Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!

Playoff hockey is the best of the best of all sports, in my opinion. Watching Nashville and Vancouver, who would have thought Nashville would play so hard. Luongo in net was like silly putty, nothing got by him, and the only goal scored was by Vancouver, shorthanded at that. But ... minute or two toward the end of the game, Nashville scores on Luongo! Waiting for overtime.

Good Ol' Hockey Game


First overtime, still tied. Waiting for second (double) overtime. What I find cool about hockey is that when the game is in overtime, there are NO commercial breaks whatsoever.

This is one of the fastest paced game I have watched in quite a while. I think there were only two penalties called all game, one in which Vancouver scored shorthanded in the first period, and one in overtime against Vancouver for too many men on the ice.

(I'm taping "Dr. Who" to watch later).

Yeah! Nashville wins it in double overtime! What a fabulous game. Now to watch "Dr. Who."

More hockey tomorrow!

Nothing Says April Like Hockey Playoffs!

Drama, drama, drama! What jersey to wear ... rooting for Tampa Bay, so should I wear my Manon Rheume jersey or my Steve Yzerman (GM of TB Ligthning) ... or am I rooting for San Jose over Detroit (um, you betcha!)

I love hockey playoffs! Fuck football, IT'S HOCKEY TIME!

A Little Waits For Arno

Happy 6th Blogversary To Me!

It's been six years of blogging. My very first post here, which I cross-posted at MyDD. Hard to believe that post garnered me my one and only blogosphere Koufax award nomination by MyDD for best post of the year. Hey, I didn't win, but as they say after the Oscars, I was just happy to be nominated (right?)

One Year, 705 Posts, 4,800 Hits

Six Years, 2,450 Posts, 23,225 Hits

Chicago Blackhawks Out Of Running

Last year's Stanley Cup winner lost in overtime in game 7 against Vancouver, who advance to the next round.

Game 7's are very much exciting, and it was 1-0 for Vancouver until the last few minutes when Chicago tied it, shorthanded no less. However, in the early minutes of overtime, Vancouver got the goal, and it's adios to Chicago.

Drama, Drama Obama, Holder, Clement And Continued Arguments In Defense Of DOMA

I was bothered a lot when Obama went back on his promise with regard to not defending DOMA, and then his DOJ filed really nasty briefs in support of it. They were even more egregious than anything Bush's DOJ ever filed, and they angered not only the GLBT community, but those that support marriage equality for all (and not just domestic partnership rights, but real marriage).

Then, after all Obama's DOJ did, they suddenly decided not to continue with the defense. Of course, perpetually orange skin fake tanned Boehner, decided Congress would hire a private firm (the law firm King & Spalding) to continue to oppose DOMA. However, they suddenly unemployed themselves (and one of the lead attorneys, Paul Clement, quit because of that decision).

The law firm King & Spalding stunned many observers Monday by abruptly withdrawing from representing the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- barely a week after coming under fire for signing on to defend the law on behalf of House Republicans. But the real shockwaves may have taken place within the firm, where, according to one insider, employees were at each other's throats over its decision to take on the case.

Obviously, the firm was not aware that most of America supports gay marriage.

Sources with knowledge of the backlash confirm that one of King & Spalding's top clients, Coca Cola, also based in Atlanta, directly intervened to press the firm to extricate itself from the case.

Then, of course, there was that onerous "contract."

This is a huge deal. Lawyers don't just drop cases. King & Spalding knew DOMA was controversial, but they took the case anyway. Then, once the controversy erupted last week, they fled. Granted, things were looking bad for King & Spalding. Petitions had been launched. Their embarrassing contract with Boehner was leaked, a contract that appeared to forbid any an all employees of King & Spalding, even those not working on the case, from doing any gay rights advocacy opposing DOMA (including, it seemed, even donating to a gay rights cause that didn't toe the official Boehner line on DOMA).

Naturally, Eric Holder, the White House Attorney General has to chime in with his two cents.

