Holy Buck, Fatman!

I opened up my electric bill and it was $1,300.

I shit you not.

BG$E are pretty much demanding everything short of our first born these days and some asshole Senator tells me i’m a “WHINER?!?!?!?!”

You bet your ASS I’m whining.

When deregulation was championed as the sure fire way to increase competition and lower prices, it was accepted as the best thing to happen since sliced bread. Everyone was on board!  The prospect of consumer choice sounded as cool as comparing cool appliances while remodeling your kitchen.

However, it’s been proven to be a disastrous failure except, of course, for Constellation Energy, Baltimore’s own Enron. Prices have done nothing but go up up up. Competition? Right. I might be able to “Choose a provider” but I’m still paying BG$E a “Delivery charge”. Competition my ass. It isn’t competition when you can’t opt out of paying a company you’re not happy with.The people at the top of the mountain can’t seem to understand what is wrong with everyone else. They’re doing just fine.

Gramm’s Comments were indicative of his severe disconnect with the “regular folk” who make up a rather large majority of the US. Gramm Co-Sponsored a bill called the Commodity Futures Modification Act of 2000, often referred to as the “Enron Loophole”. Now i’m totally speculating, but I bet you his friends cashed their stake in Enron before Dec of 2001….or…am I?

Gramm, in edition to advising McCain on economic issues, also sits as the Vice Chairman to UBS bank, who has substantial exposure to Big Shitpile along with a myriad of other issues.

Now, there is serious discussion that taxpayers (That’s you & I) will possibly be bearing the burden of taking on the largely unregulated gambles that these companies participated in. In their minds, we were the ones at fault anyhow. from the WaPo:

Amid increased speculation that the companies might require a federal bailout or other changes that could undermine the value of their publicly traded stock, Paulson issued a statement saying that “our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form” — a remark that seemed to downplay the likelihood of any imminent government intervention.

Paulson briefed President Bush on the issue this morning and later Bush told reporters, “Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are very important institutions. . . . He assured me that he and [Federal Reserve Chairman] Ben Bernanke will be working on this issue very hard.”

A staunch free market anti regulation anti tax champion believes wholeheartedly that everything bad happens to people because they make poor financial choices. It is the fault of the over burdened homeowner who bought a house they couldn’t afford. Because of that, banks are failing. They primarily believe that despite the strong push towards an “ownership society” some people just had no business even applying for loans to buy  homes at horrible bubble prices.  No one forced them to get the loans, they did it to themselves.

What they don’t understand is how the pressure to be included within that ownership society had fueled the desires of a working class couple to start saying, “Well, that flyer I just recieved in the mail says my payment will only be 500$ on a 250K loan!”  The stigma of being a renter pushed that young, recently married couple to say, “Look, honey, we can afford a payment of 1500$ monthly, it’s the same as our rent!” The desire to close deals and take home huge commissions fueled brokers to push creative financing and HELOCS as solutions to higher then usual debt to income ratios.

Irrational exhuberance and the desire to consume under the guise of wealth drove  RE speculators, big wall street investors  and consumers to making silly financial choices based on many telling them, “Housing will always gain in equity. You can bet your retirement on it!”

Yet, to people like John McCain and Phil Gramm, it’s always going to be our fault.

Do you REALLY need that new gadget even when the one you already works perfectly fine?  Unless, the real reason you’re buying it is to keep that cool hipster image from slipping…..

I know more about economics then you do. If you want, I’ll be your adviser after you fire Phil Gramm.

On second thought, nahhhh. I’d rather see you sink in a sea of misunderstanding, ignorance and elitism.

Love,

The Holy Fatman.

As a regular, lurking reader of Feministe, I was saddened by the News of Domestic Violence advocate Jana Mackey, who was tragically murdered by her abusive Boyfriend. What was worse were the comments. It’s clear that people are still need to be educated on what happens when a “remarkable girl” gets mixed up in an abusive relationship.

Those asking why Jana Mackey got mixed up with the likes of this Adolfo Garcia-Nunez have little understanding on what actually happens in an abusive relationship. It’s not surprising to me as the first nationwide  dicussion on the issue started going mainstream in 1994, when Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered. It was that year, while watching the news, that I realized my own relationship was abusive. It would be years until I actually left, though.

