BooMan … I never imagined there could be another blog that would give Kos a run for it’s money but this site does all that and manages to up the ante. Kudos and bravo to all involved.
Love the look, love the posts, the diaries and so many familiar ‘faces’. What a slice of Heaven. Love the regional open threads, how many brilliant geniuses worked on this? How many times can I say love in one paragraph?
Ahhhh Eegees. Yet another reason Pima County rocks! Not to mention the fact that we’re the “Democrat Stronghold” of Arizona! Newbie here, glad to start picking up my activism.
For those of you non-Tucsonans, here’s how we survive the heat: Eegees Menu.
Hey, don’t forget Coconino County! We are the other Democratic fortress holding out against Maricopa Republicanism.
From my online name you can probably figure out where I’m from in Coconino county. Born in Tucson, grew up in Phoenix, but now a happy resident of Flagstaff.
There’s a lot to be partial to in the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Haven’t done any whitewater, but would love to give it a go one day.
I am over near Idaho Falls. But the Snake river runs behind my place here in Rigby. Not very white water, but far more swift than it looks. A fairly dangerous river it is, but gosh awful beautiful. It is not the Salmon, but it is pretty neat.
checking in from the unfortunately red part of CA. Was on my way to bed and got sidetracked listening to 60’s music on PBS..we need another decade like that of music/protests to get rid of bush/company.
Not yet except a little info at DFAMarin.org but I’m on one of the committees and can forward some emails. Our local DFA is working with Dem committees around the state including the Rural Caucus.
I did a diary on “Songs of War and Peace” on Dkos. Dylan, Donavon, Country Joe, with links to the actual songs. Unfortunately, it Kos is down again for the second time today so I can’t send you the link. What’s more, I can’t listen to it myself! BTW, love the spellcheck!
Cool, a western discussion thread. Westerners need this for our congressional stuff and state stuff. And face it, we care more about knocking off Renzi in Arizona, and the really BIG pension money in the State employees pension fund, and who gets the water, and western stuff like that. I’m in the Sonoma County Calif. north of San Francisco.
Besides telling angry parents of an elementary school district that “the cavalry is not coming” in regards to funding for art and music, and supporting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, he also supports a bill that would allow concealed weapons in bars.
Here’s the email from the organizers of the recall:
Thank you for your interest in the Recall Huppenthal effort. The response just in the first 24 hours since the Ahwatukee Foothills News article ran has been great. I thought I’d send a quick note to tell you what to expect next.
The paperwork to officially form a Recall Huppenthal committee will be filed at the State Capitol on Monday. Later that day, we will be sending a news release to all the major news outlets in the Valley and we expect we’ll see several stories in the following days.
As soon as we can, we’ll begin circulating a petition. We will put out a call for volunteers to circulate petitions and hold a quick orientation — probably early the week of March 21.
We also plan to pepper the district with signs, have a web site, create flyers and buttons, etc.
The first thing you can do is send out information to all your friends who live in the district (even people outside D20 can volunteer to help circulate the petition). Have them send a note to recallhuppenthal@yahoo.com. If you’d like the official language that will be on the petition, let us know and we can send it to you via email. It’s quite an impressive list of Huppenthal failures!
Also, if you are part of a list serve or group that would be interested in this information, send them a note and again encourage people to send a note to recallhuppenthal@yahoo.com.
Finally, if you have done petitions in the past in D20 and know of any good places that allow petitioners and/or information tables, please send us a note and let us know. We’re developing a list of petition-friendly locations now.
Hi, San Jose here (bet you couldn’t guess that from my user name).
I would really like to work with everyone who lives in CA to try to counter the petitions that are being circulated right now (the Governors “special” $70 million election in November.)
The other issue to work on is to get rid of the Fabricator in 2006.
Looking forward to reading and discussing “west” issues here.
On last week’s “Nightline” on blogging, I noticed that MaurainVA has organized a group to read every single bill introduced in the Virginia legislature. The group divides ’em up, and each person “reports” on the content of the bills they’ve reviewed. I love that idea.
Can we do something like that with the 2005 initiatives in California? Get a relatively small group together, review all the initiatives, and be the watchdogs for this exercise in law-making chaos? Should be very do-able because there won’t be that many proposed initiatives as compared to bills introduced in the Virginia legislature, not to mention the absurd avalanche of bills introduced every year in the California legislature.
Anyone who’s interested, or has an idea for a better way of going about it, drop me an e-mail.
I was cruising around the site last night and read all of the ad..It’s great. Smart/Creative people…I especially like the Nixon Bowling poster. Did you find them or did they find you?
wanting to make it to one of their Fests for years. I am the worst Lebowski addict. I actually play the movie without watching it. I don’t need to watch it anymore. I just like to listen.
with the new information that the new newly appointed WW of the East is going to be representing us around the World? I can’t stand it any longer. Karen Fucking Hughes spreading good cheer on behalf of the US. I can’t stop spewing Chunks. This is now offically the Most embarrassing appointment ever made in the History of the United Fucking States of Cocksucking America. I thought nothing could beat Condi and Abu Gonzales..and now this….watta world…help.
I kind of expect Bush to give his gal pals important jobs. What he doesn’t realize is that no one likes his gal pals.
They make really lousy diplomats.
After Chertoff, who was a lawyer for al-Qaeda suspects before taking over the criminal investigation of 9/11 (seriously), my outragometer is on the fritz.
I know..but…Karen Hughes…I wouldn’t allow her to babysit or even teach preschool. She makes me so sick, I can’t look at her. I can’t listen to her talk. I don’t know what it is…but I find her just so repulsive. I guess it’s that whole wolf in sheeps clothes, and soccer “knife wielding” mom image with that put on quaint accent. Hold on…oh no…uggggggggggg…i have found it necessary to keep a vomit bucket near my computer. oh…shit….ugghhhhhh..and MSO thought she was nauseous from her percocet…take 2 karen hughes’s and call me in the morning ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
I wonder if Kos hung out more on his own blog in the begining? Way cool that you are around. IMO he could hang a little bit more with the gang over there on occasion. Send KO and invite to come visit here. His essay that he just linked on Dkos is awesome. It’s a great read.
checkin things out. Boo did an awesome job and it’s not as crowded(yet) and crazy as some others. And we’ve got the rabid MSO frontpagin. After reading your diaries the images stay with me for so long. Thank you.
and now finding out about bernies little royalty deal on book for 9/11 victims..cesspool doesn’t begin to describe bushs idea of good appointments. I seem to ask myself every goddam day if he can find someone worse than the last and unfortunately am never disappointed.
don’t forget henry fucken kissenger appointment that luckily didn’t go over…but yeah karen hughes baby, bringing her brand of cheer to muslims..but you said it best anyway.
She is not the Wicked Witch of the East. She’s from Texas, for cripes sake! Please don’t insult us Easterners. We have many faults. Karen Hughes is not one of them.
the good witch from the North..I am so sorry to have implied that the formerly known Texan… Karen Hughes who is soon to be residing on the East Coast(if she hasn’t flown in already on her broom) would ever be the WW of the EAST. If anyone here decides where witches come from it would be you and the cute little munchkins..heheheheheheeeee.
The birds and I just moved from Marin County up to the Willamette Valley and my biggest concern was finding political kin here. However, I am very pleased to discover all the lefty letters to the editor (heh). It’s SO quite different from when I moved away 20 years ago.
I’m curious if anyone knows the approximate # of U.S. Nat’l Guard/reserve troops from WA state that are stationed in Iraq. The reason I I’m curious is that I’m researching a diary on drought and I want to know if we have sufficient Nat’l Guard members at home to help us fight forest fires.
P.S. I’m in Pt. Angeles where we — actually a customs agent who’s a grandmother — caught a really real terrorist in 1999. She hadn’t seen any alerts. She just knew enough to know that the guy was suspicious. She’s now retired, and I saw a wonderful photo of her with her cat.
Hey say hi to my buddy Pedro Garcia/Acereto in Pt. Angeles.
He’s a super freak in sheep’s clothing these days, but if you have the chance to meet him – ask him to show you “The Revolution” when his wife is not around.
“The Revolution” is the Totemic source off all opposition and opposition to all..
Would you believe I’ve never been in either? The bars or the churches here, I mean. (I lie … we had a Howard Dean Meetup at the local Lutheran church once.) Never met Pedro either, and what exactly is The Revolution?
Is a revelation – like a church relic or the mystery behind the curtain in some old-school greek hissing oracle pit’s sacrificial hall.
Otherwise known as a black swiss army knife.
I dunno, it’s kind of a neat metaphor for the work of revolution. Sometimes you have to use the big blade, sometimes the toenail clippers or that weird point bit that puts holes in leather.
far northern red zone of the state? You must be foraying east of the coastal range. To get to my part of the California far northern zone in Eureka, you pass through the Hog Farm of Wavy Gravy (the Woodstock announcer) and Garberville — home of Humboldt bud. Five minutes north of Eureka is Arcata, which was the first city council in the US to have a Green majority and, I think, the only city to have a Green majority twice. Humboldt County, where Eureka is the county seat, is a reliably Democratic county.
Red is not a word I would throw around to describe my part of far northern California. Did I mention the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate lives in Eureka?
I’m just sayin’.
been fishin Lake Almanor almost my entire life..breakfast at the Copper kettle in Chester..Love Lassen and all it has to offer. Spent endless hours there getting lost in them hills. It is my Bountiful.
I love the entire area. I have happily gotten lost over in that area for hours, stopping at every little place along the way. The Old Station..Uncle Runt’s…ah…the memories…I gotta get back up there this summer. Fishing season starts up in about a month..I have brought in 9 lb Brown Trout from Almanor..caught a 48 lb Salmon from Sacramento river once. Love the July 4th celebrations in Chester.
and How is the fishing along Hat Creek? I’ve been spending more time lately in Idaho, but would love to try out the Hat Creek area. We’ve heard great things about it.
Speaking of which …. Town & Country on Banibridge Island has remodeled its salad bar, and it’s incredible. (We go down about every Saturday to see my mom and my brother / his family.)
We used to have one at Northgate Mall called Zoopa’s or Fresh Choice, but they shut down last year. Yeah, they were corporate and sort of expensive, but you could go tank up on salad, four different kinds of soup, or baked potatoes.
Fresh Choice is a weekly destination for me and the spouse; if I tried to have that much selection in our fridge, it would either go bad before we could eat it, or the spouse and I would grow long ears and cotton tails… 😉
Not only that, the Fresh Choice in Mountain View (near where the spouse gets off work) is a “test kitchen”, meaning we get stuff there that the other restaurants don’t.
If you use a coupon (found in the paper quite a bit), it’s not so bad pricewise. Quite a bit of the staff know us there; one of the associate manager’s owes me a crochet poncho pattern… 🙂
Still a Zoopa’s at Southcenter, about 10 minutes from Seatac if you get off a plane with the munchies! Great place for feeding 2 little picky kids and a teenager.
From Pennsylvania, to Delaware, to Central New Jersey, to South Jersey, back to Delaware, to Stockton, CA, to Rancho Palos Verdes, to Illinois, back to Rancho Palos Verdes, to Redondo Beach, to Ventura County. (where I hope to stay, which means I won’t.)
I live in fucken Taft(about 30 miles from B-town) and it’s part oilfield smell and part farmland smell on way to B-town. I hate it here but have no dam choice whatsoever. The only person I know who isn’t a redneck in any way is my sister.(who luckily is my best dam friend) Pretty grim really.
You meet what you think are fairly decent people then they mouth off about those’ mexicans, or blacks or fags’ or well you get the idea. and it just gets goddam depressing..so I’m kinda glad I’m kinda confined to my apartment most of the time.
Yes, being stuck inside a lot and stumbling onto Kos was a real help. Watching the site grow and different people take over front page ..it was all great.
My favorite-and most others-was meteor blades..awesome fucken writing and his compassion/intellect showing through was incredible, well still is for that matter.
His Freedom Summer diary made me cry like a baby and should be required reading in all school classes I think.
While reading Kos every day for hours the one thing I learned was how just how dam much I don’t know and that’s a good thing. I’m still amazed at the collective intellect over there while still enjoying the great humor that shows up in the postings.
Just so much dam talent in one place is pretty incredible. I think this site will end up the same way.
Hey SusanG..did you see the press conf this morning..a real softball question from some press guy named Stretch…you know who this joker is? Boy oh boy…Bush look at his notes everytime he called on a person..he either knew their names before calling or addressed them by their names during (while looking down at this notes) Totally planned. Yuck..he makes me so sick, I almost had to welcome back my morning cup of Java.
I caught that press conference this morning. Chimpy looked distracted and ill at ease at first but then somehow got hid footing. Think it was right after “Stretch” or “Skippy” or whatever the heck his name was threw the softball. Notice how flustered he got on the question of rendition?
chamonix here..never crossed paths with you over at Dkos…but read your stuff…LA here…are you related to mcjoan? wonder if she will come on over here to Booville?
I go by KLM at dKos – a failed attempt at androgyny since mcjoan quickly outed me as her sis. LOL I don’t believe she’s signed up here yet. Guess I should go get on her case.
So happy to see your screen name over here…smart and funny…kinda like KO’s diary about oatmeal/sugar smacks…with a little more of the sugar. This is a fun playground.
Hey, if pyrrho can finally get into the recommendeds, it’s my kind of place. He’s one of my all time faves. And now I gotta go do some work. I’ll check in with you all later.
We’ve been blogging together for a couple of years on various blogs under various handles, although she’s much more prolific. You know what they say, “The family that blogs together…”
hi to both of you-my sister is my best and smartest friend so it’s great to see other sisters who like each other so much. Because a lot of sisters really aren’t best friends or just don’t get along.
Thanks. Your comment made me think of this old song.
sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters,
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir,
I’m there to keep my eye on her
Caring, sharing
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain gentleman arrived from rome
She wore the dress, and i stayed home
All kinds of weather, we stick together
The same in the rain and sun
Two different faces, but in tight places
We think and we act as one
Those who’ve seen us
Know that not a thing could come between us
Many men have tried to split us up, but no one can
Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister
And lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man
My brother’s great also but my sister and I live in same town right now and we’ve always been close-almost like twins except we’re 4 years apart. She may be my little sister but I value her opinoin more than anyone in the world…plus she’s just fun/funny/smart..you get the picture I guess. Nothing else like having a sister whose also you’re best friend.
yeah do remember that song by the way..good lyrics.
literally my back/side yard is dolo park. you can’t miss where i live… anyway, i intend to goto the rally, but as always, it depends on how i’m feeling from my med stuff… where will you be? with a group or milling around tryig to find other kossacks?