"Paul Clement is a great lawyer and has done a lot of really great things for this nation. In taking on the representation--representing Congress in connection with DOMA, I think he is doing that which lawyers do when we're at our best," Holder said during a roundtable with reporters at the Justice Department. "That criticism, I think, was very misplaced."

Holder also compared the criticism of Clement to the attacks on Justice Department lawyers for their past work for detentainees at Guantanamo. "It was something we dealt with here in the Department of Justice...The people who criticized our people here at the Justice Department were wrong then as are people who criticized Paul Clement for the representation that he's going to continue," Holder added.

As John Aravosis adroitly points out, "Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to counsel. Causes do not."

That's a good one. Now Eric Holder is suddenly the great defender of the eternally-incarcerated at Gitmo. But let's talk about Holder's offensive comparison of the American civil rights community to the anti-Muslim bigots and religious right filth who would let those detained at Gitmo rot on the vine because they're dark-skinned. It seems our top law enforcement officer isn't familiar with Constitution. Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to counsel. Causes do not. That's the difference between the Gitmo defendants and DOMA. It's offensive and embarrassing that Holder isn't aware of the difference.

And let's not forget what happened with this DOMA defense, and thus how it compares to the Gitmo trials. The lead Republican lawyer who Eric Holder is defending let the Republicans politicize the defense of DOMA and portray their move to hire him as a swipe at President Obama (funny that Obama's own Attorney General had no problem with that). The lead Republican lawyer had no problem letting Boehner portray the DOMA defense as a favor Boehner was doing for the religious right. Again, not a word from Holder. The DOMA defense was already politicized long before the gays weighed in in their own defense, and President Obama's Attorney General couldn't have cared less.

Did Democrats politicize the terror trials, forcing the Republicans to respond in kind? No.

Clients of King & Spalding were disgusted by the firm taking on a case defending bigotry. Did the same thing happen with the terror trials? No.

One can assume that new recruits and current staff of King & Spalding were not exactly pleased about the nature of the case, nor the fact that the firm's contract included a blatant effort to restrict the free speech rights of the firm's employees, even those not working on the case (ordering them not to do anything, even on their free time, that might help overturn DOMA). Did all of that happen on the terror trials, forcing the Republicans to intervene? No.

The defense of the DOMA brief was politicized from the beginning by the GOP. The terror trials were politicized by the GOP. That's the only thing these two issues have in common.

Perhaps it's time someone explained to our Attorney General the difference between those who criticize you for defending the Bill of Rights versus those who criticize you for attacking the Bill of Rights.

Now it appears that Clement's new firm, Bancroft PLCC, will handle he eternal tan man's insistence that DOMA needs to be defended. As John stated: "I think Bancroft PLLC just bought itself a world of pain."

Talk About A Small Apartment - Yet 24 Rooms!

This is an interesting YouTube about how one person's creativity can change a very small space (approximately 300+ square feet).



I've always been creative with small spaces since I started living in studios back in 1995.

I Do Believe Ezra Klein Has It Right About Obama

First off, I have to say that next to Glenn Greenwald at Salon, my favorite blogger/writer/poster is Gaius Publius (I believe that's a pseudonym for blogger Gabriel Arana at AMERICAblog). He is spot on with much of his analysis of the economy, the presidency, the political climate of the country, etc.

His most recent post, entitled "Ezra Klein: Obama is 'a moderate Republican of the early 1990s'" contains some interesting quotes by Ezra, as well as some funny commentary of his own.

Ezra Klein has an interesting (and well structured) piece about all the things that President Obama isn't (Muslim, socialist, birthless), and the one thing he is — a Republican. Mr. Klein (my emphasis throughout):

A reality-television star who can’t persuade anyone that his hair is real is alleging that the president of the United States was born in Kenya.

Perhaps this is just the logical endpoint of two years spent arguing over what Barack Obama is — or isn’t. Muslim. Socialist. Marxist. Anti-colonialist. Racial healer. We’ve obsessed over every answer except the right one: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him.

