Observe Sarah Palin on her way to the Vice Presidential debate:
She has her hair down. Palin never has her hair down.
If she wears it that way for the debate, I suspect it will be to cover the earpiece in her ear.
(Also, what the hell did she do to her hand?)
Yes, The Dow fell 777 points yesterday.
Yes, it was the biggest point-loss in history.
It was also only a 7% drop. The drop that triggered the Depression was closer to 25%, and Black Monday's was about 22%. Funny how that little statistic barely got reported in the mainstream media.
Seven percent is significant certainly, but not necessarily the harbinger of another Depression, or of a market spiraling out of control. The NYSE does have a tool in place to prevent the market from free falling: it's called a circuit breaker and had the market continued to plummet, trading would have been halted.
Doesn't it make you breathe just a little bit more easily to know that there actually are some balances to keep things from running away unchecked? And yet, that little failsafe mechanism has barely been mentioned in any of the news coverage either.
I blame the armchair economists.
Specifically, the armchair economists who are whipping the country into an absolute frenzy based on insufficient (or incorrect) information and perfunctory analysis (at best). As it turns out, they are just as knowledgeable, and just as prone to gloom & doom hyperbole, as nuns teaching a Sex Ed class.
They're just as effective at teaching people how to make well-informed decisions, too.
I wrote a huge essay about all of this last night, but it was very long and I was getting very snarky near the end, so I've chosen instead to just hit you with some of the highlights. Bullet points after the jump:
EDIT: I was in a rush to put this up before I left for work, so neglected to mention that one of the people responsible for (and featured in) the video above is a friend of mine. I also neglected to quote his response to the feedback that he's gotten about this: Who says the Religious Right are the only folks who get to cherry-pick the Bible?
This, folks, is why I love my friends.
The LD and I have been tossing around the idea of carpooling for some time now. We live less than a mile apart and generally work the same hours, but for some reason we haven't quite made the leap to ride-sharing yet.
Today, when prices crossed the $4/gallon mark at our local gas station, I got this email from him:
Gas is expensive. Really expensive. It would be cheaper to fill my car with Voss Water. Are you interested in carpooling? I own an irresistable '99 Mustang. Sweet ride.
Have I mentioned lately how glad I am that I bought an SUV right before gas prices started to spiral out of control? Yeah. Great choice. My response:
Yes! Can't wait to go for a spin in that "sweet ride."
So, as of Monday morning, I'll be carpooling a few days a week. Hopefully now I'll be able to afford to eat again.
Kevin Apgar has launched his second Grassroots Blogger Book Marketing Campaign for Carly Milne's Sexography, and this time there's a twist:
April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, and it’s a big month for the Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization’s goal is to raise enough money to be able to offer victims of sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape an online hotline offering counseling and assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. RAINN’s Chelsea Bowers, Kevin Apgar and Sexography author Carly Milne have banded together to launch a one-of-a-kind online fundraising event to help RAINN reach that goal.
So for the month of April, the blogosphere is going to talk about sex to raise money for RAINN. That's win-win, right?
All things considered, my sexual history is largely unremarkable. Certainly there were a few awkward experiences (Um, I don't think it's supposed to do that...) and a few things I wish I'd known earlier (You're married? Really? And when exactly were you planning on mentioning that?), but overall I've been lucky. I've never been raped, molested, abused, or attacked.
My friends have, though.
When I turned 14 or 15 and started to express an interest in boys and dating, my father taught me two things: How to break a man's arm with my shoulder, and how not to fight like a girl - to hit soft, vulnerable tissue as hard as I could with my elbows, knees, and heels. My father is not a violent man, but he is a realist. He was very clear that pleading words or logic would be wasted on an attacker and that the only appropriate response was to fight like a caged wolverine.
Unfortunately, he is absolutely right.
In the fall of my sophomore year of college, my friend S and I went to a party at the TKE house with a bunch of other friends. Being savvy young women, we had a pre-arranged system for staying safe at huge parties; we stuck together. Arrive together, leave together. No exceptions.
This particular party was completely insane; people were packed into the house like sardines and spilling out all over the front and back lawns. S had quickly met up with the guy she'd come to flirt with (a cute second string linebacker from her Calculus class) and dragged him to the middle of the madness to dance, so I stuck to the periphery of the party with a few other friends and kept an eye on S as much as I could.
