In Memoriam - Charles Nelson Reilly

Charles Nelson Reilly, whose award-winning theater career was overshadowed by his knack for filling in the blanks with punchlines on Match Game and other TV game shows, died last Friday from pneumonia. Reilly's partner Patrick Hughes released the news to The New York Times.

For the uninitiated, the Game Show Network offers everyday proof of why Reilly was as much a part of the 1970s as the pet rock. The Internet Broadway Database offers evidence of a career that was much broader than his banter with Brett Somers suggested.

Reilly directed five Broadway plays, appeared in the original productions of Bye Bye Birdie, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hello, Dolly!, earned three Tony nominations, including one for directing the 1997 production of The Gin Game, and won one, for his supporting work in How to Succeed.

In 2002, Reilly won a Drama Desk Award for his one-man show of an autobiography, Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly.

"I was told that I would never be allowed on television," Reilly said in the show's 2006 film version, The Life of Reilly, "and now I gotta try to figure out who do you have to f--- to get off."

The quip offered a good summary of Reilly's career, if not his career dilemma: Once told by a network executive that TV was off-limits to "queers," the Bronx-born actor, who was gay, became known as a TV personality to the exclusion of everything else.

It was always fun seeing Reilly on television, because he was so obviously gay at a time when society insisted that lesbians and gay men be invisible. Thank goodness for us all that Reilly refused to be in the closet.

RNC to Phone Banking Staff ... You're Fired!

That's right, the RNC as fired all their phone bankers. The excuse reason given is that the phone bank technology is outdated and difficult to maintain. A spokesperson for the RNC told the conservative Washington Times, "the RNC was advised that we would soon need an entire new system to remain viable."

Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee's chief of staff, summoned the solicitations staff last week and told them they were out of work, effective immediately, the fired staffers told The Times.

An RNC spokeswoman is denying there has been a drop-off in contributions, but former employees are telling a much different story.

"Last year, my solicitations totaled $164,000, and this year the way they were running for the first four months, they would total $100,000 by the end of 2007," said one fired phone bank solicitor who asked not to be identified.

Republicans have traditionally had a larger base of small-dollar donors than Democrats, but their base is upset and their small-dollar donations are starting to dry up. And the main reason for the drop off?

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens.

In September 2005, during a benefit for Hurricane Katrina survivors singer Kanye West caused a stir when he said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Well, now it seems that Bush's base doesn't care about brown people, either!

Hekebolos, at My Left Wing, writes:

Time catches up with everyone, it would seem. The Republican Party had done a fantastic job of keeping the theocons, neocons, paleocons and corporatecons united under a big tent by playing both ends against the middle--but eventually, that jig had to come to an end, and now we're seeing it in action with the immigration issue. Bush and the Republicans are compromising and "granting amnesty" to keep their corporate masters happy, and the base is finally getting around to realizing that they have, in fact, been sold down the river. And they've finally stopped parting with their dollars in the hopes that this election cycle will be different.

Looks like corporate America will be choosing the next Republican presidential candidate.

Update: Fired city manager applies for new job

This is an update on the issue that lead to the arrest of Nadine Smith for handing out fliers at a meeting of the Largo City Commission. Nadine was there in support of Steve Stanton who, following 14 years of generally excellent evaluations, was fired from his $140,000-a-year job as city manager for announcing his plans to become Susan Stanton.

Susan Stanton has now applied for a new job as city manager in Sarasota, Florida.

The Associated Press reports:

Stanton went to a job interview in a white skirt, makeup and pumps, hoping to get hired to lead this more cosmopolitan tourist town.

The city commissioners who interviewed the job candidate hesitated to bring up the one topic on nearly everyone's mind -- Stanton's plans to undergo sex change surgery someday soon and complete the process started when Stanton recently began living as a woman.

So Stanton brought it up.

Stanton, 48, said that having a transsexual city manager would not be as disruptive as they might think. She said that the recuperation time for a sex change operation is minimal and that she would soon step back from the national spotlight.

"It's a legitimate concern and hopefully I've addressed it," Stanton said after the interview. "I have taken the initiative to throw it out and maybe remove it from the table."

The commissioners were expected to vote Wednesday afternoon on whether to hire Stanton or one of four other candidates.

Stanton is clearly capable of doing the job, and maybe the more "cosmopolitan tourist town" will recognize this. Hopefully the Sarasota City Commissioners will put bigotry aside and give Susan Stanton a fair review as they consider who to hire.

Serendipity and plain old luck

Lucky moonshot, digiscoped through the Meade Condor with my Nikon Coolpix 4800. Why lucky, you ask? Take a look at my other digiscoped photos; this almost-crystal-clear one has GOT to be luck!