He does save his best comment for the end of the post, though.

And if I may be so bold, I don't think it's a given that radical Republicanism, 2010-style, is just anti-Obamaism, as Klein asserts. Republicans have been moving the goalposts into the next county for most of our lives.

It's what they do. They're not going to stop until it's 1880 again, an era in which those nasty immigrants were, at the very least, appropriately hued. The next Democratic president could be to the left of Chairman Mao, and those Republican goalposts would still be to the right of the Atlantic seaboard.

(Stifling a guffaw).

My Easter Surprise!

I actually was able to finally talk to my grandson via Skype, so I also saw him as well. I cannot even begin to explain how excited that made me feel, and even the fact that the damn dryer is not working and all my clothes are damp, I DON'T CARE!!!! I got to talk to Zaire!

We made a plan to talk for a few minutes every night before he goes to bed. (sigh!)

Oh, by the way, HAPPY EASTER!

Apple Has A Secret App That Literally Tracks Your Every Move!

Boy, am I glad I never liked Apple products from day one, that I've never owned a Mac puter, never owned an IPhone, an IPod nor an IPad. I won't go near that crap, and thank goodness after this information came out just recently:

Holy crap. This is for real. I just ran the software and found the secret file on my laptop, detailing where I've been over the past year, including lots of details of where I visited in Vegas last year during the Netroots Nation conference, where I've been to in DC, and Chicago. It even shows you, over time, where I've been.

Read the rest of the article, and the update here.

Also, it has come to the attention (finally) of major media that Michigan State Police are also using a program that can extract every single piece of data off of a cell phone, including deleted texts and phone numbers, etc., in less than two minutes, and they've been doing it at traffic stops since 2008! More in this piece as well.

Total H/T to AMERICAblog for these stories.

You Raise Me Up - Dedicated To My Grandson, Zaire

I am coming for you, baby!

It's Hockey Playoffs, And I Am At My Favorite Bar!

It was a good day today. First off, Santa's Elves has been offered a FREE warehouse and office, Yippee!!!!!

Second, I went to my regular watering hole. It's fun to be greeted like Norm at the Cheers bar, where everyone knows your name! (Laughing). The Rangers/Capitals game was on, and I eventually moved from my regular table to the bar where a New Yorker was watching the game on the bar TV. It was fun talking with him (he was in town on vacation with his wife, but he was at the bar because he was trying to find someplace to watch the "game.") We had fun exchanging hockey stories, but clearly, I was the dominant one with respect to knowledge of players and the game. Yeah, just in case some of you don't remember, I still have my two hockey player autograph tats on my left ankle! And you all know I am the sports pig, so I can talk about just anything sports, whether baseball, football, hockey, basketball, etc. I gave him advice as to where to go have dinner with his wife (the Grove/Farmer's Market) where there are plenty of regular and upscale places to eat. He actually went to a Kings playoff game and was surprised at how many empty seats there were (yeah, don't get me started on my Kings rant!), and he wanted to buy a Kings jersey but he felt the roughly $150 was a bit high. Shit, I've paid more for some of my jerseys ... but then I have paid less when I've ordered them from Canada. Anyway, the game went into overtime, and I had to leave because I needed to get home to watch my reality show, Survivor (ha ha). Caps won in overtime. I gave him my blog business card. Hope he checks it out, and if he and his wife come back again, I will most assuredly help him out with the "tour" of our gracious city!

Third, my regular bartender, who is always generous in her "pour" of my rum/cokes, and sometimes comps me with a drink, bought me a lotto ticket. I still haven't figured out how to check what numbers won ... I never play the lotto, but I did tell her if we won, it's a shared ticket! UPDATE: I got 3 of the 5 numbers and won $15 bucks LOL!