About an hour later I looked up from a conversation with the guy on whom I had a crush and noticed that S and the linebacker were gone. After scanning the room and finding them absent, I excused myself from Cute Guy and set off to look for them. Since I went to college in the Dark Ages, before everyone had a cell phone, there was no choice but to work my way through the crowd and see if I could find them. I was none too pleased that I had to stop my flirting to go hunting, but it a deal's a deal: we stick together at parties, period.
I did a lap through the house and started to get concerned when I couldn't find either of them - the party was big, but not THAT big. Thinking that S and the linebacker may have taken off to go get some food or perhaps more beer, I recruited a couple of other friends to keep searching the party while I went to see if her car was still parked on the street.
It was, and they were in it. The linebacker had S pinned to the front seat and she was pleading with him to let her go.
S, the tough-talking Brooklyn girl who used to joke that she kept her acrylic nails long so they'd be more effective weapons, was absolutely frozen in terror and very close to being in a lot of trouble.
I don't know what I yelled when I saw what was happening, but it was enough to startle the linebacker. Though truly, I think he was more startled when I yanked the passenger side door open and hauled him out of the car. We ended up in a scuffle on the ground and I was doing my level best to hit him anywhere that would really hurt. S finally found her voice and screamed for help, which brought Cute Guy and a few other friends running. I'd managed to get a few good shots in, but Cute Guy was nice enough to finish the job: he picked the linebacker up by the collar, punched him square in the jaw, and sent him sprawling on the sidewalk.
I don't know what happened after that, S and I collected ourselves and left quickly, but I do know that the linebacker gave me a WIDE berth every time he saw me on campus for the next 3 years.
Later, when I asked S why she hadn't gouged his eyes out with her nails, she said that she didn't want to hurt him, that he was just drunk - as if that were some kind of excuse for his behavior.
When my father stood in the kitchen and taught me how to fight, he taught me so much more than the physical skills. He taught me that an assault is a breech of civilized behavior and that it nullifies all rules of ladylike comportment, and most importantly he taught me that it was RIGHT and GOOD to defend myself, and that I had the strength and power to do so.
|
I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington. . . I'm asking you to believe in yours. I reject the notion that the American moment has passed. I dismiss the cynics who say that this new century cannot be another when, in the words of President Franklin Roosevelt, we lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good. |
We are the people we've been waiting for. We are the change we
seek.. . . We are the hope for the future, the answer to the cynics who
tell us that our house must stand divided, that we cannot come
together, that we are not the ones who can make this world the way it
should be.
-Barack Obama, Feb 5 2008
Yes, yes, a thousand times YES. It is so refreshing to be rooting for someone rather than just against the greater of two evils.
Many of my female friends are incensed that I'm not supporting Hillary, but voting for a woman simply because she's female is just as bad as voting for a man simply because he's male. I don't like Hillary Clinton. I don't like her policies, I don't like her double-speak, and I don't trust her to bring real change to our ailing government. She is not my candidate. Barack Obama is, and he has been ever since he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
I've been mulling over how best to articulate what it is about Obama that I find so inspiring, but ultimately I've decided simply to quote the words of others who have expressed my feelings perfectly.
From Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Making Light:
I’m for Obama knowing perfectly well that, as Bill Clinton suggested, it’s a “roll of the dice”. A roll of the dice for Democrats, for progressives, for those of us who’ve fought so hard against the right-wing frames that Obama sometimes (sometimes craftily, sometimes naively) deploys. Because I think a Hillary Clinton candidacy will be another game of inches, yielding—at best—another four or eight years of knifework in the dark. Because I think an Obama candidacy might actually shake up the whole gameboard, energize good people, create room and space for real change.
Because he seems to know something extraordinarily important, something so frequently missing from progressive politics in this country, in this time: how to hearten people. Because when I watch him speak, I see fearful people becoming brave.
That’s not enough. But it’s something. It’s a real something. It’s a start.
From Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings:
. . . people often wonder whether Obama's call for a new kind of politics is just empty words. Here again, I think he has a real record to point to. He has consistently worked for ethics reform. In Illinois, where he helped pass what the WaPo called "the most ambitious campaign reform in nearly 25 years, making Illinois one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure." In the US Senate, he was the Democrats' point man on ethics, and was deeply involved in the ethics legislation passed this year. He didn't get all he wanted -- for instance, he and Russ Feingold couldn't get a bill establishing an Office of Public Integrity to deal with Congressional scandals. But he accomplished a lot, and wants to accomplish more.
Moreover, he is very interested in open government. The searchable database of government grant and contract recipients that I mentioned above is part of that. But Obama's proposals (pdf) go further.
And finally, from Wil Wheaton of WWdN: In Exile:
We've been afraid for too long, and it's cost us dearly. Karl Rove and George Bush and Dick Cheney will have many disastrous legacies, but one of the most despicable and enduring will be how they used fear to deeply and deliberately divide our country.
It's going to be a huge challenge for our next president to heal this nation, and end the Culture of Fear that's been created by the Bush Administration. I believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate to do that, and I was proud to vote for him today.
C'mon California... why aren't you on the Obama bandwagon yet?
Oh how the mighty have fallen. And you know what? I couldn't be happier (and not just because I've been a Giants fan since birth). Though I was prepared to have some sympathy for the Patriots as they watched their hopes of being 19-0 get dashed, Belichek managed to obliterate that idea by abandoning his team on the field for the last official play of the game.
Suck it Belichek, you graceless, cheating jackass. The simple fact is, the Giants outplayed your boys for all four quarters.
The Giants understood what was at stake, they brought thier A-Game, and in what was possibly the most nail-biting fourth quarter play of all time Manning & Tyree were nothing short of heroic. Eli breaking free of almost the entire Pats defensive line and hurling the ball 32 yards, where David Tyree kept possession by sticking it to his freaking helmet? That is Super Bowl quality football.
I know that in the days to come, the Patriots PR machine will come out with all manner of excuses for why the Patriots played so poorly, and that annoys me. The Giants earned this victory, and they've earned the right to enjoy it without any excuses from their opponents.
God I love football, and I am so sad that the start of the 2008 season is so far away.
Hey, Patriots, how about you add "learn to lose with dignity" to your list of things to do in the off-season? It's a skill you're sorely lacking.
People, I don't care who you vote for as long as you don't vote for this douchebag:
I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view. - Mike Huckabee, 1/15/08
I'm guessing that he plans to start with the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The Mighty Jimbo is the passerby mentioned in this article and he has written that young man a beautiful letter.
I don't know if you saw the sunrise that morning. I really hope you did. Maybe it would have given you hope. Or maybe it let your last sight be one of beauty. But if I had to find you, I only wish I could have found you a few hours earlier. Maybe we could have talked of dolphins. Maybe you would have let Josh lick your face. Maybe we could have seen the sunrise.
At twenty years old, there are just so many sunrises left to see.
There are a lot of things I like about Oakland, not the least of which is the fact that my BFF lives there. It's charming, conveniently close to San Francisco, and hey - I'm kind of a big deal there! Until last week it was safe to say that my only real problem with Oakland is the fact that it's home to the Raider Nation - quite possibly the most obnoxious and least sporting fan base in the entire country.
But what happened last week at the Oakland Airport has left me so angry that my hands are shaking as I type this.
On September 27th 204 Marines and soldiers who were returning from Iraq were not allowed into the passenger terminal at Oakland International Airport.Instead they had to deplane about 400 yards away from the terminal where the extra baggage trailers were located.
Let me make that crystal clear: 204 Marines and soldiers returning from WAR were DENIED ENTRANCE TO THE TERMINAL at the Oakland Airport and forced to wait in a trailer like so much unwanted baggage.
No matter how rationally I try to think about this, it just makes my blood boil.
A few points to remember:
The story was first reported on OC Blog and quickly denounced as being a bit of political propaganda. However, Michelle Malkin did a little research and contacted both the Navy Chaplain who serves with the Marines, and the Port of Oakland. You can read the entirety of OAK's response on Michelle's blog, but let me highlight my favorite parts:
As you know sometimes the way things appear initially regarding an incident turn out to be different after looking into the details. We checked into this once you had called me and raised your public relations concern, so again thank you.
and...
