Dean is first!

Thankful to mprov for creating this thread :-)

Thankful to Thankful for letting us know. 

Hey Donna! I'll be back in Chicago sometime next week, will let you know when I head back.

Sitka, I gotta' ask. Have you taken comedy lessons?

_________________

Howdy Thankful, donna and everyone else.

wow, this clock is needs winding.

OK here goes-- someone can repost it to the main thread if it ever changes

The Magic of Unlikely Friendships
Demfest 2007

Part I

What could possibly bring together a Floridian activist, an East Coast state representative a Midwest doctor’s wife and a New York subway singer? Answer; love of country and the inspiration of one man who taught them they could each make a difference.

I (the Midwest doctor’s wife) have never been to New Hampshire before so it was fun to go to another part of the country for Demfest 2007. People came in from all parts of the country in many ways but the airport was very assessable (and nice compared to dumpy O’hare) so I chose to fly. The facilities were perfect, a modernized rambling hotel with attached conference rooms. The description of a conference center with a mill and ducks was accurate after you drove through “any where USA” shopping malls to get there. I wish I could say I had a taste of New Hampshire but the driving rain and cool weather kept me confined to the facilities.

Marcia (the state representative) and Lois picked me up at the airport. We joined the other crushies in 3 adjoining rooms with 2 queen-sized beds and a bathroom each. This was definitely a step up from the dorm room and shared shower last year. I have no idear if they had heard about us crushies but we were literally the farthest possible and up 3 floors from the conference rooms.

There was no problem finding the other BFAers, just follow your nose to the nearest bar. Well I prefer to call it a lounge. The female bartender was our designated caretaker and stuck with us the entire 3 days, moving from the lounge bar to the conference whenever there was a pay bar to be had. I think I even saw her setting up the buffet. There was a registration table with nametags. They were required for admission and for food. I always appreciate nametags so I am sure to put the right face on the name I already knew.

One by one we straggled in and greeted each other. Thankul showed us her new leopard high heels she was breaking in to wear to a gay pride parade in remembrance of her brother. Sal flitted around the table and Marcia mothered me by seeing that I got food despite the closed kitchen. This is where my story deviates from most of the rest of the BFA crew.

Having worked that day, I encouraged the other crushies to return to the room for crushie time. Marcia pulled out her marvelous picture albums for Lois, Paula and me to oogle over. “Front row” Marcia had up close pictures of all the presidential candidates that have come to New Hampshire. We quickly passed over Hilary’s pictures to spend the time on Howard’s ☺

Thankful to this whole blog family...what an unbelievable group who's hearts are only second in size to their minds, or is that visa-versa?

Sitka, I gotta' ask. Have you taken comedy lessons?

I earned my doctorate in jesterology at Buffoon U. My thesaurus was "Conservative Idealogy -- Funny, Or Just Stupid?"

8. LMAO is Buffoon U near Al my Benny Hill?

Thanks

________________________

Thank you Reed for being here.
_________________________________
and thank you Holly for sharing your story.


I'm off

all be well.

zzzville for me...nite all.

Benny Hill?

Moving really fast was one comedy trick I could never master. 

Dfest stories...
as Rich says, it's "the highlight of any event like this for me is spending time with other people of common interest and purpose, more than any programming."

Holly, can't wait for part 2 with more Crushie report! It never ceases to amaze me taht for all the diversity in our group there's a universality of wonderful minds, spirits, and souls.

LOL, about the shoes... 4" patent open-toe stilettos... seem like they'll work ok but taking a break for a few days to not overdo the breaking in. Also, not being my usual mode of dress, I feel really self-concious out in public :-)

My highlights were meeting mainefem and Monica at long last, reconnecting with everyone, playing Gizmo (it's awesome), getting the cookbooks signed by Howard, seeing Subway play...

Nite Linda and Reed. Sweet ones.

sorry Thankful, not up on the shoe lingo. thanks for the correction. :-)

Holly - lol, I wasn't really either. Never had shoes anything like this before! Love your writing, btw.

Subway just posted over on HEP that he arrived home ok. Which reminds me to let everyone know there's a Dfest '07 special edition cd available at Subway's site

http://teocawki.blogspot.com/

click the paypal button, send ten bucks and your address...