Then, of course, because I have all the tattoos, especially the hockey player autographs (Kelly Hrudey and Corey Millen) the next topic was tatts, so I gave information to one of the servers that was interested in getting a tatt regarding Greg at Sunset Strip Tattoo (who usually has a nine month waiting list, he's that good).

It was a fun night. I need more of those.

4-20

Hope 4-20, especially 4:20 p.m (or a.m.) was celebrated accordingly!

Damn Yankees - High Enough

The band was formed in 1989, consisting of Tommy Shaw of Styx, Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Ted Nugent of The Amboy Dukes and a successful solo career, and Michael Cartellone.^[2] Presumably inspired by the musical of the same name, Nugent once also explained that he coined the name because whenever someone asked him how he and Tommy Shaw would sound playing together, he would always reply by saying they would sound like “a bunch of damn Yankees.”

Passover Seder

I trust my Jewish friends enjoyed their Passover dinner! See you all at work tomorrow (LOL).

Daily Kos: Three Down, Three More On The Horizon (Recalls)

Recall signatures are now submitted against 3 Wisconsin Republicans -- with local volunteers working to recall at least 3 more. Today, we put our powerful pro-recall ad on TV for another week, but our ability to keep it up until the end of this campaign rests entirely on people like you. Click here to see our powerful ad -- and chip in $3 to keep it on the air.

Just passing it on. This is what you get for going against what the people really want. You can use Faux News and their counterparts all you want, but real people are not buying this shit. Recall, baby!

The Dumb In America Just Keep Getting Dumber

They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

You can't change America if you're too stupid to know it needs changing.

Why So Many Elites Are Pushing For A Depression

A very long and intellectually difficult piece to read, but it is well worth it if you wish to try to have an inkling of understanding as to why the Republicans and the corporate, financial and some private sectors are trying to purposely lower wages and keep people in America poor. H/T to Crooks and Liars.

JAY: Okay. Now, you said because they realize the game is over. Why is the game over? And which game?

HUDSON: For the time being, the ability to pay debts. They realize that a debt that can't be paid won't be. The economy is so deeply in debt one-third of American real estate has mortgages in excess of its market price. So the Federal Reserve has come right out and said what we need is a reinflation. We need to restore the bubble economy. We need to push housing prices back up so that labor has to go into a lifetime of debt in order to afford access to housing.

Now, you say, quite correctly, "But this is going to prevent labor from buying the goods and services." That's Say's law. But Alan Greenspan explained this very clearly a decade ago. He said there's something wonderful about debt: it's cured the labor problem. The workers are now one paycheck away from homelessness. If they go on strike or if they're fired because they complain about working conditions, all of a sudden their interest rate goes up on their credit card, all of a sudden they miss their mortgage payment, they re losing their home. Alan Greenspan said debt is what has created stability of wages in this country, meaning steadily falling wages.

In America, despite the amazing rise in productivity we ve had in the last 30 years, real wages have actually gone down. All of the increase in productivity has been taken by the finance, insurance, and real estate sector, called the FIRE sector, almost all of it by the financial sector. So all of this growth has been siphoned off, not taking the form of rising living standards, but taking the form of debt service, mainly interest and fees. The fees are as large as interest for the credit card companies. So it's all siphoned off financially.

Rise In Number Of Children Being Raised By Grandparent(s)

One child in 10 in the United States lives with a grandparent, a share that increased slowly and steadily over the past decade before rising sharply from 2007 to 2008, the first year of the Great Recession, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

About four-in-ten (41%) of those children who live with a grandparent (or grandparents) are also being raised primarily by that grandparent,¹ according to the census data.

Interesting study by Pew.

Playing With Oil Prices, And Getting Away With It

While I do not drive or own a car, I am affected by the uncalled for rising gasoline prices as it affects other aspects of my life, including the rise in the price of food and other necessities. However, most of us are well aware by now how these rising gasoline prices are rigged. There's an interesting piece by Lee Fang exposing how gamers like Koch Industries are utilizing tactics similar to those that were done by Enron to spike the price of oil.

