Ok, the polls are closed, and even after the confessed ballot stuffing by jmoiron, the results still favor attending. Which is what I had decided to do anyway, attracting all kinds of reactions. From my dad, simply 'ok, don't get arrested', from my aunt, "no way...stay away from that....it is too scary", and concerns for my safety from nicole.

now that the dust & fud concerning the rally Saturday has subsided, we see the truth comes out, that the group behind the rally still has the necessary permit to gather (though it seems that requiring a permit to allow an assembly is a gross violation of the first amendment, since the city could not issue a permit, for any reason; and if the group gathering was arrested for that reason, that would be a gross 1st amendment violation), but rather the denial of a permit allowing the group to march from 49th & 1st past the U.N. I still don't feel it's appropriate for a restriction like this, and it's still just a gross a violation of rights, but to those not as fiery about things like this, it does serve to put some things into perspective.

In some site news, there's now a basic (and crappy) comment system, allowing you to reply to whatever it is I write here.
A discussion between myself and arsjerm was responsible for setting a new record for biggest thread on nondeus.
Scant more was completed on my Eldred v Ashcroft letter, though I completed reading the majority opinion, by the weekend I should have the whole letter ready to be mailed, following not far behind my previous letter to Sen. Corzine.

You know your country's intelligence program works well when, during questioning by Congress, the CIA director is taken completely by surprise when it's mentioned that N. Korea has nuclear weapons, or that they have missiles capable of reaching America's west coast. Complete lack of knowledge about something like this by the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the country is exactly what the government needs to reassure the people that everything is going to be ok.

In the process of braving the extreme cold that has become the winter in Hoboken to acquire a Valentine's gift + card for Nicole, I picked up a book from barnes & noble called Writing To Win, which claims to be "The Complete Guide To Writing Strategies That Will Make Your Case - And Win It", a reflection on the sharply increased interest I have in certain legal matters of late; if nothing else, it should be a halfway rewarding read.

And for a wonderful end to all this, the 'G' key on my laptop is being to suffer critical failures, not something you want from a fairly common letter when you're writing something.