As we know it and I feel fine

Is Yours.

Simply because I’m tired of people who don’t vote bitching about the government. If you don’t vote this Election Day, don’t bitch about it afterwards.

So I’m in Kansas and there’s talk about a revolution. yeah, you know. we all want to change the world…

…it’s been a REALLY long three weeks. But things look good here in Kansas. There’s even talk about Jim Ryun loosing. He’s a Republican incumbant who’s a three-time olympian and held the world record for the mile (high school time). On Tuesday, he will lose to Nancy Boyda. Good Times.

What else? My brother got married (i finally have a sister!). My back up wants to move up the date of our wedding by two years; i may take him up on that if his current job pays off…. hehe. Adriana totally bailed on the Thanksgiving trip….boooooooo.

Anyway, I have to go back to work. Later.

I thought I would try to break my record of 2 months between posts but I really don’t want to write the memo I’ve been working on for two days and I got a ton of stuff done yesterday so I thought this would be a good opportunity to goof off. Also I’ve been really happy with the voting public in general this week as they see right through the Repubs and their attempt to "frame" the debate on how ‘winning’ Iraq will crush the terrorists. what a load of krap. Looks like it only takes 6 years for people to stop wanting to be lied to.

Not sure why that suprises me as we all fall victim to that desire to believe those who impact our lives. All’s fair in love and war and apparently everyone’s gullible in it too. Se la vi.

In another semi-cynical rant, how many of you can name all of the tragedies our country has sworn to ‘never forget’? I know I can’t but the three I do remember are:

The Maine

The Day that Will Last in Infamy

9/11

There’s also one about the Barbary Pirates and the creation of the US Navy way back in 1790-something but I’m not a hundred percent sure of the soundbyte on that one so I’ll ignore it for now.

Back to the three unforgettable days. I always loved the story of the Spanish-American war. It so clearly laid out our hipocracy and the ability of Americans to see exactly what we want to see. Many people know that the ‘Remember the Maine’ rallying cry had something to do with the Spanish. Most don’t know what that was though.  ( :

[disclaimer: this is a general overview of the S/A war and should be fact checked before being cited.]Basically, the Spanish had a little territory called the Phillipinnes (which I apparently can’t spell…) and the Phillipino people did not want to be a territory so they engaged in something called gurella warfare (first case I know of where this term was used and amazingly, 150+ years later we still can’t really beat it….) the Spanish retaliated by corraling the villagers in camps (sound familar) torturing people (hmmmm….) and burning down forests (agent orange anyone?). The American public was outraged at this injustice and imposed some weak sanctions and tried to impose some blockades in order to help the Phillipino people (yeah us!! we stood up for the little guy). One of the ships involved in the standoff was the Maine. Details are sketchy and some claim we blew the boat up ourselves with one of the first submarines (not a very technologically advanced version of course) but the Maine was blown up. This led to an official declaration of war against the Spanish.

Long story short, (too late - hehe who knows what movie that was in?  do you need a CLUE?) we won the war and got the Philppines as a reward. Yea for the little guy right? Not quite. With the new territory came new responsibility and we took up right where the Spanish left off. Americans of the… roughest quality were recruited to go to the Philppines and subdue the people, extract the natural resources and expand our national reach. The general public was told that where the Spanish were being brutal, we were just being tough (that sounds familiar too for some reason……). The deception of the majority of the American people lasted well into the late 1980’s when the Philippines gained it’s independence after the Marcos’ were finally booted (hehe) out of power. (obstensible reference to shoeware is funny….) [for more info on how and why this really happened, look in an encyclopedia - or the internet]

The nice thing is that this time around, with the war on terror and it’s relationship to Iraq and the inability of this administration to find OSB, it only took the American people six years to break through the smoke and mirrors.

and that my friends, is progress.

Did you ever have a Friday that was so completely out of whack with the rest of your week that it’s just painful? That would be today.

I had a really good week professionally and i’m house sitting for a friend which means I get to hang out with two adorable cats (no cracks about my future and how they include multiple cats). Work is going really well. I’m actually doing a ton of travelling (finally) to work with state parties directly around online strategy in the next few weeks and that’s really exciting…Tish is going to pick me up when I’m in Austin and I’m going to stay in Houston for a few days so that’s cool.

