an open letter to God

Dear God,

Please just make the timeline of the universe skip forward to Wednesday. I don't think the United States can take another day of this election cycle. We're about to start killing each other.

Thank you,
kyle.

pathetic humans

So I somehow got stuck taking care of the trick or treaters tonight as my parents both had to work, my brother had a party, and my party doesn't begin until 10 o'clock or so (I am getting sooo wasted tonight). Anyway, as it all started around 5:15 or so, I noticed a car parked out on the street in front of my parent's house (not at all a usual thing). I figured it was a parent driving their kid door to dorr and thought it stupid and lazy. Then I saw another and decided I'd write on here and bitch about the laziness...but then it kept happening...I lost count of the cars.

For every two kids that knocked on the door, there was a car. I'm not kidding. And for every ten cars that were just trailing the kids, there was a kid who got in the car between houses. Now, this is one of those neighborhoods raised from old farmland out of the old city limits sort of suburbia...but not one of the glam half-million-dollar-houses ones, just yards two houses wide with the house in the middle...hardly enough to warrant driving, even if it is a little cool, a little windy, and the very slightest of drizzles in the air. This is plain sloth we're talking about here for parents to feel a need to drive their SUVs around to watch their kids.

I mean, I hate to pull out a "in my day" here, but I almost have to. In my day (and therefore in the day of these parents), parents got on their walking shoes and took their kids around until the kids were old enough to go out with a moderate sized group of friends that prohibited both psycho-pedophile-kidnappers from doing their thing, and created a visible group for passing cars (not that a flashlight or two held by one or more kids wouldn't make visibility a non-issue too). But no. We gotta drive...then bitch about taxes and oil prices.

It's sad and pathetic.

new sponsor

Today's news is brought to you by George W. Bush's total abandonment of the chief objective of the War on Terror™:

"I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him."
- George W. Bush (March 13, 2002)

The simple fact of the matter is, had Dubya not pulled troops out of Afghanistan to pursue his Mesopotamian wet dreams, we'd have caught the man long ago. But no, that didn't happen and so he lives still...long enough to tape videos and have them broadcast on Al Jazeera.

ch-ch-changes

I was home alone tonight, on a Friday, and I didn't feel too bad about it. I happened to look at my phone's received phonecalls and noticed that I've had only ten in thirteen days, and it didn't leave me feeling abandoned. I brought back my family's popcans and bottles and found only a few of the RC and Coke two-liters that indicate how much pop I'm drinking, and it's good to see I've managed to cut waaaaaay back. Yesterday, I e-mailed a friend to tell her how much I appreciate her, and I didn't feel self-conscious about expressing my feelings. Yesterday, I spent the day starting to get things ready for school, rather than waiting for the very last minute like I might otherwise have. During the last project I worked on, I resisted the temptation to always ask everyone what was so funny/interesting/whatever like I always have. For weeks, I have bit my tongue more than half the time I've wanted to make a stupid joke that no one would find funny anyways.

Despite how I may try to ruffle my feathers on this here blog (and in real life) from time to time, I am not generally a very proud person. I am proud, though, that I have been able to change myself as much as I have over these last two months...especially in the last couple weeks. I think I deserve that pride. It's been work, it always is when you try to combat your deficiencies.

*exactly*

A Bush quote from a stump speech:

"A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as commander in chief."

Anyone want to invade Iraq?

zogby on the daily show

I'm watching the Daily Show right now and pollster John Zogby is on, and has told Jon Stewart that he believes John Kerry will win, for the reason that I have stated...that undecideds break for the non-incumbant and Bush isn't polling all that well for a sitting president.

I also find it interesting that the polls from 2000 showed Bush winning the popular vote by as much as 5% before Gore took the popular vote by 0.5% in the end. Again, an underestimation of Democrats showing up on election day (and we weren't quite so pissed off then...heck, I was a Nader voter).

thank you president bush

"No, my fellow countrymen you are guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. You are as guilty as Bush and Cheney. You're as guilty as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and Powell," he says in what he calls his message to America. "After decades of American tyranny and oppression, now it's your turn to die. Allah willing, the streets of America will run red with blood matching drop for drop the blood of America's victims."

It really sounds like you got 'em on the run, and it sounds like they respect your authority too. Great job.

a thirty pound eye for an eye

A new scientific study has concluded that around 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of our invasion. That number doesn't include Falluja however, as it's too dangerous to go in there, which could possibly raise the number to 200,000. This is way bigger than the 15,000 that Iraq Body Count reports, but also not relient on two separate news agencies reporting each death individually.

I think it's great. The Terrorists™ attack us on our own turf, killing 3000 of our people. We use those 3000 deaths to justify an invasion of a soveriegn nation that had nothing to do with their deaths and kill 100,000 of their innocent civilians in turn. Not only that, but we interrupt the delicate balance of peace that existed in the region which now threatens to turn into all-out civil war, dragging the entire Arabic-speaking world into chaos which will inevitably lead to chaos throughout the world. Yes, God (and definitely not the other guy) is truly on our side.

Fuck. We truly deserve whatever punishment God has lined up for us.

more lies

If you've seen the new Bush ad featuring a pack of wolves meant to represent the terrorists that would sneak in if Kerry is elected. Aside from the general fear-mongering that is the staple of the Bush re-election campaign, perhaps you've noticed the undisguised half-lie in it...perhaps you're one of the retard riff-raff that inhabit this country and don't care that Bush is pulling this shit off.

The voice-over in the ad says this:

In an increasingly dangerous world…
Even after the first terrorist attack on America…
John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to slash America’s intelligence operations.
By 6 billion dollars…
Cuts so deep they would have weakened America’s defenses.
And weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm.

Note the phrase "after the first terrorist attack on America" which is more than likely meant to make the viewer think of the 9/11 attacks that Bush talks about over and over and over and over again and, well you get the point. He has never talked about the Cole bombing in 2000, the embassy bombings in 1998, or even the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center that this may very well be referring to. The only attack that Bush brings up is the 9/11 attacks and the ad is vague enough to imply that that is what it's talking about.

After this attack, which the viewer is presumed is the 9/11 attack, it is said that Kerry "and the liberals in Congress" voted to decrease funding by $6 billion...this, of course, an attempt to make people think that Kerry tried to cut intelligence funding after the 9/11 attacks.

The $6 billion vote, however, took place in 1994 after the first attack on the WTC. It's right there on the screen. I doubt many people have noticed. Not only is the ad misleading in that context, but it is so in that that $6 billion was to occur over six years and would account for a dinky amount of the overall intelligence budget that had been overblown during those last years of the cold war.

Yes, the cold war. Remember that? Remember how the Soviet Union sort of fizzled away in the early ninties, making an intelligence system designed to spy on the it rather outdated and, in a lot of ways, excessive? Yeah. That's why this vote is sort of misleading as well...Republicans and Democrats were both on board for these cuts.

Fuck it. I'm just so sick of this bullshit that the Bush administration is doing, pulling votes out of context and trying to scare people with them. Yes, the Kerry campaign is stretching numbers and the like too, but nothing to this extent.

All I want is a president with a little integrity and honesty. Is that too much to ask?

political irony

Remember how Dick and Lynne Cheney threw a hissy-fit because John Kerry had the "audacity" to mention their daughter's name in the third debate in his attempt to explain his position on homosexuality's choice-status? You know how Bush is currently invoking the names of John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt to claim that Kerry doesn't carry the Democratic torch that they did?

