Will Cowie died this week. He was killed in an electrical accident on a jobsite in NY.

Jon Easton founded this blog, with a lot of help and input from Will. They let me join the club. I had a lot of fun with them; smart, funny, feminist, men.

One of my favorite memories of Will is from the summer of 2005. Former NH Governor Benson had asked the legislature to form a commission to study same sex marriage in NH. The commission had some public hearings around the state. The first one was in Littleton, chosen undoubtedly because the GOP controlled commission expected low turnout, and a lot of redneck northern hicks talking about sin, and doom. What they got was a room filled with over 100 people. There were 6 who testified against marriage equality. Early in the evening, a tall, good looking man in a suit, with a military haircut, and carrying a Bible came in. Most assumed he was there to expound on how same gender marriage would be an affront to God.

They were wrong.

That man was Will Cowie - who explained who he was, and how he felt - which was that we are all equal, and should all have the same rights and privileges, and he didn't see anything in that book he was holding that said otherwise.

I loved Will. I'm going to miss him.

obituary

EDIT: If you miss Will's voice you can do what I do. Go heAR.

Recent Senate Votes

Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007 - Vote Passed (70-22, 8 Not Voting) In a bipartisan effort, the Senate passed this $11.4 billion bill reauthorizing Amtrak for six years. Sen. Judd Gregg voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Sen. John Sununu voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act - Vote Passed (64-30, 6 Not Voting) The Senate passed a new bill to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Sen. Judd Gregg voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Sen. John Sununu voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

Recent House Votes

Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act - Vote Passed (334-80, 18 Not Voting) This House bill is intended to update the government’s contracting programs targeting veteran and minority owned businesses. Rep. Paul Hodes voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Trade and Globalization Assistance Act - Vote Passed (264-157, 11 Not Voting) On Wednesday the House passed this bill that reauthorizes and expands the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. Rep. Paul Hodes voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act - Vote Passed (244-166, 22 Not Voting) This House bill would overhaul environmental standards applied to mining, finance abandoned mine site clean-up, and charge royalties for hardrock mines located on federal lands. Rep. Paul Hodes voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

from daily kos

J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

from huffington post

A fork in the eye to all the radical zealots who had her books drummed out of librarys and schools. Thank you Ms. Rowling for introducing a generation of video children to the magic of reading and for showing even more that yes, people you respect and admire are sometimes gay. Deal with it.

The mission of Catalog Choice is to improve the efficiency of catalog distribution by reducing the number of repeat and unsolicited mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices.

We aim to accomplish this mission by providing this free service to consumers and businesses. Consumers can create a private account, indicating which catalogs they no longer wish to receive in the mail. Businesses can secure a merchant account to receive a list of consumers that no longer want to receive catalogs in the mail.

check them out

Nearly half of the planet’s original forest cover is gone today. Forests have effectively disappeared in 25 countries, and another 29 have lost more than 90% of their forest cover.

If steps aren’t taken to protect them, rainforests around the world could disappear within 40 years.

Covering less than 2% of Earth’s surface, rainforests are home to more than half of the world’s plants and animals.

More than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.

Deforestation contributes between 20% and 25% of all carbon pollution causing global climate change.

The production and disposal of direct mail alone consumes more energy than 3 million cars.

Over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.

Most Americans oppose fully funding President George W. Bush's $190 billion request to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while a majority supports expanding a children's health care program
he has threatened to veto, a Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

....

Bush's approval rating stands at 33 percent, equal to his all-time low in this poll and just 29 percent approve of the job Congress is doing -- a 14-point drop since Democrats took control in January, the newspaper said.

.....

Only about 25 percent of Americans support the administration's $190 billion war funding request; 70 percent want the proposed allocation reduced, the Post said.

from reuters
Yet common political wisdom is "we just can't cut funding for the war". Why not? American's elected you to end the war. American's want funding cut. [American's want a national health care system.]

Why is it that people with a straight face say that Hillary already has this?

The Huffington Post has learned that Senator Barack Obama, D-IL, raised a total of $20 million during the third quarter fundraising period, $19 million of which can be used for the primary election.

.....

Obama's fundraising was aided by approximately 93,000 new donors who contributed to the campaign during the past three months. The decline in the money total was attributed to the traditionally slow fundraising months of July and August.

To date, the Obama campaign has raised more than $78 million, nearly $75 million of which is slated for the primary election. In addition, more than 350,000 people have donated to Obama since he announced his presidential candidacy.

from huffington post

The real news is the number of new donors. Those are people who never have donated before AND he can keep going back to.