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, December 29, 2006

Shut-in?

I hadn't really thought of myself as a shut-in until a neighbor couple brought over a fruit basket saying their church does this for shut-ins. Suddenly the walls closed in on me just a little more.
There is another lovely neighbor who is 86 years old, completely there in all aspects, though slower than she used to be, she tells me. She has offered to sit with my mom on Saturdays while I go get groceries. There is nothing that could be more helpful to me. Nothing.
My dad had home care assistance coming out three days a week for two hours a day. They stopped coming. They said my mom refused a bath and that they couldn't come if she refused care. I think perhaps my mom was a bit abusive and they didn't want to return. I don't feel like calling them and arguing with them over details, but I think you have to work around refusals and abuse if you're caring for an Alzheimers patient. If they can't do that then they are of no help to me. Good riddance.
I want to venture out. For hours. For now, I look forward to Saturday.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

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Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas

And what could be better than this?

End of the neo-con dream
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent

The neo-conservative dream faded in 2006.

The ambitions proclaimed when the neo-cons' mission statement "The Project for the New American Century" was declared in 1997 have turned into disappointment and recriminations as the crisis in Iraq has grown.

"The Project for the New American Century" has been reduced to a voice-mail box and a ghostly website. A single employee has been left to wrap things up... [emphasis added]

They saw the war in Iraq as their big chance of showing how the "New American Century" might work.

They predicted the development of democratic values in a region lacking in them and, in that way, the removal of any threat to the United States just as the democratisation of Germany and Japan after World War II had transformed Europe and the Pacific...

"Neo-conservatism has gone for a generation, if in fact it ever returns," says one of the movement's critics, David Rothkopf, currently at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, and a former official in the Clinton administration...

"The US use of force has been seen as doing wrong and as inflaming a region that has been less than susceptible to democracy.

"Their plan has fallen on hard times. There were flaws in the conception and horrendously bad execution. The neo-cons have been undone by their own ideas and the incompetence of the Bush administration...
Good riddance. The whole project was a menance to civilization.
posted by : Joseph j7uy5 | link |   | |

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Here's A Photo We Both Like

It's at Ron Beasley's photoblog, Just Pictures.

Cactus-3

It obviously took a lot of time and care to get the lighting and composition exactly right.

He doesn't say what kind of cactus bloom this is, so if anyone knows, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
posted by : Joseph j7uy5 | link |   | |

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

One Day

Sometimes people work for years building something

Only to have it washed away in one day

If we're lucky they leave behind archives.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

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Monday, December 18, 2006

BlogNetNews

I received notice of a new aggregator yesterday, specific to state news. They say the site is new and the programming is still being tweaked and tested, but my initial reaction is positive. They aren't beholden to any political views and will give a broad instant look at all the active news in a given state whether you care to see it or not. That can only be a good thing. No more hiding from viewpoints we don't agree with. Other views will be there, in your face, to deal with. That can provide for quick, informed response or no response at all.

Instant overview of local blog activity. I like it, because lately for me I've been looking for instant quality. I haven't had time to dig around but I don't like scrambling in the dark either

Right now, with my transition to New Mexico from Michigan, I don't know where I fit. Since there isn't a New Mexico BlogNetNews aggregator yet. Because there are others who post to this blog who are in Michigan, I suppose mousemusings still fits on the Michigan BlogNetNews.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Something I Can get Excited About:

Rep. Kucinich: Why I'm running for President
By Joshua Scheer

The six-term Ohio congressman and 2004 presidential candidate, who has been one of Congress' most vocal and longstanding opponents of the Iraq war, tells Truthdig why he again has his sights set on the Oval Office:
Rep. Kucinch spoke with Truthdig research editor Joshua Scheer*.

TRUTHDIG: What made you decide to run?
KUCINICH: Someone has to rally the American people, to let them know that the money is there right now to bring our troops home. Democrats were put in power in November to chart a new direction in Iraq. It's inconceivable that having been given the constitutional responsibility to guide the fortunes of America in a new direction, that Democratic leaders would respond by supporting the administration's call for up to $160 billion in new funding for the war in Iraq.

For me this is a call of conscience to stand up and speak out about what's going on-to let the American people know that the money is there to bring our troops home now, that we need to begin now to take a new direction in Iraq, and that to pass a supplemental in the spring for another $160 billion would keep the war going until the end of George Bush's term. Someone needs to stand up and speak out, and I decided it was my responsibility as the person who has been consistently opposed to this war since its inception, who has been a leader in challenging this thinking that led to war, that I would stand up and rally Democrats to change the course that the party has embarked on with respect to continued funding of the war.

TRUTHDIG: This is obviously your major issue, but what other issues are you going to base your campaign on?

KUCINICH: We have to take these things in sequence. From now until the spring, this is the issue: $160 billion is more than three times what the federal education budget is. This is a huge amount of money, and all the other hopes we have as Democrats to create a new agenda for the American people in housing, in healthcare, in education, are going to be destroyed by the administration's request for $160 billion.

So does that mean I'm a one-issue candidate? Of course not. I'm prepared to lead this country forward to create a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit healthcare system. I'm prepared to lead the way towards policies of environmental sustainability, to develop advanced technologies for alternative energy, for clean energy.

This campaign is about three imperatives: It's about the imperative of human unity, of recognizing that this is one world, that we are all one, that people all around the world have an underlying connection, that we are interconnected and interdependent. And we need policies that act that interconnection. We need to affirm institutions which support the idea of human unity. And that means that we support the United Nations. It means we support treaties in working with other countries. It means we support the rule of law internationally.

