I’d been away for a while. Offline and watching television and listening to Hillary and Barack. Bleech. And, oh my good god, Bill Clinton has become a political hack. Dennis seems to have disappeared. But it’s hard to miss the American economy’s free-fall.

Tell me something. If I was waiting for the bear and you all were waiting for the bear, how is it that candidates (except John Edwards), Congress, and MSM blowhards seemed to have little concern about this clear and looming economic middle class disaster? Katrina-like in its scope, isn’t it? Well, it’s been my story now for the past 18 months: Democrats are complicit in the rape of the American middle class. Face it. And we citizens are the ones who need to deal with it.

I have a suggestion. Read or reread “Common Sense.” That’s what I’m doing. Because we need to get ourselves in a mind set, build a frame work, for going forward.

We have a heritage here. A history. It is clear. What we need to win is not a seat for a Democrat in the White House, but an awakening of Americans and their stake in America.

^{from Aaron Russo’s Restore the Republic website}

As anybody who regularly watches candidates’ debates knows, questions about Katrina and New Orleans have been extremely rare, even though this is a valid national campaign issue. Here’s a chance to vote for such a question to be asked during either of the two debates, one Republican, one Democratic, which are slated for Los Angeles on Jan. 30th and Jan. 31st, and will be aired on CNN.

On the way to visiting the hospital I took a detour to the RBG ( Royal Botanical Gardens) in the Hamilton-Burlington area to see a glass exhibit. My mother wasn’t interested initially but I heard her tell a friend on the phone how lovely it was. It wasn’t officially open but all the displays were up and we had a nice talk with the director/manager who was catching a quiet moment on a bench enjoying the hypnotically calm atmosphere of the indoor gardens. She told us that due to budget cuts, she had about half the staff she used to and every time they had a new exhibit, they wondered if they could even get it done. It made me realize that one of the unspoken necessities of urban life are public spaces where people can enjoy low cost or free entertainment/education with their family. When gardens, libraries, parks, and other “public spaces” disappear, we become less of a democracy, more of a lemming like consumer organism.

Here are a few pictures. All of the glass items were done by local artists….

When I was a university student on a budget, my then boyfriend and I often went to the outdoor portion of the local RBG gardens for a picnic. He was an artist  (painting,photography, graphic design)and I often acted as his “assistant” finding items that had visual appeal. It never occurred to me I might try and develop my own creative side at that time. I was more into local political activism and thinking I was going to help change the world.

For those of you who’ve already donated to Dennis’ congressional campaign, thanks!  We know he’s one of the leading progressive voices in Congress, and it would be a shame to lose his voice in the House.

Well, I got plenty of “winter driving” experience in since most days were built around going to the hospital. I had a particularly charming drive in a white out on slippery roads. I desperately wanted to find another car to follow and discovered that I was the pied piper leading a row of equally cautious cars.

It was a stressful visit but one full of learning experiences, in fact, I have not quite determined all of the lessons the universe decided to bestow upon me. My grandmother got discharged from the hospital the yesterday and we decided that until a suitable retirement/nursing home can be found we are going to get extra care to help her out in her apartment. She is not ill enough for a tradition long term care facility but clearly not quite able to manage on her own for much longer. I left feeling as worried about my mother who confessed that she felt very overwhelmed and was glad I came down just to help out and be a sounding board. Two of my old friends offered to check in on my grandmother on a regular basis. One friend surprised me by being very unavailable, she is resuming her art career and clearly saw me as a distraction. When I was younger, this would have angered or hurt me. I simply accepted that she chose not to see me and move on. Knowing I had an on line home full of kind people who were sending good vibes my way helped tremendously. It could have been much worse.

My aunt and uncle, who are very unstable, called demanding that we let grandmother move in with them. My grandmother rolled her eyes and said she would rather live in the worst nursing home on the planet. Three days later my uncle called again to announce that he was leaving my aunt and that he was drowning. My mother and I rolled our eyes.

I took some random shots of the area around my mother’s place with “ye old back up camera”, not my best stuff and I am firmly blaming the camera….

Oddly enough, it being winter in Southern Ontario, we had snow…

Long shot of my mother’s place from the road. We won’t even have the discussion about the fact that my 68 year old mother lives in an isolated rural area on 65 acres….

Pre-snow at my mother’s place….

I suppose this is a minor point in the grand scheme of things, but do you remember Karen Hughes?  A Bush friend from his time as governor, she worked as counselor to the President in 2001 and 2002.  In 2005 Bush rehired her as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy.  

Bush’s idea was that Hughes would go around the world as a one-woman PR-circus for the Bush administration.  He thought, or seemed to think, that the main cause of negative world opinions of US policy was not US policy itself but the bad spin it got on, well, planet Earth.

Bev Harris has caused a lot of harm and dissension in the voting rights community, so much so that I long ago wrote her off as an agent provocateur or mentally ill. But this latest documentation of hers from New Hampshire is hard to ignore, so with some trepidation, here it is.

Notice at the very end an open box of “extra” SecState seals and notice how easily they are removed after being applied. That is Secretary of State, Bill Gardner in the video with the vacant look on his face.

What the fuck?!

BlackBoxVoting and Bev Harris’ photo essay on ballot boxes, transportation and storage.

BradBlog for a complete description and explanation of events so far.