Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.
Thanks to the joy and convenience of voting by mail, I’ve just filled out my ballot, and will be dropping it in the mail momentarily.
For the record, my votes on two of the most important issues that I’ve been watching over the past few months: Kerry/Edwards for President and No on I-83.
“Not in My Name (Pledge of Resisitance) (Coldcut)” by Williams, Saul from the album Not In Our Name (2003, 5:37).
Want to vote on Tuesday, but don’t think you’ll have the time? Think again — thirty states have laws giving workers the right to take time off to vote.
According to the Census Bureau, the number one reason why registered voters did not vote in the last two presidential elections was because they could not get time off from work. That s nearly 4 million registered voters who did not have time to vote in the 2000 election where the presidential race was decided by 537 votes. The time crunch especially keeps women, minority and low wage workers who have the most rigid work schedules and the least amount of control over their time from voting.
The good news is that while there are many things that could go wrong that is out of our control this Election Day, this is a problem that ordinary citizens can fix. Thirty states have laws giving workers the right to take time off to vote. For example, Illinois voters are entitled to two hours leave, Minnesota voters can take election morning off to vote, and Ohio voters cannot be fired or penalized for taking a reasonable amount of time off to vote.
Here’s a summary of voter leave laws for those states that have them:
The following states have laws giving employees the right to take time off from work to vote. Many states require employees to give employers notice about taking leave before Election Day and some states require employees to provide employers with proof of voting. In addition, while employers cannot prevent employees from voting, most states give employers the right to specify the time during the day that leave can be taken.
NOTE: This information is for background purposes only. Readers should seek legal advice before taking any specific action.
You know, back in 2000 a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we’d lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I’ll be damned if all those things didn’t come true.
— James Carville
(via Generik)
On my way back to work from lunch I passed one of The Stranger‘s distribution boxes, paused a moment to check out this week’s cover — and probably startled a couple of the people around me when I burst out laughing at the cover photo.
This week’s issue has a feature on 2004’s Scariest Halloween Costumes, and it is so not ‘politically correct’. It’s also really damn funny (if you’ve got a sick enough sense of humor, I suppose, a category that I easily fall into).
This was the costume they used for their cover. It’s so wrong, and so perfect — I love the combination of one of the most widely-seen of the horrific images from Abu Ghraib and the smiling, innocent face of a child.
Your child will be the hit of the neighborhood costume parade in this recreation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal’s most indelible image. As an added bonus this easy-to-make costume will remind everyone on your child’s trick-or-treat route of our national shame! Simply roll a cone from a sheet of 24″x38″ black cardstock, making sure to cut out a hole for the face. Drape with two yards of black felt, and add leftover wires from your last lamp-rewiring project. Voilá! So easy, so quick, and so terrifying!
I’m quite sure that Dan Savage, David Schmader, and John Hollingsworth are going to be going straight to hell (do not pass go, do not collect \$200) for this piece of work.
But I’m going right along with them for laughing.
I’ve never been a fan of Eminem. I tend to find his music boring, and his lyrics violent, misogynistic, homophobic, and offensive.
That said…
Hot damn this video is a powerful piece of work.
From Salon’s writeup:
With his history of homophobia and his long-running beef with MoveOn supporter Moby, Eminem is an even less likely lefty hero than Howard Stern. But the just-released video for his new anti-Bush song “Mosh,” makes “Fahrenheit 9/11” look like a GOP campaign spot, and it will almost certainly reach an audience that wouldn’t think of shelling out for a documentary.
The beautifully animated video, which is directed by Ian Inaba, opens with a classroom. At the front is a man in a blue suit, his face buried in an upside down children’s book that says “My Pet,” with a picture of a bush. Just as the man is revealed to be Eminem, the scene changes, and we see the singer taping up newspaper stories to a wall — “Sick Wounded Troops Held in Squalor,” says one. “Civil Liberties at Stake,” says another. “Bush Knew,” says a third.
In five minutes, Eminem manages a furious indictment of the administration that will likely resonate among many troops in Iraq as well as disaffected kids here at home.
After watching the video, I’m still no fan of the music. But wow.
This is good.
Pity it didn’t come out a few months ago.
“Closer (Further Away)” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Closer to God (1994, 5:45).
Who comes up with these headlines?
Damn near made me spew my drink all over the computer screen.
(via Wonkette)
I came across something that surprised me this morning — one of the more frequent commenters on this site, who (from what I’ve been able to tell in the past) shares my disgust with Bush and what his administration has done to this country, won’t be voting.
Lisa came over to me with a somewhat excited yet serious look on her face, insisting that I turn down the TV. “It’s the Gallup Poll,” she explained. As much as we both wanted her to be the one to do it, their attempt at randomness pegged me (whoever had the most recent birthday). Why her? Well, I knew that in the end they would be asking whether or not you are likely to vote and I would have to say “No,” which could effect the way my answers would be used. And don’t bother asking why somewhat who despises Bush as much as I do won’t be voting – just accept it, or be prepared for a full-on lecture regarding my beliefs.
Well, it looks like I need to be prepping myself for that full-on lecture, because I just do not get it. I can almost understand the people who don’t bother to vote because they don’t bother to pay attention to anything beyond the latest reality television programming — it saddens me, but I can (almost) understand.
