Bush's Final Report Card 
Monday, October 13, 2008, 09:36 AM
Indigo Incarnates

Well... it looks like we're finally coming to the End of an Error, the last few weeks before we get to choose a new President. I've Given George W Bush report card ratings before, so I figure it's time for his grades now that "finals" are over.



ECONOMY: F

I give the Dubya a failing grade on the economy. Under his watch, food and fuel prices have risen at triple-digit inflation (which, the national inflation index conveniently does not calculate these two items). He drove out country into eight trillion dollars of new debt, thus devaluing our currency overseas. He turned a blind eye to corporate theft and corruption, then had the nerve to make the taxpayers foot the bill for a trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout. He signed a bill forbidding a member of the middle class from getting bankruptcy protection, but he'll hand GM a check for $25 billion. He cut taxes for the rich while making student loans for the poor more difficult to repay. Bush sure does like outsourcing, however: under his watch, $885 billion dollars transferred out of the middle class and into the hands of the top 1% -- permanently. Basically, there was not one piece of legislation that he signed that helped the middle class. However, EVERY piece of legislation he signed did help large corporations and the rich.



SOCIETY: F

We haven't had such a divisive, non-harmonious society since the McCarthy era. Bush stoked the fears of Red State voters with how gays were evil and had a sinister "agenda". He pitted gays versus straights, rich versus poor, evangelical versus mainstream, conservative versus liberal, white versus black, and corporations versus individuals. He castigated anyone who disagreed with his policies as "unpatriotic". He shamed our nation by instituting torture. He twice tried to make bigotry part of the Constitution (with his anti-gay proposals). There have been few people with the power to divide like Dubya has shown.



ENVIRONMENT: D

I'll give Bush the benefit of the doubt that he probably thought that the corn ethanol project was an environmentally sound and viable idea. It just didn't work out that way. It had the actual effect of raising food and fuel prices at the same time. corn is also not a particularly efficient crop for fuel production (sugar cane is MUCH better, but the USA doesn't really have the climate for it.) Where I fault Bush, however, is his failure to extend the hybrid car tax credits (which made these fuel-efficient cars more affordable to the middle class) while at the same time extending the Hummer/Escalade tax credit (which gave the wealthy a huge payback for buying luxury SUVs that get about 10 MPG.) Bush also wanted to drill out our National Parks instead of investing resources in alternate energy (such as nuclear, solar, wind, etc). He was also willing to fork over billions of dollars to GM for their failed Fuel Cell projects (hint: a car that costs a million dollars each to build but has a service life of 50,000 miles is never going to be mainstream).



NATIONAL SECURITY: F

It cracks me up to this day that the conservatives consider Bush to be the hero of 911. The terrorists were able to accomplish what they did because Bush was like a locomotive engineer who fell asleep at the switch. The guy just hardly ever shows up for work. As commander-in-chief, it is Bush's duty to attend National Security briefings, but he can't be bothered. He also started an incredibly costly war in Iraq that didn't need to be fought. The war was initiated on a premise of organized deception of the Congress and the American People. The Iraq War has had the effect of making us LESS safe because now even more terrorist cells have us in their crosshairs. Bush GAVE them a concrete reason to hate us. Considering that the 911 terrorists were all illegal aliens, an effective president would have cracked down on illegal immigration. However, Bush doesn't want to keep his mega-corporate special interests from having a pool of undocumented, underpaid labor. Bush is willing to trade the security of our borders so that Big Business can cheat on payroll taxes. He did institute the Department of Homeland Security, which turned out to be a miserable failure (as anyone who lives in New Orleans can personally testify). Bush also instituted illegal wiretapping of US citizens but is unwilling to go after Islamic "charities" that collect money for terrorist organizations. The TSA was another Bush invention that had the effect of making old ladies in wheelchairs take their shoes off before boarding airplanes but doesn't make air travel any safer (since TSA agents aren't allowed to question grubby-looking young Middle Eastern men with one-way tickets and no luggage). Bush also fired every gay employee he could detect -- even ones who were Arabic translators!



