BILL MOYERS: As he signed the bill, President Clinton handed the first pen to free market Republican Phil Gramm of Texas, who had worked long and hard to eliminate Glass-Steagall. It was later reported that another pen went to Sandy Weill at Citigroup.

BYRON DORGAN: Somebody ought to track that pen down and destroy it. There’s no honor in what that pen did. I think if you were to rank big mistakes in the history of this country, that was one of the bigger ones because it set back this country in a very significant way and caused so much heartbreak and heartache and a near total collapse of the American economy. And it’s not surprising what happened when we decided to eliminate the rules and provide a green light to say, do whatever you want to do.

It doesn’t — it just shouldn’t have been surprising then, and it’s not surprising to me now that we had a whole lot of interests that, you know, made this look like a bunch of hogs at a slop pail, you know, grunting and shoving to see who could get richer quicker. And that was at the expense of the American people.

Read the whole thing:  Byron Dorgan on Making Banks Play by the Rules | Truthout.

Amazon.com: True Stories: John Goodman, David Byrne, Swoosie Kurtz, Spalding Gray: Movies & TV.  Just watched it. This film still rocks big time.

Kentucky bridge collapses after hit by ship carrying rocket parts – USATODAY.com.

A raahther mundane slideshow/video, I suppose. But I had a pleasant little jaunt with my kitty around our backyard this afternoon. She is the gray and white one–Fleur. The black one is Jones, sitting on Nigel’s Bench. BTW we think Jones is Fleur’s father. But no DNA testing will be done.

U.S. News – Hundreds arrested at Occupy Oakland; protesters break into City Hall.

The trail up Pisgah was pretty muddy in places. But we saw a couple volunteers putting a nice layer of gravel beyond this spot. I don’t know how far they are going to extend the gravel, but it makes the trail much more walkable in wet weather.

It feels like this picture was taken in the early 70s.

We were struck by the layered silhouettes. It reminded me of  layers of torn paper in a basic design class homework assignment.

Then we got to the top and ate cheese sticks and pumpkin seeds on the Sheriff’s Posse Bench while other people hung out near the Jed Kesey Memorial.

Then later, we went to the Tiki Lounge for a big Christmas-Tree-burning party, and the Shook Twins played! …

The Shook Twins!

…And Christmas Trees were burned!

T H E    E N D

The thought of making a new podcast is prominent in my thoughtspace. I actually started picking out songs for a mixtape style podcast this afternoon. I’m drinking red wine. I need a shave. Not right now, a shave. Right now, wine.

So, it’s been a good day. Last weekend I never got outside. It was a sit-inside weekend, and I felt bleary at the end of it. This weekend at least I’ve had today and its outdoor activities and good weather, plus a fair amount of fun.

Occupy Oakland has had a hot night. I saw something on Twitter, and ended up on Greg Mitchell’s page.

Speaking of occupying, the last couple times I checked, 87.5FM was back to UNoccupied.

Our usual trail was apparently renamed since last we hiked!

I can’t find my Kindle Fire. Maybe it fell behind the bed. But I don’t want to wake up Mrs. R with my poking around trying to find it. It can wait. But I was thinking of trying to “sideload” an app that’s not available in the Amazon app store. Supposedly I can download it from the Android Market and then drag-n-drop it over USB connection to my Fire. That would be excellent if it works.