You wrote one of the best diaries on abortion rights on Kos. It was so heartening to read the words of a man that spoke so eloquently. I just wanted to say thank you once again.
If anyone believes art can reach people where maybe words can’t, this is a good diary to check out.
Some days I might not be in the mood for a lot of reading and a good graphic that is thought provoking or humourous might get me thinking and talking here.
Art is always good and the graphics in the diary I thought were terrific.
So far I’m the only one who has recommeded the diary but at least go over and check it out.
Here in San Francisco. I think I might go to the protest thing this Sat, but I’m having trouble figuring out which of the many possible issues to protest. Maybe I’ll make a sign that says “Pick Your Issue–the Real Problem is: BUSH LIES”
can you put a link that is alive..or if I cut and paste where do i put the link? I am so showing my computer Bad…MSO lives so close by me..maybe like 10 minutes…maybe she will give me a Computer lesson..That would be a BLAST. Then I can make fun colored boxes, links, pictures(I can then post a pic of my Brussels Griffon..little tinky aka babette)..the whole kit n kaboodle.
And you thought he gave up cheerleading in college. Bush will be in Tucson Monday to have a “conversation” about Social Security. I hope Southern Arizona reminds him that we voted for Kerry here in Pima County.
I find it funny how they won’t give any details about the event until the same day…
Someone wake me up from the nightmare.
Someone PLEASE try to get in even if you have to fake being a repug. That or be prepared to go anywhere in the county to stand outside and protest. Big signs with IMPEACH BUSH or Bush is a war criminal.
The Arizona House is expected to vote Monday on whether to allow vouchers that would provide Arizona residents with money to send their children to private schools.
Not only will this drain money from public schools, many of which are in dire financial straits, but it may use your tax dollar in some cases to fund schools that you’d rather not fund.
Just click on the links and write a single line — all it needs to say is “Please do not vote to allow school vouchers.” Put it in the Subject line, too. Or, if you call the offices you’ll get someone who will tally your request, and possibly ask for your street address to verify you’re in District 20.
Please forward this to anyone else in District 20 who might be interested.
Well, that wasn’t very helpful, so I will try to describe it in words: left bracket <, i and then right bracket >, then the words you want in italics, then do the same thing all over again except that after the <, you insert a slash / and then the right bracket. This is really hard to put into words
I am a little disappointed in the lack of participation here on the west thread. I was thinking maybe if we had a topic of the day type deal. Throw up say five topics and pick one for the day? Any ideas westerners?
Sounds like a good idea. We could also use that state topic to find out what people in each state are doing concerning issues each state is working on..such as environment, gay marriage, off shore drilling. What legislator’s in each state, district are doing about those issues.
This might also give people in their respective states ideas on how to be more organized or effective in dealing with those issues or even become more coordinated across state lines on issues like gay marriage.
I think water is going to become increasingly a huge issue. Republicans have been working for years now on trying to get water privatized.
I am all for this too. Problem is I have not paid as much attention to State and local matters as I should, since I have been concentrating on national and international.
But will be happy to get up to speed and participate. I am in Socal by the way.
Yeah, I’m with you on being hyper-focused on the national and international issues to the detriment of local doings. But, like you, I would be willing to delve into some regional issues to mix it up.
What would you all say to having a discussion about water policy? Sounds boring, I know, but here in Washington (I live in Seattle btw) our governor has already declared a drought emergency. We are looking at water rationing worse than when I moved here in ’92 (people were fined and threatened with jail time for watering their lawns or washing their cars then), wildfires, little water for farmers, and possibly rolling blackouts.
me for water issues, since we have had record rain fall this year.
We might want to investigate HAARP, a project by this government to perhaps change the weather. I have been hearing about this for years now on Coast to Coast radio show (anyone else listen to C to C) and I think we have a real problem with this program. I heard that recently they have ratcheted up the program.
“”HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an ‘ionospheric heater’. (The ionosphere is the electrically- charged sphere surrounding Earth’s upper atmosphere. It ranges between about 40 to 600 miles above Earth’s surface.)
Put simply, the apparatus for HAARP is a reversal of a radio telescope: antennas send out signals instead of receiving. HAARP is the test run for a super-powerful radio wave beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto Earth and penetrate everything-living and dead. HAARP publicity gives the impression that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program is mainly an academic project with the goal of changing the ionosphere to improve communications for our own good. However, other US military documents put it more clearly: HAARP aims to learn how to “exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes”. Communicating with submarines is only one of those purposes.”””
And this:
“”””Avalanches of energy dislodged by such radio waves could hit us hard. Their work suggests that technicians could control global weather by sending relatively small ‘signals’ into the Van Allen belts (radiation belts around Earth). Thus Tesla’s resonance effects can control enormous energies by tiny triggering signals.
The Begich/Manning book asks whether that knowledge will be used by war-oriented or biosphere-oriented scientists.
The military has had about 20 years to work on weather warfare methods, which it euphemistically calls weather modification. For example, rainmaking technology was taken for a few test rides in Vietnam. The US Department of Defense sampled lightning and hurricane manipulation studies in Project Skyfire and Project Stormfury. And they looked at some complicated technologies that would give big effects. Angels Don’t Play This HAARP cites an expert who says the military studied both lasers and chemicals which they figured could damage the ozone layer over an enemy. Looking at ways to cause earthquakes, as well as to detect them, was part of the project named Prime Argus, decades ago. The money for that came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, now under the acronym ARPA). In 1994 the US Air Force revealed its Spacecast 2020 master plan which includes weather control. Scientists have experimented with weather control since the 1940s, but Spacecast 2020 noted that “using environmental modification techniques to destroy, damage or injure another state [is] prohibited”. Having said that, the Air Force claimed that advances in technology “compels a re-examination of this sensitive and potentially risk
HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an ‘ionospheric heater’.
Sounds like a loony version of the Reaganistas’ “Star Wars” anti-missile system (as if that wasn’t loony enough).
Also sounds like something that is really intended only to create weather for use as a weapon in war against adversaries. Our tax dollars at work. Hooray.
your weather sounds like it has been here in the past. We had a horrible drought in the 70’s or 80’s, can’t remember exactly, but it was just like you are describing going on there. That is when they stopped even giving a glass of water in restaurants unless you asked and still to this day do not in most places.
And then we always have the fires.
An interesting topic: Mudslides triggered by our unusually heavy rain this year, and whether excessive development has increased the risk of even more damage. Certainly the 2003 Socal fires increased the risk of flooding or mudslides in the backcountry.
Worth some research and thought, if anyone’s up for it.
WA spoken here, as well as TXan. Lived 5 years in NW King Co., where we tried all year to get water off our property, now live in the Rainshadow, where we try all year to get water ONTO our property.
Where in TX? I ran away to the Soviet of Washington in ’89.
Beer-time is anytime after 5:00 anywhere on weekends. Unfortunately not until 5:00 pst M-F.
SF beer time – I’m just north of you – beer in Sausalito for a frog pond meet-up in the future? But before June when the tourii arrive… tourii = plural of tourist in our house
Could we make that Kaluha and coffee time instead? I have a coffee cup attatched to my hand just about permanently and it’s coffee or nuttin for me or a chocolate liquer with coffee..ha
There must be more than 3 of us if the Bay Area… methinks noone checks the regionalized open thread cause they’re (no offense Booman) kinda stale. But a Bay Area meetup would be swell!
I prefer SF, maybe somewhere down near the Ferry building… if we plan something, we’ll need a frontpage diary. And t-shirts. Definitely t-shirts.
which reminds me – did you all catch the t-shirt someone posted in Bob Johnson’s feeding tube diary debacle? If you missed it, well, it was priceless. Not to mention tactless, crass and some other things…
I’m jealous. would love to try and do a meet up of BooTribe folks in the San Diego county. Any takers? Tried to get one set up awhile back with Kossacks and we started to make plans and then I felt it either got dropped or I got dropped teehee. Had a feeling most folks there were college kids and didn’t want the AARP crown involved. So any 40+ people want to try and meet.
Oh so late to this!! Hi Aloha! Del Mar eh? Here, if I throw a rock across the I-5….there you are!!
Exactly 40 and living in Carmel Valley. Mostly active on Dkos, but check this out at odd times since many of my Kossack friends are here as well. Email is in my profile. Give me a holler if you see this.
Hi to you. I was just skimming through the thread and spotted this. sorry not to get to you sooner. hasn’t been too much discussion here so only drop by on occasion. dkis alumni too. I will send you an email when I get a chance and we can chat or maybe even meet for coffee or lunch one day. look forward to talking with you.
Hi, I may be the only one in the west still up tonight, so I am going to welcome you to this site. I am in Santa Ana, cal. I invite you to see my diary and participate if you wish its the one on rants, if you want to get anything off your chest tonight.
Other than that please participate in any way you wish; we are a pretty easy going bunch so far so so no one willjump on you mostly, like DK if you know that site.
LA Metro area…I’d be more specific, but I’ve been all over in the past few months and will be moving again before June. As close to Mar Vista as I can afford (which probably means Culver City).
I don’t like Bakersfield…it’s redneck country making it pretty crappy to me. Way way to much prejudice and bigotry around here. I live about 30 miles away in taft but it’s basically the same thing.
My youngest nephew(25)tells me a lot of how many young kids think around here and it’s scary. Like drawing nazi swastika symbols in bathrooms and such. If I didn’t have to live here you couldn’t pay me to live here.
To this site and to the west coast, are you a new arrival.
I am in Orange county and have you been here yet. Check us out before you move to Culver City. Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach are especially beautiful as are other cities around here.
As a former resident of Inglewood, Ca. I could never go back to the LA area I don’t even like to visit. Most of us in OC feel that way.
If I could live in say, Beverly Hills, in a very beautiful house, I would go, but only for that.
Not a new arrival; I moved here in 1997 to go to USC. I work in Torrance and most of my friends live in the north of the LA. Being near my friends is important to me because my entire family (except one uncle in Marina del Rey) live on the East Coast. Torrance even seems too far away sometimes, so I don’t think I could move down to the OC.
Though LA has its share of problems (traffic, pollution, shallow people) I usually really enjoy it.
I don’t usually visit Orange County (and I have a personal beef against Irvine) but coworkers tell me that Newport and Laguna are very beautiful.
Ideally, I would live in Mar Vista (where I used to live), but it’s SOOO expensive. It’s lovely and ideally situated near the freeways I use regularly.
It’s expensive here too and especially Newport, a little less in costa Mesa, but there are expensive enclaves all over this area, even inland.
FYI Orange country seems to be pretty well covered as freeway access. Most cities are right on links to the 5 or 55 or 405 and can easily zip on and head anywhere.
I have lived in quite a few cities and never had to drive more than 5 min. to get on freeway.
In the old days, pre 405, it took 2+ hours to drive from Inglewood to Huntington Beach, on surface streets.
What’s your beef against Irvine, just curious?
Where did you move here from?
I had the same problems with relatives when I moved here years ago, they were all in Pa. I had to make my own relatives, (kids) so now I have plenty; most in Pa, have now passed on.
Gee, I can’t imagine a world without the 405 (though sometimes I’d like to).
About Irvine: I had to go there for work once, and my car was low on gas, but I had to make a meeting. So I let it run down to almost fumes and told myself I’d get in on the way back.
After the meeting, I went back the way I came. No gas station. So I turned around and went the other way (these are major roads I’m on). No gas station. I drove through housing development after housing development. No gas station. At this point I’m thinking, Is there anything besides developments in Irvine? And where do all of the residents fill up their cars?
In all of these developments, I get lost, because they all look alike. So I’m lost in Irvine, stressing because my car is about to die of no gas. I drive through housing development after business park after housing development. No gas station.
So finally I find a gas station, but I’m still lost in Irvine, and it took me way too long to find my way out. And I would ask, but by this point I’ve gotten myself to a mostly-deserted road near (but not leading to, dammit!) the freeway where developments are being built and there is no one around. So Irvine has earned my undying enemnity.
It’s not really just Irvine, though. I hate most suburbs. I grew up on Long Island in New York (most of my family is still there), and I hated that too. I’m also not fond of the Valley.
Gee what a time you have had in Irvine, I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do.. I know what you mean about that town, although I have not been there for several years. It is strange because it is a pre planned town totally, and it was designed to be a strictly bedroom community. They did not want to have to be bothered with too many businesses I guess, and young people think it’s terrible because there is not much to do. To me it is a very sterile area.
About the 405, when I first moved here in 1960 there was only one major freeway and that was the 5. Later the 605 was built, and then the others. The 405 did not go all the way to HB until about 1968. Was a great blessing for all of us here that were still linked to LA as I was at the time with my mother still living in Inglewood.
I also lived in Inglewood before LAX was rebuilt, just a small airport then, but very busy.
That definitely came across. Sterile is a good word…I think that is what bothers me so much about the suburbs in general.
BTW, I checked out your blog. Cool stuff – I hadn’t heard at all about the tsunami uncovering ancient ruins. I wonder if it really is a major find, or just stones that look like a temple, like that archaeologist said.
I think if I recall correctly that it was thought or even known an ancient city was there and one of the 7 temples was still standing pre tsunami, but it had been hundreds of years since the remainder of the city was covered with the ocean water.
If you go to the site I linked, there is a pic. of the statue group that was uncovered and if you do a zoom on it you can see the object better.
I posted a diary with an update of the Minutemen Project’s latest…they are the subject of an investigation by local authorities here in Southern Arizona.
checking in here. Action item today from MoveOnPAC–
“…We’ve set the ambitious goal of generating 25,000 phone calls today opposing the “nuclear option” to break the rules and ram through extreme judges. If you make a call today, your voice will combine with thousands of others to have a huge impact. Please call right now:
* Senator Max Baucus DC Phone: 202-224-2651
* Senator Conrad Burns DC Phone: 202-224-2644
Then tell us you’ve called and track our progress towards 25,000, by clicking here: MoveOn PAC link ”
I’m honestly not sure if Booman is necessary or not. But, it seems to have interested many of the better DailyKos posters (albeit, often with duplicative material), so I figured I’d give it a spin.
Welcome from Ca. I for one feel a lot more comfortable here and like the tone of diaries and the fact that they stay around longer so people can think and ponder and post on them a bit more. The international flavor and viewpoint is a very big draw for me also.
In fact I hardly go to Kos anymore except when someone here links to Kos.
Hope you end up liking it here and the discussions that happen here. A new voice is always good.
