And now, the race to paint JK as scorned senator - never mind the actual crap McCain has pulled ever since his perfunctory denouncement of the SBVT in 2004.

I don't want to make too much of this, because, actually, I have very little interest in the friendship between Senators Kerry and McCain - maybe because, unlike the rest of America, I have very little interest in John McCain. I've never been able to get too worked up about the notion of McCain as JK's VP, and we've certainly never gotten any satisfyingly enlightening info about whether or not that was a possibility. Which is fine - these two are entitled to their private conversations.

I just want to point out, though, that the constant dragging of McCain's name into the '04 race had little to do with his friendship with the Democratic nominee, and everything to do with the MSM's love of typing the letters "M-C-C-A-I-N" over and over again.

The MSM has a similar affinity for the letters "C-L-I-N-T-O-N," which was also conspicuous back in '04, and one wonders what purpose that actually served. (Or maybe one doesn't. I do. I, personally, wonder: what purpose did 4 years of Hillary chatter serve?)

So, yeah. Rather than come to JK's defense here - because I think, in spite of his making some points that I think ought to have been made, this is a non-story - I should ask, "why is this personal?" Why is John McCain's bad judgment with regards to the troops in Iraq - remember them? - being placed into the context of some Senate soap opera?

If I stop being friends with somebody because they torture kittens, it's not to rouse up some level of interest in me. It's about the kittens.

Let's try to keep our focus on the kittens, people.

Let's all take a moment to figure out how to be more like Reb Akiva at Mystical Paths, who, after spotting one tall and unmistakable senator outside of Petra Souvenirs and Money Change in Jerusalem, not only posted about it, but posted a picture, AND reported "Mr. Kerry was wearing his traditional powder blue shirt and pink-ish tie, as was his senate staffer."

Ok, that? Is important information. Well done, Reb Akiva, and hat tip to beachmom, who found this before I did. You made some American fangirls very happy today.

I'm not going to argue that every blogger in every corner of the universe ought to stop posting pictures of their children/lolcats/socks/weird food from 50's magazines/etc. in favor of daily candids of a pink-ish tie-clad John Kerry followed by slobbery descriptions of any animals or small watercraft depicted on said pink-ish tie.

But, if you see the tall guy, will you for frak's sake let me know? It really will not compromise the quality or readability of welovechildrenlolcatssockandweirdfoodfrom50smagazines.com. Trust me.

Kerry On, wherever you are,
democrafty

And what's not to celebrate about the ideals that led to the project that is America, the valor of those who executed our Revolution, and the little document that changed everything.

It's beautiful, and maybe a little telling, that we chose to celebrate our nation's birthday based on the signing of a document. It's not an anniversary of a bloody battle, or the founding of the Treasury, or some other such thing. And when it seems as though we've lost our way, we have our birth date, July 4th, pointing back to the very words that tell us why we are here: "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

The American Story.

To me, today is so much about giving thanks. For the leadership of our founders, for our legislators and executives who take on the task of caring for our nations (especially those who do it well!) and for the citizens who participate actively, every day, in the care and upkeep of our democracy.

Liberty and union, now and forever,
democrafty

As long as this will not increase the likelihood that I will fall into a whale's mouth - and you can thank the Bible and Disney for my pet irrational fear - all congratulations to the good senator. I hope this will lead to many good things for the mammals of the sea, and also to a possible JK appearance on Heroes, which stars the whale-loving Hayden Panettiere, and which was abysmal in its second season.

Al Gore was on 30 Rock. It could happen.

There are no words.

FYI.

And it's FREE! Go nab one.

Of course you didn't. You have things to do. But, FYI, THK is going to be getting a Rachel Carson Award from the Audubon Society next month. Yay, Teresa! Let's all read Silent Spring to get psyched between now and then!

Speaking of reading, This Moment on Earth is finally out in paperback. I must say I'm keen on the new cover art, and it'll be nice to have a loaner copy on hand - naturally, when it comes to my signed first edition, I'm not much disposed to sharing.

And speaking of books, which is almost the same as "speaking of reading," but I didn't want to be redundant: the very talented playwright Christopher Durang has decided that a certain tall guy from Mass is just delightfully charming. In contrast, of course, to media portrayals of said tall guy.

You do good work, Mr. Durang. Welcome to fold.

This often leads to moments in which I'm confronted with the fact that something I've cared about for a long time - so long I can almost forget it's still an issue - needs a lot of work. This is just part of why it's important to keep senators in Washington, instead of electing bloggers.

Even though, as it turns out, some senators are not half bad at the whole blogging thing.

So go forth and watch those hearings! And annoy your senators - it's what they're there for!

BOSTON – Senator John Kerry today issued the following statement on funding for the “Solar Boston” program, a new initiative from the Department of Energy. The $500,000 grant was awarded this morning at Fenway Park.

“Solar Boston’s forward-thinking approach is exactly the kind of smart, cutting-edge innovation that has always kept our city in the lead on technology. Boston’s efforts will become a nation-wide model. By working together at the federal, state and local levels, we can ensure that Boston adopts solar energy, which will lead to lower energy costs and a cleaner, healthier environment,” said Senator Kerry.

You know, I WANT to be excited about this because it's going to help people, but I think I'm excited about it because green technology is sort of filling the void left by the fact that, like, the teleportation machines and hovercrafts and robot butlers we were supposed to have by the time I was grown up. And I'm certainly not opposed to helping people. In fact, I could use the help of a solar-powered robot butler right now!