But what I don’t understand is how someone who actually pays attention and has at least two brain cells to rub together (qualities I’d ascribe to most, if not all, of the people who I’ve noticed stop by here regularly) — especially someone who openly admits that they consider Bush to be “possibly the worst President ever” and that “if I were voting it would be for Kerry” — wouldn’t vote.
Not only do I not understand, but I have to admit, I find it very hard to respect the opinion of someone who won’t excercise their right to do what they can to influence the direction and government of the country.
As I’ve said in the past, as far as I’m concerned, if you don’t vote, than you have no right to bitch if you don’t like where things are going. From a letter to a friend in Alaska in April 2003:
I know that a lot of people I know have historically not paid much attention to politics, especially in Alaska. Heck, by the time most people in Alaska are voting, we usually have a good idea who’s going to win in a national election, and a lot of people use that as a point in the “why bother?” argument. However, I think if we paid attention to the 2000 elections enough to actually learn something, it might have been that individual votes, no matter how inconsequential they might seem, do count. What if just a few thousand — or even a few hundred — of the people who usually say “why bother?” had shown up at the polls in Florida? Bush didn’t win the popular vote, and he only got the Electoral College vote by a narrow margin. If there were a bit less apathy, and a bit more action behind the grumbling I hear so often, we might have a very different country today.
Okay, then, so what about all you in Alaska? I could easily imagine a lot of Alaskans returning to the same old argument of how Alaskan votes don’t really count, because of the way the Electoral College is set up. That may be so, but…I’ve never been one to let that stop me from voting. Whether or not it “matters” in the grand scheme of things, I’ve always thought that if you don’t even make the attempt to voice your opinion, than you really don’t have much grounds to stand on when you start to complain. A democracy — our democracy — can only work if ‘we the people’ actually care enough to pay attention to it, to get involved, and to shake off the apathy that all too often keeps people away from the polls. Put most simply, in my (not necessarily) humble opinion, if you don’t vote, you’ve got absolutely no right to bitch. Do you believe that one candidate is better than another? Stand behind that belief, express it, and I’ll be a lot more likely to listen to you than if you just sit at home and abdicate your right to any say.
On top of that, even if you refuse to vote in the Presidential election, that’s hardly the only thing on the ballot. Local races, initiatives, Gubernatorial and Senatorial choices, all of these can make a difference not just in the quality of life for where you live, but in the direction our country takes in the long run (we actually stand a chance, slim as it might be, of getting a Democratic majority in DC again).
How anyone can claim to care about the state of affairs in the country, but not care enough to vote, is beyond me.
21 reasons for war with Iraq, by 10 key players, circa September 2001 through October 2002 via a study by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign student Devon Largio (now graduated).
The table below illustrates who deployed each rationale.
(via BOP)
“Injected With a Poison (Pat Krimson)” by Khan, Praga from the album Injected With a Poison (1998, 4:49).
Some excellent comments from Doc Searls’ sister:
The story has changed. It is not about the candidates anymore. That is just cursory coverage of their bus-embedded reporters, and equal-time sound bites. He said ying/he said yang.
The story now IS the election. The election process. Not only the dangers of chaos, early-voting, registration mess-ups, the stolen signs, the various scenarios of a challenge to the results, the legalities and the larcenies.
The real story is the engagement of the people. The passion to recall. The fear of change or the unknown. The push to get the youth out. The lack of the population’s ennui amidst their fatigue from the rancor.
The recognition that, whomever you’re voting for, the stakes are too high.
And that the prime lesson learned from 2000 is that every vote CAN count.
I put on a bumper sticker for the first time (A Veteran for Kerry) this election. The one I would like to put on would read:
We can blame the last four years on Bush, but we can only blame the next four on ourselves.
Also another thought this morning as one of the morning shows were talking about a poll re the youth vote and how historically young voters vote like their parents.
I think those “historical” statistics are about to be broken. This election is divisional. It is being fought out daily between husbands and wives, between lovers, between generations in the same house, friends, at the workplace, on teams, everywhere. And I think that is because everyone realizes how important this election is for America. How we chose our next president may be about what what we are as a country, as a democracy. But who we chose is about who we are as a people. And that is very personal.
There is a lot being said about the “uncommitted” but that is the wrong word. They are not uncommitted, they are torn. They cannot make up their minds because IT MATTERS.
It is not just about being passionate over our choice, it is about trying to convince others. There might be loud, vicious political rhetoric in the medias, but there is also intense, heartfelt dialog in the homes, at work, in restaurants, in chat rooms, on the campus, in gyms, on the golf course, in the flu shot lines, at the soccer game, in the car on the way to the mall.
My favorite bit: “We can blame the last four years on Bush, but we can only blame the next four on ourselves.” So very true.
I just recently subscribed to Wonkette and started reading on a regular basis. One of the things they feature is daily missives from the White House pool of reporters — brief snippets of the day’s events, some of which are later turned into full reports, others are left by the wayside. What I’m really enjoying about a lot of these is the off-the-cuff humor that keeps popping up…
Flight and motorcade uneventful. Bush was accompanied on AF1 by his daughter Barbara, in tight jeans, and by Dan Bartlett and Karl Rove, who were not wearing tight jeans.