Remember?  Perhaps not ... that's okay, too.  I've been away awhile.  I'm back to say goodbye, I guess - and that I've appreciated every voice I've read.  Then again, most of us can say that if we're honest about it. 

No particular point to this little last minute addition to the good old days before they're gone.  Well ... maybe one ...

Thank you all for rocking my world.  For turning it upside-down and sideways when I needed it the most.  For helping me to remember how big the world can be when we open our eyes.  For caring enough to argue, fuss, fume, flame and love.  Last, a very special thanks to TPM for introducing me to the man of my dreams. 

I'm not going far, so I'll see you on the flip side.

As I've spent my evening alone, I've also taken a trip down memory lane.  The cool thing about blogging is that it's in writing - and archived.  It's also the best reason to often hope that noone ever reads your archived words.  Good grief, how embarrassing!

Yet I hit upon a thread that began my nightly posts, or at least my idea.  I don't know where Cricket is now - but I miss her.  Is there such a thing as a mentor when you're a new blogger?  I think so.  And among others, she was mine. 

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/07/who-made-a-difference-in-your.php#comments

Aunt Sam, California Paige, LisB, Quinn Esq, Aubie84, Desidero, The Old Grouch, Chino Blanco and many others.  Many reasons.  All appreciated.  More than they will ever know.

Doing it again?  Turning on the porch light?  I don't know.  But I know I miss the Cafe interaction with politics thrown out the proverbial window.  The later (sometimes simply late) night conversations that were never meant to be recommended.  Never meant to see the light of day beyond the dawn, allowed to rest when we did.  Being a part of it was special - especially for me.  We talked for hours and then we said goodnight ... the rule about no recs was for a reason.  If you were in my living room you were part of a gentle and open conversation, why share it with others when we were through? 

We met every night.  Sometimes just the regular crowd bringing food, drinks and fun - sometimes folks we didn't know wandered in for conversation, comfort and relaxation.  Everyone welcomed, everyone embraced.  Including our four-legged friends!  It was easy.

Now?  Like I said, I don't know.  Lots of new folks in the neighborhood who may not "get" the vibe.  I miss many of the ones who did.

If I never write another word on TPM, I will treasure our nights together.  Cheap Zin, soft sofa, ugly blue chair, bean bag and a really scary frig.  Memories of Sox in the corner snoring.  Most of all - us.  Always.

Can you recreate magic?  

Is Arizona different than the rest of the country?  Hold on a second before you answer.  I mean - are their jails not crowded already?  Is their economy not crippled enough?  I can't help but wonder what they plan to do with these people they contain.  After all ... if it works as they seem to hope they'll be taking all sorts of criminals off the streets.  And putting them - where?  For how long until the Feds wander along to deport them?  Paperwork, taxpayer money to do so, taxpayer money to keep them in jail 'til the taxpayers buy them a plane ticket.  One way.  For now (wink).  The whole thing seems really short-sighted to me.

But it's odd.  I've got all sorts of tabs open with information about Arizona prison issues and US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE).  Then I found something essential to the message:  Arizona Senate Bill 1070.  Pdf format.  While reading through it, with the intent to find parts to blockquote, I was astounded.  Truly.  And almost brought to tears.  Is this my country?

So rather than blockquote, cut and paste, offer opinion or argue a fact .. I thought I'd let 1070 stand on its own.  It's a surprisingly simple read, really.  But it is anything but easy.

 http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf

**Update** -

The Arizona agency tasked with training 15,000 law officers to enforce the state's controversial new illegal immigration law has asked federal authorities for assistance, but administration officials say it is unclear whether the government will help.

Lyle Mann, executive director of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, says federal assistance is "critical" to what he describes as an unprecedented effort to prepare officers as soon as this summer to enforce the law, which gives local police authority to identify and arrest illegal immigrants.

It's just too perfect.

Butcha know what, y'all?  If ya squint just right and look a fur bit back ... you might be surprised. 

The term "redneck" was also used in The West Virginia Coal Miners March (1921) or the Battle of Blair Mountain when the coal miners wore red bandannas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize. There was no derogatory implication.  -Wiki

Wait - whaat?  Rednecks fighting for something other than the right to marry their cuzzin?  Nah.  Somebody's lyin' their damn fool head off.

