Musings and Meanderings

So the DNC is over Just a few thoughts, some of which are more detailed in the blogs below. I watched most of every night from 8 to 11, so that's a lot of speeches. The party was on message and on track. Even the much criticized Al Sharpton overtime speech had some very strong things to say. The party is wonderfully energized and united. Having all 9 candidates speak at the convention was a good touch, and Kerry mentioning them in his speech was masterful. For the first time in a long time there seems to be a real difference between what the Reps and Dems offer to the country. For me (and I'm sure for you) the Dems offer the bright promise of the future, not the old tired ways of the past. It's a philosophical contest between this century and last. I know I've said before that I hope that the Bush Administration (be it one or two terms) is the last gasp of a blood soaked Century. We know the White House is staffed with leftovers from previous Republic...

Back, for a week at least Well flight 725 from Las Vegas arrived a bit late but safe at 11:57 last night with an unaccompanied Alex. Yours truly has misplaced his drivers license, and having not grabbed his passport on the way out was nearly put into an untenable situation. MW had put my name as the pick up person, and L's as the alternative. Problem was they didn't notice L's name so when she (who doesn't loose things like licenses and debit cards on a regular basis) tried to "accept" him from the plane they wouldn't let her! Sheer lunacy of course. Anyway we ended up in the "night office" of SWA for all of two min as the duty person noticed the alternate name and all was well. Alex stayed up till 2am (as did I) which of course is only 11pm his time. Slept till 10 this am (which of course I did not) and seems less worse for the wear. So next up: NEXT Sunday not tomorrow he and I are off to the local Boy Scout Reservation for week...

The Convention Day Four So this is what we had been waiting for. John Kerry the person, and we got it in droves. Sen Kerry's 43 min speech was the best anyone could have asked for. He was personal and personable, he told America why he was running and what he stood for. He let a glimpse of the man that his family knows shine forth, in clear non-"senatorese". Yes it was long, but I don't think it got strung out. My only criticism is that he seemed to be in a hurry! The meat of convenions are the party faithful going banana's over a phrase or slogan. Kerry seemed to have little patience for the cheering and wanted to charge ahead. A small enough thing, but something I noticed. I cannot compete with the professional talking heads on Kerry's speech. I am edified to see across the journalistic spectrum, of those journalists who do not have an philosophical axe to grind, be it liberal or conservative, that there was near universal acclaim for this speech. ...

The Convention Day Three This was semi-military day at the convention, Gen. Shalikashvili, Lt. Brozak, and Gen. Kennedy all served in the military and came out for Kerry. Brozak especially who served in Iraq and came back so disgusted he switched parties and is running as a Democrat for congress. Then there was Al Sharpton - Given 6 min he took 20, and lit the place up like a fire. He directly connected with the African American delegates in a way only Mr. Obama had, from the looks of their faces. He directly answered the President's question to the Urban League "Have the Democrats taken you (African Americans) for granted?" He answered it well. The generals were, frankly exceedingly dull, but it was important for the Democrats to show how strong they were. Again, again and again..... Hope America gets the point. The ramp up to John Edwards' speech was fairly enjoyable. First came their 22 yr old daughter, a spitting image for her mom, there to introduce ...

The Convention Day Two   Day two was supposed to be all about Senator Kennedy, and his hometown speech; as well as, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who was supposed to tell us all about John Kerry. Instead, completely missed by the National Networks, was the first ascendancy of a man who is not even a national leader (yet).  By now you have probably heard of Barak Obama and his speech.  Reading the words however does not really convey the power of the messenger.  His speech was one part MLK, and one part politician. His message was of a true uniter, more than any of the other speakers up until then (and as of Wed night after then as well). Briefly Barak Obama is a young(ish) democrat from Illinois whose father was a Kenyan, mother an American from Kansas, raised in Hawaii.  He is a successful lawyer as well as married to a successful lawyer and has two children.   His campaigns have appealed to all groups in a way apparently no one has in a long time i...

The Convention Day one     I quite enjoyed the parade of Ex-Presidents, Shadow Presidents, and future Presidential hopefuls across Monday's convention speaker rostrum.  Carter, Gore, Hillary and Bubba all got out their whupping sticks to some extent and took it to the opposition, which is their job. Ex-President Jimmy Carter had the second best speech in my mind, and then graced the PBS studio at the Fleet Center with his presence.  He was eloquent in his charges that the Iraq war was something planned long before 9/11, something no other Democrat seems to pursue.  (Its a matter of public record in Wolfowitz and Perle's writings if you thing its just partisanship).  He held up well under the crossfire from the talking heads at PBS.  The speech itself was quite enjoyable, very much the no holds barred accusatory speech I expected from this Nobel Prize winner.  Of course the dogs of the Bush Administration in the guise of ...

