Meanwhile, I was in a different location last Saturday and Sunday helping to run the auditions for The Front Page, another show in this season's festival. That audition was just as hard for Trisha Pancio Armour, the director. We thought we were going to have to do yet another call-back for that show this coming Saturday, but Trisha managed to put a cast together without calling people in for another reading.

And THEN there's the student internship program to get going... I stayed at the MHRTC office until 10:30 last night printing out mail-merged letters to send to all the high schools and colleges in the area with theatre programs... thank god one of our board members, Jerry Lesch, consented to stuff and mail them for me.

So... if you see me pass you in the street with a glazed look in my eyes, don't take it personally... I'm probably just hustling off to my next appointment.

Hope you're all doing well... and to my brother James, I didn't forget your birthday. I just forget to wish you a happy early birthday when you called last night!

I gotta get to bed... hope you're all doing well.

3/16/05 6:12 PM Damn my agent's good! I simply LOVE HER!!!! She's gotten me another film gig... nothing you'll see, though, unless you happen to be in the sales department of a certain major internet search firm. See, the gig is an "industrial," which is a video or film that's shown within a given industry (usually for training purposes). Sure, it's not glamorous, and I'm certainly not going to get rich off of this one, but it's paying work and I'll never complain about that.

I've been really enjoying this web-based comic strip called Something Positive lately. It was referenced on some message board I was looking at or something, and I started going through the archives. Funny stuff, in an evil kind of way... want to see what I mean?

Now aren't you glad I shared that with you? Go forth and spread the gospel (or at least start checking the Something Positive web site often.

3/10/05 6:53 PM Oh my god, this is just freakin' cool!. There's also some shockwave animations on this site of varying levels of humor and taste (and some adult content - a lot of it isn't suitable for kids)... but click the link above to see one of the greatest car commercials ever made.

3/9/05 11:15 AM Hey gang. It's been a while since I updated this page, so I thought I'd give you the low-down on what's been going on with Trish and I.

Of course, the big news over here is this freakin' early spring we're having. Oregon's had maybe a quarter of the rainfall we get during a normal winter, and for the past two or three weeks the weather's been warm and the plants have been blooming! We often have a false spring in February, then the cold snap hits and things start to bloom again in April. Something tells me that this one's here to stay... which means I probably have to get off my lazy butt and mow my damn grass! Global climate change? Naaaah... it's just some myth propogated by all those left-wing environmental wacko's. Riiiiiiight...

Oh, yeah, we did have another nature-related event here yesterday... but I'm sure you already know all about that. For those of you who've been sending me emails, don't worry... we're fine.

Mt. Hood Community College has asked me to join Trish as a guest-artist in their production of Henry V. We'll run April 28 - May 8 on the MHCC campus... more details on that as they come in (first rehearsal's tomorrow).

I'm also going to start working with the Oregon Health Sciences University Psychiatry Department in the coming months... no, not as a patient! Well, actually, yeah... sort of as a patient. For a while now Trish and I have been acting as "standardized patients" for various departments at OHSU. We come in and act like patients at the doctor's office, and the medical students work on their interpersonal skills during a "visit" with us. We're called "standardized" patients because we're expected to be the same patient for each student, with the same affliction and the same pre-determined character. While staying "the same," we have to tailor our responses to the particular questions the individual student asks (and trust me, there's no way to prepare for EVERY question they ask!). It definitely takes some improv skill to be able to bob and weave with the punches.

Now the Psychiatry department is starting up a "standardized patient" program, and I'm going to be working with them as they develop it. This will be a little different than coming into the school of medicine and saying "Ow my elbow hursts," however. The maladies I'm going to have to portray here are going to be decidedly more... intense. Should be interesting!

The Waiting Room closed last Saturday to full houses. The show was a real success for Bump In The Road Theatre. Even though I had a relatively small part, it was great to be part of it.

I recently heard from my agent that my Taco Time spot is probably not going to air in Oregon, Washington and Utah until mid-March (which could mean tomorrow or in three weeks... who knows?). Watch for it... I'm in the one with the political candidate at the press conference (you'll know it when you see it).

We're working triple-time to get everything in place for Mt. Hood Rep's 2005 American Classics Theatre Festival. For those of you who aren't in the theatre production end of things... there's a MASSIVE ammount of work that has to go into putting one of these things together! We've got to work out our schedule with the College (we're having some issues with getting final dates for this year's festival confirmed), hold the auditions (a more difficult task to get arranged than you might think), do the fundraising, work out the PR, assemble the staff... and all this is before the first rehearsal! Needless to say, we're burning the candle at both ends already. God, how did people ever put up a production before the age of email? Yeesh!

Trish has picked up a little part time job back at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine as the personal assistant for our friend Dr. Rita Bettenberg. It's only 20 hours a week, which works into her schedule just fine. Between that and the occasional job with our friendly local casting agent, we're doing just fine.

And, of course, the villians of Paragon City are learning to tremble at Trish and My names... we now have a new recruit in our war against evil: my brother James has picked up the game, and is having a devil of a time putting the hurt on the bad guys. We don't get to play as much as we'd like (with all the other stuff I've mentioned in this post, I'd guess you can understand why), but we do try and make time for some non-work-related stuff too. It's important to strike some kind of balance between recreation and hard work.

Speaking of which, that's all the news I have time to pass on... have to get out to an appointment. Hope you're all doing well...

2/18/05 11:30 AM Well, it's not great, but my current show, The Waiting Room got a review in Today's Oregonian. You can read it here. I'm not mentioned in it (Unless you look really closely for the line about "government officials not having the public's interest at heart"), but some of the other actors get good notices.

Otherwise things are proceeding apace in Trish and my lives... caught a little cold last week (it was COLD while we were shooting the Taco Time spot, then I followed that up with appearing half-naked in The Waiting Room - The Tribe Theatre isn't exactly the warmest place in February), but I'm getting over it. Trish, unfortunately, seems to be coming down with my little bug, though... gotta love a shared infection, eh?

Hope you're all doing well...

2/1/05 12:45 PM Hey folks

By now most of you know we're back... yeah, we would have loved to spend an extra month in Europe too, but reality must be obeyed and so we were forced to return and get on with our work-a-day lives.