The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest organized armed uprising in United States labor history and led almost directly to the labor laws currently in effect in the United States. For nearly a week in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted company-paid private detectives in an effort to unionize the southwestern West Virginia mine counties. Unionization had succeeded elsewhere as part of a demographic boom that was triggered by the extension of the railroad and was characterized by unprecedented immigrant hiring in the region.  - Wiki

Sid Hatfield.  Yep, one of those Hatfields, was the police chief in Matewan, WV when unionizing was taking place through other parts of the country.  He liked the idea, seeing as how the miners weren't exactly getting the Royal treatment at the time.  Now, he wasn't an easy man.  He'd killed a few in his time and noone ever likely called him a sweetie, 'cept maybe his wife.  Anyways, he and the Mayor, along with a few deputies and townsfolk, shot and killed the thugs described as a "private detective agency" - basically legal gunslingers who either killed ya for sayin Union or threw you out of your company paid-for house.  May, 1920. These hired guns were feared everywhere they showed up, which was often and everywhere round those parts.  Well, damned if he and his friends didn't demand they lay down their guns - right in the middle of the road when they marched into town.  Your law?  I'm the law here.  Fun ensued and the Mayor along with a deputy were killed.  What slingers weren't were put in the Matewan jail.

Most heros don't live long.  Ever notice?  Called into court for murder (the private detectives were legally s'pposed to kill, his folks weren't), showed up unarmed which 'natch led to no good.  No good t'all.

Though tensions had been simmering for years, the immediate catalyst for the uprising was the unpunished murder of Sid Hatfield on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse on August 1, 1921. Hatfield, the police chief of Matewan, was murdered by agents of the Baldwin-Felts private detective agency. He had been a long-time supporter of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and their efforts to unionize the mines.  -Wiki

So much for that.  No?

 That's Fearless Bill Blizzard.

William H. "Bill" Blizzard (September 19, 1892 - 1958) was a union organizer, a commander of the miners' army during the Battle of Blair Mountain, and president of District 17 of the United Mine Workers. Blizzard is most remembered for his role in the Battle of Blair Mountain, leading the miners against the forces of Logan County sheriff Don Chafin. For his leadership role in the battle, Blizzard was charged with treason, but was acquitted at his trial on these charges. From that time forward, he remained an important leader within the UMW and organized labor.  -Wiki

Ain't it good when somebody else picks up the sword?  Or the gun, whatever.  But they weren't bloodthirsty animals, those rednecks.

The first skirmishes occurred on the morning of August 25. The bulk of the miners were still 15 miles away. The following day, President Warren Harding threatened to send in federal troops and Army Martin MB-1 bombers. After a long meeting in the town of Madison, the seat of Boone County, agreements were made convincing the miners to return home.  -Wiki

But don't mess with their families.

After spending days to assemble his private army, Chafin was not going to be denied his battle to end union attempts at organizing Logan County coal mines. Within hours of the Madison decision, reports came in that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, West Virginia just north of Blair Mountain -- and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes. Infuriated, the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain, many traveling in other stolen and commandeered trains.  -Wiki

A bloody battle was waged on Blair Mountain.  In West-by-God-Virginia in the year of our Lord 1921.  Reports are that Chafin's side lost up to 30 people, the pro-union miners?  50-100.  Go figure.

Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners. On orders from the famous General Billy Mitchell, Army bombers from Maryland were also used to disperse the miners, a rare example of Air Power being used by the federal government against US citizens. A combination of gas and explosive bombs left over from the fighting in World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. At least one did not explode and was recovered by the miners; it was used months later to great effect during treason and murder trials following the battle.  -Wiki

And now it's history.  Or is it? 

So do a hillbilly a favor the next time you make a redneck joke.  Don't.  Honor is as honor does, and those rednecks - with not much more than strength, will and fortitude - wore that badge of courage proudly.

