John Edwards Speaks to Young Dems in Dallas

Great video...sprinkled with humor, courtesy of the Dallas Morning News.

LINK

Enjoy!

Madison is a Cool Town to Visit in Summer

I'm sitting in JT Whitney's Pub as I type this message. It has good "Badger Ale" and an awesome Internet Jukebox. I've not seen one of those before, but I've been told it's been here for 3 years.

It's beautiful outside, but I don't have a bike to ride on this fine day on the many bike trails Madison has. But I got a little adventure/tourism in this afternoon.

I stopped by a place called Mallatt's Pharmacy. It is a funky place. It sells some drug store items, but also wine/beer/liquor, and get this, one can rent costumes or buy them, including all of the encoutriments. The folks are friendly and knowledgeable about the community, and there were many locals in there, getting their costumes lined up either for a summer party or Halloween. The employees offered advice on make-up that they sell too. Cool.

Anyway, I asked for an address for the First Unitarian Church as I knew Frank Lloyd Wright had designed it. Not only did the pharmacist I asked give me the address, she also gave me the address to the Jacob House nearby that was also designed by Wright. She told me there were renovations going on at the Church, and sure enough, she was right. I popped those addies in my GPS and both places were easy to find.

The Church is bigger than I expected. I guess living in a big town and not a small city has conditioned me to smaller UU chapels. I could not go inside the place, but through the glass windows, I could see the elongated pipes of the pipe organ. I'm certain it's a very spiritual place. Maybe someday I'll come back and go to a service there.

The Jacob House is simple, but I like the shrubbery and the flowers, along with sweeping pines around.

I look forward to seeing more Wright architecture this weekend. We're supposed to go out to Spring Green and see his estate.

More vacation buzz l8tr...on the road with Benny.

The Most Repugnant Argument...Ever

Note: while I am on vacation, I thought I would pull a post I saw on Digg. This commentary is by Jeff Feldman, who is the blogger of Frameshop. It is very worthy of reading. Also, Taylor Marsh has a good one too.

Seemingly without any sense of self control or sense of modern perspective, more and more journalists seem to be picking up sharp objects to poke the Edwards family--writing articles not worthy of this century, let alone this country...

read more | digg story

Vacationing in Wisconsin

DH and I decided to take a few days off and get away somewhere that was cooler in temperature and a change of scenery. We had planned to go to Missouri originally, but with t-storms early in the week, which scare the begeezus of our dog, Mattie, we decided to change our plans.

So, we are camped in Madison. It's interesting place. Lots bigger than I remember it from visiting 12 years ago. It's not quite the quaint college town I recalled, although the university area certainly has kept in tact. We enjoyed a Mediterranean dinner, complete with cousocous and retisina, at a place called The Dardanelles.

But before dinner, DH and I went west to Iowa and Sauk Counties. The blue mounds are quite pretty actually, and the landscape of the quilt of soybeans, corn, and wheat, some in swirls, others that just lap over the hills, were breath taking at times. We followed the bike trails along the way with lots of trees.

Our trail ended next to Highway 23, near Talisean, Frank Lloyd Wright's home. We didn't go there, instead we opted for the very touristy, House on the Rock, a few miles down the road. It was a trip for any head and for anyone who loves collectibles. The house juts out over a rock, and has a beautiful view of the valley below, but otherwise, I had to confess I was laughing at Tour 1 (there are 3 one can buy), in which the designer must have either been trying to imitate Wright or was mocking the famous architect; I couldn't tell. And did it matter?

My DH was fascinated by the Organ Room, which by the time we got there, we had travelled at least a mile of up and down ramps and steps. Good exercise I suppose, but my feet got very fatigued by the ramps--the stop and go. Also, it was dark most of the time. Luckily, the place was AC'd, and not too many people were there at the time. Anyway, he liked the bizarre organs that Alex Jordan, the originator, did to them by taking parts out and adding tape player, tv screens, etc. Also lots of mechanical orchestras. To me, those was poor attempts at post-modern mixed media pieces, but beauty and art are in the eye of the beholder. The exhibit I found the most interesting was the collection of the cigarette lighters. The one I remembered was the Salem design of green and white. I didn't see one for Winston though.

I recommend the tour, but only tours 1 and 2 if you get tired of the overwhelming collections, or 2 and 3 if you are into indoor carousels.

It's another nice day, mid 70's. DH is about to faire du golf with a buddy who lives here, and me, I think I will do something unusual: shop and drive around.

No pics though until we get back.

More vacation buzz l8tr...

Elizabeth Edwards and Kate Michelman Team Up In Iowa

This just in from the Des Moines Register:

Edwards and Kate Michelman, former leader of NARAL Pro-Choice America, spoke to the Iowa City crowd about "issues important to women." Among the topics: workplace equality, health care, global warming, abortion and stem cell research.

"I'm doing this campaign for two reasons," Edwards said. "John needs to be president. The second reason is that I know he will be president."

Michelman, a longtime women's rights advocate, defended her decision to campaign for John Edwards instead of Clinton.

"This was one of the most important political decisions I've made in my life," she said. "I was one of those poor single moms with no job and no health care. I was on welfare.

"John Edwards is the one and only person who has made it his mission to pull these women up."

We also have a report by Runaway Rose, who saw the duo last night in Davenport:

"What would be her big project as First Lady? (Family comes first, with young kids! In addition, set up a mechanism to help military famiilies, who often feel they dare not complain. [THAT got my sister's attention, she's ex-Army herself.] Support medical research in general and breast cancer awareness. Educational opportunities for ALL children.)

How about educational opportunity? (Early childhood help, more equality of funding accross school districts, change NCLB from punitive to remedial, more attention to trade training and unions, college for all) ("This country was made great by people who work with their hands - it was not made great by investment bankers.") My sister is in college and has children in college; she was strongly interested in this discussion.

So to this blogger, Elizabeth and Kate raised quite a few points about women's issues. I suspect Mrs. Clinton will be discussing them again now that Elizabeth said that her husband is more vocal about women's issues. But I would like to know why Mrs. Clinton allowed the burning of tires by International Paper, as I reported at Taylor Marsh yesterday. That's not looking after women and children.

Decent Interview of JRE on Hardball

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=11e5f2ae-44f5-460e-92ef-6256ad5a42ca&p=Source_Hardball&t=c1150&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19814631/&fg=

I liked what Edwards said about accepting a challenge between him, Kucinich, and Clinton: that he wanted smaller groups for debates, but no one should be excluded. Also, there was some discussion about Elizabeth Edwards' interview by Joan Walsh in Salon, as Chancelucky pointed out on a previous post. I don't understand why some of the pundits are getting riled about her comments, but Elizabeth is a very candid person, and as Edwards said, "It's not shocking that she supports me."

Ordinary World