Jacksonville, FL -- A New Addition to the Family

Today I spent the day hanging around with my dad and his new dog, Lucky. Lucky's a beautiful pup. He's a mix of, uh, dog, and uh, dog.



Lucky!

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Jacksonville, FL -- Welcome to Jacksonville...

...it's probably a lot warmer here than where you came from!



I'm here for three days, and I'm sure I'll have some photos.

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Baltimore, MD -- Blackberry Here To Stay

Talk about excellent news. I wouldn't be blogging right now if it weren't for my Blackberry, and the service will be kept on after RIM settled with NTP:

"There's been a collective sigh of relief," said Ellen Dailey, an analyst with Forrester Research. "R.I.M. knew that by not settling, they were going to put tremendous pressure on their customers."

Major understatement. I'm not sure I'd survive. Go back to stylus-based handheld devices? Never! I'm a wheel guy!

Long live Blackberry!

Tag: Blackberry

posted by jbrzoska @ 7:01 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Baltimore, MD – Jonathan Tasini on NPR

I’m on a layover in Baltimore en route to Jacksonville (70 degrees, here I come!)

Jonathan Tasini will be on NPR stations all over upstate NY tonight at 8:30 PM (repeated tomorrow at 1 PM), on Capitol Connection with Alan Chartock Jonathan will be on the NPR's the Capitol Connection tonight from 8:30-9p and tomorrow from 1-1:30p... tell your friends. You can listen in Albany on 90.3 FM (stations differ around the region), or online at http://www.wamc.org/listen.html. The show is also archived here. Should be a good interview.

Oh, by the way, guess who set up the interview? This guy!

posted by jbrzoska @ 6:57 PM Trackback Link 1 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Prairie Home Impeachment?

One of my favorite media personalities, Garrison Keillor, weighs in on President Bush:

...you read the paper and realize the country is led by a man who isn't paying attention, and you hope that somebody will poke him. Or put a sign on his desk that says, "Try much harder."

Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life?

.

.

.

The U.S. Constitution provides a simple, ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.




Two mentions of the "I" word from a rather even-keeled (Keilled?) guy. The drumbeat gets louder.

posted by jbrzoska @ 6:49 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Johnnie Walker Blues

My birthday was yesterday (thanks to all of you who remembered!) and I'm officially half a deck old. I didn't really have enough time to do anything last night and likely won't for the rest of the week (though last weekend was exhausting but good and next weekend in Jacksonville with Dad should be, as well). I did, however, find the time to pick up my own birthday present to myself, and am enjoying it over some work:


My birthday present to myself

All of this could only make you think one thing -- "This guy needs to get a life!" Maybe, but work, blogging, staying in shape, and volunteer stuff preclude that.

I can't complain about my online life though... this site was visited more than 5,000 times in February! Ridiculous!

Oh, and for the record... Johnnie Blue is delicious.

Anyone in Florida next week? I'm in Jacksonville over the weekend, then Orlando (Disney!) from Monday through Wednesday, and St. Petersburg on Thursday and Friday. E-mail me if you'd like to meet up.

posted by jbrzoska @ 10:41 PM Trackback Link 1 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Sam Seaborn Returns

After making a completely unresolved exit at the end of Season 4, Sam Seaborn will be back to see the West Wing off:

Rob Lowe and eight other alumni of "The West Wing" are set to return for the White House drama's final episodes.

Also reprising their roles with appearances in one or more of the drama's final five episodes are Mary-Louise Parker, Anna Deavere Smith, Emily Procter, Marlee Matlin, Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, Timothy Busfield and Annabeth Gish.

I wonder if he won that Congressional seat he was pursuing? We'll know soon enough!

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:14 AM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Binghamton, NY -- Republican Strategists Just Made a Big Mistake

So here's my take on the abortion ruling in South Dakota. Republicans are dancing with glee right now and counting down the days until someone takes the ruling to the Supreme Court to try to get it overturned -- of course, when the Supreme Court rules on the SD case, they'll uphold it and effectively overturn Roe v. Wade.

I , for one, am actually happy about it. If Roe is overturned, then essentially abortion becomes an issue for the states themselves. So educated states will still have legalized abortion (approximately 20 states). The other states can do whatever they want to screw over their women. Why am I happy about that? It's simple. I know so many "socially concerned" people that don't really identify completely with either party, but that have always voted Republican in the past for one reason: religion. But with the two religious issues finally off the table politically: Gay Marriage and Abortion, these people are now Democrats. All of the social issues are now Democratic issues (health care, education, and social security). Even my old Cornell roommates' ardently Republican parents are now all going to be switching over to voting Democrat in the next election.

So for the Republicans, this was it. This was pretty much the apex of the Conservative Movement in the United States. Barry Goldwater can rest well. Now we can finally get back to being a nation that actually helps people.

On a side note, the ranch where Cheney was shot was one of about 600 private hunting ranches in Texas -- essentially country clubs with guns -- where wealthy old men can go to hunt animals of their choice including elephants, giraffes, and zebras. The Economist has a great article about it, but since it's not available in the online version any more I can't give you a link unfortunately. If you're interested though, take a look at this. It's not quite what it seems at first glance.

posted by Ari @ 11:53 AM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Waltham, MA -- Signing Off, for Now...

I'm on the last leg of my current trip (DC, NJ, NYC, Boston), and I'm going to have to turn off my computer until I return to Albany tomorrow evening because my PST file disappeared and I've got to preserve my hard drive as-is until it can be examined.

So, where's our man Ari to fill in? You there?

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:16 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Iselin, NJ -- _____ and Goliath... Will David Make a Showing?

Last weekend, I spent a day as U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini's right-hand man at the convention of the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators in Albany. Jonathan showed his talent for schmoozing with a diverse audience... but I question the wisdom of leading with his anti-war stance when his economic platform probably would've hit closer to home with many of the attendees.

Jonathan and his staff are going to have to do something special very soon, as the mainstream media is already looking past 2006 for the incumbent, Hillary Clinton:

The New York Democrat has had no well-known GOP opponent in her bid for re-election since prosecutor Jeanine Pirro dropped out in frustration in December. The Republican expected to step in, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, is a no-name in most of the state, and polls show Clinton with a commanding lead against all potential challengers.

At the end of 2005, the former first lady had $17 million in her campaign account and was working hard to expand her national base of contributors. Spencer had just $243,000.

"She's raising money she won't even need" for her state race, said former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, a New York Republican powerbroker.

And from Kos:

[Republican] efforts to find a candidate to challenge Clinton border on pathetic.

Perhaps it's time for her to use some of that fundraising prowess to help out other Democrats? She's got $17 million and no real prospect of being seriously challenged.

If she wants to fundraise for 2008, all the power to her. But she could be honest about it. Pretending to raise this money for a non-existent Senate contest is simply obnoxious.

Ouch, and not a mention of Jonathan's campaign in either article. Two months in, he's gotta be somewhere. I like him -- a platform I can largely agree with, brains, personality, excellent speaking ability -- but I'm starting to think he'd have been a great establishment candidate, and not a grassroots one. I've realized lately that if a campaign tries to paper over a lack of resources and/or name recognition by dubbing itself a "grassroots campaign," it's fooling itself. I'm going to keep helping for a couple more weeks and will see how things go, but I'm too busy to throw good time after bad.

Idealism's OK, and in fact noble, but idealism without a plan is usually fruitless.




Jonathan Tasini -- Healthier than his campaign?


Tags: Jonathan Tasini, Hillary Clinton

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