My goodness gracious me.  Who was that calling my name?  Did I hear that or was it just an echo of time that won't let me go?  Maybe I should question the statement and walk away as the ones who follow flit and twirl around me in the evening breeze.  Or maybe it's me chasing the light into the shadows.  I constantly confuse the two even as I don't quite understand what it is that confuses and conflates me.  My face is cracking.  Am I smiling?

I'm going somewhere with someone I don't know even as I trust them to lead me.  It is not fair nor reasonable to wonder why I do this unfamiliar act; walk this road that covers my feet with grass stains and pebbles.  Footsteps trod by many, yet strange and blank in their trail.  I've a vague memory as I search the horizon for something I've known before .. yet will never grasp again.  It is a mirage that makes me want to smile.

I saw you with me, leading and following as the moments slipped away into nothingness.  I watched you fly - unfolding wings of senselessness until you could soar on waves of solitude - while I ran on fields of grain below you.  I felt your blush as you were naked and knew your insincerity as you made promises never to be kept. 

In the end, as I awoke ... I saw you smiling.  And I found myself smiling, too.  How nice to let dreams hold what we cannot remember.           

As circumstances and luck would have it, I had the opportunity to take a short, four hour (driving time) round-trip with him recently to the big city of Turkey, NC. Our first big-rig ride together - and it was too cool. We took off in the wee hours with a bit of a time constraint, since I had to be back for work later that afternoon and he had to get back on the road. For likely six weeks.

The seats are bouncy! It feels like you're on the highway with ant cars and all the knobs, buttons and toggle switches are there to protect the tiny people. Switching all those gears is an art form ... I thought learning to shift four, plus reverse, at sixteen in a Subaru was rough. Remember all of that the next time you're close to a semi - they really don't want to flatten you, but they can. And they're not all jerks hogging the highway. Although he'd be the first to tell you that many are just that.

There's Turkey! Don't blink. There's a canning factory there and his load was vegetables. Lots and lots of canned veggies to eventually make their way to TN. Awesome. They were having a busy morning, and he was told it would likely be two hours before they could load the truck. While often expected, that is not a good thing in the life of a trucker. Time is everything. Hours count as they tick by.

So he parked among other waiting rigs and suggested we nap until he got the call. Recall that leaving in the wee hours thing? Long-haul trucks have berths just behind the cab, usually like bunk beds. Draw the curtain and it's really cozy. Oh! Before you get carried away - we tossed off our shoes but that was all - I said nap, didn't I? We snuggled and dozed together for over two hours. Turns out, heaven is a small berth in a big-rig parked in Turkey, NC.

Loading the Popeye brand spinach, etc. took awhile, too. More under the breath muttering for me to grin over while I made some coffee. Little four-cup coffee maker that plugs into the 12 volt cigarette lighter. An oddly domestic scene until I spilled most of it all over myself. 

On the road again. The closer to home we got the more our glances became longing and morose ... goodbye was on the way. I kept his hand in mine as long as I could, even gripping it as he shifted. He reached across to me and touched whenever possible. It had been a wonderful day, but it was coming to a close. There were no words.

Once home, I was trying to be brave and graceful. I proved it by promptly missing the second step getting out of the truck and falling on my ass. Jeans are especially attractive when covered in coffee and dirt. But since I only bruised my ego, it gave us both a much needed fit of laughter. Such is life, it seems.

I was late for work, he was gone. It's been three weeks. He's trying to get loads to CA to see his daughter for a few days before requesting to head back east. Home. It's likely to be a span of time before he gets here, but I'll wait. Every second spent with Michael is worth a year of patience. Hurry home, baby. Be safe.

Byron - your thoughts are simply grand, in my opinion.  If I have overstepped, please let me know and I will remove this post immediately.

Here is a piece I wrote Pre-Bush Jr. I glad to see that American Dad has basically filled it in with sources.

