+ Red was there too

+ Mike of Satan's Laundromat wrote of his saga being arrested Friday night for standing and taking pictures in NYC

+ Bikes Against Bush {clever!}

+ Citying.com's excellent: peaceful march coverage Sunday, part I
+ Citying.com's excellent: peaceful march coverage Sunday, part II

+ BBC: 250,000 people join in the streets of NYC today. Peacefully.

CNN grossly under-reports the numbers at "tens of thousands", while CBS and even Fox News reports the numbers much higher: "Police gave no official crowd estimate, though one law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the crowd at 120,000; organizers claimed it was roughly 400,000."

On a personal note ...A few months ago we were working on our 'Give the Whitehouse a Brazilian' slogan... but we never really polished it off into a succint iron-on-able phrase. Yesterday I saw the T-shirt on someone at The Read on Bedford Ave: WAX BUSH. That pretty much (un)covers it.

+ Check out the creepy Official RNC confetti

Hello, my new favorite Olympic event: Synchronized Diving! (At least until the trampoline events air.) More than twice as exiting as just boring-old-one flying, flipping, air-spiralling diver. Las Mexicanas are top-seeded... Russians and Aussies pretty good, too.
Tracking Synchronized Divers (link is dead)

Enjoying our beautiful November-esque-Indian-summer-like weather. In August.

Hi. If there are any republicans out there, may I suggest, you could start the:
REPUBLICANS' DAILY REASON TO DISPATCH BUSH.
You could all unite around the facts as this current administration isn't only evaporating civil liberties for a few, but for all of us (you too), it's creating big-goverment, failing to prioritize our future generations' need for health-care-coverage, pretending the economy is improving while it isn't (2 million fewer jobs than when he started), claiming we're safer while raising our alert-levels and our fears, leaving your children behind (more on this here), cutting taxes while spending Billions on the war in Iraq creating enormous national debt for our children to bear, alienating our nation from it's foreign allies, making deals to deteriorate clean air for us to breathe as they get donations handouts from big power (their Clear-Skies Initiative actually does more damage to our environment that good)... (more environmental info here)* ie: They're screwing you and your kids over, too. Maybe you feel that a different republican leader might not suck so hard, and might actually act in your and the country's interest, rather than lieing to you (as his daddy and their friends gets so rich off of the Iraq war). Even your own Republican Senator John McCain defends Kerry from a recent Republican ad campaign which claims Kerry's war record is falsified. The ad has been widely discredited, yet the White House Declined to condemn the ads.
Plus, that Ann Coulter keeps lieing to you.... Obsessively.

So, how about 4 years of Kerry ...then you guys can have a shot at things in 2008 if Kerry/Edwards don't manage to vastly improve things for all of us. Just a suggestion.

McSWEENEY'S DAILY REASON TO DISPATCH BUSH: DAY 90:
President Bush's campaign demanded to know the ethnicity of a journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Cheney at an Arizona rally. A spokesman for the re-election campaign, Danny Diaz, said the request was made for security purposes: "All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved." When asked if the photographer, Mamta Popat, had been targeted because of her name, Mr. Diaz would not elaborate on his statement.

*"The usually staid American Lung Association, in a report issued with a coalition of environmental groups, called the rule changes 'the most harmful and unlawful air-pollution initiative ever undertaken by the federal government.'" —excerpt from Changing All the Rules, published 04/04/04 in NYTimes.


+ Jon Stewart calls the terror alerts refreshingly non-partisan, and is being very sarchastic as he says so (click on "Democrats and TERROR")

Also there's this from BBC reporter Greg Palast:
+ One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election—GNN

If that doesn't make you upset, how about this?
+ Meet the "Family"—Harpers
Undercover Among America's Secret Theocrats. And follow-up, on GNN.


More on Bush's 'Clear Skies' initiative here:
Hi. Do you like to breathe air? Here's an excerpt from BBC Reporter Greg Palast's 2001 article, written as California consumers were suffering rolling power black-outs, + Smells Like Texas:

+ RIP Henri Cartier-Bresson

American Tune:
Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh but I'm alright, I'm alright
Just weary to my bones
Still you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home
So far away from home

Don't know a soul who has not been battered
Don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or diven to its knees
Oh, but it's alright, it's alright
For we've lived so well so long
Still when I think of the road we're travelin' on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
Looking back down at me, smiled reassuredly
I dreamed I was flying
High up above my eyes could clearly see
The statue of liberty sailing away to sea

And I dreamed I was flying
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
Come on the ship that sails the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
And sing an American tune
Oh but it's alright, it's alright
Can't be forever blessed
Still tomorrow's gonna be another working day
And I try to get some rest
That's all I'm trying, to get some rest

Political World
We live in a political world,
Love don't have any place.
We're living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don't have a face
...
We live in a political world,
Wisdom is thrown into jail,
It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up a trail.

We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank,
Life is in mirrors, death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.

We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last.

We live in a political world. The one we can see and can feel
But there's no one to check, it's all a stacked deck,
We all know for sure that it's real.

We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear,
Little by little you turn in the middle
But you're never why you're here.