Part II

After the delicious breakfast buffet, the Saturday session was opened by Jim Dean. Jim was spiffy in his suit. The rest of us looked more the part of activist wearing t-shirts displaying our favorite slogan. By the end of the day, I looked like a car bumper with stickers and pins professing my stance on the issues.

The big event of the day was John Edwards and they opened up the back to enlarge the conference hall to accommodate around 800 people (my guess). Crushie reports require dress description so here goes. John wore slim style jeans and a dress shirt with open collar and rolled up sleeves. I noted that his hair wasn’t quite as fluffy which is more appealing to me. He has a much smaller frame than I expected. His light southern drawl matched his blue jeans. We had planted ourselves in the front table and off to the left which was perfect because the podium was off center to the right. This forced anyone talking to stay on our side.

John didn’t like the podium, holding the free mike in his hand. He did say all the right stuff for progressives; out of the war as soon as possible, universal health care, and caring for our environment. He did relay how important the grassroots are to get our country on track. Since this time around he isn’t part of the beltway DCers, he knows he has to reach out to us. I do appreciate him coming to talk to us and he even opened up for questions. He was handed a softball question from Marcia but he was scooted off the stage after Sal nailed Edwards with asking if he had a deal with Kucinich at the Iowa Caucus.

Deciding which event to attend is always difficult. We chose the impeachment panel because Marcia was involved with this at her state legislature. Newly elected NH US Rep. Carol Shea-Porter told her inspiring story of her totally grass-root, low cost campaign. She is a natural speaker and a true progressive. Her fellow congressman told us the most disturbing fact of the weekend. The shape of our country is even worse than he had guessed. There was Bush administration damage to our country under “every rock that gets turned over,”

Paula, Lois and I attend Arahad’s DFA Precinct training. His courses are packed with information and his humorous “side comments” is his trademark. Bev Harris’s session drew a big crowd and her findings of “Black Box” election fraud was hidden under the “bolder” she had turned over. By this time a nap called me because my room was in section near this classroom.

We have already discussed Sen. Mike Gravel on the blog. Sorry no detailed description of him here. He is unappealing to me. I couldn’t really hear much else of what he said after he went off on not taxing corporations. I will leave that up to his supporters.

I do have to talk about Obama’s representative. (You know I like Obama). It aggravates me to have candidates send in reps but this William McNearry guy was great. Many people had left and were talking but within a few minutes he had us. McMeary is a Black-Baptist minister and we responded like his congregation. He read from his notes tossing the pages on the floor behind him. We rose to our feet to applaud in agreement. He followed up by sitting in the lounge with the Obama skeptics, unruffled by questions thrown to him. We all agreed, we would all vote for him.

I will leave it to others the fill in the “after hours” details. (and will combine the “Subway experience in part III”)

OK I am really too tired to finish this up and I really want to do a good job of the "Howard Part" so I will finish it after a good nite sleep. Nite all.

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful stories.  And especially thank Sal for nailing Edwards.  Wish I could have seen that one!.

Thanks, all of you. Loves you muchly.
♥

Puddle, I put a comment on one of your posts and went back and it's not there??  Hope you are feeling better.  I sent you buckets of love from me.

I put the comment there earlier today.  Now I'm going to steal the heart

~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~

Hi/bye puddle ♥

great ~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~'s Mz*Little

Sleep is sounding good...

♥'s to all

Kindness is free!

Nite, Thankful, thanks for the email today.  I'll do some followup work!

Thanks, HollyJ, Reed, Thankful, for helping this thread live up to its name!

And mprov, thanks for leading the way to a new thread. HQ is apparently sleeping at the switch ... and with all this great material and all the new enthusiastic young interns, that's a shame.

But, as mprov has just demonstrated, Deniacs don't have to wait for others to lead the way.

Argh -- Deniacs s/b Deaniacs, of course!

The fact that I was able to show you and Denise (in less than 5 minutes" that Gizmo measures emotional states in real time, is remarkable in an informal setting.

*Deniacs* are more likely followers of putz. That would be laughable except that it's so serious.

