So You're Telling Me....

...as Tweety is telling me right now... that in a national poll, 53% vs 33% of the country believe that McCain will protect us from terrorism. I ask you: Where you one of the 53% that thought that the last time around with our current President? See what that got us?

Time to think about terrorism, work some true diplomacy, and see anew our policy. You won't be encountering that, I think, from a McCain presidency (though sometimes I wonder just how Hawkish Obama could be).

I just hope that Senator Obama does not forget the Netroots. I really hope I haven't been wrong. That would be sad.

The First Big "Diss"appointment

The first disappointment is always the worse. Particularly when it's something you really believed in. Giving immunity to the Telecoms for not stepping up to the plate and saying no to a destructive President, ugh. I've longed been angered by this as I feel that the Telecomms knew exactly what the law said and knew it would be an issue down the line. I'm sure they were strongarmed, but I'm sure they also were eager for data experimentation as well. The House and possibly the Senate are going to reel in FISA but still let the Telecomms go free. Oh how I long sometimes for impeachment.

Anyhoo, Obama disappointed on this one. It may be that he's saving it for Bush, or it may be he has some plan down the line. Or he's just like, what I have always feared, like all the others.

We shall see.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Dad at Niagara Falls, 1950s

1930-2006
Dad and Me, Detroit
Circa 1969

Another b-day without you. Very sad.

Sometimes, You Need Some Straight Talk

After eight years, you finally get it:

Obama Press Conference, South Dakota, May 16, 2008

Tell Me

McCain in his own words, in 2006, on negotiating with the terrorist, but otherwise sitting and elected governmental body, called Hamas, in what is currently known as the Palestinian State at this point:



So, my anonymous commenter: why do you believe what the GOP says?

And while you're at it, can you please tell me why I should believe anything that the GOP says when it's obvious that its biggest and loudest cheerleaders don't know a damned thing about history? Give me ONE good reason. Just one... that's all I ask.

Half Liberty

Statute of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry
March 2008
Photo by Elderta

Colbert Gives Me the Verklempt

Stephen Colbert got all excited about talking with an astronaut from the International Space Station. In fact, he gets so excited he gives me the touch of the funny, too.

OMG! SPACE!

Wish You Were Here

There are two people I am missing tonight:

A) My dad would be one of the most proud men on earth just about now because of Barack Obama. He loved Bill Clinton but would be highly saddened by Senator Clinton's campaign because he believed in them more than not.

and

B) One my life heroes, a Loving of Loving v. Virginia, Mildred, died today. It was in 1967 that she sued the State of Virginia, in order to "legally" be able to wed the love of her life, Richard. She was black, he was white. They would have celebrated the 40th anniversary of the landmark case last year (he died in 1975) and recently, she advocated for homosexual marriage.

40 years ago, I was 3 years old. This happened in my lifetime. Do you understand? I don't hang on to it, but I feel it. And I wasn't even cognizant at the time.

Thank you, Richard and Mildred, for one of the greatest love stories ever told.

All I want to do is cry. And heck, I even went to see Iron Man tonight, and it was great. But really, the death of Mrs. Loving made me think of my dad and then that made me think of so many things.

BTW the way, Robert Downey, Jr. is hot. Wish you were here, too. But in a... different... sorta way. So, make that three people I'm missing tonight.

Take the Bush-McCain Challenge!

Really, the McCain of 2000 is not the McCain of 2008. First of all, he's eight years older and a bit more demented, if you ask me. Second of all, he is morphing before our eyes into our current President, and really, I would rather chop off my own foot and roast it over potatoes and fava beans than have Bush in office for another term. Thank God for term limits!!

Lastly, the Republican Party is mentally and spiritually bankrupt. They have sucked the country dry of money and sanity and it's really time to put an end to their rule over the hearts and minds of some of the American people.

WAKE UP OUT THERE! I'M TALKING TO YOU! GET OUT OF BED! WAKE UP! DON'T MAKE ME COME OUT THERE!!!

Ahem... anyhoo, so take this quiz (complete with those pesky things called FACTS), and see if you can tell the difference between McBush. Click on the image above or here. I was actually shocked that there IS a difference between the two... and that difference is...? McCain is even more batshit crazy than Bush. And that, "my friends," should wake you the frak up now.

**hattip, Maryel!

Pop-Up Double-Talk: McCain/Katrina Edition

Speaking as someone who traveled to New Orleans for a conference and left exactly one week prior to Hurricane Katrina blowing in, McCain's atrocious Double-Talk Maverick Express photo-ops regarding New Orleans and the Hurricane left me speechless. This YouTube video made me furious:

I Carry The Memory Everywhere I Go

Keychain Memories - WTC
Photo by Elderta

Wild Eyed: Nature Calendar in New York City

My friend, Erik Baard, has a new website out that discusses all things of an urban nature sort. I wrote a story for his "Wild Eyed" column that lets people post about their encounters with urban nature. I write about the time I came face to face with a powerful and beautiful, Peregrine falcon.