If Conservatives Had Their Way

We are, once again, hearing much these days about the so-called "Republican Revolution", but it's time to take their extremist ideas to their illogical conclusions. It seems to me, after years of listening to the rhetoric of the radical conservative right, that what they (the GOP leadership and also the Libertarian party) really want, their secret plan if you will and ultimate dream come true would be the dissolution of the United States government (remember all those government shutdowns?) and the creation, in its stead, of a country of isolationist baronial fiefdoms. These little kingdoms ("local control") would be ruled by the ultrarich 2% of society with the rest of the people that live within their boundaries as, more or less, servants to the landlords. This appears to have replaced their old wet dream of American world domination - at least for now (though there are still plenty of that old faction around as well). One need only listen to staunch conservatives to hear what they're saying. So what would life really be like if they had their way? The results of the elimination of taxes, government rules and regulations, those programs and agencies that so irk them and the promotion of absolute private property rights:

The end of environmental protections. The elimination of the endangered species act. Clean water/air acts gutted. Any conservation of land or wildlife is solely at the discretion of the individual landowners. Wholesale deforestation of woodlands, unbridled strip mining, dumping of toxic wastes becomes common. A rise in air pollution as slip-shod industries are erected willy-nilly and auto emissions laws are removed. Unrestricted development and use of pesticides and herbicides. End of federal labeling laws on food ingredients. All restrictions on genetic experimentation swept aside. An immediate halt on the development of alternative energies (only oil, gas, nuclear and coal are allowed). Abandonment of local growth control ordinances. The National Park system is abolished as all parks and Wilderness areas are auctioned off to the highest bidders. EPA, FDA, and Interior departments gone.

Labor laws erased (including those for protecting children). Worker's wages plummet (the minimum wage vanquished) at the same time that hours required to work a day doubles. Labor unions dissolved. Beatings of problem employees becomes prevalent. OSHA is dismantled.

Services like mail, fire protection, street maintenance and lighting, utilities, public schools and libraries, social security, state and federal consumer protection agencies, etc. are haphazard at best or disposed of entirely. Food stamps & school lunches for needy families are terminated. With taxes "cancelled", the great bulk of the monies previously allocated for these now go directly to the wealthy. Any returns to the lower classes are immediately confiscated by many landowners in the form of higher rents as rent control laws are obliterated. Those services that remain open can do so only at the sponsorship of business (or a few philanthropic individuals) and thus become their puppets.

The basic right to privacy as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights evaporates under a relentless assault by rightwing busybodies in government. Court orders are no longer required to tap telephones, read email or snail mail, or even to break into homes and search for evidence of anti-conservative thinking. Violators are prosecuted.

No longer are landlords obliged to repair the decaying houses of their tenants. As a result homes and communities degenerate, too expensive to fix.

Equal rights housing laws are repealed.

Nepotism, not the democratic vote (which has been done away with) becomes the method of placement for local officials. The two party system ceases. Corruption, without laws to oversee and enforce an equal distribution of justice, is rampant. Complaints fall on deaf ears with no recourse for appeal. Fair trials for accused are replaced by vigilantism and kangaroo courts. The death penalty is imposed for minor offenses. The President, Congress and Supreme Court are replaced with a "king".

The lack of uniform safety regulations for airplanes, trains and other means of transport, hospitals, public and private buildings, nuclear power plants, household appliances, etc. etc. lead to many disasters. Government attorneys, which now protect the publics interest from corporate fraud, go the way of the Dodo. In a David vs Goliath scenario, the onus for proof of safety is now on the shoulders of the individual which may or (more than likely) may not have the wherewithal to combat large corporations. Safety becomes an after-the-fact proposition (after needless suffering and death), dependant on winning lawsuits, since front-end regulations disappear.

Prices for food and merchandise skyrocket without competition. Quality of food and other goods decrease. Lawsuits for dangerous products are disallowed. Suits against big tobacco are thrown out.

Those schools that do remain open teach not factually responsible and universally accepted scholasticism, but each their own pet beliefs mixed with a powerful emphasis on duty to business/industry, the church and the landlord. A generous dose of corporal punishment keeps any deviants in line. The shelves of libraries and bookstores are drastically reduced as banned books are replaced with only a limited amount of "authorized reading".

Freedom of the press is curtailed since all literature must now pass through a strictly conservative "Values Committee before publication. News reports, whether paper, television or radio, that are viewed as anti-business or anti-church are forbidden. Only "wholesome", non-controversial programming is allowed.

