Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping have a run of shows at the Spiegeltent, located in the South Street Seaport. Billy and the Choir have performed two shows and have been targeting Victoria's Secret, a tennant of the Seaport Mall next door to the venue. The Church has been banned from the mall without ever having set foot inside, and now the producers of the Spiegeltent have expressed they don't want the Church to make any political speech outdoors, even on the grounds of the Spiegeltent site.

So should the Church just perform in the tent and save the demonstrations for elsewhere, or should the producers have known this would happen when they invited them down?

VillageVoice.com article here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002793.php

Church of Stop Shopping Site:
http://www.revbilly.com

I was wondering just now why is it that more people don't post blogs, forum threads, or comments. Then, when fixing one member's permission I just noticed that all member's permissions were set at "authenticated user" --a set back for many people who had front page privileges.

I apologize for this faux pas. All members' permissions must have been reset when I did the upgrade. Now I have to go through 300+ user files and set them back to what they were.

So please take a moment and write here in the comments what kind of posting permissions you had on our site. If you did not have front-page permissions and want them, this is the place to plead your case.

I am still working on the new posting rules. Basically, if you are not a front-page contributor, you still can have your forum posts, article entries and events voted to the front page by the community. More details on this will follow.

I do want to warn people that I will be disappearing to my mother's home for ten days starting on Thursday. Yes people, this boricua is going home to Puerto Rico for a quicky vacation with her spawnage. So make sure you make your requests between now and Wednesday if you want me to upgrade your permissions sooner than later. If not, y'all have to wait until after I come back from la isla del encanto.  read more »

I think this is pretty much unprecedented, but The Daily Gotham will more or less be on hiatus this weekend. Mole 333 remains on vacation, Liza's in Chicago for a funeral, and I'm heading up to Connecticut for a birthday party (where I hope to do some clandestine pro-Lamont proselytizing).

So here, for your amusement, are some must-reads from around the tubular internets:

Jesus' General posts some helpful advertising advice for Joe Lieberman.

The Washington Post has a good piece on how republicans are scurrying away from Dear Leader, much like rats from a sinking ship, only faster.

Also on WaPo, E.J. Dionne has a must-read piece titled 'The End of the Right'.

Not a new article, but still worth a read: The Washington Monthly on 'Why conservatives can't govern'.

Ben Smith of The Daily Politics points out this piece on 9/11 in Vanity Fair; he's right, it is a must-read.

Speaking of which, this Sunday, August 6th, is the five-year anniversary of that PDB entitled 'Osama bin Laden determined to strike inside the United States' that the Katrina administration thought was a historical document. Quick grammar quiz: what tense is 'determined'? Read the original document here. Support impeachment here

If you have a lot of time on your hands this weekend, read John Conyers' new report, Constitution in Crisis. Somebody should send Ann Coulter a copy, so she finally learns the difference between 'footnotes' and 'endnotes'.

And that's all for today. have a great weekend!  read more »

Just a little note to my readers. People are well aware of my biases, because I make them clear. But a bias in favor of someone does not mean blind following. I am an independent blogger and if you are assuming I am only thinking of how to serve you then you don't understand me. Chances are if you know I am biased in your favor you know I will go a long way to help you. But not blindly. If you don't like what I write, I suggest you don't start by attacking. That won't get you far.

My posts involve one of three approaches: 1.) impressionistic sketches where I define what I am observing and when and then describe what I see. You can't really tell me I am wrong in what I see because it is what I personally observe. If you observe differently, tell me what you saw. People can observe different things and generally there is validity in both. Don't tell me I am wrong; 2.) analytical diaries where I try and put my tired, overtaxed brain around a topic. Here you can be far more critical because my analysis can be complete BS. But you better be ready to give reasons. Most often that is where people fall short. They attack without having their own reasoning any straighter than mine; 3.) a compilation of "inside information" I am gleaning from my connections involved in various clubs and campaigns. This is a tough one. Unless we can both reveal our sources it is hard to compare them if we disagree. I can judge my sources fairly well and I don't blindly believe anyone, but usually combine at least two sources and my own opinion before I make any statement of this nature.

What I find is that people get pissed at me not because I am inacurate, but because something I say makes them defensive. Mostly, unless I am talking about corrupt Republicans, my criticism is intended to be constructive. Yes, even my criticism of Yassky! People who react reflexively hostile to constructive criticism need to chill a moment before they respond. Maybe even ask for clarification first or give an opposing viewpoint. But hostility to criticism is not constructive.

And ultimately, if you have a beef with me, don't do it anonymously or through a third party. David Yassky has come up and discussed his disagreements with me. IND members have discussed their differences with me directly. You can too. You know who I am. And if you don't, just send me a message through this site.

At first this was going to be about some local, NY stuff. Then Armando's outing got added on. Now some of the tiffs at My Left Wing are thrown into the mix.

I am not much on Meta-tation. To me the internet is a tool like a screwdriver, and I don't spend too much time considering the workings of a screwdriver when I use it. But events are happening that remind me that the internet is NOT just like a screwdriver so much as a telephone or megaphone and that issues that one would think we had learned long ago seem suddenly to be sweeping through the blogsphere.  read more »