At age 18, I met a guy. After awkward teen years, it was exciting that a guy was interested in ME! woohoo! He called me every day, sometimes twice. I felt admired and soon, loved. I went off to college and he followed. We moved in together. We started playing house. We eventually got married.  When I invited friends over to hang out, I couldn’t understand why he would be so angry with me. I didn’t know that going to class and not coming home immediately after was wrong. I didn’t know that my family was all against us being together and they wanted to destroy us! I didn’t know that when he grabbed me and pushed me that was assault.  he was always so very sorry and promised to never do it again.  He would lavish me with attention, take me out to dinner and proclaim I was the light of his life. Other times I was worthless, ugly, stupid and I was lucky to have him.  It wasn’t long until he shaped my personality to his liking. If I veered away from it, I was reprimanded phyiscally. The cops in one small sourthern town told me “It was not their policy to get involved in domestic disputes” when I called for help.   Soon after, he completed his transformation by convincing me to move to a different state. It wasn’t until I met other women who had similar experiences that I finally realized what was happening, and I left. I didn’t look back, I ran. I returned home to my family with simply the clothes on my back, two cats and a child. Three years of the nightmare was over and the healing could begin.

The friends I did have didn’t know anything. My family, although suspicious, didn’t understand. I was constantly asked “Why?” and  told “He was a Creep and we told you before hand!” Others would chastise me and say, “If a man hit me, I would knee him in the balls and leave!” None of them could fathom the cycle, they could only wonder why I stayed.

While I was bomarded by these attitudes, I was faced with another battle. I was still terrified of my ex and he knew it. He could say certain things, do certain things and hold it over my head until I complied. After years of this constant abuse, I filed my first restraining order against him. The judge denied it. It wasn’t enough that he was simply threatening me, I needed more proof that he was headed towards physical violence. My word just wasn’t enough. They never even bothered to look up his past.

Discouraged, I still let him call the shots with visitation and child support. I wasn’t going to fight anymore. I was too scared. He still had a hold over me and though I had been divorced for nearly six years, no one knew that I was still looking over my shoulder.

It was refreshing to gain a backbone. When I did, I had a 6′ man with a football player build standing behind me. I confronted my ex about stories I had heard from my daughter. He replied in a nasty manner and my guy said, “This is where you need to sit down and SHUT UP!”  that was the only exchange the two ever had. It turned out that my ex was TERRIFED of my new guy. I decided the stories my daughter was telling and her physical ailments that happened when she had to visit him were too dangerous. I filed a restraining order on her behalf. It stuck this time and I lawyered up. I fought back, proved abuse against my daughter and won. He was told to seek counseling for a period of six months and visitation would resume under supervision. Instead of doing that, he iply decided to “go away”. That didn’t matter, I was still looking over my shoulder.

Being free of him and marrying a loving, wonderful man is awesome. However, he had to deal with the effects of Domestic Violence at the begining of our relationship.  I would have panic attacks in stores I used to shop with my ex, panicked that I might run into him. I would refuse to go to certain stores, towns or even listen to certain music beause it invoked images of my past with him. I feared that he would come after me sometimes. As time went on, the fear subsided. Sometimes I would be contacted y his sister through myspace. It would only make the fear bubble to the surface. I knew his rage well. What would happen if he came around the corner with a gun? Could that happen? It could…I was still looking over my shoulder, although less frequently. It wasn’t until I found out beyond a shawdow of a doubt that he had moved across the country that I stopped completely.

When I read about what Happened to Jana, I didn’t ask what was she doing with such a creep?!?  I knew exactly what happened. She ended it and he simply didn’t see it that way. He waited until she wasn’t looking over her shoulder.

We lose many women who sturggle to get away from their abusers this way. The whole “How does a smart women get mixed up with such creeps?” is indicative of ignorance on what Domestic Violence actully is. The discussion about DV and what it does to victims needs to continue and, in some cases, get louder.  We need more laws that extend past marriage and sexual orientation like the new law in New York.

