NY has had ENOUGH.

Just read a great blog entry by Karen Finley, over at The Huffington Post, about the failure of NYC’s Republican Mayor to get a plan to build a new Olympic Stadium passed.

My favorite exerpt:

Let me tell you the real reason the Olympic stadium didn’t go through: It’s payback time. New York City is sick and tired of having the party in their house, providing the booze, food, the space and then everyone putting their cigarettes out on our rug. After last summer’s hosting of the Republican Convention, (even though 75 percent of Manhattan voted for Kerry) New Yorkers have had enough.

During the Republican Convention last year, the city turned into a military zone, with unnecessary sweeping arrests. Citizens were held in mass holdings at the pier. The military and police were lined along thoroughfares, visibly armed. Pedestrians were regularly searched, stopped. Democrats watched the Republicans USE The Red Apple, exploit Ground Zero as a backdrop to justify the occupation and war in Iraq. Then leave us being a standing duck.

Republicans came to our town for fun, then in a month felt guilt and made it all better with continuing the agenda of No Stem Research, No Gay Marriage. Everything done here, stays here. And that needs to change. Believe me the Republicans didn’t come to New York for the weather in August. They came for the clubs, the loving, the sex, the art. No one said, “Oh I can’t wait to have the Republican Convention in a town that doesn’t serve liquor and you go to church when you can’t sleep.”

We have had enough of our city’s Red Alert, being used as an erotic zone for conservatives to facilitate their agenda at our expense. They are pimping us. Ground Zero’s fear becomes propaganda to continue the Patriot Act.

Amen.

I remember, right around the time the war started, graffitti and t-shirts started to appear in the city, saying “U.S. OUT OF NYC”—there was even the occasional wild-eyed rant about seceding…becoming a “Free City-state.” I tell ya, if that happened, as much as I love the friends that I have here, I’d be packing my shit and heading back east in a heartbeat.

Random Update

According to a post in the comments of the Lawrence LJ Community, there’s a new comic book store opening this Thursday, apparently called “Astro Kitty”, right above the Java Break. I’ll definitely be checking it out. It’ll be nice to get another store in town, apart from the dark hole-in-the-wall that is Kwality Comics. I remember at one point in the mid-90s, there were 4 comics-and-games places here in Lawrence. Now we’ve got 2 games stores which are both sub-standard (which is why I make a 30-minute drive to Tabletop Games in Lenexa), and at the moment, only 1 comic book store. I hope that “Astro Kitty” is a good one.

Birthday was uneventful. and Eldest Daughter gave me The Director’s Cut of HELLBOY, which is just chock full of goodness; and the hardcover collection of Neil Gaiman’s 1602 (which apparently is officially titled “Marvel 1602”), which is also Teh Niftay. (For the uninitiated: 1602 is a comic book miniseries that moves all of the classic Marvel superheroes to the Renaissance. Mutants hunted by the Inquisition, Dr. Strange as Queen Elizabeth’s “astrologer”, fun stuff like that.

Random Update

According to a post in the comments of the Lawrence LJ Community, there’s a new comic book store opening this Thursday, apparently called “Astro Kitty”, right above the Java Break. I’ll definitely be checking it out. It’ll be nice to get another store in town, apart from the dark hole-in-the-wall that is Kwality Comics. I remember at one point in the mid-90s, there were 4 comics-and-games places here in Lawrence. Now we’ve got 2 games stores which are both sub-standard (which is why I make a 30-minute drive to Tabletop Games in Lenexa), and at the moment, only 1 comic book store. I hope that “Astro Kitty” is a good one.

Birthday was uneventful. Laura and Allie gave me The Director’s Cut of HELLBOY, which is just chock full of goodness; and the hardcover collection of Neil Gaiman’s 1602 (which apparently is officially titled “Marvel 1602”), which is also Teh Niftay. (For the uninitiated: 1602 is a comic book miniseries that moves all of the classic Marvel superheroes to the Renaissance. Mutants hunted by the Inquisition, Dr. Strange as Queen Elizabeth’s “astrologer”, fun stuff like that.