DOMESTIC PERFORMANCE: F

Under Bush's watch, he revoked bankruptcy protection (unless you're a recipient of the recent trillion-dollar Wall Street Bailout Bonanza). He took a 30-day vacation during Hurricane Katrina and couldn't be bothered to respond to the crisis. He tried (and failed -- thankfully) to allow financial institutions access to citizens' medical records for the purpose of assigning a credit rating ("Sorry, Mr Jones, we can't approve your mortgage because you had cancer five years ago.") He made college loans more difficult to repay. He tried (and failed -- thankfully) to farm out Social Services to the Evangelical Right ("Sorry, Mr Smith, we're denying your application for food stamps because you're a Wiccan.") He tried (and failed -- thankfully) to hand Social Security over to Wall Street ("Sorry, Ms. Livingston, you don't get a check this month. The Dow is down 700 points!") He tried to put discrimination into the Constitution twice via his anti-gay amendment proposals (if he wanted to defend marriage, just outlaw divorce!) His latest idea (which McCain has adopted) is to tax health insurance benefits (about as regressive a tax on the poor and middle class as there can be) and would have the net effect of making insurance unaffordable for vast numbers of people.



LEADERSHIP: F

What can I say? Bush is the most vacation-taking president in American history. He is answerable to no one. He abides by no criticism. He won't ever change his mind on any issue no matter how blatantly he's been proven to be incorrect ("Just stay the course!") He operates in secrecy. His administration has been one of institutionalized corruption (how many no-bid contracts can Halliburton actually get?) Dick Cheney has basically been missing in action for eight years straight but seems to be paid nonetheless. Bush's cowboy policies have shamed America all over the world. Basically, Bush collected a presidential pay but never actually did anything presidential.


----> FINAL GRADE: F

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Understanding Deity 
Sunday, October 12, 2008, 09:40 AM
Thistle Incarnates

It continues to be difficult for Indigo and Halo to understand the concept of a loving, masculine God. I think of this now, for Indigo retreated now that we attend church this morning. It is the Sunday in which it is our duty to participate in choir. But Indigo rarely feels welcome in church and Halo is desperately uncomfortable in church. So I am now manifest and I write this now.

I wish there was a way for Indigo and Halo to know that God is not a hateful and capricious deity. The Old Testament was written by humans who tried their best to understand God. It is really all we can do. In that time, humanity was at an earlier stage of development, and the tribes of Israel existed in a rugged and hostile environment. These two factors shaped the Old Testament writers' view of God. And there is a facet of God for whome discipline and obedience is important, but it is far from being all that God is.

Indigo and Halo's view of God have been contaminated by the systematic abuse they experienced at the hands of the father-monster. But to young children, their parents are as gods -- all knowing, all powerful, life-giving. And so it came to be that the child-Indigo's vision of God was warped by the random, capricious cruelty he sustained at the hands of the father-monster. The father did not provide. The father lied. The father withheld love. The father would not forgive. The father inflicted punishment greatly in excess of the transgression. So Indigo and Halo came to believe that God punishes in excess of the transgression, that God lies, that God fails to provide, and that God withholds love.

Intellectually, Indigo understands this. Intellectually, Halo does not.

The spiritual wound has left a painful scar. I would say that it has healed somewhat, but the healng is incomplete and the scarring is of the type that disables.

The path of Wicca appeals to them because the focus is on a femal deity that loves and nurtures. I can understand why they musy identify with Deity in such a way.

It is good that the Creator is neither male nor female, and that prayers and actions done in love and true faith honor God whether God is viewed as male of female. God gave us life and God understands that humans have limitations to their perception and can have altered perception as a result of damage. God forgives those who have love and faith; it matters not whether the Creator is addressed as "God" or "Goddess".

God loves that which is true, honest, loving, pleasing, joyful, and honorable. Christianity has this. Wicca has this.