In recent weeks, gas prices around the country have surged to levels unseen since the 2008 oil spike. However, market fundamentals are not driving the nearly $4.00/gallon gas prices. In fact, under the Obama administration, oil production is at record highs and there is adequate global supply of crude. As Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Bart Chilton has explained, rampant oil speculation, which is at its highest level on record right now, is to blame for current prices.

As Yasha Levine says on her blog concerning this:

To put it another way: Forget what you learned about supply and demand. Everyone agrees the oil market is more rigged than a truckstop slot machine.

I suggest a full read of both sites.

Santa's Elves

I am so thrilled that my non-profit corporation has finally been established. I still have some business things to take care of, like electing officers, and appointing a board of directors, getting my Tax ID number, and things, but once that is completed, my team can now get down to business. And as soon as I can find a small place (combination warehouse and office), I can move all of the electronics I have stored at my house and office (computers, monitors, cell phones, radios, DVD and VCR units, etc.).

If you click on the link above, it will take you to the blog page I set up for Santa's Elves. Unfortunately, since it took way too long to get the incorporation completed (since the first documents my lawyer submitted said we were in the business of promoting sporting events in the community!), I am afraid I will not be able to roll this out in the large way I had hoped to for Christmas 2011 (although, we will still be able to deliver product, but I just won't be able to put forth a publicity campaign on the larger level that I had initially planned).

What started all of this was, ironically, being at Los Angeles City College during the time that Zaire was taking his singing classes there on Saturdays. While we parents (and grandparents) were in the hallway listening to the children, I had noticed that one of the mothers was loading up a T-Mobile prepaid card onto her Nokia (very old cell phone). Now, at that time, I also had a T-Mobile prepaid cell phone, but I had a Sidekick, which had a QWERTY pull out keyboard, and for the price of $1 per day, I had unlimited texting, access to the internet (but not like a droid or with the power of 2G, 3G or 4G), the ability to instant message on services like Yahoo, AIM and MSN, and the phone had a camera, a small recording device, a music player, and games. Because I opted for the prepaid plan, I had to buy the phone outright, which was $299.00. I paid an extra $50 for a 1 gig memory card. The only drawback was that cell calls were still expensive, at $.15 per minute, so I rarely used it to talk, but I most definitely texted like a mofo on that thing. Plus, since I could use Yahoo Messenger on it, sometimes when I was sick at home but still had to communicate with work (at that time, all the attorneys and I communicated via Yahoo IMs), I didn't have to keep getting up to run to the computer if someone IM'd me from work, I could keep the phone next to me in bed, and communicate that way.

But, I wanted a droid phone, and had promised myself to get one that year. Actually, I wasn't sure at the time if I wanted a droid as much as I was interested in getting a prepaid Boost phone that allowed unlimited texting AND cell calls, and my daughter had been using her Boost phone for a while and was quite happy with it. And it was costing her only $40 a month.

So, I asked the mother if she might be interested in my Sidekick. She asked me how much for it, and I told her it was free, and that I was simply looking for someone who would actually want it and use it, since it was prepaid, and it was not especially great if you were a "talker" because of the price of the minutes. She informed me that she had a teenage son that might be interested in it, and the next week she brought him to LACC and I let him play around with the phone. He got so excited about the possibility of having the phone, mostly because of the unlimited texting feature, which on the regular T-Mobile phones like the old Nokia still charged you for outgoing text messages (incoming were free). Also, since that family already were on the T-Mobile prepaid system, it was safe to assume they didn't call each other and chat endlessly, but used their cell phones mainly to just stay in touch or for emergency purposes. With the Sidekick, the teenager would finally be able to keep up with his peers in the ever growing world of texting without bankrupting his family! And, voila, I came up with the idea of Santa's Elves - giving away cell phones (because at that moment in time I probably had three old ones at home already that only needed to have new SIM cards installed) to individuals who could use an extra phone but just did not have the extra money to purchase one.