The second imperative is human security, and that security has to deal with basic needs: Each person in the world has a right to survive, a right to
food that is fit to eat, and water fit to drink, and air fit to breathe. Each person has a right to a roof over his or her own head. Each person has a right to have clothes on their back. Each person has a right to some means of being able to make a living. Each person has a right to be free of the fear of violence. We have a responsibility to work to secure the world from a nuclear nightmare. We need to look at what we can do to protect peoples everywhere by working for not just nonproliferation, not just disarmament, but nuclear abolition, which in fact was the promise of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The third imperative I'll discuss in this campaign is the imperative of peace. There are those who believe that war is inevitable. A belief in the inevitability of war makes war a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to be convinced in our innate capability to create structures for peace in our society. We need to be convinced of our potential as a nation to make nonviolence an operating principle in our society. This is the motivating reason behind a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, which addresses directly, in a practical way, the challenge of domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in the school, racial violence, violence against gays,
community relations disputes.

The imperatives of human unity, human security, peace, all create a context for human prosperity. We have the potential to create heaven on earth. New Jerusalem is within our reach. It's waiting to be called forward through the power of courage, emanating through our hearts, through our dreams, which come from the longing of our souls. This truly is a time where we can change the world and create the world that we long for.

TRUTHDIG: You obviously have issues that you care deeply about, and it doesn't
seem like you're going into this as a sort of popularity contest, but do you think you can win? Do you have a plan to win, say, the South, and parts of the Midwest?

KUCINICH: Yes. The very fact the people put Democrats in power in November over the issue of Iraq means that there exists a tremendous amount of support for affirming the will of the people to set a new course, not only for Iraq but for all of U.S. international policy. That percolation, which resulted in the Democrats gaining control of Congress, is still there. It is fairly astonishing that Democrat leaders would forget that only a month ago we were given the control of the Congress because of Iraq. It is fairly astonishing that less than a month after being given that constitutional obligation to assume a coequal position in the government, [we] would
capitulate on Iraq by publicly declaring support for up to $160 billion in additional funding to keep the war going.

I've said it before, I've said it again: It is not credible to simultaneously say you are opposed to the war and continue to support funding for the war.

So these are some of the reasons why I'm running for president. And I believe that I will win, because people are truly looking for a new direction. Not by incrementalism, not by capitulation, but people are looking for real leadership, people are looking for foresight. And I've demonstrated foresight by moving out front very quickly when the administration was talking about attacking Iraq-warning the country that this was folly, warning the country that we needed to avert this conflict, letting Americans know that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein
and 9/11 or Al Qaeda's role in 9/11, that Iraq did not have WMD, did not have the intention or capability of attacking the United States.

Everything I said turned out to be true. People want leaders who know what the right thing is to do in the moment of crisis, not people who will say, years later, "Well, you know, I agree, this is what should have been done." This is a call for clearsightedness for foresight and for action, and in each case I've demonstrated an ability to step forward. And I'm going to do it again, and I expect that the American people are going to respond very powerfully to my candidacy.

TRUTHDIG: John Kerry got tarred with the "flip-flopper" label in 2004 for his perceived wavering on the issue of Iraq. Do you think you're going to have a better chance than someone like Kerry-or Clinton, who's also been wishy-washy on some of the issues?

KUCINICH: I haven't talked about any other candidates, and I'm not going to now. I think that my consistency speaks for itself, and I think that my opposition not only to the authorization for the war but continued opposition to its funding puts me apart from all the other candidates. I'm the only member of the House and Senate who has consistently voted against continued funding for the war.

TRUTHDIG: I saw Stephen Hesse of the Brookings Institute on CNN saying that candidacies like yours are just an ego trip. Is this an ego trip for you?

KUCINICH: I've spent the last five years of my life warning our nation about the path to war and about our occupation of Iraq. There are probably easier ways to pamper oneself.


*Truthdig interviewer Joshua Scheer worked as an entry-level staffer on Kucinich's state Senate campaign and was later a summer associate in his congressional office. In this weekly interview series, Rep. Kucinich gives his take on the goings-on in Congress in the wake of the Democrats' victory.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

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Monday, December 11, 2006

One Month

It's been a month to the day since my father died. I miss him terribly. He was very special.

I still don't know what I'm doing. My job has been gracious enough to let me telecommute but that won't last forever. 90 days is what they give me, though I'm much more productive now than I could ever have been there.

At least it gives me time. Time for what, I don't know. I'm here and I have to stay. I gave up a lot to be here and I'm afraid I will lose everything I had at home. I seem to be quite good at losing people.

I may come back to this blog with a vengeance because I'm bored, or I may give it up because I struggle too hard for words and for inspiration.

It's difficult to go outside because my mother needs someone here all the time for her protection. I've tried sneaking out while she was napping only to come home and find her in the bathroom screaming for me becasue she couldn't get back in her wheelchair. She could have fallen. She fell a few years ago and fractured her spine. I can't let that happen again.

The desert is my home. I know that. I have to find a way to live, not simply survive. Living in this house alone, with my mom, yet very alone, is suffocating me even with all the fresh blue sky right outside my door.

Thank you all for the condolences. I don't even know how to respond. But thank you.
posted by Cyndy | link |   | |

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