Gimpin with MacPorts

I want to blog about this and I realize that I basically never write about anything but politics anymore, so it’s kind of weird and out of place. Oh well.

I found out recently about this cool gimp plugin I wanted to try. I use a precompiled Mac version of The Gimp, called “Gimp.app.” I tried to use the various goodies inside it to compile the plugin, with no success. I’d have to compile my own copy of the Gimp to get it to work. And that way lies madness… so many dependencies, so many things that could go wrong… no, wait! I can always use MacPorts! MacPorts is a project to maintain an interdependent system of open source software packages that compile correctly together on OS X. The gimp is available there.

But it wouldn’t compile. I discovered that I’d let my install of macports get pretty out of date. I had to update MacPorts itself, and then do upgrades of all my installed software to the various latest and greatest versions. I had trouble installing one package, sqlite3, because I had installed a copy of it by hand, separately from macports, at one time, and there were a couple files left over interfering with building the new one.

Sadly the version of the Gimp included in macports seems to have a lot of requirements, all kinds of gnome stuff. (I learned just now that you can build it using a “without_gnome” variant. Too late. All the dependencies are already built. Oh well. :)

All this for a silly little plugin…

Impeach Bush For Peace » Kucinich to Force Impeachment Vote on the House Floor

Impeach Bush For Peace » Kucinich to Force Impeachment Vote on the House Floor:

This bombshell just dropped by Rep. Dennis Kucinich on the Ed Schultz show. Kucinich is considering forcing an impeachment vote on a “privileged resolution” on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

GO DENNIS.

Time to call your representative and let him/her know that you will not support any candidate who doesn’t support accountability and the rule of law.

You can reach the Capitol switchboard toll-free at 1-800-426-8073.

Vern Ehlers’ Blow-Off-The-Insignificant-Liberal-Constituents Squad Isn’t Even Trying Anymore

So, I contacted Vern Ehlers again to express my views on, you know, everything. Like, how he could vote for the impeachment of Bill Clinton but not Cheney or Bush. How we should get the hell out of Iraq right now. The usual.

Of course, I got a form letter back which betrayed no awareness of anything I had written. But apparently the crack Liberal Constituent Blow-Off Squadron hasn’t even learned to use their “Constituent Mass Blowoff” software correctly…

blowoff.jpg

Clinton: Cut Iraq Funding To Force Change (!!!!)

Clinton: Cut Iraq Funding To Force Change, Hillary Clinton Says U.S. Troops Can’t “Referee” A Civil War In Iraq – CBS News:

(CBS) Congress should stop funding the Iraq war to force President Bush and the Iraqi government to “change course,” Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said Sunday on Face The Nation.

“No matter how heroically and dedicated the performance of our young men and women and their officers are in Iraq – which it has been – they cannot referee successfully a sectarian civil war,” Clinton told Bob Schieffer. “So I voted against funding last spring. I will vote against funding again in the absence of any change in policy.”

Mrs. Clinton, you have my attention.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of a trend.