mousemusings...multimedia, music, progressive politics, video, web design and general rants
Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia.
~Kurt Vonnegut
Friday, April 30, 2004

The Secret Service Wants Your Name: Will "subpeona" this web site?

By Bev Harris
Blackboxvoting.org
I would say this implies that there is/was indeed a plan to corrupt voting. Why else would the Bush admin haul in the big guys to shut the little guys up?
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Thursday, April 29, 2004

A Republican's Case Against George W. Bush

Paul Findley, a Member of Congress for 22 years, is the author of They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby and chairman emeritus of the Council for the National Interest.

This is one of the most compelling arguments that I have run across against Bush written by a Republican who cares about this country and of the implications we face if he's re-selected. A must read!
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


I was just thinking

I owe people emails and phone calls and I need to update this page. Sometimes it's just better for me to totally withdraw and think of something that could never be.

I did do something unique today, although not quite as I expected. John Kerry visited Ann Arbor today, and thinking that a phone call from Washington left on my voice mail telling me where he was going to be when, and hoping I would come, constituted an invitation to his speech, made me decide to attend. It obviously wasn't an invitation because my name wasn't on the list, but those of us whose names weren't on the list were ushered to a separate room where we could listen to him via closed circuit tv.

John Kerry is no Dennis Kucinich but he did make some strides that made me pay attention. He spoke strictly on his 'jobs first' platform. John Kerry is no George Bush here thankfully. I found his mention of hybrid autos and wind power development satisfying although I would have liked more emphasis on development of alternative energy. It's a job market virtually untapped and in need of R&D funding. Ah well, it's a start. As I said, he's no Dennis Kucinich.

Another point he made that I would like to see the media pick up with a passion, is the fact that venture capital has dropped by over $150 million since the year 2001. Apparently only $26 billion was expended in venture capital last year, down from over $200 billion two years ago. I have to ask, is this not something Bush's tax cuts were supposed to have enhanced?
Something is obviously NOT working, in addition to people.

Yes, I'm floundering. Yes, I find everything taking tremendous effort and yes, I will get to those emails and phone calls, but for now, I just want to go back to thinking about something that could never be.

Angel Eyes
requires Real Player
written by Craig Baker

What if stars in the skies
were just angel eyes
staring down at us all
and when we're in trouble
and the bubble is bursting
we would know who to call

yes and you must excuse me
'cause I was just thinking
about something that
could never be
could never be

what if love was just something
provided by nature (and)
growing on a vine
what if it were provided
by a snap of a finger
crumbs and wishes and sighs

yes and you must excuse me
'cause I was just thinking
about something that
could never be
could never be

what if life never ended
and dreams became true
just by the blink of and eye
what if you and your lover
would never know danger
and there wasn't a word for goodbye

yes and you must excuse me
'cause I was just thinking
about something that
could never be
could never be
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Monday, April 19, 2004

Pillow from the Moon

 

lay your body down
beneath this blanket from the stars
remember who we are



posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Saturday, April 17, 2004

Craig's Obituary

Craig Douglas Baker
Baker, Craig Douglas Pittsfield Twp., MI Craig, age 52, died on April 15, 2004, with his family at his side, after a three year fight with cancer.
He was born on April 14, 1952 to Madine (English) Baker and Cecil Graul Baker in Iowa City, Iowa. He was preceded in death by his mother. He is survived and mourned by his wife, Catherine Ann McKillop, his father, Cecil, stepmother, Joy, eight siblings: Paul (Sharon) Baker, Kevin Baker, Theresa Baker, Peter (Deborah) Baker, Mary (Gary) Whitmer, Barbara (Mark) Summersett, John Baker, and Jane (Daniel) Whitmer; many nieces, nephews, and friends. Special friends include Dave Weber and Cindy Roy.
Craig worked at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry for 20 years before leaving to study Web design at Washtenaw Community College. Previously he had earned a Bachelor's degree at Eastern Michigan University, majoring in the study of the human condition. Craig was passionate about music, especially complex jazz and music on the edge. He composed his own songs and performed at many open-mics locally. Shortly before his death, Craig produced a CD of his own songs, a fine legacy.
The family will receive friends at Nie Family Funeral Home, 2400 Carpenter Rd., on Saturday, April 17, 2004 from 6 until 8 p.m.
Memorial Contributions may be made to Arbor Hospice, 2366 Oak Valley Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103,
or WCBN, 530 Student Activities Bldg., Ann Arbor, MI 48104.
Published in the Ann Arbor News on MLive.com on 4/16/2004.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Thursday, April 15, 2004

Rainbows End



Craig Douglas Baker
April 14, 1952 - April 15. 2004


Visitation will be
Saturday April 17
at Nie Funeral Home
2400 Carpenter Rd.
6pm-8pm



Thank you Craig Baker, for sharing who you are with me.
My thoughts are many now, and words fail as they often do.
I wish I could know what you now know.
Is it a statement that you chose your last day to fall on tax day, the day muddled between our birthdays? Somehow I think you're smiling about that one.
I'll put more info here about his viewing when I receive it for those who wish to go.
I won't be there. A viewing is more for comfort of family, and because I was not comforted by family, I choose my last memory to be of our final moments together, when he tried to kiss me and mouthed "I love you" through his oxygen mask as I was explaining to him why I had to leave. He is no longer with his body. My last memories of his life are set now. That's the way it should be.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Bitter Protection

I said my goodbyes to Craig yesterday. Today is his birthday. I won't be there to celebrate his life or to mourn his pending death. I asked him to stick around until my birthday Friday, but as he was slipping away into a near-death world, I got no reply, no promises. We shared a very special communication since vocalizing was too difficult. He hummed tunes to me and I understood. I've always understood his tunes. It's something others can't understand or respect.