Yeah. That's pissing off JFK's daughter, Caroline Schlossburg. It seems to me that she has a point, and it's pretty dirty of Bush to be doing so after all that post-debate crap...especially considering that was just a one time, spur of the moment, deal while Bush's comments are now a part of the stump speech he makes seventeen times a day.

I don't expect him to stop it though...it just doesn't seem presidential in the way that the word "presidential" has come to mean in the past three and a half years.

a request for dubya

Please shut the hell up. You are full of it and you are hurting America with your bullshit. You are polarizing the country to its extremes, pushing all the crazies into the corners as you create a mad rush for moderation. That's not good. The nation's gonna pop. Soon.

Not only that, but you are pissing off enough of the Middle East to put us in even more danger of terrorism than we ever were. 380 tons of explosives are in the hands of the terrorists now because of your lousy planning (the war was meant to prevent the terrorists from getting that shit, wasn't it?). That guy Zarqawi has gone from being so off the radar the CIA thought he was dead before the war, to being resposnible for the deaths of American troops, Iraqi civilians, and the beheadings that are all the rage.

So please just go away and never come back. That'd be good. That'd be sweet. Just go. Go far, far away.

happiness pie

I got my acceptence letter today for my master's program. I will be starting in January. I will also be receiving an allowance of $1350 a month for living expenses which means I will be able to move out of my parents' basement.

This is all good news.

And yes, the title for this thread is a reference to The Kids in the Hall (in case you were wondering).

non news ho hum

Ashlee Simpson is a lip syncher... *yawn*

Imagine that, a teenypop so-called "musician" that just happens to be the younger sister of another teenypop so-called musician that's already made it big is not all that.

Oh, I'm so shocked. The video's kinda funny though...the way she just sort of storms off-stage.

election prediction: part two

An article in today's LA Times (requires registration) supports my claim that both younger and newer voters tend to be leaning heavily towards Kerry:

Nationwide, at least two polls in the last week showed that newly registered voters favored Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry by double-digit margins. The Massachusetts senator holds an even greater lead, the polls found, among voters 29 and younger, many of whom will be voting for the first time.

The article also supports my claim that cell phone only voters would tend to vote more heavily for Kerry: "A New York-based television consulting firm randomly questioned 1,225 voters over the Internet and concluded that 'cell-only' voters favored Kerry by 53% to 38%."

However, the LA Times does quote Gary Langer, the ABC News polling director, as saying that there aren't enough cell-only users to make a difference, though his number of such people (3.6% overall and 6.8% of younger people) seem quite low.

In any case, if you're interested in this stuff, it's a good read. I wanted to post something about it though because it offers some references that I couldn't find when I wrote that essay yesterday.

random rant time

I just clicked a link to this feminist article and it makes me pissed off as hell. It is utter bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit as modern over-the-top feminism often is. From the article:

Men do not care if females are their equals everywhere as long as they stay the "superiors -- the ones in charge, the ones on top -- in the bedroom." Cat calls, sexual innuendos and rape -– disturbingly present at this University -- represents the claim by men to superiority.

I consider myself a moderate feminist in that I believe in the equality of men and women, boys and girls. I strive to not treat women as sex objects and instead as people just as me. I don't care if it's in the bedroom or not...I never put myself out to be a "superior". I am sick and fucking tired of hearing this shit spew from feminists because I and my almost 28 years of loneliness am living proof that the female gender is just fine at saying that they want this sort of thing, but completely unable to accept it when they see it. Instead I am told that I'm "unassertive" or "too shy" or otherwise told by women that it's unattractive to not be (or at least act like I am) in a position of control in a relationship.

Fucking-A.

(and yes, this is edited to remove the vitriol that was here because it wasn't right enough...in case you notice the difference)

But while I'm at it, I may as well vent my general frustrations right here, right now.

1. I am fucking sick and tired of my step-mom's over-the-top passive-aggressiveness. It is one thing to make the occasional snide comment to make a point or whatever, but to do so as your primary means of communication is bad. Very bad.

2. I am sick of worrying that my father is going to be dead within the next ten years because he eats three servings of meat and nothing else for practically every meal, chooses to drive to visit the neighbors a quarter-mile down the road instead of walks, and refuses to visit any doctor anywhere despite the fact that he's over fifty and has cancer in the family history.

3. I am also rather sick and tired of discovering all these annoying little traits that I share with my father. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad to death, but I do not want to travel down the same road of life that he has...something I've found myself doing for the last three or four years. The timidity, the annoyingness, the passiveness, the lack of drive, the apathy about life is just not something that I want to carry on in my life anymore.

4. I am sick of the fucking presidential campaign. Both sides are becoming more ridiculous by the day and given my insane hatred of George W. Bush, I can't handle it anymore. My aorta is going to burst.

5. I don't know.

more ebay fun

This is looking to be romantic in a backwards British comedy sort of way. Yesterday, Twinklydog posted this:

Most of you have hit the nail on the head, you know. I still love the old dog, despite what she did to me. And, thanks to the Colchester Massiv’s “Honk if you’re Twinklydog’s Dog” campaign, she got in touch this morning and we’ve had a good chat. It’s a bit of a gamble, but I’m going to pull the auction, go to Aberdeen and see whether she’ll put a stop to this sham of a wedding and marry me instead. Hope you understand. The cab’s outside, I’ve got to go.

Anyway, it's worth the read. (I have no idea if it's real or a publicity stunt)

election predictions

A couple weeks ago, the day of the last debate, I made the prediction that Kerry would win the election on November 2nd by 4-6%. I am still standing on that prediction and, in fact, think it may be low. Here's why:

Polls are showing that Bush and Kerry are swapping lead back and forth, both within the margin of error. This shows that the polls are, on average, at a dead heat. If you take all of them, averaging out their responses, you will find that the lead is swaying back and forth between the two with a rather consistent "undecided" number around 7%, Nader getting around 1%, and (when included, which isn't often) the other candidates sharing another 1%. This bodes well for Kerry on several levels (some of which I've mentioned).

First, polling companies are being left behind by changes in technology. All of the ones that we read about rely exclusively on phone-based polling which itself relies on publically listed directories to pull numbers out to call. Currently, however, as many as 7.5 million Americans use wireless phones exclusively. That's 6% of Americans and 14% of young Americans who are left out of the polls -- a figure that is well outside the margin of error of most polls. Add on those that use internet-based phones, have unlinsted numbers, or no phone at all, and you have an even bigger problem. Add on top of that the 4 million expat Aericans that are voting in record numbers from overseas this year and the skew is even more profound.

This issue helps Kerry in that younger voters are more likely to embrace these new communication technologies, as are single people (I would find it hard for a house with children to operate solely wireless) and younger people tend to vote more Democratically (us kids are more liberal than conservative as has been the case throughout history). Foreigners also tend to be more liberal and also -- in this election especially given the circumstances -- surrounded by the teeming masses of un-Americans that hate Bush, seeing a different perspective that we can't get here thanks to our bullshit "news" agencies. In any case, all of this adds up to a huge chunk of Kerry's demographic being highly underrepresented in the polls...I would not be surprised to see this add up to at least a 1-2% "catch-up" to Bush on Kerry's part come election day.