**********
Last night, Britain's controversial Channel 4 showed a story on how since the Council of Europe begans its crackdown, culminating in the recently-released report on how the US did indeed make rendition flights throughout Europe (still unclear how high-up the collaboration went throughout) and used prisons in Romania and Poland to torture alleged terrorists (allegedly those prisons have now been closed), the US has moved operations to the horn of Africa. This explains partially why all the new concentration on Somalia. Now suspects are being rendered to prisons in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia and often being tortured through the use of complicit elements in those countries.

Women and children who happen to be related to suspected terrorists are not exempt, but are kidnapped and tortured along with the rest.

Yet, one CIA official estimates that at least 85% of the suspects are totally innocent.

So I am totally in the mood for this column by Eugene Robinson. I am not proud of what we have let our nation become under putzCo. And that fact that none of them are now before a tribunal in The Hague answering for their sins along with other war criminals is a crying shame.

A long dark night of the soul indeed.

=====================
Fleeting Glory in Albania
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; A25

George W. Bush, Hero of Albania! At least there's one place in the world where they show the Decider some love.

That was a wonderful reverse-Borat moment Sunday, with the joyous townspeople of Fushe Kruje yelling "Bushie! Bushie!" and Albania's prime minister gushing over the "greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times." The crowd pressed in for autographs, photographs, a presidential peck on the cheek. Years from now, in his dotage, Bushie will feel warm all over when he recalls those magical hours in Albania. How they adored him!

Outside of greater Tirana, however, the president's stock as an apostle of freedom continues to fall -- and rightly so. Even as Albania swooned, the rest of Europe was digesting a blue-ribbon report issued Friday about the abduction, secret detention and abusive interrogation of suspects in Bush's "war on terror."

The report was done for the Council of Europe by Swiss legislator Dick Marty, and its opening paragraph is worth quoting at length:

"What was previously just a set of allegations is now proven: large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is common practice. Others have been held in arbitrary detention, without any precise charges leveled against them and without any judicial oversight. . . . Still others have simply disappeared for indefinite periods and have been held in secret prisons, including in member states of the Council of Europe."

[...]
We will remember this whole misguided administration for deciding to wage the fight against terrorism in a manner that not only mocks our nation's values but also draws new recruits to the anti-American cause. We will remember this White House for unwittingly helping the terrorist cause perpetuate itself.

Marty makes this point in his report. "We are fully aware of the seriousness of the terrorist threat and the danger it poses to our societies," he writes. "However, we believe that the end does not justify the means in this area." Resorting to "abuse and illegal acts," he says, "actually amounts to a resounding failure of our system and plays right into the hands of the criminals who seek to destroy our societies through terror."

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

{{{♥ Subway ♥}}}

Thanks for all that you do ... and thanks for sharing your story.

Well, yeah, but he's still in prison ... and has been for many years.

Law and order indeed.

================
Judges Rule Against U.S. On Detained 'Combatant'
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; A01

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that President Bush cannot indefinitely imprison a U.S. resident on suspicion alone, ordering the government either to charge Qatari national Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with his alleged terrorist crimes in a civilian court or release him.

The opinion is a blow to the Bush administration's assertion that the president has exceptionally broad powers to combat terrorism, including the authority to detain without charges foreign citizens living legally in the United States.

It is the first time a court has said that Marri cannot be held forever without facing formal charges, but it is a symbolic victory -- Marri will continue his detention in a naval brig in Charleston, S.C. The government said that it was disappointed by the 2 to 1 decision, handed down by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, and that it will appeal to the full court.

The appeals panel ruled that Bush had overreached his authority and that the Constitution protects U.S. citizens and legal residents such as Marri from unchecked military power. It also rejected the administration's contention that it was not relevant that Marri was arrested in the United States and was living here legally on a student visa.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Well, still love Dan but the question to me is now "How Lame a Duck?" but "How Much Damage Can This Lame Duck Still Do?"

What else can he ruin? How else can he destroy our nation and what we all used to believe that it stood for?

Don't even bother to impeach ... just ride putz to Guantanamo on a rail, after the tarring and feathering, with prick close on his heels. They've imprisoned people for years for much less.

