My dear friend Sabrina (partner to Kia and mama to the cutest twins on the planet -close second to Harriet and Myriam of course-) reminded me of this photo:



Once, long ago (5 years ago) we were foxy and childless and went to gay pride, and posed with well... this sign. Yes.

Wow, here's a scary story. big thanks to my dear friend Kia for the story.

The rest of the weekend was great, though Rose stayed sick and threw up all over our friend's bedspread. I did not get to the Spiral Dance, but it was all still good. The march and rally really were amazing, and Rose was in good spirits despite the incidents I mentioned. Our friends in SF were wonderful hosts as usual.

Peace Love and Vomit

So, with the major exceptions of the horrible news discussed above, and the horrible situation in Moscow as well, as well as thw minor exception of some intense baby stuff, I had a perfectly amazingly fabulous weekend.

Rose and I attended Peace Friday with friends as usual. That has become a highlight of my week, a beacon of hope, something that always makes me feel better. I love the people there, and I love the support we get from the community. I really do love Santa Cruz, for all its foibles, it is a wonderful place.

Saturday we got up early and hooked up with Sagemama and family, and headed up to SF. Rose threw up right as we were approaching the Whale City, Rose threw up all over everything. All over everything, I tell you. Many of the clothes we had packed, somehow, in addition to the car seat, diaper bag, me...
As they get older, the vomit thing definitely gets worse, at least with Rose. Luckily, Whale City has lots of paper towels, not to mention great coffee and raspberry croissants.

Onward to SF! We drove to the Misson and parked (and lost Sagemama and co in the parking disaster) and BARTed to the Montgomery station. The Peace March had started, but had not gotten there yet, so we stood and watched until we saw the Santa Cruz group, which was most of an hour. Some pics...

Here's what they looked like coming toward us...





These folks with the Peace Pretzels win an award from me...




All the way down at Civic Center...




Gotta run more later

(pics are all from sf.indymedia.org)

I have an awful lot ot say.

First, and definitely most important, is to mention the incredibly sad and distrubing death of Paul Wellstone on Friday. My ever-sharp media watchdog sister Mandelicious writes:

"'m guessing that some of you might have expected that I'd have something to say about the Wellstone tragedy. I'm guessing some of you might have guessed that I wouldn't be so sure it was an accident. But it looks like I'm not the only one:

Gary Ulman, assistant manager of the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport, where the plane was scheduled to land, said tree damage around the crash site indicated the plane, which should have been landing from the east on an east-west runway, was actually turning away from the airport, traveling from northwest to southeast about 2 miles south of the runway, when it crashed.

Paul Wellstone was a champion of liberal ideals, standing up for universal health care, reversing welfare reforms, prekindergarten education, raising the minimum wage, and campaign-finance reform. That's eh, saving the world, in a nutshell. Throw in International labor laws and electric cars, were brinking on a Utopia. Is the republican party willing to kill a man for his Senate seat? Find out...or maybe not."

And then there's http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.26Ab.Paul.Wellstone.htm "...no one can help but recall the death of Democratic Senatorial
candidate Mel Carahan in 2000. Locked in a tight senate race against now
Attorney General John Ashcroft, Carnahan too was killed in a similar plane
crash. That crash coming, as this one, just days prior to the election.
Carnahan's wife Jean stood in for him as allowed under Missouri state law
and defeated Ashcroft to become senator."

Um, conspiracy theory or deathly plot to destroy democracy? You be the judge. Stay sharp! I'll write more about the rest of the weekend shortly.

OK, so I admit I felt irrationally safer when I heard they really think they caught the sniper this time. Even with him being a vet and a Muslim and all the scary crap that will now insue. We are after all going to be near DC, umm, soon. But then this excellent letter from Michael Moore came into my mail this morning, hitting that nasty old nail right on the head as usual:

October 23, 2002

Dear friends,

The note from the sniper could not have been more clear: "Your children are not safe, anywhere at anytime." How did snipers get to be so smart? Have truer words amidst such madness been spoken before? "Your children are not
safe."

And so the parents of the DC area are now in a state of holy terror. The news media is at full throttle: "Keep your children home! Your child could be next! The sniper is everywhere!"

And this morning, for the first time, there is talk that perhaps election day in the Capital area should be postponed -- or at, the very least, the polls must be manned by armed troops. Fear reigns. The democratic process can wait. Our children are not safe.

Yes, our children ARE not safe. They have not been safe for some time. Every single day in America, at least 8 children (19 yrs. old and younger) are killed by gun violence in the United States. EVERY SINGLE DAY in America between 30 and 40 people are murdered by someone using a gun. EVERY SINGLE DAY in America another 40 to 50 people use a gun to kill themselves.
None of this has created a panic. These 80+ deaths a day by gunfire do not lead off the evening news. We have, sitting in our homes, a quarter-BILLION guns. And, yet, not one of those guns would have saved anyone shot by the sniper. The sniper knows -- "Your children are not safe."