But today is taking forever, nothing is really happening and I"M BORED.

I guess that’s not totally true. I just don’t feel like being here. And I haven’t talked to Jeff in forever…Satia’s birthday was Wednesday (i think, days are bleeding together…)…and i’m about to change the picture i have up.

I feel like today is an imitation of a Friday.

than to plan a trip to disneyworld.

After three days of going back and forth, looks like we’re not going at this time. LAME. whatev-

maybe September….

In permanent debt.

My last few posts have been a little…depressing, so i thought I would do one that wasn’t. I haven’t started off that well as permanent debt is really not a fun thing, but I promise it will get better.

A close friend of mine and I have decided that we’re going to have to work well into our 70’s (ok, still not doing so well…) anyway so I’m not going to freak out about being a little in debt right now as long as I can continue to slowly (so incredilby slowly it’s painful) pay it down; it’s OK to occasionally add to that debt to take fabulous vacations (that’s better! fabulous vacations are always fun).

Welcome to the post where I justify spending too much money on a trip to Disneyworld. ( :

First off, it’s a really good deal. Second, I’ve never been to Florida. Third, I can’t pass up an opportunity to travel to save my life. Fourth, people keep saying how it is ’so much better than Disneyland’ and I need to verify that for myself. Fifth, it will annoy my mother. ( :

So I think….if Josh ever IMs me back and tells me he got those days off….then i will be heading to Disneyworld next weekend. I’ve spent the entire day wasting time on the disneyworld website and (first, their navigation kinda sucks ass) I am so excited. If we go, we’ll stay at one of the mid level resorts - the Corondo Springs - I think it has the best pools - and i went on the virtual tour of each and every single one of their hotels so I have a pretty good idea. Also the rooms are not totally cheesy. I know what you’re thinking: ‘who cares about the rooms/pool? you’re going to be in the park all day!’ That would be almost true. IF we go, we’ll get there early on Friday and we have tickets for Sat and Sunday at all of the parks so we can spend Friday doing the Boardwalk and Downtown and swimming in the pool. So IF we end up going it should be pretty good.

I know I warned you that these posting would be few and far between but this is ridiculous…so here is the latest update. I really don’t have much to say; or I have so much to say that it is all running together and fighting for prominence causing me to freeze and say nothing. I’m really not sure…

I have now been at my job for over a year. I’m getting that itch again, that itch to find ’something better.’ In reality, i’m not sure i’m in my right mind. I have a job I like; i’m doing something that I really believe in, I don’t have to be here early in the morning and can stay as late as i need to, yet I’m just not sure i want to stay for another year…well, maybe if they offered a fat raise but you know how that goes.

One of my college friends just moved into town. It’s so good to have someone here who knew me before all of this. I’ve also been talking to one of my friends from high school a lot over IM lately. He is one of my favorite people and one of the most talented musicians I have ever met. He introduced me to a friend of his right before last Christmas and we all went out on the 23rd. They are both married, evangelical pastors (not in the Jerry Fallwell way - the real way) who smoke, drink and play amazing jazz, rock and gospel music. On the surface, this seems like a total contradiction but it’s really not. I won’t even try to qualify that, it just isn’t. Nothing in life is that simple or cut and dry

I think that is what has me losing my religion today. All of these relationships, people from the past who pop up and push your experience in a way you never expected, people who you wish would pop up but never do; we have the choice to make that we will let them in or keep them out or drag them in — or we’ll try to drag any part of them in even though they’re not here to keep them inside.

I know what you’re thinking: "what?"

That’s pretty much what i think about it too. I’m just rambling in my own head today.

I’ve got a case of the Mondays…

I hate the ‘mondays.’ I always feel kind of stupid for feeling blue, like I have anything that horrible to feel ick about. Even if I haven’t found the love of my life yet (actually, I have a few times now and they just don’t see it… ; ) ), even if I am massively in debt to the government for my education and to Visa for everything that went with my education, even though I don’t own…well, anything really… things could be so much worse. So what gives me the right to get down on myself and my current situation?