The first definition you'll find on dictionary.com for the word "serendipity" is "an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident." I knew that the word usually referred to a pleasant discovery made by accident, but I'd never thought about it as an "aptitude," as though certain people have a knack for making these discoveries. Interesting. Can one really have a gift for making lucky discoveries? Or is it that some people are gifted at looking at normal things and seeing in them something that becomes a great discovery? What was the difference between the guy who saw cockleburrs and thought "velcro!" and the millions of other people who saw them and just thought, "dangit! that's gonna run my hose!"?

Serendipity is rare in my life; normally, I'm just pretty lucky, but it doesn't usually lead to any life-changing discoveries like Velcro or saccharine or any of the other storied examples of serendipity. Lately, however, I've experienced some pretty neat things, and I'll you decide whether they're serendipity or luck.

Earlier today, I was surfing through some new birding blogs when I read an entry about the song of the Eastern towhee, usually rendered as "drink your tea." (I'd love to post the link to this blog/post, but I just can't remember where I read it. Sorry!) At any rate, I was going to an appointment this afternoon at an office that is surrounded by woods. After the appointment, I searched for an indigo bunting that I'd been told about in the woods when, to my amazement, I heard it: "drink-your-teeeeeeea!" I saw a little movement in a low bush and there he was: a male Eastern towhee--a lifer! I didn't have my camera ready, but I saw him there, not five feet away. Wow! If I hadn't read about "drink your tea" this afternoon, there's just no way I'd have been able to ID that song and know to look for that towhee.

Yesterday, I read on the local birding listserv that a blue grosbeak had been seen near my house, in an area I'd never really explored. I drove over there this evening, hoping to see the grosbeak--as though it would be the only bird in the area or something. Anyway, I didn't see the grosbeak, but I DID get lucky. First, I saw an orchard oriole, my second lifer of the day. I sort-of got a photo, though it's ridiculously bad:

He and his mate were intent on hiding in the thick foliage of this tree, but I got some decent looks at them, and I'm confident--orchard oriole!

Next, I saw this bird which I can't ID:



I thought it might be some sort of flycatcher, but they're small. What is this bird? UPDATE--I remembered that he DID make a sound--it sounded like someone clacking away at the keys on a manual typewriter. Help! Tell me it's something cool, though--not a mockingbird or something lame like that....

Then I saw a bird that I've debated with myself about life-listing because I'd only ever gotten one quick-glance-had-to-be-one-of-those sightings last summer: the brown thrasher. After today I can list him with confidence, and I even got photos!



Sweet!

I also saw some cedar waxwings--such beautiful birds, and my nemesis for oh-so-long until I moved up here and saw one a couple of years ago:


So maybe luck's been a lady to me lately, sending me to an area rich with birds that I'd never have discovered had I not gone to see a blue grosbeak. I suppose that living in such a beautiful area that's blessed by so many different species of birds is lucky. Or maybe just living on earth is pure luck in itself.

Final thoughts on Dario Franchitti, Ashley Judd, and Indy 500

Growing up in Indiana my family marked the beginning of 'summer' with the sounds of race cars circling the Indy 500 track. It was a tradition, the first cookout of the season, listening to the race (it wasn't televised back then), and spending the day with family and friends.

The tradition continued for me when I moved from the small town where I had grown up, to the big city of Indianapolis to work for the NBC affiliate. The station was the official Indy 500 television station in the state, and that provided additional access for all who worked there. I've been inside Gasoline Alley, in the pit area, and listened in on numerous interviews with drivers and team owners.

For that reason, every Memorial Day weekend readers of this blog will find posts related to the race.

An increased number of people visited Yikes over the weekend, and it was interesting to see some of the keywords people used to find this blog.

Ashley Judd's name came up most, Ashley in the rain, Ashley's husband wins, husband ignores Ashley. The last one caught my eye. It had seemed that Dario didn't pay the kind of attention to his wife that one might expect from a guy married to one of the most beautiful women in the world. When the car pulled into victory lane, and she leaned in to give him a kiss, it appeared as if he didn't even see her.

Well, I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he probably didn't see her. He had just accomplished something he had only dreamed about for years. It happened in a most unusual way -- due to the rain, and a yellow caution light -- and I think he was simply stunned.

He sort of had that deer-in-the-headlights look when he first took his helmet off. I think his brain was simply trying to catch up with the overwhelming emotions that must have overtaken him. The Orlando Sentinel describes it this way:

He's so dazed with disbelief that he's actually won this thing that he's a little glassy-eyed. Almost like he barely recognizes her.

I could believe that.

By racing standards Dario is getting a bit old, he's had some challenges over the past decade that included at one point losing his ride. And he was probably was also thinking about the last time a Scot won the race, which was back in 1965 when the legendary Jim Clark won. (Dario added a Jim Clark room to the house he has been restoring in Scotland.)

