Signorile visits Oklahoma delegation at RNC

There’s ALL kind of riots going on in St. Paul. This is the big effing LOL variety:

Check out gay activist/journalist/radio host Mike Signorile with our very own lovely right-wing nutjob Sally Kern!

He interviewed her, but hasn’t got it up yet. I can’t WAIT to hear her demented thoughts about Sarah Palin! Will update here when it’s available.

He’s also got some other great shit from the convention:

• McCain’s 94-year old mother complaining that “they won’t let me talk.”
• Mike sticking a mic up to Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum’s ugly mouth. Yuck, I don’t know if I can stomach listening to it after that visual!

Gmail adds ‘Suggested Contacts’ feature

This happened back in July and I didn’t even realize it.

Gmail adds ‘My Contacts’ and ‘Suggested Contacts’

Released on 7/16/2008

Gmail now adds people you email with to your contact list after several correspondences, rather than after you email someone for the first time. Contacts you add manually or through an import are also saved in ‘My Contacts’. People you haven’t had many email exchanges with are auto-added to ‘Suggested Contacts’, and you can move those people to ‘My Contacts’ at any time.

The official update feed from the Google Apps team: Gmail adds ‘My Contacts’ and ‘Suggested Contacts’.

I’ve been griping for a long time about the way Contacts are managed in Gmail, which I otherwise love and recommend (especially over Yahoo Mail). This is not the perfect solution to having every address you email get added to your address book, but it’s an improvement in the right direction.

I just don’t understand why they can’t give users an option at the point of sending the email on whether to add the address or not. I still want to see that option, and will again complete the Gmail feature request form.

If you are a Gmail user, that’s where you can suggest features. If you would like to join my crusade for a better Gmail Contacts, look for “More functional Contacts list” on the form and click on everything in that section.

Not my America

Update below

There are major violations of the Constitution and other laws going down in the Twin Cities this week, while the Republicans freak out over Sarah Palin and try to work around various hurricanes.

Law enforcement agencies include not just local police, but sheriffs, FBI, and Homeland Security. Many are decked out in full riot gear, patrolling the streets to intimidate citizens from using their right to assembly and speech.

Obviously, actual criminal behavior, including property damage, should be stopped and punished. Understandably, authorities want to also prevent any type of terrorist activity. But what’s happening is so over the top, that if we are still a democratic nation, it must be decried and prevented. This creeping police state is past the creeping stage and is in full out deployment mode. Wake up, people!

Preemptive raids and warrantless detentions for just planning a legal demonstration. Arrests of peaceful protesters, and of journalists trying to cover the events. Is this America?

Thanks to cell phones, cameras and the internet, a lot of this shit is being documented and posted on blogs and alternative news sites. Most is being ignored by the corporate media, too wrapped up in the Palin trainwreck and whether the levees in NOLA will hold this time.

Amy Goodman’s arrest today, recorded by several witnesses, actually got picked up by the Washington Post, which is heartening; we’ll see if further attention comes of it. At any rate, she’s been released, and tomorrow’s 2-hour Democracy Now! program should be pretty damn interesting.

Here are some sites that are providing good coverage of what’s going down:

• Glenn Greenwald
• Twin Cities Indymedia
• Firedoglake (especially bloggers Jane Hamsher and Lindsay Beyerstein)
• Election 411 (Pacifica Radio)
• The Uptake
• I-Witness Video
• Feministing

Finally, if you have the stomach, here is a video of a young woman standing on the sidewalk holding out a flower as a squad of riot police march by. She is willfully and cruelly peppersprayed from no more than five feet distance — and a second time for good measure as she turns away in pain –for simply standing there, making her childlike, innocent gesture.

Update: Amy Goodman interviewed by San Francisco Chronicle about the arrests of her DN! staff and herself:

Also, Jane Hamsher posts about the new media involvement at the RNC, saying “the revolution will be twittered.”
(h/t to Glenn Greenwald)

Republican Party Time

2005:

2008:

Music by Hookers and Blow. So wish I was kidding. Nice family values you got there, Johnny and Sarah.