Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
I’m pretty strongly liberal — about as far left as one can go without falling into libertarianism. Posts collected under this tag will likely reflect that viewpoint.
How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. There is no shortage of filament. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?
(via BOP)
This has long since stopped being entertaining in the least, and is now just ridiculous and exasperating: Washington state Republicans are still desperately trying to force a re-vote in our Gubernatorial race.
The state Republican Party said in court papers filed yesterday that it has found 300 illegal votes and more than 400 that can’t be verified in the governor’s election.
With Christine Gregoire winning the governor’s race by 129 votes, Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance says he now has found far more than enough evidence to persuade a judge to nullify the election and call for a rematch between Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi.
Lawyers and Republican staffers are continuing to look county by county for votes cast by felons, in the name of dead people or by people who voted more than once, casting second votes either in other counties or other states.
Therefore, I make this declaration here and now:
If these idiots actually force us into a re-vote, I’ll mount a write-in candidacy drive.
Michael Hanscom for Governor of Washington. Sounds good to me.
I figure I’ve got no chance of winning (I’ve never been involved in politics, nobody knows who I am [well, outside of that little thing about a picture and a computer company], and I’ve got an advertising budget of…well, nothing). But hey — if I do win (snicker) it could be pretty entertaining and a definite learning experience (not to mention a raise), and if I don’t win, I WON’T CARE.
Hell, just running on a platform of “no re-votes if I lose” should get me a sizeable chunk of the vote.
Maybe Jacqueline could help me run my campaign?
“Love and Devotion” by M and M from the album DJ Mix 99 (1998, 5:40).
Something interesting (sorry if I’m repeating someone above): ‘nuclear’ is the adjectival form of ‘nucleus’, which comes from the Latin ‘nuculeus’, from ‘nucula’ the diminutive of ‘nux’, meaning ‘nut’. So the at some point the ‘u’ between the ‘c’ and ‘l’ was dropped (and at that point would have probably been considered a mispronunciation).
My theory – it’s Bush’s comprehensive knowledge of and fluency in Latin that leads to his pronunciation.
“Al-Salooq” by Ozric Tentacles from the album Arborescence (1994, 5:02).
Requested by AxsDeny:
I’d like to hear your take on the turnyourbackonbush.com people. Specifically the incidents at OSU that led to the removal of a few of the students from the graduation ceremony.
First off, as far as the protest technique itself, I think it’s brilliant, especially in the current political climate we’ve got. When there are designated “protest zones” being set up at every event — generally so far removed from what’s actually going on that they’re nearly pointless — that anyone carrying an anti-Bush sign, wearing an anti-Bush shirt, or possibly even cracking an anti-Bush joke is going to get herded into, I think having a more or less “undercover” method of being able to publicly protest is very important.
By eschewing the normal protest trappings of signs and banners and dressing normally, people would be able to get in to more conspicuous spots closer to where Bush is and still be able to publicly show their opinion. It’s also wonderfully non-disruptive, if handled correctly: the protesters are doing nothing more than turning around. They’re not shouting, chanting slogans, or causing a public disturbance in any way. Ironically, of course, protesting in any way is seen as so reprehensible an activity these days that it’s quite likely that the people around the protesters will raise a fuss, security will be called in to pull them away, and far more attention will be paid to them than if they’d simply been allowed to stand in silence.
I love that.
As far as the removal of the TYBOB protesters at the OSU graduation, I think it’s despicable. Even before the graduation ceremony they were being threatened with arrest and denial of their diplomas, and at the ceremony, one man was escorted out and charged with disturbing the peace (a ridiculous charge, as he was being silent, as requested by the protest organizers — thankfully, the charges were dropped when he left peacefully).
As pointed out above, though, by reacting (and denouncing the protests proactively) as strongly as the OSU administration did, they called far more attention to the events than if they’d simply allowed everything to progress normally.
People — especially people in power — can be so stupid sometimes.
“Cyberspider” by Tear Garden, The from the album To Be an Angel Blind, the Crippled Soul Divide (1996, 3:53).
How wonderful. Judy Bachrach, from Vanity Fair, was on FOX News earlier today and completely ambushed FOX anchor Brigitte Quinn. Rather than a cute fluff piece on the inauguration, Bachrach launched into an indictment of the forty million dollars being spent on Bush’s parties rather than on anything useful.
Oliver Willis is hosting the video, which is so worth watching. Ryland was kind enough to type up a transcript, which you’ll find below the cut…
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the land,
not a critic was stirring, for stirring was banned.
A thousand brown prisoners, snug in their cells,
all held without charges or tinsel or bells;
And mamma was wrapped in the national flag,
while we sang “Where there’s never a boast or a brag.”