Airside Operations and Aviation Security worked with the ground handling company and other law enforcement partners to coordinate a plan that was satisfactory to the pilot and passengers...
Is it just me, or does this statement read as though Marilyn Sandifur, OAK's spokeperson, is essentially saying "Oopsie! Silly us!" and trying to get out of this mess without actually apologizing? Also, it's pretty obvious that the "plan" they coordinated was NOT satisfactory to the passengers.
The statement that the Port of Oakland posted yesterday is only a slight variation on Sandifur's original and it still 1) blames the military 2) lacks any sort of actual apology.
The worst part is that this is hardly a new policy for the Oakland Airport. Soldiers returning from Vietnam, Libya, Afghanistan, and the (first) Gulf War all have similar stories. Clearly, Oakland is following in San Francisco's anti-military footsteps:
Excuse me San Francisco, but who do you think is going to save your asses when Kim Jong-il finally goes crazy and pushes the big red button, or when another earthquake buries half the city in rubble? The Army, the Navy, the Marines, and the National Guard that's who. The same people who aren't allowed to set foot in your terminals, or fly over your city.
Men and women have staked, and lost, their lives for the last two hundred plus years so that you all have the freedom to be idealistic assholes; they deserve more than just your hospitality.
They deserve your fucking gratitude.
I have a handful of friends serving overseas at the moment, so every couple of months I spend a Sunday afternoon putting together care packages. I send one to each of my friends as well as to a couple of servicemen (or women) whose addresses I get from AnySoldier. I've done enough of these now that I've got it down to a science.
All that's left after all that is to address them and take them to the post office.
It's hard to describe how I feel at the end of a care package afternoon. On the one hand, I'm happy to have accomplished something that will bring other people some cheer. On the other, I hate the fact that there are so many people over there who need cheering. The whole business of war seems very personal when I'm looking at a collection of brown boxes lined up on my table.
No matter what your politics, please remember that there are thousands troops deployed overseas whose lives are in danger every single day. They deserve to know that they have the support of the people back home. If you have a few dollars and minutes to spare, I sincerely hope that each and every one of you will box up your well wishes and send it to any of the more than 3000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have signed up with AnySoldier.
After several months of preparation, Rauri and his men left for Kuwait last night. They'll spend a few days there before heading to Baghdad - they're going right into the middle of it, to the front lines of the counter-insurgency fight.
I think I'll stop complaining about the heat now.
There are so many people deployed overseas who need our good thoughts and support, but if you have a bit to spare, please send it to Rauri and his men. I want to see all of them home safely next June.
Dear Tony Snow,
I've always thought you were a likeable guy. Hey, anyone who calls Bush "impotent" and "an embarassment" is ok in my book.
(Which reminds me: Where, exactly, did your principles and opinions go? Ah, nevermind. That's a question for another letter. Back to the matter at hand.)
I've always thought you were a decent fellow. You're a musician! You're a philosopher! Once upon a time, you even had original thoughts! (ahem) As such, I developed a bit of a soft spot for you and was vastly sympathetic when you were performing your duties as press secretary in between chemotherapy sessions. However, it is safe to say that my sympathy has run out.
You're leaving your position as White House press secretary because of financial hardship?
Eat me, rich boy.
No seriously: eat me. I am poor and made of ramen. Tasty!
Look, you've been in the position less than 18 months, during which time you've earned at LEAST $200K. Before accepting this illustrious job, you were on both FOX News and your own nationally syndicated radio show. You've been a nationally syndicated columnist, a television host, and a political commentator. I find it extremely hard to believe that your family will be standing in line for foodstamps anytime soon.
I can understand wanting to get as far away from this administration as possible, really I can, so give us a reason we can stomach. Say you hate the buffoon in the Oval Office, say you suddenly remembered that you have principles (ahem), say that you want to spend more time with your family, but please: don't tell us you have to step down because of the terrible financial strain. We will be forced to laugh in your face.
Repeatedly. And loudly.
No Love,
Me
Today we remember all who have given their lives in defense of our freedom so, at 3pm, please take a moment to participate in the National Moment of Remembrance.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking:
Dream of battled fields no more,
Days of danger, nights of waking.
