Yesterday I had something happen that hasn’t happened before… Well, it has but I wasn’t confident to the same degree when it happened in the past. I wasn’t compelled to act immediately like I did…

I applied for a job.

Not just a job, but a high profile job.

Not just a high profile job, but one in a different city, in a different region…

Not just a high profile job in a different city, but one that is being offered by a campaign attached to a former presidential candidate.

I really should be more skeptical — and I am in a lot of fashions — towards the job I applied for with John Kerry. It was advertised on Daily Kos and that means hundreds of thousands will not only see this thing but probably apply for a job too.

The thing is… I know this job. I AM this job. I have been doing most of the roles that are described in the online agenda for years on my own. I’ve done them voluntarily, I’ve done them for next to nothing… I know this role, I have confidence I could do this job and do it well.

But in the end, it ain’t up to me now is it? At least not right now.

I’ve never lived away from home for more than a few days. I have been 2300 miles from home without family oir friends around as a social safety net though. While Boston would be like that, it’s much easier to reach my extended family in New York and Connecticut.

What’s gonna happen now? I don’t know… Could I even get up to Boston for an interview? Let alone find myself taking the position? have no clue, but I know one thing — I am that job. I have confidence in that fact and I only wish I had this opportunity more often, closer to home, to prove it.

As everyone knows, there are conservatives out there at current who are adamant Bill Clinton was soft on terrorism and has been trying to paint that picture since earlier this month through every disinformation channel available to them.

Yet, to those who actually believe Clinton was soft on terrorism or just plain didn’t do enough to fight terror — look at what Orrin Hatch, Trent Lott and others of the GOP were up to stopping President Clinton from having some of the very same issues that Congress now rubber-stamps for President Bush today.  That link and the following quote from CNN in July of 1996:

“We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue,” Clinton said during a White House news conference.

But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, doubted that the Senate would rush to action before they recess this weekend. The Senate needs to study all the options, he said, and trying to get it done in the next three days would be tough.

One key GOP senator was more critical, calling a proposed study of chemical markers in explosives “a phony issue.”

I wonder if old Orrin stood up and argued how the entire gels-and-liquids scare that has helped slow down the queue in airports for the last few weeks was phony… Or did he “wise up on the issue” where politicians who change stances today are known as flip-floppers?

But wait, it gets better.

Back in April of 1996 — the US House approved an anti-terror legislation that was severely watered down from what President Clinton had been proposing and the Senate had passed.  This was near the one-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and several months prior to TWA Flight 800′s crash (along with the Centennial Park bombing at the Olympics in Atlanta):

Republicans were divided on whether the legislation would be effective.

“We have a measure that will give us a strong upper hand in the battle to prevent and punish domestic and international terrorism,” Senate Majority Leader and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole said Wednesday.

But Sen. Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma, while praising the bill, said the country remains “very open” to terrorism. “Will it stop any acts of terrorism, domestic and international? No,” he said, adding, “We don’t want a police state.”

Some lawmakers took a more prudent view of the bill. “The balance between public safety and order and individual rights is always a difficult dilemma in a free society,” said Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-New York.

(emphasis added by me)

Now what’s my point in this and what constructive items can we take from it?

Ten years ago, there was a sensible conservatism out there that said individuals had rights, and it’s a thin line between individual rights and safety. The Republicans once knew that and they put the country’s civil liberties before the terrorism fight.

Now? Well, you should know…

The world didn’t change on 9-11 as the neoconservatives in control of the Republican party have worked very hard to make the country believe. It was our national courage that did. If you’re giving into your fear for the sake of safety and blaming all of this on the other guy in order to feel more secure at this very moment, you’re a coward and a fool who has become blinded from right-and-wrong with thanks to your party-of-choice in power.

I grew up a fan of the WWF and I re-acquired my fondness for wrestling late int eh 1990′s during the WCW/WWF wars. One of the performers for the WWF (now WWE) was former Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle who played a pompous and crass patriot who embodied everything that you could dispise about an athlete. Selfishness, arrogance, etc, etc.
Kurt had a good “angle” though and played the part well. Still does in fact. One part of his repetoir was talking about his three I’s — three words begining with I that were his guiding principles — of Intensity, Integrity and Intelligence.

You realize that the country currently has it’s own three I’s? These aren’t principles that are guiding us but they are factors in our daily lives:

Inflation – you will not hear the Federal Reserve chairman talking about inflation, nor will you hear the Bush administration talk about how costs have skyrocketed over a short period of time. Everyone knows about gas prices, but real estate prices, durable goods, groceries, insurance premiums, medical care — everything is spiking for the common person. The federal governent is just concerned with the mega-ultra-large corporations in how they deal with this. Corporatiosn are going strong right now while workers wages are stagnent. It’s been almost a decade since minimum wage was increased in the United States and instead of promoting better treatment for employees, the Bush administration has worked vigilently to repeal work laws so corporations can profit and not be stradled by the costs of labor.