All are required to attend the only approved religious services every Sunday, that being a strict fundamentalist Christian church. If you miss you can expect a visit from the Council of Investigations.

Scientific study that might contradict The Church's doctrines is prohibited and punishable by fines and imprisonment (or worse) for those who persist. Fear, superstition and witch-hunts are the order of the day.

Women are made to learn their proper roles as the servants of men. Equal opportunity laws are invalidated.

Any and all firearms/explosives regulations are shot down. High-powered guns etc. proliferate eventually endangering the oppressive wealthy which must then create ad/hoc rules removing them from the hands of the poor . Wars for the sake of wars, to keep restless young men occupied are arranged. Both civil wars and wars with Canada and Mexico (which fall prey to frequent pillaging raids). As a whole the "nation" without a central organized military, is considerably weakened and susceptible to hostile outside forces. The control of nuclear weapons becomes unstable. The new police, street thugs, desperate for money, are hired by the barons to harass and eliminate any that might protest or foment an uprising.

Groups and individuals that don't properly fit the W.A.S.P. model are "reconditioned". Virulent bigotry now becomes an openly accepted "traditional value". Martin Luther King Day and other non-white holidays are cancelled. Any and all remaining treaties with Native Americans are invalidated. The confederate flag is officially raised in many southern kingdoms.

The mass of new rules within kingdoms creates a conflicting chaos of standards between kingdoms, a new source of friction. Toll fees and "papers" are required to pass from kingdom to kingdom.

The ranks of the beggar class swell enormously; at the same time the rich expand their stores, enjoy their parties and operas and become boredly depraved.

Sound familiar? To students of history, yes. This is much the way governments and societies were shaped in the middle ages (and in lots of present day corrupt, oppressive, fascist-style systems). A time of horrific abuses of the many by the spoiled, greedy, privileged few. This method of lawless "local control" has already been tried and it was a ruinous failure.

It's the wolf guarding the henhouse. Yet it seems that the Republicans still dreamily look back to the good ol' days. Worse still, they've also, sadly, been successful in flimflamming many Americans into voting against their own best interests with a lot of hysterical nonsense about "big government". Witness, for example, the fate of President Clinton's health care bill (let alone even discussing universal health care in an open, public forum). How many of those rank and file who screamed about it could afford to spend even one day in the hospital let alone a week or a month if they had to? Ironically while they agonize over a new tax dollar here or there, they defend the right of the health care industry to charge as much as they want (which they do), driving many into poverty. And lest some think I exaggerate, let me remind them that each of the points listed has, at one time or other, been advocated, some even vociferously championed by the right, and in fact before laws were made to curb these practices, each was commonplace.

This is NOT to say that all conservatives hold the attitudes described above. However, given the long history of meanness on the part of the Republican Party, I'd be highly suspicious of their claims of new found compassion in this election year.

Am I just a "Iibrul guvment hugger"? Far from it. On most issues I consider myself a middle-of-the-roader. There are things I definitely don't like about feds and the ultraleft. Improvements can and should be made. But a return to the dark ages is definitely not the answer.

If we were a country numbering only in the thousands or a few million evenly spread out (as the Native Americans were) there would probably be no need for laws and regulations as we would rarely, if ever, infringe on the lives of others and our collective impact on the environment would be minimal. But in a nation approaching 300 million, each with his/her own ideas and degrees of character, not to have rules would be foolhardy. Thus the call for their end is naive, juvenile, suspect. And besides, when this country was first created we decided then that we wanted to be united. Have we now decided that divided is to be preferred?

Until human nature and intelligence suddenly evolve for the better, laws, taxes and government will, unfortunately, continue to be necessary.

https://home.comcast.net/~professorplum/watch020.html

Those numbers, while certainly impressive, are not why I'm posting the link.  I'm urging all to take a second look for a few reasons:

1)  The comments are widely varied, and give an amazing glimpse into the Republican/Democratic mindset.

2)  While many of the responses are what you might expect, it is encouraging how many conservative Republicans have taken the time to give thoughtful and interesting viewpoints.

