(no subject)

Nicolas Kristof has a good Op-Ed article about poverty in America (NY times, reg req). For those who continue to advocate the destruction of the US's meager welfare system and applaud Bush's tax cut, remind them that under Bush our infant mortality rate has increased for the first time since 1958, the number of poor under Bush has risen 17 percent (after falling under Clinton's leadership), "the infant mortality rate in America's capital is twice as high as in China's capital", "an African-American baby in Washington has less chance of surviving its first year than a baby born in urban parts of the state of Kerala in India", and nationally, 29% of children had no health insurance in the past 12 months.

Sobering stats and insightful article.

Just wait till Medicare is restructured once again.

John Tierney's Op-Ed piece today discusses the disaster plans of coastal VA as well as the problems with Homeland Sec (reg req). Take home message --- the blame is all on Bush, but Homeland Security doesn't encourage (or easily allow) states to control their own disaster management programs. And DHS did approve LA's samaritan plan.

That's it. I'm going back to fanfic rather than news before I depress myself too much before work.

Huh...

well, just got a questionaire from fox about Prison Break. Was almost tempted to say that the bad thing about it was that it wasn't the Inside, but I resisted.

And yahell music still refuses to install, although I do at least get the initial install screen now, which is improvement I guess. Again, sent another nasty comment through the only thing that serves as a feedback link on yahell's link. If they don't get back to me today, they are soo gone. Might see if I can install at work though.

Would the response be different if terrorism was the cause?

This comment sums up my views pretty well. I've placed the pertinent passage from Mitsu's reply to one of the Bel Gravia dispatch's articles under the cut because it falls pretty far down after a lot of links:


( I've considered myself a socially libertarian, fiscally conservative republican, BUT  )

breakdown of sunday's news shows

Grabbed this from twistedchick
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20050904punditpap.html

Sadly, I missed CBS's (which is always my fave, I love Bob Schieffer. He has a great voice). But I did see some of ABC and a lot of Tim Russert.

Can I just ask one thing, has there every been a government official with a less trustworthy face than Chertoff? I mean, seriously. The guy looks like a halloween mask.

Also, Same-sex couples are second class citizens in regards to benefits from FEMA And this is what good Mr. Frist and Bush hope to make sure happens nationally.

And just when you think it can't get any worse, Bush to introduce plan to privatize FEMA Guess who he wants to hand it over to? Halliburton of course. Oh, and the press will not be allowed to take pictures of dead bodies. In fact, they won't be allowed w/in five miles of the areas where the bodies are collected. Guess we won't be getting any more reports from onsite at NO. if you look at the link, you may notice that there is some confusion as to if that is actual reality or a sarcastic post. It's scary to think that onion like articles could be confused with news

DO NOT USE CINGULAIR!!!!

Gods, the worst thing I ever did was switch to cingulair when my at&t contract ended earlier this year. I just found out that they somehow managed to stop my autopay for a second frigging time all of a sudden last month so now they are threatening to turn off my service.

I was too angry when I talked to the idiot customer service rep (not to mention not having my bill) to think straight. Especially when she said "well it doesn't show you having autopay on and I can't say why it went off". WTF!!!?>??

I'm going to get as many of the bills that I still actually have in my apartment and call them back tomorrow at work. And demand to speak to someone who can actually do something worth something because this is ridiculous.

Hell, at this point, I'd rather just pay the extra money to cancel my frelling contract. I'm so sick of them.

FEMA response slow in East Biloxi as well

48 Hrs is airing a segment on the recovery in Alabama and Mississipi. As of Friday, no FEMA offices had been set up and local churches were the only ones providing aid (supplemented by outside supplies from private organization as far away as Minneapolis and OXFam (sp??), an internation organization dedicated to helping citizens when the government response is too slow to international disasters). The state FEMA officer's explanation for the slow response: "The state's citizens are having a difficult time getting even gas right now. We don't want to move more people in and overtax the system."

The first FEMA registration office was set up today -- a town away from East Biloxi. The problem. Most of the victims from East Biloxi no longer have functional transportation.

I guess this is just yet another failure on the part of local governments, eh, Mr. Brown? Mr. Chertoff?

Moral of the story: Better have two weeks of supplies stocked up in case of any type of disaster.

(no subject)

twistedchick is inviting discussion about racism. Feel free to join in.

*pets the patient horde*

Heh...I'm surprised a protest hasn't been started on the lack of meta-crack. :) Guess we're all in too much shock as well as withdrawal.

Annnnnyways, I'm sure any day now the placards will show up again demanding progress on Twin Regrets. My muse has started batting ideas back to the hamsters of my brain and they've been going over it. Basically they are both waiting for me to get my act together and figure out that I need to start setting aside twenty minutes a day to write or something like that. ;) I'm getting there.

But....I know how patient you've been. I know how painful the wait has been....but I don't want to spoil anything by giving your a sneak peek at what's to come (especially since my muse daily has been considering tossing characters in and out of conversations. I keep waiting for Mal to end up dressed in Inara's clothing or somemthing).

Instead....I'll punish reward you with what I initially wrote when I started toying with the idea of a Farscape/Firefly crossover. It's rough...It's un-beta-ed...and it probably should never see the light of day. But for the horde, well, here you go:) Oh.....and you'll obviously see some imagery that my muse insisted I keep. I told you, froggy is an angst addict!

Ummm...reference wise, season3-ish (jool has joined the crew. Also post-Eat me. But not AU.) at least for farscape. end of series for firefly.

( Originally...in a land far away..involving talking heads )

---

And CUT!!!

Yeah, my muse had an idea...the hamsters didn't like it. So it sat for a couple of months before they agreed on the Twin Regrets venture. They both like that one. :)

*stuffs in ear plugs in case anyone actually liked the talking heads*

(no subject)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/6/164432/1346

My opinion of Dean as a leader rises daily.