Well yeah, say it out loud...

Here's Jim Moran(D-VA) in an interview with RawStory tellin' it like it is. Even calls Cheney an asskisser...whooHooo...are we having fun yet?

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/jim_moran_interview_bush_republicans_429.htm

alas...

here's a little bit of bio that I posted on a WELL punk rock topic, all true(to life as the Roxy Music song says):

"#11 of 17: Tell your piteous heart there's no harm done. (krome) Thu 28 Apr 2005 (03:54 PM)

I have a Dead Kennedys backstage pass(Houston Rock Island show) circa
1979 or 80 attached to my flute case.  'Nuff said, except I don't play
it anymore and, yes, I have been asked at least once if I played flute
for the Kennedys.

I still appreciate hearing some punk.  Caroline does a great show on
KUSF 12-3 on wednesdays, that I don't get to hear often enough.  But I
was so young(14 in 79) and so poor that I never bought any of the
records.  To me it always was more of a live phenomenon, mostly about
alleviating suburban boredom while maybe learning something about the
politics of the day.  One of my favorite bands, still, is Au Pairs
though they wouldn't qualify as punk.  I really, really love the late
70's/early 80's stuff that took punk and roasted it with Ska and other
stuff.  That era is lost forever, but it was *alot* of fun to be a
teenager(and a runaway) in:no AIDS, cocaine and speed everywhere and
walking around with ripped jeans and 3 earrings was enough to get you
kicked out of the public library.  I will be 40 in fewer than 4 weeks
and I still don't know how this has happened.  I still don't know if I
care. " 

Here we go!!!

That's better, Denny Boy, you arrogant twit! So , Denny Boy Hastert, Bugboy's Bed Buddy, has decided that packing the House Ethics Committee with people who have given money to Bugboy's defense fund may be a tad too f**cking much. You know what, D-Boy? I could have told you that you were gonna regret slipping into the sack with DeLay ages ago. I really hope your constituents in Illinois or whichever hellhole you're from, you know the ones you can't possibly have time to represent since you're so busy tickling Bugboy's privates, get this point and vote your sorry ass out ASAP! Twit!

This is IT

OK, F**k Microsoft. I started using LINUX rather than MS years ago, but we have all been able to believe that they are just harmless miscreants trying to monopolize a market. No, not anymore. They are the enemy. Check out this. F**k them forever(will I edit this in the morning? Dunno.).

P.S. I did edit it for family-style viewing, but that's all.

Whole Foods Update

Well, I haven't heard back from them, but I did go shopping today and they are still carrying the 'Nasoya' tofu that I love. I would like to make it clear that I am not trying to tell them what to sell. My main point is that they not become a single brand store. Unfortunately, I know that it makes more economic sense to buy black beans from a variety of producers and then sell them all under one label. At this point, I trust WFM to do this as consienciously as they have run their business from the start. But it starts to look a little 'Starbucksy' like someone's comment on the earlier WFM letter alluded to. And if economics can drive you to that point, why wouldn't it drive you back to buying beans that weren't grown organically. I am not insinuating anything here, let's be very clear, but image counts for a lot and what is best economically often looks like hell.

Talking 'bout the Media, Y'all

I strongly encourage everyone to check out the following, strongly.

streaming video:
Part I:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8560.htm
Part II:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8561.htm

or,
download RM files:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/orwell_rolls_in_his_grave_1.rm 
(47.6 mb)
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/orwell_rolls_in_his_grave_2.rm 
(49.5 mb)

DeLay and Hastert

OK, it's time for Hastert to step up and go down too. As reported here, the changes to the House Ethics Committee rules that now allow a lack of a majority to kill an investigation(this panel is 5R and 5D, so if all 5Rs choose not to pursue an action, it just never gets going) came straight out of Hastert's office without any notification of the Dems. Pure politics. What the Times has failed to mention again is that Lamar Smith, one of the Rs on the Committee, has given $10,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund and Tom Cole, another member of the Committee, has given $5,000.

