On Tuesday we’ll salute the great city of New Orleans all day. At 8:45am, Ellen Pfirrmann will interview Andrei Condescru, NPR commentator and author of "New Orleans Mon Amore." At around 9:20am, Kim Clark will talk with Tommy Malone of the Subdudes. We’ll be playing Louisiana music all day, and checking in with New Orleans residents to hear about their city’s progress in recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
Syntax edged out Vesperian for the trophy.
E-Spouse (consort to our very own Edgy Mama) vowed on his first beer to "kick some ass," and did just that in our group, followed close behind by the Screwiest Hooligan.
My Goth Laundry was leading Syntax in her group until the obviously misogynistic, biased scoring machine started adding extra points to his score for strikes and spares and such. Bliss gave them both a run for their money.
Vesperian who came in second overall, had to fight like hell against the feisty and beautiful Dianna, who bowled like a Teamster after kicking her mojo into high gear by snatching the magic tiara from the head of Edgy Mama.
The fashionista award was shared by Edgy & Dianna, depending on who had possession of the tiara at the time, with honorable mention going to Ash for his I 
Hot Mamas tee shirt and to Screwy for his Surrender the Bootie tee shirt.. My group voted Sweet Tea the cutest bowler award by unanimous vote and Rachel was our pick for Ms. Congeniality.
The highlight of the evening was when in a moment of Dionysian ecstasy, Brainshrub & Dianna jumped on a table and began to regale the gathered assembly with a rousing rendition of the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun."
I dare say, A Good Time Was Had By All!
The strike is on, y'all.
Come on gals, put on that ball gown, spit shine that tiara and polish up those spike heeled bowling shoes.
Come on guys, practice your swagger, let the testosterone flow and don't forget to manscape your porn stache.
For the more religious, pray to crazy Dianna, goddess of the hunt to help you locate Theseus and drag his ass out of the labyrinth for the biggest Gutter Guzzler Asheville's ever seen.
If your god is more mod and doesn't go in for the striking of the helpless pins, come on out, chug some ambrosia and document the sins of your compatriots.
Let the games begin!
Mr. Liddy Dole, a registered lobbyist, former senator from Kansas and GOP presidential candidate, is among a team of lawyers at the Washington law firm Alston & Bird that has been working with Dubai Ports World. Dubai Ports World is owned by the United Arab Emirates.
"I am deeply concerned that the proposed transfer of seaport operations to a company controlled by the United Arab Emirates government might compromise our ability to effectively control our ports and harbors," Elizabeth Dole wrote in a letter to Sen. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which she is a member.
Dole's spokeswoman said the senator will not be swayed by her husband's work.
Update: "And so people don't need to worry about security. This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America." - George W.
Update II: The chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Jerry Meek, yesterday called on Sen. Dole to remove herself from "any congressional oversight" of the Dubai port deal. "The fact that Dubai is paying her husband to help pass the deal presents both a financial and ethical conflict of interest for Senator Dole," Meek said.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Dole rejected the criticism as "a partisan attack" and defended the senator's role as a lawmaker and her husband's as a lobbyist.
"Elizabeth Dole knows that her work is separate from Bob Dole," said her spokeswoman, Lindsay Taylor Mabry. "Bob Dole works for a law firm. Elizabeth Dole works for the people of North Carolina."
Former senator Dole (R-Kan.), 82, said in a written statement yesterday that he is not going to lobby his wife or members of Congress.
He also denied going back on Viagra until the ports deal is resolved.
