A bit of a milestone yesterday, as I took the dogs to the park for the first time since March. My foot is still sore, but I figured I’d better give this cortisone shot a workout. And we had lots of fun: we went swimming, and played with other doggies, and had tug of war with a stick. All-in-all, a good time. Except it was too damn hot. Sadly, thunderstorms moved in last night, and the doggies don’t like thunderstorms. So, not much sleep for me last night.

Stephen Strasburg has been promoted by the Washington Nationals from their AA club in Harrisburg to their AAA affiliate in Syracuse, where he’ll be making his first start tomorrow night. You’ve probably never heard of him, though he’s apparently a pretty big deal, being a pitcher who possesses a 100 MPH fastball. Strasburg was the #1 pick in last year’s MLB draft, and has already signed a $15 million contract (which should go a long way around here). He isn’t expected to be in Syracuse for long, though, as he’s on the fast track for the majors, and is expcected to get about six starts here before moving on up to DC.

Speaking of big news, Aerosmith has been announced as one of the acts at the NY State Fair in August (presumably we’ll have enough money to pay them). Back in the day, that might have excited me, but now? Not so much. I’d hoped to see Roger Waters doing The Wall this October in Buffalo, but, sadly, was not chosen as part of the presale drawing for tickets, and will probably have to pay out the ass for tickets. Plus I have nobody to babysit the dogs. Oh well.

It’s looking like the furlough of NY State employees (including me) for one day a week until a budget is in place is going to happen, as the NY Legislature can’t even be bothered to work a five-day week to try and get something in place (not to worry, though; they continue to receive full pay). Our Governor now seems to be saying that he’d be willing to forgo the furlough if State employees would agree to a week’s pay lag instead, but it’s hard to tell, ‘cuz he seems to keep just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. So, the good news is, I get an extra day off. The bad news is, I’ll be screwed out of 20% of my pay.

Not today, though, so I gotta go.

Here in NY State, we still don’t have a budget (which, in theory, is due on April 1st every year, but has only been on time once since 1983, I think). What that means (aside from the fact that schools and municipalities have no idea how much state aid to expect, so they can’t budget accurately) that the Governor submits a temporary emergency budget bill every once in a while, and the legislature can either vote it up or down (but always up, because the alternative means shutting down state government). So, anyway, in his next emergency bill, our Governor is including a one day a week furlough for state employees who aren’t considered “essential” (or who aren’t management toadies). State unions are pretty powerful, but voting down the budget means the state wouldn’t have the authority to spend money after May 9th. So, could be I’ll be getting an extra day off every week for a while (which would amount to a 20% pay cut). Pretty hard to make that up in office supplies, but I’ll do my best.

Of course, if they shut down the government instead, I don’t know how things will work. I believe there was a time a long time ago when they paid people in “vouchers” that some banks were kind enough to honor. Or maybe they’ll just shut down every hospital and state agency, the SUNY system, the State DOT, you name it. That’s really what I’d prefer. State employees are always easy targets when times get tough because of mismanagement at the legislative level. Let “the people” see what it’s like when we aren’t there doing our jobs every day.

Our current fiscal problems are a direct result of George Pataki cutting taxes for rich people and reducing pension contributions for state and local municipalities when times were good. The comptroller at the time (H. Carl McCall) warned him that the good times would end and he needed to put some money away, but that’s not how the short-sighted and ignorant Republicans roll. So, here we are.

Speaking of short-sighted and ignorant, Papa John Boehner and Mary Landrieu want to double down on offshore oil drilling. I mean, all that oil washing up on shore and killing wildlife just means we need more oil to make up for it. Drill baby, drill.

It’s Cinco de Mayo everywhere but Arizona, where it’s “Muestre mis sus documentos” day. Actually every day is documentos day in Arizona.

I say, celebrate fifth of May with a fifth of bourbon. Especially if you’re a furloughed state employee.

