Proving that our Idiot In Chief isn't the only quasi-illiterate Republican, the state chairman of the Maine delegation to the GOP convention, in his nominating speech, just said of President Stupid that "...he embodies our state motto, Italian, err, Latin, for 'I go, Dirigo'..."

Now, is it that he can't read his pre-printed speech, which he was visibly holding right in front of him and regularly referring to, or that he doesn't know the difference between Italian and Latin?

Listening to NPR, who are having a blast interviewing conservatives (who, after all, spend an enormous amount of money "underwriting", read, advertising, on their affiliates.) Among the usual prattle from BigotFest 2004, they interviewed a "conservative comic" (which seems redundant to me):

Brad Stine is a conservative Christian comedian, who performed last night at a party hosted by Jenna and Barbara Bush.

To follow the Queen's lead in Wonderland, which any political convention can resemble, let's begin at the beginning, so that we can end at the end:
1. "conservative Christian comedian": what a stupid, stupid, stupid description. I mean, does it imply that comics as a whole are non-religious? By way of comparison, I guess I'm a "leftist atheist blogger."
2. "conservative Christian comedian... performed": again, a redundancy?
3. The party was hosted by the Cokehead In Chief's daughters -- should this be a surprise?

But I'm not entirely cynical: the real reason I decided to blog about this was something said by the stupid comedian (who, no, is not really very funny at all, objectively or subjectively: it was pretty painful to listen to him talk, actually.) He mentioned that he went to NYC planning to be angry with the protestors. He then said (paraphrased) that he was surprised to instead feel like he was watching democracy in action, and in fact, he sort of paraphrased a chant popular in the anti-imperialist movement: "this is what democracy looks like!"

Weird.

p.s. the People have been heard: more nastygrams will follow!

I just talked to my sister on the phone for three hours and fifty-one minutes. Two thoughts: (1) she's a genuis, and (2) Love those free nights and weekends! Now back to our regularly scheduled program, Zuma.

i was a legal observer today for an anti-war, anti-imperialism, anti-bush protest today (i know, they are basically all the same). the crowd was impressive for this military town, 400+ at its peak (though the program dragged on for WAY too long, and people who would've marched started to leave).

also present was the usual cadre of bigoted, stupid, trashy counter protestors. interestingly, their leader was unusually restrained, while they have a new idiot, a young kid, maybe 23, who prattles on a megaphone about how those who seek a peaceful world and less imperialist behavior from america "hate america."

Olympic Sports That Absolutely May Or May Not Really Be Sports:

• synchronized swimming
  
• flatwater canoeing, because the craft is so narrow and stupid: it's really more of a low-function kayak. you couldn't actually get anywhere in it, except to do a sprint, since you can't sit down. dumb.
  
• figure skating
  
• speaking of winter sports, curling is, at best, highly questionable
  
• freestyle wrestling
  
• the random dancing pieces of the floor exercise in women's gymnastics
  
• beach volleyball, just because it's so offensive what the women wear, compared to what the men wear, that it's more like watching the shooting of the SI swimsuit edition than an olympic sport. (i mean, shit -- this is an event where you get SAND all over you. what they hell are they thinking?)
  
• women's track is clearly a sport, but gets an honorable mention on this list for the same offensive clothing discrepancy as beach volleyball.
  
• table tennis: an entertaining pasttime, perhaps, but most decidedly not a sport.
  

My Argentina Budget
by Danny-Danny

• $35.10: roundtrip ticket on Evil Airlines from San Diego to Buenos Aires(!), resulting from the Shameless Mileage Run detailed in the previous post.
  
• $0.00: travel insurance, because I'm not a Responsible Person
  
• $6.25: wine in HPDE nalgene bottles, for, uhhh, airports (Concha y Toro Frontera Merlot)
  
• ~$25 lunch, with beer, in San Diego, since Evil Airlines won't be feeding us for many hours, and the food at DFW, inarguably the Worst Airport In America, is about as good as the main beer in airports these days: Spam Adams, and Spam sLight, (I tried to deduce a direct link to their page for sLight, but their Flash webpage is as disgusting as their beer, and makes it impossible) allegedly the best tasting light beer in America (which is, really, a bit like a determination of "The Best Tasting Raw Sewage In America"). But I digress: since Spam Adams has sort of taken over the airport beer world, good beer is almost impossible to find in most airports, and DFW, the showcase airport for Big Shitty Chain Restaurants that it is, of course, is no exception.
  
• <$1: transport to the SAN airport (gas for Petunia!):
  
• $0.00: food at DFW, since it's all inedible.
  
• $5.00: approximate cost of peanuts and Clif Bars for the approximately 12 hour flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires, since Evil Airlines will surely screw me ont he non-dairy vegetarian meal I just requested.
  
• $7.00: return flight food, since it's less predictable what vegan food will cost in Argentina to come back.
  
• $100: eleven nights of lodging in and around Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. The Good Senator seems to think it'll be cheapest in a hostel, but since hostels have never yet been cheaper for two people anywhere else I've ever gone, I suspect we'll be looking for cheap hotels. I LOVES me some local wildlife in my room!
  
• $100: approximate food budget. Yeah, we're gonna eat well, but since restaurants in Latin america seem to think vegetarian shouldn't include any protein besdies beans, it doesn't cost too much.
  
• $150: miscellaneous expenses, including transportation and border "taxes" between Argentina and Uruguay, and the ~$28 exit tax from Argentina, which makes me want to cry for them.
  

I get too much flak from The Good Senator for not updating my blog, so... here's the first update in many moons.

In those moons, I've been a little busy; trips have included:

• Colorado Springs (January 2004, work)
  
• Detroit (January 2004, "pleasure," as much as such a notion can exist in Michigan in January)
  
• San Diego->New York (JFK)->New York (LaGuardia)->Miami->Key West->Miami->New York (LaGuardia)->New York (JFK)->San Diego (January 2004, this ridiculous trip was the most shameless kind of mileage run, leading to a free ticket anywhere Evil Airlines (which shall remain unnamed, but is sometimes abbreviated as AA) flies, resulting in the next major trip, to Argentina, this September 2004!
  
• various and regular trips to Los Angeles, mostly for work and work related things
  
• El Salvador (March 2004, I acted as an elections observer for the presidential elections, then travelled)
  
• Sacramento (May 2004, for my own wedding!)
  
• Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Guatemala (May-August 2004)
  

Pictures of the summer's galavanting in Central America are being processed (by me) as we speak (windows are open in the background), but it'll eb a while before any are really ready to display: I took a little over 1,2000 pictures, thanks to the seven 256mb compact flash cards I took with me.

Planned travel for this fall includes:

• September: Idyllwild for a NLG-LA conference
  
• September: Buenos Aires, Argentina; probably also Montevideo, Uruguay, with The Good Senator
  
• September: Colorado Springs: to see Olive Margaret, and happy parents
  
• September-October: Boston, to see A.'.C, DD, &c., and possibly meander up towards Vermont
  
• October: Birmingham: for the NLG National Convention
  
• November: Sacramento, for B&S party celebrating their marriage!
  
• November: Sacramento (yes, again), for a holiday to remember how privileged and lucky we all are, and one whose backs we stole this country.
  
• December-January: Boston, then Vermont, then Boston again

You might wonder, when will I find time to work in all of this? Well, I sort of wonder myself. Fortunately, I'm able to do a lot of my work via email, and much of my work energies this fall will be dedicated to photography and writing.