Second, the polling companies are using outdated presumptions of who will turn out on November 2. The Gallup Poll, for instance, uses numbers that suggest that 40% of those that turn out will be Republican and only 33% Democrat. As John Zogby has pointed out himself, this is completely misrepresentative of recent history which suggests a pretty even split of Reps, Dems, and Independents over the last 12 years. This adds up to issues such as my recent finding of a poll that showed Kerry leading by 2 points among registered voters but losing by 7 points among likely voters (I can't remember where I saw it so I can't link...I want to though).

Not only does this fly in the face of history, but I think it overlooks more trends in American society. It is generally presumed (and rightfully so, unfortunately) that liberals are much more apathetic about voting. The Republican demographics of suburban families, the rich, and the evangelical always get out to vote while the Democratic demographics of the young, minorities, and the poor tend to have to psyched up to get out. I think that the polling companies are misjudging how psyched up the Democratic demos are. Fahrenheit 911 911, for instance, brought in $120 million at the box office this summer, five or six times as much as any documentary ever, driven much by a hatred of Bush that is pulsing through this country.

Furthermore, new registrations to vote in elections against an incumbant tend to mean either a general disdain for the occupant of the White House or in an effort to support one of those candidates that galvanizes the country and inspires people to vote when they otherwise wouldn't. I don't think that either of these guys is anywhere close to meeting the criteria to be in that second category, so I can't help but feel that the record numbers of new registrations (many places reporting a 10% increase over 2000) is a sign of people wanting to remove the incumbant and doing what they need to do in that effort. All of this could lead to an extra boost to Kerry on election day.

Third, and lastly, what could be called the Incumbant Rule also favors Kerry. As I mentioned, there are currently something like 7% of voters that remain "undecided" and even Frank Lunz is admitting that many of those will, in the end, head to Kerry as they are more undecided about the incumbant rather than undecided in general...that is, they are looking for a reason to re-elect, but aren't finding it, which tends to lead to a majority of them going to the challenger. As Polling Report shows in their pie chart, the majority of undecideds go to the challenger 86% of the time:



What Kerry can look at then is for around two-thirds of those that remain undecided to fall his way on election day. In other words, with the current 7% remaining undecided, Kerry may very well see a 4.5% increase in his numbers while Bush only sees a rise of 2%. Kerry pulling a 2% "catch-up" here too.

So all in all, I am going to maintain my prediction that Kerry will pull off a 4-6% win in the popular vote (that big a popular vote win undoubtedly leading to an electoral victory, even though Kerry seems to be generally leading there in the polls even without these facts). I would not be surprised either if that lead is even bigger than that.

Oh well, it's all a guessing game at this point anyway so I could very well be wrong. But I gotta put all those stupid poli sci classes I took in college to work sometime, right?

a british perspective

Charlie Brooker of the Guardian wrote a column today that I can't help but speaks for most of the non-US (or US-occupied) world...and for much of us here (I know I'm included). It's well worth checking out and you should (all these links are to the column so you don't need to click each of them...just trying to make sure people read it), but here are some high points:

Quite frankly, [Bush is] either wired or mad. If it's the former, he should be flung out of office: tarred, feathered and kicked in the nuts. And if it's the latter, his behaviour goes beyond strange, and heads toward terrifying. He looks like he's listening to something we can't hear. He blinks, he mumbles, he lets a sentence trail off, starts a new one, then reverts back to whatever he was saying in the first place. Each time he recalls a statistic (either from memory or the voice in his head), he flashes us a dumb little smile, like a toddler proudly showing off its first bowel movement. Forgive me for employing the language of the playground, but the man's a tool.

So I sit there and I watch this and I start scratching my head, because I'm trying to work out why Bush is afforded any kind of credence or respect whatsoever in his native country. His performance is so transparently bizarre, so feeble and stumbling, it's a miracle he wasn't laughed off the stage. And then I start hunting around the internet, looking to see what the US media made of the whole "wire" debate. And they just let it die. They mentioned it in passing, called it a wacko conspiracy theory and moved on.

The "wire" thing has to do with the bulge in the back thing that I posted shortly after the debates...where there's speculation that Bush often (including in the debates) hears voices through a wire in an ear that tell him what to say. Anyway...

Throughout the debate, John Kerry, for his part, looks and sounds a bit like a haunted tree. But at least he's not a lying, sniggering, drink-driving, selfish, reckless, ignorant, dangerous, backward, drooling, twitching, blinking, mouse-faced little cheat. And besides, in a fight between a tree and a bush, I know who I'd favour.

On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us.

Okay, so I quoted most of it anyway, but you should still check it out, if only because the last line where Brooker sarcastically asks where Booth, Oswald, and Hinkley seems to have Matt Drudge's panties in a bunch.

george dubya: old skool

My parents received mail from George Dubya today in the form of three heavy-bond paper cards. Each was filled with quotes and facts followed up, as usual, with the source and date. The thing that struck me, however, was that almost all of those dates were from the year 2002. Two years ago. Before John Kerry was officially running, before the war in Iraq even started -- let alone served to be a fraud and failure -- before Supreme Court decisions that have proven Dubya's policies unconstitutional, before gas was consistently $2 a gallon.

It brings to mind the fact that much of Bush's campaign, most of it in fact, is based on assaulting Kerry with numbers and votes that are not in the world that has come after September 11 (as Republicans love to point out it is so much different) but from the world before. His campaign has all along badgered this idea that Kerry voted for a gas tax increase and how ridiculous an idea that is with prices the way they are...never minding the push for the increase was ten years ago when a gallon of the stuff was under a buck most of the time. They pound on this idea that Kerry has voted against military systems but fail to mention that many of those were also ten years ago or more (and many, as Edwards pointed out in his debate, Dick Cheney also opposed as Secretary of Defense).

The thing is, the Republicans would like to run on a platform of how the world is so different after 9/11 but would rather run against a guy as he was pre-9/11. That's fucking retarded. It's right there for people to see, right their on the commercials and mailings, and easy enough to figure out on the internet"s" with sites like factcheck.org if they'd take the effort to become educated voters (ehehe...yeah right), but they don't.

Ugh. I better stop. I feel my blood pressure rising again.

experience counts

It occurred to me the other day that I have experienced nothing new in something like four years...since I got back from a two and a half week trip to Europe. Yes, there have been some small things like substitute teaching for a year, moving in with a roommate and the host of "little things" that make up life in general (meeting new people and the like) -- but nothing earth-shattering or ground moving. Nothing, really, to give myself a new perspective of the world, a fresh outlook. Basically, I've been stuck in a funk.

I'm still living with my folks right now and it's been one of those sorts of experiences that I haven't had in too long. Living with my younger brother and my father -- both of whom I recognize much of myself in -- giving me a certain insight into my life past and future that I just haven't had in way too long. It makes me want to get up off my butt and start moving myself. I don't know how to describe it really...a fire under my ass maybe.

As I've written before, it's made me re-examine much of my life and "reset" some of those things that have needed it for a long time. It's also allowed me to catch my breath and calm the fuck down...something I haven't been able to do much either. It's swell, it's clarity, it's awesome.

blog update

Changed up the sidebar over there just a bit. Removed the googling thing because I was bored of it (nothing good lately anyway besides a hundred or so Mellisa Williamson hits), jumped the electoral count up to the top to make it more visible, AND, ahem, added google ads so that people can click them to support this site (hey, it costs you NOTHING and gets me a cent or two or whatever...which adds up). Supposedly they morph themselves to whatever the content is so they may be relevent anyway. So please click one or whatever whenever you visit you regular people you (you know who you are) and you'd help me out a bit. Thanks.