Intolerance – you reep what you sow and that is the case with the Dubai Port World deal and George Walker Bush signing off on the deal. Bush made Arab’s into the boogeyman of the 21st century with his rhetoric after 9-11. The propoganda coming out of the White House tied Iraq to 9-11 in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. People were scared and reacted to just that, signing off on the war because those damn Arabs attacked us first! (wwhich is a flat out lie and ignorant assumption by the citizens of the US)

So the Dubai Ports deal comes through and Bush has no problem with it — it’s a furtherment of his pro-big business agenda. Bill Clinton signs off on it and does what he can to help out behind the scenes (as Slick Willie has always been a proponent of Globalization — as is New York Times writer Paul Krugman). Everyone expects a free pass over this as that is how the country has operated since 9-11 (allowing Bush to get whatever he wanted)…

…Until the public learns about the deal.

Everyone cries foul — Republicans and Democrats alike. The Xenophobia of the Arab Boogeyman that Bush’s administration has so well played rears it’s ugly head. An Arab country in charge of US Ports?! An Arab country with ties to 9-11?!?

And yet, Krugman had a good point in a recent article which denounced this intolerance. The United States should be an active player in the global economy and we cannot run scared from a country in the middle east because of the ignorant and arrogant propoganda show that was put out by the Administration to further it’s agenda.

Of course I could go on about intolerance — everyone beign afraid of homosexuals, blacks and whites in the continued racial war of poverty, faux-Christians sullying Christian ideals and justifying hatred, violence and greed in His name, etc…

Isolationism – Go it alone, “with us or against us,” and the country trumping the world in matters of global politics (be it war, peace, treaties, signing off on elected officials in other countries or dispatchign elected officials in others)  The US has become largely islolated with thanks to it’s policies while being depedant and indebted to cheap foreign labor and despot oil suppliers.

First and foremost to anyone who knows me and actually visits Stonegauge from time to time to see what’s on my mind or what else I am up to… I’ve stayed off here a lot lately because I’ve been bored with it a bit — Boltsmag gives me a topic to focus on while Stonegauge asks me to focus on me and my life is rather boring.

Oh yeah, and the fact I don’t want to bitch about personal things knowing people know this is my personal blog.

But I gotta bitch today because I’m looking for an old family friend… Or friends more like it.

In 1984..? I think that was it… I moved into a house in Blue Point, New York with my family… Nice ranch place with cedar shingles and brick accents. There was a nursery next door and it was a quaint, small town on Long Island… There’s a plethora of details about Blue Point or that house but none are pertinant to this tory besidse what I want to talk about.

One afternoon after moving in, I was inside doing one thing or another and my brothers were out back — giggling and acting really weird by the back fence. I went to investigate what was going on and I found out they were making a fuss about a girl (and her friend) in the next yard. Mike and Andy were acting anti-social in one way or another and I thought “What’s the big deal?” and started up conversation with the girls… This was the begining of a great neighborly friendship between the Fontana family and the Reilly Family.

The girl in question was Shannon. Shannon H. Reilly if I do so recall her middle initial. She was about the same age as my older brother and went to Blue Point elementary school (while me and my older brother were attending Sylvain Avenue Elementary in nearby Bayport)… Shannon was basically the fourth child of my parents while me and my brothers became children of Shannon’s parents. We really were interchangable children and would spend time playing at each others houses all the time (except when I got tugged into some type of disagreement between my older brother and Shannon). I believe her parents names were Mary “Mussy” Reilly and Rich.

Shannon would later have a little brother, Brian, who became the fifth partner in crime. Of course, Brian would be too young for most of the -adventures that we’d undertake but he was none the less part of the equation when we did something.

At any rate, I moved away from New York to the Tampa Bay area in January 1989. The Reilly’s were there to send us off. They’d later take a trip from their home in New York to Florida and make sure to stop to see us along the way.

But time and distance made things fade. We did end up visiting the Reilly’s after they moved to Massachusetts during the 1990′s (not far from Foxboro if I do so recall) … But after that I can’t recall much of anything – news or what not – of the Reilly family. I did not see Shannon at that mid-1990′s get together because she was still in New York, finishing school while staying with relatives. I do remember Brian was playing offensive line in football but… eh.

I wanna know whatever happened to Shannon? I want to knwo what’s up with the Reilly family and I hope everything is ok. It’s a shot in the dark trying to write a blog entry about them — but after I did research on various platforms trying to find them and failed… I thought this was at least worth a shot….

Published in the St. Pete Times on June 11th — written by moi.