From all accounts Dario Franchitti is a good guy. His wife commented to reporters that day that he had conducted himself on the race track like a true "gentleman."

I agree with Ed Hinton of the Orlando Sentinel who wrote:

"Who would have thought it? Can you believe it?" said [Dario] in his Scottish lilt and burr. "I'm in shock . . . I'm definitely in shock."

From a guy who'd barely noticed Ashley Judd kissing him, you could believe that. His wife attended the winner's press conference but did not make it to the podium. This moment, for once, belonged solely to Dario Franchitti.

'It was a big one, all right. All I can say is, I'm so happy for Dario Franchitti.'

Memorial Day tribute to Cindy Sheehan

Memorial Day is about remembering friends and loved ones we have lost to war ... but it should also be a day when we recommit to never sending young women and men into battle unless there is no other choice. That was not the case in Iraq, and far too many people have paid with their lives.

Cindy Sheehan saw a wrong and tried to right it, and for that she has been demonized by both the "right" and the "left." Anyone who has ever challenged "the system" can certainly identify. As Sheehan so eloquently points out:

Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.

She also perfectly describes what seems to plague far too many so-called "progressive" organizations when she writes:

I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.

I have faced similar challenges within the women's movement for daring to speak up.

As Memorial Day 2007 comes to a close I urge you to take a moment and read Cindy Sheehan's statement. And then, make a commitment to challenge Republicans and Democrats alike when they are taking this country in the wrong direction. It's our duty.

___________________________________

Cindy Sheehan Quits Peace Movement

Via AfterDowningStreet.org & Crooks and Liars:

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground. Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too…which makes the property even more valuable.

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources. Read more…

On Wolfowitz: Reading between the lines

The Washington Post reports that Paul Wolfowitz is blaming the media for his demise as World Bank president. The real story, however, might be found by reading between the lines.

LONDON -- Departing World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in a radio interview broadcast Monday blamed an overheated atmosphere at the bank and in the media for forcing him to resign.

Or maybe it was the overheated atmosphere in Wolfowitz's pants.

Wolfowitz, who has announced he will step down June 30, denied suggestions that his decision to leave was influenced by an apparent lack of support from the bank's employees. "I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that," he told the British Broadcasting Corp. "People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend."

Clearly Wolfowitz is suffering from "Bush Syndrome" ... which is to never accept the obvious as fact.

Wolfowitz said that he was pleased the bank's board accepted that he had acted ethically, and in good faith in his handling of a generous compensation package for his girlfriend and bank employee Shaha Riza in 2005.

The board knows he's buy-sexual, but were forced to accept a gag order imposed by bullies in the Bush administration.

"I accept the fact that by the time we got around to that, emotions here were so overheated that I don't think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about," he said.

"My trousers were overheated, but Shaha wasn't going to sleep with me again unless I could promise another salary increase ... and the damn media made THAT impossible."

By tradition, the United States _ the bank's biggest financial contributor _ names an American to run the institution.

And decides what the board can say to the press.

Wolfowitz's departure ends a two-year run at the development bank that was marked by controversy from the start, given his previous role as a major architect of the Iraq war when he served as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon.

And we all know how well THAT is going.

Wolfowitz would be wise to simply take his $400,000 severance package and go quietly into the night. Who knows, with that kind of pocket change he might be able to buy a Saturday night date for the rest of the year.

Dario Fanchitti "Mr Ashley Judd" wins rain-shortened Indy 500

Okay, the headline might make some people crazy, but if one of the three women in the race couldn't win, at least the winner is married to a woman who made wearing a "This is what a feminist looks like!" t-shirt fashionable.

The 34-year-old Franchitti won a rain shortened Indy 500, and gave his team -- which includes Danica Patrick -- its second Indy victory in three years. He inherited the lead when the leaders pitted one last time for fuel, even as the skies darkened, and then drove slowly to the checkered flag in a downpour when the race was stopped after 166 laps, or 415 of the scheduled 500 miles.

Once Franchitti got out of his car, he was mobbed, hugged and kissed by teammates Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick and Michael Andretti -- and his wife, Ashley.

Franchitti is expected to collect at least $1.5 million from a total purse of more than $10.5 million when the checks are handed out at the victory dinner Monday night. Scott Dixon came in second and Helio Castroneves finished third.

Danica Patrick was the only one of the three women in the field to have an impact. Danica, in second place at the restart of the race, finished 8th. Sarah Fisher finished 18th, and rookie Milka Duno ran no higher than 22nd before crashing after 65 laps and ended up 31st.

Indy 500 Update

Rain delayed the Indy 500 today. Crews are drying the track, and hopefully the drivers will be racing soon. Two of the three women are still in the race. Danica Patrick is in third place, Sarah Fisher is in 25th, and unfortunately Milka Duno is out of the race. Her car hit the wall, but she's fine.