I hate posts like this because they remind me of the meetings of just about any "organized" group I've ever been a part of where all that's talked about is the damn bylaws and past minutes and crap. But sometimes it needs to be brought up I guess, just so things don't suddenly change and confuse people and so I have some idea when I changed things (if it's ever relevent). Oh well.

And, of course, there's the pure and simple whoring of myself for ad revenue.

lock the kid up

A 13-year-old takes lewd pictures of himself, puts them online, and gets charged with child pornography -- facing 60 days of juvie. A 13-year-old punches his 9-year-old brother in the stomach and is charged with domestic abuse. An 8-year-old was cuffed, arrested, and charged with misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief for getting into a neighborhood fight with a 10-year-old.

...something seems fucked up.

Whatever happened to handling kids as kids? Why is it that all of a sudden the law feels some need to get it's grubby hands on the sorts of things that, though by no means appropriate, are what boys sometimes do? It ridiculous...and sort of scary.

knowing when to quit

One of the most important lines you can learn to distinguish in life is that between what you can do something about and what you can't. Most people, in my experience, suck at finding that line and suck even more at controlling themselves and acting appropriately to the side of the line they find themselves on. People fight for that which they cannot change, and quit fighting before the cause is lost.*

Count Tucker Carlson (the conservative/bowtie guy on CNN's Crossfire) in on those that don't know when to quit. He was spanked like a monkey last week when Jon Stewart was on (as I wrote about yesterday or whenever), and he just didn't get it. He still doesn't -- saying that Jon Stewart looked "ridiculous" on the show, a term that more accurately describes his childish navitiy. Oh well.

*to be fair, I still have much to learn about that line in several aspects of life (especially the romantic sphere)...just so no one thinks I'm being too preachy or anything.

too much

I feel a need to pour out my soul, but I don't know where to start and I don't think I want to do it on my blog so I'm not going to.

Sorry for tempting you.

jon stewart is my hero

On Friday, Jon Stewart was on CNN's Crosfire and ripping the two hosts a new one. It wasn't just the hosts either, it was the entire media machine. It was bloody brilliant and something that everyone should see. I've watched it several times a day each day since then, and you can too. The miracle of the internets has brought us IFILM.

part of the problem

This story is not all over the news. A building in Caracas, Venezuela (in fact, the tallest building and a landmark) is burning. Earlier today, there was fear that it would collapse. Dozens of firefighters are injured. But it's not being talked about on the news.

I don't care if it's not on the local news or even on the evening national news, but it's not on CNN or Faux News or MSNBC. Something like this is a big deal, even if it's on the other side of the world, but the corporate media just doesn't care...and neither do many Americans I would presume.

The problem is that if something like this were to happen in the US -- say the Hancock Building in chicago -- it would be all over the place with minute to minute coverage, a small window at least on the corner of all the new channels, but this isn't even being reported by any of the major news agencies in this country aside from ABC news. The CBC is all over it, as is the Australian and UK press, but nothing here but a few secondary-market newspapers.

The same can be said about so many tragedies. A bomb goes off in Israel and there's no coverage, unless it's Israelis killed...just last week, an Israeli soldier shot up a 14 year old girl and was vindicated, but a search of Google provides very few American news services covering the story. The recent offensives in the Gaza Strip have lead to at least 30 deaths of children but you don't read about it or see it on tv. I don't even need to go into the genocides, like that in Sudan or those listed in Amnesty International's latest report. In fact, right now, Faux News is reporting on Paris Hilton's deal to have some clubs opened up using her name.

It's sad because the coverage isn't even flippant. It's non-existent, and if these are an American stories, Americans would be upset that the rest of the world hadn't taken notice. It's a hypocrisy that's pervasive in our society and one that I can't help but adds to the growing weariness of the United States beyond our borders. If we want the rest of the world to give a crap about us, we have to listen to their problems, if not care about them. But we don't, and so we maintain our self-sanctified insolationism intact, bombing the hell out of those we don't like so much without any help aside from a handful of Mongolian and Albanian troops.

freudian slip

Today, George Bush told a crowd in Daytona Beach: "After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain: We will not have an all-volunteer army." Of course, he "caught" his "mistake" and "corrected" it to the "truth":

"Let me restate that: We will not have a draft. No matter what my opponent tries to tell people and scare them, we will have an all-volunteer army. The only person talking about a draft is my opponent."

You are too Mr. Bush...you are too.

sieg heil!

Just to further our descent into facism, the FCC has decided not to block Sinclair's planned broadcast of Stolen Honor. It is now officially okay for the rich to use their money to unabatedly influence campaign elections outside federal election laws.

Hail Chairman Powell! Hail Bush!

the l-word

I'm watching the debates right now, just as I have the other three, and it has occured to me the irony that exists in Bush's stale old Republican tactic (stale enough that I was doing it when I was Republican in 1992 and 96) of calling the Democrat a liberal...for almost every criticism that Kerry has about Bush failings as president, Bush responds with "...but we've increased funding for that by x%..."

Isn't the criticism of liberals that Republicans partake in mostly about their claims that liberals just throw money at problems in order to solve them? Isn't that exactly what Bush is trying to say he's doing?

By the way, in the first question of the night, Kerry said that Bush said he wasn't concerned about Osama Bin Laden. Bush said he was lying. From CNN, March 14, 2002:

Bush downplayed concern on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, saying the accused terrorist mastermind is on the run and "I truly am not that concerned about him."

politico miscellania

The Washington Times is reporting that "Germany has indicated it would possibly send troops to Iraq if Democrat Sen. John Kerry is elected U.S. president, the Financial Times said Wednesday." This, of course, would seem the common sense things, given that so many of our once allies (replaced with the likes of Mongolia and Albania) have seemingly given up on us while Bush and Dick are in the White House, but it's worth posting for googlers.

The race for the Kentucky Senate seat has taken some really weird turns lately. Current Republican Senator Jim Bunning has been acting very strangely and otherwise making people believe he's suffering some form of dimensia. For instance, for his one debate he wouldn't allow it to be live, he wouldn't allow an audience, it had to be in the afternoon not evening, if his opponent used any footage from it he would be sued, and the strangest thing of all, just before it was to be taped, he ran off to Washington saying he had to be present for some votes (Congress is out of session) and taped his portion of the debate from the DNC headquarters, not allowing any KY press witness present to make sure he wasn't kidding. Head more about it all here.

Then there's Republican candidate for Senator from Oklahoma Tom Coburn who recently stated that "lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?" There's not much to say to that but WTF? Which seems to be the general response. Of course, he's said it was "all taken out of context", he was really trying to say something about the impact of adult material on children...which is almost another WTF sort of thing. But, oh well.

Since everybody else is going nuts, I figure I should too and make a couple of predicitions. First, Bush is going to screw up tonight at the debates and lose some footing in the polls. In a "complete coincidence" Osama Bin Laden will be captured or killed on Monday or Tuesday (not earlier as the news cycle winds down on Firday and Saturday). Okay, maybe not that so much (a little cynical facetiousness if you will), but it would freak me the hell out if it happened, you know? Anyway...