Now, let me point out that if you go to the second link, it is a Times story...From March 12!. I don't understand how you can do a report on the Ethics Committee, as in the first link, without mentioning the information found in the seccond. It is germane as hell, you guys.

From the Well(someone else this time)

From Bill Bryan on the Well, reposted with permission, just about sums it up:

"

 The odds are so against getting working people to wise up. I have
just been indelibly reminded of that by working four jobs alongside
"working people" over the last seven  months: machinists, caretakers,
electrical contractor outlet, newspaper delivery. They don't know the
difference between Republican and the Queen of Sheeba, don't care, and
don't want to know. I asked a mousey little blonde woman about 50 doing
finishing on electronic casings if she voted for Bush. She just looked
straight ahead and said in a hushed disapproving tone, "That's
private." They are happily disgruntled sheep, fiercely protective and
secretly vexed simultaneiously by their boss who they know is gently
screwing them. They are fortified by their endless little collections
of wrongs and miseries done them by people and THE SYSTEM and that
world out there which they know damn well you can't "change." What are
you, nuts, man? But it's all okay because, don't you see, they have The
Church. And that ecstatic womb of that church keeps them medicated
with the sure knowledge that things may seem rotten but they must
remember they are only a breath away from heaven and if they try they
can feel it right now. So just grin and bear it. This is the best of
all possible worlds, people. Now let us pray. This scenario entails so
much more of this country than I ever realized--making me realize how
skewed a view I was inculcated with by my and my peers' intense
youthful political experiences of the sixties and seventies. The mass
bulk of this country--and that's what this country is to such a
near-incredible degree it seems anymore: a mass of gluttonous, obese or
just fat, ignorant, illiterate, provincial, not lazy--quite the
opposite, disinterested and uninterested in the world, acquisitiveness
being their main lifestyle, industrious, sanctimonious sheep. The
relentless, ubiquitous Republican propaganda juggernaut cuddling,
coaching and "rewarding" them every inch of the way at every private
and public gathering has their heads and hearts snugly wrapped in blind
faith and buried in the sand. They are impenetrable."

Uummm, I think we need to wake these people up. I reaaaalllly don't want to
live through a Depression.  Poverty sucks.

So what else is gonna do it?

To Whole Foods

The letter that follows speaks largely for itself. Those of you who remember the funky little store at 9th and Lamar will understand. And those of you who don't know where Whole Foods came from should. I said I had been shopping with them since "I came to Austin in 1981 or '82" because I wasn't sure when they opened. They opened in '80 and there is documented evidence that I was in Austin permanently in mid 1981.

"Hi there, I have been shopping at Whole Foods since I arrived in Austin as a runaway in 1981 or '82. I came to San Francisco in 1996 and was pleased when you guys opened a store the same year. It seemed like destiny. So, I have been a faithful customer for over 20 years and I am the first to defend you guys when people call you "Whole Paycheck" and stuff, explaining to them who you are and where you have come from. You probably won't be surprised to hear that quite a few people don't have any idea of your history and how you have played a very large role in redefining the American shopping experience. Perhaps you don't want them to know.

Having grown up in Houston and Austin, I know it first hand. You guys were a light in the darkness of a universe of Krogers and HEBs and Safeways. At least once, I helped sandbag the original store at 9th and Lamar when Shoal Creek was about to flood. We go back a long, long way and I am, for the most part, just as proud of you today as I was in the early '80s.

However, I will not contribute to your current(last 5 years or so) hegemonistic tendencies, I don't care if they are more economically sound or not. Part of the joy of shopping at your stores, and I have shopped at stores in TX, CA, and CO, is finding the best items from around the world, be it fresh vegetables or olive oil. In short, I have gone and will go out of my way to not buy 365 branded items.

