PERSONAL NEWS #47

On Sunday, January 30th, the NYC Friends of Kucinich group held their second official general meeting. It was held in the home of fellow Kucitizens Gloria and William on the upper Eastside of Manhattan. Two wonderful, intelligent, charming, gracious individuals. The meeting would of been a better success if a particular man [disruptive loose cannon] wasn't in attendance. [He must be terminated from the group.] Speaking of those in attendance ... Bud, Ellen, Kenny, William, Gloria, Tom and myself. Some of what was discussed ... Bill Perkins, Markowitz, Manhattan Borough President race, UFPJ convention held in February down in St Louis, DNC chair vote, Friends of Kucinich Committee reports, and a book by Paul Williams called "Osama's Revenge". After the meeting we had some light refreshment, of which I brought some of my homemade Hummus and Banana Nut bread. One of the items Gloria had out was a 100% vegan natural buttery spread called "Soy Garden" to utilize on fresh Italian bread. I loved it so much that I purchased it next time I went grocery shopping. Yum!

After work on February 1st I visited my friend Larry and he did my taxes for me. Took him out for a nice Chinese dinner as payment for helping me out. This year I'll get some money back from the State and owe the damn Federal Government. Greedy buggers!

On Wednesday, February 2nd, I attended my first official Democracy For America meetup in Manhattan. It was held at a nifty bar [private room in back] on 9th Avenue near 53rd Street. There were about 12 folk in attendance. Variety of backgrounds and all seem to have been Dean supporters during his presidential run last year. I was the only Kucitizen in attendance, which was cool, and they welcomed me graciously. One of those in attendance was 2005 NYC mayor candidate David Touchstone, who spoke at length towards the end of the meetup and answered questions. I was able to speak with him afterwards about the NYC Dept of Peace and he seemed most receptive. Other topics of discussion during the meetup ... Brennan Reforms, "Free Press" convention in May, Committee agenda, Westside Stadium and Howard Dean's run for DNC chair. To learn more about the DFNYC, go to their website at http://www.dfnyc.org

Friday, February 4th, was NYC DOPs first official ’"Strategy Committee", conference call at 5pm. [Which I conducted at work.] Karen, Coco, Carol and I are on this particular committee. Before I go any further, there is a National Dept of Peace conference call the first of every month at 9pm. Next one is on March 1st and to find out phone info, go to the website http://www.dopcampaign.org. Our conference call was very productive and covered many topics. I asked to be put in charge of gleaning info off of other Dept of Peace listserves and then send reports back to committees.

Visited my good friend Katherine up in CT on Sunday, February 6th. Was suppose to catch the 8:07am train out of Grand Central Station, but NYC subway system totally screwed me up with many delays on the G and 7 lines. [Goddamn MTA!] I'd purchased my ticket the day before, but that didn't help me much. Cause when I ran onto the platform the darn train had pulled out 30 seconds before I arrived. Didn't care who else was standing on that platform as I let out a loud string of foul language. Yeah, you bet I was pissed off. Decided to head to my office over in Times Square to utilize the phone and computer. Had to get in touch with Katherine and eventually connected with her hubby Maurice. We discussed the situation and I ended up taking the 11:07am to Stamford, where he picked me up and we drove on up to Shelton. After that the rest of the day turned out good. [Got back to NYC and home at 8:30pm.] Katherine and I finally got to exchange Xmas gifts, plus catch up on news and gossip. She is such a dear, sweet, down to earth person and it pains me to hear of how her grown daughters use/abuse their mother. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr Stick around ... more to follow.

QUOTE OF THE DAY ... Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods. HL Mencken