Looking at the polling data and watching how people are acting, I am going to go out on a real limb and predict right her and right now that Kerry is going to win the popular vote on November 2 by a margin of 4-6 points, possibly much more. The polls keep going back and forth, but for various reasons (not limited to stupid formulas that polling companies are using and a general "misunderestimating" of the likelihood of Democratic voters to get out in record numbers to vote against Bush) I think they're dead wrong. That could change though if Kerry screws up tonight, but I don't think he will.

an awesome flash

George Bush is an Asshole.

sinclair broadcast group v. kerry

This is really pissing me off. I hope that the politicians in Washington have enough balls to completely revoke Sinclair's liscense to broadcast if they show this two-hour anti-Kerry ad on television against FEC and FCC regulations (The FCC stating that use of airwaves is meant to serve the public good and that propogandizing the owners' political beliefs is not in the public good -- if they were cable it would be okay).

Anyway, I am currently writing each and every national advertiser that buys time with any or all Sinclair channels and threatening a boycott of their products...and following through (which really hurts with the Leinenkugel and Pilsner Urquell which both, I just read, are owned or imported by Miller which advertises). A list of companies can be found at this blog or right here (I doubt they'd care if I re-printed, but if they do I'll take it off):

Halls Fruit Breezers
Sylvan Learning Centers
Kentucky Fried Chicken
ITT Technical Institute *
Ford Motor Company
Yahoo DSL
Isuzu
Hardees
Taco Bell
Toyota
Warner Brothers * (many Sinclair owned stations are WB stations)
Century 21
Prudential
Zigzagzone.com *
Cnn.com *
General Motors
Geico
Pepsi
Mountain Dew
Titan TV *
Iams (this one breaks my heart, I'll tell you)
Miller Lite
Ringling Brothers (coming to Lexington, KY)
Oak Express
ABC Solutions
Kentucky Lottery
Florida Lottery
NFL
Lincoln Mercury
H&R Block
Pontiac
Arby's
Fazoli's

**UPDATE**: Here is a much better, complete list with contact info.

free market tv at work

Sinclair Broadcast Group is planning on forcing it's entire pocket of television stations to break federal election law by making them broadcast an anti-Kerry documentary called Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal. This is a blatent attempt to undermine Kerry in several swing states. I doubt that they'll get away with this (as I would hope that the FEC would then require Sinclair to broadcast two hours of anti-Bush propoganda in order to balance out their coverage in accordance to election laws), but it's horrible of them to even plan this.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you may remember last April when I wrote about Sinclair's decision to force several of their stations to preempt Nightline's ghastly plans to honor our fallen soldiers in Iraq by dedicating a broadcast to reading their names. As I pointed out then, the board invests a lot of money in the Republican Party and it's candidates. This, of course, makes the motives of their decision to air an anti-Kerry documentary that much more obvious.

This sort of activity goes to show just how badly we need such things as campaign finance reform, election reform, and re-increased regulation of public airwaves. Because remember, these are public airwaves belonging to you and me and the other millions of Americans out there, and we don't deserve to have the politics of the haves (in this case, those that have enough to buy large numbers of television stations) shoved down our throats like this. The industry has been de-regulated a lot in the last years, and this just goes to show why it's such a bad thing; why it's such a bad thing that the media is becoming more and more monopolized; and why we need to change this country by getting someone who's not a total nutjob into the Whitehouse.

waitin' for superman

Christopher Reeves has died.

Not only was he Superman in the movies, but he was superman in his fight against his injuries. He was a spokesman, an inspiration, and a good man.

Rest in Peace.

The song Waitin' For A Superman (link to the video, it's cute) by the Flaming Lips seems appropriate to me right now.

if you're down...

William Shatner has a new album out this week. You can listen to many tracks on the Has Been website. Most importantly, you can listen to Shatner's spoken word version of Pulp's "Common People". Bloody Brilliant it is.

She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge,
she studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College,
that's where I,
caught her eye.
She told me that her Dad was loaded,
I said "In that case I'll have a rum and coca-cola."
She said "Fine."
and in thirty seconds time she said,

"I want to live like common people,
I want to do whatever common people do,
I want to sleep with common people,
I want to sleep with common people,
like you."

Well what else could I do -
I said "I'll see what I can do."
I took her to a supermarket,
I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere,
so it started there.
I said pretend you've got no money,
she just laughed and said,
"Oh you're so funny."
I said "yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here.
Are you sure you want to live like common people,
you want to see whatever common people see,
you want to sleep with common people,
you want to sleep with common people,
like me."
But she didn't understand,
she just smiled and held my hand.
Rent a flat above a shop,
cut your hair and get a job.
Smoke some fags and play some pool,
pretend you never went to school.
But still you'll never get it right,
cos when you're laid in bed at night,
watching roaches climb the wall,
if you call your Dad he could stop it all.

You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.

Sing along with the common people,
sing along and it might just get you through,
laugh along with the common people,
laugh along even though they're laughing at you,
and the stupid things that you do.
Because you think that poor is cool.

good to be in dc

If you liked JibJab's "This Land is Our Land" political flash that was all the rage a couple months ago, then you should like Good to be in D.C. You should watch it even if you didn't see/like the other one. I like this one better.

get yer own ghost

A ghost, it seems, is for sale on eBay. Not only that, but Michael Jackson is reportedly bidding on it.

If you don't have millions of dollars for that particular ghost in a bottle, you might be interested in this one.

there's more than one internet?

I just got home from work and so am watching the rerun (probably of the rerun) of the debate on C-Span. I listened to the first half or so on the internet and thought Kerry was perfect and Bush less than so. It was closer than last time, but, still...

Just now Bush made reference to the internets. Internets - plural. Where are these extra internets kept anyway? I'd like to know.

...and Bush didn't forget Poland either.

UPDATE...

After posting last night (while still watching), George W. proved to be even more an ignoramous when he was stunned and surprised to find out that he did indeed have a small stake in a timber company that made him $84. Now you too can buy some of that wood on eBay. For as the seller says: "We are selling some wood, we hear the Internets are good places to sell them so we hope someone will buy it."

who will kerry be debating tonight?

A lot of people that were watching the president's speech at the D-Day commemorations last June reported hearing a voice saying the lines that Bush was about to say before he said them. This continued into the Q&A. One example being at the 22:40 mark of this audio clip. The reports came after seculation during the previous months that Bush had started using an audio feed during his public statements.

There are times like at this news conference where Bush stumbles over the name of an alQeada terrorist at 13:25 and at 13:32 looks down and to his right, pauses for a second as if listening to something, then magically comes up with the correct pronunciation and apologizes.

Much discussion and some more evidence (and many more links can be found at Is Bush Wired?

The symptoms are all there. His long pauses that accompany his sentences that are more choppy than any line ever read by William Shatner, the way his eyes move erratically in a way that they wouldn't even approximate if he was using a teleprompter (which he claims he does). And that's not to mention strange comments made like the one in the debates last week when he said, as Salon.com remembers (you need to be a member or watch a 30-second ad to get a one day pass), "'As the politics change, his positions change. And that's not how a commander in chief acts. I, I, uh -- Let me finish -- The intelligence I looked at was the same intelligence my opponent looked at.' It must be said that Bush pointed toward Lehrer as he declared 'Let me finish.' The green warning light was lit, signaling he had 30 seconds to, well, finish." I remember that moment and thinking how odd it was myself.