Danica still has a chance to win if officials can get the race going again. She had moved up a number of spots just as the rain began to fall. Two of her team mates are currently in first and second place. Tony Kanaan slid into first before the rain started, just ahead of Marco Andretti.

All three will certainly be trying to win, but during the break Danica mentioned that she could relax a bit knowing her team mates were ahead of her. There is an understanding among teams that each driver will do all they can to win, but they will not engage in any dirty tricks to keep another member of their team from taking the checkered flag.

"Ladies and Gentleman ... Start Your Engines!"

Those famous words, spoken by Mary Hulman George, mark the beginning of what has come to be know as “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” -- the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

Since the inaugural race in 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has become steeped in rich tradition. For decades only four words were needed to begin an Indy 500 -- "Gentleman, start your engines!"

In 1977, Janet Guthrie caused a stir by becoming the first women to qualify for the race. It took race officials days to decide how to start the day, and they finally settled on "Lady and gentlemen ... start your engines."

While I generally don't like the word "lady" (because of it's sexist connotation), I must admit that I applauded the inclusion of its plural version at the beginning of today's race because it marked the first time that three women have qualified for the same event.

The women in today's race, in the order in which they started, are:

Sarah Fisher

Sarah Fisher was born to win and is determined to compete against the very best in auto racing. At just 26 years old, she has already competed in five Indianapolis 500's within the IRL IndyCar Series. In May 2000, she became just the third woman and one of the youngest drivers ever to compete in the world's greatest race – the Indianapolis 500. Later in the season, Sarah made history yet again at Kentucky Speedway, becoming the youngest person to lead laps during an IRL IndyCar event and the youngest woman to ever stand on a podium with her third-place finish in that event.

In 2001, Sarah claimed a second-place finish at the IRL's inaugural race at Homestead Miami Speedway the best result ever by a woman in Indy-style racing.

Sarah made her NASCAR debut in October of 2004 with Bill McAnally Racing in the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Sarah captured four top-ten finishes in her first full season in the NASCAR West Series in 2005. She finished the season running in 12th in the chase for the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series title which made her eligible to compete in the 3rd Annual NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. She finished 11th in that race.

She was signed to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing on January 30, 2007 and slated to return to the IRL IndyCar Series. For her first time, she participated in off-seaon open testing. She still has the best finish of any female in the IndyCar Series and will look for victory circle in 2007.

Milka Duno

Milka Duno, the newest driver and third female in the IndyCar Series, will start the 2007 Indianapolis 500 in the middle of the 10th row from the 29th starting position. The Venezuelan rookie makes history: first Latina and first time three women will race at Indy.

Talent, beauty and youth are just a few of the many adjectives that define the image of Milka Duno. By education and training a Naval Engineer with four master’s degrees – in Organizational Development, Naval Architecture, Maritime Business and Marine Biology – Milka earned the last three simultaneously.

Milka is the first Latin American women driver ever to be classified as an "expert," Milka's professional driving career reaches new heights each year. In 2000 Milka was named “Venezuelan Auto Racing Driver of the Year.”

In her first full Rolex Series season Milka won the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway in February of 2004 - which made her the first woman in history to win overall a major international sports car race in North America. She repeated that history-making win when she won at the same track seven months later - in September of 2004. During the 2005 season Milka achieved her third career Rolex Series in at Mont-Tremblant, Canada.

Remarkably, in only two Rolex Series seasons, Milka has earned three overall wins, six podium appearances, nine top-five finishes and seventeen top-ten finishes.

Danica Patrick

Heading into Sunday's Indianapolis 500, it seems there is only one place driver Danica Patrick hasn't made an appearance: a victory lane somewhere in the IRL IndyCar Series. Danica hopes her pairing with new team Andretti Green Racing pays dividends on the track. Danica's teammates are Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti and team co-owner Michael Andretti, Marco's father.

Danica, 25, had a breakthrough fourth-place finish as a rookie in the 2005 Indy 500, where she became the first woman to lead a lap at the world's most famous racetrack. Since then, her results haven't been as spellbinding as the attention she has drawn.

Danica has lived in a pressure cooker of expectations since making her IndyCar debut, with the Rahal Letterman team, and still is looking for her first win, the tension builds with each race that she doesn't get to Victory Lane.

She says facing all that pressure alone the past couple of years was not easy.

"I wasn't embraced by my teammates, and that made it kind of miserable," Patrick said. "I was very alone. I didn't talk to them. We just didn't talk and we didn't go through things and, not only that, I didn't necessarily think the things that worked for them were working for me.

"And it just so happened that I was faster more of the time, so it was just a sort of closed-off area that I was in."

Scott Roembke, general manager and chief operating officer for Rahal Letterman, said it was no secret that Patrick didn't get along with her former teammates, and 2004 Indy winner Buddy Rice in particular.

