Michael Hanscom

Enthusiastic ambivert. Geeky, liberal, friendly, curious, hopepunk; trying to be a good person. (he/him)

Top GOP pollster says Bush is in trouble

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Frank Luntz, one of the country’s top Republican pollsters, is saying that Bush is in serious trouble.

If John Kerry is elected the 44th president, it will be because of a single night in Miami, Florida, when he came to debate and Mr. Bush came to – well, no one is quite sure. The double-digit lead that Gallup polls, long considered an authority for presidential polling, gave Mr. Bush after the Republican convention was fully erased by that fateful 90-minute confrontation. 

Step by step, debate-by-debate, John Kerry has addressed and removed many remaining doubts among uncommitted voters. My own polling research after each debate suggests a rather bleak outlook for the Bush candidacy: many who still claim to be “undecided” are in fact leaning to Mr. Kerry and are about ready to commit.

Sounds like good news to me.

(via the Current Electoral Vote Predictor)

iTunes “Train” by Pigface from the album A New High In Low (1997, 24:18).

LotR:TRotKEE

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The Official Lord of the Rings website has posted a trailer for the upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition DVD, to be released on Dec. 14^th^!

Over fifty new minutes of footage, including the Mouth of Sauron, the taking of the Black Ships, Saruman’s demise, Gandalf confronting the Witch King…and, as they say, much, much more.

I’m so jazzed about this.

The weekend it comes out, Prairie and I are planning on taking a full day to kick back and watch the entire Extended Edition trilogy from beginning to end. Somewhere around 12 or 13 hours all told, I think.

And, if you haven’t bothered to pick up the Extended Edition versions of the first two films in the trilogy, instead waiting for the inevitable box set release — wait no longer! All three Extended Edition releases in a single box set, and it’s only \$80 from Amazon. Not bad at all, really.

If I didn’t already have the first two, I’d snap it up. As it is, though, I’ll be quite happy just to get the third and see all the new goodies. The hard part will be waiting to watch it until Prairie’s here on the weekend!

iTunes “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You) (12” Dance)” by Pet Shop Boys from the album Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You) (1991, 7:36).

Constitutional rights trump terror fears

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Finally, some good news — for once, a court has upheld our Constitutional rights over the current wave of paranoia over terrorism.

Fears of a terrorist attack are not sufficient reason for authorities to search people at a protest, a federal appeals court has ruled, saying September 11, 2001, “cannot be the day liberty perished.”

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Friday that protesters may not be required to pass through metal detectors when they gather next month for a rally against a U.S. training academy for Latin American soldiers.

Authorities began using the metal detectors at the annual School of the Americas protest after the terrorist attacks, but the court found that practice to be unconstitutional.

“We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War of Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over,” Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote for the three-member court. “September 11, 2001, already a day of immeasurable tragedy, cannot be the day liberty perished in this country.”

(via Boing Boing)

Government Benefits

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Interesting — according to this questionnaire, I am or may be eligible for the following government programs:

  • Byrd Honors Scholarships
  • Community Food and Nutrition Program
  • Community Services Block Grant
  • EMI Independent Study Program
  • Emergency Food Assistance Program (Food Commodities)
  • Federal Direct Student Loans
  • Federal Work-Study
  • Grants for Public Works and Economic Development Facilities
  • Immigration and Naturalization Service
  • International: Overseas Group Projects Abroad
  • National Ocean Service Intern Program
  • Perkins Student Loans
  • Preventative Health and Health Services Block Grant
  • Property Improvement Loan Insurance (HUD/FHA)
  • Social Services Block Grant
  • Stafford Loans for Students

Now to just investigate these and see what all that actually means.

iTunes “Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix) (1998, 52:53).

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

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I was going to put up a lot of links to discussion about Jon Stewart’s recent appearance on Crossfire — but then Safari crashed (it’s rare, but not unheard of) and I lost all the tabs I had open.

However, on the off chance you haven’t heard about or seen this yet, you really should watch the video.

We need more people like Stewart on the airwaves.

iTunes “Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix) (1998, 52:53).

Seattle Storm victory rally

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Seattle Storm victory rally, Westlake Plaza, Seattle, WAAs I walked out of the building for lunch today, I heard some sort of big ruckus going on down towards Westlake Center. Being fond of ruckuses (ruckusi?) in general, I made a quick run back to the apartment to grab my camera, and then went back towards Westlake.

Turns out that there was a rally going on celebrating the Seattle Storm‘s recent WNBA championship win.

Now, I’m no big fan of sports in general, but it was fun to wander around the rally for a while. Local cover band The Hit Explosion was playing a surprisingly good set of 70’s disco and funk (amusingly, I think they played just about the entire Muppets From Space soundtrack), so the background music was quite bearable, and it was a fairly welcome break from the usual day-to-day routine.

Some photos from the day are in this flickr photoset, as usual.

Green Glass Turtles

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While I’ve met Ted and Julie Leung and their daughters a couple times at local weblogger gatherings, for one reason or another, their sites never found their way into my newsreader — I’m not quite sure why, but that was the case. A couple coincidences this morning (Paul Beard linking to a post of Julie’s, then adding randomseattle to my Flickr contacts, which then led me to both Ted and Julie on Flickr) prompted me to finally fix that oversight.

While I was catching up on Julie’s posts, I found out that she’s set up a photoblog for her daughters, and it became a sweet way to start my day, looking at the world through their eyes for a few minutes. As I’m still getting used to this whole getting up at 6am routine, I don’t often start my mornings off with a smile, but chipmunks, unicorns, and purple snakes sure did it for me today.

iTunes “Forest, A (Tree)” by Cure, The from the album Mixed Up (1990, 6:56).

Different companies, different standards

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One of the few disadvantages of my current job situation is that I’m bound by the rules and regulations of the company I work for, rather than those of the company I work at (the print shop is a contracted deal, where my company has an on-site shop that does the internal print needs for a local telecommunications company).

I just spent a few minutes chatting with a gentleman sporting a denim Utilikilt, one of seven that he owns (one for every day of the week). Unfortunately, while the company I’m working at obviously has no problem with kilts in the workplace, the company I work for is far more strict with their dress code.

I actually looked into the official company dress code when I first got my kilt, and while the corporate policy merely states “black slacks or skirt”, regional and district managers have the authority to fine-tune the dress code policies, and our district manager has decreed black slacks across the board (and thus preventing any possible discrimination charges).

A shame, really, but that’s just the way it is. Someday I’ll manage to land myself a dream job (good hours, good pay, something I enjoy, and a decent dress code), but until then…well, the bills do need to get paid.

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