man, I wish I new glen was going to be in new york, I would have made it a day

jane, you have my email, next time you come to new york send me an email, would love to say hi, but a coffee and talk dog, blogs and life

I have some skippy dog (my child hood pal) storys that you will love

My summary of the HCR discussion you missed today is, you missed NOTHING. Not one new argument was brought up, and I didn’t hear one reason why ANY of these people, Dems or Repubs should be reelected. Shame on them.
The worst of the bunch by far was the President we contributed $$ to, walked precincts for and voted for because we wanted so desperately to believe in him & ourselves. Shame on us.

I didn’t expect that anything substantial would happen so it never occurred to me to skip the NY trip.

Glad to hear that was the right decision.

I didn’t know you were here in NY or I totally would’ve said come down — it was a very very fun day.

Next time for sure!

Happy Birthday Mary Jane! — just love the knitted eyeballs

oh and it sounded like a great program with Glenn and Ellsberg ;)

Let me raise the two most telling questions one more time:
1. The Republicans passed the HCR they wanted under “Chauncey” Bush. OF COURSE they are against further HCR. If they wanted more HCR reform they would have included it in the Bill they passed. So, the question becomes, what has our Democratic Pres. (that we elected, not the Repubs) been doing for the last year?
2. Why haven’t our Democratic leaders brought up for a vote the one piece of HCR that would easily sail through Congress, Dorgan’s Amendment?

I wanted to here GG but had a conference call and the weather has been nasty so I passed. I know he was in town because he had said he would be on DemocracyNow! and… this morning he was. GG is one of the best.

Jane be careful in this nasty weather we need your leadership.

This obama thing has really been a weird trip.

hippo birdies two ewes
hippo birdies two ewes
hippo birdies deer mary jane
hippo birdies two ewes
…..and mini s’mores

O/T: Here’s another pair-up that promises to be action-packed and fun-filled. I’m hoping they have a video camera on scene so the session can eventually be thrown up on the electric internets machine.

Happy b-day, MJ, and I hope the “having fun” part continues all the way to the end of the day (and then some).

(And good luck with the Olympic knitting!)

Marcy Wheeler is the antagonist’s ex-wife

There’s a frightening thought. I’m trying to imagine the divorce trial that led to the “ex” part of that: “Your honor, I have here a timeline that I’d like to introduce into evidence . . .” I’m not giving anything away either, because I haven’t seen the book, but I’d bet on the antagonist losing by the end of the book.

Jane Hamsher as Director of Information Security with Josh Marshall or John Cole as the ex-boyfriend.

Why not both . . . at the same time.

Live dangerously.

Question is where will you find time to practice the pole dance routine, which is so de riguer these days.

Did I spell that right?

Heh.

Sounds like you and Marcy are going to have lots of fun!

Ve expect ze updates. Promptly. With ze inside stories.

Even if you’re a damn movie star.

Happy Birthday, Mary Jane!

Happy knitting to you. My new girlfriend, Glyniss from the women’s gym I work out at was here with us for the Superbowl and she was so cute sitting on the big couch, knitting.
I found the morning session of today’s HCR interesting. I thought the President and Harry and Nancy rather took the others to the wood shed, but that’s just my perspective. As I told folks here this morning, we see what we want to.
I only got dribs and drabs of the afternoon session as I was listening to Leonard Cohen and then the Allman Brothers while I was at the side yard trimming the rose bushes.
My shoulders are sore.
Hugs to Jane and Glen.
Did I ever tell you about the evening I spent in his daddy’s office when my friend Greg was filming there?

PS Of course Glenn is a doll, but Daniels’s pretty cute too. Love those twinkling eyes.

Our newly adopted 5-yo had music class at school this week.
They had to return the next day with something to say about a composer.
The little guy consults with mr. posaune.

Kid: (seeing the Mozart bust on the piano) I’m going to talk about Mozart. How did he die, Dad?
Dad: He couldn’t afford health care & there wasn’t a public option.
Kid: That’s terrible.