================
How Lame a Duck?
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 11, 2007; 3:04 PM

After the apparent collapse of the compromise immigration bill in the Senate last week, the political obituaries for the Bush presidency started rolling in.

President Bush himself isn't giving up quite yet -- he's headed to Capitol Hill tomorrow in a last-ditch attempt to revive the legislation. He'll be having lunch with Republican senators.

But it's not clear that he still has the ability to change anyone's mind -- even members of his own party.

The Obits

Jim Rutenberg writes in the New York Times: "The breakthrough on the 'grand bargain' on immigration a few weeks ago had brought new life to a White House under siege, putting a long-sought goal suddenly within reach. After many grim months, there was almost giddiness at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"But that early euphoria only made the grand bargain's grand collapse on Thursday night all the more of a blow, pointing up a stubbornly unshakable dynamic for President Bush in the final 19 months of his term: With low approval ratings and the race to succeed him well under way, his ability to push his agenda has faded to the point where he can fairly be judged to have entered his lame duck period. . . .

"[E]ven some close allies were surprised by how Mr. Bush's advocacy for immigration had seemed to hurt his cause within his party when, in a speech in Georgia last week, he said those opposed to the bill didn't 'want to do what's right for America.' The statement infuriated Mr. Bush's usually reliable allies on talk radio, in blogs and in Congress, galvanizing the right against his plan all the more."

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Wow, in my first sentence above, the *now* s/b *not* ... having some trouble getting fully conscious this am apparently.

*************
I, for one, wouldn't be surprised to leatn that it is the private mercenaries who are creating more havoc in Iraq than al Qaeda is. Get the whole lot out and stop funding anything related to the illegal occupation.

Because it is indeed illegal.

=============
A true land of opportunity
Where there's death and destruction, there's profit - as security companies in Iraq know only too well
Terry Jones
Tuesday June 12, 2007
The Guardian

Gordon Brown was in Iraq yesterday on a "fact-finding mission". It needn't all have looked gloomy for the next prime minister, however - not if he did some fact-finding about Blackwater, a North Carolina company that is now one of the most profitable military contractors operating in Iraq, and proves just what a land of opportunity Iraq really is. Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, acclaimed a "staggering" 600% growth in 2004: "This is a billion-dollar industry," he said, "and Blackwater has only scratched the surface of it." So if Gordon, or any of us, wants to get on this Iraqi gravy train, we could do worse than see how Blackwater goes about it.

First you need your father to leave you a billion dollars or so, as happened to Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder. Then use the money to set up a company that specialises in shooting people. Of course, you say the company's vision is "to support security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere". But your brochure is full of photos of men bursting into rooms with machine guns and shooting from helicopters - and it offers five sniping courses: basic military, advanced military, situation sniper, high angle (shooting people from rooftops) and, of course, helicopter.

Making money out of this sort of violence, no matter how you dress it up in idealistic language, can look a little morally dodgy, so it would be best if - like Erik - you were a born-again Christian and you donate pots of money to the Republicans. Since 1989, the Nation reports, Erik and his wife have given $275,550 to Republican campaigns, and $0 to the Democrats. A White House internship - something Erik did in the early 90s - could also provide enough friends in the right places. The odd no-bid contract, such as the one Blackwater got to guard Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority, wouldn't go astray.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

Sheesh, did it again! Sorry people, my fingers are not connected to the brain at all right now for some reason.

************
The dark side of the Olympic games ... don't think that Baron de Coubertin would have been pleased by this, or so I'd like to think. There is a quite wonderful Olympics Museum in Lausanne. But perhaps it should also show this.

==================
London is getting into the Olympic spirit - by kicking out the Gypsies
Evictions of the poor, along with mentally ill people and beggars, are one of the games' best-established traditions
George Monbiot
Tuesday June 12, 2007
The Guardian

Everything we have been told about the Olympic legacy turns out to be bunkum. The games are supposed to encourage us to play sport; they are meant to produce resounding economic benefits and help the poor. It's all untrue. As the evictions in London begin, a new report shows that the only certain Olympic legacy is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

Both Lord Coe and Tessa Jowell, the sports secretary, like the boosters for every city to have bid for the Olympics, have claimed that the games will lever us off our sofas and turn us into a nation of athletes. But Jowell knows this is nonsense. In 2002 her department published a report which found that "hosting events is not an effective, value-for-money method of achieving ... a sustained increase in mass participation". One study suggests that the Olympics might even reduce our physical activity: we stay indoors watching them on TV, rather than kicking a ball around outside. And this is before we consider the effects of draining the national lottery: Sport England will lose £100m.