As you might expect, we've been pretty slammed - hence the lack of updates since December of last year. I'm running out the door to an appointment right now, too, so I can't really write much now. Just wanted to let you in on a couple of newsworthy bits from our lives since we've been back:

• I got cast in a regional commercial!!! Thank god my agent didn't lose faith in me... after a year of going to auditions and not getting anything in the film/ tv world, I finally managed to get myself cast in a commercial; and it'll be playing in Oregon, Washington and Utah. The spot is for Taco Time (a higher-end Mexican "fast food" restaurant up here in our neck of the woods), and I'll be playing a reporter. Keep an eye out for it.

• We had to get a new car for Trish... the van that she'd been driving around in kept decomposing before our eyes. We probably sunk three or four thousand dollars into it over the past year... new transmission, new struts, etc. The final gasp was while we were in Europe - Trish's son Jesse drove it all of three blocks and it died on him on the way back to the house. So, we were forced to go out and lease a new Toyota Matrix for Trish to get around in. We tried to one-car it, but that was just not working for us.

  Trish looooooves driving the Matrix. Toyota calls it a "crossover vehicle -" it's part car and part SUV. The SUV part only comes into play with the hauling capacity (very respectable, especially since the passenger-side front seat folds down, allowing for about 8' in hauling length); everything else is pretty much car: the parking radius, the driving style, and most importantly the gas mileage (up to 35 mpg on the highway. Beats the old van's 12 mpg all to bits).

• New Jobs Trish was a little worried about taking on a new car payment since she just quit her teaching job at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, and she was unsure of where the money would be coming from. However, the universe provides. Soon after we got back to the US, she started working for a local casting agent. Then, Mt. Hood Community College called and offered her a role as the French Queen in their upcoming production of Henry V, with the proviso that she act as the dialect coach for the students. We were a little concerned about our finances when we got back, but things seem to be stabilizing on an even course now.

• Rehearsals for The Waiting Room are going great! It's really shaping up to be a great show... I'd really encourage all of you (in the Portland Area) to come out and see it.

• Mt. Hood Rep is getting VERY close to announcing this year's summer season... if you're not signed up for our monthly email newsletter, the Aside, jump over to The Rep's web site and sign up. Aside subscribers get the first look!

• Finally, I've suckered Trish into my superhero world by getting her hooked on City of Heroes. Her Defender, Celestiana, has joined my blaster Bilskirnir in the quest to bring justice to the streets of Paragon City. Whoo hoo!!! The couple that games together... uh... tames together? We've only been playing for a couple of days together, and we're practically level 10. Damn... with BOTH of us playing this game now, we may never see any of you again! :)

Ok, that's all the news that's fit to print... I've got to hit the road. Hope you're all doing well!

12/28/04 8:42 PM (Paris Time) Hey everyone! We made it to Paris, and our hotel with the WiFi connection. It's been a great trip so far... we spent five days in London, a week in Torquay (on the South Coast near Plymouth), a few days in Scotland (where we had an honest-to-God White Christmas!), and then we moved on to Paris.

There are many stories to tell about this trip... I'm busily recording them all in a journal that we'll post after we get back (too busy having fun to sit in front of the computer right now!). In the mean time, take a look at the Photos we've shot thus far!

Hope that you're all doing well, that you had a happy Christmas and are planning a wonderful New Year's Eve. Trish and I sure are here in the city of lights... and then we'll have to get on the train to Amsterdam. Do you feel sorry for us? Yeah, I didn't think so.

See you all when we get back...

12/5/04 10:00 PM Holy crap, only 5 days until we leave? Where did the time go??

Well, as you can see above we had to re-set the Buddy counter... he managed to get out the gate while we were up in Washington visiting our friends Walter and Beth (saw this year's Voices of Christmas, which Walter directed - fantastic show! Really gets you into the Christmas spirit from the sing-along at the beginning to the climax at the end) and my family up in the Custer/ Blaine area. Got to hang out with my brother's new family (i.e. his girlfriend Laurie and her two girls Kaitlin and Tia - all three are very nice ladies), played some mahjong and had THREE helpings of turkey over the weekend. Mmmmmmmmmmm.... tryptophan...

As I write this I'm just recovering from some sort of stomach flu bug that's been going around. I was SOOOOOOOO sick Friday and Saturday - vomiting and diarrhea... not my idea of a good time. Thank goodness that our hair stylist Nancy is willing to reschedule me for tomorrow night to cut my hair before we go. It's going to be a good month between cuts; I'm going to need to get it shorn nice and short!

Trip preparations are winding down to the wire... we've got the suitcases open on the guest bed and are packing on-the-fly. I just spent a VERY frustrating evening working with the US State Department's Travel Registration Web Site; it's a great site that allows the State Department to find us if there's a crisis (don't laugh, there's a travel advisory for Amsterdam right now), but their server sucks and kept crashing on me. I had to enter my info 5 times before I was done. Grrrrrrrr...

Otherwise, we're just wrapping up our final items and getting ready to get on the plane... heep an eye on this site - we'll try and post photos!

Have a great week, everyone!

11/25/04 3:15 pm Hey all, Happy Thanksgiving!

As nice a day as we're having today (Jesse and Jessie are over and we're cooking a big meal), we're also keeping an eye on our Trip counter at the top of the page. 15 days??? YIKES!!!

A bunch of people have been asking me just what we're going to be doing in Europe... where we're going, what our plans are, etc. I guess I haven't specified. We've been planning this trip for months with the help of lots of Guide Books (thank you Rick Steves and Lonely Planet) and personal recommendations; here's the Brief itenerary:

First leg: We arrive in London from the USA, take the tube to our hotel (the aptly-named " London Town Hotel") and stay a few days. We're planning to see some shows, probably go to the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery, Speakers corner at Hyde's Park and, of course, make our pilgrimage to the reconstructed Globe Theatre. We're not too interested in the Tower of London or the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace; we've both been there before, and we've done that. We might take a cool "Jack The Ripper Tour" that we heard about online; you take a walkman with an audio-description through what used to be Whitechapel. Lots of fish and chips and pub food is on the menu.
Second Leg: We head to Heathrow airport, rent a car (already reserved via Expedia - remind me sometime to rant to you about how there are a lot of "mini's" available for rent in Europe, but none here. They get 49 miles to the gallon, for chrissake!!!!) and drive down to the English Riviera (according to them, that's not an oxymoron). We'll be staying at a resort called the Osbourne Club in Torquay, near Devon, for about a week. Lots of "down time" here... sitting in pubs and drinking tea... probably some day trips to Stonehenge, Bath, smaller towns in the region. This will be the real "decompression" part of the trip.
Third Leg: We drive from Torquay all the way up to Aviemore Scotland (near Inverness and Loch Ness). This will be a long ride; we'll probably be in the car for about 10 hours. Looking forward to stopping in some small town on the way to lunch in a tea shop or a pub. We'll be staying at the MacDonanld Dalfaber Resort; looks to be a nice family-oriented place with golf, horseback riding, etc. This'll be another "downtime" part of the trip; we'll probably do some day trips (yes, Amanda, we'll drive down to Edinburgh and do the City of the Dead Tour, I promise!). We'll be in Aviemore over Christmas, and the resort has a big Christmas lunch planned. Hopefully, however, we can get a little more of the Scottish Christmas flavor in Aviemore and some of the smaller towns.
Fourth Leg December 26 is going to be a VERY full day for us! Rather than sleeping late on Boxing Day and being lazy, we'll pack up our rental car and drive back to London. We're going to turn in the rental car at Heathrow and stay overnight at a Comfort Inn near the airport, because we have to get up early the next morning and get on a plane for Paris! Well... actually, the plane is only going to stop in Paris briefly, and then continue on to Amsterdam (Paris is our final destination, but due to a restriction on our airline tickets we have to fly into Amsterdam and then take a train back to Paris. Wierd, I know... but what the heck - it's part of the fun of the trip, right?). We'll land at Schilpool Airport in Amsterdam, then turn around and take the train back to Paris. Once we're finally there (we're staying at the Hotel de la Porte Doree in the 12th Arandisement) we'll be hanging out in the City of Lights for a few days; shopping, visiting the Louvre and the other cultural attractions (REALLY looking forward to seeing the Comede' Francais, where Moliere performed), and of course eating like pigs. We'll be spending my birthday and New Years Day in Paris, so it should be an interesting time to be there.
Fifth Leg The first day of 2005 will see us getting back on a train and headed back to Amsterdam. We'll be staying at a Holiday Inn there; yeah, I know, it's not too exotic or European, but we're getting the stay for free (Membership Rewards points on my American Express card finally come in handy). Now, there's plenty of reasons to visit Amsterdam when you're in Europe, and I'm sure that you can think of tons of stuff for us to do. We're actually looking forward to seeing the Van Gogh Museum, however, and taking a ride down the many canals that criss-cross throughout the city. We're also looking forward to meeting some of the people; the Dutch are universally regarded for their openness and tollerance.

So, that's the deal. That's how we're planning on spending our Winter Break. Keep an eye on the weblog; I'm hoping to be able to make some posts from Europe (with some photos, perhaps... who knows?). We'll be keeping in touch, don't worry.

Hope you're all having a good Thanksgiving...

11/21/04 9:35 am aaaaaaahh... this is a great weekend. For the first time in a very long time we're in the middle of a weekend with no deadlines! No work hanging over our heads. No rushing around trying to get things done.

I'm not sure I know what to do with myself!

Actually, we did watch a couple of movies last night: Secret Window with Johnny Depp (eh... it was ok...) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which was... INCREDIBLE!!!! It's evident that Charlie Kaufman is one of the most brilliant minds writing films today. His stuff is such a trip... if you haven't seen this movie, it's totally worth the rental.

11/17/04 10:45 am WHAT???

Look, I'm sorry Republicans... I know you all have deep convictions, and I know that you think that your party reflects them. But look at this AP news story - do you really need more proof that the leaders of the GOP don't give a damn about the laws (or, dare I say, MORALS!!!!!!!!!) of this country and are only interested in their own power?

If you're too lazy to click the link, here's the nutshell: The GOP (in a closed-door session, of course... you know they never do anything where the light of truth or logical examination might intrude on their machinations) have changed the party rules so that a felony indictment of a party leader (read= Tom Delay) does not force him to step down from his leadership position. Instead a "party committee" will decide if that action is warranted.

Let me just repeat that, for those of you who didn't get it the first time: if a GOP leader breaks the law, gets caught breaking the law and gets indicted for a breaking the law, he doesn't get removed from power.

Guys... this is not the country I was raised to believe in. You mean to tell me that the party that won the election on "moral" grounds is taking this action?

I can't write any more... I'm gonna go throw up now...

11/17/04 12:36 am Yo Star Wars nerds... check this out:

http://www.aol.com/starwars/trailer/index.adp

Now, check this out:

http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20041116

Sadly, I agree with Brent on both counts... sigh... it's amazing how Lucas can keep making money on such substandard movies. Yeah, yeah, I know... I'll watch it too...

So anyway, Trish and I just had a PHENOMENAL reading of our friend Francesca Sanders' new play, Take An Elf Off The Shelf. I can't tell you much about it (heck, I don't know how I'd go about telling you about it... it's too multi-layered); suffice it to say that when it gets produced, people are going to go crazy! Keep an eye on her folks... this woman's going places!

Off to bed...

11/16/04 12:29 am Hey guys, late post. Just thought I'd mention that we had a GREAT reading of The Little Foxes at Reynolds Middle school tonight. Over 85 people came on down... if you're in the area and are looking for a cheap night out on the third monday of the month, by all means check out our Readers Theatre program at The Rep. It's getting to be really popular, and we're very pleased to be pulling high quality actors and directors from around the area to perform in the readings.

So, I forgot to mention earlier - I figure it's a good idea to have a spare pair of glasses to take with me to Europe (just in case), and it'd been a few years since I'd had an eye exam... so I went to the eye doctor today. My eyes have actually gotten stronger since my last perscription. Whoda thought? It was the first time I'd ever gotten my eyes dialated though... that SUCKED.

So, whaddayathink? Square-ish frameless glasses? Trish and I are going to Lens Crafters (they have a sale on) later this week... we'll see what I end up with.

Anyway, I'm so swamped with web site work that I should really stay up and work... but I had a nice little post-reading glass of Black Swan Merlot (I'm in training, ya know, for France. Really! That's the reason I'm drinking all this wine!), and I think I'm going to hit the sack. Later...

11/15/04 4:45 pm Hey, check this out! My friend Jill from New Orleans sent me a link to this web site: http://www.sorryeverybody.com; not only does it give those of us who tried to save the country from Bush an area to commisserate (in very inventive ways); it also hosts messages from people living in foreign countries who say that they forgive us (and that they know we tried). Click on the "Gallery," and then scroll down to view the photos. At the time I'm posting this, there are 425 pages of photos. Nifty, huh?

11/12/04 11:31 am Oh my god! A morning at home! I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the concept that I'm not running out of the house as if my hair was on fire to take care of five clients in one day!

