Here Comes Now

I can't sleep tonight... not really sure why, but my daughter woke me up at 1:00 am because she was having a bad dream and now I am struggling to get back to sleep. So I came down to the computer to catch up on some email and found that a friend of mine had sent me the link to Radiohead's new album In Rainbows. The interesting thing that they are doing is making it avaialble digitally to consumers via a website that lets the consumer choose how much to pay for the album download. Many (including myself) are downloading it for free. There is an intersesting article on the implications and statistics of what people are paying in Forbes.

So -- at least while I can't sleep I can listen to some new music. :)

Great win tonight over those cubbies! Love the d-backs swing by roger clyne and the peacemakers.

It has been so long since I even thought about LOST I had almost forgotten how much I love it. A few folks from my church who have started getting into LOST via the DVDs are starting a LOST group on Sunday nights. We are going to start with Season 1 and watch 2 episodes every week together. I am really pysched to go back and re-watch the older seasons, especially with a group of people. I will post any interesting things we come up with.

I have not been blogging as much... I have been busy posting my photos to Picasa and working on some slideshows/videos from trips and travel.

Now a long time ago Rockin' Sake Robot posted to my blog that I should watch "My Date with Drew" because of the six degrees of separation references. Well I had put it on my Netflix queue and it finally came to my house a week or so ago. My wife and I watched it and it was a really great movie. Not only is it a fun and lighthearted movie but it has a great key message about putting it all out there to go after something your really want. Thanks for the suggestion!

My Date with Drew

It has been nearly 2 months since my last blog post. Actually, I have been blogging at work and not so much at home. Typically I cover my travels, my fascination with parallel universe theories, and my favorite show LOST... however, tonight I just finished watching Keith Olbermann's special comment on President George W. Bush's decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby and I found it so powerful and compelling that I needed to post it on this eve of the 4th of July. I encourage you to read it, to watch it and to take some action.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19588942/

Transcript from Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment", July 3rd, 2007

Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on what is, in everything but name, George Bush’s pardon of Scooter Libby.

“I didn’t vote for him,” an American once said, “But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

That — on this eve of the 4th of July — is the essence of this democracy, in seventeen words.

And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

The man who said those seventeen words — improbably enough — was the actor John Wayne.

And Wayne, an ultra-conservative, said them, when he learned of the hair’s-breadth election of John F. Kennedy instead of his personal favorite, Richard Nixon in 1960.

“I didn’t vote for him but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

The sentiment was doubtlessly expressed earlier. But there is something especially appropriate about hearing it, now, in Wayne’s voice.

The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.

We as citizens must, at some point, ignore a president’s partisanship. Not that we may “prosper” as a nation, not that we may “achieve”, not that we may “lead the world” — but merely that we may “function.”

But just as essential to the seventeen words of John Wayne is an implicit trust — a sacred trust:That the president for whom so many did not vote, can in turn suspend his political self long enough, and for matters imperative enough, to conduct himself solely for the benefit of the entire Republic.

Our generation’s willingness to state “we didn’t vote for him, but he’s our president, and we hope he does a good job,” was tested in the crucible of history, and far earlier than most. And in circumstances more tragic and threatening.

And we did that with which history tasked us.

We enveloped “our” President in 2001.

And those who did not believe he should have been elected — indeed, those who did not believe he had been elected — willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.

And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and sharpened it to a razor-sharp point, and stabbed this nation in the back with it.

Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.

Did so even before the appeals process was complete…

Did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice…

Did so despite what James Madison –at the Constitutional Convention — said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that president…

Did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder:

To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish — the President will keep you out of prison?

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental compact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens — the ones who did not cast votes for you.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President… of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party.

And this is too important a time, sir, to have a Commander-in-Chief who puts party over nation.

This has been, of course, the gathering legacy of this Administration. Few of its decisions have escaped the stain of politics.

The extraordinary Karl Rove has spoken of “a permanent Republican majority,” as if such a thing — or a permanent Democratic majority — is not antithetical to that upon which rests: our country, our history, our revolution, our freedoms.

Yet our democracy has survived shrewder men than Karl Rove.

And it has survived the frequent stain of politics upon the fabric of government.

But this administration, with ever-increasing insistence and almost theocratic zealotry, has turned that stain… into a massive oil spill.

The protection of the environment is turned over to those of one political party, who will financially benefit from the rape of the environment.

The protections of the Constitution are turned over to those of one political party, who believe those protections unnecessary and extravagant and “quaint.”

The enforcement of the laws is turned over to those of one political party, who will swear beforehand that they will not enforce those laws.

The choice between war and peace is turned over to those of one political party, who stand to gain vast wealth by ensuring that there is never peace, but only war.

And now, when just one cooked book gets corrected by an honest auditor…

When just one trampling of the inherent and inviolable “fairness” of government is rejected by an impartial judge…

When just one wild-eyed partisan is stopped by the figure of blind justice…

This President decides that he, and not the law, must prevail.

