From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Focus on the Family announced it will lay off 30 employees and reassign 15 others because of a drop in projected revenue and a shift to e-mail and Internet-based communications.

And while that was making me smile, this was making me both laugh my ass off and get infuriated…Kathy Griffin, the unfortunate fallout from her Emmy speech, and the ridiculous attacks coming from William Donohue.

Kathy’s speech rocked, in my opinion. It wasn’t anti-religious, it was a joke aimed at how many people thank a higher being whenever they win something.

And who is William Donohue to call on her to apologize?? Here are just a few things William Donohue has said about other religions in the past:

* On the February 9, 2006, edition of MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, Donohue said: “People don’t trust the Muslims when it comes to liberty.”

* On the December 8, 2004, edition of Scarborough Country, he said: “We’ve already won. Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It’s not a secret, OK? And I’m not afraid to say it. … Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.”

* In 2004, Media Matters first detailed anti-Catholic comments made by Jerome Corsi, who, as co-author of Unfit for Command (Regnery, August 2004), was one of the ringleaders of the smear campaign by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) — a Catholic presidential candidate. Among Corsi’s bigoted comments: “Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn’t reported by the liberal press.” Despite the uproar surrounding Corsi’s comments, Donohue subsequently dismissed the comments as “quips.“

PLEASE…

Get your calendar while it’s hot.

I wonder if Mitt Romney approves?

The best part is their fan club page - “Men on A Mission Fan Club” - hahahahaha!

Seriously, I could stare at this picture all day. *sigh*

The guy came back. He opened our fence gate (the only lock we didn’t get changed) and tried to - I can only assume - get into the house again.

I was supposed to do a photo-lineup yesterday, but the police detective didn’t call back. Maybe they finally caught him. We’ll see…

Every time I wake up in the night I have to look out my window, which overlooks the back yard. I keep hoping I will see him so I can call the police and get him arrested. All I end up seeing is rats in the alley.

*sigh*

However, I did have a great date last night. So flippin’ adorable. And he knows how to make a great dessert. I was a happy boy - on many levels

In this day and age, when someone steals your computer, the significance of that theft is far greater than the theft of a typewriter or word processor would have been about 15 years ago.

Nowadays, you don’t just lose a piece of equipment - you lose a piece (if not large pieces) of your life, or better yet, your history. From digital pictures of your summer vacations to the reports and papers your wrote in school to your “things to do” list to just about everything personal you could store electronically. Of course people always say — “back up your hard drive” — but even if you do, who really makes it a part of their daily routine? Even if you don’t lose the last ten years of your history, if your laptop disappears so goes at least the past few days or weeks.

For someone like me, having my laptop stolen would be akin to going home with someone and mysteriously passing out only to wake up in a tub of ice with a kidney missing. Sure, I’d live, but I would be in a lot of pain, a part of me would be missing, and the chances of me ever being whole again would be very slim.

If losing a laptop would be like losing a kidney, this past Sunday I lost a fingernail.

After spending all day shopping for groceries and preparing what was tantamount to a feast, at around 7pm a few friends starting showing up at my house to have dinner, catch up, and watch the VMAs. We chowed down, chatted it up, turned off the lights, and got ready to watch Britney Spears shake her (not in dancing shape) ass up our high definition digital projection 60+ inch television screen.

*As a side note, if Britney’s suckage was indeed proportional to the size of the tv you were watching her on, you can only imagine the G-Forces at work in my living room. We pretty much needed an anchor in each of our laps to keep from getting sucked into the “Gimme More” black hole that was Britney. I guess a black hole is inevitable when you witness a star collapse…*

At about and hour and a half into the worst VMAs any of us had ever seen, Eric and Shauna started cleaning up some of the food in the living room and the kitchen. They finished, Eric said goodnight because he had to get up at 4:30am for work, and the rest of us settled down to watch more of the stank show.

Right about the time Chris Brown was finishing up his amazing dance routine, I could have sworn I heard the front door open. I got up and peeked at the door — it wasn’t open — I was just going crazy.

Two minutes after I sat back down on the couch — which is right next to the window overlooking the walkway going down to the side entrance of our English basement — the super bright motion sensor flood lights went on. That’s when I first saw him.