Instead I'm trying to get caught up on the past-due web site work that's been hanging over my head and getting ready to open The Dining Room at Concordia University this evening. If you guys are looking for a cheap night out, incidentally, and you want to come see a play about the "vanishing culture of Northeastern United States WASPS," then by all means come on down. The show only runs for three performances (Tonight and Tomorrow night at 7:30, Sunday at 2), and you don't need reservations. Tickets are only $7. The cast and crew are made up of Concorida students, with Patrick Wohlmot, Kam Cisco and I serving as "Guest Artists." Carmela Lanza-Weil directed.

Yeah, I've been busy... but I'm doing better now. Those of you who read the 11/3/04 entry know how bummed out I was after the election. I'm still not feeling too happy about where this country is headed (great... we trade in Ashcroft for the White House Counsel that called the Geneva convention "obsolete..." oh yeah, we're moving forward), but one thing gives me hope: the millions that organized in the last election to defeat Bush aren't going away. They're joining me in declaring that "We will not go quietly, and we will take our country back!" Or, to hear someone say it better, download this MP3 file (no, I don't know who it is... I found it on The Randi Rhodes Show's web site).

A perfect example of this is the grassroots effort to look into voter fraud in this past election, especially in Florida and Ohio. What's that, you say? You haven't heard anything on CNN or NBC about voter fraud? Hmmmm... imagine that! It seems that the "party line" (when, oh when, was it ever exceptable for the press in this country to have a "party line?") has been that lat Tuesday's election was undisputable... reporters who have tried to interview Bev Harris from Black Box Voting have been told that they can't. The only "mainstream media" person covering this issue is Keith Oberman on MSNBC.

Now, look, I can understand the impulse on the news directors's part to just put their heads down and move forward. No one wants another 2000 election where the country was bitterly divided and the courts had to, however improperly, decide the election. Everyone, including John Kerry, is calling on us to try and mend our divided country so that we can stand united in the face of an uncertain future.

All fine and well, but it seems to me that 200,000 phone calls to the nationally run voter complaint line is a story that needs to be covered. A district in Ohio that locked observers out while they were counting the ballots is a story that needs to be covered. Districts in Florida and Ohio where votes on voting machines are lost, mis-represented or just plain recorded wrong (yes, there are several reports of people voting for Kerry and seeing "You have voted for George W. Bush" come on to the screen... maybe Bam Chicago was more prescient than they knew) is something that we should all be looking into!

I'm not saying that investigating these problems would overturn the election, or save us from "dubya." I am saying, however, that these issues need to be addressed and fixed if our democratic system is going to survive into the next century. Before the election there was a lot of concern about the lack of security and auditability of these voting machines that many states have put into place... judging by the reports that are starting to surface in the wake of last Tuesday's elections, it would seem that those concerns are valid. If there was ever an example of the need for a paper trail with these things, this is it! There's simply no way to recount now; the voting machines memory doesn't accomodate it.

There are a few organizations who are tying to do just that... I'd ask you to please look into them for yourselves. Check out The Alliance For Democracy and Black Box Voting. Whether you're Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, or whatever, the fairness of our voting system is of a top priority. It's the basis by which we trust that our voices are heard in the decisions of our government. Lets not take our eye off of the ball.

11/4/04: 1:08 am Oh, and just in case you're wondering... Canada: No Free Pass To Expatriates

The official Canadian immigration web site

11/3/04: 11:53 pm I think that the cover to the right says it all. Yes, it's doctored... you know Time wouldn't have the integrity or credibility to actually print something that true on its cover.

So, I'm sure that you're not at all surprised that I'm in a deep state of depression right now. I have been since about 10pm last night. By the time Trish finished her last performance of Three From Column A at Profile Theatre things weren't looking good. We were home in about a half hour and drinking heavily. I think I killed about a third of my bottle of scotch in an hour and a half.

I simply cannot understand what's happened to the country that I was brought up to believe in. Yes, the voting machines may have been rigged (Remember this? All reports from both Florida AND Ohio are that things went down exactly that way... and there's no paper trail to verify. If they were rigged, we'll never ever be able to prove it... all we have is the stories from the voters who saw their votes erroneously going to Bush), yes Karl Rove got the evangelical christian churches to mobilize so that they'd swamp the polls (It's all about Gays, Guns and God, right Mr. Schultz? How right you were...), and yes all the exit polls showed Kerry winning but somehow the votes that got tallied didn't match up... but that's not what's got me upset.

Here's what's really depressing me: I have to brush up my Canadian accent now for our trip to Europe. "Hey, I dunno what's wrong with those hosers down south, eh? I mean, that doof horked the election in 2000, ran the country into bankruptcy, deked 'em into a war they had no reason to fight, wiped his freakin' ass with their constitution, and generally buggered up things all across the world. And they still voted him back in. Sheesh... those guys are real hosers down there." (Thanks to Stewart Moorehead's Candian - American Dictionary for starting me on my language lessons)

Seriously, think about this a second, guys. On November 1, 2004, the rest of the world thought that Bush was a madman driving this country full-tilt down the the twisty road to ruin at breakneck speed, and that the traditionally smart, optimistic Americans were his hostage in the trunk (Tony Blair and Sylvio Berlesconi being the exception to that view, of course... oh, and DON'T FORGET POLAND!). Now, on November 3, they think that we're all stupid enough to give this homocidal maniac the keys, fill up the tank, go into the mini-mart to get him snacks for the road (please, god, just let it be PRETZELS!!!), and then get back in the car with him and hand him a beer.

Needless to say, I'm gonna have some 'splainin' to do once Jacques European realizes I'm an American. Oh, sure, he'll be nice about it (especially Jacques.. he'll be a real prince, I'm sure!), but he's gonna want to know what the hell happened, and the old cliche' about being an ambasador when you're traveling out of the country is still valid. I'm going to have to tell him something... and I'm going to have to tell something to the children that are going to be born without freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, social security, and the very notion of what America used to be. What do I tell them? How do I explain what happened?

Ok, now I'm just getting more depressed... I'm going to bed. I can take solace in only two things:

1. For at least the next day or so things are going to be just like they were last month. It'll take Bush and his cabal of evildoers about that long to stop patting themselves on the back before they start phase two of their plan to remake the country into a fascist theocracy.
2. Uh... what was number 2 again?

10/31/04: 10:30 am (though it should be 11:30 am... damn daylight savings time!)