I told the family that as soon as I purchased my new phone, I'd call them and give the son my Sidekick. I still had the original box it came in, all the receipts for the purchase of the phone, the instruction booklet, etc.

When I went to buy my Boost phone, I had originally settled on getting a Blackberry. It was expensive, and the keyboard was small, but it did have wireless capabilities. However, when my friend and I went to get phones at this store, the owner steered us away from Boost and showed us this Virgin Mobile Samsung Intercept which had a pull out full QWERTY keyboard, 3G technology, WiFi capabilities, I was all over it! And for $40 per month, I also got 1200 minutes of airtime, of which since I have had the phone, I have rarely used up more than 600 minutes, and trust me, I have tried to talk on that phone as often as I can. I really like the new phone. It even has a video camera, which I didn't have with the Sidekick. I can view YouTube videos, surf the web fast (like the time I was stuck at a bus stop in the Valley in the evening and had no clue if a bus would even be stopping by, but thanks to fast access to the Metro website, I pulled up the schedule for that route, and found that it would be there in like 45 minutes - yeah the Valley sucks if you ride mass transit - but it would only take about five minutes from where I was to get to Universal City, which was a stop where the Metro Red Line subway connected, and which would quickly take me home). Although my pictures taken with the camera inside areas are sometimes a little too dark, the fact that they are no longer blurry like the ones I took from the Sidekick make me much happier about putting my photos online.

Anyway, I finally wrapped up the old Sidekick and called the mother who came and picked up the phone about a week before Christmas. I recently telephoned the family and spoke with the teenager, and he was just raving about the phone, he loved it so much. Yeah, I can bet he did, just being able to finally join his friends in the texting arena without having to pay extra for that service was worth the $1 per day fee. Plus, the phone was FREE!!!!

That got me to thinking about the fact that my friend and I are constantly collecting old computers and gutting them and using the old parts to fix older computers. Or, the fact that some people when they don't want to pay to fix their laptops simply tell us to just "throw it away" and we are like WHAT? We don't throw anything away, we'll pay to fix the laptop and give it to someone that needs it. And that is where the fuller concept of Santa's Elves came into play. This year, when I posted at my apartment building that anyone who was getting rid of old TV's or other electronics, to put them in this corner of the building and I will take them, I ended up with like four old school televisions, and it took me a while to figure out why I was getting perfectly working televisions -- the flatscreen revolution! People were buying inexpensive flatscreens and didn't know what to do with their perfectly good, but old school television sets. Now my house is full (well, Zaire's room is full) of electronics, but eventually, they will be moved to a new place.

So, as Santa's Elve's blog site indicates, our aim is to provide low income families with that second television or that second computer or the extra cell phone that they desperately need but simply cannot afford.

It's nice to be able to give back to the community. We may be small to start out with, but I do believe that over time, we will grow and hope to take it nationwide in a few years. And with my connection to several international NGO sanctioned non-profits that like my idea, eventually we could go global.

Oregon Legislature RickRolls Itself

H/T to AMERICAblog.

Bush's 2001 Promise To Pay Off National Debt In Ten Years

Remember when in 2001 Bush said that "his responsible budget" would pay off the national debt in ten years? Yeah, I thought not.

My budget has funded a responsible increase in our ongoing operations. It has funded our Nation’s important priorities. It has protected Social Security and Medicare. And our surpluses are big enough that there is still money left over.

Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree.

We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to act now, and I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years.

At the end of those 10 years, we will have paid down all the debt that is available to retire. That is more debt repaid more quickly than has ever been repaid by any nation at any time in history.

Happy 59 To Me!

Most of those that know me, are aware that I only celebrate my birthday every ten years (30, 40, 50 and my upcoming 60th). I was going to have this big bash in New York for my 60th, but I am financially somewhat drained thanks to legal fees I had to cough up for a certain situation. Also, that situation caused me enough stress, as well as losing seeing my grandson regularly (if at all ...) so I needed a pick me up, and chose to throw myself a casual dinner on Saturday (the 9th-my actual BD) at one of my favorite restaurants! (Of course, now that I jinxed the every ten year aspect, I'll probably drop dead before next year! J/K).