And then there is the picture of the bulge on Bush's back:



This photo is straight off the newsfeed provided by Fox News and was caught on camera only after the photo pool decided to ignore the infamous twenty-some page agreememnt on dos and don'ts that the Kerry and Bush camp came to, and that specifically barred photos of the candidates from behind, on Bush's request (it might be added that the press ignoring that agreemement lead to the wonderful shots of Bush's facial expressions that were so amusing). It looks like a small battery pack for a radio as well as, some claim, a small wire running to Bush's ear.

If Bush uses audio clues and a wire during speeches I see no problems with it. It is nothing more than an audio version of a teleprompter that way too many politicians rely upon these days. It is also, then, like the same technology that television reporters use in recording their stories, then reading them back as they play in their ears. But the president should come forawrd and admit that he does it in those cases, just as he shouldn't hide his use of a teleprompter (not that one really could). The use of this technology in press conferences and other sorts of Q&As is not right. When a member of the press asks the president a question, the member of the press should receive an answer from the president...not Karl Rove or whoever (the Wizard oz Oz analogy of the man behind the curtain is just so relevent here...).

But the use of an earpiece in a presidential debate, when the citizens of America are trying to straighten out which of these two men, they should hear just what these tow men have to say (not the two men plus who's ever behind the Bush-shaped curtain).

Of course, this may all just be a coinicidence, there may be no one hiding behind the Bush, as it were. But it's all rather questionable, and it all sort of fits into the pattern of Bush's behavior and that of his handlers. Sadly, I don't doubt that it's true and I'll be watching/listening to the debate tonight with suspicion. I just wonder who it is that Kerry is actually debating...

the fbi seems to be above the bill of rights

Thank God that Ashcroft is in charge, because we wouldn't want the federal government to abridge the freedom of speech or the press as the First Amendment scrictly forbids.

Oh wait, the fucking FBI did. Yes, the FBI went over to London and forced Indymedia to shut down it's servers there, thereby shutting down "UK Indymedia, Belgium, African imcs, Palestine, UK, Germany, Brasil, Italy, Uruguay, Poland, Belgrade, Portugal and others". Not only is this comeplete and utter BULLSHIT taking down a legitimate news site, but in a foreign country? I don't think so. Furthermore, no one has offered an explanation of why this action was taken...something that smells the putrid stink of the Patriot Act to me.

To put it in perspective: In the summer of 2003, someone in the Whitehouse leaked the name of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative to Robert Novak, something against federal law, and the Bush administration stonewalled the investigation. Whatever the reason the FBI has for taking the action it has, it must be seen in the light of this...that the adminsitration can protect its own when it releases the names of CIA operatives in a game of retribution (Ms. Plume being the wife of Joseph Wilson, the ambassador that called the Whitehouse out on their Nigerian yellowcake exaggerations/lies), and yet will allow the FBI to completely shut down a media outlet for reasons they feel no need to explain.

It is getting really fucking hot in this handbasket we call America, I wonder where we're going...

beware of the flu

So the British government shuts down a pharmeteutical company and suddenly we are only going to have half the flu vaccines that we were expecting in this country. Sure that sucks (though the 40-some million doses that will still be available will protect the elderly and the young -- those who need it most), but we'll deal. Anyway, it seems ironic to me that the government counts on these foreign-produced vaccines to fill this country's needs...especially since the current administration's argument against Americans filling prescriptions in foreign countries like Canada is that the FDA does not have any control over foreign-produced drugs and they are therefore unsafe. huh.

i'm at a loss for words

Okay, so there's this guy in Romania who ran out of his house in his underwear to kill a chicken who was making too much noise and accidentially cut off his penis (he confused it with the chicken's neck). But it doesn't end there...his dog proceded to eat it.

There are way too many questions to ask, way too many punchlines to be made...

tricky dick the second

Quite possibly the greatest zinger of the VP debates last night was when Dick Cheney, trying to establish that Edwards was often absent from the Senate, remarked that in his four years presiding over the Senate, Cheney had only met Edwards for the first time last night on the stage of the debate.

Nuh-uh.

They have met in front of the press at least three times in the last four years. Once, they sat next to each other (actually, it was Edwards, Cheney, Cheney's wife, and Edwards' wife...in that order) for several hours at a prayer breakfast in 2001. Tim Russert says they met each other on the set of Meet The Press and shook hands, again in 2001. Finally, as the senior senator from North Carolina, Edwards accompanied Elizabeth Dole to her swearing in by Dick Cheney.

Furthermore, last night, Cheney claimed "I have not suggested there's a connection between iraq and 9/11." The Kerry campaign immediately issued a press release listing the numerous times that Cheney has suggested a link existed, such as when he said "I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government" this past January on NPR Morning Edition or when he said on CNBC Capital Report just three and a half months ago:

"There's been enormous confusion over the Iraq and al-Qaeda connection, Gloria. First of all, on the question of--of whether or not there was any kind of a relationship, there was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming. It goes back to the early '90s...There's clearly been a relationship."

As today's Washington Post reports:

"Cheney said he has 'not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11.' But in numerous interviews, Cheney has skated close to the line in ways that may have certainly left that impression on viewers, usually when he cited the possibility that Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, met with an Iraqi official -- even after that theory was largely discredited."

Cheney also argued with the estimated cost of the Iraqi campaign being $200 Billion, charging that the government had "allocated" $120 Billion, putting down Edwards by saying that the other $80 Billion was really being used towards Afghanistan and the general "war on terror". However, the Washington Post writes that "As of Sept. 30, the government has spent about $120 billion, and it has allocated -- or plans to spend -- $174 billion. The tab should run as high as $200 billion in the next year once other expected supplemental spending is added."

There were many out there, including me, saying that Cheney won the debate shortly thereafter, but as revelations occur as to the statements that made Cheney's performance so remarkable, it seems that his "win" was pumped up almost entirely by innaccuracies and flat-out lies (as if he really forgot that he ate breakfast for hours while he and his wife sat in between Edwards and his wife...if he's that forgetful, than there are other reasons to not vote for the guy).

mellisa williamson redux

Remember Mellisa? The woman that was so concerned about the effect that jackhammers would have on her unborn child that she just had to smoke a cigarette? The one with her picture in the Roanoke Times? Last night I was watching the late-late-late-night rerun of Monday's episode of The Tonight Show and who should be on the regular Monday Headlines skit? You betcha'

On a related note, I'd like to welcome those new readers that are finding this blog through their googlings of this story. There are plenty of you. Stick around, won't you?

only two and a half months til christmas

Target stores decided a couple of weeks ago that it was going to ban the Salvation Army from setting up their red kettles in front of their stores...which will cost the organization $9 Million in lost donations nationwide. The Salvation Army asks that customers not take that into account when choosing where to shop for their Christmas gifts, but I'm saying that we all might want to keep Target's lack of generosity in mind.

ouch

The Vice-Presidential debate just got over and it hurts. Dick Cheney was perfect. Perfect. It must have been part of his deal with the devil that turned his heart black as it is. Anyway...

I was so expecting Edwards to own Cheney and even though he didn't really screw up, it wasn't even close. Cheney's evil genius took control and never let go. No matter what was thrown at him, he was calm and collect, sort of absorbed the criticism and then spat it back. Every answer he gave has succinct and to the point, and sounded good...like the truth even, even when it wasn't. Wow.

As much as I hate the guy, I can't help but respect him for his performance. That sort of control and ability just goes to show how comfortable he is with himself and what he believes.