Via BlueNC:
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Over 30 people attended last week's gathering, and, by popular demand, we'll be focusing like a frickin' laser beam on our National Forests and the state of Rural Education. Bring your info, your vigor, and your ideas for where folks, when they aren't Drinking Liberally, can funnel their frustrated zeal.C-SPAN2 BookTV Bus At Pack Library
The BookTV Bus travels the country promoting BookTV’s unique non-fiction book programming airing every weekend on C-SPAN2. Come visit the book bus at Pack Memorial Library on February 28th, see an interactive demonstration about C-SPAN programming and tour a state-of-the-art TV studio on wheels.A POLITICAL DEBATEThe Book Bus stop at Pack Memorial Library also includes a political debate. Nathan Ramsey, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, will introduce our discussion on modern political books and their influence on America . Our panelists are: Dr. William Forstchen, co-author of historical fiction books with Newt Gingrich, including Gettysburg, Mark Gibney, professor of political science and author of Five Uneasy Pieces: American Ethics in a Globalized World, and Clare Hanrahan, noted local activist and author of books on her time in prison, including Conscience and Consequence: A Prison Memoir. Milton Ready, historian and author of The Tar Heel State will moderate. The panel is in Lord Auditorium and begins at 7pm. It is free and open to the public. Malaprops Bookstore will have a table of political titles by the authors and/or recommended by them to purchase before and after the event.
Tuesday, February 28
5-8pm
Pack Memorial Library
67 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC
The Citizen-Times reports "News that one of this community’s largest employers is closing wasn’t even a day old and The Breakfast Shoppe owner Nancy Allen could already tell a difference Thursday at her small restaurant on U.S. 70.Warren Wilson Theatre continues its 2005-2006 season with the timeless “Our Town” from three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thornton Wilder. “Our Town” will play Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. from Feb. 16-25 in Kittredge Theater, with an additional performance on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 2 p.m.
Highly acclaimed and celebrated over the years, “Our Town” was first presented on a bare stage on Broadway in 1938. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is Wilder’s sublime and crushing masterpiece of the American theatre. It also is a shocking testament to the power of theatre to make the world alive again, through the profound evocation of impermanence.
Warren Wilson Theatre’s innovative production extends the idea of an empty space, combining the traditional areas of audience and actors, and mixing the present time with that of the play’s early 20th century setting. Working without props or scenery since November, the all-student cast has been mastering ensemble-acting technique under the direction of Ron Bashford.
Describing his production of “Our Town” for Warren Wilson Theatre, Bashford said: “We are working toward an open style of performance liberated from presentational conventions, an experience which is ‘here and there,’ ‘then and now.’”
Bashford, a New York City-based theatre artist, directs frequently for North Carolina Stage Company in Asheville. His productions of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Hamlet” received the Mountain Xpress Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Production 2003. He has also directed “Loot,” “Art” and “The Syringa Tree” for NC Stage. Later this year, he will be associate director of a new Broadway musical, “Lone Star Love,” featuring the Chapel Hill band The Red Clay Ramblers.
Tickets to performances of “Our Town” are free of charge for Warren Wilson College students; $5 for area students, seniors, and WWC faculty, staff and alumni; and $10 for all others. Seating is limited, and reservations are highly recommended. To reserve seats, call the Warren Wilson Theatre Box Office at (828) 771-3040.
In April, Warren Wilson Theatre will present the Broadway musical “Pippin.”
Grab your body armor and come out for this week's edition of Drinking Liberally, that weekly conglomeration of left-of-center conversationalists, activists, and dangerously attractive drinkers at Jack of the Wood. Tonight we'll examine the crime scene on a Texas ranch where the obviously malevolent Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington in the face.
Dick Cheney is still on the loose, and he's still armed. After shooting his friend in the face, then hiding until he sobered up, Cheney hunkered down in his press blind for few days. The administration first downplayed the incident, laughing about the funny man who got himself shot in the face. They tried blaming it on the face-shot Whittington. They told us to move on with full knowledge that the man who was shot in the face had a heart attack caused by a piece of 7 1/2 birdshot from the Vice President's 28-gauge rifle. What they didn't say, and what we're going to do, is Drink Liberally and mercilessly flog Dick Cheney's assault with a deadly quail gun.
While we're at it we might as well mention that the Vice President former Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, has fingered the Rifleman as the one of the "superiors" who told him to leak the identity of covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame. Scooter had better start wearing a kevlar helmet. 
AC-T: "The Bush administration said Friday it wants to sell thousands of acres of federal forest land to aid rural schools, but critics say the plan is an unprecedented auction of public lands.