My cousins (Kelly, Leslie) went to great lengths to get me a plumeria flower lei for the day (trust me, that was a great feat – especially with the plant and flowers out of season even in Hawai'i!), but man, (I still have it, they will last almost a week without losing their color or fragrance) I'm in heaven with my lei.



Kelly and I on La Brea, leaving for the dinner party (Jerry took this picture)


Yoon, chowing down!


My best friend, Linda (Mexican/American) comparing notes with EJ on their IPhones re a Korean soap opera they both watch.


Our server.


Jerry, watching amazed as Hana takes a picture of her food. See that puzzled look on his face? Well, everyone KNOWS Hana takes pictures of her food and puts it on her Facebook page! Duh!


Right side of me ...


Left side of me ...


Image of guests from vantage point of my drink (I was at the end of the table).


Photo of all of us (minus Jerry who was standing on the both across from us taking the picture).


From left to right: Yoon, EJ, Hana, Georgiana, Simon, David, Gordon, Nick, Kelly, Linda and me. Jerry was taking the picture. (all the dark ones I took from my cell phone; I did not bring a camera).

My cousins also know that most of my adult life, I was associated with the fragrance "Jungle Gardenia," and it has not been available for years. The girls found a fragrance that was as close to that as can be, by Givenchy called "Amarige" which is so awesome, I put it on before I go to bed!

DVD's were the theme of the night, and I got a ton, from a lot of Elizabeth Taylor movies, to a lot of my favorite action movies (Transformers, Star Trek, Tron, etc.).

All, in all, a very good time was had.

Put On A Happy Face-Liza

Nice song by Liza (as she so invigoratingly tells you it's Liza with a "Z")



Love this video of her back then on her mother's television show.

Doo Wop Broad!

I used to have an online screen name that many people related to because of my music collection, Doo Wop Broad. Yeah, stop laughing! But one of the things that was unique about me was the rather large collection I had of obscure doo wop songs.

Although I know of it growing up as a kid, and listening to these groups, I was reintroduced to it by Billy Vera when he would sit in on a radio stint in Los Angeles during the 1980's, and he would play records from his vast collection of obscure doo wop.

Since I probably taped, I don't know, maybe 100 to 200 hours of his shows, I not only have songs by these obscure groups, but I have Billy's personal take, i.e., why this group, how many records they made (sometimes like only three in existence of some Brooklyn group and Billy and his friend have two of the three, LOL). Back when Napster was just coming into existence, I took advantage of trying to see if I could find these obscure artists ... and the answer was, um, yeah!

Enjoy some Paragons, (Let's Start All Over Again; Hey Little Schoolgirl) from Brooklyn!





The Passions doing "Gloria" (originally done by the Cadillacs)



Original

Prosser/Kloppenburg 50/50

4/6/11 - Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

UPDATE: Kloppenburg has taken a narrow lead of 369 votes. Is a recount coming?

-----------------------------------

Update #29: We're going to wrap this up shortly. I'm going to take out the rest of the recycling and come back and take one more look at the AP data. But, as we said before, this is almost certainly headed to a recount.

What an amazing election. We'll have one more in about ten minutes and then more tomorrow.

Prosser has 724,859 votes
to Kloppenburg's 723,175. The percentages are 50%-to-50%.

According to Daily Kos:

We have 99% of precincts reporting and Kloppenburg has cut the margin to 585 votes.

Hang on to your hats ...

