New York -- The city that never sleeps
But quivers long into the night
bloodshot eyes staring off at nothing.

New York -- that polyglottal city
filled with strange smells and sights
and a certain tawdy splendid glory

New York -- Did you really think to contain her?
To purify, gentrify that grand old lady
of lust and lucre?

New York -- returned, retracted, reborn
Elite and poor, mixed together
A melting pot

New York -- turbans and kipas
strip shows and bare ankles
the City of Sin.

Welcome home, Gotham.

There's more...

In one of the diaries someone posted a comment that the netroots can't define for themselves what it is that we want from the Democratic party and its elected officials. It was with that in mind that I put together this brief list, er, wish list. Please feel free to add anything you'd like to see coming from the Democratic party and its candidates.

Policies

• National commitment to the Energy Apollo Project, to curtail, if not end, our dependence on fossil fuels -- I'd also like to see more exploration on alternative energy sources
• No US forces in Iraq, no permanent basis the country
• Rebuild and regain the trust of our nation's military after the catastrophic abuse of the past six years
• As an aside, and as someone that served in the military, I'd like to see a mandatory -- yes, mandatory -- military service period for every American after completing high school for a two year period. (Conscientious objectors could serve in non-combat units that are not required to undergo any direct weapons training -- our nation must commit to an ideal wherein war must be a shared sacrifice, across the board, period.)

(Of course there's more...)

There's more...

This is pretty upsetting... unfortunately, if it were up to social conservatives and to the republican party, ideally (from their point of view), one day the United States will exist under a similar anti-privacy regiment as El Salvador:

Ever imagine what it might be like to live in a place that voted to thoroughly criminalize abortion? A place that sent abortion providers to jail? That policed hospitals? That investigated a woman's uterus? Welcome to 21st-century El Salvador, the state of anti-abortion.

This is how a New York Times photo gallery introduces us to a series of dramatic black and white shots, with equally dramatic and even more moving captions. For example:

The Incarcerated: Carla Herrara, 11, clutches pictures of her mother, Carmen Climaco, who was given 30 years for an abortion that was ruled a homicide.

There's more...