To be “necessary”, in the long run, Booman Tribune (or Next Hurrah or Liberal Street Fight or Unbossed or whomever) will have to offer something beyond just your favorite dKos diarists posting their same kinds of stuff on the “front page” of another website.
That could be done by being specialized instead of more general, or by offering one person’s unique, distinctive take that is worth going out of your way to find every day (like Steve Gilliard or Billmon). Or by doing something else that seems compelling and distinctive.
I agree, it needs to find its own identity, separate from the “present and former kos posters” one.
Internationalizing is a start to that, but still if it’s too much like kos and too much duplication, then people will just go to kos instead of, as opposed to in addition to.
As someone else noted, the pace here is slower. I get frustrated that some of my best work on Kos slips away within an hour of its being posted. Yet still I post there because the potential audience is a lot larger.
Give BT time. It will find its own identity. I doubt it will ever be as big as Daily Kos, but as we can see over there size and popularity bring their own problems.
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005504090321 This is a good short summary of everything Arnie’s trying to do here in Ca. It’s hard to believe he has the nerve to call teachers/nurses and firefighters ‘special interest’ groups while raising so much money from the pharmaceutical industry, insurance, energy companies and such.
He’s also now far surpassed Davis in fundraising.
Another article at Yahoo seems to show his poll numbers are going way down and that people are starting to realize he’s a lying asshole-typical repug in other words.
I hope he keeps up his stupid assault on teachers/nurses and firefighters so everyone in the state will finally get he’s not out for the regular working class person. Hopefully this will translate into running him out of office in the next governors election. Send his steroid brain back to Hollywood where he make stupid movies, maybe ‘Conan the Barbarian tries to conquer Old Age’. Or ‘Terminated: Rise of the Harassment Law Suits’.
Governor Napolitano of Arizona vetoed the “right of conscience” legislation today. Go Janet! Her response, “It is unwise to pass laws opposed by the leading associations of professionals whom the bill purports to protect.”
She will be attacked heavily for this, we have to show our support. You can thank her via this contact sheet.
I posted another diary with an Action Item regarding another (hopefully) Veto by Governor Napolitano. It’s regarding the verification of electronic votes. You can find it here.
Hargrove (my senator on the Olympic Peninsula) unfortunately voted against the Senate bill for stem cell research on Monday. There’s ONE LAST CHANCE to pass the bill. The deadline is April 15 (that’s tomorrow). PLEASE CALL and send e-mails.
INFO:
Regulating stem cell research and human cloning.
“encourage ethical stem-cell research at the University of Washington that could help find cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes.
“The people of Washington know that stem-cell research can lead to truly amazing and miraculous cures for devastating diseases that afflict tens of millions of Americans,” said state Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park. “But they want to know this research is being done responsibly and ethically, and that it will not lead to experiments in reproductive cloning.”
Schual-Berke’s legislation would create a 13-member advisory committee of scientists, medical ethicists, legal scholars and citizens to develop guidelines for stem-cell research in Washington.
The measure expressly prohibits reproductive cloning of a human being.
The legislation also requires health-care providers to inform fertility-treatment patients of their options regarding the disposal of unused embryos, and that patients must provide informed written consent before donating unused embryos for research.
Opponents of the measure argued that human life begins at conception, and that it is wrong to use stem cells for research. But Schual-Berke emphasized that the cells which could be used for stem-cell research are currently discarded.
During the floor debate on the bill, co-sponsor Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, talked about two people he knew with life-altering diseases, and the hope offered by stem-cell research.
“I saw a vibrant young man with a promising future totally disintegrate before my eyes from aggressive Parkinson’s disease,” said Sullivan. “But when we had hearings on this bill, I saw hopelessness turn into hope. I saw possibilities and a light at the end of the tunnel for the human suffering that exists today not only in our nation, but around the world.”
Schual-Berke cited surveys showing that a majority of Washington residents support ethical stem-cell research.
“Other states and countries have embarked on research that can revolutionize medicine,” said Schual-Berke. “The choices we make will determine whether Washington helps to lead this revolution or is left out.”
Sadly, that bill was defeated in the WA senate last Friday. Today I got the word that it just wasn’t enough for the Republicans to have crushed the hopes of many suffering citizens for another year. Nooooooo. They want to make it permanent.
See, they’re determined not to let Chris Gregoire get a victory on her “centerpiece” legislation . . . which is a multi-million dollar package that will facilitate “life sciences” research industry here in WA.
So, they’ve attached an amendment to the life sciences bill that criminalizes all forms of embryonic stem cell research. Period.
And what’s sickening is that Gregoire’s aides are going around today suggesting that she might just be willing to sign the thing, even with that amendment.
This woman campaigned on stem cell research. She mentioned it repeatedly, especially in debates with her opponent. She needs phone calls–no, she needs a dope slap. I’d rather have Republicans in charge than Democrats who roll over. At least I’d be spared the feeling of being used. Grrr.
Redmond, WA (Eastside Seattle) here. West Lake Sammamish area down the hill from Microsoft. Pittsburgh to Tampa to here. I am the last computer dolt in Redmond, WA but I’m not being harrassed by the Microsofties.
I spend time at Crossroads Mall and harrass Microsofties.
This just in from the Associated Press… The army reservist who held seven illegal immigrants at gunpoint won’t be prosecuted because he made a “lawful citizen arrest”. Article can be found here.
…using a weapon to defend yourself from imminent, serious bodily harm is legit. I would consider being charged by six men a pretty good indication that serious bodily harm is imminent.
…As for the whole illegal alien smuggling angle: that came after the act, according to the reports. If he’d known there was a smuggler he could have arrested him under Arizonal law, but that’s not something that would have come out except under questioning. There’s nothing in the articles to suggest that why he pulled the weapon.
The Sargent walks, and rightly so, IMHO. What am I missing here?
As long as the car is an electric one. Or too bad we couldn’t do something like each user donate a dollar and you could donate that to your favorite charity or political cause from the BooTrib. That might get some publicity and word out on the site also.
Well from Newport Beach, CA actually but I bounce around.
Brand new BooT tonight, UID 718, dual citizenship over at Kos, but I think I’m about 42K something over there. Thanks for letting me come over and hang BooMan.
Ski season is officially over. I did about 140 days of skiing this year, taught a whole bunch of eight to twelve year olds how to ski. Had a GREAT time but by the time last week rolled around I was sooo over it.
Love Big Bear…so beautiful. Spent a week up there four summers ago. I heard the lake was dangerously low last year. Hope with all the snow this winter the lake is back up. Stayed at a house on an inlet where one could dock one’s boat. All those inlets were closed last year because the level was so low. We would love to go up again this summer. Welcome to the Tribe. Great community of folks here.
I don’t know about a prize, but I think this will be 250 comment, and I think that that is when the top comments will start to come off.
I noticed that Booman brought up my diary today on Tell us about you and there are so many new members in the last few days, so I hope you will all fill us in on who you are on that diary.
And welcome to our community!!!!!
Boo. Yah. Panorama City, CA in the house. I’m MamasGun on Plastic and DailyKOS, and MsGeek on Slashdot. Glad to have joined up. Link to the site forthcoming on my blog: http://www.msgeek.org/
I’m too lazy to scroll through all the comments to see if there are others to append this to, but greetings from the People’s Republic of Eugene, Oregon! Hooray!
Welcome to the Tribe. Outstanding community of like minded folks that not afraid to differ in opinion and will at times agree to diagee in a very cordial and respectful way. Sadly the west open thread has been lacking as a vehicle to communicate. Oh well, we tried. Nice of you to join us.
“When we hide behind the sophistry and esoteric proceedings of the U.S. Senate in such a way that it prevents us from doing our duty under the Constitution . . . then it’s time to ask why we’re really here,” Franks said. “We have a duly elected Republican president asking a duly elected Senate majority to have courage to have an up-or-down vote.
“If Republicans don’t have the courage to do that, then maybe we don’t have the right to govern.”
Holy Exploding Toads! For the first time, I actually agree with Rep. Franks–the Republicans shouldn’t be governing.
There once was a thread that refused to be dead.
It stretched for days to my computer’s dismay.
My hard drive, it smoked; my modem went broke
and all I could was wait.
where you live on the Western Front of the US. It was in the 80’s here in the OC, SoCal, but it really felt like the 90’s. Gosh I hate to start using the airconditioner.
My plants hate it too, they want water several times a day now and if I have to be gone for most of a day they rebel and fold up.
Anyway what are you trying to do here Chocolate…get the numbers to roll over, but the thread just drops off the overage doesn’t it, will always hold 250? Could you clue me in and then I will help…..
Perhaps Chocolate you could start a chain story…
But what I’d really like to see here are some substantive posts. Of course, you don’t see me posting anything like that, do you?
Regional issues that are bugging me lately:
–the reversal of the roadless rule in National Forests.
–the complete lack of understanding about regional environmental and conservation issues in general by the federal government, from forests to fish.
–anti-wind power NIMBYites (OK, maybe this is larger than just a Western issue)
–the conflict of Western social libertarianism (medical marijuana, Oregon’s death with dignity law) and a right-wing federal government.
–obnoxious East Coast stereotypes about people West of the Rockies.
The night sky was drenched with stars, yet due to the Pollution Evolution the stars now appeared as a thousand different colors. How I longed for the Green Days when the stars shimmered with an icy blue brilliance.
I hugged my trenchcoat tighter around me as I shivered lightly in the cold night air, wondering how much longer I had to stand here watching for………………
the spaceship. My pick up time was 10 minutes ago and how I long to get back home high above the earth in the huge and expansive space station our Founder Bush had built during the early 2000’s. He was so wise those many years ago when he used all that black ops money plus the money his cronies stole in Iraq and other countries around the world to build the finest space port in the sky. With all the virtual realities tech we have now we are able to almost duplicate Mother Earth, of course I mean the way it was before the planet died……
.
GO WEST! Just cross the Pacific, Asian continent and across the Oeral Mountains. Stop before crossing the North Sea, otherwise you land in Blair’s territory.
Beyond the Rocks
Director: Sam Wood USA. 1922. 85 min. Tinted.
Cast: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Gertrude Astor, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis, Robert Bolder, Mabel Van Buren, Helen Dunbar, Raymond Blathwayt, F.R. Butler and June Elvidge
Milestone is proud to be releasing around the world, Beyond the Rocks, the recently rediscovered silent romance starring film legends Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. Long considered one of the great “lost” films from the Hollywood golden age, only a one-minute fragment was known to exist in the Nederlands Filmmuseum.
Beyond the Rocks, just for its star power alone, has been one of the most sought-after films of the silent era.
Lost for over eighty years, film cataloguers at the Nederlands Filmmuseum were amazed to find the first two nitrate reels of Beyond the Rocks when inventorying a vast collection of nitrate bequeathed to them by a film collector from Haarlem, they were amazed. The Filmmuseum staff then searched for many tense months until they found and identified all the missing reels of the film.
The daughter of Gloria Swanson did an exclusive interview for Dutch TV, seeing her mother act for the first time on the screen. She was both delighted and amazed, with critique only a daughter would have about her own mother.
“You look a bit chubby there mother.” and … “Oh, now keep your shoulders high, as you always told me to do.” But looking at one scene, she mentions an anecdote from her mother. Gloria Swanson wanted to make this film with her friend Rudolph Valentino, but there was a scene where she would fall overboard in the water, to be rescued. Not to miss out on the part, she kept silent to the director Sam Wood that she couldn’t swim! She was so glad Rudolph dove into the water, and in fact did rescue her.
More than four years ago, in the archives of the Filmmuseum, the first fragments of the long-lost a classic Beyond the Rocks (Sam Wood, 1922) turned up in the estate of a Dutch film lover. Hundreds of rusty film cans had to be opened and it was several years before the six remaining rolls of film were found. At the end of 2003 the last missing pieces appeared and the Filmmuseum could start on the restoration. Henny Vrienten composed a new score.
The Haarlem film collector had six buildings packed with mementos. And even then there was a lack of space. Until his death in 2000, the man slept between columns of film cans filled with extremely flammable nitrate film. The collector, described by his acquaintances as “a little suspicious of character,” had a habit of dividing the reels of the longer films in his possession between different storage depots. As a result, those who inherited his estate found themselves with a collection of incomplete films.
.
ROTTERDAM — Waterway near world greatest harbor.
Presentation half-hour Talk Show TV3 – May 19, 2005 – with 4 min. views of restored film, where music is composed and added.
Beyond the Rocks
Director: Sam Wood USA. 1922. 85 min. Tinted.
Cast: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Gertrude Astor, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis, Robert Bolder, Mabel Van Buren, Helen Dunbar, Raymond Blathwayt, F.R. Butler and June Elvidge
Beyond the Rocks, just for its star power alone, has been one of the most sought-after films of the silent era.
We are almost there. Anyone here have any thoughts as to how we would like to use this thread? I for one would like for us to start organising marches on federal buildings calling for the impeachment of The Empire!(sorry saw Star Wars last night).
I can safely ask this dumb question here, as it should be disappearing soon!
But anyway, when you look at your user page, and you see [info – diary – comments – ratings – stories]… what are ‘stories’ and how to they differ from ‘diaries’?
Will this whole diary drop off after 300 or just the first comment and so on……
Well we can get it to 300 in a few minutes if others will post comments here.
Nanette I don’t know what stories are either.
Well I read this morning(forgot link) that Arnie is out in Jebland to raise money for his ongoing redistricting campaigns and such for good old Ca. Several different dinners-at 5 to 25,000 a plate just to get to see the big steroid oaf.
I hope every idiot who voted for him is realizing he’s just another empty suit republican who needs to be kicked out the next election.
Does he ever stay in the state and do any real work here besides photo ops in his freaken Hummer?
This will be comment 303 I think and still nothing, what’s the deal here. LOL
By the way can you Booman or anyone tell me how to make the sig line at the bottom of a comment, be set up to link to blog. That would be in preferences and the command lines do not work….for me.
Thanks, Boo, I’m just kinda having fun now with the whole thing. I trust to to get it all straightened out soon. Not like I’m really frothing at the mouth about this….and oh god….am on the extra pain pills again today which is why you’re seeing all the running off at the mouth posting today, so far.
Landslides started at 5 am PST, 18 homes lost, 75 in danger, 250 homes evacuated, minor injuries, no deaths.
This is in Bluebird Canyon, near site of landslide in 1978.
This is located about 30 minutes from where I live, down the coast.
