The Troll Under the Stairs - Finale

I finally managed to finish the storage space under the stairs today. After several weekends, lots of sweat and pain, a ton of framing, drywalling, and painting, it's finally done. I took this weekend to paint, lay down flooring, and install baseboards. A few pics:

Romer to Head CEA

Barack Obama has chosen Cal Professor Christina Romer to head his Council of Economic Advisers. This selection hits close to home for me...Romer's husband was my favorite professor at Cal.

Civics 101

Take the quiz, and test your knowledge of civics and American civics, economics, and history:
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

You may be smarter than your local elected official. They averaged just 44% on the quiz. I made two mistakes out of 33, missing questions 13 and 26...I didn't read them too closely. But that's still nearly 94%...average score of everyone in November was 78%.

Stuck in San Diego

I hate United Airlines. They're even more terrible than all the other crappy US carriers. I'm sitting at SAN, waiting for a flight that's now been delayed by 3 hours. And all the signage for all the flights are wrong...they all show this flight as on-time. Worse yet, the signage for all the other delayed flights still reads as on-time. And United finally texted me, 10 minutes after I was supposed to leave, to tell me that my flight is delayed.

If you're going to screw up your customers' entire day, at least give them accurate information so they can deal with the situation.

Is the Polish Coming Off?

I'm a little concerned. Obama seems to be putting a disproportionate number of former Clintonites in his cabinet. He's apparently tapped Eric Holder to be Attorney General, and he may be looking at Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. This was supposed to be an election about change. These people do not represent change.

How Christian Fundamentalist Bigots "Think"

I'll start this one by saying that Phyllis Schlafly is a fucking idiot. I repeat: Phyllis Schlafly is a fucking idiot. We all know that. She's a fundamentalist troglodyte who'd like to see adulterers stoned to death in public, and non-Christians executed for their views. But I can't help reading her occasionally for a laugh. Her "analysis" of the 2008 election borders on lunatic fringe:

...The women who cast off husbands look to Big Brother Government to support them. They vote for the party that promises more benefits from the Welfare State...

...the feminists achieved unilateral divorce on demand from state legislatures, unilateral abortion on demand from the courts, and unilateral control over children in the welfare class by taxpayer handouts to women that made husbands and fathers unnecessary.

The feminists have continued their campaign against marriage through Joe Biden's favorite legislation, the Violence Against Women Act, which provides a billion dollars a year to feminist centers to promote divorce and oppose reconciliation.

Is Phyllis smoking crack? I'm serious: has she developed a drug problem? Or is she just tying a rubber hose around her common sense and shooting up with Jesus™?

The GOP's Version of Free Speech

It apparently involves raising and spending unlimited amounts of money in coordination with Rethugnican campaigns:

Less than two weeks after John McCain failed to keep the White House in Republican hands, the Republican National Committee filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

I know the troglodytes believe in one-dollar-one-vote, but this is absurd. Money is not free speech.

America's Ugly Side Comes Out

Barack Obama's victory last week was certainly historic. As much as most of America is lauding the first black man elected President, this cathartic election has brought out some very ugly incidents:

In Midland, Mich., a man dressed in full Ku Klux Klan regalia walked around toting a handgun and waving an American flag. Initially denying it, the man eventually admitted to police that the display was a reaction to the Obama victory. “[The man] had a concealed weapon permit and was walking up and down the sidewalk in front of a vehicle dealership while some motorists shouted obscenities at him and others shouted accolades," police told The Saginaw News.

Ugly indeed...and a black mark for the advocates of conceal-carry permits. Those KKK robes hide firearms quite well. More from the cracker files:

One North Carolina man who flew his flag upside-down claimed that voters were racist, electing Obama because of his skin color, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. “The flag is stretched upside-down between two poles in a field, with a black X running from end to end. The X is a reference to the Confederate flag, said flag-owner Tony Heath. It reflects his belief that the Confederate flag has been unfairly targeted for protest by people trying to be politically correct,” the Journal reported.