I guess by now everybody’s heard about Virginia’s AG – Ken Cuckoonelli – deciding the State Seal was too racy because one of the goddess of virtue’s boobs is “exposed,” and handing out lapel pins to his staff featuring a cleaned-up version. What is is with right-wingers and boobs, anyway? I mean, I consider myself a fairly representative member of the straight male population, and I’ve always kind of liked boobs. I don’t have the same obsession with them that some guys do, I really don’t like the fake ones (they remind me of my sister’s Barbie dolls and – with all due respect to Barbie – fake plastic bumps just don’t do it for me), and I’m not especially partial to the Dolly Parton look, but, all-in-all, it’s pretty rare that I say to myself, “good god, cover those things up.” Even more strange is the fact that the VA seal is a cartoon, and even at that, it’s not a particularly salacious, graphic, or erotic cartoon (I mean, Peter Griffin has bigger boobs). They make the Spirit of Justice’s boob that had John Ashcroft all hot and bothered look like a porn star.

Maybe Cuckoonelli ought to be more worried about kids killing other kids at the University of Virginia, and less worried about cartoon boobs.

Speaking of killing college kids, it was 40 years ago today that the Ohio National Guard decided to open fire on a bunch of college kids at Kent State. I was only about 9 years old, and it’s hard for me to tell if I really remember it when it happened or not. I mean, I feel as if I remember it, ‘cuz it’s become such a big part of the history of the Vietnam War era, but who really knows. I’m sure it didn’t have the impact on me that it would if it had happened when I was college age. Hard to believe it’s been so long (actually, the hard part is believing that I’ve gotten so damn old).

Looks like they caught the Times Square SUV bomber, and he appears to be an American of Pakistani descent. I have to confess, I was rather hoping it would turn out to be a teabagger. Good thing he wasn’t much of a bomb maker.

Oh well, thanks to the web host having database issues again, I didn’t have much time this morning, so I guess I better get going. It’s finally podiatrist day.

My old high school had a reunion of sorts over the weekend, to celebrate (I guess) everybody hitting the big five-oh this year. Much like the 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th years, I didn’t really consider going. Not that I don’t have a certain amount of curiosity, of course, but not enough to overcome my apathy. It’s not like high school was the pinnacle of my life, and while there are a few people I wouldn’t mind seeing again (one’s dead, so I guess that aint happening), I don’t really want to see them all that much. Wouldn’t mind running into them somewhere, but after a few minutes of “hey, gee, how ya been? Not bad, how you been,” I think I’d get pretty bored. Besides, I’m pretty sure the people I’d wanna talk to aren’t the kind of people who’d go to a high school reunion. We spent most of high school out in the woods getting stoned. Now that’s a reunion I might actually attend.

I heard a bit of Obama’s speech to Louisiana residents yesterday while driving around. Something about fixing everything and compensating people and whatnot. It sounded like another load of bullshit to me, in light of the fact that it’s been, what, almost five years since Katrina, and New Orleans is still not rebuilt. The AP story I read said that Obama “rushed” to southern Louisiana to inspect the forces or rally the troops or whatever it is that presidents do when they fly around looking at a big pile of shit seeming concerned and trying to look “presidential.’ Yes, the President rushed right down. I mean, the burning rig sunk a mere 10 days ago or something.

Not that there’s much he can do, really. Except promise to fix everything, compensate people for everything they’ve lost, and insist that he’ll make BP pay the bill. Yeah, like that’ll happen. After a decade or so of lawsuits, maybe some people will get 5 cents on the dollar for their lost businesses and ways of life. In the meantime, I predict record profits for Exxon (and BP, for that matter), and $120 a barrel oil – which will lead to the reprise of the clamor to drill baby drill as soon as everybody forgets that’s what got us here in the first place.

Meanwhile, the dead sea turtles keep washing up on shore down south and the rich folks up north get ready to sue to prevent wind farms from obstructing the beautiful views from their gated communities.