The Forest Service is considering selling 300,000 acres of land in North Carolina and 33 other states, although the final amount will run about 175,000 acres, said Mark Rey, Agriculture Department undersecretary.
The agency expects to raise $800 million over five years with the sale."
[...]
"In North Carolina, the Forest Service proposed selling 9,828 acres. That breaks down to 3,835 acres in the Nantahala National Forest; 2,780 acres in the Pisgah National Forest; 2,317 in the Uwharrie National Forest; and 895 acres in the Croatan National Forest, the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill said. Land parcels range in size from less than an acre to 561 acres."
[...]
"Conservationists and some Democratic lawmakers called the sale unprecedented and said the federal government was auctioning off public lands to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy."
And now he wants to sell our forests.From a press release via the Unified Forest Defense Campaign: "This proposal comes only a month after Congress, in the face of widespread, bi-partisan opposition, dropped mining provisions from budget reconciliation bill negotiations that would have put millions of acres of public lands up for sale."
From an SELC press release: "More acreage is proposed to be sold in North Carolina than any other state in the Southeast."
"The Forest Service is planning a bake sale with our national forest lands," said Derb Carter, interim director of the Southern Environmental Law Center's Carolinas office. "This short-sighted sell-off of national forest lands will harm wildlife, hunters, and fishermen, as well as the ability of future generations to enjoy our national forests.""The move is tied to the Bush Administration's plans to cut a long-standing, popular program that funds education and community projects in counties with national forests within their boundaries to make up for the reduced tax base. The Forest Service said it will use the expected $800 million earned from the public lands sale to fund the phase-out of the program out over the next five years. Many in Congress are committed to continue funding the payment-to-counties program.
"It's hard to imagine a worse reason to lose our treasured national forests than for the sake of undermining rural children's education," said Carter. "This proposal aims to privatize ownership of public lands while phasing out funding to schools, so in the end, everyone loses."
Ironically, in 2000 the North Carolina legislature passed legislation calling for protection and preservation of an additional one million acres of open space within ten years, including forest land. This Bush administration proposal counters the land preservation goals of that legislation."
Charles Taylor has a motivated challenger in the Republican primary for NC-11. John Armor of Highlands, NC announced his candidacy at the Free Republic under his blogonym, Congressman BillyBob. 
Armor isn't alone in his efforts, "Two of my political "teachers" will, I hope, be deeply involved in my campaign -- once I accomplish the preliminary tasks and officially declare. One is Bob Carleson, who served in the Reagan Administrations in Sacramento and in Washington. The other is Dick Kamin, a Republican leader in the New Jersey Assembly, later an official in the Whitman Administration, now co-Chair of the New Jersey GOP."
If Taylor is going to run a campaign, he's got to start raising more money. Mr. Armor, flanked as he is by stalwarts from the right may be able to pull together a real campaign. If so, Taylor's campaign fund will dwindle while Democrat Heath Shuler's warchest heads towards the half-million mark.
It's time again for Drinking Liberally, that weekly assembly of Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, and Whatnots, at Jack of the Wood in the thumping heart of downtown Asheville. Tonight we hope to answer the question, "How much can Republicans possibly get away with?" So far we've got lies, midnight votes, arm-twisting, bribery scandals, rampant cronyism, corporate whoring, power grabs, skirting the Constitution, ignoring the law, and wearing those godawful hair-dos that make every liberal want to bounce a quarter off their Aquanets.
The indicted Tom DeLay just got plum seats on the Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, which is currently investigating an influence-peddling scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his dealings with lawmakers. The House Republicans just named John Boehner their new leader, and then we find out he's renting his apartment from a lobbyist who lobbied him. Bill Frist is still under investigation for insider trading. The White House is being investigated by the inscrutable Patrick Fitzgerald. And the media seems to think, despite an ongoing 40% approval rating, that the President is very popular.
It's time to talk ethics, kids. We know that absolute power corrupts absolutely, so how do we foster ethical government without letting the criminal element bully our folks out of power? How do vote ethically when few candidates meet all our criteria for the ideal representative? How do we fight the corrupt establishment in any effective way?