It's disturbing that these two incidents are coming from two states Obama won. Then again, racism isn't limited by geography.

Nicky's First Desmosedici...The Video

Just plain cool...

Blood Orgies in the Park

The First Ammendment to the Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Pretty clear, huh? That means permanent religious displays should be verbotten on public property. That's simple, and easy to understand...even to judicial conservatives who claim to stick to the framers' original intent. So why is the Supreme Court taking a case involving duelling religious displays in a public park?

The Aphorisms are the guiding principles of Summum, a religious organization that operates from a pyramid in Salt Lake City and practices mummification. They are so important to Summum that the group's founder, Summum "Corky" Ra, asked that they be displayed in a public park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, near a Ten Commandments monument.

Summum wants a religious display in a public park...a park where there's already the Ten Commandments display. To anyone with any sense, the answer is clear: the Constitution prohibits any religious display on public property. To allow any religious display is to respect the establishment of a religion. Why does it matter whether Summum should be allowed to engage in free speech? Free speech would involve Summum people standing in the park holding signs...a permanent display is different. The Constitutional answer is unambiguous: remove all the religious displays from the park. Let's see whether the Bush Supreme Court, and its recently-installed evangelicals and idealogues respect the framers' intent or twist logic to suit their ends.

Another Parting Gift from the Bushies

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has quietly given US banks a tax cut windfall of $140 billion:

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

The ruling, which is arguably illegal, is focused on whether banks are allowed to buy other banks in order to claim their losses for tax purposes:

Section 382 of the tax code was created by Congress in 1986 to end what it considered an abuse of the tax system: companies sheltering their profits from taxation by acquiring shell companies whose only real value was the losses on their books. The firms would then use the acquired company's losses to offset their gains and avoid paying taxes.

Lawmakers decried the tax shelters as a scam and created a formula to strictly limit the use of those purchased losses for tax purposes.

But from the beginning, some conservative economists and Republican administration officials criticized the new law as unwieldy and unnecessary meddling by the government in the business world.

Yet another gift to the corporate world from the most corrupt and criminal administration in our nation's history. Let's hope President-Elect Obama orders his Treasury Secretary to reverse this ruling. Our national trasure has already been bled dry by tax-cheating corporations and the rich who control them. This kind of crap has to stop.

In related news, the Bushies are refusing to disclose which banks have sought financial aid. That's your government in action: more graft, less disclosure.

The Change Begins

President-Elect Obama is quietly planning to close the US gulag at Guantanamo Bay:

During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.

Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not final.

I'm not too crazy about any alternate system of "justice" but this is a refreshing start. Guantanamo is but one of the blemishes on the face of US democracy we've developed over the past 8 years. For sure, this is a baby step. I'd like to see the entire base closed, as it's arguably not a strategic asset and it raises the ire of Cubans. We're clearly not welcome there, and it behooves the US to be a good neighbor. But I'll welcome the closure of the prison any day. Now, who wants to start taking wagers on whether Obama will close the School of the Americas?

The Troll Under the Stairs

I spent the better part of the weekend building otu a storage area under our front entry stairs. If you've ever been to my house, you probably noticed that storage is in short supply. There are only so many places in a 4-unit house with 8 people living in it to store stuff. The area under the front stairs, previously only open from the garbage room, was wasted space. We've been talking about opening this area up to the garage since we moved in, as it would provide easy access for loading and unloading items.

Now that Anne has moved in, we need additional space to store gardening tools and the other items used on a daily basis. So after consulting with our in-house architect, I set about framing the underside of the stairs for an opening to the garage, building in a floor, and putting in drywall. The area in question has an exposed dirt floor, bare studs, and a cieling consisting of mortar and masonry. There was also a capped sewer pipe sticking out, and sitting above the level of the proposed floor.