We live in a political world
Under the microscope,
You can travel anywhere and hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope.

We live in a political world
Turning and a'thrashing about,
As soon as you're awake, you're trained to take
What looks like the easy way out.

We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all,
It's turned away from the door to wander some more
Or put up against the wall.

We live in apolitical world
Everything is hers or his,
Climb into the frame and shout God's name
But you're never sure what it is.

+ A list of bloggers in attendance at the Democratic National Convention
I just realized John Forbes Kerry is a JFK, too.


On a midnight bike ride lastnight, after the close of Kerry's speech, as we rode near the East river, the fine Empire State Building rose up from the Manhattan skyline above us ... all lit up in RED! On the night of the Grande Finale of the DNC, one might expect, if anything topical, a red white and blue building would be in order, (if not all blue). But all red? That kinda stinks. That's just mean, I thought. Until I looked it up on the official site of the Empire State Building, which explains the all-red lights thusly:
July 29, 2004—Red*—Multiple Sclerosis Society / Red Hot Summer Charity Event.

According to their schedule, on the evening of the culmination of the RNC when the Reblicans come to piss on our fire hydrants, it will be Red/White/Blue. Hmph.


On NPR, Teresa Heinz Kerry flatly, unabashadly and unappolgetically admits the cookie recipe she submitted, on request, to the familycircle.com cookie-cookoff for pumpkin spice cookies wasn't her own. Someone gave it to her, she doesn't even think they're that good herself. She's not worried about the baking competition. She doesn't care. I love her for her refreshing honesty, never strained through a politically-correct filter.


How about that Obama of Illinois!

+ CraftersForCritters.com is an online fundraiser held every so often, for which handmakers of various things donate items to be sold in the shop. All proceeds of sold items are given to a selected animal organization.

+ Strange Unidentified Animal Caught on Tape in Maryland [slideshow]
+ Strange Unidentified Animal Caught on Tape in Maryland [story]

+ (world's most) Giant Rabbit Is As Big As 3-Year-Old [story]
+ (world's most) Giant Rabbit Is As Big As 3-Year-Old [slideshow]

+ 3-Pound Cat Is World's Smallest [story]
+ 3-Pound Cat Is World's Smallest [slideshow]

+ Monkey Walks Upright! Monkey.Walks.Upright! On Two Legs.

+ Doctor Leopard? Bass Fishin' Housecat? Chimp Fireman? Cows in Space? You bet.

+ And finally, Brenda's Nut Farm: Donald Roller Wilson's paintings. Of Monkeys. With forward by Carrie Fisher.


UNRELATEDELY:
+ www.factcheck.org. Attack Ads got you down? A non partisan site which sets records straight.

+ IMPERIAL HUBRIS, by Anonmyous

+ Bottlecap Tripod. Make your own.

+ Republican convention protest set for west side highway

+ greg.org's idea of how he would protest RNC if he didn't have to go out of town.

VOTE or DIE!

+ SHUT UP! A funny short video

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. pathetic.


And finally some good news, in fact, the feel-good story of the summer:
+ Boaters find kitten swimming 3 miles offshore in Gulf of Mexico
[via spacedonkey3000]

+ Video of Martin Parr discussing his work in the photography show Cruel and Tender at Tate Modern

+ Martin Parr's interactive game: Love Cubes [via meadows. Requires Flash]

+ gcs's fotolog is getting more conceputal every day... lovely.

+ Good bye, the Sloganator, we've had some good times. May you long be remembered. (paid for by bush/cheney 04) (Best with sound on, albeit also with headphones on.) (via SXX).

+ "Ballonhat.com?" you say? Yes. Ballonhat.com (via Palmea)

How about that July 4th? That sure was fun. (jkh et familie, wish u were here)
At a Battery Park concert, Calexico played their cover of the 1976-era Love song "Alone Again Or" (click to listen to Love's live version, sung by Arthur Lee, written by Bryan MacLean).

+ Calexico founder/singer Joey Burns talks about their cover on Fresh Aire with Terry Gross

Besides "Alonge Again Or" (original and cover) my other new current favorite music has got to be:
+ The Last Town Chorus, with their steel pedal guitar and smoky-velvety vocals. « Click for smooth listening. "Change Your Mind" and "Oregon" are favorites.
Also listen to the entire new cd: + Wilco: A Ghost is Born

If I weren't spending Saturday at the beach, I'd spend hours and hours clicking through here: + found anonymous photos culled from p2p programs

Happy Birthday on the 4th to Indie-film-scriptie Ms. Watt and Indie-musician cousin Luke.

+ Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore says No Thanks to Vincent Gallo.

+ Remove yourself from the telemarketers' call list: I was possibly the last American remove myself from telemarketers' calling list, but in case there are one or 2 of you still receiving calls at your home from strangers who want to sell you stuff, sign up here. It takes just 2 secs: www.donotcall.gov/.

+ Photo Michael Wolf Hong Kong Backdoor
+ Photo Michael Wolf Lost Laundry
+ Photo Michael Wolf Architecture
+ Photo Michael Wolf Flora
(links via johanna)