Noting how well Patrick has fit in with her new team, Roembke said, "The Andretti Green lovefest you see from the outside is a unique thing. I think it's good that she's got that relationship now. I'm happy for her."

Patrick's teammates, including 20-year-old Marco Andretti, already have won in the IndyCar Series and they expect her to become a member of that exclusive club soon. Could that first win come at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today? We will all know soon.

War Without End

This Memorial Day Weekend voters need to take a hard look at just who is in office. Anyone who didn't have the courage to stand up to a president with a 28% approval rating needs to go. How many more Memorial Day's will pass before our troops come home?

The New York Times editorial echo's my thoughts:

Never mind how badly the war is going in Iraq. President Bush has been swaggering around like a victorious general because he cowed a wobbly coalition of Democrats into dropping their attempt to impose a time limit on his disastrous misadventure.

By week’s end, Mr. Bush was acting as though that bit of parliamentary strong-arming had left him free to ignore not just the Democrats, but also the vast majority of Americans, who want him to stop chasing illusions of victory and concentrate on how to stop the sacrifice of young Americans’ lives.

And, ever faithful to his illusions, Mr. Bush was insisting that he was the only person who understood the true enemy.

Speaking to graduates of the Coast Guard Academy, Mr. Bush declared that Al Qaeda is “public enemy No. 1” in Iraq and that “the terrorists’ goal in Iraq is to reignite sectarian violence and break support for the war here at home.” The next day, in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush turned on a reporter who had the temerity to ask about Mr. Bush’s declining credibility with the public, declaring that Al Qaeda is “a threat to your children” and accusing him of naïvely ignoring the danger.

It’s upsetting to think that Mr. Bush believes the raging sectarian violence in Iraq awaits reigniting, or that he does not recognize that Americans’ support for the war broke down many bloody months ago. But we have grown accustomed to this president’s disconnect from reality and his habit of tilting at straw men, like Americans who don’t care about terrorism because they question his mismanagement of the war or don’t worry about what will happen after the United States withdraws, as it inevitably must.

On Memorial Day 2008 let's hope the war in Iraq is a distant memory.

Sunday Funnies

Memorial Day message for Democrats

Watch Keith Oberman's comments on Crooks and Liars (and below) -- it's a message we need to share with our members of Congress over this Memorial Day weekend.

Special Comment: “The only things truly “compromised” are the trust of the voters … friends, and family, in Iraq”

By: John Amato on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Dems cave on Iraq funding

On Tuesday I received an email from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asking me to make a contribution. The message began:

“The Republicans suffered one unpleasant event in November 2006, and they are headed toward an even nastier one in 2008. They are like people quietly marching to their doom.”
- David Brooks, The New York Times

I couldn't have said it better myself.

The GOP has shown no signs that they've gotten the message of change and progress that voters sent in 2006.

Psst ... I hate to break it to you, but NEITHER HAVE THE DEMOCRATS!

Why should ANYONE support a party that voted to fund the Iraq war, with no timetable for withdrawal? Were the Senators who supported this bill listening at all last November? The messages was sent loud and clear -- get us out of Iraq!

The DSCC closed their fundraising message by saying:

As good as the news looks for Democrats around the country, I want you to know that everyone here at the DSCC has the same hunger and determination that we had in the 2006 cycle.

Then, we were fighting to end years of Republican governance that was slowly running American into the ground. Now, our task is equally important. It is time to build on the success of 2006 and get America back on the right track.

They must think we are all stupid. If the Dems don't clean up their act they will get a taste of what happened to the Republicans -- their "base" will simply stay home on election day.

AP quotes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying:

"Senate Democrats will not stop our efforts to change the course of this war until either enough Republicans join with us to reject President Bush's failed policy or we get a new president."

How about just voting against it because you control a majority of the votes? The US Senate web site says: Required For Majority: 1/2 ... Don't you have that Mr. Reid?

Vote for the timetables and make the President and the Republicans in Congress explain to Americans why their sons and daughters are dying in Iraq.

Click here to see how your Senator voted. Regardless of political party affiliation, if your Senator voted "yea" they need to hear from you. Remind the Dems they need to 'dance with the one that brung them to the party' ... and remind the Republicans that this is why they lost.

Tribute to Post #150 & a visit from the SC Birding Club

I realized after I'd read my previous post the day after I wrote it that I'd forgotten to honor the fact that it was my 150th post to beginningtobird. I'd mentioned in the entry title but then got so wrapped up in my pileated sighting that I just plain forgot to celebrate. Woo-hoo!