Speaking of washing up, time to get ready to face another week.

Oh, today is a huge day in booblehead history. For the first time ever, it’s Press the Meat in HD. If only Timmuh was still with us – imagine his marvelous potato head in HD! As it is, we’ll have to settle for Sec State Hillary Clinton. Then we’ll talk oil spill with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (I’d imagine the almost car bomb in Times Square might come up, too), Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Thad Allen.

Oh, and did I hear that somebody is introducing legislation to keep oil companies from profiting from a “shortage” of crude due to the loss of this drilling platform? No? Didn’t think so.

We’ll also get to bask in the Hi Def glow of Florida Governor Charlie H. Crist’s bronze patina, and hear the words of wisdom offered by today’s political roundtable of Tennessee cracker Lamar Alexander, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Indiana schmuck Mike (half) Pence (speaking of Indiana, have I mentioned that Notre Dame sucks lately?), New Mexico’s Bill Richardson (who better not go to AZ, ‘cuz he don’t look like a regular American to me; speaking of which, Arpaio? What the hell is that? Don’t sound white to me, and how did some prevert with a pink panties fetish get to be a sheriff, anyway?).

On Faze the Nation, we’ll see LA congresscritter Charlie Melancon, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez (what is it with all these foreigners in IL, anyway? First that Kenyan guy, and now a Mexican elected to congress), the bane of St. John McCain’s existence, J.D. Hayworth (this guy has “child molester” written all over him – he’s almost as creepy looking as Papa John Boehner), and the virtually useless Senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu.

More oil talk on Fux News, as Weaselface Wallace gets sloppy seconds on Janet Napolitano and Ken Salazar, plus Minnesota Timberwolf draft pick, possible illegal alien, and Republican candidate for FL Senate, Marco Rubio. Oh, and the usual collection of fuxheads, of course.

The Goebbels network gets sloppy thirds on Napolitano and Salazar, plus Jake the mens’ room Tapper has an exclusive interview with BP American Chairman Lamar McKay. Then, it’s a roundtable of truly epic proportions, with Bill Maher, Al Sharpton, Katrina vanden Heuvel, This Weak’s designated schmuck, Matthew Dowd, and of course the man with no place else to go, George :jerk: Will (who looked like an even bigger asshole than usual on Colbert the other night).

Over at CNN, Fareed Zakaria has an exclusive interview with bald headed prick Goldman Sachs Chairman & CEO Lloyd Blankfein (who made $68 million in 2007, which is almost as much as IT guys, school teachers, and nurses make). I’m pretty sure Lloyd feels our pain.

No time for booblehead watching for me, today. There’s too much to do, and too little time to do it in. Laundry, dog walking, post hole digging, dog food shopping…. It’s just too much. Although yesterday we put together the Chipper that Granny bought, and she mulched ever leaf and twig in a three-block radius, while I added a second doggie shit hole to the back yard (the first one was getting pretty full; the new one is a roomy five-gallon bucket size, and it was a pain, ‘cuz I hit a rock the size of a bowling ball down hear the bottom and had to pound on it with a chisel ’til I could break it up and pull it out).

I probably should have taken pictures.

Have a good Sunday.

So, I watched Bill Maher this morning, and, much to my surprise, John Bolton wasn’t nearly as annoying as I thought he’d be (thank god – so to speak – Bill didn’t have him as a panelist). In fact, Bolton wasn’t the most annoying person on the show. Neither was Chris Matthews, surprisingly who called the twinkie-ass mother f*cker NY Times columnist (I think that’s what he is) on his bullshit. But even the TWAMF NT Times dude wasn’t the most annoying. It was the US Berkeley professor who didn’t seem to ever shut the f*ck up up who irritated me the most. And Anthony Weiner is always good, so, all-in-all, it was a pretty good show.

