the first of many many stories we are about to hear about our rights being violated.
She is an everyday hero.
She is this Thursday's Woman of the Day.
She has a website:
http://www.papersplease.org/davis/index.html