I was shopping at the SF(franklin) store yesterday and went to pick up some tofu. Not only had the item moved(no biggie) but my favorite brand wasn't available. In fact, the only tofu available was the firm Wildwood(which I used to eat but quit buying) and several versions of 365 branded tofu. Needless to say, I bought the Wildwood. My concern is that you may be planning to do away with my favorite brand(alas I don't really remember the name. 'Novsoya' or somesuch) and carry only the 365 stuff which would necessitate my going to Cala for my tofu. I have noticed such a trend in the bean section. I can no longer get Progresso beans at WFM, but I can get some non-365 stuff which works as well. Please don't do this.

I know you have a business to run. I know it works on paper, but this trend toward hegemonisation of your product line is discomforting to those of us who grew up with Krogers and HEBs and Safeways.

Yours until you start looking like a 'real' grocery store,

Krome

P.S. This will also be posted on my blog, kromeisburning.blogspot.com"

back in the saddle

Ok. Hi again. It's been a busy couple of weeks, getting back into the restaurant biz again after 6 or 8 years. It's a business I know since I've been in it since I was 15 years old. I started out as a dishwasher and have been a prep cook, line cook, sous chef, chef, pastry cook/chef, baker and bartender. Now bartending again. After 2 lay-offs in 14 months from the corporate world, it's good to get back to something I know this well even if it doesn't pay as much. You can make pretty good money for the work.

Anyway, got my annual Social Security Statement recently and, sure enough, they are politicing in it. At one point it notes that "The law governing benefit amounts may change*" and below says, "*Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2042, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 73 percent of scheduled benefits. (Emphasis mine) Well that sounds like they know exactly what is going to happen in the next 37 years doesn't it? Nevermind that their own actuaries have come up with different numbers! Nevermind that Congress could, instead of changing benefit amounts, change the tax structure. Changing the tax structure to allow FICA taxes after the $90,000 earnings mark changes things significantly. This coupled with the disinformation spewed by the administration during their barnstorming is just more scare tactics. Without going through it all again, just go here, http://kromeisburning.blogspot.com/2005/03/your-social-security-response-kit.html to see what I wrote about it in early March. It still holds.

Tom DeLay, aka Bugboy, is going down fast and hard. It is all over the national news so I won't go into it except to say that the NYTimes ran an article on his problemos that was pretty good but missed one very important point. When, in this article, they say:

"A spokesman for Mr. DeLay, Dan Allen, was quoted by The Associated Press on Sunday as saying that the majority leader "looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee" in the House "to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that's being launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies.""

They fail to go on and mention what I mentioned here. That DeLay has stacked the Ethics Commision for himself.And we see here that Rep. Louise Slaughter is getting the brush off from Rep. Dreier about setting a date for the ethics investigation. Politics as usual? Perhaps, but it is quite obvious that many Rethuglicans can't quite decide whether or not they want to hang with DeLay or help him hang alone. Al Franken suggested that we help them along by calling your Rethuglican Reps to encourage them to dump DeLay and then calling back to encourage them to stand behind him. I think it's a good strategy. I went one farther and actually called 2 of DeLay's offices to encourage him to keep up the good fight knowing that my Rep, Pelosi, is fighting to get him out of there. Nothing like a catfight to make things interesting. I actually hope he fights tooth and nail so as many Rethugs as possible get stained with his s**t. He's going down and I want him to take as many of his buddies with him as he can.

On Okrent's latest: Not a lot to say. He addresses the 'scoop' mentality of reporters and editors which needs to be mentioned.

On Negative Space: it's what we call empty space in art and I work with it at times. Check out my Arts Site to see what I'm talking about. I will try to get around to discussing it later. For the time being, suffice to say that I find it harder to work with than filling space up and also more vibrant and challenging in this world where we try to fill up all empty space all the time. In a world of cramped cities and small apartments, the illusion of space is very important. To me anyway.

Long Been Gone

OK, I have been quiet for awhile. Mostly because the Rethugs are doing it to themselves. Also I started bartending again so have been getting used to that and trying to figure out how I'm going to make enough money to survive. When I get time(later today?) I do want to talk about a few things; Social Security, Tom DeLay and the NYTimes' failures there, and a little bit, perhaps on Daniel Okrent's latest. And, of course, Negative Space. So, read up for the quiz!