Siesta Key

Two days after Thanksgiving. and Kate and I are lying on the beach. Water is a little chilly, but beats Vermont or Washington, DC.

I am going to bring the blog back after a long hiatus. I know I promised this several months ago, but then our network of servers went down. We are back up and the postings weill now fly.

StinkHammer

The Hammer Will Stink Once Again

After a long absence, the Hammer is back.

Stand by.

Senator Human Lie Detector (R) OK

So … I know that many of you may not be as obsessed with inside the beltway chatter as those of who us live here. We really do feel that it is the center of the universe. So I feel it is my humble to duty to draw to your attention from time to time some of the outstanding public servants that make their home here, albeit part time, in the city I currently call home.

This weekend I was struck with a nasty cold that has been floating around my office. So in my coughing, sneezing, hacking misery, I was not able to catch my favorite Sunday program – Meet the Press or MTP as we call it here inside the beltway. However, because of the overwhelming popularity of iPods and podcasting, MTP has begun podcasting each episode. So lying in bed last night, I was listening to MTP on my iPod. The topic of this weeks MTP was … of course …. the President and his current political funk. It seems as if the whole world is colluding to make our dear leaders’ life more difficult. The discussion then turned to the prospects of Supreme Court Nominee Alito.

The first guest was our favorite limousine liberal, Ted Kennedy. Now we know what Teddy was going to say. The President needs to fire Rove, clean house, and dump this radical right wing nominee. No surprises there.

The real fun began with the Republican guest, Senator Tom Coburn of OK. Now I understand the amazing talent that is the GOP bench in the United States Senate, but I had no idea that Senator Coburn is in fact, a human lie detector. That’s right, on MTP, Tim Russert played a clip of Senator Coburn during the John Roberts confirmation hearing. In speaking to Roberts, the Senator indicated that he was very pleased with the nominee’s performance, and that he could tell, because of his experience and training as a physician, that he was being truthful. Well shiver me timbers – send the rest of the Senate home. Senator Coburn is a one-man truth squad. Can you imagine the advantage that this gives the GOP. I shudder when I think about the upcoming mid-term elections. The GOP can trot him out to vouch for the truthfulness of Republican TV ads, while claming that breathing habits of Democratic candidate X indicates that he is lying, and would raise taxes. Truly frightening.

I do take a little comfort in the fact that Senator Coburn indicates that this skill can be learned. It appears that one must go to medical school to learn it, but at least there is hope for our Democrats. I am quickly trying to determine if Doctor Howard Dean on the DNC has this skill.

Click here to listen to the exchange on MTP.

I really encourage you all to spend more of your Sunday morning watching the Sunday programs. It really will learn you a lot. And really, there is nothing more important than what goes on in the city I call home.

Get What You Give

Watching Rosa Parks funeral procession pass my office yesterday, got me thinking about how important activism is to social change. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the importance of the work of my own organization, Greenpeace. Don’t get me wrong, I am no Rosa Parks, but Greenpeace does have a more than thirty-year history of raising hell to protect the planet, and some of our founders were very brave indeed.

Greenpeace is rather unique in the environmental world. Non-violent direct action is at the heart of Greenpeace’s work. Bearing witness to environmental destruction and using non-violent direct action to, even if just briefly, make things as they should be. From activists putting themselves between whaling vessels and whales, climbing smokestacks, or forest rescue stations that protect some of the last remaining old growth forest, the common thread is the activists that place themselves in the right place at the right time to stop a wrong.

A colleague forwarded along a link to this Greenpeace video. I realized as I watched it, the importance of activism and taking stand. And while we may feel discouraged at times, we have do have the power to make positive change.

Check out this link to the New Radicals video – people really can make a difference, and its an inspiring thing to understand.

The World Goes by My Office

One of the nice things about working in downtown Washington, is that I get to see a lot of interesting things right out the window of my office.

The past week has been particularly good. Last Thursday while sitting at my desk, I heard the sound of helicopters hovering overhead. As I looked down on the intersection of 7th and H Streets, NW I noticed a police officer standing at the corner. Helicopters overhead and cops on the street corner can only mean one thing. The President is coming. I ran down to the street to take my position. Within about 3 or 4 min the street had been cleared and moving north up 7th street came the President’s motorcade. Standing on the sidewalk I prepared myself. First the officers on motorcycles came whizzing by. Then the Suburbans with blacked out windows. Then I saw it, the Presidential Limo. Stepping right up to the curb, I got myself into position – standing straight and tall, legs spread shoulder length apart, both arms held high above my head, middle fingers extended on each hand. "Fuck you" I yelled at the President's bomb proof Cadilac. As his car drove by, I saw the President on the phone looking directly at me. Ha ha - take that!

I can’t tell you how gratifying this was. A feeling of genuine accomplishment rushed over my body. In fact, I believe that it was one of the most productive things I had done all week, and was tempted to take the rest of the day off.

A couple hours later, I was chatting with our Executive Director. It turns out he was about 4 blocks away from the office when the motorcade went by him, and he did the exact same thing. He too agreed it was one of the most fulfilling experiences of his week.

However, as Newton’s third law of physics states, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”, today Rosa Park’s funeral procession drove slowly by my office. From the roof deck above the street, I watched as a much more powerful symbol of our country slowly made her way to the AME Church in NW Washington for a memorial service. Instead of Suburbans with blacked out windows, following the hearse with her coffin was a vintage bus draped in black bunting. At a time when the leader of the free world is surrounded by controversy and indictments, the power of one woman’s ability to change the course of history through activism is inspiring.

It’s amazing what you see on the corners of 7th and H Streets, NW. Who knows what next week will bring.

Back on Dry Land!

Land Ho … after nearly four days of the coast of Miami, FL, I am happy to announce that we were given permission to drop anchor and move the staff and crew off the ship onto dry land.

Check out media coverage from the Miami debacle here.

I returned to Washington, DC on Monday night. It is really good to be home and I am trying to catch up on my sleep.

I have a lot more stories to tell from month long journey on the Arctic Sunrise. It was an amazing experience, and I will roll out some of the tales over the next several days. So I encourage you to check back soon.

Thanks for following along.

Stand by for more…

Where is Chris?

This is Kate writing, to give a brief update on Chris's behalf. You can read about most of what's been going on here, http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog/index.php?blog=662, at the blog maintained by Greenpeace's web person aboard the ship, Maureen (I don't know how to imbed the link in this post, so you'll have to copy and paste). She gives an account of what has happened since the ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale, and indicates that the Arctic Sunrise was supposed to drop anchor one mile offshore and disembark passengers today at 11:45 a.m. But the Coast Guard continues to hassle them, has boarded the ship and, as far as I know, Chris is still stuck on board (having changed his flight home for the fourth time today, is now scheduled to arrive at 9:00 tonight: I have my fingers crossed but am not getting my hopes up). Do read Maureen's blog - it includes a nice indictment of Satan's boyfriend, George W. Bush, and their love nest, the Department of Homeland Security.

Or maybe the Coast Guard just got a hold of this picture of my better half, and decided they had to investigate further. His love of KISS and experimental haircuts have attracted attention in the past, both from the ladies and the law. (Seriously, though - who IS that guy?)