I’m going undercover this week!  I checked into the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C. today and it’s a total ghost town compared to the hustle during CPAC.  This week the Omni will be the site of the lefty America’s Future NOW! conference, which is sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future.  Unlike past conferences, the 2009 conference doesn’t have any huge speakers.  In 2006 and 2007 they had Obama, this year they have David Bonier and Howard Dean. 

The conference begins at 10 a.m. on Monday, June 1.  Some of the panel titles are pretty funny:

The Economy: OMG!

Kick Them When They’re Down? How the Right Plans to Come Back and What Can Be Done About It [Note: the question mark is a recent addition to the title.  I wonder if this was some sort of internal debate.]

A New and Enduring Progressive Majority?

Tackling the Big Money Obstacle to a Progressive Agenda

Big Money and Stray Dogs: Taking On the Folks Who Stand in the Way

Rethinking Afghanistan

Despite boasting up to 3,000 people at past conferences, inside sources tell me that this year’s organizers are only expecting between 550-700 attendees.  Progressive grassroots activists on the march!

Check TheLOTUSBlog.com and on Twitter at @CPACnews for updates throughout the conference.  LOTUS, JOTUS and Buddha Riggs want to know — are the grassroots greener on the other side?

 UPDATE: Buddha Riggs spots Vice President of U.S. Steelworkers in the hotel bar.

Actor and director Robert Davi recently wrote in The Washington Times about his family, Memorial Day, and the importance of teaching children about about our military’s heroes.  While many kids know everything about “going green,” few know about America’s military and why we celebrate holidays like Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day.

This Memorial Day, I had the honor of being part of the program at this cemetery. joining Robert Forster, Jon Voight, David Horowitz, Bill Sachs and Maj. Gen. JamesW. Comstock. The general had asked all to remember the first time he or she understood or felt patriotic. As I sat waiting my turn to speak, I reflected on mine. My father was a Navy gunner on a merchant marine ship during World War II. His ship was torpedoed in the Pacific, and he was in the water for three days. He lost some of his close friends and was awarded the Purple Heart.

My earliest recollections of my dad were that on every Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day until the day he died at age 57, he wore his Navy uniform and raised the flag in our front yard. I remember his solemn pride on those days. He also upset my mother a bit because he still fit in his uniform and had not gained any weight over the years. And, well, she had.

Click here to read more about Davi’s plan to go red, white and blue.

Via The Jawa Report:

(New Delhi, India) A seer told an Indian father, who has seven daughters, that he would have a son if he quit bathing. Therefore, Kailash “Kalau” Singh quit bathing. That was in 1974. Yes, 63-year-old Kalau has not bathed for 35 years.

Instead of bathing and brushing his teeth, Kalau performs a “fire bath” every evening.

               He stands on one leg beside a bonfire, smokes marijuana and says prayers to Lord Shiva ….

               “It’s just like using water to take a bath,” Kalau was reported as saying. “A fire bath helps kill germs and infection in the body.”

LOTUS didn’t realize that guestblogger Buddha Riggs wanted a son so badly.

The following are excerpts from a news article on KFC’s coupon debacle.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering a free, two-piece grilled chicken meal with two sides and a biscuit as part of a promotion to get more people to eat healthier foods…

Shannon Edwards said she walked in the rain to a KFC on St. Paul Street but was turned away.

“I’m a big girl. I like to eat. So, I’m kind of disappointed I have to go to McDonald’s now,” she said.

If you haven’t read anything by Jen Lancaster, then we aren’t friends.  However, you could use the excuse that you wanted to read her books in chronological order.  While her other books take place during adulthood, her newest book, Pretty in Plaid is childhood stories from ’80s.  So, you are forgiven if you buy it and immediately start reading it.  I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy, which I have been saving for my vacation in July.  I don’t know if it will go untouched until then.

For perhaps the first time ever, the New  York Times is totally accurate.  Here’s an excerpt from their review of Pretty in Plaid:

In Pretty in Plaid, Jen Lancaster reveals how she developed the hubris that perpetually gets her into trouble. Using fashion icons of her youth to tell her hilarious and insightful stories, readers will meet the girl she used to be.

Think Jen Lancaster was always “like David Sedaris with pearls and a super-cute handbag?” (Jennifer Coburn) Think again. She was a badge-hungry Junior Girl Scout with a knack for extortion, an aspiring sorority girl who didn’t know her Coach from her Louis Vuitton, and a budding executive who found herself bewildered by her first encounter with a fax machine. In this humorous and touching memoir, Jen Lancaster looks back on her life—and wardrobe—before bitter was the new black and shows us a young woman not so very different than the rest of us.

The author who showed us what it was like to wait in line at the unemployment office with a Prada bag, how living in the city can actually suck, and that losing weight can be fun with a trainer named Barbie and enough Ambien is ready to take you on a hilarious and heartwarming trip down memory lane in her shoes (and very pretty ones at that).

Don’t miss her book signing at a city near you!

(Didn’t that sorta sound like the end of a Reading Rainbow book review?  Da da da dunt!)

I’ll never forget the first time I saw him. We met on the Internet in 1999 and I fell for him instantly. He had the most beautiful brown eyes. Then he was just known as number 81 by the Washington D.C. Humane Society. He was a beagle and chocolate lab mix. The adoption process took a bit of time. I had only met him once, but I fought for him. He was in a short-term foster home that didn’t seem to want to give him up despite having me go through the process. Four days before Christmas I showed up unannounced and took my Buster home.

Buster was more than just a pet. He was my companion and best friend. I had him for almost nine years before he passed away last September. He suffered from a heart murmur for many years and as he got older his heart problems worsened. Any time he needed an EKG, x-ray or new medication, my wallet, heart and mind were open to the possibility that it could extend our time together. My finances took a heavy toll, but he lived a comfortable six months longer than the veterinarian predicted.

I am so thankful that I was able to take care of him until the end. It might have been too much of a financial burden for another owner. Given that there are over 80 million homes that have a dog or cat, there are millions of pets that will be in the same situation as my Buster. I recently learned that there is a proposal that can ease the financial costs of our companions.

Click here to read the rest of my Townhall column.

Click here to read a response from my libertarian friend, Trevor Bothwell at the Washington Examiner.

Last night Ann Coulter spoke at Columbia University in New York.  She commented that she never expected to get as warm a welcome as another recent Columbia speaker, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Since I used to travel with Coulter to many of her campus speeches, I enjoy reading the local coverage following the event.  The Columbia Spectator gave a mostly fair portrayal of what Coulter said during her speech.  However, one line did jump out at me:

Coulter went on to criticize Barack Obama’s presidency in light of his recent completion of the first 100 days of his tenure.

President Obama gets an A just for participating!  I can only imagine that the reporter was educated in a modern public school that has been overrun with esteem-building activities.  It reminds me of the people that try out for American Idol, sing horribly and then question the judges by saying, “But I tried really hard and I really want this!”  Better luck next time “Cate Lynn” (or some variation of).  Try running on the Democratic ticket instead!