But it is not just because of his actions or the actions of those who collaborate each day in his -- and our -- carnage that makes our children unsafe.

Your children are not safe because we live in a country where we value bombs and missiles more than we do textbooks and teachers.

Your children are not safe because we still will not provide them with the most basic of human rights, one that nearly every other country on earth has: that ALL children have a right to free health care should they get
sick.

Your children are not safe because we stuff them full of McDonald's and Ritalin and then wonder why they have diabetes at 13 or shoot up the school a week before graduation.

Your children are not safe because they saw us adults allow a man to steal the White House, and then we did nothing about it. They learned that lying and stealing are OK, but "one person, one vote" is a sham.

Your children are not safe because one in six of them live in poverty, while Bush's friends and business partners make off with loot from the pension funds and the stock market.

Yes, the sniper has got it figured out. The children have been targets for some time, and the "snipers" who take their lives, ruin their lives, run loose.

If you want to do something to make our children's lives a bit safer, one thing you can do is to participate in one of the various demonstrations taking place this Saturday around the country protesting Bush's war against Iraq (check out my website, www.michaelmoore.com
, for details). Nearly a half-million Iraqi kids have died already in the last decade, thanks to our sanctions which have starved them and our bombs which have killed them.

Now Bush the Sniper has a new message to the Iraqi people: "Your children are not safe, anywhere at anytime."

Death in DC, death from DC. It is all too much, and it all has to stop. If Bush and his NRA buddies hadn't prevented the formation of a national database for ballistics fingerprinting, the police would have been able to trace the sniper's bullets to the actual gun that he is using. He might have been caught by now. But no -- we must protect the rights of the sniper to make sure that his constitutionally-protected assault weapon is not
registered or on any kind of list anywhere, anytime.

I am sick and tired of the children not being safe. I want this insanity ended now. Remove the Republicans and Republican-wannabes on November 5th, pack the rallies this Saturday, and tell your children that we are sorry
that this is the world we have created for them and that we will now do whatever we can to make it a safer place.

Yours,

Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

PS. Sniper Porn -- a.k.a. nonstop news coverage that tells you nothing new but titillates and scares the bejeepers out of you -- pre-empted the hour-long Donahue show from Flint on Monday night. I've been told it may air this Thursday night (Oct. 24) at 8pm/11pm ET/PT on MSNBC. It's a great show, live from the Flint premiere of my film, with Phil and 300 mostly Flint-area residents speaking their minds. The film continues to set records and, on Monday night, it became the #1 film in the country in per screen average at the box office! Thanks to everyone who has seen it. It arrives in more cities this Friday.


On another note, I will be, with my family, and friends families, at the rally in SF this weekend. There will be a solidarity rally in Santa cruz at 5:00 at the clock tower. Vote, Demonstrate, and make sure your voice is out there, whether the dictator chooses to listen or not. If this war is not in your name, let them know. The time for action is now. I will not let any more children be killed in my name. You have the power to resist!

As usual, I suck as a blogger. Life is just kicking me in the ass hard lately. And its cold and Rose is sick and DH is sick and I dont feel great everyone has gone off to do other things I have no childcare and work is relentless.

could I whine a little more for ya?

Oh, and the evil dictator we call Pres G is marching us quickstep toward war with not an ounce of regard for sanity, safety, his own military advisors, or the un.

What a fucking beautiful day.

P.S. I would like to clarify that I have a really good life, I know this, I have support and am well cared for and my child is not starving or near land mines or even stuck in a boring daycare. So I am lucky, especially to have such a wonderful community and friends and such. I just dont feel like it at this moment. OK.

Well, the congress may have failed, us, but we, the mamas and papas and friend of babies of the world are fierce peace loving people who will stop our illegal dictator from launching a unilateral and dangerous war! Want proof?

Watch my daughter and I garner the troops:



The troops! (aka BlueRoses, Sagemama, Sleeky, Sleeky's DH, Mandelicious, and hip babies G, N, B and R, um, not quite in that order)



Um, the smallest troop got a little hungry... but does that stop the valliant Peace Lovin Mama? Hell NO!



(thanks to Sagemama for the pics!)

want to be a peace parent too? just let me know...or hey, just do it!

Captain Underpants

Captain Underpants Silly Name Generator

I'm Booger Pizzaheiney
Rose is Loopy Pizzaheiney (she sure is)
DH is Pinky Pizzaheiney
If I do my "maiden" name, I am Booger Toiletchunks.

...I prefer Pizzaheiney.

Well, its the usual friday routine, my work meeting, beach with the mamas, errands and visits, park, Peace Friday, home, and then maybe happy hour. PHEW! I love Fridays, but it is kinda exhausting...

Peace Friday should be huge this week, I hope. 5-6 pm corner of Ocean and Water, be there and protest the passage of the Iraq resolution in the House (and possibly the Senate by tonight). We have to put the pressure on!

Also, happy Coming Out Day!

Hey, this is pretty cool.... though I dunno about posting ye whole mailing address on the internet...