In our isle's enchanted hall,
Hands unseen thy couch are strewing,
Fairy strains of music fall,
Every sense in slumber dewing.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Dream of fighting fields no more:
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Morn of toil, nor night of waking.
No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
Armour's clang, or war-steed champing,
Trump nor pibroch summon here
Mustering clan, or squadron tramping,
Yet the lark's shrill fife may come
At the day-break from the fallow,
And the bittern sound his drum,
Booming from the sedgy shallow.
Ruder sounds shall none be near,
Guards nor warders challenge here,
Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing,
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.
-Excerpt from Sir Walter Scott's
The Lady of the Lake: Canto 1
If you don’t like a radio hosts’ lingo, don’t listen. If you think Alec Baldwin is a horrible father, that’s your right to say so. But when people have to start to fear what they say (like me, wondering if I should even put up this post for fear that someday down the line a future employer or corporation will find this and disregard me for an opportunity) then the First Amendment is slowly being wrapped up in moth balls and put away in a dark attic where no one will find it.
-Paul Davidson, here
Can I get an amen? AMEN.
When exactly did we forget that free speech covers ALL speech, not just the politically-correct, non-offensive milquetoast variety? If you don't like it, don't listen/watch/read. Exercise your free will; it's really not that hard. In the words of Voltaire*, "think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."
I am so disheartened that America's citizens need to be REMINDED to think for themselves.
_____
*People, please stop crediting Voltaire as saying "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Volatire didn't write that, Evelyn Hall did. She used that phrase to describe Voltaire's attitude in The Friends of Voltaire and it's been mis-quoted ever since. Stop the madness!
Over IM this afternoon, Harris mourned the passing of Jerry Falwell and wondered about God's great plan:
He: Falwell's dead.
Me: I know.
He: Wrinkly nutsack of evil
Me: Yepper
He: Much like Strom Thurmond, I think we need to drive a stake through his heart, chop off his head, stuff his mouth with holy wafers and burn the head and body seperately.
He: Just, y'know, to be sure.
He: Next up: Pat Robertson
He: I'm still waiting for him to pipe up with whatever it was that Greensborough Kansas did to deserve being wiped off the face of the earth
Me: Oh I'm sure he has a reason
He: God has shitty aim I guess.
He: Since Katrina was "punishment" for New Orleans tolerating homosexuals.
He: (nevermind that the gay district survived untouched)
He: and God managed to COMPLETELY miss San Francisco
Me: *snicker*
The L.A. Times did an article on Joy Nash this morning. When she posted on her blog that she was going to be interviewed, I admit that I was skeptical - the L.A. Times is not known for its balanced reporting, especially on anything entertainment, image, or style related.
This article, however, is FABULOUS.
I love that it's The Mirror story, the daily style item.
I love that the writer understands Joy's project isn't about reforming America, but about reforming "fat people's attitude toward themselves."
I love that the article is entirely positive; there's not one snide comment in the mix.
Still don't know what all the fuss is about? Go here to watch A Fat Rant.
Like many others, I've been largely silent on the issue of Global Warming. Not because I don't think that it's important (I do), but because the debate raging over it is so volatile that it seems we'll never be able engage in any sort of dispassionate discourse. How are we to agree on a solution to a problem when we're so busy arguing over its validity?
Enter a voice of reason: John Mayer's Light Green approach to reversing Global Warming.
In the "degree of difficulty" column, reversing the effects of global warming is a .5 out of a possible 10, at least in theory. You just get back by reversing the way you came. No accounting for a volatile political world stage, or clashing of belief structures. Just throw this bitch in reverse and we're home.
The trouble is, nobody has managed to come close to bringing this issue to you in a way that doesn't turn you off. At best, it's a bore, and at worst (toilet paper square accounting?) it's insulting to human autonomy.
It seems to me that when it comes to this issue, we've been given only two sides to pick from: side one says the future of global warming does not present a doomsday scenario, almost chuckling the matter aside. Side two says it is a dire issue (which it is), and then goes on to inundate side one with so many separate nakedly-scientific points that they make naivete' seem cozy by comparison.
So here I am, introducing a third side.