Probably nothing.  But I suppose that is what it is to be human. We are selfish and the world really is all about us. No matter how much we do think about others and try to do the right thing and make things better for others; if we don’t take care of ourselves…we can’t take care of others. I suppose that some of us need more for ourselves than others. Many of us take more than we need. The people that piss me off are those who try to take it all. whatev -

Last night I allowed myself to be dragged into a political "discussion" (i use the quotes because said person only recited talking points and did a really good impersonation of Bill O’reily when he won’t let anyone else speak and just keeps blathering on) with someone who I knew I would 1. never agree with; 2. never change his mind; and 3. would never allow to change my mind. A total waste of time that only made me mad and served no purpose other than to remind me that I had become lax in my ability to not engage in that type of yelling. It’s pointless and you end up looking as stupid as they do. Even more annoying is that this person was a newbie and I totally should have known better. Interns always try to engage in that petty partisan krap.

I think that’s the root cause of my ‘mondays’. I’m still a little annoyed as it happened in one of those places that you see as a refuge. One of those rare places you could go and you could get along with anyone. it doesn’t hurt that this place is overwhelmingly Democratic, but there are some regular Republicans with whom I have become friends.

I guess I just need to get over it and do better next time…

That really is all I have to say about the SOTU…so that is all I will say.

( :

So I am sad today, I know I don’t post on my blog very often but Carina’s blog is completely gone now and that makes me sad because, really, she is inbetween jobs and has the time to update the world on her life now. I think this may go to why blogs are so popular with so many people. The vast majority of us post when we should be doing something else. Now that Carina is not working in an office, she doesn’t feel the need to sit at her computer and type away to all of us who are looking for something to keep us entertained inbetween excel spreadsheets, phone calls, news articles, planning documents, etc.

Oh well…so I guess it comes down to this: Carina, if you read this (because I still refuse to talk about my blog in real life) please start your blog again.

First and formost,  Happy New Year! Let’s hope this year is a hundred times better than last; let’s hope our troops come home; let’s hope that we are safe; let’s hope.

Vegas was awesome. I came home with more money than I left with so that was a good start. I learned that hot stone massages are the best thing in the world. I met some great people. I talked to most of the people I love the most. I did not however get to see the fireworks, or at least I don’t remember them….

I’m sitting in a coffee house right now and for the past two hours this guy who is sitting across the room from me and I have been doing that make eye contact and smile thing. Jeff says i should just go talk to him (via IM). I kind of like our relationship where it is though. Noone has done anything to disapoint the other, he is as liberal as I am and the world is full of possibility. If I talk to him, he could be the complete opposite. I guess it doesn’t really matter as I’m heading back to DC in two days; but it’s nice.

So. Now we are openly spying on American citizens without a warrant. Not even a secret warrant from the super-secret panel that assigns secret warrants. This is not America. This is what America fought against. This is what America proclaims to fight against today in other countries. On the bright side, this is an issue that every American can agree on.

This is not a Democratic issue, it’s not a Republican issue. This is an American issue. This is government gone bad. This is the true definition of "Big Government." When government invades your life and has no restrictions, that is the Biggest, Baddest Government possible.

We stand on a very precarious ledge today. Will Americans stand up and stop the abuse of power that this Administration has pursued, and now that they have admitted to it’s existence, stated that they will keep doing it so shut up and stop helping the terrorists? If people do not, we will never return to a life where we truly had a right to privacy.

If you want an idea of how far this concept of privacy and liberty go back, one of my favorite historical quotes was by Benjamin Franklin:

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

Step 1: Call your Congressperson and tell them how completely offended and insensed you are.

Step 2: Call your Senator and tell them how completely offended and insensed you are.

Step 3: Call you Governor and tell them how completely offended and insensed you are.

Step 4: Tell people who did not watch the President on TV this weekend or read the papers over the weekend what has happened and have a copy of the article to give them.

Step 5: Tell them to call their Congressperson, Senator, and Governor.

Step 6: Don’t let the media move away from this story. If people don’t react, they will drop it. Write letters to the editor, call in to talk shows (especially those that defend this practice and tell them just  how Un-American they are), send email, post on blogs, call your family; become that person. Because this time it means more than any other time in our lives.

Stand up America. Be counted.