Started to get the sniffles yesterday... I could tell that a cold was coming on (the weather's been getting much colder over the past week here). So, I took my usual course of vitamin c and at Trish's urging I tried a homeopathic remedy called oscillococcinum. Damned if it didn't work! I took two doses yesterday, and today I woke up without a stuffy nose or head. Just goes to show, there's something to all these herbal remedies you've been hearing about. I heartily recommend the stuff!

Well, it's been a busy week, as is evidenced by the fact that I haven't been posting much lately. I've been frantically trying to learn my lines for The Dining Room which opens on Nov. 12 (we have tech next weekend and I'm not even off book!). I've been making several computer consulting calls as people try to get problems taken care of before I leave the country in December. I've also been working with Oregon Health Sciences University on their standardized patient program (I act like a sick person and the medical students examine me); Trish and I had one gig last week, and we have three next week. Good cash, but definitely a strain on the time.

The big thing taking its toll, however, is the impending election. Sure, we got our ballots in (remember, Oregon votes by mail. We actually voted last weekend), but there's a queasy feeling of impending doom as we get closer and closer to November 2. I believe in my heart that Kerry will win; all the polls show Bush not breaking 50%, and they never take into account newly registered voters (of whom there are several thousand) and people with cell phones (they don't appear in the phone book for the polling companies to call). Still, I just have this sick feeling that Bush might somehow manage to sneak away (yes, like a thief in the night) with another four years. Seeing what he's done with his first four years, I'm terrified at what might happen if he doesn't have to worry about re-election.

You know, Trish and I were talking about this just the other day. We're going to Europe in December; Tuesday's outcome (well, lets admit it, we probably won't know on Tuesday - it'll probably have to be taken to court again) will determine how we're treated. If Bush wins, the Europeans will think that Americans are too sad and stupid to realize how much trouble their leader is getting them into. They'll think we actually agree with him. If Kerry wins, however, we don't have to worry about perfecting our Canadian accents; it'll be as if Germany rejected Hitler in 1936. Yeah, I know that sounds harsh... but look at some of the things that Bush has done to this country over the past four years. Scroll down and read about the repression of his own citizens when he was campaigning in Southern Oregon. You think the rest of the world isn't watching?

Ok, enough serious stuff. Check out this funny shockwave game: "Give Bush a Brain." If you manage to put the brain in the "President's" head, you get treated to some of his greatest hits from the past four years. A lot of fun!

This is pretty funny too:

Don't forget to vote...

10/22/04: 3:56 pm Ok, you want to know why I feel so vehemently that Bush MUST be ejected forceably from the White House? It's because he doesn't believe in the ideals that make this country what it is! As often as he says that "the terrorists hate our freedom," it's obvious that he hates it more!!!

Don't take my word for it, though... look at this!

>This is telltale of the current regime!! > >Subject: Bush in Jacksonville, Oregon > > > Silenced by the President > By Trish Bowcock Oct. 16, 2004 > > A few weeks before my father died, he woke me in the wee hours of the morning. He needed to talk. He was worried about Attorney General John > Ashcroft and the destruction of American civil liberties. I comforted my > father, believing he was delusional from medications. I was wrong. I write > this from my home in Jacksonville Oregon (population 2,226). President > George W. Bush came here this week. The purpose of his visit was political. > Southern Oregon has been deemed a "battle ground" area in the presidential race. John Kerry has made incredible inroads in this traditionally Republican stronghold. President Bush's campaign stop was an attempt to staunch the slide. Jacksonville is an old gold mining town. Our main street is only five blocks long, lined with restored storefronts. The sidewalks are narrow. We are a peace! ful community. The prospect of an overnight presidential visit was exciting, even to me, a lifelong Democrat. My excitement turned to horror as > > I watched events unfold during President Bush's visit. In the mid 1800s, when Indians invaded Jacksonville, citizens clambered upon the roof of the old library. It was the one building that would not catch fire when flaming arrows were shot. This week it was a different scene. > > Police armed with high powered rifles perched upon our rooftops as the > presidential motorcade approached. Helicopters flew low, overhead. A cadre > of motorcycle police zoomed into town. Black SUVs followed, sandwiching > several black limousines carrying the president, his wife and their entourage as they sped to the local inn where they would eat and sleep. The main street was lined with people gathered to witness the event. > > Many supported the president. Many did not. Some came because they were simply curious. There were men, women, young and old. The mood was somewhat festive. Supporters of John Kerry sported signs, as did supporters of George Bush. Individuals, exercising their rights of free speech began chanting. On one side of the street, shouts of "four more years" echoed in the night air. > > On the other side of the street, chants of "three more weeks" responded. The > chants were loud and apparently could be heard by President Bush. An order > was issued that the anti-Bush rhetoric be quieted. The local SWAT team leapt to action. It happened fast. Clad in full riot gear, at least 50 officers > moved in. > > Shouting indecipherable commands from a bullhorn, they formed a chain and bore down upon the people, only working to clear the side of the street > appearing to be occupied by Kerry supporters. People tried to get out of > their way. It was very crowded. There was nowhere to move. People were being crushed. They started flowing into the streets. Pleas to the officers, > asking, "where to go" fell upon deaf ears. Instead, riot police fired pellets of cayenne pepper spray into the crowd. An old man fell and couldn't get up. When a young man stopped to help, he was shot in the back with hard > pepper spray balls. Children were hit with pepper spray. Deemed "Protesters" people were shoved and herded down the street by the menacing line of armed riot police, until out of the President's ear-shot. > > There the "Protesters" were held at bay. Anyone vocalizing anti-Bush or > pro-Kerry sentiments were prohibited from venturing forward. Loud anti-Bush > chants were responded to by the commanding officer stating: "FORWARD," to which the entire line of armed police would move, lock-step, toward the > "Protesters," forcing backward movement. Police officers circulated filming > the crowd of "Protesters." Some were people lik! e me, quiet middle-aged > women. Some sported anti-Bush signs, peace signs, or Kerry signs. A small > group of youth, clad in black with kerchiefs wrapping their heads chanted > slogans. A young woman in her underwear, sporting a peace sign sang a > lyrical Kumbaya. Mixed among the "Protesters" were supporters of the > President. > > One 19 year- old man shouted obscenities at anyone expressing > dissatisfaction with the president, encouraging the police to "tazar" the > "Stinking Protesters." Neither the "Protestors," nor the police harassed > this vocal young man. Across the street, individuals shouting support for > the president were allowed to continue. Officers monitored this group but > allowed them to shout words of support or hurl derisions toward Kerry > supporters, undisturbed. Honking cars filled with Bush supporters were left > alone. A honking car full of Kerry supporters was stopped by police on its > way out of town! The standoff with "Protesters" continued until the > President finished his dinner and was secured in his hotel cottage for the > night. Only then were the riot police ordered to "mount-up," leaping upon > the sideboard of a huge SUV, pulling out of town, and allowing "free speech" to resume. > > In small town American I witnessed true repression and intimidation by law > enforcement. I saw small children suffering from the effects of being fired > upon by pepper bullets. I felt legitimate fear of expressing my political > opinions: a brand new feeling. Newspaper accounts state the chaos started > when a violent "Protester" shoved a police officer. No one I talked to > witnessed this account. > > It is reputed that President Bush and his staff will not allow any opposition activity to occur within his ear or eye sight. I can confirm, that in tiny Jacksonville, Oregon, this was true. Physically violent means were taken to protect the president from verbal insults. Freedom of speech was stolen. > > My father was not paranoid as he lay dying. He was expressing great insight > into the dangers of our current presidential administration and its willingness to repress personal freedoms. If I could talk to my father today, I would say, "I am sorry Daddy for doubting you." And, no matter what, I will continue to exercise my individual right to freely express my opinions. Americans cannot take four more years. > > C Copyright 2004 The Lone Star Iconoclast.