Few survivors speak out and I can understand why. The fear that speaking out will lead to your former abuser to you is very very real. However, we have wonderful advocates and passionate lawmakers who are keeping the fight alive. The tradgey against Jana will inspire ore hard work and hopefully, better protection laws. We don’t want to look over our shoulders any more.

“I want to talk about other bankers, not  the World Bankers, but bankers in general. My suspicion is their not getting a lot of sex because they spend a lot of time screwing the poor” –Dr. Paul Farmer in response to a World Banker  at an HIV/AIDS conference who stated that Africans just needed to curb their sexual appetites. (From Mountains Beyond Mountains–get the book & read, people.) Looking for a worth while charity? Donate here.

“Did they stake the bastard before they buried its corpse?”–Commenter on Sadly, No! reacting to the death of racist Jesse Helms.

“We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they’re 5, or 6, or 7 than when they’re 46, like me.” Sen. Barack Obama, Discussing Immigration and the whole “Make them Learn English!” meme.

awesome

The last few days have been rather interesting on the blue side of the Blogosphere. Many aren’t quite happy with what Senator Obama has said on several issues, notably, late term Abortion, FISA , Faith Based organizations and myriad  of other “centrist” positions that Obama has taken since he clinched the nomination. The left side is Fuming. It’s pretty well known that I lean rather left. If I had a wingnut troll, I would probably be called a communist on a regular basis. My leftist views doesn’t discount Obama as my candidate of choice, though. I don’t believe that he will save this nation, either.He’s a human being who is just as fallible as myself.  The fact remains that Obama embodies most of my core political beliefes. He is free to change his mind, state an opinion that may differ from ine slighty or even totally. I’m still going to vote for him in Nov.

For the last 12 years Democrats have lived with a party that refuses to compromise on most issues. We have dealt with the “My way or the highway” crap even more so after Bushwhacko was elected. The ideological divide is the largest that I have ever witnessed. It’s going to take someone a  lot of work to bridge the divide. Obama proved previously that he was able to garner support for issues on both sides of the fence while he was a State Senator.  He believed in the issue at hand and was actually open to changing his mind, mending his original ideology to get the job done. Cool. That takes a certain amount of honesty to admit that your inital review of the issue athand might not work for a large group of people, so a compromise may have to be drawn up.

Woah! Compromise! WOAH!

Lefties who are decrying stuff  that Obama has said that *ISN”T* explicitly PROGRESSIVE have forgotten that a country that just applies it’s single beliefe system disenfranchises an entire population of people.(uhhh, wer have been disenfranchised for well over a decade!)  Roughly 45% of people who identifiy with both ultra conservative and centerist views make up this country. We still need to listen and we still need to come to a compromise. We need a president that will offer the same olive branch.

Both sides have wing nuts. Both sides have people who simply refuse to budge on their  demands. Both sides have their reasons for this. We allow them a platform to voice these views however awful they might be. What we should NOT be doing is allowing anyone to stop someone else from voicing their opinion. It’s shitty, but I don’t have to listen to people who refuse to have intelligent conversations and discuss ways to bridge this divide. Sometimes I see this country as the College Campus in the movie PCU. Every group wants to tell everyone else that their doing something wrong. Every group simply wants to stop the fun. That is, until, someone comes along and says, Fuck this, we are having a party and everyone will just learn to get along—even for a night. They might LEARN something about themselves and others. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Maybe P-Funk could play the Inaguration Ball……

Also, being a Politican is Hard work. Things that are said are often taken out of context and the way information is non stop these days, it’s easy to be caught in some kind of weird 21st century version of “telephone”.  Hrmm…I even think the Blogosphere is a form of telephone.

I do not expect the perfect presidential candidate. I expect to elect someone who is intelligent enough to take the time to listen to both arguments on an issue, research it , offer an opinion and fight for the things that aren’t worth compromising over.

Things that are currently driving me nuts:

1. The use of the word “Green” to describe conservation and “Locavore” UUUHG! While there is nothing wrong with either of these practices, the words used to describe them are totally annoying.

