A Cry for Help

It’s Primary Day! I’m off to vote and join the Green Party for about 3 minutes.
Polls are open late, so make time to get there today. You can find your polling place here.
I’m going to kick back tonight and celebrate democracy with a Sam Adams (Brewer. Patriot.) and hopefully watch the political careers of [...]

Since we’re voting today I thought it would be a good time to mention that The Presidents of the United States of America have a new album out and it’s got my vote.
I heard the single “Some Postman” on the radio a few weeks ago, and now that song makes me want to jump around [...]

I was busy this weekend, so I didn’t peruse the blogworld’s marking of 9/11/+3 until yesterday. The post that really stood out to me was this one from Matt Yglesias.
Don Rumsfeld wrote a while back that we not only don’t know if we’re succeeding in the war on terrorism, we don’t even have metrics of [...]

I do pretty well with comment spam, averaging maybe one or two a day. MT-blacklist filters out a ton, which is great. Today, though, I’ve started getting comment spam that doesn’t link to anything! What’s the point?! All it says is “Your ultimate video on demand solutions.” No name, no link to anything. I just [...]

This weekend, of course, was the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I’m sure the mention of that date evokes the fear and confusion and anger we all felt that day in 2001. Three years on, though, I felt lucky to be among family, celebrating, at the other end of the emotional spectrum, my cousin’s [...]

Imagine you have a new friend who’s really cool. He makes you a CD with a bunch of songs, old and new, that you’ve probably never heard. One listen through and you know it could be a soundtrack to your autumn.
Well, meet your new friend Zach Braff. He made you a sweet mix tape, [...]

The ability to turn any item/event into a money-maker continues on eBay. You can purchase that nice little graphic up there on a t-shirt or a sticker and probably a thong.
Maybe you’re Alan Shawn Feinstein* and can get people to buy worthless “hurricane memorabilia”by claiming that one day it will be priceless. [...]

Dear World Champion Patriots,
First, let me apologize for last season. For two months of your season I was sort of marginally aware of your games. There was that little matter of the most exciting Red Sox season in my memory. This year the Sox are looking even better than last year as the stretch run [...]

Oh boy, this is going to the top of my reading list: The Daily Show presents America (the Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction
Cheeky, irreverent and playfully ingenuous, this abbreviated history of democracy is everything one would expect from the writers of Comedy Central’s fake news program, which recently (and somewhat scandalously) won [...]

I had a nice day all planned out today that included getting up early, attending a noon meeting of the Capital Center Commission downtown, then seeing Howard Dean speak at Brown at 4pm. The last part of my plan didn’t work out so well. After the CCC thing, I killed some time reading in a [...]

You probably didn’t notice, but election day is next Tuesday. Well, the primary election, at least. You’ll want to read David Grenier’s post about why primary voting is so important. We like to focus on the presidential race, but in many cases local officials have a greater impact on your daily life.
Rhode Island’s primary is [...]

I can’t believe Bil hasn’t posted about the gut wrenching milestone reached yesterday in Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.). Can you picture one thousand families reeling from the loss of a loved one in a hell-hole thousands of miles away? What would the man who sent those men and women to their deaths say? Something like [...]