This is happening in America, folks... it's not Solviet Russia. It's not some middle-eastern country filled with "terrorists who hate us." This is our President crushing public discourse, in a country founded on the ideal that its citizens not only can question those in power but SHOULD. And when I see these kinds of totalitarian tactics being exercised by the man-who-would-be-king, it sickens me. Physically. Look folks... election's just a little over a week away... if you love your country, if you believe in true American values, you really have only one choice. This man MUST be removed from power, or our children will never know what it means to live in a free society.

Think. Vote. Defend America and eject Bush.

10/21/04: 10:45 pm Wow... ok, my life just changed pretty dramatically.

I was going along minding my own business when an email popped into my inbox from my friend Carmela Lanza-Weil (artistic director of Bump In The Road Theatre). It seems she needs someone to step into a production of A.R. Gurney's The Dining Room she's directing at Concordia University. She had to replace someone in her current cast... and I'm on the boards. What a funny business... so, if anyone wants to see a cheap show (tickets are something like $8), come on down to Concordia November 12, 13 or 14.

Now I've got to get to learning some lines!

10/21/04: 9:30 am Hey guys. I finally put the dishes that have been piling up on our counter into the dishwasher, and I noticed something... it seems that the dirty "travel" coffee cups outnumber the rest of the dishes. Think that says something about how busy we've been?

I'm running out the door, but I just wanted to throw a few links at you... last night I got an email from my friend Paul in Colorado that had this little movie attached... it's pretty funny, but you'll need Windows Media Player to view it. If you want to send a link to anyone, use this one: http://www.munin-ent.com/trishandharold/voting_machine.wmv.

Then my good friend Mary Lasswell sent me a link to this shockwave "film strip." There were severl links in the comments section, including one to a Mexican hip-hop band's anti-Bush song, "Supadubya." Not my kind of music, but the video is awesome - if for no other reason than it parodies a Bush address broadcast on "Faux News." Dig it!!

And that's how I wasted an hour-and-a-half this morning. Some life, huh?

10/19/04: 8:45 pm Hey everybody! It's one of those rare evenings when Trish is off at rehearsal and I'm home... I always feel so out-of-sorts when I'm home in the evenings. Damn, shouldn't I be doing something? Yes... I should be working on some of my overdue website work... and doing the dishes, and vacuming, and planning for our European trip... we'll I'll get to all that later.

Last night was the our first performance in Mt. Hood Rep's 2004-2005 Readers Theatre season, and it rocked!!! Kammi Harris directed a reading of Neil Simon's Female Odd Couple. We did have one little hitch - Laura Reeves, who was to have read the part of Florence (i.e. Felix in the original version) broke her ankle over the weekend. Susan Moen was good enough to step in at the last minute. Aaaahhhh... Live theatre! Nothing quite like it. We managed to pull 74 people in the audience. I think (but don't quote me here) that we only had two houses that big last season. So, needless to say, we're building our audience!

Trish's back is still an issue in our lives... we visited our chiropractor last week and went through her MRI reports in great detail. She's got a lot of different problems at multiple areas. One good piece of news, however, is that she went to the doctor today and got an injection of steroids into her spinal column. Sounds like a really horrible procedure, and it's not particularly comfortable... but the steroids decrease inflamation, which shrink the spinal nerves, which keep them from rubbing on bone or getting constrained. If we can decrease the inflamation, the doctors are pretty confident that her sciatica may just go away. We've got our fingers crossed...

Anyway, I'd better get to work. Hope you're all doing well...

10/14/04: 11:53 amHi all. You might notice that I've made a little change on the left-hand side of the page. One of the common questions that Trish and I get when we meet up with people is "What are you in next?" I figured I'd give everyone a quick way to find out by visiting the web log here - so, from now on, I'll update the left-hand bar with our current project.

As you can see from the top entry on the left-hand bar, Trish is going to be appearing in Three From Column A at Profile Theatre October 25 and 26 and November 1 & 2. Profile focuses on a single playwright in a given season; this year their focus is on Terrance McNally. Three From Column A is a group of McNally's one act plays from the 60's: Next, Botticelli, and Bringing It All Back Home. Trish is appearing in Next and Bringing It All Back Home. These aren't fully staged productions - they're staged readings. So, you'll get to focus on the words and the performances without the added spectacle of sound, lights, and set. Trish had her first read-through on Monday and she's very excited by the project. Hope you can come see it!

Catch the debate last night? If you didn't, here's the transcript. There weren't a lot of big surprises in the debate... Kerry out-talked Bush, outshone him on the issues, and overall seemed much more "Presidential." Bush wasn't as out of control as in the first debate, but he did seem unprepared... on several topics he just didn't have an answer, so he went back to Education. A question on Jobs? Education. A question on healthcare? Education. It's like he didn't bother to study any section of the textbook but the education study... and then he got slapped down by Kerry for not fully funding the No Child Left Behind initiative. I'm surprised W even bothered to show up.

Suffice it to say we've got 19 days to show this fool the door... I think it's high time.

