I continue to hear a phrase from various politicians being interviewed by various news analysts about what “the American people want”. No one has asked me what I want. I am an American people. And I don’t at all want what they say I do. What I want is for the Tea Party to drink the Kool Aid. I don’t think I am asking a lot.

I heard a podcast recently with Terry Gross of NPR interviewing a writer who has analyzed the mortgage foreclosure mess and her tale is horrendous. In Florida, a crew of retired judges has been hired to oversee the paperwork, and their mandate was to clear 62 percent of the cases in a year, so their solution is to rubber stamp whatever the banks tell them. Paperwork that is missing and could exonerate a default is not a reason to delay a decision. People who are not in default, are losing their homes through gross mismanagement by lenders and the judges are supporting the banks in order to clear the cases. Signatures that don’t match are not questioned; notaries who attest to an affidavit in another part of the state and have never met the applicant are not called to task. The list goes on.

I spoke with my friend/tailor today and she said she hadn’t voted and wasn’t planning on it because she didn’t have any opinions. I thought we’d been through that. She feels overwhelmed and her solution is to go into some kind of emotional cocoon and ignore the world. I took her to task and told her I was on my way over with a sample ballot. I have also synthesized the 4 amendments up for a vote into English and printed that out separately. The legal language used to explain referendums on ballots is a disaster. Say what you mean, twits. I don’t know if my urging will help, but I’m going to try. Ed and I voted a week ago.

Ed is off to an Ombudsman meeting that takes place the first Tuesday of every month. He wasn’t going to go. He was. He wasn’t. He had paper work to do on his cases and had been avoiding that. Get me up at 5:30 a.m. he said (because I am his alarm clock) and I’ll do the paper work. But then he didn’t get up. And then he did. My head is spinning. Anyway, he must have done enough of it to count, because off he went.

Meanwhile, I had to make the coffee so I didn’t stretch and now it is almost noon and I am sitting here writing this post.

Also, I would have written a bit about the actual Halloween festivities but no one who took pix has E mailed me the photos and that is disappointing. Still to come if any of you care at that point.

Stan, the art teacher who taught the class last year, is supposed to be back, officially on Nov. 1, but he hasn’t showed up yet. He has been diagnosed and has a bad prognosis, but is determined to teach the class, the first one being this coming Saturday. So, circumstances being what they are, I will show up, although, honestly, I’d just as soon have my Saturdays to myself.

A final word, for Susil. Haley Barbour was a guest on Morning Joe (MSNBC) this morning. He said that even if the Republicans got the majority that "the president still sets the agenda" which was his oblique way of covering Republican ass, because the translation is: no matter what we do to screw things up, it will still be Obama's fault. I wrote Joe Scarborough, the host, about this. In case none of you have seen a visual of Barbour, he is a real tub of lard.


xx, Teal