The Falcon and the Smoker
by Tanya Elder
The Riverside Church is located on Riverside Drive between 122nd and 124th Streets on Manhattan’s West Side. The gothic structure looks ancient, but it was actually built in 1928 with a modern-day steel skeleton under a layer of poured concrete and stone hewed in the gothic style. Thanks to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the Church was built as a progressive place of worship, which has continued under influential pastors such as Harry Emerson Fosdick, William Sloane Coffin, and currently, James A. Forbes, Jr.

[snip]

Head to Nature Calendar for more.

That's What They Say...

And then Happycat met the Flying Spaghetti Monster...
However, the jury is still out for me on the whole dang thing anyway.

Backstage at the Bridal Show

The Bridal Show at Milk
New York City. iPhoto by Elderta

I occasionally work as a model dresser for high fashion runway shows. It's actually quite fun. The models and staff are usually nice, the designers friendly (though a little wound tight) and the clothes are super fantastic.

Believe it or not, but runway modeling is harder than you think. And don't worry, I know you won't believe it!

Six Months and Six Months and Six Months

What where you doing six months ago? What will you be doing six months from now? And six months after that? And afterward?

If you elect Republican John McCain to be the President of the United States, how many excuses will be given for every six months he's in office?

Tibet Out Of China Protest

Union Square Park, 6:30PM
New York, NY

A group of about 100+ Tibetans and non-Tibetans gathered in Union Square Park today in Manhattan to protest the Olympic torch being traipsed through Tibet and up to Mt. Everest ahead of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Before the sloganeering began (and it was extremely lively and well-planned), a group of monks (or I think they were monks) ritualistic cut their hair and flung it on the Olympic ring flag. Mind you, I didn't arrive to see this in time, but I saw the hair on the ring banner, and then I saw the group of men with chunks of their hair torn out.

(I tried to post this earlier from my iPhone but had 'issues.' iPhone 'issues.')

Basement Cat vs. Ceiling Cat: The End is Neigh

Yep... the battlez of the Endtimez haz beguns!

Moses Passeth

Charlton Heston has passed.

No matter how I may have disagreed with Mr. Heston on issues, I acknowledge that there are a few great Heston movies.

My favorites:

The Greatest Show on Earth
The Omega Man
Planet of the Apes
The Three Musketeers (But not because of him. See Oliver Reed, Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, and Raquel Welch)
Midway (Ok, I like Toro Toro Toro, too. It's a WWII thing...)

My semi-favorites:
Earthquake
Airport 1975
Soylent Green

Rest in Peace, Mr. Heston. And thank you. For the movies at least.

Dreams of the 1960s That Should Never Die

Today is the 40th Anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I just got back from a trip to North Carolina. Of the Southern states I've been to, North Carolina and the city of New Orleans are the only places I'd seriously consider moving to in the South. I love the feeling of the Charlotte/Hickory/Shelby areas, where both sides of my parents families lived while they were growing up. (They are originally from Georgia and Tennessee.) My parents never much liked to talk about their family's roots. I never knew if it was because they didn't really know, wanted to break with the past, or didn't want to delve into it since I didn't find out I was adopted until I was 33. Probably the less questions asked, the better.

I remember always traveling down to North Carolina or Tennessee as a kid. I loved leaving Detroit, getting in the car and heading down home, though at times, when I had to take a wee wee, dad wouldn't stop. He was one of those kinds of "gotta test my limits to see how quickly I can make it to the destination with sleep or stopping" dads. You know the kind of dads I'm talking about!

I was in North Carolina in July visiting my father's relatives; this time, I visited my mother's relatives. July was a family reunion at a hotel, so we only went to visit one relative out of town; this time I saw three or four folks, mostly my mom's age, including one of my mother's grade school friends. At almost every home were photographs, or shrines, of sorts to five individuals: Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr. These relatives were older African-Americans, one a Vietnam veteran. I remember during the 1970s and traveling down there that almost everyone had some picture of the Kennedys and King, at least, somewhere in their homes. I was surprised to find that 40 years later, they still do. It might be different relatives, but nonetheless, the same icons.



Mandela was imprisoned in 1963 and freed 27 years later; King and Bobby were killed in 1968; John F. much earlier in 1963; Malcolm in 1965. One by one, these dreams of the 1960s were picked off, as if a bullet or a jail could actually stop a dream. Boy, where the assholes who pulled these triggers and locked that cell door, wrong.

At times, I get pretty sick of the 1960s and the neverending struggle between conservatives and liberals from that decade constantly at war with each other. They never solve any problems, they just outshout and outdo, the other. I'm pretty tired of it. However, there are some dreams from the 1960s that should never die:

The dream of freedom for the oppressed
The dream of the poor being lifted from poverty
The dream that all men and women are created equal
The dream of human dignity
The dream of ending a meaningless war

Some dreams just can't be stopped with bullets. It might slow down the progress for a bit, but never stop it completely.

If you do just one thing to commemorate King's death, let it be this: take time to revisit the 23:00 minute speech that King gave in his opposition to the Vietnam War at my old work stomping grounds, the Riverside Church in the City of New York. It's powerful stuff and an excellent reminder that sometimes the pulpit is the only place to get a dream out (just ask the pro-lifers...). And sometimes, because no one is quite paying attention, you have to shout, "God Damn America" to get anyone to listen.

Of course, King didn't say those exact words, but he came pretty damned close.

John McCain and the New American Comfort: Be Afraid, Very Afraid