10/11/04: 8:56 am Hey everyone! Had a great weekend... our friends Walter and Beth came down and hung out with us. Peeled some apples, Beth (who's a physical therapist) helped Trish with some excercises to strengthen her back, and generally had a good time.

So I got Volume 1 of the Oregon Voter's guide on Friday (you can download a PDF copy of it here if you live in Oregon and haven't gotten yours)... I started reading through it this morning.

Those of you who DON'T live in Oregon may be wondering why we just got "volume 1" last Friday... there's a pretty easy answer. The first volume is filled with voter initiatives (155 pages in all). Between Oregon and Washington I think we have half the voter-approval initiatives that are being voted on in the country. Why do we need all these initiatives? Isn't that why we elect legislators? That's a rant for another day.

Anyway, there's a couple of initiatives this year thatare no-brainers for me. One is Measure 36, an attempt by the religious right to place an ammendment banning gay marriage in the Oregon Constitution. Yeah, I think you know how I'm voting on that one... a bumper sticker I recently saw says it all: "Defeat Measure 36! Let the homosexuals be as miserable as the rest of us!" (Just kidding, Trish ;) ). Seriously, though, I really don't get how allowing gay people to get the benefits other married couples have is harmful. The notion that gay marriage would somehow denegrate the "sanctity of marriage" is patently hipocritical (I don't see the backers of this ammendment looking to roll back divorce laws), and contrary to what some of the pro-36 ads are claiming, there aren't other legal recourses in an emergency for non-married couples. Even when a gay partner has power of attorney the wishes of a person's extended family or the state always trump him/her (just ask Jeb Bush about that one).

The most abhorent part of this initiative is the idea of writing explicit descrimination into the constituion - it just turns my stomach. Adding a discriminatory provision to the state constitution is a giant step backwards. It was only 40 years ago that this state started allowing black people to get off the train... is that the kind of legacy we want to leave for our children (yes, that's right right-wingers, I'm asking you to think of the children!), or do we want to have a state where people are free to have their own opinions on a subject but are encouraged to have tolerance for those different than them? I really do worry about this country sometimes.. ah well, another rant for another day.

Anyway, Measure 36 isn't my main focus today. It's measure 31 (PDF), a little known measure that's slipped by most people's radar. Basically, measure 31 ammends the constitution by "authorizing law permitting postponement of election for particular public officd when nominee for office dies." Now on the face of it, there shouldn't really be a problem with this initiative... Oregon just wants to be covered if we have a Mel Carnahan situation (you remember him... he's the incumbant senator who died in a plane crash while he was running against John Ashcroft, and still won the election. Yeah, Ashcroft was beaten by a dead guy. I don't understand how he still has all this power, but that's yet another rant for yet another day). They want to avoid a governor making a partisan appointment, and they want to hold another election.

I don't have a problem with this concept... but I do have a problem with this ammendment and the way it's written. There's no set time limit on when the new election has to be held. Now, I'm not suggesting that there's some horrible conspiracy here - I'm sure it just slipped the initiative authors' minds. Still, it's troubling. I don't really want to give the legislature the power to postpone an election indeffiniately; I'd be much more comfortable with a set time limit for the special election they'd hold with a new (live) candidate. That's why I just emailed all the initiative's sponsors, telling them that I was voting "no" but would vote "yes" if they offer it in the next election with a set time limit for the new election.

I don't think that's too much to ask, do you? Read that voter's pamphlet, folks... you might be surprised at what's in there.

10/8/04: 9:54 am Hey all. Second Presidential debate tonight... lets see how many times Kerry spikes it over the net this time!

The fight for right and justice continues in other venues... there's been a lot of political talk on the PDXBackstage listserv lately... got a little less theatre-centered and a little more political-philosophy-centered, so I suggested we set up an arena at Theatre Vertigo's message board. We'll see where that goes... damn, all this political talk is breaking into my game playing time! Grrrrrrr...

Speaking of gaming... one of the reasons I love playing City of Heroes so much is the other people who play it. For some reason, this game isn't as populated with 14 year old "Leet d00dz" out to kill everything and get all the loot (maybe part of the reason is that there's no loot to get - no material posessions to hoard = nicer players? Maybe...). By and large the people I meet in this game are adults, or at least community oriented folks, with a lot of creative energy.

That's why CoH's recent Paragon City Film Festival was such a joy... the ammount of talent on display in the making of these movies was extraordinary. Want to see why I love this game so much? Check out "The Operatives in Crash Landing." It's c00l, d00dz!!

More City of Heroes videos can be found on this page.

In other news... Trish's back continues to be an issue. It doesn't help that she's had to be at NCNM 8 hours a day all week this week. Hopefully once this week is over she can get some bed-rest in and heal up a little.

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Europe, I've been having a great time listening to a British "Jazz" station on the internet (their definition of Jazz seems to be 60s and 70s R&B, jazz standards, and light rock... but whatever). Listen Live from their web site... it's nice.

Ok... gotta get to work!

10/6/04: 11:47 pm Yeah, so I watched a good chunk of the vice presidential debates last night... there were some interruptions during the 90 minutes that the two candidates sniped at each other, so I wasn't able to watch the whole thing. You can find the transcript here in case you didn't get to see the whole thing either.

Essentially there weren't a lot of surprises during the debate... Edwards came off with an "aw shucks" southern charm, and Cheney looked as cold and calculating as most people expected. Both VP candidates did a lot of sound-byte parroting, and the big concepts weren't really elaborated on.

The one thing that really struck me about the evening, however, is that Dick Cheney can really talk a lot of smack, and do it well! There can be no doubt that he's much more skilled at structuring his 2 minute statements and 90 second responses than Edwards is. He had a masterful way of starting out with a blatant falsehood ("The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11..." oh come on Cheney, lets try January 22, 2004?), then he'd stir in some attacks on Kerry and or Edwards (the favorite being, of course, his assertion that as Vice President of the Senate he'd never met Edwards until the Night of the debate... a charge that was debunked straightaway), add a long list of statistical facts, pepper in a bunch of campaign-approved sound-bytes, and then finish with something completely innocuous and disarming. Simply put, he overwhelmed Edwards on a number of occasions, giving him too much to respond to in 90 seconds and forcing him to use time during the next segment to respond to attacks made during the previous one. He's one canny bastard, that Dick.

In any case, it's water under the bridge now. We get to see Kerry smack around Bush again on Friday.