Alex off to California for the week   Dropped off MW and Alex at the SW terminal at 730 this am so they could fly to/back California.  Alex gets to spend a week there with Mom and family.  MW arrived around 8:15 last night and we went to Garcia's and as requested had our favorite wait person Sergei from Belorus.  Hes a great wait person and the food as always was good. Had some great discussions and fine time.  The visit was too short as usual, so after getting up early I took these two to the airport.  We got a call around 6pm our time stating that he had arrived safely and was a "great traveling companion" according to MW.

Spiderman 2   We had Lucas over for the day to spend with Alex.  His only full day home without Grandparents, as Emmy arrives tomorrow to whisk him off to California Saturday AM early. So we decided last night to go see a matinee of Spiderman 2 today.  What a fantastic movie.  From the superb opening credits (you don't hear that often) to the final scene this is great movie making.  My good friend cwritesj said it well; this is just not a great action film.  It is just a great film. There is much wink wink as to exactly who knows Peter is Spiderman during the film, especially in a very poignant scene with Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) where she tell Peter how people need hero's.  This movie had a message about sacrificing what you want to do for what is right. Ironically Peter gets both in the end.   In addition I have a strong weakness for the goodness of people.  There were two scenes, one where Peter (not Spiderman...

Why Dubya will change soon in his campaign strategy.   Read an interesting piece in Salon.com showing some interesting numbers regarding that ephemeral percentage of the US populace that will really determine who is going to be the next President.   Of course I speak of the undecided in the swing states.  Note I did not call them the "so called" swing states.   If we call them the swing states then we call them that, and don't need announce that we are going to call them swing states before hand.  What? Oh, sorry......   Anyway this piece compared the predicted support that each candidate was getting with the actual polling numbers.  Needless to say the entire piece revolves around said prediction, but the author seemed fairly sure of himself so we will give him the benefit of the doubt.   "Bush nearly matches expectations among Democrats (at 10 percent, only two points below where he should be) and Republicans (at 90 pe...

Ok so maybe every other day, or so.....   Did you know that if you do a Yahoo on Tour de France you get back over 19 MILLION responses.   19 Million is a lot of people talking about the Tour de France is what that is... Spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house.  MW arrives on Friday, then leaves Sat am, with Alex, whom I am picking up tomorrow halfway btw NH and NY. So we are down to the final five in "Last Comic Standing".  I knew the ladies would get in, they are genuinely funny.  Gary G withstood two standup shootouts, so he deserves it as well.  As for the other two, John's set last night was very funny and once again Liza and I got the winner wrong, but not the looser.   Do you care?  Well I didn't think so.... lol This CIA cum 9/ll commission report thingy is bugging me.  I need to do more research.  However I wish to state uncategorically that ALL the investigative journal...

The week in Review   Very busy week.  Monday was spent settling back into life from the week in VA and the Nearfest weekend.  Technically I got home on Monday, at 230am.  Ran some errands with Alexander and got my pictures developed.  I was a bit nervous as I had never shot a concert strictly on manual, but when I picked up the pictures the girl at the shop said she was glad she was there cause she wanted to meet the person who had taken such fantastic pictures.  They are available at the Mike Montfort site under NEARfest 04.  Tuesday was strictly scanning my photos and getting them up on the site, as I had quite a few people interested in seeing what I was shooting with that humongous lens!    I spent most of Wednesday on the road.  Alex and I got going around 930, but I had do come back for my license.  So around 10 am we set off for Swanzy NH to drop Alex off at my Dad's.  I spent a few hours there and got home b...

NEARfest 2004 - July 9 - 11   It's been a crazy week settling back into life after being gone on the vacation the week before NearFest.  So I have not had the chance to put into words my NearFest experience.  Since you have already read tons I thanks to those who stay with this till the end.     Overall I enjoyed Sunday significantly more than Saturday with one Exception.  This is not to downbeat the Sat lineup, I just felt that Sunday was more "Proggy" for me.  I don't ever "hate" bands. I completely do not understand people that do, or walk out on a performance.  Minds are like parachutes, and they should stay open to work properly.  Giving an artist or artists their due by listening to the entire offering of a performance is a must for any one who says that they truly appreciate music.   Anyway off my soap box and on to the meandering.....   Musical Box.   My first impression of them was, gosh if this...

What it means to be a Neo-Conservative Republican   1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery. 2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq. 3. Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack  down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness. 4. "Standing Tall for America"; means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India. 5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation. 6. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton. 7. The best way to improve military morale is! to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and comba...

A Little Perspective By Michael Moore If you can't get through this list without wanting to throw up, I'll understand. But pass it around anyway. This is the nail in the Iraq War's coffin for any sane, thinking individual, regardless of their political stripe. (Thanks to Tom Paine.com and the Center for American Progress.) To get some perspective, here are some real-life comparisons about what $87billion (some of the money allocated for Iraq control) means: $87 Billion is more than the combined total of all State budget deficits in the United States. The Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds to help states deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]. $87 Billion is enough to pay the 3.3 million people who have lost jobs under George W. Bush $26,363.00 each! The unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress at the beginning of th...