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the TV I flew like a flash;
I then watched “Survivor” and reruns of “Mash.”
The fireworks, exploding above the new snow,
gave a luster of objects to people below.
When what saw my wondering eyes in the flashes:
a miniature George Bush and eight tiny fascists!
Their jerseys were blue and said “WORLD DOMINATION”;
I knew right away this was not just claymation.
More rapid than eagles the warlords they came,
as the little Bush whistled and called them by name:
“Now, Daschle! now, Ashcroft! Now Strom, don’t relent!
On, Poindexter, Rumsfeld! on Henry and Trent!
To the top of the globe, while the crowd’s at the mall,
now bomb away, bomb away, bomb away all!”
His sack had a war game for each girl and boy;
his pocket, four billion from just Illinois.
Far up on his high seat the driver did mount,
with more massive weapons than Kofi could count.
And then, I heard sounds from away off somewhere,
the booming of bombs that were bursting in air.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
down the chimney old Dick Cheney came with a bound.
He said not a word, nor disclosed his location;
he wiretapped my house in the name of the nation.
Then holding the strings of his little Bush puppet,
he went to the chimney and quickly rose up it.
The sleigh was still running, but Dick didn’t hurry;
gas guzzlers, it seemed, were no longer a worry.
He popped the champagne and exclaimed as he served it,
“The world is now ours, and GOD DAMN, we deserve it!”
(via John)
Our tax dollars at work: the abstinence programs that Bush is so heavily in favor of (as opposed to real sex education) are distributing wildly inaccurate information to teens:
Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person’s genitals “can result in pregnancy,” a congressional staff analysis has found.
Those and other assertions are examples of the “false, misleading, or distorted information” in the programs’ teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.
In providing nearly $170 million next year to fund groups that teach abstinence only, the Bush administration, with backing from the Republican Congress, is investing heavily in a just-say-no strategy for teenagers and sex. But youngsters taking the courses frequently receive medically inaccurate or misleading information, often in direct contradiction to the findings of government scientists, said the report, by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a critic of the administration who has long argued for comprehensive sex education.
Several million children ages 9 to 18 have participated in the more than 100 federal abstinence programs since the efforts began in 1999. Waxman’s staff reviewed the 13 most commonly used curricula — those used by at least five programs apiece.
The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins. In some cases, Waxman said in an interview, the factual issues were limited to occasional misinterpretations of publicly available data; in others, the materials pervasively presented subjective opinions as scientific fact.
Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman’s investigators:
- A 43-day-old fetus is a “thinking person.”
- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
- Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
One curriculum, called “Me, My World, My Future,” teaches that women who have an abortion “are more prone to suicide” and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.
“I have no objection talking about abstinence as a surefire way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases,” Waxman said. “I don’t think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts.”
Bad enough that Bush is pushing teaching abstinence instead of safe sex, rather than teaching both concurrently (doubly stupid considering “Nonpartisan researchers have been unable to document measurable benefits of the abstinence-only model.”), but when the information in the abstinence courses is this ridiculous — really, it borders on nothing more than right-wing propaganda — there is no way that the government should be funding these programs!
Inaccurate information like this helps nobody, least of all the kids in the classes.
Ugh. Makes me see red.
(via William Gibson)
Bush is my shepherd, I shall be in want.
He maketh me to lie down on park benches,
He leadeth me beside the still factories,
He restoreth my doubts about the Republican party.
He leadeth me onto the paths of unemployment for the party’s sake.
Yea though no weapons of mass destruction have been
found, thou continueth to fear evil.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy deficit spending,
they do discomfort me.
Thou anointeth me with never-ending debt,
And my days of savings and assets are all over.
Surely poverty and hard living shall follow me all the
days of thy administration.
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement
forever.
(via Dad.)
“Jupiter (Edit) (from The Planets)” by London Symphony Orchestra from the album Something for Everybody (1974, 4:37).
This will probably be my last political post for a while (can you say “burnout,” kids?), but it was too good not to pass on.
(image by Rolyn via Tommy)
The problem with the typical “red vs. blue” map of how states voted is that while it accurately represents the final casting of each state’s electoral votes, it doesn’t accurately represent how each state actually voted on the individual level. Here’s a map created by Jeff Culver that colors each state according to the proportion of votes each candidate got.
(via Boing Boing)
Update: here’s a map that sticks to the usual red/blue, but breaks it down by county rather than by state.
(via Dave)
Update: Yet another map, this time combining the two above, to give a county-by-county shading.
(via MeFi)
“Groove Radio pres. House (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Groove Radio pres. House (full mix) (1997, 1:13:46).