Friends in danger, postponed budget

I had about ten minutes of absolute terror yesterday, when I was out on the Writer's Guild picket on LI www.wgaeast.org/organizing/2005/08/05/bigworldonstrikelist/ when I got a phone call like this:

my friend: Hey dude, are you near a computer
me: no, why?
my friend: 3 hotels in Amman were just hit with bombs.
me: oh shit. OH SHIT! NO, i'm not. CALL ME WHEN YOU HAVE NEWS.

A dear friend of ours is out in Amman, writing and creating. Got a call later that he's alright. So alright, that he had this to say. A sometimes different political perspective than mine, but one of my favorite reads:

procrastinet.com/archives/cat_despatches.html

It's funny how much more one feels something when it hits home. I would still be sad if I didn't know someone in Amman, but now I'm just relieved it's not him.

So after GOTV and a picket at the end of Long Island, I'm a little beat today. Ran some errands up Freshchester and saw my Mom, who wasn't feeling all that great. Psyched for the shindig, which should be plentiful of great people, junk food, bourbon, and more bourbon.

Also psyched about this:
www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/10/budget.cuts.ap/index.html

Seems that massive cuts to medicaid and student loans is not a good encore after dawdling your way through a natural disaster. Did you guys know we're still paying Michael Brown, by the way? What a crock of shit. I guess if they'll pay a member of the House a Rep's salary and benefits for life, they'll pay that freaking idiot.

Is it me, or does it seem like after sleepwalking through the last 12 years, the Dems are showing signs of life?

Recommendation for today:
www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine2/heromachine2.asp

For the comic book/fantasy/space geek in all of us. A friend made one for a bunch of us, including the one that's my blogger pic. Think I would've made the sledgehammer normal scale instead of making it smaller.