Tonight, Kat and I hosted a gathering of several members of the State College Birding Club along with the owners of the marsh behind my house. Greg and Mary Kay Williams own the marsh and Cooke Tavern Bed and Breakfast. They're great people who actually created this marsh from a horse pasture. They removed the "tile drains" (not sure what those are but they apparently drained off the natural water on the property) and worked with several local, state, and national organizations to develop the wetland. They've lived here for 17 years, and their work--this marsh--was the deciding factor in our decision to buy this house. Mary Kay was glad to hear about our love of the marsh, as most of our other neighbors have called it "a mosquito pit." Whatever. This place rocks.

So some people from the birding club came out as well to look for sora, Virginia rail, and American bittern. We'd hoped for the great egrets, but Mary Kay says she thinks they left. It's been a while since I'd seen them, but I was hoping they were just nesting. Oh well. Saw some great heron tracks, so I know they're still around. We saw rails and sora, who were very stirred up by one member's BirdPod. They walked right up to us, gathered in a group on Neighbor Ed's fenceline looking into the marsh. One began an energetic territory protection display so we moved on.

The bitterns must be nesting, maybe, because they didn't respond to the BirdPod, but I've seen them lately and feel sure they're still around. We stopped trying after just a bit to avoid irritating them.

All in all, we didn't see too many birds, but it was a beautiful evening and it was very exciting to have real bird clubbers hanging out here!

The high point of the night for me occurred once everyone had arrived and we were ready to hit the marsh. Greg and Mary Kay asked if Kat was coming along with us (she had been sitting out in the backyard with me, discussing the details of her day, when everyone arrived). The look on her face was priceless, and in her mental voice (which is too high for most humans, except for me, to hear), she cried, "Oh my god, I'm in birding hell!" But all that came out in the common human ear's hearing range was "Oh, no thanks!" She even managed a rather forced smile!

After everyone left, she told me that she felt like Non-Birding Bill must feel all the time. Gotta love her; she sticks to her "birds are creepy" guns even in the presence of hard-core birders. She's my rock!

I warned her I'd have to blog about this incident, and she just kept repeating "I was in birding hell" and shaking her head, shell-shocked. She says she can tell when she's about to enter birding hell with me when I'm talking with someone else in some random situation when, out of the blue, someone (other than me) will use "birding" as a verb (as opposed to "bird-watching"). That's when I hear her mental voice, like a tiny banshee, wailing somewhere far away. Those moments are priceless. I'm in birding heaven, she's in birding hell.

Hump-day Funnies

Abortion foes think women need parenting

Imagine being in your mid-30's, you've been out on your own for a decade or more, and suddenly a significant life decision is taken out of your hands and given to a Justice or State Legislature. That is what could happen to women IF anti-abortion advocates have their way.

Encouraged by Justice Kennedy's "whose you daddy" comments in an anti-abortion decision by the Supreme Court last month, abortion foes are working to pass tough new counseling and informed-consent laws intended to harass women seeking abortions. Don't think for a moment that anti-abortion advocates care a wit about women -- they don't. They only care about controlling women's lives.

The New York Times reports:

For many years, the political struggle over abortion was often framed as a starkly binary choice: the interest of the woman, advocated by supporters of abortion rights, versus the interest of the fetus, advocated by opponents of abortion.

But last month’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act marked a milestone for a different argument advanced by anti-abortion leaders, one they are increasingly making in state legislatures around the country. They say that abortion, as a rule, is not in the best interest of the woman; that women are often misled or ill-informed about its risks to their own physical or emotional health; and that the interests of the pregnant woman and the fetus are, in fact, the same.

The majority opinion in the court’s 5-to-4 decision explicitly acknowledged this argument, galvanizing anti-abortion forces and setting the stage for an intensifying battle over new abortion restrictions in the states.

Abortion rights advocates who have been asleep at the wheel need to wake up and smell the coffee. It's past time to make the case for why this kind of thinking is not only offensive to women ... but dangerous to women's lives!

Post #150--and a pileated!

This morning when I got in the car to wait for Kat, I happened to look over at Neighbor Ed's front yard and saw a pileated woodpecker!

I was so freaked out that I dared not get any closer than our driveway, so these are pretty fuzzy--but it's definitely a pileated!

This is a true lifebird for me, in that I've wanted to see one of these since I was a little kid watching Woody Woodpecker and I found out somewhere that he was modeled after a pileated. Wow.

Kat couldn't believe how huge he was, like a big crow or larger, pecking at the base of an old stump. I wish I could've stayed and watched him all day long, but Kat had to get to school and I had to go to work.

Wow. I'm still all freaked out. What an amazing bird.

On a sidenote: Since this new "autosaving of drafts" thing, I'm unable to view a preview of my posts. I click on the Preview Since I've never been able to get a full menu at the top of the post window (all I get are the icons for spellcheck, for adding photos, and for Preview since I switched to Macintosh and Apple's Safari browser), I can only see the HTML view while composing. So without a preview, I'm just guessing how things look until I post them. Grr... Need to get a different browser but downloading them takes a million years with dial-up. Oy vey.