Schwarzenegger Syndrome: Politics and Celebrity in the Age of Contempt by Gary Indiana was reviewed in an article titled Demolition Man by Ben Ehrenreich:
“… he starts not with the twisted mechanics of California’s 2003 recall vote he’ll get to that but with the appointment to the presidency of a ‘mush-mouthed, dyslexic, perpetually vacationing cipher.’ Jump to that cipher’s near seamless elevation to eternal warlord in chief following ‘our very own Reichstag fire’ and you’re not far from the realm where, ‘to the bewildered and traumatized who continued to imagine that ‘fascism’ described a condition other than the merger of the state with corporate capitalism, hasta la vista, baby sounded like as workable a program as anything else.’
Hyperbolic, sure, but if any times ever made hyperbole feel like understatement, these are them. Arnold Schwarzenegger, steroidal cartoon and killer robot, ‘dream politician for the Time of the Rapture,’ is, after all, governing the most populous state in the union. When it’s not actively drawing blood, Schwarzenegger Syndrome can feel unfocused, but what doesn’t these days? And it’s hard not to love a man who calls John McCain a ‘bowel-impacted martinet’ and questions his ability to hold up under torture: ‘If we threw him in a stew pot, he’d stand up and salt himself. That’s the kind of patriotism America needs.’ “
Even if the West link directs to a new thread and you keep this one off to the side until you finalize the archiving function. I’m itching to start posting some regional-related issues.
I know it’s diary-whoring, but this is a suitable place to put it.
Last night the Long Beach (CA) City Council decided to permit progress of the Liquid Natural Gas port in the Port of Long Beach (thru which 45% of American imports pass). There are over 20 other proposed sites on the west coast, but Long Beach opponents of the project have found a perfect site only 25 miles away… in a Marine Corps base.
This is the perfect place for it. Thx for the heads up, I noticed alot of Californians in the welcome diaries, hopefully you’ll find some local help amidst the growing numbers around here. Peace!
Next week, the California Secretary of State’s office is holding a hearing to consider purchasing some pretty scary electronic voting machines from Diebold and ES&S–using your taxpayer dollars.
The California Election Protection Network is very concerned about the machines they are considering, which do not adequately protect the integrity of the vote.
The deadline for written comment is 5pm today. I sent the following letter. If you agree and are also concerned, you can use this letter as a template for your own. (Editing to put this into your own words will be much more effective.)
Comments should be e-mailed or faxed to Bruce McDannold in the CA Secretary of State’s office. Email is bmcdanno@ss.ca.gov. Fax is 916-653-3214.
Voting Systems and Procedures Panel (VSPP)
Office of the California Secretary of State
Attn. Bruce McDannold
1500 11th St, 5th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear California Public Officials:
I am writing to express my alarm as California considers adopting voting equipment manufactured by Diebold and ES&S.
Clean and open elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. I implore you to insist on equipment that meets the following common-sense criteria:
No wireless or Internet access, which leaves votes vulnerable to manipulation
Each machine needs to produce an archival paper trail
No proprietary software or hardware
No private maintenance of machines
Disqualification of vendors with software authored by anyone ever convicted of a felony, or any vendors that allows convicted felons access to computer source code or voter identification information
Paper trails should not have to be read by a private entity, and should not be produced on a cash register roll that can violate voter privacy
Vendors who have been sued under any name or who have previously installed illegal voting equipment in California should be disqualified
No overly complex voting machines that requires extra payment to poll workers or excessive technical training
No modular data components vulnerable to exchanges with malicious data
Fairness can only be achieved by using accessible, voter-verifiable, paper ballots on archival paper that can be shuffled to retain secrecy of the sequence of voting. We need to mandate audits for every election, with genuinely random sampling of a minimum of 5% percent of the paper ballots (or paper audit trails) and 5% of provisional and absentee ballots. This audit should involve hand-counting with non-partisan oversight in a public forum.
Please do not make a terrible error simply to grab a share of HAVA money before an arbitrary deadline. If the machinery presented at the June 16 hearing is not safe and acceptable, then California should refrain from acting at this time.
I do not wish to see my tax dollars spent on suspect electronic voting systems without a verifiable paper trail. If voters do not have confidence that machines are not rigged, then everything we hold dear is lost.
Sincerely,
Beyond today’s deadline for written comments, if you can attend next week’s hearing in Sacramento, it is on Thursday, June 16, at 10am.
The California Election Protection Network is looking for people to attend and sign up as speakers. By signing up to speak and then waiving your 3 minutes (when you are called upon) to one of our speakers at the meeting, you will give us extra time to convey our concerns to the panel.
Location
Office of the Secretary of State
1500 11th Street- 1st Floor (Auditorium)
Sacramento, California 95814
Thursday, June 16, 2005*
9:00 a.m. -Convene in front of the Secretary State Bldg.
10:00 a.m. – Hearing & upon adjournment receive notices as to the location of a citizen forum with presentations
*In the event that this VSPP hearing is postponed or cancelled, we will convene for an impromptu citizen rally to lobby the Legislature.
you were that close! Love driving Hwy. 9 through the San Lorenzo Valley…and now that the spouse and I have a car again, we need to make a long-delayed trip to Big Basin…
Next time you drive through Ben Lomond on Hwy 9 look for our new bio-diesel station. I have a photo but I don’t know how to upload it.
Isn’t Big Basin wonderful? My sister was hiking there when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989. She got out safely but she was shook up (lame joke). Later we hiked up to Loma Prieta and found some fissures and took some photos near the epicenter.
What’s up in Bezerkley?
Awesome site, dude!
Just what I need — another excuse to avoid my own work…
Thank you so much, and give praise to Andy who is a hell of a good programmer and great to work with as well.
Welcome.
BooMan … I never imagined there could be another blog that would give Kos a run for it’s money but this site does all that and manages to up the ante. Kudos and bravo to all involved.
Love the look, love the posts, the diaries and so many familiar ‘faces’. What a slice of Heaven. Love the regional open threads, how many brilliant geniuses worked on this? How many times can I say love in one paragraph?
Checking in from El Lay !
Represent
NNE quadrant of the inner north bay too (that’s “east bay 2” for the non-navigationally obsessed :).
Copy.
Ah, where my roots are.
Ok, if LaMorinda and roots can go in the same sentence, that is!
SanFrancisco is my home now.
Tucson, Arizona here! Looking forward to joining the discussion. The site looks great.
I’m in Tucson too! I’d recognize an Eegees anywhere!
Ahhhh Eegees. Yet another reason Pima County rocks! Not to mention the fact that we’re the “Democrat Stronghold” of Arizona! Newbie here, glad to start picking up my activism.
For those of you non-Tucsonans, here’s how we survive the heat: Eegees Menu.
Man, eegees sounds good right now 😉 Especially a Dr. Pepper and strawberry fizz with ranch fries….Mmmmm…
Hey, don’t forget Coconino County! We are the other Democratic fortress holding out against Maricopa Republicanism.
From my online name you can probably figure out where I’m from in Coconino county. Born in Tucson, grew up in Phoenix, but now a happy resident of Flagstaff.
Good to see some fellow ‘zonies’.
ya’ll
Southbay of LaLaLand
checking in from south bay SF.
this is cool, BooMan. lookin’ forward to more of the same.
Where? I’m in San Mateo.
… in Palo Alto.
Everything feels so … familiar here.
Except for the regional threads. Great idea, Booman.
its so, so, um, it is so not orange
what’s that all about, orange ain’t good enough ???
and now with spel chex two, know xcusez nowe
if your head exploded, you just might be a spelling nazi
We’re here in the Way, Way, Out West of Hawai’i too!
Great site BooMan!
Even the Best side of Idaho (South Eastern) is here in the middle of the damn night.
My wife is from SE Idaho. Caribou County.
Rigby, in Jefferson Co. About 20 miles NE of Idaho Falls.
So Eastern Idaho- hmmm I’m kind of partial to the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Do you run whitewater shirlstars?
There’s a lot to be partial to in the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Haven’t done any whitewater, but would love to give it a go one day.
I am over near Idaho Falls. But the Snake river runs behind my place here in Rigby. Not very white water, but far more swift than it looks. A fairly dangerous river it is, but gosh awful beautiful. It is not the Salmon, but it is pretty neat.
checking in from the unfortunately red part of CA. Was on my way to bed and got sidetracked listening to 60’s music on PBS..we need another decade like that of music/protests to get rid of bush/company.
Are you familiar with Take Back Red California – started by DFA and now working with other Dem groups in the state?
What part of red CA? We are planning road trips through 2006 to do local GOTV and support to red CA.
part of state…no I wasn’t. That’s a bloody good idea. Is there a website?
Not yet except a little info at DFAMarin.org but I’m on one of the committees and can forward some emails. Our local DFA is working with Dem committees around the state including the Rural Caucus.
I did a diary on “Songs of War and Peace” on Dkos. Dylan, Donavon, Country Joe, with links to the actual songs. Unfortunately, it Kos is down again for the second time today so I can’t send you the link. What’s more, I can’t listen to it myself! BTW, love the spellcheck!
Cool, a western discussion thread. Westerners need this for our congressional stuff and state stuff. And face it, we care more about knocking off Renzi in Arizona, and the really BIG pension money in the State employees pension fund, and who gets the water, and western stuff like that. I’m in the Sonoma County Calif. north of San Francisco.
Hi Rolfyboy – Marin County here…
Hi Rolf!
Orange County here. Pity me.
Kickin’ site, Booman. I like the green guy.
There’s a movement afoot in Central Arizona to recall republican Senator John Huppenthal. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/tempe/articles/0312ar-recall120Z10.html
Besides telling angry parents of an elementary school district that “the cavalry is not coming” in regards to funding for art and music, and supporting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, he also supports a bill that would allow concealed weapons in bars.
Here’s the email from the organizers of the recall:
Thank you for your interest in the Recall Huppenthal effort. The response just in the first 24 hours since the Ahwatukee Foothills News article ran has been great. I thought I’d send a quick note to tell you what to expect next.
The paperwork to officially form a Recall Huppenthal committee will be filed at the State Capitol on Monday. Later that day, we will be sending a news release to all the major news outlets in the Valley and we expect we’ll see several stories in the following days.
As soon as we can, we’ll begin circulating a petition. We will put out a call for volunteers to circulate petitions and hold a quick orientation — probably early the week of March 21.
We also plan to pepper the district with signs, have a web site, create flyers and buttons, etc.
The first thing you can do is send out information to all your friends who live in the district (even people outside D20 can volunteer to help circulate the petition). Have them send a note to recallhuppenthal@yahoo.com. If you’d like the official language that will be on the petition, let us know and we can send it to you via email. It’s quite an impressive list of Huppenthal failures!
Also, if you are part of a list serve or group that would be interested in this information, send them a note and again encourage people to send a note to recallhuppenthal@yahoo.com.
Finally, if you have done petitions in the past in D20 and know of any good places that allow petitioners and/or information tables, please send us a note and let us know. We’re developing a list of petition-friendly locations now.
Thanks.
— The Recall Huppenthal Team
That would be the “Arm the drunks” bill?
Hi, San Jose here (bet you couldn’t guess that from my user name).
I would really like to work with everyone who lives in CA to try to counter the petitions that are being circulated right now (the Governors “special” $70 million election in November.)
The other issue to work on is to get rid of the Fabricator in 2006.
Looking forward to reading and discussing “west” issues here.
Yeah. Wouldn’t it be great if we had another “total recall”. heh.
Got an idea on this.
On last week’s “Nightline” on blogging, I noticed that MaurainVA has organized a group to read every single bill introduced in the Virginia legislature. The group divides ’em up, and each person “reports” on the content of the bills they’ve reviewed. I love that idea.
Can we do something like that with the 2005 initiatives in California? Get a relatively small group together, review all the initiatives, and be the watchdogs for this exercise in law-making chaos? Should be very do-able because there won’t be that many proposed initiatives as compared to bills introduced in the Virginia legislature, not to mention the absurd avalanche of bills introduced every year in the California legislature.
Anyone who’s interested, or has an idea for a better way of going about it, drop me an e-mail.
CA can’t afford a special election. I’d like to get rid of Arnold also.
Is anyone out there going to the LebowskiFest in Los Angeles on March 25th and 26th?
LebowskiFest? Anywhere I can find info?
-q
Yeah, click on my ad. And make sure to check the FAQ if you want to laugh your ass off.
the Lebowski Fest FAQ
I was cruising around the site last night and read all of the ad..It’s great. Smart/Creative people…I especially like the Nixon Bowling poster. Did you find them or did they find you?
wanting to make it to one of their Fests for years. I am the worst Lebowski addict. I actually play the movie without watching it. I don’t need to watch it anymore. I just like to listen.
Waldport, Oregon here, left Seal Beach, CA 29 years ago.
I wonder if much has changed? <g>
Duncan
Waldport eh? Watch out for tsunamis. I’m in the valley. I think I’m far enough away to avoid getting wet.
with the new information that the new newly appointed WW of the East is going to be representing us around the World? I can’t stand it any longer. Karen Fucking Hughes spreading good cheer on behalf of the US. I can’t stop spewing Chunks. This is now offically the Most embarrassing appointment ever made in the History of the United Fucking States of Cocksucking America. I thought nothing could beat Condi and Abu Gonzales..and now this….watta world…help.
Bernie Kerik has to be a strong contender too.
I kind of expect Bush to give his gal pals important jobs. What he doesn’t realize is that no one likes his gal pals.
They make really lousy diplomats.
After Chertoff, who was a lawyer for al-Qaeda suspects before taking over the criminal investigation of 9/11 (seriously), my outragometer is on the fritz.
I know..but…Karen Hughes…I wouldn’t allow her to babysit or even teach preschool. She makes me so sick, I can’t look at her. I can’t listen to her talk. I don’t know what it is…but I find her just so repulsive. I guess it’s that whole wolf in sheeps clothes, and soccer “knife wielding” mom image with that put on quaint accent. Hold on…oh no…uggggggggggg…i have found it necessary to keep a vomit bucket near my computer. oh…shit….ugghhhhhh..and MSO thought she was nauseous from her percocet…take 2 karen hughes’s and call me in the morning ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
it’s a Texan thing. I really don’t like the accent for starters.
I wonder if Kos hung out more on his own blog in the begining? Way cool that you are around. IMO he could hang a little bit more with the gang over there on occasion. Send KO and invite to come visit here. His essay that he just linked on Dkos is awesome. It’s a great read.
This site would have a been a great place when I was breaking my “orange box” addiction…
And what’s not to love about a Lebowski Fest!!
I don’t know if the time stamps are accurate, but I sent KO an invite at 8:21 EST and then Chaminoix suggested I do so a few minutes later.