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trees 
Saturday, October 11, 2008, 09:37 PM
am willow

trees are getting sleepy

can feel them going to sleep

good for them to have rest

leaves are red and yellow

pretty

soon they will be asleep

good for them to rest

they give so much

trees are nice


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The Dark Time of Year 
Friday, October 10, 2008, 08:18 AM - Random Thoughts
Indigo Incarnates

Egads! The "dark" time of year is pretty much at hand. It's pitch black when I get up in the morning and the sun is just crossing the horizon by the time I get to work. My energy level goes way down and I'm a lot more prone to depression when I can't get enough sunlight. Changelings need sunlight. It's going to really be distressing when the clocks change for daylight savings time (an antiquated practice that I wish would be abandoned). The practice of adjusting the clocks by an hour has the effect of making it be dark at 5:00pm. Once that happens, I basically won't see the sun again until spring since my office has no windows, I arrive for work pretty early, and I get off at 4:30pm. By the time I get home, it will be dark. I'm really not looking forward to that. I've survived it every other year and I'm sure this year won't be any different. But that doesn't mean I like it.

My mom's health continues to deteriorate. She's down to 90 pounds. I feel really sad for her, since she spent almost 40 years having an alcohol problem and being a heavy smoker. About two years ago she went to detox and quit alcohol and got her smoking down to about a pack per week. The damage was done, however. And then Uncle Jimmy did a bunch of unsafe home improvements that had the net effect of being the straw that broke the camel's back. All the dust and mold from his cheap/shoddy demolition/reconstruction pushed mom's lung condition from "dangerous" to "terminal". So mom won't get to enjoy sobriety very long. I really feel sad about this because I love her very much. It always seems that rich psychopaths get whatever they want, whenever they want it, and never have to face repercussions for what they have done. I wish that Uncle Jimmy would have to pay for what he's done, but he never will. He follows YHVH, and the angry desert god rewards the strong, the rich, and the cruel.

I start getting my own cases on Tuesday. I am glad that my office is away from the rest of the Case Agents here. I won't get easily sucked into the office politics or the tangled web of gossip and drama. I think most of my coworkers are kinda phoney anyway. After all, not one single person will own up to making an anonymous complaint about my Tree of Life, but one of them must have for me to so quickly have been ordered to take it down. I'm not going to make a retaliatory complaint, since the various Christian sloganeering in their offices don't actually offend me and I don't spend much time in their offices. But it does bother me that I am the subject of a double standard and that someone finds Wicca "offensive". Well, there has never been a "holy" war instigated by Wiccans, and no Wiccan has ever burned a Christian at the stake. so whose faith is "offensive"?


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A Religious Double Standard 
Wednesday, October 8, 2008, 11:32 AM
Indigo Incarnates

So, on my first day at my new worl location, I discovered that the majority of the employees have "Jesus" stuff hanging on their walls. This could be a cross/crucifix, a framed Bible message, an inspirational posted with a scripture passage, or whatever. So, I felt emboldened to hang up my Wiccan "Tree of Life" wall hanging.

It was up for 90 minutes before somebody complained to both the supervisor and the supervisor's boss. Apparently the anonymous plaintiff declared that my Tree of Life was "offensive" and that Wicca is a "creepy religion". So I was ordered to take down my Tree of Life.

Now, the Christians still get to keep all of their religious inspirational stuff in place. I also found out from a Jewish employee that she got the same response when she tried putting a Star of David on her office wall.

What's creepier? An image of a tree, or an image of someone being crucified? Gimmie a break.

Double standards suck.

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Crisis of Confidence 
Monday, October 6, 2008, 07:03 PM
Indigo Incarnates

I had a sort of blogging disaster that shook my confidence last week. I closed my blog until I got a grip on things. The trouble with being an alter instead of a full person is that alters lack a certain amount of resiliency that whole people have.

But I'm getting better again. :)




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Community Visit 
Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 07:53 AM
Indigo Incarnates

I had my first experience doing community visits this week. this is a Case Agent duty that involves driving to the defendant's residence to determine if he/she really lives at that location. This was a real trip.

In the ghetto, it seems there are only two kinds of services open. There are a whole bunch of itty-bitty fundamentalist independednt churches (read Christocult) with groovy names like "Living Water Bible Tabernacle Christian Worship Church". Yeah, as Java pointed out, the smaller the church, the longer a name it has. The other service the ghetto offers are these ratty, hole-in-the-wall liquor stores that also do lotto, prepaid cards, and check cashing. In the latter, it's more likely that it's welfare check cashing.

Even at 9:30AM, there were plenty of scuzzy-looking prostitutes and scarecrow-like junkie bums staggering about like they were in a B-rated zombie flick. Then, of course, you can tell where the dope dealers live: it's the Secion-8 townhouse with the Lexus SUV parked out front. Most of the slums are boarded up and some are even bricked up.