The government's favourite thinktanks, Demos and the Institute for Public Policy Research, examined the claim that the Olympics produce a lasting economic boom. They found that "there is no guaranteed beneficial legacy from hosting an Olympic games ... and there is little evidence that past games have delivered benefits to those people and places most in need". Tessa Jowell must be aware of this as well - she wrote the forward to the report. A paper published by the London assembly last month found that "long-term unemployed and workless communities were largely unaffected [by better job prospects] by the staging of the games in each of the four previous host cities".

Far more damning is a study released last week by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. In every city it examined, the Olympic games - accidentally or deliberately - have become a catalyst for mass evictions and impoverishment. Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes to make way for the Olympics. The games have become a licence for land grabs.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

One version of Hell on earth ... and USG policies are helping to keep it that way.

================
'Escape is impossible'
It is a destitute, oppressive place, where 70,000 Palestinian refugees are squeezed into one square kilometre and violence is the norm. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad visits Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon's biggest refugee camp, and talks to the new generation of jihadis whose experience reflects the Islamisation of Arab youth throughout the Middle East
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Tuesday June 12, 2007
Guardian

It is a Monday in early June and four bearded jihadi fighters hide in a bicycle repair shop less than 50 meters from a Lebanese army position at the entrance of Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, the biggest camp in Lebanon. Around them is a familiar battle scene; the smell of burned concrete mixed with gunpowder, a cloud of smoke rising, hundreds of bullet-holes peppering the buildings. The street is empty apart from an occasional lone fighter who sprints across the road from one position to the other.

The clashes between the jihadi Palestinian group of Jund al-Sham and the Lebanese army had stopped a few hours ago, leaving at least one militant dead and three injured. The army lost two men.

Residents are already on the move, fearing a repetition of the two weeks-old battles raging in another Palestinian camp between another jihadi group - Fatah al-Islam - and the Lebanese army. There, at the smaller Nahr al-Bared camp in Tripoli, to the north of Lebanon, at least 70 people had been killed.

One of the fighters, who is in his early 20s, wearing a black T-shirt carrying the words "Allahu Akbar" and nestling an M16 rifle between his legs, says: "They are cowards those soldiers. This is a Palestinian camp, this is not Israel."

The Islamist group of Jund al-Sham is believed to have no more than 50 fighters. Like other jihadi groups in the camp, some of the fighters are veterans of the war in Iraq. They are flourishing in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, which have been in place since 1948 when Palestinians fled or were expelled to make way for the creation of the state of Israel. There are 12 such established camps in Lebanon, the most well-known of which, Sabra and Shatila, were made notorious in 1982 when the South Lebanon Army massacred up to 3,500 people, many of them civilians, under the watch of the Israeli army.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33000...

One effect of the US moving its rendition operations to the horn of Africa perhaps??

Well, putz hasn't been a total failure at everything. He exceeds in destruction.

Bummer indeed.

====================
Deadly explosion hits Nairobi rush hour
By Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi
Published: 12 June 2007

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in Nairobi's business district during rush hour in the Kenyan capital yesterday, killing one other person and leaving more than 30 people injured as shards of glass flew through the air.

Initial reports suggested the attack was a suicide bombing, although police were unable to confirm it. "It looks like it was a terrorist attack," said one Western diplomat who had spoken to senior police officials.

The explosion happened at about 8am outside the Ambassador Hotel on Nairobi's busy Moi Avenue. Witnesses reported seeing a man try to get on a packed bus before turning and running towards the hotel. A local media outlet, KTN, reported that the bus had been heading for Nairobi's international airport. The blast took place outside the City Gate restaurant, on the ground floor of the Ambassador Hotel. The force of the blast ripped the clothes off those nearest to the explosion.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/afri...