Ironic, eerie, serendipitous
And then I went back in time, joined, and made a comment…rrg…or something like that.
checkin things out. Boo did an awesome job and it’s not as crowded(yet) and crazy as some others. And we’ve got the rabid MSO frontpagin. After reading your diaries the images stay with me for so long. Thank you.
good god not twooooooooo karen hughes. and tell us how you truly feel by the way.
and now finding out about bernies little royalty deal on book for 9/11 victims..cesspool doesn’t begin to describe bushs idea of good appointments. I seem to ask myself every goddam day if he can find someone worse than the last and unfortunately am never disappointed.
don’t forget henry fucken kissenger appointment that luckily didn’t go over…but yeah karen hughes baby, bringing her brand of cheer to muslims..but you said it best anyway.
She is not the Wicked Witch of the East. She’s from Texas, for cripes sake! Please don’t insult us Easterners. We have many faults. Karen Hughes is not one of them.
the good witch from the North..I am so sorry to have implied that the formerly known Texan… Karen Hughes who is soon to be residing on the East Coast(if she hasn’t flown in already on her broom) would ever be the WW of the EAST. If anyone here decides where witches come from it would be you and the cute little munchkins..heheheheheheeeee.
couldn’t resist it
that’s FUNNY….so where you from? fess up.
central valley of california
the swamp of paradise, right now
Sacramento…is that central
I aint there (Thank God), about 40 miles south, in the middle of repuglican heaven
I live in the delta, we got thousands of miles of rivers. One of them about 100 yards north of the house
its a swamp right now, just starting to dry out
It smells pretty ripe outside, you can almost sense the growth, even at night
lots of sunshine in the valley lately. If you like aspagras, you’re gonna love this spring
Love it up there….caught a 48 lb salmon in the Sac river. It was delicious.
Southwest, as in New Mexico around Santa Fe.
Hey – inland NW here – “Walla Walla”
well, actually Kooskooskie, but close enough.
Gearing up to cope with a growth tsunami headed our way.
Has anyone succeededin getting fair dialogue about growth without lawsuits?
San Diego here. North of the city, in the burbs.
Green is good.
I wish I were in SD. It’s cold in Philly.
Nice and warm here today, though it’s always hard to work inside on such a nice day. A good change from all the rain we’ve had this winter.
Del Mar here. Any one going to the rally on Sat Anti War Peace March 6th and Laurel at 2pm?
You are really taking protests to the ultimate limits
could you place a bet for me while you’re there ???
Sat Anti War Peace March 6th and Laurel at 2pm?
Ooops! I really am the worst typist…must preview. Sorry March 19th at 2pm meeting at 6th and Laurel San Diego.
I guess this means we’re not traveling back to march 6th
just another of life’s little dissapointments
I like the discussion by areas – great idea.
The birds and I just moved from Marin County up to the Willamette Valley and my biggest concern was finding political kin here. However, I am very pleased to discover all the lefty letters to the editor (heh). It’s SO quite different from when I moved away 20 years ago.
Right then… Guam is the West I guess.
I guess it is. Although I’d think you’d be welcome in the World thread to. Think of the world thread as a kind of all-purpose open thread.
Do you really live in Guam? What’s it like?
but I’m guam-aware.
Come join U.S. Virgin Islands in the World section!
And, greetings from one U.S. territory to another.
We got anyone from the Northern Marianas?
Maybe we can do something about the limbo of US territories.
would make me proud
west coast of Guam ???
That would count
I’m curious if anyone knows the approximate # of U.S. Nat’l Guard/reserve troops from WA state that are stationed in Iraq. The reason I I’m curious is that I’m researching a diary on drought and I want to know if we have sufficient Nat’l Guard members at home to help us fight forest fires.
P.S. I’m in Pt. Angeles where we — actually a customs agent who’s a grandmother — caught a really real terrorist in 1999. She hadn’t seen any alerts. She just knew enough to know that the guy was suspicious. She’s now retired, and I saw a wonderful photo of her with her cat.
Susan,
would this help?
http://www.washingtonguard.com/Operations.htm
I am impressed! I had looked all over that darn site. What secret abilities do you have?
(And thanks)
I have good parking space Karma too.
Hey say hi to my buddy Pedro Garcia/Acereto in Pt. Angeles.
He’s a super freak in sheep’s clothing these days, but if you have the chance to meet him – ask him to show you “The Revolution” when his wife is not around.
“The Revolution” is the Totemic source off all opposition and opposition to all..
Enjoy the bars and churches!
Would you believe I’ve never been in either? The bars or the churches here, I mean. (I lie … we had a Howard Dean Meetup at the local Lutheran church once.) Never met Pedro either, and what exactly is The Revolution?
Is a revelation – like a church relic or the mystery behind the curtain in some old-school greek hissing oracle pit’s sacrificial hall.
Otherwise known as a black swiss army knife.
I dunno, it’s kind of a neat metaphor for the work of revolution. Sometimes you have to use the big blade, sometimes the toenail clippers or that weird point bit that puts holes in leather.
Hi Susan! I am a week late getting here but it’s great to find another excuse for avoiding work.
Olympic Peninsula, here! Where the snow doesn’t arrive until Easter!
Forgot to mention my locale — Silly Con Valley (specifically Sunnyvale).
SanJoseLady — I still owe you an email; been swamped with mom’s estate issues…
Just north of San Francisco here…with regular forays in the far northern red zone of the state.
far northern red zone of the state? You must be foraying east of the coastal range. To get to my part of the California far northern zone in Eureka, you pass through the Hog Farm of Wavy Gravy (the Woodstock announcer) and Garberville — home of Humboldt bud. Five minutes north of Eureka is Arcata, which was the first city council in the US to have a Green majority and, I think, the only city to have a Green majority twice. Humboldt County, where Eureka is the county seat, is a reliably Democratic county.
Red is not a word I would throw around to describe my part of far northern California. Did I mention the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate lives in Eureka?
I’m just sayin’.
area. We have a summer place near the north side of the Mt. Lassen park.
It’s been a number of years since I’ve been to the Eureka side, but we get up to Yreka…pretty damn far north. 🙂
been fishin Lake Almanor almost my entire life..breakfast at the Copper kettle in Chester..Love Lassen and all it has to offer. Spent endless hours there getting lost in them hills. It is my Bountiful.
but I love Lake Almanor!
Do you know the Old Station area and Uncle Runt’s Place? We are very near there…
I love the entire area. I have happily gotten lost over in that area for hours, stopping at every little place along the way. The Old Station..Uncle Runt’s…ah…the memories…I gotta get back up there this summer. Fishing season starts up in about a month..I have brought in 9 lb Brown Trout from Almanor..caught a 48 lb Salmon from Sacramento river once. Love the July 4th celebrations in Chester.
I changed my info to include an email address…I’ll be there for all of the holiday weekends plus some vacation time.
We are located on Hat Creek creek frontage …so fishing is good for those so inclined.
now that’s red
Likely – we did a road trip up 395 once or twice – so probably been there (checking the map here!). Wow – that is very red!
and How is the fishing along Hat Creek? I’ve been spending more time lately in Idaho, but would love to try out the Hat Creek area. We’ve heard great things about it.
Lots of rainbow trout in the river. Lots of fly fishing and for us lazier types – sitting on the banks.
Friends go further down at Lake Britton with a boat – good Bass fishing – lots of fish frys there.
There’s no salad bar here!
Speaking of which …. Town & Country on Banibridge Island has remodeled its salad bar, and it’s incredible. (We go down about every Saturday to see my mom and my brother / his family.)
We used to have one at Northgate Mall called Zoopa’s or Fresh Choice, but they shut down last year. Yeah, they were corporate and sort of expensive, but you could go tank up on salad, four different kinds of soup, or baked potatoes.
Fresh Choice is a weekly destination for me and the spouse; if I tried to have that much selection in our fridge, it would either go bad before we could eat it, or the spouse and I would grow long ears and cotton tails… 😉
Not only that, the Fresh Choice in Mountain View (near where the spouse gets off work) is a “test kitchen”, meaning we get stuff there that the other restaurants don’t.
If you use a coupon (found in the paper quite a bit), it’s not so bad pricewise. Quite a bit of the staff know us there; one of the associate manager’s owes me a crochet poncho pattern… 🙂
Still a Zoopa’s at Southcenter, about 10 minutes from Seatac if you get off a plane with the munchies! Great place for feeding 2 little picky kids and a teenager.
A bit hard to get to from Northgate without a car and a bunch of kids in tow. 🙂
But, if we ever get down that way I’ll go check it out.
Yeah, it pissed me off when Krogers took over QFC and they dumped the salad bars.
They got Biscuits.
http://www.oregon.sierraclub.org/conserv/biscuit/index.asp
go to Hawaii? It has been bothering me all these months. WTF was that all about?
From Pennsylvania, to Delaware, to Central New Jersey, to South Jersey, back to Delaware, to Stockton, CA, to Rancho Palos Verdes, to Illinois, back to Rancho Palos Verdes, to Redondo Beach, to Ventura County. (where I hope to stay, which means I won’t.)
Santa Barbara, California, here.
Wow! BooMan, this is terrific. I feel so strangely … and instantly … at home.
Want to lend me some Scoop techs? Sure could use some.
Just down the coast from you…I’m here in LA, enjoyin the fine weather..Finally. Glad you are here.
Santa barbara is great …I’m stuck in own red state coclave around Bakersfield. Pretty much nuff said on that.
I was raised in Riverside County. Ugh.
Took me forever, but I finally got to Paradise.
Glad to see there are so many SoCal folk around.
suppose I ought to proof read more as that’s supposed to be conclave…sheeshhhh
wow wee….sittin right out there in the middle of the red part of this place. Wow is it anything like modesto? pastures? watermellon?
I live in fucken Taft(about 30 miles from B-town) and it’s part oilfield smell and part farmland smell on way to B-town. I hate it here but have no dam choice whatsoever. The only person I know who isn’t a redneck in any way is my sister.(who luckily is my best dam friend) Pretty grim really.
You meet what you think are fairly decent people then they mouth off about those’ mexicans, or blacks or fags’ or well you get the idea. and it just gets goddam depressing..so I’m kinda glad I’m kinda confined to my apartment most of the time.
is your family out there? Those people sound awful. can you do what you do in say….Hawaii? or somewhere beautiful where the people aren’t assholes?
No I’m not…scratch even the nicest person here and there is bigotry in one form or another or religious stupidity or both unfortunately.
I’m disabled and my sister lives here and I need to live near her. Long story and to tired right now to get into my whole problem and all…
you have us too…So glad you are around. You must have seen a lot over at Dkos for the past 3 years.
well want to answer but hey jon stewarts on fire tonight again with a condi intro-I’m distracted.
Yes, being stuck inside a lot and stumbling onto Kos was a real help. Watching the site grow and different people take over front page ..it was all great.
My favorite-and most others-was meteor blades..awesome fucken writing and his compassion/intellect showing through was incredible, well still is for that matter.
His Freedom Summer diary made me cry like a baby and should be required reading in all school classes I think.
While reading Kos every day for hours the one thing I learned was how just how dam much I don’t know and that’s a good thing. I’m still amazed at the collective intellect over there while still enjoying the great humor that shows up in the postings.
Just so much dam talent in one place is pretty incredible. I think this site will end up the same way.
Hey SusanG..did you see the press conf this morning..a real softball question from some press guy named Stretch…you know who this joker is? Boy oh boy…Bush look at his notes everytime he called on a person..he either knew their names before calling or addressed them by their names during (while looking down at this notes) Totally planned. Yuck..he makes me so sick, I almost had to welcome back my morning cup of Java.
I caught that press conference this morning. Chimpy looked distracted and ill at ease at first but then somehow got hid footing. Think it was right after “Stretch” or “Skippy” or whatever the heck his name was threw the softball. Notice how flustered he got on the question of rendition?
Great town. Gotta stop next time I’m driving up the coast and hit La Super Rica.
Used to spend a lot of time up there. My wife and I got married in Santa Ynez.
Regional open threads are a great idea. Portland here!
chamonix here..never crossed paths with you over at Dkos…but read your stuff…LA here…are you related to mcjoan? wonder if she will come on over here to Booville?
I go by KLM at dKos – a failed attempt at androgyny since mcjoan quickly outed me as her sis. LOL I don’t believe she’s signed up here yet. Guess I should go get on her case.
sis? Love mcjoan aka mcriot. What a smart one that mcjoan is, and funny to boot.
Yup. She’s really my Sis. Feeling’s mutual, my friend.
So happy to see your screen name over here…smart and funny…kinda like KO’s diary about oatmeal/sugar smacks…with a little more of the sugar. This is a fun playground.
Hey, if pyrrho can finally get into the recommendeds, it’s my kind of place. He’s one of my all time faves. And now I gotta go do some work. I’ll check in with you all later.
We’ve been blogging together for a couple of years on various blogs under various handles, although she’s much more prolific. You know what they say, “The family that blogs together…”
I’m here. Heya newbie, how’s it hanging? Been a while.
doing well and you? seems like you guys had a blast at the Seattle get 2 gether. Fun pix. How are those heels?
you guys found me. So I stay on topic, Seattle here, and good to see so many local faces.
You posted four comments in the time it took me to do one. Now what was I saying about you being more prolific? Heh.
hi to both of you-my sister is my best and smartest friend so it’s great to see other sisters who like each other so much. Because a lot of sisters really aren’t best friends or just don’t get along.
Thanks. Your comment made me think of this old song.
sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters,
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir,
I’m there to keep my eye on her
Caring, sharing
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain gentleman arrived from rome
She wore the dress, and i stayed home
All kinds of weather, we stick together
The same in the rain and sun
Two different faces, but in tight places
We think and we act as one
Those who’ve seen us
Know that not a thing could come between us
Many men have tried to split us up, but no one can
Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister
And lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man
My brother’s great also but my sister and I live in same town right now and we’ve always been close-almost like twins except we’re 4 years apart. She may be my little sister but I value her opinoin more than anyone in the world…plus she’s just fun/funny/smart..you get the picture I guess. Nothing else like having a sister whose also you’re best friend.
yeah do remember that song by the way..good lyrics.
live, from san franciso, right by dolores park, i have made it. and with a user ID under 1000. nard-busting cool, eh?
Hello from over the bridge in Marin. I feel like an early adopter, the kind of people that always have the coolest cell phones.
going to the rally this Saturday?
I’m out of the loop – what’s the details on the DP rally?
http://sfbay.indymedia.org/antiwar/
literally my back/side yard is dolo park. you can’t miss where i live… anyway, i intend to goto the rally, but as always, it depends on how i’m feeling from my med stuff… where will you be? with a group or milling around tryig to find other kossacks?