Otherwise, not much going on. It’s gonna be too damn hot here today, but I still have plans to get things done. Not sure I will (other than maybe to go buy beer, which I think I’m low on – at least based on the volume of it that seems to be on the front of the shirt I was wearing last night; you’d think after nearly half a century of putting shit in my mouth, I’d know where it is, but every now and again, I seem to miss, though I think I can chalk most of it up to foam dribble).

Louisiana is having a sale on living bird oil lamps this weekend. Buy one, get one free. As Maher said last night, the teabaggers ought to be required to go down there and clean the birds off with their drill baby drill t-shirts. Or, better yet, wade out a few hundred yards, and suck the oil up with straws. They can even keep whatever they can slop up.

Oh well, if I’m gonna pretend to accomplish something today, I suppose I’d better get started.

Ah, it’s good to be home (and it’s even Friday; how cool is that). And to get a good night’s sleep (as good as it gets these days, anyway). They seem to be quite afraid of transmitting disease or something down there. I saw more bottles of hand sanitizer in five days than I’ve seen in my entire life before that. I always knew DC was a dirty place filled with dirty people. Actually that’s not true. Most of the people there are very nice. It’s the ones that aren’t from there that suck.

Meanwhile, oil has started washing ashore on the LA coast and into the Mississippi River. I hope you like your shrimp nice and slippery. Not to worry, though, because we have square watermelons. I’ve never really cared for watermelon (or shrimp, for that matter; I don’t like food you gotta fuck around with to eat, whether it’s spitting out seeds or cracking shells or whatever, and I also don’t like food that looks like it did when it was alive, and I don’t like food that has more than four legs and looks like a bug), But that’s just me. I don’t like big hats, either.

Speaking of big hats, yes, as Vernon mentioned yesterday, the big hats were out in force for the Dorothy Height funeral in DC yesterday (in fact, Joe Biden was caught on-mic leaning over to President Obama at the service saying, “that’s a big fuckin’ hat), and it was of course big news down there. Such a shame – she was only 98. I don’t think I’d have had much chance to get in, though, as they were only handing out 700 tickets to regular people.

One thing I will guarantee right now (and you can hold me to this): you will not need a ticket to get into my funeral, though I hope to have DVDs available for purchase in the lobby. At least a soundtrack CD.

President Obama has interviewed a potential Supreme Court nominee – 56-yr old Sidney Thomas of Montana, who was appointed to the 9th Circuit in 1995 by Bill Clinton. Thomas looks like a “safe” choice (gee, what a shock that Obama would go for a safe choice), and he’s a white guy (the fact that he’s from Montana – which comes in at #51 for number of black people, with a little more than two thousand black people, or three-tenths of one percent of its population – should have tipped you off to that), which is cool ‘cuz what the Supreme Court needs is more white guys. Of course, this is just the first trial balloon to go out, and no nominee is safe when it comes to Republican fundraising and faux outrage.

Oh well, time to get ready to go through the motions of getting through the day.

The hardest part of today will be waiting around long enough to avoid rush hour (which, unlike home, lasts a lot longer than an hour; with any luck, I’ll be home in time to see Rielle Hunter on Oprah). Maybe I’ll head over to the Church of Scientology for a quick e-meter session. I hear the first one’s free. It’ll be nice to get back home, though I’m not really looking forward to the drive (looks like a clear day all the way, unlike the drive down, which was drizzly with heavy fog through most of PA). No matter where you are, though, things are pretty much the same – even down to the “don’t text and drive” fluff stories on the lo-cal news. Well, except you don’t get any disappointing “the Panda isn’t pregnant” items on the news back home. I had thought about catching game 7 of the Caps/Canadiens last night, but the cheapest ticket available was $90, and I’m just not that big a fan. In case you’re wondering, after being up 3-1 in the series, the Caps went down 2-1 last night, and lost the series 4-3.

Looks like the killer oil slick is bearing down on the LA coast. In order to help slow things down, they’ve set the oil on fire, so now there’s both black smoke in the air and black oil in the water. Very nice.