2. DC during the summer. Nothing goes on in the Fishbowl in the summer. yes, Congress is in session, but nothing too meaty on the schedule. Most of K Street is currently on vacation. (well, with exception of the Senate FISA Debate)

3. Humidity

4. Having NOTHING to do at work. I’m sitting here, wasting space, just trying to look busy. I had nearly three weeks of uninterrupted productivity and now…now…I ain’t got SHIT to do.

…But Fear itself?

Perhaps.

I was watching “Charlie Wilson’s War” the other night with Mister Fatman. The story of the covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan always struck me as interesting. What did strike me as weird was the fear we had of communism. Fear of an economic system? the mid boggles, but that is another discussion for another day.

I remember in the 80’s the paraliyzing fear I had of Nuclear war. Prenitz forget me not (yeah.,.Raygun) kept the constant fear of the red phone, red button and ICBM clearly ingrained in my 10 year old mind. I was terrified of Nuclear War and would even have nightmares about it. When Red Dawn came out, I vowed to fight back, too. (Wolverines!)

As I got older, I started to have a strong desire to visit Russia. I wanted to see if there was a kid on the other side who was just as afraid of us as I was of them. When the Berlin wall fell I remember saying, “Well, I guess Russia isn’t far behind” and sure enough, it wasn’t. After it became “Russia” and not the USSR, I specifically asked my US studies teacher “Who are we going to be afraid of now?”

Well, the 90’s had no clear boogie man. Unless, of course, you count the Cleanis. I mean…Republicans were terrified of the cleanis! After that whole debacle, we still had  no clear boogie man.

Until, of course, 9/11.

The fear of Mooslims has really gotten out of hand. I know now that the desire to destroy them stems from a complete misinterpretation and misrepresentation by those who are invested heavily in your healthy fear of brown people who aren’t *GASP* Christians! They play off this fear and appeal to the deepest racism that lives in even those who claim that they are NOT RACISTS!!! (I mean, they have a black friend and an asian friend, Right?)

This fear has started to manifest itself even more frequently. The “Obama is a mooslim because his middle name is Hussein” being the craziest. The irrational fear of someone other than a rich white man being in charge of this country has taken hold those who swear it’s not because he’s *GASP* a black man, it’s because his Dad was a Mooslim. These are the same people who state that his Christian pastor was uncool, but yet…he’s a mooslim and will kill babies, dammit. Because, you know, Mooslims eat babies for breakfast.

That, of course, is the most extreme example of wingnut fear. Lesser examples aren’t out of their own fear, but the desire to perpetuate the fear of the Brown man so they can continue to wage war against them and profit from it. Questioning Obama’s patriotism and commitment  to war, for example.

There are far too many examples out there to back track on chronicalling it. I’ve decided, however, to start highlighting this and making people aware that their fear has consumed them. Most of them are hopeless cases, though.

*Any similarities to persons living or dead are PURELY coincidental.

Candidate: I’m a former Constitutional Law professor. This particular bill all but disintegrates the rights of the ordinary citizen from unwarranted search and seizure.

Candidate’s closest advisor: Yes, we know. But, listen…taking the compromise path will win over the moderates and help you win the presidency. They’re attacking you and your family and their meme’s will sink you. Take my advice, you need to be careful right now. The fear factor is getting to the southern moderates.

Candidate: I just…don’t think this is a good idea. what about my most srdent supporters? they could turn….

Candidate’s closest advisor: No, they won’t. They’ll be mad, but this is the best way to beat the other guy who will attack you for being “too liberal”. This is a way, excuse me, to pander to the moderate right. We can make sweeping changes when you win the office of the president. Trust me…The smartest of your supporters will understand. What wee need to do is take away the spotlight on this and change the conversation. Perhaps stalling the vote. Lets see if we can get support for at least that.

Candidate: I suppose you’re right. The only way we can restore the constitution is if I win. I have to win. This country needs someone who will have the balls to do this.

Candidates closest advisor: yeah. Now we’re talking. Let’s move on to the party at hand.

Candidate: We need to mend this division.

I support my friends in the GLBT comunity this past Sat for our church by marching in the Baltimore Pride Parade. (yes, The Holy Fatman actually attends a church—that supports INCLUSION OF EVERYONE!!!)

Photos were taken by the my very talented friend WM.