Wearing a royal blue short sleeved pocket t-shirt, dirty blue jeans about a size or two too big, sneakers, and carrying a cell phone, this black guy in his I’d say late 20’s, early 30’s with a very short afro was looking into the windows of our English basement.

At first I thought he was the dinner guest the girls downstairs had mentioned they were having over that night. As he started walking away from the house I noticed he didn’t walk towards the back gate, but rather he took a right. Taking a right meant he had to be headed up our back porch.

I got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen, which was around the corner about 10 feet away. That’s when I noticed the guy in the blue t-shirt walking up the porch steps, using his non-flip cell phone which was glowing blue as a sort of flashlight. He got to the top of the steps and we made eye contact through the back door.

Honestly, it was almost one of those “Children of the Corn” moments when you stand there in the dark and realize someone is watching you who shouldn’t be there and who you know could cause you harm. I kinda just stood there and tried to process my next best step.

The guy’s immediate reaction to seeing me was to stumble backwards down the stairs, run across our back yard while pulling up his oversized pants, and scale our 7 foot fence like a cat. The last image I have of him — his blue t-shirt and the glow of his cell phone as he disappeared over the fence and out of the alley towards the street.

“I just stopped a crime from happening,” was my first thought. I flipped on the porch light to check the back yard, but it didn’t work. We found out later he had unscrewed the light bulb (which subsequently provided fingerprints) in order to provide cover.

My next thought was to grab my keys and lock the gate and back door which we had left unlocked for people who wanted to smoke on the back porch. I knew I had left my keys on the table in the kitchen, along with my digital camera, but they both appeared missing.

“Eric and Shauna had cleaned the kitchen - they must have moved them,” I thought naively. I ran into the front room and back to the kitchen, but they were no where to be found.

At this point everyone was wondering why I was acting so strangely. “I think someone just robbed us and was trying to come back for seconds,” I said to my friends. They all looked stunned. I still couldn’t process it all myself.

I ran upstairs to my room to double check if someone may have moved my keys and camera. No. I ran up another flight of stairs to Eric’s room and began knocking — and then banging — on his door to get him to come downstairs.

With all of us in the kitchen and living room and with every light in our house on, we called the cops and our management company’s emergency number. I mean, this guy had not only come into our house WHILE we were home and WHILE we were all sitting in the next room, but he also stole my camera and my keys - access to our house.

The cops came almost immediately. I was thoroughly impressed. Our management company showed up ten minutes later. Again, thoroughly impressed. As we waited for the detective and crime scene investigators we got a chance to talk to Officer Yeaw, who was great about talking us through everything and giving us info on our neighborhood — places to avoid, things to look out for, etc. It was eye-opening.

The cops also said this guy would most likely be back in the next few days. He had key so he would most likely try to get back into the house. The thought of him coming into our house as we slept — or in general — freaked us all the hell out. We needed to have all of our locks changed immediately. The management company had a 24/7 lock company on site within a half-hour. Again, very impressed.

By 1:30am I was missing, along with a sense of security, my digital camera, house keys, a key to Drew’s place, my work key, and a bike lock key. But our house locks were changed, a police investigation was happening, and we were safe for at least that night.

Eric had gone back to bed before midnight, but Shauna and I were still a little too wound up and decided to watch television for a little while to try and relax. Around 2:30am, as I was about to leave and go back to my room, we heard loud talking outside the front of our house. We went to our front windows and saw three police cruisers and a bunch of officers pointing their flashlights at the house across the street. Another break-in, which I confirmed today. The police believe it may be the same guy.

As much as I would like to just forget the whole thing and move on, I know this isn’t over. There is an open investigation, the criminal is on the loose and will probably be back at some point to see if he can get in again, and everyone in the house now is being forced to deal with issues we haven’t before - like renters insurance, hopefully getting a security system, and being constantly aware of the fact we don’t live in the best of neighborhoods.

I said before that on Sunday I lost a fingernail. My digital camera which held three weeks of memories — of my history — will most likely never turn up again. I’ll never be able to show you all the amazing time I had at Wonderland with Shauna and Eric when we dressed up for “Costume Karaoke” or evidence from the drunken night we all went to Drew’s for dinner and I ended up meeting this cute guy named Nick at Cobalt.