Oh my god, what a week... this is Trish's week to test hundreds of people for TB at NCNM, so she has to get up early, stay at the school all day, come home and chill for an hour and then go to bed so she can get up early again the next morning. Three days of this so far have really begun to take their toll.

Hey, check out the Bookmarks page... I put something very cool at the top of the list.

Well, we got some bad news this evening... for a while now our sweet little pug dog Baby (we didn't pick her name) has had some discharge coming out of her eyes. Hey, she's a pug dog with big bulgy eyes - you kind of expect that. Still, it had been getting really bad lately, and this evening she couldn't even open one of them, so Trish took her to our vet.

Turns out she has keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Essentially, her tear ducts are malfunctioning. She's not making enough tears to keep her eye moisturized, which is leading to infections in the eye. An unfortunately common condition in pug dogs. So... looks like we're in for putting eye drops in three times a day for the rest of her life. Sigh... a small price to pay for something like this, wouldn't you say?

10/4/04: 11:47 am Uh oh... watch out everyone... must be time for the terror alert level to be raised again...

Or maybe the Bush administration will link these huge terrorist explosions at Mt. St. Helens to Al Queda... one way or the other you know something's going to happen. Past experience has shown that whenever Bush starts to slip in the polls there's suddenly a "huge revelation" in the news to distract people from the political facts. Time to take Osama off the ice, maybe?

Only time will tell...

10/2/04: 10:40 am Doesn't that just figure? Even the Republican pundits are saying that John Kerry won the debate (but Bush managed to open his mouth and not drool all over his shirt, so some of them are actually trying to call it a "tie"), and Karl Rove arranges to have Mt. St. Hellens erupt to distract us from what's going on.

Ok, so that's not what happend... even the most severe conspiracy nut wouldn't go that far. It was a funny coincidence, though. I guess nature doesn't care what's going on - when the mountain wants to blow, it's gonna blow no matter what's happening in the presidential race.

The photo, incidentally, is from Northwest Cable News, sort of a regional CNN we have out here. It's an alliance of local stations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho covering stories of regional interest... I don't know if those of you in other parts of the country have a similar service or not, but we often get better coverage of local issues there than on the big networks.

Anyway, for those of you not in Portland, we're perfectly fine down here. I haven't even seen any ash in the air... if it's there, it must be fine particulate matter that isn't settling to the ground. I'll see if there's any on the hood of my car when I go out later... but I doubt it. This isn't anything like the eruptions we had up in Alaska... you lower 48'ers, always making such a big deal of your little "earthquakes" and "erruptions."

There are reports that pressure is building under the dome again... looks like we're not done with these little "burps." No one's expecting a repeat of 1980, though.

Oh, I posted some new images in the City of Heroes photo album... Off to look at some shoes and maybe a new jacket to take to Europe... see you all later! Oh, and Lori: thanks for correcting me on the date below.

10/1/04: 8:34 am So, did you watch the debate last night? Kerry mopped the rhetorical floor with our current "President," and it appears that the people who watched know it too!

I'm throwing in a link to the transcript of the debate for those of you who weren't able to watch last night, but it's not going to give you the whole story. You'll be able to see what each candidate said, but you're not going to get the visual contrast of the two men (something that James A. Baker tried to destroy when he negotiated the rules of the debate - he fought hard to keep them 10 feet apart so that Kerry - who's 6'4 - wouldn't tower over bush - who's 5 ' 11 and slouches, and he fought to force the television networks not to take reaction shots of the candidate who wasn't speaking... which the network did anyway).

What you saw last night if you watched was a calm, intelligent John Kerry smiling warmly when he was attacked, thinking fast on his feet to answer questions, sticking to his message that he can do better, answering many of Bush's charges with simple explanations and then returning his opponent's thrusts with questions of his own. When the camera panned over to him while Bush was speaking he was taking notes, listening, and at some points smiling when Bush made an attack or a verbal blunder. Kerry stood tall and resolute (yeah, he was the "resolute" one last night) and filled the stage with his presence.

By contrast, Bush seemed to be a kid forced into the big leagues. I've heard pundits on the air say that he started strong and petered out by the end, but to my mind from the beginning he had trouble putting together an answer to Jim Lehrer questions in any kind of a coherent manner before resorting to one of Karl Rove's crafted sound byte campaign phrases. Often he'd stammer, squint his eyes in that ferret-like way he does when he is trying to form a full sentence, and grimace. When the camera was off of him he habitually scowled at the points Kerry was making and glanced offstage. Overall he came off as defensive rather than strong and "resolute" as many of the Fox News comenators were expecting him to.

One thing Bush did well last night was stay on-point with the campaign language that he's been spouting about Kerry over the past months. As has been mentioned in the past, he's really good at "staying on message" when he debates, bringing the conversation again and again to the sound bytes he uses in his campaign. He repeatedly said that Kerry shifts his issues, that the only thing consistent about Kerry's position in Iraq is its inconsistency, that he's sending "mixed messages" to the troops and the enemy. Whenever he was questioned in detail about this, however, he had a hard time putting together supporting arguments, and just clung tenaciously to the sound byte.

Kerry, on the other hand, was flexible. Neither candidate knew what questions were going to be asked, but Kerry seemed to be able to listen to what Lehrer asked and then respond with a thoughtful and informed answer. As I mentioned above, he took notes during the entire debate and was fully prepared to repel the barbs that Bush launched at him.

By far my favorite moment was when Bush, struggling to figure out what he was going to say about whether or not we would engage in another "preemptive war" like the one in Iraq, said, "But the enemy attacked us, Jim, and I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do everything I can to protect us." Kerry's response when he got the chance:

"Jim, the president just said something extraordinarily revealing and frankly very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq, he just said, 'The enemy attacked us.'

"Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora (Afghanistan), 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains. With the American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn't use the best-trained troops in the world to go kill the world's No. 1 criminal and terrorist.

"They outsourced the job to Afghan warlords, who only a week earlier had been on the other side fighting against us, neither of whom trusted each other.

"That's the enemy that attacked us. That's the enemy that was allowed to walk out of those mountains. That's the enemy that is now in 60 countries, with stronger recruits."

Bush's Response?

(Defensively) "First of all, of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that."

As I sign off, I just want to point to another repeated refrain that our President kept using last night: "It's hard work!" "It's HARD!!!" Obviously he's ready to go on Vacation again... lets give him what he wants. Let put him on permenant vacation.

9/30/04: 12:26 pm This just came in over the email... please consider it as you watch the debate tonight: