My Friday the 13th started out well enough, bright and early as I made breakfast and watched the news. Same as it ever was, the same nonsense we're all accustomed to these days. Today was to be a special day, because pre-orders for the Nintendo Wii (their latest game console) were to begin as soon as the mall opened. I'm a gamer geek at heart, and willing to admit it - I was going to arrive at the mall at 6:30 A.M., and wait patiently in line until I had that receipt in hand. I expected a big smile on my face, I expected the childish anticipation that carries over until the system is released.

I did not expect to encounter a Marine that had just returned from Iraq, with quite a bit to tell us consumers in line about exactly what was on his mind. I did not expect to have my life shocked into perspective.

Lowe's is teaming up with some who-gives-a-damn publishing company to provide the public with the most untimely of promotions. Barely a year after the wrath of Hurricane Katrina fell on southern shores, "Blow Us Away With Your Hurricane Memories!"

...come again?

Good evening everybody. Inbetween TiVo'ed recordings of the 24 Season 5 premiere, I decided I would post this poem that I wrote. A little background: On the first day of Thanksgiving break, I was on my way to pick my brother up from college and bring him home. On the way, I passed a Diebold van on I-90. The slogan under the logo?

"We won't rest."

Yeah, well you better believe I won't, either. This poem is about the fictional repairman that inadvertently circumvents his freedom by repairing dangerous, criminal voting machines. I'm releasing this poem under a Creative Commons license. What does this mean for you? Check out the link for information on what you can do with this poem. In short: do whatever you want with it! Voting irregularities MUST be resolved before Nov. 2006, and I feel that art is our only possible entry point to the distracting right-wing noise machine. Let's make the intrusion as creative as possible. Without further ado, "Bold Crimes".

I didn't see anything on the diary list about this, and I'll delete if there's a similar diary already - but John Aravosis over at AMERICAblog just got the results of his purchase of Gen. Wesley Clark's cell phone records! (Link to post here)

All we needed was General Clark's cell phone number and our credit card, and 24 hours later we had one hundred calls the general made on his cell phone in November. The calls included a number of calls to Arkansas, to foreign countries, and at least one call to a prominent reporter at the Washington Post. To ensure that we actually had General Clark's correct cell phone number, we called the number this morning and the voice mail recording that answered said:

    "Hi, this is Wes Clark, leave a message [unintelligible]."

We have retained a recording of that voice mail message.

Today was one of revelation. On December 15th, I watched the Iraqi elections on television, the birth of a potential new, burgeoning democracy. In the recent past, I have been pretty pessimistic about the situation, if only because so many people that touch our lives in one way or another are over there. However, today I look at the Iraqis and I think to myself: "How would I feel if what happened here so many years ago, was happening in the modern age?

I'm going to explore that, if you're still awake - come for the ride.

In response to this helpful diary by kosblt regarding CO2 pollution and whether or not it affects our hurricane seasons, I've decided to write my first one to see how it goes. My diary is in reference to this AP News article, where the increasing frequency of glacier separation is beginning to worry the locals (mostly Inuit). From the article:

"In the past we could walk on the ice in the fjord between the icebergs for a six-month period during the winter, drill holes and fish," said Joern Kristensen, a fisherman and one of the indigenous Inuit who are most of Greenland's population of 56,000.

"We can only do that for a month or two now. It has become more difficult to drive dog sleds because the ice between the icebergs isn't solid anymore."

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