I lost a fingernail because while it hurt at the time and will continue to be a pain for the next week or two, it’s not life threatening or life altering. And it will grow back with no permanent scar. In fact, the healing process has already begun. My best friend Drew took me out last night and did something representative of how big of a heart he has - he got me a new camera. To paraphrase him, “you will feel better the quicker things go back to the status quo. Not missing your camera will help that happen.”

He’s right. And in the grand scheme of things, something much worse could have happened and thankfully did not.

While this situation is an annoyance and still stings, luckily my fingernails grow fast.

I saw this and was shocked. Um, family values much?

From DailyKos:

Republican Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress after “sexually explicit” emails surfaced showing him flirting with a 16-year old boy.

Republican executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper was arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year old girl on the internet.

Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.

Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.

Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.

Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano was arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl.
Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.

Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

Republican Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the internet.

Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.

Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting two 8-year old girls, one of whom appeared in an anti-Gore television commercial.

Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

Republican campaign chairman Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child and was arrested again five years later on the same charge.

Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.

Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

Republican anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

Republican legislator Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl.
Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.

Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.

Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.

Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a “good military man” and “church goer,” was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

Republican campaign worker, police officer and self-proclaimed reverend Steve Aiken was convicted of having sex with two underage girls.

Republican director of the “Young Republican Federation” Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Republican president of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Russell Harding pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.

Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.

Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency.

I used to think he was so cute. And then he says stuff like this. Disgusts me…

The guy who arrested Senator Craig for soliciting sex in a MN airport bathroom…kinda hot.

Maybe I need to move to Minnesota? hahaha

UPDATE: Here’s some video - click here.

it’s about 31 million degrees outside. Seriously, you can’t walk anywhere without sweating. So why not have a drink! Eric and I are at 17th street cafe. Fun!

That’s exactly what the guy from the Dunkin’ Donuts on 17th street said as all three employees came running out of the store. They were being chased by this:

It was the biggest rat I had ever seen. I was waiting for it to pull out a cane and, “make a funny.”

So as my coworkers and I sat there at 17th Street Cafe — right next door to Dunkin’s — we got to watch all the action.

Here is a brief summary in bullet point format for easy reading (and to really just take it all in):

*Rat chases employees out of store

*Rat stops on stair 3 and looks like it is about to die

*Dunkin’ Donuts employee #1 grabs the hose outside while employee #2 turns it on

*Not only does the rat not mind the water - he starts running towards it, jumping wildly

*Dunkin’ Donuts employees #1, #2, and #3 scream and start running in circles (I wish I was kidding)

*Finally rat runs underneath the electric box and gets trapped

*Dunkin’ Donuts employee #1 says to employee #2 - “man gets some bleach…we’ll bleach him…”

*All of my coworkers, along with everyone sitting outside eating, look mortified

Keep in mind people are stilling going down into Dunkin’ Donuts while this is all going on. Crazy.

Continuing…

*Homeless guy who stands on the corner walks over wearing a shirt that reads “Got Stains?” with the “ain” dripping like…well…(again, I kid you not…)

*Things start dying down and people go back to their meals

At this point we are all laughing about the situation. I got some funny pics and we all knew it would make for a great story at work the next day.

It was about this time that “Got Stains?” looked over at us and said, “you get any pictures?”

“Yeah, some pretty funny ones,” I replied.

“Awww….You don’t want to keep them,” said Got Stains?

“Uh, yeah I do…they are hilarious,” I said with a little apprehension thinking in my head that this is one of those situations that escalate for no reason and end up bad.

“I’ll buy them off you,” Got Stains? said with an interesting mix of desperation and aggression.

At this point we just started to ignore him and look at our food until he went inside the store.

It was, needless to say, an adventure. And yes…I’ve been wondering all day how much I could have sold them for hahaha

—————————
UPDATE: So the guy who was wearing the “Got Stains?” shirt was NOT the owner of Dunkin’ Donuts… I am told he is the homeless guy who has stood at the corner of 17th and Pst for the past 5+ years. I corrected…Um woops…

Well, a rat. And. a HUGE one. At Dunkin’ Donuts in Dupont.