One welfare mama we visited greeted us with a shank. Nice. At least we didn't get stabbed with it. Another yelled "F-- You" at us for no reason. I was crackin' up!

It's always exciting at pretrial.

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A Sense of Doom? 
Sunday, September 28, 2008, 06:28 PM
Indigo Incarnates

What it seems to me is that Bush knows that his economic policies have brought our country to the brink of a Great Depression that will probably take at least ten years to dig out of. I think that's why he pushed Bankruptcy Reform and wants to cannibalize Social Security. His latest idea to hand nearly a trillion dollars over to his billionaire cronies only substantiates my notion that Bush has basically wrecked our economy on purpose.

See, Bush is a right wing fundamentalist Republican. He doesn't like the idea of the poor and middle class having the opportunity to ascend to higher income levels. He'd rather have it be that we just "know our place and stay there". Thus, every single policy he's had since taking office has hurt the poor and middle class while expanding the coffers of the rich and the multi-national corporations.

So, what is the point of the trillion-dollar bailout? My guess is that it has nothing to do with stabilizing the economy. It has everything to do with making sure his billionaire buddies have enough cash (on the backs of the taxpayers) to outlast the Great Depression that Bush will have caused.


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Haunted House Season 
Saturday, September 27, 2008, 03:37 PM
Indigo Incarnates

September and October are always fun months because it's "haunted house season". Doug and I visit various Halloween attractions located in south-central Pennsylvania. Last night we went to one that had a possessed elevator, a pitch-black maze, a house with lots of 3D murals, and a haunted house that required us to solve puzzles in order to get from room to room. It was a lot of fun! We got home pretty late, so I'm glad that Jeff didn't mind driving. Doug had a lot of fun too.

This morning Doug and I did our usual weekend breakfast at First Watch. They have awesome pancakes and the prices are pretty good.

I've been on beta-blocker meds for about ten days or so. So I was feeling reasonably good today and I went to the gym for the first time in two weeks (yeah, I hadn't been feeling all that well thanks to what was happening with my heart problem). But the medicine is apparently working! I was able to do a 7.8 mile / 1300 calorie workout *without* my heart rate spiking to 190+ and without me getting dizzy or getting fiery vision. No, instead, my heart rate stayed in the 170-175 range for the whole 90 minutes and I didn't feel weak, sick, or dizzy. Huzzah!

It's been overcast for three days and has rained all day today -- a lot. I would like to be able to get some sun energy but that's not going to happen today. Egads!


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Where's My Bailout?! 
Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 08:00 PM
Indigo Incarnates

Y'know... sometimes I just feel like a real idiot. I have a small townhouse with a fixed-interest, long-term mortgage that I can actually afford. I have a small, fuel-efficient compact car with a modest car payment that fits into our household budget. I put $75 out of every paycheck into a retirement plan. I have only ONE credit card. I have $2000 in immediate liquidity in case of some financial disaster.

Apparently, I'm stupid.

See, if I happened to be a stock speculator or a CEO, I'd be getting some pretty hefty multi-billion-dollar handouts from George W Bush right now. The investor/CEO class gets some huge checks soon so they their stock portfolios will stay in the black. Personally, I don't care if a guy with a $100 million dollar portfolio loses out in speculation and now only has a $40 million-dollar portfolio.That's still more money than most people could spend in a dozen lifetimes.

Gotta love "compassionate conservative fascism".

By the way, Our debt is already 9.2 trillion dollars. so why not make it an even ten trillion? It's only taxpayer money after all? Oh, it's also your great-great-great grandchildren's money. Remember this $700 billion dollar bailout the next time some Republican politician says that the government can't afford to keep paying Social Security checks to the aged and disabled. They can afford bailouts for hedge fund speculators and people who buy mansions with adjustible rate mortgages, but they can't fix Social Security. They can afford $10 billion per month for the Iraq war, but they can't afford to develop alternative energy. they can afford a $50 billion dollar bailout for Ford/GM, but they can't afford to build high-speed mass transit to connect the cities.

The Bush administration is always looking for it's "legacy". Here it is: "Bailouts for Billionaires".


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