. . .
Pick one thing to change this year, and keep the rest of your life the same. After all, the only message the charts with escalating red lines are meant to send is that the red lines have to stop escalating, not that hey have to drop to the bottom of the graph by next Tuesday.
At last, a simple personal plan devoid of doomsday haranguing or political dogma. Now this? This we can do, one small change at a time.
... that I love my Santa Barbara family:
Me: Have you seen this?
She: WTF? This Barbaro thing was completely off my radar. People, you need to get a life.
Me: AMEN
She: They know he was a horse, right?
Me: Apparently not
She: I just don't get it. Maybe we could take a little of that energy and look at Guantanamo?
Me: Oh no, that's too hard and scary.
Me: Let's make a horse into a savior!
She: You're right. Dead horse is so close to Jesus, I get confused sometimes.
Me: *snicker*
No, wait, I do have words.
To all of you who have taken this opportunity to spout off about how guns are evil and should be banned: Fuck you. Again (as always) the gun is not the villain here, Cho Seung-Hi is. He may have bought them legally but he also went to extraordinary lengths to conceal his identity and the serial numbers of the guns. This was a pre-medidated attack - if he couldn't get the guns legally, he would have bought them on the black market.
To all of you who have taken this opportunity to spout off about how video games are evil and are turning our young adults into psychotic monsters: Fuck you. Is there any evidence that this man had ever played a video game in his life? No. Do we know ANYTHING about him other than that he was an English major and that he shot himself after shooting almost 50 people? No.
To all of you who have taken this opportunity to spout off about how much safer the campus would be if everyone were armed: Fuck you. No seriously, fuck you. This isn't about guns, it's about one evil man who perpetrated a horrific attack. And do you really think the body count would be lower if hundreds of terrified, untrained college students had been running around with loaded guns?
You should all be ashamed of yourselves for trying to pull a soapbox out from under the bodies of 32 innocent students.
Wow... Friday already. How did that happen? I had several blog posts planned for this week, but somehow life kept getting in the way.
It would have been a week of quality blog posts... if I'd had time to write them.
What follows is not really a rant at all, but a well-reasoned statement from an eloquent, sassy, beautiful woman:
"Fat" is an adjective that describes a particular body type; it is not an assessment of intelligence, beauty, or worth.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
Oh, wait, no it's not. We're just moving the clocks ahead three weeks early.
WTF, people?
The Energy Policy Act was passed in July of 2005. Did it not occur to anyone to start planning for it before last week?
When I got into work this morning, our main scheduling program (the one on which ALL of production is reliant) was behind an hour and all of our Outlook calendars were completey out of whack. I'm not exactly sure how an hour time difference moves my Wednesday afternoon appointment from 1:30pm to 4:30pm and then duplicates it to Tuesday & Saturday, but apparently this time change is very powerful. According to our IT department not even an act of god can restore the proper settings - we're destined to be one hour out of sync from March 11th until April 1st.
And we haven't even changed the clocks yet! We're not doing that until Saturday night!
At least Palm sent me a very helpful email explaining in Very Serious Language that I must download a patch for my sync software ohmygodrightnow or risk never being able to sync my Treo again.
I say again: WTF, people? Am I the only one who is completely mystified about the mass hysteria over this relatively small issue?
It could be worse, at least we can still use our exchange server; poor Teece has been told that she may have to print out a MONTH'S worth of calendars because her company has fuxx0red their DST patch so badly.
Guess it's time to start stockpiling canned food and weapons - the apocalypse is nigh. Anyone want to go in on an underground bunker?
This Tuesday, February 20th, Barack Obama will hold his first rally in Los Angeles since announcing his candidacy for President.
2:00 PM at the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex - I'll be there; who's with me?
Admission is free and the rally is open to the public, but RSVP to guarantee yourself a spot.
Never fear, it has all been made clear:
Bush isn't an idiot, he's just suffering from presenile dementia.
(In spite of being more than two years old, the link above is still relevant and more than a little unsettling.)
This morning, after President Bush unveiled a faster way to kill soldiers yet another poorly thought-out military strategy for Iraq, Robert Gates (our Defense Secretary of just three weeks) was quoted as being "no expert on Iraq" and "no expert on military matters."