If anyone of you out there had even an inkling of reservation as to whether the real intent of Walker's agenda was to kill unions and break the backs of the American workers, this should stop you in your tracks. Before Walker's ill advised agenda was being pushed through as law, Prosser was a shoe-in for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court spot open, which would have made him the deciding vote in Walker's favor. However, after all the support shown for just the opposite of Walker's plans, by the Wisconsin voters no less, the election of Prosser became in jeopardy, and we netroots (just as we collectively handed the Democratic majority to America in 2008) pulled together in a relatively short time to oppose Prosser's election, such that Kloppenburg holds a three digit small lead against Prosser, and most likely this will be headed for a recount. But here's a little email sent out by Walker's people to the voters as to why it is necessary to elect Prosser (H/T to Think Progress):

Prosser originally billed his reelection campaign as being about “protecting the conservative judicial majority and acting as a common sense complement to both the new [Walker] administration and Legislature.” Recently, however, he has attempted to claim independence. But Hagedorn’s e-mail laid it plain to Walker’s supporters: elect Prosser, or the governor’s agenda is in peril. From the e-mail:

“If Justice Prosser loses:

* The Supreme Court will shift from a 4-3 conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority.

* Governor Walker’s agenda could be stopped in its tracks by this new activist majority.

* Union bosses and their allies will be emboldened and further push to recall the brave Senators who voted for Governor Walker’s budget repair bill.

* (Chief Justice) Shirley Abrahamson and her allies will continue to drag down the reputation of the Court, with an additional vote to further push through their radical agenda.”

Sort of puts it right out there, doesn't it? There is no longer even a show of impartiality by the Republican leaders. Just a full throttle onslaught on Americans and their civil rights so that Republicans can pander to their base (corporations, individuals need not apply, unless, of course, you're a Koch family member). No hidden agenda in Wisconsin, eh?

On This Sad Anniversary ... MLK

I posted this here on 4/4/08. Go take a read. Check the links.

This was his last speech the day before he was assassinated, and as I wrote back then, you can see it in his eyes, and in the words he spoke, he knew he was not long for this world. I always got the sense from watching the full speech, that he knew for sure he was going to be killed very soon. Note the references to "I might not get there with you" and other such statements. It gives me chills to this day.

And, as has been posted about much this year, Dr. King was in Memphis to show support for the UNIONS. Take that to heart all you heartless Republican governors. Union workers ARE Americans, pure and simple. Fuck with us, we fuck right back.

What Pieces Of Information Are You Leaving Behind?

I think it is fascinating to observe those that read my blog, especially since there was a lot of "attention" given to it during the dog days of court over my grandson.

In the screen capture for the day of the hearing that sent Zaire off to Chicago back in February, not only was someone reading everything on my blog, but they were downloading the links to all of MY links (like to MyDD, DailyKos, Pams House Blend, etc.) as well as to the comment section.

Hey, what is that old saying about when they stop talking about you ... ? LOL!

I just think it is hilarious that people do not realize the amount of information they leave behind just by visiting websites.

On the bright spot, thanks to the Googlebot web crawler, I now have a Google page ranking of 3! Yippee (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest). For sure, I am not up there in the rankings, but hey, I am ranked, damn it! Not a whole lot of bloggers (and there are millions of us out there) can say that, right?

I am coming up on my 6th blogversary this month. Six years of blogging. Wow!

Headlines

Way too much bullshit going on ... way too fast to keep up with it.

UN Alarm At Ivory Coast Massacre

Pakistan Shrine Attack Kills 41

Afghan Koran Protests Spreading

Fukushima Workers' Bodies Found

Fighting Resumes In Libyan Cities

US Oil Spill Executives Get Bonus

Chinese Artist Barred From Flight

Goldman CEO Sees Pay Double In 2010

Giants Fan In Coma After Beating At Dodger Stadium

We're Heading Toward A Double-Dip Recession

Terry Jones Considering "A Trial On The Life Of Muhammad"

Brit Hume Speechless When Asked About G.E. Paying Zero Federal Taxes

Telecom-Funded N.C. House Votes To Gut Public Broadband

Anti-EPA House Votes To Let Agribusiness Dump Pesticides In Our Water

NYC Considers Replacing Union Workers With Welfare Recipients