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but instead to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of you becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

When President Nixon ordered the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” on October 20th, 1973, Mr. Cox initially responded tersely, and ominously:

“Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men, is now for Congress, and ultimately, the American people.”

President Nixon did not understand how he had crystallized the issue of Watergate for the American people.

It had been about the obscure meaning behind an attempt to break in to a rival party’s headquarters; and the labyrinthine effort to cover-up that break-in and the related crimes.

But in one night, Nixon transformed it.

Watergate — instantaneously — became a simpler issue: a President overruling the inexorable march of the law. Of insisting — in a way that resonated viscerally with millions who had not previously understood — that he was the law.

Not the Constitution.

Not the Congress.

Not the Courts.

Just him.

Just - Mr. Bush - as you did, yesterday.

The twists and turns of Plame-Gate, your precise and intricate lies that sent us into this bottomless pit of Iraq; your lies upon the lies to discredit Joe Wilson; your lies upon the lies upon the lies to throw the sand at the “referee” of Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s analogy… these are complex and often painful to follow, and too much, perhaps, for the average citizen.

But when other citizens render a verdict against your man, Mr. Bush — and then you spit in the faces of those jurors and that judge and the judges who were yet to hear the appeal — the average citizen understands that, sir.

It’s the fixed ballgame and the rigged casino and the pre-arranged lottery all rolled into one — and it stinks. And they know it.

Nixon’s mistake, the last and most fatal of them, the firing of Archibald Cox, was enough to cost him the presidency.

And in the end, even Richard Nixon could say he could not put this nation through an impeachment.

It was far too late for it to matter then, but as the decades unfold, that single final gesture of non-partisanship, of acknowledged responsibility not to self, not to party, not to “base,” but to country, echoes loudly into history.

Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign

Would that you could say that, Mr. Bush.

And that you could say it for Mr. Cheney.

You both crossed the Rubicon yesterday.

Which one of you chose the route, no longer matters.

Which is the ventriloquist, and which the dummy, is irrelevant.

But that you have twisted the machinery of government into nothing more than a tawdry machine of politics, is the only fact that remains relevant.

It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them — or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them — we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time — and our leaders in Congress, of both parties — must now live up to those standards which echo through our history:

Pressure, negotiate, impeach — get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.

And for you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task.

You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed.

Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.

And give us someone — anyone – about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

Good night, and good luck.

I catching up with the "Lost" message boards on the latest epi called "Man behind the curtain" I found a like to www.whatthebleep.com -- it is apparently a documentary and an whole movement around the science and fascination with parallel universes. Looks like good stuff and I will have to get this in my Netflix queue.

Just taking some spare time this weekend to re-watch Nova's 3 part series on the Elegant Universe. Just watched part 1 tonight.... hope to watch part 2 and 3 tomorrow which will dive deeper into string theory & the 11th dimension.... and in the course of doing so expose one of my favorite topics... parallel universes.

A quick entry on the great Kurt Vonnegut who died today.I loved reading Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse-five, and Cat's Cradle in high school. Late last year he made an appearance in Second Life and I was impressed by that because I knew he had to be getting up there in age. He was 84 years old when he died.

StLouisFire_2007

The church that my wife and I got married at, St. Louis Catholic church in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, burned down on March 19th. It was a wonderful old church building with two grand spires and surrounded by huge shade trees. The church was closed due to consolidation of the shrinking catholic diocese in Fond du Lac, however, it is still very sad to see the building totaled.

There are some stories and video posted at the Fond du Lac Reporter. A great summary with stunning pictures and video can be found here at http://www.trackfourdesign.com/church_fire.asp.

My in-laws sent us a "In Memoriam" clipping from the Fond du Lac Reporter written by the preist who married us at that church, Father Jerry Wagner. I really thought it was touching so I thought I would post it.

In Memoriam
St. Louis Church
Dec 25, 1870 - March 19, 2007

Born on Christmas Day
To give the Life of Christ
To reach so many lives in
The pouring of water
and in the bread and wine,
The forgiveness of sins
And the healing of the sick,
The exchange of the vows
And the final rites,
The prayer of the priests
and the love of the people,
A double sign to the city
And a landmark of faith,
A place of peace
And a gathering of song,
Spiritual to so many
Until the very last,
Tired by the years of hope
Worn out by ministry,
She would give no more
So others could follow
Hemmed in by progress
Purified by flames
As incense rose
Like our prayers to the Lord,
She breathes no more
We have her breath,
In the word of God
In Faith, Hope, and Love

--Jerome A. Wagner

I can't believe that my dog just turned 10 years old. It kind of freaks me out that time has gone by so quickly. Her name is Josie, or sometimes Jo Jo... she is an awesome dog. She doesn't get nearly as much attention from me as she used to, but I still do love having her. I think we will have to figure out some kind of celebration for her 10th birthday this weekend -- something that the kids will get a kick out of. Anyway - she is a great pet and for 10 years has been by my side. Truly a "best friend."

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