His wishes for me to be with him until the end were denied. I was something too ugly for the family to take. I am perceived as the 'other woman'. Best Friends. It matters not that we were together at the seeming acceptance of his wife. It matters not that the past three years he's been fighting cancer were also the happiest most productive and creative years of his life. It matters to no one but myself that those accomplishments were because of my support as he often told me. I was asked to leave his house because appearances of something non-conventional were too painful for others to handle. Banished.

A few months ago I tried to break with him, fearing just this scenario and attempting to shelter myself. It was devastating. I told him I would always protect what we had. If I had continued with the break that protection would have been lost. I couldn't do it.

The acceptance and non-judgemental nature of a wonderful man were something he developed throughout his life. He worked at it and it was one of the most beautiful things about him. He tried to understand others feelings and felt deeply himself.

Yes, I'm hurting. Yes, I've subjected myself to physical, emotional and financial debt while caring for him. Yes, I was cast away like a weed in the end by his family. Grief is bittersweet. Not being accepted hurts like hell. In the end neither one of us could protect what we had. He lies in bed helpless and I have to respect the family's wishes even though they are denying his wishes.

UPDATE: I want to say that not all of Craig's family was aware of what happened, as I'm finding out, but, for those who stood by, listened and watched while these words were said to me;
" (dramatic sigh)....this is hard...you aren't welcome here, you don't belong, you're upsetting Cathy. Please leave for my sisters sake",

to those who watched in silence while I said my goodbyes, I can only say I am still completely dumbfounded. I will never forget those words.

I want to thank Craig's brother John, from my heart, and on Craig's behalf, for respecting all of Craig's final wishes. I think he may be another who, like Craig, listens from the heart and not with some selfish whim.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Life

the cruelest joke
false reassurance
where nothing resides
at the rainbows end
a promise trusted to hands
that carelessly break the stem
appearances untrue
conforming to lies
nurtured with pesticides
shut out
shut down
uprooted and cast away
like a weed
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


On August 7, 2001 Senior Officials Got Similar Memo Without Current Threats

The Aug. 7, 2001 memo, known as the senior executive intelligence brief or SEIB, didn't mention the 70 FBI investigations into possible al-Qaida activity that Bush had been told of a day earlier in a memo entitled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.," the officials said Monday.

The senior executives' memo also did not mention a threat received in May 2001 of a U.S.-based explosives attacks or say that the FBI had concerns about recent casing of buildings in New York, the officials told The Associated Press. [ terrorism memos differed ]
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Monday, April 12, 2004

Association of Cancer Online Resources

I have found the ACOR mailing list for esophageal cancer invaluable over the past three years. The main web page has been updated and is now easier to use. You'll find discussion lists, treatment resources, and info on clinical trials all grouped by types of cancer.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Saturday, April 10, 2004

WTF?? Just Shoot Me Now

Cheney to pitch nuclear reactors during China trip
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Friday, April 09, 2004

Grey Lodge Occult Review :: #11

Wow! Real Reading.
I'll be downloading some of these and curling up to read offline.
I'll also be keeping up with a daily yearlong gimmick at gimmicky.org

posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


Bill Moyers | Winning the War on Terror

If you've been missing your t r u t h o u t mailings containing great articles like the one below, you'll need to resubscribe:
mailto:join-three-to [at]lists.truthout [dot]org
Most of their services are back online after being hacked, but much of their distribution list was lost.

So what to do?
Where does the home front begin today? President Bush hasn't told us. I believe him when he says the war on terror is the inescapable calling of our generation. But it is one thing to say it, and yet another to lead all of us, and not just a partisan few, to answer it.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Thursday, April 08, 2004

Kucinich in His Own Words

Excellent Interview!
For Example:
Q: Any comments on the 9/11 commission and its activities? It’s certainly been in the headlines in the last week or two.