Saturday was the day for getting materials. I took the truck to DBS and picked up 5 sheets of 5/8" type X drywall, a sheet of 3/4" CDX plywood, and 2"x4" materials for framing. I had to load all of this by myself...ouch. The task for the day was to frame in a 4"x6" header to carry a load across the top of the opening. The door eliminated two studs that run the height of the building, and are tied together by the old siding that used to be exposed in the garage. I was concerned that cutting those studs would result in settling, but that turned out OK. I had a bit of a time getting the header in place, and then sistering the 4"x4" wood that holds the header. But Simpson Strong Drive ties came in handy there. Two more trips to DBS added to the madness. By the end of the day I had the framing 90% done. I also had an aching back.

Sunday dawned and it was time to open up the hole to the garage. But another trip to DBS was in order to get items to shore up the framing. I was the master with the Sawzall, and by 11AM the hole was open. I then realized that I needed materials to frame in the floor, so I made another trip to DBS...this time carrying a stack of 2"x6"x10" on a skateboard...just like old times. By the end of the day, the framing was almost done. I'll have to pick this up next Friday...time to put in the floor, shore up the cieling framing, and start the drywall. And I only have next Saturday to work.

Trotting Out a Classic

Joe the Plumber, er, Welfare King and Tax Cheat

Joe the Plumber was on welfare as a kid...twice. I've stopped being surprised by these types of revelations about Republicans. I mentioned before that they have a mysterious power to create their own reality...even if it bears no resemblance to actual reality. But this one raises my ire. Here we have a skinheaded lower-middle-class white male, whose tax burden would go up under John McCain and down under Barack Obama, a man who owes back taxes, was on welfare as a child, and who would likely be disqualified from voting under Ohio's draconian Republican-, imposed registration laws, spouting the hate-filled talking points of a party whose ideology and approach to governing has largely been discredited. If nothing else, it's at least entertaining.

More on Suitgate

Those Wasilla Hillbillies sure know how to blow money. Most of us spend, what, a couple of thousand dollars a year on clothing? Well, apparently $20,000-$25,000 for a 3-month clothing budget just wasn't enough for Sarah Palin and her husband. That's the amount they were originally budgeted by the RNC for clothing during the campaign. But Palin went on a shopping spree, sticking a Republican donor with a $150,000 clothing bill.


A Republican donor who agreed to foot a majority of the expenses was stunned when he received the bill, Newsweek reported. Both the Times and Newsweek report that the budget for the clothing was expected to be between $20,000 and $25,000. Instead, the amount reported by the Republican National Committee was $150,000.


$150,000 for clothing? Even $20,000 for clothing is ridiculous...most people in America spend less than $20,000 on housing...in a year. I live in one of the most expensive cities in the country and I spend only marginally more than that on housing. Then we have Cindy McCain calling Barack Obama an elitist...while wearing a $250,000 outfit. I wonder if she has one expensive outfit for each of her seven houses? The rest of us, who didn't have the good sense to be born into a wealthy family, will have to make do with our cheap, made-in-Sri-Lanka wardrobes while we work for a living. Oh, and we'll also have to make do with a President with a first-class intellect and no upper class pretensions...a President who watches Sportscenter and shoots hoops...a President any one of us would be proud to have a beer with.

Nothing Fails Like Prayer

And now, we turn to the negative. To all of you biblical sheep out there...all of you who prayed for a McCain victory...to all you wingnuts out there who equated an Obama victory with armageddon or the triumph of Satan..to anyone who devolved into speaking in tongues while conducting "spiritual warfare" on Obama...to all of you who truly believe that the dark forces of African witchcraft (no, Africa is not a country Sarah) are casting spells on McCain-Palin...to all of you overly religious, troglodyte sheep, I say this:

NOTHING FAILS LIKE PRAYER

But don't despair, fundamentalists...God™ has a plan for all of us. Yours apparently involves humiliation and being laughed at by sane people.

Cathartic...