Anyway--I saw a pileated!

Saturday night (moon) fever

I was outside moving the sprinkler around the veggie garden when I looked up and saw this:


I ran inside and grabbed my scope; there's nothing like those times when the moon and a planet--in this case Venus--appear to rise beside one another in the night sky.


These are the best photos I got, both digiscoping through the Mead Condor, now atop the new Slik 540Q-II tripod with microfluid head, and with the camera on zoom. I tried several camera modes while digiscoping--regular, night landscape, macro, and infinity. Sadly, I didn't get the focused view through the camera that I saw through the scope with my eye. The scope performed beautifully, but I think the camera might've had difficulty with the low light.


I did a little reading about the phenomenon of "earthshine," which occurs when you can see the entire moon in a shadowy blue along with the lit part. I absolutely love it when the moon looks like this, and I was thrilled to photograph it.

According to space.com, Leonardo da Vinci is the first person to have recognized this phenomenon. Beautiful. The view through the scope was incredible, too--I saw all the features on the bottom of the crescent moon.

Wildflowers on a beautiful morning

The following wildflower ID's courtesy of Roger Tory Peterson's Peterson's First Guides: Wildflowers.

Forget-me-not

Dame's rocket--thought it was a phlox, but it only has four petals

Common blue violet

Common strawberry

Daisy fleabane

Wild parsnip or Golden Alexander? I can't tell.

Is this a tiger swallowtail?

Wild columbine

Common buttercup

Mystery flower--anyone?

With apologies to Alice Walker, in my mind, cows make a landscape more beautiful.

Eastern bluebird--I was too slow to snap her while she was feeding her babies, then she flew up to the wire. I waited, but she was more patient than I, and I figured she might be too shy to feed them with me watching so I drove on.

Heading for the windy city

Part of my job that I love is getting to meet with our wonderful activists! I'm off to Chicago to do just that, and won't be back in DC until late Sunday night. If anyone has a good "Sunday Funnies" to share, please add the link in the comments below.

Have a great weekend!

High Drama - High Crimes?

Crooks and Liars is one of the more popular blogs in the blogosphere ... and here is a sample why.

Bush Refuses to Respond To Kelly O’Donnell’s questions about Comey’s testimony

It's hard to overstate the importance of Former Deputy AG James Comey's incredible testimony earlier this week. At a press conference today with outgoing British PM Tony Blair, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell asked President Bush about Comey's startling allegations. Needless to say, he refuses to answer the question and instead opts to remind us how much the Evil Scary Islamofascists want to kill us, and how Very Important this program is in order to "protect" us.
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Turley on NSA Spying: “I don’t know of a more potential charge of impeachment”

George Washington University Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley says that the latest NSA warrantless wiretapping revelations – wherein the administration knowingly broke the law and continued spying on American citizens after top DoJ officials refused to certify the legality of the program — make this a "clear impeachable offense."
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‘It looks like the process was out of control’

Somehow, this scandal manages to keep getting worse, while Alberto Gonzales’ lies manage to become even more troubling.
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Alberto Gonzales Carefully Tailors Warrantless Wiretapping Testimony

PBS Frontline's "Spying on the Home Front" last night was downright chilling. Although there were no major blockbuster revelations, they painted a very clear and complete picture of the Bush administration's vastly expanded domestic surveillance programs and their impact on civil liberties. This clip shows how Alberto Gonzales was very careful during his Senate testimony on the NSA warrantless wiretapping program exposed by the New York Times in December 2005. On numerous occasions he made it abundantly clear that he was only testifying on that specific program, which leads one to conclude that there are likely other (and more intrusive) domestic spying programs in place. Indeed, when Sen. Feinstein asks him if there are any other programs, he literally says "I don't know how to answer that."
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Comey offers High Drama — and maybe High crimes?

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey seems to have raised eyebrows throughout the political world with his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony yesterday. While the prosecutor purge was supposed to be the key topic of the hearing, Comey’s story about the 2004 reathorization of the NSA warrantless-search program turned out to be the big news.
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It's also a sample of why it's well past time for the Bush Administration to go. Is it possible to impeach them all at once?

Buy-sexual Wolfowitz is Out

The New York Times reports:

Paul D. Wolfowitz this evening ended weeks of furor over charges of favoritism toward a bank employee who is his female companion and announced his resignation as president of the World Bank, effective June 30.

The bank board backed away from threats to force Mr. Wolfowitz to resign for violating his contract, as a special investigative committee had concluded, and instead accepted his claim that his actions were honorably intended.

The resignation brought a dramatic conclusion to two days of negotiations between Mr. Wolfowitz and the bank board, which went along with his demands for an exoneration of the charges that he had broken ethics and governance rules in arranging for a generous pay and promotion package for Shaha Ali Riza, his girlfriend, in 2005.