We saw it last night as we were having dinner outside next door. Wait until you see the picture and hear the story. . .

The beginning of August was allll about YearlyKos in Chicago. I had worked my buns off for weeks and week prepping for it, and it was finally here.

I’m not going to write much about the conference - because it was work and I don’t like to mix work and my personal blog - but I will nerd out a bit and share just a few of the exciting things that happened to me while I was there.

While at the conference I got to meet:

Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico and candidate for President. Oh yes, I did.

Mike Gravel, the former Senator from Alaska and current candidate for President. Oh yes, oh yes, I did.

Sam Seder, comedian, author, and host of Air America’s The Majority Report and The Sam Seder Show. Um, so friggin’ cute…

Michelangelo Signorelli, host of Sirius’ The Michelangelo Signorile Show on channel 109.

Ari Melber (writer from The Nation)and Ned Lamont (former candidate for CT Senate against Lieberman). Ok…ok…I didn’t meet these two. I just looked at them longingly from afar. ha!

Jeffrey Feldman, author, blogger, and moderator of the public questions to the presidential candidates at the YearlyKos forum. He is AMAZING. Brilliant, funny, and just nice!

Amanda Terkel, Deputy Research Director at Think Progress. She and her entire crew were great. I loved meeting them all.

And the infamous Max Blumenthal, who if you haven’t seen the below video…you must.

Needless to say, I was the Political Paparazzi. haha

Beyond all the stuff going on at the conference, on my last day I was able to take a few hours and explore downtown Chicago. I got to go to the Museum of Modern Art (they had some Lichtenstein…I was in heaven), check out the waterfront, and take a trip up to the top of the John Hancock buildling.

The best part of the John Hancock experience was that it was free! By a stroke of luck, I was in line and someone walked up and offered me their City Pass booklet, which had a free admission ticket in it. I totally scored on that one.

Chicago was beautiful from so high up. I never expected the city to be so big. Here in DC we have height limits on buildings, so seeing so many sky scrapers was a nice change.

I was also shocked to find out how many gay clubs there were in Chicago. Granted, I got to go to only one on Saturday night - Sidetrack - but it was a good time. And the men there are much more my type - big and beefy!! MMM hahaha

POST CHICAGO - I had planned a vacation from the 8-11 of August for months. It was supposed to be a trip into the Maine wilderness. That didn’t end up happening. But since I already had the time off, I used it! It was the Thurs-Sun after I got back from Chicago so it was well needed. Eric helped me celebrate that Wednesday night (bastard for getting me so drunk!).

The next night I ended up meeting up with some coworkers for a few drinks, which ended up being a few too many, which ended up keeping me in most of the weekend. It soon became one of those, “I drank too much now I feel like watching reruns of Sex & The City all weekend long,” kind of weekends. We all need those sometimes.

This past Thursday, as you saw in my many posts, we celebrated Elvis’ Death Day. You can see lots of those pics here. It was such a great time. As a treat, I got some video of Drew and Scott retelling an Elvis story. You had to be there to truly appreciate the whole experience, but I think you get the idea.

It was a hilarious, hilarious dinner.

And finally, this past Saturday Drew took a bunch of people out on his boat which he stores in Maryland. Since I was in PTown last summer (in fact as you can see here, I was celebrating Carnival) I haven’t had the pleasure of going out on one of Drew’s boat trips before. I am so glad I now have - it was a BLAST!

If you get a chance, you should take a look at the pictures I’ve posted from the trip. Click here to see them. While I’ve excluded many of the “scandalous” ones - i.e. about a quarter of them were D & A hahaha - you’ll still enjoy them, I’m sure.

Ok - time for me to go to bed! It’s almost 1am and I don’t want to be completely exhausted tomorrow!

I’m going to try to respond to a bunch of emails and comments tomorrow - thanks for everyone who has continued to come and check out my blog and send me emails, even when I wasn’t actively blogging. It was really nice and much appreciated
*yawn* - Good night!

But I am a big geek!

I’m totally on the homepage of the Bill Richardson for President campaign website right now.

By accident!

I have arrived. Sorta.