from Cody's:
"Over a decade ago, John W. Dean, a former White House counsel, and the late Arizona Senator Barry M. Goldwater began a joint inquiry into what was happening to conservatism. At the time, the movement was first becoming increasingly radical, religious, and self-righteous. When Senator Goldwater's health precluded his continued work on their planned book, the project was set aside. But Dean did not stop searching for answers to their questions, particularly the failed effort by conservative Republicans to overturn the 1996 presidential election by impeaching President Clinton. Dean's interest is in understanding why conservative Republicans are doing what they are doing, and he found the striking explanation for the behavior of contemporary conservatives in the empirical studies of social scientists, who have been studying authoritarianism since World War II. In Conservatives without Conscience, Dean explains this body of scientific work to general readers and shows its direct relevance to contemporary conservatism. Counsel to President Nixon for a thousand days, John Dean also served a chief minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and as an associate deputy attorney general in the US Department of Justice. He writes a bi-weekly column for FindLaw. He is the author of Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, and six other books."
I got to the First Congregational Church of Berkeley Friday night with plenty of time to get a good seat for the discussion with Dean that Cody's was hosting there, but I got to the door and found out they were asking for a $10 donation. Reached into my purse, scrabbled around. No wallet. I must have left it in my messenger bag. At home. Went home and once there opted for a nap instead. I did try.
Friday night, Bottom of the Hill:
Say Hi To Your Mom were creepy good, but it's Irving that has made me dance my ass off both times I've seen them. They have such good energy. And when the three cute boys all line up at their mics, my heart does skip a beat.
Saturday afternoon I stopped by Washington Square Park for the "World in the Park" installment of the North Beach Jazz Festival. I stayed for the fabulous straight-out-of-New-Orleans Stooges Brass Band, but unfortunately I pooped out well before Daara J took the stage. I will just have to try to get my fix of live Sengalese hip-hop when I am in Senegal proper this fall.
Sunday morning I woke up late after my DJ shift and took BART into the city for a godly Salvadoran brunch (ie piles of pupusas) in the Mission. On my way I dropped in on the 2006 Up Your Alley fair and enjoyed watching my fellow Bay Area denizens let their freak flags fly. Not five steps inside the entry gate the man walking in front of me excitedly perked up his ears: "I hear spanking!" As for personal damage, I sustained nothing more than a stripe of sunburn on one shoulder.
What does the minimum wage plus the estate tax equal?
Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. : "It's like taking a child, saying you want to increase the minimum wage so badly for them, and then putting concrete shoes on them as you throw them into the ocean."
Lehnert & Landrock: Couple, Algeria, c. 1911