Holy crap Bob-o, how the hell did you get appointed to this position?
I know, you were in the CIA for 27 years. You wrote a book about how covert operations and blatant disregard for Congress won the Cold War. Your doctorate is in Russian & Soviet History. You have never served in the military and left your prestigious CIA career to become the president of a university. Given all of that, there's no reason to expect you to be an expert in military matters or the cesspool that is Iraq.
But Mr. Gates? You are the fucking Secretary of Defense. Didn't you think that position would require oh, I don't know, expertise in military matters? Familiarity with Iraq? Particularly when being appointed in the middle of a war that is being waged in Iraq?
I'm willing to be charitable. Perhaps, in the flurry of activity since you started, you've gotten a little fuzzy on the parameters of your job. Allow me to refresh your memory with a little blurb from the Department of Defense website:
The Secretary of Defense is the principal defense policy adviser to the President and is responsible for the formulation of general defense policy and policy related to all matters of direct concern to the Department of Defense, and for the execution of approved policy. Under the direction of the President, the Secretary exercises authority, direction and control over the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Defense is a member of the President's Cabinet and of the National Security Council.
That's your picture next to the job description, Bob. Maybe you should have fucking read it before you signed up for this ride.
And goodbye, 2006! Hallelujah.
I woke up this morning to the dulcet sounds of the Rose Parade's opening flyover and settled in to watch the parade commercial-free with a big mug of Red Chai tea.
Later, I'll head down to Orange County to watch the game with the North County USC Alumni Club.
Beer, football, parades? That's the way to start a new year!
Happy New Yar, everyone.
At 3am this morning, two homes near USC were engulfed by fire.
One of the houses (the suspected source of the fire) was empty. The other housed my friend Crickett and her roommates, Legion & Soonie.
The good news is that all three people and all of the animals got out safely. The bad news is that not much else did. Almost all of their posessions (including Crickett's wallet) were inside the house and since the roof collapsed, there's very little chance of recovering anything. The house itself is a loss for sure.
Red Jenn has set up a PayPal fund for them; if you have a few dollars to spare this holiday season, please send them their way.
Just one more reason that I'm proud to be a Jersey girl: NJ Governor Signs Gay Civil Unions Law.
December 5th is Repeal Day, the day on which we celebrate the repeal of prohibition.
Now that's a holiday I can get behind!
Mongo and I started the celebration early last night by breaking into a particularly delcious bottle of Jameson's:
He: Scotch, or wine?
Me: Scotch, please.
He: rummages around and produces a bottle of Jameson's Hmm, how about Irish whiskey?
Me: Somehow I'll choke it down.
He: Don't worry, it's old enough to vote.
Around forty million people are living with HIV throughout the world - and that number increases in every region every day. In the UK alone, more than 60,000 people are living with HIV and more than 7,000 more are diagnosed every year. Ignorance and prejudice are fuelling the spread of a preventable disease.
World AIDS Day, 1 December is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This year, it's up to you, me and us to stop the spread of HIV and end prejudice.
Did you know that in the US two teenagers are infected with HIV every hour?
Wear the ribbon. Light a candle. Talk to people. And donate to the marathon that I'm running for AIDS Project Los Angeles. The deadline for donations is next Friday, December 8th.
Flying for the holidays? Make sure you're familiar with the latest TSA regulations:
I know you're sick of hearing it by now. You've read it on every blog, heard it on every radio show, and watched it on every commercial. Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. Still, I can't stress the importance of this enough: If you are a U.S. Citizen,
I don't care who you vote for, I just care that you vote. It is your civic responsibility.
Feeling disenfranchised? Disillusioned? Unrepresented? Choosing not to vote is not an effective form of protest. Those who are in power rely on the apathy of those they have alienated. They want you to stay home, to shrug the government off as an unchangeable juggernaut. Show them that you will not submit, that you will not remain silent, that you know you are not represented. Go to your polling place, take your ballot, and submit it unmarked. Vote for every single Green Party representative on the ballot or write in Mickey Mouse for Governor. Just do something. Claim your ballot. Use your voice. Strike fear into the hearts of those who don't represent you.
We have more power than we could possibly imagine, we need only use it.