One thing that I find interesting, however, is that at one point in the debate, Cheney told the audience to check on something Halliburton-related at Fact Check. Well, I just went to check the site and am finding that 4 of the 6 links on the front page show how the Bush/Cheney campaign has gotten the facts wrong this campaign (one of the others is the Kerry-Halliburton thing Cheney was talking about and the other is a fact-check of both candidates during the first presidential debate). Maybe we'll see some Bush-Cheney folk visiting and finding out that their saviors are full of it. We can only hope.

random blog surfing

I sometimes do some random blog-reading, following the "next blog" button up at the upper right or chasing keywords in my profile, and come across some bad stuff.

Here's a guy that can not only not spell (and yet wants to be a teacher...which bodes well for the future of the country) but he seems a bit obsessed with his girlfriend.

Here's a guy that's a bigger nerd than me and yet has managed to impregnant a female and have a baby come out.

Here's a blog called "Horse Racing Advice" that has for every entry: "Bras and lingerie, panties, swimwear, hosiery, sleepware. Shop online and save with free shipping over $30!" with a link to mylingeriewear.com

This one's just funny.

Yes. I am bored.

forget about poland

In the debates, Bush was really showing his love of Poland. When Kerry listed the US, the UK, and Australia as the three nations providing troops to the initial invasion of Iraq, Bush was quick to point out that he forgot Poland in the list. Poland was also brought up by Bush as a seemingly major ally at another point in the debate as well.

Well, according to CNN, Poland is thinking about pulling out 40% of its 2500 troops (yes, 2500 troops...no wonder Bush was exhalting their presence so highly) by Jaunary, pulling the last 1500 out by the end of 2005.

So much for the coalition of the willing...

29 days

In just over four weeks now, we will be participating in the most important election of at least the last thirty or forty years and possibly for many years to come. It's important because right now we have a president that wants to change the fabric of this nation in drastic and devious ways.

I am not delving into the usual fear-mongering that others (and myself, to be honest) partake in when describing our feelings about current events. I don't need to. Bush is dangerous. Did you watch the debates? Even though the shit has hit the proverbial fan in Iraq, he is too arrogant and stubborn to admit that not only have things not gone well due to bad intelligence and a lack of crucial planning, but that strategies need to change. A good leader should be able to adapt to a changing world -- something that Bush likes to say in relation to 9/11 but something he doesn't like to practice in reality -- and Bush does not. At some point he got it into his head that we should invade Iraq and at that point his mind was set. Concrete. There's no changing it, there's no persuading him that maybe we should let the UN help us or maybe we should increase troop numbers or maybe pull out...he's right, always has been and always shall be. The president is supposedly a religious man, but it seems that he has forgotten that pride is one of the seven deadly sins.

In the name of "safety" he has taken it upon himself to rewrite the Constitution. He has made it easier for the government to spy on it's citizenry and worse, he has adapted the citizenry to accept government spying. It's not that he or his administration would necessarily spy on us, but it is most definitely an opening to some future administration in even more trying times to exploit his provisions and march us in jackboots down undesireable roads.

The future itself will be tarnished for many years as Bush has mortgaged our future. In the first part of 2001, when the tax cuts were first announced, it was bad enough but when he increased spending for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and spending on so-called "protection" at home (which doesn't include enough FBI staff to translate of audio transmissions, enough resources to check more than 5-7% of cargo containers entering our ports, or increase research in alternative fuels so that we're less dependent on a stable Middle East) his arrogance prevented him from stopping the tax cuts to pay for it all...resulting in the largest federal spending deficits in US history, deficits that our taxes paid in 2020 will prbably still be paying off.

Bush's arrogance prevents him for allowing stem cell research because, as he says, it leads to the destruction of possible fetuses. Never mind that those same fetuses are destroyed every time in vitro fertilization is utilized in helping couples become pregnant. He doesn't oppose IVF. Nobody opposes IVF. In the meantime, important medical research is being hampered by his supposed ethics.

I could go on and on and on, but I don't think I need to. Obviously, I do, as the polls still show that an insane number of Americans support Bush and his policies, but there's little that I can say.

There are those that have fallen trap to Cheney's assertion that a vote for Kerry is a vote for a terrorist atatck. To them I can only ask what are you thinking? Several attacks were thwarted during the Clinton administration and the Bush administration alike. Kerry is as anti-terrorism as Bush is. So is Nader and Badnarik and Peroutka and Cobb and Jay. It is a difference in approaches that each of these people has. Maybe you believe that Bush has a plan and you agree with it. Vote for him, by all means, I have yet to see it. But don't vote out of that sort of fear.

Perhaps you are one of the millions who vote on issues like abortion or gay marriage or one of those issues. Bush isn't going to get anything done about either. A constitutional amendment (which would be needed to outlaw gay marriage or abortion) is decades off...requiring a huge shift in the thinking of Americans which would bring the 2/3 vote in Congress and 3/4 of the states. To put that in more real numbers, abortion will not be outlawed until majorities of pro-life voters develop in enough Congressional districts to put 290 Representatives and enough states to put 67 Senators in office that are willing to put it up to a vote, then have majorities in either the state legislatures or public referendum (however each state might do it) of 38 states to ratify it. The same for gay marriage. The election of one man is not going to make any difference. "But Bush would appoint pro-life Supreme Court Justices" you might say. Not too likely given the democrats will have enough votes in the Senate to filibuster after this election, if not have control (as of right now, the senate seems to be headed to a 52-48 Democratic control). Any Supreme Court justices appointed in this next term (it could be as high as four), will most likely be rather moderate on these hot button issues.

I don't know. It just doesn't make sense to me that Bush has anything higher than a 23-24% approval rating (rich folk, religious extremists, and racist scum generally voting Republican) given his propenisty to be full of it. We need to get the guy out. We need him out in a bad bad way. He's destructive and bad for this country. I wish everyone would just see that. Though I'm not the hugest fan of Kerry and would ordinarily be going third party in this election just as I did in 2000, this isn't about ideology or direction. This election is much more important than that...and it's sad that it is. It's about damage control...like a mountain climber slipping down the face of Mt. Everest, digging his ice pick into the pack, trying desperately to slow himself down before he falls over the edge. It's not a time to think about trying for the peak again or much of anything else.

It pisses me off that that's what this election has come to, that that's what American politics have come to, but that's what it is.

letting off some steam

I'm glued to the tv again right now because of the whole Mount St. Helens activity (it just released a bunch of steam, they say because some "hot material" reached the glacier and flashed it. Anyway, I just found a link to the Johnston Ridge Observatory (the observatory they evacuacted this past weekend because it's too close) via teh soapbox so I can watch an even closer shot on the computer, thought I'd share.

at night i become someone else

I am firmly convinced that at night, once my now conscious self falls "aleep", I am transformed into someone else. Namely, Charlie Kaufman.

Okay, maybe not. However, I did just spend two hours crying during and after watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which was written by Kaufman which has become a habit for me after watching his movies. Or at least between this one and Adaptation. Truth of the matter is, I have never seen any character on screen that I feel as close to as Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation and Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine...especially when it comes to women and shyness. The scene in Adaptation where Charlie asks the waitress to go to the flower convention is me to a tee...the entirity of Joel's rememberences of his relationship with Clementine in Eternal Sunshine are the rememberencs of every relationship that I have never had.

