Letters to the Editor
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Coctailhag
Moonlight is a escort home,
and I smile silently tonight.
I dream of being very serene.
I often feel sober, yet drunk.
It's a gasp from winter's Moon.
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Possible client for Jim's website?
Gift of kidney to ailing lawmaker against the rules
ETHICS LAW: Legislative aide wants to donate organ to Nome legislator Richard Foster.
By SEAN COCKERHAM
Published: January 25th, 2008 12:24 AM
JUNEAU -- Nome Rep. Richard Foster is famous at the state Capitol for his love of machine guns and the weekly "Foster Night" musical jam parties he used to host in his Capitol office...
Foster, a retired air taxi operator first elected to the House in 1988, is a colorful character in the old Alaskan style.
His official legislative Web site lists his interests as "Enjoying the country, Music by Spank The Dog."
Foster also likes guns, a lot. He faced federal charges in 1991 of illegal possession of unregistered automatic weapons. His stash included two AKs, a German MG 42 from World War II, two British World War II-style Sten guns and a Soviet 50 mm mortar.
The jury in Nome, where Foster was born, quickly found him not guilty on all counts...
Foster is also known for jokes that can crack up somber House floor sessions.
"He'll make you smile on a dark day in this building when smiles are hard to come by," said Stancliff, the legislative aide who wants to give Foster one of her kidneys.
http://www.adn.com/politics/story/293601.html
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The Moon
Bebop.... There's no moon tonight; alas. The last few nights I could look out and see the mountain in outline, the moon was so bright and the mountain so snowy and white. Now the sky is the usual, opaque and dreary, and even in the daytime I only know the mountain is there from memory.
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Who Knew?
Pedinska, these Republicians really do traffic in organs, don't they? That's creepy as all get out. From now on, I'll be wondering what parts they have missing, each time I see one.
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Well dammit Cocktailhag
I should feel so damn silly for say-in DAT! I do. good night.
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B that was lovely.
Thank you.
The stillness of a winter moon,
rides the thin chill breath of night.
the bounding thoughts in silence swoon,
frosted in the tranquil light.
G'night everyone.
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-- Pedinska
"Jebbie - your pny sounds a bit camelish to me....."
Yu migt be on to somethng thre.
Niters
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mice in portc?
LOL Yes there certainly are . It's the voles however,Meadow- (M. pennsylvanicus (Specterus?;D)) and Boreal Redback - (Clethrionomys gapperi) be-bop-o-ing through the lilies and the tulips that cause much consternation . ( Did I really expect the PINK trumpets to be PERFECTION ?) . In the upcoming SBOWL ( Small Mammal Bowl) , it's the cries of "Win one for the gapper!" that will be heard most often . A 1/4 lb of Gyp seed? The babies will be breathing on the whole county. Gonna bale that stuff?
Wish the politicians were like your seed ; labeled properly, plant 'em , and you get like the pretty picture on the packet . Alas, they are more like my daylily seedlings; you start out with an idea of what you want , but it takes several years to find out what you got . Most will be just like the source of what spawned 'em, some will be better , a few more will be worse, one in a thousand will be special, and a keeper, and there will be more than a few voles , digging in the dirt, unseen , devouring the roots of democracy .
Took a stab at the Sisyphysean rock of flipping Harry Reid . Was going to copy it here , but the spammer-jammer b@$#&$ locked me up . Couldn't even copy it to "Notepad" . Don't have the "umph" to redo it now . Will do it Sun pm .
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What I learned in the last seven years....
What I learned in the last seven years that democracy demands participation of the citizens or else it will decay. A passive citizen is also failing the Constitution just as so many of our political leaders are.
Another thing that is a blessing is that the Internet lets us discover that we are a constituency, and not just isolated individuals that are helpless and hopeless. A million readers of The New York Times might be unanimous in some opinion; but you might never find out even from the published letters to the editor.
It is almost as significant a development as finding evidence for extraterrestrial life - "we are not alone".
Kudos to GG for effective use of the new medium.
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Glenn, about those lawsuits...
Do you know more details about where they stand? Is there any place we could find information? Specifically, how much longer can we expect to wait until we get a ruling in some case? You mentioned some time ago that the telecoms were already losing their cases, but I have no idea where things stand.
Perhaps also other people know something about the state of the various lawsuits? Really, we could use a site like Groklaw here...
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The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
That's Thomas Jefferson, the Koran-owning, Paris-inhabiting, slaveowning Virginian who wrote the Declaration of Independence.
So the day belongs to freedom. And again, tomorrow may be another story. Freedom is like recovery from addiction; we earn it one day at a time.
Chris Dodd cannot earn reprisal from his party leadership. He is his party leadership.
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Just a word of thanks
Retroactive Immunity for the Telecoms is simply indefensible. If it was the right thing to do, cooperating with Bush on this warrant-less breach of our privacy, then their arguments should win in court. The only reason they're trying to get out of going to court is they know they don't have a logical leg to stand on.
Given how clear this is, it's amazing even that a Republican, let alone a Democrat in the Congressional majority, would vote to pass a bill including immunity. How smugly sure they must be of their own immunity to us and our opinions.
Thanks, Senators Dodd and Feingold, and to everyone else who has helped fight this battle... so far!
p.s., to grammarians, here and far, who think none of us has ever heard those tired, pedantic sermons about ending sentences with prepositions or using adverbial modifiers for words like "perfect" or "unique," let me assure you that we have. Contrary to this bill with retroactive immunity, the use of such phrases as "more unique" is both inevitable and logically and linguistically defensible: the purpose of language is to communicate meaning, and I can't imagine anyone with an IQ over 30 being confused by such a phrase; moreover, while the word "unique" does have a core, absolute definition or sense, it also has a commonly used, non-absolute sense, too (as a synonym for "remarkable" or "peculiar", as in "before me lay a unique opportunity." As a scientist myself - understanding that everything is arguably unique in the absolute sense - I almost never use the word except in the second, non-absolute sense, where it can certainly be modified by words like "more" or "very."