Wolfie lost me when he stuck his comb in his mouth ... yuck!

Falwell still dead: Why I shall not mourn

As a feminist, lesbian, and someone who supports separation of church and state I cannot mourn the passing of Jerry Falwell. I must agree with my friend Jeff Montomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation, an LGBT advocacy group based in Michigan, who said:

"The media reports [Falwell] died from heart failure, which presumes he had a heart to begin with. If that's so, it failed long before his passing."

The Virginia-Pilot reports:

In his 1987 autobiography, "Strength for the Journey," Falwell recalled a turbulent family history. Falwell's father was an agnostic who hated preachers, ran a bootleg whiskey operation during Prohibition, and killed his younger brother in self-defense four years before Falwell was born.

Could Jerry have been rebelling against his father? Has the political landscape in the U.S. suffered because of the way a father treated his son?

In the late 80's, when Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's televangelism empire ran into trouble stemming from accusations of financial misconduct and Jim's involvement is a sex scandal, Falwell was quick to swoop in and take over the profitable cable television network. Tammy Faye later criticized Falwell for his lack of interest in Jim's spiritual well being, choosing instead to capitalize on Bakker's misfortune for his own personal gain.

Most Americans will probably remember Falwell most for the outrageous statements he made after leaving the Moral Majority. In 1999, Falwell's publication the National Liberty Journal warned parents that the Tinky Winky TV character was secretly gay and morally dangerous. The story, leaked to the press by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, received international coverage.

In 2001, Falwell blamed the September 11 terrorist attack on "pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America."

Jerry Falwell is dead, but unfortunately his legacy will continue. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins was quick to weigh in on Falwell's passing -- making sure to mention he is a graduate of Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. There are certainly others waiting in the wings as well.

Falwell was clearly someone who demonized and vilified feminists and lesbians and gays for political gain -- and profit! And he was also someone who used religion to divide rather than unite the country. For this I cannot mourn his passing.

More on Falwell

Americans United Issues Statement On The Death Of Jerry Falwell
Moral Majority Founder Was ‘Face And Voice Of The Religious Right,’ Says AU’s Lynn

Dr. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and one of the key architects of the rise of the Religious Right, died today at age 73.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, released the following statement:

“Jerry Falwell politicized religion and failed to understand the genius of our Constitution, but there is no denying his impact on American political life. He will long be remembered as the face and voice of the Religious Right.

“Falwell manipulated a powerful pulpit in exchange for access to political power and promotion of a narrow range of moral concerns. I appeared with him on news programs dozens of times over the years and, while I disagreed with just about everything Falwell stood for, he was a determined advocate for what he believed.

“Falwell reached his apex of power in the 1980s. Since then, leadership of the Religious Right has passed to James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, Donald Wildmon and others. However, Falwell remained influential in politics, with Republican presidential candidates seeking his support this year.

“Americans United extends its condolences to members of Dr. Falwell’s family, the congregants of Thomas Road Baptist Church and the students and staff of Liberty University.”

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I will share thoughts on Jerry Falwell later.

Rev Jerry Falwell Dead at age 73

MSNBC is reporting the following:

Moral Majority leader Falwell dies

Evangelical leader was found in his university office

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell — founder of the Moral Majority and the face of the religious right in the 1980s — died Tuesday after being found unconscious in his office, a Liberty University executive said.

Ron Godwin, Liberty's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, had been found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital.

Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but noted that Falwell had “a history of heart challenges.” (full story)

Happy Mother's Day

Sunday Funnies

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

Watch this space--for yummy pears!


After my amazing two days birding in the PA oil region, I’m home. It’s a strikingly sunny day, with a cool breeze making the leaves dance and the grass sway in waves. So much happened while I was away, it seems. The pear, tamarack, and lilac came into full feather:



The lawn turned from a yellow-spotted dandelion field to a white-puff-filled seed factory:


The garden seeds awoke and found the sun:
Baby spinach:
Tiny cilantro:
Sunflowers for the birds:
Green leaf lettuce:

Green beans:
The morning glories that will camouflage the fence around the veggie garden:

But many things remain the same. I was awakened by the noise of the raptors -- the cats -- jumping to the window to watch the birds, chasing each other up and down the stairs, and begging for their breakfast at 6:30a.m. By the oh-ka-LEEEEE and the crazy sora’s call on the marsh. By Mr. Cardinal, demanding I fill the feeders. By the downy, complaining about how the grackles and red-wing blackbirds ate all his suet. By Niblet running and jumping around, bumping and chinning my ankles as I scoop his pellets and fill his hay manger for breakfast.

Most important of all, though, Kat is beside me, asking for her morning coffee and snuggle. I’m truly home again.