Walking through Inwood Park today and came across the scene of police officers elevating this camera box at the entrance of the park on Seaman and Isham Avenues. When questioned about it, the officer said it was there for a few days to show an increase of police presence.

Just in time for the community meeting tomorrow. Hmmmm. I wonder how long it will be there.

The President’s speech to school kids was fantastic… though probably boring to the older kids.

The hatriots did their best to demonize President Obama.  I hope sane people remember the ludicrous charges flung by the right, and recognize how little anything the racist/right says is based in any truth. Meanwhile, the President was asked about growing up without a father, from a kid whose parents divorced.

He’s not a demon, he’s a man doing the best he can despite the interference from the illiterates who (predictably) kept their kids out of school.

Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy.

For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.

His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives — in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education’s promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me.

In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.

I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom.

His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we’ve all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.

For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today — to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family.

Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

Bridget Fleming

We hadn’t been in touch with our friends in Sag Harbor, NY (Bob, Bridget and Jai) for a while so when Bridget called to invite us to a party for Bob I was surprised when she informed me that she is running for office.

Bridget Fleming is an excellent lawyer, who at one time worked as Assistant D.A. under the famous Robert Morgenthau.

From her site:

Bridget has spent a great deal of time in the past couple of months traveling around the town, meeting voters. Time and again, the people she meets express their frustration that the government of Southampton is run by a select group of people, for a select group of people. For years, community voices have been ignored; Board members haven’t done their homework; and there’s been no accountability built into the laws the Board has passed.

I’ve known Bridget Fleming for many years and am confident that she will make a representative town government representative of the people that live there – not special interests.  Click on her picture to check out her web site.  If you live in the town, you might consider volunteering and even if you don’t, perhaps you can contribute.

Just when everthing seems to be running smoothly, I noticed that there’s a new version of WordPress. It’s version 2.8.1. I am hesitant to upgrade given my previous experience, but that was with the auto-update. I’ll have to do it manually even though it takes longer.

I’ll have to wait until I have some free time. Not sure what the advantages are… If any.

It’s been a long time since my last post, but I’m back.  I tried upgrading my various blogs and all  worked well until I got to my blog Whispers.  The upgrade crashed with a fatal error.  You can see for yourself.

Anyway the point is, I was running a series of shorts by talented film maker Anne Flournoy called the Louise Log. You get a chance to hear what is going on in Louise’s head (I like headphones but not necessary) as she goes through her daily life.  It’s very funny.  Since I hadn’t been blogging, I missed posting #13 and now it is up for a vote to be played on WNET (PBS station) as a short.  So I was going to post #13 (titled Louise and the Repairman), and put in a plug to go vote for it, which is real easy to do.

Just go to this Thirteen.org link and vote.

I’m posting the short here, but to see all of the episodes, go to Anne’s website and click on the Louise Log.

After you see this and when you go to Anne’s site, you can view #14, but remember to vote.  The poll closes at 5pm EDT.

I got through February and was joyous until I saw the weather forcast:

Arggghhhhh!

Thank you Onion!!!

Top Story On John McCain Run Out Of Obligation

After spending some time,… not blogging … I have returned. So much has happened in my absence. Looks like the Democrats have started to move toward progress, and the Republicans are maintaining the status quo.

Every Freaking! Day with Rachell Ray: An Unauthorized Parody by Elizabeth Hilts has been released and is on sale NOW! In paperback even!

The Superbowl Champion Giants beat the Patriots… again, even though it was only pre-season, and the Giants have their first official season game Thursday against Washington.

I’ve seen a bunch of movies, including Tropic Thunder, and will tell you about them later this week.

Also, I noticed yesterday that Google has come out with a web browser (Chrome). Only for Windows machines at present. This comic will explain what makes chrome different other been being open source.

I know,… it’s been a while since I’ve made and entry. It’s not because I have had nothing to write about. With the attack on privacy, I especially want to encourage the use of PGP or GPG. In fact, I will be adding my public key to this entry, and will make it a permanent resident on the About Page.

What I’m interested in at this point in time though, is a program project called Jing. People probably know that I use Macs but this particular item is cross platform. It run on Windows as well as Mac.

What exactly is Jing? Watch the video tour on the Jing page. You will be seeing a few more Jing things here, and I’m sure in other places too. This is just an example of a still image:

Imagine if you could do something like this as a video, and imagine that it only took a few seconds to do. Think of the decrease in emails because more…