In Philadelphia

For the next four days, it will be nothing but museums, parties, seminars and sessions for me. Can't wait to see the Constitution Center later today and the Franklin tomorrow.. and sheesh, i forgot and left the camera in Steven's bag, so there'll only be photos like this one that i take with my mac (which means this is it.. aren't those skylights in my room tres cool?).

Weird Scenes from the GT CoA Centennial

In ATL

Finally. The view from our room:

The Best Thing I've Seen All Year

If you could use a smile, and haven't seen this elsewhere, have a look. What beauty there is in the world:



I'm walking to the video store to rent Mary Poppins, right now! I proclaim it Julie Andrews Spring Saturday!

Wow, WHAT Are We Going to Wear??

Steven i'm not sure my plan for matching hats and bowties of some lovely exotic drawing can top some of these things in the works:









This stuff is SOOOOO creative. How can i compete with something i have to schlepp on a goddamned carry-on?? Ai-yi-yiii!

Fake Newsclipping of the Day :: On Astroturf and Teabagging (!)

READ ALL ABOUT astroturfing ["Fake grassroots. It's what you get when big business and rich zealots hire pricey consultants to manufacture public outrage."], teabagging ["the practice of mailing actual tea bags to legislators has repeatedly raised security concerns, and sometimes forced the evacuation of congressional offices in anthrax-like scares."] and lots of other ridiculously homoerotic-sounding words in the media lately. All invented by the very-much-alive-and-kicking right wing machine, refueling itself like a vampire.

THIS piece about the stupid fake tea party lays bare the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of tomorrow's "protests."

Newsclipping of the Day :: Speak Loud, Speak Clear

HERE is a great piece from yesterday's Huffington Post, continuing to sound the bell to Democrats that they'd better get their collective act together. It's so true that they've allowed the Repulicans to brand themselves as well as the Democrats for just about all of my adult life. There are so many things they should be saying, and saying again, and again and again... such as:

"...the reality is that millions of Americans are out of work, and most hard working Americans have lost nearly half of their wealth, and many their homes, because of the way George W. Bush and the radical Republican ideologues who enabled him ran the government--and ran it into the ground. The reality is that we had a surplus when Bill Clinton left office, and the only reason President Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion deficit that now constrains him is that George W. Bush and the radical Republicans believed in handing out suitcases full of cash to their wealthy friends with no strings attached and no transparency. Personally, I think that bears saying, and I think it particularly bears saying every time those same Republicans preach fiscal discipline, heap scorn on government "bailouts" they both necessitated and engineered, or offer their quasi-religious answer of "the free market" to every problem the market has created or failed to solve, from the crisis in the housing industry and the lack of regulations on Wall Street that took down our economy (and the world economy along with it) to the fact that most working Americans are now afraid of changing jobs for fear of losing their health insurance. Republican politicians would certainly be a little less quick to step up to the microphone if they knew that every time they talked about fiscal discipline, a Democrat would be there to remind them that they were the ones who went on a 6-year spending spree with our children's money and then handed the better part of a trillion dollars out to Wall Street bankers and speculators, sacrificing the American taxpayer at the altar of their free-market extremism."

Oh Rachel!

How do i love thee? Let me count the ways, dear.

Tax Time

Tick tock tick tock tick tock

No "honest" mistakes will be made here. And let's hope you don't make any, this year, Secretary Geithner.

TREK Yourself!

Greetings, Earthlings.

Thanks for this, Curtis. Sweet!

Here's the generic one. Go here to create your own Star Trek Big Cheese:



Here is my result:

Using this picture. I did EXACTLY what they said not to do: Glasses on, mouth W I D E open. Hehehehe:

Thank You, Vermont Legislators

You are all friends, indeed. THIS is a sure sign of spring for gay equality.

Oh, and thank you Iowa Supreme Court also. Amazing

Sunday Paper

Do any of you read the paper? I mean, get the paper delivered and read it? I bet some of you get the paper daily. I've been reading online for years now, but would still occasionally walk down the street, mostly just on Sundays or days off, to buy the paper. Considering how many are evaporating right before our eyes, and the fact that i actually like the Dispatch, we decided to try it out for 10 weeks. It's nice to have a giant paper on your doorstep on Sunday morning. One of our local papers, the Athens Messenger, interviewed me and Gerry Thursday about my Ohio Statehouse project... but i can't access it online without "registering." Argggh. Oh well, i have a real copy of it.

I read THIS over at Will's blog this morning, and was really moved by the Linda's Ronstadt's remarks to Congress. I do have to say though, when things like Ronstadt's words are not in the Sunday Dispatch, how relevant is it? I mean, if this isn't news, what is?