You wrote one of the best diaries on abortion rights on Kos. It was so heartening to read the words of a man that spoke so eloquently. I just wanted to say thank you once again.
If anyone believes art can reach people where maybe words can’t, this is a good diary to check out.
Some days I might not be in the mood for a lot of reading and a good graphic that is thought provoking or humourous might get me thinking and talking here.
Art is always good and the graphics in the diary I thought were terrific.
So far I’m the only one who has recommeded the diary but at least go over and check it out.
Do you have a link?
Can’t remember who the diarist was but will try and go back through archives and find it….
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/3/15/221426/739
I think this link will take you to the right diary..by 2careforothers.
Checking in from Sonoma County here (North Bay). This is a nice site. Anyone up for C&J since kos is down this morning?
Hi, from Tustin, Ca. Happy to have found this site, it looks good.
Another Seattle voice here, liking the possibilities in this regional discussion.
ohmanoman! a new blog to post on… so much to say so little time before dinner.
I’ll be back.
I heard PastorDan was here… maybe I can get some UCC cookies for desert. woohoo!
Here in San Francisco. I think I might go to the protest thing this Sat, but I’m having trouble figuring out which of the many possible issues to protest. Maybe I’ll make a sign that says “Pick Your Issue–the Real Problem is: BUSH LIES”
I like it…
Check out this guy’s FIRST diary:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/3/16/121720/644
can you put a link that is alive..or if I cut and paste where do i put the link? I am so showing my computer Bad…MSO lives so close by me..maybe like 10 minutes…maybe she will give me a Computer lesson..That would be a BLAST. Then I can make fun colored boxes, links, pictures(I can then post a pic of my Brussels Griffon..little tinky aka babette)..the whole kit n kaboodle.
Here’s the link
Thanks for the referrals susanhbu!
on the border between upper coasts and sagebrush.
And you thought he gave up cheerleading in college. Bush will be in Tucson Monday to have a “conversation” about Social Security. I hope Southern Arizona reminds him that we voted for Kerry here in Pima County.
I find it funny how they won’t give any details about the event until the same day…
Someone wake me up from the nightmare.
Someone PLEASE try to get in even if you have to fake being a repug. That or be prepared to go anywhere in the county to stand outside and protest. Big signs with IMPEACH BUSH or Bush is a war criminal.
This is only a test.
Wow. There goes what’s left of any semblance of productivity at work. Thanks.
Yup.
And did you all notice that we’re really West now? That Booman is a genius.
That was bugging me! I couldn’t figure out what it was until he flipped them. He is a genius.
It’s good being Left!
The Arizona House is expected to vote Monday on whether to allow vouchers that would provide Arizona residents with money to send their children to private schools.
Not only will this drain money from public schools, many of which are in dire financial straits, but it may use your tax dollar in some cases to fund schools that you’d rather not fund.
Your legislators in District 20 are:
John McComish jmccomis@azleg.state.az.us Phone (602) 926-5898
Bob Robson
brobson@azleg.state.az.us Phone (602) 926-5549
Just click on the links and write a single line — all it needs to say is “Please do not vote to allow school vouchers.” Put it in the Subject line, too. Or, if you call the offices you’ll get someone who will tally your request, and possibly ask for your street address to verify you’re in District 20.
Please forward this to anyone else in District 20 who might be interested.
PROTEST BUSH VISIT TO TUCSON
Monday, March 21st
gather at 10 AM
East side of Tucson Convention Center
(or as close as we can get)
SAY NO TO THE BUSH AGENDA
—— ——— ——— —— ——-
WE DEMAND
———- ————- ———- ————-
COALITION OF SICK AND TIRED ARIZONANS
Well, buckle your seatbelt because the way things are going, the repugs are taking us back in time as we speak.
You have a Hemp bill before you.
Check it out here.
Anyone attend the LA anti-war march? It was buried in the LA Times California section, but I’d love some 1st-person reports.
Hey, how do you get your tag line in italics?
I’m a tech idiot.
MH
quote should do it for ya!
tag line
Well, that wasn’t very helpful, so I will try to describe it in words: left bracket <, i and then right bracket >, then the words you want in italics, then do the same thing all over again except that after the <, you insert a slash / and then the right bracket. This is really hard to put into words
I am a little disappointed in the lack of participation here on the west thread. I was thinking maybe if we had a topic of the day type deal. Throw up say five topics and pick one for the day? Any ideas westerners?
Sounds like a good idea. We could also use that state topic to find out what people in each state are doing concerning issues each state is working on..such as environment, gay marriage, off shore drilling. What legislator’s in each state, district are doing about those issues.
This might also give people in their respective states ideas on how to be more organized or effective in dealing with those issues or even become more coordinated across state lines on issues like gay marriage.
I think water is going to become increasingly a huge issue. Republicans have been working for years now on trying to get water privatized.
We could have a California topic one day, an Oregon topic another day, a Hawaii topic, a Colorado topic, etc.
Get someone from each western state to volunteer a topic for their state on a certain day.
I think that’s a great idea.
Another approach would be to talk about topics that affect all of us in the West, such as public utility/resource privatization (water for example).
I am all for this too. Problem is I have not paid as much attention to State and local matters as I should, since I have been concentrating on national and international.
But will be happy to get up to speed and participate. I am in Socal by the way.
Yeah, I’m with you on being hyper-focused on the national and international issues to the detriment of local doings. But, like you, I would be willing to delve into some regional issues to mix it up.
What would you all say to having a discussion about water policy? Sounds boring, I know, but here in Washington (I live in Seattle btw) our governor has already declared a drought emergency. We are looking at water rationing worse than when I moved here in ’92 (people were fined and threatened with jail time for watering their lawns or washing their cars then), wildfires, little water for farmers, and possibly rolling blackouts.
me for water issues, since we have had record rain fall this year.
We might want to investigate HAARP, a project by this government to perhaps change the weather. I have been hearing about this for years now on Coast to Coast radio show (anyone else listen to C to C) and I think we have a real problem with this program. I heard that recently they have ratcheted up the program.
http://www.alaska-info.de/a-z/haarp/alaska_haarp6.html
HAARP BOILS THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE
“”HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an ‘ionospheric heater’. (The ionosphere is the electrically- charged sphere surrounding Earth’s upper atmosphere. It ranges between about 40 to 600 miles above Earth’s surface.)
Put simply, the apparatus for HAARP is a reversal of a radio telescope: antennas send out signals instead of receiving. HAARP is the test run for a super-powerful radio wave beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto Earth and penetrate everything-living and dead. HAARP publicity gives the impression that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program is mainly an academic project with the goal of changing the ionosphere to improve communications for our own good. However, other US military documents put it more clearly: HAARP aims to learn how to “exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes”. Communicating with submarines is only one of those purposes.”””
And this:
“”””Avalanches of energy dislodged by such radio waves could hit us hard. Their work suggests that technicians could control global weather by sending relatively small ‘signals’ into the Van Allen belts (radiation belts around Earth). Thus Tesla’s resonance effects can control enormous energies by tiny triggering signals.
The Begich/Manning book asks whether that knowledge will be used by war-oriented or biosphere-oriented scientists.
The military has had about 20 years to work on weather warfare methods, which it euphemistically calls weather modification. For example, rainmaking technology was taken for a few test rides in Vietnam. The US Department of Defense sampled lightning and hurricane manipulation studies in Project Skyfire and Project Stormfury. And they looked at some complicated technologies that would give big effects. Angels Don’t Play This HAARP cites an expert who says the military studied both lasers and chemicals which they figured could damage the ozone layer over an enemy. Looking at ways to cause earthquakes, as well as to detect them, was part of the project named Prime Argus, decades ago. The money for that came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, now under the acronym ARPA). In 1994 the US Air Force revealed its Spacecast 2020 master plan which includes weather control. Scientists have experimented with weather control since the 1940s, but Spacecast 2020 noted that “using environmental modification techniques to destroy, damage or injure another state [is] prohibited”. Having said that, the Air Force claimed that advances in technology “compels a re-examination of this sensitive and potentially risk
HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an ‘ionospheric heater’.
Sounds like a loony version of the Reaganistas’ “Star Wars” anti-missile system (as if that wasn’t loony enough).
Also sounds like something that is really intended only to create weather for use as a weapon in war against adversaries. Our tax dollars at work. Hooray.
your weather sounds like it has been here in the past. We had a horrible drought in the 70’s or 80’s, can’t remember exactly, but it was just like you are describing going on there. That is when they stopped even giving a glass of water in restaurants unless you asked and still to this day do not in most places.
And then we always have the fires.
An interesting topic: Mudslides triggered by our unusually heavy rain this year, and whether excessive development has increased the risk of even more damage. Certainly the 2003 Socal fires increased the risk of flooding or mudslides in the backcountry.
Worth some research and thought, if anyone’s up for it.
WA spoken here, as well as TXan. Lived 5 years in NW King Co., where we tried all year to get water off our property, now live in the Rainshadow, where we try all year to get water ONTO our property.
Where in TX? I ran away to the Soviet of Washington in ’89.
So where is the west tonight????
in SF, wondering how long before beer-thirty…
Beer-time is anytime after 5:00 anywhere on weekends. Unfortunately not until 5:00 pst M-F.
SF beer time – I’m just north of you – beer in Sausalito for a frog pond meet-up in the future? But before June when the tourii arrive… tourii = plural of tourist in our house
Whooo-hoo! I’m in.
Could we make that Kaluha and coffee time instead? I have a coffee cup attatched to my hand just about permanently and it’s coffee or nuttin for me or a chocolate liquer with coffee..ha
Sounds like a plan to me –
Hmmm – coffee and kahlua or baileys and coffee or ???
Weekends that are good for me: April 30-May 1, Sunday May 15th (may be Mother’s Day), or May 21-22
Sausalito or SF?
Close to ferry service if possible or other mass transit is good
Bailey’s is good but to rich for me although I do like whipped cream on top of the kaluha and coffee. Add a chocolate shaving to that and I’m there.
There must be more than 3 of us if the Bay Area… methinks noone checks the regionalized open thread cause they’re (no offense Booman) kinda stale. But a Bay Area meetup would be swell!
I prefer SF, maybe somewhere down near the Ferry building… if we plan something, we’ll need a frontpage diary. And t-shirts. Definitely t-shirts.
which reminds me – did you all catch the t-shirt someone posted in Bob Johnson’s feeding tube diary debacle? If you missed it, well, it was priceless. Not to mention tactless, crass and some other things…
I’m jealous. would love to try and do a meet up of BooTribe folks in the San Diego county. Any takers? Tried to get one set up awhile back with Kossacks and we started to make plans and then I felt it either got dropped or I got dropped teehee. Had a feeling most folks there were college kids and didn’t want the AARP crown involved. So any 40+ people want to try and meet.
Had a feeling most folks there were college kids and didn’t want the AARP crown involved.
You get a crown when you join AARP? Cool.
😀
OOps, I am famous for my typos…of course I meant crowd…must run spellcheck..teehee!
Oh so late to this!! Hi Aloha! Del Mar eh? Here, if I throw a rock across the I-5….there you are!!
Exactly 40 and living in Carmel Valley. Mostly active on Dkos, but check this out at odd times since many of my Kossack friends are here as well. Email is in my profile. Give me a holler if you see this.
Hi to you. I was just skimming through the thread and spotted this. sorry not to get to you sooner. hasn’t been too much discussion here so only drop by on occasion. dkis alumni too. I will send you an email when I get a chance and we can chat or maybe even meet for coffee or lunch one day. look forward to talking with you.
And 6 weeks later..I see this reply 🙂
I will be checking in here to Booman more often so we will get this together.
My email is in my profile – send one when you can!
I’m an Irish ex-pat in Silicon Valley. Glad you’ve created the service.
Hi, I may be the only one in the west still up tonight, so I am going to welcome you to this site. I am in Santa Ana, cal. I invite you to see my diary and participate if you wish its the one on rants, if you want to get anything off your chest tonight.
Other than that please participate in any way you wish; we are a pretty easy going bunch so far so so no one willjump on you mostly, like DK if you know that site.
Welcome aboard (a day or two late)!
Silly Con Valley here as well, but I’m a native. Is that a good thing? You tell me…
Yo
comin” atcha cordless from the Peoples Republic of Boulder…
gotta go…later
as a denizen of the West.
LA Metro area…I’d be more specific, but I’ve been all over in the past few months and will be moving again before June. As close to Mar Vista as I can afford (which probably means Culver City).
Hi KB..seems like we have lots of westcoasters here..I’m by Bakersfield myself.(just plain yuk)
I like your screen name, BTW.
Lots of West Coasters and lots of Bay Area people, I notice. Not too many Angelenos that I could see.
How do you like Bakersfield? Never been there myself (I’m a transplanted New Yorker) but a friend from college grew up there and hated it.
I don’t like Bakersfield…it’s redneck country making it pretty crappy to me. Way way to much prejudice and bigotry around here. I live about 30 miles away in taft but it’s basically the same thing.
My youngest nephew(25)tells me a lot of how many young kids think around here and it’s scary. Like drawing nazi swastika symbols in bathrooms and such. If I didn’t have to live here you couldn’t pay me to live here.
So do you like it out here or miss New York?
I see I missed your comments on living in new york so guess that question was already answered.
To this site and to the west coast, are you a new arrival.
I am in Orange county and have you been here yet. Check us out before you move to Culver City. Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach are especially beautiful as are other cities around here.
As a former resident of Inglewood, Ca. I could never go back to the LA area I don’t even like to visit. Most of us in OC feel that way.
If I could live in say, Beverly Hills, in a very beautiful house, I would go, but only for that.
Not a new arrival; I moved here in 1997 to go to USC. I work in Torrance and most of my friends live in the north of the LA. Being near my friends is important to me because my entire family (except one uncle in Marina del Rey) live on the East Coast. Torrance even seems too far away sometimes, so I don’t think I could move down to the OC.
Though LA has its share of problems (traffic, pollution, shallow people) I usually really enjoy it.
I don’t usually visit Orange County (and I have a personal beef against Irvine) but coworkers tell me that Newport and Laguna are very beautiful.
Ideally, I would live in Mar Vista (where I used to live), but it’s SOOO expensive. It’s lovely and ideally situated near the freeways I use regularly.
It’s expensive here too and especially Newport, a little less in costa Mesa, but there are expensive enclaves all over this area, even inland.
FYI Orange country seems to be pretty well covered as freeway access. Most cities are right on links to the 5 or 55 or 405 and can easily zip on and head anywhere.