Kid goes to school: Ms. Dee, did you know Mozart died from no public option?

In 1976 I saw Daniel Ellsberg crossing the parking lot at UCLA. I screamed like a Beatles fan and ran over to him and thanked him. 10 years later I became a Hollywood agent. I had beers with Billy Bob and Clooney and Brad Pitt. To this day, the single most important meet of my life was thanking Daniel Ellsberg in that parking lot.

We have a statue of a naked lady on our piano. I don’t know why she died.

what a hoot!

And, it’s gold. And, every time I look at her, I think, I’ve got to lose some weight.

I wouldn’t want to go up against Marcy Wheeler either — not even in a novel! And just to be clear, Jane and Josh are in my previous book, Fault Line, along with Hilzoy, Atrios, and a law firm called Sullivan, Greenwald. Marcy, Dan Froomkin, and quite a few others make their fictional appearances in Inside Out.

It was a great conference and Jane, what a pleasure to meet you. Just beginning to thaw out after my slog through the snow back to the hotel.

Looking forward to the book salon — thanks again, Jane, and hope to see everyone there.

Cheers,
Barry

Wow, Jane! What a great day. Can’t wait for that book.

The concept that *anyone*/*anything* (I’m looking at you, corporate entities) who/that touches government at any level is *not* subject to FOIA I find unacceptable. So, if that’s *not* the case the law and rules need to be changed. Round ‘o sunshine for everybody any time, any place!

PS I always wondered if Mary Jane’s last name was really a nom de plume– it’s so … so … story book ala “Life is a Chair of Bowlies” (Mary Engelbreit print at http://shop.maryengelbreit.com/p-1581-poster-chair-of-bowlies.aspx)! Please don’t take this wrong. I find this positively cute, amusing and do enjoy the hint of whimsy. I also like the wearable art and can appreciate its scrumptiousness. Happy Birthday, Mary Jane, and you all just have a fabulous time in the Big Apple!

Glenn, Ellsberg, Jane Hamsher etc in the same room. Gives me hope.

Saw the Ellsberg documentary in Boulder recently. Was well aware of lots of the details but learned so much more. Was fortunate enough to hear Ellsberg and the late great Zinn at several anti war (Vietnam) marches in the late 60′s early 70′s. Lifetime inspirations for so many of us.

When Ellsberg was describing that internal crack that happened for him, I was weeping. His dear wife is one of my heroes too. Watching them in that documentary lie down together on the ground holding hands in protest of the invasion of Iraq gave me chills.

Their peace and justice efforts along with so many of my heroes in Athens Ohio (Art and Peggy Gish,(in their 70′s) Bob Whaley (80 something), Helen and David Horn (70′s,80′s) and so many more elders out there remind us that the commitment to peace and justice is a lifetime commitment.

Hell Howard Zinn was a supreme example for us all. He used his last months, days pushing for justice and peace.

Jane, Ellsberg, Glenn and all here give me hope and inspiration.

Ellsberg was one of the primary architects of our insane Vietnam war policy in the 60s under McNamara.

Know that.

So much more detail in the documentary. At times he comes right out and admits his guilt. A few times he seems to dance around his one of the “primary architects” role and responsibility.

Would rather witness a “primary architect” admit their guilt, confusion, responsibility and attempt to redeem their cold calculated actions rather than try to sweep them under the rug like Feith, Cambone, Wolfowitz, Cheney.

Millions of Vietnamese dead due to Ellsbergs supplying the manipulated, and cherry picked intelligence that LBJ etc wanted but at least the guy came clean and at great personal risk. Although he definitely has blood on his hands

No Ellsberg knew what he was doing in sending American kids to die for LBJ’s ego. When it went real bad he bailed for his own purposes, the Pentagon Papers disclosure was a calculated self promotion. Never liked the guy and any redemption he seeeks ought to be soundly rejected as it is just part of his continuing path of self promotion starting when he went the way of Bundy’s and McNamara’s insane Vietnam war policy.

Ellsberg could have been in prison for life. Go see the documentary, listen to him talk, his soul light went on