Last Saturday evening I slapped together a quick diary called Tonight's Sunset. I was very surprised. Thank you much for putting it on the Recommend Diary list.

So tonight I'm posting the highlights of the week;

If you would like to take a look at my little obsession hen below the fold  is what I saw from my Bronx window this week.

I really enjoyed the sunset tonight. Usually I post sunset photos in Top Comments but there are just too many to choose from tonight.

So if you would like to see the view from my window this evening than check out the fifteen photos below.

Hello and welcome to my second annual hijacking of Got a Happy Story to tell a story of ecstasy and share many photos from Netroots Nation. This is still a place for you to say what is making you happy and please chime in below in the comments about whatever is making you happy.

I'm coming off a very happy week.

I actually met the founder of this series and to prove to Carnacki that I actually get that this is happy story not happy photo, I'll start off with and end with happy stories in between my photo bomb.

Just a note, all of the thumbnails expand to bigger photos when you click on them and I name names.

Last week I tried to start something around here. I thought a community action diary about the letters we write would be a handy item and a great reference tool. An open thread for issues an how we approach the media, elected officials, action networks and even each other.

In my first effort last week I decided to share none of my letters because I had hoped to make the Correspondence Clearinghouse about you. I had hoped you would look at this as your diary, a place to point out your efforts.

This week on the day after returning from Netroots Nation I am filled with gratitude and I do have a letter to share. Today I felt it was necessary to say thank you.

Hello Everyone. I'm sitting here with some wonderful people who are planning to pack boxes for the troops at one o'clock. I may get deputized at two and help register new Texas Voters.

There are many of us here and we've left an impression already;

CNN mentioned us today but not for Netroots Nation. A fun comment by ignatz uk got mentioned by the American Mornings grammar police. Wow, it just doesn't get any worser than CNN.

It doesn't get any better that the company I am keeping here.

Good evening and welcome to a first edition of a nice little place to reprint letters you have sent to elected officials, media outlets, bureaucracies and fellow activist. You could really place anything here or even ask for help with a letter your are trying to compose.

I don't know how many will agree but I feel that most letters we send to elected officials just generate a form letter and nothing more. A reprint here and a reply from fellow concerned citizens may just make those letter seem a bit less ephemeral.

Mostly this diary is about an exchange of ideas and a place to preserve the letters we have sent. This is an action page since seeing the letters of others can inspire more letters. I can't think of a better place to receive an intelligent responses than here.  

Perhaps you've sent a letter to your local newspaper and you would like input form your fellow Kossacks. If the newspaper printed the letter then include a link. If it got passed over then this is your second chance.

I don't know how popular this series will be but it will be here every Monday. If you have an action that you would like placed in this little soapbox, just forward your correspondence and an explanation to;

ActionThoughts(at)gmail(dot)com

I don't know how this happened. I'm still not sure why it happened but I'm celebrating anyway. Of the many gains that can be found here writing diaries is a great hobby for a blue collar working stiff like myself because it activates my rapidly dimming brain.

This week when sardonyx offered a quick and easy method of counting both comments and diaries in Top Comments: Meteor Blades on Daily Kos, part 1, I checked my stats and saw 248! Since I posted A Simple Action to get those Electric Cars Rolling yesterday, that makes this diary the Big 250!

I don't know how to celebrate. How about a few photos from my Happy Walk on Tuesday?

I'm sure you've heard that New York City can get pretty wild. The wild photos in this diary come from a park in my neighborhood. Sometimes I have trouble believing that Van Cortlandt Park is in the Big Apple.  

In Cars After The Age of Oil where the question was asked "how you will get around after the Oil Age, kossacks?" it sure looks like the free market is finally taking action.

It is time to start planning for the coming age and to get our government interested in this new era too. There are many actions that should be taken at every level of government.

Since so many of the suburbs have grown into multiple dwelling units, many Americans who would be able to commute to work without burning a drop of gasoline will end up having no place to plug in their new automobiles and the time for that action is now.  

In this free market multiple dwelling units will not invest in installing electric outlets at tenant parking spaces. While it it certain that these actions will be taken in co-ops and condominiums someday, that day will be a long time coming and rental tenants who have no say will never see that day without government assistance.

In order to fill the promise of lowered emissions and lessened dependence on foreign oil our government has to start incentives to get landlords, and condominium boards installing electric outlets at tenants' and shareholders' parking spaces.

I woke up this morning thinking about a relative.  A middle aged woman who fresh out of collage took a job in hospital administration and for years has been filling my ears with horror stories. Stories like steering near elderly and nearly bankrupt couples to a reverse mortgage so they can continue treatment.

Today she is celebrating a demotion. Less pay and more work but from now on she will only have to deal with foreigners who come here for elective surgery. Through applying for and receiving this demotion a huge weight has been lifted from her shoulders and the atrocious acts that were making her miserable will no longer effect her lifestyle.

There is a way too courteous war being fought in this nation. The war wages on between a large group of advocates that want to insure sanity in the way Americans receive healthcare and a much smaller gang of thugs that are looking to continue collecting corporate campaign donations from the medical industry.

Often times the many companies and people who actually perform these many despicable acts against middle class Americans take the brunt for performing their stated missions. Why is that?

Hello everyone and welcome to my absentee version of this short Friday evening break from the big bad world.

Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in!

Considering that it has been close to a year of freelancing in a demanding Friday evening business, I've been doing pretty well with showing up here. There was the Yearly Kos photo diary that sobermom needed to post for me because I was working a spotlight at Phantom and we had to swap a few times.