I have lived in quite a few cities and never had to drive more than 5 min. to get on freeway.
In the old days, pre 405, it took 2+ hours to drive from Inglewood to Huntington Beach, on surface streets.
What’s your beef against Irvine, just curious?
Where did you move here from?
I had the same problems with relatives when I moved here years ago, they were all in Pa. I had to make my own relatives, (kids) so now I have plenty; most in Pa, have now passed on.
Gee, I can’t imagine a world without the 405 (though sometimes I’d like to).
About Irvine: I had to go there for work once, and my car was low on gas, but I had to make a meeting. So I let it run down to almost fumes and told myself I’d get in on the way back.
After the meeting, I went back the way I came. No gas station. So I turned around and went the other way (these are major roads I’m on). No gas station. I drove through housing development after housing development. No gas station. At this point I’m thinking, Is there anything besides developments in Irvine? And where do all of the residents fill up their cars?
In all of these developments, I get lost, because they all look alike. So I’m lost in Irvine, stressing because my car is about to die of no gas. I drive through housing development after business park after housing development. No gas station.
So finally I find a gas station, but I’m still lost in Irvine, and it took me way too long to find my way out. And I would ask, but by this point I’ve gotten myself to a mostly-deserted road near (but not leading to, dammit!) the freeway where developments are being built and there is no one around. So Irvine has earned my undying enemnity.
It’s not really just Irvine, though. I hate most suburbs. I grew up on Long Island in New York (most of my family is still there), and I hated that too. I’m also not fond of the Valley.
I am at least an equal-opportunity hater 🙂
Gee what a time you have had in Irvine, I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do.. I know what you mean about that town, although I have not been there for several years. It is strange because it is a pre planned town totally, and it was designed to be a strictly bedroom community. They did not want to have to be bothered with too many businesses I guess, and young people think it’s terrible because there is not much to do. To me it is a very sterile area.
About the 405, when I first moved here in 1960 there was only one major freeway and that was the 5. Later the 605 was built, and then the others. The 405 did not go all the way to HB until about 1968. Was a great blessing for all of us here that were still linked to LA as I was at the time with my mother still living in Inglewood.
I also lived in Inglewood before LAX was rebuilt, just a small airport then, but very busy.
That definitely came across. Sterile is a good word…I think that is what bothers me so much about the suburbs in general.
BTW, I checked out your blog. Cool stuff – I hadn’t heard at all about the tsunami uncovering ancient ruins. I wonder if it really is a major find, or just stones that look like a temple, like that archaeologist said.
I think if I recall correctly that it was thought or even known an ancient city was there and one of the 7 temples was still standing pre tsunami, but it had been hundreds of years since the remainder of the city was covered with the ocean water.
If you go to the site I linked, there is a pic. of the statue group that was uncovered and if you do a zoom on it you can see the object better.
I posted a diary with an update of the Minutemen Project’s latest…they are the subject of an investigation by local authorities here in Southern Arizona.
Glad you did that diary…I just keep thinking this is going to end up very badly…so keep us posted..and I went to diary and recommended it also.
checking in here. Action item today from MoveOnPAC–
* Senator Max Baucus DC Phone: 202-224-2651
* Senator Conrad Burns DC Phone: 202-224-2644
Then tell us you’ve called and track our progress towards 25,000, by clicking here: MoveOn PAC link ”
New face in the crowd saying hello.
I’m honestly not sure if Booman is necessary or not. But, it seems to have interested many of the better DailyKos posters (albeit, often with duplicative material), so I figured I’d give it a spin.
to the site.
I certainly feel necessary to myself, but who knows 🙂
Glad to see you made it.
Welcome from Ca. I for one feel a lot more comfortable here and like the tone of diaries and the fact that they stay around longer so people can think and ponder and post on them a bit more. The international flavor and viewpoint is a very big draw for me also.
In fact I hardly go to Kos anymore except when someone here links to Kos.
Hope you end up liking it here and the discussions that happen here. A new voice is always good.
To be “necessary”, in the long run, Booman Tribune (or Next Hurrah or Liberal Street Fight or Unbossed or whomever) will have to offer something beyond just your favorite dKos diarists posting their same kinds of stuff on the “front page” of another website.
That could be done by being specialized instead of more general, or by offering one person’s unique, distinctive take that is worth going out of your way to find every day (like Steve Gilliard or Billmon). Or by doing something else that seems compelling and distinctive.
JMHO
I agree, it needs to find its own identity, separate from the “present and former kos posters” one.
Internationalizing is a start to that, but still if it’s too much like kos and too much duplication, then people will just go to kos instead of, as opposed to in addition to.
As someone else noted, the pace here is slower. I get frustrated that some of my best work on Kos slips away within an hour of its being posted. Yet still I post there because the potential audience is a lot larger.
Give BT time. It will find its own identity. I doubt it will ever be as big as Daily Kos, but as we can see over there size and popularity bring their own problems.
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005504090321 This is a good short summary of everything Arnie’s trying to do here in Ca. It’s hard to believe he has the nerve to call teachers/nurses and firefighters ‘special interest’ groups while raising so much money from the pharmaceutical industry, insurance, energy companies and such.
He’s also now far surpassed Davis in fundraising.
Another article at Yahoo seems to show his poll numbers are going way down and that people are starting to realize he’s a lying asshole-typical repug in other words.
I hope he keeps up his stupid assault on teachers/nurses and firefighters so everyone in the state will finally get he’s not out for the regular working class person. Hopefully this will translate into running him out of office in the next governors election. Send his steroid brain back to Hollywood where he make stupid movies, maybe ‘Conan the Barbarian tries to conquer Old Age’. Or ‘Terminated: Rise of the Harassment Law Suits’.
Amen to terminate the terminator. Just another crappy actor trying to be a crappy politician. hasn’t done too well in either field huh/
Check out this diary: http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/4/11/84959/8453 , if you’re interested in the Western strategy to build a Democratic majority.
Governor Napolitano of Arizona vetoed the “right of conscience” legislation today. Go Janet! Her response, “It is unwise to pass laws opposed by the leading associations of professionals whom the bill purports to protect.”
She will be attacked heavily for this, we have to show our support. You can thank her via this contact sheet.
I posted another diary with an Action Item regarding another (hopefully) Veto by Governor Napolitano. It’s regarding the verification of electronic votes. You can find it here.
James Hargrove
Office: Legislative Building 411
Phone: 360-786-7646
E-mail: hargrove_ji@leg.wa.gov
List of all legislators
http://www.theolympian.com/home/specialsections/Legislature/senatecontacts.shtml
Hargrove (my senator on the Olympic Peninsula) unfortunately voted against the Senate bill for stem cell research on Monday. There’s ONE LAST CHANCE to pass the bill. The deadline is April 15 (that’s tomorrow). PLEASE CALL and send e-mails.
INFO:
Regulating stem cell research and human cloning.
“encourage ethical stem-cell research at the University of Washington that could help find cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes.
“The people of Washington know that stem-cell research can lead to truly amazing and miraculous cures for devastating diseases that afflict tens of millions of Americans,” said state Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park. “But they want to know this research is being done responsibly and ethically, and that it will not lead to experiments in reproductive cloning.”
Schual-Berke’s legislation would create a 13-member advisory committee of scientists, medical ethicists, legal scholars and citizens to develop guidelines for stem-cell research in Washington.
The measure expressly prohibits reproductive cloning of a human being.
The legislation also requires health-care providers to inform fertility-treatment patients of their options regarding the disposal of unused embryos, and that patients must provide informed written consent before donating unused embryos for research.
Opponents of the measure argued that human life begins at conception, and that it is wrong to use stem cells for research. But Schual-Berke emphasized that the cells which could be used for stem-cell research are currently discarded.
During the floor debate on the bill, co-sponsor Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, talked about two people he knew with life-altering diseases, and the hope offered by stem-cell research.
“I saw a vibrant young man with a promising future totally disintegrate before my eyes from aggressive Parkinson’s disease,” said Sullivan. “But when we had hearings on this bill, I saw hopelessness turn into hope. I saw possibilities and a light at the end of the tunnel for the human suffering that exists today not only in our nation, but around the world.”
Schual-Berke cited surveys showing that a majority of Washington residents support ethical stem-cell research.
“Other states and countries have embarked on research that can revolutionize medicine,” said Schual-Berke. “The choices we make will determine whether Washington helps to lead this revolution or is left out.”
Source: http://grassrootsconnection.com/WA_state_news_release.htm
………………..
Sadly, that bill was defeated in the WA senate last Friday. Today I got the word that it just wasn’t enough for the Republicans to have crushed the hopes of many suffering citizens for another year. Nooooooo. They want to make it permanent.
See, they’re determined not to let Chris Gregoire get a victory on her “centerpiece” legislation . . . which is a multi-million dollar package that will facilitate “life sciences” research industry here in WA.
So, they’ve attached an amendment to the life sciences bill that criminalizes all forms of embryonic stem cell research. Period.
And what’s sickening is that Gregoire’s aides are going around today suggesting that she might just be willing to sign the thing, even with that amendment.
This woman campaigned on stem cell research. She mentioned it repeatedly, especially in debates with her opponent. She needs phone calls–no, she needs a dope slap. I’d rather have Republicans in charge than Democrats who roll over. At least I’d be spared the feeling of being used. Grrr.
Redmond, WA (Eastside Seattle) here. West Lake Sammamish area down the hill from Microsoft. Pittsburgh to Tampa to here. I am the last computer dolt in Redmond, WA but I’m not being harrassed by the Microsofties.
I spend time at Crossroads Mall and harrass Microsofties.
http://ga4.org/boxer2004/join-forward.html?domain=boxer2004&r=67aSmg517RSA Here’s an email I receieved from Boxer in which she wants to know who to put our support or money behind for the 2006 Senate elections. Check it out when you have the time.
bad link.
This just in from the Associated Press… The army reservist who held seven illegal immigrants at gunpoint won’t be prosecuted because he made a “lawful citizen arrest”. Article can be found here.
For more information on the original incident, here is an article from the Phoenix media.
…using a weapon to defend yourself from imminent, serious bodily harm is legit. I would consider being charged by six men a pretty good indication that serious bodily harm is imminent.
…As for the whole illegal alien smuggling angle: that came after the act, according to the reports. If he’d known there was a smuggler he could have arrested him under Arizonal law, but that’s not something that would have come out except under questioning. There’s nothing in the articles to suggest that why he pulled the weapon.
The Sargent walks, and rightly so, IMHO. What am I missing here?
what time are you watching Deadwood tonight?
we’ve reached a milestone.
markinsanfran has become our 700th user. Does he get a new car?
Wow! Now to get them all actively posting/commenting. Way to go Booman.
.
Avg length 11:07
Page views 7,000 a day and above 300,000 all total.
BooTribs can do even better!
Need more cheerleaders – not the elders …
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
As long as the car is an electric one. Or too bad we couldn’t do something like each user donate a dollar and you could donate that to your favorite charity or political cause from the BooTrib. That might get some publicity and word out on the site also.
Damn, missed the mark by –><– that much! I ended up with UID 698.
Oh, and I’m in the SF Bay Area — live in Fremont, work in Redwood City.
-AG
Welcome to the Tribe!
He deserves a car after all he has endeavored to become the 700th user what do you think guys?
North Bay – Santa Rosa
Welcome from Central Marin :^)
San Francisco
Well from Newport Beach, CA actually but I bounce around.
Brand new BooT tonight, UID 718, dual citizenship over at Kos, but I think I’m about 42K something over there. Thanks for letting me come over and hang BooMan.
Ski season is officially over. I did about 140 days of skiing this year, taught a whole bunch of eight to twelve year olds how to ski. Had a GREAT time but by the time last week rolled around I was sooo over it.
Love Big Bear…so beautiful. Spent a week up there four summers ago. I heard the lake was dangerously low last year. Hope with all the snow this winter the lake is back up. Stayed at a house on an inlet where one could dock one’s boat. All those inlets were closed last year because the level was so low. We would love to go up again this summer. Welcome to the Tribe. Great community of folks here.
Hope with all the snow this winter the lake is back up
Quite a bit. There is more than five feet of water in Baldwin Lake, which has been dry for as long as I can remember.
We would love to go up again this summer
There is some question as to whether we will have a summer this year. It’s snowing pretty hard today.
Am I losing my mind, or did BooMan mention something about a prize to the first region to reach the 250th comment in the Regional Threads? 😀
I don’t know about a prize, but I think this will be 250 comment, and I think that that is when the top comments will start to come off.
I noticed that Booman brought up my diary today on Tell us about you and there are so many new members in the last few days, so I hope you will all fill us in on who you are on that diary.
And welcome to our community!!!!!
Another Seattle area resident. I’m kinda new to the area, so would really welcome local discussion to learn more.
Html person, also a “blogtern”. Check it out here.
Boo. Yah. Panorama City, CA in the house. I’m MamasGun on Plastic and DailyKOS, and MsGeek on Slashdot. Glad to have joined up. Link to the site forthcoming on my blog:
http://www.msgeek.org/
Welcome to the Tribe!
Hey Mr. Booman play your tamborine for me and make this thread roll over. Wasn’t it supposed to do it automatically at 250 comments?
but I think I’ll change it to 200. Or 150.
My personal choice would be 150. I think that’s plenty long for ongoing thread. Anything over that is to unwieldly.
And I’m happy to say that my sister got her feet wet so to speak and actually posted on the ‘lurker’ diary…
Yup, this is still too darn long to load or follow.
Thanks.
I’m too lazy to scroll through all the comments to see if there are others to append this to, but greetings from the People’s Republic of Eugene, Oregon! Hooray!
Great site! And friendly taboot!
Welcome to the Tribe. Outstanding community of like minded folks that not afraid to differ in opinion and will at times agree to diagee in a very cordial and respectful way. Sadly the west open thread has been lacking as a vehicle to communicate. Oh well, we tried. Nice of you to join us.
Harmomy Festival. Anybody going?
No, can’t go but looks like fun.
Just found out about it this week….and can’t go this year…will watch for it next summer.
Thanks for the heads-up
Chocolate Ink, are you suggesting that we filibuster this regional thread?
Well I wouldn’t have used such explosive language but yeah I guess so….ha ha
Just checking. (I think this is #276) 😀
Roll this puppy over!
and over…
and over – is that my share?
“When we hide behind the sophistry and esoteric proceedings of the U.S. Senate in such a way that it prevents us from doing our duty under the Constitution . . . then it’s time to ask why we’re really here,” Franks said. “We have a duly elected Republican president asking a duly elected Senate majority to have courage to have an up-or-down vote.