Should have been *excells* above but since everything about putzCo is excessive (except brains and common sense), the word *exceed* got in the way this am.

****************
I'm not sure where putz thinks that he has any moral authority here, no matter how deserving the Bulgarian nurses are.

Qaddafi could easily show how much better a man he is by releasing them , however. These charges were clearly trumped up ... just like most of ours against most suspected *terrorists* seem to be.

And it's that time again.

===================
Bush urges Libya to free Bulgarian nurses
By William J. Kole, Associated Press Writer
Published: 12 June 2007

US President George W. Bush urged Libya yesterday to free five Bulgarian nurses who face the death penalty for allegedly deliberately infecting children with HIV - charges the medics contend were based on confessions obtained through torture.

"We're deeply concerned about the plight of the nurses," Bush told reporters after meeting with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, whose government has been working with the European Union and the United States to gain the medics' freedom.

"They should be released and they should be allowed to return to their families," Bush said on the final stop of his European tour.

Bulgaria's leaders were appealing to Bush for US help in freeing the five Bulgarians and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with the virus.

Detained since 1999, the six are accused of intentionally infecting about 400 children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi. All deny the charge.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/art...

a shout out to you Judy, as I am off to nod land.

Only two countries like like Bush.

Albania.....

And Bushlandia....

Bush urges Libya to free Bulgarian nurses

The world's arch kidnapper and torturer urging another country to free people? That's rich.

Innoculation and backward minds are a dangerous combination.

How Lame a Duck?

"I say, drop those crutches and WALK!!!"

Good morning, everybody

Had a really hard time getting here 'cause the login is confusing.  It doesn't transfer from the previous page.

There's another thread with Eddie's musings here 

http://blogforamerica.com/view/21170#comments 

Have no thoughts this AM.

Maybe KOS will wake me up. 

... "I say, drop those crutches and WALK!!!"

perp walk, that is! ;)

http://www.hazecam.net/burlington.html

and from that huge ole thread that Monica directed
me from (thank you!)...

...dropping by with this Howard vid link - his thoughts on the war vote, at Dfest this year. how lucky, you all that got to see it in person! love you Howard. and love you Deanbloggers - you're the best of the best, for sure. when the campaign ended they'd said we'd all fade away - and look where we all are now, lol! like family members returning home at holiday time, many return here for party time (Dfest) and election time and certain times of national crisis. thank you all for being here, those constant and those not so. you help to keep me strong through this insanity we call BushCo. namaste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDv-qpYK4...

Morning - just sent a message to the 'contact' form about the long thread - with 5 new interns announced in the past 3 days seems like one of them could keep an eye on the thread -- that Gene Robinson article from the WaPo (I think?) that Judy posted really tells it like it is. MPCH. bbl

Well, the interns can't possibly be familiar with blog management in such a short time, unless they're geeks to begin with.  LOL

It's possible that this is a test to see how well the bloggers can manage by themselves.

You know, what's supposed to happen is that we recommend a post and those recommendations move it to the front page.  Have you recommended this post? 

How do you like the word "demicratic"?

It's not as bad as kakistocracy.   

48. Good point Monica -- I've wondered if they are just trying to get rid of us sometimes. And no I haven't recommended the post -- old habits die hard. For one thing, I would have to go read all the posts and usually I just want to come here 'for coffee' so to speak and see what's on everyone's mind and say what's on mine -- I usually just give a perfunctory peruse to the main posts. They are usually not newsworthy. I'm not especially interested in local politics-bad me. The pictures can be interesting. bbl

======

PS Holly J thanks for the great 'play by play's.

Good morning and thanks for the reports on Deanfest. 

Thankful, I'm looking forward to seeing you next week.  You can tell me about the panty raids and the other X-Rated stuff that you were too embarrassed to write on the blog.  :-) 

What?  Everybody was well-behaved?   Then just make something up.  I'll never know.

I have posted Holly J's report with Subway's Addendum on Hannah

Michael Moore just ROCKED on GMA...

Thank you Monica.  Someone will have to explain this Gizmo thing.

And a new thread has been front paged.