Albany, NY -- Maine Photos
Stupid Communists... don't the Chinese know that progressive tax systems are the root of all evil? If they do, then
why are they decreasing taxes on low-income workers???!!!
Jerry Kilgore, who is looking to replace Mark Warner as Governor of Virginia,
has promised seven times to widen I-66 in Arlington County outside of DC. I think it's a great idea. I'll rarely oppose a roads project, unless it's obviously gratuitous (like the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska). This one is sorely needed. If citizens of a city have to drive 10 miles per hour to get to work every day, their government is failing them.
As promised, here are some photos of my trip to Portland, Maine this week. It was mostly a shopping and eating trip. The photos were taken on my big purchase, a Canon Powershot SD400, which replaced my old camera that died in Portland. Portland was a cute city (
photo,
photo,
photo). Aside from shopping, I went to their really nice public market to eat (
photo,
photo,
photo). I stopped for a mid-afternoon drink at a bar called Three-Dollar Dewey's Ale House, where I had a
Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat Ale. I hadn't had it before, but I
really enjoyed it.
Albany, NY -- AT&T/SBC Merger
Check it out! I've finally set my blog up in real blog software! It'll allow me to take care of several marketing tools, and you'll be able to easily access archives and post responses to my posts. It took me the good part of a day to transfer all of the archives over, but I think it's worth it.
AT&T, which was a major telecom powerhouse in the '80s and has been around since the birth of the telephone, is
now going to be absorbed into SBC, effectively marking the end of Ma Bell. According the the same article, Verizon is acquiring MCI... remember when the only phone competition was between AT&T and MCI, and then Sprint came along? Whoda thunk that Sprint would be the only one left standing independently? And wasn't there a fourth national company that came along right after Sprint? Does anybody remember what it was?
Albany, NY -- Hasta La Vista, Bushie!
President Bush is out fundraising in California, but guess who isn't showing up -- the Governator! The President has become such a liability, especially to moderate Republicans like Schwarzenegger, that it's hazardous to their careers to appear with him.
A good reason for Bush's poor rep right now is his indifference towards the poor in New Orleans. One of my favorite treats when I go to Boston is the WBUR (NPR) program On Point. On Wednesday, they did a great broadcast on poverty.
An update on an earlier story: RIM may in fact have to shut down its Blackberry service due to a patent lawsuit. That would leave me and many other high and dry. I hope that the court realizes how crippling this measure could be and comes up with some other solution if it comes down to it.
The best assistant coach in baseball in my lifetime, Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone, has left the Braves to join the Baltimore Orioles. It makes sense to me that he'd do that, being that he's from Maryland and his best friend was recently hired as the Orioles' manager. What doesn't make sense to me is why I can't even find a scrap of evidence that the Braves tried to keep him!
Albany, NY -- Stolen Arctic Map
Dirty, dirty fuckers. The official map which delineates zoning in the American section of the Arctic Circle has mysteriously "disappeared":
The missing map did not seem to include in the coastal plain tens of thousands of acres of Native Alaskans' lands. On the new map, those lands were included, arguably making it easier to open them to energy development.
Speaking of the Arctic, I enjoyed my time in Portland. I'll put up a couple of photos over the weekend after I've had some sleep.
The K-hole, who thinks he should be a contributing editor (my ass), sent me this story about a man who wanted his jail sentence to match the jersey number of his favorite player, Boston Celtics great Larry Bird. 33 years in jail... long time! Good thing for him he wasn't a Dennis Rodman fan!
Medford, MA -- "It." Dammit.
I'm disappointed. "It"
turned out just to be things you can get from eBay. I was hoping it'd at least be some cool new feature. Oh well.
Portland, ME -- Johnnie Walker Gold
From the U.S. News & World Report, a pretty reputable source: Cheney Resignation Rumors Fly. I doubt it, but something big is afoot. The Nation thinks so, too.
I went out yesterday evening in Portland, Maine, to a restaurant called the Fore Street Restaurant. Pretty good -- I had a venison steak, which tasted like I'd run over it myself, as well as a shot of Johnnie Walker Gold, which I've been meaning to try for a long time. It was so smooth, and actually really delicious. Scotch is fairly tough to drink, but not this one. Of course, at fifteen bucks a shot, one would hope that to be the case.
Medford, MA -- Miers On Abortion
Harriet Miers's true colors on abortion?
As a candidate for the Dallas city council, Miers also signaled support for the overall agenda of Texans United for Life — agreeing she would support legislation restricting abortions if the Supreme Court ruled that states could ban abortions and would participate in "pro-life rallies and special events."
(Thanks to K-Hole)
Albany, NY -- GM Cuts Workers' Health Benefits
This is a story that just makes me want to cry. GM has agreed with its auto workers union to cut health benefits to its workers, and I'd expect that the other American car manufacturers will follow suit:
"This is a very big step forward that we will build on," said Rick Wagoner, G.M.'s chairman and chief executive. He called it "the single biggest cost reduction that we've probably been able to announce in a single day in the history of G.M."
Well, what the fuck is he giving up? He sounds pretty happy about all this, while his workers are going to suffer. Badly. It's downhill from here.
Albany, NY -- Screw Walmart
Update on the Colbert Report: "It's French, bitch!" The show was good. Definite promise. It'll be on four nights per week on Comedy Central at 11:30 PM, right after The Daily Show.
I've got a little more info on what "It" is. It's something from eBay. The blog of the guy who posted it, who identifies himself as "Ratcliffe," is pretty good. I'm hoping to read him a bit more often.
Just FYI, I checked, and the store where Steve Brunner bought the gun with which he ended his own life was Wal-Mart... but at least I'm sure he got it at a good price. If you haven't already, watch this Jib-Jab cartoon to remind yourself about why you shouldn't be shopping there. I am FURIOUS.
I was driving back from Price Chopper to the office, this evening, having picked up some sushi, when I went through the Four Corners in Bethlehem and saw an antiwar vigil being held by a group called Bethelehem Neighbors for Peace. I checked the website, and it's a weekly thing. I may attend one of these weeks!
Those of you who know me well will remember that before my obsession with politics, I was very into tech stocks, none more so than the AMD/Intel wars... well, for the first time in years, AMD has sold more desktop processors than Intel in a month. Why? Because of a spike in popularity of something called a Media Center PC. I wasn't familiar with the concept before (I used to be so much more informed about this stuff!), but I'm going to look into it tomorrow. I think I want one!
Albany, NY -- What Is "It?"
BREAKING NEWS-TYPE STUFF: Strange commercial during the NLCS tonight... What Is It? I gotta feel like someone is screwing with us here! According to the counter on the bottom of the site, we'll know in just a couple of days. The site's domain is registered to BBDO, which is the ad agency which did Apple's famed "1984" commercial. I'm going to keep poking around for a bit and let you know what I find out.
More before bed. Twenty minutes until the premiere of the Colbert Report (pronounced "Col-bear Re-pour"). I'm excited!
Albany, NY -- Screw the NRA
I find myself infuriated at the gun lobby... Steve Brunner, who will be missed, killed himself with a gun he purchased at a well-known chain store. He had asked a friend who was an employee of said store to get him a gun, and the friend refused and told the employee manning the counter not to sell to Steve, as Steve was an unstable individual. However, the employee sold the gun to him anyway.
If true, this would be a bombshell: George Stephanopolous asserted today that Bush and Cheney had something to do with the leak... Goes a little higher than Toby Ziegler, er, I mean Karl Rove, if true. Rove and the President are drifting, according to Andrew Sullivan.
Hopefully the President will be impeached before he does any more damage -- The Guardian says he's had his sights on countries after Iraq.