“If Republicans don’t have the courage to do that, then maybe we don’t have the right to govern.”
Holy Exploding Toads! For the first time, I actually agree with Rep. Franks–the Republicans shouldn’t be governing.
Roll me over in the clover.
There once was a thread that refused to be dead.
It stretched for days to my computer’s dismay.
My hard drive, it smoked; my modem went broke
and all I could was wait.
Patience pays my friend
ok, how bout everyone adding a quote they like here to get this puppy rolled over as RR said….or a recipe, anything will do.
Here’s one I like from Aristotle: “It is not important enough to win a war, it is more important to organize the Peace.”
where you live on the Western Front of the US. It was in the 80’s here in the OC, SoCal, but it really felt like the 90’s. Gosh I hate to start using the airconditioner.
My plants hate it too, they want water several times a day now and if I have to be gone for most of a day they rebel and fold up.
Anyway what are you trying to do here Chocolate…get the numbers to roll over, but the thread just drops off the overage doesn’t it, will always hold 250? Could you clue me in and then I will help…..
Perhaps Chocolate you could start a chain story…
But what I’d really like to see here are some substantive posts. Of course, you don’t see me posting anything like that, do you?
Regional issues that are bugging me lately:
–the reversal of the roadless rule in National Forests.
–the complete lack of understanding about regional environmental and conservation issues in general by the federal government, from forests to fish.
–anti-wind power NIMBYites (OK, maybe this is larger than just a Western issue)
–the conflict of Western social libertarianism (medical marijuana, Oregon’s death with dignity law) and a right-wing federal government.
–obnoxious East Coast stereotypes about people West of the Rockies.
The night sky was drenched with stars, yet due to the Pollution Evolution the stars now appeared as a thousand different colors. How I longed for the Green Days when the stars shimmered with an icy blue brilliance.
I hugged my trenchcoat tighter around me as I shivered lightly in the cold night air, wondering how much longer I had to stand here watching for………………
If anyone wants to continue story be my guest.
the spaceship. My pick up time was 10 minutes ago and how I long to get back home high above the earth in the huge and expansive space station our Founder Bush had built during the early 2000’s. He was so wise those many years ago when he used all that black ops money plus the money his cronies stole in Iraq and other countries around the world to build the finest space port in the sky. With all the virtual realities tech we have now we are able to almost duplicate Mother Earth, of course I mean the way it was before the planet died……
These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls. Only thing to do is roll, thread, roll.
(I’m not a poet and don’t I know it. I’m just trying to help!)
Are we shooting for 300 here?
.
GO WEST! Just cross the Pacific, Asian continent and across the Oeral Mountains. Stop before crossing the North Sea, otherwise you land in Blair’s territory.
Hope this helps you to reach ‘300’.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
.
Beyond the Rocks
Director: Sam Wood
USA. 1922. 85 min. Tinted.
Cast: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Gertrude Astor, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis, Robert Bolder, Mabel Van Buren, Helen Dunbar, Raymond Blathwayt, F.R. Butler and June Elvidge
Milestone is proud to be releasing around the world, Beyond the Rocks, the recently rediscovered silent romance starring film legends Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. Long considered one of the great “lost” films from the Hollywood golden age, only a one-minute fragment was known to exist in the Nederlands Filmmuseum.
Beyond the Rocks, just for its star power alone, has been one of the most sought-after films of the silent era.
Lost for over eighty years, film cataloguers at the Nederlands Filmmuseum were amazed to find the first two nitrate reels of Beyond the Rocks when inventorying a vast collection of nitrate bequeathed to them by a film collector from Haarlem, they were amazed. The Filmmuseum staff then searched for many tense months until they found and identified all the missing reels of the film.
The daughter of Gloria Swanson did an exclusive interview for Dutch TV, seeing her mother act for the first time on the screen. She was both delighted and amazed, with critique only a daughter would have about her own mother.
“You look a bit chubby there mother.” and … “Oh, now keep your shoulders high, as you always told me to do.” But looking at one scene, she mentions an anecdote from her mother. Gloria Swanson wanted to make this film with her friend Rudolph Valentino, but there was a scene where she would fall overboard in the water, to be rescued. Not to miss out on the part, she kept silent to the director Sam Wood that she couldn’t swim! She was so glad Rudolph dove into the water, and in fact did rescue her.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
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Filmmuseum in Haarlem —
More than four years ago, in the archives of the Filmmuseum, the first fragments of the long-lost a classic Beyond the Rocks (Sam Wood, 1922) turned up in the estate of a Dutch film lover. Hundreds of rusty film cans had to be opened and it was several years before the six remaining rolls of film were found. At the end of 2003 the last missing pieces appeared and the Filmmuseum could start on the restoration. Henny Vrienten composed a new score.
The Haarlem film collector had six buildings packed with mementos. And even then there was a lack of space. Until his death in 2000, the man slept between columns of film cans filled with extremely flammable nitrate film. The collector, described by his acquaintances as “a little suspicious of character,” had a habit of dividing the reels of the longer films in his possession between different storage depots. As a result, those who inherited his estate found themselves with a collection of incomplete films.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
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ROTTERDAM — Waterway near world greatest harbor.
Presentation half-hour Talk Show TV3 – May 19, 2005 – with 4 min. views of restored film, where music is composed and added.
VIDEO: Real: bb sb wmv: bb sb
Film shots: between 14:00 and 17:45 min.
In TV3 zijn muzikant en componist Henny Vrienten en de jonge acteur Ruben Brinkman te gast.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Thanks for this…any fan of films will truly appreciate this find.
::gives a little push::
(Me, I think some are sad to see the thread go. Or fearful of seeing it roll over to 301 😉
Like the repugs always say…let it go!
Are you guys gonna make do this all by myself. It’s hard work you know…lol.
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I’m from the Western part of Holland, am I permitted to join too?
I even wrote a very special diary just for the Saturday – Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino – Found and Restored in Dutch Haarlem Filmmuseum.
Beyond the Rocks
Director: Sam Wood
USA. 1922. 85 min. Tinted.
Cast: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Gertrude Astor, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis, Robert Bolder, Mabel Van Buren, Helen Dunbar, Raymond Blathwayt, F.R. Butler and June Elvidge
Beyond the Rocks, just for its star power alone, has been one of the most sought-after films of the silent era.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
It’s late and I just got back from the new Star Wars movie and I am worn out from watching the birth of Darth Cheney…I mean Vader.
Ah….screw it. Someone will get up at 3am and finish this off so we will have a brand new thread in the AM right?
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Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
We are almost there. Anyone here have any thoughts as to how we would like to use this thread? I for one would like for us to start organising marches on federal buildings calling for the impeachment of The Empire!(sorry saw Star Wars last night).
I’ll pop a couple in further down stream as well.
:^D
I can safely ask this dumb question here, as it should be disappearing soon!
But anyway, when you look at your user page, and you see [info – diary – comments – ratings – stories]… what are ‘stories’ and how to they differ from ‘diaries’?
Anyone know?
Will this whole diary drop off after 300 or just the first comment and so on……
Well we can get it to 300 in a few minutes if others will post comments here.
Nanette I don’t know what stories are either.
Let’s find out shall we…I think this will be the 300th post?
ok, maybe it’s 301 where it rolls over?
Well let’s see with 301 since nothing happened with 300.
Nanette, stories are front-page articles, as opposed to diaries.
I’ve always wondered about that, but just in the back of my mind. Glad I finally decided to ask ;).
And I guess it still holds true… if you want to know the answer to something, ask a librarian! (assuming you are one, that is, which you may not be).
Well I read this morning(forgot link) that Arnie is out in Jebland to raise money for his ongoing redistricting campaigns and such for good old Ca. Several different dinners-at 5 to 25,000 a plate just to get to see the big steroid oaf.
I hope every idiot who voted for him is realizing he’s just another empty suit republican who needs to be kicked out the next election.
Does he ever stay in the state and do any real work here besides photo ops in his freaken Hummer?
This will be comment 303 I think and still nothing, what’s the deal here. LOL
By the way can you Booman or anyone tell me how to make the sig line at the bottom of a comment, be set up to link to blog. That would be in preferences and the command lines do not work….for me.
I’ll look into this. It should have truncated the thread at 300.
I am going to tinker with these threads anyway, so it will be fixed soon. We have to set up an archiving system.
Thanks, Boo, I’m just kinda having fun now with the whole thing. I trust to to get it all straightened out soon. Not like I’m really frothing at the mouth about this….and oh god….am on the extra pain pills again today which is why you’re seeing all the running off at the mouth posting today, so far.
Howard Dean on “Meet the Press” for the full hour today. Should be interesting.
Hey Boo! Are we going to roll this over soon?
Landslides started at 5 am PST, 18 homes lost, 75 in danger, 250 homes evacuated, minor injuries, no deaths.
This is in Bluebird Canyon, near site of landslide in 1978.
This is located about 30 minutes from where I live, down the coast.
Still waiting for a roll-over on June 6….
Help! we have been tied to the open thread…we need a rescue here….
much less count…previous comment was 317…
Where’s my adding machine and my glasses…
Where am I….who am I…what is the meaning of life…wrong thread??? – damn missed again
This is a Twilight Zone thread, as it never rolls over. It’s caught in a void of sorts.
Schwarzenegger Syndrome: Politics and Celebrity in the Age of Contempt by Gary Indiana was reviewed in an article titled Demolition Man by Ben Ehrenreich:
“… he starts not with the twisted mechanics of California’s 2003 recall vote he’ll get to that but with the appointment to the presidency of a ‘mush-mouthed, dyslexic, perpetually vacationing cipher.’ Jump to that cipher’s near seamless elevation to eternal warlord in chief following ‘our very own Reichstag fire’ and you’re not far from the realm where, ‘to the bewildered and traumatized who continued to imagine that ‘fascism’ described a condition other than the merger of the state with corporate capitalism, hasta la vista, baby sounded like as workable a program as anything else.’
Hyperbolic, sure, but if any times ever made hyperbole feel like understatement, these are them. Arnold Schwarzenegger, steroidal cartoon and killer robot, ‘dream politician for the Time of the Rapture,’ is, after all, governing the most populous state in the union. When it’s not actively drawing blood, Schwarzenegger Syndrome can feel unfocused, but what doesn’t these days? And it’s hard not to love a man who calls John McCain a ‘bowel-impacted martinet’ and questions his ability to hold up under torture: ‘If we threw him in a stew pot, he’d stand up and salt himself. That’s the kind of patriotism America needs.’ “
Booman…what’s with this thread man. We really need to get a fresh start here.
Even if the West link directs to a new thread and you keep this one off to the side until you finalize the archiving function. I’m itching to start posting some regional-related issues.
I know it’s diary-whoring, but this is a suitable place to put it.
Last night the Long Beach (CA) City Council decided to permit progress of the Liquid Natural Gas port in the Port of Long Beach (thru which 45% of American imports pass). There are over 20 other proposed sites on the west coast, but Long Beach opponents of the project have found a perfect site only 25 miles away… in a Marine Corps base.
please see LBC COUNCIL KEEPS LNG PORT ALIVE
This is the perfect place for it. Thx for the heads up, I noticed alot of Californians in the welcome diaries, hopefully you’ll find some local help amidst the growing numbers around here. Peace!
Next week, the California Secretary of State’s office is holding a hearing to consider purchasing some pretty scary electronic voting machines from Diebold and ES&S–using your taxpayer dollars.
The California Election Protection Network is very concerned about the machines they are considering, which do not adequately protect the integrity of the vote.
Information is available here
The deadline for written comment is 5pm today. I sent the following letter. If you agree and are also concerned, you can use this letter as a template for your own. (Editing to put this into your own words will be much more effective.)
Comments should be e-mailed or faxed to Bruce McDannold in the CA Secretary of State’s office. Email is bmcdanno@ss.ca.gov. Fax is 916-653-3214.
Voting Systems and Procedures Panel (VSPP)
Office of the California Secretary of State
Attn. Bruce McDannold
1500 11th St, 5th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear California Public Officials:
I am writing to express my alarm as California considers adopting voting equipment manufactured by Diebold and ES&S.
Clean and open elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. I implore you to insist on equipment that meets the following common-sense criteria:
Fairness can only be achieved by using accessible, voter-verifiable, paper ballots on archival paper that can be shuffled to retain secrecy of the sequence of voting. We need to mandate audits for every election, with genuinely random sampling of a minimum of 5% percent of the paper ballots (or paper audit trails) and 5% of provisional and absentee ballots. This audit should involve hand-counting with non-partisan oversight in a public forum.
Please do not make a terrible error simply to grab a share of HAVA money before an arbitrary deadline. If the machinery presented at the June 16 hearing is not safe and acceptable, then California should refrain from acting at this time.
I do not wish to see my tax dollars spent on suspect electronic voting systems without a verifiable paper trail. If voters do not have confidence that machines are not rigged, then everything we hold dear is lost.
Sincerely,
Beyond today’s deadline for written comments, if you can attend next week’s hearing in Sacramento, it is on Thursday, June 16, at 10am.
The California Election Protection Network is looking for people to attend and sign up as speakers. By signing up to speak and then waiving your 3 minutes (when you are called upon) to one of our speakers at the meeting, you will give us extra time to convey our concerns to the panel.
Location
Office of the Secretary of State
1500 11th Street- 1st Floor (Auditorium)
Sacramento, California 95814
Thursday, June 16, 2005*
9:00 a.m. -Convene in front of the Secretary State Bldg.
10:00 a.m. – Hearing & upon adjournment receive notices as to the location of a citizen forum with presentations
*In the event that this VSPP hearing is postponed or cancelled, we will convene for an impromptu citizen rally to lobby the Legislature.
I’m representing the Monterey Bay area – actually I live in Ben Lomond, a tiny village in the San Lorenzo Valley in Santa Cruz County.
you were that close! Love driving Hwy. 9 through the San Lorenzo Valley…and now that the spouse and I have a car again, we need to make a long-delayed trip to Big Basin…
Hey neighbor.
Next time you drive through Ben Lomond on Hwy 9 look for our new bio-diesel station. I have a photo but I don’t know how to upload it.
Isn’t Big Basin wonderful? My sister was hiking there when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989. She got out safely but she was shook up (lame joke). Later we hiked up to Loma Prieta and found some fissures and took some photos near the epicenter.
I find out about it from the freeper thread.
Tuesday June 14th, 2005 5PM
Freepers are planning to protest the protest…and going into a major feeding frenzy.
Sorry. Not gonna link the thread: just go to their site and search for Schwarzenegger.