Kucinich: Yeah, it’s in the headlines, but you know what? How come we’re still in Iraq? I mean, don’t we know enough that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and this administration tried to trick things up to make it appear they did? I mean, what more do we need to know? I’m serious. I’m not just asking a rhetorical question here, but what more do we need to know? [more]

UPDATE: From a press release:
The June 30th transfer of power from the U.S.- led Coalition Provisional Authority to an interim Iraqi government is “a hoax intended to deceive the American people into believing that this nightmare of death and destruction is coming to an end,” said Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.
“There’s not going to be any difference in our military posture on July 1st from what it is on June 30th,” said Kucinich, adding, “Those aren’t my words. Those are the words of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.” Wolfowitz made the comment to reporters last Friday, April 2, following a briefing to the House Armed Services Committee. The only thing that is going to change is the level of violence aimed at our men and women in uniform,” Kucinich said. “It will become even deadlier.” At least 30 U.S. military personnel have been killed in the last 72 hours.
“On June 30th, all we will be doing is transferring power from the right hand to the left hand – from the Coalition Provisional Authority to a yet-unestablished interim government chosen under the terms of a constitution written by the Bush Administration and ratified by an Iraqi Governing Council installed by the Bush Administration,” Kucinich said.
Despite the fanfare, pomp and ceremony surrounding the signing of that document a month ago, “The constitution actually preserves and perpetuates the continuing occupation of Iraq, and virtually guarantees that the Iraqi opposition will grow more fierce and more deadly.”
Kucinich quoted from a section of the constitution, which stipulates, “the laws in force in Iraq on 30 June 2004 shall remain in effect unless and until rescinded or amended by the Iraqi Transitional Government.” That transitional government will be appointed only with the approval of the Coalition Provisional Authority. “It will be nothing more than a puppet government attempting to legitimize a U.S. agenda of indefinite occupation and control over a country where we have no legitimate right to be.”
Kucinich said the only way to end the escalating violence is to withdraw U.S. troops, bring in United Nations peacekeepers, and have the United Nations oversee a process of elections that are free and fair. Control over Iraqi oil, other assets, and reconstruction contracts should also be placed under UN supervision. “Our troops are being targeted and killed, and the Administration and others in our government keeping talking about June 30th as though it’s some sort of magical date that will bring this nightmare to an end,” Kucinich said. “It won’t. It can’t. The invasion was a mistake. The occupation is a mistake. And we’re paying the price for those mistakes with American lives and the lives of innocent Iraqi citizens.”
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


War President

I think the link is bloggered but this mosaic art is the essence of what George W. so proudly wants to be seen as. He proudly describes himself as a War President. It only fits that he wear the badge.
Scroll to the April 4th entry if this link doesn't get you there.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


The View from Benedict

The Perfect Alibi
... and why the administration isn't using it.

"The Perfect Alibi" focuses around the recent partial declassification of National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD)-9. This is a very high risk gamble by the Bush administration in its attempt to diffuse the testimony of Richard Clake before the 9-11 commission. While this declassification was scantly noted in the U.S. press (and even removed at least once), it was headlined elsewhere around the globe.

What NSPD-9 clearly states is that the Bush administration was moving to war with Afghanistan before 9-11. Yet, Clarke's testimony is quite revealing when one simply connects the dots. If Clarke was "out of the loop", then Afghanistan was a war of choice, and 9-11 merely provided a sufficient cover.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


A Call for an Exit Door from Iraq

by Senator Robert Byrd
Senate Floor Remarks
April 7, 2004
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Wednesday, April 07, 2004



I'm not quite sure how often I'll be updating for awhile. Maybe a lot, maybe none. I updated Craig's page for him today.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


Dennis on Air America

...this Friday on "Majority Report with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder " at some
point during the 10:00 pm hour of the show.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Friday, April 02, 2004

Sibel Edmonds Speaks

Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".

She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave [the commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily."
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line
Thursday, April 01, 2004

Another World Is Here: Linking Free Culture

WorldChanging indeed!
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


Smoking Dope with Thomas Pynchon

This is a story about the sixties: it's about me and some friends of mine, it's about Berkeley, and it's about Pynchon. It's about a decade in which we were all young together and thought we would stay young forever. Berkeley was our Vineland, a dream of a perfect new world. The time was ripe, America was ours, and we were going to change the world: Paradise Now or Apocalypse Now.

Neither one happened. As the decades pass, is anything left of that refuge, that Vineland, apart from memory and isolated dreams? Where are the sixties now? Where are we? And where is Thomas Pynchon? [ read it ]
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |


IRV and Randi Rhodes

Somebody please teach her about IRV! She completely O'Reilleyed a caller who suggested looking into IRV. Randi Rhodes didn't even know what IRV was.
She's beginning to annoy me, and it's only day two.
I'm headed back to democracy now and Amy Goodman. I'll check back with Air America later.
I'll also be reading the majority report radio blog
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

line



Feeds and Info

xml

Subscribe with Bloglines

Blogroll Me!

email


xml pill


feedburner

FeedBurner.com Logo

add to my yahoo



Google
Web
mousemusings


www.flickr.com
Cyndy's photos More of Cyndy's photos


Via BuzzFeed

Recent Comments




My Del.icio.us


subscribe to
my del.icio.us feed






Categories


My




Archives

2000
8, 9, 10, 11

2001
2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

2002
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

2003
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

2004
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

2005
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

2006
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

2007
1, 2, 3



Links
Green
Political
Progressive Blog Alliance


sTaRe Network

blogger pro



blogrank
LS Blogs

www.blogwise.com

blogarama
Blogarama


Listed on BlogShares


blogstreet

Progressive Women's Blog Ring
Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Skip Previous | Skip Next