Oh well, I guess I’ll go see if they dropped off the NY Times yet (you’d think they’d leave the Washington Post around here; better than the Washington Times, I guess).

Have a good day. I’ll be back to bitching about having to go to work tomorrow.

And so, my last day here in DC begins (though I won’t actually be leaving ’til tomorrow). It began pretty early, actually, as I couldn’t sleep, and finally gave up trying at about 4:00. Being sequestered in a dark room behind a computer all day yesterday, I didn’t get to catch any of the Goldman-Sachs fun (I’ll listen to the Olbermann and Maddow podcasts on my way home tomorrow; that’ll help kill some time). Of course it’s all a big joke on us. Just Theater for the peasants. I don’t expect much to come out of it (my guess is that financial reform will be about as reformative as health care reform; maybe they’ll mandate brokerage accounts for everybody). Still it’s always fun to see multimillionaires get scolded on teevee by rich old white people feigning outrage.

Speaking of fun, a couple of guys were outside the Founding Church of Scientology (next door to where my training is), taking pictures of the well-dressed walking mannequins coming and going, and hollering at them that it was OK to leave. One of them had a sign that said “Google Lisa McPherson,” so I did that when I got back to my room. Turns out she was a physically healthy 36 year old who went a little bit wacky one day, and got “cured” by the Scientology practice of Introspection Rundown, which left her bruised, dehydrated, bug-bitten, and dead.

Now there’s a pleasant thought to start out the day with, isn’t it?

So, congratulations to the Republicans (and Ben Nelson) for filibustering financial reform. I know they’re proud of themselves, but I just want them to know I’m proud, too. I’m just glad I could be here for it. Better here than the Gulf of Mexico, I guess, where over 40,000 gallons of oil a day are oozing out of of that ill-fated drilling platform. The oil spill is covering 1,800 miles so far. Not to worry, though. I’m sure oil industry profits won’t suffer.

Kudos, too, to Seattle authorities, who swooped down on Gizmodo editor/blogger Jason Chen for publishing photos of a next-gen iPhone left in a bar.

Authorities seized computers, digital cameras, a cell phone and other items from a technology blog editor who posted pictures and details of a lost iPhone prototype.

A computer-crime task force made up of multiple law enforcement agencies searched Gizmodo editor and blogger Jason Chen’s house and car in Fremont, Calif., on Friday, according to a statement and search warrant documents provided by Gizmodo. Members of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team took several computers, hard drives, digital cameras, cell phones and other gadgets, plus Chen’s American Express bill and copies of his checks.

Last week Gizmodo had one of the Web’s hottest scoops when it posted photos of an Apple device that appeared to be a next-generation iPhone. It had been found in a bar in Redwood City, which is in San Mateo County, and sold for $5,000 by an unknown person to Gizmodo, a gadget blog owned by Gawker Media Inc. After Chen posted photos and details about the phone, Apple acknowledged the device belonged to the company, and Gizmodo returned it. Gawker Media said California’s shield law, which protects journalists from having to turn over anonymous sources or unpublished material to law enforcement during a search, should apply to Chen’s property.

Don’t mess with Apple, dude. You’re lucky they didn’t get you shipped off to Gitmo.

I’m across from the Australian Embassy, so I think I’ll go over and protest this at lunch time.

An Australian restaurant has been forced to apologize and pay compensation after refusing to let a blind man enter because they thought his dog was gay.

In May 2009, Ian Jolly, 57, was attempting to dine at the Thai Spice restaurant in Adelaide, when he was refused entry after staff misheard his female companion, and thought his “guide dog” was a “gay dog.”

“The staff genuinely believed that Nudge was an ordinary pet dog which had been desexed to become a gay dog,” the owners said in a statement to South Australia’s Equal Opportunity Tribunal.

Jolly is now set to receive a written apology and $1,400 compensation.

Well, with a name like Nudge….

Oh well, time to get ready to get ready, I guess.