More activism

cattitude and I went to a hearing of a state legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary yesterday, because the ACLU asked people to be there to fill the room and show people cared about a specific bill, which would limit police and corrections department cooperation with ICE.

The room was very full, with people sitting on the floor with laptops. People who wanted to speak had to sign up, which gave the chairs at least a little warning that they were getting a crowd. We listened to speeches, and some back-and-forth sparring by legislators [that's the chair's word] for a bit over an hour, then left because I was overheating, and went for a restorative walk in the Public Garden.

This is another thing that I never thought I'd be doing, even after we moved to Arlington (meaning the state capitol is an easy subway ride from me, not in a city two or three hours away). As with most activism, I don't know whether it had any effect; as I mentioned to rysmiel, even when we win something I don't know how much, if at all, my efforts contributed, but we persevere.

Today I decided I am probably not up to actual phone calls to legislative offices, so I used resistbot to fax Sens. Markey and Warren calling for an independent investigation into Russian meddling in the election, and specifically that they should get Comey to testify before the senate. The fax to Markey got through, the one to Warren didn't, which is the same result the bot reported last time. I figure this means either more people are trying to reach her, or his office has more hardware for receiving faxes. Warren has been getting a lot more press than Markey (I've seen "Nevertheless, she persisted" on a bumper sticker), so the former seems plausible. I think this means I should concentrate my efforts on Markey and my Congresswoman, but it might mean I need to call Warren, the Springfield office if necessary, if I can't get through by fax.

looking for the "guilty! guilty! guilty!" icon

Sometime in the last few months, someone posted a few free-for-the-taking icons made from old Doonesbury cartoons. I saved the one of Mark Slackmeyer going "guilty guilty guilty," meant to upload it, and now can't find it.

Help?

GIP: Guilty, guilty, guilty!

One panel from a very old Doonesbury cartoon about Watergate, specifically referring to John Dean*. I suspect I may be using this one a lot.

*see comments

Also, we plant things

I went to the nursery this morning, in search of cucumber plants, and wound up with a pot containing three little Diva cucumber seedlings, and another pot with a slightly larger Black Krim tomato plant. Black Krim isn't my favorite tomato, but I couldn't find Paul Robeson last year, and Black Krim is almost as good, in the same direction (though it doesn't get extra points for a cool name).

I planted the cucumbers this morning, in the small raised bed next to the driveway; I should get a cucumber trellis, but they will probably still wind up competing with the grapevine for space. cattitude did some more weeding in the front yard this afternoon, uncovering more slates in the process, and I planted the tomato in the just-weeded area near the second half-dozen lettuces I put in recently. I have no idea why someone put a slate path up the middle of the front yard (leading to nothing in particular), but I'm not surprised someone else piled topsoil on them. Pending landlady approval, the slates will be getting a new home across the street with 42itous.

I also put a few tiny purple basil seedlings in the planter with the green basil plants I bought and planted around the end of April. The idea of starting our own seeds was good, but it turned out that when the sprouts got large enough to be moved out of the mini-greenhouse and into pots, one or both of the cats was treating them as a fresh salad bar. (They're not allowed on the counters, but we're not always awake, or home, to enforce that.)

I have no idea what we're going to do with the rest of the garden space. Chance more cucumbers, or melon? More tomatoes? Root vegetables? I should probably sow clover seed in the meantime; we've got enough of it.