3)  It is clear that the blog has "gone viral", inasmuch that most of the voices have not been heard in the Cafe up until now.  That is a very, very good thing.

Congratulations, Mr. Russell King.  You have opened many minds ... even if you haven't changed any, the dialogue alone will bear fruit.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/a/m/americandad/2010/03/an-open-letter-to-conservative.php

Sounds strange?  Perhaps.  But I would rather be a member of a party that expresses its own free will, its own disagreements freely and openly than one that marches in steel boots.  Boots made for walking in lockstep over the American people.

Fuck that.  We argue, fuss and fight.  We raise our voices - but with respect for others, for they are we.  In the end ... we make a difference.  But what matters most is that we try.  We try.

Keep arguing, Democrats.  Great things will happen.   

What fun!  Haven't you always wanted to shock someone to death?  Oh, c'mon, be honest.  I can't possibly think of a better way to spend a Saturday night. 

Most of us, it seems, are willing to inflict extreme pain on others on the flimsiest of pretexts. That is the lamentable conclusion of a French television documentary shown last week in which members of the public, who believed they were taking part in a pilot for a new programme, tortured a man just to comply with the rules of the contest.

Heh.  And you thought the Tea Party folks were bad.  What's even funnier?  Seems we all just might be part of the crowd willing to do anything if told by our "leaders" we're supposed to - for our own good, of course.

This little French experiment isn't the first.  Is anything, really?  The original known test of the theory that people will willingly inflict pain with very little encouragement was put forth by Stanley Milgram in the early sixties. 

After Adolf Eichmann, one of the masterminds of the Nazi holocaust, stood trial in Israel in 1961, it reignited public debate about whether the German people were unusual in their willingness to renounce personal responsibility and participate in mass murder. Could it be that Eichmann and his millions of accomplices were just following orders?

Michael Portillo also participated in a documentary on the subject last year for the BBC.  Last year. 

Last year, for a BBC television documentary on violence, I helped recreate the Milgram experiment. I was sceptical that anyone in this day and age would fall for it. Surely British people in the 21st century, famously cynical about authority figures, would react quite differently from conformist Americans at the height of the Cold War.

How do you think those British folks did?

Seriously, the results exemplified by the Americans in the 60's, the British in 2009 and the French in 2010 are chilling.  There is little likelihood that other nationalities would escape the same net result.  

Perhaps we should be afraid of today's "teabaggers".  Very, very afraid.  For they may be us. 

Were we ever to find ourselves living under a totalitarian regime, place no faith in the mercy of your fellow citizens. Indeed, by the law of averages, place little faith in yourself.

If you have the stomach to confront it, here's the entire article by Michael Portillo:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/7488732/Would-you-torture-this-man.html 

Sometimes we listen when they christen us children.  Sometimes happily expanding the lies that they are landing as punches in the gut of man.  Because we can.  Sometimes it's easier to live our life pretending that the other's strife will never be ours ... for the hours between us and them are long.  Tomorrow's song being sung 'tis easy to forget the young that are not born today.  Sometimes we pray.

Sometimes we watch the news but it's easy to confuse the words they speak when we are weak and selfish.  Global warming?  Locusts swarming!  Climate change just sounds too strange when it's much more fun to be at one with no.  Sometimes we pay attention when the tension from our science affects our own reliance on the truth.  Our youth.  Sometimes we start to wonder if the plunder and the lies just might be why the skies seem full of fog.  Or smog.

Someday perhaps we'll rearrange and make a change that counts.  Someday as we confess that we recognize the mess we'll finally take the road that leads to yes.  Someday an insurgency created by the urgency will stand up and find a foothold in this world.  A flag unfurled.  Then another and another until underneath the cover of our choices we will give our children voices.  Life.

This is that day.    

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35566903/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/?ocid=twitter

Not much to add on my part, really.  Except that I wish the Olbermann family - and all Americans - a dream for better days ahead.

I miss his voice, I miss him.  This is one example of why ...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/m/r/mr_beebers/2008/11/fdr-at-roanoke-nc-august-18-19.php

Thanks for everything, Lux.