That's the only way to describe how I felt today. All day. Sure, we've elected the first black man to be President. We've repudiated 8 years of a failed and stolen presidency, and 30+ years of failed economic policy and its driving ideology. But we've also shown that a grassroots, bottom-up candidacy, driven by loose associations of motivated and smart people, can wrest power away from the monied elites and start turning the ship of state towards change. And we did it not with the divisive and dismissive style that the Lee Atwater Republicans of the world have come to rely on, but with an inclusive campaign that emphasizes the common while still acknowledging and respecting our differences.

I walked the streets this morning and everything seemed more alive. There was a spring in peoples' steps...even though many of them were hung over and tired from last night's spontaneous street parties celebrating Obama's victory. The guys digging up the street for the DPW all had smiles on their faces. The meter maid had a spring in her step as she wrote parking citations. The folks behind the counter at the coffee shop moved around as if they floated on air. And it wasn't just because we finally see the end of eight long years of a terrible presidency. No, these folks seemed like they were enjoying life more because once again they had hope.

If America can elect a black man, a man from humble beginnings, a man who's articulate and intelligent, a man who has unquestionable integrity and an appetite for change...if America can finally, FINALLY make the right and obvious choice...then we may well come through these turbulent times intact. Gone is the idea of America as a third world nation. Gone is the idea that it's OK to torture people and invade countries for their oil. Gone are the crass political calculations driven by the idea that might makes right. Gone are the cynical politics of self-destruction, division and culture war, displaced at last by the politics of positive change and the identification of ourselves as Americans...not as baptists, pentecostals, latte liberals, rednecks, midwesterners, or America-haters, but as Americans. We're at the beginning...not the end. We can be the new Greatest Generation. Yes, we can.

Looting Wasilla Hillbillies

An absolutely classic quote, courtesy of Matt T. Newsweek has discovered that the extent of Sarah Palin's clothing shopping spree is much greater than originally reported:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy.

...

One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Wasilla Hillbillies. That could be the name of a new Palin-based reality show. I guess the name fits...a pregnant teenage daughter, moose hunting from helicopters, and a whole passel-o-kids in tow.

Photos From Last Night

What a night! The pagan forces of Evil(TM) gathered at my place to celebrate an impending victory by the Islamo-Fascist-Baby-Killing-Gay-Marrying-Arugula-Growing-on-forced-Communal-Organic-Vegetable-Plot candidate for President (and yes, I'm once again spelling that with a capital P). Anne and I made some strategic alterations to the place. Visitors were greeted at our door with the Obam-O-Lantern:

Then, when folks went to the bathroom they got a few laughs from our favorite shit shoveler:

We had 11 people over, and it was an absolute blast!

Not ALL Happy News

It appears that Prop 8 is narrowly passing. Sad to say that bigotry and hatred is still alive and well in the most progressive state in the nation.

Morning in America

Keep That Outfit, Tina

Sarah Palin wants Tina Fey to keep that outfit:

"And a little advice for Tina. We wanted to make sure she's holding on to that Sarah outfit, because she's going to need it for the next four years."

Keep that outfit Tina...you won't need to do another Palin skit after tomorrow night, but hell...it's probably worth $150,000 and was paid for by the Republican National Committee.

Twenty-Four-Twenty-Four Hours to Go...

...and I wanna be sedated. I've been waiting for tomorrow for eight long, anguishing, pain-filled years. I'm on pins & needles...can't concentrate. The time has come to change this country, and it can't happen fast enough. If you had told me eight years ago that in 2008 I'd cast my vote for a Democrat running for President, I'd have told you to get the sedatives and a straightjacket. But, contrary to my expectations, the Democrats stepped up and nominated someone who wasn't corrupt, too conservative, and untrustworthy as they have in past. This time, it was a young, courageous junior Senator from Illinois...someone who built his campaign from the grassroots up. And tomorrow, we elect him President. Now get your arse out there and VOTE!