Listening to the right-leaning talking heads who were part of the Watergate scandal, speaking about how W. Mark Felt is a “traitor” and a “toady” and a villain and not a hero for what he did reminds me of the story of Frank Serpico.

Serpico was a New York plain clothes officer who outed vast corruption in the New York City Police Department through the press, after having previous attempts to out corruption swept under the rug by the powers that be. The reaction by the force was death threats and then ultimately a gunshot wound to the face.

Why do I compare W. Mark Felt with Frank Serpico? Because they both aired dirty laundry of certain institutions and both were vilified unjustly for their actions. Would someone claim that Serpico was a traitor to the police department for spilling the beans on wrongdoing on the police force?

Corruption is corruption, and those who out it aren’t the villains.

I don’t give Ain’t It Cool news that much credit even though I happen to visit the site on a semi-regular basis because I am a movie fan… I find some of the fanboy-ness reviewing some movies to be an utter joke and the porrous HTML something that makes me sick.

But they do have their pluses.

A new reporter for AIn’t It Cool happened to be at a happening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York where the Weinsteins and Quentin Tarantino got together to give the audience a little taste of the story behind Mirimax pictures. Being big on Tarantino and admiring Mirmax and what the Weinsteins have done with it, I just had to read this thing and I’m glad I did.

If you’re a die-hard for movies and like to know the behind the scenes stuff, check it out.

Besides just being depressed (tis the season, ho ho ho to guess-who) I find out hwo bad I’m screwed when it comes to the new pager I now have in my possesion…

I don’t know if anyone still regularly reads der Stonegauge but a couple of weeks ago I reported that my original Motorola T900 text messenger was lost while I tooled around Long Island, New York. I bought a new pager off ebay while in New York and I thought all would be rectified by now.

Wrong.

The replacement pager I bought arrived about 2 weeks ago and I found it broken — not working – when I tried to use it. That itself was discouraging. I contacted the guy I bought the pager from and he told me I coudl return it. Good enough – I sent the pager back and got a new one as a replacement. That oen arrived yesterday and I’v been through hell finding out how screwed I am right now because of this thing.

I talked with my wireless company all afternoon trying to get the pager hooked up but they couldn’t “Locate” the thing because it was on another system. OK, fine. I was frustrated at this and sent myself a text email just because I could…

I didn’t expect to get the response email but I DID. It showed who my hosting company was, and I decided to contact them first thing in the morning about getting this thing ironed out.

Well, here’s the problem. I contacted Arch Wireless this morning (the hosting company) and gave them the pager number, the serial number and the Cap code and what did they find out? That they couldn’t release the pager because it was not registered with them. It was registered with a TV station in Boston.

Like a TV station would give a shit about a pager and transfering ownership to an individual? Suffice it to say, I am lost and have no clue what I am going to do from here.

Is it just me or is CBS trying to burn the CSI franchise out as fast as possible?

They have three shows going on each week – the one in Las Vegas, the one in Miami and the one in New York that started this season… They have only so many stories for each CSI and then they start overlapping on crimes. “Oh, they did something like this last season in New York.” “I thought I saw David Carusoe do this on CSI: Miami?”

They are currently leading the television pack (this after a decade of falling from grace in TV Land) but they are going to burn the franchise out post-haste with three cities and three Crime Scene Investigations going on at once….

It took me less than 15 minutes to wish I was still back in New York when I arrived here in Florida…

Oh what a state… of disconent

It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The New York Times, The Daily News

It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind

–Billy Joel, New York State of Mind

Home.

That’s what I’m thinking of on my next sojourn out fo the Suburban sprawl that is Palm Harbor, Florida. Not the fact those Yucking Fankees got their asses handed to them by the Bosox (can someone give me a “Hallelujah”? Can somebody give me an “Amen”?)… The fact I’m going home to the state of my birth. To the palce I spent nearly 10 years before I came to this ill ile of torment.

I’m going up with my father next week for my grandmothers birthday. Nice timing, as I had planned on going 2 weeks earlier but alas – scheduling conflicts and what not prevented that from happening. Not only will this be the first time I am in New York since 1995, but the first time I am in autumn weather (REAL autumn weather, not the sun-dried shit in Florida where everything stays green) since 1994 (ok, 2001 I was in Reno, Nevada in October… But I don’t want to count that).

I ventured 2300 miles on my own to LA, got around the city pretty good and yet thinking about going around New York intimidates me moreso than LA. It’s not the fact New Ork is a big place (which it is) but the fact so many people are crammed into such a tight spot in the city…

And that’s where I want to go in my free time — the city. Well, that and Montauk…. but I’ve already alluded to that…

A certain state of mind — the mind of an escapist? That doesn’t seem right. The mind of a fugitive from justice? Nah, I ain’t no Richard Kimble…. A pilgrim? That doesn’t feel right either but it feels more accurate and along the lines of what I am looking for…