I had planned to write a review of last week's AFI's 10 Top 10, a little competition with Friday Night at the Movies but now I don't have time. So for tonight, as I'm dressed in a black suite listening to some summer classics, I'll just list those Top 10 in 10 categories because movies are a happy story for me.

I hope you can enjoy this hostless dairy, tell us how you feel about those movies and share a few happy stories of your own. I'll be back at 11 to add a thing or two and mojo you up.    

'It Is Clear Most People Regard This as a Serious Privacy Invasion'

From Senate panel questions border agents' seizure of laptops

U.S. border agents are copying and seizing the contents of laptops, cell phones and digital cameras from U.S. and foreign travelers entering the United States, witnesses told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday.

The extent of this practice is unknown despite requests to the Department of Homeland Security from the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution and several nonprofit agencies.

The department also declined to send a representative to the hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Homeland Security had told him that its "preferred" witness was unavailable Wednesday.

My hair brained schemes don't often do well and my diary from yesterday got a grand total of two comments. The last time I came up with something a second post was a learning experience for me so let me do it one more time.

Yesterday's post was an action idea. It is not that I feel I deserve your response but I'm not sure if it was judged unworthy of your time or just went unnoticed. Perhaps it does represent a naive action but even if it is a complete failure, it still sounds to me like something that should be worth a comment or two to set me straight.

I don't pretend to be some genius who has all the answers. With the all of the mendacity I've been fed from elected officials on both sides of the aisle and a cut rate corporate media I'm not even sure what the questions are anymore. But there is one thing that I do know. The American government is very broken and a Democratic majority did very little to fix it.

At least give the quote box below the fold a read and consider how much more electable a candidate would seem to voters if such a speech was offered.  

First things first. Why don't you use the comments section of this diary to post the letters you have sent to elected officials last week. That way you will have the satisfaction of knowing that someone has actually read your opinions and pleas.

in a representative government the ordinary people who do attempt to have voice in government should represent the conscience of the nation but that is not the case.

Politicians imagining the wants of the totally uninvolved is nothing new. Do you remember Nixon's "Silent Majority?" It seems that since then, in the transition from old snail mail to the electronic age communications between the people and elected officials has gone even further downhill. They don't even need to imagine a silent majority anymore.

As technology has changed and our elected officials rely more and more on the internet why hasn't the voice of the people found a place on those webpages? What would happen if we could force a little "Light of Day" from our Democratic leadership?

There is room for vast communication improvements and we the Progressive Bloggers may just be able to force those moves to come to fruition. While it would certainly be slow goings and met with great resistance, the fruit of such labor may be very sweet.

Hello and how's this for an odd topic? I like to post sunset photos in Top Comments whenever I'm home but tonight's was especially fine.

If you can use a little break from politics then below the fold is tonight's  sunset in five acts.

Hello everyone. After turning on Keith Olbermann and hearing about the death of Tim Russert the happy story I had planned seem so inappropriate. Tim Russert is a sad loss and it just doesn't seem right to post happy.  I'll post it two weeks from now and perhaps someone else has something happy to add.

Got a Happy Story is a community gathering every Friday night where we share stories large and small that have put a smile on our face.  It is a time to acknowledge the joy and wonder we experience.  The Happy Story diary exists as a way to anchor the community in hope and comfort while we do the hard work of taking back our country. Everyone and all sorts of stories and pictures are welcome. May we find joy and strength here.

Here's tonight's sunset;

May he rest in Peace.  

There is a very positive story in today's L.A.Times, California legislators revive plans to expand healthcare insurance.

The bills would require insurers to spend at least 85% of their earnings on patient care; block insurers from canceling policies of patients who need extensive care; and force them to cover more procedures, such as maternity services.

Over the objections of the major doctor and hospital lobbies, the Assembly approved a measure backed by Schwarzenegger that would require medical providers to publicly reveal their costs and medical performance.

With the insurers already spending 22% on administrative cost, a bill that would protect Californians from being dropped will also hinder influence peddling. With hospital books opened and secrets revealed, in addition to pointing out their administrative waste the uninsured will be be given a chance to renegotiate.

On this Super Tuesday with the upcoming unification of the Democrat Party, this story probably won't get much focus but the details are very good.  

Got a Happy Story is a community gathering every Friday night where we share stories large and small that have put a smile on our face.  It is a time to acknowledge the joy and wonder we experience.  The Happy Story diary exists as a way to anchor the community in hope and comfort while we do the hard work of taking back our country. Everyone and all sorts of stories and pictures are welcome. May we find joy and strength here.

Tonight’s entry is not about fast jets and military power Tonight I'm all about an ephemeral rockabilly band that I was lucky enough to discover in my youth. Last week when emeraldmadian wrote a Top Comments diary  about songs that stick, I started waxing nostalgic about my finding a wonderful young singer back when she was in a bar band.

This is nowhere near as impressive as the entire population of New Jersey in my age group that somehow squeezed into the Stone Pony to see Bruce Springsteen before he made it big. Actually it not really that impressive at all but the fond memories had me listening to old songs all week from this band I once followed and remembering the good old days. Those memories improved my week.

This may seem like a luxury problem compared with the 47 million walking around like time bombs to financial ruin or much worse. The words of Pete Stark sums up this nation's attitude toward the people;

"Our nation has more people in jail than anywhere else in the world in its effort to combat crime," Stark said. "Yet, we allow 47 million people to go without health insurance—which translates into going without needed medical care—each year. It’s time to take action and combat the real killer in our country—the lack of universal health care."

While there are many reasons the U.S. ranks 45th in life expectancy this unseen group of middle aged Americans contribute to that lowered expectation. A study by Families USA ranked lack of insurance as the third leading cause of death for people between 55 and 64 years.