And that's what killed me this time. That I have felt the way that Joel did, do feel the way that Joel does, and my reaction is so often the same as his. The way he so shyly gets into Clemetine's advances, the way he's so damn timid about everything, the way he just doesn't give a damn about his differences with the girl because he knows that there's love there nonetheless.

I guess I'm probably starting to sound rather corny, and maybe what I'm saying is true of so many. Maybe this is one of those things that just can't be expressed. But I have seen a lot of movies in my day. A lot of movies, and never have I seen characters so consistently reflect me as the main characters in Charlie Kaufman scripts do. It's nice....especially since we're obviously a lot of like and he's at least successful...and it took him ahile to get there too.

(that and he wrote two episodes of Get A Life back in the early days of Fox...that's kickass)

bush's fav supreme court justice loves bush

Lots of it. All at once. Orgy-style.

So says this article (I am trying to get onto Harvard's newspaper The Crimson to verify, but it seems like everyone else is too and it's not connecting). "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged" is what Justice Antonin Scalia told a Harvard crowd when asked about his views on sexual morality.

That's right, gay marriage is bad, but ten people piled up naked, sucking and fucking at random is a good thing and "ought to be encouraged". Last November, Justice Scalia dissented with the majority on a decision that overturned a Texas law that banned homosexual sex, even authoring the dissent, yet he himself, it seems, like to get it on with multiple other partners in the room.

I'm sorry, but to me that seems a little "inconsistent" (being the favortie word of the right this election). It also seems inconsistent on Bush's part in that he has said that Anotin "orgies ought to be encouraged" Scalia and Clarence "There's a pubic hair on my Coke" Thomas are the models by which he'd choose replacement judges if he were given the opportunity to appoint. Oh my head.

Why does the religious right support this shit? Seriously. Orgies? They stand behind a man that publically states that orgies are beneficial and "ought to be encouraged"? WTF?

...then again, maybe I'm just being uptight.

more thoughts on the big debate

I called it a draw last night with some leanings towards Kerry. It seems that the media, blogosphere, and public have more or less deemed it a Kerry victory (not a smashing victory, but a victory nonetheless)...so I guess I "misunderestimated" Kerry's peformance. Anyway, in thinking about the debate I realized that last night's was about foriegn policy and the war on terrah, those issues that Bush holds onto in popularity polls. In actuality, they are the only issues where Bush leads Kerry and have been from the beginning of the campaign. And yet Kerry won.

The next debate, next week, is a town hall sort of thing where the issues raised could be just about anything. This should offer Kerry an excellent opportunity to continue answering peoples' questions in the straight-forward manner that he did last night. These sorts of venues (assuming this "town hall" debate will be like others where audience members ask the questions) tend to have people ask questions out of anger, and what are people angry about? Their kids dying in Iraq, their jobs floating off to India, and that sort of thing.

The third debate, however, will be Kerry's to lose. It is intended to focus on domestic issues like the economy and health care and all that...the sorts of things that Kerry seems to be more popular with and the things that Bush especially sounds like a retard about. It should be good. If Kerry can beat Bush on Bush's turf, it should be interesting to see what how Kerry can handle Bush on Kerry's turf.

My birthday is the day after the election and unless Kerry really screws up, it's looking like it may be a very happy birthday after all (especially if I can get a Scalia-style orgy going on the night before. hoo-ah!).

the debates

I watched the debates tonight and I would have to call it a draw (slightly leaning towards Kerry). John Kerry did a fantastic job and sounded as lucid as he ever has. It was good of him to come out and admit that it was stupid to say what he has said about his flip-flopping on Iraq...and hopefully his "change of heart" makes as much sense to people as it has to me all along. He seemed poised and rather presidential, even when Bush was speaking he looked to be listening, thinking, and taking notes. And that is a good thing.

...especially since that, I think, was Bush's biggest mistake. While Kerry was speaking, you could often see him smirking and making all those ridiculous faces that he always makes (the DNC has made a video of Bush's faces last night for their site), some of them not very flattering, and rather unpresidential (at least in comparison to the demeanor of Kerry). I also did not find a lot of substance in much of what he said. He repeated himself a bunch too (though so did Kerry). And, of course, there were his usual gaffes. In all, I don't think he did badly, but he did less good than Kerry. I think though that it is fair to call it a draw.

That is a good thing though. Bush is currently president and people know where he stands. They know his demeanor, his personality, and they know where he stands on the issues (to some extent -- my post of yesterday goes to show that it isn't as well as it should be). Even more important, people think (for some reason) that Bush is presidential and a good commander in chief...even if there's disagreement on his policies. Polls all along have seemed to show that people didn't know what to think of Kerry, that they were weary of dumping Bush for someone they're not sure to be "presidential enough". A draw in the debate then goes to show that both men are "presidential" in the minds of Americans (I hate calling Bush presidential, I really do), and therefore goes to suggest that people can rest more easily, loosen some of their qualms, and go his way.

I don't think that the debate will lose Bush much support, if any, but I think it will gain Kerry a little bit. Nothing that was said would make an undecided voter jump on the Bush band-wagon, but enough was seen to make people less uneasy about Kerry, and that's all a challenger needs in a presidential election these days.

downsize me, please

I watched Supersize Me last night and I really gotta recommend it to everyone out there in cyberspace (and why don't you rent it after joining one of the DVD rental clubs listed on DVDs Galore?). It was disgusting. Now, I read Fast Food Nation two years ago (and it is still my number one recommendation for people who ask me for one) and the movie served to drive the point home that fast food is really, really bad for you. However, as the book showed how the industry is, well, evil in a corporate profits before health and social conscience sort of way, the movie showed just how bad the food actually is for you. Basically, Supersize Me made the case that living off of the food will not only make you unhealthy, it'll kill you (Morgan Spurlock, the director and guinea pig, suffered near-liver shut down as the result of his four-week diet).

Add a new diet to my list of things I'm taking advantage of this life reset to change. I am going to do my best to remove not only fast food (which I honestly don't eat a whole lot of) out of my diet, but processed food in general where possible. At least in a cut-back sort of way (I can't ditch Mac & Cheese or the occasional frozen pizza out). No more processed lunch meats -- I'll splurge and spend the extra buck or two a pound and get deli roast beef and chicken. No more microwaveable entrees. No more Raman noodles and all that. Whole foods are better for you, even if they're not organic. I've already switched to whole grains instead of white bread and rice...I'm just going to take that to the next level. Oh, and no more pop.

So let's recap the reset:

• I am trying my best to not be so "nosy" as some would call it. My dad (especially -- the other day he asked if I bought the mushrooms I used to make dinner pre-sliced or not...that sort of question is just frivolous, annoying, and unimportant) and my brother have showed me how annoying that is.


• I have filed my first application for grad school and now that I have done the first one, I won't have such a hard time motivating myself for others (if I'm not accepted).


• I am taking my relationships with others more seriously. In the past I have taken my friends for granted, emotionally, and taken in a lot of ways more than given. Other's caring for me was less important than me caring for them. That needs to change.


• I am going to begin more thoughts with "I am" and fewer with "I will". I need to stop putting things off, waiting for everything to be perfect to make my move, telling myself that things will be better sometime in the future and instead just make things happen now.


• I feel more self-confidance at this time than I ever have in my life. I need to keep that there, and do something with it...and quit being so timid all the time.